IF WE ARE TRYING, EVERYTHING WORKS

January Family,

Happy New Year! 新年快樂！身體健康！

It has been a lot quieter and slower this week due to New Years and everybody celebrating in Mainland. This has given us more time to get more organized so we can serve the Lord more effectively. The Kowloon Area has a lot of potential. Many solid investigators. When everyone gets back from New Years, we are going to be very very busy. I am very excited.  

This week we met with a LA's son. He is incredible. His name is 油偉 (you wei). He had awesome questions and is very smart for a 13 year old. He even performed on the violin for us. It was great. We hope to play a duet in church in the next month or so. Who knows, maybe it will be on the day of his baptism.

Also met this cool couple from Mainland and had the opportunity to teach them about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love teaching. It was a good experience. The husband is a member, she is not. She plans to get baptized with her son on his birthday in March. 

Worldwide Mission Broadcast coming up this week. We are stoked. I'll let you know about it next week.

Few thoughts from President Lam. I get to hear him teach all the time. It is a major blessing.

"If we are trying, everything works."

"Always be the first one to apologize even if you are right. That's the Lord's way."

Have a good week and New Years!

Elder Stratford

This is You Wei

Helping Ding HD move

Kowloon Stop apartments

Lunch with Sheldon

A VISIT FROM GRANDMA AND GRANDPA AND THE YOUNGS

January 17, 2017

 Today Elder Stratford had some unexpected visitors.  Sydney, Josh's cousin, lives in Hong Kong, with her husband Jakob Walker who works for Marriott.  Sydney's family along with Grandma and Grandpa Stratford took a trip to Hong Kong to see Sydney and where she lives.  So all 8 of them (Sydney, Jake, Londyn, Maddie, Tom, Stacy, Pam and Roger) went to see the temple and then went to see the mission president.  President Lam and Sister Lam were in the office talking to another couple when the Stratford's and Young's came in to say hi.  President Lam was very kind and visited with them for a few minutes - when in walks Elder Stratford.  

Sydney said, "We went to meet Josh's mission president, and we ran into Elder Stratford.  The mission president was so nice and so was his wife.  President Lam said that Josh was just like a grandson to him.  Grandma and Grandpa said they would share him.  As we were chatting with the mission president Josh walked in, and his mission president was totally cool about it.  Josh walked in and just froze for a minute.  I think he felt better about it when his mission president was fine with it."

Roger wrote, "You can't believe how handsome Josh looked today.  He has grown into a young man.  He just looked sooooooo good!  His mission president seemed so nice and he really really thinks the world of Josh.  He was so nice when he told Josh that we were family and he could relax and talk with us a well as getting a hug."

Building where 4 wards attend church

Grandma and Grandpa with Elder Stratford

Hong Kong Temple

Youngs, Stratfords, and Elder Stratford

TEACHING WITH PRESIDENT AND SISTER LAM

January 22, 2017

Family,

Happy Birthday Mom and Sadie! Make sure to get in a few ski runs and some piano for me. And don't take Mom's cooking for granted. Delicious.

Good week.

When I am sitting in church I can't help but think about how few people are attending and how many missionaries attend the branch. There were about 60 people on Sunday including 8 missionaries. If missionaries baptize 10-15 people a year, where did they all go? Elder Woolley has served in the branch for about a year total and doesn't recognize some of the people in the member book that were baptized soon before he started attending. I hope to go to work and help as much as I can, specifically the Young Men. Something Dad, maybe in the MTC, came back into the mind. He encouraged me to ask the Bishop about YM we could work with. I have done that. The Bishop has given us 2 names to work with. One actually we have already visited and him and I plan on doing a violin/piano duet at church. This way he has to come to church to practice the arrangement. Also looking at setting up a Basketball activity. There are only 2 regularly attending young men. I got a list of about 15 LA YM and have found out of 3 active moms with LA young men the past few weeks. I'm excited.

One of the blessings of being in the office is the opportunity to meet Mainland Visitors and help out with their baptisms. I had the opportunity to help with 4 baptisms and confirmations last week. One of my favorite things is doing the baptismal interviews and talking with these Mainlanders. Recently in our apartment, we have been watching Ephraim's Rescue and 17 Miracles at night before bed with a few minutes that we have. Many of the qualities of the handcart pioneers are the same qualities I see in the Mainland pioneers; Their faith, hope, unity and joy. It is a blessing.

One sister that came down was 92 years old. She only spoke 客家話. A dialect that only 1 missionary in the mission spoke. Her granddaughter members helped a lot. She loved to pray. Every time somebody closed a prayer, she immediately started to pray, it was pretty cute. 3 of us were in the Baptismal Font helping her. I picked her up out of the wheelchair and carried her into the font. We set her on a chair in the font. I was kneeling down half holding here to make sure she didn't fall, Elder Woolley was holding her head and her Branch President offered the prayer. After the prayer, we removed the chair and I pulled her down into the water and back up and then carried her over to her wheelchair where her granddaughters took over. It is a blessing to hear her and her friends and family bear their testimony and hear them singing the hymns. Pretty powerful spirit.

Had the blessing of going to the Temple this week. One thought from the Temple that Elder Woolley and I both felt we could improve on was to simply work. There is so much we can do that sometimes it is overwhelming, but then I think of Oaks comments in Conference when he said to put first things first. This leads me to think about what God's most cares about, which is what I am learning to most care about. Which leads be to think of His children and focus on them, both the members and non-members here in Hong Kong. 

I also had the opportunity to teach with President and Sister Lam this week. It was one of the highlights of my mission. It was absolutely incredible. The thing that most stuck out to me was the Gift of Discernment that President Lam has. He often reminds me to seek for this gift and testifies of the importance of this gift. This was very evident to Elder Woolley and I when we were together at his home with Max and Livia (part member family).  Somehow everything he said seemed to be exactly Livia's concern or situation or what she needed to hear. It was pretty incredible. Many times throughout the lesson, Livia said to President Lam, 'that is exactly my situation, that is exactly my concern, or how did you know?' Somehow she started at the beginning of the lesson with not wanting to get baptized, to wanting to get baptized a long way in the future, to wanting to tell all her friends about her baptismal date on March 5. Pretty soon she was hugging her husband and crying tears of joy. That is the power of the Spirit and the gift of discernment. They have been so happy every since. At church, Livia even came up to me and told me to make sure I tell previous Elders that have taught her about her date.

I am getting blessed way more than I deserve. That always seems to happen as we serve the Lord.

Elder Stratford

District Pic. Today is Temple Day.

Li Jiu

92 year old who got baptized and friends

MACAU IS ROCKING! AND KOWLOON

January 15, 2017

Family,

Mom - I love teaching old men. They are great. A lot of them are really humble and willing to change habits, which is incredible considering how long they have been doing the same thing for so long. We are meeting with one this afternoon. I'll try to remember to take a picture. His name is LiJiu. Only concern left with him is Church and Word of Wisdom.

Met with a new friend this week who is very prepared. He has great questions about the Plan of Salvation and is sensitive to the spirit. His name is Patrick. He works here as a repair man. He is very humbleHe has a baptismal date for Feb 12. 

Met with a few other former investigators last week. I'll let you know more in the future if they become progressing.

One of the sisters we taught in Macau is still progressing and repenting and ready to be baptized on the 29th.

I found out recently as well that a sister we met with once in Macau and were good friends with from English Class now has a baptismal date for next month.

I also found out that some random guy I met on the bus soon before I left Macau now has a baptismal date as well. Macau is rocking! and Kowloon!

We have a great Branch President who is a returned missionary. I am excited to work with him to help the ward progress. We had an idea as we were thinking of how to best help the Branch progress. Most of the Mandarin missionaries in the mission (except New T's, Macau, and Tolo Harbour) attend Vic 3. There are usually 4-5 companionships at Sacrament every week. We probably will have each companionship focus on helping strengthen and reactivate 1 group, whether that be RS, EQ, YW, YM, YSA. We'll see what happens. This is obviously something that the Branch President will decide. Just an idea we had.

I am blessed to serve with Elder Woolley. He loves the Lord and the people we teach. Plus he is a triple threat, Mandarin, Cantonese and English.

As I was preparing for Sacrament, the thought I had that I could improve on this week was expressing gratitude. Both to my Heavenly Father and to those around me.

Treasuring Up is one of my goals for this year and as a part of that I have been writing down on a sticky note what I learn from personal study that day, sticking it in my planner and thinking about it throughout the remainder of the day. I think it helps me treasure up.

We also get to go to the temple this Thursday. I can't wait. I love the temple.

Elder Stratford

pic with Elder Sy friday night before he left home Saturday morning.


dinner with recent convert


dinner with member


far left is Sister Marissa and her husband Jeff. The middle man is Jomar. He is Jeff's brother who I met and started teaching while I was in Macau. He came here to find work to help his family in the Philippines. He got baptized 8 days ago.

MY SABBATH DAYS ARE UPLIFTING, REFRESHING, AND INSPIRING

January 8, 2017

Family,

I love the Sabbath Day. It is my favorite day of the week. As I have been trying better to prepare to partake the Sacrament, my Sabbath Day's have gotten much more uplifting, refreshing and inspiring. Saturday night, one thought that came to mind that I could work on improving is TreasuringUp. President Lam often says that Information Precedes Revelation. I have had this prompting many times throughout my device here in Hong Kong and whenever I start I do better, but then slowly fade back. I hope to meaningly set goals to improve and treasure up continually. I had a wonderful personal study as I studied about this topic this morning. It is more and more obvious to me when I are doing what I should be doing. The spirit fills my heart and I learn much more during study. The contrast between that and the feeling that something is lacking is very apparent.

We are excited for this week. We have a lot of potential investigators that we will be extending baptismal invitations to and that have a lot of potential. Right now we seem to be teaching a lot of old men and college students. It is a change from my previous areas since there was no universities there.

Organization is so important to be effective. I have found if I am better organized and have things written down I can spend my thoughts more on how to help others instead of trying to remember all the things that need to be done.

Transfer week was pretty busy last week. It was a pretty big move. Everything went pretty smoothly except one thing. A sister companionship called us and told us that they found a few suitcases of an Elder's luggage on the MTR. I don't know how he lost track of his suitcase and somehow left it on the MTR. And somehow he still can't find it and it is now missing with all his books and some money and other personal belongings. Maybe the sisters just left it on the MTR. Who knows. It was making me laugh thinking of him with all his suitcases and then walking out of the MTR doors without them. Makes no sense.

Also we found a good place to find people to teach. We went with the new missionaries to pick up their ID cards and while we were waiting we were talking to people sitting down. There are a lot of people from Mainland there who are coming looking for work and getting their ID cards too. It was great.

Working with President Lam is great. He just randomly comes into the office

sometimes and shares a thought and then leaves. It is great. It is awesome to discuss with and counsel with him about how to help the Mission progress.

Luckily, there is very little office work to do, which gives us plenty of time to proselyte. They have limited it down recently and it is really not much. This last week was more busy because of transfers. Now, this week, we have more time to find, teach and baptize. It's going to be a great week.

Living in the temple is a great blessing. 1 because President Lam sometimes randomly while we are getting ready for bed, he comes out of his door and talk with us for a half an hour to get our opinion on something. Then says thanks and heads back to his door. His door is directly across in the bottom floors of the temple. 2. We have unlimited Air Conditioning. No more falling asleep sweating.

My new companions are Elder Sy and Elder Woolley (my MTC companion). Elder Sy leaves home on Saturday, so it will be just Elder Woolley and I. I love to teach with them. They are great teachers and have great teaching skills. Elder Woolley is a good example of someone who demonstrates the character of Christ and is focused out. His comments give me a glimpse into what he spends his time thinking about and it is almost always about those we are teaching. Elder Sy also does small and simple things that remind me of the Savior and make want to be better. He is also a very good at following up which is something I want to learn to master. I really do think that so much good could come out if we were better at following-up. Think about it. If after a lesson, we wrote down the commitment, went and did it and then reported back to the person that gave it to us, they'd probably be shocked. It would show that you were listening and appreciated their lesson. Preach My Gospel says that we show our love for people by following up. Also, think of the unity there would be in the Wards and Stakes and mission if everyone followed up on what our leaders asked us to do. That would be incredible. There is a lot of power in unity.

Found an awesome quote today that is going to help me to do good in the world each day. It is from Elder Eyring. He said, "The Lord will give you, if you ask, the feelings of compassion He feels for those in need." That's incredible. That will help me to act and always be on the Lord's errand. I can't want to try it out. Actually, I have been trying it out throughout the day and I am already noticing a difference.

Elder Stratford 

I LOVE LIVING IN THE TEMPLE

January 1, 2017

Family,

Great week! Busy week.

President Lam mentioned at one meeting with a Elder Wong of the Seventy that complacency was one of the missionaries biggest struggles, I have been thinking about it a lot and trying to make sure I am not being complacent in any area of the work. In a talk I recently read, Neal A Maxwell said, "A new assignment can beckon us away from comfortable routine." I am grateful for the change up to make sure I am not getting complacent. I am liking serving in Kowloon. It is much different than Macau and the New Territories.

I love living in the temple. One of the blessings is the always cold water and the opportunity to listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir more.

I love being with Elder Sy and Elder Woolley. Elder Woolley was my MTC companion. I am learning a lot from them. They have very good teaching skills and teach in great unity. They are efficient with their time. 

We are teaching a lot of old men, but all are great. I am still familiarizing myself with the area and the investigators/members. I am happy that with my new assignment there is still a lot of time to teach.

I am trying to learn my duty. Often when I am not sure what to do, I find myself thinking about what my duty is so I can know how to do it. I find myself thinking about D&C 107:99. Actually this week I restudied what my duty as an Elder holding the Melchizedek Priesthood is. This reminded me that some of my duties are to Baptize and Confirm members, to teach expound and exhort, to conduct meetings by the Holy Ghost, and to magnify my calling. I want to make sure I take opportunities to teach. I notice that the Apostles and President Lam always take opportunities to teach. I am trying to watch my leaders closely and follow them and what they do. 

I had the opportunity to go to church in Mandarin for the first time in my service here in Hong Kong. It was pretty awesome. It is also great to be able to communicate with all the members cause they speak the same language you do. It is really awesome. At church I was thinking about what I could do better, what I could sacrifice as part of repenting and becoming more like the Savior. 2 thoughts came to mind. One was Go to Work! I think work is powerful spiritual medicine. The other was Excite those you meet and interact with! 

The main thought I had from Mission Leadership Council last week was to make sure I always express my love. I have been studying and seeing what I can do to follow up on that prompting from the Holy Ghost. Specifically I am trying to make sure I go out of my way more to compliment others and express my gratitude and appreciation.

 One line President Lam said has been running through my mind lately. "If you teach by the Spirit, you will know exactly what to say." That is very comforting and reassuring and quite an amazing promise. 

Elder Stratford


New Companions