Hong Kong: 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