Hello everybody from the Community College of Aurora! There's snow on the ground right now, but there's some blue sky peeking in from the clouds. It was cloudy last night, raining yesterday afternoon, and perfectly sunny yesterday morning, and so goes the weather in the 303. I don't how L.B. dealt with it.
We haven't had much measurable success yet, but my companion (Elder Carrazco, straight from Chihuahua Mexico) and I have done some good things, such as encourage an apprehensive brother to receive the priesthood. We have a lot of potentials on the horizon at the moment, so hopefully we'll be able to capitalize. I've learned so much so far, such as how unbelievably unimportant my life was before this point, and how Heavenly Father can really come to the rescue if you simply have the humility to pray.
The first few weeks here in the Peoria ward (English-speaking) were pretty rough. My trainer and still current companion, Elder Carrazco, is awesome, but we had some troubles. 1) He had only been out 3 months longer than me (I'm actually older than him!). 2) We're serving in English, and he's not very confident with his English, so I had to step out of my comfort zone and do most of the talking, calling, encouraging, etc. 3) Not only was I brand new to our area, but he was just as new as me, so we knew NOTHING about the investigators, members, etc. 4) The two people we DID have set for baptism "ran away from home." 5) The area is huge, but we're one of the few who don't have a car. 6) We had the worst luck with bikes, including FIVE flat tires in one week. 7)Our personalities are different in many ways.
But now, in what little hindsight I have after 2 months in the field, I appreciate every single thing that happened. Every trial was for my good, and every experience had something from which to be learned. My companion and I are getting along amazingly right now, and the area is improving. I'm doing very well at the moment. Despite wanting DESPERATELY to serve in Spanish, I am realizing that I'm where I need to be.....for now. Haha.
-Elder Bradford
Monday, April 27, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Die Zeit vergeht 4.13 Elder Ek
Meine Liebe Familie und Lieben Freunde,
This past week has easily been the most "comfortable" week, in that I haven't felt as low as before. Basically, you can take that to mean that I'm used to the langauge difficulties now and am not entirely freaking out every day haha.
Last Monday on Preparation Day Elder Whitsitt and I just chilled at the apartment. He napped while I wrote some letters. Tuesday we had district meeting in the morning, where all the local Elders and Sisters come together for about 90 minutes to just discuss cool experiences this past week, a little about die deutschsprache, a lesson of some sort (typically about our teaching) and then time to give our testimonies at the end. I enjoy it since it's usually helpful and informative. Currently there are 8 elders and 2 sisters in our district, and I'm pretty sure that it's a larger one. Normally districts are smaller.
So we had an appoinment in the church with the Bulgarian man we taught last week, and that didn't go particularly well. He literally wants to talk the whole time. Out of the 90 minutes or so that we were there, I cannot for the life of me remember if we discussed anything of substance. He did read in the Book of Mormon and said he found it "in Ordnung," which means everything's allright. As long as he continues to do that, he'll come to a knowledge of it for himself. All that we want to do is provide people with that opportunity and help them to that end. In essence, I'd rather have no lesson at all and have someone study it themselves than have a great lesson but no follow-up on their part afterwards.
Tuesday night was my first companion exchange, which meant I worked with another missionary for 24 hours. I switched my beloved tranier Elder Whitsitt for Elder Hardy, a lanky 6'4'' redhead who weighs as much as I do (I'm not terribly pudgy either. Yet...) He comes straight out of Spanish Fork Utah, which I heard was just south of Provo. I don't know these things. Anyways, he has been on his mission only one transfer longer=6 weeks more than I have. I saw him in the MTC since all the German missionaries are clustered together but never really knew him then.
As you could imagine, the German was a little bit rough. Between the two of us, we didn't have a lot. So I got to stay in his apartment, somewhere in the 23rd district. It's quite different since only two missionaries live there. I'm quite used to living with three other missionaries. I was quite surprised to find no one else home at night. I am quite sick of quite.
Basically, we had a really cool day planned for Wednesday since we had a couple of appointments in addition to eating with Familie Hierschmann every Wednesday. However, our appointments both fell out. On the plus side, I got to meet a 30 year old Chinese guy studying Physics. He knew Berkeley and said I was smart. He had a ridiculous laugh and only wore a Sumo-like pair of shorts too. Verrückt. I guess he's an investigator in Elder Hardy's area.
Overall, working with Elder Hardy made me realize I'm not as bad as German as I thought. Being with three other Elders all the time who speak pretty well made me question whether I was behind the curve, but it was a good reminder that everything is smooth still. I really miss smooth music.
Thursday we took it to the Streets. It's always difficult to start talking to people, but once you start and climb the proverbial hill it's a lot easier. We'll see how it goes from here with the people we talked too.
Friday, we had an appointment in the morning with a 30 year old guy who is just really interesting to talk to because he asks so many questions. He understands a lot already, but I was frustrated because I felt that if I could only speak English I'd be able to much more effectively answer. My comp and I agreed we needed to have a better plan going into the lesson because the questions got out of hand and didn't particularly lead anywhere, partially due to our inabilites with German I'm sure.
Friday night, we had another appointment with the same Spanish woman. She's super nice, but she really wasn't reading or doing anything after we would talk to her. She can't come to church either since she has a disabled daughter, so if she doesn't take the initiative herself...We had a really good conversation about prophets, but after that we did as we had resolved to do before. We asked her if she'd be baptized if she determined to Book of Mormon to be true, and the answer was an unflinching yes. That much is good, so really we urged her to take up the challenge and pray about it.
Saturday, we had another lesson at the church with the Blugarian man. We had planned to try and give a second lesson, but Elder Whitsitt called an audible and suggested we show the movie The Restoration about Joseph Smith's first vision. It was a good call, and he really liked the movie (although he still kept talking during parts haha).
Church on Sunday was a cool experience overall, and ya I'm actually running out of time.
Today we're heading out by the Donau to play soccer (or so I'm told).
Alright, Love you all
Elder Ek
This past week has easily been the most "comfortable" week, in that I haven't felt as low as before. Basically, you can take that to mean that I'm used to the langauge difficulties now and am not entirely freaking out every day haha.
Last Monday on Preparation Day Elder Whitsitt and I just chilled at the apartment. He napped while I wrote some letters. Tuesday we had district meeting in the morning, where all the local Elders and Sisters come together for about 90 minutes to just discuss cool experiences this past week, a little about die deutschsprache, a lesson of some sort (typically about our teaching) and then time to give our testimonies at the end. I enjoy it since it's usually helpful and informative. Currently there are 8 elders and 2 sisters in our district, and I'm pretty sure that it's a larger one. Normally districts are smaller.
So we had an appoinment in the church with the Bulgarian man we taught last week, and that didn't go particularly well. He literally wants to talk the whole time. Out of the 90 minutes or so that we were there, I cannot for the life of me remember if we discussed anything of substance. He did read in the Book of Mormon and said he found it "in Ordnung," which means everything's allright. As long as he continues to do that, he'll come to a knowledge of it for himself. All that we want to do is provide people with that opportunity and help them to that end. In essence, I'd rather have no lesson at all and have someone study it themselves than have a great lesson but no follow-up on their part afterwards.
Tuesday night was my first companion exchange, which meant I worked with another missionary for 24 hours. I switched my beloved tranier Elder Whitsitt for Elder Hardy, a lanky 6'4'' redhead who weighs as much as I do (I'm not terribly pudgy either. Yet...) He comes straight out of Spanish Fork Utah, which I heard was just south of Provo. I don't know these things. Anyways, he has been on his mission only one transfer longer=6 weeks more than I have. I saw him in the MTC since all the German missionaries are clustered together but never really knew him then.
As you could imagine, the German was a little bit rough. Between the two of us, we didn't have a lot. So I got to stay in his apartment, somewhere in the 23rd district. It's quite different since only two missionaries live there. I'm quite used to living with three other missionaries. I was quite surprised to find no one else home at night. I am quite sick of quite.
Basically, we had a really cool day planned for Wednesday since we had a couple of appointments in addition to eating with Familie Hierschmann every Wednesday. However, our appointments both fell out. On the plus side, I got to meet a 30 year old Chinese guy studying Physics. He knew Berkeley and said I was smart. He had a ridiculous laugh and only wore a Sumo-like pair of shorts too. Verrückt. I guess he's an investigator in Elder Hardy's area.
Overall, working with Elder Hardy made me realize I'm not as bad as German as I thought. Being with three other Elders all the time who speak pretty well made me question whether I was behind the curve, but it was a good reminder that everything is smooth still. I really miss smooth music.
Thursday we took it to the Streets. It's always difficult to start talking to people, but once you start and climb the proverbial hill it's a lot easier. We'll see how it goes from here with the people we talked too.
Friday, we had an appointment in the morning with a 30 year old guy who is just really interesting to talk to because he asks so many questions. He understands a lot already, but I was frustrated because I felt that if I could only speak English I'd be able to much more effectively answer. My comp and I agreed we needed to have a better plan going into the lesson because the questions got out of hand and didn't particularly lead anywhere, partially due to our inabilites with German I'm sure.
Friday night, we had another appointment with the same Spanish woman. She's super nice, but she really wasn't reading or doing anything after we would talk to her. She can't come to church either since she has a disabled daughter, so if she doesn't take the initiative herself...We had a really good conversation about prophets, but after that we did as we had resolved to do before. We asked her if she'd be baptized if she determined to Book of Mormon to be true, and the answer was an unflinching yes. That much is good, so really we urged her to take up the challenge and pray about it.
Saturday, we had another lesson at the church with the Blugarian man. We had planned to try and give a second lesson, but Elder Whitsitt called an audible and suggested we show the movie The Restoration about Joseph Smith's first vision. It was a good call, and he really liked the movie (although he still kept talking during parts haha).
Church on Sunday was a cool experience overall, and ya I'm actually running out of time.
Today we're heading out by the Donau to play soccer (or so I'm told).
Alright, Love you all
Elder Ek
Thursday, April 9, 2009
4. 7 Elder Cheng
Hey all!
This week will have to my short because i ran out of time emailing lots of people. My new area is great. It's small but its miraculous. We havent found anybody super super awesome yet, but the people here are very humble. It's cool to be in a new area. I get to experience new things now! Our aprtment mates are cool. We stay up talking late at nights in our beds. It's kinda bad because we dont get a lot of sleep, but we have more apartment unity!
So we no progressing investigoatrs here. We just hatve a lot of potentials and new people. But itll change. We're gonna go big! But nothing else so interesting this week. Maybe i can write a little bitmore next week!
Until next week!
Elder StanleyCheng
This week will have to my short because i ran out of time emailing lots of people. My new area is great. It's small but its miraculous. We havent found anybody super super awesome yet, but the people here are very humble. It's cool to be in a new area. I get to experience new things now! Our aprtment mates are cool. We stay up talking late at nights in our beds. It's kinda bad because we dont get a lot of sleep, but we have more apartment unity!
So we no progressing investigoatrs here. We just hatve a lot of potentials and new people. But itll change. We're gonna go big! But nothing else so interesting this week. Maybe i can write a little bitmore next week!
Until next week!
Elder StanleyCheng
Monday, April 6, 2009
4.6 Elder Ek
Hallo from a smoky internet cafe in Vienna
I remember thinking at one point this week that I would have so much to write and say. I cannot remember when I thought that or why, because now I have nothing. Given my limited opportunity to write, I will try my best to recall on the fly
So last Monday night we had dinner with the Zickbauers, a young, hip couple with a very modest apartment in the 23rd district. Bro Zickbauer had served a mission in Ogden Utah and played pro soccer for a little while after that. They were totally nice, and we had the opportunity to eat a fajita-like meal without the fajita, a rare and welcomed dash of Mexican food into our lives.
Tuesday was Zone conference, where all the missionaries in and around Wien get together to hear from President Condie and teach each other too. Besides the wonderful Schnitzel and potato salad (which is nothing like the potato salad over in the states), there are a few LDS people in Wien who are legitimate opera singers (I forget if they were on tour or just staying here for a while). So we had a little private opera in the middle of zone conference. Very choice AND I could feel the spirit, so what more can you need?
Wednesday was the first time I taught a first lesson, and we taught two! The first was to a Serbian man who cleans an apartment complex on our same block. We had talked to him the week before for a while, so we knew him pretty well. Anyways, we gave him the first lesson while he was cleaning and while cars were rushing by on the street. Very difficult environment to feel the spirit. Still, Elder Whitsitt, the very same gangster out of Chicago previously refrenced, was able to convey the important parts of the message. I added some at the end too.
Later Wed, we met a man at our local church and taught him the first lesson in one of the rooms. May I simply say that the right enviornment can make all the difference. This time, I felt much more at ease and gave a decent chunk of the lesson (still not around 50%, but it's improvement!). I also believed that he was able to feel something in his heart, because I certainly did.
Thursday was soso, I got to talk to a guy in French and give him a card with our address. Unfortunately, he was leaving soon. He said he'd check it out on the church's website. My French has totally left me...Yikes. The rest of the day didn't go very well, as an appointment with an 18 year old fell out for the 4th time in a row and our efforts on the streets didn't bear much fruit.
Saturday we did some service and then watched General Conference at night. 10 AM session = 6pm here.
It was amazing to hear from the modern day prophets and apostles. This conference was easily to best I've experienced, no doubt due to my willingness to prepare beforehand by thinking about what questions I had.
Wow, it's just crazy to be out here. I just had another moment to think about that. Frankly, before my mission I took a lot of my spiritual growth just as it came, a lot of my testimony regarding truth. Now I am experiencing what it feels like to need it urgently. My life for these two years is this gospel, this church. It's my entire support, and it makes me realize how much conviction we must have if we are to be effective out here, to be good teachers and to simply be happy. I know I've taken it for granted before because I've had an easy life and so much material comfort available. Now that I'm entirely reliant upon the gospel, it's so different. Every day I want to learn and study earnestly. I've never wanted to learn so badly in my life. This desire is insatiable, and I appreciate that greatly. I want to be improve for my own sake and for the sake of everyone with whom I come in contact.
There has been much joy for my part and much grief, even in this past week. It's all a learning experience. All of it. That in itself will always give me hope.
Take care everyone!
Love,
Elder Ek
I remember thinking at one point this week that I would have so much to write and say. I cannot remember when I thought that or why, because now I have nothing. Given my limited opportunity to write, I will try my best to recall on the fly
So last Monday night we had dinner with the Zickbauers, a young, hip couple with a very modest apartment in the 23rd district. Bro Zickbauer had served a mission in Ogden Utah and played pro soccer for a little while after that. They were totally nice, and we had the opportunity to eat a fajita-like meal without the fajita, a rare and welcomed dash of Mexican food into our lives.
Tuesday was Zone conference, where all the missionaries in and around Wien get together to hear from President Condie and teach each other too. Besides the wonderful Schnitzel and potato salad (which is nothing like the potato salad over in the states), there are a few LDS people in Wien who are legitimate opera singers (I forget if they were on tour or just staying here for a while). So we had a little private opera in the middle of zone conference. Very choice AND I could feel the spirit, so what more can you need?
Wednesday was the first time I taught a first lesson, and we taught two! The first was to a Serbian man who cleans an apartment complex on our same block. We had talked to him the week before for a while, so we knew him pretty well. Anyways, we gave him the first lesson while he was cleaning and while cars were rushing by on the street. Very difficult environment to feel the spirit. Still, Elder Whitsitt, the very same gangster out of Chicago previously refrenced, was able to convey the important parts of the message. I added some at the end too.
Later Wed, we met a man at our local church and taught him the first lesson in one of the rooms. May I simply say that the right enviornment can make all the difference. This time, I felt much more at ease and gave a decent chunk of the lesson (still not around 50%, but it's improvement!). I also believed that he was able to feel something in his heart, because I certainly did.
Thursday was soso, I got to talk to a guy in French and give him a card with our address. Unfortunately, he was leaving soon. He said he'd check it out on the church's website. My French has totally left me...Yikes. The rest of the day didn't go very well, as an appointment with an 18 year old fell out for the 4th time in a row and our efforts on the streets didn't bear much fruit.
Saturday we did some service and then watched General Conference at night. 10 AM session = 6pm here.
It was amazing to hear from the modern day prophets and apostles. This conference was easily to best I've experienced, no doubt due to my willingness to prepare beforehand by thinking about what questions I had.
Wow, it's just crazy to be out here. I just had another moment to think about that. Frankly, before my mission I took a lot of my spiritual growth just as it came, a lot of my testimony regarding truth. Now I am experiencing what it feels like to need it urgently. My life for these two years is this gospel, this church. It's my entire support, and it makes me realize how much conviction we must have if we are to be effective out here, to be good teachers and to simply be happy. I know I've taken it for granted before because I've had an easy life and so much material comfort available. Now that I'm entirely reliant upon the gospel, it's so different. Every day I want to learn and study earnestly. I've never wanted to learn so badly in my life. This desire is insatiable, and I appreciate that greatly. I want to be improve for my own sake and for the sake of everyone with whom I come in contact.
There has been much joy for my part and much grief, even in this past week. It's all a learning experience. All of it. That in itself will always give me hope.
Take care everyone!
Love,
Elder Ek
Friday, April 3, 2009
3.19, 3.26, 4.2 Elder Cheng
Hey eeverybody!
So awesome week with two cool things!
1.our progressing investigator, Simon has set another baptismal date and we set some goals for him to stop drinking coffee so that he could get baptized on that day. so. Exciting! But sadly, I probably will move before he gets baptized. I hope not. But then again I wanna move out of my baby area of kwun tong. But he is progressing greatly. He learned a lot at church, giving him confidence to come to church every week. He also was kind of antied from people he's talked to. But because he had arleady started reading the book of mormon, he knows that there's nothing negative or offensive in it. So I think he's getting a testimony of the chruch overall. Its amazing!!!!
2.met a man a couple of weeks ago. And tuesday night he and his wife showed up randomly at the chapel. We taught them a message about families. They lvoed it. They were very peaceful and comforted. We pointed out that it was the spirit revealing truth to them and a response from God. They have a 9 month old son who is just soo cute! They would totally let us up to their house to go visit, but his parents are pretty old and has old traditions that would probably reject us missionaries from coming over. So hopefully we could keep scheduling them to meet us at the chapel. The interesting thing about them is that he is 40 and his wife is 23. he said that his wifes mom is only two years older than he is. Oh man. They are so cool. Hopefully we can keep meeting with them because I feel that they are sooo ready and humble to accept the gospel!!! we'll keep praying for them!
So I wanted to leave a message about patriarchal blessings. I;ve been reminded of my patriarchal blessing this week and I would like to share some insight and reminders for y'all. So at the bottom of each blessing, it says it's according to your obedience and faithfulness! And remember, the patriarchal blessings has a lot of blessings that are for each of us individually. In order to obtain these blessings, we need to continue to be faithful. I encourage you all to take a look at your patriarchal blessing and then evaluate how you are doing on it. Also, observe the blessings that you have already obtained and then pray to thank Heavenly Father for these blessings. We each have patriarchal blessings as a personal compass and guidance. But if we dont utilize it, it'll just go to waste. An elder in my apartment told us a story about a person who knew who had the most amazing blessing, saying that he would have riches upon riches and would have a lot of fame, as well as being married to a woman in the temple. But, sadly, he chose to walk another path and not follow God. He got into drinking and drugs, and eventually, died a lonely man. When I look at my patriarchal blessing, it gives me so much motivation and purpose and life. I know that this is a personal revelation and that in order to be able to have the most happiness here on earth, we have to continue to follow God and keep his commandments. I leave these with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
ps, i just realized how terrrible my english has gotten. hopefully you can look past the grammatical errors and get my message. hahah.
until next week!Elder Stanley Cheng
Elder Stanley ChengChina Hong Kong MissionJuly 2008 - July 2010
Hello everybody!!!
well, another week has gone by and i feel its moving faster and faster. i was just calculating it and my MTC sister companion is at her halfway point already. i still have a few more months until i hit a year, but that will soon come as well. it's so crazy how fast things are going. im still in my baby area here in Kwun Tong. but, moves are next thursday and im speculating that i willl be moving because i've been here for 6 months. we're not suppose to speculate but im just being prepared if i have to move, especially if i want to hand out my businesss cards to people in this area.
so anyway, weird thing, the weather started to get colder again. i think it could be because of the rain. yuesterday morning, there was yellow rain. in hong kong there are 3 levels, yellow, amber and black. yellow just sucks so much because it rains like crezy. luckily, we were still in the apartment so we didnt get drenched. amber rain means that kids dont have to go to school. black rain means everybody stays in. i havent been in these type rains contacting yet but i will be pretty upset if i get soaked in pros clothes. rain water stinks too because of all the pollution. i heard that black rain is like you are literally in a pool but you can't see more than 3 feet ahead of you. thats crazy! that'll be fun.
for some reason, by the end of each moves, i see an increase in our rate of finding people and teaching. this past week, we had amazing lessons with people. a lot are new investigators and we're trying to find out how to help them the best. it's cool to see work progress and moreover, the investigators progressing in the gospel. it's exciting.
i want to take a moment to share about one investigator. he is mr. wong. he's early 20s and has just moved to hong kong from mainland a few months ago. he has no friends and he kinda hides from the world. we were very lucky to find him because if it werent for shopping, looking for work, or eating, he would be at home surfing the web. it was a lucky day when we ran into him. we quickly exchanged numbers and after calling him on the phone, found out he is so humble to hear the gospel! although he hasnt had much christian background in mainland, he knows there is some kind of energy [God] that compels everything. we're trying to help him see that it really is God. another thing i find really cool is that he's really open to making friends. he says nobody really talks to him on the phone, and he's really thankful that i keep calling him to talk. we've only seen him once, explained God and watched a dvd called finding happiness, but he seems to be a great guy. he said he has nothing to do on sunday so he'll be at church! although i've been expecting to move areas, ill be upset to leave this suddenly progressing place and miss 1. simon getting baptized, and 2. all the other investigators i've met in my baby area. this place is definitely filled with miracles!!!
on that note, i want to share a scripture that our MTC teacher, Sister Bitton, shared with us in Mormon 9:15-21. This is Moroni speaking to people about why they think God has ceased to perform miracles. To sum the scripture up, it basically tells that everything here is proof of God's miracles, Jesus Christ performed a lot of miracles, and God is unchanging so he will continue to perform miracles. in verse 20 he says that there are no miracles because the people don't believe. verse 21 says if you believe and doubt nothing, everything will be granted and promised. so the message iwant to get at is that God still performs miracles. we need to notice that these miracles are stilll around us! first of all, we need to believe without a doubt and then the miracles will be there. when miracles come, we need to remember them. if we fail to recognize them, we fail to acknowledge that God gave us these miracles. i can testify that i have seen soooo many miracles on the mission. at first, it was hard to see, but once i've been able to distinguish these miracles, more and more keep coming. miracles happen everyday, but if we don't notice it, the harder it will become for God to send more. i challenge you all to look closely at things in the day and point out the miracle that has been sent to you that day. afterwards, write it down in your journal and it will become a testimony that you can always refer back to. i leave this things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
until next weekElder Stanley Cheng
Hello everybody!
So this is an exciting day for me, why? because i left my baby area, Kwun Tong, and went to my second area after 6tmonths! i was very upset to leave my first area because i had met so many people, investigators and members alike. i kinda had the feeling of a missionary who is about to go home. i dont want to leave, but then i am looking forward to and am excited for the next area. so this is definitely a unique experience. i also have a new companion, after being with my prevbious companion for 4.5 months. my new companion is Elder Robinson from Boise, Idaho. he's been out ont the mission for about a year and a half. in hong kong he's been here for about a year and 2 months. it's a little weird getting a new companion after so long, but hopefully i can get used to it. one thing that i am super sad about leaving is that i left the largest apartment in the mission. it was so nice. it even had a piano! but this new area has a gym so i can work out again. its 180$ /month for membership though. maybe i'll only try it out for a few months or just one month because it is so expensive that the missionary funds dont cover that month to month.
so the new area i moved to is called Tin Shui Wai. it is located in the New Territories. it is soooo far from the island (Hong Kong) and we are actually closer to mainland. for that reason, there are a lot of people that come down from mainland to live here. there are a lot of mainland tourists here too. and also for the reason (of being close to mainland) the housing is cheaper, and there are more mainland wives. Tin Shui Wai is said to be the vplace of miracles. i dunno why yet. i have yet to go contacting and exploring the area because i just got here today. because of the mainland wives, however, there are a lot of family problems--mainly financial and communication-wise. possibly for the family problems, a lot of famiolies are more humble to listen to the message. (or this is what i've heard) despite the fact of family problems, i am very excited to be here in a new area continue to serve the Lord! the Lord has called me to these places to find the prepared people. 'To harvest the white field.'
i love being in hong kong for the reason that i have a lot of ties to hong kong. my family is from hong kong and i still have family in hong kong. plus, there is always a flow of friends and family that come into hong kong. im very lucky to be in a place where there is such a flow. everytime somebody comes in, i ask permission and the mission mreisdent allows them to see me. for instance, my sister is in Hong Kong right now and i get to see her on Saturday! more family also comes and goes for holidays--christmas or summer. so, i am very fortunate.
the message iwant to leave today is about faith. do you remember what faith is? it is not to have perfect knowledge, but hope in things that are not seen. we were trying to help this less active RM in my last area and we've tried to focus on faith, because he has lost all faith. the thing that distracted him the most was the worldly things, especially money. he lost sight of trusting and relying on God through faith. nobody in this world is perfect, and nobody has complete knowledge of everything. we can keep continuing to progress. as members of the church, we have the knowledge that God is alive and helps us. We also have the knowledge that we are on this earth to progress and learn. there is no other reason why Heavenly Father puts us on this earth unless there is something that we must learn. faith is the first principle of the gospel and it comes before everything else. it is important that we keep continuing to build our faith through prayer, scripture study, attending church, etc. with faith comes miracles. i promise that you will see many more miracles in your life if you keep putting trust in the Lord to help you through trials. i know these things are true and i leave these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
hong kong life is great! until next weekElder Stanley Cheng
So awesome week with two cool things!
1.our progressing investigator, Simon has set another baptismal date and we set some goals for him to stop drinking coffee so that he could get baptized on that day. so. Exciting! But sadly, I probably will move before he gets baptized. I hope not. But then again I wanna move out of my baby area of kwun tong. But he is progressing greatly. He learned a lot at church, giving him confidence to come to church every week. He also was kind of antied from people he's talked to. But because he had arleady started reading the book of mormon, he knows that there's nothing negative or offensive in it. So I think he's getting a testimony of the chruch overall. Its amazing!!!!
2.met a man a couple of weeks ago. And tuesday night he and his wife showed up randomly at the chapel. We taught them a message about families. They lvoed it. They were very peaceful and comforted. We pointed out that it was the spirit revealing truth to them and a response from God. They have a 9 month old son who is just soo cute! They would totally let us up to their house to go visit, but his parents are pretty old and has old traditions that would probably reject us missionaries from coming over. So hopefully we could keep scheduling them to meet us at the chapel. The interesting thing about them is that he is 40 and his wife is 23. he said that his wifes mom is only two years older than he is. Oh man. They are so cool. Hopefully we can keep meeting with them because I feel that they are sooo ready and humble to accept the gospel!!! we'll keep praying for them!
So I wanted to leave a message about patriarchal blessings. I;ve been reminded of my patriarchal blessing this week and I would like to share some insight and reminders for y'all. So at the bottom of each blessing, it says it's according to your obedience and faithfulness! And remember, the patriarchal blessings has a lot of blessings that are for each of us individually. In order to obtain these blessings, we need to continue to be faithful. I encourage you all to take a look at your patriarchal blessing and then evaluate how you are doing on it. Also, observe the blessings that you have already obtained and then pray to thank Heavenly Father for these blessings. We each have patriarchal blessings as a personal compass and guidance. But if we dont utilize it, it'll just go to waste. An elder in my apartment told us a story about a person who knew who had the most amazing blessing, saying that he would have riches upon riches and would have a lot of fame, as well as being married to a woman in the temple. But, sadly, he chose to walk another path and not follow God. He got into drinking and drugs, and eventually, died a lonely man. When I look at my patriarchal blessing, it gives me so much motivation and purpose and life. I know that this is a personal revelation and that in order to be able to have the most happiness here on earth, we have to continue to follow God and keep his commandments. I leave these with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
ps, i just realized how terrrible my english has gotten. hopefully you can look past the grammatical errors and get my message. hahah.
until next week!Elder Stanley Cheng
Hello everybody!!!
well, another week has gone by and i feel its moving faster and faster. i was just calculating it and my MTC sister companion is at her halfway point already. i still have a few more months until i hit a year, but that will soon come as well. it's so crazy how fast things are going. im still in my baby area here in Kwun Tong. but, moves are next thursday and im speculating that i willl be moving because i've been here for 6 months. we're not suppose to speculate but im just being prepared if i have to move, especially if i want to hand out my businesss cards to people in this area.
so anyway, weird thing, the weather started to get colder again. i think it could be because of the rain. yuesterday morning, there was yellow rain. in hong kong there are 3 levels, yellow, amber and black. yellow just sucks so much because it rains like crezy. luckily, we were still in the apartment so we didnt get drenched. amber rain means that kids dont have to go to school. black rain means everybody stays in. i havent been in these type rains contacting yet but i will be pretty upset if i get soaked in pros clothes. rain water stinks too because of all the pollution. i heard that black rain is like you are literally in a pool but you can't see more than 3 feet ahead of you. thats crazy! that'll be fun.
for some reason, by the end of each moves, i see an increase in our rate of finding people and teaching. this past week, we had amazing lessons with people. a lot are new investigators and we're trying to find out how to help them the best. it's cool to see work progress and moreover, the investigators progressing in the gospel. it's exciting.
i want to take a moment to share about one investigator. he is mr. wong. he's early 20s and has just moved to hong kong from mainland a few months ago. he has no friends and he kinda hides from the world. we were very lucky to find him because if it werent for shopping, looking for work, or eating, he would be at home surfing the web. it was a lucky day when we ran into him. we quickly exchanged numbers and after calling him on the phone, found out he is so humble to hear the gospel! although he hasnt had much christian background in mainland, he knows there is some kind of energy [God] that compels everything. we're trying to help him see that it really is God. another thing i find really cool is that he's really open to making friends. he says nobody really talks to him on the phone, and he's really thankful that i keep calling him to talk. we've only seen him once, explained God and watched a dvd called finding happiness, but he seems to be a great guy. he said he has nothing to do on sunday so he'll be at church! although i've been expecting to move areas, ill be upset to leave this suddenly progressing place and miss 1. simon getting baptized, and 2. all the other investigators i've met in my baby area. this place is definitely filled with miracles!!!
on that note, i want to share a scripture that our MTC teacher, Sister Bitton, shared with us in Mormon 9:15-21. This is Moroni speaking to people about why they think God has ceased to perform miracles. To sum the scripture up, it basically tells that everything here is proof of God's miracles, Jesus Christ performed a lot of miracles, and God is unchanging so he will continue to perform miracles. in verse 20 he says that there are no miracles because the people don't believe. verse 21 says if you believe and doubt nothing, everything will be granted and promised. so the message iwant to get at is that God still performs miracles. we need to notice that these miracles are stilll around us! first of all, we need to believe without a doubt and then the miracles will be there. when miracles come, we need to remember them. if we fail to recognize them, we fail to acknowledge that God gave us these miracles. i can testify that i have seen soooo many miracles on the mission. at first, it was hard to see, but once i've been able to distinguish these miracles, more and more keep coming. miracles happen everyday, but if we don't notice it, the harder it will become for God to send more. i challenge you all to look closely at things in the day and point out the miracle that has been sent to you that day. afterwards, write it down in your journal and it will become a testimony that you can always refer back to. i leave this things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
until next weekElder Stanley Cheng
Hello everybody!
So this is an exciting day for me, why? because i left my baby area, Kwun Tong, and went to my second area after 6tmonths! i was very upset to leave my first area because i had met so many people, investigators and members alike. i kinda had the feeling of a missionary who is about to go home. i dont want to leave, but then i am looking forward to and am excited for the next area. so this is definitely a unique experience. i also have a new companion, after being with my prevbious companion for 4.5 months. my new companion is Elder Robinson from Boise, Idaho. he's been out ont the mission for about a year and a half. in hong kong he's been here for about a year and 2 months. it's a little weird getting a new companion after so long, but hopefully i can get used to it. one thing that i am super sad about leaving is that i left the largest apartment in the mission. it was so nice. it even had a piano! but this new area has a gym so i can work out again. its 180$ /month for membership though. maybe i'll only try it out for a few months or just one month because it is so expensive that the missionary funds dont cover that month to month.
so the new area i moved to is called Tin Shui Wai. it is located in the New Territories. it is soooo far from the island (Hong Kong) and we are actually closer to mainland. for that reason, there are a lot of people that come down from mainland to live here. there are a lot of mainland tourists here too. and also for the reason (of being close to mainland) the housing is cheaper, and there are more mainland wives. Tin Shui Wai is said to be the vplace of miracles. i dunno why yet. i have yet to go contacting and exploring the area because i just got here today. because of the mainland wives, however, there are a lot of family problems--mainly financial and communication-wise. possibly for the family problems, a lot of famiolies are more humble to listen to the message. (or this is what i've heard) despite the fact of family problems, i am very excited to be here in a new area continue to serve the Lord! the Lord has called me to these places to find the prepared people. 'To harvest the white field.'
i love being in hong kong for the reason that i have a lot of ties to hong kong. my family is from hong kong and i still have family in hong kong. plus, there is always a flow of friends and family that come into hong kong. im very lucky to be in a place where there is such a flow. everytime somebody comes in, i ask permission and the mission mreisdent allows them to see me. for instance, my sister is in Hong Kong right now and i get to see her on Saturday! more family also comes and goes for holidays--christmas or summer. so, i am very fortunate.
the message iwant to leave today is about faith. do you remember what faith is? it is not to have perfect knowledge, but hope in things that are not seen. we were trying to help this less active RM in my last area and we've tried to focus on faith, because he has lost all faith. the thing that distracted him the most was the worldly things, especially money. he lost sight of trusting and relying on God through faith. nobody in this world is perfect, and nobody has complete knowledge of everything. we can keep continuing to progress. as members of the church, we have the knowledge that God is alive and helps us. We also have the knowledge that we are on this earth to progress and learn. there is no other reason why Heavenly Father puts us on this earth unless there is something that we must learn. faith is the first principle of the gospel and it comes before everything else. it is important that we keep continuing to build our faith through prayer, scripture study, attending church, etc. with faith comes miracles. i promise that you will see many more miracles in your life if you keep putting trust in the Lord to help you through trials. i know these things are true and i leave these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
hong kong life is great! until next weekElder Stanley Cheng
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