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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