Week 38.5 Goodbye TKO. Moved to Hung Shui Kiu in the New Territories 3/27/2017

Elder Chou's last week with Elder Love in TKO Ward.

Elder Love and I also went singing finding for the last time but this computer is being stupid and doesn’t let me send pictures today :(
[see last week's pictures below]

Said goodbye to TKO and moved to Hung Shui Kiu (洪水橋), in the New Territories.

well the move was relatively smooth. 新界 (New Territories) is super different from anything else that I have been in HK. It is actually a lot like California. The chapel is also super big, but it is the stake center.

This will be short because nothing really happened. just getting use to the new territories :) and I think I like it better then the busy side of HK.

Yea this week was great!! Elder Chin is my companion (sorry no pictures today :( ) but he is such a nice person!! He loves pokemon so I have kind of been getting into the card game. It is actually really interesting and really fun :) and it is a good game to understand if I do become a game designer (not sure yet) but yea it is super fun living with him elder wilcoxsen and elder alread. I am also in the apartment my trainer Elder McGrath started in. The chapel is super nice and 新界 is super different. It is almost like California actually

Insights

if you are not good enough without it, you will never be good enough with it

Week 37.5 Transfer Call: Leaving TKO & Moving to Hung Shui Kiu 3/20/3017

It is hard describing the feelings that I have for moving to Hung Shui Kiu.  [new companion will be Elder Chin]

First all the companions, the transfer after we are no longer together they train. I think it's kind of funny. I think it is also funny that I have moved all my transfers except one. 

but it was good seeing that TKO was progressing. This last Sunday we had ward council, and we actually got assignments to cooperate with ward members to fulfil assignments. I love TKO very much (probably because this is my childhood). It will be hard to leave, but I know that God has a plan, that plan is perfect, and it will all be worth it.

I also had the weirdest nostalgic moment the other day. I was soccer finding haha I know its weird, but I just looked at the yellow lights and realized that this part of my life, playing on the street with some friends and just being in high school is forever gone. I am getting transferred clear across the mission and I am leaving my aunt which lives here. I am very sad which I won't lie about but I know God has a plan for me, and I have done all that I have needed to do in this area. 

Elder Love & Chou, singing finding in Hong Kong

Guess when I found out I was moving I had 2 thoughts run through my head. One negative one positive. The negative one is "well there needs to be a change in this area and I guess that is me." The positive one is "I have done all I needed to do for this area. I have worked hard and now am being moved because I need to help another area." It is interesting noting the difference of feelings I have when I recognize that God has given a person authority to help me to know where to be and how to live so that I may be happy. I guess there are things I must do in Hung Shui Kiu. I can honestly look back through every transfer and know why I was there. There is a very significant instance to which I can point and say "this is the biggest reason I am here" I can say that for california, kowloon city, and now tseung kwan o. I know that I will also be able to say that one day for hung shui kiu.

We always have the choice to choose whether we will be positive or negative. It is harder to choose to be happy but it will be worth it. I know that God will be with those who trust him, who choose him. It is not easier but it is worth it. I have faith that this new change is God's will. I know he lives and give us people we can trust that will tell us his will. In the name of Jesus Christ, the master, amen.

Insights 

forgetting is the greatest challenge for us

the more you love the more you remember

you live life going forward, you learn from life looking back

                        -Elder Holland

Week 36.5 Andrew was Confirmed this week 3/13/2017

well this is going to be short :) but Andrew got confirmed this week which was great! We met with him that week and just to feel the spirit even before he got confirmed was pretty awesome. It was really cool because he had a new determination and light in him that I have not seen in him before, and to have that change in just a couple days really helped me know that the gospel is true!!

I also got to go on exchanges with my trainer!! :) it was super fun but since he was zone leader the assistants called later and we exchanged again. So I was with elder earls and we were both not from the area so.... we just kinda winged it :) we were find though :) it was good!!! We also went finding with the piano but I forgot to take a picture :( so next week!! remember in the midst of everything that is falling apart, God is our friend and will provide safety for our soul. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Insights

pride and honesty cannot coincide

Spiritual truths make sense because we have been taught that before. When we find an insight often we thing "oh I never thought of that before" but it make sense because we have just uncovered a little bit more of the veil of forgetfulness.

Forgetting is the greatest challenge we have as humans!

Week 35.5 Andrew's Baptism! 3/6/2017

Sorry this will be a short one because we got back late, but Andrew did get baptized. He did show up [late] at 10 which scared us so bad. It was great!!!
It was God that helped us and let us have that miracle. (nothing is ever ours, as much as we would like it to be)

 
picture: Elders Chou and Love at Andrew's baptism (far right)

Andrew [was] found at English class, so that was how the other elders found him. I didn’t really feel that [we did] that much. It was after he was baptized that I felt the Spirit when the bishop bore his testimony and we performed... Po Lam and TKO wards have not had a baptism for 22 months and that last person wasn’t ever confirmed. We are working with her, but we can see that the ward is warming up to us, so that is good. It is more than I could ask for.

We also went knocking doors this week which is my first time doing that in Hong Kong. That was on exchanges with Elder Petersen. This week has been good, and hard :)

I know God gives me miracles but also knows how to grow my faith. That is what I have really learned this week, especially with Andrew getting baptized, is that it really, really is God that gives us the success. Till next week.

Week 34.5 No Effort is Wasted 2/27/2017

Hello Everyone! So this week we were trying really hard to get Andrew ready for baptism. All the logistics and meeting with him, All that Preach My Gospel says.  have decided to pushed it back. He wasn't too happy but he understood why.







We also taught Yolanda with Miranda, and Miranda  is super awesome! She is a recently returned missionary and loves to help us. Yolanda, however, is not doing as well. She reads and prays and keeps all her commitments so by definition she is "progressing" but she just doesn't really want to know. It is just more information for her to want to know about, not how it can change her life, so we will see what we will do for that situation and how to help her progress.

the biggest miracle was my companion not dying. We were coming out of the apartment complex and we were following behind a car, and Elder Love almost got hit by the gate thing when it swung down. Luckily he did not, and therefore did not die, so that was good :)

We were also able to visit my aunt and she is doing well with her two kids. She is very kind and sweet and loves her family very much!

Today we were going to go to Big Buddha but elder Evans was sick and it was cloudy so we didn't, then found out later it was closed so what a miracle!

This week has been hard! and sometimes people see HK and think "oh no one gets baptized" but I know that every effort that I put in and that all others put in are not wasted, but added to the pool of experience that person has to eventually accept the gospel :)

Love you all!! The gospel changes lives!!

Insights

There will be some decisions we will make and some changes we will make that will be hard. Our mind will overpower our natural man and our two natures will be torn against each other, but as we yield less to the natural man, Christ is able to come into our lives and change us.

Be someone God would be proud of

-- 

D&C 50:24 that which is of God is light; and he that recieveth light, and continueth in God, recieveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.

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Week 33.5 Music Finding 2/20/2017

This week was pretty good! we are starting to see success from music finding! I think it is the greatest tool that Elder Love and I have haha :)

first off we had interviews with president Lam. It was super powerful and spiritual. I am glad we are doing interviews every 6 weeks now :) He was telling Elder Love "I just got 啟示 [revelation] because I did not know that Elder Chou and you would work pretty well. I also did not know that his family lives in Tsueng Kwan O. but he knew" It was just a testimony to me that the Lord knows where we have to be at what time.

We had a missionary return from the Oakland San Francisco mission (I think). She was super cool! She invited like 6 friends to church which was super cool! We also preformed for her homecoming (come thou fount). The po lam elders got a new investigator from it, and we will see [if] we are able to haha :)  she and her mom also fed us pizza hut (which I have had a limited number of times in hk because as missionaries we have no money). We were very thankful for their generosity

We of course also did the noble and honorable music finding. We had a lady who said she would come to church, but she didn't :( but we had a less active show up at our church because she saw us on the streets singing haha!! so it works!!

We also had bishop invite us to FHE at lohas park. So in this ward they have family home evenings for everyone in one teun (high rise complex) so it works pretty well because they dont have to travel that far! We had Andrew (investigator who has a baptismal date set for next week), and Wilson (recent-convert) go. It was super good! Lei 主教 is a great guy and wants to help us missionaries to be able to do the work!

It has been a great week and I just keep reflecting on what Elder Bednar mentioned "to some is given the working of miracles" (D&C 46:21) and I am just grateful that the Lord is letting me witness those miracles and those successes. Christ loves and lives for each of us. he is merciful and full miracles, of this I testify in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Insights

If we listen with love, we wont need to know what to say. It will be given to us- by the spirit and by our friends

     -Elder holland

-- 

D&C 50:24 that which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.

Week 32.5 Three experiences 2/13/2017

This week has been great!!!! Elder Kim leaving was super sad :( but we had fun and he did good :) The best missionary experience this week was we had a ward party with po lam and we had 4 people come because a member brought her friend who brought her friend. It was super great! This week has been full of miracles :) I feel like I am a lot less grateful to the Lord than I could be because I know I don't thank him enough. Lunch in 30 min is still hard but we are still adjusting so it should be fine soon enough :)

But here are the three experiences that stood out to me the most this week.

First is the personal study and I was comparing the sacrament prayers and the differences are very interesting. But the most interesting part was seeing the similarities especially in "always remember him." It says it 4 times in the two prayers and I realized we must remember him with all our heart, might, mind, and strength. We must remember our Savior with our thoughts, our actions and ultimately our core and soul. Only he can help us achieve and accomplish that 

The second was Yolanda. She was asking about judgment and resurrection and we were like "oh ok Alma 40-42" she read it and was like are there anything in the bible which support that we were like yep and we pulled out some scripture and she was like is there a chapter? no there isn't and she is starting to realize that the bible and the book of mormon really does support each other.

The last experience was the having a person at the party who did not really like our church. A lot of people think we are a cult in hk haha :) our conversation went something like this

"you must believe in Christ"

"yep that is all we worship"

and all these different things it was like yes we believe in that. She also "casted a devil out of elder love." To all people who doesn't think we believe in Christ, We do. We believe and live everything in the bible and I know there is a prophet today who knows god's will. I am grateful for a merciful God that doesn't leave us in darkness. I am grateful for a Savior who made it so we could make it back to God, and I am grateful that god calls incompetent, imperfect people like me to go help save people and help them obtain salvation. So I can learn and become more christlike. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

 

Insights

Life is full go holes we have to fill. Filling them with a bunch of bad things is like pouring acid in. It will fill it for a little while, but ultimately make the hole bigger and deeper. We must fill those holes with the pure love of christ. The living water. He fixes things in ways that we cannot.

"We all make mistakes. Sometimes we harm ourselves and seriously injured others in ways we alone cannot repair. we break things we cannot fix. Then we feel guilt, humiliation, and suffering, which we alone cannot cure. The healing power of the atonement can remedy what we cannot repair.

                      -Elder packer

The more we live life, the more we look back and wish we would have changed ourselves.

The lord, the greatest of all beings, provides happiness for us! It is the gospel of Jesus Christ

                      -2 Nephi 9:43​