Dear Friends and Family,
Truth be told, I've lost all count of dates and times and didn't realize it was Father's Day until yesterday during Sacrament Meeting. Oops...! Big Shout Out to my dad! I've been thinking a lot about the examples of righteous fathers. It's interesting to read about them in the Book Of Mormon. Some like Alma, King Benjamin, both Mosiahs, Mormon, Lehi. They all have qualities to be emulated, and I'm grateful my real FAAAATHHAAAAA has in many ways done just that and helped me throughout my life.
This week has been a little harder than I thought it would be. Training and being a Senior companion are great opportunities but it takes work and I feel the pressure. This week we really struggled for lessons. Almost no one could schedule. This is due in part to the fact that everyone was having their final tests and exams last week and this week. Honestly I felt myself getting so frustrated at people who would either reschedule or call to say they couldn't come anymore.
By the end of this week I was happy for it though. Though we struggled on member-present lessons and just lessons in general, we were able to teach a number of recent converts and everyday we spent a sizable chunk of our time out on the street contacting whenever we could. In the beginning of my mission I was a little scared of contacting but I think that as I've matured in the mission and honed my language skills I've felt more confident in approaching people. I feel that this week in particular Heavenly Father helped me have the love and patience that I needed too. Hong Kong people are busy. They always are. But as I used those 15-30 precious seconds to talk to people, I could feel that the Lord was with me; he wanted me to be there and to talk to that guy or girl. The irony of the whole thing was that most 'willing-to-stop' people are single girls. So we contact them and almost immediately hand them over the the Sister Missionaries whom we serve with. Oh well. It's all the same work after all :)
As Elder B and I have been out on the street contacting together, it's also opened my eyes to new ways to contact and meet people. Since day one in Hong Kong my trainer and I were almost always "split-finding"--one of us down the road from the other but still in sight. However, we have decided do a lot of contacting together, and although our combined Cantonese knowledge makes for an OK message delivery, I've felt the Lord help us and give us people that we can then open our mouths and talk to.
We also have 2 young men recent converts we are working with; M and L. The two of them will drop just about anything and help the missionaries. I really admire them for the dedication to the gospel and willingness to try hard things. It can't be easy to open your mouth and talk to your immediate neighbors about the gospel. I, myself, can't even imagine what it's like to go knock doors in an American mission! That's just such a foreign, scary concept for me! Haha :)
Elder B was another great part about this past week. We've developed a really good companionship as well as friendship. He is a hard worker and, though he openly admits that he doesn't WANT to go finding, he feels that it's the best thing that he can do to get comfortable with the language, etc. As long as my companions have good attitudes like that I'll be fine!
The other great thing is that he is a lot like me when it comes to trying new foods. We went to a bunch of different cheap street restaurants this week and just tried to eat and order like the natives. Pretty fun actually!
Despite the hardships, I'm grateful for the things that I learned this past week. It's stretched me and helped my faith to grow.
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