July 15 - 21, 2013

July 20, 2013 was our 11 month mark.  Who can believe we are this far into our mission.  Saturday we had a training meeting with President & Sister Aki.  We discussed several things but one of the most important was how they appreciated all our service in the temple.  These are my notes.

"President Aki expressed his appreciation for everyone’s service.  We will have come full circle when the Warners, Salmons, Castleton, and Wilsons arrive.  The Chans will be leaving in September, The Akis, Tais and Wans in October and the Hathaways in December.  He is most interested in our self-enrichment and development.  Convert yourself. The temple work is the only work talked about as “The Lord’s Holy Work”  We have been in a holy place and hopefully we go home sanctified—more holy—more loving.  This sacred work has changed my life forever.  Love each other more, attitude of helping.  How can I improve myself and draw closer to the Lord.  As a Mission President the Lord will judge you not just on what you do but what your missionaries are doing 20 years from now.  Draw closer to the Lord and our wives are our better halves.  Missionaries strengthen everyone.

Sister Aki:  Count your miracles.  She recounted the miracles in her life that brought her to this point.  The Lord has a place for each of us.  Do what is right and endure to the end." 

We have some work to do in our next seven months.  Paul had a wonderful week working in initiatory with Elder Hoskins and President Aki.  President Aki was the patron and they were doing the whole ordinance in Cantonese.  What a great feeling.

We have had rain on and off all week.  It calls for 60% chance of showers so we have our umbrella with us all the time.  Never know when you walk out if you are going to get dumped on or not.

Monday Sister Victor and I took the train to Shenzhen.  We had fun walking around the great and spacious building even though every time we turned around someone wanted to take us to their shop and show us all the great stuff they had.  I picked out four pearl bracelets and can't remember what she got.  We had lunch at McDonald's, always a safe place.  We got back in plenty of time for FHE at the Hoskins where we had a haystack dinner and watermelon and watched "The Stone Cutter".  

Mar Jean & Sister Victor at the train station.  We spent a fun day together in Shenzhen.

This week the Brothers have had several new young men come to serve in the temple before their mission.  They have the opportunity to train them.  Some are there for a few weeks and some a few months.  It is such a great opportunity for them to come to love the Temple before going out and teaching.  President Aki wants them to have a strong testimony of the temple so they can testify of it to their investigators.  

On the Sisters side we have also had several new ordinance workers and some young women who are also leaving on missions and a few who have just returned.  They all love to serve in the temple. 

Friday Paul and I headed out for Shenzhen for the day.  We left about 9 and it takes about an hour on the train.  We got through the borders just fine using our HK resident card.  Didn't have to wait in any long lines, just had to put our card in and then our thumb print.  

We were again attacked by people wanting to know if we wanted handbags, wristwatches, shoes.  

Instead we found a shop where we bought some headphones and another one where we bought a keyboard for the mini ipad.  Of course we had lunch in our favorite place.  We were also trying to get rid of all our China money.  

McDonald in Shenzhen

Saturday we were both able to serve in the bapatistry and Velma Labboa, our friend, was there.  Paul got to be the baptizer.  It was also the third week and the Victoria 2 Branch comes every afternoon after their Church to do baptisms.  Elder Woolley and Walker and their wives come to help the girls.   It is a really special opportunity to serve.  The Woolleys go home next month.  The Walkers will be alone for a month until the new couple arrive in September.  These two couples are in charge of the every day Branch.  They have Church Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri, and Saturday.  Their off days are Sunday and Monday.  They work really hard and are in charge of about 350 Filipino sisters who work as domestic helpers here in Hong Kong.  

Sunday we ran into Brother Paul from the Distribution Center.  He is the manager and we see him quite often.  His family attend the Chinese Branch but we meet in the same building.  He has a lovely family.  

Paul works at the Distribution Center as Manager and this is his family.  .

I helped with the program for Sunday.  Kristy Anne had some other things she needed to do.  I found at least two errors after they were all printed.  I went upstairs to see who was there and these girls were busy going through their bags.  The Church has been a storage area for them.  The door you see goes into a storage room and it is filled with the girls things.  They were told they would have to remove them before the fire marshall came for a visit.  BemBem is always ready for a picture.

Bem Bem loving her picture taken.

Yuli, new convert from Indonesia and Sister Lewis

Girls cleaning out the storage area.  Venim, Delsa, Nova, Bem Bem, Ramia

Every Sunday the Branch missionaries go out to the mall areas and try to find sisters to invite to Church.  They do a great job and we get our baptisms from these finds.  Here are two girls they found this Sunday who wanted to come and join us.

New Investigators and Nova, Branch Mission Leader.

These girls are three recent converts.  Yuli, in the middle is from Indonesia and Ramia was just baptized last week and confirmed today.

Venim, Yuli, Ramia, (confirmed today)

Elder Victor is the YM President.  Sister Victor is the Primary President.  They are wonderful as you can tell from his smile.

Yuli, convert from Indonesia and Elder Victor

It was our turn to clean the church so Paul and I took care of that.  We decided next week we needed to get all the members of our team involved.  Paul gave a wonderful lesson in SS on missionary work. The Lord certainly expects a lot from each one of us.  In Sacrament meeting, Brother Andersen, District Council, spoke on missionary work.  He gave us some suggestions.  Pray specifically for the missionaries in your Ward by name.  Ask the Lord for missionary opportunities and then be willing to take advantage of them otherwise He will not give you more.  Speak to people and share your testimony of the happiness the gospel brings into our lives.  

We will end this blog with some of Elder Cook's message to new Mission Presidents.  

Elder Cook said missionary work has its greatest effect as people make and keep the commitment to stay active in the Church all the days of their lives. “It is not enough for people to simply come into the Church. They must come to stay. All of your teaching and invitations must be directed toward this end.”   May we all be great missionaries.