I have to apologize. The last few weeks my emails have been weak sauce. But hey, it just means I'm loving where I'm at and loving the work SO much. You can look at it as a good thing :) But I'll try to write more from this week because it's been an AWESOME one!
But first of all.... I feel like a DUMMY because I haven't written you about this yet! So this year marks 65 years of the church in Hong Kong. Every stake, every ward, everyone is making new goals and celebrating somehow. President Hawks felt like our mission should do the same, so he received revelation to make a new goal for the mission:
65 IN JULY!!
65 whats, you might ask? 65 baptisms. Want to know how many baptisms we got in February? 19. Want to know how many of us think we can make this goal? ALL of us :) It really was cool to hear about it and think, wow, this is going to take a lot of faith. I've never been part of something like this. It takes great faith to put a specific number on baptisms in the future. But all of our faith, combined, makes this great goal possible. It's like this quote from President Packer:
"There are two kinds of faith. One of them functions ordinarily in the life of every soul. It is the kind of faith born by experience; it gives us certainty that a new day will dawn, that spring will come, that growth will take place...
There is another kind of faith, rare indeed. This is the kind of faith that causes things to happen. It is the kind of faith that is worthy and prepared and unyielding, and it calls forth things that otherwise would not be. It is the kind of faith that moves people. It is the kind of faith that sometimes moves things... It comes by gradual growth. It is a marvelous, even a transcendent power, a power as real and as invisible as electricity. Directed and channeled, it as great effect."
Isn't that cool?! We're using the second, rarer, kind of faith to put into action the desires of our hearts. I've never been a part of something so incredible and so.... life-changing, to be completely honest. It's changed the way I've thought about EVERYTHING. President Hawks told us, "If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got." Well, I don't want to get what I always got. I want to become NEW, changed, shaped, yielding to the Lord's will, worthy to wear His name and baptize all of Hong Kong :) Faith is incredible and real and powerful.
Props to faith....
We met with Mrs. Cheui (it feels weird to call her Mrs. Cheui because "mrs" in canto is "tai", so I'm gonna call her Cheui Tai from now on, okay?) this past week -- she's not listening to anything her friends say :) AND she accepted a baptismal date. TAKE THAT, ANTI!!!!
We saw a LA, Sister Yu, and her daughter Christy on Saturday. We taught them about the Atonement and the importance of the sacrament. It was a really good, powerful lesson that reminded me too, why we go to church. Anyway, Christy the whole time was sitting there with her headphones in. We thought she wasn't listening at all. At the end, we asked her to say the closing prayer. She said an incredible prayer :) in her prayer, she promised Heavenly Father that she and her mom would come to church on Sunday. And then they came :) Ah, just writing about it makes me smile. They haven't been to church in a long, long time.
Our apartment flooded. Yep, flooded. Like an inch and a half of water ALL OVER the floor. Under the beds (where our suitcases are stored), everywhere. We were just sitting there in personal study one morning when Sister Aguilar screamed. Yep, water, flooding in. The washer broke. So luckily (i mean, because of faith)... nothing got ruined! :) Yay for faith.
ALSO! I ate squid at a church activity! This is how I felt about it:
Everyone was laughing at me so hard. But that stuff was SICK NASTY.
I love you all! Keep smiling! Have a wonderful week! :)
Love,
Shay
Gwok
xoxoxxoxo
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