Sister BriAnna Crook in Hong Kong: December 8, 2014: Exact Obedience

*PHOTOS COMING SOON

I know I say this every week, but miracles are real. Also, exact obedience BRINGS BLESSINGS. I mean, I haven't had a problem being obedient. Really. It's not hard to follow the rules. But this week we encountered a challenge and were insanely blessed for it.

Monday we visited a less active. It was her birthday and she invited us (being Sister Cook and I on exchanges) to dinner. We prepared a short lesson about how God loves her (since it's her birthday, why not make her feel special!) and wow. We got there, and there were probably 15 people there... yep, wasn't planning to teach that many. Me and Sister Cook had to adapt our lesson plan really fast, but we were still able to share our message, even though it felt like half the ward was there watching us struggle with Cantonese. No worries though. It was fun and I like the challenge of having to adapt lessons like that every once in a while.

Tuesday we did a turnover lesson with a lady who walked into our open house last week! She's from Mainland and understands Cantonese but we can't really understand her, so we sent her to the Mandarin speaking sisters. She has some major interest in the Church's new self reliance program, so I'm excited to see how she progresses.

Wednesday we visited a less active, Sister Cheung, who is afraid to come back to church because people will judge her. We brought a fellowshipper with us that hadn't met her before, and it was...interesting. Bless her heart, sweet Sister Law went off about how if you don't take the sacrament, you're going to go to a "place you don't want to go", as she put it. Sometimes, you just can't control what the members say... it's funny. Sister Cheung is close to the relief society president, so I know she'll come back when she's ready. We'll just keep working with her. She's really sweet and is starting to read and pray more often! We did a lot of finding on Wednesday and literally ran into this grandma on the street. Like, we were walking and she walked right into us. We started talking and she invited us up to her house to teach her! That's a first for me.

Thursday we tried something new with Cammy- having two fellowshippers. We had one for her kids and one for her, and then we split up. I taught Cammy and Sister Lubeck taught the kids. We were in the same room teaching the same thing (1 Nephi 1) but it was really good because Cammy didn't have to worry about her kids being naughty. I think it helped her, because now she understands the scriptures a little better. Maybe she'll be more willing to read them. Our biggest problem with her right now is she doesn't keep the Sabbath Day Holy- she ends up going to yam chah with her mom. I think it's more of a "wanting to respect her mom" thing than not wanting to keep the commandments, but we're sort of at a loss of what to do. Thursday night we also had a miracle- Mrs. Wan, a newish investigator, actually called us and scheduled to meet with us! Very rarely does that happen, so that was really cool. She hasn't ever felt the spirit so she's struggling with that, but we're going to work through it.

Friday was crazy. After an amazing zone conference we taught English class and then did splits. I taught Cammy and her kids really simply about prayer and the Godhead, and Sister Lubeck went out to meet Janda while I waited with my temporary companion for Kelly to come for her baptismal interview. We need to keep working with her as there are some things that she doesn't fully understand, but she's doing really well. For being only 14, I am impressed with her faith. When I was 14 I went to church because my mom told me to- not because I really wanted to or understood why. Now that I do though, I'm thankful she was there to push me. Kelly doesn't really have that support system though, so we're trying to get her to know more members so she can. We taught Janda the rest of the commandments and she's excited to start keeping them. She still doesn't know about her baptismal date though since this month is really, really busy. But we're praying for a miracle!

Saturday we taught Tung Pohpo again. She and her husband are really catholic and it's hard because I understand nothing about the Catholic religion to be able to know how to help her... but we're working on it. We'll work with them together and just teach really simply. Both of them are so nice though, and very willing to let us visit them in their home- what a blessing. Cammy came to our relief society activity but none of the members really included her, so that was pretty sad... she's so cute. We also taught our less active Sister Tsang. She just LOVES the scriptures, so I'm really excited about that. We also had the opportunity to visit Sister Chan, another less active. She really doesn't want to come back to church (we're not sure why) but she likes having the missionaries reteach her the lessons.

Sunday we taught a less active with the saddest story. She's almost 70 now and hasn't been to church in a long long time because her son is disabled. Turns out when he was 7 years old, he and his older sisters were at a primary activity at a pool and there was some sort of accident that made him disabled like he is now, and his sisters blame the church. They're all inactive now. Sister Yeung still has a strong belief in God and Jesus Christ though and loves to have us visit her. We're going to reteach lessons and hopefully find a way for her to be more involved in the ward. That evening we had a less active and former investigator teach us how to make sushi- then we shared a message about God's love for us. So cool!

So my obedience miracle: Missionaries have the rule to not eat hotpot. No worries. Until now, I've never encountered it. We scheduled to eat with a member this week, and when we showed up to her house there was a boiling pot of vegetables on the table. We figured it'd be alright if it was just vegetables. But when she pulled out the raw meat and told us there was meat in the soup as well, we immediately knew it wasn't okay to eat. She's super smart cooking wise and her food is always always delicious, so we weren't expecting hotpot. We shared our message first (thankfully!) and tried to leave before she fed us. Long story short, we kept denying and explained that it's a mission rule that we can't eat hotpot. She assured us the meat was cooked all the way through and we won't get sick. After about five minutes of useless denying, we were frustrated because she wouldn't respect mission rules. We literally just walked out. Of course, we were polite about it. But we left. On the way home, our investigator that we haven't seen or been able to contact in about two months came up behind us and stopped us- said she wanted to reschedule us. WOW. God blesses obedient missionaries! I love obedience!
Miracles are real. Bring on 65 in December!!!