Brother Chan is still doing well. We finished teaching his lessons and tonight plan to do a practice interview with him to prepare him for an interview later in the week and a baptism next week. He drives a taxi for work and talks to almost everyone that gets into his taxi about how the gospel is amazing and has changed his life. He mentioned that once, a while ago, in a lesson. Well, he showed up to church yesterday with a guy who's probably a third his age (Mr. Chan is 69, this guy was like... maybe 30. if even.) He told us that this kid got in his taxi and was interested in hearing the gospel. Talk about awesome referral! He lives in Ngau Tau Kok's area though, so we got his information and scheduled a turnover for this coming week. Mr. Chan has the most amazing desire to share how the gospel has changed his life. It is really the coolest thing ever. He is so excited to be baptized, even though he knows he still has so much to learn in the church.
Elizabeth is doing well as well. We really struggled to keep her focused long enough to teach her the first lesson (took us fourish times of meeting her before we could teach it all) and we were really stumped at what to do. We realized we can't drop her if we haven't even told her about baptism yet. So we had a whole lesson just on baptism. Elizabeth really wants to join the church and said she'd be willing to be baptized to do so- but she feels a little guilty because her daily scripture reading has been kind of bad. She said she wants to understand more first, and then she'll be ready. We agree completely- she has a LOT to learn before she'll be ready. But we talked about the sacredness of the opportunity to be baptized and invited her to prepare for October 25th. She said she can't 100% promise us that she will absolutely be baptized on that date, but said for now she's willing to work toward that date as a goal. That is HUGE progress for her. She's a little older and has some memory problems (and she's a little...she has some attention problems) but it's okay. She knows the basics: that God loves her and that if she wants to know the truth and really feel it, she has to read the Book of Mormon. I think it'll be a slow process, but we're going to keep working with her for now.
We met with our LA Kacey this week, after about a month of not being able to contact her at all. Turns out she's been working on an art portfolio (she's very talented) and just finished this week. After we saw her she said she's willing to work to coming back to church. She passed her 1 year- RC mark this week and is now no longer a recent convert- just less active. But she has the desire to come back to church and we're going to get her there. Our member pushed having her get her patriarchal blessing a little too hard in that lesson (Kacey doesn't feel prepared yet) but I think it's a good idea, if we can help her understand a little more about what it is and how to prepare for it. I think if she has real intent, she'll progress really quickly.
We met with Kenson, another less active. The elders had long lost track of him before they closed the area, so it was a miracle that we could meet with him. We had a pretty good discussion about faith in Jesus Christ. He committed to come to church but he didn't show up yesterday and we don't really know why. So we'll get ahold of him again and figure out what is going on.
After English class we taught two younger girls, Chloe and Sum Yin. Chloe was a random number we just called that was in our phone from ages ago and we suspect she is a former but aren't really sure. She came to two hours of church yesterday though and though she was overwhelmed by how many people greeted her and invited her to do stuff (go to class with them, activities, etc) I think she'll stick around. She seemed to enjoy it. She's only 14 so we'll have to get permission from her parents to keep teaching her and help her progress towards baptism. She has a lot of really good questions, so we'll answer them bit by bit. Sum Yin's whole family are actually formers, so we hope to keep building the relationship with her as well and start teaching her family soon.
We met with Brother Kwok yesterday and were just as frustrated at the end of his lesson. He says he knows the church is true and that he wants to return to God's presence and that if he really wants that he has to be baptized. but every time we invite him, he always says "I'll think about it" or "maybe later" and won't really give us a specific answer. We're to the point now where we are considering stopping teaching him because he just doesn't progress. (I guess that's what we get for trying to pick up an eternigator, right?) Someday he'll accept the restored gospel. I know he will. I just don't know if it'll be in this life or the next.
Overall it's been a pretty good week (I mean... a pretty good few days) and we have a good week planned out with lots of lessons. Tomorrow we'll be going out to see how Cheung Chau is, since we have several less actives that live out there and missionaries haven't been out to that island in months. We're taking one of our young women and her recently returned missionary sister with us to do some finding, so it'll be good. I'm excited to see what people the Lord is preparing for us to find tomorrow.
So in English class this week we learned about body parts, and afterwards we all sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and drew bodies part by part on the white board and it was just about the funniest English class I've ever experienced. I just about peed my pants for like an hour straight. So funny. the pictures turned out quite special. I love English class because we always have such a wide variety for people that come. We have Lai Yi, who's like a billion years old but wants to learn English so she can communicate with her family in Canada, and then there's a lot of tiny little kids and it's just fun.
I feel like there have been several moments that I just look around and it just hits me, so overwhelmingly hard, that I live in Hong Kong. I speak Cantonese better than most of the Mainlanders that come to live here, and I know where the best place to find barbecue pork and coconut filled pineapple bread is. I know the train stations like the back of my hands and the ward members truly treat us like family. It's so amazing. Sister Chun walked into church this week with a bag of chocolate (she knows how much me and Sister Tu'Avao love chocolate) and a thing for butter masala (indian food) and spam... haha. She said "I know it's the end of the month." We are really blessed and don't ever have to worry about money because we live in our area, but some missionaries spend up to $500-800 in traveling because they don't, so by the end of the month they're tight on money. But we're good. Then at the end of sacrament the sister sitting in front of us turned around and said "Would you like a cheesecake?" (in english.) us: "huh? umm....... sure?" Yeah, she went home yesterday and baked us a homemade cheesecake. We ate some of it for breakfast today- TO DIE FOR. except there's no crust. just cheesecake in a pan. but it's dang good. We're so blessed! I love this ward.
Well. That's enough rambling for today. Love you all so much! Thanks for the love and support and the prayers. (:
-Love,
Kuk Jimuih
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