August 31, 2015: Miracles

This week has been amazing. WHen Elder Ballard came, he encouraged every leadership companionship to have a thriving area tp set a good example for everyone else. We were a little unsure of how that was going to work, because at the beginning of this past week, we literally had no investigators. Our work with less actives and recent converts has been well, but investigators have been less than what they should be. We prayed long and hard for the miracles, and they came!

Brother Chan is doing amazing. Every time we see him we hand him a stack of flyers and pamphlets. By the time we see him again the next week, he asks for more. It's crazy. The man is a flyer-giving-out machine. He just loves to share the gospel with the whole world and I think it is awesome.

We miraculously got a hold of a less active sister that we'e been trying to contact for a long time. Thank goodness! We saw Lee Wing Yan twice last week, and though she isn't quite ready to come back to church yet, she is willing to meet with us, which is the first step. She's super cute and the young women are really willing to help us visit with her.

Kenson (LA) is doing okay, but we decided he's a little hard to fellowship with. He is a little immature sometimes and just makes dumb comments during the most spiritual moments of our lessons. It's a little frustrating, but we will just have patience and deal with it. Someday he'll learn that he wants that feeling all the time.

Sister Chan (LA) is doing well. We were able to visit her in her home and even meet her daughter who is very nice- just no interest in the gospel. We are so blessed to be able to visit their home. There is no better place to teach than in the home, for sure!

(RC) Ding Ding is also doing okay. She came to church this week after a couple of weeks of not coming, so that was a blessing. We love to work with Ding Ding. We just finished teaching her after baptismal lessons, and now plan to work with her visiting teachers to keep helping her prepare to go to the temple.

Joe (LA) is also doing well. He even came to part of church yesterday- something he hasn't done in a long, long time!

So our miracle investigators right now are 3! Ivy, Sumi, and Kelvin. WE also have a newish invetigator named John, but we aren't really sure how big his interest really is. We need to see him again and decide if he's really commited to learning the gospel.

Ivy is a former investigator that we saw last week and then called up and scheduled. We made Mexican food with her and the relief society president, and then we taught her about prayer. We aren't sure how great or big her gospel interest is right now, but she is really willing to meet new people and have new experiences, so I think she'll be willing to continue to meet with us. She starts school this week though so she's a bit busy.

Sumi is also a former- her whole family is actually. They don't have much interest but she wants to be baptized. The only problem is she's only 13 and still very influenced by her parents. We want to help her gain her own testimony and be able to start coming to church on her own. She is so cute and though it may be slow, I think she'll make good progress.

The last is Kelvin. The Mandarin elders contacted him on the street last week and we went to take him on a church tour. This week we've taught him twice. He's doing really well. Right off the bat he asked about the word of wisdom (has heard that we don't drink coffee) and asked about working on Sunday. After we briefly explained that yes, we don't drink coffee or work on Sundays he said "Okay. I'll work on changing my schedule to get Sundays off. And I'll quit coffee." That is a MIRACLE because we haven't taught either of those commandments yet. Our second lesson was so spiritual and he agreed to prepare for baptism on November 1st. We personally believe it can happen faster, but we will start there.

The Lord truly provides for you when you're doing your best to be obedient and follow his commandments. I know without a doubt that if you truly ptu forth your effort, the Lord will provide for the rest. We did our best to quickly prepare our trainings for zone meeting. Though they weren't perfect, our zone members learned from them and the spirit helped teach the rest of the lessons. I'm truly so grateful for the support the Lord has given me in all that I do here in Hong Kong! It truly is a miracle every day to see the Lord's hand in this wonderful work of salvation.

Thanks everyone for your prayers! I love you all! (:
Sister Crook

P.S.
(In reference to the family's new bunny and mom's email): What the heck. I can't believe you bought them a bunny! I agonized nearly 16 years over wanting a puppy, and they just go to a fair and bring home a bunny. what the heck. haha. that is so random. you, a bunny lover? is Paige gonna spin woll our of their fur? haha. looks like a cute bunny.