Something that we have seen a lot which is pretty cool are the dragon costumes. They usually have 2 or more people inside and a few people following them and playing Chinese drum things. They go to random stores and do an acrobat act. Usually they will jump on each others shoulders and do different things, or dance or something. Then they will go inside the store or business and the dragon will throw up all of this lettuce and vegetables. I am not sure why or how they do it, but it is pretty interesting. Then the business owners sweep it all outside and one guy I saw was pretty annoyed, but they all just let the dragons do it. Some of the dragons will be on stilts and they will jump on and off of them. It is really cool.
Things have been going pretty well this week as far as missionary work goes. We have been able to find some new investigators and we are trying to help an investigator who comes to church every week, follows all the commandments, reads, etc... to be baptized. He says he feels the Holy Ghost, but he wants an answer that lets him know God exists, because he always hears everyone talk about how they KNOW these things are true and how they KNOW God is there. So I have just been talking to him a lot about faith. The more I have learned about faith through this, the more amazing it is to me. But I ran into a roadblock while trying to talk about Faith, Hope, and Works and how they are related. The reason why is because in Chinese the way you say hope is Hei Mohng. But it doesnt actually mean hope, it means to wish for something. For example, if I wanted to say God wishes to communicate with us, I would use it and say, "Sahn heimohng tuhng ngohdeih kautung." So he didnt really quite understand what I meant and how hope was related to faith. But I think that this week or next week we can resolve his concerns and get him interviewed for baptism.
I have learned a lot this week about how important it is to show people how much we care about them. Part of that is really developing a care for the people, and doing the missionary work for them, not for personal recognition or gain of any kind.
I realized the other day that we can knock on doors in the villages in our area (It is very rare for missionaries here to ever knock doors their entire mission). So my comp and I decided to try it. The first guy I talked to told us we dont want to look for people there because everyone in that village was Baisahn (the religion where they worship their ancestors, like in mulan.). I told him that I wasnt going to leave because Baisahn people are good too and they believe families are important just like us. Then I asked about his family and just talked to him for a while. I told him about how our message could bless him and his family so much, and even his ancestors who he Baisahns to. He let us share our message and then we exchanged phone numbers.
I have had so many experiences here where just listening to people and teaching to their interests has opened up doors for them.
We have one investigator who is an older man that has met with missionaries every sunday night for 3 years just to learn English. Missionaries have had no success with him whatsoever and my companion said they wanted to drop him before I came. Everyone told me before I met him that I would need to cut him off otherwise he will go on and on and on about stories not related to our message at all.
But in the lesson when I met him I just let him talk until he tired himself out. Eventually he just talked and talked and then somehow started talking about how grateful he is for us and how he doesnt understand why we are nice enough to meet with him to help him with English. I told him its because we care about him and love the people here because they are God's children, and that we have an even better way to help him and that is through baptism. We were able to give him a baptismal date and hopefully he will start coming to church and progress towards that.
I went to the temple today and as always, it was fantastic. I am so grateful we have a temple here in Hong Kong. It is obviously my favorite temple in the world because I lived in it for 4 months, but no matter what temple you go to, the spirit felt inside is always the same. It just feels like home. Not meaning Alpine, UT, but even more so than that.
Well, I will try and send some pictures right now, but have a great week!! Cant wait to hear from you next week!
Love you all!
Love, Jordan
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