Week 1 in Chai Wan

Hello!

 

So the first week has gone by in Chai Wan, and I am actually really pleased with it.

We started off the last few days last week by doing a lot of planning and stuff like that. We didnt have too much time to go out and do actually missionary work, because we live by our chapel which is actually pretty far from our area. So that makes things difficult sometimes because we have to fight time as well as try to convince people to spend a while coming to church when there are Christian churches a 2 minute walk from their apartments. But actually, things worked out pretty well. We were able to find some new investigators and teach some lessons. 

But I have learned a lot about faith in regards to missionary work. I think that the dead areas are only dead because the missionaries don't have faith and believe that they can be really good areas. I have seen it over and over again, and it is so far happening right now in our area.

Then on Sunday we had church. Wow! The ward really is small. The correlator was really excited when I had called him on the phone and told him that we were a new companionship. He was confused and asked why in the world Chai Wan now had 2 Elders companionships, and I just told him because the Lord said so. He started talking about something that he had an idea for. He tried saying Nativity in English and I finished it for him. Then he paused on the phone and said in Chinese, "Wait, where are you from." Haha he thought I was from Hong Kong the whole time, which made him even more excited considering that the week before he told the whole ward in sacrament meeting that white missionaries aren't as good because they cant communicate well.

So anyways, he called the bishop and asked him to cancel one of the talks on Sunday so that I could talk instead. Haha it was kind of weird, but they did it and so I knew I would have to make a good impression on the ward.

At first, they were kind of confused and not too thrilled about having multiple companionships in Chai Wan, but then in sacrament meeting I think I got them kind of excited. I talked about how God has told our mission president to put another companionship in Chai Wan because the people are ready. I talked about service, I told the story of the ten lepers and then talked about how gratitude is one of the reasons I am serving my mission, then I read them a scripture that basically says in our wards to fast and pray for the people who have not had a chance to meet the gospel in that area. I put some Chinese idioms in and the ward loved it. Afterwards, we had members coming up to us and telling us to call them to help us, we also had some people tell us that they want us to start teaching their families and friends.

I dont really think I did anything that great, but I hope that the spirit was able to touch them and that they will continue to be excited about missionary work.

 

That night, the Elders Quorom President invited us over to his house with his family and some of the people in his quorom. It was a really good opportunity to get to know them, and a lot of good has come with it. He has been bringing his nephew to church for a few weeks, but he said that he wants us to teach him and get him baptized. 

 

Then this week has been good so far as well. Tonight we are going to play soccer with some of the YSA and their non-member friends that they want to introduce to us. Things like this rarely happen in Hong Kong because people are worried about their friends not liking them or their images being ruined. So it's really good to see some serious immediate improvement with the excitement of the ward.

We also have had a lot of success lately with finding new investigators. We have already found a few families that really have all been huge miracles, and we have a lot of success that I am really excited to see build and grow as we continue to work hard.

 

I guess my overall message this week is just that sometimes things look hard or even impossible, but with faith nothing is impossible. There is a Chinese saying (idk if it is also in English or not) but it basically means, "true gold does not fear fire" I think that it can have different applications, but I think that a lot of times in missionary work we see things as getting in the way and stopping us. But nothing can stop it. It is missionary work for God, the most powerful being ever! If we were doing it for some other church, I would worry more about these roadblocks, because they could stop us from doing what we need. But we have nothing to worry about because as long as we have faith and recognize that the most powerful being in the universe is on our side, I dont think we have to fear anything.

 

I think that's really all I have to say about this week. I am really happy about how things have gone so far.

 

Love you all!!

 

Love, Jordan