Date: Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 1:15 AM
It's been another great week. Elder Chang and I are still adjusting to the huge commute from Tung Chung to Wan Chai every day, but God has put us there for a reason. It's interesting and not by coincidence to me that we're living out there at this time, however. The rent is going up so there's a 90% chance we'll be moving apartments in the next couple of weeks, but I believe God put us there to adjust for a few weeks because there are many people there who are prepared to hear the gospel.
Like I believe I mentioned last week, Elder Chang and I have set very specific and measurable goals in order to draw on the powers of heaven to find, teach and baptize families. We have our number, we have fixed our desire in sincere and heartfelt prayer, and we have set with the Lord the simple things we are willing sacrifice in order to show Him our willingness to achieve these desires. Last week we fasted together about these things and specifically inquired of the Lord to help us find a family to teach. That night we met a young family on the street and got their address and phone number. Yesterday we finally got in contact again by knocking on their door, and they asked us to return tonight. On top of this, 2 days ago we were finding for 6 hours in a beach town called Mui Wo, which Elder Chang and I love because it literally feels like an asian pirate town. One night when we were walking by the local school there a rapscallious group of little kids were running around on the rooftops of the school and yelling out their triumphant battle cries to us. Anyway, we didn't have much success until the last five minutes of our 6 hour find, when we bumped into an American man married to a Philippina woman and their two little kids. I found it slightly ironic that the American was the one professing to be the devout Catholic, but his wife, Rea, said that she'd been baptized into our church in 2004. She said she'd recently met a member from Discovery Bay Branch and they seemed willing to have us over to share the gospel. THEN we met a less active from Canada named Peter who has a great testimony of prayer. He lives with his Japanese girlfriend, but they're preparing to settle down together, and his girlfriend asked him just a couple months ago if she could pray with him. He said she wouldn't mind having us over for dinner this coming week. THEN Brother Cruz, who lives with his less active family in Mui Wo, is the Vice President over the Filipeno community in Mui Wo. He loves having the missionaries over, and he invited us to attend a inter-faith Bible group a few nights ago to meet other filipeno family friends, which we did, and we were received warmly. He's like a King Lamoni--- get that guy back to church and you've got a whole community of filipenos who'd open their hearts to hear us.
.... take a breath. Does Heavenly Father hear our prayers? Does He honor our agency in the desires that we seek? Do our prayers of faith, our obedience, and our consistency in our righteous desires warrant the blessings God wants to bestow upon us? I've been with Elder Chang for less than two weeks. We ask Him every day to find families. I've asked Him my whole mission. Take the evidence, and decide for yourself, but it is my testimony that Heavenly Father is a lot more anxious to help us than we often are to be helped. Prayer works.
Words can only tell stories that are forgotten through time, but I wish I could look into each one of your eyes as I share these things that the Lord has taught me, with a prayer in my heart that you could feel that I know that Heavenly Father lives and that the work of salvation is real. I wish I could do more than type out stories to all of you, but I pray that they can bring a greater feeling of excitement in your lives to know that there is meaning to life, that we don't have to be acted upon by the world and the snares of the devil, and that we really are sons and daughters of a loving and divine Creator. I know for myself that these things are true, and every one of us has the right to ask the Source of truth for ourselves.
Let us build the Kingdom together. The Lord needs every one of you.
Elder Hazen
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