10/26 Transfers!

My first district in the Yuen Long area. 

Got some good news for everyone!!! Transfers!!!! So here it is, I am in the Tung Chung area which is all of Lantau Island (where Disneyland is) with..... ELDER JENSEN! From the MTC! So there it is. We are in an enormous apartment, and the other Elders are Elder Dale from England (Elder Jensen's trainer, he has been in the area for 8 months now) and his new trainee Elder Arnett from Washington! Tons of white people, which is horrifying, they scare me now (I saw like one or two a week in Yuen Long and they never liked us missionaries). So baptism by fire time. Neither of us got to finish training, so it's tough, but that's just the way I like it. Wuhseung hohkjaahp. The new area is awesome, surrounded by mountains and then the airport, is out on the water, a little ways away. Its great. Elder Dale and Elder Jensen have put a lot of hard work into the area. Really changed my view on the work. Back in the New Territories, we did a ton of tracting, which is definitely not the most effective, it's not fun, and there's just a better way! So we have been doing that! It has opened my eyes, there's a better way to do the work. So we work. Me and Elder Jensen have several investigators and LA's we are working with (one is a sweet old lady who has a SUPER heavy mandarin accent which is a kick) and they are awesome!! We are just doing the best we can. Learning fast. Had some miracles already and I am just so grateful for this answer to my prayers. Great opportunity to push myself. We as individuals, and especially myself, often find ourselves in a situation of complacency and not pushing ourselves to be the individual God needs. Internally checking ourselves to see if we are moving up or down. It's one or the other.

Can't believe I'm done with my first transfer and am no longer the youngest in the mission. As well, started ponderizing after the general conference talk and the good example of my family. Life is happier then ever.

Love and miss you all!

-- 

Love,

   Elder Sargent

10/19 End of first transfer

Well ladies and gentlemen, sad to say it but my first transfer is up. And I don't know where I am headed. We just know there will be 23 new elders here tomorrow and Elder G will be training one of them. We got the call from President Lam today. Not sure who my step trainer will be ( I still have 3 weeks of training), but I will find out tomorrow!! All is awesome in the land of Yuen Long! Today and last monday, after emails, we went hiking, one as the Elders in my district on a pretty hike that felt like the mountains back home (I was just ready for a big buck to stand up, but no cigar) and today on a longer hike with a guy named J. Met him on the bus the other day and I told him we like to hike and to please call us if he wanted to hike today! And he did! haha said he doesn't want to be our "customer" and come to our church, but he is a great friend. Maybe we can slowly work on him. It was so nice to get out and hike. If you know me much you'll know I LOVE the mountains, they are and always will be my home. It was good to relieve some stress, we haven't really had time to do anything on p-day for over a month, so it was awesome. Had some good weather. Weather is still warm and humid, but it is supposed to slowly drop, as well it is now suit season which means we wear suits when we can! I love it. The mission is awesome. Learning so much and I love serving these people. Sunday had me in near tears (ok I shed a few) the whole meeting. It was the primary program and they sang the same songs I have grown up hearing and the young kids reminded me so much of Ted and Kate and all the other young cousins. The spirit was so strong and so sweet. It was an amazing experience. Miss you all. Had an interesting experience the other day. As well on Sunday we finally got to sit down with Sis. L and her son L (well he didn't sit, kinda just ran around). She really told us how it all is and why she has come to church twice now. She wants her son to be raised with the right morals and have happiness, she wants a tight family, and to do that she also doesn't know what to do with her husband A-B. She confessed to just crying sometimes in the morning. She has to work sometimes, and her husband gets up at 7 to be to work at 9 and gets off at 6, comes home and basically plays video games all night, and doesn't go to bed till like 3. The poor woman pored her whole heart out and Elder G and I just listened. It was amazing, and made me wonder how much I give time to things that aren't bringing joy to those around me. I will be honest, at first I was a little frustrated, this guy is playing video games over being with his wife. I despise video games. Feeling this un-Christlike attribute pouring out of my heart I tried to turn to my self to wonder how much I did this same thing I was frustrated about. It wasn't video games, but it was other things. Things I was doing by myself or with others that drags us away. The family is the most important aspect of this life, this plan and who we are and will become. Do we ever forget that? It has made me ponder who I will become and what I will change NOW to become that person.

Love and miss everyone! Take care and be safe on the mountain this time of year!

Love, Elder Sargent

10/12 GENERAL CONFERENCE

Haha does my neck look beefy in that picture or what! My jeans are tight, today's the first time I have worn them in over a month. I think I peaked though. Should be no problem. haha How is the fine October weather? These past two days have been a dream come true. Saturday dropped around 15 degrees just for conference and has been AMAZING. I have been nigh unto tears with the weather and the spiritual feast I have had. General Conference was so great. My testimony of many things was strengthened, but above all, I know that God calls prophets and apostles. I know that our three new apostles are ordained of God and will serve with all their heart, might, mind and strength to further this work unto the salvation of souls. I loved so many of their talks, "Straighten up and fly right." "Ponderize" and other such bits and pieces of spiritually uplifting words. I loved the talk at the end of the Sunday afternoon session (I don't have my study notebook on me right now, I forgot it) that talked about the mud hole and trying to go home. I loved that not only because I can relate so much but because of the deeper meaning behind it! We all leave home every day. We wake up and practice, Grandma Becky put it pretty good in her letter to me today, we practice everyday being mortal men and women. We leave the sanctity of our homes, never intending to do wrong or to get dirty, often really not knowing what is to happen at all. But we mess  up and we get dirty. And we can't go home with a peace of mind. We get covered in mud and (as I imagined my mother and both my grandma's and my short stout great grandmothers) barring the doors like the sons of Helaman. haha It brought it home to me. The temple is our home. It is the Lord's house and we never leave intending to get dirty, but things happen and then we do. And it is uncomfortable getting clean again (been there, when it's freezing and dads saying of 'you get wet you get cold' takes a whole new meaning standing under the freezing hose) but as well spiritually. But its worth it. Inside its warm. We have a cedar log on the fire, mom is reading and dad is cooking cider. That is the joy. Our Father in Heaven gives us eternal joy. That is the light and the end of the tunnel. Thats our goal. 'Take a super bright flashlight while you're at it' if we want to draw from another talk. Elder Sargent is well and working hard! One more week until transfers? What?  Here in Hong Kong they are every nine weeks.

Enjoy the weather!-- 
Love,
Elder Sargent

10/5 The TYPHOON

Birthday Boy!

Well folks, Elder Sargent reporting here. It has been a wild ride the past few days. Had a typhoon roll through and it hasn't stopped raining for days. Wind and such. Walked to church on Sunday and thought I was swimming. It was so windy our umbrellas were useless. Go figure church is like 2 miles away. haha It has pretty much wrecked our week. We have had almost no lessons and no investigators came to church, which I definitely understand. They may have blown away, who knows. So it has been a hard week. Trying to feel like I am doing something worthwhile and accomplishing a purpose. Chan Shu On got confirmed on yesterday, and we are headed back to the mission home again today to turn in his paperwork. As well helped an Elder in the ward move in the typhoon today which was super chaam, but interesting. 

I have been loving it out here! So happy to hear about the new Apostles and conference! I don't get to listen till this weekend, because they need to traslate it into cantonese, but I am SO excited!!! I haven't been to church on Sunday and completely understood whats going on for 2 months! I have never looked forward to hearing the prophets words as much as I have right now. I am so excitily to be spiritually fed. Which leads me to another point, the language! It is coming. It is so hard, but it is coming. I feel similar to times before, in that I feel I have been blessed beyond what I ever deserved. I can get around pretty good now. I don't know completely whats going on, but I get the jist and its coming. Thats all I ask and thats all the Lord can do. Humbling myself to the point of realizing the Lord isn't just going to through down and give it to me, I must learn. I am also in the point where I don't know great cantonese, and I am forgetting english and using chinese grammar. so basically im in the gray area of not really knowing anything. Its intersting. 

Last Friday we had a zone training at which point we watched a clip of Ephriams Rescue, which was so nostalgic haha watching all the horsemen. But it hit me hard as I continued to ponder it. The point we watched was when Brigham Young calls upon a group of men to save the dying saints. Several men in the group say they can be ready in a few days and even some in a few hours. Ephraim Hanks, one of my ancestors, humbly raises his hand as says to Brigham Young, another ancestor, "I am ready to go right now." Those words struck me. He was just willing, he was was ready. He was a pre-sanctified individual dedicated to doing the Lords will. That ought to be me. At that point I became almost emotional as I thought of my own father, uncles, and grandpa throwing down all they had to go search on horseback, in the rain for one of our dear friends. They were pre-sanctified. I think of my other grandparents who gave up what they had and sold their home to heed the call of the prophets and serve as mission presidents. My Nana served her last three years of healthy mortal life there. They are pre-sanctified. My other ancestors who have heeded countless calls from the church and from else where to serve their country and our Lord. Crossing plains and giving lives for freedom. That blood runs through my veins. My parents giving what they have and all they have, at all times for the good of others and our family. They are pre-sanctified. That blood fills my veins and pushes me throughout EVERY day. Where does this pre-sanctification come from? My dad wrote me today an inspired email having to do exactly with my thoughts. He brought up our motto, "We never give up we never give in....and always remember who you are and where you came from." I remember where I came from and all of us have many stories similar to what I have shared. I believe it was Elder Bednar who said that we as Latter Day Saints in this era must stop dwelling on what our ancestors have done as our own. We can talk about that all day. What are you going to do that will be worth talking about he posed. Who am I going to help. I wish to be like Ephraim and the Nephi of old. "Here I am, Send me." I am ready right now. I wish to sanctify myself so when that moment comes, and it will, that the Lord asks of us our all, we are willing to give it to him. Not in a few days or a few ours, the Lord needs now. I wish to be that individual. I invite those who read to do the same. Live our lives in such a manner that we are ready to go when the Lord needs us. Willing is just not good enough.

I love everyone! Thanks for being the people you are! 

Love, Elder Sargent