3/21 Translation and Lions Rock

Things are doing so well. Elder Da and I are loving it. Things picked up at the end of this week for sure. Have 3 really solid investigators with several others that we have been working with for a while. Should have 2 baptisms this upcoming month and another soon after. Really excited about how things are going. E is a newer investigator that is deciding a day in May. He very well could get baptized sooner, but is scared of the speed of things. He is amazing and I love him! He is 25, met the sisters in Yuen Long and they turned him over. He is already great friends with the ward and can really see what this Gospel has to give to him. As well, Mr. P is doing very well, progressing and we are starting to see a lot of progress in the area, both in investigators and member work. We are teaching Elders Quorum in two weeks and are quite excited about that. All things are really clicking together. The area is doing great and on the move to beyond that. My prayers are being answered and the Lord is blessing us so much! We are so happy. We hiked Lions Rock last week which was so fun, saw a ton of super funny monkeys. 

Thought I would add a point I don't think I have mentioned that is a hard point to get past with people. I hear of many investigators in different places getting 'antied'... I have come to appreciate our investigators more when I come to realize that most people are pre 'antied' here. A little history piece: When the Book of Mormon first came to Hong Kong, the translation was (MO)(Muhn)(Ging) three characters for a sound translation (sorry can't think how to say that word in english), but if you read the characters and its meaning, it translates to (Devil)(Door)(scripture). So most people think we are a Chehgauu! Or Cult... haha. Since then, in the 90's or so, the Church redid the name to a different character for (Mo) and added a (yi) to Moyihmuhnging. So we face a lot of opposition trying to overcome that problem. Makes me really appreciate these people. 

However, this does not get us down and we fight over this. So many are still willing to open their heart. It's a testimony that no matter what the adversary does, the Lord prevails and prepares people to hear the message.

Sorry not a lot of time today! Love you all!

Elder Sargent

3/14 Finished Language Pass-off's

Cheung Sha Wan is doing very well. This last week was tough to find people to teach. Several (3) of our less actives had number changes so haven't been able to contact them this week. As well had a couple investigators travel this week or were quite busy. So we tried to make the best of our time, found a couple good potentials and visited with a couple members. So the area feels great and has a lot of solid people, but we are working on trying to have other people moving up the line to become progressing investigators. Our largest struggle this week with investigators is getting them to come to church. Really need them to! Several have been taught almost all we have to teach and have no problems, and keep saying they will come to church, even have baptismal dates, but just don't come. Really just trying to discern what to do through the Spirit of what to do. 

My experience for the week that changed me the most was after an interesting lesson with a new investigator. He really had strong opinions about the Bible and his current church. I think my way of thinking during the lesson was not the way Christ would have done it. Just tried to prove everything, and in all reality, it was kind of just like a Bible bash. Elder Da stayed quite quiet the whole time as I was moderately frustrated that he didn't give us a chance to speak. We left and he mentioned that I looked a little frustrated. After walking a small distance, he said or more exclaimed, "Elder Sargent, we didn't testify!" I couldn't be frustrated with the investigator or anyone but myself after that. I messed up the situation, a lesson could have had a completely different outcome if I would have had the simplicity to testify. That's what Elder Stevenson talked about. Funny enough, that was the topic of our Elders Quorum lesson yesterday. Simplicity and testimony. No one can deny our simple testimony and nothing will carry the Spirit more in a situation like that. It is a lesson I won't forget for the rest of my mission. All at the hands of my trusty companion. 

Seeing miracles like crazy!!! Loving the work. On one note, I finished language pass-offs this week!! What a relief. Wow. 13 lessons and 3 memorizations. Now I can help poor Elder S administer them. They are so fun and I am actually learning so much from having other missionaries teach me. Still have to wait 2 more months to learn characters, but hey that's no big deal. 

Family, people from the 435 and 801, take every chance you can to testify. It reinforces our testimony and can change the lives of all those around us. 

I am in good health, love hearing about the good weather! We had a cool front hit us here in HK. Canto is doing better and English is doing worse.

Love you folks

Elder Sargent

3/7 Big Week

Things have been great this week! It has been an absolute crazy 7 days to say the least. Running from one thing to the next. Our investigators are progressing well, and we picked up three more younger men (20+) that all have a lot of potential and should all have baptismal dates by the end of the week. Mr. Ch, PJG, and E are their names, two came to church on Sunday. Brother PJG almost got baptized a year ago, but had problems and ended up in the hospital the same time as they white washed the area, but ran into the Mandarin sisters in our area and they gave us his number! Looks like we should have some good fun with them. Brother Chow is doing ok, we are trying to stay on our previous investigators, but several just haven't been keeping commitments and are having a hard time progressing. It's hard to know what to do. I want to keep teaching them, but there is so much to do. Our area, as far as the work, is doing amazing! Loving the people and working hard! The Sisters as well are having immense success.

MLC, meeting with President L, meeting Brother T (Stake High Councilman) , and Zone Training have kept Elder S and I very busy this week. Our poor companions have been with each other on exchange every day (however, I think it is really helping Elder C's English, and has helped Elder Da's Chinese immensely), but switching companions has been great. Elder S has been sick (puking all over), and several missionaries have needed blessings. We also administered to the Sister's investigator and her mom at the last minute last week. It has been an amazing week to see the power of the priesthood at work. 

As for the Kowloon Zone, things are looking very well! We are on track for our goal of 500 lessons, several companionship's down from the normal, and others picked it up! Should be right on. The goal of 100 new investigators is going to take some work. I was quite surprised when that was the exact total of how many our Zone thought we could do. Hopefully will be able to see some fruits of the labors in finding and CIFTing some of these new people. I enjoyed having the Celestial Tree up, it is a very condensed version of a diagram we drew up (look at the picture). I feel we sometimes cut ourselves short by just shooting for baptisms and skipping all the stuff that gets us there. Wish we could have explained our thoughts a little more clearly at the training, but nonetheless, thought it went well and had a lot of good feedback. The topic of our last zone conference. CIFT (quality Contact, Invite, Follow up, Teach) with the analogy of panning for gold and finding those that are prepared to hear the gospel. As well with an emphasis on The Celestial tree. Haha a very simplified version on a diagram I came up with of how people get to glory. Have to start at  the roots. Take a look Things are looking up, the Lord is sustaining us! 

Love you all!!!

Elder Sargent

2/29 Elder Stevenson, an apostle

spent the day with this Elder

Wan Chai - possibly one of the most expensive the church owns in Hong Kong

Burgers and fries before the meeting

long hair, until it's done up...aaahhh, that sounds feminine

Wow, times flies! I don't think I mentioned Elder Stevenson last week... He came on Monday! It was Elder Stevenson and his wife, Elder Gong (Pres. of the 70) and his wife, then the Area Presidency and their wives. They all spoke and it was great! We took a big picture with them all and then shook their hands. The picture was quite sunfu, though, haha. It was a great meeting! I learned so much.  They all spoke, with obviously the majority of the time given to Elder Stevenson. I learned so much about keeping things simple and just teaching what I need to teach: Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts. (Note: Not baptize investigators.) Elder Stevenson taught so simply and so powerfully. It really was a great meeting and it was so good to see so many of my old friends around the mission.

In other words, moves calls were interesting! We typically get them on Monday, but never even got them past District meeting on Tuesday. The Assistants said they would be late. So then we are at lunch with Peter, an investigator and I got a call from my brother Elder D (AP) and was asked to be the new Zone Leader for Kowloon! I am quite unprepared and underqualified, but it will be fun. My pal Elder S and I get to spend some more time together, but other than that Elder S is training a native who is actually going to Oregon when he gets his visa, and I am still with Elder Da. 

Elder Da and I are great! We head to the doctor tomorrow to check up on him and we will see how things go. WE are doing great together. We get along very good, and have good companionship unity. We need to be better in our record keeping, among many things, but that is what we are working on! As well as 24/7 SYL, if we can say it in Chinese, then we do. We have really seen a lot of progression in the area recently. Things are working and we hope to begin to see more work with members and other such things. The work is great.

Our investigators are doing well! We are struggling at getting them to come to church. The area is good. I am loving it. Really loving being pushed more, feeling growth in myself and our companionship. Things are really just great!!

I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK! It is the best! Take care of everyone out there. Love you all!


-- 

Love,

   Elder Sargent

2/21 Baptism by a recent convert

FAMILY NIGHT

What a week!!! Been a wonder. Had my first baptismal interview, N, who got baptized this week! She went to BYU this year as a transfer student, and is awesome! Her family is heavily against the church, so it's been rough for her, but she has so much faith. A-C, a recent convert, baptized her and did great. Elder D and I shared the Restoration at the meeting and Elder D did the whole first vision in Chinese! So proud of him. Brother C, as well, came to church and the baptism and said he wants to get baptized on Saturday! What a miracle, we talked about how he still needs to quit smoking, and he said he would. Going to be a tough week, but we talked to President and got an interview scheduled up. Going forward with faith!

This month the Zone revamped our goals after MLC the first week. WE PUSH. We doubled our baptismal goals and pushed ourselves a lot more, and the fruits of our labors are coming to pass. This is the last week of the month, and we might have 4 baptisms this week as a district and one more from the zone on Saturday to get our goal! Things are progressing rapidly.

As well, the Lord really has heard our prayers recently. We have struggled for new investigators since I got here, but last week Elder D and I set a personal goal of 6 new investigators in 2 weeks to end the transfer. We both felt impressed that way and that we could rely on the Lord to accomplish it. This week we had 3! Halfway there. Got several new people that have very good potential and two have been to church now. We are so excited. This transfer has gone by so unbelievably fast. Transfers are tomorrow. Hope I can stay. I love the area and my companion. The work is hastening! 

It was a testimony building week for sure. Had many experiences that tried our faith, and it was amazing to me to see how we can overcome these things. Relying on the Spirit. If the Spirit isn't there and it doesn't testify to me, then I am not moving. Really a strong experience to help me grow. I love you all! 

Keep up the good work! If it's work and it's not the good kind, stop and find the good kind! haha 

Ever Stalwart
--

Love,

   Elder Sargent

2/11 Happy Chinese New Year

Ward BBQ

Yam Cha for Chinese New Year with N

Yam Cha for Chinese New Year with the L's

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Things have been great! Wow, I don't know where to start. It has been too long. H and K both left for Mainland these last two weeks, which has put everything off for the both of them. The Chinese New Year has put a damper on our ability to contact our investigators, but we have managed to use time effectively! It has been so much fun. It has been a little hard seeing numbers fall the past two, three weeks, but we are working on getting them back. We had to drop a few lessons to Less Actives that our ward correlater doesn't want us to visit. So we have been working on filling time, really trying to find new investigators right now. Things have been kind of rough in that aspect recently. Have had so many so close and we are just praying and working all we can do to earn one. 

I absolutely loved Zone Training and Zone Conference. It has been a powerful week. Learned so much, as well, at our leadership conference. I just feel energized. Learned so much that I want to take back and implement into our area. For Zone Conference we finally got to watch the worldwide mission conference, which was awesome! It was also nice because we got to pause it halfway through and discuss what we had learned, Pres. L is so powerful. It was amazing. 

For those of you who don't know, which is probably most, Chinese New Year is insane. Literally. Monday through pretty much today, no shops are open, everyone goes to their home town to see family. There is music and all kinds of cultural stuff going on. It's crazy. People go around saying things like, "Healthy Body", "Dragon Horse Energy" and all the older generation just give little red envelopes of money to the younger generation, to pay for schooling and to get them started and such. Have to be super respectful, but it's cool. Went on a BBQ travel with the ward.  It was so fun to get to know these people. Our ward is great. Brother C is doing super well. Still working on quitting smoking, but we are working on it. Had a super powerful lesson last night and are eating dinner with the Y's tonight. Excited! 

Talk to you in a few days! Love you all!

Elder Sargent

Cat in the kitchen

2/1 Jawbreaker

Been an amazing week! We have been enjoying the weather (Elder Da wears the long johns every day that we found in the dirty mall), and enjoying the work! Again, we are learning a lot. Studying the "4th Missionary" this last Monday I came across a small tidbit that really has had a large impact on me. I feel as though so many missionaries come out into the field with the attitude that we are going to be the most obedient missionary on the planet, and as time goes by, sometimes our views start to wear down. Like a stone in a stream, day by day, our sharp, strict edges of obedience wear down until we don't even know it, but we become a round slippery stone, prone to not follow standards. I want to strive to be that "4th missionary", my WHOLE mission. I still felt like something could be better. Coming a little frustrated out of last week, from lessons not going how we planned, and the small edges of obedience rounding in our companionship, we read this talk. I expected it to have a large impact on Elder Da, since he has not read it and I think it is an amazing talk. As we read the first portion, it outlines each missionary, and one bullet under that section reads that the 4th missionary does not compare himself to other missionaries in anything he does. He only compares himself to his own capabilities. I just had to stop and think about that one. The consequence of doing so results in frustration and discontent. Exactly what I had been feeling. I needed to read this more that ever. I pondered this, and implemented it into me this week, and I have seen blessings untold. Peace with the Lords will and how everything is going this week. The Lord recognizes our righteous desires to fulfill His word. In days like today we cannot compare, it is what the world wants us to do. It is the plight of fashion and business's to do so. Facebook and Instagram are constantly putting us in the position and mindset of asking if I up to the worlds standard? Where do I get the next best thing? If we compare here, we will never be happy and will never become as the Lord wants us to be. As we compare to the Lords standard and to our own capabilities, we are able to feel peace and contentment with what the Lord has given us as well as understand what areas of our life we really need to do better. We can always progress on the eternal scale and feel peace.

This week has been great! Loved it! Elder Da has had an out-of-place jaw that has caused him pain (never have I seen someone eat so many bananas!) and so we had to spend some time at the doctors this week. Other than that, it has been amazing! Our district has been on a dry spell for the last month on new investigators, but after a great training this last week, EVERY companionship has at least one! It's great, the work is progressing. It was fun to have dinner with the L family, their son K just got back from Texas, where he served with a friend, from Heber.  He showed us some fun pictures. The ward is amazing. Had a fun luncheon after cleaning Bro. Ch's house. So fun to continue to get to know the members better. We as missionaries have to have the taifaat that we will live in these area's forever as to maintain the relationship. Oh I love our ward. All is well in Zion! Hurrah for Israel my family and friends! Find some work and do it! Love You!

Love Elder Sargent

Ever Stalwart