Submission is hard...it just is...week 51

Not much time. This week was good. It was hard, but so worth it. Elder Love and I are both really just trying to keep a positive attitude and do our job no matter what the numbers turn out to be. Sure we set the goals, but more importantly is that we pray over them knowing that what we set is only the best we can do to be on the Lord's side in pushing his work forward. Sometimes it gets hard to submit like that. Really really hard. It's helped my prayers become more sincere though.

Because I have been having to meet with other zone leaders for a couple days, I have missed some miracles in the area, but I felt the effects. Brother Lee Gok Hung, the adorable 60 year old man who learns very slowly and has been struggling with smoking recently, had a blessing by his best friend from the ward, Brother Poon. Elder Love anointed and Brother Poon sealed the anointing. It was calm and peaceful. Nothing too crazy, but Brother Lee almost seems to become more and more alive and responsive with every single visit. It's exciting to see that.

I really appreciated the feelings of love that came into my heart today as I read 2 Nephi 8:7 about having God's law written on our hearts. This is a part of true conversion, but to be more specific, it is an evidence of the truthfullness of the gospel that is made part of our countenances. Every day is an attempt for me, Elder Love, and our members and investigators to write a little bit more of that law on our own hearts and share with others.

Summer Missionaries are fun. Brother Chu stole my Chewbacca mask. 

Note from Mom:  Then this is a picture of Brother "Chu"bacca!

Then I put it on for the rest of the night.

Ian commented once the summer missionaries left.  "HA! he actually just left this morning, so we're now back to the normal apartment space. I realize now just how much space we are given."  

Notes from Mom: While exchanging emails with Ian, I told him that Ana and Simon went to a fireside at the HC stake featuring Kuha'o, the blind pianist in the Mormon message "Extraordinary Gifts."They just texted to say that they'll be home in 15 minutes because "we're singing with Kuha'o."  Pretty cool!  He was really excited to hear about it.  We sent him a photo of them with him.  

I went to girls camp with Ana and the rest of the Young Women this week. It was a great experience. We sent Ian pictures of the ropes course, canoeing, ziplining, etc.  It reminded him of his own challenge courses at scout camp.  Ian said, "That's so much fun. I remember when our quorum once did the wall like that at a scout camp and wrecked the record...and then Simon's quorum wrecked ours the next year."

I included a picture of Ana with a friend from the ward.  It has cats and unicorns and rainbows and awesomeness.  Ian remarked that "I cannot tell you how many shirts I have seen here like the one ana is wearing. Good memories...and some bad...haha!"

Some missionaries finished their 2 years of service.  One was Elder Chu.  Ian said, "Elder Chu just went home this last week. He's the good looking Hawaiian being baptized in the temple fountain by Elder Love. Miss him a lot. He was one of my best friends here and a very powerful missionary."

This is the email of Sister Poon. Tell her you are Elder Taylor's mom and that you would like the address for the Sheung Shui facebook page. Lot's of pitures and videos that I don't have: anniefong2004@hotmail.com

Sadly, Ian lost a great friend from high school this summer and I finally had the guts to tell him.  I knew he would likely take it well.  His friend, Teddy Nemelka, died due to complications of tonsillitis. I was glad to hear Ian's response:  "No, please do send me information. Even if it's the death of a friend, I'm fine. It's definitely sad, but knowing allows me to pray for them, and I find that a powerful thing."

Summer missionaries...week 50

I don't think I have mentioned this before, but in Hong Kong during the summer season, youth 16 and up can sign up for two weeks to go on an extended exchange with missionaries in the Hong Kong mission. They stay with us overnight and do everything that a missionary would do. They just aren't set apart. They even have name tags (they don't get to take them home though).

This next couple of weeks, the zone will have 4 male and 2 female summer missionaries. This also means that the apartment will literally be packed full. I will be sleeping on a small couch we have, one of the summer missionaries will be on the floor with a thin mat, and I still don't know how studies are going to work out because there is no way that we can fit more than 2 people in the office and have effective studies.

It's going to be even harder because Elder Guinn and I being zone leaders and different companionships, need to go to a couple of meetings in Kowloon Tong for the upcoming Zone Trainings and Zone Conference that we'll be giving trainings for, we are going to be scheduling a LOT of extra exchanges. Hectic, but it makes life interesting.

Brother Wong, a long lost (20 years) less active finally came to church. His name is Wong Kam Man. He's unmarried, 36, sells vegetables at a street vendor, and is SUPER nice and has STILL been reading his scriptures consistently for the past 20 years that he was a less active member. He met with the Bishop and he will be preparing to receive the Melchizedek priesthood in a couple months! We are all so excited for him.

I also really enjoyed something I was looking at in the scriptures about how we need to stop trying to do our Heavenly Father's job. Moses 1:39 says that His work and His glory are to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of men. THAT IS NOT OUR JOB! Our job is plainly outlined in D&C 11:20. I let you all look that up and feel it for yourself.

Love you all!戴長老


Note from Mom:  Some of the missionaries were there at the temple when the Angel Moroni was replaced.  Ian didn't send a picture home, but I wanted to include it.

Notes from Mom:  I asked Ian about his birthday package we sent and suggested maybe there is a way to send empanadas to him through express mail somehow.  I also sent Ian some pictures of his friend Daniel Peacock's wedding to another missionary, Ellen Chan.  They were married in the Hong Kong Temple.

 The Angel Moroni was replaced on the temple and I grabbed a few photos posted on Facebook.

Here is his reply:  EMPANADAS! That is one of the few things that I just miss SO much here. 

I did get that package. Socks are FANTASTIC! Gatorade is DIVINE! Sour Patch are surprisingly still present (not for long). I really appreciated all of the cards that everyone send. I'm still working on everyone (except owens) chinese name. I probably will wait until I get home just to make sure they are genuine and accurate.

The p days recently have been hectic. I am going in for the second fitting today so I will get it next week (hopefully). I don't have a phone mom, I have a camera. September 5 is the day that I am no longer a certified minister. I will probably be released and home earlier than that. Transfers are 9 weeks. Temple visits are every 3 months. LOVE YOU TOO! TELL EVERYONE I SAY 你好!

Gotta go. Hope that y'all have a good Sabbath and have fun this week! Take pictures and make memories! I'll try to do that here too (the pictures part of course. Memories are made each minute here!)

Summer missionaries...week 50

I don't think I have mentioned this before, but in Hong Kong during the summer season, youth 16 and up can sign up for two weeks to go on an extended exchange with missionaries in the Hong Kong mission. They stay with us overnight and do everything that a missionary would do. They just aren't set apart. They even have name tags (they don't get to take them home though).

This next couple of weeks, the zone will have 4 male and 2 female summer missionaries. This also means that the apartment will literally be packed full. I will be sleeping on a small couch we have, one of the summer missionaries will be on the floor with a thin mat, and I still don't know how studies are going to work out because there is no way that we can fit more than 2 people in the office and have effective studies.

It's going to be even harder because Elder Guinn and I being zone leaders and different companionships, need to go to a couple of meetings in Kowloon Tong for the upcoming Zone Trainings and Zone Conference that we'll be giving trainings for, we are going to be scheduling a LOT of extra exchanges. Hectic, but it makes life interesting.

Brother Wong, a long lost (20 years) less active finally came to church. His name is Wong Kam Man. He's unmarried, 36, sells vegetables at a street vendor, and is SUPER nice and has STILL been reading his scriptures consistently for the past 20 years that he was a less active member. He met with the Bishop and he will be preparing to receive the Melchizedek priesthood in a couple months! We are all so excited for him.

I also really enjoyed something I was looking at in the scriptures about how we need to stop trying to do our Heavenly Father's job. Moses 1:39 says that His work and His glory are to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of men. THAT IS NOT OUR JOB! Our job is plainly outlined in D&C 11:20. I let you all look that up and feel it for yourself.

Love you all!戴長老


Note from Mom:  Some of the missionaries were there at the temple when the Angel Moroni was replaced.  Ian didn't send a picture home, but I wanted to include it.

Notes from Mom:  I asked Ian about his birthday package we sent and suggested maybe there is a way to send empanadas to him through express mail somehow.  I also sent Ian some pictures of his friend Daniel Peacock's wedding to another missionary, Ellen Chan.  They were married in the Hong Kong Temple.

 The Angel Moroni was replaced on the temple and I grabbed a few photos posted on Facebook.

Here is his reply:  EMPANADAS! That is one of the few things that I just miss SO much here. 

I did get that package. Socks are FANTASTIC! Gatorade is DIVINE! Sour Patch are surprisingly still present (not for long). I really appreciated all of the cards that everyone send. I'm still working on everyone (except owens) chinese name. I probably will wait until I get home just to make sure they are genuine and accurate.

The p days recently have been hectic. I am going in for the second fitting today so I will get it next week (hopefully). I don't have a phone mom, I have a camera. September 5 is the day that I am no longer a certified minister. I will probably be released and home earlier than that. Transfers are 9 weeks. Temple visits are every 3 months. LOVE YOU TOO! TELL EVERYONE I SAY 你好!

Gotta go. Hope that y'all have a good Sabbath and have fun this week! Take pictures and make memories! I'll try to do that here too (the pictures part of course. Memories are made each minute here!)

Brother Chan (the best brother Chan out of all the other million or so other Mr. Chans)...week 49

I would like to share a story about Brother Chan. I met him once before I came to this area and before he was baptized. I was actually the one who gave him his baptismal date. He's 76 years old, enjoys biking with his two grandsons and studied manufacturing at Hong Kong Polytechnic university. He's also one of the embodiments in my life of Power in the Priesthood.

We meet with him once a week to check on his health as well as read scriptures and preach my Gospel with him. Reading used to be extremely difficult at times because of his lung cancer, but he has told us that even his doctors have been surprised by the improvement of his condition after his baptism and confirmation. He was even physically able to bless the sacrament last week. He told us that "when I knelt down to bless the bread, there was no pain. Going down is never the hard part though is it. I remember being afraid that morning because I wouldn't be able to get up and continue the ordinance. I prayed for the strength of the priesthood though, and after I said the sacrament prayer, I stood up. I felt stronger and more confident that I have felt in the twenty years since I had been diagnosed with cancer. I love my Father in Heaven." That's about the most direct translation I can give. The same priesthood that a 16-18 year old adolescent holds was enough to strengthen a man, even if just momentarily, to over come years of cancerous battles and damage done to his body. I remember watching him stand. He almost jumped, which only confused and surprised the priests standing next to him. The power in that sacrament meeting was tangible and wonderful.

Brother Chan used to be a member of the Catholic church, and when I first met him I was desirous to see what his reaction to a baptismal invitation would be considering that he had clearly communicated to the missionaries prior his conflict with the authority of the church.

When I said the words of the invitation though, he just stared at his Book of Mormon for a moment. His eyes weren't looking up, but his heart was heavenward, and God answered his earnest prayer of asking "what would you have me do?" He said yes. The spirit again was very strong with this man. 

His home is sacred to me, and his words are filled with power and kindness as he bears his converted testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. He is now yet another strong source for my own testimony and faith to draw from. The man who walked in torrential rain for two hours to get to a three hour church meeting and who rides his bike every sunday morning to get to the Church even before the missionaries do is one of my heroes. A man of God whom I dearly love. I hope that I can be as humble as this dear friend and teacher of mine, Chan Kin Yip. I'll get a picture on Wednesday because that day will be temple day and we are given time that day to do our weekly shopping and P-day activities. Have a good week y'all!戴長老

Notes from Mom:  I thought Ian would send pictures this week, but he didn't have his adaptor with him.  I asked about his Zone Conference and he said it went well.  "A lot of missionaries were taking pictures (not including me because my camera was dead). Zone Training went well. It's kind of scary that it's only been a couple of weeks and we're already getting ready for the next one. Time is going by too fast. Yoshi just bought a buch of pizza and drinks for all of the misionaries at Zone training. He really has been sticking himself out for all of us. I really appreciated it. He even bought me a little present: some Japanese cooling spray that you use in extremely hot and sweaty weather. It's super nice. I'll see if any other missionaries have pictures."  He has another day this week to write and send pictures since they are going to the temple on Wednesday.  The temple has been closed until recently for maintenance.  Bonus email week!

Here's a picture of brother Chan Kin Yip and Elder Love.

Sheung Shui missionaries crashed into Bishop Choi on his way to the temple!

Ian, Elder Love, Bishop Choi, Sister Hugo, and Sister Kessen. 

Re-baptizing Elders Wilcoxon (next to me) and about to head back home after a faithful two years Elder Chu (being dunked by Elder Love who is on the far right of the picture). 

All of us blindly looking into the distance. It was very bright.

Zara Glasses for Elder Taylor.  

Elders Chen, Love, and Peterson holding mattress pads.

Left to right: Elders Farr, Love, Chen, and Peterson.

"The Sky" by Elder Love using Elder Taylor's camera. 

Brother Wong soon to be activated.

Ancient Village older than America.

This was a picture extravaganza!

Don't even THINK about touching that rock...week 48

Just a couple quick thoughts about a scripture that caught my attention and won't leave me alone. I have been slowly working through the Old testament and just recently read Exodus 20:25. The Altars   we make should not be made of hewn (cut) stone, lest the altar be polluted and the sacrifice meaningless. We don't make altars for blood sacrifices any more, but think about the symbolism there (because that's almost all that the Mosaic Law is good for anyways:)).

When we pray, we obviously are at least offering time to say something to our Father in Heaven. However, do we ever find ourselves cutting the stones in our prayers? Are we just following some sort of "thank you for this day" template in our prayers or are they truly guided by the natural framings given by the spirit? Let the spirit guide your prayers. I would invite all to read the activity about prayer in chapter 4 of Preach My Gospel if they have time to do so. Very insightful and humbling when you see what changes need to occur in your prayers.

2 Nephi 32:9 is almost memorized this week in chinese. one or two more days and it should be down! Keep the faith everybody!

Notes from mom:  I was kind of bugged with this week's letter, especially since this week was a scripture, and I wanted to say, "Uh, Ian, we have those here!"  So I will reference a few of the emails he sent me regarding other things.  I sent Ian a picture of something I received last week.  The principal at Springville High School gave me Ian's engraved Valedictorian picture.  I sent him a photo and here is what he said:  "Scared the poop out of Elder Love. People keep sending us pictures of before our missions and we are both just freaked out of our minds. My head is HUGE! My hair is just terrible. That's how you know that Valedictorian means nothing compared to being an Elder for the Church of Jesus Christ. The Gospel changes men who then change the world. It takes the slums out of men, who then take themselves out of the slums. It's a gospel of enabling power and potential for change."  High school is a world away from where Ian is now.  We are glad he is so happy as a missionary and loving Hong Kong.

I was asked to update the ward on Ian's mission.  I asked him what I could convey, maybe his favorite food or things he enjoys.  Here is what I got:  "Favorite food is chicken feet. No contest. There is nothing to compare to dim sum chicken feet. The work to bring back less actives is the biggest miracle in progress right now. It's amazing to watch. Keeping covenants is greater than just making covenants and then leaving. We are not in the business of simply damning their souls because they now know the truth and simply walk away. We are trying to help them change their lives FOR GOOD!"  

Since I don't really know much about dim sum chicken feet, I asked for a clarification:  "The chicken feet and a couple of other food items are in the bamboo baskets. No soup though. The closest thing they have to soup is something called JUK (pronounced "joke"). It's a savory rice pudding pretty much. Super good...but not as good as chicken feet."  Some family friends just moved to Hong Kong.  The ward they attended on Sunday had no children, 5 men, and the rest were Filipino sisters.  It's not their ward they will stay in, but I asked Ian about them:  "There's no men because all the Filipinos here are women who leave their families for as long as 15 years to go and be a maid here in Hong Kong so that they can get their children to a school. They are all pretty inspiring ladies, and all of them are amazing cooks, especially when it comes to...italian food. Random, but I don't care as long as it's delicious."  There are so many wonderful, faithful members of the church in Hong Kong.

Two friends Ian deeply admires had homecomings on Sunday.  He gave me some instructions:  "Tell Elder Johnson and Elder Noll that they are role models to me. The decisions that I saw them make only made me more sure that I needed to follow suit. Their situation may have been a world away, but the message will never change. The missionaries are only going to get more powerful as they build off of the legacy of those who have gone before. Those little changes are the difference that counts. Love it. Love to hear about it. Tell me when you can what it is that they talk about."  Their talks were so eloquent and filled with the spirit of truth.  

Baptisms! week 47

So we had 2 baptisms in the zone this week. One was a 14 year old from Fan Ling named Andy, who is a member referral. The other is a 10 year old son of a less active from Ma On Shan named Gordon. Both of these services were beautiful and spiritual. Both of these young men were simply so prepared. They found their own way, and the missionaries just told them what's what.

My favorite scripture of the week is 2 timothy 1:7. I will be giving a portion of a training this tuesday for zone training, because we need a sound mind in order to serve God with all of our Heart Might Mind and Strength.

Thank you for all the well wishing this week. There's nothing really like a birthday on the mission.

Take care all. Sorry that I don't have more time, but I just have a lot of stuff to fill out and a couple of people to send emails to. Y'all are killing it out there!

Decisions to make and fears faced...week 46

So we are going to be a little bit more intent this transfer on finding people that are TRULY ready for baptism. We felt that one of the weaknesses last transfer was that we were too tolerant of investigators that had almost no interest at all in the gospel and really just like being able to say that they have white friends that speak Cantonese. Of course this will cause numbers to go down, but numbers is simply a means to report and set somewhat tangible goals for this amazing and unmeasurable work. I am also committing from now on that my Area Book will be the most clean, organized, and full Area Book in the world. We are going to completely reorganize and refresh our records. It's hard because at the same time you could be outside finding or in a lesson or visiting a member or doing ANYTHING else that might seem more important in the moment. However, in the long run, and streamlined and organized Area book organizes and streamlines the actual work. I'm probably going to be in this area for a while anyways, so might as well start now.

Sometimes writing in a journal is hard because at night as a zone leader you have missionaries all over the zone that need questions answered and rules clarified, ESPECIALLY on Sunday. I am doing my best with that though, because the records we write personally should always be unto the convincing of mankind that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through his grace and mercy we are saved.

I have been pondering quite a bit lately on the concept of power, and will be giving a training on it this week. the Seven P's of Power: Promptings, Promises, Purpose, Persuasion, Prayer, Priesthood, and Penitence. Realizing the true and authentic power of God only comes through promptings of the spirit, heeded and followed, with our eyes opened toward a Heavenly direction because of a heavenly GOAL! Power is only felt when we seek the Lords hand in our lives and in the lives of those around us. It is only received when worthily and persistently asked for in a humble and submissive manner. The authority of the Priesthood unlocks the door for the blessings of heaven to be given, but there are still requirements to be met to ACCESS THIS AUTHORITY and be prepared for the blessings that have been prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Happiness is given and enhanced by the power of God, and is infinitely exponentialized through Charity, the pure love of Christ.

I hope that everyone is enjoying the well earned and hard fought freedom that is so mercifully given by the Holy Spirit of Promise and Prophecy. I'm proud to be an American. I am also proud to be here in Hong Kong and see that there is more to freedom than a gun in your belt loop and an empty voting slip. Don't take your privilege for granted!

This is Sunny (our 18 year old mission leader who is headed to Canada in September for his mission. The other is our struggling recent convert. We all had lunch together at this place called Tam Jai (the place that has the Dak Laaht soup. The food was delicious and we all had come prepared with our tissues.

These are pictures of our investigator BROTHER LEE! He's getting baptized soon! Just not quite sure if it will be this month or not. 

We also had a water fight/eating food activity with the young men and young women (who segregated faster than any Mormon activity I have ever SEEN! Haha!)