1-13-15

I apologize that this is two days later than you expected it. You all are probably wondering if I died or something. Not quite. This week is temple week, and so P-Day was not on Monday, but rather today. So, yah. I'll try to remember to let you know beforehand on the next Temple Week.

So, life is still crazy. Imagine that. At this moment I am in an Apple Store using this psycho computer that thinks it's smarter than me. We're in the IFC Mall, which is connected to the IFC building, which just happens to be the tallest building in Hong Kong. There are a lot of peoples in here, and it's really loud and there's no privacy, but, mouh baahnfaat. 

Everyday something new and exciting happens. For example, last night I was doing calls, trying to invite people to English Class. A lady picked up and answered, so I said my name and who I was. There was a whole lot of yelling, and then she asked me how I had her number. Street contact. She then proceeded to state that she remembered meeting the missionaries, and that she told us never to call her again. It's a good thing I still don't understand a lot of the language. I just smiled (through the phone) and thanked her, then she hung up. It's a fairly regular occurrence.

Ahh, but the work shall go on. I read about the prophet Nephi this last week, in 3 Nephi. At this point he's been preaching the word of God for a very long time, and is visited and ministered to by angels every single day. Quite probably the most powerful missionary ever to live on the earth. And yet, the people reject him. The scriptures say that the people "could not deny the truth of his words." Paraphrased, and powerful. They could not deny because he spoke with the strength and the glory of God. But their hearts were hard, and they rejected the word, even though they knew Nephi testified of the truth. They knew God exists. They knew they would be judged according to their sins. And yet, they still rejected.

I suppose that this applies to everyone, everywhere. It does not matter how well we teach, or how strong the spirit is, people still have agency. It's their choice to accept the message, and there's not much that we can do about it. Not much, except for keep trying. Hopefully one person in all of the eight million are prepared to listen.

In any case, we aren't going to just quit doing missionary work because of a few difficult days. In fact, we just work harder. Just do it. That's what everybody says here. If the day sucks and you can't speak the language and no one wants to listen, just do it anyways. I suppose it kind of sucks, at times, but in the end there's no better thing we could be doing, and I'm learning how to be grateful for my trials and challenges. 

Here's a good quote we talked about in District Meeting; "Courage is an outward defiance of an inward fear. It is not to be bold in the face of adversity, it is to be bold inspite of adversity."

So, pretty much, do the work.