Success At Last!

After working with Brother Chan Tak Fai for three months, trying to get him to come back to Church following an absence of nearly four years, Lowell and Brother Choi, a counselor in the stake presidency who home teaches Brother Chan, finally tasted success today when he came to the full three-hour block and even gave the opening prayer in the priesthood session of ward conference! Lowell has been meeting with Brother Chan pretty much on a weekly basis since learning from his parents, the stake patriarch and his wife, that this young single adult, who should be attending Lowell's Sunday School class, had no interest in attending Church. He said it was boring and felt the same about the scriptures. His job permits him to come to Church now only twice in a month. He works eleven-hour days pumping gas, twenty-eight or twenty-nine days out of every month. Lowell has been able to get together with him early in the morning in a park near his home before he goes to work and now has him reading the scriptures daily, praying, paying his tithing, etc. He is now working on getting Brother Chan a new member friend in the same building he lives in to continue the fellowshipping long after Lowell and Susan return home.

Potential Members

 

Lately a favorite activity has been assisting the elders in our ward in teaching lessons to investigators. Most often, this takes place in our apartment, being the most convenient place to meet.

One of the investigators, Peter Tang, treated us and the elders to dinner at a local cafe close to our home (he actually lives in a high rise adjacent to the one we live in). We were served a type of lamb stew with cooked lettuce and a number of new unmentionables which originally looked a little scary but turned out to be very tasty. It was kept hot on the table on a little gas stove. It was fun to eat some foods we haven't tried before.

We were able to get a picture with four of the investigators we've helped teach (left to right: Bro. Choi, Elder Harding, Peter Tang, Elder Cope, Lowell, Bro. Chau, and Bro. Leung, who was recently baptized). We are sad that Elder Cope is being transferred this week. He is one of our favorites.

We've also discovered a nice mountain trail ten minutes walk from our apartment passing some gravesites and continuing up to the top of Butterfly Mountain which we see every day from our apartment window. It provides a pretty good workout.

Celebrations!

 

There have been celebrations of all varieties as of late. There were Christmas celebrations, New Year's Eve celebrations, the 17th birthday celebration of a recent convert (pictured above), and other significant events. We spent much of our first day of the new year (2010) assisting the missionaries (also pictured above) teaching discussions to three different individuals throughout the day at our apartment and another one the evening following. Some of those individuals showed up at Church this Sunday and were favorably impressed by what they felt. They will be back and soon will have baptismal dates to celebrate their entry into the kingdom of God on earth. We are soon to celebrate our sixth month of service here in Hong Kong and find it hard to believe the time is slipping by so quickly. There is much good coming of it all, however, and for that we are grateful.