short week

Well, it has only been a few days since I sent my last email, but so many amazing things have happened. So many miracles!

Wednesday after we emailed, we were able to go to the temple. I don’t think I have a more favorite place on earth than in that amazing place. I received some very strong revelation, that has helped me so much. I love the feelings, promises, and strength that come from the temple.

Thursday we were able to teach a member referral named Brother L–. He is the husband of the less active that passed away a few weeks ago. He was extremely nice to us and is very interested in learning more about what his wife believed in. We were able to share a very good message. The Relief Society President came with us and was such a great support to him. He is very busy trying to get everything worked out with the government in terms of paperwork and legal stuff for his wife’s death, but we should be able to meet with him soon. Pray hard!

We had an amazing experience happen on Saturday. We had about 45 minutes before we had to go back home, so we decided to go outside and try finding. As we were walking to one of our favorite finding spots, a thought popped into our heads, "Go to Kowloon Tsai Park". Just for your information, I have only been to that park a few times because it is very ineffective. There are just lots of people jogging, and so they don’t want to stop and talk to the two white boys in suits. Well, we decided to follow the spirit and we walked over to the park. We said hi to a few people that were jogging by, but nobody would stop for us, then all of a sudden one of them stopped. He talked to us for like 30 minutes. He is very interested in the church, and the contact went practically perfect! As soon as he walked away, we went over to a corner and said a prayer of thanksgiving to God for leading us to him. It’s all true. The gospel is true.

Yesterday was a good day at church. There was another baptism in our ward. After the baptism, the ward members were giving me a hard time about marrying a chinese person. They even gave me a "Chinese wife cake" to try and seal the deal. I love these members so much. It just feels like a giant family here in Sham Shui Po ward!

LOVE, Elder Brown

baptism jan 19 2

baptism jan 19

More and more miracles!

Hello all,

It was such a great surprise to get online today and see so many letters of support (and exciting news:) It has been a really good week with lots of miracles

We taught an awesome person named D–. He is from mainland and walked into the church on his own. His mom is a christian, so when he saw our church, he decided that he also want to be so he walked in. We were able to teach him about baptism and gave him a book of mormon. He is in Mainland now for Chinese new year, but when he gets back, he is going to make a great investigator.

We had a member bring her friend from school to our ward family home evening. I love when members work with us and help introduce their friends with us. Those investigators have such a stronger support system, and progress so much faster and much stronger. It is amazing. This boy’s name is A-F–. He is the nicest boy, he will be such a great addition to the church in Hong Kong. The only problem is that his mom has a serious illness, so they have a helper. The helper takes Sundays off, so that is the day he stays home to take care of her. I guess we will just have to find a way for him to bring his mom to the church.

M–‘s older sister is back in Hong Kong for chinese new years because she studies at University in Beijing. Her name is L–. She is probably one of my favorite people in this entire world. We had a big dinner with the Y– family, L–, M–, and L–‘s friend. It was so good to see her and see that she is still really strong in the church. The whole family is just so amazing.

We also got another new investigator named Q–. He was an investigator years ago, but he said his life just got too busy so he stopped meeting. Then he saw us the other day, and he just got a very "happy" feeling, and knew he needed to start coming back to church. You know, it amazes me how God prepares people’s minds and hearts to either receive or re-receive the gospel. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

This week there was a big meeting with all the branch presidents and district presidents from mainland, they even came to our sacrament meeting. It was so amazing to see so many leaders, the future of the church in mainland, all in one room.

On Friday, we had some baptisms from mainland. 6 of them to be exact. It was so intense to have that many people baptised at the same time. Right after the ceremony, one of the people that was just baptised proposed to his girlfriend. It was the most adorable thing I have ever seen. I love this work!

Love, Elder Brown

We found him… again!

Oh the joys of trying to find an 86 year old man in the middle of a giant city. So a ward member went to Uncle F–‘s house to check on him last week, and there was a note on his door saying he was rushed to the hospital. He called and told us, so we went to the hospital that was stated on the note. After travelling for forever, we finally made it to the hospital, just to find out that they have no record of him there. AHHHH So we went back and reported to the ward, and soon we had the whole ward council calling every hospital in Hong Kong. This seems like an easy task, but for a city of 7 million people, there are LOTS of hospitals. Finally I felt an impression to call the first hospital that he went to 6 months ago (yes, the same one that I passed out in). They said there was a name that matched his, but because I didn’t have more information about him, they couldn’t confirm anything over the phone. So we rushed over to that hospital, and there he was! His memory is almost completely shot, and he keeps trying to leave the hospital, so they have him strapped into his bed. He didn’t remember why he was in the hospital, and they wouldn’t tell us the reason, but I feel much better about him being in the hospital than alone in his house.

Yesterday we had a very scary experience. My companion was driving in Hong Kong for the first time. We had just gotten off the free way and were driving toward one of the chapel, when everyone started hitting the brakes. The big double decker bus in front of us slid to the left, but was still partly in our lane. I knew we weren’t going to stop in time, so I just threw my hands up to cover my face, and waited to wreck. Luckily my companion was quick and jerked the wheel to the right. Between my fingers, I saw the rearview mirror on my side explode, and there was a loud sound. Shattered glass sprayed my window, and I thought I was dead. Luckily, the mirror was the only thing that got hit on our car. My heart was pounding for the longest time. Everyone is fine, nobody was injured. I don’t even think the bus knew that we hit it.

I love the ward I am serving right now. We just have such a great connection. They trust my companionship so much, and it makes us feel so good. They treat us so unbelievably well, and love us like family. I think that is one of the things I am most grateful for. Other than helping people come unto Christ, I have also been able to forge amazing relationships that will influence the rest of my life. I am so grateful I am here on this mission. It is unbelievably hard, but more worth it than anything I can describe. I have grown so much, learned so much, and have strengthened my testimony. It is all true, there is no doubt in my mind. God loves us.

Elder Brown

dumplings+tears+bugs=good week

It has been a great week.

Dumplings
We found an awesome family on the street last week, and they invited us over to their house for dinner last night. When we got there, the mom (A1–) had invited some of her friends over. It turned into a giant dumpling dinner party. A1–‘s family was there (H–, Y–, E–, K–) and she also had her friend and friend’s daughter over (A2—, A3–). Here’s the thing, K– and A3– are both 6 years old. I had so much fun with those two kids. We were also able to teach them a great message about prayer. I love teaching families so much! When I got home, I was stuffed with dumplings. We both ended up laying on our backs in slight pain. You know the feeling after eating soooo much food. It is a bitter sweet feeling.

Tears
Mom, this one is for you. We were sitting at a baptism, waiting for the people to change clothes. We were just singing primary songs, when all of a sudden they started playing We’ll Bring the World His Truth. I have sang that songs many times on my mission, but for some reason it hit me this time. I just started crying! Elder Bradley looked over at me and the only thing I could get out was, "I don’t know why I’m crying!" He started laughing, which made me laugh. So I was just an emotional wreck. I was crying and laughing and trying to cover my face with my scarf to stop people from seeing… it was bad.

Bugs
On Saturday, we went and visited the K– family. Of course they cooked us dinner. They are so nice, and I wish she would just accept the gospel! We were eating dessert, which is this really good coconut soup stuff, and I looked down into my bowl and there it was, a bug floating around. I quickly picked it out with my spoon. So the bug was just chilling on my spoon. I didn’t know what to do, so I went to pick it out with my fingers, but as I went to pick it out, Brother K– looked over at me. I didn’t want him to feel bad and see that there was a bug in my food so I panicked… I just shoved it in my mouth and swallowed it as fast as I could. Oh the things missionaries do for their investigators…

I also took the long awaited picture with Uncle F–. I hope you enjoy this old man as much as I do. He is still having a rough time, so more prayers for him will be much appreciated.

Well, that is my interesting, fun, crazy, exciting week. We saw so many miracles, and are really seeing the Lord’s hand in doing his work. I love these people so much, and I am so glad that I get to help serve them.

LOVE, Elder Brown