​​Hello!!

This week we had some rather unfortunate things happen. Lately we have had all of these new investigators and potentials and these amazing things happening, but for some reason or another almost every single one of those people dropped us or avoided us. It was kind of hard, especially because some of those people seemed to be doing so well and even had baptismal dates, and so it’s kind of hard to understand why things changed so fast.

But . . .

I have never been one to let those things get in the way or to give up! This week Sister Branch and I kept going and working hard, even if we weren’t able to see immediate success. And we were actually able to meet with some new potentials and some old investigators that we haven’t seen for a while.

In church I also got to interpret for some members from the Philippines who didn’t know English. It’s always so fun getting to interpret for people, because not only do you have to listen more, but you actually think more about what people are saying. It was such a great church meeting!

We met with Mary again, the person who said that she didn’t want to keep learning about the gospel, and just went to lunch with her and talked. And then she invited us over to her house to give me a haircut. I said sure, because we all know that when people are cutting your hair it’s the perfect time to be able to talk with them, because you are both trapped! And it did turn out to be super good and we were able to teach her some things about the plan of salvation just based off of some of the things that she said, because, after all, there will always be something in what someone says that you can relate back to a gospel truth! And also she ended up cutting off a lot of my hair, but no sacrifice is too great for investigators, right?!

Also had some meetings and whatnot that are a lot more exciting for me than the rest of you, but let’s just say that I got some really direct and specific revelation and can testify that Heavenly Father really does answer our questions through other people most of the time. The trick is just for us to be humble and listening.

We met with the Lo Family again and had dinner and were also able to find out a lot of their concerns that are keeping them from progressing. Brother Lo was baptized a long time ago, but has gone back to ancestral worship and forgot all of the things that he felt at the time of his conversion all those years ago. He doesn’t want his son to go to church because he wants him to be able to inherit the ancestral alter when he gets older and this is really hard on Sister Lo because she wants so badly to learn more about Jesus Christ and His church, but it’s hard when she doesn’t really have family support. We were really able to help her a little just with a simple testimony and now have a clearer idea of how to help the both of them! We weren’t even planning on visiting them this week, we just stopped by, but I’m grateful that we did!

Another potential that we met with wanted to go out with us to get food (this really was the theme of this week), and at first she really didn’t want to hear about any church things; she just wanted to talk. And so we did. By the end of our encounter, she told us just how happy she was to be with us and said that next time we could talk more about what we were here doing as missionaries! All people are different when it comes to when and how they accept the gospel, but EVERYONE needs to feel loved and valued before they will listen to what we have to say. So if that means eating a bowl of noodles with them first, then that’s what we’ll do!

I started the Book of Mormon all over again this week and in the chapters where they were asked to retrieve the plates, I was struck once again by their dedication. Often times when we try something and fail, we assume that it just wasn’t meant to be and then move on. Or maybe we try a second time and fail once again and then feel all the more confident that it just must not be right. But it wasn’t until the third time that Nephi and his brothers were successful in their attempts to retrieve what had been commanded of them. I definitely feel this in my daily life. I feel prompted to talk to someone and they shoot me down. That’s okay, that’s fine, I’ll just move on. But most of the time I don’t actually stop after the first time and I know that I drive Sister Branch a little crazy, because I don’t ever give up when I’m trying to talk to or contact people. But so many times it just takes a little bit of persistence and then things actually start to happen! So just remember during this week that if you are told to do something and feel like you should but you fail, it’s not the end! Maybe it will take 2 or 3 or 50 times to actually be successful, but trust that if it is of God, then He will provide a way.

Enough of my rambling. Have a great week!

Love,
Sister Crockett

18 Dorset Crescent
Kowloon Tong, Kowloon
Hong Kong

Pictures:

1 & 2) Noodles with Sis Branch!
3) With Mary after the haircut
4) Good ol’ Hung Shui Kiu!
5) It was a YW’s birthday on Sunday so we got to celebrate