Happy New Year!

This week was good! Edmund came to church again and is continuing to progress. Adi has a couple of concerns but she knows the Book of Mormon is true and that is the keystone. On Sunday we were out finding and I went and talked to a family (young mom and dad with a little baby in a stroller) and I talked about how the gospel has blessed me and even though my family is in America I can be with them forever and they gave me their info and I will contact them this week and see where that goes!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Years (even though it won't be half as good as the New Years in HK... just sayin :P ha ha).
Love, Elder Cederlof

P.S.  They celebrate the Chinese New Year way more then they celebrate the other one. When people say Happy New Years they mean the one in a month. Unfortunately it won't be my sign until 2018 or 2109 or something like that so I won't be in HK for my year, but it's still going to be a good year.

Blessings of the Christmas Season

This week has been pretty awesome!  In the pictures there is one that shows what we do when there is a ton of rain (it has been raining for quite a while but now it’s been good the last couple days). Another one is of two priests that came finding with us named Sparkle and A Jeung. Another one is with Elder Smith and his old companion before he left and Elder Smith joined our companionship. I don't remember the other ones but they're probably pretty cool. Oh - the one in the elevator. Every time I get into the elevator I remember that you guys want me to send pictures so that's why I, from now on, will probably always have one in there! ha-ha.   Oh and on one of the other ones is a card that Adi made me for Christmas!! She is pretty shy, but after church she said wait and gave me a card and a little present!  Then Ellorie her friend (as well as her fellowshiper) also gave us presents! They are awesome!! We taught them this past week. We wanted to talk about the nativity scene and so last p-day we looked everywhere for a nativity and we couldn't find a good one (we only found one for 300hk) and so we decided to build it. Oh that is one of the other pictures!  It looks really lame but it was awesome nonetheless and we totally surprised them! We had it set to the side and then we told them to close their eyes and we set it up and read the story and introduced all the characters and stuff. It was super fun and also super spiritual because it brought us all back to Christ and how we, like the wise men and shepherds, need to share His message. They were given the opportunity to see Christ and we are given the opportunity to be part of His Church, to have part of his image in us. That is why it is so important that we share this message with the world.

 

Edmund came to church with us and the whole time he had a smile on his face. I believe he has found exactly what his soul has been looking for for quite some time now. I called a potential on Saturday and invited him to church and he came and loved it. The members were great. They came and sat by him and Edmund and showed them around and introduced themselves, it was awesome!  Afterwards me and a member taught Edmund and Elder Smith and Elder Hartwig taught Tsang SS. They both had the feeling to invite him to be baptized and set a date so they did and he accepted! This week has truly been a miracle!! It has been amazing! I've seen so many blessings this Christmas season  and my companionship and I definitely cannot take any credit for it. It has been every missionary in Tsuen Wan for the past long time; the members praying, my family praying, random people praying for the missionaries, but most importantly God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.  My trainer Tong Jeung Louh told me that when someone gets baptized you look back and realize that you weren't the one doing the work. Now no one yet has been baptized but I can already tell that that is definitely true. These people are so ready that even though they may not understand our message they feel the Holy Ghost. Edmund told me that while he was praying about the Book of Mormon he had a feeling of relief come over him. It's truly amazing what the gospel can do for people. I love this gospel and I love this work!! 

 

Stay Sweet,

Elder Zach Cederlof

 

 Zach's companion is in the orange

 This is what they do to combat the rain!

 The nativity scene they made for some investigators

 Sparkle and A Jeung (priests in the ward)

 Christmas card made by Adi (an investigator)

 The weekly "elevator" picture

 

Okay - well this week has been pretty nice.. pretty nice.. (as my trainer would say)  I got a new companion. I miss my trainer because he and I are literally best friends!   My companion now was the other Tsuen Wan missionary.  Before our exchanges we were still in the same apartment and area so not a whole lot has changed except obviously we're together 24/7.  Elder Smith got a new comp but he is leaving on Thursday so we will all be a tri companionship from Thursday til Januaryish! That'll be fun!!

 

Main things for the week -  our lesson with Adi:  I was thinking about what we should teach Adi and I realized that she already has a testimony and knows all of the stuff is true. She just needs to realize it. We decided to bring a cup with dirt in it. a seed, a small plant, a bigger plant and two apples.  Obviously we read the scripture on faith is like a little seed! Quite simple but definitely an awesome lesson!! We asked her key questions along the way like "how was your testimony of the Book of Mormon when you first planted that seed?" Then, "how has it changed?" She told us that at first she didn't believe it but now she knows it is true!! And so we extended a baptismal date for February 9th and she accepted! Adi is soo awesome!! 

 

We also taught the guy that me and Elder Tong met on the pier.  Pretty cool cause one of our goals was to find a new investigator that would progress and it turns out he is the one! We taught him the first lesson! We also made sure to have a fellowshiper with us! Hucksley is his name! He just got off his mission in Washington state a couple of months ago (3 to be exact).  The lesson was awesome and my time is up!!  He also said he is willing to be baptized!! AWESOME!

Love you all!

Elder Cederlof

The door to their apartment

I told Zach I needed more pictures of just him - this is what I got - not quite what I had in mind!

 

Ok - sorry not a whole lot of time this week because I needed to send lots of pictures - which take FOR-EV-ER.  But this week we had a couple miracles. One day, it seemed like every other day- but it WASN'T! We were walking on the pier and started talking to a man and he was immediately interested and wanted to know more. We shared with him the first lesson and then we were going to teach him on Sunday but he had to work so we're teaching him next week! It was super awesome. We’ve been inviting everyone we meet to come to church and that also has been awesome! Ok real quick this is one thing our mission president gave us that everyone should do.

1.     Pray intently each morning

2.     Exercise the mental work necessary to really believe that whatever you asked for will happen and pray for the gift of faith to make it happen.

 3.    Repent of any sins, transgressions, or disobedience that may be impeding your work so as to warrant the blessings the Lord desires to bestow upon you.

4.     Pray for righteous desires

5.     By listening to the spirit, decide what you are willing and happy to sacrifice as an offering to the Lord to demonstrate your sincere desire.

6.     Pray for righteous desires.

7.     Work. Pray as if everything depends on the Lord and work as if everything depends on yourself.

8.     Optimistically set goals and truly believe that God will help you achieve those goals.

That’s it for the week! Sorry - out of time! Love you all!

 Elder Zach Cederlof

 

This is a floating pen

Big Buddha!

Well not too much time, but this week we taught Ho Hingdaih. We also invited a member Wong Hingdaih to join us. It was awesome! Since Ho Hingdaih hasn't been to church for over 20 years we decided to just start with the basics - Lesson 1. We used a couple objects lessons and scriptures. Wong Hingdaih also helped out a bunch! He shared an awesome testimony! Ho Hingdaih was going to come to church but he had some people renovating his house so he couldn't. We are going to try to teach him about the plan of salvation at his house so hopefully his wife can come sit in on the discussion as well.

Thanksgiving was awesome!  We had Thanksgiving dinner with our zone and everyone told stories and it was fun. After that we went finding. Cantonese is coming along, I can understand a lot of things but I'm definitely not even close to bundeih.  I can feel the spirit helping out with the language a ton! There's no way I could learn the language this fast without the Spirit's help!

Today we went to Big Buddha! We took the glass cabin way. It's a gondola with a glass floor! Totally worth it! Awesome! Super fun! We invited a man named Howard.  He is a tour guide so he showed us a lot of things and he has a little interest in the church. He is super busy because it's high season in Hong Kong but now he knows we are normal, fun people so I think he'll be able to find some more  time! 

Tsuen Wan is a great place! There are so many people here that need to hear the gospel. I'm so thankful for the opportunity I have to be "God's hand" as he extends it towards the people of Hong Kong.  Love you all!!

Love, Elder Zach Cederlof