This week went by fast as usual. Lots of things to be learned and applied. At District meeting we watched the learning and teaching movie clip. I learned a lot from that, as expected. I like how much he really emphasizes "to act and not to be acted upon." I think that is not only a principle in teaching, but in learning as well. As learners we have to be willing to step out of our comfort zone in order to act and not be acted upon. On the opposite side, as teachers we need to be inviting people to act and not acting upon them. I think as missionaries, or at least myself, want to be as efficient as possible. However, the "heavenly virtue" of patience is oh so needed. Sometimes I just want the people I teach, whether it be students, investigators, or trainee to get the answer "efficiently." Sometimes efficiency isn't the most important thing. It's the difference between a surface belief and a 4 levels down kind of belief. Learning to always be patient and allowing the person to act and not be acted upon is critical.

We went and visited a less-active member that we have never met before. I can't remember if I mentioned before, but at the Hong Kong Sports day a Tsuen Wan member, upon finding out I am serving in Tuen Muen, asked me to go find this particular person. We called and scheduled and she even invited us over for dinner. We invited a fantastic member, in fact, the Gospel Principles teacher. She actually remembered meeting Judy the 10 or so years ago when she was baptized and came to church. As we shared the lesson and discussed about the Gospel she opened up and started sharing about all of the things that have been bad in her life in the last 10 years. We shared about the Atonement and love God has for his children, especially her. She has some chingseui problems and so after the lesson we weren't really sure how we could help her. The member that came with us talked with the Relief Society to help organize some Sisters that would be willing to go visit her. She is 60's and lives by herself and she definitely would like some company.
Training has continued to be awesome! Elder Black, from my perspective is doing great! Of course, he sometime's gets discouraged with the language but that takes time. He is willing to learn and listen. This week I'm trying to give him even more opportunities to take charge of things to help him 1. Improve his language faster and 2. Help him realize that God, even with our weaknesses, will help us have success. I'm hoping that through giving him the "reins" in some of these situations will help him learn that lesson that is easily said, but very hard learned.
We met a man named Kenneth on the street last week. We talked on the street for a good amount of time and after rescheduling, closed with prayer. We originally scheduled him for 10 o'clock Tuesday morning. This morning we got a call shortly after 10 from him. He apologized for being late... I then asked him if we scheduled for today or Tuesday and he said, while checking the paper he wrote it on, "yih! haih ga le wo, well are you free today?" Having thought we were meeting today instead of tomorrow, he switched shifts in order to meet with us! It technically was a "gaau cho" but we learned a very important thing! He was willing to go out of his way, switch shifts, in order to meet with us again! We taught him this morning about the Plan of Salvation and he is already making connections on how these things will help him. He asked a lot of really good questions it was such a good lesson! His desire is strong, and is heart is meek.
I love this gospel and sharing it with others. It truly is such a privilege to represent the Lord in Hong Kong.
Til Next Week!
Love, Elder Cederlof

Every week is a good learning experience out here in Tuen Muen! This week I had several fantastic learning/confirming experiences. Training is still going great! Elder Black is picking up things really fast and is willing to learn even if he doesn't 100% understand why we need to do things the way we do. We can talk about it and discuss it and understand more about it. He has a lot of good insights and things and I’m grateful for the opportunity I have to be working with him!

This week we met again with Wong HD. We shared about missionary work and help set goals with him. He is a less-active that moved from Kwai Chung to Tuen Muen 6 months or so ago. He is really excited to meet with us and he still remembers quite a bit about the lessons and such. He is continuing to move forward at a good pace and committed last time that he would read the Book of Mormon every day, as well as pray. We will be following up with that this Tuesday.

We ran into a lady we met several weeks ago named Wam SJ. When we first met her she asked us what the difference between our church and other churches. We explained the difference and invited her to read the Book of Mormon. However, because she had just got her purse stolen a day or so before so she didn't have a phone. Upon hearing that we were a little disheartened but remained hopeful that if she is prepared we would run into her again. We ran into her again! But she said she was busy and just walked off. To our surprise, after a lesson fell through we went finding in the church area and ran into her a 3rd time! She said she had time and we gave her a tour of the church and shared about baptism! She definitely has been prepared by the Lord. When we were teaching about baptism and sacrament she said it just made her feel so warm and happy. It is amazing that she can already feel those promptings of the Spirit! She has said that due to her background, a part of her brain believes in Chinese gods, while the major part believes in Jesus Christ. Before we even invited her to be baptized she asked if we could give her a month to read and learn more so that she could fully commit herself to Jesus Christ! We will be meeting her again tonight!

As we all know, using all of our resources is very important. We learned that very well this week. One day Elder Black and I were finding and Elder Black had the prompting to go to a certain area. Almost immediately after his prompting, I had the feeling we should give out some English Class Fliers. A couple minutes later we ran into a group of moms and their kids who upon seeing us didn't look to happy. However, after telling them about English class they were all more than happy to talk. Not only did we have that group talk to us, but other moms (kids were just getting out of school) saw it and came over and asked what everyone was talking about and then we were able to invite them as well! The Lord has given us all of these resources to help others come unto Christ. In the right time and the right place they can be very effective in softening people's hearts and preparing them for the message of the Gospel.

Memorizing Moroni 10:3-5 in Cantonese definitely paid off this week! Normally on the street finding, we share the 2nd to last paragraph in the introduction of the Book of Mormon. When I ask people to read it they're usually fine reading. This past week however, we ran into an older lady and her 25ish year old son walking. Upon our meeting they ignored us but after a little persistence they were willing to stop and talk. We shared about the Restoration of the gospel and our invitation to the world. As I was opening to the introduction I had the distinct feeling to use Moroni 10:3-5 instead. I invited them to help me read it. (turns out the mom previously served a mission for another church) They both declined to help me read it and would only listen to me read it.  I was able to recite Moroni 10:3-5 and testify of its truthfulness. 

 ‘Til next week!
 Love, Elder Cederlof

Every week is a good learning experience out here in Tuen Muen! This week I had several fantastic learning/confirming experiences. Training is still going great! Elder Black is picking up things really fast and is willing to learn even if he doesn't 100% understand why we need to do things the way we do. We can talk about it and discuss it and understand more about it. He has a lot of good insights and things and I’m grateful for the opportunity I have to be working with him!

This week we met again with Wong HD. We shared about missionary work and help set goals with him. He is a less-active that moved from Kwai Chung to Tuen Muen 6 months or so ago. He is really excited to meet with us and he still remembers quite a bit about the lessons and such. He is continuing to move forward at a good pace and committed last time that he would read the Book of Mormon every day, as well as pray. We will be following up with that this Tuesday.

We ran into a lady we met several weeks ago named Wam SJ. When we first met her she asked us what the difference between our church and other churches. We explained the difference and invited her to read the Book of Mormon. However, because she had just got her purse stolen a day or so before so she didn't have a phone. Upon hearing that we were a little disheartened but remained hopeful that if she is prepared we would run into her again. We ran into her again! But she said she was busy and just walked off. To our surprise, after a lesson fell through we went finding in the church area and ran into her a 3rd time! She said she had time and we gave her a tour of the church and shared about baptism! She definitely has been prepared by the Lord. When we were teaching about baptism and sacrament she said it just made her feel so warm and happy. It is amazing that she can already feel those promptings of the Spirit! She has said that due to her background, a part of her brain believes in Chinese gods, while the major part believes in Jesus Christ. Before we even invited her to be baptized she asked if we could give her a month to read and learn more so that she could fully commit herself to Jesus Christ! We will be meeting her again tonight!

As we all know, using all of our resources is very important. We learned that very well this week. One day Elder Black and I were finding and Elder Black had the prompting to go to a certain area. Almost immediately after his prompting, I had the feeling we should give out some English Class Fliers. A couple minutes later we ran into a group of moms and their kids who upon seeing us didn't look to happy. However, after telling them about English class they were all more than happy to talk. Not only did we have that group talk to us, but other moms (kids were just getting out of school) saw it and came over and asked what everyone was talking about and then we were able to invite them as well! The Lord has given us all of these resources to help others come unto Christ. In the right time and the right place they can be very effective in softening people's hearts and preparing them for the message of the Gospel.

Memorizing Moroni 10:3-5 in Cantonese definitely paid off this week! Normally on the street finding, we share the 2nd to last paragraph in the introduction of the Book of Mormon. When I ask people to read it they're usually fine reading. This past week however, we ran into an older lady and her 25ish year old son walking. Upon our meeting they ignored us but after a little persistence they were willing to stop and talk. We shared about the Restoration of the gospel and our invitation to the world. As I was opening to the introduction I had the distinct feeling to use Moroni 10:3-5 instead. I invited them to help me read it. (turns out the mom previously served a mission for another church) They both declined to help me read it and would only listen to me read it.  I was able to recite Moroni 10:3-5 and testify of its truthfulness. 

 ‘til next week!
 Love, Elder Cederlof

Last week was quite an exciting week! With all of the activities going on I was feeling "thirsty" for finding. However, all of the activities definitely had their uses. The Hong Kong wide activity day was a fantastic way for members, less actives, investigators, and missionaries to bond. It was also a good opportunity to see past investigators and converts to see how they are doing and to continue to support them.

The Monday meeting in Wan Chai definitely was a special opportunity to go and "actively" listen. (As Sis. Wong would say) I love seeing, and meeting leaders of the church. (It’s best when you don't meet them in the bathroom) It was a good opportunity to strengthen my testimony and to ponder about things that they taught.

Thursday Temple Day was amazing as ever! It was Elder Black's first time going to the Hong Kong Temple and I’m glad I was there to experience it with him. Going to the temple always just gives me an extra-boost on life and helps me keep going. I'm so grateful we have the opportunity to go there every single transfer! Definitely a HUGE blessing!

We went and visited some less active members this week! What a special opportunity! The first lady we went and visited is an elderly lady with cancer. Her cancer limits her from coming to church; we also found out that our ward takes her the sacrament every week. (Our ward mission leader says she counts as less-active but I think we need to double check on that) Besides her, no one in her family is a member. When we visited we shared from 2 Nephi 4 and talked about how God is always there with us. She shared a powerful testimony as well. Her faith is really strong. Due to her cancer, she has to go to the hospital three times a week. Nonetheless she continues to try to read the Book of Mormon and pray. She is an amazing example of enduring to the end and trusting in the Lord. We also talked about visiting with her husband as well and sharing the blessing with him. We challenged her to share her experience with gospel, with him. It was a very spiritual experience being in her home.
The second person we visited was someone that the Kwai Chung Elders had called off of their list and he said he lived in Tuen Muen so they gave us the information and we called and scheduled him. He was pretty excited to meet with us and I see a bright future for him back in the church! We shared out of the Book of Mormon and then talked about Gospel Principles to try to see how much he remembers. He still remembers quite a bit. I'm very grateful for that opportunity to be able to meet with him!

Serving in Tuen Muen we ran into someone I think you've heard of before. John Atkinson. I remember Elder Townsend talking about him but I didn't know what he looked like and just before meeting up with someone we scheduled we passed him and he turned and started talking to us. Apparently in the past, he has had some more heated remarks but to everything he said we just shared our testimony with him about how we know it is true. The power in a testimony is powerful. Once he figured out we actually had a strong testimony in the things we teach he stopped trying to 'teach us.' 2 Nephi 9 teaches us that unless our knowledge doesn't do us any good if we don't listen to God and His teachings. I could see how much that is true and how important that principle is. If we don't hearken to Him, our wisdom is foolishness.

I love being in Tuen Muen and being able to work with the members and ward leaders; and I love training!

‘til Next Week,

Elder Zach Cederlof

Hong Kong Sports Day (with Addi - 1st baptism)
 

 

This past week has been busy! I feel like a lot has gone on since last p-day. We have been busy! Training has still been going really good! I love all of the new things about it. I'm soo thankful that the Lord trusts me enough with this responsibility. Elder Black's chinese is improving at a good pace. He is really willing to work hard and be diligent in learning the language and other missionary responsibilities. He is adjusting very well to the missionary lifestyle and is able to maintain a positive attitude as well. We have been working with the bishop and ward mission leader on helping prepare for the 40 day fast and card idea in order to bring more unity and a spirit of missionary work into the Ward. I really love our bishop. He is very humble and just a very personable person.

Allen is doing awesome! We met him three times last week including the time we bumped into him on the street. He didn't have much time when we ran into him but he was willing to reschedule. The first time we met him we got to know him a little bit better and shared about the restoration. He really connected with it. He himself doesn't have too much of a background in religious stuff but he has a strong desires. He really wants to know if its true. We invited him to read the Book of Mormon and then re-scheduled him for 2 days later. By the time the second "sit-down" lesson came, he had already read from the very beginning to 1 Nephi chapter 19. He said whenever he has some free time he will sit down and read it. He is awesome! For that lesson we decided to sit down and read with him to help us kind of know where he is at in comprehension and understanding of the Book of Mormon. It really is amazing to see how the Lord prepares his children for the Gospel. People come from a wide variety of backgrounds, but the Lord still can and will prepare them. 

 

This week I've continued to ponder about the true meaning of obedience. The power of obedience is unreal. The more I come to understand it the more I pursue the quest. That is a very important principle, just like if we want a stronger desire to share the gospel, we need to learn more about the Atonement of Christ. It is very interesting to think that no matter how much we've learned about the gospel, there is so much than we can even imagine. 

 

One thing I learned in Personal study that I thought was interesting was in end of Alma chapters to Helaman in which there are a bunch of wars and the wicked leader sends a letter back and says that he knows he is in the right. It made me think back to when it was said and happened that people would kill in the apostles and do it in Christ's name. It is interesting to me how people can be that blinded. I've met several people on my mission like that as well and it truly is sad to see that and do everything you can to help them, but they reject. However, the light seen when helping someone come closer to Christ is pricelesss. No matter how strong the opposition is in this world, no matter how much control satan has on people, the light of Christ is more powerful. Only through Him can we resolve our problems, trials. I'm so thankful for this gospel and all that it has done for me.

 

Til Next Week,

Love Elder Zach Cederlof

 

 

I am loving every minute out here in Tuen Mun training! Even after just a week I have learned a lot and have had a lot of great experiences. The beginning of the week started off a little bit slow but through diligence we were able to finish off strong! Thursday was quite the eventful day! We felt the need to go finding over by some chyun uk's. After finding there it was apparent that that was an inspired decision. We ran into several people that were willing and happy to talk to us about the message of the Restoration. On our way out of that area after saying a prayer, I had the prompting to talk to a man walking towards us on the right side. We talked to him; however, he brushed us aside quickly. Happy with the opportunity to have received a prompting and then to have followed it, we turned and started walking the other direction. Our path intersected with a mom of a 7 month old baby. We started talking about families and how the gospel can help. Immediately she showed a lot of interest. If we wouldn't have followed that first prompting and talked to the man in the red shirt we definitely wouldn't have run into mom. However, the Lord truly knows the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end. We rescheduled the mom and met her the next day at church. The lesson went very well. We invited a recent convert to come teach with us and it ended up working out very well! In fact, she accepted a baptismal date for the 5th of October! The Lord always blesses us! It also showed me the importance of trust in the Lord. Being a trainer, sometimes it's kind of hard to know exactly how much to step in, such as while finding or doing phone calls. But I've decided to put the trust in the Lord and do it His way, doing all I can to help Elder Black become the best missionary he can be, and I have definitely seen the Lord's hand in it. I'm definitely very grateful I had an awesome trainer (Elder Tong) because I can use the same principles he taught me in teaching Elder Black. This is such an exciting time right now and I love just being able to share the insights, tips, skills about missionary work with Elder Black. But it isn't just a one way thing; Elder Black has also taught me a ton of things such as the true meaning of the "Gift of Tongues”.  It's really an amazing thing to witness someone diligently working, testify in a language they aren't too fluent in, and feeling the Holy Ghost.
   

We had a good sit-down with the other Tuen Mun elders and discussed some things about the ward such as how to do Less-Active and so on. We then talked about how we could strengthen the ward. We came up and discussed several very good ideas that we will be talking more about with the ward in ward council this upcoming Wednesday. The biggest thing we are going to talk about is the work of salvation that we did in Tolo Harbour and how we can apply it here.

The ward here is awesome! We got more time to meet with them this week and talk with them. Definitely a lot of very good people. The goal now is to take all of the awesome people, help each other step up even more in faithfulness, true desires, and unity. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be here in Tuen Mun.

Til Next Week,
Elder Cederlof

PS. Almost forgot, Elder Beal put wash in this morning during breakfast, then, during studies all of a sudden I felt some wet on my feet. After looking down, I realized our washer flooded! However, it didn't get to our suitcases, or Book of Mormons. Luckily with our tile floor there wasn't any damage, so we mopped it all up and called housing elders, and then went back to studies.