Another important
realization I came to is that this is all real. The people we contact,
look for, talk to, and teach are all real people with real lives, real
questions, real concerns and challenges. While we are all children of
our Heavenly Father, everyone is different, and everyone has their own
individual path prepared for them to find the gospel.
I
am still really bad at contacting strangers and finding people to share
the gospel with. It is something that completely disagrees and goes
against my personality. However, I know as a representative of Jesus
Christ, as I "at all times, and in all places, he shall open his mouth
and declare my gospel as with the voice of a trump , both day and
night," He promises "strength such as is not known among men." (D&C
24:12) I am grateful that through Christ I can find the strength to
become better at this weakness of mine, and that I need not be
discouraged when people reject, because I am doing God's work.
So
one cool, testimony building experience happened with one of our
investigators, Sid. Long story short, he dropped one of his classes
because he had already taken it in China, and by doing so (without
realizing it), became a part time student. His student visa said he had
to be a full time student in order to stay in Canada, so unless he found
another class to join mid semester this week, he would be deported back
to China. We met with him, and was extremely stressed out, frantically
looking for any class to join. We suggested to Sid that he offer a
prayer, and during our lesson, he offered one of the most sincere
prayers I have ever heard, promising God that if He would help him find a
class, that he would serve Him for the rest of his life. My companions
and I also said many prayers throughout the day on his behalf. Then,
later that day, we get a text from Sid saying that, after many
rejections from different teachers, he found a class to join (so he
could stay in Canada), and that he knows God truly cares about him and
plays a huge role in his life, and that he was so glad he has met us. It
was so sweet!
My Chinese is improving slowly.
The people at church are so nice (not just because they are Canadian).
After bearing my testimony in Mandarin during Sacrament Meeting, people
kept complementing me on my awful Chinese, haha.
But
I am so grateful for the opportunity to help others like him strengthen
their testimonies, as it tremendously strengthens mine. Even though it
is difficult to talk to people, or to learn Chinese, or whatever else,
it is experiences like the one with Sid that make that effort worth it.
Elder Holt
洪長老
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| Elder Holt and Elder Womack Photo Credit: Elder Womack |
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