"My Duty to God"

This has been another record breaking week. I am so grateful for the hard work that we have been able to do and the blessings that Heavenly Father has provided to us. We continued to get a good number of investigators and Church, and had a full week with lessons. We came home each day, exhausted but happy. We hope to be able to keep it up this week.

Well, Elders Stone, Mattox, Morgan and Sister Richey headed home today, so I am now the oldest (longest serving) missionary in the mission! It is unbelievable how fast time has gone by. From being a greenie, till now, I have learned so much, and am continuing to learn a lot each day.

I have had a problem with getting along with one of the Elders in my Zone, and I thought that it was all his fault. But, after another disagreement and a heart to heart talk with him, I came to understand his point of view, along with his feelings. It's something really important to learn as a leader, that listening is a lot more important than just telling.

Leo Kong is scheduled to be baptized this Saturday, which is exciting as usual. The other Mandarin Elders have three, which will be great! Along with that, Helen is progressing along well. We first met up with Helen last week. She loves Church and has already made some good friends. We have high hopes for her (better not jinx it though). I am glad that there are people are truly are ready to hear the gospel. It reminds us that there really are people out there who are searching for the truth. Sometimes, they just don't know that they are!

We got to watch General Conference this weekend, though we didn't get to watch all because I had to go to the doctors, then had to run between the English and Mandarin sessions because we wanted to watch it in English, but had to take care of our investigators in the Mandarin session. Tried to watch a session in Mandarin, but it was really hard to understand. Most of the talks flew right over my head. Shows that I have a long way to go with the language.

I especially enjoyed and was moved by the talk "The Divine Call of A Missionary" by Elder Ronald A. Rasband. He said:

Elder Eyring bore his witness to me of the love of the Savior, which He has for each missionary assigned to go out into the world and preach the restored gospel. He said that it is by the great love of the Savior that His servants know where these wonderful young men and women, senior missionaries, and senior couple missionaries are to serve. In the preface to section 14 of the Doctrine and Covenants, it states, “Three of the Whitmer sons, each having received a testimony as to the genuineness of the work, became deeply concerned over the matter of their individual duty." To John and Peter Whitmer Jr. the Lord said this: “For many times you have desired of me to know that which would be of the most worth unto you.” I suppose many of you young men have asked yourselves that same question. Here is the Lord’s answer: “And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father.

It is a wonderful privilege and duty to be able to serve the Lord. My duty to God is also my duty to myself. I hope that you all have a great week!

-Elder Chua