"When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren"
Hello Everyone!
How are you all doing?
We were very blessed this week in the form of less-actives. There are a few less-actives that have moved into the area recently. They previously were unwilling to meet with the missionaries, but because God has been softening their hearts, they let us schedule them this week. We had two very good lessons with them and were able to bring along some members to help. They loved the member and I can already see the friendships beginning to form. God loves His lost sheep and when the ward really truly starts to take care of them, that's when we see miracles. Tsim Sha Tsui ward sometimes has a mindset of "figure it out yourself and I'll figure it out myself." Which leaves a lot of people feeling unloved and unwelcome. I've been studying and praying for days trying to figure out how i can help the ward have more unity and love. I think i finally found my answer. It's kind of a no-brainer.
As i was ready the Book of Mormon this week, I read the story of Alma and Amulek and I noticed something int he chapter that i hadn't noticed before. in Alma Chapters 14 and 15 we learn some more missionary adventures of Alma and his member-present companion, Amulek. They finally see some success after some miracles, but then the people they converted get murdered and they get thrown into jail. After miracles happen at the jail, they escape to Sidom and there they find some of their convert refugees. I cannot imagine how stressed and tired they both were at this point. They tell the refugees what happened to their families and then begin establishing the church there is Sidom. As soon as Alma gets the church settled, priests ordained, people baptized, he realizes that his companion, Amulek, is looking pretty bad. Amulek has literally just lost EVERYTHING because his belief in God and Jesus Christ. He's seen murder, he's had to tell the families of the people that were murdered about their deaths, he has to help with establishing the church and along the way he's performing some healing miracles. He's having a pretty rough time. So, in verse 18 (the most important part of me telling this whole story) we read, "..Alma, having seen all these things, therefore he took Amulek and came over into the land of Zarahemla, and took him to his own house, and did administer unto him in his tribulations and did strengthen him in the Lord." Alma, the set apart missionary, administers to his member present companion and strengthens him in the Lord so that Amulek has enough strength to keep doing the work that God needs him to do.
So, my answer is that I need to spending more time lifting up my member and helping them through their trials os that the Lord can trust this ward enough to give us new investigators. I will also be spending time repenting for the neglect that i unintentionally showed them. I should have been more selfless like Alma. I need to be better. I am not a perfect missionary, nor will i ever be but i can always do better than i have been doing. God just needed to remind me that i need to strengthen the sheep that He's already given me before He can give me more sheep to love and nourish.
I hope that you all have had a fantastic week and that you are looking for the people who are in need of your nourishment in your wards. The missionaries are just two sets of hands. If one member helped out one other member, there would be a lot more hands serving than just the missionaries and there would be a lot more people converted to this Gospel. Please pray about someone who needs your help and take care of the sheep that God has asked you to care for.
I love you all so much. Be safe and trust God.
Sister Adams
#blessedtobeamissionaryinhongkong
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| Sister Mindy Mint and her companion Sister Villasin |
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| Sister Mindy and her "super cute district" at the temple |
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