TELLING MY STORIES

Hi Mother and Family!!!  

Our investigators that are progressing both left for extended times. Our Chinese investigator begins sailing for a month out on the sea until he gets back next month. Our other investigator went to Europe for awhile during his break from his current job and the job that he will have in the future. We were able to meet with our Australia bound Korean investigators who accepted a soft invitation to get baptized. We will work with them to try to get them to be prepared for baptism before they go to Australia, that is the goal. 

This last week we watched general conference and it was really great! There was lots of great talks and inspirations about everything, especially marriage and the family. I am so thankful for the opportunity that we have to listen to the words of the prophets and the Apostles and their teachings and guidance for us today. We learned so much and were very edified through Conference. 

This past week as well, we were able to meet a few new investigators. One of them is the friend of the investigator going to Australia. The other one is a person that we met on the street who has interest in meeting with us to practice english for a little bit and then talking about church. They are both great.

On a different note, the phone contract in the mission ended...and so our phones could only receive texts and calls and not send them out...which was not fun from Friday night to Monday afternoon (especially when contacting investigators about church). Anyways, everything ended up being ok, but we started to appreciated the ability that we have to call other people. The world of the mission without cell phones....haha.

This week I remembered some words that surfaced in my mind from a time ago. I forget who said it. "My stories are not told here. It's not that they are unimpressive, nor because they are not interesting, nor because they are not full of courageous acts of awe inspiring integrity. Nope, that's not the reason at all. The reason that they are not told here is because if they were, they would lose their luster when they are told in Heaven." (paraphrase). Christ always taught that we are to lay up treasures in heaven. It's clear that although that does include materialistic things, it also includes things that we have done. Elder Ringwood (who is the President of the Area Presidency over this part of Asia) spoke in Conference about why we serve. Not to get titles, or to have stories told about us, but the real reason that we serve God is because we love Him. I hope that that is the motivation of all of us as we all press forward in which ever part of the vineyard we are working in. I know that God helps in His work. If we ask and rely on Him, He will do according to His will.

I love you all so very much! Thank you for your emails and prayers and encouragement!

Have a really wonderful week!!!

Elder William Strahl