First Transfer

My first transfer is already over! I am staying in Pok Fu Lam, which I am
so happy about! President Lam usually keeps people in an area for a while,
so I do not plan on leaving for at least a few more transfers. My ward is
amazing and I love being on the island!!
This week we had flu shots, exchanges, and more exchanges. Since my trainer
is also a sister training leader, she goes to meetings to plan Zone
Training and MLC. So I got to go on splits with a sister from my MTC group!
It was so fun! We went finding one day and did Welcome Center the other
day. The Welcome Center is in Wan Chai and has the church's largest/nicest
chapel in HK. It's the international chapel, so they have meetings in
English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog, and Indonesian as well. We stand
outside the doors and pass out fliers, Books of Mormon, and try to get
people to take a tour. Most people are too busy/on their way to work/etc.,
but I love being able to see so many people pass by and offer them
something I know can change their lives. It is humbling as well, because it
is so hard to see people not take the opportunity or know how magnificent
and personal the gospel really is. I am grateful our role as missionaries
is to simply invite and offer the opportunity to come unto the Savior. Then
the Spirit and Christ's Atonement do everything else. I love that in our
church, we invite and exhort people to ask God. Real conversion happens
through prayer. It comes when we address our Heavenly Father in prayer,
have faith in His Son, and feel the Holy Ghost testify of Their reality and
love."For it came to pass after I had *desired* to know the things that my father
had seen, and *believing* that the Lord was able to make them known unto me,
as I sat *pondering* in mine heart I was caught away in the *Spirit
*of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which I never had before seen, and upon
which I never had before set my foot."
Last night we shared this scripture, 1 Nephi 11:1 with a member's mother
who is not a member. We talked about how we can really study the scriptures
to obtain personal revelation. We must have a desire, believe, ponder, then
pray for the Spirit to confirm, enlighten, comfort, or testify. I taught
the Plan of Salvation again to our recent convert, Jeung Ji Muih this week.
She had so many detailed, complicated questions regarding heaven, pre-earth
life, and other aspects of the Plan of Salvation. I tried to answer as well
as I could with my simple Cantonese, and my exchange companion answered
beautifully. We explained and testified of doctrines. We do not have all
the answers. But in every single complicated or specific question, an
eternal truth can support and encompass that question and still give our
hearts peace. I think sometimes we expect the answer to an equation. Exact,
precise, and before our eyes: like a math equation on a white board. But
Heavenly Father wants to give us peace, the privilege of relying on Him,
and the opportunity to develop trust and faith and patience.

Alma 24:14: "And the great God has had mercy on us, and made these things known unto us
that we might not perish; yea, and he has made these things known unto us
beforehand, because he loveth our souls as well as he loveth our children;
therefore, in his mercy he doth visit us by his angels, that the plan of
salvation might be made known unto us as well as unto future generations."
1 Nephi 11:17 17 And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless,
I do not know the meaning of all things.
 
I, like Nephi, do not know the meaning of all things. But I do know that
the gospel gives everything meaning. Everything God asks me to do has a
purpose. My life has meaning. And because I have a Father in Heaven, and a
Savior, I can understand the portion of the gospel that I need. 
Sometimes I can't see the entire pathway before me, but I know it is
there, and it is strait and narrow. And it leads to my eternal home. I am
thankful that we can return to our Heavenly Father and Savior, and that the
way is clearly marked before us. Just like I hope to have a clear,
fool-proof, dependable flight plan to go home to my family in 14 months, I
want to have a path back to Heavenly Father as well. And I do. We all do.
Christ has laid that path. He will walk with us, light the way, carry us,
and bless us along that path.

--
*Sister Dopp*