Family and Friends! :)
How are you? Have you eaten rice yet? I hardly ever heard this my whole mission, until this week where i heard it over a hundred times... but... people have been telling me this whole week that i look really tired... then they say " Are you eating Rice?" " If you dont even rice you cant even have energy to walk!" so i tell them " i eat rice about once a day... but most the time im eating noodles, so its just about the same right?" to which they respond " NO! You have to eat RICE! If you dont eat rice you wont get your energy back! eat more rice! " ... surprisingly... just about that exact convorsation happened at least 10 times this last week I love Hong Kong! So... Remember to eat your rice! its alot more important than you think!
This week was SO amazing! the biggest part is.... Elder Holland came to talk to our mission!!! It was SO awsome! The mission took a picture and then we all lined up to shake his hand. When it was my turn i shook his hand and he asked "Hello Elder, How are You?" ... at this point i could not contain how happy/in awe i was... so i stutteringly answered (We were told to tell him our name and where were from) " Im Elder Wright, From St. George" completely missing his question... or asking him the same like i wish i would have... then he said " oh... We got a couple from st.george here" then moved on I shook his wife's hand Elder Jensen ( the seventy) and his wife, and Ending at President Chan with his wife... Its so amazing! i just shook their hands... but at the sametime... ive not felt more love from anyone ever my whole life as I did with them! Except my Mom of course. Love you Mom! So then we went into the meeting room and heard Elder Watson, and Elder Jensen speak a little bit about what we are doing out here on our missions... and what we should be learning from them, how we should be changing, and what this time is supposed to be shaping us to become. Then Elder Holland spoke to us. I cant even begin to say all the amazing things he talked to us about. But, the first thing he did was walk off the stand and asked if it would be okay to speak down there... and as he walked back and forth... He told us how much he loved us. How much he respects us, and how much he wants us to love our missions. He told us how much he loved his mission and how it meant Everything to him. How not a day has gone by where he hasnt thought about his mission in some way, or thought of something he learned on his mission. Then he told us that if we were to go home and turn our backs on what we have done, forget about the people we taught, and throw away what weve learned... He would "Hunt" us... " I will Find you! I will Hunt You! I make clint eastwood look like a boyscout!!!"... then he said " I say that because my mission was EVERYTHING to me... it influenced the rest of my life... it means Everything to me... and i say this because I only want the same for You"... He was So... powerful. I am 100% certian that everyone there Felt his emotion. Then, He taught us about what he hopes our expectations are, and what They expect from us. "God is hastening his work... and We Must Follow" " we can do more. We must do more" ... I cant say all that was said in the meeting... there is no time... but... That 2 hour space of time. Changed my life. He told us that what we do after is what matters. When we go home... are we going to use what we learned? " This cant be and 18 month mission or a 24 month mission... This is Expected to influence your whole life... this is eternal... god expects the same from us as we hope for the people we teach... to do a little more, push a little harder, change for the better, and not for just 18 or 24 months... forever" That night... i wrote for a whole hour in my journal ( even a little longer) and filled at least 4 pages... So amazing. Then! after the meeting me and Elder Yeung had to rush off for a lesson... so we ran downstairs and he used the restroom... i was waiting outside in the lobby... when all the seventies and Elder Holland came down! they stayed in the lobby for a minute and then he had to walk down the hall i was standing by to get to their car. I was so... i cant even describe my emotion... i remember thinking. woah its Elder Holland... i wonder if he will wave when he comes by? i wonder if he will say anything to me! I was so excited just to be in the same room as him. ha... He has no idea... Then he starts walking to the hallway... i stand off to the side and smile and wave as he is walking up... Then... HE STOPPED! (WOAH! my mind... and heart was racing... ) then he shook my hand and asked me " Hello Elder, How are you?" i said " im Great! How are you?" then he says" Good. What is your name?" I answered " Im Elder Wright" (this whole time he is looking me straight in the eye... i think... in the face... one of the two) Then He responds " Elder Wright, Ya look good... You have a nice Smile,... and Curly Hair... " then he walked away! ... so funny! as he walks away leaving me completely shocked... i stumble out a ... "thanks!" with a Huge smile... ... so fun. So... yeah... That was one of the coolest things that has happened to me my whole life... hahah! Elder Holland is my Hero! one of them
So... now breifly in news this week... 3 weeks until transfers and i cant help but to anticipate its coming. I love Chai Wan and kind of hope i can stay... but there must be a change. Anyway! Sisters moved into our district and we have turned over all of our female investegators... so we now have Dennis and Kevin... who we just met! and we have a new kid Jacky scheduled on saturday! should be super cool! Linda is going to be Baptized on Sunday! Woo hoo! Pauline is doing awsome... Loved Elder Hollands talk to the members last night... OH! Elder Bednar came too! but sadly we didnt get to see him... He was in Kowloon speaking to all the young single adults and youth. we didnt have anyone to go with... so we couldnt go. oh well. Franky is also doing Awsome! she reads scriptures way more than she used to (daily... alot!) and loves coming to church! Awsome!... Dennis and the Chan Family will All come to church on sunday and see their relatives who will now come to the wan chai chapel from now until next year! so... thats cool too!
Everything is more than Good! Thank you for your prayers and all the support you give. Thank You!
Love,
Elder Mckay Wright
Elder Wright,
ReplyDeleteYou wont know me from a bar of soap.. but I sure know your family... I see your Uncle Steve.. and Aunt Teresa as some of the dearest people in my world, they and their family are like my own family (Steve taught and baptised me when he was a missionary)... in fact, your cousin Sydney in a month is coming to stay with me here in australia... I actually went on the famed 'Carlson Conference Campout' last october..
Your mum is on my facebook page.. and I have read a couple of your blogs now.. and I wanted to say a couple of things..
The real reason I wanted to drop this note... I returned home from my mission in June of 1993.. a long time ago! Something I often counsel with young adults on.. and testify of, is how my mission has shaped me ever since I returned home.. in fact, I was one of the first of my girlfriends.. and as they prepared to come home, I would write them a special letter telling them not to be afraid.. or think they were just starting to 'get it' and now they were going home.. I tell all and sundry.. that on your mission you are given the 'raw' skills.. and then He sends us home to 'hone and sharpen' those skills...
Last year, speaking with two sisters in our ward about to return home I told them that great things were going to happen from their dedicated service in the mission field.. if only they would remember that though the mantle is taken from them to go do other things.. the task and the calling are the same.. there are people in their home wards and stakes who DESPERATELY need their leadership, their testimony, their 'coping' skills that only a mission can teach... the experience they have started to have with personal revelation and obeying the small quiet voice of the spirit!
And here's one other thing Elder Wright.. we need our priesthood desperately.. as a single sister in the church.. I see how so many of our men.. young and old... today do not want to take that mantle and responsibility on.. how they let it 'lapse'... how they become 'sidetracked' to do all the things the world tells them they should..
But we need you, priesthood holder... to learn there on your mission, with your investigators, with your companions and the members.. how to be a true priesthood holder.. how to use that power and commission to lift, save and serve this world...
Your last blog talks about the opposition.. I am now the 1st Counsellor in the ward Relief Society... and I see that 'raging' opposition in the sisters.. their husbands, their families... it is only scary to me as a woman.. when I contemplate our good Bishop.. and other men in our ward.. not living up to the privilege and honour of the priesthood and exercising it in righteousness...
So.. I just wanted to say... hold true to the priesthood... and learn now.. in this 'unique' school of a mission.. how it blesses the lives of all of us.. me included..
It's an ancient saying, but God Bless You Elder Wright.. for the desire to continue down the path you are on...
please stretch higher... learn how much more you can give..
My life.. and the lives of my family.. and friends.. literally rely on that!