I come home in 8 months! I've successfully completed 66% of my Mission!
You know what I did to celebrate?
I baptized a young woman!
The guy that was supposed to baptize her set his alarm for 6:30 AM on Monday - Saturday, so when he didn't show up on Sunday; the Bishop decided Elder Healthy's Chinese isn't good enough to perform the ordinance of Baptism, and before I knew it I had 7 minutes to throw on the jumpsuit and get in the water! It was so awesome! The very special thing about this whole situation is that the young lady in the picture was my first Baptismal Interview, so I was all sorts of involved in this process! Also, the family on the right hand side is from Mainland, the oldest daughter did the 2 Week Summer Missionary program here.
It's been an outstanding 16 months, and the next 8 are looking like they're going to be even better! I love the pace of the work here in Tai Po (ten lessons a week is a bit slow in this Area), and I feel like this is going to be a place where I really find my leadership capabilities and learn to shine! During our weekly reports last night I felt like some old grandpa/veteran, telling people how to work better and not make my mistakes, it was surreal to hear vaguely wise words proceeding forth from my mouth.
I'm learning a TON about how to be a leader, how to report things coherently, and how to gently, subtly, lovingly pry information from people who are hesitant to share their issues. I feel like Jesus probably didn't have this much of a problem with it because people could just feel His love for them and just wanted to open up and let Him in on all their issues and challenges so He could help them understand the best solution. I'm trying to be like Him, but it's definitely not in the near future. I'm just going to keep working, smiling, praying, and studying the Master's way of ministering.
See, that's why I love reading scriptures! There's always that One Perfect Example of what to do in almost any situation, and then a bunch of examples of people trying to be like that in other situations, and through the whole thing there's an overarching theme of love, charity, and hard work to keep you wanting to be like that. I'm not sure if I'll ever go back to reading non-scriptural books again (I mean, Michael Crichton died years ago, so what else can there be?), there's just so much to learn from the Bible and Book of Mormon!
Anyways, my time on the computer is almost up, so I'm going to log out. I hope you all have a good one, and that things keep going great!
Love,
Elder O'Gara
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