Dear People,
Last night I went to a Fireside, a conference of sorts, with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland as the keynote speaker. It was outstanding! He's a master of public speaking, and even though I was at a remote broadcast location (but still only an hour away from him), I felt so much power and authority in his words. He is truly an amazing person.
The best part, however, is that I get to meet him in person tomorrow! One benefit of being a Missionary is that lots of people take pity on me for being away from home, in a place where I can't read half of everything, and I've probably got parasites from the water, air, food, and living conditions. These people that take pity on me usually give me more food, but a two hour meeting with one of the fifteen most influential people in the organization I work for is just as good. I'll be sure to talk about it next week.
ANYWAYS
Elder Holland spoke for the 65th Anniversary of Missionary work in Hong Kong. He spoke of the early pioneers in the church from those times, and how all of us today are pioneers. Obviously it's in different ways; we don't wade through rice paddies to find people anymore, we don't build chapels with our own hands these days, and we certainly don't stumble across hidden villages in the jungle as often as they used to, but we are still pioneers in three specific ways.
First, like all generations of the Lord's people, we have been called to "flee Babylon", to leave behind the evils of the world, forge our path into the wilderness, and create our own bastion of virtue. In ancient times that involved leaving Egypt and wandering for forty years, but even Jerusalem fell. What makes us special today is that we have the call to turn against "Babylon", to fight it and to ensure that righteousness stands firm.
Second, we are pioneers because we live in the greatest period of time in the history of the world. We have the promise that our efforts will not fail, that we will succeed in establishing "Zion", the place of God's people, and that He will accept our efforts. We can take comfort in knowing that our homes can become strongholds of righteousness, places of safety against those who desire to bring us down.
Third, we are the first period of time called to prepare the Church to be recognized, endorsed and accepted by Jesus Christ. No other group of God's people has had this challenge, and we cannot fail at it. We believe that Jesus Christ will come again to the Earth, and that He will personally require an accounting from each of us in furthering His work.
Hopefully the meeting gets put online somewhere so that you can hear his words.
The work is moving forward in Yuen Long. Soccer Star said the words "I want to be baptized" (the word for "want" being "要", the same character for "need"). He's scheduled for my last Sunday in Hong Kong, so it's looking like we're going to have a fantastic end to this chapter of my life. Dog Lady and Roommate are getting closer to baptism; we finally showed her in the Bible and Book of Mormon where it proves that animals do not burn in Hell (whoever dreamed up that false idea was an evil genius), so we're hoping we can give them a goal to be baptized.
Overall, I love everything! My comp is great, my area is great, my bike is great. Everything is good. Let's just keep praying that I keep going strong and finish up with a bang!
Love,
Elder J.E. O'Gara
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