The Stone is Rolling Forward!‏

Dear family and friends,

This week has been a good week. This area is prospering and we are finding joy in the work. Elder Hendricks and I have been talking with a lot of people everyday and are teaching people on the streets. A lot of times the people we contact are Mandarin speakers. So my Mandarin is definitely improving. It is amazing to see how humble Chinese people are sometimes and how the Lord has worked on them before. Not too rarely do we find someone who is very prepared and it is very exciting and spiritually uplifting for us.

I have been thinking a lot about our callings as missionaries recently. Through the experiences I gained from here, I know that God really does help us, EVERYDAY. The conviction behind our voices and the feeling of the Holy Ghost testifies of the real reason why we do the work: to guide His children to become as He is.

I am thrilled for all the emails friends have been sending me about their mission calls. I know that each one of us can be a big part of the areas where we are serving or will serve in. The stone is rolling forward and we need to prepare the world for the Lord. Get working everyone!

Love,

Elder Lee

New Area! Canto!‏

Dear friends and family,

This past week was the last week of the transfer! I got a transfer call and I am going to serve in the Markham West area with Elder Hendricks staring from Tuesday, speakingCantonese! I have been so excited since I got the news, knowing that I can finally serve in my first language and I am hoping that it will be a good change. I am going to miss Don Mills South and all the people that I have met during this time. I hope that my investigators will continue to learn and be baptized soon.

So recently, for a special reason, I grew in my motivation to serve. I am really hoping that I will always serve with all my heart and will not regret anything at the end of my mission. Time is passing by faster than I would like it to and I realize that I need to be push and stretch myself constantly to become a more worthy and trusted tool in the hands of the Lord.

So day-light savings was on Sunday. I got an extra hour of sleep and that was nice. However, Hong Kong is now 13 hours ahead of Toronto (it was 12) and if you want to chat with me you might have to stay up a little later now.

Have a good week brothers and sisters!

Love,

Elder Lee

Canto Work‏

Dear family and friends,

This week has been an awesome week with my first Cantonese companion Elder Hendricks. We have been teaching a lot and Cantonese work is definitely going to take off in the coming weeks. We found a bunch of new investigators on the streets and we would just teach them and pray with them right there. People will stare at us when we pray out loud in public but I'm totally fine with it. It's just part of missionary work, ha-ha.

Our area is HUGE! It is the entire west half of the GTA. People up here in Markham and Richmond Hill are mostly Asian and are generally more humble than the people in the Don Mills South area. Also, teaching and contacting in Cantonese is unpredictable because I can't really tell if the person we talk to knows Mandarin or Cantonese until they respond. I would say at least 65% of them are Mandarin. I have never felt so grateful for knowing Mandarin. Poor Elder Hendricks would just have to stand on the side for those contacts though.

I met the family of Elder Aldus Wong, who I met in the MTC. They invited us for dinner and we taught a really spiritual lesson. The ward here is great because it is literally a big family. A large number of them are related and they are very helpful in doing missionary work as well.

Anyway, that is about it for this week. Hey if you have any friends that lives in Ontario please let me contact them. I know that the gospel is real and it will help people find joy in life. Amen.

Elder Lee

2 months in Toronto!‏

Dear family and friends,

How are you all doing?

As of tonight I would have been here for 2 months! I am having a really good time here in Canada. We have been working hard and talking to a lot of people everyday. I know that I have the help of God as I speak and the Holy Ghost speaks the message to that person's spirit. It is humbling to see that some people's attitude changes from rejecting to welcoming as the conversation goes on. It is not my eloquence but my obedience that does the work. Those people are the ones who recognize the authority that we represent and power that comes from the Holy Ghost through our voices.

It has been really busy and I had no time to write in my journal this week. Our investigator Lenny is 

trying to quit smoking so that he can be baptized on the 3rd of November. We are really excited for him and hopefully by next week he will be baptized. I will keep it updated.

Have a good week everyone.

Elder Lee

October 21, 2013

Dear family and friends,

This week has been another good week. The work is still going strong! How are you all?

Something special that happened this week was the Toronto Stake stake conference. It was good to hear from the authorities and it was my first time attending Saturday night adult session. It was also exciting to finally see the Cantonese and Mandarin missionaries in the stake. There was a couple of them that attended BYU: Elder Moore, Elder Hendricks and Sister Hsiung! I also met Elder Lai that is from the Ma On Shan Ward back home. I can tell that they are great missionaries and it will be awesome to work with them in the future.

I also met a recently returned missionary, Nathan Lim, who served in HK and has been back for 10 days now. It was great to speak Cantonese with him. The Lim kids are half Chinese and they are just awesome. They always love to help the missionaries in the ward.

I am so grateful for the help that I am receiving everyday by our Heavenly Father. We have been teaching along with members a ton. I am thankful for the opportunity to learn the gospel in my life especially when I see the people we teach struggle with their lives. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the way that the Lord has set up for us to be happy. 

1. Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement

2. Repentance

3. Baptism by Authority

4. Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost

5. ENDURE TO THE END

I have come to realize more and more each day that this is the way of life that the Lord promises us that we can be happy if we live it. Trials will still come but you WILL be happy with you live it.

It's so real.

I know that this Church is more than just a religion. It's all about God. Being a member of His Church is not just showing a belief, but infinitely more importantly is to LIVE the life of a Saint, someone that strives to follow Jesus Christ and learn TRUTH.

Have a good week everyone!

Elder Lee

A good week!

Dear family and friends,

This week has been good! We worked hard and were obedient. My companion and I achieved something in the mission called the Standards of Excellence. We have been working hard since the start of my mission and finally we achieved it this week for the first time. The Lord has promised our mission that if we are obedient we will achieve it and it has strengthened my faith in Him that He keeps His promise.

We doubled our teaching pool last week and now we are pretty busy teaching. We are truly grateful for the progress that we are seeing in our area. We are going to try our best to help them go into the waters of baptism.

We taught a lesson yesterday that was filled with the Holy Ghost. He gave us revelations of what we should say to them during the lesson. I know that Heavenly Father cares about the area and He truly gives us revelations of how we can help our investigators. This is His work.

Sorry for the short letter. Hopefully there's more time to share this week. 

Love,

Elder Lee

Conference Week‏

Dear family and friends,

This past week was a special week because of General Conference. All the work is done focusing on conference. We invited everyone to come and watch at the chapel or watch it online. We would just go up to a person on the street, introduce the prophet and invite them to church.

I have never been so excited about conference. As a missionary, I realize that what they teach during general conference was what I am going to be using in my teaching appointments. There were many talks that were inspiring and quotes that I am absolutely going to use when I teach. 10 hours of watching conference went by very fast as I enjoyed all of them a lot.

Our investigators have been progressing and two of them had set a date for baptism this month. We will try our best to help them achieve that goal. Satan is working hard on them and it is so crucial to let them feel confident in overcoming temptations. We had three investigators attend general conference this week. Nancy (the old Jamaican lady) enjoyed it very much and although she does not have a date for baptism yet, I believe that she is very close. She had many concerns before watching conference, particularly about Joseph Smith, and they were answered very quickly during the first 10 minutes of it. Heavenly Father knows what needs to be said to everyone and he does it through the inspired words from the speakers.

So that's this week. Next week will be Canadian Thanksgiving so preparation day will be on Wednesday instead of Monday. I will be online at about the same time (11am-1pm) and the same email (ernest.lee@myldsmail.net) if you want to chat.

Missionary work is great, especially here in Toronto where you can meet people from literally all countries around the world. By the way, the weather is getting cooler but a suit coat is still optional...

Anyway, talk to you next week! Keep praying.

Elder Lee