Pressing Forward

Well, well, well another 2 weeks in the books! Time for a quick update! 


Weekly Highlights:

-We had 2 zone conferences and they went smoothly! Everyone is asking when I will be finished being AP. Some logistics got messed up for zone conference so we had to wake up at 5am and drive to Victor Harbor to pick up some Elders before we had to be back to set up zone conference!

-Elder Mitchell tested positive for covid.  It was 103 degrees on Thursday, as we were street contacting! 

-We met with a guy from Indonesia! He was super fun! We met up at this Korean fried chicken place and it was so fun to eat chicken and teach about the gospel over dinner! Fun memories! He reminded me of Steven Tan who is a member from Malaysia! 

-We had a lesson with Lihaiyi and Liyutong! They are the cutest Chinese couple! They are dating and it is the funniest dynamic during lessons! They are always trying to impress each other with what they remember being taught! They went on a tangent about Hengshui middle schools in China before we could start the lesson. But we were able to teach about the restoration! And we made it to showing them the “ask of God” video in Chinese. As they watched, they had the most priceless facial reactions! I had to stop watching them to keep from laughing! I just have never had anyone so engaged, invested, and have funny facial reactions during the Ask of God video!

-We had a lesson with Adam and he is struggling to understand some of God’s laws and commandments! We hopefully will be able to resolve his concerns so he can be baptized! 

-On Wednesday this week our plans for the day changed like 3 times! It was very annoying. It was mayhem in the office, but eventually we made it to Rundle Mall to street contact! It was a rough day of rejection. We attempted to stop about 130 people, but only about 10 stopped to talk to us and of those 10 none of them were interested. We had people swearing at us. We had someone walk by us when we were in a conversation with this Chinese lady and yell, “She is too polite to say no.” We calculated that we walked about 4.2 miles in total up and down that mall haha. But it gets even better….we were towards the end of the mall and we turned around to walk back down when all of the sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a smoothie drink flying at me. It barely missed me and landed at my feet. It splatters all over my shoes and pants. I looked around for who had thrown it, but they had disappeared. I was a little nervous to walk back to that part of the mall for a couple minutes haha. Didn’t know what the next thing was I was going to be hit with. Fun times! It was so much rejection that it became almost comical at the end. But nonetheless it was a tough day in the mall. 

-We ran exchanges in Murray Bridge and we almost letterbox dropped an entire town 15 minutes outside of Murray Bridge! We did it in the hot, hot sun and I got a little fried! But it was a good exchange! There are some strange people in that little town of Murray Bridge! I enjoyed my time with Elder Kershaw though! 

-We had a good lesson with Shaun. Had the ward Christmas party that was okay. It wasn't much of a party haha. We had a lesson with this Vietnamese uni student. He bible bashed us, but just in an Asian way. He didn't use the bible, but had just all these crazy ideas. He claimed that he was God after we taught him the plan of salvation. He then went down all these crazy rabbit hole ideas. He eventually got to the point of asking us to join him and change the world. He promised that if we joined him, people would worship us. I then told him that I didn’t want to be worshiped, but that I wanted people to worship Jesus. He did a double take and then said we would be respected which would allow people to worship Jesus. Let’s just say that he was kinda crazy! He also firmly believed in moral relativism. He claimed that everyone has their own moral compass. It was so incredible to be reading so many talks from general conference and also to be reading the Book of Mormon and have all these modern and ancient prophets warn about the ideologies of this day and age….and then witness it first hand. 

-Elder Mitchell and I are putting so much effort into the mission and our teaching area and are not seeing the “fruits from our labors.” However, we are continuing to press forward with faith! It is faith stretching and challenging! But hey, I love a good challenge! 

-I am headed to Darwin this week, so the next email will have some good fun updates! 


Spiritual thought: 


Following up from last email's spiritual thought, I wanted to share this quote. 

Elder Richard G. Scott shared his feelings about Christ’s mercy in paying our debts: “Jesus Christ possessed merits that no other child of Heavenly Father could possibly have. He was a God, Jehovah, before His birth in Bethlehem. His Father not only gave Him His spirit body, but Jesus was His Only Begotten Son in the flesh. Our Master lived a perfect, sinless life and therefore was free from the demands of justice. He was and is perfect in every attribute, including love, compassion, patience, obedience, forgiveness, and humility. His mercy pays our debt to justice when we repent and obey Him” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1997, 77–78; or Ensign, May 1997, 53).

This shows how Jesus Christ saves us from the effects of sin and justice. 

But I want to also explain that Jesus Christ's atonement wasn't just to save us from the effects of justice but it also perfects us!  It does more than we could ever comprehend! We did not come to earth to just live, die, and return the same person. We came here to be changed. We came here to have our internal nature and character become like God’s. The only way for this to happen, is through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We must repent to receive the atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives! This is why the prophet is always emphasizing repenting and Christ's atonement! 

I read this quote and I think it illustrates this point. 

Elder Bruce C. Hafen explained that the Atonement is not simply God’s method for righting wrongs and satisfying the demands of justice. The Atonement is rehabilitative, a miraculous power that can help us change who we are: “I once wondered if those who refuse to repent, but who then satisfy the law of justice by paying for their own sins are then worthy to enter the celestial kingdom. The answer is no. The entrance requirements for celestial life are simply higher than merely satisfying the law of justice. For that reason, paying for our sins will not bear the same fruit as repenting of our sins. Justice is a law of balance and order and it must be satisfied, either through our payment or his. But if we decline the Savior’s invitation to let him carry our sins, and then satisfy justice by ourselves, we will not yet have experienced the complete rehabilitation that can occur through a combination of divine assistance and genuine repentance. Working together, those forces have the power permanently to change our hearts and our lives, preparing us for celestial life” (The Broken Heart: Applying the Atonement to Life’s Experiences [1989], 7–8).   


I love Helaman 5:10-11

10 “…He said unto him that the Lord surely should come to redeem his people, but that he should not come to redeem them in their sins, but to redeem them from their sins.”

Did you catch that? Jesus does not redeem us in our sins but he redeems us from our sins! 

11 “And he hath power given unto him from the Father to redeem them from their sins because of repentance; therefore he hath sent his angles to declare the tidings of the conditions of repentance, which bringeth unto the power of the Redeemer, unto the salvation of their souls. 


Repentance brings the power of the Redeemer! What a powerful phrase! 


Oh how we must sing joy to the world for the Lord has come!! “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace!” 


I invite you to take time this Christmas season to ponder why Jesus Christ is important and why you need Him. I invite you to consider how He has helped you and How you can draw nearer unto Him. I invite you to prayerfully and sincerely thank your Heavenly Father for the matchless gift of His divine Son! Write down the impressions that come. 

I promise that you will feel a renewed sense of gratitude and joy, as you focus on Jesus Christ this Christmas season! 

I testify that Jesus is the Christ! He is the reason for the season! He is the reason why we need to rejoice and suffer shame for His name! He is our light and why in life! He makes all things possible! His atoning sacrifice is the ultimate expression of His love. I testify that all that is unfair in life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ! In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 


Here are a couple photos from the last 2 weeks! 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7w9CCLZ7tuuqy78P6

Have a merry merry Christmas! Keep Christ in Christmas :)

Love ya! 


Cheers,

Elder Jones (zhang zhanglao)



















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