Trip Takeaways

1) A testimony is precious. As I visited with the people I had taught/baptized and I discussed the Church with them it because apparent that they had not nurtured their testimony and over time it disappeared. Their circumstances varied and all had encountered difficult challenges, but I think the thing that really made them vulnerable was that they quit strengthening their testimonies. The simple principles of daily scripture study, daily prayer, Church attendance, and service in the kingdom build up our faith and prepare us for trials. If we don’t do anything to grow our testimony it doesn’t just stay stagnant, it shrinks.
2) I love Hong Kong and Asia. For some reason ever since my mission I have had a fascination with the events, countries, and development of Asia. This knowledge helped in my internship a lot and tempts me to keep coming back to Asia. However, what I learned on this trip is that my love of Hong Kong and Asia is mostly Church-centric. I love to see the gospel grow in this part of the world and hope I can play a small part again at some time. In time I hope to return to Hong Kong, but am pretty sure now it will be for the Church and not for career or other aspirations. It would take A LOT of money for me to live there unless it was the Lord directing me back.
3) I love the USA and especially Arizona. There were so many things about Arizona I missed. Sure Arizona is blazing hot, but it doesn’t rain every day and isn’t so humid you feel like you’re in a shower all day everyday. I love open spaces and sunshine. These two at times are very difficult to find in Hong Kong and Arizona often provides in abundance. Just having a yard, fairly clean air, and living on the ground are a few of the things I have a renewed appreciation for after my time in Hong Kong. Finally, I love my family and being around them. We are so lucky that all of us live within two hours of each other in Arizona and are able to get together often. The idea of moving away from this blessing is not really appealing.
4) The Lord moves in mysterious ways. I saw this often in my work and my activities in Hong Kong. Often things don’t seem to go according to the plan we want but God is always watching over us and things will work out in time. Sometimes we must endure struggles, setbacks, frustrations, and progress takes much longer than we would desire, but in the end, things will be OK. I relearned that I need to trust God in all and cultivate favor with the Lord. As a missionary I often remarked that there was no rhyme or reason to missionary success other than God’s grace (at least in Hong Kong it seemed that way). This might be applicable in many areas of my life.
5) I’m sure there are lots of others but I’ve been blogging for a few hours and my contacts are getting fuzzy.