From the Land of Miracles

Something more than a miracle:

ok, so for the last month or so we have been teaching an amazing family. the oldest daughter was just baptized about 2 weeks ago now and we are working with the mom and other daughter right now and getting them ready to be baptized. i love them to death. seriously. i feel like they are my family here in Hong Kong. The mother (sister Lam) has smoked since she was very young and so we decided we were going to help her stop. this is no small task. i have never helped anyone quite smoking before. people who smoke have a different way of life. it literally revolves around smoking. to stop is nothing short of a miracle. well, we are missionaries and we see miracles everyday, so we figured with God on our side, we could do it. the church has a smoking plan that goes for 7 days where they follow 15 steps everyday to help them learn how to be a "nonsmoker." it gets rid of the cravings and desire to smoke instead of focusing on just going cold turkey and using your will to stop. you need more than your will to stop smoking. you need desire, faith, patience, trust, self discipline and many other things. well, sister Lam has all these things and more. i studied the plan for a good 2 weeks, making sure that i knew how to present it, teach it in chinese (which was no small feat) and prepared to help her every step of the way. we also made sure she was ready to take it on. on top of this, i had a brand new missionary as my companion, who speaks beginner chinese. however, this didn't matter because sister hancock is amazing! well, we started the plan last week and finished this last saturday. Let's just say that with struggles and miracles every day, sister Lam quite smoking and has now been smoke free since she started the plan on March 6th. not only that, but the plan also helped her to quite drinking coffee which she has drank since she was a little girl. nothing short of a miracle. we are still working with her and making sure she is going strong, and she is set to be baptized on April 18th. God is truly a God of miracles. I can't believe it all happened. but it did, and it is all because of faith and the gospel of Jesus Christ. With God, so many things are possible. I'm so grateful i've had sister hancock with me through it all as she has been such a good foundation of faith and motivates me to do more and be better. she keeps me on my toes and i love it! We are loving this experience of being instruments in the Lord's hands, bringing our dear friends closer and closer to Christ, overcoming their challenges and finding true happiness and peace. it is the most satisfying thing i have ever done in my whole life.