The Hope of Israel!

It's been so wonderful to receive the words of my brother counterpart now serving as Elder AJ Lim. His powerful experiences and the changes that he is seeing in himself help me to recognize what a miracle my mission has been in my life. It helped me to also recognize how grateful I am for life, for my family, and for the gospel of Jesus Christ that make them full of joy. I know that the spirit AJ is experiencing is real and that the work that we are part of is the Lord's. I am impressed by his preparedness to be a missionary and to have a good attitude about the work he is doing now.
We had an amazing experience yesterday! We had an hour between appointments to do some finding, so we decided to test out a new Family History Survey contacting approach. The first door we knocked the lady was not interested in talking about her family history at all, but she said we could come back and share a message about Christ. I almost gave up on the family history thing right away. As we walked up to the third door I remember thinking to myself, I have seen so many miracles on my mission, I'm ready for another miracle now! A man in his mid 70s opens the door and invites us right in. I asked if we could sit for a few moments to conduct the survey and he agreed. We had a great conversation about him and his family, and he expressed interest in having us come back to help him use familysearch.org! At the end of the survey there are a few questions about beliefs about family and the next life and we discovered that he doesn't believe in God, and he doesn't believe that we have spirits. I believe that finding his ancestors will help him recognize that he does have a spirit, and that God does have a plan for him. Family history will be the gateway to the Holy Ghost for many people living on the Earth today.
The youth in our ward responded to our invitation to go help the missionary effort at the temple visitor center for the festival of lights. They paired up with missionaries, helped greet visitors and guests to the center, and did a lot of other jobs to supplement the work that the sisters usually do in the VC. Yesterday they got up in fast and testimony meeting to report their experience on Saturday evening. One young man told us with tears in his eyes that despite facing rejection by some, he got to talk to a man that was interested and give him a book of mormon. The young man proclaimed that he now has a great desire to serve a mission. Elder Peterson and I were so happy for him that we got teary. Many other youth stood up to share similar experiences and gratitude for missionary work. A parent of one of them stood to declare that these youth are more choice than any that have ever lived, and that we need to rise to the calling to be better parents to them to face the troubled world that stirs in turmoil. They are the hope of Isreal, Zion's army, and they are amazing.