Hello?

Dear Friends and Family,

Missionary apartment in  Shau Kei Wan

I sent off a few pictures finally. Sorry it took so long to find a computer that was compatible to hook up my camera too. I was unable to send all of them because afterwards the computer kind of freaked out and now I can't attach anymore photos. The ones I did attach are from a month or so ago when I went to Cheung Chau (an island that I went to on a P-Day) and then a few from random places, and then finally I think some of the last photos were of Dragon Boat racing that I saw in mid-September. I tried to hook up a video that I took of my apartment to show you, but it exceeded the size of attachments. Guess you'll have to wait for two years. Oh, and one of the photos, a building that is brown and white, with a highway running in front of it, that's my apartment in Shau Kei Wan. We're on the 15th floor.

It was a pretty good week this week. We did a lot of finding. I told you guys about "Motorboat Dave" last week, and he gave us a call on Wednesday and invited us to come play boats. We went for an hour or so, got to know him a lot better--he's not nearly as crazy as we make him sound, but I just think he's retired, bored, and likes practicing his English. We raced around a model tanker that day. Afterwards we went with him and got a bite to eat at a corner shop. Roasted pork and chicken on rice with vegetable broth on the side. Costs 26 dollars, which is about 3 US dollars. Standard meal that I eat 2 or 3 times a week.

Since we don't have a lot of money to spend each day--I've figured that I can budget a little under 50 HK dollars a day, including travel--we try to cook at least one meal a day. Often I make rice, scramble some eggs with onions, cabbage/lettuce, and little bits of sausage and then throw on some soy sauce. Pretty filling, relatively cheap, and tastes good. However, I also like to drink what little milk I can afford since its so expensive, and because it goes bad after like 3 days... So one evening we got home from 3 hours of finding and were going to make dinner. I settled on cereal with a few orange slices. Turns out the oranges I bought had gone partially moldy so I cut out the bad parts and ate the rest. Still didn't taste very good but oh well, I still had some cereal. When I went to pour the milk it smelled fine and looked alright. As I ate my cereal I was surprised at how not-soupy it was. I thought it was just because I had put in a lot of cereal and didn't have very much milk. I ate it anyway. Then, knowing that the milk had expired the day before, I resolved to drink it since tomorrow it would probably go bad for sure. As I drank it didn't really feel like real milk. Almost slimy-ish. Come to find out, my milk had curdled/was curdling... Probably the worst meal I've made/had in Hong Kong. I've now decided to buy SoyMilk which is cheaper. I can get 3 litres of Soy milk (since that's the package size) for the same price of one quart of actual milk (about 21 dollars).

Later in the week we were invited to a members house for a meal!! Whoohoo! That's only the 3rd time it's happened to me. She was really nice, her name is Sister N, is originally from Thailand but married a Chinese man. He is not a member, wasn't home when we were there either. We also ate with her inactive 24 year old son, and his girlfriend. I had the spiritual thought at the end of the night and shared on Trials and the importance of prayer. Unfortunately that was about all I contributed the entire night since I really didn't understand too much of the table talk conversation. Frustrating for sure.

Since I've started my mission I've kind of sworn off soda. I didn't have any of it in the MTC, but often members give us soda or meals here so that's the only exception. However, I made another exception this week when I passed a convenience store and was thirsty. I stepped in and went to the water, but my attention was drawn to a clear plastic soda can with "LYCHEE" written across it. I bought it. Pretty tasty too. It's been years since I had lychee!

One night while we were finding along a harbour promenade we came across a few wierd things. First, we saw a man walking his turtle. The turtle was the size of a mid-sized dog, and this man, if the turtle went a direction he didn't want it to go, would pick it up under its shell, hold it to his chest and coddle it like a baby. Pretty interesting. Then our attention was grabbed later when we saw a group of people standing near a stairway that led down to the water. We looked over the side of the protective wall and saw 3 boxes full of fish. We thought maybe it was the catch of the day for this group. Turns out they threw these fish, squid, crabs and whatever else into the sea while they started chanting and dancing. We asked a man what it was all about, and in a very bothered way he inticated that it was a Buddhist life-expectancy ritual. I think that's stranger then anything we Mormons do.

One of our best investigators, a guy I contacted the first week I arrived in Hong Kong leaves this week... He comes to church, learns a ton, very interested, and would be baptized if it weren't that he is going to Australia tomorrow for school. Too bad but we have his e-mail and will try to keep in contact and support him. The ward choir also performed yesterday. Very nice/interesting performance. 20 people (half the ward) got up and sang. And I'm sorry but singing in Cantonese doesn't sound all that great since it's such a choppy language. :) Still felt the spirit of the message though.

Got to go!

Love all you guys, have a good week!

Sincerely,

Elder Siebach

P.S. I've now been in Hong Kong for as long as I was in the MTC!

"Lay Ho!"

Hello friends and family,

Seems like I was just here a few days ago, oh yeah, I was. Kind of weird to have P-Day on Monday but I think I like the change. Even though it's only been 4 days or so, a lot has happened. A lot is always happening on a mission I guess. On Friday the "Price Duo" put on a free piano/clarinet concert at the church for all to attend. Missionaries from all over the mission came to listen to and be uplifted by good music with their investigators. That was a great experience, and in case some of you don't know who they are, since I didn't, they are a mother son duo, members of the church, who perform music, and just happened to be in Hong Kong last weekend for a Chinese music festival of sorts and made time to come be with the Hong Kong missionaries and members. I really enjoyed listening to the music! Earlier that day Elder B and I did some street contacting in Chaiwan; as we were walking through a park we stopped to watch some people racing little toy motor boats in a pond. It was interesting to watch and as we were leaving a man came up to us very anxious to show us his motor boat and let us try it. So, hoping to maybe get a potential investigator, we went and watched for a few minutes. He was a really nice guy, let us take the controls and maneuver the boat, but not really inclined to talk about religion. When we got home that night we told the other Chaiwan elders about the experience and they told us that "Motorboat Dave" is actually a former investigator. Had a nice laugh out of that. He invited us next Saturday to go watch/play again. I don't know if we will or not, but funny nonetheless.

Over the last week we have had two 1st lessons with new investigators. Going into both lessons Elder Bingham has asked me if I had the Joseph Smith Experience memorized yet, to which I shamefully said not yet. However, on Saturday I was determined during my language study to memorize it, or not eat lunch. So, putting mind over matter for the time being I crammed, studied, spoke, and did just about everything I could possibly think of to memorize it--I even tried singing it once while using proper tones. But finally I got it! As of Saturday at 12:30 or so my time I got the blasted experience memorized. So now I have the written form memorized. I say written form because that is exactly what it is. If they are following along in the scriptures I am saying it right. However, if they have no reference to read from, the written form does not make sense. Which means that now my goal is to learn the Spoken form. One thing that I have learned about Cantonese is that a lot of the spoken don't have characters, and a lot of the written is written in Mandarin grammar, and even some of the characters are spoken differently than they are read. This incredible combination with 7 tones is what makes Cantonese so hard. But I am up to the challenge, and so my new goal is to learn the informal spoken form so that during fast street lessons I can whip it out.

As could probably be expected, most missionaries in the Hong Kong mission are not from Hong Kong. The other easy claim is that most of them are from Utah. Another correct statement. But I bet you didn't know, that of the 100 missionaries here in Hong Kong, 6 of them attended Springville High School in Utah, 2 recently returned missionaries also went to Springville High School, and 1 recently called missionary is from Springville. Sufficeth to say, if you want to come to this mission, live in Springville. Or the other alternative is take Cantonese for 1 year at BYU or some other school. There are several missionaries who have also done that.

Yesterday was Sunday. A day of rest for most people, but a day of stress for missionaries who want to do their best to get investigators to church and build relationships with wardmembers. We had 7 investigators at church yesterday which was awesome! 3 of them were attending church for the first time. We managed to teach everyone and extended baptismal dates to 5 of them. That's pretty big success for us considering that so far we've only ever had 4 baptismal dates, and unfortunately for some reason or another, have fallen through or been postponed indefinitely. One of the investigators that came for his first time was actually an investigator referral who spoke of a security guard whom she knew that wanted to purchase a Book of Mormon. We were able to locate him the next day, and when we walked into the building where he worked, we actually thought he was mad at us. He was saying, "ELDERS, ELDERS, what are you doing here?" Trying to explain that we were looking for someone with the surname Gwan, he smiled widely and asked if God had sent us to him as an answer to his prayers. That was pretty awesome! He came to church, really seemed to enjoy it, has a baptismal date, and so does his friend whom he brought to church also! Unfortunately she doesn't live in our area though so we may have to have a turn-over lesson soon.

Spencer with Linda and Chuck Williams

Each week before church we have Correlation meeting at 8 o'clock. In this meeting we talk about our investigators and how we can best help them. Yesterday it just so happened that our missionary correlator was running late. So we were all just sitting around waiting, when a man pops in his head, looks around and says, Elder Siebach? I was taken off guard since I had never seen this man before. Then I remembered my mom's letter from last week telling me of members from my Southlake ward who were coming through Hong Kong this weekend! I had never met them before since they had both been baptized while I had been away. Turns out it was the Williams from the Southlake ward! I excused myself from the room and went down to the lobby and met Sister Williams. They were awesome! Just so happy, and they quickly told me parts of the conversion story. They also had a package from my mom to give me full of cereal, some candy and medicine! It was enormous and probably will last me, my companion, and our apartment mates until January! So thank you very much! Very thoughtful and nice!

With the package was a letter with notes taken from General Conference and announcements of friends of mine that are engaged, and others that are putting in their papers. So congratulations to Jacie Worthen and Haley Stoker on your engagements! I'm way happy for y'all! I love to hear what's going on in other peoples lives. Secondly, congrats to Jenna Goode, Sariah Morey, and Abby Meldau for getting started on those mission papers! I'm stoked for y'all. And remember my advice, if you want to get to this mission, rent an apartment in Springville, and take Cantonese this semester at BYU :)

As I mentioned a few times ago, I finished the Book of Mormon and have now again restarted. I got myself a paperback copy, with two different highlighters; red signifies Power or Authority, and blue signifies Faith or Works. I almost finished 2 Nephi today, but I have been impressed with how often I have to mark blue and red together because Nephi and Isaiah specifically mention how we get power from righteous works. Or how when people demonstrate faith, God will endow them with power. It's been an interesting study for me so far, but what I've really learned is that my works as a missionary need to be full of faith in Christ. Faith that he can soften hearts, that he can help my language abilities, faith that he can help me know what to say. Faith that he really watches out for me and wants me to succeed. When we first go to him having faith, he gives us power, and authority so that we can bring about success. I know that in whatever we are doing, doesn't have to be missionary work, if we first believe that through Him it is possible, he will help us, guide us, answer us, so that we can be successful in our righteous pursuits. I'm excited to keep reading and see what other things I find.

I wish y'all the best. With health, safety, and anything else you stand in need of. I appreciate your prayers in my behalf, I have needed and continue to need them.

Love,

Elder Siebach

Anyway, thats about it for the last 4 days. Elder B wasn't feeling great this morning so we didn't go anywhere until about noon. Not sure what we will do for the rest of the day either.

Another Week Down!

Dear Family and Friends, 

It is crazy how fast time flies! I can't believe I'm here at the computer yet again! I love that I can read the letters sent and update y'all on me, but sadly it means that one more week of my precious 100 or so has been completed.

I am alive and doing very well here in Hong Kong. I absolutely love this city! And I have a lot to squeeze in and talk about this week. First to answer a few questions posed to me: Mom, the church address is 118 Gloucester, Wanchai, Hong Kong. And the Victoria 1st is the branch the Williams' will probably attend. It meets at 9 on the first floor. I also meet at 9, but on the 5th floor so I might run into the them if I am lucky. Unfortunately I never met them. I was only present for Sister Williams confirmation. Elder Davis is still in Southlake? That's a long time! At least 5 transfers. Good for him though.

Spencer with Elder and Sister Lewis

As dad mentioned in his email. I met a couple here that worked as Temple Workers when G+G Siebach were Temple President and matron. Their name is Lewis and unfortunately I was so rushed to watch conference and then teach a lesson to some investigators that I never got to sit down with them and chat. Did get a picture though.

Conference was an incredible experience! I loved the talks and all that was said! My favorite was President Nelsons on "Ask the missionary, they can help" So many times I feel like I am spooning information to people. I would love for someone to come up to me and ask me any of those questions. It would make finding common ground and interest much easier. I also just felt so much love for every one who spoke. I couldn't help but smile as I sat listening and taking notes. True to what Dad, Sterling, and I used to do during Priesthood sessions, I had a bag of Haribo Gummi Bears and would suck and hold one in my mouth for as long as I could :). I was able to watch both morning sessions and both evening sessions in English so that was a huge benefit to me and my understanding. I saw priesthood in Cantonese, and though I can understand basic concepts that were talked about, I couldn't get the real "meat" or insights of the talks so I immediately afterwards read all the talks. Super good! My favorite moment in Conference was during the second Saturday session and they announce that Elder Gerritt Gong of the Seventy will be giving the Opening prayer. The humor in this is that seated two rows behind me in the chapel I was watching from was President Gong. I just looked back and he knowingly laughed.

Last week I mentioned a few changes to the mission. Two others that I forgot to mention: One is that P-Day is now moved to Monday starting next week. So I will be writing again from here in 4 days ( Monday Oct 22) so heads up and make sure you update me :) The other change is that we will now have temple day every quarter instead of every 6 weeks. This isn't huge by any means, just kind of sad since I really look forward to being able to go to the temple, especially since it is so accessible.

This past Monday was Zone Meeting and immediately following it we had Zone 24's. I was paired up with Elder B from Ogden, Utah. He serves in TseunKwanO (TKO) and is actually Elder A's trainer. He was always a little intimidating to me, but this 24 really helped me get to know him. With him that first night we did a little bit of finding. Turns out in our finding we probably walked in on a drug deal between two guys but that's ok. haha The best part was at the end of the night we were taking a little 16 seater mini-bus through the mountains to his apartment. The bus was rocky and creaky and the fast tight turns were enough to make anyone grip their seat in horror. The driver also had the radio on however, and in the middle of our drive Enya's "Only Time" came on. For those that don't know, I really like Enya. Especially that song. I was trying to think of the last time I heard it and made me stop and just think, that I probably never would have guessed that I would have that combination of experiences. I relished those 3 minutes of music, driving, and mountain scenery.

The next morning we got up, did our studies, and then went to the chapel where we were supposed to have a turn-over lesson. Didn't happen since the investigator never showed up. We went and got lunch at a gaaisih (street market) and brought it back the the church. I gotta be careful because I've only eaten at a gaaisih twice but I've gotten sick almost immediately both times. Afterwards the Zone reconviened in TKO and we had a zone find. I was partnered with Elder L, a half-Chinese elder from Toronto, Canada. Really nice guy and a missionary I really respect for his patience and kindness. During the find we taught a really good lesson and contacted a bunch of people.

As I mentioned last week, I woke up sick last P-Day. After I wrote it just got worse and worse. Finally Elder B and I went home, I took 4 Ibuprofen and slept from 7:30 on. The next day and subsequently the last week I have been fighting fever, cough, body ache and headache/possible migraine. Elder B has been there right beside me with the same symptoms. Word has also been going around about a new strain of bird flu and so we think we may have gotten that. All I know is that for a few days it was the worst pain I'd ever been in. We did hardly anything, and when we did to things, we just got so worn down so quickly. It's a miracle we had the energy to go watch conference even. Anyway, I got a priesthood blessing that first day and am making a speedier recovery. Yesterday we went to the doctor and he recommended that we eat better diets so that we can overcome even quicker. I also bought some sort of Chinese cough syrup. Been feeling a lot better today than any other day which is good.

For P-Day today we took morning naps, and then showered, dressed, and met up with the Sister missionaries and went to Stanley, a place neither Elder B nor I have ever been. I snapped a few photos and hope to be able to send them home very soon. We also just tooled around the city and the markets. I got myself a few new ties since I'm getting a little sick of the same 9 all the time. Fun trip though, and after a few hours we came and are now writing obviously. Not sure what we'll do the rest of the day. Probably head home and buy a few groceries for next week.

A few weeks ago President Hawks encouraged each missionary to read Alma 17-29 which is about the sons of Mosiah. As I was reading this week I had a few thoughts that I wanted to share. First, I wonder if Lamoni's father's name was Anti. Just judging by the fact that he renames the Lamanite converts, but they were still under his jurisdiction. Not to mention he bestows the kingdom on his son Anti-Nephi-Lehi. Second is that I always feel compelled to answer Sterling's question about the why the Lamanites wouldn't take up arms against their brethren. In Alma 24 we read about this and my thought this time was about their Charity. They have pure love for these their brethren and they can't lift the sword to hurt them. That was further answered to me in Alma 26:32. 

In Alma 24:27 we learn about the deaths of the 1005 righteous Lamanites. What occured to me and struck me this time is that those 1005 are pretty much guaranteed Salvation. And while they died they did missionary work for the 1000+ converted Lamanites who were so struck by their wickedness that they too threw down their weapons of war. Through this experience 2000+ Lamanites were converted to the Lord, not just the original 1005. Definitely the workings of God, and as we know, we do not always understand his ways, for his ways are higher than our ways.

Lastly, last week when I finished the Book of Mormon I was thinking about the account of the Brother of Jared, how he saw the finger of the Lord and it was flesh and bone. How does that happen when Christ had not yet been born to recieve a body? And secondly, I know for myself I wonder what kind of physical progression I will have when I die. But it's never really occured to me what we look like before. What did we look like before? I always thought my Spirit would look like a baby since I hadn't grown yet, but I doubt that God spoke to babies during the great council in heaven or that a bunch of babies battled together during the war in heaven! I still don't know what we looked like, but that was were my mind was last week.

This past week, with sickness I think that we haven't been as productive as in weeks past. However, yesterday was a really good day since we had a lesson with 2 investigators. I think I have talked about them before. They are in their 50's or 60's and searching different religions. We talked about conference and answered their questions and then talked a lot about the doctrine of Christ and were able to extend baptismal dates to them. Both for December 23rd. A little ways off, but seemed right for them. When they came to conference one of them brought their little sister and she asked for a priesthood blessing from us. A somewhat rare event, but we were happy to give her one and invited on of the priesthood holders from our ward to participate. I think in total we had like 13 investigators at church this past weekend since there were so many opportunities for them to come. K hasn't answered his phone for the last 2 weeks so we haven't been able to contact him or get him to any of the sessions which is a real bummer. Not sure if we will even have a baptism for him. All we can do is exercise faith and hope he answers soon.

One last thing. P-Day is always interesting because on Thursday mornings other churches must know that we won't be out prosyelyting like usual because every Thursday without a doubt we have like 6 Jehovah's Witnesses missionaries outside our apartment with their board displays and magazines to give out. A singularly awkward event as we weave our way through them to the bus or train stations!

Hope all are well!

Love,

Elder Siebach

Hey There!

Dear Friends and Family, 

Another good week here on the Island! the weather is still very warm, and no Dad, we haven't had any rain in about a month. Literally. Still plenty humid and we've had more sunny days recently than when I first got here. So it sounds like conference was pretty awesome for everybody! Glad to hear it. And yes, my companionship got a text about 2 in the morning on Sunday about the change in age! That's crazy! And as a result it has made me think a lot about the girls my age who could go, but more specifically, Sterling. If he waits that's great. I think that 1 year at BYU made a big difference for me and helped me to grow up a bit. But then again, if it had been me in his shoes I would probably just go at 18. Did Sterling go to Homecoming either? Last I heard it was up in the air. Has it even happened yet?

That's sweet, Dad, that you're working with Porsche! The car looks awesome too! And yes, that weather sounds amazing, but for some reason I can't wrap my head around living in California. Who knows though, maybe.

So a quick update on my week. And unfortunately, my iPod, where I write down all the events that I want to share about in these emails is up in the Mission Office getting Mission approved--basically they take off YouTube and Safari. I regret to say that I still have not quite memorized the First Vision. I thought I would have more time this week to do that but got side-tracked with the million other things that I do for language study, namely reading Preach My Gospel in the Cantonese Romanization, studying flashcards, and working on my Sounds and Tones. Hopefully I can report that done by next week.

To answer Mom's questions, my comp's appendix did not explode and he is doing fine now. However, the last 3 days he's been sick with a fever and cough so we've had to take it kind of easy. Gave me a lot of free time to finish the Book of Mormon and then start and finish "Our Search For Happiness". Subsequently, I woke up this morning with chills, a fever, and a persistant cough...It wasn't enough to dissuade me from attending the temple though! I felt awful the whole time but it was also a good feeling because I got to feel the peace of the temple! It's such a beautiful place and one experience I always look forward to. Sister Bradford was also helping out in the temple when I went! I saw her from afar.

By the way, I was reading in this month's Liahona, and clarified that this same story is in the Ensign. It's called "Helping Youth Have Spiritual Experiences" and the last bold section talks about a woman in Hong Kong. Just wanted y'all to know that the Young Woman's President that they talk about is in my ward! Woot Woot. Anways, it's a good article if you have a few minutes to read it.

Sunday was really good this week! We had 3 investigators and church and afterwards we were able to meet with two of them, L and S. Had a great lesson about the Doctrine of Christ and then afterwards pretty much commited both of them to baptism. L would like to be baptized but unfortunately he leaves next week for Perth to begin his college studies so we're trying to put him in touch with missionaries there. S isn't living in our area, but is L's friend. Really wants to be baptized and we have that one scheduled for November 11th! Not sure if we will do it because we want to try to turn her over to the missionaries that live in her area as soon as L leaves... Still a miracle though! I don't mean to sound boastful, but L was the first person I ever approached in Hong Kong and actually listened. He looked rough from the outside, and my Cantonese was awful. I think I said, "I am a missionary. Do you have interest?" Something bad like that. But we've had a lot of success with him and his 3 friends that he has brought! Truly a miracle!

Sunday morning we go to church in Wanchai still and have Correlation at 8 AM. On our way there this last week our bus was having problems. It stalled 2 times on not so busy roads and then it stalled on the freeway... Kinda scary but the best part is that we pull off to the median and a rescue bus picks us up. The bus was absolutely packed and it looked like a little trail of ants migrating from one to the other! I'm sure it looked funny to anyone driving by.

You'll be happy to know that last week I actually managed to send off some of the letters I've been meaning to write! Sent off 9 of them. Each with a 3 dollar stamp...(that's only like 40 cents each!)

I remembered my camera today! Didn't remember my cord to hook it up to the computer though... It's a good thing I still have like 80 weeks or something to get them all sent off.

So whenever a new mission president comes in things change. Sometimes it takes mission presidents a while to completely figure everything out before they start making decisions. In the last week most of the new rules have come to fruition. I'm trying to be a good sport about it all, and remember that President Hawks is inspired. I'll follow his counsel whether or not I like it and try to like it though.

1. Never split from companion without DL permission (ok, fine).

2. Cannot leave Zone on P-Day without AP permission (hard since zones are so freakin small here!)

3. No Christmas music this year. (Not a huge Christmas music fan anyway).

4. Very few movies are approved. Even some church movies are not. (ok)

5. Never have two elders teaching 2 women (even if one is a fellowshipper) As a result we teach without one. The goal would be 2 investigators, 2 missionaries and one fellowshipper. (Unlikely to happen, but will try).

6. Shorts are only to be used for 7:00-7:30 exercises in the morning. If we have sports nights, or want to go Sports Finding we must wear jeans. As a result, no shorts on P-Day. (That hurts...)

7. Missionaries should not gather on P-Day in groups of larger than 10 (So no more Zone Activities).

So these are now in affect. Suits were going to be worn 24/7 starting on Saturday October Conference to next April Conference, but graciously have been left off until November 1st since it's still so hot here.

We went finding a few times this week and one night I had a lot of success! (I say I because we usually find by ourselves within the same area) i stopped 3 people, had a lesson with one, and had really good conversations with the others and got their telephone numbers! Hopefully we will be able to meet with some of them soon!

As was stated in my parents emails, language success is not necessarily in perfection. And good thing too because I am so far from that! Every day is still hard but I think my talking sounds and tones are doing better. And most of all, I can communicate pretty well.

Since I don't have my notes right in front of me I can't give you guys an absolute reference but I was struck near the very end, when Moroni and his father both talk about how God is still a God of miracles. And they list off miracles and gifts of the spirit. What hit me this week was the gift of tongues. I look at my progress and try not to compare it with other missionaries, and just remember that it is through Jesus Christ and the Spirit that I am able to do any of my speaking. They are the ones that buoy me up and help me and others understand each other.

Well that's all for this week. I'm sure I've left things out, but I hope y'all have a safe week and if anyone else is sick like me that we will all recover soon.

Love,

Elder Siebach

Again at the Computer!

Dear Friends and Family,

It's me again! Can't believe its been another week already! Hope all of you had a good week.

First off I want to thank the Tietjen's for their very generous package stuffed with all sorts of goodies! It had brought joy to many missionaries! I actually got that package a week ago, but I got it about an hour after I finished writing my weekly letter.

Few questions: By the sound of Sterling's letter it sounds like Hutch left choir? Who is the new teacher and where did Hutch go? I am also curious, where in Hong Kong is Sister Sng from?

Hong Kong "yuht-beng"

This past week was full! We had a lot of different things going on. I'll start with Sunday. At church on Sunday we had 4 investigators at church. Not as many as we had hoped for, but really good considering that Sunday was a holiday called "Jung Chaau Jit" or in other words, Mid-Autumn Festival. I don't really understand the purpose of it, but it's fun! Everyone is off of work, and they eat sweets called 'Yuht-beng" or mooncakes. They are interesting because they range in size from about the size of an Oreo to about the size of an orange. Inside they can have ice cream, chocolate, red bean, or lotus paste. When you eat it it feels a bit like eating fudge. Lotus paste is the common one and inside of those they often have 2 whole egg yolks. Some of the Chinese, and most of the foreigners don't like them very much, but I think it's pretty good. When you're in the mood for eating chalky egg yolk that is. :) 

Anyway, that was Sunday. And unfortunately no baptism. If you recall, a few weeks ago I told you about a former investigator who wanted to get baptized. Well, he came to church, came to play basketball with us, and then dropped off the face of the earth. He was much too genuine for me to think that he all of a sudden lost interest, but I do think that his parents don't want him to meet with us or get baptized. A very legitimate and common concern among parents with teenage kids. All we can really do is hope that in a few years he will come find missionaries again. However, amidst all this, I still consider it a miracle. I really believe that through faith and then work we were able to contact this boy, A. God had prepared him and brought him to us. The only thing that God won't do is take away someone's agency, or even the agency of their parents. Fingers crossed for him in a few years.

Oh, and sorry, back to the topic of church, I saw the Bradford's come into church this past Sunday as I was waiting for an investigator to show up. Looked like they were doing very well, and hopefully soon we will be able to have dinner with them! They are legendary here for having missionaries over for dinner. :) This past Sacrament meeting they also invited me to get up and bear a 5 minute testimony. It went pretty well. I'm sure my grammar was poor, but I communicated the ideas that I wanted to, and I rehearsed the Joseph Smith experience and what it means to me and can mean to all of us. I almost have the whole thing committed to memory in Cantonese.

Dragon Boat Racing

Since Sunday was a holiday, so were Monday and Tuesday. I'm not exactly sure if they were a continuation of mid-Autumn festival or not--I've heard both ways. Because everyone is with their families for holidays, you can have super miracles and talk to families, or just get shut down all the time because people just want to be with their families. On Monday we experienced the second option. We went finding at a park for a few hours and didn't get to talk to anyone! Kind of disappointing, but it was still an awesome day because as we were walking we walked by the bay and stopped to watch, with thousands of others, dragon-boat racing! Super cool to watch. They have very long, very narrow boats and then probably 30 people rowing inside. There is one person sitting down in the front of the boat and he has a big drum that he beats and the rowers all keep time to. People came from all over to compete in the races. Saw a lot of teams from the Mainland especially. That evening we went to the church, had dinner, and then went to Victoria Park hoping to maybe talk to some families, but if not, to look at all the festivities that they had set up. They had a ton of lanterns, a puppet show, music, and other props. I took a lot of pictures that perhaps one of these weeks I will be able to send home... To cap off that night they have a enormous fireworks display out in the harbor. We didn't go to it but we could hear and feel it! It was so cool to hear it echo off all the buildings and  even the mountainside. it also really lit up the cloudy sky with every color of the rainbow!

Last Friday (yes, I know I'm jumping out of order) was my favorite day last week! And it was because we met with Ken to play tennis! I've been bugging him to play for a couple weeks now! He's been giving me updates on the US Open and other tennis tournaments. It was a lot of fun! My companion and I played with him for about an hour and a half, and then afterwards followed up on his reading is going and preparation for baptism. I realized that it had almost been 5 months since I had held a racquet in my hand! Felt good to run and hit again! We haven't met with him again this week, but hopefully very soon.

Also because Monday was a holiday, the two Elders companionships that serve in Chaiwan went and played soccer with some of the members from our Elders Quorum. A lot of fun and a good way to get some exercise! One of the days this week, I think it was Monday, we were finding one night and about to head home to our apartment. The last lady that we greeted turned to her friend and told her not to listen to us. My comp talked to her a little bit and then she just went off on us. According to her we're all going to hell, we trick people, and many other things. I didn't get involved and just stood there while they talked. She was in a screaming rampage by the end. Pretty bad stuff. One thing that doesn't help here in Hong Kong is that of course, much like the US they know us as Mormons. Or they pronounce it "Mo Mun" which with the tones they they use for it, means "Devil's Gate". So many many people think we are this Satanic cult.

My favorite day this week was Tuesday. As I mentioned Tuesday was also a holiday. These holidays are Statutory Holidays which means that all the Philipino and Indonesian domestic workers are off work too! They all gather together in Black Man's Park and Worldwide. Both are in an area of Hong Kong called Central. The place is crawling with people, so very often the Elders and Sisters that serve in International work (English missionary work) will call in reinforcements. Every missionary wants to go do this so we pretty much invited ourselves to help. We went and at first I was kind of nervous. It's a bunch of women just hanging out, and to me they seemed unapproachable. However, I persevered, and talked to a lot of women! Got a lot of phone numbers, shared a lot of messages/lessons, and at about noon I was talking with one woman named E. She has a couple kids back in the Philippines and her brother is a member! She didn't have anything going on so I was able to get a 'pull-back' or in other words, get her to come to the church! My companion for the day, Elder B (who happens to be Elder Rostrom's previous companion), and I went with her to the church. Took her on a tour, taught the first lesson, she even said the closing prayer, and then introduced her to some of the Filipino church members. She ended up staying with them after we left, ate with them, and hung out! We also gave her a Book of Mormon, and she wants to come to church next week! So good! The Filipinos are amazing! So genuine, many of them are Christian, very easy to talk to, and when they are baptized they are so committed and firm! Super generous too! They always always always want the Elders to stay around so that they can feed them. Just very loving nice people! It also helps that they all speak English so they're easier to teach, and for myself right now, it's easier to feel the Spirit testify to me when I'm not worried about how my grammar and tones are. Such a good day for me!

Yesterday was also good. We turned over an investigator to the Mandarin Elders, and then we had two investigators turned over to us. They are two older women, and are searching different religions. We sat down and talked with them for about an hour, shared portions of the first lesson, but really just answered their questions and testified. The Spirit was strong in that meeting and you could see that what we were saying was affecting them. Best of all they are coming to conference in two weeks! I don't know what I'm going to do for conference. It will all be in Cantonese so hopefully I will understand enough, and then afterwards I'll just have to read the conference talks.

As I was reading this week what stuck out to me was 3 Nephi 28:29 which talks about the "convincing power of God which is in them." This is in reference to the Apostles that Jesus called in the Americas. I've been wondering how I can get more of that power to teach. I haven't come to any conclusions yet, but I definitely think that it comes from a desire to keep to Gods standards exactly so that he can endow us with power. I'll save my other thought for next week because I am out of time. I love you all, hope that everyone is safe and sound.

Love,

Elder Siebach