Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Dear Friends and Family,

I wasn't planning on writing this week (I just called my family on Tuesday), however, I find myself with a few minutes here while I wait for my companion to finish his weekly letter to the Mission President. So I'll try and give as long an update as I have time for.

First things first though, I want to thank the Palazzo's for their Christmas package that they sent me! Complete with candy, a nice new tie, and an update from their family! Glad to hear that Michael is doing well in his mission too!

This week has been a whirlwind and to start it off, on Monday we had our Mission-wide Christmas activity. It started at 10 and went until 5. Among the things that we did was the year-end missionary slideshow. Afterwards, 102 missionaries then devoured two BBQ'd pigs for lunch, we had a gift exchange, the mission choir performed, and a closing spiritual thought from President Hawks. It was all a grand time and was nice to see missionaries that I hadn't seen since the day I arrived with them, as well as missionaries that I had yet to meet. The gift exchange was good too. I supplied a McDonalds card that had a bunch of coupons/ special offers on it, as well as some candy. I came home at the end of the night with a 12 lbs bag of rice... Not exactly what I was hoping for for Christmas, but it was certainly a 'practical' gift as was requested prior to the gift exchange. The mission choir was a big hit and something that I spent a few hours each week practicing for in December and November. We had a lot of missionary support and sang arrangements of "Silent Night" "O Holy Night" "Born to Wear a Crown" and "The First Noel." During President Hawks thought at the end of the day he also informed us generally about the future of the mission. Some of the things that he told us included that in January our first 18 year-old Elder and 19 year-old Sister come into the mission, and in April we have 15 new missionaries coming (10 of them are Sisters, to add to the 30 we already have) and then in June we have 16 missionaries 'dying' or going home, but they are very readily replaced by 22 new missionaries! Super exciting news! Because of the large amounts coming in, as well as a large number leaving, Elder Hawks anticipates that every missionary will be training within the next 4 to 6 months!

On Christmas day I was able to call home! I "ate" Christmas Eve dinner with my family as we talked for an hour and a half about the mission, things back home, and Sterling's Frankenstein-like brace that his recently surgeried shoulder rests in. (Not sure if surgeried is a word, but hopefully you understand me!). After the call I went with my companion to HungShuiKiu which was a 2 hour train ride from Hong Kong Island up into the New Territories on the border of Mainland China. I could actually see the buildings in Shenzhen from the train. While there the mission choir sang at the open house for the recently built New Territories Stake Center. It was a lot of fun and fun for me to get out of my 'Island bubble' to see what the China countryside has to offer.

Then yesterday, the 26th, we had our ward Christmas party. It was pretty well attended by both members and investigators, but Causeway Bay's ward, who had an activity at the same time, was not as well attended so they joined us for a short film about Christ's birth, a game of charades, and then a nice dinner of turkey/stuffing and take-out pizza--can't ask for a better, more authentic Chinese Christmas dinner; food from Italy and America.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that on Monday, after our missionary activity, Elder W and I made our way back into our area where we met up with 15 or so members from the ward and took a 24-seat bus to various apartment buildings to sing carols to lonely/less-active members. It was so much fun!!!! Singing carols with 20 or so people in absolutely tiny apartments can be a little bit cozy--you certainly feel like you're a lot closer with everyone :) One of the members in the ward took a ton of pictures and videos so I hope I can get my hands on some of those and you can see for yourselves how small everything and everyone are here.

In terms of things that happened last week though, I think it was pretty typical missionary work--go figure. Lots of finding, teaching, and not quite baptizing, but that will come.

Speaking of baptism. Every time I read 3 Ne 11 I am impressed with how the sequence of events for the Savior's visit. He comes in great glory, as would be expected, allows everyone to touch him and worship him, and then immediately sets about calling his 12 apostles and bestowing authority and power to baptize. Mind you this all happens in front of everyone. It's a testimony to me everytime I read it of the importance of baptism. The Savior wants to bless us, but first we have to be willing to follow him and make covenants. We do these things through baptism. I"m grateful for the doctrine behind, and ordinance of baptism, and just hope and pray that I can help these, the people of Hong Kong, have desires to come into the fold. Pray for them, pray for me to be able to help them. I need it. And remember, I'm praying for y'all too! Everyone can use prayers.

Hope you all are safe and having a wonderful Christmas/New Year as we reflect on the birth of Christ, and then make resolves to become more like him in the New Year. 

Love,

Elder Siebach

Doom's Day!

Dear Friends and Family,

Hope that this letter finds you all happy and well in whatever part of the world you are in. Things are going well here in Hong Kong! All except for the temperature has been in the high 70's the last few days! Not weather for a suitcoat in my opinion.

What can I tell you guys about me... Well after 3 moves (18 weeks) with my trainer, I am finally moving on to a different companion! My new companion is Elder W and he has about 1 month until he finishes his mission. He also just came out of Mission Office where he had served as AP for the last 4 moves. Contrary to EVERYONE's thoughts in the mission, I have stayed in ChaiWan! Something I'm rather happy about :) When I came to Hong Kong I opened a new, and second Elders missionary companionship in the mission, and after my first move the Sister Missionaries were taken out of our area, and now most recently the other ChaiWan Elders Companionship was discontinued. Basically what that means is we had a TON of records to go through and people to try and contact. In the start of this week I made a list of every investigator we had as well as the other companionship and just bugged the other missionaries until they told me something about everyone of their investigators. It's daunting to go through the 6 3" binders that I have now inherited and see literally thousands of names for potential investigators, thousands of former investigators, and even more less-actives. We also have a binder of "Lost Sheep"; basically those that no one knows if they have died, moved, gone inactive or what. It was interesting for me to watch the 3 other ChaiWan Elders leave our apartment and then welcome my new companion and a newly formed Mandarin Companionship to the apartment. I've spent a lot of time guiding them around ShauKeiWan to the cheapest places and the places that no one knows about until they've been here 4 months like me. Speaking of which, since Elder W is almost done with his mission, I will undoubtably stay in ChaiWan after he leaves and get probably another senior companion. If it happens in such a way, I will stay in my baby area for 7 months of my mission! Won't be leaving until March at the earliest.

The last four days with Elder W have been really great though. We've spent time finding out on the street, we've taught numerous lessons, and just had a really good time! He works very hard so we're always on the move/planning for an upcoming lesson. Yesterday for instance we tenatively had 6 investigators planning on church, only 3 showed up, but the lessons just went Bam, Bam, Bam. One was about the Plan of Salvation with a new investigator, E, that was given to us this week, then next was a follow-up with C since she's been taught everything. Turns out she's doing splendidly! Her parents have signed a consent form for her baptism, she is just waiting until all her tests and dance competitions are over in mid-January to get baptized. She's really got great faith and a strong testimony! The third lesson we taught H, a 13 year-old former, but don't let his age send you for a loop, he's almost as tall as I am, and had great interest in Bible/scriptures so we were able to have a great lesson with him about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. These lessons went from 12 to 4 o'clockish and so we did a little personal study before we took the bus to SiuSaiWan to meet with YT, a 20-something-year-old less-active. <---Thats a lot of hyphens:) Finally at 8:45 we got back to the apartment and I made Elder Wong and me a breakfast/lunch/dinner of eggs, sausage and rice. He and I had shared one of my oranges for lunch earlier in the day.

Yesterday was also the Primary Program for our ward so that was awesome! The ward was also really full with families that had come into town to visit and such. Probably had 50 or more people there rather than the typical 30ish. The program was really good! It was funny to see that really all the leadership for the Primary was involved; one held the words for the children to sing, one played the piano and the other 4 emceed and sang with the 4 primary kids that are in the ward! :)

I forgot to mention that A also came to church this week! He hasn't in the past but after our ward FHE on Saturday night we invited him and he was there and had a good experience! He loves coming to the chapel and says it's beautiful and peaceful.

ANSWERING QUESTIONS:

-Actually dad, I have had the opportunity to practice/sing every P-Day for the last 4 weeks as we rehearse for our Mission Choir Christmas program! It's really fun and a good excuse for me to sing since I'm sure all my apartment mates are sick of hearing me.

-I don't know any details about when I will call you mom. On December 25th there is a new chapel opening/being dedicated in Hung Sui Kiu (on the border of mainland, and the furthest spot from ChaiWan in the entire mission.) The Mission Choir is performing at the services. It will take us about 2 hours by Subway to get there and we have a call-time of 1 PM for a 3 PM performance. So I would imagine that my call will be in the evening my time which is super early for y'all. I really have no idea how it will all work out. I'll talk to my companion and we'll see what kind of a plan we can concoct. Oh, HungSuiKiu is also Elder W's home ward so it will be interesting for him to see his ward family a month before he's supposed to come home.

Today on the Subway as we headed up to Kowloon Tong for Choir practice, at one of the stops a really creepy man got on--he was older, wrinkly, wore heavy eye-liner, and for the life of me I could not figure out if he was Chinese or what! He stood a few feet from me and I could tell that he was reading my tag (something that happens a lot) but this time it was weird because I felt no desire to try to talk to him and explain it to him. As soon as the wave of people with him got onto the train I also felt dark, the spirit had left. About a minute later he asked if I was from Salt Lake City. I said no and that I was from Texas. He went on to tell me about how he was an ex-member. I said I was sorry to hear that and his only reply was that he only believed in the Bible and didn't want to offend it with Mormonism. It was all super weird. His next question was if I celebrated Christmas, I said yes and he flat out said that that was heresy and a disgrace. By this time I wasn't saying anything. Then he asked if I went to church yesterday, I did say yes to that and he told me that I was wrong and had the wrong day. I was just plain uncomfortable now and was relieved when I realized we were pulling into our train station stop. Anyway, that's my uncomfortable story for the week.

Wait, forgot, yesterday a woman came into our church meetings all frazzled and insisting on being baptized right then so that she could be saved when Dooms Day came. That was interesting as Elder W had to explain to her that the world wasn't ending and she could relax. Crazy people everywhere.

On a happier note, I want to leave y'all with a scripture I read this morning. It's Mormon 9 in which Moroni is beating down anyone who doesn't believe, denies the gifts of God, or disbelieves the Book of Mormon because of the weaknesses of the writers. What stood out to me was verse 24. The preceding verses from 22 on are talking about missionary work and the Lord's command that the gospel should go to every creature. Verse 24 is talking about the signs and miracles that will come from the disciple/missionaries. The one that stood out to me was that, "they shall speak with new tongues..." Obviously this has very direct application to me and I don't think I give enough thanks, credit, awe, to the wonderful power of God who has made it possible for me to communicate with some fluency with his children in Hong Kong. I've seen many miracles thus far in my mission and I'm sure that many more will come if I continue faithful, am worthy, and working hard. God be with you all this Christmas season!

Love Elder Siebach

 

P.S. Mom, if you think one wrong note in a song is bad, imagine my horror when yesterday I blanked 2/3rds of the way through while reciting Joseph's Vision. And what makes it worse is that I can't read any characters so I can't just bounce right into reading it.

P.S.S. Good luck with surgery this week Sterling! You will be in my prayers.

The Gift of Love

Dear Friends and Family, 

Don't even have an hour to write but I will do my best to respond to questions and update you in the time that I have.

On the very first Sunday that I was in Hong Kong, Elder B told me that since we didn't have any investigators to sit with I should try to get to know the members and sit with them during Sacrament Meeting. In very broken Cantonese I asked a man if I could sit next to him, which he graciously allowed. I didn't see him again until a few months later when I went to visit him as a less-active. Then last week he was at church again! His name is Brother C and openly admits that he's kinda lazy about going to church and could do better (this is a big step for any Chinese man or woman to admit since they usually keep up a facade of busy-ness.) Well, when I saw him I immediately went over and talked to him and he asked if he could take us out to breakfast on Tuesday! So that was sweet! We went to the very typical and traditional Chinese dumpling restaurants and as usually happens for me, I ate a ton of stuff that I didn't know what exactly it was. I ate some boiled pork skin that I can't say was my favorite either. However, I will have you know that I eat the chicken legs like a native now! Just bite right in, swish around the mouth, pull, tug, suck, and with chopsticks remove the bone after consuming all the skin. They don't taste too bad either.

Pretty much everyone who lives in Hong Kong lives in an apartment building; but not all apartment buildings are the same size, height, fanciness obviously. It just so happens that from our apartment on floor 15 we can look across a major thoroughfare and be exactly even with the top of another, smaller apartment building. Starting on Monday this week we saw an increase in activity on the top of this building and were surprised by Tuesday to see the makings of a makeshift apartment, most likely illegal since they have a lot of those here too. On Wednesday we were surprised to see huge lights being put up, and by Wednesday evening we finally put it all together that they are shooting scenes for a movie across the way from us! We find ourselves gravitating to the lights and action much like fireflies to lights. Anyway, I don't really know what they're doing but there are always like 25 people packed on the top of it and they are working before we are up to after we go to sleep. This past Saturday for some reason they didn't work for the day. However they were prompt to get started again on Sunday morning because the next thing I know, its 5:35 AM Sunday morning and the wall of our bedroom is lit like noonday! Turns out mechanics were across the way working on the Spotlights for the props. We'll see how long they are there.

As of Friday afternoon I am in a tri-panionship now. Elder L from the other Chaiwan companionship got pulled a week before transfers so that he could be trained in the mission office. We're not supposed to know transfers until we're being told, but I happen to know that he is going AP. So good for him! We'll miss him, but my parting words to him were, "Make some GOOD rules for us." We'll see what happens:)

Taking a break---

ANSWERING A FEW QUESTIONS: Mom, I do have a sweater, bought it about a month ago, so thanks for your concern, I'll be fine whenever it gets cold enough for one :) Dad: I really hate to compare Cantonese since it seems to be about all my companion talks about, and I don't think its productive or needful, but my Cantonese is pretty good! I make calls regularly in Cantonese, that doesn't always mean that I understand them, but they pretty well understand me which is half good. I'm feeling more confident, but obviously I have a very long way to go. I spend a lot of time in Sacrament meeting listening for comprehension as well as trying to write down Pingyam for words that I don't know and want to look up later. I'm understanding a lot more though. Not flawless, but that's why I have the next 1.5 years. Family: Thanks for the Christmas gifts! I got the package last week and spent a few days debating whether to open it or not. I finally did this morning mostly out of fear that any perishables were probably attracting "gokzot" or cockroaches... We have a few of those in our apartment so I'm trying to be careful. Everything perishable was put in the refrigerator and will not be consumed until starting on December 13th :) Thanks for all of it! Very thoughtful, fun, funny, and sweet! I like the Texas things too! My gifts to y'all should go in the mail sometime in the next week or so judging that I probably won't have time today to get everything off. My investigators: doing ok. C is scared to give her parents the Baptismal Permission Sheet...her baptism was supposed to be yesterday but is now undetermined but we hope this month still. C and A's dates are for this next week but they won't make it. Neither one made it to church this week, gonna try to contact them this week. We didn't have a chance to meet with D yet. He's been busy and lost his phone and wallet Friday (we were supposed to meet on Saturday) and he called us Saturday morning from a landline to let us know. Speaking of phone calls. I will most likely call you on Christmas day, we can't use members computers, President Hawks is serious about the 30-40 minute rule too.

Now back to this week...

A couple weeks ago we started meeting with 3 girls that live in our area. Two are sisters, N and J, and the third is a friend, L. N and J are pretty awesome! Not super super interested, but very pleasant, fun, and willing to learn. On Thursday night I had scheduled an appointment, teaching a mom and her child English, but it fell through, so we called N and J and asked if they could meet. They also live in ShauKeiWan and told us we could meet them in the Subway Station exit and come to their apartment. On our way up to their apartment we met their dad who was a very friendly, happy man who unfortunately was headed out the door for his overnight shift as a security guard. Their little brother, Alex, was home though so that was good. The family is originally from Mainland, but their mother tongue isn't Mandarin but rather some other dialect. They have perfect Mandarin and Cantonese though. After only a few minutes in their home like 6 of their cousins came plowing through the door so we got to meet all of them too! It was a fun night because we were able to explain what we do as missionaries, as well as build our relationships with this family, and help them with English. From the moment we stepped into their house we knew they were poor. They had very few material possessions, and all 6 of them live in one back room (to put this in perspective they only have 2 rooms; a main room which is the entry/living room/dining room/ a tiny kitchen in one corner, and a sliding door hides the closet-sized bathroom. Half the overhead lights are burned out too. They don't have much, but both the family and extended family are happy. They love each other, they laugh, they play, and they tease. I just sat there in awe for the 2 hours we were there. I almost had tears come to my eyes because I felt so much love for them. I couldn't have hugged the two girls since they are 19 and 17, but if I could have I would. I truly believe that God had bestowed on me the wonderful gift of love. I saw these girls as my sisters and would do anything I could for them--much like I know Heavenly Father would and does for them. It was a profound experience for me because they also gave what little they had to us; they furnished cold sodas and some chinese candies. I hope to have many more experiences like these. I think God can give many gifts to people; for me language is super important, as is the gift of perseverance  gift of faith, gift of testimony, but the most important to me is love. "People don't care how much you know, even if it is the gospel, until they know how much you care."

I wish I had more time to write, I had scriptures I also wanted to share, but there is always next week. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Siebach

December already!

Dear Friends and Family,

Another good and eventful week here on Hong Kong Island. First I have to tell you about the Ward Thanksgiving activity. It actually happened last week but I didn't have time to talk about it. For the activity we went to the chapel and watched "Mountain of the Lord". The movie is rather cheesy, and old, but still pretty good. The first time I saw it I was in the MTC and just laughed at the some of the scenes. It's very good though and talks about the building of the Salt Lake Temple and early pioneer stuff. The principle character is Wilford Woodruff and a non-member report. Check it out if you have an hour of time and want something mildly entertaining. After the movie everyone (the 30 members/8 investigators that came) went into the Cultural Hall/gym and ate a bunch of food. It was really great though because for whatever reason, at church these bonds of comraderie don't always seem to transfer between the members and in this situation everyone was very friendly and mostly talkative to my investigators. One investigator was just kinda tailing me around so I introduced him to every member that I came in contact with and it wasn't until the 10th person or so that the member actually took the initiative to continue even some sort of dialogue between themselves and my investigator. Needless to say, I won't really miss that if/when I leave... Most people stayed around even afterwards to talk and play. I played badminton with a couple of people and that was fun.

On Tuesday this week we visited B, a white man who married a Chinese member. It's kind of confusing which set of missionaries teach him since techniquely he should be taught by the international Elders, but they're busy with Filipino work and it's a pain to come to Chaiwan so we have taken to teaching him as well as helping him with his Chinese. His situation is a little interesting because he used to work for an airline hauling baggage and that's how he got to Hong Kong, but he's been unemployed for years now and can't get a visa unless his family makes enough money. So right now his wife is working around the clock as a nurse in the early morning and other stuff in the evening trying to get the money for a work visa so that he can go get a job. We've been praying for this family for awhile because a few months ago he was told that he would most likely have to go back to the US (something he really doesn't want to do). It's been stressing him out and so he's smoking and drinking and going to churches that he says "approve and still welcome members if they drink and smoke". However this week we gave him some Cantonese materials and were able to talk to him and encourage him to go to the international ward. Also gave him 1 Nephi 32 to read. Hopefully all will be ok there.

On Thursday this week we went on a Zone Find and immediately afterwards had 24s. During the find we went to West Point and I was able to stop a number of very nice people but two in particular that I want to mention; Ms. W and Bill. Both have perfect English and preferred to speak in that (guess my Cantonese isn't nearly as good as I hoped, though they did say that they understood everything I said perfectly). Both were very supportive of missionaries and what we do. It was just refreshing to me to have 2 people that were willing to be contacted again, as well as not screaming that we're a cult. Bill has even toured some of the other chapels, he just had somehow lost contact with the missionaries and acted like he wanted to start back up again! Hopefully the West Point Elders can make some progress with them.

As I mentioned, immediately afterwards we had 24s. I stayed in my area and Elder S from the Aberdeen companionship came with me. Interesting fellow and his parents are snake-breeders by trade. That night we taught C at the church and with him we read the introduction to the Book of Mormon. The following day we did our studies in the morning and then ate what little food I had left since it was the end of the month and the only money either of us had was needed for travel. We split the last orange I had and then had rice with Soy Sauce. So much for the Food Pyramid ;) That afternoon we were unable to schedule anyone for meetings and so we went finding. It was probably the best finding I've ever had, and part of it is because we moved around to different areas more frequently than Elder B and I typically do. By moving around word doesn't get out nearly as fast that we are around. In 2 hours I had 9 names and numbers to call! Many of them seem like they have good potential too. None of them were willing to stay around long enough for a lesson since it was raining lightly. The skies opened fully at 3:30 or so and so we packed and switched back companions at the chapel at about 4:30.

That evening Elder B and I were taking the bus back to our area to eat with a less-active. I was sitting in my seat and a man comes down  and sits in the seat across the aisle from me. I didn't pay much attention to it and then in a very energetic fashion he said, 'Hi! How are you?' I was a little taken back since he initiated the conversation and in English, but turns out his name is Daniel, knows about missionaries and I was able to have a really good conversation with him! He even missed his bus stop to continue talking! That's unheard of in Hong Kong! I told him I would call him that night to schedule for tomorrow. When I called he told me he had forgotten about a wedding he had the following day and that Sunday he wouldn't be able to go to church either. So we're scheduled for this upcoming week!

Though Hong Kongers don't seem to get to into festivities, its fun to walk along the streets downtown at night because many of the skyscrapers in the past couple weeks have installed Christmas lights and lit-up Christmas pictures for the season--you can even see it on the buildings across the Bay on the Mainland/Kowloon side of things.

On Saturday we taught Alan the 3rd lesson and then went with him to our Ward Family Home Evening activity. During the activity we couldn't tell where music was coming from, turns out in the vacant lot behind the church there was some rock concert going on! Kinda cool to watch for a minute from our vantage point on the 5th floor.

Later, during English class, one of Causeway Bay investigators told me that he could make me a modeling star (photography is his profession). I tried to explain that I had a 2 year contract to fill first and he asked if I could change the contract to later. It was hard to suppress my laughing the whole time.

Sunday morning Elder B woke up early (5 AM) and by 6:15 after I had taken my shower was moaning about side pain. Called President Hawks and by 7:00 we were in a taxi on our way to the hospital. The pain was too severe for him to fill out his paperwork so I did it for him while he laid in urgent care. He was on pain-killers and admitted into the hospital by the time I left him at 8:45 with Elder C from the other Chaiwan companionship (we went on exchanges since I had investigators at church and his companion would take care of theirs). At 5 Elder C was brought back and I was put in a tri-panionship for the evening since Elder B was staying overnight. This afternoon I was reinstated in my companionship and apparently Elder B has had a super painful kidney stone. Things are back to normal now and he's doing a lot better.

Anyway, I'm almost out of time and it's between a spiritual thought or pictures. It's been a while since I've sent pictures so I'm choosing the latter. Hope everyone has a good week! Read the scriptures! It's all I tell my investigators and everyone needs to do it!

Love,

Elder Siebach