On Being CRAZY and Speaking English

Dear Friends and Family,

I decided to make you wait with bated breath for me to write:) No, actually last week we were told that our Zone was up on the rotation to go to the Temple.

Hong Kong Temple

Temple day is now on Wednesday or Thursday so we had to move our P-Day unexpectedly to today! Anyways, I'm not complaining since it gave me time to find more things to write about as well as go to the temple! The temple is the place to be! It's such a blessing that it's located so conveniently to us! It's only like 8 or 9 stops on the Subway and then a 4 minute walk! The temple was wonderful as usual and gave me a great spiritual rejuvenation. I was surprised as I thought back on the time and realized that 1 year ago this week I was going through the SLC temple for the first time with my dear parents, grandparents, an aunt and a few cousins! I can't believe how fast the time has flown!

This was a really good week. A lot happened! I was grateful that Elder W and I were able to take our coats off for a few days this. We've decided that if it's sunny and 80's or above we will take our suits off. If it's overcast and not too humid and hot we keep them on. Including today we've had 3 days of rain and coolish temperatures so we've been wearing suits.  In fact yesterday I was on an exchange with my district leader in KwaiChung and the 2 of us went and did some less-active finding for a few hours. As we were wrapping it all up the skies got really dark and thunder and lightning were all around us. As we were coming down the mountain towards the church the skies ripped apart and we had just a huge downpour of rain. Kinda monsoonish and it just drenched our clothes as we ran the last few blocks to the chapel. It impeded us from going out and having an effective street find so we took an early dinner in hopes that we could wait out the storm and then go out. It didn't let up but thankfully English class was only a few minutes later and we had a Recent Convert lesson afterwards.

Earlier this week Elder W and I had been up finding near an apartment complex without too much success. It was rainy and near dinner time so not many people paid us any attention. Then I contacted a lady and all she knew was Mandarin. I don't know any Mandarin but it sounds kinda close to Cantonese in some ways so we were able to communicate to some extent. A passing school boy helped me out and was able to translate more completely for me. After that contact Elder W and I were able to teach him the Restoration. He seemed to be really good! He was asking really good questions and was very engaged. When we tried to get his number he declined and so we tried to figure out what his problem was. His problem was prophets. So we re-explained it and he still had a problem. Come to find out he's like 15 or 16 and he claims he's a prophet... So we asked him to pray about our message and tell us how he felt. He did and then turned on us and told us that God told him our message contained truths but that we were of the devil... It's kinda hard to recover from that:(. I mention this story because I saw him again yesterday as we were doing less-active finding near his apartment complex. He's still not much better. Maybe the 3rd time will be a charm? Or he's crazy...

Two weeks ago as Elder W and I were finding I contacted this really nice lady named A. She was super interested in our missionary work and scheduled for a lesson. We made an appointment for last Saturday and had an awesome lesson with her! Randomly, about 4 recent converts showed up and were her fellowshippers and it was just an awesome lesson. She was feeling the spirit and loved having those recent converts there (Some were as young as 14 and had been baptized last month). Not really the age-range I would have originally chosen, but their sweet testimonies were what she needed and it went really well. She's a reporter so she stays kinda busy so I don't think we'll be able to see her again this week. She was scheduled to come to church with us too but then got sick.

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One reason Elder W and I have been doing a fair amount of less-active finding is that President Hawks LOVES finding. But he realizes that the best way to build up Hong Kong is to let it expand from the inside out (in other words, bring back less-actives and get referrals from members) and that our 3rd priority should be street finding. Less active finding is also much more effective than street finding--especially in the rain.
All Hong Kong natives hate the rain, whether it's super heavy or even a sprinkle. I think they live in the wrong part of the world personally!

On Sunday we had 5 investigators at church, and then as church drew to an end, a less-active member that we contacted showed up! He has really good English so we just stayed in the chapel and participlated in the Filipino (English speaking) sacrament meeting. He's kinda crazy too. There seems to be a very distinct correlation between being crazy and having really good English, I don't quite get it:)

Lastly, I got a call from the ChaiWan Elders on Sunday who told me that P got baptized! I even got to talk to him on the phone for a few minutes which was awesome! I didn't baptize him, but I taught him all the lessons so I'm calling him my first convert :) It made last week just that much better to get that phone call! P was a referral from the Tsing Yi Elders and I do exercises with them every morning so they too were super stoked to have been the means of finding him.

Anyway, my time is up! Hope y'all have a great day! Keep reading a praying! Remember it's Easter!

Love,

Elder Siebach

P.S. Moves calls are next week. I'll definitely be staying but the question is if Elder W will or will not. If he leaves I'll be training. (7 Elders and 15 Sisters come into the misison next week...) WOW!