A Blessing, an Elevator, and Dan's Fettucini Alfredo!

Subject: One Year Down; Hopefully Forever to Go!

Dear Friends and Family,

It was quite the week (10 days) here in Kwai Chung. Elder W and I worked really hard, spent endless hours on the street, and turned up with no new investigators as of yet. Got a few street lessons, but the people were just not rescheduling or showing any desire to learn more. I don't really think there is any one thing to blame for this, maybe just mother nature and her unbearable heat and humidity make it so that the Chinese are understandably more rushed then usual and less inclined to stand out on the street and talk with us.

However, that has been of little concern to us as we work on getting our investigators ready for their baptismal dates. L is doing absolutely great! In fact, last Saturday he scheduled himself to go out finding with us for 3 or 4 hours. He was great! Had a lot of courage and was bold in his testimony and declaration of things that he himself has only known for a handful of weeks! Unfortunately after Saturday he had some spring allergy problems and started running a fever. It didn't keep him from church though! At church we reviewed the Gospel of Jesus Christ and made sure that he didn't have any questions. At his request we then gave him a priesthood blessing to get over his fever/flu symptoms. I was voice and it was a profound experience for me to really feel that the Spirit was directing the words and thoughts that the Lord wanted me to convey to him. My Cantonese also felt much more fluid for those few minutes. Definitely a gift of the Spirit! He called us later that night to report that soon thereafter the sickness left him and he's better! Then this past Monday was his baptismal interview! He passed it with flying colors and so this Saturday, May 25th, he will be baptized! WE'RE SO EXCITED! He's so prepared and willing to make these covenants with Heavenly Father.

A couple Sundays ago we scheduled 15 people to come to church and then 6 of them didn't show up; including A-J and her son A. We were a little concerned, especially because their home phone and her cell phone were turned off. We called all day Sunday and then Monday evening we called again. Finally on Tuesday we decided to do our best to remember where she lived. We were pretty sure that we knew which building she lived in, but we didn't remember the floor or apartment number. So Tuesday afternoon we went "finding" for A-J. Our impression was that she was on the 20 or 21st floors, so that's where we checked first. We knocked the two doors that we thought were hers, it wasn't her, and so then we thought we would try the apartment building next door. As we came down the elevator we were just praying in our hearts for a miracle and we got it!

Wait!

The apartment building we were finding in had 6 elevators, and as we were coming out of our elevator we looked across the way at the other elevator that was like 3/4ths closed and made eye contact with A-J! She stopped the elevator for us and we then went up to her apartment, found out she missed church because her youngest daughter was in the hospital sick, and that her cell phone had died and she hadn't had a chance to charge it yet. We were so relieved to have found her and see that she was doing fine. We ended up teaching her the Plan of Salvation during that visit. Truly though, a miracle from God! We would have left that apartment building and never seen her if we had been even half a second later!

While I'm talking about A-J, I'll just inform you that she did come to church this last week. We taught her the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom, and then this past Tuesday I was on exchanges with another Elder and we went to her home and taught her Tithing and Fasting. She's SO prepared and so good! She is worried she doesn't have the faith she needs, but she does have it. She's progressed so much since the first time I met her. She is still set for June 2nd to get baptized.

Black Rain Alert: Very heavy rain has fallen
or is expected to fall generally over Hong Kong,
exceeding 70 millimetres in an hour,
and is likely to continue.
Read about it here and here, or see it here

Exchanges were really good this past week! I went with Elder K, a recent convert of 1.5 years. His testimony is so strong and he is powerful! He is the only convert in his family and his father passed away 10+ years ago. He is setting such a great example for his home ward as well as his younger sister. During our exchange we taught some lessons, met with a returning less-active, and of course did a little finding in between the
weather alerts of "Black rain, stay inside". It was rather incredible that in the 2 or 3 hours that we were finding we contacted 4 less-actives (2 of which the ward isn't even aware of them). Pretty interesting to see how the Lord puts people in our path. It was a fun exchange.

Speaking of less-actives. Last week we were in a run-down part of our area knocking a few less-active doors, and one lady let us in, gave us drinks, apples, and turned on the A/C to help us cool down a bit. She said she was the older sister of the less-active we were looking for. Of course missionaries never miss an opportunity to teach, so we asked if we could share a bit of what this girl's younger sister believes. Part way through the lesson we cracked her shell a bit and it turns out that she was actually the less-active we were looking for. We spent a few more moments with her, committed her to start reading and praying again, and scheduled a time next week for us to meet with her and her husband and children! She said that she's less-active because she doesn't want to have conflicts with her husband and children who are Buddhist. It was truly another miracle from the Lord! She let us in, and was really quite friendly and open to hearing our message.

This past Sunday, with the permission of President Hawks, Elder W and I made our way down to Hong Kong Island after church and MTR'ed and bussed our way to the Bradford's home!

Photo taken during dinner
by our friend Eileen Bradford

That was a really awesome reunion to see them again and to get to talk about missionary work and all the mutual family friends that we share. The food was great (Italian Fettucine Alfredo and salad with homemade bread)! It was just like going home again! In fact, I saw Sister Bradford again today at the temple when I went with my district to our quarterly temple trip!

Anyway, my heart is full! The temple was awesome; just the refresher that I needed. And looking back over the last few days I can really feel the hand of the Lord guiding me in my work and in the area. In a recent interview that I had with President Hawks, he reminded me of the 3 keys to missionary work:
1. Obedience 2. Hard Work 3. Humility. I know that as we diligently do these things we will stay close to Heavenly Father and have his blessings.

Keep reading and praying!  "The church is True, the Book is Blue!" --quote from Elder R--

Love,

Elder Siebach