Summer is here!

Dear Friends and Family,

It's hot! It's a good hot though. The kind that is unbearable for about 3 minutes when you head out the door and plunge into it, but then becomes mild as you walk in and out of the skyscaper shadows and realize that there is a small breeze in the air. Almost everyday has been like that. A few days it was a little cloudy and I heard people on the street talking about how a typhoon was blowing by, but no real serious rain or wind here.

It's been a very interesting week to say the least. Working with Summer missionaries is a blessing and a challenge! I've committed to my companion to only speak in Chinese with him unless he wants to practice English during our language study time; in which case I will respond in English. It's been very helpful to get clarity on grammar principles that I wasn't sure I had a firm grasp on a few weeks ago. I think this coming week I will ask him to help me start reading the Book of Mormon in Chinese. I figure that my year in Hong Kong mark (August 6th) is a prime time to start learning Chinese characters as well as bust out a few white shirts that I've been saving until this point. We'll see how it goes though. I really would like to focus on my spoken more and then learn characters after my mission, but I've felt compelled otherwise. In February a visiting Seventy came through and encouraged missionaries to take the time to learn the 3000+ characters so that they could read with their investigators. Anyone have some advice for me?

And this is only 480!! Yikes:)

As you can imagine, with 6 people living in an apartment that's only really set up for 3 or 4, things are tight and what's mine is now yours. We don't have really anywhere to store food since the refrigerator is full, so lots gets packed in suitcases to be brought out the following day. This isn't so much of a hassle as having to share 1 cell phone between two companionships. I can't even imagine what missionary work was like just a few short years ago when missionaries didn't have cell phones to use. Needless to say, we worked out a system where the companionship with the most lessons that day can use the phone, and where the other companionship can use the phone in the church or borrow someone's phone to make contact and keep updated on investigators. It's all a lot of fun though and everyone is in good spirits.

My summer missionary, Brother L, from Tai Wo ward is a good guy. Quiet, shy, but has a good heart and wants to help our investigators. I have a lot of respect for missionaries from Hong Kong called to Hong Kong because oftentimes they come in contact with school classmates or friends while they are on the street. Not to mention they have perfect command of the language and are sometimes put in a kind of awkward situation to try and explain to their peers why they believe this "evil western religion". Mormonism is wellknown but not well understood. He's doing a really good job. We're working together on how to be more aggressive finders. Aggressive meaning, how we can show optimism, cheerfulness, and get a 30 second message off.

This past week we found a couple new investigators and Elder B's companionship also found a couple. We had a lot of member-present lessons, and they had a lot of street lessons. Got a number of RCLA lessons and the four of us spent an hour one afternoon working our way up to the nearby KwaiChung hospital to visit our investigator Mr. W. He's on a lot of medication and doing a lot better than he was last week when we visited him at his home. He's in a psychiatric ward right now, we're guessing because of depression. He's not sure how long he has to stay in there, but he was very happy to see us, read a verse or two of scripture and then pray with us. We've temporarily dropped his date for August 18th and we're looking to re-set for late September.

It was a bit of a miracle week with Mr. L. Monday night he came with us to our ward's FHE activity and loved it. Afterwards we read some scriptures with him. Tuesday he didn't have to go to work and wanted some help with how to pray so before English class we read 3 Ne 18:20 and Alma 34:17-27 and had a great discussion about how because God is our Heavenly Father and he wants to hear from us. Wednesday he was still off from work! So in the evening he came again to the church and we watched the 20 minute Restoration Video and talked about how because God has a prophet on the earth again, we can hear his words and test if they are from God or not. We then taught through the Word Of Wisdom right there and he accepted wholeheartedly. He's doing really well. He had to work from Thursday to Sunday morning, but as soon as he got off shift at 8 am he walked over to the church and we went up to Sacrament Meeting together. Afterwards he apologetically told us that he wanted to go home and get some sleep since it'd been almost 36 hours. We didn't mind one bit, and he told us he'd be back at the church at 5:30 to go with us to a missionary fireside in Kowloon Tong last night. The Fireside was great! It happens once a transfer and all the departing missionaries invite one RC to bear their testimony. There were about 10 RC's who spoke in English (2 Filipino RC), Cantonese, and Mandarin. Pretty fun collage of languages :)

After the fireside there is always a lot of mingling and chatter and I bumped into a lady I found and taught on the street about a month ago. I turned her over to the sisters in her area, TST, and she's been progressing ever since! Set to be baptized Sept 1st! That was a sweet reunion. :)

Things are going well in this area, but we're stuggling on new investigators and progressing investigators. We have a TON of potentials, but no one who can schedule. Consequently our baptismal dates are low, just 3, and they're all set for September. It's still my hope that we can 'resurrect' some formers this week, get some more people progressing, and get a baptism this month! We need it, this ward needs it, the Lord needs it. You can be sure that we'll be out on the street a lot this week, trying to flash our pearly whites and get some unassuming victim to partake of Salvation. Ha! :)

Tomorrow is when they announce transfers and considering I've been in KwaiChung for 5 months I should have a good chance of changing scenery, but with the addition of summer missionaries and just my gut feeling, I think I'll be holding down the fort here for another couple months until next transfer. I love the area so I don't mind at all. I also think that after the summer missionaries leave Elder B and I will have a better handle of things and greater unity in our teaching. That's assuming he doesn't leave either.

Hope everyone is having a great summer and soaking up the sun! I'm sure I'll come home with tan arms, face, and a high-neck tan from these collared shirts. Something to look forward to I'm sure.

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Siebach