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