"Lay Ho!"

Hello friends and family,

Seems like I was just here a few days ago, oh yeah, I was. Kind of weird to have P-Day on Monday but I think I like the change. Even though it's only been 4 days or so, a lot has happened. A lot is always happening on a mission I guess. On Friday the "Price Duo" put on a free piano/clarinet concert at the church for all to attend. Missionaries from all over the mission came to listen to and be uplifted by good music with their investigators. That was a great experience, and in case some of you don't know who they are, since I didn't, they are a mother son duo, members of the church, who perform music, and just happened to be in Hong Kong last weekend for a Chinese music festival of sorts and made time to come be with the Hong Kong missionaries and members. I really enjoyed listening to the music! Earlier that day Elder B and I did some street contacting in Chaiwan; as we were walking through a park we stopped to watch some people racing little toy motor boats in a pond. It was interesting to watch and as we were leaving a man came up to us very anxious to show us his motor boat and let us try it. So, hoping to maybe get a potential investigator, we went and watched for a few minutes. He was a really nice guy, let us take the controls and maneuver the boat, but not really inclined to talk about religion. When we got home that night we told the other Chaiwan elders about the experience and they told us that "Motorboat Dave" is actually a former investigator. Had a nice laugh out of that. He invited us next Saturday to go watch/play again. I don't know if we will or not, but funny nonetheless.

Over the last week we have had two 1st lessons with new investigators. Going into both lessons Elder Bingham has asked me if I had the Joseph Smith Experience memorized yet, to which I shamefully said not yet. However, on Saturday I was determined during my language study to memorize it, or not eat lunch. So, putting mind over matter for the time being I crammed, studied, spoke, and did just about everything I could possibly think of to memorize it--I even tried singing it once while using proper tones. But finally I got it! As of Saturday at 12:30 or so my time I got the blasted experience memorized. So now I have the written form memorized. I say written form because that is exactly what it is. If they are following along in the scriptures I am saying it right. However, if they have no reference to read from, the written form does not make sense. Which means that now my goal is to learn the Spoken form. One thing that I have learned about Cantonese is that a lot of the spoken don't have characters, and a lot of the written is written in Mandarin grammar, and even some of the characters are spoken differently than they are read. This incredible combination with 7 tones is what makes Cantonese so hard. But I am up to the challenge, and so my new goal is to learn the informal spoken form so that during fast street lessons I can whip it out.

As could probably be expected, most missionaries in the Hong Kong mission are not from Hong Kong. The other easy claim is that most of them are from Utah. Another correct statement. But I bet you didn't know, that of the 100 missionaries here in Hong Kong, 6 of them attended Springville High School in Utah, 2 recently returned missionaries also went to Springville High School, and 1 recently called missionary is from Springville. Sufficeth to say, if you want to come to this mission, live in Springville. Or the other alternative is take Cantonese for 1 year at BYU or some other school. There are several missionaries who have also done that.

Yesterday was Sunday. A day of rest for most people, but a day of stress for missionaries who want to do their best to get investigators to church and build relationships with wardmembers. We had 7 investigators at church yesterday which was awesome! 3 of them were attending church for the first time. We managed to teach everyone and extended baptismal dates to 5 of them. That's pretty big success for us considering that so far we've only ever had 4 baptismal dates, and unfortunately for some reason or another, have fallen through or been postponed indefinitely. One of the investigators that came for his first time was actually an investigator referral who spoke of a security guard whom she knew that wanted to purchase a Book of Mormon. We were able to locate him the next day, and when we walked into the building where he worked, we actually thought he was mad at us. He was saying, "ELDERS, ELDERS, what are you doing here?" Trying to explain that we were looking for someone with the surname Gwan, he smiled widely and asked if God had sent us to him as an answer to his prayers. That was pretty awesome! He came to church, really seemed to enjoy it, has a baptismal date, and so does his friend whom he brought to church also! Unfortunately she doesn't live in our area though so we may have to have a turn-over lesson soon.

Spencer with Linda and Chuck Williams

Each week before church we have Correlation meeting at 8 o'clock. In this meeting we talk about our investigators and how we can best help them. Yesterday it just so happened that our missionary correlator was running late. So we were all just sitting around waiting, when a man pops in his head, looks around and says, Elder Siebach? I was taken off guard since I had never seen this man before. Then I remembered my mom's letter from last week telling me of members from my Southlake ward who were coming through Hong Kong this weekend! I had never met them before since they had both been baptized while I had been away. Turns out it was the Williams from the Southlake ward! I excused myself from the room and went down to the lobby and met Sister Williams. They were awesome! Just so happy, and they quickly told me parts of the conversion story. They also had a package from my mom to give me full of cereal, some candy and medicine! It was enormous and probably will last me, my companion, and our apartment mates until January! So thank you very much! Very thoughtful and nice!

With the package was a letter with notes taken from General Conference and announcements of friends of mine that are engaged, and others that are putting in their papers. So congratulations to Jacie Worthen and Haley Stoker on your engagements! I'm way happy for y'all! I love to hear what's going on in other peoples lives. Secondly, congrats to Jenna Goode, Sariah Morey, and Abby Meldau for getting started on those mission papers! I'm stoked for y'all. And remember my advice, if you want to get to this mission, rent an apartment in Springville, and take Cantonese this semester at BYU :)

As I mentioned a few times ago, I finished the Book of Mormon and have now again restarted. I got myself a paperback copy, with two different highlighters; red signifies Power or Authority, and blue signifies Faith or Works. I almost finished 2 Nephi today, but I have been impressed with how often I have to mark blue and red together because Nephi and Isaiah specifically mention how we get power from righteous works. Or how when people demonstrate faith, God will endow them with power. It's been an interesting study for me so far, but what I've really learned is that my works as a missionary need to be full of faith in Christ. Faith that he can soften hearts, that he can help my language abilities, faith that he can help me know what to say. Faith that he really watches out for me and wants me to succeed. When we first go to him having faith, he gives us power, and authority so that we can bring about success. I know that in whatever we are doing, doesn't have to be missionary work, if we first believe that through Him it is possible, he will help us, guide us, answer us, so that we can be successful in our righteous pursuits. I'm excited to keep reading and see what other things I find.

I wish y'all the best. With health, safety, and anything else you stand in need of. I appreciate your prayers in my behalf, I have needed and continue to need them.

Love,

Elder Siebach

Anyway, thats about it for the last 4 days. Elder B wasn't feeling great this morning so we didn't go anywhere until about noon. Not sure what we will do for the rest of the day either.