Thanksgiving!!

Dear Friends and Family,

It has been a week! Lots to fill you in on. First weather: rained 5 of the last 7 days with temperatures between 70 and 80 degrees. Not your typical "Thanksgiving" weather, but then again Hong Kong isn't exactly a typical place to celebrate and American holiday.

Two weeks ago we had a Multi-Zone Conference where Sister Hawks, our Mission President's wife, or our Mission Mother invited whoever wanted to to be a part of a mission choir that will perform for Christmas. I gladly volunteered not realizing that it was held for 1 hour in the mission home during prime Preparation Day activities. Not to mention that the few male missionaries that volunteered for this all think that they are Tenors. Blech. I'm the only Bass but I hope to be able to convince some others to join me. That should be fun though and I look forward to singing in English again. Cantonese hymns on Sunday just don't cut it for me.

As I believe I have mentioned before, church is held everyday of the week so that Filipino workers, whose holidays often do not fall on Sunday, can come to church. This is a great blessing I think because these workers, all of them middle-aged women are just the nicest people and have adopted the missionaries. If ever we come into the chapel, on any day of the week they just brighten up and want to give us food! Because of meetings that I have before and after church on Sundays, lessons to teach investigators, and various studies, I usually spend most of my Sunday in the church. For the last 3 weeks I think we've crashed like 3 birthday parties and had free dinners! When the Filipinos get together there are always a lot of them, a lot of food, and a lot of music and dancing. This last week we got roped into dancing with them. It was all line dancing so you don't have to worry, I didn't hold anybody's hands :) It was so fun though! I'm a big hit too since I'm just this stocky American whose last name means "Chop wood" in Tagalog. Many of them made up songs that somehow threw in a chorus of "Siebach Siebach". It's awesome! :) I hope I can serve with them one day! They're just so loving, faithful and pure! One of my favorites is 4'3" Daria! I'll try to get a picture with her next week but she's this crazy 33 year old Filipino Fireball! During one of the birthdays we crashed we became party singers and sang many hymns and Christmas songs together ;) Great memories!

One of the Filipino Sisters also came up to me and said that they had previously worked in Macau and there were some Siebachs living over there. Does anyone know about long-lost Siebach relatives in Macau? I want to serve over there sometime too to see if I can meet them.

As with most any big city, or even small city for that matter, Hong Kong has graffitti. Some of the graffittied symbols come up more often then others. For instance someone writes "Kidult" everywhere! One that is harder to spot and that I have decided to make a concerted effort to find is "Utah Ether". I have no idea why someone would want to graffitti about Utah, but so far I've found 4 in various parts of Hong Kong island. In my mind I picture apostate missionaries going out and getting bored of tracting and street finding so they graffitti about their home state and their favorite book in the Book of Mormon :)

This past Tuesday after District meeting the two ChaiWan companionships went on exchanges for a day. Elder L, a Hong Kong native and my district leader, came to my companionship and he and I spent the afternoon trying to contact people in the rain (extremely unsuccessful everytime I've tried it) and then ate and taught a lesson to a less-active. The next day we got up early, did some exercises and then went knocking on doors in an older part of ShauKeiWan trying to find less-actives. The first and only guy we found home slammed the door on us, and then for the next 2 hours we tried to find 6 others. In one of the apartment buildings it was very creepy for me because most the apartments were unoccupied, many had been broken into previously, mail was in doors from many years prior, and there were no overhead lights. Both ends of the hall just had a rail and natural light that lighted these buildings. And it just so happened that it was an overcast, rainy Wednesday. Many of the residents were very old. It was extremely uncomfortable for me and just gave me a bad feeling. I can't properly convey everything over an email. That was my first experience knocking on doors, as well as my first experience less-active finding. Not really something I'm itching to do again. There is another story about a possessed, creepy grandma that I could tell, but you can just read my journal after the mission. I want to move to happier things!

Happier, like Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving was awesome! President Hawks graciously gave us half a day to celebrate Thanksgiving so my whole zone got together in the TKO chapel (on the Kowloon side of the mission) and had a feast! A few weeks ago we figured out that each companionship would prepare one dish, or that multiple companionships could contribute 50 dollars per person to buy the turkey. Elder B and I, knowing our lack of cooking ability, volunteered money (and then I pitched in the instant potatoes, gravy, and jello that my mother sent me. Thanks mom!) It was so much fun for the 22 of us that gathered and we had an amazing traditional thanksgiving meal with turkey, potatoes, gravy, rolls, stuffing, and then for a little Chinese flare we had Chinese steamed vegetables. To top it all off, 4 different types of jello for dessert! It was a party! And at the end we all said things that we were grateful for. :)

The following day (Thursday November 23) was my 6 month mark! Pretty typical day for the most part. Did some finding in the rain, able to talk to a few people, handed out a Book of Mormon, and then for dinner we didn't feel like cooking so we went to the corner shop where we bought peanut butter waffles with sweetened condensed milk! Super good and super cheap! I can buy 3 waffles for 10 dollars! Everywhere else in Hong Kong its usually 1 waffle for 13 or 14 dollars! We've spent a lot of time marveling over the cheapness of it and have come to accept it as all just some fantasy dream. At the end of the night I popped some popcorn and shared it with the other missionaries in the apartment.

The weird food of this week was Squid Jerky. It felt like Fruit leather and tasted about as nasty. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless you're going to be in a room by yourself so that no one can smell your breath. It's a strong smell! Filipinos are offering me balut next week so I may be reporting on that soon.

For Christmas I have done an inventory and need a new Cologne and a new, small pocketknife--I've somehow misplaced mine. Other then that you can be creative :) Just keep in mind that I will probably move to a new area a week or so after Christmas so I won't really want to carry a bunch of food.

My time is up! I love you all! Take care! Enjoy the season!

Love,

Elder Siebach

 

Wow--6 Months!

Dear friends and family,

Ok, ok. I actually have 4 days until I hit my 6 months. Nevertheless, its coming up! Congrats to all the people who got mission calls recently! Everyone is going to some sweet missions, unfortunately not the best one (Hong Kong of course). I also want to thank everyone for their letters! I got 7 letters this week! I will do my best to respond soon, but please be patient with me. I don't have a lot of time to email today, so I won't be sending any photos this week. sorry. I do have some though.

Things on this end of the world are going pretty well for the most part. I mentioned a few weeks ago that we had baptismal goal of three for this month. As of yesterday we now don't have a goal because upon talking with our investigators (S, A, and C) we have determined to postpone until December so that they can really feel comfortable and solid. The word of wisdom is the real hang-up for people here. Tea is very traditional, and as such, is taken at every meal. Not to mention that many people smoke (some starting as young as 12 or 13). So, I'm sad I have to mention that, but we hope for a baptism on December 2 for Co. (an 18 year old former investigator), and A and C both on December 16. S is a ways out (in February at her insistance) because she is worried about how fast she will be able to quit smoking and drinking tea. All four of these investigators are going in faith, especially the two women, so we are pleased with this and hope it continues.

On Tuesday of this week Elder B and I went finding on the street outside our apartment for an hour in the afternoon and actually had really good success! 3 people stopped in that time and listened to a quick message. One of the men I stopped is 23 year old A. He was just coming back from a job interview and just looked really happy when I approached him. We talked for a good while and I invited him to come play Badminton on Wednesday night with us. He came, and afterwards we shared a very fast Restoration lesson with him and gave him a Book of Mormon. We also rescheduled to meet with him on Saturday. Saturday came, we watched 15 minute Restoration movie, and had a great discussion about the feelings of the spirit. He also accepted a baptismal date! Pretty excited about what has happened in just a few days with this man. Unfortunately he didn't make it to church, thats alright though for right now and we will continue to meet with him.

S, a 28 year old half-Thai woman that was an investigator referral from a few months ago met with us this week! She has been hard to get scheduled because of various family and school conflicts but she is really golden! This past week we taught her the Plan of Salvation and the Word of Wisdom. She missed church because of sickness (she is really sick all the time, don't know why, but you can just tell physically from her appearance, it's not just an excuse). She'll definitely be baptized soon though.

A and C, are doing everything that they should be doing--giving up things for the word of wisdom, reading, praying, coming to church. I met with them yesterday and just had a really good heart-to-heart and asked them how they felt about their baptism if it was to happen next week as was originally planned. They think the church is good, they like the members, doctrine, and missionaries, but they don't think they've gotten answers to their prayers. I don't know what else to tell them than to just continue. It's hard though because they're both so good but they've been 'trying' for a few months now. I'm worried they will just give up on getting an answer to the Book of Mormon.

I don't know much about Co because when Elder B and I split for lessons and have a member fellow-shipper, he always teaches her. But she seems to be doing really well. And she was a former so she knows all the material.

I've told you about Mrs. J and Y. Two sweet ladies who often give us food, and interested in religions. We went to Pizza Hut with them this Wednesday night and had a great discussion about forgiveness, and baptism. Figured out that Mrs. J's concern is that she is afraid of commitment. In that moment I had one of the most powerful spiritual promptings I've had one my mission and I felt that I needed to share something I had heard earlier this week about the Standard Works as well as address commitment. The spirit was very strong and I knew she knew that I really cared about her, and that her Heavenly Father cares even more. I want to share what I learned with y'all since it's like revelation to me. The D&C teaches how to set up Zion in the Latter-days, The Bible and Pearl of Great Price show Jesus' dealings and life and ministry, and the Book of Mormon brings us unto Him. I love it. So simple and gives a whole new meaning to the 4 standard works.

Wednesday morning we had our quarterly Multi-Zone Training Meeting/Conference. Really good and there was a lot of learning and teaching about being sanctified. We also did a lot of practicing at delivering street messages too, which I thought was very helpful because I always need to improve in that.

This week Elder B has been sick for most of it and as such, resting/sleeping. We weren't nearly as productive as I would have liked, but I understand. As well as it gave me ample time to study language and scriptures. I spent about an hour in the Book of Mormon, an hour in PMG, and an hour in Jesus the Christ when I read.

This week I also went to a Japanese food store called 759 and guess what I found!?!?! CALPIS! I know that only my family knows about this drink, but it's a yogurt/water drink that is SO good! I missed it and was sad when I didn't find it in most stores. Really good after 7 years of not drinking it.

Hope everyone is having a good week! Love you all!

Sincerely,

Elder Siebach

P.S. I got the package mom! Thank you!

Here at the Computer again!

Dear Friends and Family,

How are you? Still in awe and fear about the recent election? It was kind of a hot item here. We found out almost immediately after it was announced, but no one has really mentioned anything about it. One man whom we have befriended who works next to our apartment asked us jokingly why we were in Hong Kong and not back home in America helping Mitt. I may have been the only one in the mission who wanted to send in an absentee ballot and who was unable to get one, so oh well. This week, besides unusually hot days, has been pretty good. I've made it a goal of mine in the past couple weeks to try some strange food and I finally had an opportunity this week! On Tuesday after District meeting, my district of five went on brisk walk to a noodle shop. I got my customary rice noodles, chicken, and lettuce soup, except this time I also ordered a side of what is called "Century Egg" or "Thousand-Year Egg". This is an unfertilized chicken egg that the Chinese people bury in the ground and then dig up a couple months later--it might be buried in animal manure or that is just a wives tale. Anyway, when you dig it up and remove the shell the egg inside has hardened similarly to a hard-boiled egg, except that what should be white is now a partially opaque brown jello substance, and the yolk of the egg is gray. Pretty unappetizing to look at, but I got it served cold and garnished with hot pepper sauce. The taste was not too unlike a hard-boiled egg but it was just stronger and I was grateful for the sauce that made part of the noxious taste go away... I didn't love it. But I also don't like hard boiled eggs so go figure. Definitely worth a try if you find yourself in Mainland or Hong Kong. Its a delicacy here. Now I have to find some other weird food to try this next week. Maybe I'll try the thinly sliced deer antler.

Century Egg. Ummm, no.

My companion Elder B has recently started reading the New Era and Ensign from apps that we have on our I-touches. The beauty of the app is that you can go all the way back to the 1970's and read those talks. Pretty interesting. I too have joined him in these new found readings and this week read articles about Aliens, Hippies, the Drug Culture, and other such things. It's highly entertaining and many of them read more like stories than actual doctrinal discussions. Also each month in the 1971 Ensigns there is an article about a different world religion so those are neat to read.

This past Friday night the Sister Cook and Sister Reeves of the Young Women's Presidency and General Relief Society Presidency came through Hong Kong and delivered messages of strength to the local members. It was neat to hear some of their stories as well as they explained the new manuals and style of teaching that the church will adopt starting in January, as was discussed in General Conference. For these meetings they always have to have interpreters to translate the words and so it's a really good way for me to pick up on new words when I understand the context that they are used in. I still can't say that my Cantonese is flawless as was pointed out to me this past Sunday when in our Gospel Principles class the teacher asked me numerous questions to which I had to have someone help translate them fully. It's kind of embarassing especially since my companion seems pretty much like a native and everyone else is a native. Time and Patience is what I always tell myself. I'm definitely putting in the work, no doubts in my mind about that, but gee whiz, it's not fast enough for me. I offer a lot of silent prayers for patience and love so that I can take their, and my own criticism.

I got a letter in the mail this week. Turns out it was a letter that I had sent 2 months ago and has since been sent back because I guess the address was wrong... It was to Abby Meldau, sorry, I'll try again this week.

This past Friday we spent the first 4 hours of the day at a special Zone Training Meeting. We spent a lot of time talking about how to reach our goal of 50 baptisms and how to do less-active work better. If a missionary wanted to, they could spend every day of their mission working with just less-actives. It's really sad to me. Our Chaiwan ward, which is more of a branch with 40 people or so, has a binder with about 500+ names of inactives. Hong Kong has among the worst retention rate. Mostly due to everyone's busy schedule, religion takes a real back-burner, and then the new convert's families and friends are never in support of Christianity, especially Mormonism. At the conference we were taught something interesting though which is that calling a less active should be our last means of contact since it's almost guaranteed that they will hang up. We are encouraged to now make visits to their apartments and try to contact that way. If that doesn't work, send a letter, then call. For the last twelve weeks Elder B and I have been focusing on getting an investigator pool and progressing investigators. Now that we have these we are also throwing less-active work into the mix. On Saturday it was a cool 88...not really all that cool, especially since we were in suits and the sun was beating down. We spent most of the day inside writing letters that we will send out this week to the less-actives we will contact. So this week will be my first experience knocking on people's doors. Wish me luck.

I think I have told you that each Wednesday we meet with two ladies who are investigating churches. They have been just about every religion in the book, and Mormonism is their new interest. Turns out that one of the ladies was unable to come this week so we taught just the other one with Sister N from our ward as the fellowshipper. The lesson was 2 hours, and we just focused on this lady, developing her faith, and answering her questions. The lesson went so well and the spirit was the strongest I've felt it in any lesson. I just felt so much love for this lady. Not creepy love:), but I truly saw her as my sister and was able to bear testimony to her of our purpose and how what we teach and invite her to do have lasting impact and happiness. She is also so sweet to us. She often treats us to dinner during these lessons, and somehow during one of the lessons she found out our blood types and so this week she brought Gluten-free food for Elder Bingham, and spared no money buying me this special rice milk which should help me as an O-Negative blood carrier. :)  She was never married and we feel like she has somewhat adopted us as her children. Very sweet lady, needs the gospel.

I mentioned the scripture Mosiah 8:18 last week which talks about priesthood. I've really come to appreciate this scripture and what it says. If you read the preceding verses we learn that it is talking about seers. I like to change this to priesthood holders. I'm not a seer, but I am a priesthood holder, and as I have mentioned before, my study this time as I read the book of Mormon is faith and power. I love how it says through FAITH, we WORK MIGHTY miracles. And that all this is for the BENEFIT of our fellowman. Missionary work is a priesthood calling, though women are always welcome. And we spend two years giving of ourselves freely for others. The priesthood we hold if we are righteous of it, gives us power and authority and we can benefit our fellowmen--for me that is the people of Hong Kong. I love the implications of this verse. The selfless nature, the need for faith and works both, and then the miracles come. I know this verse is true and am grateful for it. It motivates me to be better and work harder and be more prayerful.

I hope you all are having a great week wherever you are in the world. Continue to pray and read the word!

Love,

Elder Siebach

It's November!

Dear Friends and Family,

Great week here on the island! My companion and I finished up a 'move' last week, or roughly another 6 weeks together. Most trainers stay with their baby missionary (me) for 12 weeks, but Elder B and I are together at least for another 6 weeks making it 18 in total. I'm the only one out of my group of missionaries that is staying with my trainer so I jokingly say that I haven't learned everything that I'm supposed to yet. :) It's a blessing to stay with him because we work well together and getting a new companion in an area is a bit of hassel for the first week or so since they don't know the investigators, area, or members. I'm betting that at the end of these 6 weeks Elder B will leave, I will get a "step-trainer" or second companion, and I will probably leave after 6 weeks with him. So I'll be here through Christmas and New Years hopefully. I don't mind though because I love living and working here and don't really want to pack all my stuff anytime soon.

To answer Grace's Questions quickly:

1. I got my patriarchal blessing the week after I turned 15.

2. In terms of prep, I didn't do too much. I think I fasted the day I got my blessing, and the week leading up to it I talked with mom and dad a lot about it.

3. One reason I didn't prep too much was because I knew from about the age of 12 that I really wanted it and knew the importance of it. GAMS had been in my mind from an early age and I wanted to know what mine would say and my expectations/potential.

4. I love that I got it that early since it was when I needed to. It shaped my life from that day on. Not a day passes that I don't consider a line from it. Especially as a missionary! I remember that during my blessing, the patriarch, Patriarch Cosper didn't mention anything about my mission. When he gave me the printed off version a few weeks later he said that after I left he got further revelation for me and my mission (the first time that had ever happened to him in the 1734 blessings). Kinda cool :)

5. I would pray about whether to get it now. I would also really reflect on your thoughts about it. Why do you want it? What do you think it will do? How can you remain worthy for it? Those sorts of things.

Sorry Sterling, in the mess of my desk I don't have your letter. Send me an email with your questions please.

dim sum yum:)

This past week with moves was fun. Nothing special on Halloween happened here. No trick-or-treaters, no real festivities of any kind which I was kind of sad about, but when everyone lives in high rises it would be kinda hard to do. On Halloween we met with two of our investigators, the 50 year old ladies. We went out for Dimsum so that was good! Got a nice picture of me tugging on some chicken feet that I'll upload some time. Good food!

This week I also got a haircut from a sweet old lady at her barbershop. She's from Mainland, but her Cantonese is pretty good and we got to talk a little about missionary work. When she found out we were volunteers with no income she cut off ten dollars from the price of the haircut so we got it for 30 instead of 40! Which is still cheap since most 'cheap' places cut your hair for 50. The only problem with the haircut is she kinda did her own thing. She parted it nicely but left the bangs really long so I am now forced to part my hair so that the bangs don't run into my eyes haha :) Ok, maybe my bangs aren't that long, but they kind of are.

On November 1st all Elders had to start wearing suits since it's now wintertime. As my dad well knows, I don't really like wearing suits, and if I have to, I prefer a sports coat. Compound it with the fact that every day so far it's been sunny and 80 degrees... Doesn't really feel like wintertime, or look like it for that matter, but everyone warns me that it will eventually cool off.

Last month President Hawks asked every missionary if they thought that 50 baptisms were possible in a month. Most agreed that it was, I know I did. And so now for this month our goal is 50. There are 50 companionships in the whole mission and my zone, the Hong Kong Island Zone, is the largest with 12 of them. It is our responsibility this month to have 12 baptisms. The problem also is that we now need to have known investigators for 6 weeks before they can be baptized. So any companionship without investigators already at the start of the month has no hope for baptisms. It just so happens that that's the case with like 9 of the companionships in our zone. So that puts the pressure on the other 3 companionships. My companionship currently has 8 investigators with baptismal dates all for the end of December. With prayer and great faith Elder B and I have been working very hard with our progressing ones and have moved 4 of their dates to the last week in November. Praying for a miracle and that they will all be ready, coming to church, and reading. Fingers crossed.

On Friday night we met with C and A and played a Chinese card game for 30 minutes before we taught them the Plan of Salvation. They had so many good questions that the lesson lasted for an hour and a half and we didn't leave for home until 10:15 or so, making it 10:40 when we got home. Oops. The following day the two Chaiwan companionships went on exchanges. I went with Elder L, a native of Hong Kong, and we taught a 14 year old boy, and then had a visit with a Less active and a less active family. Really good lesson and we talked about being examples. After these lessons we went to the chapel, helped out with the English class, and afterwards were able to meet with A and teach the first lesson again in its entirety, specifically focusing on priesthood authority. Another really good lesson, took an hour and a half, finished at 10:00 and if we hadn't taken the wrong bus we would have made it home only 45 minutes late instead of an hour haha. Two nights in a row that I've been late! I think it's better to be preaching the word of God than to be absolutely on time though.

On Sunday, by a strange turn of events, almost all of our investigators couldn't come to church--a scary thing when you want all of them to get baptized this month. 2 showed up for sacrament meeting though since that is the last hour of the block, and A showed up right after church ended. After church I took C, and with A-D who is a recent convert taught him the first lesson. It went perfectly! A-D bore fervent testimony, and A (the investigator who showed up right after church ended) came in, and helped teach as well since he had heard the same lesson just the night before! I was very grateful for their help since they expound in Cantonese much better than I can.

Speaking of expounding in Cantonese, our ward correlator, aware that the ward baptismal goal for this year is 12 and that Chaiwan has only had one, asked all the missionaries to bear a one minute testimony during Sacrament. I went up second, and with a combination of the first missionary taking 4 minutes just by himself, and the correlator motioning from the back of the chapel, I pretty much was a blubbering mess up there. My voice was a whisper, my knees wobbled, and I didn't get off hardly anything in the minute I was there. It was pretty discouraging for me especially since I knew that if I'd had even one minute more of time I probably would have been able to collect myself and get off my thoughts. Better luck next time I guess haha

Yesterday afternoon the Causeway Bay elders had a baptism which I was very grateful for since it gave C and A an opportunity to see what a baptism is like in real life.

One scripture that has been on my mind a lot this past week is Mosiah 8:18. About the priesthood and how it's to benefit others! Look it up, ponder it!

Gotta go, hope you have a good week!

Love,

Elder Siebach

P.S. Dad, I'll get back to you on the things I've learned in the first 6 months of my mission