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