God is in the Details

Dear Friends and Family,

It was a pretty good week here in Chaiwan/Hong Kong. The sun has been out recently and temperatures are in the 70's and sometimes 80's so it doesn't really have that wintertime feel, but that's not a problem. :)

I'll start with updating y'all on today since its fresh in my mind. This morning Elder W and I got up early (6:15 instead of 7) and went with the elders that live in our apartment and played tennis with B, a 30-something year-old Filipino worker that I bumped into at church one day a few months back. I've since seen him a few more times and found out that he plays tennis a few times a week! I asked him if I could tag along and play so this morning those hopes finally came to fruition! The tennis was fun and we played for about 2 hours on public courts in Causeway Bay. I was never a really good tennis player, but my tennis game has deteriorated as my mission has gone along. It was both a humbling and fun experience to have a racquet in my hands again. Later we left for Wanchai to go to JoJo's Indian Cuisine (came highly recommended from my faaathaaa). We went with the Mandarin Elders that serve Hong Kong Island. They also brought a less-active with them. Super nice guy! The food and company were both awesome! We probably ate for 45 minutes and talked for and hour. Then we lugged ourselves over to this, the Hong Kong Convention Center to email. This afternoon I think we will also try to write a few letters and then if there is still time, go to Admiralty where they have some famous gardens/zoos to check out. It'll be a full, fun P-Day. :) Somewhere in there we also have to buy groceries before we head out and go 'new investigator finding' in ShauKeiWan.

This past week has been an interesting one. We have spent hours each night calling potential, former, and current investigators and scheduled almost no lessons for the entire week... This means that we did a lot of finding. I think we averaged between 5 and 6 hours of finding each day. This kind of finding is alright, and keeps you fit, but is not all that effective and can be kind of discouraging when you can't schedule any lessons. I had a lot of this discouragement this week. We also went finding in every town in our area this week which I did think was kind of fun since our area has some really busy/bustling parts, and then some places that require mini-buses to get to, where you can go and actually knock on doors!

One day in particular that stood out to me was when we went to TaiKoo (a super rich, very international part of our area). While we were there we kept running into Japanese families who I guess were there because of some little league soccer tournament (that was a quick reminder to me of how much Japanese I never knew). That same day we also stopped a man from mainland China. He was nice enough, and then he told us that he was a part of the Chinese Communist party and so that put a quick end to that gospel discussion. Finally, one of the only families that we were able to stop that entire day was an older couple who spoke only Mandarin and broken English. They ended up not being too interested, but I did learn that they had been to the US before; specifically Texas! When I enquired further, I found out that they have a daughter living in Coppell! Small world! A family from Beijing with a daughter that lives 10 minutes away from my family who are half a world away!

Saturday is typically our only super busy day of lessons. And thankfully because it was so busy, it actually redeemed us a bit from a pretty poor week. We had 5 lessons and for one of them we actually had a member there! Hurray for member-present lessons! The member, R, is a 16 year old that I have become friends with over the last couple weeks. He came and fellowshipped for our lesson with a former investigator I actually found my second week in Hong Kong. He still doesn't have great interest but is willing to meet, especially if we also will help him with his English. After introductions we planned on watching a church movie, Finding Faith in Christ. The movie outlines the miracles that Christ did, and shows about Christ's life--it's perfect for people with little faith, no prior knowledge of Christ, or people who want to know more. The DVD just did not seem to want to work for us even though we had set it all up before the lesson and made sure it was working. We tried everything we could think of and then R decided to say a prayer. We all watched as he silently prayed after which we had the thought to press the fast-forward button instead of the play button. And it worked! Talk about a miracle! It was such a faith-building experience for me because it was a simple answer to a young man's prayer, and helped show all of us that were present that God really is in the details. He does care--even about a short 25 minute movie.

Yesterday at church it was a little rough. None of our investigators showed up. In fact the night before none of them had answered the phone or responded to texts. That's another thing that has been happening recently--our calls are getting screened by investigators :( Because C hasn't come for the last 2 weeks, nor has answered our phone calls, we can with relative certainty guarantee that she won't be baptized next week as was planned. We also dropped another investigator's baptismal goal this week because she hasn't met with us for 2 months or answered our calls for 2 weeks.

On the bright side though, A is still progressing! He is the only one progressing actually, and he is still getting ready for baptism on the 27th. This past week we were able to meet with him once and finished up all the lessons by teaching Tithing and Fast Offerings. He took it all very well and is committed to keeping these commitments! He was unable to get to church yesterday because he was previously scheduled to work this past Sunday.

To make this past Sunday better though, Causeway Bay Elders had a baptism for their investigator F! I've known F since my 2nd move (transfer) here in Hong Kong and he is super solid! Hasn't missed church once since September I think. He's 21 and wants to go on a mission too! We were all very happy to be a part of that baptismal service!

I have to go soon so I hope that you guys are all having good weeks! Continue to read and pray!

Love,

Elder Siebach

P.S. Hailey Morey is in this most recent Ensign in an article about relationships. The best part is that the picture shows her with some other guy!!!--Definitely not with Zack :)