In Which I Decide to Employ a Street Approach with a Super-De-Duper Emphasis on Families

Dear Friends and Family,

Hong Kong Temple

Last week after I wrote my letter I found out that this week we would be taking a District Temple trip on Wednesday so we wouldn't be having our typical P-Day. So that's where I just came from!:) The temple was an awesome experience as usual! I look forward so much to just sitting there and pondering. Almost every time I have gone to the temple the session has been in English. Now the last two times have been in Cantonese (I understood 80 percent of what was going on) and then today it was in Mandarin (I understood like 15 percent--Thank heavens for headphones that translate for me!) It's also a real joy for me to go through and do the names for Chinese people. The person today that I went through for could have been an older brother to me. He was born in 1984 and was baptized for himself and confirmed before he passed away. As I sit and think about it, it was a real privilege to go participate in a session today because I have no doubt that he has been anxiously waiting for these saving ordinances. It was just a really happy feeling and I hope that I meet him in the next life. :)

Tennis trophy:)

This week I got a nice Valentine's package from my family full of goodies. Of course my own Mom is my Valentine, but Elder C substituted out here. haha :) Thanks for the package and the CTR ring!

Some other great news was to hear about Sterling's acceptance to BYU! Congratulations! I was thinking about that all last week actually and wondering. Grace also deserves congrats for her tennis match!

I think I see them!

Last week I decided to use the clothes rack that hangs out of our apartment window. It seemed like a calm night and so I just draped a pair of my suit pants out on the rack and didn't clip them down. Well, the next morning I woke up and they weren't there... My first thought was that one of the other Elders in the apartment brought them back in for me. But, on closer, (rather further examination) I saw that in the night they had slipped off the rack and fallen below. From my perch on the 15th floor it looked like they had actually been caught on the rack of another apartment quite a ways down. So, after personal study Elder C and I used our comp study time to try to locate which floor they were on and then go knock on those doors. From our vantange point we thought they were either on the 5th or 6th floor. No one answered at either door so we wrote some notes (actually Elder C since I don't know Characters yet) and left them on the gates to those apartments. That night they were still perched on the ledge but the following morning they were gone and the guard to our apartment gave them back to me. Anyway, talk about awkward-- to get a note that says, "Hey, I live on the 15th floor. My pants are probably hanging on your ledge... Could you get them for me? Thanks. Apt 15A"

Order a free Book of Mormon!

Last Friday we had an amazing All-Missionary Meeting in Kowloon Tong. The 102 Hong Kong missionaries came together at 9:00 AM and sang hymns as the 10 Asia-Area mission presidents and various other general authorities came out of the temple, crossed the street and came into the chapel. Once we were all seated in the chapel we heard from President David Evans of the 1st Quorum of Seventy, his wife, and concluding remarks were from President Kent Watson who is in the 2nd Quorum of Seventy as well as the Asia-area president. Pres Evans was the main speaker and used about an hour and a half to talk to us about the temple and then missionary work. He gave some great insights from both his time as a missionary in Japan and when he was the mission president in Nagoya. Wonderful talk and really caused me to reflect on how I use the Book of Mormon with investigators. He really encouraged missionaries to work on being fluent enough to read the Book of Mormon with their investigators. (I probably need to memorize 1,500 traditional Chinese characters to do that--I think off hand I probably know about 100 right now just from walking around all the time on the street). It was something that I had kind of been putting off until the last 6 months of my mission just because I think/thought that I should be an amazing oral communicator first. But as I've thought more I've started to think that by reading with my investigators I may be able to better understand their concerns and testify through the Book of Mormon. Still thinking about how to do it best right now though. Any ideas? Send them!

You can do it!!

This week I've really been trying to change my street contacting style. Since the first day I got here I learned from my trainer, second companion, and now third companion very different and important things about finding. One thing that I've always started with saying is, "Hello! Have you ever seen missionaries before?" (Making sure to smile the whole time). But after a recent sharing in a District Meeting and super-de-duper emphasis on families, I realize this is not the best way. So for the last 4 days I started with, "Hello, I'm a missionary who shares about the importance of the gospel of Christ and how it blesses families." (<-- I don't know if this sentence was grammatically correct. I've started using Chinese grammar even when I speak in English. I think I changed this into OK English grammar) But it works! I've been able to stop more people and I firmly believe it's because I tell them what I am doing (sharing) and what it's for (families). It's been a really good past few days! One nice lady in particular, when she heard what I was doing, asked if we could sit down and talk. She told her life story, shared about how she wants to help herself and her son, and honestly kinda broke down. It was a superb opportunity for me to testify of the blessings that come from my message and help her. She ended up giving me her cell number, her son's cell number, their home number, and last night called me and gave me their address! She's scheduled for a lesson this Friday afternoon! Anyway, I have a stronger and growing testimony of the importance of testifying. These busy Hong Kong people can't possibly feel the Spirit of my message when I ask them if they've seen missionaries before. In fact, the last missionary who tried to contact them probably said that! :)

Hope all of you are safe and happy! Gospel brings greater happiness so keep reading and praying!

Love,

Elder Siebach

The Spirit is...anxious to help us!

Hello Everyone,

Spencer's area is located on the NE corner of
Hong Kong Island

Another good week here on the Island! Things have been good and we've had a lot of sunshine recently! Feels like it's getting warmer little by little, and I'm getting tan on my wrists and neck since I still have to wear a suitcoat.

Chinese New Year finally ended 2 days ago so things are starting to get back to normal. Today for P-Day we don't really have anything going on. We all took naps this morning since we were absolutely exhausted. For the rest of the day we are chillaxing, writing letters and might go explore around Wanchai for a little bit.

This past week was a bit more exciting than our P-Day though. On Thursday we had our quarterly Multi-Zone Conference in Kowloon Tong. We heard some great messages about living up to our potential, the benefits of obedience, and...hygiene--It's that time of year when I guess a lot of the missionaries are getting sick:) We also had the Asia Area Senior Couple who are in charge of Family History come and give a presentation. The message that resonated with me was that of living up to our potential as missionaries. There are so many 'good' things in missionary work, some 'better' things, and then 'best' things. It caused me to reflect and think about myself. I think I'm pretty good, but there is definitely some room for improvement.

President Hawks also spent some time to talk about the future of this mission. It was all rather inspiring as he laid out the plan for the next 6-12 months with the surge of new missionaries that will begin arriving next month. Recently he has also taken steps to help the mission increase in faith. He talked about how his overall feeling is that every missionary has increased his or her faith in the last 2 months and that this is evidenced through greater success, as well as the trials that precede this.

Currently our companionship only has 1 investigator with a baptismal date. His name is P and he's doing really well! We saw him twice this week; once on Wednesday and once on Thursday. He's making great progress and has a desire to be baptized and keep the commandments. This week we talked about the Word of Wisdom and Chastity. He agreed wholeheartedly with both and is willing to get rid of what little tea he did drink! He's scheduled for baptism on March 3rd.

We've been unable to see A for almost two weeks now--due in part to the craziness of New Years, and that he got a new job. This is a little worrisome to us, but we were discussing his situation and how he has great interest in the Bible but not as much towards the Book of Mormon and so our new thought is to really focus on the Bible and show how these two books complement and support each other. We'll meet with him this coming Wednesday so hopefully this can help him.

On Friday we went to our Elders Quorum President's house for lunch. The food was great--we had Chinese dumplings, Korean dumplings, and Shanghai-style stir-fried mochi. Super tasty stuff! We asked him how we could better help the Elders Quorum and what his thoughts were. Through this conversation we started talking about teaching investigators in general and mentioned that anytime we wanted we could call him up and ask to use his house for lessons! This is a missionaries dream come true because street lessons are good, teaching in the church is good too, but homes are the best! Right after that lunch we actually called him up and that evening we brought our investigator A-C to his home and had a lesson on the Plan of Salvation! This was the second time I've ever taught in a home! Super good lesson! A-C is really great too. I found him a couple weeks ago and he's making great progress. Our concern is just that he is on break from college right now and will go back to mainland in March for school. He has expressed desire to go to church even when he's in mainland, but as far as I know, you have to be a member to attend services in mainland.  

Another one of our investigators is named Ms. C. She's a nice lady but is having a hard time committing to a date right now because her boss knows that she is investigating our church and doesn't approve. She only has one day off each week (Saturday) and recently he has been assigning her on business trips so that she won't be able to meet with us on her weekends. Prayer is the only thing I can think of currently for that situation.

In our ward of 40 or so, we have 2 members that are Thai women. One of the women called us oner week and gave us a referral for another Thai friend of hers. We went and visited her this week with a member fellowshipper and had a very interesting conversation on prayer. It was a good thing she came with us too because this lady doesn't know a word of English and her Cantonese is poor, so she made for an excellent translator.

Yesterday we had 2 investigators at church so that was nice! They both only came for sacrament meeting though. We managed to get a lesson with one of them right after church too.

A few weeks ago we got a referral from some other missionaries for a lady named G. We met with her last night and it was perhaps the best lesson of my mission! We met her at the church, gave her a tour, and then talked about how the message of the Restoration is all about a loving Heavenly Father. We also answered some of her questions relating to the after-life. She is 'golden' and we were all really feeling the spirit during her sweet closing prayer. She even mentioned how she felt so good in the church and talking with us!  Right before this lesson we were in the chapel waiting and some other missionaries had just finished up a lesson with a walk-in from our area. This man's name is A-S and he's also golden! Referred himself, and when he found out we were serving in the area that he lived in he immediately asked for our numbers and scheduled us for later this week!

It was a good week and we look forward to another really good week to come!

Sorry my thoughts are so scattered in this email, but I love you all and hope you continue to read and pray! "The Spirit is a lot more anxious to help us than we are to let him help us." So let him help you through prayer and reading.

Love,

Elder Siebach

You Get What You Go For!

Chinese New Year Hong Kong Bay

Dear Friends and Family, Another great week here on Hong Kong Island! Happy New Year!! Oh, and before I forget, congrats to my dear cousin Matt who is going to Nagoya, Japan! Asia missions are the best missions! Happy Birthday Mom! I'm pretty exhausted as I sit here because for P-Day we went with our ward on a 5 hour hike around Hong Kong Island. It was hot but beautiful and I took tons of pictures. I think I will send my memory card home because there is no way I will get caught up with forwarding all these pictures! I think I mentioned a few letters ago that lately I have felt like I need to do more with the young men in our ward and try to prepare them for missions. Well, a great opportunity came this week when the YM's President told us he would be out of town for New Years and asked if we would be willing to pay each of the young men a visit over the next few weeks. Of course we accepted the assignment and so far have managed to meet with 4 of the 7 young men in our ward. All 7 of them are semi- or less-active. The lessons have gone smoothly. What we've really been trying to learn from them is what we can do to help them feel more inclined to come to church. I've been touched as I've heard the stories from boys such as D who is 13 and the only convert in his family-- he gets him self up for church and even brings his 7 year old sister Hailey with him. They are inspiring to me. Another is 16 year old L whose entire family is less active but he likes church and tries to come when he can. There are other stories that I could tell but these are the two that stick out. Sufficeth to say though, every less active boy comes from a family that is non-member, or part-members who are less active. As I was making some of these visits I reflected on my own Southlake Ward and was reminded that about the time I went to college there was a resolve to have the missionaries visit all the YM and YW and teach them the Preach My Gospel lessons. I wasn't there for any of these lessons, obviously, but I'd love to know what Sterling and Grace and even Bishop Johnson and Brother Morgan think of it. Was/Is it successful? Do the YM and YW have a greater resolve to stay active? Bring friends to church? Please let me know! A lot of really amazing things happened this week that are worth mentioning, but the first I want to bring up is K! In my first weeks in Hong Kong we met and taught K, but he sadly eventually stopped answering phone calls and texts and kind of dropped off the face of the earth. Well, Elder C called him last week and he picked up and then had lunch with us! I'm really hoping that we can continue meeting with him; that first lunch/conversation went really well so I sure hope so. 

Families Are Forever

Because it was New Year's, most people were busy and unable to schedule times for us to meet, but that gave us ample opportunity to go finding; specifically for families. I heard an interesting quote in Zone Training this past week which said, "You get what you go for." If we look for new young men investigators, we will probably get them. Same goes for any other type of investigator. Simple phrase but a great reminder to me to be more family-focused.   

On Saturday I was sitting in the church lobby waiting on an investigator. Our chapel here in Wanchai is the Asia Area Presidency's headquarters so of course I see a lot of the General Authorities coming and going. Usually they, and we, are too busy to more than just nod hello. This day President Watson came in with his wife and came right over to us. We had a great conversation with them about the work and where we were all from, etc... It made me grateful to be able to serve around such strong spiritual leaders. Adding on this same thought, this week at church, because it was New Year's we had a 1-hour Sacrament Meeting and that was all. We showed up about 30 minutes early to set up chairs and were greeted by 3 more GAs and their wives. I'm not totally sure of their names, but I think they were Porter, Nield, and maybe Causse?? of the Presiding Bishopric. They arrived completely unannounced, but they presided in the meeting and the scheduled speakers were bumped out so that 4 of them could give their testimonies. It was pretty cool! Their testimonies were all centered on missionary work, inviting the members to do more to participate, and this year to commit to introduce (and hopefully help convert) one friend to the church! It was a missionary's dream to have them talk like this! 
During Chinese New Year (which by the way is like a 3 to 4 day event--I'm still not sure when it all ends) the Chinese get fancy haircuts, buy new clothes, spend lots of time with family, go to Mainland, give out money to their friends, and among other things clean their apartment. The only one of these festivities that the mission endorses is the last! So yesterday we had our Apartment Deep Clean. The four of us spent a long time scrubbing, wiping, mopping, sweeping and organizing our apartment. I must say it looks very good! I was so thankful that one of the Elders had CD's--we probably listened to the MOTAB sing "High On The Mountain Top" in about 20 different styles and arrangements-ha!:) After all this we went out for dinner and then walked along a Promenade talking to people and trying to get a view of the fireworks--didn't see anything but we could see the colors light up the cloudy sky. 
Recently I've been reading in Alma. And I'm always so impressed by Alma, Amulek, the Sons of Mosiah, and Zeezrom. These men are awesome missionaries! And what's amazing is that all of them were wicked initially! It's just a testimony to me that the Lord knows his children and though we may see people and think they are the vilest of sinners, the Lord has a plan for all of His children. It's our duty as members to go to everyone, no matter how much interest or potential we think they could have, and to invite them to come unto Christ. It also gives me faith in my investigators when sometimes I think they won't take a lesson or principle well; the Lord can help them overcome. It gives me hope for myself to overcome my weaknesses. 
Anyway, hope you all are well and safe and healthy. Keep reading and praying! 
Love, Elder Siebach

By All Accounts it was a Miracle

Dear Friends and family,

Another good week here in Chaiwan! Things are going pretty good on this end. The days are feeling warmer but it's Spring time so the few trees that actually shed their leaves in fall are blossoming again! :) There is also a noticeable energy in the air as people prepare for the New Year. During New Year people here get haircuts, clean their apartments, and buy new clothing. Of course they also spend time with their families too. It will be neat to see how it all goes down in the coming days (actual new years doesn't start until February 10th).

I think that I mentioned in last week's email that this week we had a special stake/wards/missionary conference yesterday. It was a fantastic meeting and was geared towards getting leaders and missionaries pumped up and on the same page so that this year we can accomplish our baptismal goals. Our stake includes 6 Cantonese wards and then the Mandarin-speaking Branch and after prayer and consulting with President Hawks our stake has the energy and enthusiasm to accomplish 113 convert baptisms this year. Yesterday's meeting was planned out literally to the minute and involved leaders and missionaries role-playing as well as leaders giving 3-5 minute powerful thoughts in various aspects of missionary/ward interactions and how the 2 can work together and cooperate better. I'm sure that everyone who was in attendance could feel the power of that meeting! It is also inspiring to the four of us Chaiwan Missionaries who are trying our very hardest to work together, share fellowshippers, and be on the same page in all aspects so that we can strengthen our ward and prepare to bring in the 18 convert baptisms that they hope for this year. Lots of excitement and enthusiasm in the air down here :)

This week has also had miracles in this area-- I'll share just a few of them with you. The first one I want to talk about is from English class on Saturday Night. We typically have a very good turn out to English class and last Saturday was no different, but what made it special was that the investigator who I invited called and canceled his attendance since he had some things come up. However, a man came into English class who referred himself! The other companionship snatched this man right up, and the fellowshipper whom we had invited to help teach our investigator went with them and was able to teach him the Restoration! Self-referrals are rare and it's even more rare that a fellowshipper just happens to be available to help out, so by all accounts it was a miracle. The next miracles happened at church when two young men came to church. One is 24, studied in Snow College in Utah and decided he wanted to know more about Mormonism. The other Chaiwan companionship was able to teach him after church and give him a baptismal date! Super good! There was also another boy, 16, who came to sacrament meeting and said that he had come to church once a few years ago and just felt like he should come visit again! We taught him and he has a lot of potential we think. Anyway, that's 3 miracles and 3 new investigators right there!

Our investigator P also came to church this past week (his 3rd time to church) and so if all goes smoothly we hope that he can make his baptismal goal for March 3rd. :) A, the one who was supposed to get baptized last week was unable to make it to church this week; much to his and our dismay, but we're working with him and trying to help him really feel that his testimony of the Book of Mormon is true. He came to us this week with more problems and now says he believes in the Trinity since that is what the Bible seems to teach. We reminded him of Joseph Smith's experience with seeing two separate beings and we also talked about Christ's baptism. I really hope that we don't lose him. He's still willing to meet when he has time though which is good.

Today for P-Day the two Chaiwan companionships went to a Hong Kong Film Museum/Archive and then to an outdoor exhibit of one of Hong Kong Harbor's Fireboats. Both were pretty neat to check out. Afterwards as we walked to the bus stop to come email we walked through a mall and stopped to listen to some traditional Chinese music performers play some New Year's medleys.

Anway, I'm at a loss for what more to write about this week... Hope everyone has a good week, continues to read and pray as well!

Love,

Elder Siebach