On Being CRAZY and Speaking English

Dear Friends and Family,

I decided to make you wait with bated breath for me to write:) No, actually last week we were told that our Zone was up on the rotation to go to the Temple.

Hong Kong Temple

Temple day is now on Wednesday or Thursday so we had to move our P-Day unexpectedly to today! Anyways, I'm not complaining since it gave me time to find more things to write about as well as go to the temple! The temple is the place to be! It's such a blessing that it's located so conveniently to us! It's only like 8 or 9 stops on the Subway and then a 4 minute walk! The temple was wonderful as usual and gave me a great spiritual rejuvenation. I was surprised as I thought back on the time and realized that 1 year ago this week I was going through the SLC temple for the first time with my dear parents, grandparents, an aunt and a few cousins! I can't believe how fast the time has flown!

This was a really good week. A lot happened! I was grateful that Elder W and I were able to take our coats off for a few days this. We've decided that if it's sunny and 80's or above we will take our suits off. If it's overcast and not too humid and hot we keep them on. Including today we've had 3 days of rain and coolish temperatures so we've been wearing suits.  In fact yesterday I was on an exchange with my district leader in KwaiChung and the 2 of us went and did some less-active finding for a few hours. As we were wrapping it all up the skies got really dark and thunder and lightning were all around us. As we were coming down the mountain towards the church the skies ripped apart and we had just a huge downpour of rain. Kinda monsoonish and it just drenched our clothes as we ran the last few blocks to the chapel. It impeded us from going out and having an effective street find so we took an early dinner in hopes that we could wait out the storm and then go out. It didn't let up but thankfully English class was only a few minutes later and we had a Recent Convert lesson afterwards.

Earlier this week Elder W and I had been up finding near an apartment complex without too much success. It was rainy and near dinner time so not many people paid us any attention. Then I contacted a lady and all she knew was Mandarin. I don't know any Mandarin but it sounds kinda close to Cantonese in some ways so we were able to communicate to some extent. A passing school boy helped me out and was able to translate more completely for me. After that contact Elder W and I were able to teach him the Restoration. He seemed to be really good! He was asking really good questions and was very engaged. When we tried to get his number he declined and so we tried to figure out what his problem was. His problem was prophets. So we re-explained it and he still had a problem. Come to find out he's like 15 or 16 and he claims he's a prophet... So we asked him to pray about our message and tell us how he felt. He did and then turned on us and told us that God told him our message contained truths but that we were of the devil... It's kinda hard to recover from that:(. I mention this story because I saw him again yesterday as we were doing less-active finding near his apartment complex. He's still not much better. Maybe the 3rd time will be a charm? Or he's crazy...

Two weeks ago as Elder W and I were finding I contacted this really nice lady named A. She was super interested in our missionary work and scheduled for a lesson. We made an appointment for last Saturday and had an awesome lesson with her! Randomly, about 4 recent converts showed up and were her fellowshippers and it was just an awesome lesson. She was feeling the spirit and loved having those recent converts there (Some were as young as 14 and had been baptized last month). Not really the age-range I would have originally chosen, but their sweet testimonies were what she needed and it went really well. She's a reporter so she stays kinda busy so I don't think we'll be able to see her again this week. She was scheduled to come to church with us too but then got sick.

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One reason Elder W and I have been doing a fair amount of less-active finding is that President Hawks LOVES finding. But he realizes that the best way to build up Hong Kong is to let it expand from the inside out (in other words, bring back less-actives and get referrals from members) and that our 3rd priority should be street finding. Less active finding is also much more effective than street finding--especially in the rain.
All Hong Kong natives hate the rain, whether it's super heavy or even a sprinkle. I think they live in the wrong part of the world personally!

On Sunday we had 5 investigators at church, and then as church drew to an end, a less-active member that we contacted showed up! He has really good English so we just stayed in the chapel and participlated in the Filipino (English speaking) sacrament meeting. He's kinda crazy too. There seems to be a very distinct correlation between being crazy and having really good English, I don't quite get it:)

Lastly, I got a call from the ChaiWan Elders on Sunday who told me that P got baptized! I even got to talk to him on the phone for a few minutes which was awesome! I didn't baptize him, but I taught him all the lessons so I'm calling him my first convert :) It made last week just that much better to get that phone call! P was a referral from the Tsing Yi Elders and I do exercises with them every morning so they too were super stoked to have been the means of finding him.

Anyway, my time is up! Hope y'all have a great day! Keep reading a praying! Remember it's Easter!

Love,

Elder Siebach

P.S. Moves calls are next week. I'll definitely be staying but the question is if Elder W will or will not. If he leaves I'll be training. (7 Elders and 15 Sisters come into the misison next week...) WOW!

Faith, Prayer, Work, and Sweat...and lots and LOTS of Numb3r5

Dear Friends and Family, 

This week was a solid week here in KwaiChung. Elder W and I hit the streets hard; he keeps telling me how grateful he is that he doesn't have to train me and that I know what I'm doing. He probably has more faith in me than I do sometimes :)

We set some pretty high goals for this week that we thought would stretch us and be good for us. By about Wednesday we had achieved all the member-present lessons that we had hoped for for the week (we only set 6 since we thought we'd have a lot of street lessons), and then we just decided to up it to 10. At the start of this week we also only had 2 people with baptismal dates and 1 (K) was going to have to move his back by a week or 2. So we figured we'd stretch ourselves and go for 2 more new dates.

On Friday we had our once-a-transfer zone training meeting. It left the two of us really pumped and focusing on how we could be better nightly planners. So for the last 4 days we've used a few extra minutes during planning and tried to pay very careful attention to the feelings of the spirit and make goals that are both reasonable and faith-promoting. It's worked! That Friday night we were unable to schedule any lessons with investigators after 3:00 so we knew we'd be out finding but not sure where. So we decided to pray about it and ask where was best. After the pray we both waited for a moment or so and then almost in unision we said the same KwaiChung apartment complex in our area. The next question was how many lessons we could get and how many new investigators. (We set 7 new investigators as our goal for the week but by Thursday night we didn't have any solid, commited to a second visit, investigators) After studying in out we felt that 3 lessons and 3 new ivestigators would be best. The next day, Saturday, the lesson that we had scheduled right before we would head out finding got pushed back until 5 (right in the middle of when we had planned to find). So we started finding an hour earlier than planned and we went to a different area to go finding since we felt strongly that we needed to be in KwaiChung Complex at 3. In that intermittent hour we managed to stop someone, A-D, teach him a lesson, give him a tour of the chapel, and commit him to church for the next day! That in and of itself was a miracle! We then went up to KwaiChung and from 3 to 4:30 worked really hard to teach lessons. In one of the lessons the guy wouldn't give us his phone number after, and then in other situations all we got were numbers and no lessons. At 4:15 Elder Ward and I independently stopped people (I stopped 2 people and he stopped 1), both managed to teach lessons, get numbers and commited 2 of them for another lesson! Miracle of miracles! For 5 days we could get no new investigators and then through faith, prayer, work and sweat we got 3 investigaors as planned and exceeded our lessons we had planned for. Such a testimony builder to me!

As I mentioned we also went for a goal of 2 new baptismal dates this week. Well, we re-prayed and had a few miracles and this week we were able to give out 4 invitiations as well as rescheduled the date for K. So this week we were just on fire and it's all because of planning and faith!

Just a little side-note: K was originally scheduled for baptism on March 31st, but because he hasn't attended church enough we moved it back one week, to April 7th. He told us afterwards that he's pretty excited for this date because he feels like he can be ready on that date, and...it is his birthday!

We had 5 investigators at church yesterday too which also boosted ward morale! To top off the week, we taught more than twice the member-present lessons than the 6 we originally scheduled:)

No kidding!?!

Among some of the announcements that were given out at this most recent Zone Training, we were informed that it is now our own discretion as to when we stop wearing our suitcoats, but we were reminded that proper missionary dress is the suit:P Elder W and I are still mulling it over in our minds and haven't dropped the jackets just yet, but I'm guessing we'll drop them next week, since it is already super humid and getting into the 80's . In other news, the most recent wave of new missionaries to Hong Kong were not issued snazzy English/Chinese name tags, but rather a complete traditional Chinese character tag--word is that within the next month all of us will have these same tags, which means I will use at least 3 different sets of tags before I end my mission! We also found out that 14 new missionaries will arrive in Hong Kong from the Provo MTC this month, so that means about 85 percent of the mission will be training (probably me too).

Sai Gung Beach
Great place to do backflips...and anything else!

Today for P-Day we went with a Elders H and P (they serve in TST (Tsim Sha Tsui)) and headed out to Sai Gung, a famous beach/tourist attraction way out in the middle of nowhere. We went to the beach and Elder W and Elder H taught us how to do back-flips. Elder P got it down in a heart beat but I kinda chickened out--maybe next time. (Don't worry mom, I won't break my neck :))

This week I've been reading a bunch of different things, but what I've been wondering about is in 3rd Nephi 11. Christ appears to the Nephites, and immediately calls his 12 apostles and teaches/gives authority to baptize. In chapter 12 the apostles are then baptized and Nephi is the very first. My question is why did they need to be  given this authority and taught how to baptize yet again? I guess I assumed Nephi, as the record keeper, was already the prophet and had the authority. Not to mention, prophets prior to this in the Book of Mormon have taught the true doctrine of Christ, and most, if not all, have performed and been baptized (for instance Alma and Helaman). All you who are full of wisdom please enlighten me! Thanks!

I hope all of you have a good week and continue to read and pray every day. I guess my advice for the week is to  plan. Notice God, and let Him be in the details of your life.

Love,

Elder Siebach

SKETCHY Outfits and a New Area

Some celebratory hot pot--Yum!
(Spencer and new comp., Elder Wa up front;
Elder R and comp. in back)

Dear Friends and Family,

I made it! Last week we had our district meeting and I found out that I would be leaving Chaiwan. I really didn't think I would go, just because it seemed like an improbable time to be leaving. Well, now I am serving KwaiChung ward! My area is up in the Kowloon side of things and I live in KwaiFong. My area includes on the MTR (subway) Lai King, Kwai Fong, Kwai Hing and Tai Wo Hau. My new companion is Elder Wa. I've probably mentioned him in previous letters because when I first got to Hong Kong he was serving in Causeway Bay and we shared an apartment. He's a super nice guy, been out like a year and a half almost and is from Tennessee.

Never in a million years would we have thought that we would get put together just because he was set to train here in Kwai Fong and even though I haven't hit my year mark yet, we're both considered 'old' in the mission. It's great to be serving with him and I share an apartment with Mandarin Elders that serve the New Territories. Believe it or not, those Mandarin Elders are Elder R and his trainee Elder Y! (Elder R was a good friend of mine when I lived in Tokyo!).

Spencer with Elder R
(friend from Tokyo middle school days)

Obviously I was super stoked when I found out that I would be living with him! Kinda like fulfilled a dream I had. We've been doing a lot of catching up and swapping stories. Every morning we go out and play basketball or run at the court/track near our apartment--super fun!

This area, KwaiChung, is a lot different from Chaiwan. A lot of schools and apartments are in our area with very few businesses, so by nature the majority of our contacts on the street are school kids and moms scattered here and there. The church is also 20 feet from our apartment building and in the middle of our area so it's really easy to have lessons at the church and give tours of the church. Within the last 2 months or so there have been 5 baptisms (ranging in age from 14 - 21) and so the ward is super 'on fire' and supportive. Yesterday I was asked to bear my testimony in church and I mentioned in my testimony how excited I was to be serving here and afterwards a handful of members just came up and said they'd be willing to help us teach lessons whenever they're free! <-- (That's a missionary's dream!).

I think I'm going to like the ward a lot. There are a good number of families and probably like 70 or 80 actives.

Like, how sketchy???

This past week we've been able to have a fair amount of lessons as well as spent a lot of time finding out on the streets getting new potential investigators. Two of these potential investigators actually came to church yesterday and I guess we should have told them how to dress for church or something because they came in the SKETCHIEST outfits I've ever seen! They also came late, so when we brought them into sacrament meeting the whole ward saw them... Oh well, plan better next time:)

Spencer with 2nd companion in HK, Elder Wo

One day this week I went over to try and contact a grandmother and maybe her 20ish granddaughter and was surprised to find out that the granddaughter spoke perfect English and lives in Sandy, Utah! Kinda random, but she's not a member. She was only in town for a wedding this weekend though.
Anyway, I'm going to cut this email short in the hopes that I can send off a few pictures to y'all.

Love you all! Keep reading and praying daily!

Love,

Elder Siebach

La Cucaracha...and God's Signature

Dear Friends and Family,

Yet another week has passed me by in Chaiwan. I love the area but am ready to leave-- 7 months here is my self-set cap. However, it's not my will, it's Heavenly Father's. I think that His will is for me to stay longer. I say this because my Senior companion, Elder C, needs to train soon, but there are only 2 new missionaries coming into the mission this next week. He hasn't gotten a call from President Hawks telling him he will train, and he probably won't have another companion before he trains is my guess. To add on to this thought, transfers for as long as I have been here have been 6 weeks. This upcoming transfer will only be 4 weeks and then all transfers that follow will be 9. For these reasons I can very easily see myself staying for another 4 weeks. Who knows though. I'm not supposed to speculate anyway:) What's 4 more weeks after I've been here 30 anyway? I'll found out tomorrow during District Meeting...

I was here at the computer less than a week ago so I don't have a lot to update you on. Among some of the highlights were killing cockroaches in an investigator's apartment and an awesome new investigator!

Yikes!

I'll start with this cockroaches. I may or may not have told you that there are 2 Thai members who come to my ward. One of them, Sister C (her adopted Chinese name), has asked us to teach a friend of hers who is also Thai. Both have lived in Hong Kong for over 20 years so their Chinese is OK. I've learned how to teach very basic parts of some of the discussions in Thai though which is kinda fun:) It makes me think of some of my friends who are in Thailand serving right now.  The one we teach, Mrs. S, is a bit older and has a lot of health issues so we go to her apartment on the 40th floor and teach her with Sister C. It's a tiny, dirty, 1-room apartment and prone to have cockroaches I guess. During our latest meeting I saw one peek its ugly head out of the moulding on the door frame and took the liberty of trying to provoke it to come out with a broom. Well that was a bad idea since it didn't come out but it did sweep out 50 or so babies that I made a quick game of stomping (maybe kinda like this?). I stayed at it for 3 or 4 more minutes (this was all before we had started the lesson).

Besides just health problems this lady also has had a number of family problems and tragedies occur in her life recently-- a daughter in jail, a grand-daughter who died etc... These things make her obviously very sad and so we don't teach very much at all when we go over-- mostly it's a lot of comforting and trying to teach 1 principle per meeting or so. She's doing better little by little but after our most recent visit she informed us that the HaakSeiWui, (this is the pin-yam) or Hong Kong Triad is threatening her if she doesn't pay a certain amount of money! This poor woman... We're going over tonight to clean out her apartment and exterminate the pests:) 

The new awesome investigator that we have is named M. He's probably in his 40's and lives in TaiKoo (the richest part of our area; incidentally he is the only person I've ever been able to teach who lives within that area). We got his number from Mandarin missionaries who ran into him when he came to church in Kowloon Tong a few weeks ago. We scheduled him this week, taught him the 1st lesson and commited him to come to church with us this past Sunday. During our first meeting with him we got to know him and to understand his background better. Turns out he grew up as a Christian, and currently he has a co-worker who is a member of the church in a different ward. He also works closely with a company based out of Orem, Utah (they supplied him with a Book of Mormon and wrote key chapters he should read!!) Through numerous experiences with these people he has developed a greater interest. 

After church yesterday I sat down with him with the hopes of addressing any concerns he had with church, any questions he had about the Book of Mormon etc... Well, to my great surprise he told me he's been reading the Book of Mormon, prays beforehand, and feels the spirit as he ponders and reads it! I was floored! We're meeting with him later this week and hope to continue to teach him.

What I learn from this investigator is 1) the importance of member referrals-- they really are 100 million times better than street-contacts, and 2) there are prepared people everywhere! Even in the rich areas.

This past Saturday was just a good day! We managed to schedule a number of lessons and knew that we were going to be busy teaching people (obviously a missionary's dream). One of the people we had scheduled was a Mrs. G and her son that I had taught months ago before they got too busy to schedule or meet. They called us and scheduled us to help teach English to them and to some friends of theirs. We went to the appointment as expected and hoped to be able to share a gospel message as we taught English. To our great surprise we were actually greeted by another mom! She asked us to sit down and we used 45 minutes to answer her questions and teach the first lesson to them! As we were leaving she asked us in passing if we would be willing to come back, share more, and next time help a bit with English! So we're pretty excited about the potential there of 2 families.

Samuel

After church yesterday we had a lesson scheduled at the church to give a guy we contacted, K, a tour of the chapel. He's not sure about his beliefs exactly, but grew up in a Catholic school. We talked a lot about the Bible and he brought up an interesting concern which is that in the Old Testament God destroys a lot of people. He doesn't like that very much and for that reason he has a hard time accepting the reality of a loving Heavenly Father. It's caused me to think a lot and I'm still not exactly sure how to answer why the Old Testament has so much more godly anger, awhile the New Testament and Book of Mormon have comparatively much less. Any thoughts?

I've been reading recently in Helaman, specifically about Samuel the Lamanite. It's interesting to me that some people believed on his words and looked forward to the miracles that he prophesied, and then others were so hardened that when the miracles began to happen they said that the prophets 'guessed' right on some things, or the wicked people described it all as the the devil's power. I hope that I can continue to recognize the miracles in my life. I sometimes get caught up thinking about other things, wishing I were a better missionary, etc... But honestly, there are so many miracles in all of our lives if we will just stop for a moment and be grateful--if we can recognize that it's God's hand that is in these things. God's signature is on everything we see.

Anyway, hope y'all have a good week! Read, pray, recognize miracles and write them down somewhere!

Love,

Elder Siebach

P.S. I may or may not be just a bit jealous of Sterling and Dad's trip next week.

P.S.S. (for Dad) According to Brother Harshaw's definition you could call me fluent in Cantonese:)