General Conference Extravaganza

Dear Friends and Family,

What a week of ups and downs! There were a lot of really good things that happened this week! Namely the rebroadcast of conference. Among other things there was a lot of rain--not something I think of as bad until it keeps EVERYONE from stopping to talk with us and gives investigators an excuse to cancel appointments on us.

Our numbers were really bad this week. What little productive finding we could do was done next to apartment buildings which have a convenient ledge that keeps all patrons from getting soaked, as well as most of the time they have covered walk-ways.

Because of the rain, Elder W and I spent a fair bit of time calling and confirming or rescheduling investigators. Over the course of 3 days this week we got 'fonged' (the investigator didn't show up/answer phone) 8 times. Few things are more aggravating to a missionary then to have spent a long time praying for and discussing how to teach a lesson, pulling teeth to schedule a fellowshipper, and then to get a text 2 minutes before the lesson starts saying that something came up, or worse yet, to have the investigator not answer the phone when we make that, "You're 10 minutes late. Where are you?" phone call. Oh, well. In the words of a musician whose name now escapes my mind, "Oh yeah, life goes on." I think we only had like 6 lessons the entire week (missionaries should average about 20-25).

Watch it online!

To turn the tides on what would have been a very crummy week, conference came! Boy was I ever excited to go to that! Seriously though, I looked forward to it all week long! And I wasn't disappointed. The talks were SO good! I learned a lot and took copious notes. Some of the talks that really stood out to me were Andersen's and Nelson's who talked a lot about missionariy work. Elder Eyring also talked a TON about it and about the need for member referrals. You think I'm kidding but I can count on 1 hand how many people have given me a referral on my mission. And believe me, it's not because we aren't asking and working for them. Even if they aren't great referrals, we don't care. We want to teach! And we want to have a natural fellowshipper so that we aren't scrambling around trying to schedule members who might be a good match.

Read The Liahona!

I also reall liked Elder Bednar and Perry's talks. Elder Bednar just said it straight. Didn't sugar coat anything about the importance of morality and virtue. Elder Perry is 90 or 95 (I don't remember correctly) but he is so full of fire and of the spirit when he talks! He was so inspiring to me. I felt like conference talked a lot about commandments and using our moral agency to choose God's will. Thankfully conference also proved to be a lot better for investigators and we got 7 investigators to come out for at least one of the five sessions. I'm excited for the Liahona to come out next month with all the talks in it so I can review again.

@ the Big Buddha with Elder W.

Last Monday after I wrote you guys I headed out to Tung Chung (the island that the airport is next to) and with a few members and other missionaries we rode a bus out to the Big Buddha! It was so cool! Thankfully it wasn't raining, and the views were spectacular. I won't go into great detail about everything because I'm going to try and post a few pictures at the end of this email. Super fun activity though!

Today for P-Day we are going to Victoria Peak! I'm pretty excited since it will be a first for me. We're going with the Sister Missionaries who serve KwaiChung with us, as well as a member who really wants to take us there.

Yup--he sent it home:)

I may or may not have told you, but the 2-column tags that the Hong Kong mission uses are no longer approved by the Church. So, we will be getting new ones. They will be in all Chinese. In case any Elder or Sister serves in the international zone they will be issued all English tags too. I'm a little bummed about it, but it's OK. These tags were fun while they lasted. Recently I've been looking for my MTC tags which had Chinese on bottom and my name in English on top. Did I send those home? I don't see them in any of my luggage here.

I heard this week from another Elder that there was a shooting in Texas. Any truth to it? What happened?

Threads--very nice!

Of special interest to Sterling: Yesterday I was walking the streets of Mong Kok on my way to the HoManTin chapel for conference and saw a music poster. It was the band 'This Will Destroy You', and apparently they are coming to Hong Kong for a concert in May. Are they touring to Texas? (That's where they are from you know). Are you going to try to go?

Hope all is going well for everyone! Thank you for your prayers for me and for my investigators; they are needed and I know that the Lord hears and answers every prayer on his own time-table. I have a testimony of that and have seen on my mission how the Lord tests our faith to prove us, and then answers us. He always does. Keep reading and praying!

Love,

Elder Siebach