Prayers, Hard Work and Miracles--Ga Yao!!

Dear Family and Friends of Elder Siebach,
This week is Spencer's birthday, and next week is his one-year mark on the mission! Will you please consider sending him a quick note? I think he'd love to get the show of love and support from so many back here at home:) His email and mailing address are listed to the right--use whichever one you prefer. Thank you!!! <3 Tasha

Hong Kong dedication for missionary work
date inscribed on a rock on Victoria Peak:
"Elder Matthew Cowley dedicated the Colony of 
Hong Kong on July 14, 1949 at a site on 
Victoria Peak that faced Mainland China."
Read more about it here.

Hiking to the top of Victoria Peak

What a week! I can't adequately express through email all the emotions that I had this week! Super highs and super lows! Lest you think that I am bi-polar, rest assured that it was all because of our investigators.

Two weeks ago my companion and I sat down during our weekly planning and had a rather sober conversation about our current investigator pool. We had 5 investigators with baptismal dates, but then in recent weeks 2 or 3 of them stopped progressing. So during our planning we felt like the Lord was maybe telling us that we should put them on the side burner for now. So as of this week we only had 1 baptismal date. We found him 1 day before the General Conference broadcast and he was pretty darn golden. Everyone else we dropped their dates and pretty much decided to only see them once a week or so for now. Because of this, we really needed to get our investigator pool back up, and so every day this week we spent most of our time out on the streets finding. We got a few lessons here and there, mostly just some numbers though. Then on Wednesday we met a mother, A-J, out on the street. She didn't have a lot of time but we managed to get off a quick lesson about Heavenly Father and prayer and then rescheduled her for the next day. She showed up the next day at the church, so we gave her a tour and taught the complete Restoration. She really liked it, felt the special spirit of it and said that she wanted to start working towards baptism and that this coming Sunday she would bring her two children with her to church! What an absolute miracle! Her prayer was phenomenal and so sincere!

Friday we had a few more lessons but nothing really noteworthy. Then on Saturday we had 3 hours to go finding and felt like we needed to go up to this random part of our area. It was near a playground, so there were lots of moms around. A few of them were polite enough to listen, but then declared that they couldn't possibly believe in a God and Jesus Christ. Most everyone else I approached just waved me off/ignored me. Those are super aggravating lessons for me because I feel like I teach it so simply and clearly and then they just go off on how Chinese traditions conflict with this and how they will only worship their ancestors.... GRRR!

Meanwhile, Elder Ward spent most of his time with a mom and her daughter and was able to  teach them a really good lesson and commit them for church the next day! Woot Woot! That makes it all worth it for me, even if I didn't really have any of my own immediate success.

That afternoon we had been scheduled by a family, that we hadn't met, to come to their home where my companion was going to teach their daughter piano. It was my job to help with any English and build our relationship with the family. An hour later we walked out having done just that, as well as taught the mother, 2 daughters, and the son a simplified Restoration lesson. Not to mention we also commited them for church the next day!

Come Sunday We managed to get A-J there with her two kids, and then this last mother, A-C, and 2 of her 3 kids. It was a total miracle and definitely an answer to our prayers and hard work! Incidentally, it also happened 6 weeks before the end of this next move (6 weeks is the shortest amount of time an investigator can investigate and then get baptized in the China Hong Kong mission). So Elder W and I are still praying and trying to do everything in our power to be exactly obedient and to have the Spirit with us always so that we can help these families come unto Christ! Along with those two families, we also had a handful of other investigators at church (9 in total!).

Randomly last week, some Elders (not us) were on the street and got approached by a less-active man. This man lives in our area and so yesterday he came to church with us! It was the first time he's been back to church in 15 years! He was baptized in 1998 and immediately stopped coming. He really enjoyed the lessons and says that he wants to continue to come to church as well as bring his wife and son! God really does work in mysterious ways!

Last but not least, one of the young men that we put on the side-burner a few weeks ago miraculously developed a newfound desire to investigate the church and is working towards a baptismal date of June 2nd!

Seriously? Ok:) Whatever!

Needless to say, the ward was pretty pumped up yesterday and after some prompting from us, they became excellent fellowshippers for all these new investigators! On top of it all, we got 12 new investigators this week from our street finding too!

Ga Yao!

Anyway, I'm cutting this letter short so that I can send some photos! I love you all! Keep reading and praying daily! It's so simple but so important!

GA YAO! (Add Oil--meaning "keep going")

Love,

Elder Siebach