It's a Dog's Life

Dear Friends and Family,

It's been a solid week here in KwaiChung! Elder B and I have been working hard the whole time and our numbers this week were much better. I think I mentioned last week that I thought we were going through a trial stage as we started working together and doing our best to fulfill our different roles. It really seemed to click this week and we had some "magic" lessons. 

This past Monday we met with J. He's 18 and is a friend of our recent convert, L. Actually, we found him at the same time with Leo, but maybe he just wasn't quite ready at that point. He came to our ward family home evening and afterwards we met with him and taught him about the Restoration. We were fresh out of Chinese Book Of Mormons in both our apartment and the church so we scheduled him for another evening this week to give him the Book Of Mormon. 

Instead, it turned out that he just went to the church and picked up the Book Of Mormon on his own, so we haven't seen him since Monday, but we've called and he said he is reading and praying about it. We'll most likely see him in the next few days and try and teach/explain a little more.

On Tuesday we didn't have anything going on so we had a big day of finding. We went finding in a place called Lai King and actually got off a street lesson which made us happy! A few hours into our finding, though, we got a call from Tsuen Wan Elders saying that they were at the church right then with a man whom they wanted us to meet since he lived in our area. So we ran back to the church and had a great lesson with Mr. L. He seems like a really sincere guy! We taught him the first lesson and worked with him to show him how this message can help him and his 10-year-old daughter whom he is temporarily separated from. On Friday we had another great lesson with him and he told us that he'd been praying and then that last night (Thursday night) he recieved a letter in the mail from the HK government informing him that his daughter may move back in with him in a few weeks! Truly and answer to his and our prayers on his behalf. He tried to get to church with us this past Sunday--he works a job that calls him in for 24 hours and lets him off for 24 hours. (I think he works at the cargo ship shipyard). So hopefully we can continue to help him.

Last Sunday we brought a lady to church with us and it just so happens that the sisters brought a new man to church. So we just decided to do a straight switch. (I regret it now because the girl was golden and the guy is kinda crazy, haha :)) Anyway, the man is a Mr. W. He is an artist and when we went to his home this past Friday to teach him, he brought out some photos and was more interested in taking pictures of us that he could then paint in watercolor and give to us. He's already made two for the Sisters. So we'll see if I send home a watercolor picture of me anytime soon! He has 3 awesome kids who might be really great, so I hope we can continue to meet with him and help that family.

I guess Hong Kong had a typhoon warning recently? Maybe on Friday night. All I know is that as we were out finding is was SUPER windy and the clouds were black.

It was fun finding in those conditions and we found a potential family. Then I sat down with a Nepalese guy named R for a little while and we had a good 'discussion' about the gospel. He talked almost the entire time... I told him after a few minutes that I wanted to say some stuff and he apologized and then we exchanged phone numbers. He's curious about Mormons, he just has a lot of strong opinions. I'll keep you updated on if he goes anywhere.

Yesterday had a lot of sweet experiences that helped smooth over some of the hard things of the week. This week, unfortunately, one of our baptismal dates, B, dropped. He decided he didn't want to go to KwaiFong for church but is more interested in going to KowloonTong chapel. He won't answer the phone or our texts. One of my longer-term investigators, F, finally met with us after like 3 weeks of no communication and said that he believes and knows that everything we are saying is true, but he really thinks the commandments, specifically church attendance and reading the scriptures are a pain. After talking through everything and testifying we left it up to him. He's still thinking about it. Lastly, W, one of our best investigators stopped answering the phone and responded to one text, telling us that his parents had changed their minds and don't like him coming to church anymore. Kinda rough.

But yesterday, L, our recent convert, got up during sacrament meeting and shared his testimony with the congregation. A TON of less-actives were at church, all of Sacrament meeting was centered on missionary work, and then L got to ordain our other recent convert, A, to the Aaronic Priesthood! On top of all this, ward relations are better than they have ever been before. We've made conscious efforts recently to work WITH the leaders and a general attitude of missionary work and happiness can be felt in church. It really was such a great day!

Random side-note: I figured out that missionaries can be compared to dogs

-- 100% of the time they just want to do the right thing and love the ward and their investigators. All we (the dog) want is to be loved back by our ward and investigators. Then everyone is happy, everyone is strengthened, bonds are formed, people come unto Christ.

Hope everyone is having a great week! Good luck to Sterling who is about to go into the hospital.

Love,

Elder Siebach

 

P.S. We've had Rain Warnings all morning. I think we have "Red" Rain right now. Pretty fun stuff :)