And the Rockets Red Glare!

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy 4th of July this week to everyone back home! What a great week we've had! Elder B and I worked hard, and despite setbacks and many last-minute cancels from investigators we managed to get a respectable number of lessons throughout the week. Though I was here last summer for a large amount of the summer weather, it's amazing how unaccustomed I still am to it! Many times a day I look over at Elder B to see if he is sweating anywhere near as much as I am. The street contacting has been fun though. We're getting into a good routine and working better every week. One thing I doubted before I went "Senior" companion, was if my language skills are up to the challenge of answering my younger companions language questions and communicating with the people of Hong Kong. These past couple days in particular I've felt the Lord's hand really support me and help me specifically in the language aspects of the work.

Some highlights of the last 10 days include less-active finding. Elder B and I have been crunching some numbers and figured that we average between 2 and 3 hours a day street finding. So roughly 20 hours a week if we take the larger number. Because we need to find new investigators to teach we determined to use 15 of those hours working on finding new investigators and 1/4 of our time doing less active work. One day last week we were finding out on the street and I felt like we needed to go knock on a less-active's door who was in the apartment building next to where we were finding. When we got up to his apartment, he opened the door and we were pleasantly surprised when he greeted us very warmly and told us to wait just a moment. He came out a moment later and said, "OK, let's go get a bite to eat." Not wanting to make a wrong impression, we walked with him to the nearby strip mall and he took us out to "tea time". No worries though, didn't get any tea; just french fries and chicken wings. Afterwards he wanted us to try a sweet soup. So he took us to that place and again bought us sweet black sesame seed soup. Afterwards he then took us to a high-end Japanese grocery store and bought us a TON of groceries! It was getting a little out of hand and we kept politely "m-sai"ing (no thanks) but we couldn't change his mind. He was just so happy to see the missionaries since he said that he doesn't typically have a work holiday but we just happened to come by the one day he had all month. We took him to a park afterwards and tried to share a scripture but he really didn't want to hear it. Then as we were preparing to leave a guy came up trying to argue with us and this guy, Gary, defended us and his faith very nobly! It was a pretty cool experience and I hope that with time and effort we can get him back to church.

The rest of last week can be classified as finding, lots of reminder calls for church, and a great street lesson with a father and his daughter. Unfortunately he lives in mainland most of the time and left the day after we taught him. Hopefully we can contact him again when he gets back to Hong Kong.

Thus far this week has been really amazing though. On Monday our ward had a ward activity in Yuen Long up in the New Territories. As a ward we went up there, hiked around on some nature trails, had some free time to explore and eat lunch, and then went to a really cool exhibit of petrified wood. What added to it was the strong gales and frequent wind from the typhoon that came by this past Monday. Everyone who went had a good time and I think it was a really good way for our investigators and RC's to feel even more comfortable with the ward and for us as missionaries to build ward relationships. From our hike we had some pretty awesome views of the Chinese Mainland and into Shenzhen.

On Tuesday after our district meeting we all went to TST to participate in a district find and to try and help the TST Sister missionaries who are struggling with finding new investigators. Elder B and I stayed together for this find and were assigned to an area next to the Hong Kong PolyTechnic University. The first hour into the find we had already gotten half a dozen phone numbers, and then with about 25 minutes left before we had to start heading back to our area, I saw a group of 4 people cross the street. I was trying to feel for which one I should contact and I felt like I needed to talk to one lady in particular. The challenge was that she was right behind to people chatting and right behind her was another man. So right in the middle of all the commotion and movement. But I attempted it anyway, and she ended up stopping and talking for a while. It was neat that with time she invited me to sit down and we had a great lesson/discussion about the 1st lesson. At the end I got her number and she scheduled for TST's church service this coming Sunday. Almost in passing as we were leaving she mentioned to me that when she was a little girl that she remembered missionaries coming to her house, and then how many times in her life, especially when she has had challenges, missionaries or Christians in general would appear and be there to help her. I really hope everything works out with her because you could really feel of her sincerity during the lesson.

Right after that lesson Elder B and I hurried back to KwaiChung and started 24's with our district leader. Elder B went for the day to go work in the DL's area and Elder H came and worked with me. That was yesterday. Miracle of miracles, we had 2 lessons scheduled and then as we were getting ready for bed and planning for the next day we got a call from a boy named Benjamin. He mentioned that he had been contacted 2 months ago and that he wanted to get a tour of the chapel and learn more! So then we had 3 lessons planned. As we were coming out of Benjamin's lesson, L, our recent convert, came to the church and brought a friend with him whom he said was expressing a lot of interest in knowing more about the church since he had come to his, L's, baptism and been on our ward activity a few days prior. We had a wonderful lesson with him too! At 4 we had another lesson with Mr. L. He's 40, bankrupt, and has a lot of challenges in his life right now. We worked hard during that lesson to share things that would be meaningful to him and then at the very end he asked if he might be able to receive a blessing of comfort and counsel. I was voice for that and that was a profound experience for me as I worked with the Spirit to deliver a blessing in Cantonese. Then yesterday evening we went finding and LA knocking. After knocking we were getting ready to go home but Elder H and I managed to stop a really nice girl named Cecilia and share with her about the Book Of Mormon and the blessing it could be in her life. I hope that we can continue to meet with her. Anyway, yesterday was a miracle day; had 2 member-present lessons, 3 other lessons, and 2 new investigators. All the credit has to go to the Lord for helping us know what to say, how to say it, and where to be at certain times so that we could contact and teach these people. Such an awesome thing to be part of that!

Anwyay, I'm short on time, I'll try to send some pictures this next Monday, have a great day!

Love,

Elder Siebach