Can you say triplets?

Dear friends and family,
Had a really good week here in Kwai-Chung! Elder B and I worked hard all week long. We managed to see a few of our investigators multiple times, including all three of our baptismal dates at least twice this week.

Speaking of those dates, one of them is Mr. L. He's been investigating for about 6 weeks now and had a date set for September. The reason it is so far out is that we want to make sure that he is understanding these things because it he a bit of a slow learner, but more importantly, he can't make it to church very often. He is very sincere and wants to be at church, it just so happens that most Sundays he is called to work. We've talked about the commandment of Keeping the Sabbath Day holy and he expressed how he really does want to get to church, but he needs his job right now, especially since he has been having financial problems for the past few months/weeks. We're working hard with him, his gospel understanding and interest seem peaked, and now its just a matter of finding a new job or trying to work something out with the company he is currently at. Because he wasn't at church yesterday he is going to come to Family Home Evening tonight so that should be good.

Mr. W, our other investigator with a baptismal date is doing OK. We visited with him this past week, shared a few commandments and read some scripture passages and then rescheduled him for the next day to read with him since he doesn't always understand everything he is reading. We got to his home that day (we had a member fellowshipper along with us) and had just finished the opening prayer to start the lesson when, seconds later, he told us he was having some health problems and asked that we stop talking. His son, smoking in the next room, told us kinda just to get out. The atmosphere just felt weird! We left stunned without a closing prayer. We tried calling him the next night to see if there was anything we could do and his wife answered, said he was in the hospital and would let us know. We weren't able to get his hospital address but we'll continue to try to contact him and support. I hope we can help this man. He, like Mr. L is very genuine and you can just tell that when he knows and understands these gospel principles it really change his life and family for good. Honestly I'm a little nervous that his LA wife and unsupportive son aren't helping him very much... :(

Our 3rd baptismal date is for September as well. He's a former investigator from a few years back. We've been working with him and trying to get him prepared for baptism but he still has some time and some things to get straightened out first. I have no doubt that if our investigators get serious about our message they can all make their dates.

Besides these lessons we had a number of other lessons and managed to get a good number of member-present lessons, in fact 10 this past week. We are so pleased that we were able to reach the double-digits! 

Church attendance suffered a bit with Mr. W and Mr. L not being able to get there, but we did get 4 investigators there, an LA, and then another LA showed up right after church.

This past Friday Elder B and I had just finished up a mid-morning lesson, lunch, and were sitting down to finish up our weekly planning when we got a call from the AP's--I didn't think too much about it since I had been communicating the last couple days with them to clarify some information on some baptismal records--they asked how my companionship was doing, how training was, and then asked me what my plans for P-Day were. I said we had none and they then asked that I be in Kowloon Tong at 10 so that Elder B and I could pick up our new Summer Missionaries! I was, and still am, a little scared about the whole thing. It's kinda like having a new or 'baby' missionary, and then putting two more even newer missionaries with him. Can you say triplets??

We will be packed like sardines these next few weeks and some of us will undoubtably end up sleeping in our study. It will be a good adventure though. So yeah, Elder B and I are in two different companionships for the next two weeks but sharing the same investigators. Sounds like a good recipe for endless hours of STREET CONTACTING! Not that that's a bad thing; it's just a very hot, humid thing.

We have now been with our Summer Missionaries for about 3 hours. My companion, Elder L is from Tai Wo Ward, just graduated high school, 18 later this year, and a life-long member. Elder B's companion, Elder N, is 16, baptized in April, but has been going to church and investigating for about a year and a half. Good stuff! Should be fun and a good opportunity to help our Chinese. We're looking forward to another good week ahead of us and hoping that we can get a good number of people added into our investigator pool.

Last thing, I was reading in 3 Nephi and was impressed by verse 20 where it outlines that when we pray we need to pray for what God would have us pray for (i.e. we probably can't pray for his help in defeating a video game), have faith in him, and then he will give us an answer. It's so simple but hit me hard this morning and something I want to share with investigators whenever I share Moroni's promise.

Love,

Elder Siebach

P.S. Thank you so much for the package! Its AWESOME! I love the painting from Grace too! It's posed right next to my Captain Moroni figurine.