Good to be back on this computation machine and 'hitting' out a message to you guys. (The direct translation for writing an email is to hit mail. As for video games, it's (da gei) or "hit machine".) Anyway, things are going well here in KwaiChung. Elder B and I have been staying busy doing less active work, some street finding, and our way too long studies (we study for 4 hours each morning; 1 hour personal study, 2 hours companionship study, and 1 hour language study.) It's all very good though. Very helpful and makes it so that in teaching situations we both feel prepared spiritually and confident in our language abilities.
Speaking of language abilities, I feel that in the last few weeks I hit a bit of a milestone. That is, that mentally I've switched over from having to translate every word from Chinese into English before understanding it, to just understanding it. Many a missionary will tell you that the secret to language mastery is to do this as soon as you possibly can. For some it comes very quickly, some it takes longer, and me, it took about a year.
As this week started out, Elder B and I had very high hopes for a lot of member-present lessons. We had people scheduled, and we thought that we could easily find people for the lessons. One thing we can't plan very well for is for those that cancel on us. It's unavoidable it seems. The start of this week we did really well, and then Thursday through Sunday we just kept getting canceled on. One day we had like 5 lessons scheduled, and all but one of them suddenly couldn't make it anymore. It can be frustrating, but I feel that it's helping me learn to be more effective. That is, when we're waiting on someone, we can just take those 5 minutes to go find, or call through some potentials, confirm lessons, organize less active work to be done, or call members. There seem to be a plethora of things. Plethora... Big vocab word, huh?
The latter half of the week was rough, though. Elder B concentrated on making sure that the lessons we did have were meaningful and prepared for. It just so happens that one day we managed to meet with Mr. L. He was actually an hour late, and so the fellowshipper we had arranged had to leave partway through. We had an important lesson about priesthood authority and the doctrine of Christ; specifically baptism and so we were able to set a date with him. He seems excited to keep it too. It's a few months out still, but he's already making the necessary arrangements so that he can get work off for sure on that day (he works very odd hours, and they are constantly changing.)
I mentioned last week that we had a couple come to church of their own accord last Sunday; the W's. Well you can bet I pretty much pounced on them and scheduled them for Tuesday. When we went to their home only the husband was there. As we got to know him we learned that he is a former investigator from about 20 years ago, literally. He showed us a picture of him with missionaries from 1994. We had a good lesson where we reviewed elements of the Restoration and encouraged him to start reading and praying again. Then he came to church this past Sunday again, and we pulled him aside for 15 minutes afterwards. He hadn't had a great opportunity to read yet, but still wants to meet with us and learn more. We read with him 2 Nephi 31 and talked about baptism. He said the reason he wasn't baptized 20 years ago was that his faith wasn't great then, but that now he has a great desire to be baptized. So we did what missionaries do, we gave him a date! We'll be working with him more this week and in the weeks to come and I hope that that can be maybe a family baptized! (As of right now his wife has no interest, but she is willing to accompany her husband to Sacrament meeting and then wait in the foyer for the following 2 hours. We REALLY want to get her to Relief Society. Apparently Relief Society is just amazing or something; cake, cut-outs, tears, the Spirit... I wouldn't know. I'm in Elders Quorum where we've talked ironically about the Relief Society for the last 2 weeks.
I think I should probably mention last P-Day. After we finished up writing our letters Elder B and I met up with L and we took a mini-bus up to some beautiful shrines on the mountainside. I've been wondering about them for the last couple months and haven't had an opportunity to get up there since it's not in our area. The shrines were SWEET! Full of the scent of incense. We scoped out two different shrines for about an hour and a half and then just walked a trail that led up into the mountains a ways. We probably hiked for about 10 or 15 minutes and got to a water treatment center or sorts and went up the ladder to the top. From the top we had a spectacular view of our entire area, some of the neighboring areas, Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong Island, out to sea, and we were right below the flight-path of incoming planes. The roar of the engines was awesome! Made me realize how small Hong Kong really was. I could see more than half of the Hong Kong mission in one sweep of my eyes. It was a kinda cloudy day but everything was still very visible. That was a fun P-Day! Makes me want to do some more hiking and exploring.
It's all about endurance. Use the bandage that the Atonement is to fix up your wounds and then go grab your armor of God and get back out there and fight Satan. I hope when I grow up I can be like the righteous Nephites and people of Ammon.
Anyway, that's my piece for the week.
To answer a few questions; I would love a new SD card and I'll send mine home to you. Yes, I will keep trying to work my Credit card account. And dad, my advice is to consciously pray to the Lord to ask for opportunities to be a missionary. Then go look for them. Maybe not every member has a friend right now that they can introduce to the church. But every member has a mouth and can make new friends. Talk to people. Open your mouth and it shall be filled. Members can be like missionaries too and talk to strangers if they feel prompted and desire to do so. I wasn't a good member missionary before my mission, but I sure hope I can be afterwards. Another idea is to talk to the missionaries and tell them that you'd love to help them and that you are free certain days at a certain time if they have a lesson. I'd love it if I had members do either one of those things so that I don't have to call every member in the book looking for one who might have time.
I love you all. Hope everyone is well.
Love,
Elder Siebach
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