"What Do I Have to Do to Gain Eternal Life?"

Dear Friends and Family,

I can't believe how fast everything is flying by out here. I just read up on all the letters that were sent me in the last week and realized that its August right now! School starts tomorrow? This was the fastest summer of my life (beats the MTC by tons for sure). Good luck to all--and especially Sterling, going off to college next week!

Things have been going really well here in KwaiChung. The heavens smiled down upon us this week. Or rather, the clouds did. It rained a fair bit and was cloudy a lot. A few days we had a strong wind from the north and so all the smog from mainland came down and created its own kind of dirty cloudy cover. 

Last Monday was quite the day. I've been debating with myself for a few months now, but last P-Day I finally decided to get myself a 2-column Bible. 1 column Chinese, 1 column English. It's been a blast to read from this past week, I just wish that it had the church-provided footnotes that our other standard works do. I'm almost done with the New Testament right now; I'm in Revelations, and it's just not making as much sense as it would if I had my church-issued one. The process of getting that Bible wasn't an easy one though. If you want to use a Bible in Hong Kong it has to be approved by the Chinese Bible Society which is located in TsimShaTsui (TST for short). We went down there with our friend L on P-Day and wandered around for a little while looking for the right street. We thought we found it when we found a large church building with a bookstore next to us. We sent L in just cause we didn't want to go in just in case they weren't friendly to the "Mormons". Well, we didn't even have the go in. The minister came out and started shouting at us. As we calmly asked him if it was the right place that we might buy a Bible he promptly brushed us off. went back in and confronted L to say that he wouldn't sell the book to us. So we got ourselves out of that area. I was kinda embarrassed for the minister. Not a very Christ-like encounter in any sense. We found the Bible Society on the next street over and they were much warmer. 

After buying the Bible we walked the pier for a little while and just looked out across the bay at the Hong Kong island. It really is a spectacular sight.

The view of Hong Kong Bay from the TST promenade 

For all the mainlanders that were on vacation on Monday, the "white ghosts" were something interesting and foreign, and they more than once asked for pictures with us. As we kept moving along we ran across a church member from Washington D.C. who was in Hong Kong and so we walked with him for a ways (see 8/24/13 blog post) and then ran across another family of American members also in Hong Kong just for a few days. The second family was actually from Rochester N.Y. and the grandfather figure of that family knew Martin Siebach very well as well as my great-grandfather! It was nice to talk to him for a few moments. Good P-Day.

This past Tuesday was a great day. We had our district meeting in the morning and then at 1:45 we picked up 2 investigators and went over to Kowloon Bay (10 or so stops on the MTR) and went to a musical concert for the band "Beyond5"--a new boy band with 4 of the 5 members of the band being members of the church!

Listen to their Hong Kong concert HERE!

Missionaries were allowed to attend, first, because it was a free concert, and second, because we had investigators going, and had worked hard to contact attendees and pass out cards for the church's Facebook page. It was a fun activity but we were so out of our element. It felt weird to be in a concert setting again. The music they played was very Pop-like and they discussed how as a band they refused to play anything with negative or inappropriate language in it. It seems like it was a well-attended, effective activity.

The next day, Wednesday, Elder B and I made our weekly trek up to the KwaiChung Hospital to make a visit to Mr. W. We got there, member with us, only to be told that he had been released from the hospital on Friday! Without a second thought we walked directly over to his apartment! We got there 20 or 30 minutes later and had a great lesson with him. His first question when we sat down with him was, "Now really, Elders, what do I have to do to gain Eternal life?" You can imagine how we felt! We launched right into the Plan of Salvation and got about half-way through it before we stopped, discussed, and explained in further detail. We scheduled another visit for Friday and when we went back, taught the second half.  He seems to be doing very well. Still very desirous to meet with us, to be baptized, and do what God would have him do.

This week with J we focused our efforts on his understanding of commandments and scriptures. He understands the lessons well so we are just trying to carry that over into everyday life and what he needs to do; really what he needs to do is read:)

We had a similar focus with Mr. L as well. He is just so sincere and his prayers are wonderful. Through the challenges that he's been facing, it's clear that he has been humbled and has really developed a relationship with his Father in Heaven through prayer. 

Church this week was really good. We didn't do as well as we would have hoped in getting investigators to church; some had work, others had other commitments etc... but it was a great sacrament meeting. We had a farewell for an Elder who heads to Sydney this next week on his mission,. We then had an area Seventy from Taiwan speak to us (I didn't catch much since it was in Mandarin, but caught enough to know he was talking about his conversion story) and then the concluding speaker was Elder Larry Y. Wilson of the Asia area presidency. He gave an incredibly simple yet powerful message on the importance of scripture study by analyzing the first few chapters of 1st Nephi. So interesting!

After church there was a baptismal service for one of the Sister's investigators; E. It was quite the meeting. L baptized her and it took a few tries (ok 5) but it was still really good! The Spirit was there and nobody minded. The cool part of it all is that L helped us go finding about 2 weeks before his baptism, back in July. It was a rainy evening and it just so happens that the first person we ran across was E. We stood in the rain and taught the first lesson to her, and soon after, turned her over to the sisters. However, L stayed on as her fellowshipper all along the way, and will continue now, after her baptism. It's so neat to see the domino effect that missionary work can have. It affects one person and that triggers something else with another person, and lives are touched and people come unto Christ. A simple, beautiful process! Elder B and I are looking forward to another good week ahead of us here in KwaiChung.

Last thing: Read Alma 29:9. Alma glories in the Lord and in his calling from the Lord to go out and bring other souls to Christ. His calling didn't come in a call letter. It came when he was baptized. Remember Mosiah 18:8-10? Stand as witnesses as all time? That goes for everyone. Recent convert, less-active, missionary, nursery leader, bishop...etc... The Lord with guide and direct each one of us as we put him and his work first. 

I love you all. Hope that everyone is safe, happy, and beating the heat! 

Love,
Elder Siebach

They Were Both Fine Young Men

Here's a fun note I received from this gentleman the other day! So thankful for good people like him:)


To the families of these two good missionaries,

I ran into your sons earlier this week in Hong Kong.  I walked with them for about an hour, and took the Star Ferry with them to Hong Kong Island.  They were both fine young men and good missionaries. I offered them money, but they declined the offer, as per the white handbook. They both seemed in good health and well fed.

Anyway, thought you'd want to know about these young men.

"These Are Good People"

Dear Friends and Family,

Things here in KwaiChung are going really well! After a few weeks of not serving with my companion, Elder B, we are back together and doing as well as ever! I may or may not have mentioned this in last week's letter, but this past week was EEFY. We ran around last Monday morning looking for materials to put into our biomes and scrounged up some dirt, rock, plant materials, and believe it or not, live fish! That first day (Monday) was full of get-to-know-you activities and then building the biomes. Our missionary-to-investigator ratio was rather skewed but KwaiChung was well represented by a family of 3, 2 other investigators, and 2-3 members. Everyone had a good time and went home with a biome. The topic of the week was "The Creations of God" and so we spent a little bit of time each day learning vocabulary from the 6 different creative periods as well as anything else the missionaries for that day felt to include. We were in charge of day 4 which was light and dark and so we taught very basic vocabulary and then switched gears and taught 'opposites' vocabulary. At the end of that we played Pictionary. The 2nd hour of each day was spent doing some sort of activity and so each day was a little different and ranged from drawing pictures to building tin foil boats. On our day we had everyone split into 3 teams and with pre-determined amounts of bottles, tape, straws, and chopsticks the groups had to make the tallest AND the strongest free-standing structure they could come up with. We determined which was strongest by how many pamphlets, BoMs, and hymn books each could support before giving  way.

With that EEFY activity being everyday, and having been encouraged by President Hawks to participate every day, regardless of who was in charge or how many investigators were coming, we shortened our real on-the-street time by about 12 hours and so that kinda hurt our numbers this week.

This past week was also pretty rainy! I like the rain and it gets me motivated to go out there and just find all the Chinese people huddling under bridges because they are "paa-yuh" (scared of rain). Some of the easiest street finding in the world is in Hong Kong on a rainy day:)

On Tuesday evening we went home after English class and there was a T-3 warning (just meaning that a typhoon was coming through soon). The next morning as we were about to head out for exercises we noticed the T-8 warning had been hoisted (meaning stay inside) so we just went right back into our apartment and looked at the overcast sky. No rain, just some wind and by 2 pm that day the warning had been lifted. I'm still waiting for a super typhoon! Since I've been in Hong Kong I don't think we've ever had any really severe weather that kept us from going outside.

For me the rain is symbolic too. I feel like the rain washes these overcrowded streets clean and hopefully cleans out some of the Hong Kong people's overly scheduled schedules. Rain is definitely a good thing here.

Thoughout the week we were able to meet with our 3 investigators with baptismal dates and work on strengthening them. J is doing well. He's met with the bishop and has the "go ahead" for baptism. If all goes well he will be baptized on September 8th (Grace's Birthday!). We went up to the hospital once this week to visit with Mr. W. He was ecstatic to see us and we had a great reunion! He's been praying and doing all he can while he sits around all day in the hospital. I feel bad that he is stuck there. He's about 400 times more normal then some of the men in there. He still has a lot of faith and believes that God is watching out for him and his family. He thinks that he will probably be out in a few weeks. He's very apologetic that he can't get to church.

This week was quite a week for Mr. L though. He reads and prays every day and had so much confidence in us and in Christ. He comes to us for just about anything now. In fact, one evening this week we just happened to be in TaiWoHau doing some less-active finding when he called us up rather frantically. He came right out to meet us and took us to a McDonald's where he explained that he has some people that are harrassing him, calling his home phone incessantly when he is there. It's a really strange situation. He took us back to his home soon thereafter to explain that a man comes to the apartment across the way a few times a week and looks across towards his apartment and if Mr. L is home, he just calls and calls and calls. I'm not clear on why Mr. L doesn't report this to the police yet. As we were leaving we felt impressed to share with him 3 Ne 14 and talk about the Wise and Foolish man and how we can strengthen and fortify our lives and families.

I wish these were the only problems that this poor man has, but there are many more.  The police came by his home this week and brought him to headquarters on some sort of charge because he is unable to pay off some of his debts (he is bankrupt). He's weathering it well and sincerely wants to do what's right. He got called into work Saturday morning at 8 AM and got off Sunday morning 8AM and made his way right to church at 9:30. He stayed all 3 hours, and then an additional two for a baptismal service for an 8-year-old in the ward. The baptismal room was stuffed to capacity and as I stood in the back corner looking out over the ward members and a few of our investigators that were able and willing to make the time to come see a baptismal service, I had the sweetest, most reassuring feeling that things would work out and that God was watching over us and this ward. It came right as we were singing Choose The Right. It was confirmation and support that I needed.

Church was especially good yesterday because President and Sister Hawks came and they were the speakers. They shared wonderful messages on missionary work of course, but also on the Atonement and what our duty as members and missionaries are. The overriding message to me is that the two should be inseparably linked. Because we are members, we are missionaries. Because the Atonement has changed us, we should look to give the same opportunities to those around us.

I love working in Hong Kong. I love and admire these good people. I tear up as I think about the struggles these members go though. Their friends and family abandon them when they join the church, but they know what they know. It's amazing to participate in class with these members and to realize that every single one of them is a convert! They didn't just grow up in the knowledge of these things. They sacrificed time, livelihood, and comfort to know their Savior. These are good people.

I hope that one day I can be as good as these people. The church is true.

Love,

Elder Siebach

"I Couldn't Deny What I Knew Was True"

Dear Friends and Family,

Today we said farewell to our summer missionaries as we dropped them off in the Mission Home this morning. It was a good learning experience for me. In my entire mission I don't know if I have been quite as stressed and as impatient as I was these last two weeks. I feel like I taught my missionary very little and I learned some of what Heavenly Father probably wanted me to learn.

This past week had some very sweet highs and some very bitter lows.

Let's talk about transfers first though. I'm staying! Got another 2.5 months or so here in KwaiChung! Elder B will also be staying. Notable changes are that now living within the KwaiChung boundaries are 16 missionaries. Only 4 of them serve here, and the rest share a chapel with us on Sunday but proselyte in the surrounding areas. This Zone, the Kowloon Zone gained a number of missionaries too and we are now up to 34 missionaries. Every area has at least two companionships serving in them. I've seen Sister Parker a number of times. It's great to see an old familiar face! She is not in my district but she is in my zone and once in a while she and her companion come to KwaiChung on the hunt for new Mandarin investigators. She's doing really well it seems like.

Elder Sheffield is coming to Hong Kong! That's great! I'm guessing he comes in October maybe? If he comes any sooner he is probably a Mandarin missionary (they aren't on the same schedule as Cantonese missionaries).  There are like 140 or 150 missionaries out now and I know about 65 percent of them. The others I've never seen.

I made the mistake this morning actually of introducing myself to a Sister missionary and asking her how her Chinese was going and how her first week was. I was wrong on all accounts... She is speaking Tagalog (her mother tongue) and has been out like 3 months! Oops:/

Because of the influx in missionaries in the Kowloon Zone, we also rearranged some districts and district leaders. I am now a district leader over the 4 KwaiChung missionaries and the 4 CheungShaWan missionaries. Kinda convenient that the 4 Elders live together and the 4 sisters live together. Not to mention that the CheungShaWan elders are the new Zone leaders. My first experience conducting a district meeting will be tomorrow. My first time collecting numbers was last night. It went well other than the fact that both Sister companionships didn't answer their phones at the previously set time; I ended up calling and waiting for about 2 hours....

On Tuesday I kinda hit the low of the lows. Brother L (my summer comp) and I went to go visit a few recent converts since they hadn't been at church the previous two weeks and weren't answering the phone. We knocked on their door, went in, and for the next almost two hours tried to resolve all these hidden concerns that they had had but had never voiced. We had a member with us and, as heart-rending as it was to hear them say that they don't want to come to church and are going to keep looking around, our 3 combined testimonies had as much or more powerful an effect on me than any other time on my mission. I couldn't deny what I knew was true and testifying of it in that precarious situation enhanced and strengthened our testimonies. We've been advised to just give those recent converts some space for the time being and maybe call up once every two weeks or so.

One high point of this week was Friday afternoon. It was blazing hot (no cloud cover in Hong Kong for like 6 days now) and so Brother L and I decided to go finding in an estate on the side of the mountain where it would be much cooler. We spent about 3 hours finding and had some great conversations, but not much else. We were thinking of coming home, preparing a progress record, and then going to our Mission Correlation meeting. Instead, we decided to go finding in a particular area for 5 more minutes before we left. The first two people I talked to didn't even attempt to make a response. And then from down the hill I saw a lady carrying groceries and smiling semi-knowingly. I approached her and she straight up just told me that she was a member and hadn't been to church in a few years since she had moved into a new ward boundaries. We talked for a moment and then she probably noticed how hot, sweaty, and whatever else we were and invited us into her home for a drink. So nice of her! We accepted and while we were there we met her younger sister who is from Mainland and just visiting these few weeks before going home. The older sister couldn't come to church on Sunday with us but she and we got her sister to at least commit to think about it:) We called them the next day, on Saturday night, and discovered that the sister would indeed be coming to church with us! When we met her at the bus stop on Sunday morning this nice lady had her 8 year-old son holding one hand and her husband holding the other! The 3 of them came with us! They seemed to have a great time too! The ward took good care of them. They stayed all 3 hours! Afterwards we didn't push too hard for a lesson, but committed them to our EEFY activities this next week. (EEFY-- "English Especially for Youth" an activity put on for 1 week by missionaries in Hong Kong each year).

In fact, that activity started today and went from 2 to 4 pm. They were present as were 3 other investigators, 6 missionaries and a handful of members. We need more investigators, that's for sure!

This week's EEFY theme is "God's Creations" and each of the 6 creative periods will be represented. Today we talked about space and then built our own bio-domes (we planned on a lot more investigators than actually showed up and so we missionaries ended up making them as well). The only problem: they have live fish and we can't have pets... A problem we are still in the midst of trying to solve!

Honestly, I'm happy to still be serving here in KwaiChung. I think it's where I should be and I like the security that comes with being in an area for a while. I'm just worried that my entire mission will be me staying in areas for 7+ months. Nothing to fuss about though. All will work out. Hope everyone is having a great week/close to summer. Missionary work will keep on moving forward! Pray for missionaries. Pray for investigators. We need new investigators!

Love,

Elder Siebach

P.S. Next week or so missionaries in the Hong Kong mission will actually get a 3-column (English, Pinyam, and Characters), church approved version of the Book Of Mormon! I'm super stoked!

Summer is here!

Dear Friends and Family,

It's hot! It's a good hot though. The kind that is unbearable for about 3 minutes when you head out the door and plunge into it, but then becomes mild as you walk in and out of the skyscaper shadows and realize that there is a small breeze in the air. Almost everyday has been like that. A few days it was a little cloudy and I heard people on the street talking about how a typhoon was blowing by, but no real serious rain or wind here.

It's been a very interesting week to say the least. Working with Summer missionaries is a blessing and a challenge! I've committed to my companion to only speak in Chinese with him unless he wants to practice English during our language study time; in which case I will respond in English. It's been very helpful to get clarity on grammar principles that I wasn't sure I had a firm grasp on a few weeks ago. I think this coming week I will ask him to help me start reading the Book of Mormon in Chinese. I figure that my year in Hong Kong mark (August 6th) is a prime time to start learning Chinese characters as well as bust out a few white shirts that I've been saving until this point. We'll see how it goes though. I really would like to focus on my spoken more and then learn characters after my mission, but I've felt compelled otherwise. In February a visiting Seventy came through and encouraged missionaries to take the time to learn the 3000+ characters so that they could read with their investigators. Anyone have some advice for me?

And this is only 480!! Yikes:)

As you can imagine, with 6 people living in an apartment that's only really set up for 3 or 4, things are tight and what's mine is now yours. We don't have really anywhere to store food since the refrigerator is full, so lots gets packed in suitcases to be brought out the following day. This isn't so much of a hassle as having to share 1 cell phone between two companionships. I can't even imagine what missionary work was like just a few short years ago when missionaries didn't have cell phones to use. Needless to say, we worked out a system where the companionship with the most lessons that day can use the phone, and where the other companionship can use the phone in the church or borrow someone's phone to make contact and keep updated on investigators. It's all a lot of fun though and everyone is in good spirits.

My summer missionary, Brother L, from Tai Wo ward is a good guy. Quiet, shy, but has a good heart and wants to help our investigators. I have a lot of respect for missionaries from Hong Kong called to Hong Kong because oftentimes they come in contact with school classmates or friends while they are on the street. Not to mention they have perfect command of the language and are sometimes put in a kind of awkward situation to try and explain to their peers why they believe this "evil western religion". Mormonism is wellknown but not well understood. He's doing a really good job. We're working together on how to be more aggressive finders. Aggressive meaning, how we can show optimism, cheerfulness, and get a 30 second message off.

This past week we found a couple new investigators and Elder B's companionship also found a couple. We had a lot of member-present lessons, and they had a lot of street lessons. Got a number of RCLA lessons and the four of us spent an hour one afternoon working our way up to the nearby KwaiChung hospital to visit our investigator Mr. W. He's on a lot of medication and doing a lot better than he was last week when we visited him at his home. He's in a psychiatric ward right now, we're guessing because of depression. He's not sure how long he has to stay in there, but he was very happy to see us, read a verse or two of scripture and then pray with us. We've temporarily dropped his date for August 18th and we're looking to re-set for late September.

It was a bit of a miracle week with Mr. L. Monday night he came with us to our ward's FHE activity and loved it. Afterwards we read some scriptures with him. Tuesday he didn't have to go to work and wanted some help with how to pray so before English class we read 3 Ne 18:20 and Alma 34:17-27 and had a great discussion about how because God is our Heavenly Father and he wants to hear from us. Wednesday he was still off from work! So in the evening he came again to the church and we watched the 20 minute Restoration Video and talked about how because God has a prophet on the earth again, we can hear his words and test if they are from God or not. We then taught through the Word Of Wisdom right there and he accepted wholeheartedly. He's doing really well. He had to work from Thursday to Sunday morning, but as soon as he got off shift at 8 am he walked over to the church and we went up to Sacrament Meeting together. Afterwards he apologetically told us that he wanted to go home and get some sleep since it'd been almost 36 hours. We didn't mind one bit, and he told us he'd be back at the church at 5:30 to go with us to a missionary fireside in Kowloon Tong last night. The Fireside was great! It happens once a transfer and all the departing missionaries invite one RC to bear their testimony. There were about 10 RC's who spoke in English (2 Filipino RC), Cantonese, and Mandarin. Pretty fun collage of languages :)

After the fireside there is always a lot of mingling and chatter and I bumped into a lady I found and taught on the street about a month ago. I turned her over to the sisters in her area, TST, and she's been progressing ever since! Set to be baptized Sept 1st! That was a sweet reunion. :)

Things are going well in this area, but we're stuggling on new investigators and progressing investigators. We have a TON of potentials, but no one who can schedule. Consequently our baptismal dates are low, just 3, and they're all set for September. It's still my hope that we can 'resurrect' some formers this week, get some more people progressing, and get a baptism this month! We need it, this ward needs it, the Lord needs it. You can be sure that we'll be out on the street a lot this week, trying to flash our pearly whites and get some unassuming victim to partake of Salvation. Ha! :)

Tomorrow is when they announce transfers and considering I've been in KwaiChung for 5 months I should have a good chance of changing scenery, but with the addition of summer missionaries and just my gut feeling, I think I'll be holding down the fort here for another couple months until next transfer. I love the area so I don't mind at all. I also think that after the summer missionaries leave Elder B and I will have a better handle of things and greater unity in our teaching. That's assuming he doesn't leave either.

Hope everyone is having a great summer and soaking up the sun! I'm sure I'll come home with tan arms, face, and a high-neck tan from these collared shirts. Something to look forward to I'm sure.

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Siebach