"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