Self-Sufficient Guys and a Good Old-Fashioned Jam Session

Dear Friends and Family,

Things this past week in KwaiChung went very well. We probably had the most lessons we've had of any week that Elder B and I have been together and spent about 26 hours teaching or so (that's pretty significant for us!). I think I mentioned last week was the big Mid-Autumn festival, but festivities are still in the air as we roll into October--Tomorrow is some sort of public holiday that everyone is getting pretty excited for. I think it's something about Freedom in Hong Kong but I'm not really sure.

We are getting a lot of street lessons recently which we're pleased about, but we're having a hard time getting people interested in church attendance, reading the Book of Mormon, etc... As a result we had just two investigators at church this past week. However, one of them, A-G, brought a referral with him and we had a great opportunity to sit down with her and share about the Restoration. She said it all made perfect sense but she's getting hung up because of the things that she has heard about the church and how her ministers were really unsupportive of her coming and checking out our services. I 'loaned' her a Book of Mormon so that we can see her at least one more time. We invited her to read 2 Nephi 29 because she had a lot of questions about why we would believe in another book of scripture.

Apart from investigators at church we had six less active men with us! That was quite a feat for us. We had planned on nine but various circumstances kept some away. Two who came are S and A-K. S is the man that we found out on the street 3 weeks ago. He's making great strides and is interested to going to a more comprehensive Gospel Principles class. He also really wants to give a talk in church. We told him next week is fast and testimony meeting and he's welcome to go up and use a few minutes. I appreciate that he is a self-sufficient guy. He will introduce himself to people and make insightful comments in class. 

A-K is about 32 and became less active some years ago when he switched jobs and had to work on Sundays. Soon after he just kinda stopped reading and hasn't been to any church service in 3 years. He also happens to be the older brother of one of the missionaries that I previously lived with in ChaiWan. We recently learned that he had a great interest in music. So we called him up this week and scheduled him for a jam session on Friday night. Elder B on guitar, A-K on guitar, our member fellow-shipper/good friend of his on vocals, and I was audience--Ha! :). After a few songs we went into a lesson. Shared one scripture; Moroni 6:9, which is about church and music, and told him we wanted him at Sacrament meeting this week. He pretty readily accepted. His father is another less-active that we're trying to work with and the Sister missionaries go over once a week now and teach his Mom who is not a member. Things are looking pretty good for them and we hope to have them active soon. The mom and dad both retire this December so after that they have no reason not to be at church. My missionary friend gets home in November so he'll be a good influence for them as well.

I mentioned how A-G brought a friend to church with him. Though he's not baptized (because of his parents) he's pretty much a member and we use him to fellowship, seek referrals, and this past week, Tuesday to be exact, we went with him to Seminary. The class was at 6:30 so it cut our sleep time by an hour to get up and get dressed, but A-G was there! He was first there and first to go (he had to leave early because he has to take the MTR for like 25 minutes to get to class on time). He's doing really well. Really interested in the early history of the church currently.

Brother L is also doing really well. We saw him 2 or 3 times this past week including once in his home. We had scheduled him for an evening lesson and he expressed that he wanted to treat us to dinner. So we went over to his home where he had prepared a really tasty tomato soup, steamed fish, rice, spam, oranges, and stir-fried veggies. He kept saying the whole time how sorry he was that it wasn't enough food. If only he knew how little we were accustomed to eating! Haha It was more than enough. RIght after his lesson we walked down the stairs of his apartment from the 7th to the 3rd floor and met with Sister N who is a less active member.

On Wednesday morning right after exercises we got a call from the Bishop who said he wanted to meet with us immediately. We hurriedly dressed and went out to meet him. I thought he was mad but he just wanted to treat us to a typical Chinese breakfast of ramen with beef chunks in it (not exactly what I think of when I think of breakfast, but everyone else does I guess), we talked for a long time about how we could help in the ward and he couldn't stress enough the need to strengthen members through visits and bring the less active members back. He says he gets calls every hour of the day and night from members who expect him to answer every one of their questions and demands. He shared some really spot-on advice on how commitment to the gospel and doing the basics could solve every one of their problems. He's a man who works, has raised to kids, sent both on missions, and been a bishop twice for a combined 15 years so far. He knows what he is talking about. Lots of good insight. Good ward members and leaders are such a blessing.

I'm out of time for this week. Hope everything is going well!

Love, Elder Siebach

P.S. Mom, I got the package just this past Friday! Thanks so much! It's awesome! I can't think of anything else I'm really in need of right now.

P.S.S. I'm gonna send pictures one of these weeks....