Wearing My Religion on My Giorgio Armani Sleeve

Dear Friends and Family,

So I think last week I forgot to mention it, but about 20 minutes after the last broadcast of General Conference all the Zone Leaders received a text informing us that all Elders should be wearing suits for most activities now, unless of course we deem the weather too hot. Thankfully it's cooling and in the last two weeks only one Elder has passed out....haha!

Speaking of suits, as might well be expected, missionaries pretty quickly wear through suits. I'm no exception. I started with a charcoal gray suit and a pin-striped blue suit. My charcoal one is still in really good condition, but the same cannot be said for the pin-striped. With that in mind I've been seriously considering buying a new suit so that I'm not stuck with just one during the winter season. While thinking about this I recalled that thanks to some generous senior missionaries there were a handful of suits donated to the mission home in past months. So, this past P-Day Elder L and I went down to check them out. And what do you know, of the 5 suits, the Georgio Armani gray suit fit just perfectly, so I've been sporting that suit for the last week or so.

Heading out in the morning

As Zone Leaders we are encouraged to go on exchanges once each transfer with the district leaders in our zone. This past week we went on Exchanges with the Butterfly Elders and I stayed in the Tuen Mun area with Elder P, a new Elder who has been in Hong Kong about 3 months now. We had a good time, taught a great lesson to P. He's hard to 'convince'; but gratefully missionaries are not asked to convince anyone of the truth:) We were sharing about modern day prophets and he had some questions and needed proof that miracles happen in this day as well as in days past (sounds like Korihor doesn't it?). Well, Elder P shared a very personal family experience that invited the Spirit in such a way that both he and our fellowshipper didn't know what to say. The Spirit is always the real teacher and that was powerfully reaffirmed to me this week during that exchange. We went finding for a couple hours too and got to teach 2 great lessons! Lots of really good things happened in those 24 hours.

We had a turnover lesson this week from the Kam Tin Elders and met a nice Mr. W. As we were walking with him to take him back to the church we learned a lot and felt the Lord really leading this sincere man. He mentioned that his wife had passed away some years ago and before she passed she gave her Bible to him. It's made him curious ever since. He attended a Christian funeral a few weeks ago and had some questions about what happens after death. Two days later he was contacted by the Elders. Finally, he mentioned that he had previously lived in ShauKeiWan (my first area) and as we started talking we found out that we actually had lived in the same apartment building and that he had seen missionaries on a regular, if not daily basis! He now lives in Tuen Mun in an apartment right next to the chapel! He has no Christian background but is really interested in learning. Lots of great potential!

The view in the morning from our apartment

This week was such a great week for me! I felt like it was the busiest I've ever been. Each night and day was full of activities, lessons, and finding. We're honing our facebooks and trying to get everything set up so that we can keep in better contact with LA's, members, and investigators. We're finding new people on the street. Other Elders and Sisters are finding people for us to teach. Our members are supportive of us and I'm blessed to have a native companion who has been here for 8 months so he is very aware of their situations and had a great relationship of trust with them. Life is really, really good.

This past week in church we got canceled on by 6 people... However, we still had 3 investigators, 4 LA's, and a referral in the meetings with us. One of the investigators, Mrs. L, is an investigator we found this week and she came with her 7 year old daughter. The ward just swallowed them up! We had a special musical number, "I Am A Child Of God" performed by two families, and had some great talks on the Sabbath Day and magnifying our callings. Another noteworthy investigator who was at church was A. She is such a prepared lady. Mid-thirties, unmarried, works as a Social Worker in Causeway Bay. She arranged her schedule this past week so that she could get Sunday off and came to church for the first time in 13 years. She loved everything about it. She expressed to us how her parents passed away in a tragic car accident and how the previous church she went to taught that her parents couldn't be saved since they weren't "believers". You should have seen the release and emotion in her face as we told her that Heavenly Father has a perfect plan for everyone. Everyone will have the opportunity to hear this gospel. I can't even describe the feelings in these lessons. She wants to go out and share this church with everyone she knows. So sincere, so prepared!

Lastly, on Saturday we met with our investigator Mr. H. Last year he moved from the Mainland down to Hong Kong to prepare a place for his 5 year old daughter and wife to come join him. He expressed that he thought his daughter would get the best education and environment if she were outside of mainland. We brought a young woman, a recent convert, to share her experience with how the gospel has changed her life for the better. Mr. H just soaked it all up and really wants to get enrolled in a weekend institute class so that he can learn more about this Book of Mormon. So prepared and so anxious to learn! He's been "anti-ed" a lot, but mentioned that he actually has friends in Indonesia who are members of the church that are a strong support for him. It just goes to show what an important role members of the church play! Be member fellow-shippers! Wear your religion on your sleeve!

I should talk about my companion Elder L.

Elder Li

He is so full of wisdom. His father is the Kowloon Stake President and his mother is the YW Stake President. Both joined the church when they were 16 or 17. He understands missionary work and has had great success his entire mission working with ward members. Previously he was an online Elder in charge of starting the Online work here in Hong Kong. He studied at BYUH before his mission and is looking to go home and help his non-member relatives learn more about this message before he heads back to BYUH. His whole family also has an affinity for Japan! He's been to visit 20+ times, he speaks Japanese, and cooks a lot of Japanese food! This past week we ate a lot of Japanese food--it was awesome! I did set one day aside where I made some tacos for the two of us. Not too bad! We get along really well! Sometimes it can be a little hard to communicate since all we speak is Cantonese, but if he sees that I'm struggling to understand his complete meaning he is merciful and speaks English. We decided that if we weren't companions here we would have been companions in Tokyo (we both wanted to go to that mission!).

This past Sunday we had to go to a stake Christmas Activity council meeting. It was actually really good! We attended the meeting with Brother Sin (my same last name) who is a recent convert of only 3 or 4 weeks. He blew everyone in that stake meeting out of the water. He filled the mantle of a church leader so well! He pretty much conducted the meeting and helped make sure everything was delegated and brought up a lot of good points that no one else in the council had thought of. He understands the church and missionary work perfectly. I don't get it. You would never guess he was baptized 4 weeks ago!

Things are good. I love the work! Keep the faith!

Love,

Elder Siebach

Hastening the Work, Hong Kong Style

This past week was an absolute whirlwind. I feel like I blinked and it was over. It was a week of lots of ups and a few jitters:-) 

As a new Zone Leader, I have to be trained. The APs (assistants to the president) came out Wednesday and went through the training of how to be a good leader. It was interesting, and certainly gave me some better insights. In passing they mentioned that they would be at our Stake Conference this week and might be speaking. They looked at me and asked, "What are you speaking on?" I laughed. Then looked at my companion and he said, "Oh, yeah. We're speaking."  So from about Wednesday to Saturday morning I thought and thought and we role-played like 10 times. We had 15 minutes allotted to us and were to speak on Hastening the Work: How Members and Missionaries working together and teaching together can bring about the most success. It was a fun topic to talk about actually and we presented it in the Saturday Evening session of General Conference. We talked about how good Correlation Meetings and Ward Council meetings were crucial so that members and missionaries were on the same page. That was our first point. Our second point was how investigators are best found and nurtured in the gospel through members. We talked about Finding, Fellowshipping, Teaching, and so on. The last point was a focus on how missionaries and members can teach together in unity. We used Preach My Gospel and the Liahona exclusively. I was really nervous to share but in the end I got up and with a prayer in my heart we delivered our message in just under 15 minutes. Right on if you ask me! I was, and still am, very thankful for the Lord's help with that. My Cantonese was better than it otherwise would have been under the pressure of the circumstances, and both the mission president, President Hawks, and the Stake President, President Chan, said that we did great. Having a native companion was such a big help! The experience reminding me of treasuring up the words of life so that we can call upon them in the moment when we need them. Lots of preparation but great success too. 

 Doctrine and Covenants 88:85 Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man.

Between the Saturday evening session of stake conference and the Sunday morning session we had 9 investigators that were in attendance! That was a mind-blowing number considering the history of investigators that attend church in this area. Divine intervention for sure! We also met with most of our investigators this week which was another blessing. Most of them were "other lessons" but that's fine! They're progressing, and Elder L and I have been focusing on getting them to do the basics of reading, praying, and church attendance. We also extended baptismal invitations to 3 people this week, all of whom are praying about it. We hope that this next week we will be able to commit them to a date. Lots and lots of good work going on in this area right now! 

This week we also had two turn-over lessons which was another big blessing for us! (That's when a companionship is unable for some reason to continue on with an investigator and turns them over to a different companionship) We have new investigators coming in and they are, for the most part, solid investigators, sincerely interested in learning more about the gospel!

Unfortunately the responsibility of ZL also brings a little extra work that can keep us from doing everything we would like to do. For instance, finding. It was cut dramatically this week, but in the 6 hours that we were out finding this past week we had 7 street lessons! 

Dad, you might be interested in seeing the recently built New Territories stake center from GoogleEarth. I don't know the address in English but it's near "Hung Shui Kiu" next to a stop on the over-ground train station named "Chung Uk Tsuen". It's a beautiful building that EVERYONE notices because of its proximity to a major thorough-fare, plus the fact that there are no other buildings are around it. The chapel for the Tuen Mun ward is next to the over-ground train stop called "Prime View".

Tuen Mun chapel (from Google Earth!)

I've realized that all three times I've arrived at a new area, within a month it is General Conference and the following week is Stake Conference. It has helped me get to meet and know the majority of members in Hong Kong actually. Kind of a blessing to have been able to serve 3 areas and 3 different zones so far!

Lots to learn, lots to do. Another thing that ZLs are now experimenting with is using Facebook to connect with members, LAs, and investigators. I created my profile, but haven't had time to do any real work on it yet. Maybe this week if there is time. 

Sorry this is such a scattered letter. I'm trying to answer questions, share insights, and do it all from free computers that I'm using in an Apple Store right now! You bet there is indie music in the background... I'm trying to tune it all out!

I want to share a couple high-lights from stake conference. Our stake president got up and talked soon after we finished and he shared about how it really is the "Lord's mission plan" that we should be working to be a part of. He said in effect, "Street finding and knocking doors is not the Lord's mission plan." Boy, it was powerful! Think about it. What do missionaries spend 95% of their time doing? As he was closing his remarks he mentioned that there might be some people that are confused to have come to stake conference and to have heard only messages about missionary work. Maybe they didn't get the answers that they were hoping to have received in regards to work or family? He said, "We are receiving the answers that we NEED, not necessarily the answers that we WANT." Great stuff!

I know I've mentioned this before but I just have so much admiration for the people of Hong Kong. They seriously go against every family and peer pressure that there could even be invented; and what for? For Christ! For their testimonies of His gospel! Most of the people I meet in church are converts of not much time and they are so strong and righteous. Great people are everywhere, I'm sure, I just didn't notice them until I got to Hong Kong:-)

Speaking of converts, I talked with Elder B, from my last area, and he said that yesterday the young man we baptized back in May, L, was sustained in the Kowloon Stake Conference to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood! Woot woot! 

Great stuff going on! It's exciting to be a missionary in these times! The most the world has ever seen at one time before--EVER! It can be felt and seen here in Hong Kong for sure!

Taken from the Mormon Newsroom website, Oct 3, 2013

Stay true to the faith! 

Love, 

Elder Siebach

Temples: The House of the Lord; "A Special Place Where God's Presence is Always to be Found"

Mormon temples

A friend just sent me a link to this video explaining LDS temples and how they are used. The last section, starting at 4:04, is all about the Hong Kong temple. Click on the link above and check it out--it's beautiful!

Winds of Change: New Companion; New Assignment; New Territories

Dear Friends and Family,

Favorite Indian place: JoJo's

Wow, a lot has happened in such a short time. Monday afternoon Elder B and I ate lunch at JoJo's Indian Buffett with some of his and my old companions and then came home for a great Family Home Evening lesson. The ward members bought a cake to celebrate the arrival of a new sister missionary, Sister Y, to our KwaiChung ward and to send me off. They must have consulted with President Hawks personally or something because they were so sure I was leaving.

Tuesday morning I was called into the Zone Leaders study and they had a conference call and announced the moves that would be happening in the zone. Lots of big stuff going on. In fact, Kowloon Zone (the one I am in split into two zones since it was bursting with about 34 missionaries. Kowloon West and Kowloon East zones now.

Conjuring Bruce Lee with Elder B

The biggest change for me is that Elder B and I split after the last 18 weeks together. He stayed in KwaiChung, became a Senior companion and District leader, and his companion, an elder from his own arrival group, came down as his junior companion. That was a big surprise for him, but he will do great! Meanwhile, I moved up to Tuen Mun (Pronounced Ty-oon Moon). Honestly I was pretty sure I would be leaving KwaiChung, but I had been praying to go out to Macau. Then, the night before moves calls were announced I thought to myself, "Elder Siebach, you're going to Tuen Mun." So for the final two days Elder B and I did some last-ditch calls to all the investigators to see if they would schedule one last time to see me. Many of them did which was a real blessing for me! On Tuesday we saw J and Mr. L for my last time, and on Wednesday we had a member take us out to lunch, and in between all of the packing we went out finding in one of my favorite areas. In the evening we had a lesson with P before going to missionary correlation meeting which was great--there was a farewell celebration at the end of that as well. Some of the recent converts and young men that I got particularly close to attended the farewell portion and gave me one of their school ties with their name on the back of it. I'd been hassling them for a long time about wanting it, so it was a pretty special experience. That particular school's tie had a big "KCC" down the front of it that they told me now stands for "KwaiChung Church." The following morning we went to seminary at 6:30 and sat with our investigator A-G one last time. He had to leave early for school since he has a 1/2 hour train ride and that day was the day of school elections (something he is going out for this year), but I really appreciated his time and willingness to come to something as early as early-morning seminary.

   

Elder B, Mr. L, and I

Young men from the ward

Correlation Meeting

 Mid-morning on Thursday I was picked up in Kowloon Tong by my new companion, Elder L. We took the hour train ride into the New Territories and headed to our apartment. Our apartment is in a REALLY nice part of our area and is on the 31st floor! We have a pretty spectacular view day and night of the mountains and surrounding area. We did our studies and weekly planning that first day, and then headed out to do some finding for a few hours in the evening. We met a few people that seem to have some real interest in learning more!

Friday was great. We called all the district leaders that afternoon to see how their districts were doing, (I'm a Zone Leader now), and then spent the better part of the afternoon doing some good finding in one of the estates. We taught several lessons which was a real blessing! That evening I was in charge of English class.

Saturday/Sunday were  busy days in which we spent most of our time in the newly-built HungShuiKiu stake center. It is a beautiful building and has brought the church a lot of interest and popularity up here since it's so big, new, and prominent (it's right next to the above-ground rail line for all to see).

HungShuiKiu train station

I'm still trying to get a hang of all our investigators and members (it's notably a lot harder to meet members on a general conference weekend than in a regular block schedule setting--not to mention the English conference was in a separate room from the Cantonese.

Last night before doing call-in reports with the district leaders we went out and did some knocking on some doors way up on the mountain side! It was an adventure! Poisonous caterpillars, insects of every variety, and a spider bigger than my hand when my fingers are extended--no joke. Last but not least, dogs... They bark their heads off and are just asking for a Chuck Norris-esque roundhouse kick to the head. It's all good though. If our knocking on doors doesn't grab people's attention, the pack of dogs marching down the street definitely will. I know this is so missionary-ish, but honest to goodness, this next experience happened. We knocked for 1.5 hours and it was getting dark fast. We determined to knock one more door. The house owner came out, didn't really want anything to do with us but he was touched by our simple message that we are all God's children. As we finished the lesson on his makeshift driveway he willingly said the closing prayer. Regardless of my 15+ mosquito bites, it was well worth it! He lives in mainland most of the time but said that if he has time he'd like to come check out our church services. The Lord really does provide!

Tug of war at Big Wave Bay

This morning, Monday morning, we had a ward activity in Big Wave Bay (that's part of my previous ChaiWan area). It was a great opportunity to get to meet some more ward members, socialize, play some tug-of-war games, and just have a good time (today was another public holiday). I don't consider myself a super sentimental guy, however, as we drove right though KwaiChung and all over ChaiWan areas, I realized just how much I love and miss those wards and those people. I'm excited to be here in Tuen Mun though and working with Elder L. He's only got 5 weeks or so until he ends his mission, so I hope that we can really get some things going fast and that I can learn a lot from him.

I realize I haven't talked much about Conference, and that's probably because I haven't had a lot of time to think about everything I learned. I took a lot of notes and in the days and weeks to come I will work hard to incorporate parts into my missionary service. It felt like there was a real focus on the power of the Atonement and on Repentance. The missionary talks were important too. I can't express how strongly I feel that the work would be so much more fruitful if members took an active part and didn't shy away from this sometimes hard, but so rewarding assignment. It's so great to be a missionary at this time! Everyone is talking about it and there are so many more missionaries now than there ever have been before!

“The Lord is hastening His work...In our day, this can only be done when every member of the Church reaches out with love to share the truths of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to work together in partnership with our nearly 80,000 missionaries now serving.”  ~Elder Russell M. Ballard

Hope everyone is doing well! Keep up the good work! Help a missionary and let the missionaries help you too!

Love,

Elder Sieach

A Missionary's Dream

Dear Friends and Family,

Another great week here in KwaiChung! Elder B and I got a lot of good work done. I feel like I blinked and the week just went right by! Monday night is typically our ward's FHE activity but this past week it was canceled because the following day was a Chinese holiday. Instead of holding a formal FHE activity we had a birthday party for L and A who are two recent converts from this year. They are 19 and 20. Really great members! Because a few of the YM were the ones who organized the activity, of course things were forgotten! Most notably the food haha. So we as missionaries distracted and entertained everyone for a bit by just talking to them and building the suspense. The ward mission leader ran out and bought a pizza, and some other food. A ward member brought some soy sauce chicken wings (a staple food item here in HK), and a cake came out of nowhere! Not exactly sure how all the food got there but it was plentiful! It was a great time with members, missionaries, and friends all talking, eating, and being together.

Birthday party for L and A

Tuesday was hectic. We went out for dim-sum with a nice family for the Chinese holiday and soon after we were heading up to Shek Yam for an investigator lesson. The lesson went well and when we invited him to be baptized, he accepted! We haven't given him a date yet but will hopefully set one this week. After his lesson we were doing some finding and I stopped a lady who had just finished having lunch with the missionaries of another church. She called up a missionary friend and the two of them sat down with us and we taught the Restoration lesson...almost. There was a lot of dialogue and mid-way through some SUPER anti-Mormon man came up and tried to scare them off. They politely told him to leave which I was thankful for. Finally we ended the lesson having come to the conclusion that our biggest differences are that we have an extra book of scripture and a modern-day prophet, both of whih they think are unnecessary. We invited them next week to go with us to General Conference so they could listen to him and see for themselves. I think they were serious about coming. Later that night we ran back down to the church, taught English class, which was all about AMERICA! and then taught some lessons.

Between Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we scheduled a few lessons each day, went finding each day, and visited with less active members each day. Great stuff happening! One lesson in particular is especially poignant to me because he is a convert since December. He broke down in our lesson and just told us that he had no desire to read the Book of Mormon because he didn't feel like he had ever learned how to read and understand it. He's 60ish and his member wife just filed for divorce... It's heartbreaking really. I left the lesson feeling that we had helped this good brother, and also with the confirmation that spouses  need to read and pray together. From his side of the story their communication is really poor and she just tells him to read and pray but they don't do that together. In a land where people don't even tell each other "I love you", it might just be cultural. Nevertheless, the gospel can really bless a family when they are all equally yoked and involved.

This past Sunday was full! We had 3 of our investigators at church. Add to that a 'walk-in' who wanted to see what church was like, and a member who brought her 22 year-old non-member son. Besides that we had 5 less-actives at church with us. We taught lessons from about 12:30 to 5 pm and then went with some recent converts and investigators into Kowloon Tong for the "My Conversion Story" fireside. This week are transfers so all the "dying" missionaries brought a recent convert to speak. It was a really good experience for everyone! We got home and broke our fast at like 9 pm and then I sat down to do call-in reports until 10:30. This past week we had 10 member presents, 10 other lessons, and 5 RCLA lessons. So another 25 hours worth of teaching roughly! (That's a missionary's dream!)

View of Hong Kong Island from the ferry

The beautiful TST promenade at sunset

I'm going to end my letter early today in hopes that I can send off some pictures!

Hope you all are having a great week and enjoyed conference! I'm stoked to watch it next week!

Love, Elder Siebach