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