Merry Christmas!

Dear Family and Friends,

Wow! Can't believe that Christmas is 2 days away! It's been quite the week here in Hong Kong!

Tin Shui Wai (apartment buildings in the
distance)--separated from Mainland China
by this Wetland Park

Last Tuesday we attended the TinShuiWai district meeting and right afterwards went on exchanges with their district leader. I worked with his companion in the TinShuiWai area. It was freezing! Super cold and rainy! No one really wanted to talk to us on the street so we did a little LA finding that evening and then met with a less-active member at the church where we had eally good lesson! We had a great time together and learned a lot. TinShuiWai is actually the ward of my second companion, Elder W. It was funny to see his picture in their area book. TinShuiWai is also the most populated area in all of Hong Kong. And with the exception of the temple square mission, it is the smallest proselyting area in the world! Just some fun facts :) We could look right into mainland from a lot of the apartment buildings we were in. :) That Tuesday was also my companion's birthday so we had a small celebration.

Wednesday morning I was doing my companion study when we got a text from the Assistants. That's always a kinda scary thing! However, it was great news! Really a Christmas present actually! We found out that English/Chinese tags are approved again for our mission! President Hawks has been working with Salt Lake for months now and so each missionary will soon be issued new tags! (That brings my count up to 11 tags). We're the only mission that currently has this approval! GO HONG KONG! We were super stoked about it.

Last P-Day I forgot to mention that my apartment went down to MongKok. 2 of the Elders went and got fitted for new suits that they are buying for Christmas, and I made a nice new purchase; a camera! It's actually a trade-in and it's working well so far! I've already been a lot better at taking pictures. Hopefully I can remember my camera cord one of these days and send some pics home!

This past week we had a great week for lessons! We struggled to get member presents from Monday to Thursday, however, we were able to get 6 from Friday to Sunday. We got some good LA finding in with one of our members, and we met with just about all of our investigators. That was a real blessing because some of them, specifically An--, A-F, and Al-- have commitment dates coming up really fast.

An-- has been out of town for the last two weeks, but she called us as she was boarding her plane (to come back home from Singapore) to tell us that she would be at church the following day! Wow!! We were very relieved because we've been unable to contact her and she hasn't been on Facebook for a long time. Finally, on Sunday we were able to sit 

                                                                                         down with her, share a lesson on

Tai Pei Temple: same design as the Dallas Temple!

tithing and fasting and really get to hear more about her trip. She told us that while she was in Singapore she went to church and introduced her sister's family to the missionaries there! Sounds like she had a great time! She then went to TaiWan for a  while and though she was unable to get to church that Sunday, she was able to take a taxi to the TaiPei temple! She said it was stunning. It had been raining all week there, but on that day the skies cleared and the temple had a glow around it. She got in a traffic accident on her way to the temple too (the taxi she was riding in got T-boned)--but that still didn't deter her! After her walk around the temple she went straight to the airport and flew home! Haha :) Great things going on there!

A-F is doing super well too! We met with him on Saturday and Sunday to help review and explain new commandments to him. He really wants to be baptized and is working for it! I wish I had more time to tell you about him!

At church this past week we had 5 investigators in sacrament meeting and 3 others were able to come to Young Mens where we shared a lesson on missionary purpose (they were unavailable earlier in the morning). So 8 people at church total. That quadrupled the size of the Young Mens when everyone was in there!

I'm loving the work! This next week we're already going to be crazy busy at a Stake Christmas activity all day Wednesday. Today we will be getting together with some people in the zone to watch the mission slideshow and such. Investigators are scheduled to come, now we just gotta call some members too! We'll keep up the work on this end! If we have time we might try and string some Christmas lights or decorations around our apartment since nothing too crazy is going on anywhere else in Tuen Mun. Keep the faith! Remember the reason for the season!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Love,

Elder Siebach

P.S. I'm planning to call you my Christmas morning at about 9:30. That would be about 7:30 PM Christmas Eve for y'all. Is that ok?