Transfers Hogwarts Style

Dear Friends and Family,

Things have gone really well this past week! With the exception of the freezing cold. I know this is going to sound super lame but it was the coldest I have ever been! Often there was rain, wind, and it was around 7 degrees Celcius (≈45ºF). I couldn't stay warm! By the grace of God Elder P had to go down to Kowloon Tong on Monday for his 'dying interview' and while we were down there we checked out some old missionary clothing that was going to be thrown away. I pulled out a trench coat. Fits perfectly and keeps me warm in the freezing weather!

On Tuesday we had our district meeting and also found out what transfers would be He was a Mandarin missionary in the New Territories last transfer so he actually just ended up switching languages and now concentrating his efforts in one area. 

New Companion--Elder C!

going on. With Elder P heading home I knew I would be staying and my new companion is Elder C. The 2nd Elder C that I have had and my 4th native Hong Kong companion. Really quite a blessing to be able to serve with so many missionaries who know Hong Kong so well and can really help me improve in my Chinese. 

The Sorting

We decided to try to make our transfer experience fun and so we did a spoof off of Harry Potter and we had a sorting hat that assigned each of us to the different Zones. For example Griffindor was the New T's, Slytherin was HK Island etc... It was fun and everyone got a good laugh. I dressed up to look like Harry Potter and Elder Ph who didn't know he was going to be heading to HK Island was Malfoy.

Last meeting with my old District

After all that my companion and I were on the LTR heading to the HungShuiKiu chapel and bumped into a lady and talked to her for about 20 minutes before her husband came and pulled her home. We were able to give her a pamphlet and that was about it. Didn't get her number. Well she went home and her husband threw away the pamphlet but she was able to fish it back out of the trash, read it, pray about it, and then went back out to the LTR to try and find us. We had long since left, however, she was also able to find a flyer with our number that we had given her and than carelessly dropped. She called us and we scheduled her for the following day! We met with her and scheduled a member to go with us. It was a good lesson but we found out that she is super into her other church. Come to find out, when she was 13 she met with missionaries and thinks she may have been baptized! That was over 30 years ago. I'm still unclear about the whole situation; I don't know whether to call her a new investigator or a less-active member :-/

That night was Elder P's last dinner so at his request we went down to the Subway at Gold Coast and I bought it for him.  

Monday through Wednesday was a bit of a blur to me with all the packing and calls, and scheduling members and investigators to meet with Elder P and I for the last time. It was good though. Lots of good things going on with our investigators.

Thursday it was raining hard as we made our way to the mission home and dropped all the stuff off. Said our goodbyes and I rode the train back with Elder C and my trainee Elder B! He is going to serve in HungShuiKiu as the District Leader there. It will be great to have him around again. Elder F (from my apartment) got a new companion named Elder C who looks remarkably similar to paintings of Joseph Smith! AND he's from Palmyra New York, so he has certainly heard the Siebach name.

Fun fact of our new apartment; Elder C's birthday is May 1st, Elder F's birthday is May 6th, my birthday is May 9th, and Elder C's birthday is May 15th. We're boss. If that's not apartment unity I don't know what is.

From Thursday to Sunday Elder C and I did a lot of street contacting in the day, calls to potentials at night, and were able to get hold of a fair number of people. None of them came to church, however, we were able to meet with a mom and her daughter and give them a tour of the chapel just yesterday. There were 3 walk-ins for church! One just wants English help and then there was also a couple who were contacted by the Butterfly Sisters and showed up to church on their own! I think they had a good experience.

A-F was passing the Sacrament today and Al-- was busy after church because he was going with his new Home Teaching companion to go visit some of their families! BOSS!

I can feel that this next week is going to be even better as we meet with the investigators we have, meet with some of the new ones we found this past week, and hopefully can make some time to visit some less active members too.

I'm excited to be able to work with Elder C and to still be able to serve in Tuen Mun. Each night as I look out the window at the 700,000+ people that live under my gaze I thank God that I am a Hong Kong missionary! Missionary work is awesome! Besides Sterling himself, I may be the most excited and apprehensive person to know where he will go on his mission. Keep up the good work! Keep the faith!

Love Elder Siebach