Third Time's a Charm

Dear Friends and Family,

Wow, things are going __________ (you fill in the blank) here in Tuen Mun! I'm not sure whether they are super good or not. haha Having baptized E's baptism last week, we lost one of our main investigators. So this week we had a big goose egg on member present lessons. That was kinda stressful since we really wanted to reach our zone's monthly goal of 150. We ended with 131. Pretty close honestly. We had ample time to go finding and had a number of street lessons.

We also went on exchanges this week with the HungShuiKiu Elders. I went there and with their district leader who turns out to be my trainee Elder Beal! That was a fun reunion and interesting to have completely switched roles. He was the big senior companion and led me around all day. We went out to a small fishing village and did some good contacting out there. We had to stop for a few moments and take some pictures. It was an overcast day and the sun was breaking through as it began to set and we were looking across the bay into Shenzhen. The mainland is so close but still closed to missionary work... It's almost maddening to think about all the people constantly coming and going to and from Mainland and not be able to be among them. 

Lau Fau Shan fishing village--looking into the mainland

The next day we were wrapping up our exchange but had a scheduled lesson with a guy named Alex. He is super cool and was willing to meet us even with all the rain we are having. We met in his apartment complex and read 1 Nephi 1 together. It was a great meeting that was only pre-maturely ended by the bolt of lightning that hit the building next to us! It was deafening! A few minutes later firemen and trucks came. We're not entirely sure what happened, but we ended our lesson and hopefully those elders will see him in a few more days. Lots of lightning the last couple days.

We had about 30 minutes until we were to meet with our companions and so we went out and braved the rain and did a little contacting. We went to this small park and found a man reading some newspaper under a makeshift shelter. We talked to him for a few moments and it turns out he lives in the Tuen Mun area. I scheduled him for church the next day and he really did come! He also brought his wife. Pretty miraculous.

But the even crazier thing is that I contacted his wife about 3 months back and when I called her she didn't have any interest. Then on Tuesday she called me and said that she was thinking about coming to church this coming week. I honestly forgot to call her on Saturday night and remind her. So imagine my surprise when I see her (Mrs. Maahn) come into the church with Mr. Lee whom I'd met the previous day! We're really hoping that we can teach them together. They seem to have English interest too. I'll let you know how it goes next week.

I'm super excited by all the great missionary work that is going on in Southlake ward! It sounds like things will be entirely different next time I'm there!

Yesterday after church meetings we met with a recent convert from last year named Brother Sin. (He has the same name I do). We were going over the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him and had a great time discussing and hearing his insights and his growth in the last 6 months since he was baptized. As we talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost I had a bit of an epiphany. I don't know if any of this is doctinally sound, but what I said was that the Spirit works in two main ways; as a warning voice, and as testifying voice. It seems to me that there are very few instances when the Spirit powerfully tells people not to do things (like don't proceed through the intersection and then 2 seconds later an 18 wheeler blows through the intersection). His warnings are logical most of the time (like I know I shouldn't watch this movie. Or listening to this song). It's almost like we remind ourselves. Not too much of an outside influence was exerted for these warnings. These moments are examples of the Spirit as acting on us and warning us. Then there are the instances when people don't know what to do. They have a problem. So they read their scriptures, pray, fast, attend the temple, partake of the sacrament etc... This is how the Spirit testifies to us, and it only happens when we exercise our own faith and show our desire to receive answers from our Heavenly Father. For these reasons it's really easy for the atheist to deny the influence of the Spirit. They don't recognize warnings since they rationalize it as their own thought and intellect. Then they also don't try and invite the Spirit to inspire them and give them answers. They go their entire lives without learning how to really ask and receive Spiritual confirmations. Anyway, I know that's not too earth-shattering. However, I relate it to my own conversion story and D&C 112:10, I had to humble myself, read a scripture, get on my knees, have a desire to know, pray, and then I got my witness; and not before then.

Things are well. We are looking for new investigators and opportunities to teach people all the time and I know that the Lord will bless us for our efforts.

Keep the faith, keep praying and SEEKING for opportunities to share your testimonies with those around you!

Love,

Elder Siebach

In the Church News!!

Here is a fun surprise! Scroll down to the very bottom of the article. Spencer loved every second of this conference with Elder Holland!

Elder Holland visits Hong Kong

Undeterred

My Dear Friends and Family,

Sounds like things were splendid back in the US this past week. Congratulations to Sterling for going to the temple and Michael for getting baptized!! What a great mile-mark and achievement in both of their lives! Keep going to the temple, Sterling, and you will understand more! I still don't feel like I have even scratched the surface of what there is to learn there. It's a great place to be though!

Sterling and Michael

This week was crunch time for two of our investigators. They're really striving to be baptized in March. One of them will depend on whether he comes out to church this next week... He is really accepting of the commandments and willing to do all that he is asked, but church attendance in lacking a little. We are still trying to help him in this aspect.

The other investigator is E. E is great. 25, almost 26 years old. He has been readily available to teach since he doesn't have a job, and has been looking to turn his life around. We met with him 2 or 3 times this past week to review some of the basics of the Restoration and Plan of Salvation as well as to help him with his Book of Mormon reading. He is really accepting of the commandments and gets answers to his prayers. This past Friday morning at 9:00 AM he met with President Kwok of the Mission Presidency who then conducted a baptismal interview with him! Everything was clear and he was signed off! That issued in about 2 days of madness as we called out correlator and tried to get all the fixings for a baptismal service in place. It came together in the end and it was a great, spiritually uplifting service. The Young Men's President and a former Bishop were the speakers and E asked that I be the one to baptize him. As I brought him down into the water I had a fleeting thought and remembrance of my own baptism and was so happy to see him come back out of the water and know that he was clean. He made a great step in the right direction! Now it will be even more important to review these same lessons and help him make friends and a have some responsibility in church.

The third noteworthy baptism this week was for an investigator of mine who moved to Utah for school in January. Since he has moved out there he has made tremendous leaps and bounds and was baptized this past Saturday up in Salt Lake City. I like to think that this young man, Ken, and Michael were getting baptized at the same time but a half hour drive apart! :)

Having E baptized is a great blessing from the Lord, but it gives our companionship one less person to work with... We had about 10 street lessons this past week. Lots of good street contacting and the Lord has been really good to us in helping us have opportunities to share. However, either we haven't been pushing hard enough, or these people are just busy, but they haven't rescheduled and become new investigators yet. You can bet we will be making a lot of calls this week.

On Thursday the Assistants met with us and we had an exchange. I stayed in Tuen Mun and Elder Brown who was one of my roommates in the MTC and I lived with when we both served Chaiwan came with me. We had gone on an exchange the 2nd week I was in Hong Kong and here we were again on an exchange while he has 4 weeks until he heads home! It was amazing to see how far we have both come and the different experiences we have both had. We did a lot of good work together and in the evening we courageously plowed up the side of the mountain giving no consideration to the 10-15 untethered dogs who snapped at our heels as we contacted the family that I found a few months back. The dogs were enough of a welcoming committee and so the homeowner was already standing beside his front door when we knocked on the iron gate. He graciously let us in and we met with him, his 21 year old son A-Fung, and his 14 year old nephew A-Ban whom I had given the Book of Mormon some 4 months ago. We shared a lesson on prayer, gave them a For Strength of Youth pamphlet and scheduled them for this next week! We're looking forward to going back up to share more! They don't have any Christian background and are fairly pious Buddhists, but that's not going to deter us nor the Spirit. We're excited.

Anyway, I'm going to send out a few pics so I'm keeping this letter a little short :)

Love,

Elder Siebach

P.S. Last P-Day we hiked up to Castle Peak Mountain. I thought I was going to die. However, the company was good! Elder Beal was there as was Leo!

 

Seeing is Believing?

Dear Friends and Family,

Wonderful week this past week. Wonderful because this weekend we had Stake Conference. It was a real treat and missionaries were invited to all three sessions (Adult Evening, Priesthood Leadership, and the General Session). All three sessions were presided by Elder Randy Funk of the Area Seventy and President Hawks was there too. 

During the Evening session they invited YM/YW to come participate because it was a meeting all about hastening the work. I was struck but some of the impromptu testimonies that were borne by members who were asked to share missionary experiences. Stories of teachers giving a Book of Mormon to a 10 year old boy who then gave it to his grandmother who embraced the gospel before she passed away. Or of a lady in my ward whose co-worker told her that she had joined a cult. The member then gave a Book Of Mormon to this lady who later read it, gained a testimony of it, was baptized, and has since helped her sister, mother, and husband. These are just such great stories for me! I can just imagine Leo or A-Fung being missionaries one day or Anne and Alex sharing with family and friends who then embrace the gospel!

The Stake Center was packed with people on Sunday and the Spirit was really poured out upon us as we learned more about how we can become converted and then "strengthen our brethren." I loved the talks.

I pin-pointed why my feelings for Hong Kong members are so poignant. It stems from the idea that they are good, busy, people who are in tune with the spirit and overcome cultural barriers to embrace a somewhat foreign gospel message. Imagine if you walked into a Buddhist temple in Dallas but all the people in attendance were American converts. It would never happen. But just imagine. Not to mention, people in America largely respect Mormons and know for the most part that we are faithful Christians. However, in a land where the direct translation of "Mormon" is "Mo-muhn" or "Devil's Gate" and churches and schools fling all kinds of negative stuff, it just is a battle of endurance and faith. I don't know if I could stay strong if I had grown up in that kind of environment. But I am learning that God really is mindful of His children. 

I think it was Elder Oaks that cracked a joke 2 years ago along the lines of, "Heavenly Father loves His Asian children. I mean just look how many he made of them!"

This week we had ample time to go tracting. We spent one evening knocking doors and found a family that might have some good potential. The mother told us to come back half an hour later, we came and she said that her family members still weren't home and to wait 15 more minutes. We waited and knocked a 3rd time but no one came. We're planning on going back this next week to see if we can get their number. We have the address which is a blessing. We don't really get addresses here in Hong Kong. Everyone lives in apartment buildings and you just don't go up to someone and ask for their address.

French toast for the Apartment

All the other contacting time we had was spent on the streets. We did have a few street lessons. We bumped into people who were more receptive, and I think we were also a little more courageous this past week than previous weeks. Good potential. Hoping to reschedule these contacts.

We have two investigators who have baptismal dates for the next 2-3 weeks and so this week we will really be in 'crunch time' to make sure they feel prepared and are ready to make this wonderful covenant with God. It's an exciting time! It also means that our teaching pool will drop down to almost zero... Pray for us to find some new people to teach! ;)

Last thing, as I was reading in Alma today I was impressed by the encounter that Ammon and Lamoni have with Lamoni's father. We know that Lamoni's father was a little rash and commanded Lamoni to kill Ammon. However, what was interesting was that Lamoni's father's heart wasn't softened by the blow that Ammon delivered to his arm, it was from what he SAW. It mentions twice in the following verses that he SAW the love that Ammon had for his son, and SAW that it wasn't Ammon's desire to destroy him. What the king saw got him interested in the gospel.

So what can we do to SHOW to others our testimonies and our intentions? It's simple but I think it stems from hard work, service, and smiles. When we show these things the Spirit can more easily testify to those around us. Of course please open your mouths and share too. The spirit will stir in their hearts.

Love, 

Elder Siebach 

Holding On

Dear Friends and Family,

The past few days have been really awesome! On Friday we had our Zone Training and it really felt small. When I first started as Zone Leader we had 28 missionaries and now we've dropped to 22 with threats to take out one more companionship this month. It certainly feels smaller than it did, but that actually made for a more personal meeting if anything. As with all Zone Training Meetings we relayed all the information and instruction from President Hawks, and then talked about last months goals and results. Then we spent a few moments talking about March goals and what has been accomplished so far. We had some pretty lofty goals, however, they are certainly achievable if we have FAITH and WORKS. I think as Zone Leader one of the hardest things for me is trying to help missionaries catch a vision of what the ZONE could do together. Building that kind of unity has to bridge cultural differences and come from desire to serve and becoming tools in His hands.

One thing from the Mission Leadership Council which we got to relay to the New Territories Zone was a goal of baptisms this coming July. This year marks 65 years of missionary work in Hong Kong and so the wards and stakes are going to be involved giving 6500 hours of community service, and the youth will give 6500 names to the temple in each stake. The mission wanted to get involved and one idea kept coming to President Hawk's mind was "65 in July" referring to getting 65 baptisms in the month of July. It translates to about 1 baptism per companionship in the month of July. Certainly doable, it just will take more faith and more work.

Target practice!

To make this portion of our Zone Training interesting and trying to evoke their enthusiasm and resolve we had one of the Elders in the zone run in with a bed sheet that Elder C and I had prepared the night before to be similar to the "Title of Liberty". The sheet had a big number '65' on it and we asked all the missionaries to sign on if they were willing to push towards this great goal. I'm super pumped about the whole thing and I know we can do it. What is exciting is the fact that we average about 21 baptisms a month in the mission but in months and years past we've had months that were closer to 40 and one crazy August in 2011 when there were 66 baptisms. Its going to happen though and the New Territories Title of Liberty was signed by everyone and can be our constant reminder of our commitment to serve in the China Hong Kong mission. I think it built zone unity to have this kind of a goal too.

Tuen Mun Zone Bowling Activity

Right after Zone Training our companionship went on exchanges and I went into the Butterfly area for 24 hours. It was a good experience as we taught English class and then the following day did some good finding and had a member-present lesson in which we used a returning LA to help fellowship. We even gave the investigator, Gary, a baptismal goal of May 11th.

Saturday afternoon the exchange ended and Elder C and I were back together and spent the afternoon teaching a former investigator and then doing our weekly planning finally.

Sunday was a pretty solid day at church and we had 3 investigators there and then 5 returning members came too. They also reorganized our Bishopric and so hopefully we can work well with the new slightly altered bishopric members.

Recently I've been thinking a lot about less-active work. It's one of the things that missionaries love and hate. Love because if you can just get someone to open the door to you, you have a good chance of helping them come back to church. The biggest concern that missionaries have is, "Will these members fit into the church scene again?" "What can we do to help them feel welcome in church again?" I haven't seen too many members come back into activity while I've been a missionary. However, my sense is that post-mission I want to work hard in this aspect of missionary work. Just yesterday I was really impressed by one of the members of our ward who wants to do his home teaching, however, his companion isn't active, and the people he wants to visit are also not active. I was impressed that he asked us to come with him so that we could get to know these members, and support in any way that we could. We knocked, no one was home at either, and then we left notes for them. I was just really happy to have a member who was with us because I think people are more receptive to active members because they aren't under the same assignment as missionaries, but are still willing to reach out to them.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, contact the people you haven't seen in a while at church! And if there aren't any people you know (for instance you are a new move-in yourself), accompany the missionaries and be a friend to these 'lost lambs'. To paraphrase President Hinckley, "If we can't hold on to the fruits of our missionary efforts, there is no point to missionary work."  

Wishing you the best in your missionary efforts and everything else,

Elder Siebach

Congratulations Brother!!

First I want to congratulate my brother Sterling on his assignment to serve in the Japan Tokyo mission! I shouted for joy over here! I had my apartment place bets on where you were going and we had three places; TaiWan TaiChung, TaiWan TaiPei, and Japan Tokyo! Elder Cordon won it all and so I owe him a candy bar. I'm so proud of you and that you get to go to the mission that I ORIGINALLY wanted to go to! I'm also proud that we can continue to have some good Siebach representation in Asia still! Maybe Grace will go Asia in a few years!  Which leads me to congratulate Grace for getting her Patriarchal blessing! Sounds like it was a great experience for everyone! Keep it up! :) 

Mom, Dad, you all get a shout out too for just being great support to your 3 kids! We couldn't do any of this without your support and loving guidance. You've set the example for us to follow! 

Things are crazy right now. So much going on! So much faith in this mission right now. Yesterday we were privileged to have Mission Leadership Council and talked about some of the goals for this 65th Anniversary year in Hong Kong. It was great to be in a room with 30+ missionaries from all different areas and walks of life and to really come together because of our combined purpose to bring others to Christ. I was amazed to just look across at Filipina Sisters, Chinese Elders and Sisters, and American Elders and Sisters, including some people that are converts themselves and have had amazing tests of faith and sacrifice to come on missions without family support. It made me so grateful for what I have already received and for what I can learn from them still. 

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

 Well, shifting gears to Hong Kong. Things have been great this past week. We were privileged to be able to spend the better part of last Tuesday with a prophet and apostle of the Lord! Jeffrey R. Holland came and gave some great council. I have a lot of notes that I took from all of this, however, one thing that really stood out to me was that he was on the committee that made the Preach My Gospel manuals. He said that they took the title from D&C 50 and the original title was supposed to be "Preach My Gospel by the Spirit". That really hit me hard as I considered that everything in that manual is to help us be ordained with power from on high and to use the Spirit in all things. Though the missions are different, the Gospel is the same, PMG is the same anywhere you go because the people across the world need it that way. If its not HIS way its not the correct way. 

He also made a great point that this church doesn't have any real symbols to associate with it; we don't really use crosses or 6-pointed stars. We don't have any of those things; however, we have missionaries. The tag, white shirt and ties do more for the church's image than does anything else. Missionaries are the symbol of this church. And then he cautioned us that we have "'no right to defile that image." To paraphrase something else he said, "When the Lord loses some of the sheep (recent converts/members) He must feel the weight of it, but imagine His loss and His pain when He loses the shepherds (missionaries and return missionaries)." When we signed our names at the bottom of our mission call we signed on for life and have no right to go against that. I loved it and was touched by the feeling he put into this portion of his message. He was very Elder Holland-like, pounding the pulpit and all! Great day for us! 

Tuen Mun is going well right now. We're looking for new solid investigators right now and have been able to spend a lot of time on the streets. Then this past Saturday we were able to reschedule a family that we found about a month back and they had us over for dinner and then we took some time to share a short message with them. 2 parents and their 12 year old son and 5 year old daughter. We've really grown to love them as we've worked to meet with them. The father isn't super interested but he is respectful and will listen and the mom is just thirsting for answers; especially about original sin and children (We encouraged her to read Moroni 8). The son is very respectful and listens well. He is busy prepping to go to Secondary School and all that that entails (a 25 minute interview conducted in English with the school headmaster explaining why he should be accepted to that school. Talk about intense! But that's the life of a Hong Kong school boy or girl) The mom is a full-time mom an insurance broker and going to school for an MBA. They're busy but are willing to meet with us towards the end of the month. We're looking forward to that.

Hong Kong student shirts

My companion, Elder C, is awesome. I love having a local who really can work with with members and  gets the customs and everything. He's been a great support as this past week we've been working some recent converts, trying to support and grow their faith. We have a lot of work cut out for us this next week but we're excited to face it. 

I love you all. I'll work to send new photos this coming P-Day.

P-Day Shenanigans

Love, 

Elder Siebach 

P.S. I bought some new glasses. They are probably not the style that you would have pictured me in, however, they were cheap, comfortable, and I felt like I needed to do something different so that the people I contact don't think I'm some 30 year old... I think that is the fate of people who wear thinner, wire-rimmed glasses--haha!. Pictures to come.

At the temple in my new glasses