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