Finding, Finding, and More Finding

Dear Friends and Family,

Things are going. Not sure in which direction, but time is ticking and Elder M and I have been working hard. We probably did between 20 and 25 hours of street contacting this past week. Certainly not a mission record but a lot when I consider that for the last 1.5 years of my mission we've had people to teach. I find myself often reflecting on my first few months in the mission when my trainer and I also opened a companionship. I wish that I would have paid a little more attention to what he did and see if there were any things that I could magnify now.

Taipa is a wonderful place to serve. It's an interesting place to serve as well. Macau in and of itself is very separate from the rest of the mission; and considering it's a separate "Special Administrative Region" we can't keep contact through phones with any of the missionaries on that side of the mission. Then throw in that Elder M and I serve the Southern of 2 islands. We are completely isolated from even Macau missionaries who spend all their time on the Macau side. It's a little bit like an undercover mission for me.

We worked and we worked and we worked this week. We were blessed though. We taught 13 street lessons in 4 languages--kind of:) -- Cantonese, English, British English, and broken Mandarin/Cantonese. We contacted about 1000 I would guess (meaning we spoke with them for a minute or more), and got about 50 phone numbers. It could have been really monotonous to be doing so much finding all week but we've been making it fun by finding with a topic scripture in mind. During each companionship study we've looked over what we read during personal study and found one verse or passage that we plan on sharing in any contact we have that day. It's been working well and a good way for us to use the Book of Mormon and make sure that we stay on the same page since, as expected, Elder M doesn't understand everything that we talk about on the street.

Being tourists in Macau--Thanks to Elder M's mom:)

The other thing we did to break up the monotony was to try a few different finding methods. We knocked a few doors, we found in parks, on buses, on streets and side walks, we contacted a guy while he was waiting in a parking lot, and we try to squeeze taking pictures during the water breaks we have. We also did some University finding. We were forewarned by the Mandarin Elders that the 2 Universities in Taipa were a little bit harder for Cantonese contacting. They said that Macau University of Science and Technology is about 90% Mandarin speakers, and that the University of Macau is about 50%. So with those odds we spent 3 hours one day proselyting at UM. They proved to be prophetic. Of the people we contacted, a little over 50% of them were mandarin speakers. Just as we were about to end for that portion of the afternoon though we stopped one girl. She was really willing to talk with us and curious about our message. We shared the Restoration with her, gave her a BoM and rescheduled her for this week. She's Cantonese which is awesome! However, she lives on the Macau side and since she's 21 we'll have to turn her over to the sister missionaries.

That kind of was our week in a nut shell though. We were really blessed to find people to teach but they either live in Mainland and just come down here to work, they live on the Macau side, or they aren't native Cantonese speakers. We haven't struck gold yet... Certainly a learning experience.

During one of the lessons we had this week (it was in English since the guy was from Nepal) we had a girl come up to us and actually ask if she could have our number since she wants to learn more about Christ! We were pretty floored. We're pretty sure she lives in Taipa, but she'll still have to get turned over eventually is our thought. Great story though. I think that's the first time on my mission where someone has come up to me seeking to learn.

One opportunity that we had this week was to go and teach a less-active lesson. Our mission correlator, Brother H, is a fireball. He has so much enthusiasm and really gets missionary work. Every Tuesday evening he has the missionaries come together and tries to get as many members as willing to participate, and sends them off on splits to go teach lessons to members that he has scheduled for us! Because members were short this week, Elder M and I went with one of our Zone Leaders, Elder F, and visited twin 16 year old boys. We had a good conversation with them, but it's sad to see boys that are Grace's age not in the church. I think we did pretty well building a friendship with them and maybe we can help them come back!

This past week we thought we were going to get some member-present lessons, but unfortunately John left Macau this past week because he had some family things come up that he had to take care of. And the only other person that we had scheduled for this week confirmed the morning of the appointment and so we went to the church and she was a no-show. We had a member and everything with us. We eventually were able to get hold of her, (her name is Leslie believe it or not) but she said that her mother-in-law forbade her from coming to meet with us and said many other things that probably shouldn't be written out in a mass letter... sufficeth to say, we probably won't be able to see her for the time being.

We're still working hard. Hopefully I can come back with a nice tan face and pasty white neckline :)

That's all for now folks. Keep us and all other missionaries in your prayers! We need them! I love you all.

Love,

Elder Siebach

-I'll send some pics if the computer will be fast...

P.S.-- By the way I finally got the Easter package this week that you guys sent out! It's delicious! Thanks:)

Ou Mun Baby! Welcome to Macau!

Dear friends and family,

I'M IN OU MUN (pronounced "oh moon") -- that's how they say Macau! For the last 5 months I've been pretty certain that I would end my mission in the New Territories as a Zone Leader. I wouldn't have complained much considering that with that comes the privilege to meet with President Hawks regularly and eat Sister Hawks' homemade cooking. However, those thoughts were gloriously pushed aside as I was given a new assignment to open a new companionship out in Macau! All I knew was that I would be training, and most likely I would be training the incoming Irishman or the Englishman since they get visas that allow them to stay out in Macau for 6 months at a time while the rest of us just get 2 months. 

With new companion, Elder M from Rugby, England

Come Thursday morning I was in the Kowloon Tong mission home and was promptly assigned Elder M, a brand new 18 year old missionary from Rugby, England! We were hurriedly rushed into a mission van and driven down to the ferry pier where we then spent the next half hour buying tickets for the 10 Elders and Sisters that were going out to Macau that day.

Hong Kong - Macau Turbo-Jet

 We got our tickets, boarded the TurboJet catamaran and were in Macau by 1:30 pm. As we were pulling into port I was just flabbergasted by the view. It looks like Las Vegas was transplanted to the coast. Add in the fact that they moved the Seattle Space Needle across the ocean and plopped it on the shoreline. Then add in Portuguese street signs and European architecture and that is Macau. It's a beautiful city that is just a conglomeration of every place and race of people I have ever seen. (Slight side fact, almost half of the people we have contacted for the last 4 days are either of Vietnamese or Filipino decent.)

Macau Sky Tower

Macau City Center

Elder M and I were graciously picked up by Elder T (a former flat mate of mine from about a year and a half ago -- I was in Chaiwan and he was a Mandarin Elder in TKO) and taken back to our apartment. The wheel on my luggage couldn't handle the European-style cobblestone roadway and so it rolled off every 50 yards or so. We made it home and took an inventory of our surroundings and then promptly planned out the rest of the day. 

Famous cobblestone streets in Macau

There are 7 companionships serving in Macau right now: 4 of those are Cantonese, 1 is Tagalog/Cebuano, 1 is English, and 1 is Mandarin. Our companionship is in charge of one island called Taipa. Taipa is 2 miles wide by 3 miles long and only about 1/3 of it is developed. It is what we call "New Macau" since it is where all the new growth is happening. New Casinos are going up and new housing complexes are being built in the vicinity. 

Our first night together we explored a park and then got hopelessly lost while trying to get home later that night. We finally made it back and called the only 2 former investigators that live in Taipa. One was a guy named John who we scheduled for the next day, and then got a member, Parker, to come fellowship for us. (Another side story; Parker W was found 2 years ago by my buddy Elder Rostrom and baptized soon after that!) He is a stud.

Our lesson with John went splendidly. We were really able to get to know him and Elder M did a great job extending an invitation to baptism. He accepted! So with less than 24 hours under our belts in our new area we had a member-present lesson, a new investigator, and a baptismal date! He also rescheduled to meet 2 days later for church!

After that lesson the 4 Cantonese companionships and 1 Mandarin companionship had our branch correlation meeting. We all serve in the Macau 1st Branch. Following our meeting we took a bus to a plaza on the Macau side and had a Branch missionary display. There were 2 or 3 tents and about a dozen different banners and pass-along materials. There were probably about 15 members with us! It felt so good to be working that closely with branch leaders and members who I had met mere moments before! 

That evening as we were heading back home with the Mandarin Elders we realized that we had grabbed the wrong keys and therefore couldn't get into our apartment, so we turned around and went back into the Macau side and slept on the floor of the other Elder's apartment. I've never heard anything quite like the chorus of 8 snoring missionaries all in one 10x15 square room!

The next morning we headed back down just in time for a locksmith to come and help us take care of it. That day we did a little more exploring of our island and realized just how many tourists there really are and how ineffective it can be to find within even half a mile of the casino strip. That evening we had a branch Easter activity, and although we didn't have any investigators in attendance, we went anyway to meet with the members and introduce ourselves. By evening we were absolutely beat and crashed. Then at 2:30 AM there was an absolutely deafening crack and I looked over at the top of the other bunk bed where by companion was sleeping and saw him at a 45 degree angle crushing the legs of Elder T right below him. Elder T instinctively threw up his arms as Elder M rolled off of the bed and the other end of the bed fell on his head! Miraculously no one was hurt in anyway but the bed frame had finally given way! The last two nights Elder M had to sleep on the floor. At 2:30 AM that was just about the funniest thing that any one of us had experienced and so it took about an hour to fall back asleep and get over our fits of laughter. 

Welcome to Church in Macau!...in English, Chinese, and Portuguese:)

Sunday was a great day. John really did show up for church! He seemed to have a really good experience and the branch members were very friendly to him.

The Lord really has blessed us this past week! We were able to find John again, teach a lot of street lessons to FAMILIES, safety, and good attitudes as we fight the cockroach infestation in our apartment (I'm not kidding!). We still don't have fresh water to drink or gas to cook our food or heat water for showers, but hopefully that will be something we can fix today during P-Day. We already set up a new bed to replace the broken one this morning. 

Things are well. I'm enjoying the change in scenery and training again.

Love, 

Elder Siebach 

Conference Weekend and Transfering to Train in My Last Area

Dear friends and family,

I know I'm a week behind all y'all on the conference messages, but I just heard them this past weekend. What a great conference! Seemed like we really need to prepare ourselves to defend and live the faith of our fathers.

I think the message that really had the most impact on me was Elder Richard G. Scott's talk. I felt like he was talking right to me! He shared so much about teaching and helping people find testimonies of Christ. Elder Corbridge reminded us of some great truths of the Restoration. As Elder Uchtdorf said, "Are we sleeping through the Restoration?" I also really appreciated Elder Ballard's talk because he gave great examples of following-up and returning and reporting. These were also important reminders to me as I feel that I could always be doing more to contact and then follow up regularly.  I really think that these three talks together paint a perfect picture of how missionary work should be! Y'all (and I) really need to read and study them!

We had a few investigators that were able to make it to the conference sessions and that was a real blessing for them as well.

Besides the great things I got to hear all this weekend, we also had a solid week here in Tuen Mun. We worked hard on the streets and the Lord blessed us. There was one day in particular where we had to choose between making calls to LA members and invite them to conference or to go finding and we chose the finding. It was blistering hot with no clouds at the time. However, we really put our hearts into it and in about 45 minutes of street contacting we had 2 lessons and 2 new investigators! It really made me stop for a minute and thank God that we were able to show our faith and have him bless us so much.

Out for Korean BBQ

This past week many of the schools in the area have gone on "Easter Break" so many students are out of school which makes finding busier and YM/YW more available to help! It's been a great few days!

Transfers are this week. I've been thinking a lot about my mission thus far, and have just felt that I am staying in Tuen Mun for my last transfer. I had kind of accepted this fact and was excited about the possibilities and some of our investigators we were able to meet with last week and invite to be baptized. Then last night I got a call from President Hawks who asked if I would be willing to train a new missionary. I said I was willing, but then I was very surprised when he told me to pack MY bags. I don't have any more information than this. I take it to mean that I will be opening a companionship but not in Tuen Mun. That's all the information I have. So stay posted until next week...:)

Fun at the Train Museum in TaiPo

Recreating our 2011 Family Photo--haha :)

I hope that conference was a good opportunity of everyone and that if you haven't done it already, commit to Elder Ballard's challenge to own and read Preach My Gospel and make an effort to introduce one person each quarter to the missionaries! It works!

"I invite all members, regardless of your current calling or level of activity in the Church, to obtain a copy of Preach My Gospel...It is a guidebook for missionary work—which means it is a guidebook for all of us. Read it, study it, and then apply what you learn to help you understand how to bring souls to Christ through invitation and follow-up." 

 

Love,

冼長老

April Showers

Dear Friends and Family, 

Things in Tuen Mun are moving right along. This past Tuesday was a great day for us. We had some time set apart to go finding and interestingly enough, while I was contacting, I stopped a guy and felt like I recognized him. He thought the same thing and I asked him if it was within the last couple months. He said that he thought it was probably over a year ago. I asked, "Where?" He said, "ChaiWan." I was pretty floored. That's the 2nd or 3rd person I've double contacted like that! It really makes Hong Kong feel small--haha:) The two of us had a good conversation and I just invited him to learn more. He is a busy Form 6 student, but I really think that the Lord had a hand in us reconnecting. 

Later that evening we went to the chapel where we had a turn-over lesson from the TinShuiWai Elders. It was for a 12 year old named Daniel who lives right next to the Tuen Mun chapel. He seems really prepared and was a member referral from the TinShuiWai ward. We taught the first lesson and invited him to set a baptism date, which he did! When we tried to give him a Book of Mormon, he pulled one out of his bag and explained to us that when he was studying in a Christian Elementary school a 'minister' gave him one. Pretty random, right? But hey, he's already started reading it!

Tuesday evening we had our first ward council meeting with our new 1st and 2nd Counselors in the bishopric and there seemed to be some added enthusiasm which I greatly appreciated! Too often I've felt like missionaries are the only people in church leadership that are excited. Our ward is trying out a new program where the missionaries are going to members homes to share a 15 minute message on missionary work. However, for the last 2 months, zero ward members have been willing or available to schedule! I'd finally had enough of that, so during ward council I made a calendar and had auxiliary leaders sign up for a time. My logic is that if we can't get the leaders on board we won't get the rest of the ward either. So this past week we visited 4 or 5 different member families. It's been a really great experience!  We've been watching a 10 minute clip on the growth of the Church in Hong Kong since it was opened for missionary work in 1949. No referrals yet, but it's a work in progress. 

Wednesday we had Mission Leadership Council and really just had an opportunity to evaluate what the successes of the mission have been in the last month since we announced our goal of 65 baptisms in July. Work in the mission has visibly picked up and in many cases month-end totals far exceeded what the goals had been for the mission. It's really great and a real testimony to the missionaries and ward members. 

No real bombs or exciting news were dropped in MLC. so we went back and started brainstorming on what we would train on during the Friday Zone Training meeting. Friday came around and our small zone of 20 (I'm serious about this; other zones have upwards of 30) came together and really drilled finding techniques and what we can do to be bolder in using the Book of Mormon and teaching baptism. The feedback I got was that it was an uplifting meeting. I read part of a talk from Elder Ballard talking about missionary work and I've been so impressed by some of the things he said. For instance, when talking about missionary success he said, "Success is not luck." "Success does not depend on the message but on the messenger." "Good attitudes, good results; fair attitude, fair results; poor attitude, poor results." I think that is why D&C 4 makes the qualifying statement that, 'IF you have desires, ye are called to the work..." Desire and work ethic make missionaries successful. 

"Remember, a good attitude produces good results, a fair attitude fair results, a poor attitude poor results. We each shape our own life, and the shape of it is determined largely by our attitude. George Bernard Shaw wrote: 'People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.'" (Mrs. Warren’s Profession, in Plays by George Bernard Shaw, New York: New American Library, 1960, p. 82.) Elder M. Russell Ballard, April 1981

After Zone Training we had our once-a-transfer 24-hour exchange. I left Tuen Mun and went with Elder Luke who is a Mandarin Elder, so we did Mandarin work for the day. That would have been more exciting if we had had lessons to teach, but since we didn't, we went finding both days. He contacted in Mandarin and I contacted in Cantonese. It's more effective that way since everyone needs the gospel in their NATIVE tongue, even if it is on the street. Good exchange, and a good opportunity to really see what Mandarin work in Hong Kong is all about. 

By Saturday evening the exchange was over and I headed back to Tuen Mun where we then met with Mrs. Chow and her son and daughter. Her husband was up in Mainland for one of the Buddhist holidays. We taught a lesson on Jesus Christ's life, the Apostasy and the Restoration. Sister Chow is so prepared! She just doesn't know that right now:). She has been in contact with churches since she was like 15 and is still looking for the church that feels right to her. She voiced a number of concerns with past churches she attended. She seems especially concerned about the method of baptism and what exactly we covenant to do at baptism. She said that other churches are too relaxed about it and make it feel like a celebration to mark an end, but that baptism should be the starting point of someone's faith. I couldn't agree more! I shared Mosiah 18:8-11 and that's where we ended the discussion for the day. Her family needs this, and I feel that they are opening up to us each time we meet with them. They insist on feeding us during these meetings, so afterwards we had a splendid dinner of delicious foods. The highlight new food items that I tried were pork tongue, and then, since we're in China we everything right? I got a nice slab of the roof of a pig's mouth too. Yeah, you know those ridges that we all lick when peanut butter gets stuck in our mouths? Ate that. Then I'm still trying to translate the other thing I ate. It was some black fungus thing I think. It's called "muhkyih" or "Tree Ear" in Chinese.

Tree Ear Black Fungus--YUM!

Sunday was the highlight of the week. There was a baby blessing and then Eric was confirmed during Sacrament meeting. Then after the 3 hour block the Sister's investigator, A-Ying, got baptized. Lots of good things happening. We're still struggling to find SOLID investigators, but we're working hard and getting along. 

Love, 

Elder Siebach