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