Slamming Doors? Slamming Tim-Tams!

Dear Friends and Family,

First of all, Happy Mother's Day! Love you Mom! Things have been a whirlwind this past week. The days just seemed like they took care of themselves. I haven't really formulated any thoughts for this week's letter since yesterday I called home and shared an hour's worth of thoughts. It was so great to talk to the family!! Ya'll sound great. Good luck to Sterling in these last couple weeks of pre-mission preparations! 

One of the other real high-lights of the week was the rain! A blessing and a curse. I personally really enjoy rain. Pre-mission, I loved to work in it and to fall asleep to it. As a missionary I only like to fall asleep to it :) It's hard to keep a maintained look in monsoon rains. Thankfully we got haircuts last week so as our hair flattened to our foreheads it wasn't in our eyes or over our ears. Since this is my last transfer and I left about 1/2 my clothes in the mission home. I somehow forgot both my umbrella and raincoat in that suitcase. Hmm--not sure what I was thinking there! Elder M has been really good to me, loaning me his umbrella on a number of occasions while he uses a raincoat. He also has a waterproof bag, and so he often carries our copies of the Book of Mormon and weekly planners so that we don't ruin them. The rain was so torrential on some days that when we went outside there was no one for blocks and so we turned back around and went inside and made calls to potential and former investigators until the rain slowed down. Other days we went out anyway and made our way down covered alleyways and under trees to get some relief and attempt a contact. The Lord saw us working and blessed us, and if nothing else, we were able to talk to these people and bear testimony.

Sharing the gospel on the street:)

On Friday the rain was going as hard as I've ever seen it, and with so few covered places we decided to try our luck at "tracting" in apartment buildings. That was quite the experience. Despite that everyone told me, getting into apartments is easier in Macau than it is in Hong Kong! I was a little apprehensive and worried at how the apartment guards would treat us. We smiled at them, and walked through as if we had an appointment or something. They didn't stop us. That was the first tracting miracle. The 2nd was that from the 21st floor (the top) to the 3rd floor (where we stopped that evening) none of the residents complained about our presence and knocking. (Essentially if anyone calls the guards for anything they come up and escort missionaries out. It's typically an unpleasant experience with unfavorable consequences like being banned from housing estates, etc...) So we knocked at each door of those apartments, got a couple of numbers, had a few doors slammed on us, met some Filipina workers who had been previous investigators, and almost taught a man in his apartment doorway. Then on the 4th floor we knocked on the door of some Mainland Construction workers. He opened to us and beckoned us in. In my incredibly poor Mandarin I tried to explain who we were and what we did. He nodded in some sort of approval and then rummaged through his bags to pull out his passport. I'm not sure if he thought the 2 white foreigners were policemen or what. A minute or so later 3 or 4 of his apartment mates come through the door and miraculously one of them spoke some Cantonese. We sat him down and taught a 5-minute Restoration message. Because of the nature of Christian Missionaries and Mainlanders we were unable to get their Mainland cellphone numbers and had to call it at that. We're hoping to go back in a few days and see if we can't find him again.

Speaking of Mainlanders. On Tuesday night we were finding in the rain and came to a park which had a slightly protected area. We approached someone who we could tell was most likely from Mainland and sure enough he was. Although he couldn't speak a lick of Cantonese he spoke fluent English and was once an exchange student in Denmark. Really nice guy named Tyler who lives in Taipa to work in the construction business and build casinos (any Mainlander living in Taipa is employed doing the same thing). He had already done a ton of research on the LDS faith and wanted to schedule to meet with us. We got to teach him Friday evening and then he was at church with us just last night for the English services.

In the middle of the week we were really happy that we were able to meet with a guy named Rex whom we met last week. He is a 21 year old college student and has a lot of interest in the gospel as well as learning English. Really nice guy. We met at the church and he had already read the first couple pages of the Book of Mormon and was looking to learn more about Joseph Smith. We had planned on reading 1 Nephi 1 with him but switched gears and had a really great lesson reading portions on 2 Nephi 3 and talking about how Joseph of Egypt had seen and prophesied of Joseph Smith. He thought that was really cool and we've got him scheduled for church this week!

Wednesday morning we met with John. He's had some challenges in his family for the last month or so and it's been hard to really see him. We've felt pretty helpless ourselves. This past week though we were able to share the Plan of Salvation with him and it went really well. He said he feels that this knowledge will help him and that he feels that as he has been praying for help he has received answers on how to help his family! We just need to get him to pray and get answers about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith too! 

Besides these investigators we are also teaching a girl named A-Fan. She's 21 and also a college student, so we are trying to turn her over to the sister missionaries (don't worry!) She's a very logical thinker but is interested and feels like God is leading her to learn more about Christianity. She came to us this morning with some concerns about whether or not we believe in the Bible, why people are punished for disobedience to God, and what our thoughts towards other Christians are.  We had a really good lesson and I was really grateful for her questions and insights. As we were teaching and answering these questions I had an example come to me that I thought was pretty related to her as well as to all of us. Here it is:

When someone applies for a position of any sort or entrance into a University, for instance, there are requirements. We have to be at a certain level before we are granted admission. If we aren't granted admission it is like a penalty of sorts. There isn't much of an outward struggle, but internally we might be a little bothered. Following the Gospel of Jesus Christ is like trying to get into college where the only admissions exam question is to write your name. It's that simple. Anyone can do it. But people choose not to. So God, in his infinite wisdom and justice doesn't just show them in. When we don't enlist in His army we can't have the full blessings that we would have otherwise received (there are a lot of scriptures along this line in D&C 88:32-33). Nothing earth-shattering, but a simple example that I've been mulling over ever since. Maybe it will help someone understand a little better. We have A-Fan rescheduled for this coming Friday where we hope to be able to read with her, turn her over to the Sister missionaries, and teach her more about the Plan of Salvation.

Good times in Macau!

Now for Friday--my birthday!!! It was good but relatively mundane for the first 16 hours. We knocked doors as I mentioned earlier, it rained, we made some potential calls, and then at 6:30 we went to a Thai restaurant for dinner. We got some Green Curry and Pad Thai. Super tasty! Then we went to the local Dairy Queen (yes they have those here in Macau but not Hong Kong) and got milkshakes. At 7:30 we taught Tyler for the 2nd time and that evening we came home made calls, planned, and at 10 pm the other elders in my apartment had pulled together some money and bought 3 dessert wafer things and then we TimTam slammed! It would take me too long to explain what that is, so I'll have to tell you later, but it was great. And that's how we ushered in my 21st birthday, Macau-Missionary style! Now our apartment has one Elder each who is 21, 20, 19, and 18.

Can you Tim-Tam Slam?

Things are well. We're working hard; probably will continue to find and teach and get people ready for baptism despite the stifling heat/humidity and rain/humidity (notice how no matter what the weather is doing, it is humid!) It's bad here. Some of our clothes, even though they get hung up, stay a little wet and in two days' time start growing a little bit of white mold.

Keep the faith! Work, pray, and seek for missionary moments!

Love,

Elder Siebach

P.S. Pictures to come eventually. Not this week though, sorry.