MTC Photos

About to get dropped off at the front door of the MTC. Thanks Aunt Jenny!

At long last!!! 

Spencer with MTC companion: Elder Wu from CA

With Grandma Beus in the MTC! How cool is that??

G & G Beus are heading off to the Fukuoka Japan mission.

Leih Houh Mah?

Dearest follwers,

As should be expected, it was another busy week in the MTC. I did get two packages; one from the Tietjens and one from my family so thank you very much! For the plaque that will hang in the lobby at church, my favorite scripture is D&C 112:10. I appreciate the many letters that I have gotten from friends and family via DearElder, they really brighten my day! I'm sorry to hear about the Zimmerman's loss, but I do know that there is a special spot set aside for Christian in the kingdom of our Lord. I'm so so so happy for Jason! It was all I could think about on Saturday! I wish I had been there to witness that special event. Best decision of his life :)  I shared his story with my district and they were all very impressed by his readiness to receive the gospel and his character. We want to be more like Jason in our humility and love.

Today I was finally able to get to the temple! I was so antsy all week as I thought about being able to get away from the MTC compound and feeling the Spirit in the temple.  I finished the Book of Mormon yesterday morning and decided to take Moroni's promise. I don't think I have ever really taken his challenge. I prayed and felt that I didn't get an answer. I reflected on the many miracles and spiritual times I have felt while reading in the scriptures (namely Hel 3:35 and D&C112:10), and decided that my question about the truthfulness had already been answered. Nonetheless, I went to the temple and had that question in my heart and had an amazing experience with personal revelation. I was sitting there contemplating my question and believe it or not, I had a Cantonese phrase pop into my mind. And it was the only thing that I could think about our repeat for 3 minutes. It was, "Ngoh jidou Moyihmunging haih Sahn ge syutwah." This phrase means, "I know The Book of Mormon is the word of God." Right there in the temple the Lord answered my prayer with my own knowledge. I have a testimony of this book, I had a testimony of this book, but this experience was a strength to me.

Yesterday I got up in my Sacrament meeting and bore my simple testimony in Cantonese. I can't say everything that I want to, but I can say a lot and I felt the truthfulness of my words. I have again started The Book of Mormon and I am halfway through 1st Nephi--hope to be done with it before I leave the MTC.

My first investigator, Pauline, whom I taught 5 times and almost got to commit to baptism, turned out to be my team teacher posing as an investigator! I couldn't believe it! we were all laughing. It's now different to hear her speak English and have to address her as Sister Tai.

This week in Cantonese we learned how to ask and respond to questions of location, where to meet with a potential investigator, and answer 'why' questions. The language it very "caveman-ish" and completely different structure from English. Kinda hard for me to remember the placement of words when I'm on the spot. I'm sure I sound like a pre-schooler.

Everyday this week for volleyball my district went out to the fields and played volleyball. We go at the same time as the Bulgarian elders and we therefore call it the Bulgarian Beatdown! We're surprisingly good players and I'm learning a lot from my district mates, some of whom played in high school.

This next week I get two new investigators. There names are A-Heih and Kim. I suspect that they are actually my two team teachers posing as people from different backgrounds so that we can learn to tailor our lessons to different types of people. I'd go into my detail about them but I am low on time. Normally teachers don't have to pose as investigators because there are many MTC volunteers or even non-members willing to come, but when there are 11 Cantonese missionaries in the MTC we learn that supplies are low in Cantonese speakers within Provo and surrounding cities.

We have incredible devotionals on Sundays and Tuesdays and those are real strengths to me. I love to hear what they have to say as well as the change that it brings in a rather mundane weekly schedule.

I'm a little surprised that I function as well as I do because I never get even the 8 hours of sleep. It takes a long time for me to fall asleep each night. Mondays our temple session is at 6:30 so we have to be up early, Tuesday we have gym at 6:05, and Wednesday we have service for 1.5 hours starting at 6:10. But I know that the Lord must have a hand in it because there is no way I would have been able to do this high school.

A few things I need: A water bottle (Maybe just the one that I used for tennis), headphones and a CD player. Because Cantonese is so tonal I get to use recordings of people's pronounciation to work on my own. So I need my own set of headphones and even just a cheap CD player. It only has to last for the next 9 weeks or so.

I was on Mormon.org this week (One of the few sites allowed) and saw that Brother Mike Lohner as well as Bishop Johnson have video profiles! That was cool! I've been watching the 5 profiles of Cantonese speakers and feel like they are my best friends though I don't know them or what they are saying. The sights around Hong Kong are amazing from their videos! I cannot wait!

I appreciated dad's message to me that talked about the miracle of my life. It really strengthened me and made me remember that the Lord has a purpose for me though I may not know what it is completely.

This week I studied the doctrine of Christ in my personal study. A notable chapter is 2 Nephi 31. I also taught this to my investigator.

A thought from the devotional yesterday, "Miracles are not unnatural events, but rather manifestations of God's love and power."( I don't have the exact words but I will look it up and share it later).

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder L. Spencer Siebach

First Week!

Hello!

It's Elder Siebach! Hope you all are doing very well!

Wow, what a week so far. The first day, and every day since have just been a flurry of activity. I get up everyday at 6:20 so that I can beat everyone else in the hall to the showers, get dressed and ready for the day, plan the day. Personal study, language study, lunch, dinner, breakfast, and most days I have 3 hours of language lessons. My teacher is Brother Kruman, but his Cantonese name is Gru Hingdai. Hingdai means teacher and Gru is close to Kru I guess?? My name is Sin Jeunglouh. Sin is pronounced with a high rising tone over the "I" so its pronounced "seen". Jeunglouh means Elder. I've really been working on SYL when I'm not in class, but it can be pretty hard when I have such limited vocabulary. Everyday my mind explodes after the language study because our teacher only speaks in Cantonese. Cantonese is one of the most bizarre languages! I could go on and on about it, but I'm sure you want to hear about everything else as well. My district is 4 elders and two sisters. 3 of us elders attended BYU this last semester, and the 4th went to ASU. One sister is Chinese and speaks Mandarin so she's out here to learn Cantonese, and the other sister is from Virginia but just finished up her Junior year at BYU. In the entire MTC of 2500 some odd missionaries, there are only 11 missionaries that are Cantonese speaking and all of us are going to Hong Kong. Its funny to walk around because our tags and the Mandarin tags have the same characters so they always call out "Nee Hoh?" and we respond Leih hoh! (This means hello/How are you?).

Everyone says the first week is the hardest and that after that it gets slightly easier. I hope they're right because I am worn out and feel like I've been going forever at the end of every day. Most days we have an hour of gym time but that’s never enough. I always want so much more! Lately I've been doing volleyball, 4 square (which is surprisingly competitive and hard), and  stationary bikes.

On day two we got our first investigator named Pauline. She is from Hong Kong and thats about all we really know. The first day we talked to her about the Book of Mormon and prayer. The second day, we redid the first (this time a little better) and extended an invitation to read the Book of Mormon and pray. (We didn't do this the first time because we didn't know how to invite/extend. Both times I have prayed and testified to her. So far in the 15 or so hours of language training that I have had, I have learned to ask basic introduction questions and responses, pray, testify of some truths, and extend commitments. After the lessons I have felt a little overwhelmed because of how little I know how to say/ask and then I remember I've only been here a handful of days. I don't like to count the days because I know it will feel like so little time here and so much more to go. But I really do love the MTC. Great people, great teachers, great district, great Spirit. I see a lot of friends from BYU, and Lone Peak all the time. I've seen elder Christensen 2 or 3 times and Chase only once. I think he probably left today for Farmington anyway. It was also great to see Grandma and Grandpa so much! I got a number of pictures with them but on their camera so hassle them about it. I actually haven't used my camera yet... I'll get on that. I just have my mind and thoughts in so many different places all the time.

So just so you know, Mondays are P-days. I get to go do a temple session at 6:30 on Monday mornings, but because today is Memorial day the temple is flat-out closed. I was bummed because I was really looking forward to that during the hardest parts of my day.

It's awesome to hear the Elders that have been here for 7 weeks and here how their Cantonese has grown. I'll think we'll all be in a shock when we get to Hong Kong though.

Oh, I forgot to mention, almost every other day we have the opportunity to use an online language learning program called TALL. At first I didn't want to use it just because I'm notoriously bad with computers, but its actually really nice. You can look up and listen to words and there are certain checkpoints that you try and meet each day. Speaking of technology, I can't tell you how happy I am to not have a Facebook currently or a cell phone! Some elders here are having a tough time with that, but its a blessing to me. I do just wish that I had more time to email you guys.

Anyway, tell me about you guys! How is school wrapping up? How was Ottawa?

It is wonderful to be Dear Eldered by you guys because it means that I can read the letters throughout the week, and then I can just get on here and respond without wasting precious time to read online emails. But please others write me! I got 6 letters the first day and none the rest of the week. (I was hoping 6 letters was a sign of things to come).

Things I could use: nice packages, and most everything else I can get at the MTC bookstore for really cheap. Flashcards have saved my life the last week. I think I have over 100 vocab words and phrases that I try to go through in use in a sentence a couple times a day. My companion Elder Wu has really been a blessing too because he is a walking dictionary of Cantonese. It's also a curse because he knows what is going on in the lessons and speaks fairly fluently while I'm a little ways behind him. He may leave with the earlier district in which case the three elders left would become a Tripanionship.

And mom, I don't need my patriarchal blessing. I have one shrunk and in the front of my book of Mormon cover page.

Anyway, Love you guys so much! I appreciate the prayers and letters! Keep them coming

Elder Siebach

It's official!

Officially set apart as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!  This photo was taken about 12 hours before Spencer boarded the plane that would take him to Utah and the Missionary Training Center.