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 

Third Time's a Charm

Dear Friends and Family,

Wow, things are going __________ (you fill in the blank) here in Tuen Mun! I'm not sure whether they are super good or not. haha Having baptized E's baptism last week, we lost one of our main investigators. So this week we had a big goose egg on member present lessons. That was kinda stressful since we really wanted to reach our zone's monthly goal of 150. We ended with 131. Pretty close honestly. We had ample time to go finding and had a number of street lessons.

We also went on exchanges this week with the HungShuiKiu Elders. I went there and with their district leader who turns out to be my trainee Elder Beal! That was a fun reunion and interesting to have completely switched roles. He was the big senior companion and led me around all day. We went out to a small fishing village and did some good contacting out there. We had to stop for a few moments and take some pictures. It was an overcast day and the sun was breaking through as it began to set and we were looking across the bay into Shenzhen. The mainland is so close but still closed to missionary work... It's almost maddening to think about all the people constantly coming and going to and from Mainland and not be able to be among them. 

Lau Fau Shan fishing village--looking into the mainland

The next day we were wrapping up our exchange but had a scheduled lesson with a guy named Alex. He is super cool and was willing to meet us even with all the rain we are having. We met in his apartment complex and read 1 Nephi 1 together. It was a great meeting that was only pre-maturely ended by the bolt of lightning that hit the building next to us! It was deafening! A few minutes later firemen and trucks came. We're not entirely sure what happened, but we ended our lesson and hopefully those elders will see him in a few more days. Lots of lightning the last couple days.

We had about 30 minutes until we were to meet with our companions and so we went out and braved the rain and did a little contacting. We went to this small park and found a man reading some newspaper under a makeshift shelter. We talked to him for a few moments and it turns out he lives in the Tuen Mun area. I scheduled him for church the next day and he really did come! He also brought his wife. Pretty miraculous.

But the even crazier thing is that I contacted his wife about 3 months back and when I called her she didn't have any interest. Then on Tuesday she called me and said that she was thinking about coming to church this coming week. I honestly forgot to call her on Saturday night and remind her. So imagine my surprise when I see her (Mrs. Maahn) come into the church with Mr. Lee whom I'd met the previous day! We're really hoping that we can teach them together. They seem to have English interest too. I'll let you know how it goes next week.

I'm super excited by all the great missionary work that is going on in Southlake ward! It sounds like things will be entirely different next time I'm there!

Yesterday after church meetings we met with a recent convert from last year named Brother Sin. (He has the same name I do). We were going over the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him and had a great time discussing and hearing his insights and his growth in the last 6 months since he was baptized. As we talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost I had a bit of an epiphany. I don't know if any of this is doctinally sound, but what I said was that the Spirit works in two main ways; as a warning voice, and as testifying voice. It seems to me that there are very few instances when the Spirit powerfully tells people not to do things (like don't proceed through the intersection and then 2 seconds later an 18 wheeler blows through the intersection). His warnings are logical most of the time (like I know I shouldn't watch this movie. Or listening to this song). It's almost like we remind ourselves. Not too much of an outside influence was exerted for these warnings. These moments are examples of the Spirit as acting on us and warning us. Then there are the instances when people don't know what to do. They have a problem. So they read their scriptures, pray, fast, attend the temple, partake of the sacrament etc... This is how the Spirit testifies to us, and it only happens when we exercise our own faith and show our desire to receive answers from our Heavenly Father. For these reasons it's really easy for the atheist to deny the influence of the Spirit. They don't recognize warnings since they rationalize it as their own thought and intellect. Then they also don't try and invite the Spirit to inspire them and give them answers. They go their entire lives without learning how to really ask and receive Spiritual confirmations. Anyway, I know that's not too earth-shattering. However, I relate it to my own conversion story and D&C 112:10, I had to humble myself, read a scripture, get on my knees, have a desire to know, pray, and then I got my witness; and not before then.

Things are well. We are looking for new investigators and opportunities to teach people all the time and I know that the Lord will bless us for our efforts.

Keep the faith, keep praying and SEEKING for opportunities to share your testimonies with those around you!

Love,

Elder Siebach

In the Church News!!

Here is a fun surprise! Scroll down to the very bottom of the article. Spencer loved every second of this conference with Elder Holland!

Elder Holland visits Hong Kong