Hey everyone!
This week was an awesome week and we got to do a lot of work, which is awesome. We saw a lot of the last week's work start paying off and we started be a little less pitiful. We were a little miffed at the previous weeks when we looked at it and thought it was a little odd that we are getting to the point where we should be the best missionaries that we've ever been, but getting some of the worst results we've ever had. I'm glad to see that it seems like things are changing a little bit.
Chuckleberry Jam: This has to be without a doubt the best jam in the world; a big shout out to my wonderful mother, the greatest jammer in the world! Tart, sweet and with unique flavor, makes me "chuckle" every time. Five chuckles out of five.
We were invited to a Christmas party this week by some other missionaries and we went over for a little bit but then thought that we needed to leave because we didn't have an investigator there. We went out and started finding for the rest of the night. It was a great decision because we saw more miracles in that short hour and a half than I have ever seen in a comparable time period. We contacted so many people who willing to meet with us and set up a time to learn more. It was an amazing night and really helped us both get into the real spirit of Christmas. My favorite was that I had this feeling to go into a little lane and talk to someone and the man I talked to had his whole family on hand and wanted to learn more this week. I am so excited! I can promise that as we focus more on the Savior during this wonderful season, that we'll see more miracles. We'll be happier. We will truly be filled with the love of Christ.
Love,
Elder Siebert
Monday, December 26, 2011
Monday, December 19, 2011
Keeping it on the ZL
Hey everyone!
I am hanging in there in my second week as a Zone Leader. It is a lot of fun and we saw a lot of progress in the zone so we are getting super excited. We are having a blast and just going crazy over here. We joke a lot of the time that the only difference between us and the traveling assistants to the president is that we also have an area that we have to work in. We go on a ton of exchanges all the time.
Food review: Cherry Chocolate Cereal Cookies: The primary made us all these cherry flavored chocolate cookie things and they were incredible. I have to applaud all those little kids. 5 chocolate confections out of 5.
Verbatim: You come across as my Attorney General, you just go to work and get everything done. I'm like Teddy Roosevelt, I carry a big stick. --Elder Kasparian on how we work together.
You know those shoes that I said that you could take, they were actually Elder Siebert's.--Elder Kasparian on the issue of the elderhood of the traveling shoes.
Elderhood of the Traveling Shoes: This week when I got back from exchanges with Danshui (my home!) I noticed that my second pair of shoes were gone. I mentioned it to Elder Kasparian and asked if he knew where they were. He was really shocked and then said "I thought those were left by someone who'd gone home. Shoot, that makes sense why they looked so nice. I was wondering about that....I'm really sorry." It was so funny and we just laughed about it. They are coming back my way companionship at a time. Eventually I will get them back when we go and exchange with the right elders. It's been a really good joke though and we make reference to it all the time.
I want to give a big shoutout to my older brother, Presidential Coach! I know that what he's doing now will really help him in the future when he coaches other Presidents in 2028 (Kyler) on how to talk properly. Hee hee!
This week we saw some great success from working with our members and getting referrals. I thought the best though was when I got to go back to Danshui and visit a new member there, Wang dx. He is so much changed for the better! He looks like new person, a little angel. He is so peaceful and serene and is trying so hard in the face of opposition to remain strong. His wife is struggling really hard, but he's doing all he can to help her, himself and the family to be strong in the church. It was a miracle to see how he's changed from the time that I found him in front of his house until now. The gospel truly can work miracles in people and help them to turn 180 degrees and be who they have the potential to be. It was a wonderful testament of the power of the atonement for me.
I love you all and wish the best for you in this great Christmas season!
Love,
Elder Siebert
I am hanging in there in my second week as a Zone Leader. It is a lot of fun and we saw a lot of progress in the zone so we are getting super excited. We are having a blast and just going crazy over here. We joke a lot of the time that the only difference between us and the traveling assistants to the president is that we also have an area that we have to work in. We go on a ton of exchanges all the time.
Food review: Cherry Chocolate Cereal Cookies: The primary made us all these cherry flavored chocolate cookie things and they were incredible. I have to applaud all those little kids. 5 chocolate confections out of 5.
Verbatim: You come across as my Attorney General, you just go to work and get everything done. I'm like Teddy Roosevelt, I carry a big stick. --Elder Kasparian on how we work together.
You know those shoes that I said that you could take, they were actually Elder Siebert's.--Elder Kasparian on the issue of the elderhood of the traveling shoes.
Elderhood of the Traveling Shoes: This week when I got back from exchanges with Danshui (my home!) I noticed that my second pair of shoes were gone. I mentioned it to Elder Kasparian and asked if he knew where they were. He was really shocked and then said "I thought those were left by someone who'd gone home. Shoot, that makes sense why they looked so nice. I was wondering about that....I'm really sorry." It was so funny and we just laughed about it. They are coming back my way companionship at a time. Eventually I will get them back when we go and exchange with the right elders. It's been a really good joke though and we make reference to it all the time.
I want to give a big shoutout to my older brother, Presidential Coach! I know that what he's doing now will really help him in the future when he coaches other Presidents in 2028 (Kyler) on how to talk properly. Hee hee!
This week we saw some great success from working with our members and getting referrals. I thought the best though was when I got to go back to Danshui and visit a new member there, Wang dx. He is so much changed for the better! He looks like new person, a little angel. He is so peaceful and serene and is trying so hard in the face of opposition to remain strong. His wife is struggling really hard, but he's doing all he can to help her, himself and the family to be strong in the church. It was a miracle to see how he's changed from the time that I found him in front of his house until now. The gospel truly can work miracles in people and help them to turn 180 degrees and be who they have the potential to be. It was a wonderful testament of the power of the atonement for me.
I love you all and wish the best for you in this great Christmas season!
Love,
Elder Siebert
Monday, December 12, 2011
The Lobster Pot (That's what Mark calls it)
Hey everyone!
This week is the first successful week of being a Zone Leader survived through. I am excited to report that I am still alive and am not even that dead. It was fun going on back to back exchanges where I wasn't in my area for nearly three days straight! (that was facetious by the way).
Food:
There wasn't anything new in the way of food.
Verbatim:
"I'll take the bag, you're holding a lot more than I am at the moment." --Me commenting on the fact that Elder Kasparian had to take a pooh coming home from a meeting.
"They make me want to throw up, DON'T GRAB THEM!" --Elder Kasparian on me grabbing his bao1zi3's (our secret word for love handles)
"On second thought, three eggs is always better than two." --Elder Kasparian on these little dessert thingies that he had.
We spent a lot of time at the little nativity thing up at headquarters this week. We actually had a blast and I saw an amazing miracle from it. We were getting some dinner after singing in the first one on saturday and waiting for the second one to start. The restaurant was super crowded, so I saw a lady who looked like she was going to leave and I asked her if she was going to. She said no but that we could sit on the bench across the table from her. We sat down. I started talking to her and found out that she was already Christian. Throughout dinner, I talked to her about the church and she consented to come and do a temple tour and then stay for the nativity program. It was really cool because she was actually really excited to come to the program. It just proves that you just have to talk to everyone all the time, no matter what you are doing.
This week was fun because I got to go up to Luo2Dong1 all the way out in the boonies and exchange over there. It was a good exchange and I got to see one of the biggest miracles ever while waiting for a lesson at the church. We were waiting outside for the person to come when I saw a couple walking across the street. I ran across and started talking to them. The guy seemed a little hostile at first, but he gave his keys to the girlfriend and she left, leaving us alone to keep talking. I kept talking to him and asking him questions and eventually he started opening up. It was really amazing. As I tried to connect with him on a personal level, the Lord really let me know the man. As I was exchanging contact info with him, I asked him to be baptized because that's the invite we have this week from President: to ask everyone to be baptized. When I did, he looked right at me and said that he would love to. I reeled a little bit and then asked him if he would be willing to prepare for a specific date and he said once again, very eagerly, "Yes!" I then realized how much of a jem he was and I asked him to come into the church right away. He accepted and we ended up teaching him in the church and then taking him for a tour of the church facilities. It was really exciting because he told us when he was in the chapel that he felt really "peaceful" and that he liked it and that the second he had spare time he would be coming to the chapel for sure. It was a wonderful miracle where I kept the invites from President and saw huge results!
I know that the Lord inspires his servants, we can always listen to them and turn to them for guidance.
Love,
Elder Siebert
This week is the first successful week of being a Zone Leader survived through. I am excited to report that I am still alive and am not even that dead. It was fun going on back to back exchanges where I wasn't in my area for nearly three days straight! (that was facetious by the way).
Food:
There wasn't anything new in the way of food.
Verbatim:
"I'll take the bag, you're holding a lot more than I am at the moment." --Me commenting on the fact that Elder Kasparian had to take a pooh coming home from a meeting.
"They make me want to throw up, DON'T GRAB THEM!" --Elder Kasparian on me grabbing his bao1zi3's (our secret word for love handles)
"On second thought, three eggs is always better than two." --Elder Kasparian on these little dessert thingies that he had.
We spent a lot of time at the little nativity thing up at headquarters this week. We actually had a blast and I saw an amazing miracle from it. We were getting some dinner after singing in the first one on saturday and waiting for the second one to start. The restaurant was super crowded, so I saw a lady who looked like she was going to leave and I asked her if she was going to. She said no but that we could sit on the bench across the table from her. We sat down. I started talking to her and found out that she was already Christian. Throughout dinner, I talked to her about the church and she consented to come and do a temple tour and then stay for the nativity program. It was really cool because she was actually really excited to come to the program. It just proves that you just have to talk to everyone all the time, no matter what you are doing.
This week was fun because I got to go up to Luo2Dong1 all the way out in the boonies and exchange over there. It was a good exchange and I got to see one of the biggest miracles ever while waiting for a lesson at the church. We were waiting outside for the person to come when I saw a couple walking across the street. I ran across and started talking to them. The guy seemed a little hostile at first, but he gave his keys to the girlfriend and she left, leaving us alone to keep talking. I kept talking to him and asking him questions and eventually he started opening up. It was really amazing. As I tried to connect with him on a personal level, the Lord really let me know the man. As I was exchanging contact info with him, I asked him to be baptized because that's the invite we have this week from President: to ask everyone to be baptized. When I did, he looked right at me and said that he would love to. I reeled a little bit and then asked him if he would be willing to prepare for a specific date and he said once again, very eagerly, "Yes!" I then realized how much of a jem he was and I asked him to come into the church right away. He accepted and we ended up teaching him in the church and then taking him for a tour of the church facilities. It was really exciting because he told us when he was in the chapel that he felt really "peaceful" and that he liked it and that the second he had spare time he would be coming to the chapel for sure. It was a wonderful miracle where I kept the invites from President and saw huge results!
I know that the Lord inspires his servants, we can always listen to them and turn to them for guidance.
Love,
Elder Siebert
Monday, December 5, 2011
Guess I am moving up?
Hey everyone!
I am sadly, no longer a district leader. I got called by President Grimley this week and got moved up to be a Zone Leader. I am was very sad to have to leave my amazing companion Elder Chris Reynolds, but I am glad to report that I am going to be moving to ShiLin which is about two feet from my current area in Tianmu. I am going to have plenty of opportunity to see him.
This week I had:
Thai Green Curry: This was probably the best thing that has ever happened in my life. I loved it so much. The taste was creamy, deep, aromatic and spicier than pretty much anything that I have ever had before in my life. It was an amazing experience that left me gasping in more ways than one. Haha. Well, I give it 5 curried concoctions out of 5. (that was lame, sorry)
We had a great week this week and had an awesome experience with one of our investigators Zheng dx. We went to a baptism for Nei4Hu2 with him and it was amazing. First off, I got invited to talk at the baptism by the candidate, who has met me twice for baptismal interviews. It was pretty funny getting asked by her even though I know so little about her. Anyway, Zheng dx was so excited to go and he actually cried when he saw the baptism. He was so moved! He told me how much he wanted that kind of new beginning and there was a major fire in him. He is really smart (he's an oncologic surgeon) and I am pretty sure he's already on his second time through the BOM even though we only gave it to him the other week. It's a great miracle to see someone that I actually found from a street contact progress so fast and love everything about Church.
We had another miraculous meeting this week. We were meeting with a Zhou dx who has been meeting with missionaries for a long time, but I don't think that he was taught too effectively before. However, the Lord let me know what I needed to ask him and teach him a while back and since then he has really been interested in figuring out if there is a prophet and if God will answer his prayers. I asked him about how he felt reading the BOM was helping him and if he felt that it was helping him know what we shared was true. He looked at me really intently and he said, "I don't know if I am doing anything wrong, but I don't really know if my prayers are getting answered." He then went on to describe a lot of his feelings while praying and I kept knowing what to ask him to help him have revelation for himself. He recognized the feelings of the spirit and was so excited to see that God actually has been answering him. He was so thrilled. He told us that he didn't care that he couldn't see God in a vision, but that he was just so happy that God was helping him change and giving him these feelings. I know that the reason that lesson was so great was because all those questions were straight from Heaven. It was a great miracle to see him completely change from the time that I met him weeks ago.
I know that miracles happen, no matter how small they are. I want to ask everyone to think of one miracle that you saw in your life every day before you go to sleep. You will realize how much God watches over you. I promise and testify that is true.
Love,
Elder Siebert
I am sadly, no longer a district leader. I got called by President Grimley this week and got moved up to be a Zone Leader. I am was very sad to have to leave my amazing companion Elder Chris Reynolds, but I am glad to report that I am going to be moving to ShiLin which is about two feet from my current area in Tianmu. I am going to have plenty of opportunity to see him.
This week I had:
Thai Green Curry: This was probably the best thing that has ever happened in my life. I loved it so much. The taste was creamy, deep, aromatic and spicier than pretty much anything that I have ever had before in my life. It was an amazing experience that left me gasping in more ways than one. Haha. Well, I give it 5 curried concoctions out of 5. (that was lame, sorry)
We had a great week this week and had an awesome experience with one of our investigators Zheng dx. We went to a baptism for Nei4Hu2 with him and it was amazing. First off, I got invited to talk at the baptism by the candidate, who has met me twice for baptismal interviews. It was pretty funny getting asked by her even though I know so little about her. Anyway, Zheng dx was so excited to go and he actually cried when he saw the baptism. He was so moved! He told me how much he wanted that kind of new beginning and there was a major fire in him. He is really smart (he's an oncologic surgeon) and I am pretty sure he's already on his second time through the BOM even though we only gave it to him the other week. It's a great miracle to see someone that I actually found from a street contact progress so fast and love everything about Church.
We had another miraculous meeting this week. We were meeting with a Zhou dx who has been meeting with missionaries for a long time, but I don't think that he was taught too effectively before. However, the Lord let me know what I needed to ask him and teach him a while back and since then he has really been interested in figuring out if there is a prophet and if God will answer his prayers. I asked him about how he felt reading the BOM was helping him and if he felt that it was helping him know what we shared was true. He looked at me really intently and he said, "I don't know if I am doing anything wrong, but I don't really know if my prayers are getting answered." He then went on to describe a lot of his feelings while praying and I kept knowing what to ask him to help him have revelation for himself. He recognized the feelings of the spirit and was so excited to see that God actually has been answering him. He was so thrilled. He told us that he didn't care that he couldn't see God in a vision, but that he was just so happy that God was helping him change and giving him these feelings. I know that the reason that lesson was so great was because all those questions were straight from Heaven. It was a great miracle to see him completely change from the time that I met him weeks ago.
I know that miracles happen, no matter how small they are. I want to ask everyone to think of one miracle that you saw in your life every day before you go to sleep. You will realize how much God watches over you. I promise and testify that is true.
Love,
Elder Siebert
Monday, November 28, 2011
Thank you for the feast
Hey everyone,
This week we have several items of business, first is....
Food!
Oyster Noodle Soup: I haven't had this in forever and it is one of my favorites in the whole world. I finally found a place to get it here and I had a big bowl of steaming oyster noodles. It had slightly less appetizing large intestine in it, but now I guess I know what it would feel like if I had to resort to cannabalism. The intestine's just sort of got a greasy feel to it. Aftertaste isn't too terribly hot. Mostly I think it's the idea of what you're eating. I give it 4 out of 5 oyster "oh man what is that"s.
Second: With Thanksgiving being on Thursday and no one inviting us to dinner or having any set plans for that, we piled out meal times together for the day and went and ate at a buffet and THANKSED THE GIVING! We ate til we were stuffed to the max and then some more. It was a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving, even though there wasn't any semblence of turkey, stuffing or pie. We did okay though. I just liked saying we Thanks the Giving for the rest of the day. I will attach pictures of my stomach distended to the maximum.
Thirdly: I love you all and am even more grateful for those who send me mail....
Fourthly: The mission is amazing!
Fifthly: I finally made it up to the jungle gym where the old men were put to awe and a lot of complaining about my still semi-lingering strength. I am serious, they were all complaining about how I was going to break a bar or something and I was like, no way, it's fine. It was really fun and now looking at it, I am missing lifting a lot. Haha. It's all good. I'm getting strength that I can't get any other way right now!
Sixthly: This week we saw a most singularly amazing miracle. We were contacting down a little street when my companion stopped and talked to someone for a little while. I was standing next to a stack of houses and the feeling came that I should just ring all the doorbells. I reached out and did so. Within just a few moments the door was buzzed open. I was shocked. I knew then that there was indeed someone that Heavenly Father wanted me to talk to and teach in there. My companion and I went up the stairs, knocking each door as it came until we came to the fourth floor where we met Zhang dx. For the first few seconds I thought that he was going to close the door on us when he suddenly told us to come in. We sat down. We started talking. we prayed. As we listened, the spirit gave me exactly what to say to him. We shared scriptures. He seemed to start to feel the spirit. When we shared at the end of the lesson how to pray, he said he'd try later. I expressed that I would like to be there for his first time so that we could share the experience with him and help him out. He consented and knelt on the ground. We prayed with him and whereas before the prayer, he'd been unwilling to really try and set up, we got up and asked how he felt and he said, "I'd like to keep listening and trying". It was an amazing miracle where the Lord really gave us everything we needed to do and to say. It really proved once again to me that Heavenly Father is indeed watching and directing this work.
Well that's it for the week. Stay strong everyone and remember why we have Christmas in this season!
Love,
Elder Siebert
This week we have several items of business, first is....
Food!
Oyster Noodle Soup: I haven't had this in forever and it is one of my favorites in the whole world. I finally found a place to get it here and I had a big bowl of steaming oyster noodles. It had slightly less appetizing large intestine in it, but now I guess I know what it would feel like if I had to resort to cannabalism. The intestine's just sort of got a greasy feel to it. Aftertaste isn't too terribly hot. Mostly I think it's the idea of what you're eating. I give it 4 out of 5 oyster "oh man what is that"s.
Second: With Thanksgiving being on Thursday and no one inviting us to dinner or having any set plans for that, we piled out meal times together for the day and went and ate at a buffet and THANKSED THE GIVING! We ate til we were stuffed to the max and then some more. It was a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving, even though there wasn't any semblence of turkey, stuffing or pie. We did okay though. I just liked saying we Thanks the Giving for the rest of the day. I will attach pictures of my stomach distended to the maximum.
Thirdly: I love you all and am even more grateful for those who send me mail....
Fourthly: The mission is amazing!
Fifthly: I finally made it up to the jungle gym where the old men were put to awe and a lot of complaining about my still semi-lingering strength. I am serious, they were all complaining about how I was going to break a bar or something and I was like, no way, it's fine. It was really fun and now looking at it, I am missing lifting a lot. Haha. It's all good. I'm getting strength that I can't get any other way right now!
Sixthly: This week we saw a most singularly amazing miracle. We were contacting down a little street when my companion stopped and talked to someone for a little while. I was standing next to a stack of houses and the feeling came that I should just ring all the doorbells. I reached out and did so. Within just a few moments the door was buzzed open. I was shocked. I knew then that there was indeed someone that Heavenly Father wanted me to talk to and teach in there. My companion and I went up the stairs, knocking each door as it came until we came to the fourth floor where we met Zhang dx. For the first few seconds I thought that he was going to close the door on us when he suddenly told us to come in. We sat down. We started talking. we prayed. As we listened, the spirit gave me exactly what to say to him. We shared scriptures. He seemed to start to feel the spirit. When we shared at the end of the lesson how to pray, he said he'd try later. I expressed that I would like to be there for his first time so that we could share the experience with him and help him out. He consented and knelt on the ground. We prayed with him and whereas before the prayer, he'd been unwilling to really try and set up, we got up and asked how he felt and he said, "I'd like to keep listening and trying". It was an amazing miracle where the Lord really gave us everything we needed to do and to say. It really proved once again to me that Heavenly Father is indeed watching and directing this work.
Well that's it for the week. Stay strong everyone and remember why we have Christmas in this season!
Love,
Elder Siebert
Me up looking over the city.
The intestine!
We THANKS THE GIVING!
The view from the jungle gym
Monday, November 21, 2011
Flush Toiletry Has Never Been So Exciting
Hello everyone!
First things first! We got a toilet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited. After four weeks of not being able to use our toilet, I don't even know what to do with my return to civilization. I got to be the first person to take care of acts of congressional magnitude on our new little baby and it was great. I don't think that's a feeling many people get to have in their lives. Hee Hee.
Food: We have once again proved that anything that can be cooked in any manner can also be cooked in the microwave. This week we made blueberry muffins in the microwave. They actually tasted amazing and it was a great treat to have something that was so reminescent of home. 4 blueberry blasphemies out of 5.
I also had a great dish from a Thai restaurant that I found this week called a Xia1bing2. It's basically dough and stuff with shrimp and other goodies in it that is fried and served with sweet chili sauce. I think that it was without a doubt one of the best things I have ever had. The outside was really crisp and the inside was soft and chewy. The flavor was light and exceptional with the sauce. 5 spunky shrimps out of 5.
Car Review: I nearly had the singular experience of getting hit by a Maseratti this weekend. I was so disappointed that I didn't. It was at a light, so I wouldn't have been hit hard enough to have been injured, but think of the bragging rights! Some people can say that have a Maseratti or have driven one, but how many people could say that they have been hit by one? I'm so disappointed. Plus, I wanted to see how much damage I could do to it.
This week we saw an awesome miracle with one of the investigators that I contacted on the street. I called him up and set up a time with him to meet and he was able to meet with us that same night. We went and started talking to him and finding out more about his life. He is a surgeon and is very well off, even though his wife is divorced and his family has major problems. He was kind of complaining about everything when we were talking and we were finally able to say a prayer and start talking about the gospel with him. The change in the spirit was instantaneous and incredible. He started listening and really connecting with the spirit of what we were sharing. We extended a baptismal commitment to him and he immediately accepted. It was a very exciting lesson and we were really able to teach to his needs. It was such a miracle to me to see the Lord providing for us, His little servants.
I know miracles happen, I love you all.
Elder Siebert
First things first! We got a toilet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited. After four weeks of not being able to use our toilet, I don't even know what to do with my return to civilization. I got to be the first person to take care of acts of congressional magnitude on our new little baby and it was great. I don't think that's a feeling many people get to have in their lives. Hee Hee.
Food: We have once again proved that anything that can be cooked in any manner can also be cooked in the microwave. This week we made blueberry muffins in the microwave. They actually tasted amazing and it was a great treat to have something that was so reminescent of home. 4 blueberry blasphemies out of 5.
I also had a great dish from a Thai restaurant that I found this week called a Xia1bing2. It's basically dough and stuff with shrimp and other goodies in it that is fried and served with sweet chili sauce. I think that it was without a doubt one of the best things I have ever had. The outside was really crisp and the inside was soft and chewy. The flavor was light and exceptional with the sauce. 5 spunky shrimps out of 5.
Car Review: I nearly had the singular experience of getting hit by a Maseratti this weekend. I was so disappointed that I didn't. It was at a light, so I wouldn't have been hit hard enough to have been injured, but think of the bragging rights! Some people can say that have a Maseratti or have driven one, but how many people could say that they have been hit by one? I'm so disappointed. Plus, I wanted to see how much damage I could do to it.
This week we saw an awesome miracle with one of the investigators that I contacted on the street. I called him up and set up a time with him to meet and he was able to meet with us that same night. We went and started talking to him and finding out more about his life. He is a surgeon and is very well off, even though his wife is divorced and his family has major problems. He was kind of complaining about everything when we were talking and we were finally able to say a prayer and start talking about the gospel with him. The change in the spirit was instantaneous and incredible. He started listening and really connecting with the spirit of what we were sharing. We extended a baptismal commitment to him and he immediately accepted. It was a very exciting lesson and we were really able to teach to his needs. It was such a miracle to me to see the Lord providing for us, His little servants.
I know miracles happen, I love you all.
Elder Siebert
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
A Short Week
Hey everyone!
This week was a good one but due to the late email last week and the temple day, there really isn't too much to report over here. I did try a new food this week so....
Mixed fungus fried noodles: (that's the literal translation of the name) I would have to say that this is probably one of the most satisfying things that I have had in the last little while. The noodles kind of tasted like the way my mom did them, which, I will admit, I didn't like much before the mission but now that tastes have matured, I love it. (hopefully I've matured with the tastes). The lady seemed so surprised when I walked in, looked over the unpictured menu and ordered that dish by name. She told me that I was a foreigner and probably wouldn't like it. I assure her it would be okay. It was. 4 well intentioned warnings out of 5.
This week I got the chance to go up to Nei4hu2 and exchange with one of the new members of my district. Elder Braithwaite is a second transfer mission whose companion got conscripted into the military sort notice so he is now with a temporary missionary and all that. He's doing remarkably well despite the fact that he is only second transfer and having to be the senior companion. I got to go up there and do some training and help him out and will continue to do so by order of President every week. Yes Sir!
It was a cool miracle to have our man, Xie4 dx come to church this week. He really liked sacrament meeting and I was able to get him introduced to a bunch of members and get him all comfy. He's such a great guy because even though we've met him twice and haven't shared tons and tons with him yet, he still wants to come to church again, even though the lessons in sunday school and priesthood were about tithing and offerings and also about the millenium. I nearly cried.
It was also really cool this week to get to do my second baptismal interview. This one went so much better than the other one that I did earlier in the week. This lady was so prepared and she loves to repent and is so excited. It's a great miracle to see the changes the gospel can work in people.
I had a really cool miracle the other day. We had maybe thirty minutes before we needed to go in for the night and I was really trying to think hard of where we needed to go. We'd been on exchanges so my companion hadn't made a backup plan for the appointment that didn't come. I prayed so hard that I would be shown where to go to find those that would receive us. As I prayed, I knew exactly where to go: I literally saw the street and the door to knock in my mind. We went out and we did find a lady who was willing to set up another time for us to come back and share more with her. She'd already learned a little bit about our church before and as I applied How to begin teaching from PMG and kept talking to her, I was able to find out she's Christian already and had a lot of misconceptions about the church which she wants sorted out. It was an amazing miracle that the Lord really gave me exactly what he wanted me to do. I know when we are lost and need help, all we need to do is to pray to Heavenly Father with faith that He'll help and He really will guide us.
Love,
Elder Siebert
This week was a good one but due to the late email last week and the temple day, there really isn't too much to report over here. I did try a new food this week so....
Mixed fungus fried noodles: (that's the literal translation of the name) I would have to say that this is probably one of the most satisfying things that I have had in the last little while. The noodles kind of tasted like the way my mom did them, which, I will admit, I didn't like much before the mission but now that tastes have matured, I love it. (hopefully I've matured with the tastes). The lady seemed so surprised when I walked in, looked over the unpictured menu and ordered that dish by name. She told me that I was a foreigner and probably wouldn't like it. I assure her it would be okay. It was. 4 well intentioned warnings out of 5.
This week I got the chance to go up to Nei4hu2 and exchange with one of the new members of my district. Elder Braithwaite is a second transfer mission whose companion got conscripted into the military sort notice so he is now with a temporary missionary and all that. He's doing remarkably well despite the fact that he is only second transfer and having to be the senior companion. I got to go up there and do some training and help him out and will continue to do so by order of President every week. Yes Sir!
It was a cool miracle to have our man, Xie4 dx come to church this week. He really liked sacrament meeting and I was able to get him introduced to a bunch of members and get him all comfy. He's such a great guy because even though we've met him twice and haven't shared tons and tons with him yet, he still wants to come to church again, even though the lessons in sunday school and priesthood were about tithing and offerings and also about the millenium. I nearly cried.
It was also really cool this week to get to do my second baptismal interview. This one went so much better than the other one that I did earlier in the week. This lady was so prepared and she loves to repent and is so excited. It's a great miracle to see the changes the gospel can work in people.
I had a really cool miracle the other day. We had maybe thirty minutes before we needed to go in for the night and I was really trying to think hard of where we needed to go. We'd been on exchanges so my companion hadn't made a backup plan for the appointment that didn't come. I prayed so hard that I would be shown where to go to find those that would receive us. As I prayed, I knew exactly where to go: I literally saw the street and the door to knock in my mind. We went out and we did find a lady who was willing to set up another time for us to come back and share more with her. She'd already learned a little bit about our church before and as I applied How to begin teaching from PMG and kept talking to her, I was able to find out she's Christian already and had a lot of misconceptions about the church which she wants sorted out. It was an amazing miracle that the Lord really gave me exactly what he wanted me to do. I know when we are lost and need help, all we need to do is to pray to Heavenly Father with faith that He'll help and He really will guide us.
Love,
Elder Siebert
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
The Merger
Hey everyone!
I have survived yet another week as the district leader and have had a new mix of happenings this week. I have just gotten word that one of my companionships is moving into another district and that I am therefore receiving two new companionships into my district from the other district. I am therefore the unworthy leader of 10 missionaries now. It's a little bit of a weighty responsibility, I can feel my already mediocre height beginning to shrink even more under the stress. Kidding. I love it and all my missionaries are great.
Sadly, there's nothing new in the food report this week.
Verbatim: "finger were the original Kuai4zi3 (chopsticks)" Sister Oler regarding the use of her fingers rather than a fork to eat part of Elder Bennion's B-day cake.
"I'M sisters. Look." Elder Kasparian regarding my question as to where the sisters had gone, he sporting Sister Oler's messenger bag and a seductive look.
"Please, Ferrari's don't even phase me anymore, I just saw the Bugatti Veyron." Me regarding the Ferrari I saw after seeing the worlds fastest car. (That being said, I have the number of a guy who I have seen, to date, driving three different Ferraris. I want to call him and get him to take me for a ride on P-day. I'll take a picture if I can Josh.)
This week was a busy one and a long one, but a good one none the less. We got the chance to exchange with the Traveling Assistants and learn a lot from them. There are pretty much the best of the best at doing the work and as always, I love working with Elder Sessions, who shares my chinese name and my personal first name. We have been friends for a long while now and it's just great working with people who I can learn from in every way.
I wanted to share a miracle from this last week. We were up at the Chinese Culture University this weekend with one of our investigators and after teaching him, we were able to have dinner with him and spend that time chatting with him and getting to know him even more. At some point near the end of dinner, we went to this outlook over the whole city and talked there with him for a while. On the way back up to our bikes, I had a subtle impression to talk to this boy who was sitting alone on the blocks. I introduced myself and the message and asked if I could sit down with him. He accepted. We talked and as I applied the principles of How To Begin Teaching in PMG, I was able to find out things about him and help him see that the gospel was going to help him with all the concerns and decisions he is facing right now. We prayed, read some scriptures together and talked more about gospel principles and really applied them to his life. When I walked away, he thanked me so profusely and I realized that by listening and really trying so hard to make everything about him, the Lord had made me a powerful tool in His almighty hands.
I thank you for all your faith in me and your prayers. I pray that you will all be strong and know that God is real. He loves you all.
Love,
Elder Siebert
I have survived yet another week as the district leader and have had a new mix of happenings this week. I have just gotten word that one of my companionships is moving into another district and that I am therefore receiving two new companionships into my district from the other district. I am therefore the unworthy leader of 10 missionaries now. It's a little bit of a weighty responsibility, I can feel my already mediocre height beginning to shrink even more under the stress. Kidding. I love it and all my missionaries are great.
Sadly, there's nothing new in the food report this week.
Verbatim: "finger were the original Kuai4zi3 (chopsticks)" Sister Oler regarding the use of her fingers rather than a fork to eat part of Elder Bennion's B-day cake.
"I'M sisters. Look." Elder Kasparian regarding my question as to where the sisters had gone, he sporting Sister Oler's messenger bag and a seductive look.
"Please, Ferrari's don't even phase me anymore, I just saw the Bugatti Veyron." Me regarding the Ferrari I saw after seeing the worlds fastest car. (That being said, I have the number of a guy who I have seen, to date, driving three different Ferraris. I want to call him and get him to take me for a ride on P-day. I'll take a picture if I can Josh.)
This week was a busy one and a long one, but a good one none the less. We got the chance to exchange with the Traveling Assistants and learn a lot from them. There are pretty much the best of the best at doing the work and as always, I love working with Elder Sessions, who shares my chinese name and my personal first name. We have been friends for a long while now and it's just great working with people who I can learn from in every way.
I wanted to share a miracle from this last week. We were up at the Chinese Culture University this weekend with one of our investigators and after teaching him, we were able to have dinner with him and spend that time chatting with him and getting to know him even more. At some point near the end of dinner, we went to this outlook over the whole city and talked there with him for a while. On the way back up to our bikes, I had a subtle impression to talk to this boy who was sitting alone on the blocks. I introduced myself and the message and asked if I could sit down with him. He accepted. We talked and as I applied the principles of How To Begin Teaching in PMG, I was able to find out things about him and help him see that the gospel was going to help him with all the concerns and decisions he is facing right now. We prayed, read some scriptures together and talked more about gospel principles and really applied them to his life. When I walked away, he thanked me so profusely and I realized that by listening and really trying so hard to make everything about him, the Lord had made me a powerful tool in His almighty hands.
I thank you for all your faith in me and your prayers. I pray that you will all be strong and know that God is real. He loves you all.
Love,
Elder Siebert
Friday, November 4, 2011
How are you? Do you speak English? I don't!
Hey everyone!
I am now writing from Tianmu which is proclaimed by my mama to be the most affluent place in all of Taipei city. It certainly is a very wealthy region. I see everyone driving their Ferrari 550, 555s, their Mercedes CL3000 (I think that's what it is), their lamborghinis and all the works. It's pretty much insane. It's really great though. There are still plenty of people who are willing to listen to the message of the restoration and stop and talk.
I can't think of anything really new foodwise that I tried out. I was a little stingy on the money this week because everything is so expensive and I want to make sure that i have enough dough to make it through the month and then I can be a little more adventurous.
So I held my first district meeting with the zone leaders present and then a surprise visit from both the assistants to the president. That was a little pressure. It was pretty good. It was really hard keeping things on track, especially with my district, but it was really fun and we had a really good spirit there. I am looking forward to working more with my beloved district.
There's a really weird phenomenon here in Tianmu, it's called white people. After almost a year of only contacting in Chinese, it's a shocker when I have to use english to contact someone. There are words that I have only ever really used in Chinese, but that I use all the time and it's tough thinking of what they are in English. It's also strange when people tell me, "thanks man." I don't think I have heard that from anyone for ages now. I am started to get back into the swing of it though and I will have the english contacting down in a little bit I think.
This week I really had a great miracle following exactly what we had planned to do. We had planned to go to this street on Saturday and go knocking some doors because I thought that the road looked good on the map. When we got there we quickly realized that there was no way that we could knock the massive apartment complexes. However, I felt that we should be accountable to the plan that we had made, so we started down the little lane. I talked to a couple guys on the side of the road and began to testify of Christ. They were Christian. I shared a little about the restoration and asked if they'd be willing to listen to a little more right then and they agreed. I shared the power of the BOM with them and more about Joseph Smith and his vision. They were very open and were willing to set up a time to meet. Because of this miracle, we were able to hit all our goals for the day and it was just a wonderful experience to see how much can happen if we are really accountable for all our work.
I testify the power of accountability and goals are real. If we will hold ourselves accountable and set goals that will make us stretch, the Lord will really help us reach those as long as we try.
Love,
Elder Siebert
I am now writing from Tianmu which is proclaimed by my mama to be the most affluent place in all of Taipei city. It certainly is a very wealthy region. I see everyone driving their Ferrari 550, 555s, their Mercedes CL3000 (I think that's what it is), their lamborghinis and all the works. It's pretty much insane. It's really great though. There are still plenty of people who are willing to listen to the message of the restoration and stop and talk.
I can't think of anything really new foodwise that I tried out. I was a little stingy on the money this week because everything is so expensive and I want to make sure that i have enough dough to make it through the month and then I can be a little more adventurous.
So I held my first district meeting with the zone leaders present and then a surprise visit from both the assistants to the president. That was a little pressure. It was pretty good. It was really hard keeping things on track, especially with my district, but it was really fun and we had a really good spirit there. I am looking forward to working more with my beloved district.
There's a really weird phenomenon here in Tianmu, it's called white people. After almost a year of only contacting in Chinese, it's a shocker when I have to use english to contact someone. There are words that I have only ever really used in Chinese, but that I use all the time and it's tough thinking of what they are in English. It's also strange when people tell me, "thanks man." I don't think I have heard that from anyone for ages now. I am started to get back into the swing of it though and I will have the english contacting down in a little bit I think.
This week I really had a great miracle following exactly what we had planned to do. We had planned to go to this street on Saturday and go knocking some doors because I thought that the road looked good on the map. When we got there we quickly realized that there was no way that we could knock the massive apartment complexes. However, I felt that we should be accountable to the plan that we had made, so we started down the little lane. I talked to a couple guys on the side of the road and began to testify of Christ. They were Christian. I shared a little about the restoration and asked if they'd be willing to listen to a little more right then and they agreed. I shared the power of the BOM with them and more about Joseph Smith and his vision. They were very open and were willing to set up a time to meet. Because of this miracle, we were able to hit all our goals for the day and it was just a wonderful experience to see how much can happen if we are really accountable for all our work.
I testify the power of accountability and goals are real. If we will hold ourselves accountable and set goals that will make us stretch, the Lord will really help us reach those as long as we try.
Love,
Elder Siebert
Monday, October 24, 2011
What do the letters D and L have in common? The fact that they terrify me!
Hey everyone!
This is my last week in XiangShan because I'll be moving up to Tian1Mu3 as the district leader this week. I am excited to be up in TianMu, but afraid for the district leader part. Haha, we live and we grow I guess. I am sad to be leaving my dear friends and members here, but that's missionary life.
Food: Lasagna: We got all the stuff together last week and I made lasagna with the de Silvas last week for P-day. It was a blast and I taught them how to make their own noodles, sauce and the works and we had some really tasty lasagna. The noodles were slightly undercooked, so I would have to give it a 4 out of 5 layered lunches.
I don't know what they are called, but yesterday I got fed some little Brazillian thingies. They were like an empanada I think. They were little things of dough that are filled with meats and cheese and then fried, but there's nothing that I have tasted quite like that before. I give it 5 mysterious masterpieces out of 5.
Verbatim: "Elder Pac-man"--Jonathan de Silva concerning Elder Lew's eating habits.
This week was a good week where we were able to work a lot with the investigators we already have and keep helping them to improve and grow. We are super excited about the prospects. We were sad to lose an investigator this week because he decided for the time being he's going to help out at the church that he used to go to, but we had an awesome lesson with him. I can testify of the power of priesthood leadership because we got the stake president to help teach with us and what he said was perfect for Chen dx, however, he still didn't want to continue meeting for right now. It's okay, we gave him the best chance I think we could to know that this is true and to know how to get an answer about the BOM and why that matters. I know he already believes a lot of what we have taught, so I pray that he will be able to get this some day.
Today I wanted to share about the experience I had last night having a "last supper" with the de Silvas. After we ate, we had a lot of time left over and the thought came subtly to my mind to ask to have a testimony meeting where we could all share with each other, whether in english, chinese or portuguese. It was an amazing experience. I can tell you that as Brother de Silva bore his testimony in Chinese, though the language was simple, it had the power and weight of the spirit behind it. As Jonathan, Thayse and Bruno bore their testimonies in Portuguese, if I really listened, with my heart and not my ears, I could understand the language and words that the spirit was speaking to me. It was an amazing experience. I am stunned to learn once again that the language of the spirit can transcend any language barrier. It was great to see them to feel the spirit from the things that their family was sharing. Sister de Silva thanked me after for giving me the chance for them to testify to each other. It made me think of how rarely we often share our testimonies with our families. I testify that frequently sharing our testimonies with those we love most, our families, will bless and strengthen us now and for years to come. I pray that you will all take the chance to share simply, powerfully, and frequently your testimonies with your families.
I love you all,
Elder Siebert
This is my last week in XiangShan because I'll be moving up to Tian1Mu3 as the district leader this week. I am excited to be up in TianMu, but afraid for the district leader part. Haha, we live and we grow I guess. I am sad to be leaving my dear friends and members here, but that's missionary life.
Food: Lasagna: We got all the stuff together last week and I made lasagna with the de Silvas last week for P-day. It was a blast and I taught them how to make their own noodles, sauce and the works and we had some really tasty lasagna. The noodles were slightly undercooked, so I would have to give it a 4 out of 5 layered lunches.
I don't know what they are called, but yesterday I got fed some little Brazillian thingies. They were like an empanada I think. They were little things of dough that are filled with meats and cheese and then fried, but there's nothing that I have tasted quite like that before. I give it 5 mysterious masterpieces out of 5.
Verbatim: "Elder Pac-man"--Jonathan de Silva concerning Elder Lew's eating habits.
This week was a good week where we were able to work a lot with the investigators we already have and keep helping them to improve and grow. We are super excited about the prospects. We were sad to lose an investigator this week because he decided for the time being he's going to help out at the church that he used to go to, but we had an awesome lesson with him. I can testify of the power of priesthood leadership because we got the stake president to help teach with us and what he said was perfect for Chen dx, however, he still didn't want to continue meeting for right now. It's okay, we gave him the best chance I think we could to know that this is true and to know how to get an answer about the BOM and why that matters. I know he already believes a lot of what we have taught, so I pray that he will be able to get this some day.
Today I wanted to share about the experience I had last night having a "last supper" with the de Silvas. After we ate, we had a lot of time left over and the thought came subtly to my mind to ask to have a testimony meeting where we could all share with each other, whether in english, chinese or portuguese. It was an amazing experience. I can tell you that as Brother de Silva bore his testimony in Chinese, though the language was simple, it had the power and weight of the spirit behind it. As Jonathan, Thayse and Bruno bore their testimonies in Portuguese, if I really listened, with my heart and not my ears, I could understand the language and words that the spirit was speaking to me. It was an amazing experience. I am stunned to learn once again that the language of the spirit can transcend any language barrier. It was great to see them to feel the spirit from the things that their family was sharing. Sister de Silva thanked me after for giving me the chance for them to testify to each other. It made me think of how rarely we often share our testimonies with our families. I testify that frequently sharing our testimonies with those we love most, our families, will bless and strengthen us now and for years to come. I pray that you will all take the chance to share simply, powerfully, and frequently your testimonies with your families.
I love you all,
Elder Siebert
Monday, October 17, 2011
Another Good Week
Hey everyone!
We finally have weather that is cooling down a little bit. I still sweat when we're on the bikes, but at least it's not me having sweat pouring down my face while I stand in the shade. We have had a lot of success in contacting new people and finding people who are willing to meet with us. We also have a good pool of people that we are teaching right now, which is really exciting.
Food Review:
Costco Hot Dog: I know that this seems to be so lame in comparison to some of the other things that have been eaten, but this one is just too good. It brought back all the memories of going and eating them with my great grandpa and Josh and I getting the Polish Sausages and then for the next couple hours groaning about the "vengeace" (polish sausage burps are nasty). I give it 5 reminiscent relish recepticles out of 5.
Verbatim: Elder Siebert, this guava represents you because like you, it's very hard--Elder Yu2, our district leader for the district love box.
Well this week we say a cool miracle when we were going to meet with someone, but they cancelled last minute on us. We prayed to see where we should go and I felt that we should go to this one road, but it had to be by a certain way. As we went over, I saw a couple on the sidewalk at a red light. I felt that I should talk to them, even though they were a ways off. I pulled out a tract and waved it at them and then called them over. They came. They are expecting their first child and we very willing and excited to hear about the gospel. I was so thrilled to see them have that little spark of gospel truth grow within them. It was a great miracle. I had once again started to pray for Heavenly Father to put people in my path, something that I'd forgotten for the last couple week, and right away He did.
I also want to testify of the truth and power of the Book of Mormon. I know that it is true because I have read it and prayed about it. I have seen it give me answers to questions that I didn't even realize I had. I have it give me answers to questions that I do have. I have seen it turn the lives of readers around. I testify that it can help every person on this earth and that if you have not yet received this witness, that you can. Take time daily to carefully read from its pages. Apply what you find. Then pray fervently for the witness that this divine book of revelation and truth is true. It will come. It will give you the strength and faith to do hard things.
I love you all. Be strong.
Elder Siebert
We finally have weather that is cooling down a little bit. I still sweat when we're on the bikes, but at least it's not me having sweat pouring down my face while I stand in the shade. We have had a lot of success in contacting new people and finding people who are willing to meet with us. We also have a good pool of people that we are teaching right now, which is really exciting.
Food Review:
Costco Hot Dog: I know that this seems to be so lame in comparison to some of the other things that have been eaten, but this one is just too good. It brought back all the memories of going and eating them with my great grandpa and Josh and I getting the Polish Sausages and then for the next couple hours groaning about the "vengeace" (polish sausage burps are nasty). I give it 5 reminiscent relish recepticles out of 5.
Verbatim: Elder Siebert, this guava represents you because like you, it's very hard--Elder Yu2, our district leader for the district love box.
Well this week we say a cool miracle when we were going to meet with someone, but they cancelled last minute on us. We prayed to see where we should go and I felt that we should go to this one road, but it had to be by a certain way. As we went over, I saw a couple on the sidewalk at a red light. I felt that I should talk to them, even though they were a ways off. I pulled out a tract and waved it at them and then called them over. They came. They are expecting their first child and we very willing and excited to hear about the gospel. I was so thrilled to see them have that little spark of gospel truth grow within them. It was a great miracle. I had once again started to pray for Heavenly Father to put people in my path, something that I'd forgotten for the last couple week, and right away He did.
I also want to testify of the truth and power of the Book of Mormon. I know that it is true because I have read it and prayed about it. I have seen it give me answers to questions that I didn't even realize I had. I have it give me answers to questions that I do have. I have seen it turn the lives of readers around. I testify that it can help every person on this earth and that if you have not yet received this witness, that you can. Take time daily to carefully read from its pages. Apply what you find. Then pray fervently for the witness that this divine book of revelation and truth is true. It will come. It will give you the strength and faith to do hard things.
I love you all. Be strong.
Elder Siebert
Monday, October 10, 2011
Check, Check? This microphone is dead!
Hey everyone!
Food Review: Cinnamon Raisin French Bread:
This week I made some bread with a member and I decided that I needed to try something new. For some reason, I stopped hating raisins here, so I really felt the craving for cinnamon raisin bread. I made a french bread with additions of spice and fruit and it turned out really great. The flavor was very sophisticated due to the poolish start and the crumb was wide and open. It could've been a little better with just a little more yeast I think, would've rose more, but I didn't want to overdo it and ruin the dough and didn't have measuring cups or spoons, so I played it safe. I know that it's bad form to give yourself a five out of five, but I will also use the reviews of the sisters and the de Silva family as a second witness.
Verbatim: I'm going green! I'm wind powered!--Me after a really strong gust of wind pushed me to new speeds on my bike.
"Hao2 Chi1!" (tastes good) My companion at dinner with the de Silva's right after me and Sister Holm got in a big discussion about a word that she claimed existed but I vehemetly insisted did not. It didn't. I exclaimed "I told you!" and then there was a moment of silence. Then my companion uttered the aforementioned phrase. The family thought it was the funniest thing in the world and they say it all the time to him.
This p-day when we were at the de Silva's making bread Yang2 dx (that's his chinese name) decided to show us a magic trick. He made a bell pepper float between his hands. The first time he showed us, I was rolling with laughter because I knew that the only way he was able to do it was that his thumb was punched through the back of the pepper. I nearly died. He then did it again and immediately thumbsed up-ed us with the pepper still on his thumb. I was crying. So good.
This week's conference was a huge miracle to me. I had so many questions answered. I was amazed and touched at how well Heavenly Father knows me and how he speaks through his servants to me and millions more. I want to invite everyone who felt like they didn't get much out of conference to pray and ponder about questions that you have and then write then down and re-watch conference. I testify that the Lord will answer you if you will just listen to the spirit and have faith.
This week I wanted to share a cool experience while listening to the spirit. We had planned to go to a road to go contact but we had far less time to go than I had planned, so I felt that we could cut through to the road on smaller roads where we were more likely to run into people on the road whom we could teach and share with. As we did so we passed a park and I had a strong impression to talk to some people at the park. I kept riding and the feeling came again and I knew that it wouldn't go away, nor was it something that should be ignored. I told my companion "I think we need to talk to those people." We turned around quickly and talked to the family there. To my surprise they weren't interested, but we did find a grandpa there, a Peng2 dx who was interested and who's friend, a valiant Latter Day Saint, had shared the gospel with years before. He'd just had a stroke not too long ago, but is still able to function and is very willing to learn more and whats to know what the gospel can do for him. It was such an amazing miracle. Had I not listened, I don't think that he would've been found. It is so touching to me that the Lord is always providing for His children to hear the gospel.
I love you all,
Elder Siebert
P.S. Big shoutout to Jenn Blossil for the amazing EFY song. You rock.
Food Review: Cinnamon Raisin French Bread:
This week I made some bread with a member and I decided that I needed to try something new. For some reason, I stopped hating raisins here, so I really felt the craving for cinnamon raisin bread. I made a french bread with additions of spice and fruit and it turned out really great. The flavor was very sophisticated due to the poolish start and the crumb was wide and open. It could've been a little better with just a little more yeast I think, would've rose more, but I didn't want to overdo it and ruin the dough and didn't have measuring cups or spoons, so I played it safe. I know that it's bad form to give yourself a five out of five, but I will also use the reviews of the sisters and the de Silva family as a second witness.
Verbatim: I'm going green! I'm wind powered!--Me after a really strong gust of wind pushed me to new speeds on my bike.
"Hao2 Chi1!" (tastes good) My companion at dinner with the de Silva's right after me and Sister Holm got in a big discussion about a word that she claimed existed but I vehemetly insisted did not. It didn't. I exclaimed "I told you!" and then there was a moment of silence. Then my companion uttered the aforementioned phrase. The family thought it was the funniest thing in the world and they say it all the time to him.
This p-day when we were at the de Silva's making bread Yang2 dx (that's his chinese name) decided to show us a magic trick. He made a bell pepper float between his hands. The first time he showed us, I was rolling with laughter because I knew that the only way he was able to do it was that his thumb was punched through the back of the pepper. I nearly died. He then did it again and immediately thumbsed up-ed us with the pepper still on his thumb. I was crying. So good.
This week's conference was a huge miracle to me. I had so many questions answered. I was amazed and touched at how well Heavenly Father knows me and how he speaks through his servants to me and millions more. I want to invite everyone who felt like they didn't get much out of conference to pray and ponder about questions that you have and then write then down and re-watch conference. I testify that the Lord will answer you if you will just listen to the spirit and have faith.
This week I wanted to share a cool experience while listening to the spirit. We had planned to go to a road to go contact but we had far less time to go than I had planned, so I felt that we could cut through to the road on smaller roads where we were more likely to run into people on the road whom we could teach and share with. As we did so we passed a park and I had a strong impression to talk to some people at the park. I kept riding and the feeling came again and I knew that it wouldn't go away, nor was it something that should be ignored. I told my companion "I think we need to talk to those people." We turned around quickly and talked to the family there. To my surprise they weren't interested, but we did find a grandpa there, a Peng2 dx who was interested and who's friend, a valiant Latter Day Saint, had shared the gospel with years before. He'd just had a stroke not too long ago, but is still able to function and is very willing to learn more and whats to know what the gospel can do for him. It was such an amazing miracle. Had I not listened, I don't think that he would've been found. It is so touching to me that the Lord is always providing for His children to hear the gospel.
I love you all,
Elder Siebert
P.S. Big shoutout to Jenn Blossil for the amazing EFY song. You rock.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Pictures: Bread, Cold Stone, Popcorn
This is the massive bread that I buy a piece of whenever I get a chance. It's only 30 NT for a big huge hunk that I generally split with my companion and have as dinner.
Me and Jasper (mao2 di4) at coldstone. The b-day boys. I love him to death.
Me dying of happiness with the caramel peanut popcorn
Me and Jasper (mao2 di4) at coldstone. The b-day boys. I love him to death.
Me dying of happiness with the caramel peanut popcorn
Monday, October 3, 2011
Weekly Report: Coldstone, Popcorn, Strong Winds
Hey everyone!
This week I have less time to write, so I give you the food report right off:
Coldstone: Oh man! Last week was one of my members and good friend's B-day. Mao2 Di4 or Jasper is exactly a week younger than me. We went to Coldstone together and got ice cream and then talked for about an hour. Get this, he LOVES Glee as well. Haha. I got a big Gotta Have It with chocolate and mint ice cream, cookie dough and heath bar. So amazing! I give it 5 cold creamy concoctions out of 5.
Peanut butter caramel popcorn: This week I decided to pop some of the kettle corn that a member gave me and then took butter, melted it, added sugar, brought that to the melting point and then threw chunky peanut butter into it. I stirred it at high heat until it because to bubble like crazy. I then took the popcorn and threw it in there and mixed it around, coating it all up. It was the best little treat that I have had in a long time. Sweet, buttery and peanutty. It was the greatest discovery because it also takes minimal time to prepare. I give it 5 peanuty popperies out of 5.
This week we had a little less excitement in finding new people but we are blessed to have some people who are actually progessing right now. The best if you ask me is a Huang dx who is making huge steps. He committed at great length to come to church this upcoming week and he told me last night that even though tons of people wanted him to go play with them he told them no because he was going to come to church. I was so thrilled to hear that! I am so excited for him.
The wind was crazy this week. I got moved an entire lane one time by a huge gust of it. My bike was literally at 45 degrees to the ground to keep moving in a straight line. Kind of scary to be honest.
This week we saw a great miracle with an awesome Chen dx. My companion was contacting while I made calls to referrals. I was just calling when he waved me over to talk to this man that had pulled over with him. I began to speak to him and found out that he had just recently become Christian within the last six months. He wasn't predjudiced against our church and was very curious to find answers to questions that he had heard about our church. We answered a few and taught him some doctrine, then set him up. He came. We had a wonderful lesson with him and he set a baptismal date with us. It was very exciting to see how prepared he has been and we can't wait to keep working with him. I know that God continues to watch over me and to help me out.
I love you all and wish you well.
Love,
Elder Siebert
This week I have less time to write, so I give you the food report right off:
Coldstone: Oh man! Last week was one of my members and good friend's B-day. Mao2 Di4 or Jasper is exactly a week younger than me. We went to Coldstone together and got ice cream and then talked for about an hour. Get this, he LOVES Glee as well. Haha. I got a big Gotta Have It with chocolate and mint ice cream, cookie dough and heath bar. So amazing! I give it 5 cold creamy concoctions out of 5.
Peanut butter caramel popcorn: This week I decided to pop some of the kettle corn that a member gave me and then took butter, melted it, added sugar, brought that to the melting point and then threw chunky peanut butter into it. I stirred it at high heat until it because to bubble like crazy. I then took the popcorn and threw it in there and mixed it around, coating it all up. It was the best little treat that I have had in a long time. Sweet, buttery and peanutty. It was the greatest discovery because it also takes minimal time to prepare. I give it 5 peanuty popperies out of 5.
This week we had a little less excitement in finding new people but we are blessed to have some people who are actually progessing right now. The best if you ask me is a Huang dx who is making huge steps. He committed at great length to come to church this upcoming week and he told me last night that even though tons of people wanted him to go play with them he told them no because he was going to come to church. I was so thrilled to hear that! I am so excited for him.
The wind was crazy this week. I got moved an entire lane one time by a huge gust of it. My bike was literally at 45 degrees to the ground to keep moving in a straight line. Kind of scary to be honest.
This week we saw a great miracle with an awesome Chen dx. My companion was contacting while I made calls to referrals. I was just calling when he waved me over to talk to this man that had pulled over with him. I began to speak to him and found out that he had just recently become Christian within the last six months. He wasn't predjudiced against our church and was very curious to find answers to questions that he had heard about our church. We answered a few and taught him some doctrine, then set him up. He came. We had a wonderful lesson with him and he set a baptismal date with us. It was very exciting to see how prepared he has been and we can't wait to keep working with him. I know that God continues to watch over me and to help me out.
I love you all and wish you well.
Love,
Elder Siebert
Monday, September 26, 2011
I'm 20 now?
Hey everyone!
This week was a crazy week! We had a lot of fun and a lot of success!
Food: This week we had an amazing meal at the Yang Family's house. They are Brazillian and they made Arroz de Furnos. I don't know if that is spelled right, but they made this amazing rice dish with cheese and ham and peppers and all sorts of goodies in it. So delicious. They were all laughing because my Brazillian pronunciation is horrific. I give it 5 agressive "arroz(es)" out of 5.
Verbatim: From a lady who walks out of her house.
Me: Can we come inside and talk to your family right now?
Her: Well, it's probably not too convienient. We're all really liberal and open and nobody's wearing pants. I actually saw you outside and that's why I put this sweater on.
Me: Oh. That really probably isn't too convienient. Maybe some other day?
Elder VandenBurg on my bday brownies: They're rice brownies...and this is rice cream!
Last week we went up to a place call 18 peaks which is a gorgeous place to go hike around and walk. Reminds me of the Schaeffer nature trail up in Washington. We had a lot of fun and I started getting into the whole Planking thing. Elder Townsend (my good buddy out here) and I were looking for the "perfect plank" the whole time. We might even go back today because it was so pleasant.
I got my B-Day celebrated in style a day late because people remembered wrong, but the sisters made me brownies and got ice cream, balloons and the works. They're so great.
Just last night we had a really cool experience with following the spirit. We were tracting and then went to a different place to go check on a man that the sisters had referred to us. My companion and I both had an impression to check up on a lady and her family whom we had met the week previous. We went to her door and rang the doorbell. The son answered the door and let us in. Her little sister, with the sister's husband, and two of her children were there. They were all very willing to listen and we very excited about the gospel. We are going back tonight. One thing that went especially well in the lesson is that we used How to Begin Teaching with great effectiveness. There really is a massive difference when it is used well. They understood why were there and we understood why they were letting us be there. It was a huge miracle to me that the Lord let us hit our goal for NI even though we were way below the goal before and He delivered right before we had to go home.
Love you all so much. Sorry time's tight.
Love,
Elder Siebert
This week was a crazy week! We had a lot of fun and a lot of success!
Food: This week we had an amazing meal at the Yang Family's house. They are Brazillian and they made Arroz de Furnos. I don't know if that is spelled right, but they made this amazing rice dish with cheese and ham and peppers and all sorts of goodies in it. So delicious. They were all laughing because my Brazillian pronunciation is horrific. I give it 5 agressive "arroz(es)" out of 5.
Verbatim: From a lady who walks out of her house.
Me: Can we come inside and talk to your family right now?
Her: Well, it's probably not too convienient. We're all really liberal and open and nobody's wearing pants. I actually saw you outside and that's why I put this sweater on.
Me: Oh. That really probably isn't too convienient. Maybe some other day?
Elder VandenBurg on my bday brownies: They're rice brownies...and this is rice cream!
Last week we went up to a place call 18 peaks which is a gorgeous place to go hike around and walk. Reminds me of the Schaeffer nature trail up in Washington. We had a lot of fun and I started getting into the whole Planking thing. Elder Townsend (my good buddy out here) and I were looking for the "perfect plank" the whole time. We might even go back today because it was so pleasant.
I got my B-Day celebrated in style a day late because people remembered wrong, but the sisters made me brownies and got ice cream, balloons and the works. They're so great.
Just last night we had a really cool experience with following the spirit. We were tracting and then went to a different place to go check on a man that the sisters had referred to us. My companion and I both had an impression to check up on a lady and her family whom we had met the week previous. We went to her door and rang the doorbell. The son answered the door and let us in. Her little sister, with the sister's husband, and two of her children were there. They were all very willing to listen and we very excited about the gospel. We are going back tonight. One thing that went especially well in the lesson is that we used How to Begin Teaching with great effectiveness. There really is a massive difference when it is used well. They understood why were there and we understood why they were letting us be there. It was a huge miracle to me that the Lord let us hit our goal for NI even though we were way below the goal before and He delivered right before we had to go home.
Love you all so much. Sorry time's tight.
Love,
Elder Siebert
Deliciousness and Miracles! My two favorite things!
Hello Everyone!
Guess What? I am almost twenty! Crazy huh?!?
Food: Churasco
We have a brazillian family who live in our ward and they invited us over for a BBQ because of the holiday and we went not expecting what we got. They made a whole brazillian BBQ, just like the type that you might have at Tucanos, only better, for us. It was out of this world good. I got to work the grill with Reinaldo (Brother Yang) and we had a blast. The best was this garlic crown steak that was just about the best thing that I have ever tasted. They also had friends come over who we were able to share with. YES! 6 brazillian bonanzas out of 5. (My father just shuddered at that stunning lack of mathmatical literacy).
We went and had a great time this week. We spent a lot of time finding. I went on exchanges with the APs this week, but they came when we were going to have english class, so I wouldn't have had any time to actually go do work with them, so I talked Elder Binkinuan into skipping English class with me. We left my companion in the care of the other elders and then me and Elder Binkinuan went and worked for two and a half hours in my area. It is always great getting to work with the assistants.
We had a really cool experience with one of our investigators this week. His scooter had a flat so he was late to the church which meant that we only had a few minutes with him, so we had to change our plan to just talk about the BOM with him. After praying hard to start, I knew everything that I needed to say. I remember just feeling so powerful and aware of his every need. Huang dx was willing to read and very excited to find out if God is real or not. The whole lesson was perfect for him and just what he needed at the time. It was so cool because the spirit really led. There was no Elder Siebert opinions or thoughts there, it was all just what God wanted to say to him. So amazing!
Well, this week I have pictures to send to you all. The first is a picture of the Churasco in preparation.there's no picture of all the food together because it disappeared really fast into our mouths when it came off the grill. The second is everyone, the Yang family and their friends. The last one is how we got an extra bike to the church for the AP. We took the box off the back of my bike and then laid the bike across the rack and locked it in place with my big U lock. It was actually really sturdy on there, but scary riding through 25 minutes of traffic to get it to the church. Enjoy!
Love,
Elder Siebert
P.s. I realized that I have to marry a morning person. So all you lovely ladies who are reading this, I'm sorry if this cuts you out. It can't be helped.
Guess What? I am almost twenty! Crazy huh?!?
Food: Churasco
We have a brazillian family who live in our ward and they invited us over for a BBQ because of the holiday and we went not expecting what we got. They made a whole brazillian BBQ, just like the type that you might have at Tucanos, only better, for us. It was out of this world good. I got to work the grill with Reinaldo (Brother Yang) and we had a blast. The best was this garlic crown steak that was just about the best thing that I have ever tasted. They also had friends come over who we were able to share with. YES! 6 brazillian bonanzas out of 5. (My father just shuddered at that stunning lack of mathmatical literacy).
We went and had a great time this week. We spent a lot of time finding. I went on exchanges with the APs this week, but they came when we were going to have english class, so I wouldn't have had any time to actually go do work with them, so I talked Elder Binkinuan into skipping English class with me. We left my companion in the care of the other elders and then me and Elder Binkinuan went and worked for two and a half hours in my area. It is always great getting to work with the assistants.
We had a really cool experience with one of our investigators this week. His scooter had a flat so he was late to the church which meant that we only had a few minutes with him, so we had to change our plan to just talk about the BOM with him. After praying hard to start, I knew everything that I needed to say. I remember just feeling so powerful and aware of his every need. Huang dx was willing to read and very excited to find out if God is real or not. The whole lesson was perfect for him and just what he needed at the time. It was so cool because the spirit really led. There was no Elder Siebert opinions or thoughts there, it was all just what God wanted to say to him. So amazing!
Well, this week I have pictures to send to you all. The first is a picture of the Churasco in preparation.there's no picture of all the food together because it disappeared really fast into our mouths when it came off the grill. The second is everyone, the Yang family and their friends. The last one is how we got an extra bike to the church for the AP. We took the box off the back of my bike and then laid the bike across the rack and locked it in place with my big U lock. It was actually really sturdy on there, but scary riding through 25 minutes of traffic to get it to the church. Enjoy!
Love,
Elder Siebert
P.s. I realized that I have to marry a morning person. So all you lovely ladies who are reading this, I'm sorry if this cuts you out. It can't be helped.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Staying and Becoming an Old Dog
Hey Everyone!
This week marks my first day as Senior companion! I will be greenie busting a spanking new missionary who is just coming onto the island. I am not sure how to spell his name, so I will keep you posted when I actually meet him. His trainer is a great guy, so I am expecting great things!
Food:
This week we got to go to a member's place to have a BBQ with them because of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Everyone is BBQing. So we made all this stuff and I got to contact tons of referrals and get them sent out all over the place. That was really fun. We had some really amazing bacon-golden-mushroom rolls. I would have to say that though the taste was great, the texture was even better! I give them 5 greasy golden gastronomies out of 5.
Verbatim (new section): Regarding what he learned in studies, Elder Lin said that he didn't learn too much, instead he "Wo3 jue2de wo3 hua1le bi3jiao4 duo1 shi2jian1 gen1 Sa1dan4 dui4kang4". (I feel like i spent more time battling with Satan). This was because he was dozed off a couple times.
This week had some great miracles. We found an amazing guy who is actually a referral from another area and he might just turn out to be the one who can go the distance. I am terribly excited to be working with him. I will keep you posted.
A little while back, I made a member plan and I've finally put it into action. The members here had no relationship with the missionaries really. So I've been stopping by and sharing short five minute scriptures or messages with them and then asking for referrals. It's been really good because we try and have contact pretty much everyday with some member in some form, even if it's just writing them a little note. Yesterday , I saw a great result. One of the super active members shared that when we had gone over the other day and shared a message about studying the scriptures with pictures and gospel art book, we had reminded her of this way to have revelation. She said that even having been a member for 20 some years, this really helped her out. It was a very touching testimony.
Outta time!
Love,
Elder Siebert
This week marks my first day as Senior companion! I will be greenie busting a spanking new missionary who is just coming onto the island. I am not sure how to spell his name, so I will keep you posted when I actually meet him. His trainer is a great guy, so I am expecting great things!
Food:
This week we got to go to a member's place to have a BBQ with them because of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Everyone is BBQing. So we made all this stuff and I got to contact tons of referrals and get them sent out all over the place. That was really fun. We had some really amazing bacon-golden-mushroom rolls. I would have to say that though the taste was great, the texture was even better! I give them 5 greasy golden gastronomies out of 5.
Verbatim (new section): Regarding what he learned in studies, Elder Lin said that he didn't learn too much, instead he "Wo3 jue2de wo3 hua1le bi3jiao4 duo1 shi2jian1 gen1 Sa1dan4 dui4kang4". (I feel like i spent more time battling with Satan). This was because he was dozed off a couple times.
This week had some great miracles. We found an amazing guy who is actually a referral from another area and he might just turn out to be the one who can go the distance. I am terribly excited to be working with him. I will keep you posted.
A little while back, I made a member plan and I've finally put it into action. The members here had no relationship with the missionaries really. So I've been stopping by and sharing short five minute scriptures or messages with them and then asking for referrals. It's been really good because we try and have contact pretty much everyday with some member in some form, even if it's just writing them a little note. Yesterday , I saw a great result. One of the super active members shared that when we had gone over the other day and shared a message about studying the scriptures with pictures and gospel art book, we had reminded her of this way to have revelation. She said that even having been a member for 20 some years, this really helped her out. It was a very touching testimony.
Outta time!
Love,
Elder Siebert
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Drawing to an end
Hey Everyone!
This week was a bit of a cool down for a couple days. There was actually a rainy day where the temperature was lower and the wind was high and I felt for the first time in so long....cool....outside. It was the weirdest feeling in the world. Most of the time, I think that 30 degrees celsius is super cool and comfortable these days.
Hmmm........I don't think that I had a single new food this week. Oh, but I did get to try something that, even though I have had before, it especially good and famous here.
Gong4wan2 Mi3Fen2: Beef Ball Rice Noodles: this is a food that XinZhu is famous all over for. The rice noodles here are supposed to be better than anywhere in all of Taiwan. The beef balls are also supposed to be the best. I finally had some and found that the craze is no lie. The beef balls were especially spectacular. I was pretty much in heaven. I give it 5 faddish foods out of 5.
Here's some verbatim for the week. After the typhoon day and seeing Elder Millet on P-day, "Elder Millet, what's that growing on your upper lip? DISOBEDIENCE?!? (the second part interjected right before his response)" I felt that it was a really funny comment.
I saw a lot of miracles from following the spirit this week. Of particular note was the Deng4 family. We were about to head to visit a former that we had planned to see and I was praying hard that I would be able to find those on the road who were ready to listen to the gospel. Well, the result was I moved about ten feet from where I was parked to the cafe area of "Seven" and started talking to this little family. At first, it was only the mother who was more interested, but she asked the husband if we could share more and he had some questions about why our church was different. I was able to share the restoration with them and the spirit guided them even though the time was short. They really wanted to know how to find the truth and what it could mean for their family. It was very exciting. Even though the invitations to act were rushed (we made it home with seconds to spare), they have been saying their prayers everyday:a testimony of the power of the spirit.
I know that the Lord is guiding me and every single one of you. I wish you all well and encourage you all to do your part in missionary work. Find those who have fallen into inactivity and rescue them. Help those who are not members to come unto Christ by doing what missionaries can rarely do: be their friend. Answer their questions because I know that they have them. Invite them to act and come to activities. It will bless them and it will bless you as you feel the fire and love for the gospel by participating in missionary work. I love you all and I know you can do it. When all grinds to a halt, pray and then go do!
Love,
Elder Siebert
This week was a bit of a cool down for a couple days. There was actually a rainy day where the temperature was lower and the wind was high and I felt for the first time in so long....cool....outside. It was the weirdest feeling in the world. Most of the time, I think that 30 degrees celsius is super cool and comfortable these days.
Hmmm........I don't think that I had a single new food this week. Oh, but I did get to try something that, even though I have had before, it especially good and famous here.
Gong4wan2 Mi3Fen2: Beef Ball Rice Noodles: this is a food that XinZhu is famous all over for. The rice noodles here are supposed to be better than anywhere in all of Taiwan. The beef balls are also supposed to be the best. I finally had some and found that the craze is no lie. The beef balls were especially spectacular. I was pretty much in heaven. I give it 5 faddish foods out of 5.
Here's some verbatim for the week. After the typhoon day and seeing Elder Millet on P-day, "Elder Millet, what's that growing on your upper lip? DISOBEDIENCE?!? (the second part interjected right before his response)" I felt that it was a really funny comment.
I saw a lot of miracles from following the spirit this week. Of particular note was the Deng4 family. We were about to head to visit a former that we had planned to see and I was praying hard that I would be able to find those on the road who were ready to listen to the gospel. Well, the result was I moved about ten feet from where I was parked to the cafe area of "Seven" and started talking to this little family. At first, it was only the mother who was more interested, but she asked the husband if we could share more and he had some questions about why our church was different. I was able to share the restoration with them and the spirit guided them even though the time was short. They really wanted to know how to find the truth and what it could mean for their family. It was very exciting. Even though the invitations to act were rushed (we made it home with seconds to spare), they have been saying their prayers everyday:a testimony of the power of the spirit.
I know that the Lord is guiding me and every single one of you. I wish you all well and encourage you all to do your part in missionary work. Find those who have fallen into inactivity and rescue them. Help those who are not members to come unto Christ by doing what missionaries can rarely do: be their friend. Answer their questions because I know that they have them. Invite them to act and come to activities. It will bless them and it will bless you as you feel the fire and love for the gospel by participating in missionary work. I love you all and I know you can do it. When all grinds to a halt, pray and then go do!
Love,
Elder Siebert
Typhoons!
Hey everyone!
We had a typhoon yesterday and it was so cool. The wind was so intense! When we were coming home from church to go home and stay inside, there were a couple times I nearly got blown over and also when the wind was head on I would get stopped where I was. It was so crazy! I would be biking and then it was like I hit the brakes hardcore because I would just virtually cease any sort of movement. However, I found a facial mask during the time that we were inside, so I will keep you posted with pictures and stuff once I find my little camera chord.
Food:
Starfruit: we went and got a starfruit the other day and it was really good. It tastes kind of the way that roses smell. Really an intriguing flavor but also really pleasant. It's something that I could probably eat all day because it's pretty mild and the flavor's not so out there that you would get sick of it. I give it 4 sugary stratospheric sensations out of 5. (I know that doesn't make sense but I just wanted to be cool like Mark)
I also got a ton of guavas this week. I found out that there are little "reject piles" of fruit at the stands where fruit that might have a mark or two are thrown. This fruit is so cheap. I got guavas that taste great and just need a little bit cut away for a fifth of the cost of normal ones. The total in US is 6 cents per guava. Yeah. I've been eating a lot this week.
We found a family this week! They are so great. The little daughters love me because they think that it's fascinating that I am foreign but that I can speak Chinese. I also come up with some fun little analogies for them too. Brother and Sister Chen really liked the lesson and they brought the family to church this week. It was great because the ward just embraced them and were all so excited to see a family come in. I have really great hopes for them.
Oh, of final note, we have a thing called the love box here. Every district meeting it goes to a different companionship and you take it home and bring it back filled with love. This week I have it and I wrote a hilarious song for it on my guitar, here's an excerpt.
I was buying stuff at the store
Walking down the aile labeled fun stuff galore
I pick up Ken Barbie and what do I see?
Elder Thatcher staring back at me!
This is because Elder Thatcher admitted that he went for the ken barbie look before the mission. I thought it was rather clever. The song also includes some chinglish parts and stuff. It'll be great.
Keep going strong everyone. I know that God loves you and that he will do anything for you!
Love,
Elder Siebert
We had a typhoon yesterday and it was so cool. The wind was so intense! When we were coming home from church to go home and stay inside, there were a couple times I nearly got blown over and also when the wind was head on I would get stopped where I was. It was so crazy! I would be biking and then it was like I hit the brakes hardcore because I would just virtually cease any sort of movement. However, I found a facial mask during the time that we were inside, so I will keep you posted with pictures and stuff once I find my little camera chord.
Food:
Starfruit: we went and got a starfruit the other day and it was really good. It tastes kind of the way that roses smell. Really an intriguing flavor but also really pleasant. It's something that I could probably eat all day because it's pretty mild and the flavor's not so out there that you would get sick of it. I give it 4 sugary stratospheric sensations out of 5. (I know that doesn't make sense but I just wanted to be cool like Mark)
I also got a ton of guavas this week. I found out that there are little "reject piles" of fruit at the stands where fruit that might have a mark or two are thrown. This fruit is so cheap. I got guavas that taste great and just need a little bit cut away for a fifth of the cost of normal ones. The total in US is 6 cents per guava. Yeah. I've been eating a lot this week.
We found a family this week! They are so great. The little daughters love me because they think that it's fascinating that I am foreign but that I can speak Chinese. I also come up with some fun little analogies for them too. Brother and Sister Chen really liked the lesson and they brought the family to church this week. It was great because the ward just embraced them and were all so excited to see a family come in. I have really great hopes for them.
Oh, of final note, we have a thing called the love box here. Every district meeting it goes to a different companionship and you take it home and bring it back filled with love. This week I have it and I wrote a hilarious song for it on my guitar, here's an excerpt.
I was buying stuff at the store
Walking down the aile labeled fun stuff galore
I pick up Ken Barbie and what do I see?
Elder Thatcher staring back at me!
This is because Elder Thatcher admitted that he went for the ken barbie look before the mission. I thought it was rather clever. The song also includes some chinglish parts and stuff. It'll be great.
Keep going strong everyone. I know that God loves you and that he will do anything for you!
Love,
Elder Siebert
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Turning Around
Hey everyone!
This week has our temple day, so I am sorry to have this email get out so late to you. We had a good, hot week. We worked hard and we saw miracles from it, but they're going to have to wait until after.....
The Food Review: So I broke down this week and made some black nanny. It's actually not bad. It's something along the lines of a vanilla coke, but a little better in the creaminess of the drink. Like a vanilla coke cream soda. Well, we have a member family who are from Brazil and I go and teach them Chinese every week. They always invite us to eat with them and try and get us to take whole pizzas home and such. Well this week, they didn't push a pizza on us, but they did treat us to the Brazillian drink Guarrana. To all those who know this drink, you know it's good. So I took my can home and used a portion to make....
"Opair Nanny"! It was actually really quite good. It's a little more exotic than your run-of-the-mill "black nannies" but like the Opairs that it is named after, must return to it's homeland after a year or two. Haha, just kidding! I give it 4 out of 5....whatevers.
This week when we were on exchange with my district leader Elder Bogel, we ended up not having keys to the church so we had to borrow Sister Wynder's. Since we had some free dinner time, we made a little scavenger hunt for her to find them after we used them because we had to hide them for her anyway. So fun.
Just yesterday I saw a great miracle. In the morning, I contacted this amazing man before a lesson. I invited him to baptism on the street without much ado and he accepted. He said that he would come by later in the day. Well, our DM went overtime and I wasn't able to see him right after. However, we were headed out of the chapel a little later and I saw him rounding the corner, walking away. We went and flagged him down and asked him to come to the church, which he did. He was willing to set a baptismal date and another time to meet. Unfortunately, he doesn't live in our area. However, the miracle doesn't stop there! We went to see a less active, which was what we were going to do before we met with the other man, Brother Hong. When we went to meet Brother Chen, it just so happened that he pulled up right as we did. The Lord set it all up so that we could teach everyone we needed to and did it in a way that I could not mistake that it was by His Almighty Hand. I am so grateful of that.
I love you all!
Elder Siebert
This week has our temple day, so I am sorry to have this email get out so late to you. We had a good, hot week. We worked hard and we saw miracles from it, but they're going to have to wait until after.....
The Food Review: So I broke down this week and made some black nanny. It's actually not bad. It's something along the lines of a vanilla coke, but a little better in the creaminess of the drink. Like a vanilla coke cream soda. Well, we have a member family who are from Brazil and I go and teach them Chinese every week. They always invite us to eat with them and try and get us to take whole pizzas home and such. Well this week, they didn't push a pizza on us, but they did treat us to the Brazillian drink Guarrana. To all those who know this drink, you know it's good. So I took my can home and used a portion to make....
"Opair Nanny"! It was actually really quite good. It's a little more exotic than your run-of-the-mill "black nannies" but like the Opairs that it is named after, must return to it's homeland after a year or two. Haha, just kidding! I give it 4 out of 5....whatevers.
This week when we were on exchange with my district leader Elder Bogel, we ended up not having keys to the church so we had to borrow Sister Wynder's. Since we had some free dinner time, we made a little scavenger hunt for her to find them after we used them because we had to hide them for her anyway. So fun.
Just yesterday I saw a great miracle. In the morning, I contacted this amazing man before a lesson. I invited him to baptism on the street without much ado and he accepted. He said that he would come by later in the day. Well, our DM went overtime and I wasn't able to see him right after. However, we were headed out of the chapel a little later and I saw him rounding the corner, walking away. We went and flagged him down and asked him to come to the church, which he did. He was willing to set a baptismal date and another time to meet. Unfortunately, he doesn't live in our area. However, the miracle doesn't stop there! We went to see a less active, which was what we were going to do before we met with the other man, Brother Hong. When we went to meet Brother Chen, it just so happened that he pulled up right as we did. The Lord set it all up so that we could teach everyone we needed to and did it in a way that I could not mistake that it was by His Almighty Hand. I am so grateful of that.
I love you all!
Elder Siebert
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Out to Range
Hey everyone, time is short this week so there'll be a little less.
This week I saw an amazing miracle on the street, contacting. We were making some calls at a familymart and I was contacting on the street and pretty much getting rejected by everyone. I turned around and was looking for people when I saw these two guys who had been sitting at a table, talking and smoking for a while. I didn't want to talk to them because in my experience, when you talk to people like that they just kinda turn you down when you look at them. Well, I kept feeling like I just needed to talk to them so I went over, introduced myself and pulled up a chair. We started talking about the gospel and they were raptured. We prayed together and they felt the spirit so strong. They were both going on about how different and amazing it felt. They wanted to pray themselves and learn more. It was a huge miracle to me that they were able to listen to the gospel and it was able to bless their lives. They are now meeting with us regularly!
Time's up!
Love,
Elder Siebert
This week I saw an amazing miracle on the street, contacting. We were making some calls at a familymart and I was contacting on the street and pretty much getting rejected by everyone. I turned around and was looking for people when I saw these two guys who had been sitting at a table, talking and smoking for a while. I didn't want to talk to them because in my experience, when you talk to people like that they just kinda turn you down when you look at them. Well, I kept feeling like I just needed to talk to them so I went over, introduced myself and pulled up a chair. We started talking about the gospel and they were raptured. We prayed together and they felt the spirit so strong. They were both going on about how different and amazing it felt. They wanted to pray themselves and learn more. It was a huge miracle to me that they were able to listen to the gospel and it was able to bless their lives. They are now meeting with us regularly!
Time's up!
Love,
Elder Siebert
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Hot as tarnation!
Hey everyone!
Well, as you all probably know, I have moved from my promised land of Danshui into the new lands of Xin1Zhu2. It's a lot flatter here, which gives the legs and booty a little bit of a rest, (though I will be sad to part with the Danshui tush), but it is huge. Just to get to the chapel we have to ride for a good twenty minutes. I am not used to actually being on my bike for this long at a time. It's a little different. A lot of the roads lack a lot of people to contact as well. It's a bit sad. However, despite all of that, we have seen amazing success this week contacting on the street.
Food Review: Banana Pancakes. Well, there's a Costco in my area I guess and so my companion has this massive bag of pancake mix. We have pancakes all the time. However, we were given two bananas the other day so I decided to mix it up. Literally. I figured that I wanted to know what all the craze was about, I mean, Jack Johnson even wrote a song about them right? Anyway, the end result was delicious. We made them again this morning too. I would definitely give them five banana bing3's out of five. (man, that's major cheating on the alliteration. I'm just not as talented as Mark)
Well, the success with banana pancakes led me to do something even crazier which was....GUAVA PANCAKES! These were actually not half bad. The problem was, no matter how long you cooked them, they still remained a little doughy. I prefer the banana ones. 3 for 5.
Finally, we found this store that was selling mangos really cheap so we went and got a couple and for the last couple days we have been having mango smoothies. It's the perfect way to cool off.
Well this week I saw an amazing miracle. We were just coming out of a lesson about to head home and have lunch when I had a feeling to talk to this one guy at a light. I started talking to him and he was amazing. He was so willing to listen and really wanted to learn. This has really been the story of the entire week. Everywhere I go, there are prepared people just waiting to talk. It's amazing. I know that the Lord will always put His prepared children in our paths, especially when we pray hard for them.
Love,
Elder Siebert
Well, as you all probably know, I have moved from my promised land of Danshui into the new lands of Xin1Zhu2. It's a lot flatter here, which gives the legs and booty a little bit of a rest, (though I will be sad to part with the Danshui tush), but it is huge. Just to get to the chapel we have to ride for a good twenty minutes. I am not used to actually being on my bike for this long at a time. It's a little different. A lot of the roads lack a lot of people to contact as well. It's a bit sad. However, despite all of that, we have seen amazing success this week contacting on the street.
Food Review: Banana Pancakes. Well, there's a Costco in my area I guess and so my companion has this massive bag of pancake mix. We have pancakes all the time. However, we were given two bananas the other day so I decided to mix it up. Literally. I figured that I wanted to know what all the craze was about, I mean, Jack Johnson even wrote a song about them right? Anyway, the end result was delicious. We made them again this morning too. I would definitely give them five banana bing3's out of five. (man, that's major cheating on the alliteration. I'm just not as talented as Mark)
Well, the success with banana pancakes led me to do something even crazier which was....GUAVA PANCAKES! These were actually not half bad. The problem was, no matter how long you cooked them, they still remained a little doughy. I prefer the banana ones. 3 for 5.
Finally, we found this store that was selling mangos really cheap so we went and got a couple and for the last couple days we have been having mango smoothies. It's the perfect way to cool off.
Well this week I saw an amazing miracle. We were just coming out of a lesson about to head home and have lunch when I had a feeling to talk to this one guy at a light. I started talking to him and he was amazing. He was so willing to listen and really wanted to learn. This has really been the story of the entire week. Everywhere I go, there are prepared people just waiting to talk. It's amazing. I know that the Lord will always put His prepared children in our paths, especially when we pray hard for them.
Love,
Elder Siebert
Monday, August 1, 2011
Moving Away
Hey everyone!
I am going to admit to you that i am a little sad to be leaving my promised land, but I am glad that there is going to be a new elder trained there by my wonderful companion Elder Visser. Apparently, we did so well that they are bringing another set of missionaries in the area. I am so excited to see Danshui in full glory!
Food this week was fairly dull, so not much to report.
As i prepared to leave this week, my ward members were all so sad. It was really sad to say goodby to them. There were several who were straight up crying as I bore my testimony. However, I am so glad that my people are doing well. We managed to get a massive amout of investigators to church, many of whom I think will certainly get baptized.
I am now in Xin1Zhu2. It is a little ways farther away than Danshui. It's about two hours from our office. I am pretty excited to be working here though. It's insanely hot, but the Lord always tries us before the miracle. I honestly can't say that i will miss the hills in danshui though, even if it means that my buns aren't going to look so good in a little while. Maybe I'll start doing squats to keep it up.
Hmmm....We had an amazing miracle this week in getting Sylvie, one of our investigators to church. She's been putting it off because she thinks that she'll cry if she comes to church and then she'll feel really embarassed. I told her that it'd be fine and that I was going to leave so she should come. So she did. She had a great experience and now we just need to keep her coming. We also got a couple of girls, Zheng and Fan, to come to church. THey are great, getting answers to prayers and have a huge desire to learn. The Lord has really blessed us with miracles.
I love you all! Thanks for all the letters and support!
Love,
Elder Siebert
I am going to admit to you that i am a little sad to be leaving my promised land, but I am glad that there is going to be a new elder trained there by my wonderful companion Elder Visser. Apparently, we did so well that they are bringing another set of missionaries in the area. I am so excited to see Danshui in full glory!
Food this week was fairly dull, so not much to report.
As i prepared to leave this week, my ward members were all so sad. It was really sad to say goodby to them. There were several who were straight up crying as I bore my testimony. However, I am so glad that my people are doing well. We managed to get a massive amout of investigators to church, many of whom I think will certainly get baptized.
I am now in Xin1Zhu2. It is a little ways farther away than Danshui. It's about two hours from our office. I am pretty excited to be working here though. It's insanely hot, but the Lord always tries us before the miracle. I honestly can't say that i will miss the hills in danshui though, even if it means that my buns aren't going to look so good in a little while. Maybe I'll start doing squats to keep it up.
Hmmm....We had an amazing miracle this week in getting Sylvie, one of our investigators to church. She's been putting it off because she thinks that she'll cry if she comes to church and then she'll feel really embarassed. I told her that it'd be fine and that I was going to leave so she should come. So she did. She had a great experience and now we just need to keep her coming. We also got a couple of girls, Zheng and Fan, to come to church. THey are great, getting answers to prayers and have a huge desire to learn. The Lord has really blessed us with miracles.
I love you all! Thanks for all the letters and support!
Love,
Elder Siebert
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Operation: Confirmation
Hey everyone!
I heard from my mom recently that the fish of the oceans are now okay to eat again which leads to today's food review:
Fish Eyes: So I was at a member's house last night for a FHE and there were all sorts of foods to be tried. I joking told Ai4Lang2, one of our ward missionaries to grab some fish for me. When she asked what part I wanted I gestured to the head and told her I wanted the eyes. In no time at all, all of the sudden, the fish head was right in front of me. I summed up the courage, reminded myself that this was probably going to be quite delicious, plucked out the offensive looking optical monstrosity and plopped it in my mouth. It wasn't bad. Tasted like really salty fish honestly. I give it a 3 fishy photooptics out of 5. (we're just going off of phonetic sounds on that "alliteration")
This week was a great one. It is very likely the last one that I will have Danshui. Today, my companion and I got the things that we needed to put our beds on risers so that they have all this space under them, allowing us to stow all sorts of stuff down there and maximize on space economics. It was really fun and our apartment has so much more room now.
I saw someone with a shirt that said "I am Satan" on it, but didn't have the time to contact him.
This week we finally got Eric confirmed a member of the church. It was kind of a funny story because at eight in the morning he told us that he might have "shi4" that morning and therefore it was uncertain of he could come to church. I prayed about it because I was in the shower for the inital call. I got the feeling that we must do all that we could to get him there. I called, he didn't answer. We went to his house and rang his doorbell, he didn't answer. We said a prayer afterwards and the prompting came to go the guard booth and ask them to call him for us. Turns out they didn't have his number, they had the same doorbell system that I had used just barely. My companion said we would just have to hope, but the feeling came to go back to Eric's downstairs place and use the bell again. I had barely pressed the bell when the door opened and two people walked out. I caught the door and we went up the seven flights of stairs to Eric's house. We rang the doorbell twice. We knocked loudly twice. I touched the doorknob and an alarm started going off in his house. We ran back down the stairs outside and then got a call from Eric that he would be coming down and wanted us to wait for him to go to church with him. Turns out the alarm was actually outside so no problem. However, I know that the chain of events all allowed us to get to Eric's door and to get him confirmed with the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was a huge miracle that the Lord let me see. Follow the propmtings that you have. They will always lead you to the blessings God has waiting.
I love you all,
Elder Siebert
I heard from my mom recently that the fish of the oceans are now okay to eat again which leads to today's food review:
Fish Eyes: So I was at a member's house last night for a FHE and there were all sorts of foods to be tried. I joking told Ai4Lang2, one of our ward missionaries to grab some fish for me. When she asked what part I wanted I gestured to the head and told her I wanted the eyes. In no time at all, all of the sudden, the fish head was right in front of me. I summed up the courage, reminded myself that this was probably going to be quite delicious, plucked out the offensive looking optical monstrosity and plopped it in my mouth. It wasn't bad. Tasted like really salty fish honestly. I give it a 3 fishy photooptics out of 5. (we're just going off of phonetic sounds on that "alliteration")
This week was a great one. It is very likely the last one that I will have Danshui. Today, my companion and I got the things that we needed to put our beds on risers so that they have all this space under them, allowing us to stow all sorts of stuff down there and maximize on space economics. It was really fun and our apartment has so much more room now.
I saw someone with a shirt that said "I am Satan" on it, but didn't have the time to contact him.
This week we finally got Eric confirmed a member of the church. It was kind of a funny story because at eight in the morning he told us that he might have "shi4" that morning and therefore it was uncertain of he could come to church. I prayed about it because I was in the shower for the inital call. I got the feeling that we must do all that we could to get him there. I called, he didn't answer. We went to his house and rang his doorbell, he didn't answer. We said a prayer afterwards and the prompting came to go the guard booth and ask them to call him for us. Turns out they didn't have his number, they had the same doorbell system that I had used just barely. My companion said we would just have to hope, but the feeling came to go back to Eric's downstairs place and use the bell again. I had barely pressed the bell when the door opened and two people walked out. I caught the door and we went up the seven flights of stairs to Eric's house. We rang the doorbell twice. We knocked loudly twice. I touched the doorknob and an alarm started going off in his house. We ran back down the stairs outside and then got a call from Eric that he would be coming down and wanted us to wait for him to go to church with him. Turns out the alarm was actually outside so no problem. However, I know that the chain of events all allowed us to get to Eric's door and to get him confirmed with the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was a huge miracle that the Lord let me see. Follow the propmtings that you have. They will always lead you to the blessings God has waiting.
I love you all,
Elder Siebert
Monday, July 18, 2011
The Rock of Danshui is Soaked
Hey everyone,
It has been really hot here as long as it isn't raining, and then it's still really hot. The sad thing is that I think I am the same level of soaked no matter whether it rains or doesn't. Pretty nasty I know. My brother has it worse in the fiery depths of Tainan.
It turns out that I am gathering infamy in the Taichung mission right now. Mark keeps telling me things about a Sister Tan that I was friends with in the MTC and how she wants me to write to her. The problem is that I cannot write to her on order from President. I asked, but the answer was no. It turns out in the song that got written for Mark, there is a line in it about how " [he] doesn't need no sister Tan writing him". I think that it's funny that I can be such a big deal in a mission I have never set foot in. I'll keep you posted on further rants.
I had a really great week. We had some amazing chances to get new investigators and I think that at the current point in time, I have found more new investigators in the last transfer than in the rest of my mission put together. We have been that blessed by the Lord. Seriously. He keeps putting these golden people in our paths. Some turn out to be a little less golden later, but I know that it's because of the trust we put in God and how much we pray. I recently started to really get down on my prayers and have really been begging the Lord for His help and direction and I have a firm testimony that that is why I have been seeing so much success.
We instituted Guitar Sundays last night. My companion always loves when I play him songs at night and so when I told him that we could play them on Sunday Night for sure he was elated. It was so funny, he was like, so, can we institute a Guitar Sunday? And I told him sure and he was so excited for it. We played some great music and just sang and did all that. I also discovered the best way to wake myself up in the mornings is to make up crazy songs for my companion. Seriously. I sing to him just about every morning. It's always awful singing that doesn't match the key or tuning of the guitar and it's always really awkward. I make it that way on purpose. It's really funny and we always laugh a ton and then I go and take a shower because it's always after we go exercise.
I also had these two little sauce packets left over from when we went and got potstickers once and I always scream and toss one at my companion at least twice during studies. It's so funny because he jumps everytime and recently he's been doing it back. It's a fun little game we play.
We are finally making some real progress with the Wang Family. The spirit makes me put away Mr. Nice Guy and makes me into Mr. Boldsauce when we go visit them lately. I tell them that they need to start actually praying about the BOM and praying for God to help them get over smoking rather than just trying to kick it themselves. It's been really amazing because the spirit has really been working through me and working them over really good. I love it and it just feels so powerful a lot of the time. I don't ever want to lose that.
I killed a massive banana spider this week. If you can see in the picture, it is clearly just about six inches in leg spread. Very scary. Don't worry though, that's in the church, not my house. So far as I know, we are safe at home.
This week Eric finally got baptized. After almost five months of meeting with him, he finally was ready to be baptized and all is well. We are still waiting for confirmation next week but we are so stoked for the man to be baptized. I love him to death. This week we saw a miracle with him and we prayed so hard and finally saw him filled with the Holy Ghost and stopped worrying about the baptism. It is so wonderful to see the change that this gospel can create in those who are humble enough to allow it. The Atonement is real, it has the power to help us overcome anything in this life.
Love,
Elder Siebert
It has been really hot here as long as it isn't raining, and then it's still really hot. The sad thing is that I think I am the same level of soaked no matter whether it rains or doesn't. Pretty nasty I know. My brother has it worse in the fiery depths of Tainan.
It turns out that I am gathering infamy in the Taichung mission right now. Mark keeps telling me things about a Sister Tan that I was friends with in the MTC and how she wants me to write to her. The problem is that I cannot write to her on order from President. I asked, but the answer was no. It turns out in the song that got written for Mark, there is a line in it about how " [he] doesn't need no sister Tan writing him". I think that it's funny that I can be such a big deal in a mission I have never set foot in. I'll keep you posted on further rants.
I had a really great week. We had some amazing chances to get new investigators and I think that at the current point in time, I have found more new investigators in the last transfer than in the rest of my mission put together. We have been that blessed by the Lord. Seriously. He keeps putting these golden people in our paths. Some turn out to be a little less golden later, but I know that it's because of the trust we put in God and how much we pray. I recently started to really get down on my prayers and have really been begging the Lord for His help and direction and I have a firm testimony that that is why I have been seeing so much success.
We instituted Guitar Sundays last night. My companion always loves when I play him songs at night and so when I told him that we could play them on Sunday Night for sure he was elated. It was so funny, he was like, so, can we institute a Guitar Sunday? And I told him sure and he was so excited for it. We played some great music and just sang and did all that. I also discovered the best way to wake myself up in the mornings is to make up crazy songs for my companion. Seriously. I sing to him just about every morning. It's always awful singing that doesn't match the key or tuning of the guitar and it's always really awkward. I make it that way on purpose. It's really funny and we always laugh a ton and then I go and take a shower because it's always after we go exercise.
I also had these two little sauce packets left over from when we went and got potstickers once and I always scream and toss one at my companion at least twice during studies. It's so funny because he jumps everytime and recently he's been doing it back. It's a fun little game we play.
We are finally making some real progress with the Wang Family. The spirit makes me put away Mr. Nice Guy and makes me into Mr. Boldsauce when we go visit them lately. I tell them that they need to start actually praying about the BOM and praying for God to help them get over smoking rather than just trying to kick it themselves. It's been really amazing because the spirit has really been working through me and working them over really good. I love it and it just feels so powerful a lot of the time. I don't ever want to lose that.
I killed a massive banana spider this week. If you can see in the picture, it is clearly just about six inches in leg spread. Very scary. Don't worry though, that's in the church, not my house. So far as I know, we are safe at home.
This week Eric finally got baptized. After almost five months of meeting with him, he finally was ready to be baptized and all is well. We are still waiting for confirmation next week but we are so stoked for the man to be baptized. I love him to death. This week we saw a miracle with him and we prayed so hard and finally saw him filled with the Holy Ghost and stopped worrying about the baptism. It is so wonderful to see the change that this gospel can create in those who are humble enough to allow it. The Atonement is real, it has the power to help us overcome anything in this life.
Love,
Elder Siebert
Monday, July 11, 2011
True Red Neck
Hey everyone!
This week we went to a buffet place that me and Elder Carlson went to but this time it was infinitely better. We went with ChuanRen our new member and it was a hoot. My companion cracked an egg on his forehead. It shot egg everywhere. It was all over him. Then he had me crack one on my head with him for the camera. I did, but very gently, so there was no problem at all. It was hilarious. Then we karate chopped eggs open. That was really funny too because I actually failed on my egg, but my companion blew his all over the place. The whole experience was amazing and probably one of the funny P-days that I have had.
Because of time issues, today's email has to be short. Next week we will be having a long time investigator who I've been meeting with since I got here get baptized. He's amazing. We both feel that even though he didn't get to church this week (because his white shirt was dirty and he thought he had to wear it and a suit) he's ready and the Lord confirmed that opinion. I am so excited.
I helped a little girl, Lin2 Yu4 Xing1 get baptized yesterday, but I wasn't the one in the font. Because she is deathly afraid of water, I stood outside and coaxed her to progressively get more and more into the water. The spirit really told me what to say and how to help her, because her parents had tried to get her to be baptized so many times, but she is just deathly afraid of the water and they were frustrated and she was crying and all. I had a feeling to have them say a prayer and then we got everyone to leave and I suggested we give her a blessing of comfort. The parents were still impatient and frustrated and then I started to get her to kneel in the water and then slowly, very slowly start lowering her face into the water and all that. In the end, I had my hand under her head and we practiced immersing and then we finally did the prayer and I still had my hand under her head like we practiced and then helped her under at the end. It was a 2 hour thing, but I was really, really happy. The Lord really knows what He is doing because if she'd been in a different chapel, with a standard baptismal font, she wouldn't have been able to do it. As it was, it was a miracle that we got asked to come to the baptism and that they wanted us to witness. The Lord is setting everything up in the perfect way for each of his children. He will help you with all the things in your life. I know that is true.
Love,
Elder Siebert
This week we went to a buffet place that me and Elder Carlson went to but this time it was infinitely better. We went with ChuanRen our new member and it was a hoot. My companion cracked an egg on his forehead. It shot egg everywhere. It was all over him. Then he had me crack one on my head with him for the camera. I did, but very gently, so there was no problem at all. It was hilarious. Then we karate chopped eggs open. That was really funny too because I actually failed on my egg, but my companion blew his all over the place. The whole experience was amazing and probably one of the funny P-days that I have had.
Because of time issues, today's email has to be short. Next week we will be having a long time investigator who I've been meeting with since I got here get baptized. He's amazing. We both feel that even though he didn't get to church this week (because his white shirt was dirty and he thought he had to wear it and a suit) he's ready and the Lord confirmed that opinion. I am so excited.
I helped a little girl, Lin2 Yu4 Xing1 get baptized yesterday, but I wasn't the one in the font. Because she is deathly afraid of water, I stood outside and coaxed her to progressively get more and more into the water. The spirit really told me what to say and how to help her, because her parents had tried to get her to be baptized so many times, but she is just deathly afraid of the water and they were frustrated and she was crying and all. I had a feeling to have them say a prayer and then we got everyone to leave and I suggested we give her a blessing of comfort. The parents were still impatient and frustrated and then I started to get her to kneel in the water and then slowly, very slowly start lowering her face into the water and all that. In the end, I had my hand under her head and we practiced immersing and then we finally did the prayer and I still had my hand under her head like we practiced and then helped her under at the end. It was a 2 hour thing, but I was really, really happy. The Lord really knows what He is doing because if she'd been in a different chapel, with a standard baptismal font, she wouldn't have been able to do it. As it was, it was a miracle that we got asked to come to the baptism and that they wanted us to witness. The Lord is setting everything up in the perfect way for each of his children. He will help you with all the things in your life. I know that is true.
Love,
Elder Siebert
Monday, July 4, 2011
Big Stones in Small Font Equals Much Waves
Hey everyone!
This week was another week of miracles. My companion is a great man and we have been working hard to get as many people the gospel as possible. We also had the chance to help ChuanRen come out and work with us. He is going to be a great missionary some day. He went with us and passed out English Tracts and everything to people. He really surprised me by not just staying on the corner, but going and finding people all over the place to give the tracts to. He is going to be amazing. I also got the priviledge to baptize him this weekend and then he got confirmed and got the priesthood the next day. He is the best. I love him.
This week I tried making a new food which sounds awful and horrid, but is really possibly one of the best things that I have had in a while: Fried Snickers: I took a snickers bar and chopped it into large chunks, made batter, dipped it and then deep fried the pieces. It was AMAZING! The snickers gets all melty and hot and is just really rather delicious. I give it 5 crispy chocolates out of 5. We actually thought that because today is the Fourth, we should try to batter and fry as many random food objects as possible, but after eating a couple of the snickers and then a banana, we suddenly lost the love of fried foods for a little while. We'll work on it later.
I got my hair cut today by an Wu2 Mama. She's a great lady who decided because I am half Taiwanese, she'd do a Taiwanese style on my hair, so it was pretty intense. I don't think the picture attached does justice, but needless to say, I didn't recognize myself at all.
We had a really great lesson this week with a guy named Albert. He is a physics Ph.D student a the college nearby. He is into the mathematically physics, so he is always proving things with equations and stuff. Well, we taught him about the restoration and about how God uses the HG to answer our prayers because he wanted to know the voice of God. We prayed about it and then asked him and he told us that he felt weird. We talked about his feelings and he said, "It's good, but it's weird. I feel warm. Happy. Maybe a little faithful. I can't describe it. This phenomenon...there's no equation to prove it or describe it. I don't know what to do." it was really amazing. We are going to have to work on him to help him see that he doesn't have to see to believe, that the Spirit is enough, but I feel like the Lord has already been working with him hard.
I am so grateful for you all and all you have done to support me!
Love,
Elder Siebert
This week was another week of miracles. My companion is a great man and we have been working hard to get as many people the gospel as possible. We also had the chance to help ChuanRen come out and work with us. He is going to be a great missionary some day. He went with us and passed out English Tracts and everything to people. He really surprised me by not just staying on the corner, but going and finding people all over the place to give the tracts to. He is going to be amazing. I also got the priviledge to baptize him this weekend and then he got confirmed and got the priesthood the next day. He is the best. I love him.
This week I tried making a new food which sounds awful and horrid, but is really possibly one of the best things that I have had in a while: Fried Snickers: I took a snickers bar and chopped it into large chunks, made batter, dipped it and then deep fried the pieces. It was AMAZING! The snickers gets all melty and hot and is just really rather delicious. I give it 5 crispy chocolates out of 5. We actually thought that because today is the Fourth, we should try to batter and fry as many random food objects as possible, but after eating a couple of the snickers and then a banana, we suddenly lost the love of fried foods for a little while. We'll work on it later.
I got my hair cut today by an Wu2 Mama. She's a great lady who decided because I am half Taiwanese, she'd do a Taiwanese style on my hair, so it was pretty intense. I don't think the picture attached does justice, but needless to say, I didn't recognize myself at all.
We had a really great lesson this week with a guy named Albert. He is a physics Ph.D student a the college nearby. He is into the mathematically physics, so he is always proving things with equations and stuff. Well, we taught him about the restoration and about how God uses the HG to answer our prayers because he wanted to know the voice of God. We prayed about it and then asked him and he told us that he felt weird. We talked about his feelings and he said, "It's good, but it's weird. I feel warm. Happy. Maybe a little faithful. I can't describe it. This phenomenon...there's no equation to prove it or describe it. I don't know what to do." it was really amazing. We are going to have to work on him to help him see that he doesn't have to see to believe, that the Spirit is enough, but I feel like the Lord has already been working with him hard.
I am so grateful for you all and all you have done to support me!
Love,
Elder Siebert
Monday, June 27, 2011
Miracles, Faith, and Divine Direction
Hey Everyone!
This week there are twin Stones in Danshui. My companion's name is also shi and everyone calls me the da4shi2 (big rock) even though I am shorter and the junior companion. I have a reputation for being strong in this ward. Everyone likes to feel my arms and tell me, Tai4 kua1zang1! (too ridiculous)
Food: Shan1Yao4: this is some sort of root-ish thing that when blended up makes a sort of milky sort of flavor. One of our new members, Zheng4 jm made a smoothie with this, mango, papaya and guava in it. It was probably one of the more spectacular things that I've had recently, 5 slavering smoothie slurping Sieberts out of 5.
We saw a miracle of 11 new investigators this week. My companion is a contacting monster and hopefully I will learn some of that from him. We had a lot of faith and absolute obedience this week and it really paid out the dividends.
Chuan Ren passed his interview and he is going to be baptized next week. I am so excited because he loves the church so much and wants to be a missionary himself. I can't wait.
This week saw possibly the biggest miracle I've ever seen. We have been praying so hard for a family to teach this week and lo and behold, we went to Joseph, our investigator with amnesia this friday and his wife and daughter were there. I had never been able to meet the wife before and from what Elder Benson had said, I thought that she'd be pretty cold to the church, but this was not the case. We sat and talked with Joseph and his wife for a while, just introducing and she was so nice and kind to us. The daughter sat too, but she was really shy. Then, we sang and I prayed pretty fervently for them, probably one of the more fervent prayers I have said in an investigator's home. When we ended and I looked Chen Jiemei, she was all teary eyed. She'd felt the spirit that strongly in the opening prayer alone. She described it as an incredibly happy feeling. We shared Mosiah to talk about the spirit and she actually needed a tissue. We continued to share how the gospel blesses families and how baptism can help them to be an eternal family. The spirit was so strong throughout and she was tearing up the whole time. We committed them all to being baptized and she herself said that they will come to church without us asking. When I asked them to keep doing personal prayers, she was immediately willing and said that they all will. Before we left, she picked up the book of Mormon that we'd given them to read out of and asked if she should be reading a chapter of it every day. I said yes. I have never seen the spirit work so hard on a person. She committed herself to everything. She was literally asking us if she could make the steps to conversion. It was the biggest miracle ever. Everyone, I know that the Lord hears prayers, he answered ours. He can answer yours. Pray and then go out there and work like crazy to do your part and our loving Heavenly Father will make sure you realize miracles!
I love you all!
Love,
Elder Siebert
This week there are twin Stones in Danshui. My companion's name is also shi and everyone calls me the da4shi2 (big rock) even though I am shorter and the junior companion. I have a reputation for being strong in this ward. Everyone likes to feel my arms and tell me, Tai4 kua1zang1! (too ridiculous)
Food: Shan1Yao4: this is some sort of root-ish thing that when blended up makes a sort of milky sort of flavor. One of our new members, Zheng4 jm made a smoothie with this, mango, papaya and guava in it. It was probably one of the more spectacular things that I've had recently, 5 slavering smoothie slurping Sieberts out of 5.
We saw a miracle of 11 new investigators this week. My companion is a contacting monster and hopefully I will learn some of that from him. We had a lot of faith and absolute obedience this week and it really paid out the dividends.
Chuan Ren passed his interview and he is going to be baptized next week. I am so excited because he loves the church so much and wants to be a missionary himself. I can't wait.
This week saw possibly the biggest miracle I've ever seen. We have been praying so hard for a family to teach this week and lo and behold, we went to Joseph, our investigator with amnesia this friday and his wife and daughter were there. I had never been able to meet the wife before and from what Elder Benson had said, I thought that she'd be pretty cold to the church, but this was not the case. We sat and talked with Joseph and his wife for a while, just introducing and she was so nice and kind to us. The daughter sat too, but she was really shy. Then, we sang and I prayed pretty fervently for them, probably one of the more fervent prayers I have said in an investigator's home. When we ended and I looked Chen Jiemei, she was all teary eyed. She'd felt the spirit that strongly in the opening prayer alone. She described it as an incredibly happy feeling. We shared Mosiah to talk about the spirit and she actually needed a tissue. We continued to share how the gospel blesses families and how baptism can help them to be an eternal family. The spirit was so strong throughout and she was tearing up the whole time. We committed them all to being baptized and she herself said that they will come to church without us asking. When I asked them to keep doing personal prayers, she was immediately willing and said that they all will. Before we left, she picked up the book of Mormon that we'd given them to read out of and asked if she should be reading a chapter of it every day. I said yes. I have never seen the spirit work so hard on a person. She committed herself to everything. She was literally asking us if she could make the steps to conversion. It was the biggest miracle ever. Everyone, I know that the Lord hears prayers, he answered ours. He can answer yours. Pray and then go out there and work like crazy to do your part and our loving Heavenly Father will make sure you realize miracles!
I love you all!
Love,
Elder Siebert
Monday, June 20, 2011
The Rock of Danshui
Hey everyone!
I guess there's something in the family to do with longevity, because I am staying in Danshui yet again. At the end of this time, I will have been in the area for six whole months. It's amazing! It's to the point where I know all the members so well and they all love me, so we have a blast and get a lot of stuff done.
Foodwise, I haven't had too much that's exciting this week. I think that the closest to exciting that I've had is probably duck's blood pudding which is pretty much tasteless but really chewy. I was a little shocked because I thought it would be like real pudding and as such, really soft, but it was rather much like tapioca pearl textured. Definitely not something that I would just seek out to eat.
This weekend I was super crazy. While at a single's FHE thing, we played a game that is called Da4 Feng1 Chui1 (big wind blows) and I ended up losing. As a penalty, they wanted me to do pushups. I asked how many and when they told me ten, I got down, spread my legs and offered up one arm. I then proceeded to do the ten, one-armed pushups and got all the cheers and clapping that the singles could offer. It was so funny. I stood and shouted that I really was the rock of Danshui. I was a little ridiculous, I know.
This week saw miracles as Eric continues to work hard to be baptized and came to that FHE thing and finally broke out of his shell and started making friends in the ward. I was so happy to see him get comfortable mingling with people. Along with that, ChuanRen is feeling better about coming to church and has worked out the problems, so he personally feels that he's ready to get baptized soon, so they should both be getting interviewed this weekend. I will keep you all posted on the results.
Well, I love you all, I have to share my testimony of the power of the spirit with you. It can change anyone if they let it. Our investigators have been working hard and as they have, they have been changed. The change is practically visible. You can just see it in them. I love seeing it. I have loved seeing it in me. I have much more to change to become the missionary I need to be, but I know that God will help me through his Holy Ghost and through the Atonement of Christ. I love you all!
Love,
Elder Siebert
I guess there's something in the family to do with longevity, because I am staying in Danshui yet again. At the end of this time, I will have been in the area for six whole months. It's amazing! It's to the point where I know all the members so well and they all love me, so we have a blast and get a lot of stuff done.
Foodwise, I haven't had too much that's exciting this week. I think that the closest to exciting that I've had is probably duck's blood pudding which is pretty much tasteless but really chewy. I was a little shocked because I thought it would be like real pudding and as such, really soft, but it was rather much like tapioca pearl textured. Definitely not something that I would just seek out to eat.
This weekend I was super crazy. While at a single's FHE thing, we played a game that is called Da4 Feng1 Chui1 (big wind blows) and I ended up losing. As a penalty, they wanted me to do pushups. I asked how many and when they told me ten, I got down, spread my legs and offered up one arm. I then proceeded to do the ten, one-armed pushups and got all the cheers and clapping that the singles could offer. It was so funny. I stood and shouted that I really was the rock of Danshui. I was a little ridiculous, I know.
This week saw miracles as Eric continues to work hard to be baptized and came to that FHE thing and finally broke out of his shell and started making friends in the ward. I was so happy to see him get comfortable mingling with people. Along with that, ChuanRen is feeling better about coming to church and has worked out the problems, so he personally feels that he's ready to get baptized soon, so they should both be getting interviewed this weekend. I will keep you all posted on the results.
Well, I love you all, I have to share my testimony of the power of the spirit with you. It can change anyone if they let it. Our investigators have been working hard and as they have, they have been changed. The change is practically visible. You can just see it in them. I love seeing it. I have loved seeing it in me. I have much more to change to become the missionary I need to be, but I know that God will help me through his Holy Ghost and through the Atonement of Christ. I love you all!
Love,
Elder Siebert
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Sick and Dead
Hey everyone!
This week brought with it a lot of heat and sweat and also me getting the flu, so I've been a little on the deader side of life for the last six days. However, last weeks' Dragon Boat festival was amazing! I am going to try and send you some pictures of it!
I also tried a bunch of foods at this wedding this week, so here goes:
Fish Skin: really rather bland and rubbery. I don't actually think it was good or bad. Really not much of anything. 2 edible epidermi's out of 5.
Jelly Fish: also not that great. Mostly the sauce that it was in kinda sucked. Also a bit of a disappointment. 2 Jellyfish Ja1li4's out of 5.
Mango Shrimp: This one was amazing! I can't think of many dishes that I have ever had that were much better than this one. There's something about the sweet, shrimpy flavor that is just incredible. 5 Succulent Shrimpies out of 5.
This week didn't see a lot of action, but we did make major progress with one of our investigators of four plus months: Eric. He finally told us at the wedding that large groups of people make him nervous and that because of this he doesn't always want to come to church. Through the spirit, we were able to help him see anyway that church and baptism are not only things that he wants but are things that he NEEDS. He was very excited to come to church this week and sure as his word, was finally there this week. It was amazing to see the work that the Lord invested in him that made it possible for us, humble servants of the Lord to help Eric.
I love you all!
Elder Siebert
This week brought with it a lot of heat and sweat and also me getting the flu, so I've been a little on the deader side of life for the last six days. However, last weeks' Dragon Boat festival was amazing! I am going to try and send you some pictures of it!
I also tried a bunch of foods at this wedding this week, so here goes:
Fish Skin: really rather bland and rubbery. I don't actually think it was good or bad. Really not much of anything. 2 edible epidermi's out of 5.
Jelly Fish: also not that great. Mostly the sauce that it was in kinda sucked. Also a bit of a disappointment. 2 Jellyfish Ja1li4's out of 5.
Mango Shrimp: This one was amazing! I can't think of many dishes that I have ever had that were much better than this one. There's something about the sweet, shrimpy flavor that is just incredible. 5 Succulent Shrimpies out of 5.
This week didn't see a lot of action, but we did make major progress with one of our investigators of four plus months: Eric. He finally told us at the wedding that large groups of people make him nervous and that because of this he doesn't always want to come to church. Through the spirit, we were able to help him see anyway that church and baptism are not only things that he wants but are things that he NEEDS. He was very excited to come to church this week and sure as his word, was finally there this week. It was amazing to see the work that the Lord invested in him that made it possible for us, humble servants of the Lord to help Eric.
I love you all!
Elder Siebert
Friday, June 10, 2011
Photos: Ice, Facial Hair, Night Scene
This is Da2Lei3, the girl I baptized
Noodles from Hell!
Decided not to shave one day
Balcony at a members place
chuabing from heaven
Jie2Yi2's B-day Cake
It's a Hot, Hot, Hot World (if you don't know that movie reference, repent and watch it)
Hey everyone!
Summer has come in earnest and it is one son of a gun! I haven't even been able to get a lot of shaved ice lately because of problems like companies adding some poisonous chemicals into certain syrups and jellies, so I am a little leary of it all right now.
Food for the week is the Zhong4zi. This is rice, meat, maybe tiny little shrimps, egg, peanut and all sorts of stuff wrapped into a banana leaf. The parcel is then tied and steamed until done. The result is a banana leaf infused rice thing-a-ma-bob that is amazing!!! When you put some sweet and spicy sauce on it, it is probably one of my favorite foods in the entire world. I give it 5 out of five.
Sorry, because my time is pretty much up, I have to make this one short. This week didn't see too much new, but we did see one pretty good miracle. As some of you might know, we were teaching a Guo1 You3Ming2 who has some pretty serious family opposition. She's been thinking that she just wants to wait til she's twenty to get baptized so that she doesn't have to talk to her family about it. Her parents don't even know that she's meeting with missionaries or coming to church and she wouldn't tell them about it. Because she wasn't progressing for a while, we stopped meeting with her and now, a month and a half later, we picked her back up and she's changed. She was willing to go home and ask her parents if she can come to church. We are going to work with the parents one step at a time. We're going to have her ask them if she can meet with us next. She's changed so much because she now has faith and courage that the Lord can help her. I know that the Lord has been working with her heart so that she is willing to make these changes.
I love you all so much! I will write more about the dragon boat races that I am going to today next week!
Love,
Elder Siebert
Summer has come in earnest and it is one son of a gun! I haven't even been able to get a lot of shaved ice lately because of problems like companies adding some poisonous chemicals into certain syrups and jellies, so I am a little leary of it all right now.
Food for the week is the Zhong4zi. This is rice, meat, maybe tiny little shrimps, egg, peanut and all sorts of stuff wrapped into a banana leaf. The parcel is then tied and steamed until done. The result is a banana leaf infused rice thing-a-ma-bob that is amazing!!! When you put some sweet and spicy sauce on it, it is probably one of my favorite foods in the entire world. I give it 5 out of five.
Sorry, because my time is pretty much up, I have to make this one short. This week didn't see too much new, but we did see one pretty good miracle. As some of you might know, we were teaching a Guo1 You3Ming2 who has some pretty serious family opposition. She's been thinking that she just wants to wait til she's twenty to get baptized so that she doesn't have to talk to her family about it. Her parents don't even know that she's meeting with missionaries or coming to church and she wouldn't tell them about it. Because she wasn't progressing for a while, we stopped meeting with her and now, a month and a half later, we picked her back up and she's changed. She was willing to go home and ask her parents if she can come to church. We are going to work with the parents one step at a time. We're going to have her ask them if she can meet with us next. She's changed so much because she now has faith and courage that the Lord can help her. I know that the Lord has been working with her heart so that she is willing to make these changes.
I love you all so much! I will write more about the dragon boat races that I am going to today next week!
Love,
Elder Siebert
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)