Hey everyone!
This is my first full week in Dan4shui2 and it is great. First and foremost, the hills here are brutal when you're on a bike. Seriously, if I don't die, I will come out of this with massive leg muscles. The area is gorgeous though, it rains nearly every single day, and the food is great.
This week's strange food of the week was blood cake. It's this kind of abominable looking little thing that you put in a fire pot. I didn't really mind the flavor, but the idea makes it something that I probably won't repeat eating. However, I did have some amazing potstickers at this famous shop the other day, they are definitely a repeat, because they were really cheap as well.
Now, you may all be wondering what the title of this week's update is all about. I will give you the reason. There used to be sisters in Danshui, they lived just up the street from us, probably no more than a couple hundred feet away. Because our apartment had just been acquired and therefore lacked in furnishing and theirs was being closed, we went and acquired some new items. As we went there to get some stuff from the apartment, I exclaimed, "Let's Pillage!" just like Adam from Mythbusters did. Elder Benson thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. We ended up taking a couch, a table, four shelves, a HUGE white board (which we need for our nearly 40 investigators, some of which we still haven't contacted from the sisters yet), a full length mirror, a shower curtain, a chair, coatrack, kitchen items and switched dryers because ours was broken. It was an amazing amount of loot. Everytime we went over I would say "Let's pillage!" and when we got back with the stuff, I'd shout "We pillaged!" It was so fun. I have pictures with the couch and shelves and the three of us elders crammed into a little elevator, I'll send them soon.
We saw some really cool miracles this week. There's been an investigator that we've had for a long time who has some short term memory problems. He can't remember most of what we teach him from day to day. However, as we have prayed for him, he is starting to remember more and more of what is going on. It's so amazing. He wants to be baptized so badly and he is just filled with an awesome light. I hope that we can work with him more and finally get him baptized.
We were contacting this week and had set specific goals to find certain people. I had set a goal to find a college student who would listen to a lesson and want to learn more. I ended up talking to this college guy who was very interested and teaching him on the street. It was only after I said a prayer with him and left that I realized that he was the person that I had planned to find. Also, while we were contacting people on Friday, we were just getting rejected left and right. We said a quick prayer that we would find someone who was prepared to receive the gospel. The very next door we knocked into there was a man named Vincent who came out and talked to us. He said that he couldn't talk for long because he had to go to work, but he requested us to come back and see him this thursday night and also got the church address so that he could come. It was such a miracle. Then, we went down the street a little ways and we found Lu2 jie2mei4 who was willing to listen to us and talk with us for about twenty minutes. Finally, later that day we got a call from a girl Liao4 yu4 rou2 who wanted to come to church with us. Sure enough, she was there yesterday, and she loved it. It was just an awesome week filled with testimony building experiences. Keep praying everyone, because God loves his children and will bless them all if they will humble themselves enough to ask Him for His help.
I love you all,
Elder Siebert
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Weekly Report: First Area and Companion
Hey everyone!
I have made it to the lovely island of Taiwan safely, so you can all take a deep breath in and relax from the edges of your seats. Hee hee. The island is wonderful and beautiful and magnificent and any other positive adjective you can think of. I am assigned to serve in the Dan4shui2 area which is amazingly beautiful. It also rains here every single day. Very pretty.
I don't know if this is too copycattish, but I wanted to do a food review as well. This week I had this noodle soup the name for which I am not sure of. Basically it had a broth much like lu2rou4 jan4, but less strong. You pick all the different types of noodles to put in and the meats and stuff, all of which have various prices, then hand them over. Minutes later, they hand you your dinner. Delicious. You got to watch out though, because these people liked spicy I am sure because I asked for a little spicy (xiao2 la4) and they put like three measures of the chili in. Very spicy at first, but definitely something I'll get again.
My trainer's name is Elder Benson. He is very chill, comes from Atlanta, Georgia and also likes to breakdance. Unfortunately, he's not much of a popper, but that's okay. We also used to have sisters in my area just down the street from us. Sisters Thiessen and Li2 were very cool. The area is closed to sisters for a little period of time though, so we'll see if we ever get any back. Basically, Sister Thiessen was the queen of the unwitting awkwardness, yesterday, at an activity for singles for our ward, we had the following conversation:
Sister Thiessen: Wow, it's kinda cold up here.
Me: Cold? (incredulously)
Sister Thiessen: I'm not wearing pants sir.
Awesome right?
I would send pictures, because we took some really cool ones, but I can't get my card reader to work at this internet cafe. Maybe you'll just have to wait until I send the card home. Hopefully I can get something worked out.
Finally, this week, when we were teaching Xu2 dixiong, my first lesson with my trainer, I saw a wonderful miracle. I was able to communicate so well and understand pretty much every word that he said. Even better, Elder Benson and I actually had exactly the same thoughts on where to go with the lesson. It was a wonderful testimony of how much the Lord will help us when we put our trust in Him and then dive right in. I promise that as you turn your hearts to God and then jump into whatever He has given to you to do, He will make a way for you not only to succeed, but to dominate (figuratively speaking), because He loves to help His children to succeed.
I love you all, especially on this Valentine's day, which I forgot about.
Love,
Elder Siebert
I have made it to the lovely island of Taiwan safely, so you can all take a deep breath in and relax from the edges of your seats. Hee hee. The island is wonderful and beautiful and magnificent and any other positive adjective you can think of. I am assigned to serve in the Dan4shui2 area which is amazingly beautiful. It also rains here every single day. Very pretty.
I don't know if this is too copycattish, but I wanted to do a food review as well. This week I had this noodle soup the name for which I am not sure of. Basically it had a broth much like lu2rou4 jan4, but less strong. You pick all the different types of noodles to put in and the meats and stuff, all of which have various prices, then hand them over. Minutes later, they hand you your dinner. Delicious. You got to watch out though, because these people liked spicy I am sure because I asked for a little spicy (xiao2 la4) and they put like three measures of the chili in. Very spicy at first, but definitely something I'll get again.
My trainer's name is Elder Benson. He is very chill, comes from Atlanta, Georgia and also likes to breakdance. Unfortunately, he's not much of a popper, but that's okay. We also used to have sisters in my area just down the street from us. Sisters Thiessen and Li2 were very cool. The area is closed to sisters for a little period of time though, so we'll see if we ever get any back. Basically, Sister Thiessen was the queen of the unwitting awkwardness, yesterday, at an activity for singles for our ward, we had the following conversation:
Sister Thiessen: Wow, it's kinda cold up here.
Me: Cold? (incredulously)
Sister Thiessen: I'm not wearing pants sir.
Awesome right?
I would send pictures, because we took some really cool ones, but I can't get my card reader to work at this internet cafe. Maybe you'll just have to wait until I send the card home. Hopefully I can get something worked out.
Finally, this week, when we were teaching Xu2 dixiong, my first lesson with my trainer, I saw a wonderful miracle. I was able to communicate so well and understand pretty much every word that he said. Even better, Elder Benson and I actually had exactly the same thoughts on where to go with the lesson. It was a wonderful testimony of how much the Lord will help us when we put our trust in Him and then dive right in. I promise that as you turn your hearts to God and then jump into whatever He has given to you to do, He will make a way for you not only to succeed, but to dominate (figuratively speaking), because He loves to help His children to succeed.
I love you all, especially on this Valentine's day, which I forgot about.
Love,
Elder Siebert
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Photos: Last of Philadelphia
Elder Hylton
Jamey and Seth
All of Us
Paola and Neil
My district, elder mathie is on my right.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Weekly Report: Philly Sneak, First Baptism, Fun Companion
Hey everyone!
It hasn't been as cold here as it has been in Utah I think. We had a really cool thing happen out here called freezing rain. I'm not exactly sure how it all works out, but it rains and as the rain lands it freezes to everything. Basically when we went out on Tuesday morning, our car had a nice shell of ice completely encasing it about a quarter inch thick. It was really hard to scrape off. It also makes the roads kinda slick so we had to drive pretty slow and were pretty much late to everything that day.
This week I learned a new driving term call the "Philly Sneak." What that entails is that you go into a right turn lane and act like you are going to turn. Then, you put the pedal to the metal when the light goes green and try to get past the person on your left in the lane going straight and thereby skip waiting in line for people to go through the light. The only problem is that you have to make it good off the line and really fake the other person out because if you don't make into the lane, you don't have a lane and you die. 4 Lying Lateral Manuevers out of 5. (I totally knocked that off of mark).
I had my first baptism this week! Her name is Jamey McIntosh. She is an awesome girl from Scotland. She's got the most wicked Scottish accent and she uses expressions like "half seven" (seven thirty), "yous" (you), and "yous don't supposing...." We've been teaching her this entire transfer and she was meeting with the sisters a little before us and the conclusion I have reached is that she's amazing! We had her service and while there I was talking to another investigator, Paola, who also has a date about the baptism. She said that she'd been getting goosebumps every couple minutes. I asked if that was a good thing and she responded "Oh yeah, they're good goosebumps, really good goosebumps!" It was such a wonderful experience.
As you all know, I am going to Taiwan tomorrow and therefore this will be my last email from the States. Crazy right?
My new companion is amazing. He is so easy going, but is very, very hardworking. We have a lot of fun here. Seriously, I think that I have laughed far more in this week than in the entire last transfer put together. One time we were in the car and we were thinking of names for each other's future wives. When it came to Elder Bessey, Elder Mathie and I started telling him all men's names like "Richard" or "Helga". We laughed so hard. Then Elder Bessey said, "no seriously elders" and Elder Mathie looked really focused for a second then said, "what about Jim?" I just about died. I've learned a lot about missionary work from him though. He's really taught me how you can get answers to everything from the BOM. He is the guru of the BOM. Also, I have learned to focus a lot more on the person, and not on just going through the motions. He's (as he would say it) "the man."
Well, I am out of time to write, but I want to say that I love you all and will try to write a little more next week.
Love,
Elder Siebert
It hasn't been as cold here as it has been in Utah I think. We had a really cool thing happen out here called freezing rain. I'm not exactly sure how it all works out, but it rains and as the rain lands it freezes to everything. Basically when we went out on Tuesday morning, our car had a nice shell of ice completely encasing it about a quarter inch thick. It was really hard to scrape off. It also makes the roads kinda slick so we had to drive pretty slow and were pretty much late to everything that day.
This week I learned a new driving term call the "Philly Sneak." What that entails is that you go into a right turn lane and act like you are going to turn. Then, you put the pedal to the metal when the light goes green and try to get past the person on your left in the lane going straight and thereby skip waiting in line for people to go through the light. The only problem is that you have to make it good off the line and really fake the other person out because if you don't make into the lane, you don't have a lane and you die. 4 Lying Lateral Manuevers out of 5. (I totally knocked that off of mark).
I had my first baptism this week! Her name is Jamey McIntosh. She is an awesome girl from Scotland. She's got the most wicked Scottish accent and she uses expressions like "half seven" (seven thirty), "yous" (you), and "yous don't supposing...." We've been teaching her this entire transfer and she was meeting with the sisters a little before us and the conclusion I have reached is that she's amazing! We had her service and while there I was talking to another investigator, Paola, who also has a date about the baptism. She said that she'd been getting goosebumps every couple minutes. I asked if that was a good thing and she responded "Oh yeah, they're good goosebumps, really good goosebumps!" It was such a wonderful experience.
As you all know, I am going to Taiwan tomorrow and therefore this will be my last email from the States. Crazy right?
My new companion is amazing. He is so easy going, but is very, very hardworking. We have a lot of fun here. Seriously, I think that I have laughed far more in this week than in the entire last transfer put together. One time we were in the car and we were thinking of names for each other's future wives. When it came to Elder Bessey, Elder Mathie and I started telling him all men's names like "Richard" or "Helga". We laughed so hard. Then Elder Bessey said, "no seriously elders" and Elder Mathie looked really focused for a second then said, "what about Jim?" I just about died. I've learned a lot about missionary work from him though. He's really taught me how you can get answers to everything from the BOM. He is the guru of the BOM. Also, I have learned to focus a lot more on the person, and not on just going through the motions. He's (as he would say it) "the man."
Well, I am out of time to write, but I want to say that I love you all and will try to write a little more next week.
Love,
Elder Siebert
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Photos: Snow Storm, Tie Ceremony
These were taken after a huge snow storm, I don't know if you can tell, but we are drenched.
E. Bergloff giving me the heritage tie which I will pass down to my son
E. Bergloff giving me the heritage tie which I will pass down to my son
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Weekly Report: Jersey Jerk, New Companion, Fasting
Hey everyone!
Good news! I will probably be heading out to Taiwan on February 8th! So, I am sorry to say that all of my faithful admirers will have to begin purchasing the hefty, 98 cent postages to contact me. I am so sorry, but I also promise you that I am worth it. Tee hee.
I have a new slang expression this week: the Jersey Juke. Basically what this consists of is nearly running a red light to make a left turn before oncoming traffic even gets going. The second the light is about to turn green, or when it turns green, you gun the engine and make for the turn, all the while hoping that you don't get hit. Loads of people do this. Most people don't even react when people pull it. It'll probably be an Olympic sport soon.
This week was very, very busy. Once again we had to do a lot of splits to fit everything in. We also had the curveball of the century thrown at us. Even though we'd all assumed that E. Bergloff would die in this area because he's on his final transfer as of today, he was on the transfer sheet. Elder Bessey was full of speculation as to what would happen. Finally what we found out today was that he is the new assistant to the president and that Elder Smith is stepping down to train a golden. I now have a new companion named Elder Mathie. He seems very cool. If worst comes to worst, I'll be leaving soon. Kidding. I have grown to love the area very, very much. I have joked that I wish that I could be like a starfish and become two of me by getting cut in half, then somehow merge back together at the end of two years. Think of how blessed the world would be if that were possible! Kidding again.
This week it we had the opportunity to teach a part member family and one of the girl's boyfriend. The lesson went well, the non-member family members didn't seem to interested. However, Evan, the boyfriend, came up afterwards and asked for the book of mormon that we were going to leave. He said "I was wondering if I could have that." He is so prepared to hear the gospel; he even knew answers that his girlfriend, (who is a member), didn't remember. I am so excited for him.
Finally, I want to testify of the power of fasting. We have a man we're teaching and hopefully baptizing this week named Joe Bannano. He is amazing. He has given up coffee and cigars to be a part of the church and is will to do pretty much everything we ask. He's already read the Book of Mormon all the way through and is just amazing. The only problem is that he works as a warehouse manager for a newspaper and can't ever make it to the ward on time. I fasted for him this week that he could make it to all three hours because that's what he needed to do. It was amazing because he'd never been able to before, but on this Sunday, he was there at 12:20 with plenty of time to come in, talk a little and get settled. I know that as we fast and pray for things, our Father in Heaven really listens to us and will give us what we ask for as long it is in His will. The Lord can work miracles if we but have faith. So have faith, please, and don't be afraid to ask for miracles.
Love,
Elder Siebert
(Not a knockoff, just a newer model)
Good news! I will probably be heading out to Taiwan on February 8th! So, I am sorry to say that all of my faithful admirers will have to begin purchasing the hefty, 98 cent postages to contact me. I am so sorry, but I also promise you that I am worth it. Tee hee.
I have a new slang expression this week: the Jersey Juke. Basically what this consists of is nearly running a red light to make a left turn before oncoming traffic even gets going. The second the light is about to turn green, or when it turns green, you gun the engine and make for the turn, all the while hoping that you don't get hit. Loads of people do this. Most people don't even react when people pull it. It'll probably be an Olympic sport soon.
This week was very, very busy. Once again we had to do a lot of splits to fit everything in. We also had the curveball of the century thrown at us. Even though we'd all assumed that E. Bergloff would die in this area because he's on his final transfer as of today, he was on the transfer sheet. Elder Bessey was full of speculation as to what would happen. Finally what we found out today was that he is the new assistant to the president and that Elder Smith is stepping down to train a golden. I now have a new companion named Elder Mathie. He seems very cool. If worst comes to worst, I'll be leaving soon. Kidding. I have grown to love the area very, very much. I have joked that I wish that I could be like a starfish and become two of me by getting cut in half, then somehow merge back together at the end of two years. Think of how blessed the world would be if that were possible! Kidding again.
This week it we had the opportunity to teach a part member family and one of the girl's boyfriend. The lesson went well, the non-member family members didn't seem to interested. However, Evan, the boyfriend, came up afterwards and asked for the book of mormon that we were going to leave. He said "I was wondering if I could have that." He is so prepared to hear the gospel; he even knew answers that his girlfriend, (who is a member), didn't remember. I am so excited for him.
Finally, I want to testify of the power of fasting. We have a man we're teaching and hopefully baptizing this week named Joe Bannano. He is amazing. He has given up coffee and cigars to be a part of the church and is will to do pretty much everything we ask. He's already read the Book of Mormon all the way through and is just amazing. The only problem is that he works as a warehouse manager for a newspaper and can't ever make it to the ward on time. I fasted for him this week that he could make it to all three hours because that's what he needed to do. It was amazing because he'd never been able to before, but on this Sunday, he was there at 12:20 with plenty of time to come in, talk a little and get settled. I know that as we fast and pray for things, our Father in Heaven really listens to us and will give us what we ask for as long it is in His will. The Lord can work miracles if we but have faith. So have faith, please, and don't be afraid to ask for miracles.
Love,
Elder Siebert
(Not a knockoff, just a newer model)
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