Weekly Report: Ups and Downs (the hills)

Hey everyone!
Sorry this week's email is a little late. We are having temple day today, so we didn't have our P-day this week on Monday. I am super excited for the temple. It's been a while.

My companion and I finished our "Let's Pillage" shirts this week. I am rather pleased with the results. They are very shuai4. Seriously though, I think it was the experience that made the shirt for me rather than the shirt itself. We just kept chipping away at the shirt during our spare few minutes before bed or meals. It's been really fun.

Food review for the week is something that I don't actually know the name for. We went to one of our investigator's restaurants though and had this special soup that they make there. It's supposed to be SO SO spicy, but I thought, though it was spicy, that it wasn't too bad. It had an amazing flavor though. Probably one of the best meals I have had since I got here, despite pretty much all the food being really great. 5 spicy specialties out of 5. I feel like such a bandwagon hopper.

This week we went and saw the Lin2 (dog) family. They seriously have 14 LARGE dogs. We walked in and had to sit on this one couch and let them chill out and get used to us for a few minutes before we could go on with our visit. I got warned to wear crappy clothes, and I am glad that I did, because I was covered in dog oils, hair and saliva when I left. I even took a tongue to the inside of my ear. Nasty. Large dogs suck. The Lin Family is great though. They made this superb Ga1li2 rice for us and then we taught them a little. They are so ready if they would only understand that it's not just every church that is good, but that our church has the fullness. We'll keep working on it. It was really funny afterwards though because we gave Gou2 (literally dog) ba4ba a hug after, then Gou2 ma1ma1 (both of these are the Lins) gave us both a hug and then the girl, Lydia gave Elder Benson this big hug and he was freaking out about it for about 10 minutes after because he has gone so long without being hugged. It was hilarious.

I have encountered the terrifying xiao2jie3 problems. There are a couple investigators that will just call to try and talk to me. I always make Elder Benson call them to set up and whatnot, but then they always ask to talk to me and being the jerk (just kidding) he is, Elder Benson will oblige. They are terrifying! They are always just super flirty and I don't know how to deal with them. I'm going to start having to wear Eau de Garbage to ward them off. Some of the member girls are actually onto me now too. Elder Benson says he's relieved to have someone more shuai4 than him around so that he doesn't have to be the object of their affections anymore. I am not amused. Pray for me.

We have been able to see so many miracles this week. Several people called us and just set themselves up to be taught by us. It was awesome. We were able to catch people home that were so prepared and just needed a little direction. We have no joke, 13 baptismal dates that we are working with, almost all of which are for this month. It is absolute madness. We had an investigator call yesterday (incidently, she's one of the ones who is hounding me) who told us how she'd basically been quan2ing the jiao4 or proselyting. She'd been sharing with her friends about the gospel and then called to let us know how she'd felt the spirit as she'd done it. It was an amazing experience to hear about. I don't know that I am doing anything special to be getting all these miracles, but I am so amazed seeing them all happen in my life. Keep plugging away everyone! Also, keep sending me mail, because I really do read it all, even if I don't always have much time to write back. I love you all!
Love,
Elder Siebert