Hey everyone!
This week brought warmer weather which brought with it a much sweatier Elder Siebert. Seriously, I get hot doing anything right now. I wouldn't say it's to the point of dying yet, but it's not the best that I have ever been out in. I drink something like 5 liters of water a day. I drain one for each meal and then an extra one at night. It's pretty intense.
This week I had an amazing dish at a member's house. It was a small pumpkin, halfed and hollowed out, stuffed with a mixture of marinated meat (slightly sweet), tofu and egg. It was possibly one of the best things I have tasted in a long time. The whole thing was steamed for a while, so it was very tender. I give it a definitive 5 scrumptiously stuffed squashes out of 5.5. I also had some amazing things call tan1 yuan2 (soup balls) that were stuffed with black sesame paste. They are supposed to be eaten in a hot soup, but I heated the actual soup balls up and then put them in the cold soup and it was the perfect dessert. I am addicted. 4 out of 5.
This week we had two people who passed their baptismal interviews and will be baptized next Saturday. One is a Chen2 Ding4Jie3 or Godric and the other is Chen2 Jie2Yi2 (who is not actually related to Godric, but she's great). If all goes according to plan, they will be baptized at a near-by beach by Elder Benson. I am so excited! I can't believe all the miracles that we've seen this transfer. They will be the third and fourth baptized this transfer. Next, next week I will be baptizing Zheng Jms daughter. I am so excited. It's great.
We were contacting this week and knocking doors when we ran into a really great miracle. I pressed a buzzer for someone's house and then talked to the man for a second and asked if we could come up. He said that he'd just come down instead. He turned out to be absolutely golden. He was so excited and set up a time to meet again all by himself. It was really, really cool. We prayed in gratitude, something I've been doing a lot lately. I promise that as everyone will look at their lives and be grateful for the blessings Heavenly Father has given you, you will notice even larger miracles. I love you all!
Love,
Elder Siebert
Monday, April 25, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Weekly Report: The land continues to be drenched
Hey everyone!
As far as food this week, I was able to have a childhood favorite Bai2chang1yu3. Its this fish, a "white pomfret" which is delicous. It's really pretty expensive, but this member took us out to dinner and when she found out that it was my favorite she said that she had to get it for me. It was amazing. My favorite, as always was the cheeks. Yum. 5 Cheeky chowdowns out of 5.
This week I baptized a Brother Liu as well. He is an awesome man who failed his first interview because he still believed there were many gods out there. However, we kept meeting with him and he started to see miracles in his life. Because of this, he finally decided to give up the former religions and commit to this one. His faith is really, really strong. When I gave him the dunk (I only needed one go at it, I'm a natural) he came out and told us in his testimony that he wished he could have stayed a lot longer in the water. He said that it was the most peaceful, happy feeling he's ever had. I am blown away by his experience. It was pretty much amazing. Not gonna lie. I was also very honored to be able to baptize him. I ended up singing another solo at his baptismal service. Sigh. I am going to be a world renowned singer by the end of this mission.
So since I am almost out of time, I am going to do the unthinkable and copy and paste something out of my email to my mom.
So yesterday, I had a great experience with the atonement. We were going to go with one of our investigators Godric up to Taipei to have a baptismal interview with the president, when Elder Benson broke it to him that he was actually meeting with the member of the presidency that had failed him in his last interview nearly five months ago. Godric is terrified of the guy because he was pretty mean. Basically, Godric was unwilling to go. He walked away from us and got on a train going home. I cried some. Less than I wanted to. I then prayed, hard. I didn't really pray that things would work out, but I just prayed and talked to God about it. When I ended, I had a completely and utterly peaceful feeling come over me. It was incredible. I knew then that everything would be okay. We sat at the station for nearly thirty minutes because Elder Benson was super depressed and sad, then Godric called. He asked where we were and then a couple minutes later, he showed up. He decided that he was willing to do the interview and that we could go down. I was really afraid when we got there because the President Zeng1 guy was going on to us missionaries about how Godric didn't have the right attitude about it having cancelled once and then coming fifteen minutes before a huge meeting. I was praying so hard for Godric because President Zeng1 seemed pretty hard hearted against Godric, however, Godric passed and he will be baptized in two weeks. So yeah, an emotional roller coaster of a day.
I know that the atonement is for reals. I add my testimony to my brother's. Christ stands with open arms, becconing all to come. Take his invitation and be healed. Don't wait. He will heal you right then and there if you will trust him.
I love you all,
Elder Siebert
P.S. Thanks for all the mail and support everyone!
As far as food this week, I was able to have a childhood favorite Bai2chang1yu3. Its this fish, a "white pomfret" which is delicous. It's really pretty expensive, but this member took us out to dinner and when she found out that it was my favorite she said that she had to get it for me. It was amazing. My favorite, as always was the cheeks. Yum. 5 Cheeky chowdowns out of 5.
This week I baptized a Brother Liu as well. He is an awesome man who failed his first interview because he still believed there were many gods out there. However, we kept meeting with him and he started to see miracles in his life. Because of this, he finally decided to give up the former religions and commit to this one. His faith is really, really strong. When I gave him the dunk (I only needed one go at it, I'm a natural) he came out and told us in his testimony that he wished he could have stayed a lot longer in the water. He said that it was the most peaceful, happy feeling he's ever had. I am blown away by his experience. It was pretty much amazing. Not gonna lie. I was also very honored to be able to baptize him. I ended up singing another solo at his baptismal service. Sigh. I am going to be a world renowned singer by the end of this mission.
So since I am almost out of time, I am going to do the unthinkable and copy and paste something out of my email to my mom.
So yesterday, I had a great experience with the atonement. We were going to go with one of our investigators Godric up to Taipei to have a baptismal interview with the president, when Elder Benson broke it to him that he was actually meeting with the member of the presidency that had failed him in his last interview nearly five months ago. Godric is terrified of the guy because he was pretty mean. Basically, Godric was unwilling to go. He walked away from us and got on a train going home. I cried some. Less than I wanted to. I then prayed, hard. I didn't really pray that things would work out, but I just prayed and talked to God about it. When I ended, I had a completely and utterly peaceful feeling come over me. It was incredible. I knew then that everything would be okay. We sat at the station for nearly thirty minutes because Elder Benson was super depressed and sad, then Godric called. He asked where we were and then a couple minutes later, he showed up. He decided that he was willing to do the interview and that we could go down. I was really afraid when we got there because the President Zeng1 guy was going on to us missionaries about how Godric didn't have the right attitude about it having cancelled once and then coming fifteen minutes before a huge meeting. I was praying so hard for Godric because President Zeng1 seemed pretty hard hearted against Godric, however, Godric passed and he will be baptized in two weeks. So yeah, an emotional roller coaster of a day.
I know that the atonement is for reals. I add my testimony to my brother's. Christ stands with open arms, becconing all to come. Take his invitation and be healed. Don't wait. He will heal you right then and there if you will trust him.
I love you all,
Elder Siebert
P.S. Thanks for all the mail and support everyone!
Monday, April 11, 2011
Weekly Report: I am a Weatherman, and I predict things will get wet
Hey everyone!
The weather is warming up here in Taiwan which means that many times I feel like I am melting/swimming in sweat and that no one is bothering to wear pants anymore. Seriously, there are no pants anywhere. As a general rule, I stopped looked lower than eye level anymore.
This week I finally had a1gei2 (agae). It was really not bad. I rather liked it, I won't lie. It's kind of this gelatinous ball of doughy stuff that gets steamed and then stuffed with various things. The type I had was stuffed with these noodle things (dong1fen2). I would have to say it's a 3.5 out 5. As far as other food, I had this amazing Miso based soup from an investigator's restaurant. He asked us to have lunch there and then gave us all this food for free. It was amazing. I felt like a king. The soup was possibly the best that I have had in a long, long time.
This week was very good. I had an investigator who passed his baptismal interview this sunday. He will be baptized this Friday. I am super excited because this is a guy that we almost gave up on, but then in answer to prayers, he started to see that the miracles and blessings in his life were coming from God. He wanted to get to know God more than he does now and that's why he is willing to be baptized. It is amazing to see that in just one week he has had a complete reversal of faith. He went from not really believing that Heavenly Father was the only true God to firmly believing and being so excited. He knows that Jesus is the Christ and he wants to do what he can do have something to give back.
We have also seen miracles as we have been carrying around a copy of the book of mormon with us wherever we go. It really lets people see that the gospel is something tangible. It gives them proof of reality of our message. They can feel it, read it and hold it in their hands. I want to encourage everyone that has taken the BOM for granted to really think about what this miraculous book means to you, how you know it's true, and what that makes you want to do. I'll do it too, because I feel like that'd be awesome.
Finally, we watched conference this week and it was amazing. The long wait for conference finally culminated in a 6 hour, nearly non-stop session watched in English on our Bishop's iPad this Saturday. We then watched the rest on Sunday. It was really, really good. I felt like I found answers to almost all of my personal questions and many of my investigators' questions. I can't wait for the Ensign to come out.
Love,
Elder Siebert
The weather is warming up here in Taiwan which means that many times I feel like I am melting/swimming in sweat and that no one is bothering to wear pants anymore. Seriously, there are no pants anywhere. As a general rule, I stopped looked lower than eye level anymore.
This week I finally had a1gei2 (agae). It was really not bad. I rather liked it, I won't lie. It's kind of this gelatinous ball of doughy stuff that gets steamed and then stuffed with various things. The type I had was stuffed with these noodle things (dong1fen2). I would have to say it's a 3.5 out 5. As far as other food, I had this amazing Miso based soup from an investigator's restaurant. He asked us to have lunch there and then gave us all this food for free. It was amazing. I felt like a king. The soup was possibly the best that I have had in a long, long time.
This week was very good. I had an investigator who passed his baptismal interview this sunday. He will be baptized this Friday. I am super excited because this is a guy that we almost gave up on, but then in answer to prayers, he started to see that the miracles and blessings in his life were coming from God. He wanted to get to know God more than he does now and that's why he is willing to be baptized. It is amazing to see that in just one week he has had a complete reversal of faith. He went from not really believing that Heavenly Father was the only true God to firmly believing and being so excited. He knows that Jesus is the Christ and he wants to do what he can do have something to give back.
We have also seen miracles as we have been carrying around a copy of the book of mormon with us wherever we go. It really lets people see that the gospel is something tangible. It gives them proof of reality of our message. They can feel it, read it and hold it in their hands. I want to encourage everyone that has taken the BOM for granted to really think about what this miraculous book means to you, how you know it's true, and what that makes you want to do. I'll do it too, because I feel like that'd be awesome.
Finally, we watched conference this week and it was amazing. The long wait for conference finally culminated in a 6 hour, nearly non-stop session watched in English on our Bishop's iPad this Saturday. We then watched the rest on Sunday. It was really, really good. I felt like I found answers to almost all of my personal questions and many of my investigators' questions. I can't wait for the Ensign to come out.
Love,
Elder Siebert
Monday, April 4, 2011
Weekly Report: Super Soakers are so not just water guns
Hey Everyone!
THE DANSHUI AREA JUST GOT DRENCHED! Zheng4 Li2 Yi3 Jing4 is now a member of our church! She was SO awesome! We ran out of gas at the church when we were filling our little ghetto "Port-o-font", so the water was freezing. Despite all this, she said that when she first stepped in she thought it was cold, but when she came out of the water, she felt like she was super warm. It was so awesome that she had such a powerful experience. Elder Benson had to do the honors twice because her foot came up the first time, but the second time he got her all the way under and even sent up a small tidal wave over the side of the port-o-font. It was really funny. The bishop had to jump back to avoid it. Hehehe. The service went really well, I ended up giving a talk in it and also singing a solo rendition of Nearer My God to Thee. It was really good, minus a couple girls giving me the goo-goo eyes in the back. Sigh.
Besides baptizing, I have been eating more great food lately because I have been getting menus and translating them with the help of Nina, one of the members who comes teaching with us a lot. I have vastly expanded my ability to try new foods I think. It's awesome. This week I tried some Ga1Li3 (curry) Ke2Le4Bing2 which are basically these fried mashed potato things. They have meat and veggies in them too, but they get all breaded up and fried. It was really quite wonderful. I liked it a lot and a lot. I would have to give it 4 out of 5 curried confections.
This week I also ended up cutting my companion's hair pretty awesome. I have learned much from my mom's haircutting skills and I was finally confident enough to forget the little razor attachments and just go at it with the bare razor and a comb. The result was some awesome, well blended hair. Everyone and their dog complimented his hair cut. Really, we discussed this the other day and decided that when someone compliments the haircut, they're complimenting the person who cut it (me) rather than the person who's hair was cut. However, if they say that you look good with the haircut, then it's a compliment to you. This is what we talk about in our down time.
We have been biking more than normal lately to save on money and I think that I can quote "The Best Two Years" in that my tush has become very beautiful with all the biking that I have been doing. Just in case you were wondering.
Hmmmm....I don't know that there's much else to say. The girl problems are getting better, which is great because I was getting to the point where I wanted to leave the area because it was so bad. Oh! Last week, we went up to this member's house for P-day which was awesome. They live all the way up in the mountains, near the very top, so when we looked out of their windows, we could see all of Danshui, Zhuwei, SanZhi, everything. It was this surreal, super gorgeous view. I will have to send my SD card home, even though that doesn't do justice.
We saw the changing power of the atonement this week. We have an investigator who has been stagnant for a long time, but he has finally started to keep commitments and he is suddenly making great strides to get baptized. It's awesome!
Oh, everyone here also tells me how I look like I am way older than I am because they all think that I look mature and talk in a very mature way. Hee hee. Uh, I think that's all. Keep pressing on everyone!
Love,
Elder Siebert
THE DANSHUI AREA JUST GOT DRENCHED! Zheng4 Li2 Yi3 Jing4 is now a member of our church! She was SO awesome! We ran out of gas at the church when we were filling our little ghetto "Port-o-font", so the water was freezing. Despite all this, she said that when she first stepped in she thought it was cold, but when she came out of the water, she felt like she was super warm. It was so awesome that she had such a powerful experience. Elder Benson had to do the honors twice because her foot came up the first time, but the second time he got her all the way under and even sent up a small tidal wave over the side of the port-o-font. It was really funny. The bishop had to jump back to avoid it. Hehehe. The service went really well, I ended up giving a talk in it and also singing a solo rendition of Nearer My God to Thee. It was really good, minus a couple girls giving me the goo-goo eyes in the back. Sigh.
Besides baptizing, I have been eating more great food lately because I have been getting menus and translating them with the help of Nina, one of the members who comes teaching with us a lot. I have vastly expanded my ability to try new foods I think. It's awesome. This week I tried some Ga1Li3 (curry) Ke2Le4Bing2 which are basically these fried mashed potato things. They have meat and veggies in them too, but they get all breaded up and fried. It was really quite wonderful. I liked it a lot and a lot. I would have to give it 4 out of 5 curried confections.
This week I also ended up cutting my companion's hair pretty awesome. I have learned much from my mom's haircutting skills and I was finally confident enough to forget the little razor attachments and just go at it with the bare razor and a comb. The result was some awesome, well blended hair. Everyone and their dog complimented his hair cut. Really, we discussed this the other day and decided that when someone compliments the haircut, they're complimenting the person who cut it (me) rather than the person who's hair was cut. However, if they say that you look good with the haircut, then it's a compliment to you. This is what we talk about in our down time.
We have been biking more than normal lately to save on money and I think that I can quote "The Best Two Years" in that my tush has become very beautiful with all the biking that I have been doing. Just in case you were wondering.
Hmmmm....I don't know that there's much else to say. The girl problems are getting better, which is great because I was getting to the point where I wanted to leave the area because it was so bad. Oh! Last week, we went up to this member's house for P-day which was awesome. They live all the way up in the mountains, near the very top, so when we looked out of their windows, we could see all of Danshui, Zhuwei, SanZhi, everything. It was this surreal, super gorgeous view. I will have to send my SD card home, even though that doesn't do justice.
We saw the changing power of the atonement this week. We have an investigator who has been stagnant for a long time, but he has finally started to keep commitments and he is suddenly making great strides to get baptized. It's awesome!
Oh, everyone here also tells me how I look like I am way older than I am because they all think that I look mature and talk in a very mature way. Hee hee. Uh, I think that's all. Keep pressing on everyone!
Love,
Elder Siebert
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