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
Monday, June 27, 2011
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
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