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

Me up looking over the city.

The intestine!

We THANKS THE GIVING!

The view from the jungle gym

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

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

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

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