Aloha!

Hey everyone,

This week I have moved to the other islands in the sea, Hawaii! I am loving Elder Kaluhiokalani and we are having a blast!

 

Translating review: Seriously, I have translated so much lately that I am going to be a translated being soon. Hee hee. This week I translated for one of the new presiding bishops, Bishop Davies and also translated for Elder Gong of the seventy again and all that jazz. It was actually one of the hardest translations of my life. Bishop Davies was all over the place and going on about all the organizations of the church and bible stories. Rough. Very fun though.

 

Food: Candied Crysanthemum: This is a little bit of a cool, "natural" sweet. It was actually really good. I loved it and mostly loved the fact that you could say something like, "she loves me, she loves me not, she loves me, she loves me not, shoot, who cares if she loves me? This flower is delicious!" 4 out of 5.

 

Verbatim: It's not blasphemy, it's just not very good.--Elder Kaluhiokalani on Zhou mama swearing in her prayer.

 

Heavenly Father, we ask that...OW! Slap!--Me as a little bug made it down the collar of my shirt and started stinging me. I ran upstairs into the church bathroom and ripped off my shirt and the little thing came out and we killed it. It was awful.

 

He fishes!--Me at the sushi place as I taught my comp how to eat the roll. The boss told me not to do it for him because he needed to know how to fish and not to have a fish given to him.

 

That's my bum. (me)

I know that what you have said is true. (elder Kaluhiokalani)--Conversation on his smacking my bum.

 

This week we had a really good experience teaching. My son is an awesome missionary. We went and taught Zhou mama and really knew that we needed the spirit so strong. I was begging for it the whole lesson and I really feel like I was able to be inspired by the spirit and asked some really good questions. I translated for my comp and he shared some really good stuff. It was really the coolest when I went and was telling Zhou mama about something and then wanted to share a scripture when the impression came that I needed my companion to say something. I turned and told my comp, "What did you want to say?" He looked surprised and said it wasn't a big deal. "I really have a feeling right now that you need to share whatever you wanted to say right now." He hesitated for a sec and then spoke. It changed the lesson and it was so cool to see that the spirit was working through me and through us in the right way. My companion told me that it was cool because everything that he felt like he should say was actually something that I said two seconds later as I shared. I know that the spirit guides and leads us in this life.
Love,
Elder SIebert

THE KICK IS GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey everyone!

Exciting news for the first time in a while, BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Brother Wang got baptized this week! We found him and then four weeks later (a mission record I am sure because it's the absolute minimum amount of time required to be baptized in my mission) he was entering the waters of baptism to be baptismed by proper priesthood authority and confirmed the next day. It was so exciting through the whole thing to see him so ready for the gospel and so accepting of everything we taught to him. The day that we met him, he was just waiting for his bus and then we talked to him and told him about the BOM. Apparently this is what he had wanted for years and years. He had been studying the bible four times a year and just feeling like there was more and as he puts it, "Then they (gesturing to us) found me and brought me here and I knew what I was missing, what I had wanted all along." It's such a miracle and a manifestation of the prophetic words in Amos that many would thirst and hunger for the word or God, but be unable to find it....until it was restored that is. It is a blessing to me that I got to see that and that Elder Cranney could see that before he left, it being his first baptism on the mission.

 

Other news is that I am training an Elder Kaluhiokalani! Elder Kaluhiokalani is a huge Hawaiian Elder and he's great! He's got so much fire to do the work and he's got a really fun quirky personality that I think is going to be awesome. He's the first companion that I have had that is bigger than me. It's strange because I am used to people telling me how buff I am, but now that he's about 1.75 times heavier than me, I think that the tables will turn.

 

Food:

Chicken Goop: This is similar to the chicken goop that we made at home in the crockpot but a little different. Since my mommy sent me the ranch dressing mix, I made some gravy with that, shredded chicken, added some other seasonings and veggies and served it over Penne Rigatte pasta. So delicious. It was a good thing to come home from church to. 5 unappetizingly named chicken concoctions out of 5.

 

Verbatim:

Elder Cranney: What's a random object?

Me: (list off a couple and then...) Coffin

Elder Cranney: I was thinking a little more sunshine mellow

Me: A coffin in the sun?--regarding a something that Elder Cranney was writing in a letter going home. I have no clue what it was about.

 

I don't think that you can imagine how food controlled my mind right then.--Elder Cranney

 

Look at him (me), his skin is so black! He works really hard! Your skin is too white, that means you're not working! Work harder and Chinese people will like you more.--Brother Zhong regarding my companion's skin.

 

I'm like a 72 hour kit, I store things up!--Elder Kaluhiokalani on eating an entire pan of lasagna at the trainers/trainees orientation meeting

 

Regarding the door being left open at the mission home:

President Grimley: Okay, who was born in a barn and left the door open?! Elder Visser, was that you?

Me: He's from Arkansas, everyone's born in a barn there

Elder Visser: Groans while laughing

 

It's the leaning tower of Qi1Zi3 (means wife in chinese)--Elder Kaluhiokalani while memorizing chinese words from Phase 1

 

Did she just shake the baby to get the crumbs off of him?--Elder Kaluhiokalani about the Sister who shook her toddler to get the copious amounts of crumbs off of him.

 

Well I think that's all that time permits today. I switched the order and the miracle is at the top today.

Love,

Elder Siebert

Brother Wang is going to get BAPTIZED!

Hey everyone!

Food: Banana Flower Ice with Chocolate and Granola: So wonderful and refreshing on a hot summer day. The flavors are so wonderful together and it was almost like ice cream, but just, a little, different. I give it 5 indulgent ices out of 5.

 

Verbatim:

It's the three degrees of glory!-- regarding my multiple tanlines on my wrist, resultive of the braces that I wear for it.

 

They may think it's a pain talking to a foreigner...or Sister Li--Elder Johnson in District Meeting on contacting

 

ELDER!!!!!!!!!!--me playing a horrible improvised song on the guitar for my companion in the morning.

 

We're the emeritus club--Me on Elder Visser, Elder Bogle and I being on exchange together. We were all Zone Leaders together.

 

You like oyster noodle soup? "Like" (facebook lingo)--Sister Yan, one of Elder Visser's Recent Converts to me.

 

Me: Brother Li, I have good news for you! Brother Wang is going to get baptized this week on Saturday!

Brothe Li: Oh................Elder Siebert, I have some good news for you too....I'm getting married that day!

Me: (in my mind) You're getting married? You had a girlfriend? Fiance? Wha....?The wool has been pulled over my eyes!--Me calling our ward mission leader about the baptism

 

Well this week brought the good news that my dear investigator, Brother Wang is going to get baptized next week! He is going to be baptized a mere four weeks after we found him--the fastest that anyone can be baptized! It's very, very exciting! Everyone loves him and he loves the church so much. He told us how he was looking for more than he could find in the bible and in other churches and then we met him. He told us how much he loves the scriptures about "baptism of repentance" because he was baptized as a baby and always felt like there should be a real baptism. It's so cool. From day one he was totally on board to get baptized and he was so excited that he could get baptized earlier than his date. He has just been a smooth sailing because we started sharing with him and he had no problems. Even when we blitzed the commandments with him he didn't have any problem. He would just say, "So what's this commandment?" We'd explain and he'd say, "Oh okay, I got it, I just wanted to know if there was anything special about this commandment. Yeah, I knew that one already. Yup, yup, of course I will keep it." It has just been so amazing. It's so nice that the Lord has answered my prayers for baptism. I know that He will give us what we need when we need it. It's something that I found studying a long time ago and I have just been trying to wait on the Lord for when I could see baptisms. I am glad that the time has come at last. I know that the work is the Lord's work, he directs it and will bless all those who are involved with it. I bear this testimony to you all and thank you for all your love and prayers.

Love,
Elder Siebert

I love drunk people

Hey everyone!

This week brought possibly one the craziest guys that I have ever met here. He was drunk out of his mind and came up to me while I was writing something down on the street and put his arm around me proclaiming, "Jesus loves me!" I told him that He does indeed love him. "Jesus loves you too!" I nodded in agreement. He actually seemed pretty interested in our church but kept insisting that I use english to talk to him because he said, " I know the whole CIA thing and I have amazing listening ability, I can understand everything that you say. Speak English." He couldn't really understand that much of what I said. I kept talking to him and he told me, "My kungfu is amazing. I studied with a Shaolin Priest, I'm pretty much amazing, nobody can beat me." He later told me on a completely unrelated tangent that "Man, if I didn't like Obama, forget the secret service, my kungfu is so good, he'd be over in 2 seconds. No problem. But hey, I love America and I love the Chinese countries. And Jesus. Jesus loves me. And you." At this point I was just trying to move on and all the sudden he spreads his arms out and says, "When I fly, when I'm in the air flying an airplane, Man, I am CRAZY!" I nearly busted out right then. It was possibly the funniest contact ever. I can't describe in proper glory, but think about how sick this was. Hee hee.

 

Food: There is nothing new on the food to report.

 

Verbatim: Mostly taken up by the guy up above

 

Rat Killer:

I found out that I am a rat killer. I put the trap for the mouse outside on our balcony and I guess it was still baited and open and I found out the other day that because of the trap being baited and whatnot, a rat had actually gotten into without me knowing and it has now died and is decomposing inside the little cage trap. Pretty nasty. I felt bad even though it is vermin.

 

This week I had a cool miracle happen. We set up with this lady at her house and as we went over I had a feeling that I needed to talk to this kid that was on the otherside of the street. I wheeled around and talked to him and he turns out to be super interested in the gospel and wants to come to church and set up to meet with us and then come to church. Later, we found out that the lady wasn't home but on the way down, I found another kid that was just amazing. He has been to church before and understands a lot and his eyes nearly came out of his skull when he found out that we have a prophet right now. He was so excited to learn about it and when I gave him the BOM he was thrilled! He set a baptismal date right there and is willing to come to church with us! It was such a huge miracle to me that even though the other lady wasn't home, the Lord had us set up with her at that time (and honestly her interest was so-so) so that we could contact two of His children that were ready for the gospel. I know that God will make us a powerful tool in His omnipotent hands as long as we will humble and weak enough to let Him use us.

I love you all!
Elder Siebert