Member Crazy!

Hey Everyone!

This week brings,

Food Review: Xian4Bing3: I think I've had these before but I couldn't remember if I had reviewed it. They are a salty sort of pastry thing filled with meat and some green onion and stuff. They are so super good. I ate so many last night! 5 porky pastries out of 5.

 

30 bei4 bing1: This was the most colossally large ice of my life. We had seven people together eat it. It was so good. I ate fifteen bowls because we were going for a time record (which we set at 24 minutes) meaning that I ate as much as three other people put together. I wasn't even aware that my ice eating skills were that good. It was so fun. To finish, I picked up the huge bowl and then drank the last of it and slammed it on the table and told them to stop the time. I still love the limelight. 5 mega-ices out of 5.

 

Verbatim:

In Weekly Planning Session:

Me:"my goal was serving Elder Cordon in two ways or more a day...I think that I'm doing well on that one."

Elder Cordon: "Yeah, you're doing super good......(mumbles something)"

Me: "did you say 'keep doing it'?"

Elder Cordon: Oh, no! I meant something else. But you don't have to stop either.

Both: Laugh loudly

 

Me: How are you doing today?

Guy on scooter: Feeling like I don't want to talk to you....

Me: Oh.....

 

Sister Wu: What does your opinion matter?

Elder Cordon: You're probably talking to yourself right?

Sister Wu (to me): You've corrupted him! He never talked back before! He used to be an angel, now he's changed. No fun!

Me: (begin to be very focused on what I am eating and don't say anything)

 

I know there was more this week but I was really lazy at writing it down.

 

This week was really fun and we saw a great miracle because we went to an investigator's place but he wasn't there and we talked to his friend and his friend was okay with meeting with us. We shared and it turns out that his dad was a member and since passed on but he has had exposure to the church and I don't know why he didn't want it before, but he is totally okay to learn now and wants the gospel. A huge blessing is that he really understands what we teach him and he helps his friend out as well. They are both learning so well and I have huge hopes for them.

I love you all,

Elder Siebert

Songshan

Hey everyone,

This week I got to my new area, songshan without any problems. This place is great and people here are awesome. I love it. The members really like to feed us and give us food all the time. It makes me worried about being able to keep up my figure. I will have to work out really hard now. Haha. Good thing that I have a weight gym around here.

 

Food: Wild cherry chocolate ice cream bar: I know that this is really lame for a review but it was a good deal, buy one get one free and we had a feast of ice cream bars on a very hot day. really hit the spot. 4 cold cherry creams out of 5.

 

Verbatim:

(I hope somewhere out there Brandon Rogers reads this, or someone gets on my facebook and tells him to read this):

Me: Oh, have you ever had Ceviche?

Elder Cordon: Oh yeah, it's most what people eat when they're drunk though. They go and throw up and then eat ceviche and it kind of like...brings them back to life.

Me: (after laughing really hard) Oh, my friend learned how to make it on his mission, he made it for me in college. It was really good.

Elder Cordon: Oh, I wonder who taught him how to make it....I'm worried!

(Both of us bust up laughing)

 

What if it's a good lie? Like to make someone feel good?--Makiko, our investigator, on the 10 commandments

 

I don't cheat on my husband!--Makiko, after I invited her to keep the law of chastity. This happened mostly because our member said that it was basically if you're married to not cheat on your spouse and all. It was really funny and I assured her that we don't think that she cheats on her husband and that it's just a standard that we are expected to keep. It was hilarious. She's so cute. She's this Japanese woman who is just so sweet and accepting.

 

I met with the bishop here because no one had done it in forever and he was super happy for us to come over. He told us that it was so rare that missionaries would come over. We shared a message and it was both funny and serious and he really liked it. We earned a lot of trust with him and in Ward Council the next day, he just gave the time over to us to present some new plans from the mission and some of our plans. It was amazing to be able to work with him and see the impact of having the bishop on our side. It's something that I have learned over and over on my mission. 

We also worked a lot with members this week and got to know them a lot. Most missionaries here have just kind of clustered around Wu mama who is amazing but she's not the whole ward and can't substitute for it. The members seemed surprised and touched that we wanted to see them and all. When we visited, they were so warm and accepting of us and we have already gone a long way to establish an amazing relationship with them.

 

This week also saw a great miracle on the street. We were going along contacting at night before a lesson and I was talking to people and I just talked to this guy, a brother Liao. He is already Christian and recently got baptized in another church just because the minister said to. He is super open to the message though and as I shared about the restoration with him he seemed like he like it a lot. I set up with him to come back to the church later that night and he really did come back! He came to church this week and has met with a few times. Both times he's been a little late so we have had very little time to share with him but we are excited to set a date with him this week. I can't wait. I think that he's got tons and tons of potential!

I love you and thank you for all your support!

Elder Siebert

OH NO! MOVING TO THE LAND WHERE ALL MISSIONARIES GAIN WEIGHT!

Hey everyone,

This week I was a little slacking on the verbatim.

 

"Oh, you might want to pick up your bag, the dog just peed."--Brother Hou on his dog peeing on Elder Ks bag. ELder K was not pleased.

 

(In english) "No, not here"--Brother Zhang on me trying to give him a hug in the starbucks. He'll give me one in the church, but he's too gansta to give me one in public.

 

"No, no, no, it's like this."--Brother Zhang teaching me a complicated hand shake man hug thing. I'mma stick to the normal hug, my mind kinda exploded.

 

"YOU'VE BEEN PLAYING FOOTBALL AND YOU HAVEN'T INVITED US?"--Sister Liao, one of our district's sisters on finding out we've been playing ball.

 

"Hey Elder Siebert, did you play Age of Empires? Because you say shi4 like the Chinese troops in that game."--Sister Muhlstein. She called me nerdy for it, but I wouldn't have picked up on that, so I leave it to you to figure the real nerd out.

 

Food:

Rose vinegar honey tea: This was given to us by an investigator. It's very aromatic and sweet at the same time, but not overly so. I don't know if it was because I was really hot and it was really cold and refreshing but this drink is one of my favorites. I will have to get the stuff to make it and then mix up some awesomeness at home. I give it 5 honeyed horticultures out of 5. (that was a real stretch).

 

I have noticed that it's been a little hard for me to focus these last couple days after getting the move call. I had a great experience though where I was having a really hard time and we pulled out our hymnals and sang a couple songs because I had a prompting that would help. A feeling of the spirit just came over my heart and I said a very sincere prayer and that night was one of the best nights in a long time. It wasn't that we say an above average amount of miracles, but I was able to focus and I was able to be happy with the work.

 

We had a great miracle with someone that we were teaching this week. We have been teaching Brother Zhang who is someone that I found on the street my first week training Elder K. I have really seen him grow a lot and start to cast off the shell that he puts up. Deep down he's just a really sweet guy who wants to be happier in life but just hasn't really known how to do it yet. This week we shared about prayer some more to help him get over his smoking habit and the feeling came to share about Alma 37:36-37. It was a really great scripture and I joked around about counseling with the Lord and how most of the time we don't. I made a fun analogy with a member that was with us and we were all laughing but then I brought it back in and the spirit told me just what to say and Brother Zhang was smiling and just touched by the spirit. His prayers have been better ever since and I have just seen him continue to progress so much. I know that God is directing this work because I am not strong enough to do it by myself. I am so grateful for him and for the miracles that he's let me see here in Xindian and I hope that I can be a worthy and good enough tool to keep helping when I move to Songshan today.

 

Over and out with all my love,

Elder Siebert

Typhoon!

Hey everyone!
I don't have much in the way of verbatim this week but I have some pictures that I am going to attach here in a second. I do have a funny story that I forgot to write about though.
(during studies)
Elder Zhuo: (picks up a pocket hand sanitizer sprayer) what's this?
Me: It's mouth spray
Elder Zhuo: Oh really?
Me: Yeah, it tastes great, you should try it
Elder Zhuo: (points it at his mouth, starts to press the spray)
Me: It actually doesn't taste that great though.
Elder Zhuo: (presses the spray, the hand sanitizer sprays into his mouth. He freezes for a second.) OOOOOHHHHHH NOOOOOO!
Me: Oops!
Elder Zhuo: IT TASTES SO GROSS!
Me: It might have been handsanitizer!
Elder Zhuo: (after rinsing his mouth copiously) Hahaha, that was so funny! I don't even blame you for doing that, I would've done it too!


Uh, this week I got trapped inside because of the typhoon. It was a little weaksauce for the most part but it was good to be able to have the time to go nuts on all the records and call a million people. I am afraid that I ran up a phone bill though. Sigh. We also had a great time walking around in the lavalavas and feeling hawaiian. This week my companion also made me some lunch and I ate the closest to a raw egg I have ever had in my life. I was grossed out and intrigued by it. More grossed out than intrigued though.

We are continuing to see tons of progress with our investigator Kyle and he's just doing great. He's still struggling with finding a way to get all the commandments down pat but he's just improving so much, he wears a nice shirt to church now, and sat in the front of the chapel for the first time ever today. He's always told us that he hates sitting up there before, but this week he just did it by himself and did it in Sunday School too. In Sunday School he shared a powerful testimony about the Word of Wisdom in which he told everyone that there are many reasons why all those things are bad but the most important thing to know is that our knowledge has limitation and God is perfect so we just can't doubt in Him. It was so amazing to see how much he is changing and how much of a love he has for God now.

This week was really cool because we had an awesome miracle while finding. We went to go find a former and we didn't get them at home but we had a feeling to keep knocking and didn't have much success. We went nearby and as we were going I had a feeling to find another former. While we were there I got into a longer contact with someone and then my companion knocked into an apartment building which we went into. When we came out and got to the former's house, Brother Lin walked up right as we got there. He said that we could come in and was surprised that we were there right then because he had just gotten home and been out all day long. It was an amazing miracle where the Lord just set everything up so that we could right at that door at the right time and that meant delaying us at a couple other places so that He could get the time just right.

I think that that's about all for this week!
Love,
Elder Siebert
p.s. you can all write me letters if you'd like!:)

My companion says I look Tongan...in a lava lava!

Hey everyone, how you durn?

Food: Corned beef fried rice and Spam musubi (shaka): This was amazing! It's so bad for your body, but so good. We got sent some canned corned beef from Mama Kaluhiokalani and Spam so we made the super spam shaka! We fried a can of the beef with rice and then used that rice for the musubi which is like a little sushi roll (sorta) and then put spam on top of it and condiments. I loved it and it was so good! I give it 5 spankin' good shakas out of 5. Ps. My companion freaks out whenever I call these "shakas" because that's not what they are called.

 

Verbatim:

Hopefully there will be no head chopping in the Taiwan Taipei Mission.--President Day on following the spirit (in reference to Nephi following the spirit)

 

He's a gay investigator, well not really investigator, more like gay eternal former.--Elder Lin "Lincoln" on Diego

 

Me (over phone call at night): *kissing noise* (very loud)

Elder Lin: Oh great. (hangs up)

 

Oh, you look so Tongan right now.--Elder K on my lavalava being worn over my slacks and shirt with tie.

 

YES!!!!!!!!--Me on being told I look Polynesian

 

Me: Oh, the no-tie lavalava method is not as easy to take a pee in.

Elder K: It's like a dress, just hike it up

Me: Oh, sorry. I didn't know how to take a pee in a dress.

Elder K: Well I just figured it out.

 

News:
I got a lavalava! Yeah! I wear it all the time. It's so good. I love it like I love.............my............biceps...............and my family. Haha, just kidding, I love the family way more than the biceps. I don't love those anymore.

 

More news, I have a very probably baptism next next week. We are all very excited. I will keep you posted. His name is Kyle and here's the story! I set up a split where I was with a member and Elder K was with a member for a night because Elder K was baptizing someone and I needed to go to Taipei to do a temple tour for an investigator of ours, Kyle. I prayed about it really hard to know if it was the right thing to do and I felt right. Kyle showed up late to the temple but as we started the temple tour he and his GF told me that they were actually hoping that they could go to the baptism that was at that chapel that night. I was a little confused because I had asked them to attend the baptism that we had in Xindian but I said of course we could do that. We went in and sat down; it just so happens that we were just in time for the baptism to start. I was puzzling to myself why in the world I had to come all the way to Taipei instead of staying in Xindian for the baptism and it was just confusing. I was a little frustrated because I thought that maybe I had mistaken the spirit and staying was what I needed to do. The baptism began and President Day, our new mission president, actually gave one of the talks. I knew then why I had to come up to Taipei. His talk was so spiritual. The Holy Ghost was there so strongly and it was just amazing to feel that and his love. I know that that feeling touched Kyle's heart. After the ordinance of baptism had been performed, I sat there contemplating what to say. I got the impression to ask him how he'd felt about it and I did. He replied that he hadn't really felt anything special. My heart dropped. I had really felt good about asking him that question. He paused though and then quickly said, "but I'm ready to really get ready for baptism now." I was so shocked and all I could manage to say was a startled "When?" He replied saying, "the sooner the better." "August 11th?" I asked. He agreed and the spirit came and I was so happy. It all made sense to me then why I needed to be there that night and all the doubt that I had melted away. It was a great feeling. We are working with some problems that he needs to overcome but I have faith that it'll all work out well.

 

Love you all!

Elder Siebert