Weekly Report: Bowling, Werewolves, Vietnamese Investigator

Hey Everyone!

I hope all is well in the outside world. I'm doing well; this week went fairly well. We had a baptism on Saturday night. It was very well attended, because there was a ward activity prior to the baptism which started late. As is the case with all Taiwanese ward activities, it was mostly centered around food; this time the pretense was all the birthdays for the quarter. We sort of attended, but mostly we were outside because we were waiting for the investigator, filling the font, and getting out clothes for him. His name is Zhan1 sun4 neng2. Incidentally, the first real lesson I ever taught was to this man. He's 24, and his faith is super strong. Has a can do attitude that inspires me. Here's an example. For a living, he picks tea leaves, and often had to taste the quality of the tea they produced. However, when we shared the Word of Wisdom with him, he said, "There should be a way." That was it. He never had any problem with the Word of Wisdom after that. Here's another example: last week, when it rained like crazy, he was the only investigator there, because most of them thought it was too dangerous to go out on scooters. So did Brother Zhan. However, he went and hired a taxi so he could be to church. Not cheap, since he lives out in the boonies. Every time we taught him, I came out feeling more spiritually inspired than I had been before. He always told us that being in the church was like being in a quiet place for his spirit. I love him, and I'm certain that he'll be a huge asset to the ward.

We had a lot of investigators become progressing investigators this week. Two of them, Cai4 wei2 lun3 and Lin2 chong2 you4 are both Computer Science students at the technology college here in Douliu. Amazingly enough, we can communicate fairly well, mostly because they know a lot of the English words (I have never been so happy to hear the word "framework" in my life). Because of me, Weilun is learning the computer language Python. Kind of funny.

We have another investigator who's Vietnamese. His Chinese is pretty good, but his ability to understand Gospel terms is marginal at best. Mostly, we point him to the Preach My Gospel lessons we have in Vietnamese, and ask him to read the Book of Mormon (Sac Mac Mormon). Despite our poor ability to teach him, he's really really strong. He's already read to 2 Nephi (in about a week), and has a firm testimony of the Restoration. However, he has yet to come to church. He's here on a worker's visa, and is basically a prisoner inside the business he works at. His residence card gets taken from him by the guards at the business, so he can't leave without going through them. He works 12 hour shifts, and often has to work overtime (16 hours at a time). He's tired and overworked, but he's so faithful and still willing to meet with us and read. Some people are truly amazingly well prepared.

Food Review: Nai3 su1
Basically, this stuff is like milk flavored crumbly stuff that goes inside of bread. Taiwanese bread is amazing, but this is especially good stuff. I love to eat it, and I can eat close to a whole loaf at a time (which costs about a buck and a half in American money; food is CHEAP here). My mom can make the stuff, so if you want to try it, pester her (sorry Mom!)!

Excuse Review:
This one's really bizarre. I contacted a guy, and informed him I was a missionary. He said, "Oh me too!" and I asked him what type he was. He replied, "I'm the type who goes, [howls]. So I can't talk to you." After that, he wouldn't pay attention to what I said. Strange. I give it 2 lycothranpic (I can't remember how the word is spelled, exactly, sorry) howls out of five, because I doubt he's more of a werewolf than I am. At least I can Photoshop.

Today for Preparation day, we went and bowled in Douliu. Lots of Elders came. Elder Wilson and I are the Jiayi Zone Champions. Not sure how it happened. I bowled a double turkey. There were better bowlers than us, but apparently, we were the best companionship. It was really really funny. The Zone Leaders are hilarious. They were talking in pirate accents, and saying things like, "thar be a good shot, matie." Elder Evans (Elder Uchtdorf's grandson) is hilarious. If he made a good shot, he'd strut back, and then moonwalk off to the side. He was a master bowling pose doer, but not a great bowler. Here are a couple of quotes that were fabulous:
"I hunger for success. I eat success for breakfast."
"Elder Mix, this picture makes my butt look huge."

This week, while I was contacting at a big intersection, I was having a hard time finding anyone prepared. I sat after people left from a green light, and prayed for God to let me know where to go. I felt a strong impression to cross the road and that there'd be someone there waiting for me. I obeyed, and crossed the street. There was no one there. I waited for a little while, and no one showed up. I prayed again, wondering what was going on. This time, I felt like I should look down the road. About a hundred meters away, there was a guy sitting on a scooter. He was a delivery boy for Dominoes, and while I don't usually talk to people who are working or buying things, I felt strongly that I should talk to him. So I did. It was clearly the right thing to do, as he was friendly, and willing to add a baptismal goal. He has the same last name as me, so I told him we were brothers. After he left, I offered a prayer of thanks for the Lord's guidance. He truly leads us in this work. In retrospect, the promptings of the Spirit are always much more clear, but it's hard to tell in the moment. I'm still working on understanding, and I believe it's something I'll spend all my life working on. I imagine that we are all in the same situation, so my request for all of you this week is to try and seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost in your lives. When and in what fashion I'll leave up to you, but I hope that all of you will use this as an opportunity to better understand how God works in our lives.

I love you all,
Elder Siebert