Weekly Report: Avarice T-shirt, Curry, Tiger

Hey All!
How was everyone's week? I hope it was good. Heard it was "fallback" time this week. So glad Taiwan doesn't put up with any of that time change junk. We couldn't give a darn about the environment or the sun around here (just look at the water here and you'll know for sure we don't, right Mom?).

Shirt Review:
The other day, I saw a guy with a shirt that said, "Creativity + Imagination = $." I thought it was fabulous. That shirt successfully combined the twin elements of human ingenuity and reduced them to a single symbol which represents the avarice that has been called the "root of all evil." Thank goodness capitalism is alive and well here. Those commies across the sea will never understand what makes us so great! When I saw this, I laughed so hard I almost had a "trickle down effect," if you know what I mean. 5 flawless philosophies out of 5.

Food Exchange: Curry
This week, Elder Pei helped me to make curry. The interesting thing about this curry was that I only used coconut milk, and no water. It was VERY creamy, but very delicious, so much so that when Elder Mikkelsen came here on exchanges, he had two HUGE bowls for breakfast. Good old Elder Mikkelsen. Power Eatin'! 4 creamy creations out of 5.

Speaking of Elder Mikkelsen, he's got a sweet ride. I call it the Tiger, cause his bike is painted orange with tiger stripes. I'd only ever seen him ride it, but when I went on exchanges with Elder Byington this week, I got to ride it. It was a dream. The handlebars were augmented so they were much higher, so I got to ride Harley style. Pretty comfortable. The exchange was really good. The first night there, I was self contacted twice. That's never happened to me before, cause I don't look as white as a lot of the other missionaries. We taught three lessons that night, and it was great! I love to teach the Gospel. When someone's listening, and you know they're feeling the power of the Spirit, you get such a great feeling. Elder Byington is super laidback, and it was a really relaxing exchange. Cool.

This week, one of our investigators, cai4 long2 zhen4 fei1 (epic name, the last three characters mean "dragon", "earthquake", and "flight") passed his baptismal interview. He really knows the gospel is true. His Book of Mormon is completely marked up and has little post it notes sticking out of it everywhere. Yesterday, during Sacrament Meeting, he showed me the "Sermon on the Mount" section and was all excited about it. It's pretty cool how much he changed. He truly needed Elder Pei's "long talk" style of teaching. He stayed on our investigator log for 4 weeks when I was with Elder Mikkelsen (usually people are dropped after 2) cause he kept changing times, but the first time Elder Pei came, he showed up. I still remember the first lesson we had with Brother Long. He kept asking us where we'd heard a piece of doctrine, or where it was in the scriptures. He was pretty incredulous, but slowly, he's changed, and now he accepts that the doctrine we teach is from God. So cool. I know that the power of the Spirit is real, and can truly change the hearts of people. The Spirit testifies of Truth. I love being able to teach and have the Spirit back me up or put words into my mouth. It's a surreal, invincible feeling. I hope you all feel the Spirit daily (you probably do, and just don't always notice it).

Love,
Elder Siebert