Weekly Report: Hot weather, Translation, Working with Members

Hey Everyone!
I hope you all had a great week back home. It was really hot out here. Wow. So amazingly hot.

The big news this week is that a member of the Area Seventy came to our Sacrament Meeting yesterday and I got to translate for him. That was a heady feeling, and I did a pretty good job, or at least, that's what Elder Chen said. Maybe next time Conference rolls around, it'll be my voice the Chinese people hear. Kidding. I'm not that good yet.

Shirt Review:
I saw a little kid on the back of a scooter with a shirt that said, "Never Trust Democracy." It was a really good reminder to me that freedom hating Commies come in all shapes and sizes. 0 confused communists out of 5.

Food Review:
This week, we had the ward dinner party activity. The ward's eternal investigator who loves me was so proud of the dish that he made, which included pig ears, pig head skin, and various other pig parts. It was actually pretty good, and everyone loved it. Brother Wu kept putting more into my bowl cause he wanted me to enjoy it. So I did. It was tasty. I'm so Taiwanese now. 4 pig parts out of 5.

So I gave up on translating Jesus the Christ for language study. While I can read it just fine, translating it is another matter. Elder Chen and I spent two days translating four very long sentences. It turned out terribly. Elder Chen laughs everytime he reads it, and has taken it and put it in his book of rememberance. Jerk. Hehe.

Another highlight of the week was when we were calling former records (we have TONS) at our apartment. I asked Elder Chen if he was alright (he'd just gotten rejected several times in a row) and the following conversation resulted:
Him: I just wanna scream.
Me: Ok. One, two three (I start screaming loudly and he joins in).
Me: Better?
Him: No.
Me: One, two, three! (we start screaming again)
Super random, but it was kind of fun.

This last week was really rough, investigator-wise. We've basically just baptized everyone we had, and one of the good ones that we had has stopped answering his phone (we suspect he got ahold of some anti). However, throughout the week, we were constantly praying that the Jiayi third ward could progress. During the week, two less active members both expressed interest in coming back to church. When Elder Huang of the Area Seventy came, he invited the members to each decide upon one inactive member and then make plans to get that member back. And then to make plans with that member to get another inactive back. I felt like all this was in answer to our prayers. I mean, how often does an Area Seventy randomly visit a ward? The coolest thing was in the case of an inactive Brother Ma. He's been having a lot of trouble in life lately, and had been thinking about committing suicide. When he was super down on Tuesday night, he received a text message from our Ward Mission Leader that said, "Brothers and Sisters, you can leave the church. You can forget about God. But when you need Him, He will never forget you." Brother Ma was touched and we met with him the next day when we went to the church and he just happened to be there. He's been reading his scriptures and praying each day. He came to church yesterday. God's hand is in the work. He loves every member, even the ones who have forgotten him. The funny thing about all this is that three weeks ago, we went to visit Brother Ma, and he totally ignored us. However, God had His plans to bring Brother Ma back and let him feel the peace of the Gospel again. It's been a privilege to see it all happen.

Well, I hope you all have a good week. Reach out to the less actives around you. I love you all.
Elder Siebert