Weekly Report: Eating Reptiles, Fashion Victim, Lapray Song

Hey Everyone!
It was a good week here in YongKang. It rained like mad the first couple of days, so I spent the days with really wet feet.

Today we went to the zoo in Guiren with the rest of the Zone. It was AWESOME. Totally ripe for an animal rights lawsuit. All the animals are in cages, and the tour guide was just hitting the cages to get the snakes to hiss and bite. Then he fed one a rat, but had to hit the rat to make him woozy first. So ruthless. One of the Sisters started crying. All the while, he was telling us how they just raised the cobras and alligators to make leather and for food which brings me to:

The Food Review:
Yes, I ate snake and alligator. Pretty epic. Actually, the meat is nothing special. The alligator skin was a little like sea cucumber and the snake was like chicken. Pretty disappointing. 3 lizard letdowns out of 5.

Wow, we taught TONS of first lessons this last week. Taught two great families (though not quite so golden as the Liao family). My companion is a pretty capable guy and we teach in unity very well. I think it's been the first time since I went senior that I haven't done more than seventy percent of all the talking in lessons. It's wonderful.

Shirt Review:
I saw a shirt that said, "No More Fashion Victims." It was white words on black fabric, and kind of made me think it was some sort of crazy paradox. By wearing the shirt, you fall victim to the very thing you're trying to prevent. I tried to think about the implications of this shirt, but it made my head hurt. 4 maniac mannequins out of 5.

Me and Elder Lapray are ALWAYS singing his song. Our district leader, Elder Smith, wrote him a really rockin' song on the piano, and we sing lines from it all day long. Most of the time, I sing the first line, "oh, Elder Lapray you're so TALL." and just put in any adjective I want.

Well, we baptized again this last week. Our newest recent convert is Iverson 林志田. He's a super cool college kid who gets just about any prayer answered. Seriously. He gets everything he prays for. Not sure why that happens for some people. He's super outgoing and loves to meet everyone in the ward. The other day, he came up to me, grabbed my tie, and said, "It looks like a thousand dollars." On Saturday, at the baptism, he came up out of the font and said, as he climbed up the stairs out and of sight, "I love God!" He's a funny guy. But as he bore his testimony, he talked about how he has made the decision to endure to the end and invited all the members present to do so to, so everyone could be together forever. It was a really cool baptismal service. There are lots of people who are ready for the Gospel. The Lord will help each gain the testimony that they need so they can be baptized and endure to the end. The events of our lives are the same way. We will each have the joys and challenges that we need to get home. I like a line from last conference, where a speaker said that the pain we feel in this life is carefully measured and calculated. In similar fashion, so is the joy. All that we need, our Father in Heaven will give us. He wants us back home.

I love you all, and hope you have a great week. Love,
Elder Siebert