New Area: Kawasaki

Hello my Beloved Family!

I hope that y'all had a great week with happy weddings and stuff! How was it!? So fun? Did it actually happen? Lame cuz I wasn't there? Who did the sealing? Did they get a bunch of good advice? I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING!

This past week was pretty good! I got to say goodbye to all of the good people in Kamiooka and hi to all of the good people in Kawasaki. Meeting with those Kamiooka  people was really good. I got to lay the groundwork for the remaining missionaries to see success. I looked at the stats this week and it looks like my old companionship now has two baptismal dates and 10 progressing investigators! That's pretty exciting! Those Elders are great missionaries. On the Kawasaki front there are literally millions of people. It's crazy how many people there are here. But we have some good investigators that are looking like they will be progressing well! Also with this new responsibility I get to call everyone around the mission and be their baptismal consultant. We talk about the people that have dates or need to have dates and set plans to make things happen. If needed I get to go to the area and meet the person and do it myself! Tons of fun. President Wada also wants us to be going around the mission and training the missionaries who are struggling a lot. About six months ago this mission was in a big harvesting stage and we saw a ton of baptisms and we adapted to that phase to make the baptisms happen, but now we have a bunch of missionaries who want to be harvesting but they don't have anything to harvest! They haven't figured out that they need to go finding now. So my job is to train them in that as well. We count our contacts in this mission, and the entire mission averages about 30 contacts a week, which is super low and far less than half the standards of excellence! So we need to start building some finders! That's what I do best!

     

Elder Driscoll, my new companion, is a great elder, he came to the mission a transfer after I did so he is old too. We both have a lot of experience under our belts, so we walk around and have a good time! There is no lack of trust or concern about your companion's abilities; you can have full faith in them that they will do a good job, so that is really nice.

I have a new hobby that I have been trying on occasion for a couple months now: that is going up to the Jehovah's Witnesses that stand in front of the train stations and teaching them. They often try to argue. There is one man who I talked to and as usual he started trying to bash the scriptures with me, but I testified to him that I am an authorized representative of Christ's true church, and Christ himself, and called to represent him to all of the people in this area. I testified to that man that I had the authority to receive special revelation for him and that I could give him a priesthood blessing that would help him overcome his debilitating fear of women (he was abused as a child). I know that he felt the power of God in my testimony and promise. His contentious heart was softened and he gave me his phone number and asked me to give him the blessing sometime this week.

I love the authority and power of my calling as a missionary. I am so sad that I only have such a short time in this role! But you better bet that I will be using every last second!

Love Y'all and hope you have a good week!
Elder Siebach

P.s. Congratulations Spencer and Marnie on your wedding! May the Spirit be with you!