1st Email from Hong Kong

Wow! A whole hour to email! This is so very different to just about everything I'm used to.

My typing's not going too great this time; I've hurt my finger. More on that later, though, but just know that now instead of the strange American keyboards being my excuse for not typing well, I'm now blaming my finger - and while we're at it, I'll blame the strange Chinese keyboards too! Maybe sooner or later you'll all realise that actually, I'm a really bad typist, making you wonder how I managed to keep a job as a data entry clerk for so long.


Hong Kong, or "Heung Gong" in pingyum, the romanization, literally means "Fragrant Port". Yes it is. It smells pretty constantly, a wide variety of flavours, all of them very...shall we say, interesting? I certainly hope my nose can adjust. I'm half-way through a letter to you all about the Hong Kong experience, so let me instead fill you in on the long journey here.

We were turned loose in Salt Lake City airport with a vague direction of where we were going, a list of destinations we had to make it to, and a handful of pass-along cards each. I had about a dozen myself, having used the last of my American money in the bookshop, and was determined to give them out to anyone and everyone. We had set a District goal of giving out at least 50 cards between us; possibly a bit of a challenge, but something I was willing to give a spin. So away we went, filled with excitement. So take a guess at what kind of person I first tried to share the Gospel with while on my mission? Who do you think I would choose to share with?

It was a Catholic reverend. Odd, huh? He was certainly a lot more receptive than the pony-tailed Atheist I talked to next, who went on about the Life of Brian. I spotted the dog-collar a mile off, and turned to my temporary Companions, Elder Weagel and Elder Sikahema, and said how great it'd be to share with him. We watched him go into the bathroom and followed, having a chat. The Mens room is not normally the place to share the Gospel, but then again; why not? So I said "Hello Reverend - or is it Vicar?" and he said that he was a reverend. I asked for what church and he said he was Catholic. He was very friendly, but then left. The sting of defeat didn't sit well with me, so I rushed after him, my companions keeping an eye on me from a distance, and called after him. I gave him a pass-along card for a free Bible and said that if any of his congregation wanted a free Bible, they should call the number on the card. Then I gave him one for a free DVD about Christ. He thanked me, and shook my hand. He seemed very happy with this, and I was elated - this wasn't hard; it was fun!

So then I talked to the atheist, getting going by talking about his pony-tail. I showed him my passport and my hairy picture, and said how I used to have long hair too. I asked him where he was going and he said he had a wedding to attend. Well that seemed the perfect opportunity to share about families with him, so I did. But it seemed from the way he was talking that apparently, athiests aren't allowed to have happy families, so I talked about prophets - hence him talking about the Life of Brian.

Then I talked to a lady who was reading some fun little book. I said I was from England and was a missionary, and she seemed interested, but her flight was called, so I handed her a card, saying that if she wanted to know anything more about the church, she should call the number on it.

Then we found out that our flight had been moved to another terminal, so we dashed across the airport (which reminded me of my last flying experience) and got on just in time. I wasn't sitting near anyone, which saddened me; there was an empty seat next to me and two other Elders on the other side. In fact, this was typical of all three flights, Elders Hamon, Kinghorn and Loffhagen all sitting in a nice little alphabetical row. It was during this flight that, when the seat-belt sign went on and I moved to stow my Carry-on underneath the chair in front of me, I guess the nail got caught on something and tore. It came part-way off and part of the nail broke and dug under the skin, which hurt a lot, obviously. I wrapped it in a tissue, and felt that familiar feeling that comes with the sight of my own blood, which was now coupled with the feelings of motion sickness as the plane descended. It was not a nice feeling. As it is, my finger if healing nicely, but still hurts quite a lot.

In San Francisco, I saw a lady with a Crucifix on in the shape of a flower. I said it looked very interesting, and talked with her a bit. I gave her two more pass-along cards. Then later I went and talked with a girl from Taiwan, heading home, who was playing a Mahjong game on her laptop. It was weird, Chinese, and very much more colourful and fast-paced than the ones we're used to, and I said so. She just seemed amazed that I actually even knew what the game was. She seemed so impressed that I'd seen and played Mahjong, and that I kind of knew some of the characters on the board, I saw some numbers and said, "Oh, that's four and five?" and she told me that actually, it was eight and nine. I said I'd have to learn more, and explained that I didn't really know characters. I said I was learning Cantonese (she spoke Mandarin, but also very good English) and explained that I was doing. I took out the only Chinese pamphlet I had and told her that I couldn't read it, which she laughed about, and I gave it to her. Then the boarding call came so we parted ways, and I got on the plane.

The EVA Air airline is no where near as nice as British Airways; I guess it's the China equivalent. I slept for almost the entire flight and reached Taiwan a bit sleepy, but pretty good.

Didn't give out any cards in Taiwan, as I couldn't really speak the prevalent language, but Elder Sikahema, the only Mandarin Elder in our group, was in his element. Card were flying out of his hands all over the place! I was mostly fascinated but the Hello Kitty-themed boarding gate, which I assumed was for the Hello Kitty EVA Airlines jet (which does exist!)

And to Hong Kong. My first day in Hong Kong is well documented in the letter I told you about, heading your way soon and due to arrive in approximately November. The whole cross-continent thing is going to be a drag. So I'm getting to the point where I'm running out of time - you'll notice that with an entire hour at my disposal for email, my letter is a lot longer - but I hope you will enjoy reading about this. Feel free to put selections of it on my blog, which I'm not allowed to access myself, even though I now have the ability to do so. And please reply - with no DearElder service to get letters to me sharpish, all our letters go to the Mission Home and we pick them up approximately every 6 weeks, so mail correspondence is very rare.

In closing, let my just share a little about the computer I'm currently using - namely the joy of joys I find in discovering that in order to input characters, Chinese people use a Wacom tablet! Hou yeh (good stuff)! Just like home. Of course, the computer doesn't happen to have Flash on it, as that would be too much of a convenience (and distraction) but I shall see if it would be alright for my to draw a picture on it to send home. In the meantime, I have no method of sending pictures home, as the USB drive is locked away from tampering, which is frustrating, so I'll have to find a better way to send home pictures.

Elder Loffhagen

:)