Hello hello!
I would like to start off by apologizing for not sending a written letter last week - after hearing that Elder Breedlove was going home (I believe I told you about that) I decided that I should write him on Preparation Day. I then thought I ought to write to another of our group, who never made it to Hong Kong due to worthiness issues. Then I wrote to my MTC companion, one of my MTC teachers, and Elder Crowther. After having written all of these, I got as far as writing Dear Family on another letter before running out of time.
You'll be pleased to know that I have written this week, and it shall be on its way to you as soon as I track down some stamps. That's a bit tricky sometimes, as Elder Alspaugh and I have as of yet to track down a Post Office...
Today we had a very fun Zone Activity - we went into Wan Chai, the heart of Hong Kong Island, to take pictures as a District. We started at a big gold flower which was put on the spot that Britain handed back Hong Kong to China - Elder Ng particularly liked that monument. Then we had a kind of scavenger hunt, taking as many pictures as possible of specific roads, buildings and other landmarks around the area. For all of our eagerness and zeal, our group faired pretty poorly - but we WERE the first group to return back, and therefore the only group to return on time. The last group to arrive was a whopping 30 minutes late.
Last Friday was Zone Conference, so we all met together for that, and it was really good. In order to learn how to be better teacher, we "learned from a master" and watched Jeffrey R Holland's Conference talk, The Only True God, and Jesus Christ, Whom He Has Sent. After we first saw that session of Conference, all of the missionaries were abuzz about it, as it so clearly defines the Godhead and challenges the views of the Trinity - Elder Holland says that the notion of the Trinity is "never set forth in the New Testament, because it is not true." Such boldness can be challenging, and was what the Zone Leaders were trying to inspire us to aspire to. Inspire to aspire. Interesting wording...
That brings me to a side note - if you do send me an iPod, and it can indeed deal with videos, I'd like the last General Conference loaded on in its entirety - even the General Young Womens broadcast. After reading the Relief Society broadcast in the Ensign, I've learnt a lot about raising families in the Gospel, and have learned that all messages can apply to all of us. Elder Ng gave me the counsel to do as Nephi did and "Liken all scriptures unto [myself]." Now when I read, for example, the Lord's covenant with Abraham, I liken it to myself and realise that those same blessings are to be mine if I keep the commandments as best as I can.
An interesting side-note; in the MTC, Elder Dallin was obsessed by the fact that there are wild parrots flying around Sydney - mostly because the rest of the District didn't believe him. In his letter I received from him today, he wrote at the bottom "yes, there are wild parrots in Australia, and the keep me up at night!"
Hong Kong can also be pretty noisy at night - less parrots and more trolleys rattling. There are very few beggars in Hong Kong. The really poor know that there is a better way - work for your money by collecting up cardboard and selling it to a recycling facility. So they travel all over the place, picking up cardboard, rummaging through bins, hanging around outside of shops, piling up huge mounds of cardboard to sell, and cart them around on little trolleys. A man who keeps his stash just outside our window (well, quite far below our window, as we're on the 8th floor) is particularly diligent can must only get a few hours sleep, because every night until late he moves his trolley around out there, and every morning from about 5:00 he's back at work. We occasionally get free noodles from a fresh noodle shop, which we give to him.
For Thanksgiving last Thursday Elder Alspaugh wanted to do something special, so he figured we could use some of our personal money to take the man and his family out to dinner. Unfortunately, he was off collecting elsewhere, so we couldn't find him - so we treated one of our investigators instead! The man lives in such poor conditions in such a squalid little apartment with such little money, and is so lonely that he loves to meet with us. I love watching as the door opens, he sees us, and just beams a huge smile. This particular day he was so thrilled that we were taking him out to eat - it took some persuading to get him out there, but we managed it. He reminds me a lot of David Ferguson; particularly in age, or course, but also humility. He's strongly Buddhist and believes in Ancestor worship, but as he heard about our Heavenly Father, it seemed to click in his mind that this was just another way of honouring his parents - his Heavenly Parents instead of earthly who have long since passed on. He has a son who works about 20 hours a day to keep them alive, and one time when we visited them during the day when his son was sleeping, he banged on his door and said "Wake up - two angels are here to see us!" Both father and son (who was strangely not that grumpy after having been woken up during one of his few hours of sleep) were truly happy as we taught that how to pray, and playfully ribbed each other as they themselves tried.
Hong Kong is a hard place to live - it's always busy and you have to work constantly just to support yourself. So I don't blame a lot of people for having a "I'm too busy attitude" when we try to talk with them; it's a cultural mental block that so many people have, that means that it's easy to sift the truly prepared people from those who are just mildly interested. If they really want to learn, they'll stop and talk; they'll let you teach them; they'll agree to a second visit. If not, if they feel too busy, then they just aren't ready.
One thing that really surprises me is how popular Japanese cartoons are here. Christmas in the local shopping centre is a rather unique experience - they don't have pictures of reindeer, Father Christmas, stars and angels everywhere - instead, Christmas seems to be sponsored by a popular cartoon called Keroro (or, as the Cantonese people pronounce it, Kelulu - the R sound is very hard for them). There are pictures of this little frog thing all over the complex, accompanied by snow, presents and a big globe with a ring of tinsel around it that is suspended from the ceiling. It's very bizarre. Elder Alspaugh explained to me that Christmas has no Christian meaning to a predominantly Buddhist nation, and it is completely commercialised. Personally, that doesn't sound too different from Christmas back home to me - just switch Santa for a frog. So Kelulu is the big thing of the moment; earlier in the year it was a blue cat named Doraemon, who is even on signs in lifts and on escalators, warning you of poor manners like crowding the lift or not holding the handrail. Fads seem to move quickly here - there's always something new, cute, colourful and slightly creepy to amuse the children, frustrate the parent's wallets and scare the missionaries.
And on that happy note, I shall say goodbye, for another week. I love you all lots and hope that your enjoyment of the approaching Christmas season is more Christ-centred than mine - to be honest, I'd rather Hong Kong skipped Christmas all together so that I don't have to think about missing out on lots of fun food, presents and being with all of you.
Bye bye!
羅 長 老 - Loh Jeung Louh - Elder Loffhagen
Thursday, 29 November 2007
Monday, 26 November 2007
8th email from Hong Kong
Hello everyone!
So this week, in order to try and make my correspondence a little more co-ordinated, I've been writing down during the week what I want to write about in my planner. Good idea, right?
Too bad I left my planner behind.
I would not recommend attempting to catch me while I'm on the computer - for one thing, you're right, it's not following the Spirit of the law, and for another thing, our email time is different every week, as we book time in the library according to when they have free. So last week it was in the afternoon; this week I'm writing at 10:00am; 4:20am GMT.
Besides, Christmas is coming up soon; maybe I'll phone you then.
The Christmas period is going to be a lot of fun; unfortunately, it'll me next Moves so I may have a brand new companion. This Moves is only 5 weeks long, because otherwise it'd start two days after Christmas, and that means that the new Missionaries will be flying from the US to Hong Kong, and will be on the plane for the shortest Christmas of their lives as they cross the International Dateline!
But we have lots of fun things going on; Mission Conference is being replaced by a Christmas social, where we all will exchange presents in a Secret Santa kind of thing, have a Talent show (I'm tempted to enter, but have no idea what talent to share), skits, and of course, the 2007 Mission slideshow, with approximately 3 pictures of me in it. I'm kind of hoping that I'll have done so much weird stuff in the MTC that other missionaries caught on camera (mostly because I'm so light, thin and easily bench-pressed) that I'll make it into something other than group shots, but we'll see.
On Christmas Eve, there's a scripture study session and carol-singing service at the Temple, which all the Missionaries can attend should they wish, which ought to be fun.
As I'm kicking off with Christmas stuff, I may as well discuss the issue of money, memory cards and MP3 Players - a memory card bought in Britain and shipped over would be best. I briefly glanced at prices here in one shop, and they were ridiculously expensive. I then realised that they actually were cards for Britain which had been imported - sometimes the way Hong Kong operates confuses me, as all the cards are made in China anyway. For example, McDonalds ice-cream is cheaper than milk.
As for any and all money I accumulate from various relatives and friends through you, I would like for you to pour it all into my current account, so that at the end of the two years I have a sizeable amount to go "trunky shopping" with - our last Preparation Day in the mission, we are allowed to go to a place called Mong Kok, which is full of cheap technology, music, DVDs, games, etc. We get to buy tons of stuff that we take back with us. I'm adjusting my desire for a MacBook, figuring that only a few hundred will be necessary for a pretty good regular laptop when I get back.
Boy, this has been a boring email. Reminds me of some of my prayers - "Dear Heavenly Father, please send me this and this and this and this..." Sorry for going on about things I want you to spend money on for me/do for me.
I received a very sad phone call yesterday though. Of our MTC District, one person came to Hong Kong early, Sister Chan (who is CBC - Canadian Born Chinese - and already speaks Cantonese). One went to Australia, of course, my companion. But one person in the last week in the MTC finally decided it wasn't right for him to go to Hong Kong, as he had some worthiness issues, and as such is working through them at the moment. And now one Elder who made it to Hong Kong is going home because he is having severe problems with his back. Elder Breedlove was our District Leader in the MTC before me, and was Zone Leader while I was District Leader. He taught me a lot, but now has to leave for home. It's sad to see our MTC group slowly losing members one by one.
Anyway, we had interviews with President Van Dam this week, which was fun. It meant I finally got hold of our companionship's copy of the General Conference Ensign, which I've been wanting for a long time. It's amazing. I love the picture of the First Presidency on the cover; the dignified President Hinckley with his cane, the big Right Hand Man, President Monson, and President Eyring, looking still just a little out of place. Speaking of pictures, though, there is one that really caught my eye. It shows about 16 Missionaries serving in the West Indes, and one of them looks amazingly like Julian Jest. I was astounded to see him in the Ensign - I'm fairly convinced it is him; the only doubt comes from that I forgot where he served his mission, and he's now returned, but the person in the picture looks just like him! I have told many times the story of how seeing Elder Jest stand in Stake Conference just after his return, before he was released, really inspired me in my desire to be a missionary, not only serve a mission, and his wise listening to my problems one YSA dance the night I lost my job at Sharp and felt like I was completely abandoned. If it is him, please tell him that I recognised it next time you see him (or a member of his family, as I believe he's not living at home at the moment).
Now, finally, perhaps I'll talk a little about the work. It's moving along well. My language is slowly, slowly, improving. I can understand a lot of what is going on around me now (at least related to Gospel terms). So it is all going well.
And that's all I have time for. I love you all lots and lots.
Happy Thanksgiving (my companion keeps pointing out stuff he's thankful for)
羅 長 老
So this week, in order to try and make my correspondence a little more co-ordinated, I've been writing down during the week what I want to write about in my planner. Good idea, right?
Too bad I left my planner behind.
I would not recommend attempting to catch me while I'm on the computer - for one thing, you're right, it's not following the Spirit of the law, and for another thing, our email time is different every week, as we book time in the library according to when they have free. So last week it was in the afternoon; this week I'm writing at 10:00am; 4:20am GMT.
Besides, Christmas is coming up soon; maybe I'll phone you then.
The Christmas period is going to be a lot of fun; unfortunately, it'll me next Moves so I may have a brand new companion. This Moves is only 5 weeks long, because otherwise it'd start two days after Christmas, and that means that the new Missionaries will be flying from the US to Hong Kong, and will be on the plane for the shortest Christmas of their lives as they cross the International Dateline!
But we have lots of fun things going on; Mission Conference is being replaced by a Christmas social, where we all will exchange presents in a Secret Santa kind of thing, have a Talent show (I'm tempted to enter, but have no idea what talent to share), skits, and of course, the 2007 Mission slideshow, with approximately 3 pictures of me in it. I'm kind of hoping that I'll have done so much weird stuff in the MTC that other missionaries caught on camera (mostly because I'm so light, thin and easily bench-pressed) that I'll make it into something other than group shots, but we'll see.
On Christmas Eve, there's a scripture study session and carol-singing service at the Temple, which all the Missionaries can attend should they wish, which ought to be fun.
As I'm kicking off with Christmas stuff, I may as well discuss the issue of money, memory cards and MP3 Players - a memory card bought in Britain and shipped over would be best. I briefly glanced at prices here in one shop, and they were ridiculously expensive. I then realised that they actually were cards for Britain which had been imported - sometimes the way Hong Kong operates confuses me, as all the cards are made in China anyway. For example, McDonalds ice-cream is cheaper than milk.
As for any and all money I accumulate from various relatives and friends through you, I would like for you to pour it all into my current account, so that at the end of the two years I have a sizeable amount to go "trunky shopping" with - our last Preparation Day in the mission, we are allowed to go to a place called Mong Kok, which is full of cheap technology, music, DVDs, games, etc. We get to buy tons of stuff that we take back with us. I'm adjusting my desire for a MacBook, figuring that only a few hundred will be necessary for a pretty good regular laptop when I get back.
Boy, this has been a boring email. Reminds me of some of my prayers - "Dear Heavenly Father, please send me this and this and this and this..." Sorry for going on about things I want you to spend money on for me/do for me.
I received a very sad phone call yesterday though. Of our MTC District, one person came to Hong Kong early, Sister Chan (who is CBC - Canadian Born Chinese - and already speaks Cantonese). One went to Australia, of course, my companion. But one person in the last week in the MTC finally decided it wasn't right for him to go to Hong Kong, as he had some worthiness issues, and as such is working through them at the moment. And now one Elder who made it to Hong Kong is going home because he is having severe problems with his back. Elder Breedlove was our District Leader in the MTC before me, and was Zone Leader while I was District Leader. He taught me a lot, but now has to leave for home. It's sad to see our MTC group slowly losing members one by one.
Anyway, we had interviews with President Van Dam this week, which was fun. It meant I finally got hold of our companionship's copy of the General Conference Ensign, which I've been wanting for a long time. It's amazing. I love the picture of the First Presidency on the cover; the dignified President Hinckley with his cane, the big Right Hand Man, President Monson, and President Eyring, looking still just a little out of place. Speaking of pictures, though, there is one that really caught my eye. It shows about 16 Missionaries serving in the West Indes, and one of them looks amazingly like Julian Jest. I was astounded to see him in the Ensign - I'm fairly convinced it is him; the only doubt comes from that I forgot where he served his mission, and he's now returned, but the person in the picture looks just like him! I have told many times the story of how seeing Elder Jest stand in Stake Conference just after his return, before he was released, really inspired me in my desire to be a missionary, not only serve a mission, and his wise listening to my problems one YSA dance the night I lost my job at Sharp and felt like I was completely abandoned. If it is him, please tell him that I recognised it next time you see him (or a member of his family, as I believe he's not living at home at the moment).
Now, finally, perhaps I'll talk a little about the work. It's moving along well. My language is slowly, slowly, improving. I can understand a lot of what is going on around me now (at least related to Gospel terms). So it is all going well.
And that's all I have time for. I love you all lots and lots.
Happy Thanksgiving (my companion keeps pointing out stuff he's thankful for)
羅 長 老
Thursday, 15 November 2007
7th email from Hong Kong
Dear Family,
Today is a very different Preparation Day to any that I've previously had - it's the first Moves day since I arrived here, with the possible exception of the first moves, which didn't really count, as I spent most of it wandering around an immigration building trying to find out how to apply for my permanent ID card.
In fact, the first thing that we did today (apart from study and going to Seminary, as we do every Thursday), was go back to that very same immigration building and picked up my ID card. It's pretty obvious, looking at the picture, that I had spent the past few days in planes, in airport terminals, and in a rather dingy "French" hotel without the most part of my toiletries.
Most of the Missionaries had already picked up their ID cards, but leaving mine exactly 6 weeks meant bumping into some of the brand new Missionaries who have arrived today! As such, I am no longer a "Baby", which is mission slang here. All the slang revolves around the concept of your mission being the template for your life; you're born as you enter Hong Kong, as a baby, your trainer is your Daddy, your second companion is your Step-Dad, and then when you finish your mission and go home, you "die".
Speaking of my trainer, I'm going to be with him for another move. Hurray! He's still District Leader, and after we got home from the Temple, where we picked up our post, and various supplies such as copies of the Book of Mormon and teaching pamphlets, I discovered that apparently I'm Apartment Leader for this Moves. Unfortunately, because I didn't know sooner, I didn't pick up the various equiptment I need for the job; resources for the next move like phone lists and an explanation of what my responsibilities are, so I'll have to get that sorted somehow.
I shouldn't go on any further without saying thank you very much for the various London Eye postcards I've recieved this week, and for the package full of paper, envelopes and ink cartridges. That's incredibly helpful, and I'm thrilled to be able to use David's pen again. It's a really nice pen to have.
How interesting to hear that Claire Dawson is coming to Hong Kong! It certainly is a small church, after all! If you can get me her address, perhaps I'll do for her what Elder Ng did for me.
And speaking of Elder Ng, he said one thing to me when we went on the 24 hour exchange a few weeks ago - having been Housing Co-Ordinator, he had access to all of the records, and knows that he was the first British Missionary in Hong Kong. I'm the second, and today I discovered that another is in the MTC at the moment - his name is Elder Chan, and is apparently BBC (British Born Chinese). It's too bad, then, that if he ever gets to meet Elder Ng, it'll be very short, as this is his last moves. I guess Elder Chan will be replacing him as the Briton with Chinese heritage.
So, there's a second Chinchilla in the house. How exciting; it's nice that Bubbles finally has someone to play with. I think a pretty good name for it would be Squeak - although Chinchilla's don't tend to squeak anyway. I'm trying to think of a cool Chinese name you could give it, but nothing's coming to mind. You could always call it Tou Shu, Cantonese for "rat"! :P How strange that this new Chinchilla is happy to be held though - so different from out dear resident albino. Hopefully it won't pick up on Bubbles' annoying habits like leaping around and hiding behind/under/inside anything it can to avoid the cage.
I'm going to get a CD burned with all my pictures I've taken so far, and then send it to you with a box of Christmas goodies, but may not be able to get around to it for a while. Instead of a Christmas package it may be more of a Mum/Dad's birthday package, considering how much time I have spare to do things like shop for presents. But eventually I will send *something* :)
So last Sunday was, of course, Remembrance Sunday. I was quite surprised on Saturday to see a couple sitting in the park wearing poppies. I asked them where they got them, and Elder Alspaugh and I spent about half an hour chatting to them; about the Gospel, family history, all sorts of things. They said that they were from Newcastle, and I said, "Wow! A friend of mine is serving as a missionary in Newcastle at the moment!" Even if it's actually Newcastle-Under-Lyme...But anyway, afterwards, I gave them our home address and phone number and dad's email, so that they could get in contact with you. If they do so, please pass on their details to Chris, and his to them, and perhaps I'll have planted a seed that he can reap! :D
I then found where they had bought their poppies themselves and got one, and wore it the next day to church. It was a great way to start conversations with the members; something that I find quite scary because I have a hard time small-talking in English, let alone Chinese. Everyone wanted to know why I was wearing a little paper flower, so I was happy to tell them all about Remembrance day. It was really good. Then at 5:00 pm I had 2 minutes of silence - because of the time difference, that's 11:00 am in Britain, provided my calculation is correct.
Well, I love you all! I hope you are all doing well! :D
羅 長 老 - Loh Jeung Louh - Elder Loffhagen
(I hope the family computer can handle the Chinese characters!)
Today is a very different Preparation Day to any that I've previously had - it's the first Moves day since I arrived here, with the possible exception of the first moves, which didn't really count, as I spent most of it wandering around an immigration building trying to find out how to apply for my permanent ID card.
In fact, the first thing that we did today (apart from study and going to Seminary, as we do every Thursday), was go back to that very same immigration building and picked up my ID card. It's pretty obvious, looking at the picture, that I had spent the past few days in planes, in airport terminals, and in a rather dingy "French" hotel without the most part of my toiletries.
Most of the Missionaries had already picked up their ID cards, but leaving mine exactly 6 weeks meant bumping into some of the brand new Missionaries who have arrived today! As such, I am no longer a "Baby", which is mission slang here. All the slang revolves around the concept of your mission being the template for your life; you're born as you enter Hong Kong, as a baby, your trainer is your Daddy, your second companion is your Step-Dad, and then when you finish your mission and go home, you "die".
Speaking of my trainer, I'm going to be with him for another move. Hurray! He's still District Leader, and after we got home from the Temple, where we picked up our post, and various supplies such as copies of the Book of Mormon and teaching pamphlets, I discovered that apparently I'm Apartment Leader for this Moves. Unfortunately, because I didn't know sooner, I didn't pick up the various equiptment I need for the job; resources for the next move like phone lists and an explanation of what my responsibilities are, so I'll have to get that sorted somehow.
I shouldn't go on any further without saying thank you very much for the various London Eye postcards I've recieved this week, and for the package full of paper, envelopes and ink cartridges. That's incredibly helpful, and I'm thrilled to be able to use David's pen again. It's a really nice pen to have.
How interesting to hear that Claire Dawson is coming to Hong Kong! It certainly is a small church, after all! If you can get me her address, perhaps I'll do for her what Elder Ng did for me.
And speaking of Elder Ng, he said one thing to me when we went on the 24 hour exchange a few weeks ago - having been Housing Co-Ordinator, he had access to all of the records, and knows that he was the first British Missionary in Hong Kong. I'm the second, and today I discovered that another is in the MTC at the moment - his name is Elder Chan, and is apparently BBC (British Born Chinese). It's too bad, then, that if he ever gets to meet Elder Ng, it'll be very short, as this is his last moves. I guess Elder Chan will be replacing him as the Briton with Chinese heritage.
So, there's a second Chinchilla in the house. How exciting; it's nice that Bubbles finally has someone to play with. I think a pretty good name for it would be Squeak - although Chinchilla's don't tend to squeak anyway. I'm trying to think of a cool Chinese name you could give it, but nothing's coming to mind. You could always call it Tou Shu, Cantonese for "rat"! :P How strange that this new Chinchilla is happy to be held though - so different from out dear resident albino. Hopefully it won't pick up on Bubbles' annoying habits like leaping around and hiding behind/under/inside anything it can to avoid the cage.
I'm going to get a CD burned with all my pictures I've taken so far, and then send it to you with a box of Christmas goodies, but may not be able to get around to it for a while. Instead of a Christmas package it may be more of a Mum/Dad's birthday package, considering how much time I have spare to do things like shop for presents. But eventually I will send *something* :)
So last Sunday was, of course, Remembrance Sunday. I was quite surprised on Saturday to see a couple sitting in the park wearing poppies. I asked them where they got them, and Elder Alspaugh and I spent about half an hour chatting to them; about the Gospel, family history, all sorts of things. They said that they were from Newcastle, and I said, "Wow! A friend of mine is serving as a missionary in Newcastle at the moment!" Even if it's actually Newcastle-Under-Lyme...But anyway, afterwards, I gave them our home address and phone number and dad's email, so that they could get in contact with you. If they do so, please pass on their details to Chris, and his to them, and perhaps I'll have planted a seed that he can reap! :D
I then found where they had bought their poppies themselves and got one, and wore it the next day to church. It was a great way to start conversations with the members; something that I find quite scary because I have a hard time small-talking in English, let alone Chinese. Everyone wanted to know why I was wearing a little paper flower, so I was happy to tell them all about Remembrance day. It was really good. Then at 5:00 pm I had 2 minutes of silence - because of the time difference, that's 11:00 am in Britain, provided my calculation is correct.
Well, I love you all! I hope you are all doing well! :D
羅 長 老 - Loh Jeung Louh - Elder Loffhagen
(I hope the family computer can handle the Chinese characters!)
Thursday, 8 November 2007
6th email from Hong Kong
Hello all!
It's been a bit of a slow week this week - slow being a relative term - with the possible exception of Saturday, which was spent carrying toilets to Zimbabwe. I was only carrying a short part of the distance, but that's their overall destination.
There is a charity here in Hong Kong called Crossroads, which takes items from people who don't need them and ships them out to people who do - for example, if a school replaces all their desks, Crossroads gets hold of the old, unwanted ones, and sends them to Mainland where there is a need for school furniture. The man who spoke with us and gave us the basics of what they do spoke literally of miracles - for example, when they were just starting out, they got given so many baby's cots that they didn't know what to do with them all, but only a few days later, they got a call from someone working with flood victims who need baby cots. One time, a bank replaced its computer system and gave the charity all of their computers - but just the processors; not the monitors. They wondered what on earth they were going to do with them until a company phoned up because they were replacing all of their monitors with flat-screen ones, and wanted to only donate their screens - the man said that the miracles just happen constantly. In the ten years they've been running, the charity has grown from just working out of one apartment to a huge complex, constantly shipping huge freight crates all over the world.
The crates that we volunteered to help with were being sent to Zimbabwe; the first they've been able to send there. We helped load some chairs and children's toys, then went to help move some used (and somewhat unclean) toilets over to the sister missionaries, who were busy cleaning them. We carried over tons of them, getting covered in a lot of dust and various other less pleasant things, which was great to do because we were able to help people in Zimbabwe have proper sanitation and therefore saved lives. We talked with one man who'd been there for about two years (everyone who works there does so out of their own pocket and doesn't get paid - unlike Oxfam...) and when we asked him if he enjoyed it, he said "No; but you just think about the people you're helping." It seems that missionaries who have been here a while tend to get a bit depressed due to all of the rejection you get all day every day (just part of being a missionary really), so while I haven't felt that way yet, I'll bear this nugget of wisdom in mind for when I do feel like it's too much effort for not enough reward - I should just think about the people I'm helping, whether or not most of them want my help.
So last Thursday was our Temple day, and was absolutely magnificent. Thankfully, because of Hong Kong's multicultural nature, there are sessions in English, so I could understand what was going on - it's a wonderful temple. Of the three I've had the pleasure of going through (with the exception of Preston, which I don't really remember), it's certainly the most bizarre - we entered on the ground floor, and rode the lift up to the top floors. Our district had been assigned to help with Initiatory work, which was a little difficult because one of the workers didn't speak very good English and had just memorized the words without really understanding them. He asked for one of them if it would be alright if he spoke in Cantonese, which really made it difficult to understand. But the people for whom I was doing work were so interesting. Because of the Chinese culture's tradition of Ancestor Worship, they have records dating back thousands of years; the people I was doing work for lived in the 1200s! There are people with family trees, fully accurate, going back hundreds or even thousands of years BC!
After the Temple, we went to the mission home (yes, it's the same building, but we had to go down in the lift, out the front door, in the side door and up in another lift to get there) and I picked up all the post I've accumulated over the past weeks. I actually pick it up more that once every 6 weeks, as any other time we go to the Temple or mission home for some reason, it's brought to us, and every time President Van Dam comes out to meet us, he brings it with him. In fact, some post came in on Temple day after I left, so another Elder brought it with him and gave it to me a few days ago. I have therefore received this week, one big bag of Halloween sweets - Thank you SOOO much! :) - one letter from Mum, one letter from Dad, one postcard from Timothy, one letter from Chris which seems to have been forwarded from the MTC (didn't know they did that), a letter from Jean Hearne, a letter from Julian and a letter from Suzi. So a lot of post! It's quite nice to save it up for a while and then get a lot at once! Much better than getting one every few days and having many unfruitful trips to the mailroom every day. Thank you so much for your letters, everyone, it's great to receive them. I'm going to reply to them all later today :P
Julian's letter was really great to receive - he says he's planning on starting a Mission Fund! Hurray for him!
Sister Hearne's letter was great too; full of kind inspiration and encouragement. She gave me tons of scripture references and described a bit her missionary experiences, and bore her testimony.
I'm still undecided on the MP3 Player. I had a thought that it might be more cost-effective to get one of those electronic picture frames like we got for Granddad, where you plug in the memory stick and can look through all your pictures. The only problem with that is that all the pictures I want to look through are on my USB stick, so unless you can find one of those frames that has a USB port on it, it won't help much - otherwise, you could buy some SD Cards and go through all the pictures on my computer, putting them on, but that might be redundant and tedious. At least the iPod would automatically search for all the hundreds of pictures I have on there, provided you synchronize the pictures on the iPod with My Documents instead of the My Pictures folder which is the default. I think that the Picture Frame would be preferable as it has a larger screen, if it could be arranged, but if not, the iPod will serve the dual function of music and pictures, and you could even put on the video clips from the little movies Tom, Chris and I worked on. But with the Picture Frame, you could send me out memory sticks full of pictures and I could look at them on the screen - I think I like the idea of the Picture Frame a lot more, but it just means more work for you in sorting out all the pictures on my computer. Unless it can pull the pictures from anywhere on the stick, in which case you could just dump everything onto a 4gig card. SD cards are cheaper than the Sony ones, so it shouldn't be too bad.
Another thing I'd like that I've come to think would be helpful is a laminator. We're always getting things copied over here, but lamination in a shop is so expensive, so my own machine would cut down the price a bit, if only I could find laminator pouches over here so that I don't have to have you send me lots and lots and lots.
One thing I'd like that would make things a bit easier for me - a comic making template. I want to draw little comic strips on paper, but working out the exact angles for little square boxes takes forever. Perhaps you could print one on the computer and send it to me? Nice and big, so I can draw big and shrink it down? Then I could just trace it onto other papers.
Well, email time's almost up. I love you all! One last thing - may I make a suggestion for FHE? Read The Power of God's Love, an article in an Ensign in 2004, not sure which month. Once you've tracked it down, you could all write your thoughts on it and then send a copy of it, with your thoughts, to me? It's been recommended I read it, but I can't get a copy of it. With your feelings on it as well, it would be even better!
I love you all very, very much! I don't know exactly how to say this, but Gai Juk Lou Lik (Keep up the hard work)!
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
It's been a bit of a slow week this week - slow being a relative term - with the possible exception of Saturday, which was spent carrying toilets to Zimbabwe. I was only carrying a short part of the distance, but that's their overall destination.
There is a charity here in Hong Kong called Crossroads, which takes items from people who don't need them and ships them out to people who do - for example, if a school replaces all their desks, Crossroads gets hold of the old, unwanted ones, and sends them to Mainland where there is a need for school furniture. The man who spoke with us and gave us the basics of what they do spoke literally of miracles - for example, when they were just starting out, they got given so many baby's cots that they didn't know what to do with them all, but only a few days later, they got a call from someone working with flood victims who need baby cots. One time, a bank replaced its computer system and gave the charity all of their computers - but just the processors; not the monitors. They wondered what on earth they were going to do with them until a company phoned up because they were replacing all of their monitors with flat-screen ones, and wanted to only donate their screens - the man said that the miracles just happen constantly. In the ten years they've been running, the charity has grown from just working out of one apartment to a huge complex, constantly shipping huge freight crates all over the world.
The crates that we volunteered to help with were being sent to Zimbabwe; the first they've been able to send there. We helped load some chairs and children's toys, then went to help move some used (and somewhat unclean) toilets over to the sister missionaries, who were busy cleaning them. We carried over tons of them, getting covered in a lot of dust and various other less pleasant things, which was great to do because we were able to help people in Zimbabwe have proper sanitation and therefore saved lives. We talked with one man who'd been there for about two years (everyone who works there does so out of their own pocket and doesn't get paid - unlike Oxfam...) and when we asked him if he enjoyed it, he said "No; but you just think about the people you're helping." It seems that missionaries who have been here a while tend to get a bit depressed due to all of the rejection you get all day every day (just part of being a missionary really), so while I haven't felt that way yet, I'll bear this nugget of wisdom in mind for when I do feel like it's too much effort for not enough reward - I should just think about the people I'm helping, whether or not most of them want my help.
So last Thursday was our Temple day, and was absolutely magnificent. Thankfully, because of Hong Kong's multicultural nature, there are sessions in English, so I could understand what was going on - it's a wonderful temple. Of the three I've had the pleasure of going through (with the exception of Preston, which I don't really remember), it's certainly the most bizarre - we entered on the ground floor, and rode the lift up to the top floors. Our district had been assigned to help with Initiatory work, which was a little difficult because one of the workers didn't speak very good English and had just memorized the words without really understanding them. He asked for one of them if it would be alright if he spoke in Cantonese, which really made it difficult to understand. But the people for whom I was doing work were so interesting. Because of the Chinese culture's tradition of Ancestor Worship, they have records dating back thousands of years; the people I was doing work for lived in the 1200s! There are people with family trees, fully accurate, going back hundreds or even thousands of years BC!
After the Temple, we went to the mission home (yes, it's the same building, but we had to go down in the lift, out the front door, in the side door and up in another lift to get there) and I picked up all the post I've accumulated over the past weeks. I actually pick it up more that once every 6 weeks, as any other time we go to the Temple or mission home for some reason, it's brought to us, and every time President Van Dam comes out to meet us, he brings it with him. In fact, some post came in on Temple day after I left, so another Elder brought it with him and gave it to me a few days ago. I have therefore received this week, one big bag of Halloween sweets - Thank you SOOO much! :) - one letter from Mum, one letter from Dad, one postcard from Timothy, one letter from Chris which seems to have been forwarded from the MTC (didn't know they did that), a letter from Jean Hearne, a letter from Julian and a letter from Suzi. So a lot of post! It's quite nice to save it up for a while and then get a lot at once! Much better than getting one every few days and having many unfruitful trips to the mailroom every day. Thank you so much for your letters, everyone, it's great to receive them. I'm going to reply to them all later today :P
Julian's letter was really great to receive - he says he's planning on starting a Mission Fund! Hurray for him!
Sister Hearne's letter was great too; full of kind inspiration and encouragement. She gave me tons of scripture references and described a bit her missionary experiences, and bore her testimony.
I'm still undecided on the MP3 Player. I had a thought that it might be more cost-effective to get one of those electronic picture frames like we got for Granddad, where you plug in the memory stick and can look through all your pictures. The only problem with that is that all the pictures I want to look through are on my USB stick, so unless you can find one of those frames that has a USB port on it, it won't help much - otherwise, you could buy some SD Cards and go through all the pictures on my computer, putting them on, but that might be redundant and tedious. At least the iPod would automatically search for all the hundreds of pictures I have on there, provided you synchronize the pictures on the iPod with My Documents instead of the My Pictures folder which is the default. I think that the Picture Frame would be preferable as it has a larger screen, if it could be arranged, but if not, the iPod will serve the dual function of music and pictures, and you could even put on the video clips from the little movies Tom, Chris and I worked on. But with the Picture Frame, you could send me out memory sticks full of pictures and I could look at them on the screen - I think I like the idea of the Picture Frame a lot more, but it just means more work for you in sorting out all the pictures on my computer. Unless it can pull the pictures from anywhere on the stick, in which case you could just dump everything onto a 4gig card. SD cards are cheaper than the Sony ones, so it shouldn't be too bad.
Another thing I'd like that I've come to think would be helpful is a laminator. We're always getting things copied over here, but lamination in a shop is so expensive, so my own machine would cut down the price a bit, if only I could find laminator pouches over here so that I don't have to have you send me lots and lots and lots.
One thing I'd like that would make things a bit easier for me - a comic making template. I want to draw little comic strips on paper, but working out the exact angles for little square boxes takes forever. Perhaps you could print one on the computer and send it to me? Nice and big, so I can draw big and shrink it down? Then I could just trace it onto other papers.
Well, email time's almost up. I love you all! One last thing - may I make a suggestion for FHE? Read The Power of God's Love, an article in an Ensign in 2004, not sure which month. Once you've tracked it down, you could all write your thoughts on it and then send a copy of it, with your thoughts, to me? It's been recommended I read it, but I can't get a copy of it. With your feelings on it as well, it would be even better!
I love you all very, very much! I don't know exactly how to say this, but Gai Juk Lou Lik (Keep up the hard work)!
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
Thursday, 1 November 2007
5th email from Hong Kong
Dear Family,
I may not have the latest high-tech voice-recognition software to type this, but thankfully I do have some pretty decent fingertip recognition software! I'll take a keyboard and mouse for now; it's quicker and easier.
Yes, my letter to you all was delayed horribly due to lack of stamps. It took me two weeks to figure out where to buy stamps (my companion had no idea) and then I needed to check with Elder Ng on the postage needed, but all is sorted now. At $3 a stamp, it works out as a whole lot cheaper to send things to you than it is for you to send things to me!
Our flat is very interesting. There's not all that much space, and there are four Elders in the apartment in total; two companionships. I imagine that's pretty standard throughout the mission, as space is so expensive here. Yet they have a LOT of undeveloped land in Hong Kong; every thing's just situated around Hong Kong island. Perhaps we're paying for the privilege to live on the island, and outside it's cheaper, but as travel's so cheap and efficient here it's a wonder more people don't live out in the New Territories and commute to work.
We do indeed have the luxury of a working lavatory, and even a shower! It's attached to the wall next to the toilet, and you just stand there and spray yourself. The nice thing is you can sit down as you shower - not something I've tried yet.
Halloween is a big deal here. Everyone seems to love it; the decorations have been up almost since before I got here. To celebrate, yesterday we taught English class (as we do every week on Wednesday) and we taught them some Halloween words; Vampire, Monster, Werewolf, Mummy - one thing that bugs me about it though is that it's always been taught by Americans - and still is for that matter. Yesterday we were going over kitchen words, and one little boy volunteered the words "Rubbish bin!" One of the other Elders corrected him, saying "Trash can". I then said that only Americans call it that - it's constantly like that. Hong Kong speaks British English, and then the Elders come in and teach American English. Then they and I get it little friendly arguments about pronunciation, spelling and wording. We constantly let them know that one word is American and one is English. One man at class yesterday was very intent to hear the difference between English and American pronunciation, and asked us to repeat words again and again so he could hear the difference.
One thing that surprised me about Halloween though - they've taken down all the decorations in the town centre now, of course; but they haven't immediately replaced them with Christmas stuff! I guess that's less of a big deal here. But we have a fun Christmas party for all the Missionaries, where lots of fun stuff is done! I've been told that we'll be proselyting, same as always, this Christmas; it'll be just another day - but next year, Christmas will be on a Thursday, so I'll get it on P-Day! Hurray! I get to celebrate Christmas by washing my shirts and buying food! :P
I've had a thought about iPods - a CD player would make much more sense - cheaper, and I can add music any time I like by getting a new CD. The only problem is that it can't show pictures, but I can live without that, I guess.
Interesting to hear that Charlie's planning a mission - who knows? Perhaps with her Mandarin skills she'll get called to Hong Kong?! Except while we do have Mandarin Elders here, they're very few and there are no Sisters. But she can always learn Cantonese too! Or go somewhere like Taiwan where they speak Mandarin - or there seems to be a great deal of Chinese people in Canada! That could make things awkward! :P
So this past week we had a 24 hour companionship exchange within our Zone. I got to spend the day with one of our Zone Leaders, a certain British Elder...
It was such a good day. Elder Ng and I got along so well and chatted loads and talked with loads of people - he really taught me so much. He's an absolutely astounding missionary. It was one of the best days I've had since arriving in Hong Kong! It was so nice to be with someone who understood my idioms and expressions, and my home culture.
And their apartment is so very different than ours. Elder Ng said that it's the most expensive in the mission (as the former Housing Co-ordinator, he ought to know) and it shows; it's really big (that being a relative term) and has a balcany, larger beds, a sofa, a lot of floor space, and a larger kitchen. Very different.
One of the Elders from my MTC district are in the apartment with him, as has bought a recorder from a music shop for rediculously cheap. He likes to go out on the balcany and play it, and is getting pretty good - he can manage most hymns now, and a little Lord of the Rings to spice things up every now and then.
I still think of my MTC district as being my brothers and sisters; we grew up in the language together for 12 weeks! Every time we see each other it's like a mini family reunion, and the nice thing about having so many of us is that just about every zone in the mission has two or three of us! My zone has four!
Anyway, the time is far spent. Must dash!
Love you all,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
I may not have the latest high-tech voice-recognition software to type this, but thankfully I do have some pretty decent fingertip recognition software! I'll take a keyboard and mouse for now; it's quicker and easier.
Yes, my letter to you all was delayed horribly due to lack of stamps. It took me two weeks to figure out where to buy stamps (my companion had no idea) and then I needed to check with Elder Ng on the postage needed, but all is sorted now. At $3 a stamp, it works out as a whole lot cheaper to send things to you than it is for you to send things to me!
Our flat is very interesting. There's not all that much space, and there are four Elders in the apartment in total; two companionships. I imagine that's pretty standard throughout the mission, as space is so expensive here. Yet they have a LOT of undeveloped land in Hong Kong; every thing's just situated around Hong Kong island. Perhaps we're paying for the privilege to live on the island, and outside it's cheaper, but as travel's so cheap and efficient here it's a wonder more people don't live out in the New Territories and commute to work.
We do indeed have the luxury of a working lavatory, and even a shower! It's attached to the wall next to the toilet, and you just stand there and spray yourself. The nice thing is you can sit down as you shower - not something I've tried yet.
Halloween is a big deal here. Everyone seems to love it; the decorations have been up almost since before I got here. To celebrate, yesterday we taught English class (as we do every week on Wednesday) and we taught them some Halloween words; Vampire, Monster, Werewolf, Mummy - one thing that bugs me about it though is that it's always been taught by Americans - and still is for that matter. Yesterday we were going over kitchen words, and one little boy volunteered the words "Rubbish bin!" One of the other Elders corrected him, saying "Trash can". I then said that only Americans call it that - it's constantly like that. Hong Kong speaks British English, and then the Elders come in and teach American English. Then they and I get it little friendly arguments about pronunciation, spelling and wording. We constantly let them know that one word is American and one is English. One man at class yesterday was very intent to hear the difference between English and American pronunciation, and asked us to repeat words again and again so he could hear the difference.
One thing that surprised me about Halloween though - they've taken down all the decorations in the town centre now, of course; but they haven't immediately replaced them with Christmas stuff! I guess that's less of a big deal here. But we have a fun Christmas party for all the Missionaries, where lots of fun stuff is done! I've been told that we'll be proselyting, same as always, this Christmas; it'll be just another day - but next year, Christmas will be on a Thursday, so I'll get it on P-Day! Hurray! I get to celebrate Christmas by washing my shirts and buying food! :P
I've had a thought about iPods - a CD player would make much more sense - cheaper, and I can add music any time I like by getting a new CD. The only problem is that it can't show pictures, but I can live without that, I guess.
Interesting to hear that Charlie's planning a mission - who knows? Perhaps with her Mandarin skills she'll get called to Hong Kong?! Except while we do have Mandarin Elders here, they're very few and there are no Sisters. But she can always learn Cantonese too! Or go somewhere like Taiwan where they speak Mandarin - or there seems to be a great deal of Chinese people in Canada! That could make things awkward! :P
So this past week we had a 24 hour companionship exchange within our Zone. I got to spend the day with one of our Zone Leaders, a certain British Elder...
It was such a good day. Elder Ng and I got along so well and chatted loads and talked with loads of people - he really taught me so much. He's an absolutely astounding missionary. It was one of the best days I've had since arriving in Hong Kong! It was so nice to be with someone who understood my idioms and expressions, and my home culture.
And their apartment is so very different than ours. Elder Ng said that it's the most expensive in the mission (as the former Housing Co-ordinator, he ought to know) and it shows; it's really big (that being a relative term) and has a balcany, larger beds, a sofa, a lot of floor space, and a larger kitchen. Very different.
One of the Elders from my MTC district are in the apartment with him, as has bought a recorder from a music shop for rediculously cheap. He likes to go out on the balcany and play it, and is getting pretty good - he can manage most hymns now, and a little Lord of the Rings to spice things up every now and then.
I still think of my MTC district as being my brothers and sisters; we grew up in the language together for 12 weeks! Every time we see each other it's like a mini family reunion, and the nice thing about having so many of us is that just about every zone in the mission has two or three of us! My zone has four!
Anyway, the time is far spent. Must dash!
Love you all,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
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