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!)