13th email from Hong Kong

Dear Everyone,

So we're back to emails. Of well. Those 40 minutes on the phone were, I think, the quickest 40 minutes of my mission - if not my life. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough to say to fill the time!

I remember a story one of the speakers told in the MTC - I believe it was the same man who told us that, on a mission, "We are not in the business of saving stamps". He said that when he had two sons on their missions, one son phoned first on Christmas, and they spoke for over four hours - it was allowed in his mission. Then the other son phoned, and told them that all he had was thirty minutes. The father was not as supportive of his son's mission rules as you were with mine, and offered to phone back after the 30 minutes was up so that they could talk more, at no expense to the missionary. His son said plainly that he could not break the rules - he was serving in South Africa, and of course we know how dangerous it is there. He said that the rules are a protection, and that in such a dangerous place, the Elders most likely to be injured or have something happen to them were the ones who were less obedient.

Apparently, Elder Perkins, of the Asia Area Presidency, came to speak in Mission Conference the moves before I arrived in the mission. He said that he didn't feel he needed to talk to the missionaries about obedience, because we are such an obedient mission. I can see that myself - hearing the story you sent me of Elder Dick and his trunky companion really interested me. The trunkiest elder I've met here has the challenges of sleeping in a little on Preparation Day, and listening to Disney music. Not particularly trunky at all.

Discovering, as I only did after my phone call to you, that BYU starts in August, I am a little concerned about he logistics if I take this option - I really don't want to be home for only a week or two before leaving for school again, but I also don't want to trim my mission by a few weeks and take my early leaving date - especially as my early date is when President Van Dam goes home, and the new mission president will need my support. But at the end of the day, it's not what I want that matters. I don't know yet if Mandarin at BYU is what the Lord wants me to do, or if I'm to stay closer to home, but ultimately, the whole thing reminds me of a part of my Patriarchal blessing, about making choices in life. It speaks about choosing between God's will and what I want to do. Before my mission, I always thought this referred to keeping the commandments or not, but now I see that it's more going above and beyond obedience - it's not against God's will for someone to attend Royal Holloway studying creative writing or English literature, but if God wants me to go to BYU, that's what I have to do, regardless of what I want. Again I'm reminded of a speaker from the MTC, who told us that we are the tools of the Lord. If you're trying to use a screwdriver and it doesn't do what you want it to do, eventually you use another screwdriver. We need to do what God wants us to do, when He wants us to do it, or we are a useless tool to Him.

Of course, a potential major problem with school in Utah is that it'll mean dating mostly Utons, and dating tends to lead to marriage. I really don't want an American wife - that leads to little American children and living in America and all the awkward difficulties that this entails. I do miss England. The Berkshire calendar you sent me is wonderful, and I shall hang it with pride on my wall - Berkshire is my home and the beautiful green countryside is very much a part of me that Provo won't be able to provide.

Do not worry about any other homesickness, though; for I am not thus afflicted. I'm too busy to be homesick. There's always something to do, and any wasted time is a waste of the Lord's time. Missions are so short! It's incomprehensible to think that Christmas is now passed, and that next week is 2008 - I feel like I only entered the MTC a few weeks ago! In January, I'll reach the 6 month point! That's one thing the Elder in Bracknell at the moment has the advantage over me with; he's been serving for pretty much 6 months. I spent a good chunk of that time learning a difficult language, and as I'm still not fluent, I still have to rely on my companion for a lot.

I remember before I got my call, really hoping to learn Chinese, and feeling bad for Chris when he went English-speaking. In the MTC, I felt that Chris was the lucky one; he was already serving and I was stuck struggling with some silly language! Now I'm a lot more thankful for this blessing again, and understand that it's for my benefit, and to help me be the servant God wants me to be. I thought about it, and realised that in Hong Kong, missionaries only really reach passable fluency after about a year. That only leaves one year of time when we can teach people with the fluency that native-speakers have straight away. Why even send missionaries here from English-speaking countries?

Then I realised that the long time spent learning Cantonese is really time that's for us. God has a work He wants us to perform after the mission that involves speaking Cantonese. Near enough every missionary here has the desire to learn Mandarin, too - the missionaries chosen for the China Hong Kong mission, learning the lesser of the two Chinese languages, are the ones most desirous to learn the second language after their mission. God has specifically chosen us for our service now, and our service for the rest of our lives. The China Hong Kong Mission Statement says, at the end, "We pledge not only our time here, but also our lives to this cause."

To answer your question about money, we get a fair amount - about $200US. That works out to about $1600 Hong Kong, and honestly, this is the first month that I have survived without needing to dip into personal funds a little bit. When I first got here, I bought all the things I missed from back home; HP sauce, Lea and Perrins, Colemans mustard, anything else that jumped to mind. British foods are very expensive here, but I bought them anyway. The money ran out quickly, and suddenly I got to the end of the month with nothing to survive on for the last week. Now, thanks to better budgeting, I'm inside my allowance by a small amount ($80 or so) - but that would have been more, were it not that my companion, Elder Alspaugh, has an addiction to buying mission supplies, and after having bought the entire Picture Scripture books in Chinese for $500, found himself with no money half way through the moves, so I fed him a fair bit. This next month I hopefully won't cut it so close, as I've just about gotten used to not buying every little treat I see, like Dairy Milk chocolate from Australia (which just don't taste as good as the British kind!)

Well, my time is just about up now. I love you all and hope that you all continue to do well, as you seem to have been doing, judging from Tuesday's phone call. Honestly, my biggest concern about phoning was that I might interrupt you during Christmas lunch, or during Dr Who!

Anyway, lots of love and hugs,

Elder Matthew Loffhagen