At least, I think it's letter 4...
Anyway, hello family! I see Mum now has a fun new googlemail address! Good good! :)
Anyway, this week has been lots of fun. For P-Day today, we had a Zone Activity wherein we all jumped on a ferry and went to a place called Lamma Island - look it up on the internet for some fun pictures - and it was a great time! Hiking across hills and valleys, we saw the most amazing view of many of the Hong Kong islands. Then there was a beautiful deserted beach with a life-guard, little sea-side shops, but very few other people. We all played some games and just spent some time sitting around together. One Elder, Elder Volk, who was in the MTC with me, has bought himself a recorder and so was sitting there playing songs on it. Then we carried on and found a thousand little tourist shops selling all kinds of fun little Chinese nicknacks. I refrained from buying anything, though.
There were some banana trees too - with huge spiders hanging on them. Some of the Elders were absolutely terrified, but others (myself included) got up really close and took some really close pictures of them!
Yesterday was Mission Conference, which was also a lot of fun. It was great having all of the missionaries together and getting to talk with all my friends and make new ones. The theme of the Conference was Siu Sam Sam, or, 'Be Careful, Sam!' It was all about Samuel the Lamanite, and so President and Sister Van Dam, the APs and the Office Elders and a pair of senior missionaries all sang Book of Mormon Stories with some alternative lyrics about the story of Samuel the Lamanite. As they did this, one of the Elders, Elder Warner, came through a doorway, dressed as Samuel the Lamanite, and acted out the story as they sang it.
We later had an activity called 'Hit the Mark' where we learned a bit more about Samuel the Lamanite, and then got the opportunity to through water balloons at one of two Elders, both named 'Mark'. It's the kind of punny activity that Sister Van Dam seems to always come up with - she loves to come up with little fun things like that; she always has a poem she's written about Missionary work, and came up with alternative puny names for the food we had for lunch, which was referred to as a Faminish Feast for our Lamanite Lunch.
I'm glad you got to see that picture of me with President and Sister Van Dam - I think it's hilarious. There they are, both looking very smart and happy, and there's me in the middle, with my hair a mess, my tie askew and very visible stubble. That was taken right at about 10 at night on my first day in Hong Kong - the last time I'd had a wash, a shave and a proper sleep had been the Monday - and that day was Wednesday! I certainly think it's a picture worth keeping, if only for the memories.
Larry Hartley actually wrote to me while I was in the MTC - I never found the time to get around to writing back, unfortunately. But he sent me a really nice letter, that perhaps I shall reply to now, if I can find the time. That's doubtful, though :S
Hayfever has not actually been a problem the whole time I've been on my mission so far - in fact, a native Elder from Macau who's in my flat with me has more of a problem than I do. I gave him some of my tablets, as at the moment they're just sitting in the bottom of my Carry-On bag looking suspicious. I was surprised that even on Lamma Island, where there's a lot more vegetation, I didn't really have a problem. But then I guess it's getting to the cooling-down season now in Hong Kong (I assume - I wasn't here for when it was REALLY hot, but it's still very hot now) so perhaps I'll have more trouble next Summer. I guess I only have one full really hot summer here, as I missed a lot of it in the MTC.
I'm thinking less interested in the idea of an iPod for Christmas any more - in fact, I'd much prefer having all of my Birthday and Christmas money saved for the next two years so I can buy a MacBook after the mission. That would be by far more useful to me then than an iPod would be for me now - the only reason I have to feel inclined to want an iPod is, as you mentioned, for storing pictures so I can show them to people, for having Conference talks on, and such. So I'm not sure. I've seen a lot of really cheap iPod-like devices while here, most for under $500 HK, but considering how cheap that is, and remembering the last iPod I got from Hong Kong, I'm skeptical of them. But I do know that somewhere around, there are places to get the real thing really cheap, but I've not seen any such places myself yet - I don't get really any opportunity to go window shopping. A nice compromise would be if you sent me out my old iPod, now in Bethany's possession, but I wouldn't want to tear it away from her, so don't worry about that plan.
Last Sunday, the people of Asia were blessed to have a special Stake Conference - like when we've had President Hinckley or Monson speak to us, Hong Kong, Taiwan and surrounding missions in this area had the opportunity to hear from President Monson, Elder Cook, a member of the General Relief Society Presidency, and a member of the Quorum of the Seventy who speaks Mandarin. It was a very interesting experience - the broadcast came to us in three languages at different times - English for the International district, Cantonese and Mandarin for the speakers of these respective languages. So the broadcast we watched was in Cantonese. Now, for General Conference, all of the broadcasts were at the same time, so we got to watch it in English, but the English broadcast was at a different time for Stake Conference. So Missionaries were provided with translations via headsets!
anyway, got to go! Bye!
Loffhagen
Thursday, 25 October 2007
Friday, 19 October 2007
3rd email from Hong Kong
Hello family!
I'm getting more and more into the swing of things here. The place is not quite so overwhelming any more - I still can't understand what is going on most of the time, but at least it's getting to be a familiar kind of incomprehension.
My companion and I have discovered a wonderful technique to finding people through the spirit - planning! All that time spent in the MTC with all that weekly planning time that seemed so wasteful - but prayerfully planning out our day and then telling our Heavenly Father what we plan to do the next day in prayer, is something we've been implementing this week, and it's amazing the difference it has made. We asked where to go on Monday, as we had a lot of finding time, and while there, we found so many people to teach, a new investigator, and, while teaching one man on a park bench, a woman came over to us and asked when church services were, as she wanted to attend! It's not exactly run of the mill to get people asking you about the church! However, like many of the humble people of Hong Kong, she was Filipino (not sure if that's the right spelling; I thought it was ph at the beginning, but that's how I've seen it spelt while here), and so after receiving her contact details, we passed them over to missionaries who are assigned to work with international people, from all over the world - very, very many Filipinos, mostly women, come to the area for work, mostly as maids, and are very often very ready for the Gospel. There is a very large number of missionaries just working in English, teaching them. They have church sessions in English for them almost every day of the week, because, as maids, their days off are all very different, unpredictable, and sometimes sporadic.
Another group of people in Hong Kong who are very ready to hear the message are, of course, those from Mainland China. I knew a little about the so-called "Miracle conversions" that happen - people will hear about the Gospel in China, and will travel to Hong Kong to get taught the lessons, baptised and have the Priesthood conferred upon them all in the same day - what I didn't know beforehand is the sheer scale of this - the law in China is that you [i]can[/i] be baptised, but only by a member of your family. So when each of these people come from Mainland to be baptised, they are generally the father of the family, and they go back with the power of the Priesthood, and baptise their entire families. And they have big families - grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc, all living together. Each of these baptisms in Hong Kong counts for a far larger number in Mainland. And many, many people come to Hong Kong from Mainland for school and are by far the most willing of the Chinese people to hear our message. They all speak Mandarin, though, and are taught by Mandarin Elders. To give you somewhat of the ratio between Cantonese and Mandarin missionaries, let me tell you about our group travelling over here - there were 13 Cantonese missionaries; my District, although somewhat diminished in numbers from our original 16, as one had gone to Hong Kong already (she already spoke Cantonese, so she went with the District before us), Elder Dallin had gone to Australia, and one Elder had some worthiness issues and is waiting a while before being allowed out; and one Mandarin Elder who joined us in Hong Kong that first day. Taking into account the number that would have been there barring transgression or fluency, that would be a 15 to 1 ratio. The Mandarin Elders are always busy.
Tuesday of this week was a very interesting day - we were implementing our new improved planning system for the second day in a row, and after we taught a man we'd met on Monday, the doorbell to the chapel rang. "That's probably a miracle," Elder Alspaugh said jokingly, "someone who wants to hear the Gospel." Then we heard someone wandering around the chapel, asking "Hello? I want to know who the prophet is?"
For the second time in two days, an investigator had found us. This man, in his sixties, but with incredible English - yet his native tongue is Cantonese - told us that a friend of his had told him to find out who the prophet is. We taught him a little of the first lesson, about prophets and apostacies, and gave him President Hinckley's name. He asked us to write it down; both in Chinese and English, so he could share it with his friend, and we set up an appointment to teach him more. He was so willing to listen, and we even prayed with him. Afterwards, he asked (in English), "Er, I don't mean to trouble you...but where is the John?" I laughed out loud and we directed him to the toilet. We're also going to get his friend's information and contact him/her too.
Yesterday, Wednesday, we had Trainer/Trainee meeting; a meeting of all the Elders and Sisters who were in my old MTC district. It was so great to find out where everyone was serving, what they'd been up to, share funny stories and whatnot. It was great. There are such different areas in our missions - some Elders and Sisters are out in the New Territories, where it's still very rural and classic Chinese. Others, like myself, are on Hong Kong Island itself, the bustling heart of the city, and others still are in even stranger places - one Elder now has pictures of Mainland China, as his area runs along the border and they saw over into it while up a mountain.
We watched the first part of the DVD Elder Ng sent me, and what a different experience it was - instead of "Wow, that looks amazing!" I was saying to myself, "Hey! I recognise that!" "I know him!" It was great watching it again and recognising faces of people I now know; my MTC teacher, my trainer, various of the office Elders, etc.
And I had something explained to me, Dad - "If it's good enough for Bill Gates, it's good enough for me!" It's a quote from the old Mission President. His daughter was dating a Microsoft Employee!
Later that day, we taught an investigator about a lot of different things - prayer, the Restoration, and baptism. My companion later explained to me that the investigator had committed to be baptised in December! We also had a very interesting English class (well, all English classes are interesting) which featured a little boy named Jason who is obsessed with Batman and Lego - and love playing Hangman with me. He's very boisterous, often to the point of annoyance, but still fun if you can put up with him :P
Well, I'm just about out of time - sorry, I didn't get to reply to any of the questions in your email - but just to let you know, my P-Day is Thursday. Any thank you so much for your Dear Elder, that was wonderful. When we picked up our mail yesterday, I didn't have anything from England - presumably due to postal strikes - but 3 from America. One from you, one from my MTC teacher - and one from that girl who likes my website and keeps sending me Babylon. This time she was very thoughtful - print-outs from the comments page on my website, so I got to see how my comics are being received!
Anyway, got to go!
Love,
羅 (Elder Loh)
I'm getting more and more into the swing of things here. The place is not quite so overwhelming any more - I still can't understand what is going on most of the time, but at least it's getting to be a familiar kind of incomprehension.
My companion and I have discovered a wonderful technique to finding people through the spirit - planning! All that time spent in the MTC with all that weekly planning time that seemed so wasteful - but prayerfully planning out our day and then telling our Heavenly Father what we plan to do the next day in prayer, is something we've been implementing this week, and it's amazing the difference it has made. We asked where to go on Monday, as we had a lot of finding time, and while there, we found so many people to teach, a new investigator, and, while teaching one man on a park bench, a woman came over to us and asked when church services were, as she wanted to attend! It's not exactly run of the mill to get people asking you about the church! However, like many of the humble people of Hong Kong, she was Filipino (not sure if that's the right spelling; I thought it was ph at the beginning, but that's how I've seen it spelt while here), and so after receiving her contact details, we passed them over to missionaries who are assigned to work with international people, from all over the world - very, very many Filipinos, mostly women, come to the area for work, mostly as maids, and are very often very ready for the Gospel. There is a very large number of missionaries just working in English, teaching them. They have church sessions in English for them almost every day of the week, because, as maids, their days off are all very different, unpredictable, and sometimes sporadic.
Another group of people in Hong Kong who are very ready to hear the message are, of course, those from Mainland China. I knew a little about the so-called "Miracle conversions" that happen - people will hear about the Gospel in China, and will travel to Hong Kong to get taught the lessons, baptised and have the Priesthood conferred upon them all in the same day - what I didn't know beforehand is the sheer scale of this - the law in China is that you [i]can[/i] be baptised, but only by a member of your family. So when each of these people come from Mainland to be baptised, they are generally the father of the family, and they go back with the power of the Priesthood, and baptise their entire families. And they have big families - grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc, all living together. Each of these baptisms in Hong Kong counts for a far larger number in Mainland. And many, many people come to Hong Kong from Mainland for school and are by far the most willing of the Chinese people to hear our message. They all speak Mandarin, though, and are taught by Mandarin Elders. To give you somewhat of the ratio between Cantonese and Mandarin missionaries, let me tell you about our group travelling over here - there were 13 Cantonese missionaries; my District, although somewhat diminished in numbers from our original 16, as one had gone to Hong Kong already (she already spoke Cantonese, so she went with the District before us), Elder Dallin had gone to Australia, and one Elder had some worthiness issues and is waiting a while before being allowed out; and one Mandarin Elder who joined us in Hong Kong that first day. Taking into account the number that would have been there barring transgression or fluency, that would be a 15 to 1 ratio. The Mandarin Elders are always busy.
Tuesday of this week was a very interesting day - we were implementing our new improved planning system for the second day in a row, and after we taught a man we'd met on Monday, the doorbell to the chapel rang. "That's probably a miracle," Elder Alspaugh said jokingly, "someone who wants to hear the Gospel." Then we heard someone wandering around the chapel, asking "Hello? I want to know who the prophet is?"
For the second time in two days, an investigator had found us. This man, in his sixties, but with incredible English - yet his native tongue is Cantonese - told us that a friend of his had told him to find out who the prophet is. We taught him a little of the first lesson, about prophets and apostacies, and gave him President Hinckley's name. He asked us to write it down; both in Chinese and English, so he could share it with his friend, and we set up an appointment to teach him more. He was so willing to listen, and we even prayed with him. Afterwards, he asked (in English), "Er, I don't mean to trouble you...but where is the John?" I laughed out loud and we directed him to the toilet. We're also going to get his friend's information and contact him/her too.
Yesterday, Wednesday, we had Trainer/Trainee meeting; a meeting of all the Elders and Sisters who were in my old MTC district. It was so great to find out where everyone was serving, what they'd been up to, share funny stories and whatnot. It was great. There are such different areas in our missions - some Elders and Sisters are out in the New Territories, where it's still very rural and classic Chinese. Others, like myself, are on Hong Kong Island itself, the bustling heart of the city, and others still are in even stranger places - one Elder now has pictures of Mainland China, as his area runs along the border and they saw over into it while up a mountain.
We watched the first part of the DVD Elder Ng sent me, and what a different experience it was - instead of "Wow, that looks amazing!" I was saying to myself, "Hey! I recognise that!" "I know him!" It was great watching it again and recognising faces of people I now know; my MTC teacher, my trainer, various of the office Elders, etc.
And I had something explained to me, Dad - "If it's good enough for Bill Gates, it's good enough for me!" It's a quote from the old Mission President. His daughter was dating a Microsoft Employee!
Later that day, we taught an investigator about a lot of different things - prayer, the Restoration, and baptism. My companion later explained to me that the investigator had committed to be baptised in December! We also had a very interesting English class (well, all English classes are interesting) which featured a little boy named Jason who is obsessed with Batman and Lego - and love playing Hangman with me. He's very boisterous, often to the point of annoyance, but still fun if you can put up with him :P
Well, I'm just about out of time - sorry, I didn't get to reply to any of the questions in your email - but just to let you know, my P-Day is Thursday. Any thank you so much for your Dear Elder, that was wonderful. When we picked up our mail yesterday, I didn't have anything from England - presumably due to postal strikes - but 3 from America. One from you, one from my MTC teacher - and one from that girl who likes my website and keeps sending me Babylon. This time she was very thoughtful - print-outs from the comments page on my website, so I got to see how my comics are being received!
Anyway, got to go!
Love,
羅 (Elder Loh)
Thursday, 11 October 2007
2nd email from Hong Kong
Hello all!
So after a full week in Hong Kong, I have thankfully managed to adjust to the smell somewhat. It's just the taste I'm concerned about. We just helped a member move house and she took us out to a restaurant to say thank you. We had chicken feet, octopus tentacle, pig stomach and all kinds of fun stuff. Half way through I'd had enough and tried very hard to decline more without being rude; thankfully, the member assumed my stomach couldn't handle the oily spicy foods, and that I was feeling sick. Yes, I was feeling sick, but never because of spice.
I'm doing a pretty bad job of throwing myself head-first into the Chinese food culture; but it's not my fault! I can't help it if they had so much English food here that I can just live off that! The first meal I cooked for myself here in Hong Kong was beans on toast! Really outside the box, huh?! And then one day when we were picking up some drinks at a supermarket (Blackcurrant and Aloe Vera - the Aloe Vera gives it an interesting chunkiness that concerns me) I spotted the sauce section. Well, I couldn't help but look - and guess what I found? Brown sauce, English mustard, Worchester sauce! I bought some HP sauce and Colmans mustard then and there, but decided to wait for the Lea and Perrins - I've also spotted mint sauce while on my travels. Unfortunately, no sign of Salt and Vinegar crisps - that would make things complete!
Anyway, less about how I'm not adjusting properly, and more about how I am. I'm sure you can understand that a lot of the time really confused as to what's going on, with everything happenining in Chinese, and certainly, Sunday was interesting. It was Fast Sunday, because they get conference a week later here. I understood very little of what was going on. I know that our Gospel Doctrine class was on the Garden of Eden, because there was a picture of Adam and Eve on the board, but I couldn't figure out much more of anything. Priesthood was a blur, as was Sacrament meeting. After the sacrament was passed, the person conducting was saying something, and my companion, Elder Alspaugh leaned over to me and whispered, "They want you to bear your testimony." Now, as unexpected as this was, I wasn't unprepared. I know how things work in the church - the new missionary always gets called on to speak, his first week in the ward. And even if they hadn't called on me, I wanted to bear my testimony anyway; so I'd written a testimony and got Elder Alspaugh to check for grammatical accuracy. I took it out of my bag, though, and he said, "you should do it without the notes." Well, this scared me, but I gave it a shot anyway. My testimony made a lot less sense and was a lot simpler, and I didn't get to talk about Member-Missionary work (because I can't without notes) but I did it!
That night, I decided that I needed to learn this language quickly. As I look at Elder Alspaugh and how at home he is with the Chinese people, to the extent that he's lost a lot of English skills and certainly doesn't get my rather unique sense of humour, but will laugh and joke for hours with the native Elder in our room in Cantonese, it's clear that I'm not being fair to the people of Hong Kong if I'm not doing everything in my power to learn their language. So I set myself a goal - we have a book called Catch the Vision, which is basically Preach My Gospel but in Chinese, with lots of learning excercises. I determined that by the end of the month I would know everything there was to know about the first section - which meant this week learning about 200 vocab words. I determined that with the Lord's help, I could achieve this lofty goal.
And the next day, Monday, I strived really hard to learn those words. I've noticed that the Lord blesses us with help not so much based on how much we do, but how much effort we put into it. Somehow, even from just learning the few words I'd learned that day, I could understand a lot more! I could understand about 60% of what was going on around me! I was so surprised! Not every word, of course, but the meaning behind sentences, what people were talking about, etc. We taught a man we found on the street who had a lot of concerns - prophets, the Book of Mormon, praying, and afterwards, my companion turned to me and said, "Did you understand any of that?" "Yes, I said, "I understood most of it!"
My companion, Elder Alspaugh, is an interesting character. Another Utah boy, my relationship with him is very different from my relationship with my MTC companion. While Elder Dallin and I were both learning together, and I tended to pick things up a bit quicker than him and would help him, instead being with Elder Alspaugh is like being with a teacher all day, every day. He's got the language down, he knows his teaching style, and he's pretty set. He teaches me, he talks to people and sometimes gives me the gist of what's going on, he shows me how to be a missionary. It's a very different experience. He's also been called as District Leader, so he gets two experiences that are new for him at once; training another missionary, and being in charge of a district. He's on the downward slope on his mission now - he got his departure date on Tuesday. He's leaving in early May. That seems like an awfully long way away to go telling Elders about it now, but whatever.
Grandma's money did indeed arrive safely - I'm half way through a thank you letter to her and Grandad, but considering the postal strikes, it may be a while before it gets there. It was a wonderful treat; I got to see Hong Kong money before I arrived there, and when I got here, I had something to buy things with, without needing a cash machine!
Also, your letter did arrive with me in time. Thank you very much for it; it was so nice to have something waiting for me at the Mission home. We don't get post sent straight to our flats the way they do in Britain; it all goes to the Mission home and then when the Mission President goes to visit people, he brings it with him. So last Tuesday, when we had interviews, he brought all the stuff for my zone with him. Elder Alspaugh got a few letters, and was happy. Elder Ng, who is one of my Zone Leaders, actually, had his birthday a little while ago, so he had a present or two.
General Conference will indeed be a good time. I'm really looking forward to it. I asked President Van Dam during our interview if it would be alright for me to use some email time to print out the talks in English from lds.org and then read in English as I watched them in Cantonese, so I could understand what was going on, but he said it wouldn't be necescary - there's a special English showing for the missionaries, so that everyone gets to understand it in their native tongue - unless we have an investigator coming and want to sit with them.
On the way into the library just now, we bumped into one of our investigators and he agreed to go to conference. So maybe I won't know what's going on after all. But President Van Dam said that if this was the case, companionship exchanges could be arranged so that perhaps a native missionary could go with Elder Alspaugh and our investigator, and I could listen in English.
How exciting that the computer actually blew up! I guess that's what Linux will do to things! But I guess that computer had 98 at the time, huh? Maybe you should upgrade to Vista :P Or better yet, buy a Mac! I'm thinking I might like all of my birthdays and Christmases saved up while I'm away and just have a MacBook when I get back...but then I also want a PS3. And an iPod. And most other cool technology under the sun!
When you talk about iPod classics, I'm not sure what you mean. I assume it's a new device that came out after I left, but I saw a girl on the bus the other day with an iPod that looked kind of squished, like it was half the size, and suspected that might be what you were talking about. I think for Christmas I might like one of those; no doubt they'll be a lot cheaper over here though!
I'd absolutely love a postal vote - and each party's manifesto - if a surprise election happens. I really want to contribute to democracy, seeing how so many people here tell me stories of what it's like without it. We meet a lot of Mainland people, who are by far the most receptive to the Gospel, but unfortunately all speak Mandarin!
Well, my time's nearly up!
Elder Loffhagen
So after a full week in Hong Kong, I have thankfully managed to adjust to the smell somewhat. It's just the taste I'm concerned about. We just helped a member move house and she took us out to a restaurant to say thank you. We had chicken feet, octopus tentacle, pig stomach and all kinds of fun stuff. Half way through I'd had enough and tried very hard to decline more without being rude; thankfully, the member assumed my stomach couldn't handle the oily spicy foods, and that I was feeling sick. Yes, I was feeling sick, but never because of spice.
I'm doing a pretty bad job of throwing myself head-first into the Chinese food culture; but it's not my fault! I can't help it if they had so much English food here that I can just live off that! The first meal I cooked for myself here in Hong Kong was beans on toast! Really outside the box, huh?! And then one day when we were picking up some drinks at a supermarket (Blackcurrant and Aloe Vera - the Aloe Vera gives it an interesting chunkiness that concerns me) I spotted the sauce section. Well, I couldn't help but look - and guess what I found? Brown sauce, English mustard, Worchester sauce! I bought some HP sauce and Colmans mustard then and there, but decided to wait for the Lea and Perrins - I've also spotted mint sauce while on my travels. Unfortunately, no sign of Salt and Vinegar crisps - that would make things complete!
Anyway, less about how I'm not adjusting properly, and more about how I am. I'm sure you can understand that a lot of the time really confused as to what's going on, with everything happenining in Chinese, and certainly, Sunday was interesting. It was Fast Sunday, because they get conference a week later here. I understood very little of what was going on. I know that our Gospel Doctrine class was on the Garden of Eden, because there was a picture of Adam and Eve on the board, but I couldn't figure out much more of anything. Priesthood was a blur, as was Sacrament meeting. After the sacrament was passed, the person conducting was saying something, and my companion, Elder Alspaugh leaned over to me and whispered, "They want you to bear your testimony." Now, as unexpected as this was, I wasn't unprepared. I know how things work in the church - the new missionary always gets called on to speak, his first week in the ward. And even if they hadn't called on me, I wanted to bear my testimony anyway; so I'd written a testimony and got Elder Alspaugh to check for grammatical accuracy. I took it out of my bag, though, and he said, "you should do it without the notes." Well, this scared me, but I gave it a shot anyway. My testimony made a lot less sense and was a lot simpler, and I didn't get to talk about Member-Missionary work (because I can't without notes) but I did it!
That night, I decided that I needed to learn this language quickly. As I look at Elder Alspaugh and how at home he is with the Chinese people, to the extent that he's lost a lot of English skills and certainly doesn't get my rather unique sense of humour, but will laugh and joke for hours with the native Elder in our room in Cantonese, it's clear that I'm not being fair to the people of Hong Kong if I'm not doing everything in my power to learn their language. So I set myself a goal - we have a book called Catch the Vision, which is basically Preach My Gospel but in Chinese, with lots of learning excercises. I determined that by the end of the month I would know everything there was to know about the first section - which meant this week learning about 200 vocab words. I determined that with the Lord's help, I could achieve this lofty goal.
And the next day, Monday, I strived really hard to learn those words. I've noticed that the Lord blesses us with help not so much based on how much we do, but how much effort we put into it. Somehow, even from just learning the few words I'd learned that day, I could understand a lot more! I could understand about 60% of what was going on around me! I was so surprised! Not every word, of course, but the meaning behind sentences, what people were talking about, etc. We taught a man we found on the street who had a lot of concerns - prophets, the Book of Mormon, praying, and afterwards, my companion turned to me and said, "Did you understand any of that?" "Yes, I said, "I understood most of it!"
My companion, Elder Alspaugh, is an interesting character. Another Utah boy, my relationship with him is very different from my relationship with my MTC companion. While Elder Dallin and I were both learning together, and I tended to pick things up a bit quicker than him and would help him, instead being with Elder Alspaugh is like being with a teacher all day, every day. He's got the language down, he knows his teaching style, and he's pretty set. He teaches me, he talks to people and sometimes gives me the gist of what's going on, he shows me how to be a missionary. It's a very different experience. He's also been called as District Leader, so he gets two experiences that are new for him at once; training another missionary, and being in charge of a district. He's on the downward slope on his mission now - he got his departure date on Tuesday. He's leaving in early May. That seems like an awfully long way away to go telling Elders about it now, but whatever.
Grandma's money did indeed arrive safely - I'm half way through a thank you letter to her and Grandad, but considering the postal strikes, it may be a while before it gets there. It was a wonderful treat; I got to see Hong Kong money before I arrived there, and when I got here, I had something to buy things with, without needing a cash machine!
Also, your letter did arrive with me in time. Thank you very much for it; it was so nice to have something waiting for me at the Mission home. We don't get post sent straight to our flats the way they do in Britain; it all goes to the Mission home and then when the Mission President goes to visit people, he brings it with him. So last Tuesday, when we had interviews, he brought all the stuff for my zone with him. Elder Alspaugh got a few letters, and was happy. Elder Ng, who is one of my Zone Leaders, actually, had his birthday a little while ago, so he had a present or two.
General Conference will indeed be a good time. I'm really looking forward to it. I asked President Van Dam during our interview if it would be alright for me to use some email time to print out the talks in English from lds.org and then read in English as I watched them in Cantonese, so I could understand what was going on, but he said it wouldn't be necescary - there's a special English showing for the missionaries, so that everyone gets to understand it in their native tongue - unless we have an investigator coming and want to sit with them.
On the way into the library just now, we bumped into one of our investigators and he agreed to go to conference. So maybe I won't know what's going on after all. But President Van Dam said that if this was the case, companionship exchanges could be arranged so that perhaps a native missionary could go with Elder Alspaugh and our investigator, and I could listen in English.
How exciting that the computer actually blew up! I guess that's what Linux will do to things! But I guess that computer had 98 at the time, huh? Maybe you should upgrade to Vista :P Or better yet, buy a Mac! I'm thinking I might like all of my birthdays and Christmases saved up while I'm away and just have a MacBook when I get back...but then I also want a PS3. And an iPod. And most other cool technology under the sun!
When you talk about iPod classics, I'm not sure what you mean. I assume it's a new device that came out after I left, but I saw a girl on the bus the other day with an iPod that looked kind of squished, like it was half the size, and suspected that might be what you were talking about. I think for Christmas I might like one of those; no doubt they'll be a lot cheaper over here though!
I'd absolutely love a postal vote - and each party's manifesto - if a surprise election happens. I really want to contribute to democracy, seeing how so many people here tell me stories of what it's like without it. We meet a lot of Mainland people, who are by far the most receptive to the Gospel, but unfortunately all speak Mandarin!
Well, my time's nearly up!
Elder Loffhagen
Friday, 5 October 2007
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
:)
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
:)
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