Dear all,
Today has been a very busy day. In fact, this week has been a very busy week.
On Tuesday we headed back to Hong Kong for Mission Conference. That was pretty much an entire day gone - we managed to get some planning for lessons done, but not much else. On Wednesday we had Mission Conference and came back to Macau. Then today I went with Elder Liu and his family here in Macau (his aunt, uncle and grandma) to some family graves, then all of the Missionaries were treated to a trip up to Macau Tower by the second counsellor in the Branch Presidency here. So now I'm very tired, but there's no time to rest because immediately after we finish emailing here, we're going back out for a meal with Elder Liu's family again. Busy!
On Tuesday, we had interviews with President Van Dam. I asked him a very special question - because here in Macau there are a lot of Mandarin speakers from the Mainland, but I have no way of communicating with them when we meet them on the street, I asked for permission to study some Mandarin while I'm here. He pointed out that they often try to have a Mandarin-speaking missionary in Macau, but it's been different recently. He then said that I could have permission, because of the unique circumstances here right now. I got very excited and went and bought two books - one is the Mandarin language learning book and the other is a special Book of Mormon with three columns on the page - one in English, one in Mandarin romanization and one in Chinese characters. Because I can pretty much read the entire book of mormon in characters anyway, it's really not going to do me very much good, but it's a fun new book. So I'm going to work on my Mandarin slowly - this week my goal is just to learn to bear my testimony in simple sentences. Next week I'll work on prayer. This is mimicking the pattern we used for learning Cantonese in the MTC.
Wednesday was a lot of fun. All of the Zone skits and all of the talents were, in my opinion, a lot more impressive than last year. Our Macau zone skit went well, but the best skit in my mind was the "Paw Paw Polka", where everyone in the Zone danced in unison, acting like old Chinese ladies ("Paw Paw" in Chinese means "grandma").
The Mission Slideshow was also really good. I'm in it a little more often than last year, but you might blink and miss me in a few places. Better than seeing myself was seeing places and people that I recognized, like members, investigators and old area. When I get home we can all watch it together and I can point out all of the inside jokes and interesting things that I had some connection to.
It was really good getting to see all of my missionary friends again for the first time in 2 months. Because Mission Conference was split up last time, I hadn't seen most of the missionaries since before I came to Macau! We also had a fun Secret Santa gift exchange, and Elder Rose got me a toy Hong Kong minibus.
It was sad to see three of the Sisters who were in the MTC with me give their "dying testimonies" as all Missionaries who go home get to bear their testimony in their last mission conference. That means that I'll be picking my date to go home next interview with President Van Dam. We all took a District picture, where all of the missionaries who were in our MTC District - all 15 of us who are here - took a picture together. Next Move the last two Sisters, who both picked their late date to go home, will be "dying". Conveniently, they are both serving as companions, here with me in Macau. All of my Sisters have served here, but I'm the only Elder from our group.
I'm really enjoying this time on my mission - more so than any other time so far - and I'm very glad that Elders get half a year more than Sisters, because a year and a half is just not long enough. I'm rather hesitant to come home, but I also know that I need to think about it. That said, I have looked through all of the University things you sent me. I got the package last Sunday and was very surprised. President Van Dam had come to Macau on church business, as he is the equivalent of the Stake President for Macau, and when he saw me, he put his arm around me and said, "You owe me a big favour." When I saw the size of the package, I agreed - it was huge! President Van Dam pointed out that he'd had to use a full size suitcase just to get it to Macau, and it had barely fitted. Thank you so much for all of the food - it's like a typical Loffhagen family Christmas away from home. Whatwith that and the Young Women's package (which you must thank them for from me) I think I'll be comfortably eating sweets for a long time to come! Also, I'm pretty certain that I now have more Marmite than I will need for the rest of my mission, because in addition to the little pot you sent me and the half-pot I already have (everyone in the apartment thinks I'm crazy for eating it, and were even more disgusted by Twiglets), my dear friend Elder Volk gave me an almost full pot that he had bought - I got everyone to try it in the MTC, and Elder Volk liked it, but decided that he liked Vegemite more. I've never tried it so I can't compare.
Anyway, after having read through all of the university courses, I feel that I like the Multimedia Journalism course at Bournemouth best. But if I'm right, I can apply to up to four universities? Not sure what more there is we could do to find other courses, though - although backup options would be good. To be honest, I wasn't all that impressed with Leeds. The prospectus seemed to be trying to sell the community and surroundings a lot more than the actual courses, and honestly I don't know how much four years of studying Chinese could keep my interest, especially considering that Mandarin is just Cantonese with a different accent and different grammar.
Just a fun little side note - when I told other missionaries I was looking at a Journalism course, one of the Sisters said, "I hate to say it, but BYU has a really great journalism programme". Plus pretty much every other missionary is desperately trying to convince me to go to BYU - but don't worry, that ship has sailed. I'd rather stay where I belong, in a culture I understand.
That's why I'm contemplating Hong Kong University... :P
Anyway, talk to you next week.
Thursday, 18 December 2008
Thursday, 11 December 2008
Feeling Christmassy - 9th email from Macau
Dear all,
Beth Aslett sent me an email this week. The next time you see her, tell her that I will reply, but because we're only supposed to email family, it'll be coming by snail mail some time probably in January.
It sounds like everything is going well at home. Lots of tests and examinations - and how interesting to hear that Mum's getting offered jobs at other schools! Yet more proof that you are the best teacher ever. :)
We helped decorate the chapel for Christmas yesterday. It was a lot of fun and really put me in the Christmas spirit - Elder Liu's not really feeling it as much as I am. Being from Utah, he's used to it being a lot colder and snowier at Christmas. Last Christmas I was actually a little warm outside in my short sleeve shirt, so I'm used to it by now. It's a little chillier this year, but I'm stubbornly sticking to short sleeves again. Otherwise I'll come home and be a wimp, too used to the warm winter weather and not able to cope in classic frosty winds.
Our investigators are all doing well. Sister W is determined to have her entire family baptized all at the same time next week. I'm doubting if she herself will even be ready, let alone her eight year old son who never pays attention to us. We'll see how things go - either way, they are thrilled to accept everything. We taught them Tithing yesterday, which Sister W was thrilled by. It was interesting - she'd started the lesson by showing us a bag of rice they'd got from somewhere that she said had been a real blessing to them. They are not very well off - in fact, as Sister Wong has to stay at home and take care of Brother W all day, they are supported entirely by Sister W's family. They are very poor, but Sister W had already asked us about any kind of donations that were necessary at church, so she'd already heard a little bit about Tithing and was really happy to get to pay it - even before we promised her the blessings that come with this commandment. Before we left, the kids were bashing each other with the bag of rice (which was vaccuum sealed and as such is just like a big flat brick of rice) and Sister W scolded them, saying that God gave them their food and they should respect it. I'm glad she understands that principle so well - it's probably a lot easier to see where blessings come from if they are in shorter supply.
If I call you at 10:30pm my time, it'll be 2:30 your time, right? Would that be okay? I just asked Elder Liu when would be best, because I don't want to interrupt Christmas dinner or Doctor Who. Elder Liu said that you'd probably be more interested in talking to me, and I said that I wasn't too sure if I'd win out over David Tenant in some people's minds...
I love you, Tim.
Anyway, the Mission Christmas Social is next week, and I'll also have my interview with President Van Dam. I'm going with a special request this time - I'm sick and tired of meeting people who only speak Mandarin, using up my three or four sentences of Mandarin, and then waving goodbye to them. On a good day I can just about understand what they're saying, but they never have a clue what I'm trying to say. So I'm going to ask President Van Dam for permission to learn a little Mandarin and see what he says.
Elder Liu calls me Mandarin Trunky, in that I'm a little too focused on the idea of learning Mandarin. I just want to be able to communicate with these people we meet from other parts of the world, like the Mainland or Vietnam or Taiwan or countless other places - Macau has such a huge mix of languages floating around. Cantonese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, English - it's a very diverse place here. As Visas have been hard to come by recently, pretty much every ethnicity in the mission is represented here at the moment - we have five Americans, a Briton, a Canadian, an Elder from Hong Kong, a Sister from the Phillipines and a Maori Elder from New Zealand. This means that collectively we speak English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Maori and four or five languages from the Phillipines. Plus there's some French floating around at times, just for fun (but not on my part - I can't even pretend to speak French anymore!)
Anyway, that's all from me for this week.
Lots of love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Beth Aslett sent me an email this week. The next time you see her, tell her that I will reply, but because we're only supposed to email family, it'll be coming by snail mail some time probably in January.
It sounds like everything is going well at home. Lots of tests and examinations - and how interesting to hear that Mum's getting offered jobs at other schools! Yet more proof that you are the best teacher ever. :)
We helped decorate the chapel for Christmas yesterday. It was a lot of fun and really put me in the Christmas spirit - Elder Liu's not really feeling it as much as I am. Being from Utah, he's used to it being a lot colder and snowier at Christmas. Last Christmas I was actually a little warm outside in my short sleeve shirt, so I'm used to it by now. It's a little chillier this year, but I'm stubbornly sticking to short sleeves again. Otherwise I'll come home and be a wimp, too used to the warm winter weather and not able to cope in classic frosty winds.
Our investigators are all doing well. Sister W is determined to have her entire family baptized all at the same time next week. I'm doubting if she herself will even be ready, let alone her eight year old son who never pays attention to us. We'll see how things go - either way, they are thrilled to accept everything. We taught them Tithing yesterday, which Sister W was thrilled by. It was interesting - she'd started the lesson by showing us a bag of rice they'd got from somewhere that she said had been a real blessing to them. They are not very well off - in fact, as Sister Wong has to stay at home and take care of Brother W all day, they are supported entirely by Sister W's family. They are very poor, but Sister W had already asked us about any kind of donations that were necessary at church, so she'd already heard a little bit about Tithing and was really happy to get to pay it - even before we promised her the blessings that come with this commandment. Before we left, the kids were bashing each other with the bag of rice (which was vaccuum sealed and as such is just like a big flat brick of rice) and Sister W scolded them, saying that God gave them their food and they should respect it. I'm glad she understands that principle so well - it's probably a lot easier to see where blessings come from if they are in shorter supply.
If I call you at 10:30pm my time, it'll be 2:30 your time, right? Would that be okay? I just asked Elder Liu when would be best, because I don't want to interrupt Christmas dinner or Doctor Who. Elder Liu said that you'd probably be more interested in talking to me, and I said that I wasn't too sure if I'd win out over David Tenant in some people's minds...
I love you, Tim.
Anyway, the Mission Christmas Social is next week, and I'll also have my interview with President Van Dam. I'm going with a special request this time - I'm sick and tired of meeting people who only speak Mandarin, using up my three or four sentences of Mandarin, and then waving goodbye to them. On a good day I can just about understand what they're saying, but they never have a clue what I'm trying to say. So I'm going to ask President Van Dam for permission to learn a little Mandarin and see what he says.
Elder Liu calls me Mandarin Trunky, in that I'm a little too focused on the idea of learning Mandarin. I just want to be able to communicate with these people we meet from other parts of the world, like the Mainland or Vietnam or Taiwan or countless other places - Macau has such a huge mix of languages floating around. Cantonese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, English - it's a very diverse place here. As Visas have been hard to come by recently, pretty much every ethnicity in the mission is represented here at the moment - we have five Americans, a Briton, a Canadian, an Elder from Hong Kong, a Sister from the Phillipines and a Maori Elder from New Zealand. This means that collectively we speak English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Maori and four or five languages from the Phillipines. Plus there's some French floating around at times, just for fun (but not on my part - I can't even pretend to speak French anymore!)
Anyway, that's all from me for this week.
Lots of love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Thursday, 4 December 2008
It's been a good week - 8th email from Macau
Dear all,
I've enjoyed myself and am in a particularly good mood right now. Honestly though, I'm not sure why - but for whatever reason, I'm thrilled to be here.
So, I've made a comprehensive list of every question you've asked me - rhetorical or otherwise. Here we go.
"Did you hand in your photos for this years DVD?"
Yes.
"I guess if we get your phone call Christmas day we won't get an email that day too."
Not sure.
"Will it still be your pday."
Yes.
"Have you had any thoughts about how we will do the phone call?"
No.
"We received an email today from someone in Macau, P E. She is asking us to be guardians for students coming over here to study. We are going to ask for a little more information but we might be able to get some of the other ward members involved. We just need to know what our commitment would be."
Let me explain a little from what I've heard on the subject - Brother Y, who is a really great member here in the Chinese branch (but whose English is above par) runs an organization finding placements for Macau students in international schools. The other day we were at the church when he phoned and asked to speak to me. He told me that he has a student that he's trying to send to Norwich, and asked (in English - perhaps he doesn't trust my Chinese) if you could be guardians. I asked for explanation of what that entailed, but didn't get a very clear response - something about signing papers. I pointed out that Norwich is rather far away from us, but he insisted that he'd looked on a map and we were quite close; which I'm sure is true - compared to, say, Glasgow. Certainly closer than Macau is to Norwich. I also stated that you are all pretty much always busy and probably wouldn't have time to help, but that he could try. I gave him the home phone number and Dad's email address, and I guess he got P (who attends the English branch but works for Brother Y) to email you. Perhaps there are some members who could also help - I know that between the two of you, Mum and Dad, you know pretty much every family in the church in Britain :)
Speaking of members in Britain, some fun news - one of our recent converts here in Macau, V, told us that he is moving to England in June. How convenient, as I'll get home in July or August - we can go to YSA stuff together.
Anyway, back to questions:
"So far as coming home, if you want you can be really busy - EFY will be on in late August / early Sept 2009 in the South of England and they will be after returned missionaries as chaperons :)"
Not sure I'm willing to commit to anything just yet. I do hope to get some time for work in before I go to University, and with constant holidays, It'd be hard to get any work. But we'll see how things go - August is still a long time away.
With Christmas well on the way, we're busy making preparations for various activities. One such activity is the Mission Christmas Social - all of the zones will perform skits, and we just practiced ours a little. We're doing A Christmas Carol with a missionary twist. Trunky old Sister Chan (this was all her idea) won't get out of bed to study or go finding, and is visited by the Ghosts of Mission Past, Present and Future to realise that she's got to go work hard for the rest of her mission. The practice could have been a little better - we don't really have a script yet; just a vague idea of what we're going to do. It'll be alright on the night.
Our investigators are progressing nicely - J and Sister W are stepping closer to baptism every day. J shows proof of just how effective a good fellowshipper can be - because he knows Recent Converts H and V, and goes to school with his friend Y, he has support in a lot of different directions. On Saturday, before we sat down to teach him, he told us that he probably couldn't come to church, because he had to study for exams (this is a common excuse - they have tests at school every two months, so they're always studying for tests) but when we got to the end of the lesson, he asked Y if he was going to be at church. Y replied; "of course" and J said, "Okay, I'll come too." He stayed for all three hours, and I was thrilled for him.
Yesterday we taught the Wong family about the Word of Wisdom - we chose to teach them this commandment first because it's pretty much the only one we expected them to have problems with - perhaps the Sabbath will present a problem too, but Sister W already knows about it as she has a great love for the Bible. In fact, when we told her that we were going to teach the commandments, she started listing some of the ones she knows, such as not stealing or killing - she was very sorry to tell us that occaisonally she lies, and we told her to work on that. So we talked about prayer and scripture reading, to point out that they're already keeping some commandments, as we carefully built up to the Word of Wisdom.
Now, here in China, EVERYBODY drinks tea. So EVERYBODY has a problem with the Word of Wisdom. It was funny watching Elder Liu carefully go through the elements of this commandment.
"Well," he said, "First off, we don't use harmful drugs."
"Of course!" said Sister W, "I'd never do that!"
"Okay," continued Elder Liu, "And we don't smoke."
Again, no problem.
"Alcohol?" No, she had nothing wrong there either.
"And then there's coffee - "
Here was the problem. "Oh dear!" said Sister Wong, "I have some coffee - over there!" She pointed, "But I never never drink it!"
We assured her that it was okay. Then Elder Liu steeled himself and said, "And...tea."
We waited, looking at her. There was a split second of nervousness between the two of us, but she wasn't phased, "Oh, no, I rarely drink tea. Only if I go out to a restaurant, but I can just drink water - that's fine."
We were absolutely blown away. Surely it couldn't possibly be THAT easy? But it was - and suddenly a lesson that we'd been expecting to take 45 minutes was done in twenty. Sister W was committed and one step closer to baptism. So that was a nice little miracle for today.
Christmas this year ought to be an interesting affair. Because it's Preparation Day, it's the perfect day for Elder Liu to visit his family. It's an interesting situation - his grandma, aunt and uncle live here. While he's still a missionary, They like to do things with him, as one can imagine, such as having us over for dinner, or, on Christmas, going to visit Grandad's grave. Grandma believes in Ancestor Worship, and culture is such that we will all take a trip to the graveyard on Christmas day to leave him some food, maybe burn some incense - I'm not entirely sure of the whole plan, but it ought to be a unique experience for me. I'm glad that Elder Liu will get to spend the day with his family, and excited that I'll get Christmas morning with my Mission family as well, as the zone will meet together for Christmas morning at the Kaps' home. Elder and Sister Kap are the senior couple assigned to Macau, but they're by no means what I would call the regular senior couple - one time we went out for a run in the morning and were overtaken by Sister Kap! They're not yet particularly senior, and we call them our "Mission Mum and Dad". So we'll go over to their house for Christmas morning before heading over to the graveyard. Yes, it certainly will be a fun day.
I love you all and hope that you are all doing well. I wish you all a very merry Christmas. I can buy a calling card here to call home with - you can tell me when would be most convenient for you and I can just call then; it shouldn't be too big of a deal.
Lots of love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
I've enjoyed myself and am in a particularly good mood right now. Honestly though, I'm not sure why - but for whatever reason, I'm thrilled to be here.
So, I've made a comprehensive list of every question you've asked me - rhetorical or otherwise. Here we go.
"Did you hand in your photos for this years DVD?"
Yes.
"I guess if we get your phone call Christmas day we won't get an email that day too."
Not sure.
"Will it still be your pday."
Yes.
"Have you had any thoughts about how we will do the phone call?"
No.
"We received an email today from someone in Macau, P E. She is asking us to be guardians for students coming over here to study. We are going to ask for a little more information but we might be able to get some of the other ward members involved. We just need to know what our commitment would be."
Let me explain a little from what I've heard on the subject - Brother Y, who is a really great member here in the Chinese branch (but whose English is above par) runs an organization finding placements for Macau students in international schools. The other day we were at the church when he phoned and asked to speak to me. He told me that he has a student that he's trying to send to Norwich, and asked (in English - perhaps he doesn't trust my Chinese) if you could be guardians. I asked for explanation of what that entailed, but didn't get a very clear response - something about signing papers. I pointed out that Norwich is rather far away from us, but he insisted that he'd looked on a map and we were quite close; which I'm sure is true - compared to, say, Glasgow. Certainly closer than Macau is to Norwich. I also stated that you are all pretty much always busy and probably wouldn't have time to help, but that he could try. I gave him the home phone number and Dad's email address, and I guess he got P (who attends the English branch but works for Brother Y) to email you. Perhaps there are some members who could also help - I know that between the two of you, Mum and Dad, you know pretty much every family in the church in Britain :)
Speaking of members in Britain, some fun news - one of our recent converts here in Macau, V, told us that he is moving to England in June. How convenient, as I'll get home in July or August - we can go to YSA stuff together.
Anyway, back to questions:
"So far as coming home, if you want you can be really busy - EFY will be on in late August / early Sept 2009 in the South of England and they will be after returned missionaries as chaperons :)"
Not sure I'm willing to commit to anything just yet. I do hope to get some time for work in before I go to University, and with constant holidays, It'd be hard to get any work. But we'll see how things go - August is still a long time away.
With Christmas well on the way, we're busy making preparations for various activities. One such activity is the Mission Christmas Social - all of the zones will perform skits, and we just practiced ours a little. We're doing A Christmas Carol with a missionary twist. Trunky old Sister Chan (this was all her idea) won't get out of bed to study or go finding, and is visited by the Ghosts of Mission Past, Present and Future to realise that she's got to go work hard for the rest of her mission. The practice could have been a little better - we don't really have a script yet; just a vague idea of what we're going to do. It'll be alright on the night.
Our investigators are progressing nicely - J and Sister W are stepping closer to baptism every day. J shows proof of just how effective a good fellowshipper can be - because he knows Recent Converts H and V, and goes to school with his friend Y, he has support in a lot of different directions. On Saturday, before we sat down to teach him, he told us that he probably couldn't come to church, because he had to study for exams (this is a common excuse - they have tests at school every two months, so they're always studying for tests) but when we got to the end of the lesson, he asked Y if he was going to be at church. Y replied; "of course" and J said, "Okay, I'll come too." He stayed for all three hours, and I was thrilled for him.
Yesterday we taught the Wong family about the Word of Wisdom - we chose to teach them this commandment first because it's pretty much the only one we expected them to have problems with - perhaps the Sabbath will present a problem too, but Sister W already knows about it as she has a great love for the Bible. In fact, when we told her that we were going to teach the commandments, she started listing some of the ones she knows, such as not stealing or killing - she was very sorry to tell us that occaisonally she lies, and we told her to work on that. So we talked about prayer and scripture reading, to point out that they're already keeping some commandments, as we carefully built up to the Word of Wisdom.
Now, here in China, EVERYBODY drinks tea. So EVERYBODY has a problem with the Word of Wisdom. It was funny watching Elder Liu carefully go through the elements of this commandment.
"Well," he said, "First off, we don't use harmful drugs."
"Of course!" said Sister W, "I'd never do that!"
"Okay," continued Elder Liu, "And we don't smoke."
Again, no problem.
"Alcohol?" No, she had nothing wrong there either.
"And then there's coffee - "
Here was the problem. "Oh dear!" said Sister Wong, "I have some coffee - over there!" She pointed, "But I never never drink it!"
We assured her that it was okay. Then Elder Liu steeled himself and said, "And...tea."
We waited, looking at her. There was a split second of nervousness between the two of us, but she wasn't phased, "Oh, no, I rarely drink tea. Only if I go out to a restaurant, but I can just drink water - that's fine."
We were absolutely blown away. Surely it couldn't possibly be THAT easy? But it was - and suddenly a lesson that we'd been expecting to take 45 minutes was done in twenty. Sister W was committed and one step closer to baptism. So that was a nice little miracle for today.
Christmas this year ought to be an interesting affair. Because it's Preparation Day, it's the perfect day for Elder Liu to visit his family. It's an interesting situation - his grandma, aunt and uncle live here. While he's still a missionary, They like to do things with him, as one can imagine, such as having us over for dinner, or, on Christmas, going to visit Grandad's grave. Grandma believes in Ancestor Worship, and culture is such that we will all take a trip to the graveyard on Christmas day to leave him some food, maybe burn some incense - I'm not entirely sure of the whole plan, but it ought to be a unique experience for me. I'm glad that Elder Liu will get to spend the day with his family, and excited that I'll get Christmas morning with my Mission family as well, as the zone will meet together for Christmas morning at the Kaps' home. Elder and Sister Kap are the senior couple assigned to Macau, but they're by no means what I would call the regular senior couple - one time we went out for a run in the morning and were overtaken by Sister Kap! They're not yet particularly senior, and we call them our "Mission Mum and Dad". So we'll go over to their house for Christmas morning before heading over to the graveyard. Yes, it certainly will be a fun day.
I love you all and hope that you are all doing well. I wish you all a very merry Christmas. I can buy a calling card here to call home with - you can tell me when would be most convenient for you and I can just call then; it shouldn't be too big of a deal.
Lots of love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Thursday, 27 November 2008
Happy happy - 7th email from Macau
Dear all,
Everything is going well here. Not that much of any importance happened this week - sometimes the week goes by so fast that I barely notice it.
Last Sunday was the baptism. I was a little nervous but there weren't any problems. It was odd baptizing someone else's investigator - I was sitting on the front row of the chapel with her, but I didn't really feel like I belonged there. I was just there to do the actual baptizing.
Elder Liu and I are getting along well together. We had Moves Calls this week, and were told that we'll be together for another six weeks at least (not much of a surprise to be honest, as once you're in Macau you're normally here for at least four Moves) so we're happy to carry on serving together.
We've set some more baptismal dates with a few investigators. One of them is named J - he's friends with H and V who were baptized two weeks ago, and also friends with Y, who is one of the branch's Young Men, and who is very thrilled to see one of his schoolfriends making steps into the church. We're seeing the definate benefit of a solid fellowshipper to befriend the investigators. Jason has also, of his own initiative, shown quite a lot of interest in BYU. Apparently one of the members mentioned it to H and V, and J was listening. He keeps asking us about the price for various things and how easy it is to get in. He asked Y if he was going to go.
We also extended a baptismal commitment to Sister W. We've been teaching the W family for a few weeks now, very slowly, because they are a very interesting family. I'm not sure I've mentioned them or not yet - Brother W is seventy years old and after a stroke is almost completely paralyzed - he can barely stand up, and can't speak. Sister W is in her forties and is used to having somewhat one-sided conversations with her husband, and is thrilled to talk with us about all of her experiences over the past week that she can't really share with her Buddhist friends - she is defiantly Christian even though none of her neighbours or friends are.
Then there are the children - J Y, J G and J W. J W is a twelve year old girl, and rather quiet - happy to listen to our messages. The other two; boys aged 10 and 8; are very hard to calm down or even to get them to sit still - teaching them, I often think to myself "How on earth does Mum do it? Keeping kids under control seems pretty much impossible!"
So lessons with the family are short and simple. But from the moment Sister W met us, she has been desperate to be baptized, so that's not much of a problem. They are a very humble, happy family. They don't have very much of anything as far as possessions go, but they have each other and that's enough. So we'll keep teaching them slowly and helping them to understand the Gospel, bit by bit.
Both J and Sister W will be baptized in December. We're going to focus on baptizing the Wong family is parts because it'll take a long time to get the kids to understand what we're talking about.
Anyway, all is going well. I love you all.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Everything is going well here. Not that much of any importance happened this week - sometimes the week goes by so fast that I barely notice it.
Last Sunday was the baptism. I was a little nervous but there weren't any problems. It was odd baptizing someone else's investigator - I was sitting on the front row of the chapel with her, but I didn't really feel like I belonged there. I was just there to do the actual baptizing.
Elder Liu and I are getting along well together. We had Moves Calls this week, and were told that we'll be together for another six weeks at least (not much of a surprise to be honest, as once you're in Macau you're normally here for at least four Moves) so we're happy to carry on serving together.
We've set some more baptismal dates with a few investigators. One of them is named J - he's friends with H and V who were baptized two weeks ago, and also friends with Y, who is one of the branch's Young Men, and who is very thrilled to see one of his schoolfriends making steps into the church. We're seeing the definate benefit of a solid fellowshipper to befriend the investigators. Jason has also, of his own initiative, shown quite a lot of interest in BYU. Apparently one of the members mentioned it to H and V, and J was listening. He keeps asking us about the price for various things and how easy it is to get in. He asked Y if he was going to go.
We also extended a baptismal commitment to Sister W. We've been teaching the W family for a few weeks now, very slowly, because they are a very interesting family. I'm not sure I've mentioned them or not yet - Brother W is seventy years old and after a stroke is almost completely paralyzed - he can barely stand up, and can't speak. Sister W is in her forties and is used to having somewhat one-sided conversations with her husband, and is thrilled to talk with us about all of her experiences over the past week that she can't really share with her Buddhist friends - she is defiantly Christian even though none of her neighbours or friends are.
Then there are the children - J Y, J G and J W. J W is a twelve year old girl, and rather quiet - happy to listen to our messages. The other two; boys aged 10 and 8; are very hard to calm down or even to get them to sit still - teaching them, I often think to myself "How on earth does Mum do it? Keeping kids under control seems pretty much impossible!"
So lessons with the family are short and simple. But from the moment Sister W met us, she has been desperate to be baptized, so that's not much of a problem. They are a very humble, happy family. They don't have very much of anything as far as possessions go, but they have each other and that's enough. So we'll keep teaching them slowly and helping them to understand the Gospel, bit by bit.
Both J and Sister W will be baptized in December. We're going to focus on baptizing the Wong family is parts because it'll take a long time to get the kids to understand what we're talking about.
Anyway, all is going well. I love you all.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Thursday, 20 November 2008
A Lot of Baptisms - 6th email from Macau
Dear all,
It's getting a little chillier here now. Not anywhere near as cold as back home - I'm still in a short-sleeve shirt, but most of the locals aren't. I discovered just how much I miss being cold - a rather strange thing to think, but I have a lot of fun memories of nice English winters. The other day we were walking past a Superdrug-style shop and the warmth coming from inside, along with the bright lights and displays in the windows, suddenly reminded me of what it feels like to go Christmas shopping. But so far there is only one shop selling Christmas products - they have a nice collection of Christmas trees in the window.
A Macdonalds plush toy Charizard would do the job perfectly for Elder Liu. He'll think it's cute.
If you can get me V's full name (including her real Chinese name) and address, I can probably get the Elders in her ward to track her down and see how she's doing. A question related to Chinese baptisms in Reading Stake - do the Chinese speaking missionaries there speak Mandarin or Cantonese? Either will be fun; perhaps I can help teach any lessons they have in Cantonese when I get back - or alternatively I can sit in on some Mandarin lessons and learn that language. I heard a little Missionary Mandarin last Sunday in a fireside, and if I concentrated, I could understand it.
Speaking of which, that's one of the big things that happened this week - the Macau Why I Believe fireside. Both Macau and Hong Kong have them - the Macau one is once every two Moves - it's a fireside where missionaries who are going home get to share their testimonies. The Macau one is a lot smaller than the Hong Kong one as a lot fewer missionaries serve here. They ship the Elders and Sisters over here for one last visit to their old area. This time there were three missionaries speaking; Elder Tensmeyer who is a Mandarin Elder but served in Cantonese work for a while in Macau as a Zone Leader; Elder Greenhalgh who served here over a year ago in International work; and Sister Corbridge who was "born" here about a year and a half ago. She was in my group in the MTC, which is rather nerve-wracking as it points out that I'm getting steadily on to the point where I only have six months left. Because she's taking her early date to go home, and won't finish until next Move, I don't need to worry too much yet, but it was still rather strange.
Regardless, the fireside was a lot of fun and it was good to see the three of them again before they all go home; as I'm here in Macau, I won't see the Elders again before they "die" and I'll only see Sister Corbridge once again, at Mission Conference.
Mission Conference this next Move will be the ever exciting Mission Christmas Social, and I'll be singing in the talent show with my quartet; Elders Volk, Work and Weagel. We all sang together in the MTC for fun, last year in the talent show and for Elder Rasband when he came. Elder Work has arranged things this time, and we'll be singing 'Tracting in a Winter Wonderland'. We won't have a chance to practice beforehand, which shouldn't be a problem because we didn't practice last year either.
Yesterday I had to face my fear and do one thing I had hoped I'd never need to do; interview a sixteen year old girl for baptism. Interesting that this is my biggest fear as a missionary. Still, the interview went well, she passed, and then when I asked her who was going to baptize her, she asked me to do it. So this next Sunday I'll don the white clothes to do so. This means that every Elder in my District has baptized someone this Moves; Elder Liu baptized our friend Brother G from the Mainland, Elder Burk, one of our Zone Leaders, baptized B, and last Sunday Elder Gregory baptized two of our investigators, H and V. H and V are twins, and a rather big guys. As Elder Gregory is 6"something tall and 3'something wide, when we asked H and V who they wanted to baptize them, they pointed out that the only person who could logically do it was Elder Gregory.
Interestingly, before Elder Gregory was a Zone Leader here, he was District Leader, serving with Elder Liu and teaching B, H and V, as well as our other investigators. That's the interesting thing about Macau; the Zone is so small that we see each other all the time, and all the baptisms really are a team effort, not just one companionship. So we also attended the baptism of one of the International Sister's investigators this past Sunday, F, who is a really nice man from the Phillipines who is always all smiles, bringing the total baptisms last Sunday to three.
One big request I have for Christmas is pictures. Pictures of everything; pictures of the family. Pictures of the house. Pictures of country lanes and fields. Pictures of snow, if you have any. Pictures of spider's webs covered in dew. Pictures of Bracknell chapel, and of the Bishop and the members. Pictures of Warfield school and the pictures the kids have drawn. Pictures of the busy Reading town Centre, of the Oracle, of Christmas lights and Santa's grottos. Pictures of the Christmas tree at home. Here in China, Christmas is just another bank holiday; nothing special. I'd love to see what you all see at this time of year. What's more, I'd really just love to see your world; what you're up to, things you're doing. But I'm sure that's exactly what you want from me, so I'm going to send you a CD with all of my pictures on.
Anyway, I love you all. I'm always thrilled to hear reports from home on any little thing.
Lots of love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
It's getting a little chillier here now. Not anywhere near as cold as back home - I'm still in a short-sleeve shirt, but most of the locals aren't. I discovered just how much I miss being cold - a rather strange thing to think, but I have a lot of fun memories of nice English winters. The other day we were walking past a Superdrug-style shop and the warmth coming from inside, along with the bright lights and displays in the windows, suddenly reminded me of what it feels like to go Christmas shopping. But so far there is only one shop selling Christmas products - they have a nice collection of Christmas trees in the window.
A Macdonalds plush toy Charizard would do the job perfectly for Elder Liu. He'll think it's cute.
If you can get me V's full name (including her real Chinese name) and address, I can probably get the Elders in her ward to track her down and see how she's doing. A question related to Chinese baptisms in Reading Stake - do the Chinese speaking missionaries there speak Mandarin or Cantonese? Either will be fun; perhaps I can help teach any lessons they have in Cantonese when I get back - or alternatively I can sit in on some Mandarin lessons and learn that language. I heard a little Missionary Mandarin last Sunday in a fireside, and if I concentrated, I could understand it.
Speaking of which, that's one of the big things that happened this week - the Macau Why I Believe fireside. Both Macau and Hong Kong have them - the Macau one is once every two Moves - it's a fireside where missionaries who are going home get to share their testimonies. The Macau one is a lot smaller than the Hong Kong one as a lot fewer missionaries serve here. They ship the Elders and Sisters over here for one last visit to their old area. This time there were three missionaries speaking; Elder Tensmeyer who is a Mandarin Elder but served in Cantonese work for a while in Macau as a Zone Leader; Elder Greenhalgh who served here over a year ago in International work; and Sister Corbridge who was "born" here about a year and a half ago. She was in my group in the MTC, which is rather nerve-wracking as it points out that I'm getting steadily on to the point where I only have six months left. Because she's taking her early date to go home, and won't finish until next Move, I don't need to worry too much yet, but it was still rather strange.
Regardless, the fireside was a lot of fun and it was good to see the three of them again before they all go home; as I'm here in Macau, I won't see the Elders again before they "die" and I'll only see Sister Corbridge once again, at Mission Conference.
Mission Conference this next Move will be the ever exciting Mission Christmas Social, and I'll be singing in the talent show with my quartet; Elders Volk, Work and Weagel. We all sang together in the MTC for fun, last year in the talent show and for Elder Rasband when he came. Elder Work has arranged things this time, and we'll be singing 'Tracting in a Winter Wonderland'. We won't have a chance to practice beforehand, which shouldn't be a problem because we didn't practice last year either.
Yesterday I had to face my fear and do one thing I had hoped I'd never need to do; interview a sixteen year old girl for baptism. Interesting that this is my biggest fear as a missionary. Still, the interview went well, she passed, and then when I asked her who was going to baptize her, she asked me to do it. So this next Sunday I'll don the white clothes to do so. This means that every Elder in my District has baptized someone this Moves; Elder Liu baptized our friend Brother G from the Mainland, Elder Burk, one of our Zone Leaders, baptized B, and last Sunday Elder Gregory baptized two of our investigators, H and V. H and V are twins, and a rather big guys. As Elder Gregory is 6"something tall and 3'something wide, when we asked H and V who they wanted to baptize them, they pointed out that the only person who could logically do it was Elder Gregory.
Interestingly, before Elder Gregory was a Zone Leader here, he was District Leader, serving with Elder Liu and teaching B, H and V, as well as our other investigators. That's the interesting thing about Macau; the Zone is so small that we see each other all the time, and all the baptisms really are a team effort, not just one companionship. So we also attended the baptism of one of the International Sister's investigators this past Sunday, F, who is a really nice man from the Phillipines who is always all smiles, bringing the total baptisms last Sunday to three.
One big request I have for Christmas is pictures. Pictures of everything; pictures of the family. Pictures of the house. Pictures of country lanes and fields. Pictures of snow, if you have any. Pictures of spider's webs covered in dew. Pictures of Bracknell chapel, and of the Bishop and the members. Pictures of Warfield school and the pictures the kids have drawn. Pictures of the busy Reading town Centre, of the Oracle, of Christmas lights and Santa's grottos. Pictures of the Christmas tree at home. Here in China, Christmas is just another bank holiday; nothing special. I'd love to see what you all see at this time of year. What's more, I'd really just love to see your world; what you're up to, things you're doing. But I'm sure that's exactly what you want from me, so I'm going to send you a CD with all of my pictures on.
Anyway, I love you all. I'm always thrilled to hear reports from home on any little thing.
Lots of love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Saturday, 15 November 2008
It's been a busy week - 5th email from Macau
Dear all,
It sounds like everything is going well for you all. Martin Black also sent me an email this week, and they're doing fine too. The next time they come for a visit, please tell them I love them all - especially little Michael, who apparently is a lot bigger now than the first time I saw him.
I have a few things that I need to say before I forget. Many of them were going to be said last week, or the week before, or the week before that, and so on and so forth. Here they are:
1. Christmas - the shop we buy our food in is stocking Christmas puddings. They cost 80 Patacas (the currency of Macau) which is somewhere around £4 or £5. That might be cheaper than a big heavy lump of pudding in the package. Also, a request for my companion - Elder Liu really loves Pokemon. He always likens it to finding - he's gotta catch 'em all. His favourite is Charizard, which in Missionary finding is a family - families are really hard to catch, but well worth it. He's told me several times that he really wants a Charizard keyring, and I think it'd be fun to get him a little something for Christmas. Maybe you could see what you can find?
2. Universities. I'm really leaning towards journalism, but would also like information on Computer Animation, Chinese courses or anything else really.
3. Can you get me Thomas Morrison's new address?
4. With 200MOP (that's the short version of Pataca) for the Macau Tower, I'm worried a little about finances. Last month I thought I had a cavity and so Sister Van Dam arranged for me to take a trip to the dentist for a checkup and a clean. Thankfully, my teeth were fine, and it only cost another 200MOP. But that's 400MOP already, and for Thanksgiving in a few weeks everybody is going to a hotel for another buffet lunch which will be another 100MOP. I tell you this just to keep you up to date; I don't think I need any more money right now. But just so you know, I'll be spending a little more soon.
That's all I can think of right now. I'm probably forgetting some things, but I'll remember them later.
Anyway, this week saw a very exciting event as the Mission released the long-awaited 3000 character card set. I've been trying desperately for a long time to memorize characters from a list. I've tried a lot of things, including trying to make 2000 flash cards myself. I've not gotten very far, but this week I got about 120 sheets of cardboard, each with 25 characters on. We have to cut them out ourselves, so I've also spent every lunchtime at the church using their guillotine. It's a slow but steady process, sped up by Sister Au, a native of Hong Kong who is serving in my District and who for some reason, really likes cutting things with a guillotine. So she's happy to cut out my cards when she has the chance. These cards mean that I ought to learn a lot quicker and am aiming to have gone through all of them by the end of the year, and to pass them all off before April.
Speaking of April - does Chris have a specific returning home date yet? You would have heard more about him than me. He was telling me that he was hoping to extend for a month at the end of his mission and go home in July, meaning that we'd get back at the same time. Little does he know, I'm going to pick my late date going home and come back in August...
And then speaking of August, when I get home, one thing I'm going to want to do is spend time with you all, and if you're going on holiday, I'll definitely be coming with you.
I will be in Hong Kong for the Mission Christmas social around about the second week in December. After that, I won't be back until February.
Ben was finally confirmed last week. He was thrilled, as were the other missionaries and I. Not much else of any significance has happenened this week though - it's been very busy, with a lot of teaching and not much finding time, but every night I've been trying to think of specific things of importance to write in my journal and I've been really struggling. I'm sure you've felt before the feeling of doing a lot without really getting much done. We've been teaching a lot of investigators (we currently have a LOT of investigators) and have two who will baptized this coming Sunday, but I don't really feel like we're doing all that much to help anybody progress. It's clear to see that the spiritual progression of others does not depend very much on what a missionary says or does - it's all down to that person's desire to learn and their faith to come closer to God. It's good to know - I should neither beat myself up when the work moves slowly, nor lift myself up unto pride when things are going well. It has very little to do with me - so long as I'm doing the best I can, I'm doing all that I'm supposed to do, and the rest is down to each investigator and what they're willing to do.
There was one particularly moving experience this week. An investigator called J met with us - we'd planned to review the Restoration lesson with him by watching the film. But when J got there, I asked him how he'd been doing recently and he told us it had been hard - a close friend of his had died recently. We expressed our sympathies, and the words of another film, Finding Faith in Christ began ringing in my ears. I'm not sure if you've seen it - it's a kind of Family Home Evening for a family in Jerusalem who have the apostle Thomas as a guest for dinner. There's a man who had recently lost his wife there who refuses to believe in anything he can't see. Thomas retells stories of the Saviour, His teachings and recounts the miracles and the Atonement, Crucifixion and Resurrection. He tells this man that because of Christ, we can overcome our trials, and each and every one of us will be resurrected. I felt prompted to switch our lesson and show Jason this film. As we watched it, the Spirit was strong. I knew that the film was answering a lot of Jason's personal questions, and I felt the meaning behind the message of the film more than I ever have before while watching it. I know it was the right message that day for Jason, and also for me.
I love you all. I know that what I'm doing right now is the best possible thing I could be doing with my time. I'm so thankful, Mum and Dad, for the two of you; for your commitment to each other and to us your children. I never really realised growing up just how special it is that you are both sealed together and active in the church - a blessing that many of the other Young Men who grew up with me don't have. Thank you so much for all you've done for me and for Beth, Jess and Tim. You've done a really good job as parents - we don't turn around and tell you that often enough.
I love you all and pray for your happiness,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
It sounds like everything is going well for you all. Martin Black also sent me an email this week, and they're doing fine too. The next time they come for a visit, please tell them I love them all - especially little Michael, who apparently is a lot bigger now than the first time I saw him.
I have a few things that I need to say before I forget. Many of them were going to be said last week, or the week before, or the week before that, and so on and so forth. Here they are:
1. Christmas - the shop we buy our food in is stocking Christmas puddings. They cost 80 Patacas (the currency of Macau) which is somewhere around £4 or £5. That might be cheaper than a big heavy lump of pudding in the package. Also, a request for my companion - Elder Liu really loves Pokemon. He always likens it to finding - he's gotta catch 'em all. His favourite is Charizard, which in Missionary finding is a family - families are really hard to catch, but well worth it. He's told me several times that he really wants a Charizard keyring, and I think it'd be fun to get him a little something for Christmas. Maybe you could see what you can find?
2. Universities. I'm really leaning towards journalism, but would also like information on Computer Animation, Chinese courses or anything else really.
3. Can you get me Thomas Morrison's new address?
4. With 200MOP (that's the short version of Pataca) for the Macau Tower, I'm worried a little about finances. Last month I thought I had a cavity and so Sister Van Dam arranged for me to take a trip to the dentist for a checkup and a clean. Thankfully, my teeth were fine, and it only cost another 200MOP. But that's 400MOP already, and for Thanksgiving in a few weeks everybody is going to a hotel for another buffet lunch which will be another 100MOP. I tell you this just to keep you up to date; I don't think I need any more money right now. But just so you know, I'll be spending a little more soon.
That's all I can think of right now. I'm probably forgetting some things, but I'll remember them later.
Anyway, this week saw a very exciting event as the Mission released the long-awaited 3000 character card set. I've been trying desperately for a long time to memorize characters from a list. I've tried a lot of things, including trying to make 2000 flash cards myself. I've not gotten very far, but this week I got about 120 sheets of cardboard, each with 25 characters on. We have to cut them out ourselves, so I've also spent every lunchtime at the church using their guillotine. It's a slow but steady process, sped up by Sister Au, a native of Hong Kong who is serving in my District and who for some reason, really likes cutting things with a guillotine. So she's happy to cut out my cards when she has the chance. These cards mean that I ought to learn a lot quicker and am aiming to have gone through all of them by the end of the year, and to pass them all off before April.
Speaking of April - does Chris have a specific returning home date yet? You would have heard more about him than me. He was telling me that he was hoping to extend for a month at the end of his mission and go home in July, meaning that we'd get back at the same time. Little does he know, I'm going to pick my late date going home and come back in August...
And then speaking of August, when I get home, one thing I'm going to want to do is spend time with you all, and if you're going on holiday, I'll definitely be coming with you.
I will be in Hong Kong for the Mission Christmas social around about the second week in December. After that, I won't be back until February.
Ben was finally confirmed last week. He was thrilled, as were the other missionaries and I. Not much else of any significance has happenened this week though - it's been very busy, with a lot of teaching and not much finding time, but every night I've been trying to think of specific things of importance to write in my journal and I've been really struggling. I'm sure you've felt before the feeling of doing a lot without really getting much done. We've been teaching a lot of investigators (we currently have a LOT of investigators) and have two who will baptized this coming Sunday, but I don't really feel like we're doing all that much to help anybody progress. It's clear to see that the spiritual progression of others does not depend very much on what a missionary says or does - it's all down to that person's desire to learn and their faith to come closer to God. It's good to know - I should neither beat myself up when the work moves slowly, nor lift myself up unto pride when things are going well. It has very little to do with me - so long as I'm doing the best I can, I'm doing all that I'm supposed to do, and the rest is down to each investigator and what they're willing to do.
There was one particularly moving experience this week. An investigator called J met with us - we'd planned to review the Restoration lesson with him by watching the film. But when J got there, I asked him how he'd been doing recently and he told us it had been hard - a close friend of his had died recently. We expressed our sympathies, and the words of another film, Finding Faith in Christ began ringing in my ears. I'm not sure if you've seen it - it's a kind of Family Home Evening for a family in Jerusalem who have the apostle Thomas as a guest for dinner. There's a man who had recently lost his wife there who refuses to believe in anything he can't see. Thomas retells stories of the Saviour, His teachings and recounts the miracles and the Atonement, Crucifixion and Resurrection. He tells this man that because of Christ, we can overcome our trials, and each and every one of us will be resurrected. I felt prompted to switch our lesson and show Jason this film. As we watched it, the Spirit was strong. I knew that the film was answering a lot of Jason's personal questions, and I felt the meaning behind the message of the film more than I ever have before while watching it. I know it was the right message that day for Jason, and also for me.
I love you all. I know that what I'm doing right now is the best possible thing I could be doing with my time. I'm so thankful, Mum and Dad, for the two of you; for your commitment to each other and to us your children. I never really realised growing up just how special it is that you are both sealed together and active in the church - a blessing that many of the other Young Men who grew up with me don't have. Thank you so much for all you've done for me and for Beth, Jess and Tim. You've done a really good job as parents - we don't turn around and tell you that often enough.
I love you all and pray for your happiness,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Thursday, 6 November 2008
A Trip To Macau Tower - 4th email from Macau
Dear All,
A lot of different cities in this world have a different feel. London has a feeling of ancient meets cutting edge, Hong Kong feels like a desperate desire to be new and tall. Macau has absolutely no desire to be up to date - it's just interested in taking people's money in the very many giant casinos and tourist attractions that can be found here.
Today we all went to visit one of the tallest tourist attractions in Macau - the Macau Tower. One of the Elders here, Elder Robinson (also named Elder 羅) has to leave on Saturday due to visa restrictions, so we all went up to do something he'd never done before. It was expensive - 200 or so Patacas (the currency of Macau which is pretty much exactly the same as the Hong Kong dollar), but it was a fun time. We went to eat at the 360 Cafe, which is a big circular cafe on one of the top floors of the tower. The floor rotates very slowly, meaning that sitting at the table, you very slowly get a 360 birdseye view of Macau. It was a very good meal; a buffet lunch with foods from all over the world. I had some African chicken, some Chinese fried rice, a slice of a roast with a little English mustard - very good. We had a wonderful time, but probably not as good of a time as the bungee jumpers one floor above us, who we could see out the window. That would cost several thousand patacas, and Missionaries are forbidden from bungee jumping, so you don't have to worry - I'm not going to try it.
This has been a tiring week. Things are very busy here at the moment, as we currently have a lot of investigators, all with different concerns, and it's hard to keep track of them all. For example, on Sunday we helped the Wong family to come to church. They have three very energetic children, a very talkative mother, and the father suffered from a stroke a while ago which left him mostly paralyzed. So we went early to their house with their fellowshipper, L C, and helped them attend church by wheeling Brother W's wheelchair and making sure none of the kids went missing along the way. We finally got them to church, only to discover too late that B, who was baptized last week and was supposed to get confirmed this past Sunday, hadn't shown up. Oh dear.
We saw him the next day at our regularly scheduled time. He was so sorry for missing church - I tried to console him, telling him, "It doesn't matter," but he replied, "No, it does matter!" He works very hard as a volunteer for a charity, and as such was just too tired and fell asleep as he prepared for church. But I feel that he was sincerely sorry for missing his confirmation, so I have to fear about him turning up this coming Sunday - maybe we'll give him a call before we head over to the W family though...
Anyway, a little about Buddha - here in China he's always portrayed as a fat, jolly man. I've been told that his weight represents him being full of happiness and joy - a rather nice little message. But last Friday, I mentioned to someone how odd it was that such a large man spent much of his life fasting to the point of death yet was such a fat man. L, who is an investigator who used to live in the Mainland and is being taught by the other Chinese Elders here, who perhaps is rather new to the concept of religion, replied - "He doesn't need to eat because he has special powers." I thought that was an interesting insight into what is generally thought of regarding the Buddha in this part of the world.
A sad experience this week - while finding, we bumped into a BBC (British Born Chinese) from Manchester. I asked is he knew where I was from, and he guessed, "The US?" "No!" I said, "I'm from Berkshire!" He sized me up tentatively, not really certain what to think. I'm don't think he believed me. "Has my accent got that bad?" I asked. Apparently so. So when we have a chat at Christmas, be ready to expect the worst.
Being involved in translating for the Olympics sounds like it'd be a lot of fun, but I don't expect they'll want my Chinese - better to get someone Chinese to do it, as it seems to be a lot easier to learn English when you already speak Chinese, rather than the other way around. Still, there may be something for me to do - not sure what though...
A little about Christmas wishes. I've been thinking about stuff I'd like, and the following comes to mind:
1. a Christmas pudding. If you ask me there is nothing more Christmasy.
2. Fudge. Nice, tasty fudge from home. That'd be good.
I have no idea as far as anything else goes. You can just surprise me - but I'm not too fussed. I'd rather have money waiting for me rather than things here with me now. That said, I do have to ask about the state of my DS Lite and Gameboy Micro - am I going to get them back, or are they now solidly the possessions of other members of the family (such as Mum and Tim...) Because if replacements were needed to keep everybody happier, buying them in Hong Kong would be the better option. Not that I'm trunky for my old toys or anything - it's just that hearing about how much you all seem to be enjoying the XBox made me wonder if I should maybe just leave it with you all when I go off to University. But a handheld would be easily replaced.
Love you all,
羅 長 老
A lot of different cities in this world have a different feel. London has a feeling of ancient meets cutting edge, Hong Kong feels like a desperate desire to be new and tall. Macau has absolutely no desire to be up to date - it's just interested in taking people's money in the very many giant casinos and tourist attractions that can be found here.
Today we all went to visit one of the tallest tourist attractions in Macau - the Macau Tower. One of the Elders here, Elder Robinson (also named Elder 羅) has to leave on Saturday due to visa restrictions, so we all went up to do something he'd never done before. It was expensive - 200 or so Patacas (the currency of Macau which is pretty much exactly the same as the Hong Kong dollar), but it was a fun time. We went to eat at the 360 Cafe, which is a big circular cafe on one of the top floors of the tower. The floor rotates very slowly, meaning that sitting at the table, you very slowly get a 360 birdseye view of Macau. It was a very good meal; a buffet lunch with foods from all over the world. I had some African chicken, some Chinese fried rice, a slice of a roast with a little English mustard - very good. We had a wonderful time, but probably not as good of a time as the bungee jumpers one floor above us, who we could see out the window. That would cost several thousand patacas, and Missionaries are forbidden from bungee jumping, so you don't have to worry - I'm not going to try it.
This has been a tiring week. Things are very busy here at the moment, as we currently have a lot of investigators, all with different concerns, and it's hard to keep track of them all. For example, on Sunday we helped the Wong family to come to church. They have three very energetic children, a very talkative mother, and the father suffered from a stroke a while ago which left him mostly paralyzed. So we went early to their house with their fellowshipper, L C, and helped them attend church by wheeling Brother W's wheelchair and making sure none of the kids went missing along the way. We finally got them to church, only to discover too late that B, who was baptized last week and was supposed to get confirmed this past Sunday, hadn't shown up. Oh dear.
We saw him the next day at our regularly scheduled time. He was so sorry for missing church - I tried to console him, telling him, "It doesn't matter," but he replied, "No, it does matter!" He works very hard as a volunteer for a charity, and as such was just too tired and fell asleep as he prepared for church. But I feel that he was sincerely sorry for missing his confirmation, so I have to fear about him turning up this coming Sunday - maybe we'll give him a call before we head over to the W family though...
Anyway, a little about Buddha - here in China he's always portrayed as a fat, jolly man. I've been told that his weight represents him being full of happiness and joy - a rather nice little message. But last Friday, I mentioned to someone how odd it was that such a large man spent much of his life fasting to the point of death yet was such a fat man. L, who is an investigator who used to live in the Mainland and is being taught by the other Chinese Elders here, who perhaps is rather new to the concept of religion, replied - "He doesn't need to eat because he has special powers." I thought that was an interesting insight into what is generally thought of regarding the Buddha in this part of the world.
A sad experience this week - while finding, we bumped into a BBC (British Born Chinese) from Manchester. I asked is he knew where I was from, and he guessed, "The US?" "No!" I said, "I'm from Berkshire!" He sized me up tentatively, not really certain what to think. I'm don't think he believed me. "Has my accent got that bad?" I asked. Apparently so. So when we have a chat at Christmas, be ready to expect the worst.
Being involved in translating for the Olympics sounds like it'd be a lot of fun, but I don't expect they'll want my Chinese - better to get someone Chinese to do it, as it seems to be a lot easier to learn English when you already speak Chinese, rather than the other way around. Still, there may be something for me to do - not sure what though...
A little about Christmas wishes. I've been thinking about stuff I'd like, and the following comes to mind:
1. a Christmas pudding. If you ask me there is nothing more Christmasy.
2. Fudge. Nice, tasty fudge from home. That'd be good.
I have no idea as far as anything else goes. You can just surprise me - but I'm not too fussed. I'd rather have money waiting for me rather than things here with me now. That said, I do have to ask about the state of my DS Lite and Gameboy Micro - am I going to get them back, or are they now solidly the possessions of other members of the family (such as Mum and Tim...) Because if replacements were needed to keep everybody happier, buying them in Hong Kong would be the better option. Not that I'm trunky for my old toys or anything - it's just that hearing about how much you all seem to be enjoying the XBox made me wonder if I should maybe just leave it with you all when I go off to University. But a handheld would be easily replaced.
Love you all,
羅 長 老
Monday, 3 November 2008
Two Baptisms and a Teasing from a General Authority - 3rd email from Macau
Dear all,
I'll explain the teasing bit a little later. In the meantime, let me say don't worry, Dad, I understand why you'd want to know a little more about Buddhism. But I hate to tell you that anything you're reading in books about passive, simple lives, the eightfold path to enlightenment, etc; is not how Buddhism works over here. Here in China, Buddhism has been combined with ancestor worship, so that while we meet a lot of people who tell us that they "seun faht" ("seun" means believe. "Faht" means "Buddha", which made it easy to remember in the MTC - I just have to remember that Buddha statues are fat), what they really mean is that they burn incense and cardboard objects to their ancestors. It's an interesting religion, and I do find it fascinating how at the same time, the religion is revered and slightly made fun of. For example, the 10,000 Buddhas that I sent you pictures of - built in 2003 or thereabouts, they are clearly not to be taken seriously, but still people go to the temple daily to burn incense. Except, in order to keep the temple clean, you can't burn the incense. So they leave it there, unburnt, instead. At the end of the day, the temple owners gather up the unburnt incense sticks and sell them again the next day. There's also a gift shop inside the temple. Very interestingly different from our Temples. So for the most part, nobody here is really on the path to enlightenment and Nirvana, it's just background information in their mind as they go about life. Not all that different from many Westerners' background concept of God, really.
Anyway, a lot of big things happened this week. On Saturday, we got the chance to do something I've been wanting to do my entire mission - teach and baptize a visitor from Mainland China. These are occasional and wonderful opportunities for Missionaries in this mission - while most of our visitors speak Mandarin and are therefore taught by our Mandarin Missionaries, here in Macau we are very close to the border, so it's very convenient for Mainlanders to come here if they live a little more west than Hong Kong. These wonderfully prepared people have normally heard very little about the church - our friend, brother G, had never heard of the Book of Mormon, or of the Restoration, but they are willing to keep the commandments even before coming here and accept everything on massive amounts of faith. We teach them every lesson in a day, then baptize them and they go home, afterwards being allowed to attend church and learn the more details of the Gospel in the Mainland.
Brother G was a wonderful example of these real miracles. His fiancee is a member who came down a few years ago, and they planned to get married the week after his baptism. She'd shared a little about the church with him, and they'd prayed both together and separately, and he had a very strong testimony of prayer. He'd felt the promptings of the Spirit in very real ways that had blessed his life and led to his decision that, even though he didn't understand much about his future wife's church, she said he had to get baptized and that was good enough for him.
We taught them all day, every lesson, and then Elder Liu baptized him and we stood in the circle as one of the members of the ward confirmed him. It was an amazing day, the Spirit was strong and all were touched.
The next day was Sunday, and we ended up with twelve or thirteen investigators at church. Many of them already have baptismal dates, or are preparing for one. A new family called the W was there (the mother and two children, as the father has suffered from a stroke and can barely move), as were the L brothers and the Y brothers (two sets of twins), each set of twins also brought a friend. We had B, who was baptized that day, then we had a few others as well.
B's baptism was also very good. He's been investigating for a few months now, and was ready before I even got here. A lot of the investigators stayed to see it, and his mother came too. She was very happy for her son (she brought him flowers!) and was given a chance to speak after his baptism. The Relief Society made instant friends with her after the service, and the Sister Missionaries schedualed to teach her with Ben. It was an amazing day. Macau truly is a place of miracles, and the work is blossoming here.
So after two baptisms in two days, what else could I have of importance to talk about this week? Mission Conference, with a visit from a General Authority. Elder Watson of the Seventy was called in April, and is currently serving in the Asia Area Presidency. He and his wife see the Hong Kong Island and International Missionaries finding outside of the Wan Chai building (the Area Office, as well as a huge chapel that's over ten stories high), and Sister Watson made clear that she felt a strong love for them, as they go out and find people in such a busy area, right in the middle of the richest part of Hong Kong. The tour was split into two days; we were on the second day with the International and HK Island zones, having gone to the Temple the day before (which was also magnificent) and stayed in Patron Housing overnight. The "Macau Boys" as our Zone Leader, Elder Burk, calls us, had been asked to give a musical number, and I had been asked to give the opening prayer, so I was very much involved in the program to begin with.
But I made what could be called the mistake of standing near to President Watson before the meeting started with my daily planner out. He asked to see it - what I didn't know at the time was that he was checking several missionaries' planners to see how well kept they were. He was impressed that I'd written a few simple Chinese characters in place of English for names. I didn't think much of it at the time, and the meeting started peacefully. I gave the opening prayer, and after a few bits of business, Elder Watson called on some missionaries to give talks. We'd all prepared 3 minute talks on a Christlike attribute, and he chose on people at random. After the first batch of five or six, he asked if there was anybody who specifically wanted to give their talk. I could not lie and keep my hand down - I really did want to give my talk. I'd received a bolt of revelation in the Celestial Room the day before - while praying and apologizing that I wasn't qualified to do the work of a missionary, the Spirit suddenly reminded me of D&C 4 - "And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work." And so I was chosen, along with three other Elders who had chosen to give their talks. A little later, President Watson drew my name from the hat at random. I was now sitting on the front row, in the queue to speak, and when he found out that it was me again, he said "It's a good thing I didn't say, 'Elder Log Cabin'!"
That was the start of my nickname from President Watson. After the talks were done, he spoke to us on a few subjects - one was our daily planners and our goal planning. He used me as an example, having seen "Elder Log Cabin"'s planner before the meeting started. He complimented me, which I wasn't sure I deserved, as that day's plan was more or less empty because most of the day was to be spent at Conference and on the ferry, and because our goals were rather low as we have lost two days this week again due to Conference.
Then he used good old Elder Log Cabin as an example of keeping learning the language and not "plateuing" as he called it, because I was learning Chinese characters. At lunch, President Van Dam put his arm around me and said, "well, he definitely knows you!" In response I thanked President Van Dam that his sense of humour is such that he never makes fun of my name. Later at lunch Sister Watson came up to me and said, "For years, I've been going behind my husband's back and apologizing for him!" I said it was quite alright and not too big of a deal - we Loffhagens are used to people getting our name wrong.
So, that is that. I've written a lot this week, because I have a lot to say. I didn't even scratch the surface of how Missionary Work is here in Macau. Let me just tell you that things are going well, I'm happy, healthy and enjoying myself.
Also, yes, I am still District Leader, and as far as Disney films go, President Van Dam's fine just letting us watch them on a Preparation Day for fun, so long as we get permission first. Personally, I'd rather not, as it's been a week now and I still can't get the catchy Prince of Egypt music out of my head. At least it's all about God blessing people, so it'd be better than, say, 'A Whole New World'...
I love you all. I'll look into getting a little Buddha statue.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
I'll explain the teasing bit a little later. In the meantime, let me say don't worry, Dad, I understand why you'd want to know a little more about Buddhism. But I hate to tell you that anything you're reading in books about passive, simple lives, the eightfold path to enlightenment, etc; is not how Buddhism works over here. Here in China, Buddhism has been combined with ancestor worship, so that while we meet a lot of people who tell us that they "seun faht" ("seun" means believe. "Faht" means "Buddha", which made it easy to remember in the MTC - I just have to remember that Buddha statues are fat), what they really mean is that they burn incense and cardboard objects to their ancestors. It's an interesting religion, and I do find it fascinating how at the same time, the religion is revered and slightly made fun of. For example, the 10,000 Buddhas that I sent you pictures of - built in 2003 or thereabouts, they are clearly not to be taken seriously, but still people go to the temple daily to burn incense. Except, in order to keep the temple clean, you can't burn the incense. So they leave it there, unburnt, instead. At the end of the day, the temple owners gather up the unburnt incense sticks and sell them again the next day. There's also a gift shop inside the temple. Very interestingly different from our Temples. So for the most part, nobody here is really on the path to enlightenment and Nirvana, it's just background information in their mind as they go about life. Not all that different from many Westerners' background concept of God, really.
Anyway, a lot of big things happened this week. On Saturday, we got the chance to do something I've been wanting to do my entire mission - teach and baptize a visitor from Mainland China. These are occasional and wonderful opportunities for Missionaries in this mission - while most of our visitors speak Mandarin and are therefore taught by our Mandarin Missionaries, here in Macau we are very close to the border, so it's very convenient for Mainlanders to come here if they live a little more west than Hong Kong. These wonderfully prepared people have normally heard very little about the church - our friend, brother G, had never heard of the Book of Mormon, or of the Restoration, but they are willing to keep the commandments even before coming here and accept everything on massive amounts of faith. We teach them every lesson in a day, then baptize them and they go home, afterwards being allowed to attend church and learn the more details of the Gospel in the Mainland.
Brother G was a wonderful example of these real miracles. His fiancee is a member who came down a few years ago, and they planned to get married the week after his baptism. She'd shared a little about the church with him, and they'd prayed both together and separately, and he had a very strong testimony of prayer. He'd felt the promptings of the Spirit in very real ways that had blessed his life and led to his decision that, even though he didn't understand much about his future wife's church, she said he had to get baptized and that was good enough for him.
We taught them all day, every lesson, and then Elder Liu baptized him and we stood in the circle as one of the members of the ward confirmed him. It was an amazing day, the Spirit was strong and all were touched.
The next day was Sunday, and we ended up with twelve or thirteen investigators at church. Many of them already have baptismal dates, or are preparing for one. A new family called the W was there (the mother and two children, as the father has suffered from a stroke and can barely move), as were the L brothers and the Y brothers (two sets of twins), each set of twins also brought a friend. We had B, who was baptized that day, then we had a few others as well.
B's baptism was also very good. He's been investigating for a few months now, and was ready before I even got here. A lot of the investigators stayed to see it, and his mother came too. She was very happy for her son (she brought him flowers!) and was given a chance to speak after his baptism. The Relief Society made instant friends with her after the service, and the Sister Missionaries schedualed to teach her with Ben. It was an amazing day. Macau truly is a place of miracles, and the work is blossoming here.
So after two baptisms in two days, what else could I have of importance to talk about this week? Mission Conference, with a visit from a General Authority. Elder Watson of the Seventy was called in April, and is currently serving in the Asia Area Presidency. He and his wife see the Hong Kong Island and International Missionaries finding outside of the Wan Chai building (the Area Office, as well as a huge chapel that's over ten stories high), and Sister Watson made clear that she felt a strong love for them, as they go out and find people in such a busy area, right in the middle of the richest part of Hong Kong. The tour was split into two days; we were on the second day with the International and HK Island zones, having gone to the Temple the day before (which was also magnificent) and stayed in Patron Housing overnight. The "Macau Boys" as our Zone Leader, Elder Burk, calls us, had been asked to give a musical number, and I had been asked to give the opening prayer, so I was very much involved in the program to begin with.
But I made what could be called the mistake of standing near to President Watson before the meeting started with my daily planner out. He asked to see it - what I didn't know at the time was that he was checking several missionaries' planners to see how well kept they were. He was impressed that I'd written a few simple Chinese characters in place of English for names. I didn't think much of it at the time, and the meeting started peacefully. I gave the opening prayer, and after a few bits of business, Elder Watson called on some missionaries to give talks. We'd all prepared 3 minute talks on a Christlike attribute, and he chose on people at random. After the first batch of five or six, he asked if there was anybody who specifically wanted to give their talk. I could not lie and keep my hand down - I really did want to give my talk. I'd received a bolt of revelation in the Celestial Room the day before - while praying and apologizing that I wasn't qualified to do the work of a missionary, the Spirit suddenly reminded me of D&C 4 - "And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work." And so I was chosen, along with three other Elders who had chosen to give their talks. A little later, President Watson drew my name from the hat at random. I was now sitting on the front row, in the queue to speak, and when he found out that it was me again, he said "It's a good thing I didn't say, 'Elder Log Cabin'!"
That was the start of my nickname from President Watson. After the talks were done, he spoke to us on a few subjects - one was our daily planners and our goal planning. He used me as an example, having seen "Elder Log Cabin"'s planner before the meeting started. He complimented me, which I wasn't sure I deserved, as that day's plan was more or less empty because most of the day was to be spent at Conference and on the ferry, and because our goals were rather low as we have lost two days this week again due to Conference.
Then he used good old Elder Log Cabin as an example of keeping learning the language and not "plateuing" as he called it, because I was learning Chinese characters. At lunch, President Van Dam put his arm around me and said, "well, he definitely knows you!" In response I thanked President Van Dam that his sense of humour is such that he never makes fun of my name. Later at lunch Sister Watson came up to me and said, "For years, I've been going behind my husband's back and apologizing for him!" I said it was quite alright and not too big of a deal - we Loffhagens are used to people getting our name wrong.
So, that is that. I've written a lot this week, because I have a lot to say. I didn't even scratch the surface of how Missionary Work is here in Macau. Let me just tell you that things are going well, I'm happy, healthy and enjoying myself.
Also, yes, I am still District Leader, and as far as Disney films go, President Van Dam's fine just letting us watch them on a Preparation Day for fun, so long as we get permission first. Personally, I'd rather not, as it's been a week now and I still can't get the catchy Prince of Egypt music out of my head. At least it's all about God blessing people, so it'd be better than, say, 'A Whole New World'...
I love you all. I'll look into getting a little Buddha statue.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Thursday, 23 October 2008
2nd email from Macau
Dear family,
We just watched Prince of Egypt as a Zone. It was a lot of fun. Prince of Egypt is the only cartoon I'll allow myself to watch - while President Van Dam is happy to allow us to watch other films such as Mulan, Aladdin, The Lion King etc, I myself feel I'd rather avoid such films - even though there's nothing wrong to them, I can't help but feel that such films would distract me. Prince of Egypt is okay by my standards because it's still church-related. It actually gave me a lot of insight into prophets and how God leads and teaches His people, as I thought about the imagery and symbolism He used in calling Moses, his preparation and the miracles that were performed. It's been a long time since I watched the film, and one thing I really noticed about watching it this time is just how much the filmmakers didn't understand about the full story; truths we only have through the Restored Gospel.
The Zone here in Macau is rather small. There are 12 of us, split into two Districts; the Zone Leaders and a Sister companionship are in my District, with my companion Elder Liu, which is a Chinese-speaking District. The other District is International, which contains the District Leader and his companion, a Sister companionship and a Senior couple, the Kaps, who are really amazing. Elder Kap is the International Branch President, and they proseltye as well!
Elder Liu, my current companion, is ABC (American Born Chinese) from Sandy, Utah. He's been out on his mission for almost a year and his Chinese is really good (as is the case with most ABCs in the Mission, as they normally heard it growing up to some extent). He is a really hard working missionary, and I'm glad to be serving with him. He's taught me a lot about hard work, and I can see the success he's been having as he serves here. This is only his second area - his first area, which he was in for 6 months, was West Point, which was also my first area. We have a lot of fun together, and have been seeing a lot of miracles as we help prepare investigators for baptism - we currently have five with dates, and one will be baptized this Sunday (in fact, we'll be having his baptismal interview in a few hours).
You can tell the Elders that actually, dinner appointments (or "cheng outs" as we call them in Chenglish) here are rather rare. Members are normally no less busy than non-Members, and certainly here in Macau the branch is not strong enough to support a meal for every day. Tell the Elders that they should count themselves lucky and enjoy the experience.
You can also tell people who ask that I've varied my eating a lot now. I now eat instant noodles very rarely if ever (it's been a long time since I last ate any). Back in Tai Po, I would cook a range of things - making my own curries was fun and rather easy; or perhaps frying up some Chicken breasts with a Chinese stir-fry mix. A while ago Sister Van Dam told us all to eat more healthily and to get more vegetables into our diet. I wasn't all that sure how, so I requested a Mission cookbook, and so now we all have a variety of recipes to choose from when cooking. All of the missionaries submitted their favourite easy recipes that can be cooked in Missionary apartments (as we don't have things like ovens). I submitted the old classic; Beans on Toast.
Elder Ng didn't serve in Macau. President Van Dam only found out recently that Europeans get such priviliges. The Zone has four nationalities at the moment; most are from America, but there is also Sister Au and Elder Woo from Hong Kong and Sister Mansader, from the Philippines. Plus myself, we add up to probably one of the most varied Zones in the Mission, as well as the smallest.
On Tuesday we got on the boat to go back to Hong Kong for a leadership meeting with all of the District Leaders and Zone Leaders. It was fun; staying in Patron Housing opposite the Temple and seeing all of my friends who are in leadership positions in the Mission. We'll be going back across again next week for Mission Tour, when Elder Watson of the Seventy will come and speak to us. Then I won't be back in Hong Kong for over a month, until next Mission Conference.
I'm pretty certain that you can get a cheaper Millennium Falcon than £345. Knowing how Lego's done things before, that would be the super-duper amazing model that will take weeks to build. If you search around the internet, you might be able to find the old, cheaper model from back a while ago. You can find anything on the internet. Just don't buy second hand - that doesn't sound very safe to me when it comes to hundreds of little tiny bricks when even just one missing ruins the whole thing.
It turns out that I can actually be in Macau for an entire year without any problems, but President Van Dam didn't seem to be expecting to keep me here for the rest of my mission. We had a nice interview after the leadership meeting - because of travel costs and for convenience, President Van Dam has our interviews on the few days every Moves that we are in Hong Kong. We talked a little about Christlike Attributes, which is our Mission focus this move. He asked me which attribute I'm working on this Move and I told him Charity and Love, because I don't feel that I give enough of myself. He told me just how amazing it was that here I am, only 20 years old, and we were having such an adult, grown up conversation about how to serve.
I will find out what the Macau English Class is like later today, as we will teach it. Back in West Point, we had several rowdy kids who wouldn't sit still at all. I gained a lot of respect for you, Mum, and how you manage to keep thirty of them under control at once, when we could barely manage a handful.
Cornwall sounds like fun - please take a lot of pictures and send them to me! I'll do the same in return, although I've been kid of stingy with my camera recently so I haven't taken very many since the CD I sent you via Elder Ng.
I love you all and I hope you're all happy, despite workloads. You're all in my prayers.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
We just watched Prince of Egypt as a Zone. It was a lot of fun. Prince of Egypt is the only cartoon I'll allow myself to watch - while President Van Dam is happy to allow us to watch other films such as Mulan, Aladdin, The Lion King etc, I myself feel I'd rather avoid such films - even though there's nothing wrong to them, I can't help but feel that such films would distract me. Prince of Egypt is okay by my standards because it's still church-related. It actually gave me a lot of insight into prophets and how God leads and teaches His people, as I thought about the imagery and symbolism He used in calling Moses, his preparation and the miracles that were performed. It's been a long time since I watched the film, and one thing I really noticed about watching it this time is just how much the filmmakers didn't understand about the full story; truths we only have through the Restored Gospel.
The Zone here in Macau is rather small. There are 12 of us, split into two Districts; the Zone Leaders and a Sister companionship are in my District, with my companion Elder Liu, which is a Chinese-speaking District. The other District is International, which contains the District Leader and his companion, a Sister companionship and a Senior couple, the Kaps, who are really amazing. Elder Kap is the International Branch President, and they proseltye as well!
Elder Liu, my current companion, is ABC (American Born Chinese) from Sandy, Utah. He's been out on his mission for almost a year and his Chinese is really good (as is the case with most ABCs in the Mission, as they normally heard it growing up to some extent). He is a really hard working missionary, and I'm glad to be serving with him. He's taught me a lot about hard work, and I can see the success he's been having as he serves here. This is only his second area - his first area, which he was in for 6 months, was West Point, which was also my first area. We have a lot of fun together, and have been seeing a lot of miracles as we help prepare investigators for baptism - we currently have five with dates, and one will be baptized this Sunday (in fact, we'll be having his baptismal interview in a few hours).
You can tell the Elders that actually, dinner appointments (or "cheng outs" as we call them in Chenglish) here are rather rare. Members are normally no less busy than non-Members, and certainly here in Macau the branch is not strong enough to support a meal for every day. Tell the Elders that they should count themselves lucky and enjoy the experience.
You can also tell people who ask that I've varied my eating a lot now. I now eat instant noodles very rarely if ever (it's been a long time since I last ate any). Back in Tai Po, I would cook a range of things - making my own curries was fun and rather easy; or perhaps frying up some Chicken breasts with a Chinese stir-fry mix. A while ago Sister Van Dam told us all to eat more healthily and to get more vegetables into our diet. I wasn't all that sure how, so I requested a Mission cookbook, and so now we all have a variety of recipes to choose from when cooking. All of the missionaries submitted their favourite easy recipes that can be cooked in Missionary apartments (as we don't have things like ovens). I submitted the old classic; Beans on Toast.
Elder Ng didn't serve in Macau. President Van Dam only found out recently that Europeans get such priviliges. The Zone has four nationalities at the moment; most are from America, but there is also Sister Au and Elder Woo from Hong Kong and Sister Mansader, from the Philippines. Plus myself, we add up to probably one of the most varied Zones in the Mission, as well as the smallest.
On Tuesday we got on the boat to go back to Hong Kong for a leadership meeting with all of the District Leaders and Zone Leaders. It was fun; staying in Patron Housing opposite the Temple and seeing all of my friends who are in leadership positions in the Mission. We'll be going back across again next week for Mission Tour, when Elder Watson of the Seventy will come and speak to us. Then I won't be back in Hong Kong for over a month, until next Mission Conference.
I'm pretty certain that you can get a cheaper Millennium Falcon than £345. Knowing how Lego's done things before, that would be the super-duper amazing model that will take weeks to build. If you search around the internet, you might be able to find the old, cheaper model from back a while ago. You can find anything on the internet. Just don't buy second hand - that doesn't sound very safe to me when it comes to hundreds of little tiny bricks when even just one missing ruins the whole thing.
It turns out that I can actually be in Macau for an entire year without any problems, but President Van Dam didn't seem to be expecting to keep me here for the rest of my mission. We had a nice interview after the leadership meeting - because of travel costs and for convenience, President Van Dam has our interviews on the few days every Moves that we are in Hong Kong. We talked a little about Christlike Attributes, which is our Mission focus this move. He asked me which attribute I'm working on this Move and I told him Charity and Love, because I don't feel that I give enough of myself. He told me just how amazing it was that here I am, only 20 years old, and we were having such an adult, grown up conversation about how to serve.
I will find out what the Macau English Class is like later today, as we will teach it. Back in West Point, we had several rowdy kids who wouldn't sit still at all. I gained a lot of respect for you, Mum, and how you manage to keep thirty of them under control at once, when we could barely manage a handful.
Cornwall sounds like fun - please take a lot of pictures and send them to me! I'll do the same in return, although I've been kid of stingy with my camera recently so I haven't taken very many since the CD I sent you via Elder Ng.
I love you all and I hope you're all happy, despite workloads. You're all in my prayers.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Not in Hong Kong anymore - 1st email from Macau
Hi all,
I'm emailing right now from a little email place down a side-street in Macau, which will be my new home for the next six months. Macau is a nice little Portuguese colony a fair way from Hong Kong, and because of the difficulties in obtaining Visas for a lot of the missionaries, the usual stay period is six months. Being a European Union citizen, however, I have a little bit of an advantage over the American Elders and Sisters; as I entered Macau the immigrations official stamped my passport for a six month stay, as Europeans are allowed to stay quite a bit longer than Americans.
It's an interesting place; I haven't seen very much of it yet, but it seems to me to be a cross between Portugal and Hong Kong. It's mostly known for its casinos and leisure facilities, so the whole place has a real sea-side feel to it. It should be a lot of fun.
It was kind of hard saying goodbye to a lot of the members back in Tai Po. I'd been there for seven and a half months, so I'd certainly gotten to know them rather well. Brother S seemed to be after coming to visit me out here, which I told him it was best not to do. Hopefully he'll listen - the last thing I want is a former gambling addict strolling around in the Casinos... Nothing to worry about though, he's a good man.
In order to make the trek across the sea, I decided that it was time I invested in a slightly larger suitcase; The big one is fine, but the tiny little one was just too small to hold all of my stuff. So I went and bought a new one for 175 Hong Kong Dollars. I was somewhat apprehensive about buying it, because the wheels looked rather flimsy, but one the same size with sturdier wheels was $210. I made the wrong choice; on the way from the ferry to the flat here in Macau, both wheels snapped off and I had to drag it the last leg of the journey. So well done, Elder Loffhagen - I bought a useless suitcase. At least I won't need it again for a long time.
I wouldn't be so sure that a mission would be rest - bedtimes are subject to sudden change. Here in the Hong Kong mission, for example, instead of following the normal schedule of 6:30am to 10:30pm, we get up at 7:00am and go to bed at 11:00pm. This, I've felt, has been a lot easier than getting up at 6:30, as I'm certainly not a morning person. But apparently, in Macau, we're a half an hour later still, getting up at 7:30 and going to bed at 11:30. This should be nice too, but today we went to Seminary in the morning. So I got up at 6:00 and will go to bed at 11:30. So I'm not sure if a mission will be any more relaxing than a screaming group of children all day.
Especially when we teach English Class...
Anyway, thank you for loving Steve. I'm sure it means a lot to him that he has you all. We all need friends, especially church friends.
You guessed pretty much accurately as to my reason for being kind of quiet with Sister Dawson. Girls are so terrifying to me now (not that they weren't before, but it's a different kind of terror) and I kind of like to keep my distance. I will say something of Sister Dawson though - her Chinese is amazingly good. And why not? Apparently she learned Mandarin before her mission, used to live in Hong Kong and - best of all - her boyfriend also served here in Hong Kong. That's an interesting twist. So yes, I haven't yet served around her (nor will I for the moment - Macau only has 4 sister missionaries, and all are going to be here for a while longer yet) nor do I go out of my way to talk to her at mission events, but she's around and doing very well.
General Conference was amazing; I really enjoyed it. When I go home, I do look forward to going to the church all weekend and watching it with all the members. It's a much better experience than just sitting on the couch at home looking at the tiny computer monitor. I really learned a lot and was glad to have the chance to watch it. Apparently, here in Macau they have General Conference two weeks later than the rest of the world, so they'll be watching it this coming Saturday and Sunday. We probably won't be watching much of it with them, though. The Elders and Sisters who were here already got the chance to watch it this past week.
Keep up the hard work, Mum and Dad. It sounds like both of you are doing really well. I love you for it. I hope that school gets quieter and that counselling goes without too many hitches. You two are both my heroes.
Good to hear that things are good financially for the family, if not the world. When I heard about the huge problems that are going on, I was somewhat worried for any savings that may be floating on the stock market, but I'm sure you're all on top of things, and that God will provide.
I've been thinking about Christmas and a few things I would like. As it stands at the moment, presents will need to be sent early on if I have any hope of actually getting them in time for Christmas, as they'll go to the mission home, and because the ferry between Hong Kong and Macau is around $150 a time, we don't go back there very often. I've been thinking I'd like to get some contact lenses, because my glasses are becoming more and more of an annoyance, and I don't think they'd be too badly priced if I bought them here - pretty much all Chinese people have poor eyesight, so they have some good, cheap options. I'll find out more about that and let you know later. As far as other little things go, I'd really like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir: Called to Serve CD and refills for my coloured scripture marking pencil, both of which can probably be found at the LDS bookshop near the Temple. A Portuguese to English dictionary might be nice too, but I'll see what I can do about that myself first.
I love you all. You are always in my prayers. Keep working hard.
Love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
I'm emailing right now from a little email place down a side-street in Macau, which will be my new home for the next six months. Macau is a nice little Portuguese colony a fair way from Hong Kong, and because of the difficulties in obtaining Visas for a lot of the missionaries, the usual stay period is six months. Being a European Union citizen, however, I have a little bit of an advantage over the American Elders and Sisters; as I entered Macau the immigrations official stamped my passport for a six month stay, as Europeans are allowed to stay quite a bit longer than Americans.
It's an interesting place; I haven't seen very much of it yet, but it seems to me to be a cross between Portugal and Hong Kong. It's mostly known for its casinos and leisure facilities, so the whole place has a real sea-side feel to it. It should be a lot of fun.
It was kind of hard saying goodbye to a lot of the members back in Tai Po. I'd been there for seven and a half months, so I'd certainly gotten to know them rather well. Brother S seemed to be after coming to visit me out here, which I told him it was best not to do. Hopefully he'll listen - the last thing I want is a former gambling addict strolling around in the Casinos... Nothing to worry about though, he's a good man.
In order to make the trek across the sea, I decided that it was time I invested in a slightly larger suitcase; The big one is fine, but the tiny little one was just too small to hold all of my stuff. So I went and bought a new one for 175 Hong Kong Dollars. I was somewhat apprehensive about buying it, because the wheels looked rather flimsy, but one the same size with sturdier wheels was $210. I made the wrong choice; on the way from the ferry to the flat here in Macau, both wheels snapped off and I had to drag it the last leg of the journey. So well done, Elder Loffhagen - I bought a useless suitcase. At least I won't need it again for a long time.
I wouldn't be so sure that a mission would be rest - bedtimes are subject to sudden change. Here in the Hong Kong mission, for example, instead of following the normal schedule of 6:30am to 10:30pm, we get up at 7:00am and go to bed at 11:00pm. This, I've felt, has been a lot easier than getting up at 6:30, as I'm certainly not a morning person. But apparently, in Macau, we're a half an hour later still, getting up at 7:30 and going to bed at 11:30. This should be nice too, but today we went to Seminary in the morning. So I got up at 6:00 and will go to bed at 11:30. So I'm not sure if a mission will be any more relaxing than a screaming group of children all day.
Especially when we teach English Class...
Anyway, thank you for loving Steve. I'm sure it means a lot to him that he has you all. We all need friends, especially church friends.
You guessed pretty much accurately as to my reason for being kind of quiet with Sister Dawson. Girls are so terrifying to me now (not that they weren't before, but it's a different kind of terror) and I kind of like to keep my distance. I will say something of Sister Dawson though - her Chinese is amazingly good. And why not? Apparently she learned Mandarin before her mission, used to live in Hong Kong and - best of all - her boyfriend also served here in Hong Kong. That's an interesting twist. So yes, I haven't yet served around her (nor will I for the moment - Macau only has 4 sister missionaries, and all are going to be here for a while longer yet) nor do I go out of my way to talk to her at mission events, but she's around and doing very well.
General Conference was amazing; I really enjoyed it. When I go home, I do look forward to going to the church all weekend and watching it with all the members. It's a much better experience than just sitting on the couch at home looking at the tiny computer monitor. I really learned a lot and was glad to have the chance to watch it. Apparently, here in Macau they have General Conference two weeks later than the rest of the world, so they'll be watching it this coming Saturday and Sunday. We probably won't be watching much of it with them, though. The Elders and Sisters who were here already got the chance to watch it this past week.
Keep up the hard work, Mum and Dad. It sounds like both of you are doing really well. I love you for it. I hope that school gets quieter and that counselling goes without too many hitches. You two are both my heroes.
Good to hear that things are good financially for the family, if not the world. When I heard about the huge problems that are going on, I was somewhat worried for any savings that may be floating on the stock market, but I'm sure you're all on top of things, and that God will provide.
I've been thinking about Christmas and a few things I would like. As it stands at the moment, presents will need to be sent early on if I have any hope of actually getting them in time for Christmas, as they'll go to the mission home, and because the ferry between Hong Kong and Macau is around $150 a time, we don't go back there very often. I've been thinking I'd like to get some contact lenses, because my glasses are becoming more and more of an annoyance, and I don't think they'd be too badly priced if I bought them here - pretty much all Chinese people have poor eyesight, so they have some good, cheap options. I'll find out more about that and let you know later. As far as other little things go, I'd really like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir: Called to Serve CD and refills for my coloured scripture marking pencil, both of which can probably be found at the LDS bookshop near the Temple. A Portuguese to English dictionary might be nice too, but I'll see what I can do about that myself first.
I love you all. You are always in my prayers. Keep working hard.
Love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Thursday, 9 October 2008
Mainlander Barbecue et al - 52nd email from Hong Kong
Dear all,
Certainly the most eventful thing this week was a ward activity we had on Tuesday. Normally on Tuesday we have a ward Family Home Evening which is organized by our ward mission correllator and his family as an excellent activity for our investigators, recent converts and less-active members. But this Tuesday was a national holiday - it was the Ghost Festival here in Asia. I have seen two of these holidays now and have as of yet to see a single ghost, or anything remotely like a decoration or celebration. Supposedly all of the celebrations happen at graveyards, so we haven't seen much of them.
Anyway, our ward's Seminary teacher, Sister L W, is an amazing Sister, and an amazing member missionary. She's teaching at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, and she has been teaching Cantonese to a bunch of Mainlanders who only speak Mandarin. She decided that it would be fun to have a nice fun activity all together; the ward and the students, and invite the missionaries to come and, well, teach preach and baptize. With a lot of people from the Mainland, it really is that easy. As I've said before, they come down in droves to hear the Gospel without even much of anything about the church.
We invited the Mandarin Missionaries as well - a good idea, as the students have only been learning Cantonese for a month or so. Still, some of their Cantonese was pretty much spot on already. Others struggled and sounded a little MTCish. It was very strange being on the other side of a conversation I normally have regularly; "Your Cantonese is so good! How long have you been learning for? Wow! You've learned to fast! Amazing!" The more Chinese I learn, the more surprised people seem to get that I've been learning for only a little more than a year. On Tuesday, roles were reversed and I found myself having better Chinese than most people there. Most of them could at least Sik Teng (understand) pretty well, even if they couldn't quite Sik Gong (speak) yet. It's an interesting principle of language learning I've discovered - if two languages are similar enough, you can speak back and forth in the two of them without knowing the other person's language very well, but still understanding what he says.
Most Mandarin is still a mystery to me, but every now and then I Sik Teng'ed a word or two. If I got really stuck, I got them to write down the word they were saying, because characters are the same in both languages (well, mostly - there is that pesky simplified that makes things harder) and I could read enough characters to figure it out.
It was a really scary experience, though - a little step outside of missionary work. I wore jeans for the first time in almost a year, and could been me slipping back into pre-mission mode just a little simply from wearing more rough and tumble clothes that would afford to be torn a little. In fact, all of the members also thought that it was really weird to see me in jeans. But the bunch of Mainlanders didn't have any idea what Missionaries did or what we normally look like, so we were just cool white people to them. Therein lied the biggest problem - it would have been very easy to forget that I was a missionary and we weren't just a bunch of YSA out on an activity.
I can see how the adjustment to life at home might be tricky. But I'll worry about that when I get that far.
I shall have to write Elder Crowther and ask him what on earth they were thinking having him drive? Did they get him his full license or was he still on his Provisional? I'm rather glad I don't have to worry about that here, as only the Office Staff get to drive. The thing is that they all have to drive big huge vans, because they're normally only used for carting around luggage and furniture.
Anyway, I love you all lots. Talk to you soon.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Certainly the most eventful thing this week was a ward activity we had on Tuesday. Normally on Tuesday we have a ward Family Home Evening which is organized by our ward mission correllator and his family as an excellent activity for our investigators, recent converts and less-active members. But this Tuesday was a national holiday - it was the Ghost Festival here in Asia. I have seen two of these holidays now and have as of yet to see a single ghost, or anything remotely like a decoration or celebration. Supposedly all of the celebrations happen at graveyards, so we haven't seen much of them.
Anyway, our ward's Seminary teacher, Sister L W, is an amazing Sister, and an amazing member missionary. She's teaching at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, and she has been teaching Cantonese to a bunch of Mainlanders who only speak Mandarin. She decided that it would be fun to have a nice fun activity all together; the ward and the students, and invite the missionaries to come and, well, teach preach and baptize. With a lot of people from the Mainland, it really is that easy. As I've said before, they come down in droves to hear the Gospel without even much of anything about the church.
We invited the Mandarin Missionaries as well - a good idea, as the students have only been learning Cantonese for a month or so. Still, some of their Cantonese was pretty much spot on already. Others struggled and sounded a little MTCish. It was very strange being on the other side of a conversation I normally have regularly; "Your Cantonese is so good! How long have you been learning for? Wow! You've learned to fast! Amazing!" The more Chinese I learn, the more surprised people seem to get that I've been learning for only a little more than a year. On Tuesday, roles were reversed and I found myself having better Chinese than most people there. Most of them could at least Sik Teng (understand) pretty well, even if they couldn't quite Sik Gong (speak) yet. It's an interesting principle of language learning I've discovered - if two languages are similar enough, you can speak back and forth in the two of them without knowing the other person's language very well, but still understanding what he says.
Most Mandarin is still a mystery to me, but every now and then I Sik Teng'ed a word or two. If I got really stuck, I got them to write down the word they were saying, because characters are the same in both languages (well, mostly - there is that pesky simplified that makes things harder) and I could read enough characters to figure it out.
It was a really scary experience, though - a little step outside of missionary work. I wore jeans for the first time in almost a year, and could been me slipping back into pre-mission mode just a little simply from wearing more rough and tumble clothes that would afford to be torn a little. In fact, all of the members also thought that it was really weird to see me in jeans. But the bunch of Mainlanders didn't have any idea what Missionaries did or what we normally look like, so we were just cool white people to them. Therein lied the biggest problem - it would have been very easy to forget that I was a missionary and we weren't just a bunch of YSA out on an activity.
I can see how the adjustment to life at home might be tricky. But I'll worry about that when I get that far.
I shall have to write Elder Crowther and ask him what on earth they were thinking having him drive? Did they get him his full license or was he still on his Provisional? I'm rather glad I don't have to worry about that here, as only the Office Staff get to drive. The thing is that they all have to drive big huge vans, because they're normally only used for carting around luggage and furniture.
Anyway, I love you all lots. Talk to you soon.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
Monkey Mountain and other adventures - 51st email from Hong Kong
Dear all,
Thank you for a wonderful email this week. I got a lot of messages this week - one from an Elder from our MTC group who went home early, one from Tim and one from the bank, telling me how much money I had this time last week. Good good.
So we just got back from Monkey Mountain. It does exactly what it says on the tin - there are monkeys, on a mountain. It was a Zone activity, we all went up there and played some games together and saw some wild monkeys. That was fun. They get pretty close, but you have to be careful because some are really mean, and judging from how much they were all scratching, they all probably had fleas. But either way, it was a real "Wish Tim Were Here" moment.
This week has been a good one. We've had a lot of exchanges. One of the responsibilities of a District Leader is to go on exchanges with the members of his district and give a little training, so I've been off with Elder Forney and Elder Chugg this week. Next week is Elder Nelson and Elder Hedin.
There's a great range of missionaries in our District. Elder Nelson is brand new, being trained by Elder Forney who is a little younger than I am (younger in a missionary sense - he's actually a convert, and currently 22). Elder Chugg has been in the field for about 6 months now but spent almost all of it in Macau, which is, from what I've heard, nothing like Hong Kong. Elder Hedin used to be the Assistant to the President and goes home in two weeks. Plus we have two Sisters; Sister Oler is in her second Move and Sister Opie was in my younger group at the MTC. Oler and Opie are far too easy to get mixed up, so I'll normally try and call them by their Chinese names of Lau and Dang. I had a pretty hard time last Moves living with Elder Bagley and Elder Forney; they were far too close for me to remember one from the other.
Sister Turney's story is very moving. I can imagine how hard Sister Missionaries on Temple Square with only a short period of proselyting must have it. If you don't have something amazing happen in that short period of time, you may not get to see the effects of your service. But I think that they're amazing, and their hard work really does help people. A sister who served in the Oakland California Temple Visitors Centre came home from her mission a few months ago and she and her boyfriend (who as a Hong Kong native who was called here speaking Mandarin, and then was Assistant to the President, is somewhat legendary) had us over for dinner. You could tell that she was really mission trunky (as in she wanted to pack her trunk again and go back) and was so thrilled to have serve. She told us stories of how her proselyting area was a very rich, built up area and it was very hard to find investigators, so the ward organized a lot of activities, like plays, to generate interest and get people to the church.
Last Monday, I went to Seminary here in Tai Po. When I was on exchanges with Elder Forney, we felt impressed to invite two less actives we were teaching to come to Seminary. So we promised we'd go too, and it had a good old familiar Seminary feel. Early morning, tiredness, lights out so as not to wake up the others who were still sleeping. The thing that made it nice was that it wasn't really, really cold. That was the hardest thing about Seminary back home.
Typhoons here are not that big of a deal. Tai Po is really sheltered, so if it's really bad on Hong Kong Island, it doesn't really affect us very much. We live on the first floor of a big giant cement building, so we're not in danger at all. the frustrating thing is when a typhoon hits and we have to stay inside for the day, but that's all it comes down to; nothing too worrying here. Hong Kong is very safe in many ways; good protection against the violent weather, almost no crime and a very well worked out pedestrian system. I'm not sure about England (I never really thought about it) but here it's illegal to cross the road at a zebra crossing if the little man is red (Is that a zebra crossing? I can't remember). So while most Chinese people break the rules and cross with reckless abandon, we stick to only crossing when it's green.
The problem is, nearly every crossing in Hong Kong is a Zebra crossing, so you always have to wait for the light.
Anyway, time's almost up. I love you all lots and lots and will continue to pray for you all.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Thank you for a wonderful email this week. I got a lot of messages this week - one from an Elder from our MTC group who went home early, one from Tim and one from the bank, telling me how much money I had this time last week. Good good.
So we just got back from Monkey Mountain. It does exactly what it says on the tin - there are monkeys, on a mountain. It was a Zone activity, we all went up there and played some games together and saw some wild monkeys. That was fun. They get pretty close, but you have to be careful because some are really mean, and judging from how much they were all scratching, they all probably had fleas. But either way, it was a real "Wish Tim Were Here" moment.
This week has been a good one. We've had a lot of exchanges. One of the responsibilities of a District Leader is to go on exchanges with the members of his district and give a little training, so I've been off with Elder Forney and Elder Chugg this week. Next week is Elder Nelson and Elder Hedin.
There's a great range of missionaries in our District. Elder Nelson is brand new, being trained by Elder Forney who is a little younger than I am (younger in a missionary sense - he's actually a convert, and currently 22). Elder Chugg has been in the field for about 6 months now but spent almost all of it in Macau, which is, from what I've heard, nothing like Hong Kong. Elder Hedin used to be the Assistant to the President and goes home in two weeks. Plus we have two Sisters; Sister Oler is in her second Move and Sister Opie was in my younger group at the MTC. Oler and Opie are far too easy to get mixed up, so I'll normally try and call them by their Chinese names of Lau and Dang. I had a pretty hard time last Moves living with Elder Bagley and Elder Forney; they were far too close for me to remember one from the other.
Sister Turney's story is very moving. I can imagine how hard Sister Missionaries on Temple Square with only a short period of proselyting must have it. If you don't have something amazing happen in that short period of time, you may not get to see the effects of your service. But I think that they're amazing, and their hard work really does help people. A sister who served in the Oakland California Temple Visitors Centre came home from her mission a few months ago and she and her boyfriend (who as a Hong Kong native who was called here speaking Mandarin, and then was Assistant to the President, is somewhat legendary) had us over for dinner. You could tell that she was really mission trunky (as in she wanted to pack her trunk again and go back) and was so thrilled to have serve. She told us stories of how her proselyting area was a very rich, built up area and it was very hard to find investigators, so the ward organized a lot of activities, like plays, to generate interest and get people to the church.
Last Monday, I went to Seminary here in Tai Po. When I was on exchanges with Elder Forney, we felt impressed to invite two less actives we were teaching to come to Seminary. So we promised we'd go too, and it had a good old familiar Seminary feel. Early morning, tiredness, lights out so as not to wake up the others who were still sleeping. The thing that made it nice was that it wasn't really, really cold. That was the hardest thing about Seminary back home.
Typhoons here are not that big of a deal. Tai Po is really sheltered, so if it's really bad on Hong Kong Island, it doesn't really affect us very much. We live on the first floor of a big giant cement building, so we're not in danger at all. the frustrating thing is when a typhoon hits and we have to stay inside for the day, but that's all it comes down to; nothing too worrying here. Hong Kong is very safe in many ways; good protection against the violent weather, almost no crime and a very well worked out pedestrian system. I'm not sure about England (I never really thought about it) but here it's illegal to cross the road at a zebra crossing if the little man is red (Is that a zebra crossing? I can't remember). So while most Chinese people break the rules and cross with reckless abandon, we stick to only crossing when it's green.
The problem is, nearly every crossing in Hong Kong is a Zebra crossing, so you always have to wait for the light.
Anyway, time's almost up. I love you all lots and lots and will continue to pray for you all.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
Feeling more awake - 50th email from Hong Kong
Dear Family,
I got a very good night's sleep last night, so I'm very awake right now. Normally I have the Air Conditioner blowing in my face all night, but last night it was turned down significantly, so I was very comfortable.
This week has been a very interesting one. We've had another typhoon, Mission Conference, and many other fun things. Plus today is Temple day.
So last Monday, as we came home, we saw a sign on our apartment building's door that told us that there was a level one typhoon warning. I'm not sure whether or not I've explained the warning system, but with a level one warning, it means the storm is still a way off. We're allowed to proselyte as usual. When it gets to level three, as it was the next day, we're not allowed to go further than 15 minutes from home (unless President Van Dam gives the go ahead). So on Tuesday we had to cancel our meeting with J because he lives quite a way away. That night, it kicked up to a level eight. Very frustrating. I very much dislike being trapped inside, as a level eight means not being able to leave the house. It was particularly frustrating because we were supposed to have Mission Conference the next day.
President Van Dam told us he was also very worried about Mission Conference - that he was up in the early hours of the morning checking the weather, when it finally calmed down to a level three. So the next morning everyone was phoned, being told that we were to ignore the weather warning and come to the conference anyway.
Conference was a lot of fun. We all learned and laughed together. President Van Dam and the office staff have come up with a new referral scheme with coloured balls - every ward now has a plastic jar. When a member gives the missionaries a referral, they get to put a ball in the jar. The idea is to give the ward members a physical encouragement to share the gospel.
After being taught about a lot of different things, I left Conference with the feeling that although I've been working hard recently, I haven't been working smart. I'm falling into the same pitfalls I saw older missionaries in when I was new in the mission; just finding all the time and not working with the ward enough. So I need to do better and change.
Don't worry too much about what I do or where I live when I get home; I can guarantee that when I come home, I will be happy to live at home a little longer before moving on. Truth be told, without being trunky or homesick, I really miss Berkshire. I miss Princess Square, Bentalls and WHSmiths. I miss Reading, Broad Street Mall, the Oracle, the cinema. I miss the church buildings.
I don't miss Slough very much though.
Honestly, while Hong Kong is a big adventure and a lot of fun, I know where my home is. So don't get me wrong - I'm not homesick by any stretch of the imagination, but when I come home, I will be happy to just enjoy myself there for a while. Such thoughts, by the way, have left me somewhat less interested in BYU than I was before.
I'm not in need of anything special for Christmas - money in the ISA would do me a lot better. The last thing I need is more random stuff to fill up my suitcases. I'll leave it to you to think up things.
Anyway, I've got to be off. Love you all lots and lots.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
I got a very good night's sleep last night, so I'm very awake right now. Normally I have the Air Conditioner blowing in my face all night, but last night it was turned down significantly, so I was very comfortable.
This week has been a very interesting one. We've had another typhoon, Mission Conference, and many other fun things. Plus today is Temple day.
So last Monday, as we came home, we saw a sign on our apartment building's door that told us that there was a level one typhoon warning. I'm not sure whether or not I've explained the warning system, but with a level one warning, it means the storm is still a way off. We're allowed to proselyte as usual. When it gets to level three, as it was the next day, we're not allowed to go further than 15 minutes from home (unless President Van Dam gives the go ahead). So on Tuesday we had to cancel our meeting with J because he lives quite a way away. That night, it kicked up to a level eight. Very frustrating. I very much dislike being trapped inside, as a level eight means not being able to leave the house. It was particularly frustrating because we were supposed to have Mission Conference the next day.
President Van Dam told us he was also very worried about Mission Conference - that he was up in the early hours of the morning checking the weather, when it finally calmed down to a level three. So the next morning everyone was phoned, being told that we were to ignore the weather warning and come to the conference anyway.
Conference was a lot of fun. We all learned and laughed together. President Van Dam and the office staff have come up with a new referral scheme with coloured balls - every ward now has a plastic jar. When a member gives the missionaries a referral, they get to put a ball in the jar. The idea is to give the ward members a physical encouragement to share the gospel.
After being taught about a lot of different things, I left Conference with the feeling that although I've been working hard recently, I haven't been working smart. I'm falling into the same pitfalls I saw older missionaries in when I was new in the mission; just finding all the time and not working with the ward enough. So I need to do better and change.
Don't worry too much about what I do or where I live when I get home; I can guarantee that when I come home, I will be happy to live at home a little longer before moving on. Truth be told, without being trunky or homesick, I really miss Berkshire. I miss Princess Square, Bentalls and WHSmiths. I miss Reading, Broad Street Mall, the Oracle, the cinema. I miss the church buildings.
I don't miss Slough very much though.
Honestly, while Hong Kong is a big adventure and a lot of fun, I know where my home is. So don't get me wrong - I'm not homesick by any stretch of the imagination, but when I come home, I will be happy to just enjoy myself there for a while. Such thoughts, by the way, have left me somewhat less interested in BYU than I was before.
I'm not in need of anything special for Christmas - money in the ISA would do me a lot better. The last thing I need is more random stuff to fill up my suitcases. I'll leave it to you to think up things.
Anyway, I've got to be off. Love you all lots and lots.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Still very tired - 49th email from Hong Kong
Dear all,
Yesterday I decided to use a little extra study time to lie down a little - I'd already had over an hour of personal study, but due to some exchanges yesterday, Elder Clark hadn't yet. While he studied, I went into the bedroom to lie down...on the floor. We have bunkbeds, and the top bunk was just a little too high for me. I didn't have the strength.
So I'm still worn out from having worked very hard. I think I may have been pushing Elder Clark a little further than he can manage, but a second spent not doing what we're supposed to is a second wasted, in my opinion. Before I've taken regular breaks to rest for about 5 minutes every few hours, but not so far this moves. That's been putting strain on Elder Clark too. Perhaps I need to cool down a little. But the theme of the Moves is, after all, being a fireball missionary. We'll see.
Sorry, just thinking out loud (sort of) a little. In summary, this week has also been really good. We've seen a lot of miracles; a lot of prepared people finding us, rather than the other way around, and the first serious member referral of my mission.
A few days ago we were talking to a boy on the street who was kind of busy and needed to go somewhere. As I wrote out a flyer to give to him, writing down our name and phone number, a woman came up and asked if she could have a flyer too. We turned our attention to her and invited her to church, telling her that the Sister Missionaries would love to meet with her. She also asked how much a Bible would cost. I told her, "There's a Christian bookshop around the corner, but we have this book which we give away for free!" We then taught her about the Book of Mormon and scheduled her for church this Sunday. It is truly a miracle that we were in the right place at the right time to find such a prepared soul.
Then that night we were almost at home, with very little time to spare - we had to be home in five minutes. As we waited at the crossing opposite our high rise flat, a man was looking at us and smiling. We struck up a conversation, which wasn't hard as he really wanted to talk. He invited us up to his house right then. I explained that we really couldn't go right then, so he scheduled himself for Sunday at 9:30 at the church. We convinced him that 9:00 would be better as that is when the church meetings start. He obliged.
It's too bad that the road we were crossing was our area boundary. As he lives in the block of flats next to us, he lives just barely on the wrong side of the line. We're going to turn him over to the Tai Wo Elders, the other area in the District. This kind of thing happens a lot in Hong Kong, with such small area boundaries.
Hurray for Jessica - great job at camp! I hope this helping attitude transfers over to home as well; as she is the oldest at home now, she's going to need to take on those responsibilities.
Also hurray for Tim; actually figuring out how to get XBox Live running. I'm sure that he and Jacob will enjoy being able to play just as easily while on different continents. When the M's move, could you send me their new address? Just to be on the safe side, I won't write Tom a letter until he's safely on the other side of the world.
Some Elders in my MTC District were dreaming in Chinese while in the MTC. I was not one of them. I am still not one of them. My dreams are solidly in English, but I'm sure that if someone were to speak Chinese in one of my dreams, I'd probably understand them.
Yes, Tai Po does indeed have the Lam Tsuen river running through it. It stinks. A bunch of companies dump all of their chemical waste into it, so it's always a different colour and never smells very good. It is very beautiful though; but only when the water is a pleasant blue or green; never when it's brown. And certainly at night, it's stunning, with all of the shining lights reflected in the river. You'll get to see it when I next send some pictures home. I've been taking less photos, though, so I'm holding off until I have a bigger collection.
No, my English has not suffered because of Chinese. That was a simple mistake because my brain works 40 times faster than my fingers. There may be a lot of spelling mistakes today, as well, because for some reason today I can't type very accurately. I'll need more practice if I ever want to go back and do some more data entry work to get through university. In fact, the thing that is most detrimental to my English is all of the American missionaries around. Their grammar is usually terrible and I've picked up a lot of words and expressions they use, so apologies if I sound more American than ever at Christmas. Also, I've picked up a lot of Missionary Chenglish, like saying "That's laahp! Such a faahn!" or "Let's jau!" (respectively meaning "That's rubbish! Such an inconvenience" and "Let's go"). Chenglish is a lot of fun. I don't think I'll ever give it up when I go home, and everyone will be very confused as to what I'm saying all the time.
Glad to hear that Seminary is such a big hit. Tim and Jess should count themselves lucky, though, because here in Hong Kong, Seminary is 6 days a week - Monday to Friday at 6:00am and Saturday at 8:00. It's a great sacrifice for the kids who otherwise would be studying all night. After school study classes are considered essential to success here in Hong Kong, and unless you take them it's considered that you don't stand much of a chance in the competitive school system. Early morning Seminary means no late night studying, so the kids who attend sacrifice something worthwhile (if somewhat overdemanding in my opinion) for something even better; a solid testimony and a knowledge of the scriptures. What's more, they're not behind any other kids. Studying all day and all night, as is the lifestyle of many kids in Hong Kong, doesn't get them any further than the kids who take an hour in the morning to read their scriptures. I know which one I'd rather do.
Bournemouth sounds like an interesting choice for university. If I remember rightly, a fair amount of Chinese people go there to study, which might give me a chance to keep my Cantonese and learn some Mandarin just on the side. If I can find someone to speak Mandarin to when I come home, it's really going to be a piece of cake - it's all so similar, just a different pronounciation and simpler grammar. One of the things that makes Cantonese so hard is the lack of a written form (written grammar is identical to Mandarin grammar) and so there are no set rules for how to speak the language. Anything is good - or bad, if you're trying to learn how to speak it. Anyway, hopefully I can see some prospectuses soon and can narrow things down as to which university to go to and what to study. Thank you again for researching all of this for me.
I love you all very much, and pray for you regularly. I also love Hong Kong very much, and so at least for right now, I'm completely happy. The work is hard but well worth it, and I'm thrilled to be doing it. Yesterday I reflected a little and realised just how much I've changed and grown in this year. I'm not the same person I was when I left home.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Yesterday I decided to use a little extra study time to lie down a little - I'd already had over an hour of personal study, but due to some exchanges yesterday, Elder Clark hadn't yet. While he studied, I went into the bedroom to lie down...on the floor. We have bunkbeds, and the top bunk was just a little too high for me. I didn't have the strength.
So I'm still worn out from having worked very hard. I think I may have been pushing Elder Clark a little further than he can manage, but a second spent not doing what we're supposed to is a second wasted, in my opinion. Before I've taken regular breaks to rest for about 5 minutes every few hours, but not so far this moves. That's been putting strain on Elder Clark too. Perhaps I need to cool down a little. But the theme of the Moves is, after all, being a fireball missionary. We'll see.
Sorry, just thinking out loud (sort of) a little. In summary, this week has also been really good. We've seen a lot of miracles; a lot of prepared people finding us, rather than the other way around, and the first serious member referral of my mission.
A few days ago we were talking to a boy on the street who was kind of busy and needed to go somewhere. As I wrote out a flyer to give to him, writing down our name and phone number, a woman came up and asked if she could have a flyer too. We turned our attention to her and invited her to church, telling her that the Sister Missionaries would love to meet with her. She also asked how much a Bible would cost. I told her, "There's a Christian bookshop around the corner, but we have this book which we give away for free!" We then taught her about the Book of Mormon and scheduled her for church this Sunday. It is truly a miracle that we were in the right place at the right time to find such a prepared soul.
Then that night we were almost at home, with very little time to spare - we had to be home in five minutes. As we waited at the crossing opposite our high rise flat, a man was looking at us and smiling. We struck up a conversation, which wasn't hard as he really wanted to talk. He invited us up to his house right then. I explained that we really couldn't go right then, so he scheduled himself for Sunday at 9:30 at the church. We convinced him that 9:00 would be better as that is when the church meetings start. He obliged.
It's too bad that the road we were crossing was our area boundary. As he lives in the block of flats next to us, he lives just barely on the wrong side of the line. We're going to turn him over to the Tai Wo Elders, the other area in the District. This kind of thing happens a lot in Hong Kong, with such small area boundaries.
Hurray for Jessica - great job at camp! I hope this helping attitude transfers over to home as well; as she is the oldest at home now, she's going to need to take on those responsibilities.
Also hurray for Tim; actually figuring out how to get XBox Live running. I'm sure that he and Jacob will enjoy being able to play just as easily while on different continents. When the M's move, could you send me their new address? Just to be on the safe side, I won't write Tom a letter until he's safely on the other side of the world.
Some Elders in my MTC District were dreaming in Chinese while in the MTC. I was not one of them. I am still not one of them. My dreams are solidly in English, but I'm sure that if someone were to speak Chinese in one of my dreams, I'd probably understand them.
Yes, Tai Po does indeed have the Lam Tsuen river running through it. It stinks. A bunch of companies dump all of their chemical waste into it, so it's always a different colour and never smells very good. It is very beautiful though; but only when the water is a pleasant blue or green; never when it's brown. And certainly at night, it's stunning, with all of the shining lights reflected in the river. You'll get to see it when I next send some pictures home. I've been taking less photos, though, so I'm holding off until I have a bigger collection.
No, my English has not suffered because of Chinese. That was a simple mistake because my brain works 40 times faster than my fingers. There may be a lot of spelling mistakes today, as well, because for some reason today I can't type very accurately. I'll need more practice if I ever want to go back and do some more data entry work to get through university. In fact, the thing that is most detrimental to my English is all of the American missionaries around. Their grammar is usually terrible and I've picked up a lot of words and expressions they use, so apologies if I sound more American than ever at Christmas. Also, I've picked up a lot of Missionary Chenglish, like saying "That's laahp! Such a faahn!" or "Let's jau!" (respectively meaning "That's rubbish! Such an inconvenience" and "Let's go"). Chenglish is a lot of fun. I don't think I'll ever give it up when I go home, and everyone will be very confused as to what I'm saying all the time.
Glad to hear that Seminary is such a big hit. Tim and Jess should count themselves lucky, though, because here in Hong Kong, Seminary is 6 days a week - Monday to Friday at 6:00am and Saturday at 8:00. It's a great sacrifice for the kids who otherwise would be studying all night. After school study classes are considered essential to success here in Hong Kong, and unless you take them it's considered that you don't stand much of a chance in the competitive school system. Early morning Seminary means no late night studying, so the kids who attend sacrifice something worthwhile (if somewhat overdemanding in my opinion) for something even better; a solid testimony and a knowledge of the scriptures. What's more, they're not behind any other kids. Studying all day and all night, as is the lifestyle of many kids in Hong Kong, doesn't get them any further than the kids who take an hour in the morning to read their scriptures. I know which one I'd rather do.
Bournemouth sounds like an interesting choice for university. If I remember rightly, a fair amount of Chinese people go there to study, which might give me a chance to keep my Cantonese and learn some Mandarin just on the side. If I can find someone to speak Mandarin to when I come home, it's really going to be a piece of cake - it's all so similar, just a different pronounciation and simpler grammar. One of the things that makes Cantonese so hard is the lack of a written form (written grammar is identical to Mandarin grammar) and so there are no set rules for how to speak the language. Anything is good - or bad, if you're trying to learn how to speak it. Anyway, hopefully I can see some prospectuses soon and can narrow things down as to which university to go to and what to study. Thank you again for researching all of this for me.
I love you all very much, and pray for you regularly. I also love Hong Kong very much, and so at least for right now, I'm completely happy. The work is hard but well worth it, and I'm thrilled to be doing it. Yesterday I reflected a little and realised just how much I've changed and grown in this year. I'm not the same person I was when I left home.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Thursday, 11 September 2008
Perhaps the most tiring week of my mission so far - 48th email from Hong Kong
Dear all,
I am wiped out. This morning I had a two hour nap to try and regain strength, but it didn't help much. I've pushed myself so hard this week, and now I'm very tired, but also very happy with the work we've done.
Last Thursday was the start of it all - moving things into the new flat, I got pretty worn out. But I decided that it was a good way to start the Moves, so I determined to keep on working similarly hard every day. Every spare second I've had has been spent making flash cards, to help me learn the 3,000 characters for the final language recognition. I've just kept pushing and pushing myself, and I'm now worn out. But I told God very often in my prayers that if He could give me strength to make it to Preparation Day when I could rest a bit, I'd do everything I could to serve.
Let me clarify, though - I'm not saying that normally I'm really lazy and this week I actually worked hard. I normally work really hard, but this week I stepped it up a bit more and really pushed to see what I was capable of. Perhaps I tried running a little faster than I had strength, but I feel satisfied with doing so and the success we've had this week.
Time with Elder Clark is fun. He is a really diligent missionary with a lot of good ideas as to how to get the members more involved with the work.
The calling of Stake Media representative certainly does sound interesting - what are your responsibilities? Money is fine for now, not a problem. I'm living quite comfortably on the amount the mission gives us every month, and don't really need anything else. Back when I first got here, my budgeting skills weren't the best in the world so I'd needed to rely on personal funds a little, but now that I'm in the swing of things, I cope without a problem every month.
Thank you very much to Dad for looking into university courses. Very clever to ask the good people at the BBC about journalism - if anyone would know, it'd be them.
Don't worry about Beth not calling; she's just enjoying the freedom of living away from home. I was the same way when I first came out - in fact, I need to make a confession. When I first got to the MTC, the Senior Elder in charge of the International office there told me I was allowed to phone you and tell you I arrived safely. I resisted, but he dialled the number anyway. The phone rang, but nobody answered - I looked at my watch and a quick calculation told me that as it was Tuesday night, everyone was probably out at Mutual. The Elder told me I could come back the next day to try again, but I never did - I didn't really want to. I was fine with emailing.
Then when everyone was in the Salt Lake City airport on the way to Hong Kong, everyone bought phone cards and called home to tell them they were safe. Again, though, this was the last thing on my mind - I was a missionary, out and about. I had to contact and teach people!
So when I was in the MTC, there were two chances to phone, and I didn't take either. So Beth not phoning for a while is just because she's enjoying independent, but soon she'll realise how much she misses you all.
The new flat is very comfortable now. There was a while where it was empty of all but the barest minimum, but we've spent a lot of money this week buying a lot of the essential items that we were missing (the money will be reimbursed by the mission) and so now it's very comfortable. It's also a lot more convenient, because before we had to catch a bus to get to our area. Now we just walk across the street and we're in the heart of Tai Po (that's what it's called; the Tai Po Jung Sam - Tai Po middle heart. It means Tai Po Centre).
The only real problem with the apartment is the water heater. Whoever wired it up was, to quote the Housing Co-ordinator, Elder Wong, "very lazy". When he was wiring up the heater, he apparently couldn't be bothered to wire in a new electric cable for the heater, so he just attached it to the hallway light. Now, whenever the shower's on, the hallway light flickers. What's more, there's not enough power to ignite the heater, so the heater doesn't even work. Every now and then, someone is lucky and gets a warm shower (I had my first one in a week this morning) but for the most part, I get woken up in the morning by a nice, refreshing, cold shower. A man's coming to look at the heater in a few days and sort it out.
So it's been a fun week. I am indeed still District Leader, despite logic or reason; there certainly are other Elders in the District more competent than myself. We have Elder Hedin, who was Assistant to the President until last week. He came out of the mission office because he goes home at the end of this moves, and certainly he would be a far more experienced and successful District Leader than myself, but then God does make these callings according to who will learn and grow the most from the calling, as well as simply who will do the best at it. Last week, we had a District Meeting, and I made the district focus for the moves "Becoming a Fireball Missionary" - which comes from a talk by Elder Ballard. It was a very spiritual meeting, with a lot of the Elders and Sisters in the District sharing very powerful lessons on improving and doing that little bit better to be the best we can be. I don't know if anybody else learned anything from it, but it certainly inspired me and was part of the reason I practically worked myself to death this week.
Anyway, time's almost up. I love you all very much.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
I am wiped out. This morning I had a two hour nap to try and regain strength, but it didn't help much. I've pushed myself so hard this week, and now I'm very tired, but also very happy with the work we've done.
Last Thursday was the start of it all - moving things into the new flat, I got pretty worn out. But I decided that it was a good way to start the Moves, so I determined to keep on working similarly hard every day. Every spare second I've had has been spent making flash cards, to help me learn the 3,000 characters for the final language recognition. I've just kept pushing and pushing myself, and I'm now worn out. But I told God very often in my prayers that if He could give me strength to make it to Preparation Day when I could rest a bit, I'd do everything I could to serve.
Let me clarify, though - I'm not saying that normally I'm really lazy and this week I actually worked hard. I normally work really hard, but this week I stepped it up a bit more and really pushed to see what I was capable of. Perhaps I tried running a little faster than I had strength, but I feel satisfied with doing so and the success we've had this week.
Time with Elder Clark is fun. He is a really diligent missionary with a lot of good ideas as to how to get the members more involved with the work.
The calling of Stake Media representative certainly does sound interesting - what are your responsibilities? Money is fine for now, not a problem. I'm living quite comfortably on the amount the mission gives us every month, and don't really need anything else. Back when I first got here, my budgeting skills weren't the best in the world so I'd needed to rely on personal funds a little, but now that I'm in the swing of things, I cope without a problem every month.
Thank you very much to Dad for looking into university courses. Very clever to ask the good people at the BBC about journalism - if anyone would know, it'd be them.
Don't worry about Beth not calling; she's just enjoying the freedom of living away from home. I was the same way when I first came out - in fact, I need to make a confession. When I first got to the MTC, the Senior Elder in charge of the International office there told me I was allowed to phone you and tell you I arrived safely. I resisted, but he dialled the number anyway. The phone rang, but nobody answered - I looked at my watch and a quick calculation told me that as it was Tuesday night, everyone was probably out at Mutual. The Elder told me I could come back the next day to try again, but I never did - I didn't really want to. I was fine with emailing.
Then when everyone was in the Salt Lake City airport on the way to Hong Kong, everyone bought phone cards and called home to tell them they were safe. Again, though, this was the last thing on my mind - I was a missionary, out and about. I had to contact and teach people!
So when I was in the MTC, there were two chances to phone, and I didn't take either. So Beth not phoning for a while is just because she's enjoying independent, but soon she'll realise how much she misses you all.
The new flat is very comfortable now. There was a while where it was empty of all but the barest minimum, but we've spent a lot of money this week buying a lot of the essential items that we were missing (the money will be reimbursed by the mission) and so now it's very comfortable. It's also a lot more convenient, because before we had to catch a bus to get to our area. Now we just walk across the street and we're in the heart of Tai Po (that's what it's called; the Tai Po Jung Sam - Tai Po middle heart. It means Tai Po Centre).
The only real problem with the apartment is the water heater. Whoever wired it up was, to quote the Housing Co-ordinator, Elder Wong, "very lazy". When he was wiring up the heater, he apparently couldn't be bothered to wire in a new electric cable for the heater, so he just attached it to the hallway light. Now, whenever the shower's on, the hallway light flickers. What's more, there's not enough power to ignite the heater, so the heater doesn't even work. Every now and then, someone is lucky and gets a warm shower (I had my first one in a week this morning) but for the most part, I get woken up in the morning by a nice, refreshing, cold shower. A man's coming to look at the heater in a few days and sort it out.
So it's been a fun week. I am indeed still District Leader, despite logic or reason; there certainly are other Elders in the District more competent than myself. We have Elder Hedin, who was Assistant to the President until last week. He came out of the mission office because he goes home at the end of this moves, and certainly he would be a far more experienced and successful District Leader than myself, but then God does make these callings according to who will learn and grow the most from the calling, as well as simply who will do the best at it. Last week, we had a District Meeting, and I made the district focus for the moves "Becoming a Fireball Missionary" - which comes from a talk by Elder Ballard. It was a very spiritual meeting, with a lot of the Elders and Sisters in the District sharing very powerful lessons on improving and doing that little bit better to be the best we can be. I don't know if anybody else learned anything from it, but it certainly inspired me and was part of the reason I practically worked myself to death this week.
Anyway, time's almost up. I love you all very much.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Friday, 5 September 2008
New Companion, New Flat, Same Area - 47th email from Hong Kong
Dear all,
Yes, Elder Bagley is gone already. It was a very fast six weeks, and I was somewhat disappointed to have to say goodbye to him. He's going to Chai Wan which is on Hong Kong Island, and he's maybe a little apprehensive about it, but willing and looking forward to it.
My new companion is Elder Clark, who is from Salt Lake City. I am therefore continuing my Utah companion trend - only Elder Sharp and Elder Kwok were from elsewhere, but Elder Sharp's parents moved from Arizona to Utah while he was my companion!
Elder Clark is going into his fourth Moves now, making him (relatively) the oldest companion I've had since I became senior companion - my other 3 have been in either their first or second Moves period. So I'm looking forward to a companion that's pretty much at the stage where he doesn't need an older companion. This should be a learning period for him and for me.
I therefore enter my fifth Moves in Tai Po, and, rather unexpectedly, I've moved house. The flat my companionship was living in is in the middle of the neighbouring area of Tai Wo, and as such was rather inconvenient for us - but it was a nice apartment. A second companionship has been opened in Tai Wo by Elder Hedin and Elder Chugg - Elder Hedin was the Assistant to the President for the past two Moves. So they'll be living in the old apartment with the other Tai Wo companionship, which features another trainee. Meanwhile, in our new flat we have the Mandarin speaking companionship for the Zone (every Zone has a Mandarin companionship), which features Elder Sikahema, who was my travelling companion from the MTC to Hong Kong, and with whom I served when I was in West Point.
Normally here in Tai Po, because church is in the afternoon, after Tai Wo ward, baptisms are held before church and then converts are confirmed in the Sacrament Meeting immediately after their baptism. So Brother S was confirmed last week, and this week he received the Aaronic Priesthood. This ward is really good at following the three things that every new member needs - responsibility, friendship and nourishment. He is very excited and happy to be learning more and growing in the church.
This last week we found a great new investigator called E L. He is probably in his 40s, with two teenage children. When we met him on the street, he asked us when the church meetings were, and we were later able to schedule him for last Saturday. When we met with him on Saturday, I asked, "So do you have any religious beliefs".
He said, "Well, I've been a baptist for about a year and a half. But I feel like when I pray, I don't really get anything in return. I know a little about your church; about Joseph Smith [he said his name in English] and about how he translated an ancient record, and I want to know more."
As I asked him about what he'd heard, he went on to tell me about the First Vision in clear detail. He said he'd been to the church's website and read all of this. He was really interested to learn more, and to read the Book of Mormon - while it was on the website, he felt that a book would be better because he could mark it. We were, of course, happy to give him a copy and invited him to church. He had been planning on coming at 9:00 when Tai Wo have their services, but after finding out that Tai Po members meet at 2:00, he decided he wanted to come and see the Tai Po services.
When we saw him the next day, he said that he'd read the first 25 pages of the Book of Mormon and prayed, but no answer yet. He left church about five minutes before the end of joint Priesthood/Relief Society (which is last here), so we didn't get to ask him what he thought of church. But he must have liked it, because when Elder Bagley phoned him up to schedual him, he said he was pretty busy all week, but that he was going to come to church again this Sunday.
Another amazing miracle for this week - we schedualed a man in his early 20s named D at the church. He lives in Tai Wo, so we're going to turn him over to the new companionship tomorrow. He came looking to learn about the church and our beliefs, possibly I think for the purpose of just learning more about religion. He learned about Catholicism in school, but didn't really know much more than that. We taught about prayer, and taught the Restoration. After we taught the First Vision, he said "So I guess that other churches probably persecuted him a lot, huh? I imagine they'd even try to kill him." Rather insightful comment, if you ask me.
We closed in prayer, the first true communication with God he'd ever heard, where Elder Bagley thanked Him for the chance to share this message, and asked that D would learn the truth for himself. After the prayer, I asked D, "How do you feel?"
He replied, "I think...I know it's true."
That's a pretty good note to end on. I Love you all,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Yes, Elder Bagley is gone already. It was a very fast six weeks, and I was somewhat disappointed to have to say goodbye to him. He's going to Chai Wan which is on Hong Kong Island, and he's maybe a little apprehensive about it, but willing and looking forward to it.
My new companion is Elder Clark, who is from Salt Lake City. I am therefore continuing my Utah companion trend - only Elder Sharp and Elder Kwok were from elsewhere, but Elder Sharp's parents moved from Arizona to Utah while he was my companion!
Elder Clark is going into his fourth Moves now, making him (relatively) the oldest companion I've had since I became senior companion - my other 3 have been in either their first or second Moves period. So I'm looking forward to a companion that's pretty much at the stage where he doesn't need an older companion. This should be a learning period for him and for me.
I therefore enter my fifth Moves in Tai Po, and, rather unexpectedly, I've moved house. The flat my companionship was living in is in the middle of the neighbouring area of Tai Wo, and as such was rather inconvenient for us - but it was a nice apartment. A second companionship has been opened in Tai Wo by Elder Hedin and Elder Chugg - Elder Hedin was the Assistant to the President for the past two Moves. So they'll be living in the old apartment with the other Tai Wo companionship, which features another trainee. Meanwhile, in our new flat we have the Mandarin speaking companionship for the Zone (every Zone has a Mandarin companionship), which features Elder Sikahema, who was my travelling companion from the MTC to Hong Kong, and with whom I served when I was in West Point.
Normally here in Tai Po, because church is in the afternoon, after Tai Wo ward, baptisms are held before church and then converts are confirmed in the Sacrament Meeting immediately after their baptism. So Brother S was confirmed last week, and this week he received the Aaronic Priesthood. This ward is really good at following the three things that every new member needs - responsibility, friendship and nourishment. He is very excited and happy to be learning more and growing in the church.
This last week we found a great new investigator called E L. He is probably in his 40s, with two teenage children. When we met him on the street, he asked us when the church meetings were, and we were later able to schedule him for last Saturday. When we met with him on Saturday, I asked, "So do you have any religious beliefs".
He said, "Well, I've been a baptist for about a year and a half. But I feel like when I pray, I don't really get anything in return. I know a little about your church; about Joseph Smith [he said his name in English] and about how he translated an ancient record, and I want to know more."
As I asked him about what he'd heard, he went on to tell me about the First Vision in clear detail. He said he'd been to the church's website and read all of this. He was really interested to learn more, and to read the Book of Mormon - while it was on the website, he felt that a book would be better because he could mark it. We were, of course, happy to give him a copy and invited him to church. He had been planning on coming at 9:00 when Tai Wo have their services, but after finding out that Tai Po members meet at 2:00, he decided he wanted to come and see the Tai Po services.
When we saw him the next day, he said that he'd read the first 25 pages of the Book of Mormon and prayed, but no answer yet. He left church about five minutes before the end of joint Priesthood/Relief Society (which is last here), so we didn't get to ask him what he thought of church. But he must have liked it, because when Elder Bagley phoned him up to schedual him, he said he was pretty busy all week, but that he was going to come to church again this Sunday.
Another amazing miracle for this week - we schedualed a man in his early 20s named D at the church. He lives in Tai Wo, so we're going to turn him over to the new companionship tomorrow. He came looking to learn about the church and our beliefs, possibly I think for the purpose of just learning more about religion. He learned about Catholicism in school, but didn't really know much more than that. We taught about prayer, and taught the Restoration. After we taught the First Vision, he said "So I guess that other churches probably persecuted him a lot, huh? I imagine they'd even try to kill him." Rather insightful comment, if you ask me.
We closed in prayer, the first true communication with God he'd ever heard, where Elder Bagley thanked Him for the chance to share this message, and asked that D would learn the truth for himself. After the prayer, I asked D, "How do you feel?"
He replied, "I think...I know it's true."
That's a pretty good note to end on. I Love you all,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Thursday, 28 August 2008
Brother S Baptized -46th email from Hong Kong
Dear all,
Yes, Brother S's baptism went without a hitch. It was a very different experience for me than K's. At K's, with the dozen or so friends he brought to church, I found myself trying desperately to keep everything from collapsing into chaos, and it was a rather stressful experience. With Brother S, we arrived to see him already dressed in white and ready to go; the Ward Mission Leader, Brother C, had already got everything sorted. I didn't have to wait for a companion to change, and everything else was sorted because two people were being baptized at once (Brother N of the Tai Wo ward, which also meets in our building, was baptized in the same service) so I didn't need to worry about giving a talk or anything. I was able to sit back and enjoy the service, which went without a hitch.
Brother S had requested an opportunity to bear his testimony, and so he shared about the trials of his life before he met us - a gambling addiction, his family problems and various other things. Then he shared about how Elder Sharp and I had found him and helped him to overcome his trials. Most of all, he shared about how through the peace in his life that he has now, he knows that God lives and loves him, and wants to bless him, and he knows that this truly is God's true church. While it's clear to me that he hasn't yet had a confirming, huge spiritual experience, it is clear that the Holy Ghost has subtly whispered to him the truth of the Book of Mormon and the message of the Restoration.
We met with him again on Tuesday and shared a little about Family History work, because I want to give him something really productive to do with all of his free time; and afterwards we asked him to stick around while we taught an investigator called A. A has a lot of family problems and wants to change his life, but I don't think he really wants to change himself. Plus, he's pretty certain, like most Hong Kong people, that money is the most important thing in life. Here Brother S performed brilliantly - he was clear and direct in explaining that before he started investigating the church, he also thought that money was most important, but now he understands that his family is the most important in his life. It was wonderful to hear his testimony again.
We're a little concerned about one thing with him, though - on Sunday he came to church in a white short sleeve shirt and tie, instead of the blue shirt without a tie he had been wearing. He wore exactly the same thing when we saw him on Tuesday. Elder Bagley and I are a little worried that because he's only ever seen members of the church in Sunday best, save a few instances when he's come to ward activities, and because he always meets with us - and of course, we always wear a shirt and tie, he may perhaps think that members of the church always have to wear a shirt and tie. We'll make sure to straighten this up when we see him on Sunday.
So Beth left without the Chinchillas? I'm sure Tim is thrilled, even if Jess isn't. The house does still sound awfully full, I'm not sure if there will be a place for me when I get back. I'm fine in a tent in the back garden if necessary. Let me tell you about the dream I had last night; it was rather strange. I dreamt that I was home from my mission, having finished (honourably, I might add - I don't have worthiness nightmares like Mum). I got home, and Mum said, "Well, you'd better get to work. Your room's still in a mess just like you left it two years ago." Sure enough, I was back in my old room, and it was a pigsty. I guess I shouldn't have worried; I don't have a bedroom. I have the space under the stairs, just like Harry Potter.
Give my love to Grandma and also to Auntie Katie. I'm sure everything will be fine for both of them. Also, whether or not you go to Uncle James' and Olivia's birthday party, please tell them happy birthday from me and send my love.
Isn't it amazing that we can send love via the internet these days? Back in olden times people had to use hugging or, if far away, letters on boats. Back when President Van Dam was a missionary, he's told me, the only way to get from Hong Kong island to the Mainland was by a big ferry called the Star Ferry. I mention this because yesterday, as we had some business back on the Island (in my old area, I might add) we took the ferry on the way home. It was Elder Bagley's first time, so I took a picture of him. The white guy in front of us asked if I could take his picture too, which I did. He told us he'd seen the missionaries before, back in his home town of... Reading! Isn't it a small world! He lives in Caversham, actually, right opposite the Monitoring Station where Dad works.
I think that John Willis would be an amazing missionary in Nauvoo. I had known that senior missionaries are allowed to choose where they serve to a degree, but it seems from all of the senior couples I've seen here that it was as much of a surprise for them as it was for us, the young missionaries. Mum and Dad, have you two ever thought about serving a mission once everyone's out of the house? Granted that's a long way away right now. One of the Elders in Elder Bagley's group was in the MTC at the same time as his parents - apparently their departure date was about 6 weeks before his, so they contacted the MTC and he came out earlier than he was planning, because otherwise there wouldn't have been anyone else in his house for the last few months at home!
Last Friday, Brother F, our summer missionary, was supposed to go home. Too bad for him that there was a level 9 typhoon; the worst since 1999. He had to stay in the apartment with us all day, and he was very bored. I was too; most of the time it didn't even look bad outside, so I got rather frustrated that we weren't allowed to leave. After having updated all of our records, we cleaned the entire apartment, and then played a board game that I had made up for a District Meeting a few weeks ago. You take your investigator to baptism, resolving concerns and sharing scriptures to help his situation as you go. Everybody seemed to like it in District Meeting, so we had it stored for an emergency in case of typhoon, and it turns out it came in handy after all.
Finally, on Saturday we took Brother F to the Mission Home. President Van Dam was there, and as we looked at the Missionary board he has in his office, he explained what various things on it meant. It's a big board of our pictures and names, and are printed on three colours of cardboard - yellow, blue and green. He explained that yellow is for the oldest missionaries, green is the missionaries in the middle and blue is the new missionaries. It worried me that there were so few yellow missionaries left, and mine was one of the first groups displayed in green. Perhaps reading my mind, President Van Dam, sitting next to me, clapped his hand on my shoulder and said, "You're getting to be an old missionary now!"
"That doesn't make me feel very good," I said in return.
Time's almost up, so I'll be going. Keep up the good work, and I'm hoping for university stuff to be finished before school starts again, because there's no way you'll have time once you're back at school.
Lots of love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Yes, Brother S's baptism went without a hitch. It was a very different experience for me than K's. At K's, with the dozen or so friends he brought to church, I found myself trying desperately to keep everything from collapsing into chaos, and it was a rather stressful experience. With Brother S, we arrived to see him already dressed in white and ready to go; the Ward Mission Leader, Brother C, had already got everything sorted. I didn't have to wait for a companion to change, and everything else was sorted because two people were being baptized at once (Brother N of the Tai Wo ward, which also meets in our building, was baptized in the same service) so I didn't need to worry about giving a talk or anything. I was able to sit back and enjoy the service, which went without a hitch.
Brother S had requested an opportunity to bear his testimony, and so he shared about the trials of his life before he met us - a gambling addiction, his family problems and various other things. Then he shared about how Elder Sharp and I had found him and helped him to overcome his trials. Most of all, he shared about how through the peace in his life that he has now, he knows that God lives and loves him, and wants to bless him, and he knows that this truly is God's true church. While it's clear to me that he hasn't yet had a confirming, huge spiritual experience, it is clear that the Holy Ghost has subtly whispered to him the truth of the Book of Mormon and the message of the Restoration.
We met with him again on Tuesday and shared a little about Family History work, because I want to give him something really productive to do with all of his free time; and afterwards we asked him to stick around while we taught an investigator called A. A has a lot of family problems and wants to change his life, but I don't think he really wants to change himself. Plus, he's pretty certain, like most Hong Kong people, that money is the most important thing in life. Here Brother S performed brilliantly - he was clear and direct in explaining that before he started investigating the church, he also thought that money was most important, but now he understands that his family is the most important in his life. It was wonderful to hear his testimony again.
We're a little concerned about one thing with him, though - on Sunday he came to church in a white short sleeve shirt and tie, instead of the blue shirt without a tie he had been wearing. He wore exactly the same thing when we saw him on Tuesday. Elder Bagley and I are a little worried that because he's only ever seen members of the church in Sunday best, save a few instances when he's come to ward activities, and because he always meets with us - and of course, we always wear a shirt and tie, he may perhaps think that members of the church always have to wear a shirt and tie. We'll make sure to straighten this up when we see him on Sunday.
So Beth left without the Chinchillas? I'm sure Tim is thrilled, even if Jess isn't. The house does still sound awfully full, I'm not sure if there will be a place for me when I get back. I'm fine in a tent in the back garden if necessary. Let me tell you about the dream I had last night; it was rather strange. I dreamt that I was home from my mission, having finished (honourably, I might add - I don't have worthiness nightmares like Mum). I got home, and Mum said, "Well, you'd better get to work. Your room's still in a mess just like you left it two years ago." Sure enough, I was back in my old room, and it was a pigsty. I guess I shouldn't have worried; I don't have a bedroom. I have the space under the stairs, just like Harry Potter.
Give my love to Grandma and also to Auntie Katie. I'm sure everything will be fine for both of them. Also, whether or not you go to Uncle James' and Olivia's birthday party, please tell them happy birthday from me and send my love.
Isn't it amazing that we can send love via the internet these days? Back in olden times people had to use hugging or, if far away, letters on boats. Back when President Van Dam was a missionary, he's told me, the only way to get from Hong Kong island to the Mainland was by a big ferry called the Star Ferry. I mention this because yesterday, as we had some business back on the Island (in my old area, I might add) we took the ferry on the way home. It was Elder Bagley's first time, so I took a picture of him. The white guy in front of us asked if I could take his picture too, which I did. He told us he'd seen the missionaries before, back in his home town of... Reading! Isn't it a small world! He lives in Caversham, actually, right opposite the Monitoring Station where Dad works.
I think that John Willis would be an amazing missionary in Nauvoo. I had known that senior missionaries are allowed to choose where they serve to a degree, but it seems from all of the senior couples I've seen here that it was as much of a surprise for them as it was for us, the young missionaries. Mum and Dad, have you two ever thought about serving a mission once everyone's out of the house? Granted that's a long way away right now. One of the Elders in Elder Bagley's group was in the MTC at the same time as his parents - apparently their departure date was about 6 weeks before his, so they contacted the MTC and he came out earlier than he was planning, because otherwise there wouldn't have been anyone else in his house for the last few months at home!
Last Friday, Brother F, our summer missionary, was supposed to go home. Too bad for him that there was a level 9 typhoon; the worst since 1999. He had to stay in the apartment with us all day, and he was very bored. I was too; most of the time it didn't even look bad outside, so I got rather frustrated that we weren't allowed to leave. After having updated all of our records, we cleaned the entire apartment, and then played a board game that I had made up for a District Meeting a few weeks ago. You take your investigator to baptism, resolving concerns and sharing scriptures to help his situation as you go. Everybody seemed to like it in District Meeting, so we had it stored for an emergency in case of typhoon, and it turns out it came in handy after all.
Finally, on Saturday we took Brother F to the Mission Home. President Van Dam was there, and as we looked at the Missionary board he has in his office, he explained what various things on it meant. It's a big board of our pictures and names, and are printed on three colours of cardboard - yellow, blue and green. He explained that yellow is for the oldest missionaries, green is the missionaries in the middle and blue is the new missionaries. It worried me that there were so few yellow missionaries left, and mine was one of the first groups displayed in green. Perhaps reading my mind, President Van Dam, sitting next to me, clapped his hand on my shoulder and said, "You're getting to be an old missionary now!"
"That doesn't make me feel very good," I said in return.
Time's almost up, so I'll be going. Keep up the good work, and I'm hoping for university stuff to be finished before school starts again, because there's no way you'll have time once you're back at school.
Lots of love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Another Summer Missionary - 45th email from Hong Kong
Dear family,
Yes, the package from Grandma, complete with everything, has arrived safe and sound. And yes, I'm going to go glasses shopping later today. I've spent the past week with broken glasses, as both my pairs are well and truly worn out and in several pieces. One pair snapped in half (the nose bridge had been weakening for a long time) and the frame in the other pair is broken so that only one lense is in place. So it's been a fun week. Hopefully I should have a nice, new pair soon that'll last to the end of the mission.
Please tell Steve that I enjoyed his email he sent me, and that a reply is on the way via post, as I'm not allowed to email anyone else other that family members - if there's another instance of email misuse, President Van Dam is threatening to take away our email privileges.
Good job Dad on picking the cheaper option. There's no real need for an iPhone anyway; a very expensive piece of kit. After having spent a year away from any new electronic equiptment, I've realised just how unnessescary the latest gadget is. I'm going to do things a lot differently when I go home - one important rule I've set for myself is that I can only buy a new computer game when I finish an old one, to prevent me from just buying tonnes of games and never really playing them to the end. I've also seriously re-evaluated my plans for getting an expensive, shiny laptop for school when I get back - so long as it does what it needs to do, there's no point in spending extra.
The iPhone does look good, though. K's the webmaster for a group of kids who've made their own little company making applications for it. He's been test driving the iPod Touch this week, and showed us a little of the things you can do with it. Nice and all, but I think the little iPod Nano you sent me for Christmas does everything I need it to.
Well done on handling things well with Beth recently. I'm sure it's been an emotional experience for everyone. I guess the house is getting awfully empty, what with just you two, Tim, Jess, Biscuit, Robbie and the Ferrets there. Not to worry though - with house prices as they are, I'll be living at home until I'm 35! :P
Tell Beth Happy Birthday from me, and that I hope all goes well in her new flat.
I did happen to notice a chart of the best few countries for the Olympics in the newspaper of the man next to me on the train this morning. How fun for Britain to be doing so well. All of the Americans in the mission have been laughing about the success of their nation, and we've also been happy to see China doing very well. But right down the bottom of the chart I saw, it listed Hong Kong: 0 medals. Too bad Hong Kong, but it's kind of like having London vs the rest of the world in something; the odds are somewhat against this little Special Administrative Region.
So as I mentioned in the email subject, yes, we have another Summer Missionary. His name is A F, and he's from West Point, my old area. Hurray! It's been a really fun week. He works really hard, more so than any Summer Missionary I've seen so far, and he really knows his stuff. While a little shy, he puts it all aside and contacts people and teaches lessons very well. The other day we met a man who was terrified of Elder Bagley and I, so we stayed out of sight as Brother F ran after him and talked with him. He got his phone number and rescheduled him! But considering that he tried to run away from us "white ghosts", it wasn't all that surprising when he didn't turn up.
So Mr S's baptism is all set for this Sunday. He passed his interview with no problem, so he's ready. The best part is who we're getting to baptize him. We were talking with the Bishop last Thursday to organize it in Priesthood Executive Commitee, and he told us to ask him. If he wanted one of us missionaries to baptize him, fair enough, but if he didn't mind, the Bishop thought it'd be great if Kelvin could do it. So as Brother Sou didn't mind and Kelvin's willing, my recent convert is going to baptize me other recent convert. Yay!
Serving here in Tai Po really has been a wonderful experience for me. I've been able to see so many miracles, and helped people come unto Christ through baptism. The moves in over half way done, and as I've been here so long, there's a chance I may move - but because I'm training Elder Bagley, there's also a chance I'll stay here. I'm not really bothered either way; I'd kind of like to stay, I guess, but I'm also ready to move on if it's nessescary and what the Lord wants me to do. Tomorrow I'm heading back to West Point for a little while, though, because Elder Bagley has a doctor's appointment. Nothing to worry about, just something run of the mill, but it'll be a lot of fun to go back to my old area. We're going to take the famous Star Ferry, which is on a list that President and Sister Van Dam have given us of recommended things to do while on our missions here.
How's Tim doing? I haven't heard much about him in a while. Is he keeping up with his scripture reading? If so, tell him well done from me. If not, tell him give it another try. Same goes to Jess - tell her I say that reading the scriptures is essential to developing and maintaining a testimony. It's interesting how those so called "Primary answers" to questions asked in church (pray, read the scriptures, come to church) are so essential. As a missionary, I've seen that the only investigators who really progress are the ones who do these three things. The first time we met Mr S, we invited him back to the church right then and there (Elder Sharp and I both agreed afterwards that this was kind of strange as we were kind of far away from it, but it felt right as I said it) and when we got there, he wanted to know when the services are. It was decided the first time we met him that he was going to come to church, and honestly, it was also pretty much decided that he was going to get baptized. He'd made that choice before he even knew it was a choice. K was the same. He described it as an addiction to church; he just can't get enough. And both of them just loved the Book of Mormon. They soaked it up. When K was quitting tea, he said that the hardest times were when he'd just woken up in the morning, and so that was the time he'd read his scriptures. Brother Sou had nothing to do all day, and so out of boredom he'd turned to gambling. With the Book of Mormon, he had something to do every day. I remember the shock on the face of the first councillor in the Bishopric when we reported that Mr S had finished 2nd Nephi. "Woah - he made it through the Isaiah chapters," he said. And as for prayer, Mr Sou found it a struggle at first because it was not a way of praying he was used to - his only knowledge of prayer was the ancestor worship everyone does here, reciting the same wish for a healthy life. As first he'd just pray very simply for help to quit gambling and have a happy family, but after attending church, he heard the prayers of faithful members with strong testimonies, and began progressing and really started talking with Heavenly Father.
So pray, read the scriptures and come to church - the steps to a lasting testimony. It's amazing how simple the Gospel is; God doesn't ask for much, so it's not really all that hard to do it.
So Tim, Jess, read those scriptures. You too, Mum and Dad.
Lots of love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Yes, the package from Grandma, complete with everything, has arrived safe and sound. And yes, I'm going to go glasses shopping later today. I've spent the past week with broken glasses, as both my pairs are well and truly worn out and in several pieces. One pair snapped in half (the nose bridge had been weakening for a long time) and the frame in the other pair is broken so that only one lense is in place. So it's been a fun week. Hopefully I should have a nice, new pair soon that'll last to the end of the mission.
Please tell Steve that I enjoyed his email he sent me, and that a reply is on the way via post, as I'm not allowed to email anyone else other that family members - if there's another instance of email misuse, President Van Dam is threatening to take away our email privileges.
Good job Dad on picking the cheaper option. There's no real need for an iPhone anyway; a very expensive piece of kit. After having spent a year away from any new electronic equiptment, I've realised just how unnessescary the latest gadget is. I'm going to do things a lot differently when I go home - one important rule I've set for myself is that I can only buy a new computer game when I finish an old one, to prevent me from just buying tonnes of games and never really playing them to the end. I've also seriously re-evaluated my plans for getting an expensive, shiny laptop for school when I get back - so long as it does what it needs to do, there's no point in spending extra.
The iPhone does look good, though. K's the webmaster for a group of kids who've made their own little company making applications for it. He's been test driving the iPod Touch this week, and showed us a little of the things you can do with it. Nice and all, but I think the little iPod Nano you sent me for Christmas does everything I need it to.
Well done on handling things well with Beth recently. I'm sure it's been an emotional experience for everyone. I guess the house is getting awfully empty, what with just you two, Tim, Jess, Biscuit, Robbie and the Ferrets there. Not to worry though - with house prices as they are, I'll be living at home until I'm 35! :P
Tell Beth Happy Birthday from me, and that I hope all goes well in her new flat.
I did happen to notice a chart of the best few countries for the Olympics in the newspaper of the man next to me on the train this morning. How fun for Britain to be doing so well. All of the Americans in the mission have been laughing about the success of their nation, and we've also been happy to see China doing very well. But right down the bottom of the chart I saw, it listed Hong Kong: 0 medals. Too bad Hong Kong, but it's kind of like having London vs the rest of the world in something; the odds are somewhat against this little Special Administrative Region.
So as I mentioned in the email subject, yes, we have another Summer Missionary. His name is A F, and he's from West Point, my old area. Hurray! It's been a really fun week. He works really hard, more so than any Summer Missionary I've seen so far, and he really knows his stuff. While a little shy, he puts it all aside and contacts people and teaches lessons very well. The other day we met a man who was terrified of Elder Bagley and I, so we stayed out of sight as Brother F ran after him and talked with him. He got his phone number and rescheduled him! But considering that he tried to run away from us "white ghosts", it wasn't all that surprising when he didn't turn up.
So Mr S's baptism is all set for this Sunday. He passed his interview with no problem, so he's ready. The best part is who we're getting to baptize him. We were talking with the Bishop last Thursday to organize it in Priesthood Executive Commitee, and he told us to ask him. If he wanted one of us missionaries to baptize him, fair enough, but if he didn't mind, the Bishop thought it'd be great if Kelvin could do it. So as Brother Sou didn't mind and Kelvin's willing, my recent convert is going to baptize me other recent convert. Yay!
Serving here in Tai Po really has been a wonderful experience for me. I've been able to see so many miracles, and helped people come unto Christ through baptism. The moves in over half way done, and as I've been here so long, there's a chance I may move - but because I'm training Elder Bagley, there's also a chance I'll stay here. I'm not really bothered either way; I'd kind of like to stay, I guess, but I'm also ready to move on if it's nessescary and what the Lord wants me to do. Tomorrow I'm heading back to West Point for a little while, though, because Elder Bagley has a doctor's appointment. Nothing to worry about, just something run of the mill, but it'll be a lot of fun to go back to my old area. We're going to take the famous Star Ferry, which is on a list that President and Sister Van Dam have given us of recommended things to do while on our missions here.
How's Tim doing? I haven't heard much about him in a while. Is he keeping up with his scripture reading? If so, tell him well done from me. If not, tell him give it another try. Same goes to Jess - tell her I say that reading the scriptures is essential to developing and maintaining a testimony. It's interesting how those so called "Primary answers" to questions asked in church (pray, read the scriptures, come to church) are so essential. As a missionary, I've seen that the only investigators who really progress are the ones who do these three things. The first time we met Mr S, we invited him back to the church right then and there (Elder Sharp and I both agreed afterwards that this was kind of strange as we were kind of far away from it, but it felt right as I said it) and when we got there, he wanted to know when the services are. It was decided the first time we met him that he was going to come to church, and honestly, it was also pretty much decided that he was going to get baptized. He'd made that choice before he even knew it was a choice. K was the same. He described it as an addiction to church; he just can't get enough. And both of them just loved the Book of Mormon. They soaked it up. When K was quitting tea, he said that the hardest times were when he'd just woken up in the morning, and so that was the time he'd read his scriptures. Brother Sou had nothing to do all day, and so out of boredom he'd turned to gambling. With the Book of Mormon, he had something to do every day. I remember the shock on the face of the first councillor in the Bishopric when we reported that Mr S had finished 2nd Nephi. "Woah - he made it through the Isaiah chapters," he said. And as for prayer, Mr Sou found it a struggle at first because it was not a way of praying he was used to - his only knowledge of prayer was the ancestor worship everyone does here, reciting the same wish for a healthy life. As first he'd just pray very simply for help to quit gambling and have a happy family, but after attending church, he heard the prayers of faithful members with strong testimonies, and began progressing and really started talking with Heavenly Father.
So pray, read the scriptures and come to church - the steps to a lasting testimony. It's amazing how simple the Gospel is; God doesn't ask for much, so it's not really all that hard to do it.
So Tim, Jess, read those scriptures. You too, Mum and Dad.
Lots of love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
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