Dear family,
A quick word about elderloffhagen.com, my blog - last Mission Social, one of the Elders in the group below me asked me if I had a blog - apparently someone he knows had Googled China Hong Kong Mission, and my blog popped up. Thank you for the good work in keeping it running :D
So now, I'll bet you're wondering what the "Ten Thousand Buddhas" are. Basically, we just got back from Zone Activity. Elder Ng and Elder Lewis (the Zone Leaders) got permission for us to leave our area, and so we went to a huge Buddhist temple, which has, literally, ten thousand statues of Buddhist monks - probably far more that ten thousand, actually. There were huge statues, completely lifesize, there were tiny little statues that fit in the palm of your hand, and there was a giant statue of a Buddha astride a giant blue dog. All were painted with gold, and all were individual and unique. It looked simply amazing.
The most fun thing about the area was the cheeky monkeys who live nearby. Probably the biggest religion in Hong Kong is Ancestor Worship, and you offer your ancestors' golden idols food and burn incense to them. One woman was there offering up some fruit, and as she prayed, burning the incense a few meters away, her eyes closed, one of the sneaky little monkeys snuck up and started stealing the food off the alter! One of the women working there rushed up and shooed it off, but it made off with a fair amount; some fruit and a few packets of crisps.
Winter is officially over in Hong Kong - it lasted all of three days. New Year's Eve, New Year's Day and the next day were chilly enough to warrant wearing long sleeve shirts or possibly even a jumper - now I'm back to wearing short sleeve shirts. The weather is wonderfully cool this time of year; not too hot, not too cold, and as that was winter, I'm afraid of summer. I've been told that missionaries of old have just been sitting at their desks, sweating buckets from all the heat. Something to look forward to, then.
I had interviews with President Van Dam last Friday, and then did indeed pick up my package from Brother Davanzo - you must thank him for it from me. When I saw just how much it cost to send it, I was very grateful indeed. Thank him profusely for it.
Is Oliver Jest's mission call English speaking or French speaking? Or possibly Chinese, as there are Canadian Chinese missionaries. I meet a LOT of "CBC"s here (Canadian Born Chinese, which just doesn't have the same ring to it as BBCs), and so they also have both Mandarin and Cantonese elders there.
I would indeed like Joff's address; it'd be really nice to write to him. I can imagine that it's a lot harder for him in Afghanistan than it ever could be for me here. Nobody has nor will ever be shooting at me, and I certainly will never have to worry about shooting back. Hong Kong's a really very safe place; possibly because the most contentious and scary group of people around are all the Americans in white shirts who wear little black nametags... :P
I got an email from Elder Nathaniel Farley just now - he seems to be enjoying the beginning of his fun new mission experience. Apparently he met Chris and seemed pretty in awe of him. It's what we new missionaries do - be in awe of other people. When I first got here, everyone seemed so mature and grown up and amazing. Now I realize that Elder Chan, the new English Elder, who is only a few moves younger than me, is pretty in awe of our group of missionaries. It seems weird because they entered the MTC barely a week after we left it, so I'm barely older than him. There are only 2 Elders who are two moves older than me, and then nobody much older for a long time after that, so nobody of that age for me to think impressive back when I'd just entered the mission. The mission is basically going to phase out almost entirely in March/April, with a very large number of Elders going home all around the same time, and we'll get loads more new Elders in. And I'll be supposed to know what I'm doing. Eep. Guess I'd better get cracking with the language, then...
I'm pretty much at the level where I can pass of the second lesson now; the only thing I've been told I'm specifically doing wrong is making too many short, sharp movements that distract from my teaching - in order to pass off lessons, we have to not only demonstrate a good grasp of the language, but also of teaching skills. After that, the third lesson is fairly straightforward, so I've set myself the goal of passing off both lessons before the eld of the moves - the second week in February. I need to be passed off completely by March, so that I can at least aid in taking up the slack left by all of the departing Elders. That will be pretty tricky...But with the Lord's help, and through continuing to pray for the Gift of Tongues (thank you, Dad!:D) I know I can make it. I just have to hope my diligence holds out a little longer...
Anyway, time is almost expired. I love you lots, and pray for you all.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
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