18th email from Hong Kong

Dear Family,

Yes, the news of President Hinkley's death reached me quickly. We received a call from the Zone Leaders on Monday morning, and honestly I was in shock. I didn't believe it at first. Somehow I didn't think President Hinkley would ever die. He's been prophet now since before I was baptised, and I was really sad to hear of his death. It was such a surprise, too - when President Faust died, it was somewhat more expected - he looked very much at death age. But even just this past December in the Christmas message, I'd thought how alive President Hinkley looked.

His passing has given me great sadness. I love him like a kind of grandfather. But I know he's now united with old friends and family on the other side of the veil, and is still working hard in his new mission in the Spirit World.

It marks and end of an era, and the beginning of a new one. I will finish my mission with a new prophet leading the church, just one of many things that will have changed since when I went.

Besides, perhaps President Monson will tour the world, meeting with bodies of saints - and Hong Kong being the center of the South East Area, he'll have to stop in for a mission conference!

Good to hear that Aaron's got his papers in at last, and that Jak's getting his in at about the expected time. With calls to Figi, Manchester, Canada, China, Africa and Germany in the past few years, who knows where they'll go?

Chinese New Year is BIG. Christmas was a happy little affair, but this is their Christmas. There are decorations everywhere, along with mountains of food and sweets in the shops, ready to be bought. Apparently, Hong Kong - and, I guess, China itself - will pretty much shut down for the week of New Year. Because of this, we'll be having a mission activity; a day out on a trip to a giant Buddha statue on Lantau Island (it's called Big Buddha if you want to Google it) and we'll basically have the most unproductive week of the year for missionary work.

The interesting thing is that for New Year's, instead of giving presents, you give people money in little red envelopes. The married couples give it to the single people, and the more they like you, the more they give you. Missionaries will also receive (yay!) but it has to be used to buy something for the ward (oh). Also, the native Hong Kong missionaries, who must have the most frustrating mission call in the world, as they are called from their home mission to their home mission, and so never even really leave home, go home for 4 hours on New Years with their companions. Very unusual.

The government here, as far as I have seen, is run entirely by Hong Kong people. There are regular elections for local government, and they are all Chinese people.

I wonder if I have shared with you some of my thoughts considering what to do after my mission. A plan I am currently considering is of learning Mandarin at university, and then going to Mainland China to teach English to them there for a few years - then I shall return, and get a job teaching Mandarin in an English school, because by that point, Britain will have realised that it needs to teach Mandarin as well as French, German, and whatever other languages they teach in schools these days.

Because Hong Kong is such a multicultural place, the Hong Kong Temple has regular sessions in all sorts of languages - after all, it serves all of China, Mongolia, Singapore, the Philippines, and various other places. The missionaries always go to the English sessions, even if an Elder is a Hong Kong native and doesn't speak English - an Elder in my first District, Elder Chan, is one such - he's from Macau, where they speak more Portuguese than English - but that doesn't matter, because he only spoke Cantonese - and he watches sessions wearing a headset that translates into Cantonese. There are actually quite a few people in every session who have to wear the headsets - older people who I assume don't worry about waiting for a session in Cantonese.

Okay, my time is up. I love you all and miss you. :D

Elder Matthew Loffhagen

羅 長 老