Just about everything has changed - 24th email from Hong Kong

Dear Mum and Dad,

Yeah - just about everything has changed. New area, new companion, all amazing.

First things first - last Sunday was the Why I Believe Fireside, which comes every moves and is an opportunity for departing missionaries to bear their testimonies. Elder Ng's parents were there, so I got the iPod from them with no worries. Thank you so much for it, it is really amazing. You did a great job of loading it full of music.

Second things second - my pass-off that I was supposed to have with Elder Ng was postponed due to time constraints, and he gave me a hard challenge (possibly because he wanted to slow me down as he didn't think I was ready) - writing down the entire pingyum Romanization for Finding Happiness, a five-minute DVD we show people. He gave me the challenge on Friday, telling me it might take a few weeks. I felt great delight in showing the completed thing to him on Sunday night.

Then Monday came, with moves calls. I was moved to a place called Tai Po, where I am currently writing from. It's just about the opposite of West Point, my last area, as it is very quiet and the lifestyle is a lot more laid back, so the people seem more friendly.

I also get a new companion - Elder Kwok. He has been on his mission now for only 12 weeks; he is a CBC (Canadian Born Chinese) and so already speaks Chinese fairly well, so he had only half the time in the MTC. I am his second companion in the field - and also senior companion. Interesting - especially as his Chinese is a lot better than mine. But we've talked a little bit and he's told me that his trainer taught him to always rely on his senior companion as the leader of the companionship, so he's willing to trust me and follow my lead. I, in turn, told him that we were going to be working together as a team, and that neither of us is any more important than the other. Things should go well this moves.

A little while after the telephone call for moves calls came, Elder Ng phoned up to schedule my pass-off; which was unexpected as I'd figured I would have to push him to give me one; but I guess that even if he figured I wasn't ready, he decided that as senior companion, I'd need to pass-off, so he phoned to schedule it. I had it on Wednesday - yesterday. I sat down and taught an amazing lesson, and he was really impressed - I taught about the Priesthood, about Missionary work and about fasting, and we stopped to evaluate between each principle. He told me afterwards that if I'd only taught the first principle; Priesthood, he'd have passed me off. But he my commitments were not strong enough, so even though he really wanted to pass me off, he felt I needed to improve my commitments and then teach one again with one of my new Zone Leaders.

Well after thinking about it for a while, I decided that I was still going to accomplish my goal, one way or the other. So I tried to schedual a pass-off for today at the Temple with one of my new Zone Leaders, but both were busy at the time.

So I phoned up Elder Alspaugh, who is currently a Zone Leader in another zone. He was absolutely giddy at the prospect of passing off his trainee, and we schedualed it.

Then came the hiccup that made me decide it was best to postpone - we got to the Temple a little late after having dragged huge bags around half of Hong Kong. By the time Elder Alspaugh was ready to pass me off, it was 9:00; the time I'd arranged to meet Elder Kwok. I figured it wouldn't be right to miss my meeting with him, so proposed that we wait to see whether or not Elder Kwok would be okay with me taking an extra hour at the temple.

Then Elder Kwok was late too. By the time I'd finally met up with him, he was fine with me taking time for the pass-off, but I couldn't find Elder Alspaugh, who needed to leave with his new Zone Leader companion. Plus, Elder Kwok and I needed to get home quickly so that we could help two new Elders who are in my District this moves. I acknowledged that if I were to press doing my pass-off right then and there, I would inconvenience another seven missionaries doing so - at least. I decided that the ends didn't justify my means, so we left and came to my new area. But I now intend to pass-off within the next week - before I email you again, I will have passed off. It's really just a formality anyway; I know I'm good enough. I even bought 1000 character cards in the Mission Home for use next week once I pass-off.

So please pray for me this next week, that I will succeed in my final pass-off.

And now for something completely different - there is a guy back in West Point called Andy, who we've been meeting with, who is really amazing. He's twenty, comes to English class every week, and came to church one week - he is interested in learning about the church, but has a load of exams for school, so doesn't want really to do so until May. In the meantime, we've been sharing things every week after English class, just a little here and a little there. He's ridiculously cool - and was really sad to hear that I was leaving. He was telling me yesterday that he's thinking about a trip to England some time soon, and I suggested that he could stay with you - he was interested, but was insistent on paying money if he did so. Sorry for volunteering the house, but I didn't think it'd be too much of a problem (plus it'd give him a chance to see the Gospel in action in the home). I did get his email address and can give it to...next week. I forgot it this week. But even if you can't help him with a place to stay, you can at least email him and chat with him about things. He has my gmail address, so he may write to you through that, and if he does, please write him back! :D

The speakers Elder Walgren sold me aren't that great - they're more for on-the-go use rather than sitting at a desk. They don't have a plug for the wall, but are simply battery operated. I'm going to look into buying one of the speaker/dock charger things for the iPod instead, but it may be a bit trickier to find one in my new area, which has far less electronics stores - well, far less of everything.

Tai Po is basically empty compared to West Point. In some ways, the hustle and bustle will be missed, but in other ways, it'll be a nice change. I'm looking forward to sleeping at night without hearing loads of cars speeding past all day every day - and all night for that matter - and (although it may just be green grass syndrome) the people here seem to be a lot less busy, and a lot more friendly and willing to talk.

So as I mentioned, there are two new trainee missionaries in my apartment. One is in my area and the other is in the neighbouring area - the apartment is actually in their area and we have to take a bus to get to our area. There are six of us all in one apartment; but it's far bigger than my last apartment, so it should be no problem. I have currently organised my desk perfectly and neatly. We'll see how long that lasts for! The biggest hassle for keeping it tidy is all of my post - particularly, I hate to say it, all of the DearElders you've sent. While I don't want them to stop coming (certainly not!), would you be offended if I threw some of the old ones away, for organization purposes? :)

Anyway, time's almost up. I love you all. Keep fighting the good fight, and pray for me in my pass off this coming week.

Love,

Elder Matthew Loffhagen

羅 長 老