Yet more fun from Hong Kong - 31st email from Hong Kong

Dear all,

In relation to Americans and the Chinese attitude over here at the moment, let me tell a little story about a man we bumped into last Sunday.

We were talking away, and he wanted to know where we were from - a lot of people wonder this, as it's not particularly normal for two white people (or gwaai louhs, as they call us, which means "white ghost") to speak Cantonese. Generally when I tell people I'm from England, it's met with something between interest and excitement, as England is a rather popular country here - everyone wears Union Flag T-Shirts and and just loves absorbing our culture. I guess it's something to do with the fact that it's had so much of our culture for so long. A real Englishman who is polite and speaks the language is a treat.

So I tell this man I'm from England, and he's rather excited. Then Elder Sharp tells him he's from America. He gets rather scared and tries to run away. We stop him before he gets too far, and ask him what the matter is. He asks Elder Sharp, "Did you know your country's evil?" It was rather hard to convince him otherwise, but we eventually managed to explain that every country has good and bad people. Then he starts asking about "King George Bush" and his problems. I think that his biggest problem is that he watches too much TV, and believes the media in their every little sway of opinion.

Our dear golden Mainland investigator has met with us twice this week already, each time for two or so hours, and last night committed himself to baptism. We gave him a Chinese Preach My Gospel and asked him to read through the baptismal interview questions. It was like a checklist - "Do you believe God is our Heavenly Father?" "Believe!" "Do you believe Joseph Smith Restored God's true church?" "Believe!" His only problems with the questions were he wasn't sure what it meant when it said "Do you believe that [current Church President] is a prophet of God?" and we quickly explained that this is talking about Thomas S Monson. Then he hadn't heard of Tithing yet, so we explained it to him, and he asked how to pay it. The rule is actually that Mainlanders can't pay Tithing so as not to give the government the wrong idea, but some Mainland Saints save up their Tithing, anticipating the time that they can pay it. This satisfied him.

We have basically taught him everything, and he reads any and all literature we give him avidly. His largest concerns are not being able to buy food on a Sunday, not drinking tea, and wanting to preach the Gospel in the Mainland. So, basically, no real problems, because we've explained obeying and sustaining the law, so he understands he just has to wait for now, and will keep the other commandments anyway because he has the faith to change.

Basically, it's he's a real miracle.

I did actually see a poster up on a wall for Iron Man, and it suddenly reminded me that the world hasn't stopped spinning. I remember reading on the internet about that film and seeing concept designs for Iron Man, so it's interesting to see how things move more quickly than I expect - I saw a box of cereal with a free Indiana Jones 4 toy inside last week! It's also been getting harder to avoid the final Harry Potter; all the new missionaries have either read it or know the ending, and the Chinese translation is really catching on; I've seen a lot around. Maybe I'll buy it before I come home and read it in Chinese!

As the weather is in the process of heating up, I can categorically say that I do not need a sweatshirt. Right now, as we're still in Spring, it's unbearably hot one day and rainy the next (I prefer the rain) but soon temperatures are going to heat up somewhat more, and at that point I think I may melt.

Today we all went to play football as a Zone. I surprised myself by not being a complete waste of space, but the T-shirt I've been wearing for exercise is just too thick and I got so hot and sweaty that I ran out of steam after about 15 minutes! I'm thinking I'll buy a football shirt, which will, with its light material, be much better for exercise - conveniently, everyone in Hong Kong loves English football, so I even have my choice of English teams. Other missionaries tend to buy the shirts mostly based on what looks funky or if it's Manchester Utd, the only team they've heard of, but I'm planning on buying Reading, as I can tell people it's my home team.

I think that's the only time in my life I've spent an entire paragraph of writing talking about football. This mission is doing strange things to my brain - I'd better balance it out with something spiritual.

As I come closer to my year mark out here, I can't help but look back and see how things have changed so much so quickly. This time last year I had barely got my call and was thrilled to be going to Hong Kong, but was still trying to enjoy a little last bit of my life as it was - around about this time, Chris, Tom and I were spending time at sleepovers playing Mario and Star Wars games and getting ready to leave. The weekend before I came out on my mission Tim and I were running off with Tom and Jacob to that Star Wars convention - I think my priorities were lacking a lot of clarity.

Now, I feel I'm a lot more oriented in the right direction. I've seen first hand the damaging effects of playing computer games all day (for example, I'm currently emailing from a very rowdy Games Cafe, and there are kids all around who've been here all day and aren't leaving any time soon) and I've seen the healing effects of the Gospel upon the lives of people like our miracle Mainland Investigator, and many other people who need this message. I feel that next year, when I return home, I'll be more ready than ever to make the important decisions in my life, based on the principles of the Gospel. I've grown so much in just one year, and the journey's not over yet.

Love you all,

Elder Matthew Loffhagen

羅 長 老