Storms are rumbling here too - 43rd email from Hong Kong

Dear all,

Yesterday, Hong Kong got a little battered by an annoyingly slow moving storm which refused to clear up for the entire day. When the storms are bad enough here, we're not allowed to go outside or leave the flat. This was particularly frustrating when the rain almost completely stopped, but as the storm was still nearby (although it had passed) and as such, we still were not allowed to leave.

Finally, President Van Dam decided that although the weather station had not given the all-clear, it was calm enough to let everyone leave. We rushed with all our might to the Temple, because yesterday morning we were supposed to have the Trainer-Trainee meeting, where everyone gathers together for a while for a little MTC reunion of sorts. As we waited ever impatiently for the storm to pass, the starting time of the meeting slowly changed from 8:30am to 6:30pm. Finally, 10 hours late, the meeting began and was a fun time together.

I've had a wonderful experience teaching Brother S this week. On Sunday, he brought his wife to church, and she is a simply wonderful woman who both Elder Bagley and I mistook for a member at first. Then on Tuesday, we had a ward Family Home Evening, with a lot of ward members there, and Brother S unexpectedly turned up (we had thought he was going to be at work) with his wife and teenage daughter. The ward YW did an excellent job of making friends with his daughter, and several members of the Relief Society happily fellowshipped his wife as well. I feel very good about the whole family.

When we taught Brother S this week, he came in very excited and shared a few scriptures with us that had meant a lot to him in his reading this week. He'd really liked the story of Enos, and had marked a few verses, which he offered to us to read, the same way we offer him scriptures to read when we teach. We, of course, have him read every scripture because he actually CAN read in Chinese, and while I struggled through the verse he gave me to read, when he offered the book to Elder Bagley to read the next verse, he stood no chance at reading it! Brother Sou has a really strong testimony of the power of prayer now, as thanks to Elder Bagley, we gave him several options to overcome his problem with the Sabbath day, and let him pray about which one was best for him. Because he works as a night-time security guard and can only have one day off, he always works part of Sunday. He told us that he had decided to keep his work schedule as it was - having Saturday night/Sunday morning off, but he begins his Sabbath at 7pm Saturday night. He seemed to really be thrilled at this, and also the answer to his other prayer. He told us that before we'd moved up his baptismal date, he'd been praying that he could get baptized sooner. Hearing this really confirmed to me the truth that we are indeed guided by the Spirit in our decisions.

Please say hi to Thomas for me. When is the family emigrating? I sent him a postcard a while ago, but wasn't sure if it got to him. I also have some comics I want to send him which I may burn to CD and post to him, so that he can put them up on my website. They're ones I never got around to posting online before.

Anyway, time's up. Love you all - see you later!

Elder Matthew Loffhagen

羅 長 老