Dear Mum (and Dad when you get home from YM camp),
Yes, I decided to be sneaky and let President Van Dam tell you that I was training. I'm wondering if he also let you know that I'm now a District Leader?
It has, therefore, been a rather busy week. I immediately discovered that being District Leader means a lot less time in the evenings; I get a far larger number of phone calls over various things that need organizing. Plus, yesterday I went to the Temple for a DL/ZL meeting, where I felt rather out of place and like I didn't belong, as I came to grips with the idea of being a mission leader. I felt like I was still a new little missionary, in a meeting full of the actual mission leaders - except a substantial number of the Elders in the room were also from my MTC group. I guess I'm just going to have to get used to the responsibility.
It sounds like the ferrets are a lot of fun. Do they spend their time in a cage, or just run around the house all day every day? I assume they work out like Bubbles, except they have more fun on their trips outside because they can play with each other and they're not quite so afraid of every single human being.
Post certainly has slowed down a lot recently. I guess I'm in the big middle period of a mission where I'm too far out of sight and mind. Perhaps it'll pick up again in another six months when I'm on the home stretch. Some important news regarding packages - Grandma's package arrived last week, sans money. Just two shirts - it looks like someone cut it open and then taped it back together. Unfortunate, but it was still nice to get the two shirts.
You can tell Steve that I miss him too, and am sorry for never writing after Christmas to thank him for the last present. I shall try and write him today, but I have various others to write to - Grandma and Grandad, and another Elder who sent me an unsual postcard this week. It was one of the Elders in our Zone in the MTC, who went somewhere in America, English speaking. A lot of groups cycled through every 3 weeks while we were there, and so many of them blur into one, but I do remember this Elder. He seemed like he needed a helping hand and someone to talk to, so we'd talk together while we used the exercise bikes in the gym. I guess he remembered me enough to drop me a line, so I'd better be courteous and do the same.
It's very strange to think that the MTC was a full year ago now. Being a leader and remembering my experience when I first arrived in the mission as I've chatted with Elder Bagley makes me feel very old.
All in all, the Summer holidays sound like they're going well for you all. I think one of the nice things about Hong Kong is that you don't even notice the typical seasons and holidays that you're missing out on - even now that schools have broken up, we still see kids in uniforms all the time, as when they have an activity at school, they still wear their uniforms to it. I still think that, even though I've been in Hong Kong for almost a year, I've still not experienced all of the culture. I don't think anyone could as a missionary, as there are so many things we just don't do, like watch TV, films, play computer games, read comics - all things I used to really enjoy that are so very much a part of the HK experience. But it is very nice to just relax and not worry about such things.
Well, the Mission Olympics are on the way, and everyone's getting excited. We've all signed up for our events now - I decided to take a different approach to the way I used to view sports days at school and church. I've signed up for a lot of things, and figure I'll just give it a go. I don't need to win, but I'll just run as fast as I can and hope I don't come last. Even if I come last, no big deal really.
So I've signed up for the 100m sprint, football, darts and various other things. Not sure how many I'll actually participate in, because the Zone Leaders have to balance out what everyone wants to do with how many people can compete in every event. It should be a fun day though, so I'm looking forward to it.
Elder Bagley is a little downhearted right now. He's a really big football fan. He even went to Manchester for a month to some kind of football camp. He's a little down at the moment because he'd been looking forward to playing football with the Zone all week, and when we got there this morning, there was nobody there except for a group of little kids having some kind of lesson.
He is a really amazing companion, though - I know that the adjustment to Hong Kong is a little tough for him, but he just works so hard. I've been inclined to throw him in the deep end rather often, like leaving him on his own to make phone calls on Sunday night when I had to collaborate and collect numbers from the other companionships in the District. Then on Tuesday, we needed to teach two investigators at once, so we went on exchanges and he taught a lesson three for the first time, alone except for K, who was his companion for the exchange. He did amazingly well, though, and when I came in towards the end of the lesson, he was doing amazing as he taught the principle of Enduring to the End. He gave a great commitment for baptism, and so now as a result we have three investigators with baptismal dates. It's a good number as the Mission Focus for this Moves is on preparing people for baptism and confirmation, but all the dates are for some time in the future, so I'm not sure if I'll actually be here or not.
That reminds me - one last thing. At the DL/ZL meeting, the Zone Leaders all reported on the number of baptisms in their Zones that Moves. I was amazed to learn how many people got baptized this moves - it was a lot. Somewhere between 30 and 40 in total, probably. I remember when I was back in my first Moves, Elder Alspaugh was complaining that this was a low baptizing mission, and I told him that it was amazingly high, from what I'd heard so far. I think it comes down to the fact that you choose your own mission experience, whether you choose to see miracles every day, or you choose to be downtrodden and discouraged.
Anyway, time's almost up. I love you all lots and lots.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
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