Dear Family,
I got a very good night's sleep last night, so I'm very awake right now. Normally I have the Air Conditioner blowing in my face all night, but last night it was turned down significantly, so I was very comfortable.
This week has been a very interesting one. We've had another typhoon, Mission Conference, and many other fun things. Plus today is Temple day.
So last Monday, as we came home, we saw a sign on our apartment building's door that told us that there was a level one typhoon warning. I'm not sure whether or not I've explained the warning system, but with a level one warning, it means the storm is still a way off. We're allowed to proselyte as usual. When it gets to level three, as it was the next day, we're not allowed to go further than 15 minutes from home (unless President Van Dam gives the go ahead). So on Tuesday we had to cancel our meeting with J because he lives quite a way away. That night, it kicked up to a level eight. Very frustrating. I very much dislike being trapped inside, as a level eight means not being able to leave the house. It was particularly frustrating because we were supposed to have Mission Conference the next day.
President Van Dam told us he was also very worried about Mission Conference - that he was up in the early hours of the morning checking the weather, when it finally calmed down to a level three. So the next morning everyone was phoned, being told that we were to ignore the weather warning and come to the conference anyway.
Conference was a lot of fun. We all learned and laughed together. President Van Dam and the office staff have come up with a new referral scheme with coloured balls - every ward now has a plastic jar. When a member gives the missionaries a referral, they get to put a ball in the jar. The idea is to give the ward members a physical encouragement to share the gospel.
After being taught about a lot of different things, I left Conference with the feeling that although I've been working hard recently, I haven't been working smart. I'm falling into the same pitfalls I saw older missionaries in when I was new in the mission; just finding all the time and not working with the ward enough. So I need to do better and change.
Don't worry too much about what I do or where I live when I get home; I can guarantee that when I come home, I will be happy to live at home a little longer before moving on. Truth be told, without being trunky or homesick, I really miss Berkshire. I miss Princess Square, Bentalls and WHSmiths. I miss Reading, Broad Street Mall, the Oracle, the cinema. I miss the church buildings.
I don't miss Slough very much though.
Honestly, while Hong Kong is a big adventure and a lot of fun, I know where my home is. So don't get me wrong - I'm not homesick by any stretch of the imagination, but when I come home, I will be happy to just enjoy myself there for a while. Such thoughts, by the way, have left me somewhat less interested in BYU than I was before.
I'm not in need of anything special for Christmas - money in the ISA would do me a lot better. The last thing I need is more random stuff to fill up my suitcases. I'll leave it to you to think up things.
Anyway, I've got to be off. Love you all lots and lots.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
Still very tired - 49th email from Hong Kong
Dear all,
Yesterday I decided to use a little extra study time to lie down a little - I'd already had over an hour of personal study, but due to some exchanges yesterday, Elder Clark hadn't yet. While he studied, I went into the bedroom to lie down...on the floor. We have bunkbeds, and the top bunk was just a little too high for me. I didn't have the strength.
So I'm still worn out from having worked very hard. I think I may have been pushing Elder Clark a little further than he can manage, but a second spent not doing what we're supposed to is a second wasted, in my opinion. Before I've taken regular breaks to rest for about 5 minutes every few hours, but not so far this moves. That's been putting strain on Elder Clark too. Perhaps I need to cool down a little. But the theme of the Moves is, after all, being a fireball missionary. We'll see.
Sorry, just thinking out loud (sort of) a little. In summary, this week has also been really good. We've seen a lot of miracles; a lot of prepared people finding us, rather than the other way around, and the first serious member referral of my mission.
A few days ago we were talking to a boy on the street who was kind of busy and needed to go somewhere. As I wrote out a flyer to give to him, writing down our name and phone number, a woman came up and asked if she could have a flyer too. We turned our attention to her and invited her to church, telling her that the Sister Missionaries would love to meet with her. She also asked how much a Bible would cost. I told her, "There's a Christian bookshop around the corner, but we have this book which we give away for free!" We then taught her about the Book of Mormon and scheduled her for church this Sunday. It is truly a miracle that we were in the right place at the right time to find such a prepared soul.
Then that night we were almost at home, with very little time to spare - we had to be home in five minutes. As we waited at the crossing opposite our high rise flat, a man was looking at us and smiling. We struck up a conversation, which wasn't hard as he really wanted to talk. He invited us up to his house right then. I explained that we really couldn't go right then, so he scheduled himself for Sunday at 9:30 at the church. We convinced him that 9:00 would be better as that is when the church meetings start. He obliged.
It's too bad that the road we were crossing was our area boundary. As he lives in the block of flats next to us, he lives just barely on the wrong side of the line. We're going to turn him over to the Tai Wo Elders, the other area in the District. This kind of thing happens a lot in Hong Kong, with such small area boundaries.
Hurray for Jessica - great job at camp! I hope this helping attitude transfers over to home as well; as she is the oldest at home now, she's going to need to take on those responsibilities.
Also hurray for Tim; actually figuring out how to get XBox Live running. I'm sure that he and Jacob will enjoy being able to play just as easily while on different continents. When the M's move, could you send me their new address? Just to be on the safe side, I won't write Tom a letter until he's safely on the other side of the world.
Some Elders in my MTC District were dreaming in Chinese while in the MTC. I was not one of them. I am still not one of them. My dreams are solidly in English, but I'm sure that if someone were to speak Chinese in one of my dreams, I'd probably understand them.
Yes, Tai Po does indeed have the Lam Tsuen river running through it. It stinks. A bunch of companies dump all of their chemical waste into it, so it's always a different colour and never smells very good. It is very beautiful though; but only when the water is a pleasant blue or green; never when it's brown. And certainly at night, it's stunning, with all of the shining lights reflected in the river. You'll get to see it when I next send some pictures home. I've been taking less photos, though, so I'm holding off until I have a bigger collection.
No, my English has not suffered because of Chinese. That was a simple mistake because my brain works 40 times faster than my fingers. There may be a lot of spelling mistakes today, as well, because for some reason today I can't type very accurately. I'll need more practice if I ever want to go back and do some more data entry work to get through university. In fact, the thing that is most detrimental to my English is all of the American missionaries around. Their grammar is usually terrible and I've picked up a lot of words and expressions they use, so apologies if I sound more American than ever at Christmas. Also, I've picked up a lot of Missionary Chenglish, like saying "That's laahp! Such a faahn!" or "Let's jau!" (respectively meaning "That's rubbish! Such an inconvenience" and "Let's go"). Chenglish is a lot of fun. I don't think I'll ever give it up when I go home, and everyone will be very confused as to what I'm saying all the time.
Glad to hear that Seminary is such a big hit. Tim and Jess should count themselves lucky, though, because here in Hong Kong, Seminary is 6 days a week - Monday to Friday at 6:00am and Saturday at 8:00. It's a great sacrifice for the kids who otherwise would be studying all night. After school study classes are considered essential to success here in Hong Kong, and unless you take them it's considered that you don't stand much of a chance in the competitive school system. Early morning Seminary means no late night studying, so the kids who attend sacrifice something worthwhile (if somewhat overdemanding in my opinion) for something even better; a solid testimony and a knowledge of the scriptures. What's more, they're not behind any other kids. Studying all day and all night, as is the lifestyle of many kids in Hong Kong, doesn't get them any further than the kids who take an hour in the morning to read their scriptures. I know which one I'd rather do.
Bournemouth sounds like an interesting choice for university. If I remember rightly, a fair amount of Chinese people go there to study, which might give me a chance to keep my Cantonese and learn some Mandarin just on the side. If I can find someone to speak Mandarin to when I come home, it's really going to be a piece of cake - it's all so similar, just a different pronounciation and simpler grammar. One of the things that makes Cantonese so hard is the lack of a written form (written grammar is identical to Mandarin grammar) and so there are no set rules for how to speak the language. Anything is good - or bad, if you're trying to learn how to speak it. Anyway, hopefully I can see some prospectuses soon and can narrow things down as to which university to go to and what to study. Thank you again for researching all of this for me.
I love you all very much, and pray for you regularly. I also love Hong Kong very much, and so at least for right now, I'm completely happy. The work is hard but well worth it, and I'm thrilled to be doing it. Yesterday I reflected a little and realised just how much I've changed and grown in this year. I'm not the same person I was when I left home.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Yesterday I decided to use a little extra study time to lie down a little - I'd already had over an hour of personal study, but due to some exchanges yesterday, Elder Clark hadn't yet. While he studied, I went into the bedroom to lie down...on the floor. We have bunkbeds, and the top bunk was just a little too high for me. I didn't have the strength.
So I'm still worn out from having worked very hard. I think I may have been pushing Elder Clark a little further than he can manage, but a second spent not doing what we're supposed to is a second wasted, in my opinion. Before I've taken regular breaks to rest for about 5 minutes every few hours, but not so far this moves. That's been putting strain on Elder Clark too. Perhaps I need to cool down a little. But the theme of the Moves is, after all, being a fireball missionary. We'll see.
Sorry, just thinking out loud (sort of) a little. In summary, this week has also been really good. We've seen a lot of miracles; a lot of prepared people finding us, rather than the other way around, and the first serious member referral of my mission.
A few days ago we were talking to a boy on the street who was kind of busy and needed to go somewhere. As I wrote out a flyer to give to him, writing down our name and phone number, a woman came up and asked if she could have a flyer too. We turned our attention to her and invited her to church, telling her that the Sister Missionaries would love to meet with her. She also asked how much a Bible would cost. I told her, "There's a Christian bookshop around the corner, but we have this book which we give away for free!" We then taught her about the Book of Mormon and scheduled her for church this Sunday. It is truly a miracle that we were in the right place at the right time to find such a prepared soul.
Then that night we were almost at home, with very little time to spare - we had to be home in five minutes. As we waited at the crossing opposite our high rise flat, a man was looking at us and smiling. We struck up a conversation, which wasn't hard as he really wanted to talk. He invited us up to his house right then. I explained that we really couldn't go right then, so he scheduled himself for Sunday at 9:30 at the church. We convinced him that 9:00 would be better as that is when the church meetings start. He obliged.
It's too bad that the road we were crossing was our area boundary. As he lives in the block of flats next to us, he lives just barely on the wrong side of the line. We're going to turn him over to the Tai Wo Elders, the other area in the District. This kind of thing happens a lot in Hong Kong, with such small area boundaries.
Hurray for Jessica - great job at camp! I hope this helping attitude transfers over to home as well; as she is the oldest at home now, she's going to need to take on those responsibilities.
Also hurray for Tim; actually figuring out how to get XBox Live running. I'm sure that he and Jacob will enjoy being able to play just as easily while on different continents. When the M's move, could you send me their new address? Just to be on the safe side, I won't write Tom a letter until he's safely on the other side of the world.
Some Elders in my MTC District were dreaming in Chinese while in the MTC. I was not one of them. I am still not one of them. My dreams are solidly in English, but I'm sure that if someone were to speak Chinese in one of my dreams, I'd probably understand them.
Yes, Tai Po does indeed have the Lam Tsuen river running through it. It stinks. A bunch of companies dump all of their chemical waste into it, so it's always a different colour and never smells very good. It is very beautiful though; but only when the water is a pleasant blue or green; never when it's brown. And certainly at night, it's stunning, with all of the shining lights reflected in the river. You'll get to see it when I next send some pictures home. I've been taking less photos, though, so I'm holding off until I have a bigger collection.
No, my English has not suffered because of Chinese. That was a simple mistake because my brain works 40 times faster than my fingers. There may be a lot of spelling mistakes today, as well, because for some reason today I can't type very accurately. I'll need more practice if I ever want to go back and do some more data entry work to get through university. In fact, the thing that is most detrimental to my English is all of the American missionaries around. Their grammar is usually terrible and I've picked up a lot of words and expressions they use, so apologies if I sound more American than ever at Christmas. Also, I've picked up a lot of Missionary Chenglish, like saying "That's laahp! Such a faahn!" or "Let's jau!" (respectively meaning "That's rubbish! Such an inconvenience" and "Let's go"). Chenglish is a lot of fun. I don't think I'll ever give it up when I go home, and everyone will be very confused as to what I'm saying all the time.
Glad to hear that Seminary is such a big hit. Tim and Jess should count themselves lucky, though, because here in Hong Kong, Seminary is 6 days a week - Monday to Friday at 6:00am and Saturday at 8:00. It's a great sacrifice for the kids who otherwise would be studying all night. After school study classes are considered essential to success here in Hong Kong, and unless you take them it's considered that you don't stand much of a chance in the competitive school system. Early morning Seminary means no late night studying, so the kids who attend sacrifice something worthwhile (if somewhat overdemanding in my opinion) for something even better; a solid testimony and a knowledge of the scriptures. What's more, they're not behind any other kids. Studying all day and all night, as is the lifestyle of many kids in Hong Kong, doesn't get them any further than the kids who take an hour in the morning to read their scriptures. I know which one I'd rather do.
Bournemouth sounds like an interesting choice for university. If I remember rightly, a fair amount of Chinese people go there to study, which might give me a chance to keep my Cantonese and learn some Mandarin just on the side. If I can find someone to speak Mandarin to when I come home, it's really going to be a piece of cake - it's all so similar, just a different pronounciation and simpler grammar. One of the things that makes Cantonese so hard is the lack of a written form (written grammar is identical to Mandarin grammar) and so there are no set rules for how to speak the language. Anything is good - or bad, if you're trying to learn how to speak it. Anyway, hopefully I can see some prospectuses soon and can narrow things down as to which university to go to and what to study. Thank you again for researching all of this for me.
I love you all very much, and pray for you regularly. I also love Hong Kong very much, and so at least for right now, I'm completely happy. The work is hard but well worth it, and I'm thrilled to be doing it. Yesterday I reflected a little and realised just how much I've changed and grown in this year. I'm not the same person I was when I left home.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Thursday, 11 September 2008
Perhaps the most tiring week of my mission so far - 48th email from Hong Kong
Dear all,
I am wiped out. This morning I had a two hour nap to try and regain strength, but it didn't help much. I've pushed myself so hard this week, and now I'm very tired, but also very happy with the work we've done.
Last Thursday was the start of it all - moving things into the new flat, I got pretty worn out. But I decided that it was a good way to start the Moves, so I determined to keep on working similarly hard every day. Every spare second I've had has been spent making flash cards, to help me learn the 3,000 characters for the final language recognition. I've just kept pushing and pushing myself, and I'm now worn out. But I told God very often in my prayers that if He could give me strength to make it to Preparation Day when I could rest a bit, I'd do everything I could to serve.
Let me clarify, though - I'm not saying that normally I'm really lazy and this week I actually worked hard. I normally work really hard, but this week I stepped it up a bit more and really pushed to see what I was capable of. Perhaps I tried running a little faster than I had strength, but I feel satisfied with doing so and the success we've had this week.
Time with Elder Clark is fun. He is a really diligent missionary with a lot of good ideas as to how to get the members more involved with the work.
The calling of Stake Media representative certainly does sound interesting - what are your responsibilities? Money is fine for now, not a problem. I'm living quite comfortably on the amount the mission gives us every month, and don't really need anything else. Back when I first got here, my budgeting skills weren't the best in the world so I'd needed to rely on personal funds a little, but now that I'm in the swing of things, I cope without a problem every month.
Thank you very much to Dad for looking into university courses. Very clever to ask the good people at the BBC about journalism - if anyone would know, it'd be them.
Don't worry about Beth not calling; she's just enjoying the freedom of living away from home. I was the same way when I first came out - in fact, I need to make a confession. When I first got to the MTC, the Senior Elder in charge of the International office there told me I was allowed to phone you and tell you I arrived safely. I resisted, but he dialled the number anyway. The phone rang, but nobody answered - I looked at my watch and a quick calculation told me that as it was Tuesday night, everyone was probably out at Mutual. The Elder told me I could come back the next day to try again, but I never did - I didn't really want to. I was fine with emailing.
Then when everyone was in the Salt Lake City airport on the way to Hong Kong, everyone bought phone cards and called home to tell them they were safe. Again, though, this was the last thing on my mind - I was a missionary, out and about. I had to contact and teach people!
So when I was in the MTC, there were two chances to phone, and I didn't take either. So Beth not phoning for a while is just because she's enjoying independent, but soon she'll realise how much she misses you all.
The new flat is very comfortable now. There was a while where it was empty of all but the barest minimum, but we've spent a lot of money this week buying a lot of the essential items that we were missing (the money will be reimbursed by the mission) and so now it's very comfortable. It's also a lot more convenient, because before we had to catch a bus to get to our area. Now we just walk across the street and we're in the heart of Tai Po (that's what it's called; the Tai Po Jung Sam - Tai Po middle heart. It means Tai Po Centre).
The only real problem with the apartment is the water heater. Whoever wired it up was, to quote the Housing Co-ordinator, Elder Wong, "very lazy". When he was wiring up the heater, he apparently couldn't be bothered to wire in a new electric cable for the heater, so he just attached it to the hallway light. Now, whenever the shower's on, the hallway light flickers. What's more, there's not enough power to ignite the heater, so the heater doesn't even work. Every now and then, someone is lucky and gets a warm shower (I had my first one in a week this morning) but for the most part, I get woken up in the morning by a nice, refreshing, cold shower. A man's coming to look at the heater in a few days and sort it out.
So it's been a fun week. I am indeed still District Leader, despite logic or reason; there certainly are other Elders in the District more competent than myself. We have Elder Hedin, who was Assistant to the President until last week. He came out of the mission office because he goes home at the end of this moves, and certainly he would be a far more experienced and successful District Leader than myself, but then God does make these callings according to who will learn and grow the most from the calling, as well as simply who will do the best at it. Last week, we had a District Meeting, and I made the district focus for the moves "Becoming a Fireball Missionary" - which comes from a talk by Elder Ballard. It was a very spiritual meeting, with a lot of the Elders and Sisters in the District sharing very powerful lessons on improving and doing that little bit better to be the best we can be. I don't know if anybody else learned anything from it, but it certainly inspired me and was part of the reason I practically worked myself to death this week.
Anyway, time's almost up. I love you all very much.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
I am wiped out. This morning I had a two hour nap to try and regain strength, but it didn't help much. I've pushed myself so hard this week, and now I'm very tired, but also very happy with the work we've done.
Last Thursday was the start of it all - moving things into the new flat, I got pretty worn out. But I decided that it was a good way to start the Moves, so I determined to keep on working similarly hard every day. Every spare second I've had has been spent making flash cards, to help me learn the 3,000 characters for the final language recognition. I've just kept pushing and pushing myself, and I'm now worn out. But I told God very often in my prayers that if He could give me strength to make it to Preparation Day when I could rest a bit, I'd do everything I could to serve.
Let me clarify, though - I'm not saying that normally I'm really lazy and this week I actually worked hard. I normally work really hard, but this week I stepped it up a bit more and really pushed to see what I was capable of. Perhaps I tried running a little faster than I had strength, but I feel satisfied with doing so and the success we've had this week.
Time with Elder Clark is fun. He is a really diligent missionary with a lot of good ideas as to how to get the members more involved with the work.
The calling of Stake Media representative certainly does sound interesting - what are your responsibilities? Money is fine for now, not a problem. I'm living quite comfortably on the amount the mission gives us every month, and don't really need anything else. Back when I first got here, my budgeting skills weren't the best in the world so I'd needed to rely on personal funds a little, but now that I'm in the swing of things, I cope without a problem every month.
Thank you very much to Dad for looking into university courses. Very clever to ask the good people at the BBC about journalism - if anyone would know, it'd be them.
Don't worry about Beth not calling; she's just enjoying the freedom of living away from home. I was the same way when I first came out - in fact, I need to make a confession. When I first got to the MTC, the Senior Elder in charge of the International office there told me I was allowed to phone you and tell you I arrived safely. I resisted, but he dialled the number anyway. The phone rang, but nobody answered - I looked at my watch and a quick calculation told me that as it was Tuesday night, everyone was probably out at Mutual. The Elder told me I could come back the next day to try again, but I never did - I didn't really want to. I was fine with emailing.
Then when everyone was in the Salt Lake City airport on the way to Hong Kong, everyone bought phone cards and called home to tell them they were safe. Again, though, this was the last thing on my mind - I was a missionary, out and about. I had to contact and teach people!
So when I was in the MTC, there were two chances to phone, and I didn't take either. So Beth not phoning for a while is just because she's enjoying independent, but soon she'll realise how much she misses you all.
The new flat is very comfortable now. There was a while where it was empty of all but the barest minimum, but we've spent a lot of money this week buying a lot of the essential items that we were missing (the money will be reimbursed by the mission) and so now it's very comfortable. It's also a lot more convenient, because before we had to catch a bus to get to our area. Now we just walk across the street and we're in the heart of Tai Po (that's what it's called; the Tai Po Jung Sam - Tai Po middle heart. It means Tai Po Centre).
The only real problem with the apartment is the water heater. Whoever wired it up was, to quote the Housing Co-ordinator, Elder Wong, "very lazy". When he was wiring up the heater, he apparently couldn't be bothered to wire in a new electric cable for the heater, so he just attached it to the hallway light. Now, whenever the shower's on, the hallway light flickers. What's more, there's not enough power to ignite the heater, so the heater doesn't even work. Every now and then, someone is lucky and gets a warm shower (I had my first one in a week this morning) but for the most part, I get woken up in the morning by a nice, refreshing, cold shower. A man's coming to look at the heater in a few days and sort it out.
So it's been a fun week. I am indeed still District Leader, despite logic or reason; there certainly are other Elders in the District more competent than myself. We have Elder Hedin, who was Assistant to the President until last week. He came out of the mission office because he goes home at the end of this moves, and certainly he would be a far more experienced and successful District Leader than myself, but then God does make these callings according to who will learn and grow the most from the calling, as well as simply who will do the best at it. Last week, we had a District Meeting, and I made the district focus for the moves "Becoming a Fireball Missionary" - which comes from a talk by Elder Ballard. It was a very spiritual meeting, with a lot of the Elders and Sisters in the District sharing very powerful lessons on improving and doing that little bit better to be the best we can be. I don't know if anybody else learned anything from it, but it certainly inspired me and was part of the reason I practically worked myself to death this week.
Anyway, time's almost up. I love you all very much.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Friday, 5 September 2008
New Companion, New Flat, Same Area - 47th email from Hong Kong
Dear all,
Yes, Elder Bagley is gone already. It was a very fast six weeks, and I was somewhat disappointed to have to say goodbye to him. He's going to Chai Wan which is on Hong Kong Island, and he's maybe a little apprehensive about it, but willing and looking forward to it.
My new companion is Elder Clark, who is from Salt Lake City. I am therefore continuing my Utah companion trend - only Elder Sharp and Elder Kwok were from elsewhere, but Elder Sharp's parents moved from Arizona to Utah while he was my companion!
Elder Clark is going into his fourth Moves now, making him (relatively) the oldest companion I've had since I became senior companion - my other 3 have been in either their first or second Moves period. So I'm looking forward to a companion that's pretty much at the stage where he doesn't need an older companion. This should be a learning period for him and for me.
I therefore enter my fifth Moves in Tai Po, and, rather unexpectedly, I've moved house. The flat my companionship was living in is in the middle of the neighbouring area of Tai Wo, and as such was rather inconvenient for us - but it was a nice apartment. A second companionship has been opened in Tai Wo by Elder Hedin and Elder Chugg - Elder Hedin was the Assistant to the President for the past two Moves. So they'll be living in the old apartment with the other Tai Wo companionship, which features another trainee. Meanwhile, in our new flat we have the Mandarin speaking companionship for the Zone (every Zone has a Mandarin companionship), which features Elder Sikahema, who was my travelling companion from the MTC to Hong Kong, and with whom I served when I was in West Point.
Normally here in Tai Po, because church is in the afternoon, after Tai Wo ward, baptisms are held before church and then converts are confirmed in the Sacrament Meeting immediately after their baptism. So Brother S was confirmed last week, and this week he received the Aaronic Priesthood. This ward is really good at following the three things that every new member needs - responsibility, friendship and nourishment. He is very excited and happy to be learning more and growing in the church.
This last week we found a great new investigator called E L. He is probably in his 40s, with two teenage children. When we met him on the street, he asked us when the church meetings were, and we were later able to schedule him for last Saturday. When we met with him on Saturday, I asked, "So do you have any religious beliefs".
He said, "Well, I've been a baptist for about a year and a half. But I feel like when I pray, I don't really get anything in return. I know a little about your church; about Joseph Smith [he said his name in English] and about how he translated an ancient record, and I want to know more."
As I asked him about what he'd heard, he went on to tell me about the First Vision in clear detail. He said he'd been to the church's website and read all of this. He was really interested to learn more, and to read the Book of Mormon - while it was on the website, he felt that a book would be better because he could mark it. We were, of course, happy to give him a copy and invited him to church. He had been planning on coming at 9:00 when Tai Wo have their services, but after finding out that Tai Po members meet at 2:00, he decided he wanted to come and see the Tai Po services.
When we saw him the next day, he said that he'd read the first 25 pages of the Book of Mormon and prayed, but no answer yet. He left church about five minutes before the end of joint Priesthood/Relief Society (which is last here), so we didn't get to ask him what he thought of church. But he must have liked it, because when Elder Bagley phoned him up to schedual him, he said he was pretty busy all week, but that he was going to come to church again this Sunday.
Another amazing miracle for this week - we schedualed a man in his early 20s named D at the church. He lives in Tai Wo, so we're going to turn him over to the new companionship tomorrow. He came looking to learn about the church and our beliefs, possibly I think for the purpose of just learning more about religion. He learned about Catholicism in school, but didn't really know much more than that. We taught about prayer, and taught the Restoration. After we taught the First Vision, he said "So I guess that other churches probably persecuted him a lot, huh? I imagine they'd even try to kill him." Rather insightful comment, if you ask me.
We closed in prayer, the first true communication with God he'd ever heard, where Elder Bagley thanked Him for the chance to share this message, and asked that D would learn the truth for himself. After the prayer, I asked D, "How do you feel?"
He replied, "I think...I know it's true."
That's a pretty good note to end on. I Love you all,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Yes, Elder Bagley is gone already. It was a very fast six weeks, and I was somewhat disappointed to have to say goodbye to him. He's going to Chai Wan which is on Hong Kong Island, and he's maybe a little apprehensive about it, but willing and looking forward to it.
My new companion is Elder Clark, who is from Salt Lake City. I am therefore continuing my Utah companion trend - only Elder Sharp and Elder Kwok were from elsewhere, but Elder Sharp's parents moved from Arizona to Utah while he was my companion!
Elder Clark is going into his fourth Moves now, making him (relatively) the oldest companion I've had since I became senior companion - my other 3 have been in either their first or second Moves period. So I'm looking forward to a companion that's pretty much at the stage where he doesn't need an older companion. This should be a learning period for him and for me.
I therefore enter my fifth Moves in Tai Po, and, rather unexpectedly, I've moved house. The flat my companionship was living in is in the middle of the neighbouring area of Tai Wo, and as such was rather inconvenient for us - but it was a nice apartment. A second companionship has been opened in Tai Wo by Elder Hedin and Elder Chugg - Elder Hedin was the Assistant to the President for the past two Moves. So they'll be living in the old apartment with the other Tai Wo companionship, which features another trainee. Meanwhile, in our new flat we have the Mandarin speaking companionship for the Zone (every Zone has a Mandarin companionship), which features Elder Sikahema, who was my travelling companion from the MTC to Hong Kong, and with whom I served when I was in West Point.
Normally here in Tai Po, because church is in the afternoon, after Tai Wo ward, baptisms are held before church and then converts are confirmed in the Sacrament Meeting immediately after their baptism. So Brother S was confirmed last week, and this week he received the Aaronic Priesthood. This ward is really good at following the three things that every new member needs - responsibility, friendship and nourishment. He is very excited and happy to be learning more and growing in the church.
This last week we found a great new investigator called E L. He is probably in his 40s, with two teenage children. When we met him on the street, he asked us when the church meetings were, and we were later able to schedule him for last Saturday. When we met with him on Saturday, I asked, "So do you have any religious beliefs".
He said, "Well, I've been a baptist for about a year and a half. But I feel like when I pray, I don't really get anything in return. I know a little about your church; about Joseph Smith [he said his name in English] and about how he translated an ancient record, and I want to know more."
As I asked him about what he'd heard, he went on to tell me about the First Vision in clear detail. He said he'd been to the church's website and read all of this. He was really interested to learn more, and to read the Book of Mormon - while it was on the website, he felt that a book would be better because he could mark it. We were, of course, happy to give him a copy and invited him to church. He had been planning on coming at 9:00 when Tai Wo have their services, but after finding out that Tai Po members meet at 2:00, he decided he wanted to come and see the Tai Po services.
When we saw him the next day, he said that he'd read the first 25 pages of the Book of Mormon and prayed, but no answer yet. He left church about five minutes before the end of joint Priesthood/Relief Society (which is last here), so we didn't get to ask him what he thought of church. But he must have liked it, because when Elder Bagley phoned him up to schedual him, he said he was pretty busy all week, but that he was going to come to church again this Sunday.
Another amazing miracle for this week - we schedualed a man in his early 20s named D at the church. He lives in Tai Wo, so we're going to turn him over to the new companionship tomorrow. He came looking to learn about the church and our beliefs, possibly I think for the purpose of just learning more about religion. He learned about Catholicism in school, but didn't really know much more than that. We taught about prayer, and taught the Restoration. After we taught the First Vision, he said "So I guess that other churches probably persecuted him a lot, huh? I imagine they'd even try to kill him." Rather insightful comment, if you ask me.
We closed in prayer, the first true communication with God he'd ever heard, where Elder Bagley thanked Him for the chance to share this message, and asked that D would learn the truth for himself. After the prayer, I asked D, "How do you feel?"
He replied, "I think...I know it's true."
That's a pretty good note to end on. I Love you all,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
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