Not in Hong Kong anymore - 1st email from Macau

Hi all,

I'm emailing right now from a little email place down a side-street in Macau, which will be my new home for the next six months. Macau is a nice little Portuguese colony a fair way from Hong Kong, and because of the difficulties in obtaining Visas for a lot of the missionaries, the usual stay period is six months. Being a European Union citizen, however, I have a little bit of an advantage over the American Elders and Sisters; as I entered Macau the immigrations official stamped my passport for a six month stay, as Europeans are allowed to stay quite a bit longer than Americans.

It's an interesting place; I haven't seen very much of it yet, but it seems to me to be a cross between Portugal and Hong Kong. It's mostly known for its casinos and leisure facilities, so the whole place has a real sea-side feel to it. It should be a lot of fun.

It was kind of hard saying goodbye to a lot of the members back in Tai Po. I'd been there for seven and a half months, so I'd certainly gotten to know them rather well. Brother S seemed to be after coming to visit me out here, which I told him it was best not to do. Hopefully he'll listen - the last thing I want is a former gambling addict strolling around in the Casinos... Nothing to worry about though, he's a good man.

In order to make the trek across the sea, I decided that it was time I invested in a slightly larger suitcase; The big one is fine, but the tiny little one was just too small to hold all of my stuff. So I went and bought a new one for 175 Hong Kong Dollars. I was somewhat apprehensive about buying it, because the wheels looked rather flimsy, but one the same size with sturdier wheels was $210. I made the wrong choice; on the way from the ferry to the flat here in Macau, both wheels snapped off and I had to drag it the last leg of the journey. So well done, Elder Loffhagen - I bought a useless suitcase. At least I won't need it again for a long time.

I wouldn't be so sure that a mission would be rest - bedtimes are subject to sudden change. Here in the Hong Kong mission, for example, instead of following the normal schedule of 6:30am to 10:30pm, we get up at 7:00am and go to bed at 11:00pm. This, I've felt, has been a lot easier than getting up at 6:30, as I'm certainly not a morning person. But apparently, in Macau, we're a half an hour later still, getting up at 7:30 and going to bed at 11:30. This should be nice too, but today we went to Seminary in the morning. So I got up at 6:00 and will go to bed at 11:30. So I'm not sure if a mission will be any more relaxing than a screaming group of children all day.

Especially when we teach English Class...

Anyway, thank you for loving Steve. I'm sure it means a lot to him that he has you all. We all need friends, especially church friends.

You guessed pretty much accurately as to my reason for being kind of quiet with Sister Dawson. Girls are so terrifying to me now (not that they weren't before, but it's a different kind of terror) and I kind of like to keep my distance. I will say something of Sister Dawson though - her Chinese is amazingly good. And why not? Apparently she learned Mandarin before her mission, used to live in Hong Kong and - best of all - her boyfriend also served here in Hong Kong. That's an interesting twist. So yes, I haven't yet served around her (nor will I for the moment - Macau only has 4 sister missionaries, and all are going to be here for a while longer yet) nor do I go out of my way to talk to her at mission events, but she's around and doing very well.

General Conference was amazing; I really enjoyed it. When I go home, I do look forward to going to the church all weekend and watching it with all the members. It's a much better experience than just sitting on the couch at home looking at the tiny computer monitor. I really learned a lot and was glad to have the chance to watch it. Apparently, here in Macau they have General Conference two weeks later than the rest of the world, so they'll be watching it this coming Saturday and Sunday. We probably won't be watching much of it with them, though. The Elders and Sisters who were here already got the chance to watch it this past week.

Keep up the hard work, Mum and Dad. It sounds like both of you are doing really well. I love you for it. I hope that school gets quieter and that counselling goes without too many hitches. You two are both my heroes.

Good to hear that things are good financially for the family, if not the world. When I heard about the huge problems that are going on, I was somewhat worried for any savings that may be floating on the stock market, but I'm sure you're all on top of things, and that God will provide.

I've been thinking about Christmas and a few things I would like. As it stands at the moment, presents will need to be sent early on if I have any hope of actually getting them in time for Christmas, as they'll go to the mission home, and because the ferry between Hong Kong and Macau is around $150 a time, we don't go back there very often. I've been thinking I'd like to get some contact lenses, because my glasses are becoming more and more of an annoyance, and I don't think they'd be too badly priced if I bought them here - pretty much all Chinese people have poor eyesight, so they have some good, cheap options. I'll find out more about that and let you know later. As far as other little things go, I'd really like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir: Called to Serve CD and refills for my coloured scripture marking pencil, both of which can probably be found at the LDS bookshop near the Temple. A Portuguese to English dictionary might be nice too, but I'll see what I can do about that myself first.

I love you all. You are always in my prayers. Keep working hard.

Love,

Elder Matthew Loffhagen

羅 長 老