Dear all,
Everything is going well here. Not that much of any importance happened this week - sometimes the week goes by so fast that I barely notice it.
Last Sunday was the baptism. I was a little nervous but there weren't any problems. It was odd baptizing someone else's investigator - I was sitting on the front row of the chapel with her, but I didn't really feel like I belonged there. I was just there to do the actual baptizing.
Elder Liu and I are getting along well together. We had Moves Calls this week, and were told that we'll be together for another six weeks at least (not much of a surprise to be honest, as once you're in Macau you're normally here for at least four Moves) so we're happy to carry on serving together.
We've set some more baptismal dates with a few investigators. One of them is named J - he's friends with H and V who were baptized two weeks ago, and also friends with Y, who is one of the branch's Young Men, and who is very thrilled to see one of his schoolfriends making steps into the church. We're seeing the definate benefit of a solid fellowshipper to befriend the investigators. Jason has also, of his own initiative, shown quite a lot of interest in BYU. Apparently one of the members mentioned it to H and V, and J was listening. He keeps asking us about the price for various things and how easy it is to get in. He asked Y if he was going to go.
We also extended a baptismal commitment to Sister W. We've been teaching the W family for a few weeks now, very slowly, because they are a very interesting family. I'm not sure I've mentioned them or not yet - Brother W is seventy years old and after a stroke is almost completely paralyzed - he can barely stand up, and can't speak. Sister W is in her forties and is used to having somewhat one-sided conversations with her husband, and is thrilled to talk with us about all of her experiences over the past week that she can't really share with her Buddhist friends - she is defiantly Christian even though none of her neighbours or friends are.
Then there are the children - J Y, J G and J W. J W is a twelve year old girl, and rather quiet - happy to listen to our messages. The other two; boys aged 10 and 8; are very hard to calm down or even to get them to sit still - teaching them, I often think to myself "How on earth does Mum do it? Keeping kids under control seems pretty much impossible!"
So lessons with the family are short and simple. But from the moment Sister W met us, she has been desperate to be baptized, so that's not much of a problem. They are a very humble, happy family. They don't have very much of anything as far as possessions go, but they have each other and that's enough. So we'll keep teaching them slowly and helping them to understand the Gospel, bit by bit.
Both J and Sister W will be baptized in December. We're going to focus on baptizing the Wong family is parts because it'll take a long time to get the kids to understand what we're talking about.
Anyway, all is going well. I love you all.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Thursday, 27 November 2008
Thursday, 20 November 2008
A Lot of Baptisms - 6th email from Macau
Dear all,
It's getting a little chillier here now. Not anywhere near as cold as back home - I'm still in a short-sleeve shirt, but most of the locals aren't. I discovered just how much I miss being cold - a rather strange thing to think, but I have a lot of fun memories of nice English winters. The other day we were walking past a Superdrug-style shop and the warmth coming from inside, along with the bright lights and displays in the windows, suddenly reminded me of what it feels like to go Christmas shopping. But so far there is only one shop selling Christmas products - they have a nice collection of Christmas trees in the window.
A Macdonalds plush toy Charizard would do the job perfectly for Elder Liu. He'll think it's cute.
If you can get me V's full name (including her real Chinese name) and address, I can probably get the Elders in her ward to track her down and see how she's doing. A question related to Chinese baptisms in Reading Stake - do the Chinese speaking missionaries there speak Mandarin or Cantonese? Either will be fun; perhaps I can help teach any lessons they have in Cantonese when I get back - or alternatively I can sit in on some Mandarin lessons and learn that language. I heard a little Missionary Mandarin last Sunday in a fireside, and if I concentrated, I could understand it.
Speaking of which, that's one of the big things that happened this week - the Macau Why I Believe fireside. Both Macau and Hong Kong have them - the Macau one is once every two Moves - it's a fireside where missionaries who are going home get to share their testimonies. The Macau one is a lot smaller than the Hong Kong one as a lot fewer missionaries serve here. They ship the Elders and Sisters over here for one last visit to their old area. This time there were three missionaries speaking; Elder Tensmeyer who is a Mandarin Elder but served in Cantonese work for a while in Macau as a Zone Leader; Elder Greenhalgh who served here over a year ago in International work; and Sister Corbridge who was "born" here about a year and a half ago. She was in my group in the MTC, which is rather nerve-wracking as it points out that I'm getting steadily on to the point where I only have six months left. Because she's taking her early date to go home, and won't finish until next Move, I don't need to worry too much yet, but it was still rather strange.
Regardless, the fireside was a lot of fun and it was good to see the three of them again before they all go home; as I'm here in Macau, I won't see the Elders again before they "die" and I'll only see Sister Corbridge once again, at Mission Conference.
Mission Conference this next Move will be the ever exciting Mission Christmas Social, and I'll be singing in the talent show with my quartet; Elders Volk, Work and Weagel. We all sang together in the MTC for fun, last year in the talent show and for Elder Rasband when he came. Elder Work has arranged things this time, and we'll be singing 'Tracting in a Winter Wonderland'. We won't have a chance to practice beforehand, which shouldn't be a problem because we didn't practice last year either.
Yesterday I had to face my fear and do one thing I had hoped I'd never need to do; interview a sixteen year old girl for baptism. Interesting that this is my biggest fear as a missionary. Still, the interview went well, she passed, and then when I asked her who was going to baptize her, she asked me to do it. So this next Sunday I'll don the white clothes to do so. This means that every Elder in my District has baptized someone this Moves; Elder Liu baptized our friend Brother G from the Mainland, Elder Burk, one of our Zone Leaders, baptized B, and last Sunday Elder Gregory baptized two of our investigators, H and V. H and V are twins, and a rather big guys. As Elder Gregory is 6"something tall and 3'something wide, when we asked H and V who they wanted to baptize them, they pointed out that the only person who could logically do it was Elder Gregory.
Interestingly, before Elder Gregory was a Zone Leader here, he was District Leader, serving with Elder Liu and teaching B, H and V, as well as our other investigators. That's the interesting thing about Macau; the Zone is so small that we see each other all the time, and all the baptisms really are a team effort, not just one companionship. So we also attended the baptism of one of the International Sister's investigators this past Sunday, F, who is a really nice man from the Phillipines who is always all smiles, bringing the total baptisms last Sunday to three.
One big request I have for Christmas is pictures. Pictures of everything; pictures of the family. Pictures of the house. Pictures of country lanes and fields. Pictures of snow, if you have any. Pictures of spider's webs covered in dew. Pictures of Bracknell chapel, and of the Bishop and the members. Pictures of Warfield school and the pictures the kids have drawn. Pictures of the busy Reading town Centre, of the Oracle, of Christmas lights and Santa's grottos. Pictures of the Christmas tree at home. Here in China, Christmas is just another bank holiday; nothing special. I'd love to see what you all see at this time of year. What's more, I'd really just love to see your world; what you're up to, things you're doing. But I'm sure that's exactly what you want from me, so I'm going to send you a CD with all of my pictures on.
Anyway, I love you all. I'm always thrilled to hear reports from home on any little thing.
Lots of love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
It's getting a little chillier here now. Not anywhere near as cold as back home - I'm still in a short-sleeve shirt, but most of the locals aren't. I discovered just how much I miss being cold - a rather strange thing to think, but I have a lot of fun memories of nice English winters. The other day we were walking past a Superdrug-style shop and the warmth coming from inside, along with the bright lights and displays in the windows, suddenly reminded me of what it feels like to go Christmas shopping. But so far there is only one shop selling Christmas products - they have a nice collection of Christmas trees in the window.
A Macdonalds plush toy Charizard would do the job perfectly for Elder Liu. He'll think it's cute.
If you can get me V's full name (including her real Chinese name) and address, I can probably get the Elders in her ward to track her down and see how she's doing. A question related to Chinese baptisms in Reading Stake - do the Chinese speaking missionaries there speak Mandarin or Cantonese? Either will be fun; perhaps I can help teach any lessons they have in Cantonese when I get back - or alternatively I can sit in on some Mandarin lessons and learn that language. I heard a little Missionary Mandarin last Sunday in a fireside, and if I concentrated, I could understand it.
Speaking of which, that's one of the big things that happened this week - the Macau Why I Believe fireside. Both Macau and Hong Kong have them - the Macau one is once every two Moves - it's a fireside where missionaries who are going home get to share their testimonies. The Macau one is a lot smaller than the Hong Kong one as a lot fewer missionaries serve here. They ship the Elders and Sisters over here for one last visit to their old area. This time there were three missionaries speaking; Elder Tensmeyer who is a Mandarin Elder but served in Cantonese work for a while in Macau as a Zone Leader; Elder Greenhalgh who served here over a year ago in International work; and Sister Corbridge who was "born" here about a year and a half ago. She was in my group in the MTC, which is rather nerve-wracking as it points out that I'm getting steadily on to the point where I only have six months left. Because she's taking her early date to go home, and won't finish until next Move, I don't need to worry too much yet, but it was still rather strange.
Regardless, the fireside was a lot of fun and it was good to see the three of them again before they all go home; as I'm here in Macau, I won't see the Elders again before they "die" and I'll only see Sister Corbridge once again, at Mission Conference.
Mission Conference this next Move will be the ever exciting Mission Christmas Social, and I'll be singing in the talent show with my quartet; Elders Volk, Work and Weagel. We all sang together in the MTC for fun, last year in the talent show and for Elder Rasband when he came. Elder Work has arranged things this time, and we'll be singing 'Tracting in a Winter Wonderland'. We won't have a chance to practice beforehand, which shouldn't be a problem because we didn't practice last year either.
Yesterday I had to face my fear and do one thing I had hoped I'd never need to do; interview a sixteen year old girl for baptism. Interesting that this is my biggest fear as a missionary. Still, the interview went well, she passed, and then when I asked her who was going to baptize her, she asked me to do it. So this next Sunday I'll don the white clothes to do so. This means that every Elder in my District has baptized someone this Moves; Elder Liu baptized our friend Brother G from the Mainland, Elder Burk, one of our Zone Leaders, baptized B, and last Sunday Elder Gregory baptized two of our investigators, H and V. H and V are twins, and a rather big guys. As Elder Gregory is 6"something tall and 3'something wide, when we asked H and V who they wanted to baptize them, they pointed out that the only person who could logically do it was Elder Gregory.
Interestingly, before Elder Gregory was a Zone Leader here, he was District Leader, serving with Elder Liu and teaching B, H and V, as well as our other investigators. That's the interesting thing about Macau; the Zone is so small that we see each other all the time, and all the baptisms really are a team effort, not just one companionship. So we also attended the baptism of one of the International Sister's investigators this past Sunday, F, who is a really nice man from the Phillipines who is always all smiles, bringing the total baptisms last Sunday to three.
One big request I have for Christmas is pictures. Pictures of everything; pictures of the family. Pictures of the house. Pictures of country lanes and fields. Pictures of snow, if you have any. Pictures of spider's webs covered in dew. Pictures of Bracknell chapel, and of the Bishop and the members. Pictures of Warfield school and the pictures the kids have drawn. Pictures of the busy Reading town Centre, of the Oracle, of Christmas lights and Santa's grottos. Pictures of the Christmas tree at home. Here in China, Christmas is just another bank holiday; nothing special. I'd love to see what you all see at this time of year. What's more, I'd really just love to see your world; what you're up to, things you're doing. But I'm sure that's exactly what you want from me, so I'm going to send you a CD with all of my pictures on.
Anyway, I love you all. I'm always thrilled to hear reports from home on any little thing.
Lots of love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Saturday, 15 November 2008
It's been a busy week - 5th email from Macau
Dear all,
It sounds like everything is going well for you all. Martin Black also sent me an email this week, and they're doing fine too. The next time they come for a visit, please tell them I love them all - especially little Michael, who apparently is a lot bigger now than the first time I saw him.
I have a few things that I need to say before I forget. Many of them were going to be said last week, or the week before, or the week before that, and so on and so forth. Here they are:
1. Christmas - the shop we buy our food in is stocking Christmas puddings. They cost 80 Patacas (the currency of Macau) which is somewhere around £4 or £5. That might be cheaper than a big heavy lump of pudding in the package. Also, a request for my companion - Elder Liu really loves Pokemon. He always likens it to finding - he's gotta catch 'em all. His favourite is Charizard, which in Missionary finding is a family - families are really hard to catch, but well worth it. He's told me several times that he really wants a Charizard keyring, and I think it'd be fun to get him a little something for Christmas. Maybe you could see what you can find?
2. Universities. I'm really leaning towards journalism, but would also like information on Computer Animation, Chinese courses or anything else really.
3. Can you get me Thomas Morrison's new address?
4. With 200MOP (that's the short version of Pataca) for the Macau Tower, I'm worried a little about finances. Last month I thought I had a cavity and so Sister Van Dam arranged for me to take a trip to the dentist for a checkup and a clean. Thankfully, my teeth were fine, and it only cost another 200MOP. But that's 400MOP already, and for Thanksgiving in a few weeks everybody is going to a hotel for another buffet lunch which will be another 100MOP. I tell you this just to keep you up to date; I don't think I need any more money right now. But just so you know, I'll be spending a little more soon.
That's all I can think of right now. I'm probably forgetting some things, but I'll remember them later.
Anyway, this week saw a very exciting event as the Mission released the long-awaited 3000 character card set. I've been trying desperately for a long time to memorize characters from a list. I've tried a lot of things, including trying to make 2000 flash cards myself. I've not gotten very far, but this week I got about 120 sheets of cardboard, each with 25 characters on. We have to cut them out ourselves, so I've also spent every lunchtime at the church using their guillotine. It's a slow but steady process, sped up by Sister Au, a native of Hong Kong who is serving in my District and who for some reason, really likes cutting things with a guillotine. So she's happy to cut out my cards when she has the chance. These cards mean that I ought to learn a lot quicker and am aiming to have gone through all of them by the end of the year, and to pass them all off before April.
Speaking of April - does Chris have a specific returning home date yet? You would have heard more about him than me. He was telling me that he was hoping to extend for a month at the end of his mission and go home in July, meaning that we'd get back at the same time. Little does he know, I'm going to pick my late date going home and come back in August...
And then speaking of August, when I get home, one thing I'm going to want to do is spend time with you all, and if you're going on holiday, I'll definitely be coming with you.
I will be in Hong Kong for the Mission Christmas social around about the second week in December. After that, I won't be back until February.
Ben was finally confirmed last week. He was thrilled, as were the other missionaries and I. Not much else of any significance has happenened this week though - it's been very busy, with a lot of teaching and not much finding time, but every night I've been trying to think of specific things of importance to write in my journal and I've been really struggling. I'm sure you've felt before the feeling of doing a lot without really getting much done. We've been teaching a lot of investigators (we currently have a LOT of investigators) and have two who will baptized this coming Sunday, but I don't really feel like we're doing all that much to help anybody progress. It's clear to see that the spiritual progression of others does not depend very much on what a missionary says or does - it's all down to that person's desire to learn and their faith to come closer to God. It's good to know - I should neither beat myself up when the work moves slowly, nor lift myself up unto pride when things are going well. It has very little to do with me - so long as I'm doing the best I can, I'm doing all that I'm supposed to do, and the rest is down to each investigator and what they're willing to do.
There was one particularly moving experience this week. An investigator called J met with us - we'd planned to review the Restoration lesson with him by watching the film. But when J got there, I asked him how he'd been doing recently and he told us it had been hard - a close friend of his had died recently. We expressed our sympathies, and the words of another film, Finding Faith in Christ began ringing in my ears. I'm not sure if you've seen it - it's a kind of Family Home Evening for a family in Jerusalem who have the apostle Thomas as a guest for dinner. There's a man who had recently lost his wife there who refuses to believe in anything he can't see. Thomas retells stories of the Saviour, His teachings and recounts the miracles and the Atonement, Crucifixion and Resurrection. He tells this man that because of Christ, we can overcome our trials, and each and every one of us will be resurrected. I felt prompted to switch our lesson and show Jason this film. As we watched it, the Spirit was strong. I knew that the film was answering a lot of Jason's personal questions, and I felt the meaning behind the message of the film more than I ever have before while watching it. I know it was the right message that day for Jason, and also for me.
I love you all. I know that what I'm doing right now is the best possible thing I could be doing with my time. I'm so thankful, Mum and Dad, for the two of you; for your commitment to each other and to us your children. I never really realised growing up just how special it is that you are both sealed together and active in the church - a blessing that many of the other Young Men who grew up with me don't have. Thank you so much for all you've done for me and for Beth, Jess and Tim. You've done a really good job as parents - we don't turn around and tell you that often enough.
I love you all and pray for your happiness,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
It sounds like everything is going well for you all. Martin Black also sent me an email this week, and they're doing fine too. The next time they come for a visit, please tell them I love them all - especially little Michael, who apparently is a lot bigger now than the first time I saw him.
I have a few things that I need to say before I forget. Many of them were going to be said last week, or the week before, or the week before that, and so on and so forth. Here they are:
1. Christmas - the shop we buy our food in is stocking Christmas puddings. They cost 80 Patacas (the currency of Macau) which is somewhere around £4 or £5. That might be cheaper than a big heavy lump of pudding in the package. Also, a request for my companion - Elder Liu really loves Pokemon. He always likens it to finding - he's gotta catch 'em all. His favourite is Charizard, which in Missionary finding is a family - families are really hard to catch, but well worth it. He's told me several times that he really wants a Charizard keyring, and I think it'd be fun to get him a little something for Christmas. Maybe you could see what you can find?
2. Universities. I'm really leaning towards journalism, but would also like information on Computer Animation, Chinese courses or anything else really.
3. Can you get me Thomas Morrison's new address?
4. With 200MOP (that's the short version of Pataca) for the Macau Tower, I'm worried a little about finances. Last month I thought I had a cavity and so Sister Van Dam arranged for me to take a trip to the dentist for a checkup and a clean. Thankfully, my teeth were fine, and it only cost another 200MOP. But that's 400MOP already, and for Thanksgiving in a few weeks everybody is going to a hotel for another buffet lunch which will be another 100MOP. I tell you this just to keep you up to date; I don't think I need any more money right now. But just so you know, I'll be spending a little more soon.
That's all I can think of right now. I'm probably forgetting some things, but I'll remember them later.
Anyway, this week saw a very exciting event as the Mission released the long-awaited 3000 character card set. I've been trying desperately for a long time to memorize characters from a list. I've tried a lot of things, including trying to make 2000 flash cards myself. I've not gotten very far, but this week I got about 120 sheets of cardboard, each with 25 characters on. We have to cut them out ourselves, so I've also spent every lunchtime at the church using their guillotine. It's a slow but steady process, sped up by Sister Au, a native of Hong Kong who is serving in my District and who for some reason, really likes cutting things with a guillotine. So she's happy to cut out my cards when she has the chance. These cards mean that I ought to learn a lot quicker and am aiming to have gone through all of them by the end of the year, and to pass them all off before April.
Speaking of April - does Chris have a specific returning home date yet? You would have heard more about him than me. He was telling me that he was hoping to extend for a month at the end of his mission and go home in July, meaning that we'd get back at the same time. Little does he know, I'm going to pick my late date going home and come back in August...
And then speaking of August, when I get home, one thing I'm going to want to do is spend time with you all, and if you're going on holiday, I'll definitely be coming with you.
I will be in Hong Kong for the Mission Christmas social around about the second week in December. After that, I won't be back until February.
Ben was finally confirmed last week. He was thrilled, as were the other missionaries and I. Not much else of any significance has happenened this week though - it's been very busy, with a lot of teaching and not much finding time, but every night I've been trying to think of specific things of importance to write in my journal and I've been really struggling. I'm sure you've felt before the feeling of doing a lot without really getting much done. We've been teaching a lot of investigators (we currently have a LOT of investigators) and have two who will baptized this coming Sunday, but I don't really feel like we're doing all that much to help anybody progress. It's clear to see that the spiritual progression of others does not depend very much on what a missionary says or does - it's all down to that person's desire to learn and their faith to come closer to God. It's good to know - I should neither beat myself up when the work moves slowly, nor lift myself up unto pride when things are going well. It has very little to do with me - so long as I'm doing the best I can, I'm doing all that I'm supposed to do, and the rest is down to each investigator and what they're willing to do.
There was one particularly moving experience this week. An investigator called J met with us - we'd planned to review the Restoration lesson with him by watching the film. But when J got there, I asked him how he'd been doing recently and he told us it had been hard - a close friend of his had died recently. We expressed our sympathies, and the words of another film, Finding Faith in Christ began ringing in my ears. I'm not sure if you've seen it - it's a kind of Family Home Evening for a family in Jerusalem who have the apostle Thomas as a guest for dinner. There's a man who had recently lost his wife there who refuses to believe in anything he can't see. Thomas retells stories of the Saviour, His teachings and recounts the miracles and the Atonement, Crucifixion and Resurrection. He tells this man that because of Christ, we can overcome our trials, and each and every one of us will be resurrected. I felt prompted to switch our lesson and show Jason this film. As we watched it, the Spirit was strong. I knew that the film was answering a lot of Jason's personal questions, and I felt the meaning behind the message of the film more than I ever have before while watching it. I know it was the right message that day for Jason, and also for me.
I love you all. I know that what I'm doing right now is the best possible thing I could be doing with my time. I'm so thankful, Mum and Dad, for the two of you; for your commitment to each other and to us your children. I never really realised growing up just how special it is that you are both sealed together and active in the church - a blessing that many of the other Young Men who grew up with me don't have. Thank you so much for all you've done for me and for Beth, Jess and Tim. You've done a really good job as parents - we don't turn around and tell you that often enough.
I love you all and pray for your happiness,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Thursday, 6 November 2008
A Trip To Macau Tower - 4th email from Macau
Dear All,
A lot of different cities in this world have a different feel. London has a feeling of ancient meets cutting edge, Hong Kong feels like a desperate desire to be new and tall. Macau has absolutely no desire to be up to date - it's just interested in taking people's money in the very many giant casinos and tourist attractions that can be found here.
Today we all went to visit one of the tallest tourist attractions in Macau - the Macau Tower. One of the Elders here, Elder Robinson (also named Elder 羅) has to leave on Saturday due to visa restrictions, so we all went up to do something he'd never done before. It was expensive - 200 or so Patacas (the currency of Macau which is pretty much exactly the same as the Hong Kong dollar), but it was a fun time. We went to eat at the 360 Cafe, which is a big circular cafe on one of the top floors of the tower. The floor rotates very slowly, meaning that sitting at the table, you very slowly get a 360 birdseye view of Macau. It was a very good meal; a buffet lunch with foods from all over the world. I had some African chicken, some Chinese fried rice, a slice of a roast with a little English mustard - very good. We had a wonderful time, but probably not as good of a time as the bungee jumpers one floor above us, who we could see out the window. That would cost several thousand patacas, and Missionaries are forbidden from bungee jumping, so you don't have to worry - I'm not going to try it.
This has been a tiring week. Things are very busy here at the moment, as we currently have a lot of investigators, all with different concerns, and it's hard to keep track of them all. For example, on Sunday we helped the Wong family to come to church. They have three very energetic children, a very talkative mother, and the father suffered from a stroke a while ago which left him mostly paralyzed. So we went early to their house with their fellowshipper, L C, and helped them attend church by wheeling Brother W's wheelchair and making sure none of the kids went missing along the way. We finally got them to church, only to discover too late that B, who was baptized last week and was supposed to get confirmed this past Sunday, hadn't shown up. Oh dear.
We saw him the next day at our regularly scheduled time. He was so sorry for missing church - I tried to console him, telling him, "It doesn't matter," but he replied, "No, it does matter!" He works very hard as a volunteer for a charity, and as such was just too tired and fell asleep as he prepared for church. But I feel that he was sincerely sorry for missing his confirmation, so I have to fear about him turning up this coming Sunday - maybe we'll give him a call before we head over to the W family though...
Anyway, a little about Buddha - here in China he's always portrayed as a fat, jolly man. I've been told that his weight represents him being full of happiness and joy - a rather nice little message. But last Friday, I mentioned to someone how odd it was that such a large man spent much of his life fasting to the point of death yet was such a fat man. L, who is an investigator who used to live in the Mainland and is being taught by the other Chinese Elders here, who perhaps is rather new to the concept of religion, replied - "He doesn't need to eat because he has special powers." I thought that was an interesting insight into what is generally thought of regarding the Buddha in this part of the world.
A sad experience this week - while finding, we bumped into a BBC (British Born Chinese) from Manchester. I asked is he knew where I was from, and he guessed, "The US?" "No!" I said, "I'm from Berkshire!" He sized me up tentatively, not really certain what to think. I'm don't think he believed me. "Has my accent got that bad?" I asked. Apparently so. So when we have a chat at Christmas, be ready to expect the worst.
Being involved in translating for the Olympics sounds like it'd be a lot of fun, but I don't expect they'll want my Chinese - better to get someone Chinese to do it, as it seems to be a lot easier to learn English when you already speak Chinese, rather than the other way around. Still, there may be something for me to do - not sure what though...
A little about Christmas wishes. I've been thinking about stuff I'd like, and the following comes to mind:
1. a Christmas pudding. If you ask me there is nothing more Christmasy.
2. Fudge. Nice, tasty fudge from home. That'd be good.
I have no idea as far as anything else goes. You can just surprise me - but I'm not too fussed. I'd rather have money waiting for me rather than things here with me now. That said, I do have to ask about the state of my DS Lite and Gameboy Micro - am I going to get them back, or are they now solidly the possessions of other members of the family (such as Mum and Tim...) Because if replacements were needed to keep everybody happier, buying them in Hong Kong would be the better option. Not that I'm trunky for my old toys or anything - it's just that hearing about how much you all seem to be enjoying the XBox made me wonder if I should maybe just leave it with you all when I go off to University. But a handheld would be easily replaced.
Love you all,
羅 長 老
A lot of different cities in this world have a different feel. London has a feeling of ancient meets cutting edge, Hong Kong feels like a desperate desire to be new and tall. Macau has absolutely no desire to be up to date - it's just interested in taking people's money in the very many giant casinos and tourist attractions that can be found here.
Today we all went to visit one of the tallest tourist attractions in Macau - the Macau Tower. One of the Elders here, Elder Robinson (also named Elder 羅) has to leave on Saturday due to visa restrictions, so we all went up to do something he'd never done before. It was expensive - 200 or so Patacas (the currency of Macau which is pretty much exactly the same as the Hong Kong dollar), but it was a fun time. We went to eat at the 360 Cafe, which is a big circular cafe on one of the top floors of the tower. The floor rotates very slowly, meaning that sitting at the table, you very slowly get a 360 birdseye view of Macau. It was a very good meal; a buffet lunch with foods from all over the world. I had some African chicken, some Chinese fried rice, a slice of a roast with a little English mustard - very good. We had a wonderful time, but probably not as good of a time as the bungee jumpers one floor above us, who we could see out the window. That would cost several thousand patacas, and Missionaries are forbidden from bungee jumping, so you don't have to worry - I'm not going to try it.
This has been a tiring week. Things are very busy here at the moment, as we currently have a lot of investigators, all with different concerns, and it's hard to keep track of them all. For example, on Sunday we helped the Wong family to come to church. They have three very energetic children, a very talkative mother, and the father suffered from a stroke a while ago which left him mostly paralyzed. So we went early to their house with their fellowshipper, L C, and helped them attend church by wheeling Brother W's wheelchair and making sure none of the kids went missing along the way. We finally got them to church, only to discover too late that B, who was baptized last week and was supposed to get confirmed this past Sunday, hadn't shown up. Oh dear.
We saw him the next day at our regularly scheduled time. He was so sorry for missing church - I tried to console him, telling him, "It doesn't matter," but he replied, "No, it does matter!" He works very hard as a volunteer for a charity, and as such was just too tired and fell asleep as he prepared for church. But I feel that he was sincerely sorry for missing his confirmation, so I have to fear about him turning up this coming Sunday - maybe we'll give him a call before we head over to the W family though...
Anyway, a little about Buddha - here in China he's always portrayed as a fat, jolly man. I've been told that his weight represents him being full of happiness and joy - a rather nice little message. But last Friday, I mentioned to someone how odd it was that such a large man spent much of his life fasting to the point of death yet was such a fat man. L, who is an investigator who used to live in the Mainland and is being taught by the other Chinese Elders here, who perhaps is rather new to the concept of religion, replied - "He doesn't need to eat because he has special powers." I thought that was an interesting insight into what is generally thought of regarding the Buddha in this part of the world.
A sad experience this week - while finding, we bumped into a BBC (British Born Chinese) from Manchester. I asked is he knew where I was from, and he guessed, "The US?" "No!" I said, "I'm from Berkshire!" He sized me up tentatively, not really certain what to think. I'm don't think he believed me. "Has my accent got that bad?" I asked. Apparently so. So when we have a chat at Christmas, be ready to expect the worst.
Being involved in translating for the Olympics sounds like it'd be a lot of fun, but I don't expect they'll want my Chinese - better to get someone Chinese to do it, as it seems to be a lot easier to learn English when you already speak Chinese, rather than the other way around. Still, there may be something for me to do - not sure what though...
A little about Christmas wishes. I've been thinking about stuff I'd like, and the following comes to mind:
1. a Christmas pudding. If you ask me there is nothing more Christmasy.
2. Fudge. Nice, tasty fudge from home. That'd be good.
I have no idea as far as anything else goes. You can just surprise me - but I'm not too fussed. I'd rather have money waiting for me rather than things here with me now. That said, I do have to ask about the state of my DS Lite and Gameboy Micro - am I going to get them back, or are they now solidly the possessions of other members of the family (such as Mum and Tim...) Because if replacements were needed to keep everybody happier, buying them in Hong Kong would be the better option. Not that I'm trunky for my old toys or anything - it's just that hearing about how much you all seem to be enjoying the XBox made me wonder if I should maybe just leave it with you all when I go off to University. But a handheld would be easily replaced.
Love you all,
羅 長 老
Monday, 3 November 2008
Two Baptisms and a Teasing from a General Authority - 3rd email from Macau
Dear all,
I'll explain the teasing bit a little later. In the meantime, let me say don't worry, Dad, I understand why you'd want to know a little more about Buddhism. But I hate to tell you that anything you're reading in books about passive, simple lives, the eightfold path to enlightenment, etc; is not how Buddhism works over here. Here in China, Buddhism has been combined with ancestor worship, so that while we meet a lot of people who tell us that they "seun faht" ("seun" means believe. "Faht" means "Buddha", which made it easy to remember in the MTC - I just have to remember that Buddha statues are fat), what they really mean is that they burn incense and cardboard objects to their ancestors. It's an interesting religion, and I do find it fascinating how at the same time, the religion is revered and slightly made fun of. For example, the 10,000 Buddhas that I sent you pictures of - built in 2003 or thereabouts, they are clearly not to be taken seriously, but still people go to the temple daily to burn incense. Except, in order to keep the temple clean, you can't burn the incense. So they leave it there, unburnt, instead. At the end of the day, the temple owners gather up the unburnt incense sticks and sell them again the next day. There's also a gift shop inside the temple. Very interestingly different from our Temples. So for the most part, nobody here is really on the path to enlightenment and Nirvana, it's just background information in their mind as they go about life. Not all that different from many Westerners' background concept of God, really.
Anyway, a lot of big things happened this week. On Saturday, we got the chance to do something I've been wanting to do my entire mission - teach and baptize a visitor from Mainland China. These are occasional and wonderful opportunities for Missionaries in this mission - while most of our visitors speak Mandarin and are therefore taught by our Mandarin Missionaries, here in Macau we are very close to the border, so it's very convenient for Mainlanders to come here if they live a little more west than Hong Kong. These wonderfully prepared people have normally heard very little about the church - our friend, brother G, had never heard of the Book of Mormon, or of the Restoration, but they are willing to keep the commandments even before coming here and accept everything on massive amounts of faith. We teach them every lesson in a day, then baptize them and they go home, afterwards being allowed to attend church and learn the more details of the Gospel in the Mainland.
Brother G was a wonderful example of these real miracles. His fiancee is a member who came down a few years ago, and they planned to get married the week after his baptism. She'd shared a little about the church with him, and they'd prayed both together and separately, and he had a very strong testimony of prayer. He'd felt the promptings of the Spirit in very real ways that had blessed his life and led to his decision that, even though he didn't understand much about his future wife's church, she said he had to get baptized and that was good enough for him.
We taught them all day, every lesson, and then Elder Liu baptized him and we stood in the circle as one of the members of the ward confirmed him. It was an amazing day, the Spirit was strong and all were touched.
The next day was Sunday, and we ended up with twelve or thirteen investigators at church. Many of them already have baptismal dates, or are preparing for one. A new family called the W was there (the mother and two children, as the father has suffered from a stroke and can barely move), as were the L brothers and the Y brothers (two sets of twins), each set of twins also brought a friend. We had B, who was baptized that day, then we had a few others as well.
B's baptism was also very good. He's been investigating for a few months now, and was ready before I even got here. A lot of the investigators stayed to see it, and his mother came too. She was very happy for her son (she brought him flowers!) and was given a chance to speak after his baptism. The Relief Society made instant friends with her after the service, and the Sister Missionaries schedualed to teach her with Ben. It was an amazing day. Macau truly is a place of miracles, and the work is blossoming here.
So after two baptisms in two days, what else could I have of importance to talk about this week? Mission Conference, with a visit from a General Authority. Elder Watson of the Seventy was called in April, and is currently serving in the Asia Area Presidency. He and his wife see the Hong Kong Island and International Missionaries finding outside of the Wan Chai building (the Area Office, as well as a huge chapel that's over ten stories high), and Sister Watson made clear that she felt a strong love for them, as they go out and find people in such a busy area, right in the middle of the richest part of Hong Kong. The tour was split into two days; we were on the second day with the International and HK Island zones, having gone to the Temple the day before (which was also magnificent) and stayed in Patron Housing overnight. The "Macau Boys" as our Zone Leader, Elder Burk, calls us, had been asked to give a musical number, and I had been asked to give the opening prayer, so I was very much involved in the program to begin with.
But I made what could be called the mistake of standing near to President Watson before the meeting started with my daily planner out. He asked to see it - what I didn't know at the time was that he was checking several missionaries' planners to see how well kept they were. He was impressed that I'd written a few simple Chinese characters in place of English for names. I didn't think much of it at the time, and the meeting started peacefully. I gave the opening prayer, and after a few bits of business, Elder Watson called on some missionaries to give talks. We'd all prepared 3 minute talks on a Christlike attribute, and he chose on people at random. After the first batch of five or six, he asked if there was anybody who specifically wanted to give their talk. I could not lie and keep my hand down - I really did want to give my talk. I'd received a bolt of revelation in the Celestial Room the day before - while praying and apologizing that I wasn't qualified to do the work of a missionary, the Spirit suddenly reminded me of D&C 4 - "And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work." And so I was chosen, along with three other Elders who had chosen to give their talks. A little later, President Watson drew my name from the hat at random. I was now sitting on the front row, in the queue to speak, and when he found out that it was me again, he said "It's a good thing I didn't say, 'Elder Log Cabin'!"
That was the start of my nickname from President Watson. After the talks were done, he spoke to us on a few subjects - one was our daily planners and our goal planning. He used me as an example, having seen "Elder Log Cabin"'s planner before the meeting started. He complimented me, which I wasn't sure I deserved, as that day's plan was more or less empty because most of the day was to be spent at Conference and on the ferry, and because our goals were rather low as we have lost two days this week again due to Conference.
Then he used good old Elder Log Cabin as an example of keeping learning the language and not "plateuing" as he called it, because I was learning Chinese characters. At lunch, President Van Dam put his arm around me and said, "well, he definitely knows you!" In response I thanked President Van Dam that his sense of humour is such that he never makes fun of my name. Later at lunch Sister Watson came up to me and said, "For years, I've been going behind my husband's back and apologizing for him!" I said it was quite alright and not too big of a deal - we Loffhagens are used to people getting our name wrong.
So, that is that. I've written a lot this week, because I have a lot to say. I didn't even scratch the surface of how Missionary Work is here in Macau. Let me just tell you that things are going well, I'm happy, healthy and enjoying myself.
Also, yes, I am still District Leader, and as far as Disney films go, President Van Dam's fine just letting us watch them on a Preparation Day for fun, so long as we get permission first. Personally, I'd rather not, as it's been a week now and I still can't get the catchy Prince of Egypt music out of my head. At least it's all about God blessing people, so it'd be better than, say, 'A Whole New World'...
I love you all. I'll look into getting a little Buddha statue.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
I'll explain the teasing bit a little later. In the meantime, let me say don't worry, Dad, I understand why you'd want to know a little more about Buddhism. But I hate to tell you that anything you're reading in books about passive, simple lives, the eightfold path to enlightenment, etc; is not how Buddhism works over here. Here in China, Buddhism has been combined with ancestor worship, so that while we meet a lot of people who tell us that they "seun faht" ("seun" means believe. "Faht" means "Buddha", which made it easy to remember in the MTC - I just have to remember that Buddha statues are fat), what they really mean is that they burn incense and cardboard objects to their ancestors. It's an interesting religion, and I do find it fascinating how at the same time, the religion is revered and slightly made fun of. For example, the 10,000 Buddhas that I sent you pictures of - built in 2003 or thereabouts, they are clearly not to be taken seriously, but still people go to the temple daily to burn incense. Except, in order to keep the temple clean, you can't burn the incense. So they leave it there, unburnt, instead. At the end of the day, the temple owners gather up the unburnt incense sticks and sell them again the next day. There's also a gift shop inside the temple. Very interestingly different from our Temples. So for the most part, nobody here is really on the path to enlightenment and Nirvana, it's just background information in their mind as they go about life. Not all that different from many Westerners' background concept of God, really.
Anyway, a lot of big things happened this week. On Saturday, we got the chance to do something I've been wanting to do my entire mission - teach and baptize a visitor from Mainland China. These are occasional and wonderful opportunities for Missionaries in this mission - while most of our visitors speak Mandarin and are therefore taught by our Mandarin Missionaries, here in Macau we are very close to the border, so it's very convenient for Mainlanders to come here if they live a little more west than Hong Kong. These wonderfully prepared people have normally heard very little about the church - our friend, brother G, had never heard of the Book of Mormon, or of the Restoration, but they are willing to keep the commandments even before coming here and accept everything on massive amounts of faith. We teach them every lesson in a day, then baptize them and they go home, afterwards being allowed to attend church and learn the more details of the Gospel in the Mainland.
Brother G was a wonderful example of these real miracles. His fiancee is a member who came down a few years ago, and they planned to get married the week after his baptism. She'd shared a little about the church with him, and they'd prayed both together and separately, and he had a very strong testimony of prayer. He'd felt the promptings of the Spirit in very real ways that had blessed his life and led to his decision that, even though he didn't understand much about his future wife's church, she said he had to get baptized and that was good enough for him.
We taught them all day, every lesson, and then Elder Liu baptized him and we stood in the circle as one of the members of the ward confirmed him. It was an amazing day, the Spirit was strong and all were touched.
The next day was Sunday, and we ended up with twelve or thirteen investigators at church. Many of them already have baptismal dates, or are preparing for one. A new family called the W was there (the mother and two children, as the father has suffered from a stroke and can barely move), as were the L brothers and the Y brothers (two sets of twins), each set of twins also brought a friend. We had B, who was baptized that day, then we had a few others as well.
B's baptism was also very good. He's been investigating for a few months now, and was ready before I even got here. A lot of the investigators stayed to see it, and his mother came too. She was very happy for her son (she brought him flowers!) and was given a chance to speak after his baptism. The Relief Society made instant friends with her after the service, and the Sister Missionaries schedualed to teach her with Ben. It was an amazing day. Macau truly is a place of miracles, and the work is blossoming here.
So after two baptisms in two days, what else could I have of importance to talk about this week? Mission Conference, with a visit from a General Authority. Elder Watson of the Seventy was called in April, and is currently serving in the Asia Area Presidency. He and his wife see the Hong Kong Island and International Missionaries finding outside of the Wan Chai building (the Area Office, as well as a huge chapel that's over ten stories high), and Sister Watson made clear that she felt a strong love for them, as they go out and find people in such a busy area, right in the middle of the richest part of Hong Kong. The tour was split into two days; we were on the second day with the International and HK Island zones, having gone to the Temple the day before (which was also magnificent) and stayed in Patron Housing overnight. The "Macau Boys" as our Zone Leader, Elder Burk, calls us, had been asked to give a musical number, and I had been asked to give the opening prayer, so I was very much involved in the program to begin with.
But I made what could be called the mistake of standing near to President Watson before the meeting started with my daily planner out. He asked to see it - what I didn't know at the time was that he was checking several missionaries' planners to see how well kept they were. He was impressed that I'd written a few simple Chinese characters in place of English for names. I didn't think much of it at the time, and the meeting started peacefully. I gave the opening prayer, and after a few bits of business, Elder Watson called on some missionaries to give talks. We'd all prepared 3 minute talks on a Christlike attribute, and he chose on people at random. After the first batch of five or six, he asked if there was anybody who specifically wanted to give their talk. I could not lie and keep my hand down - I really did want to give my talk. I'd received a bolt of revelation in the Celestial Room the day before - while praying and apologizing that I wasn't qualified to do the work of a missionary, the Spirit suddenly reminded me of D&C 4 - "And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work." And so I was chosen, along with three other Elders who had chosen to give their talks. A little later, President Watson drew my name from the hat at random. I was now sitting on the front row, in the queue to speak, and when he found out that it was me again, he said "It's a good thing I didn't say, 'Elder Log Cabin'!"
That was the start of my nickname from President Watson. After the talks were done, he spoke to us on a few subjects - one was our daily planners and our goal planning. He used me as an example, having seen "Elder Log Cabin"'s planner before the meeting started. He complimented me, which I wasn't sure I deserved, as that day's plan was more or less empty because most of the day was to be spent at Conference and on the ferry, and because our goals were rather low as we have lost two days this week again due to Conference.
Then he used good old Elder Log Cabin as an example of keeping learning the language and not "plateuing" as he called it, because I was learning Chinese characters. At lunch, President Van Dam put his arm around me and said, "well, he definitely knows you!" In response I thanked President Van Dam that his sense of humour is such that he never makes fun of my name. Later at lunch Sister Watson came up to me and said, "For years, I've been going behind my husband's back and apologizing for him!" I said it was quite alright and not too big of a deal - we Loffhagens are used to people getting our name wrong.
So, that is that. I've written a lot this week, because I have a lot to say. I didn't even scratch the surface of how Missionary Work is here in Macau. Let me just tell you that things are going well, I'm happy, healthy and enjoying myself.
Also, yes, I am still District Leader, and as far as Disney films go, President Van Dam's fine just letting us watch them on a Preparation Day for fun, so long as we get permission first. Personally, I'd rather not, as it's been a week now and I still can't get the catchy Prince of Egypt music out of my head. At least it's all about God blessing people, so it'd be better than, say, 'A Whole New World'...
I love you all. I'll look into getting a little Buddha statue.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
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