Dear all,
I've enjoyed myself and am in a particularly good mood right now. Honestly though, I'm not sure why - but for whatever reason, I'm thrilled to be here.
So, I've made a comprehensive list of every question you've asked me - rhetorical or otherwise. Here we go.
"Did you hand in your photos for this years DVD?"
Yes.
"I guess if we get your phone call Christmas day we won't get an email that day too."
Not sure.
"Will it still be your pday."
Yes.
"Have you had any thoughts about how we will do the phone call?"
No.
"We received an email today from someone in Macau, P E. She is asking us to be guardians for students coming over here to study. We are going to ask for a little more information but we might be able to get some of the other ward members involved. We just need to know what our commitment would be."
Let me explain a little from what I've heard on the subject - Brother Y, who is a really great member here in the Chinese branch (but whose English is above par) runs an organization finding placements for Macau students in international schools. The other day we were at the church when he phoned and asked to speak to me. He told me that he has a student that he's trying to send to Norwich, and asked (in English - perhaps he doesn't trust my Chinese) if you could be guardians. I asked for explanation of what that entailed, but didn't get a very clear response - something about signing papers. I pointed out that Norwich is rather far away from us, but he insisted that he'd looked on a map and we were quite close; which I'm sure is true - compared to, say, Glasgow. Certainly closer than Macau is to Norwich. I also stated that you are all pretty much always busy and probably wouldn't have time to help, but that he could try. I gave him the home phone number and Dad's email address, and I guess he got P (who attends the English branch but works for Brother Y) to email you. Perhaps there are some members who could also help - I know that between the two of you, Mum and Dad, you know pretty much every family in the church in Britain :)
Speaking of members in Britain, some fun news - one of our recent converts here in Macau, V, told us that he is moving to England in June. How convenient, as I'll get home in July or August - we can go to YSA stuff together.
Anyway, back to questions:
"So far as coming home, if you want you can be really busy - EFY will be on in late August / early Sept 2009 in the South of England and they will be after returned missionaries as chaperons :)"
Not sure I'm willing to commit to anything just yet. I do hope to get some time for work in before I go to University, and with constant holidays, It'd be hard to get any work. But we'll see how things go - August is still a long time away.
With Christmas well on the way, we're busy making preparations for various activities. One such activity is the Mission Christmas Social - all of the zones will perform skits, and we just practiced ours a little. We're doing A Christmas Carol with a missionary twist. Trunky old Sister Chan (this was all her idea) won't get out of bed to study or go finding, and is visited by the Ghosts of Mission Past, Present and Future to realise that she's got to go work hard for the rest of her mission. The practice could have been a little better - we don't really have a script yet; just a vague idea of what we're going to do. It'll be alright on the night.
Our investigators are progressing nicely - J and Sister W are stepping closer to baptism every day. J shows proof of just how effective a good fellowshipper can be - because he knows Recent Converts H and V, and goes to school with his friend Y, he has support in a lot of different directions. On Saturday, before we sat down to teach him, he told us that he probably couldn't come to church, because he had to study for exams (this is a common excuse - they have tests at school every two months, so they're always studying for tests) but when we got to the end of the lesson, he asked Y if he was going to be at church. Y replied; "of course" and J said, "Okay, I'll come too." He stayed for all three hours, and I was thrilled for him.
Yesterday we taught the Wong family about the Word of Wisdom - we chose to teach them this commandment first because it's pretty much the only one we expected them to have problems with - perhaps the Sabbath will present a problem too, but Sister W already knows about it as she has a great love for the Bible. In fact, when we told her that we were going to teach the commandments, she started listing some of the ones she knows, such as not stealing or killing - she was very sorry to tell us that occaisonally she lies, and we told her to work on that. So we talked about prayer and scripture reading, to point out that they're already keeping some commandments, as we carefully built up to the Word of Wisdom.
Now, here in China, EVERYBODY drinks tea. So EVERYBODY has a problem with the Word of Wisdom. It was funny watching Elder Liu carefully go through the elements of this commandment.
"Well," he said, "First off, we don't use harmful drugs."
"Of course!" said Sister W, "I'd never do that!"
"Okay," continued Elder Liu, "And we don't smoke."
Again, no problem.
"Alcohol?" No, she had nothing wrong there either.
"And then there's coffee - "
Here was the problem. "Oh dear!" said Sister Wong, "I have some coffee - over there!" She pointed, "But I never never drink it!"
We assured her that it was okay. Then Elder Liu steeled himself and said, "And...tea."
We waited, looking at her. There was a split second of nervousness between the two of us, but she wasn't phased, "Oh, no, I rarely drink tea. Only if I go out to a restaurant, but I can just drink water - that's fine."
We were absolutely blown away. Surely it couldn't possibly be THAT easy? But it was - and suddenly a lesson that we'd been expecting to take 45 minutes was done in twenty. Sister W was committed and one step closer to baptism. So that was a nice little miracle for today.
Christmas this year ought to be an interesting affair. Because it's Preparation Day, it's the perfect day for Elder Liu to visit his family. It's an interesting situation - his grandma, aunt and uncle live here. While he's still a missionary, They like to do things with him, as one can imagine, such as having us over for dinner, or, on Christmas, going to visit Grandad's grave. Grandma believes in Ancestor Worship, and culture is such that we will all take a trip to the graveyard on Christmas day to leave him some food, maybe burn some incense - I'm not entirely sure of the whole plan, but it ought to be a unique experience for me. I'm glad that Elder Liu will get to spend the day with his family, and excited that I'll get Christmas morning with my Mission family as well, as the zone will meet together for Christmas morning at the Kaps' home. Elder and Sister Kap are the senior couple assigned to Macau, but they're by no means what I would call the regular senior couple - one time we went out for a run in the morning and were overtaken by Sister Kap! They're not yet particularly senior, and we call them our "Mission Mum and Dad". So we'll go over to their house for Christmas morning before heading over to the graveyard. Yes, it certainly will be a fun day.
I love you all and hope that you are all doing well. I wish you all a very merry Christmas. I can buy a calling card here to call home with - you can tell me when would be most convenient for you and I can just call then; it shouldn't be too big of a deal.
Lots of love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
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