Dear Family,
What do a one-armed man, a blue vase and a lion dance have in common?
They all featured prominently in Mission Conference yesterday!
As always, I learned a lot. During the morning session of conference, we watched a film about a man who had lost an arm in a war, but had come through the experience with the determination that was summed up when he said "I can do anything - except take no for an answer!"
He decides that he is going to get a job in a specific company, and as such prints up his own business cards with his name - and the company's name on - to give to his future employer as he shows up asking for a job. He is rejected purely on physical appearance, and so goes over this man's head, to his boss, and asks him for a job. This boss, the owner of the company, is more of a kind-hearted granddad kind of man, and so hires him on the spot. He works very, very hard to be the best salesman he can be for the company, until he is being considered for a large promotion - considered by the owner of the company, while the first man who rejected him refuses to acknowledge his good work.
So the owner of the company and the other man set up a scenario wherein the one-armed man has to find a way to get a blue vase that is on sale in a shop to the train station before a train leaves - on a Sunday, when the shop is closed and there's no way to get in the shop. They bet $500 on it, and so the one man tries everything he can to stop the one-armed man from succeeding - including changing the sign on the shop window. The shop is called "Kohn's Art Store", but with a different sign, it reads "Cohen's Art Store". The one-armed man phones up every man named Cohen in the phone book trying to find the one who opens the shop, then checks the shop again, and finds his real name is Kohn. So He does it all over again. Eventually, he misses the train without getting the vase, but he doesn't give up. He gets the owner of the shop to sell him the vase, for the outrageous price of $1000, and leaves his most treasured possession, his pocket-watch, as part of the payment. He then hires a personal aeroplane to fly him to the next stop the train will make and personally delivers the vase to the man.
The owner of the company is thrilled that he has succeeded, and as such gives him his new business cards, printed to read "Vice-President". The promotion is far more than expected.
This film taught me a great lesson. Everybody wants to be the kind of person about which this kind of story can be told, but very few of us ever succeed. So I resolved to follow this man's example, and know that I can do anything - except take no for an answer.
On the way home from Mission Conference, I talked with a man on the bus. As we reached our stop, I offered him a copy of The Family: A Proclamation to the World. He politely declined. I then decided; the man in the film wouldn't take no for an answer; neither will I. So I told the man that I was going to give it to him; it wasn't an offer; I knew the message was important, so he was going to read it with his family. As a show of faith I wrote down my name and phone number on the back and gave it to him - the Spirit was with me, and he didn't take offence. I had succeeded in helping his family come one step closer to Christ.
Later in the Mission Conference, during lunch, we were treated to an interesting show; a Lion Dance. The Assistants to the President, dressed in a traditional Chinese Lion costume (much like a pantomime horse; one at the front, one in the back) and performed a traditional Chinese Lion Dance. It's not all that easy to describe; there's lots of drums being beaten and lots of cymbals tinkling in time with the movements of the animal, who wakes up, stretches, scratches himself a little, dances, runs around, throws up and the jumps in the air. It was really unique; something I'm not sure very many Mission Conferences around the world feature.
Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to go on 24 hour exchanges with Elder Ng, for a second time. The first was right back in my first moves. This time, he told me, was so that the other Zone Leader, Elder Lewis, could go on exchanges with Elder Walgren and give him a little training on leadership.
Elder Ng told me that he was thrilled by all my improvement over the past months, and how much my Chinese has improved. It was a really good learning opportunity, and I learned a lot about how I can improve and grow more. Elder Ng will finish his mission in March, along with a great many other Elders and Sisters (18 to be exact), and I am so thankful for his service as my Zone Leader throughout this time; I have learned so much about how to teach and share with people from him, and his strict obedience to the Mission Rules have also shown me a lot about this very important topic.
Now, as 18 missionaries are "dying", to use mission slang, at the end of this moves, a total of 16 are also entering the mission - several sisters who will work International work, a senior couple and a lot of other Elders who will be in Cantonese work. 18 Elders and Sisters came in last moves too, and similarly large numbers have been coming in every six weeks dating back to my own group. This means a very young mission - and as I look at what happened to my own older group last moves (many of them are "step-dads"; they have companions in their second moves), I see yet more need to improve my Cantonese very quickly. My Pass-Off schedule is looking a little hard, as I only have a few weeks to go, but I am sure I can achieve it; I had a pass-off for Lesson 4 with Elder Ng and he told me that my Cantonese was up to scratch, I just needed to improve my teaching. I think my hardest challenge in teaching in Chinese is that I'm not very confident of my abilities in the language; when I teach in English, I am a far more confident and effective teacher. So I've determined to do something that will help my tongue become more familiar with Cantonese, will help me recall difficult words more quickly, and will help me to improve my sounds and tones (crucial for this language) and give me a boost of confidence in speaking. Since the closing prayer of Mission Conference, I have been on an English fast.
One week. No English - this would be ideal. It is also impractical to cut out all English; for example, I found a man on the bus this morning who speaks Mandarin, and as such I had to communicate with him in English. But in every situation possible I am now trying my utmost to not speak English. If I can't communicate an idea or a work in Chinese, I'll say it in English. This is very useful, as it helps Elder Walgren to see which words I don't know as I speak, and he can teach me them there on the spot. Through this, I shall be able to vastly improve me teaching.
My next Pass-Off is scheduled for tomorrow, and I fully intend to pass - after all, I can do anything except take no for an answer. The decision to do something is just as important as the action of doing it. I WILL pass-off! I know I will, and therefore I will. That will put me right on schedule for completing my final pass-off and my Zone Leader pass-off before the end of the moves.
My time is running out - today I've talked a lot about a wide variety of random topics and I'm not sure if it's even worth reading, but I must ask you that even if you're not saving all the emails I write you, please definitely save this one. Mission Conference was a major turning point for me, and I am now more confident than ever of my ability to do the Lord's work, through His guidance and power.
Lots of love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
Thursday, 28 February 2008
Monday, 18 February 2008
Happy Valentines Day! - 20th email from Hong Kong
Or, in to give it a more Missionary appropriate name, Happy Lock Your Heart Day!
There are two talks given by prophets past that missionaries are to read every moves. One is called Beware of Pride, and is particularly relevant because while this Mission is very obedient, many missionaries have a problem with pride - myself included. It just comes from being in a hard mission speaking a hard language, I guess.
The other talk, Lock Your Heart, instructs us as missionaries to keep focused on the work, and not let romantic thoughts cloud our focus and lead us astray. As such, today being Valentines Day, we read it as a companionship for study this morning.
It was shortly followed by a talk on dating from the February Ensign, and I took particular sadistic glee in reminding my companion, Elder Walgren, that it was particularly relevant to him, as he would be needing to start dating in about five weeks. We joke around about that a lot - that because he's going home soon, now's the time he should be trunky and unfocused. It's not in any way true, but we joke about it anyway.
The weather here at the moment is ridiculously cold. We haven't had any snow, but it has been cold enough at times. Last Monday was particularly frigid, making things rather awkward as it was the Mission Activity - we went up a mountain to a tourist attraction called "Big Buddha", which is the largest sitting bronze Buddha statue in the world. Despite it having been constructed in 1992, a lot of people worship it as if it were an ancient relic. Worshipping idols is something the Chinese people do well.
I was hoping to climb up Lantau peak on Monday, it being right next to Big Buddha, but Elder Walgren and I quickly changed our plans when we discovered how cold it was. I've had enough of hiking up mountains in freezing, stormy weather, and Elder Walgren wasn't up for it at all, so we left it at that. After touring around a bit, we headed down the mountain frustratingly early compared to when I would have liked to have descended, but it was really too cold, and we were too underdressed, to do anything else.
Some brave Elders did indeed climb up to the top, and had fun stories to tell, and other Elders had tales of taking a very steep country path down the mountain, which wasn't as impressive as Elder Walgren and I, who took the bus.
The other day, I did a pass-off to gauge where I am in my preparations for Lesson 4, and found, as expected, that I was seriously lacking. I hadn't expected to actually pass, but I wanted to see what I needed to learn to improve. So Lesson 4, being the one with the most new vocab and the longest to teach, is still a way off. I'm no longer certain about my goal of succeeding before the end of the moves, but I'm going to work hard and do my best.
By the way, could you get me Murray Hamilton's address? I want to write and thank him for all of the inventive Seminary lessons he's used to teach me over the years; I've found great, enjoyable success in using a similar style in teaching families in the ward here. With one family, Elder Walgren and I made Gold Plates for them out of gold card, and they wrote down their testimonies on them. It was so sweet to see the message that their youngest daughter, who is 8 years old wrote - one day, a few days before her baptism, she awoke in the middle of the night after a nightmare. She woke up her "helper" (the Filipino maid the family employs) and asked for help. The helper said that if she prayed, God would comfort her. So she did so, and it worked. She felt comforted and peaceful, knowing He was there to protect her. As I read her testimony, I realised that we hadn't just made a fun interactive lesson for this family; we'd given them their own Golden Plates - their own records of their testimonies that they can keep, which they will be able to look at years later and remember times in the past that God has blessed them.
Another lesson, which we taught to the Bishop's family last night, which really reminded me of a Murray lesson, was the Armour of God. Rather self-explanatory, really. I made some armour out of cardboard and tin-foil, and we dressed up their 8 or 9 year old son, Peter. Peter recently broke his leg rather badly, and is in a huge cast, and so he has to hobble around on crutches. He was really thrilled to put on all the armour and wave around the sword and shield (the sword was actually a retractable Tai Chi sword I bought at Big Buddha). We then explained to the family how they can put on the Armour of God through scripture study, prayer, and going to church. We then taught about service - Peter right now needs a lot of service, as he can barely move, but we should also look for opportunities to help others as well.
It's sad to hear that Grandma's back in hospital again. Hopefully she will recover soon. Please pass on my love to her.
Yesterday was a lot of fun. Elder Walgren had to go the the Temple for a District/Zone Leader meeting, and so he went up with the District Leader from Aberdeen (the district next to us who actually share our sisters!) which left his companion, Elder Wong, and I, together for most of the day.
Elder Wong is a Hong Kong native, which means that he probably has the most frustratingly close to home calling of any missionary in the world. He is currently serving in his native mission, and therefore cannot serve in his own stake, but can visit it for activities or special meetings. In fact, during Chinese New Year, the native missionaries serving in Hong Kong go home to their families for 4 hours, because such is the importance of family during the New Year celebrations, and they're normally within an hour from home. Elder Wong came out on his mission one moves after I arrived in Hong Kong, meaning that while we've been here for about the same time, he's three moves younger than me - he's also immediately proficient in the language. Kind of cheating, if you ask me.
But I really love Elder Wong - we have so much fun together. We went finding together and talked and joked as we went - he even put on a Missionary accent, talking like an American trying to speak Chinese. It was really funny. But even funnier was when he tried to stop someone in the street who just kept walking. Elder Wong said "Leih Hou Sing Saang", and in response, the man said, "I'm sorry - I'm busy!" Elder Wong turned to me and said, "Why did he just speak English to me? I'm Chinese too!" I guess a lot of people see the missionaries as all being American, even if they're clearly not. But then, a lot of ABCs, BBCs and CBCs (American, British and Canadian Born Chinese) get called to the mission, many of them, like Elder Ng and Elder Chan, not actually speaking their ancestral tongue.
Well, time's almost up, so I'd better get going. I love you all and hope you're all having a wonderful time at school, work, play, church, etc etc etc. To quote our beloved, recently deceased prophet, President Hinkley, in his admonition to missionaries, "Don't do anything stupid!"
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
There are two talks given by prophets past that missionaries are to read every moves. One is called Beware of Pride, and is particularly relevant because while this Mission is very obedient, many missionaries have a problem with pride - myself included. It just comes from being in a hard mission speaking a hard language, I guess.
The other talk, Lock Your Heart, instructs us as missionaries to keep focused on the work, and not let romantic thoughts cloud our focus and lead us astray. As such, today being Valentines Day, we read it as a companionship for study this morning.
It was shortly followed by a talk on dating from the February Ensign, and I took particular sadistic glee in reminding my companion, Elder Walgren, that it was particularly relevant to him, as he would be needing to start dating in about five weeks. We joke around about that a lot - that because he's going home soon, now's the time he should be trunky and unfocused. It's not in any way true, but we joke about it anyway.
The weather here at the moment is ridiculously cold. We haven't had any snow, but it has been cold enough at times. Last Monday was particularly frigid, making things rather awkward as it was the Mission Activity - we went up a mountain to a tourist attraction called "Big Buddha", which is the largest sitting bronze Buddha statue in the world. Despite it having been constructed in 1992, a lot of people worship it as if it were an ancient relic. Worshipping idols is something the Chinese people do well.
I was hoping to climb up Lantau peak on Monday, it being right next to Big Buddha, but Elder Walgren and I quickly changed our plans when we discovered how cold it was. I've had enough of hiking up mountains in freezing, stormy weather, and Elder Walgren wasn't up for it at all, so we left it at that. After touring around a bit, we headed down the mountain frustratingly early compared to when I would have liked to have descended, but it was really too cold, and we were too underdressed, to do anything else.
Some brave Elders did indeed climb up to the top, and had fun stories to tell, and other Elders had tales of taking a very steep country path down the mountain, which wasn't as impressive as Elder Walgren and I, who took the bus.
The other day, I did a pass-off to gauge where I am in my preparations for Lesson 4, and found, as expected, that I was seriously lacking. I hadn't expected to actually pass, but I wanted to see what I needed to learn to improve. So Lesson 4, being the one with the most new vocab and the longest to teach, is still a way off. I'm no longer certain about my goal of succeeding before the end of the moves, but I'm going to work hard and do my best.
By the way, could you get me Murray Hamilton's address? I want to write and thank him for all of the inventive Seminary lessons he's used to teach me over the years; I've found great, enjoyable success in using a similar style in teaching families in the ward here. With one family, Elder Walgren and I made Gold Plates for them out of gold card, and they wrote down their testimonies on them. It was so sweet to see the message that their youngest daughter, who is 8 years old wrote - one day, a few days before her baptism, she awoke in the middle of the night after a nightmare. She woke up her "helper" (the Filipino maid the family employs) and asked for help. The helper said that if she prayed, God would comfort her. So she did so, and it worked. She felt comforted and peaceful, knowing He was there to protect her. As I read her testimony, I realised that we hadn't just made a fun interactive lesson for this family; we'd given them their own Golden Plates - their own records of their testimonies that they can keep, which they will be able to look at years later and remember times in the past that God has blessed them.
Another lesson, which we taught to the Bishop's family last night, which really reminded me of a Murray lesson, was the Armour of God. Rather self-explanatory, really. I made some armour out of cardboard and tin-foil, and we dressed up their 8 or 9 year old son, Peter. Peter recently broke his leg rather badly, and is in a huge cast, and so he has to hobble around on crutches. He was really thrilled to put on all the armour and wave around the sword and shield (the sword was actually a retractable Tai Chi sword I bought at Big Buddha). We then explained to the family how they can put on the Armour of God through scripture study, prayer, and going to church. We then taught about service - Peter right now needs a lot of service, as he can barely move, but we should also look for opportunities to help others as well.
It's sad to hear that Grandma's back in hospital again. Hopefully she will recover soon. Please pass on my love to her.
Yesterday was a lot of fun. Elder Walgren had to go the the Temple for a District/Zone Leader meeting, and so he went up with the District Leader from Aberdeen (the district next to us who actually share our sisters!) which left his companion, Elder Wong, and I, together for most of the day.
Elder Wong is a Hong Kong native, which means that he probably has the most frustratingly close to home calling of any missionary in the world. He is currently serving in his native mission, and therefore cannot serve in his own stake, but can visit it for activities or special meetings. In fact, during Chinese New Year, the native missionaries serving in Hong Kong go home to their families for 4 hours, because such is the importance of family during the New Year celebrations, and they're normally within an hour from home. Elder Wong came out on his mission one moves after I arrived in Hong Kong, meaning that while we've been here for about the same time, he's three moves younger than me - he's also immediately proficient in the language. Kind of cheating, if you ask me.
But I really love Elder Wong - we have so much fun together. We went finding together and talked and joked as we went - he even put on a Missionary accent, talking like an American trying to speak Chinese. It was really funny. But even funnier was when he tried to stop someone in the street who just kept walking. Elder Wong said "Leih Hou Sing Saang", and in response, the man said, "I'm sorry - I'm busy!" Elder Wong turned to me and said, "Why did he just speak English to me? I'm Chinese too!" I guess a lot of people see the missionaries as all being American, even if they're clearly not. But then, a lot of ABCs, BBCs and CBCs (American, British and Canadian Born Chinese) get called to the mission, many of them, like Elder Ng and Elder Chan, not actually speaking their ancestral tongue.
Well, time's almost up, so I'd better get going. I love you all and hope you're all having a wonderful time at school, work, play, church, etc etc etc. To quote our beloved, recently deceased prophet, President Hinkley, in his admonition to missionaries, "Don't do anything stupid!"
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
Thursday, 7 February 2008
San Lihn Fai Lohk! - 19th email from Hong Kong
Or in English, Happy New Year!
Today is the first day of the big New Year celebrations. It's crazy here - like Christmas, but more red, and Chinesey. This morning, everything was shut down, and nobody was outside. All the shops were closed and there were no cars on the streets. Hong Kong became a ghost town - if only for the morning.
Now, though, people are everywhere. Why wait when there's shopping to do? And why leave your shop closed when there are people to buy things from you? We were sincerely worried about finding a place to email, because the library is shut, but found a really nice, respectable gaming lounge. Another one we used to email in was horribly smoky, loud and filled with teenagers who just didn't want to go home, while this one is so nice and clean and quiet. Very nice.
There have been a lot of changes to things over here. Many of the Elders from the group above me have just become senior companion, with their very little Cantonese, and many are very scared. Some are companions to brand new Elders who have only been out for one Moves. Elder Shupe, who has been in my district since the beginning, has finally gone to be senior companion to Elder Gines, who was in my group, and another Elder from my group, Elder Kinghorn, has taken his place. Over the next three moves, a lot of missionaries finish their missions (including my companion, Elder Walgren, who I am staying with) and a lot are coming in, so relatively young missionaries like myself are going to have to grow up quickly.
Having understood this for a while, I've been working very hard on my Pass-Offs. I've now passed off the first three lessons, and had a Zone Leader check up, and am working on the big, tough one - lesson 4: The Commandments. The vocab words I need to learn for it are just so weird! My goal is to have completed my pass-offs by the end of this moves, so that if I get a senior companion call, I'll at least be able to teach all of the lessons, if not actually be fluent.
I did get to see President Hinkley's funeral, and thought it was wonderful. One speaker (whose name right now, unfortunately escapes me) said exactly what I was feeling; that President Hinkley is the prophet of this young generation. He is MY prophet. I thought the burial had some nice touches; like burying President Hinkley on Lancastrian soil, and a man playing the bagpipes. It was nice having a prophet who had such a love for our home country - and who had such a sense of humour! I will certainly miss that about him.
But I think that the new First Presidency certainly is an all star cast of hard hitters. President Monson, Eyring and Uchtdorf; three simply wonderful men. Of course, any of the Apostles would do wonderfully, but these three are certainly among my favourites, who seem very suited to take on the responsibility. And the First Presidency certainly is a lot younger now. I'm really hoping for a world tour that'll bring President Monson or one of his counsellors over to Asia. Apparently, when Elder Alspaugh and Elder Walgren were new in the mission, Elder Bednar came to speak to Hong Kong, and spoke to a stadium full of people. He also came to Mission Conference; a slightly more personal setting with him and just 150 or so missionaries. It'd be great to see something like that while I'm here.
A fun thing happened earlier this week. We were contacting by a park and said hello to a man on a bench. He made the facial expression as if we were offering him a plate of mouldy cat brains to eat and tried to wave us away. I said goodbye and kept walking, but Elder Shupe, who I was with at the time, dared to ask for a referral. He asked if the man had any friends who might like to hear about our church, and the man was confused for a second. He then suddenly realised that we were speaking Cantonese. This generally has the same kind of effect on people as if we pulled a $500 note out of our pocket and handed it to them. He was astounded. He asked us how on earth we had learned Cantonese, and asked, as many do, if we were native to Hong Kong. We explained that Elder Shupe had been here for 6 months and myself 4, and the man was blown away. I asked him if he knew how we'd learned to quickly and he suspected we studied twelve hours a day. I then explained that, of course, it was God's blessing upon us to help us talk to people. We chatted with him for a while until a friend of his turned up and he had to go, but he kindly accepted a flyer. It's amazing how the gifts God gives us to help us teach the Gospel can so quickly soften people's hearts - originally he wanted us as far away from him as possible, and within the blink of an eye, he was the most friendly, warm person you could imagine.
Everyone sounds like you're all doing well, be it with school, buying cars, missionary work, making friends, counseling, or whatever else. Keep up the good work!
One thing that occurred to me when I was watching President Hinkley's funeral, was something I'd thought about before; studying journalism at university. With the ability to speak Cantonese, and then if I can learn Mandarin from somewhere, I'd probably be able to do a lot, and would be able to study writing. The only difficulty would be the whole learning Mandarin by myself thing, but beyond that, I think it would be really good. Although, a job like that, with the ability to speak Cantonese, will probably see me travelling around a lot, and I'd like to have a career that keeps me close to my family, but it'd definitely be worth looking into. Would you be able to help me with that? :)
Love you all lots, hope you are well and continue to be so,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
PS Happy Birthday Dad! :D
Today is the first day of the big New Year celebrations. It's crazy here - like Christmas, but more red, and Chinesey. This morning, everything was shut down, and nobody was outside. All the shops were closed and there were no cars on the streets. Hong Kong became a ghost town - if only for the morning.
Now, though, people are everywhere. Why wait when there's shopping to do? And why leave your shop closed when there are people to buy things from you? We were sincerely worried about finding a place to email, because the library is shut, but found a really nice, respectable gaming lounge. Another one we used to email in was horribly smoky, loud and filled with teenagers who just didn't want to go home, while this one is so nice and clean and quiet. Very nice.
There have been a lot of changes to things over here. Many of the Elders from the group above me have just become senior companion, with their very little Cantonese, and many are very scared. Some are companions to brand new Elders who have only been out for one Moves. Elder Shupe, who has been in my district since the beginning, has finally gone to be senior companion to Elder Gines, who was in my group, and another Elder from my group, Elder Kinghorn, has taken his place. Over the next three moves, a lot of missionaries finish their missions (including my companion, Elder Walgren, who I am staying with) and a lot are coming in, so relatively young missionaries like myself are going to have to grow up quickly.
Having understood this for a while, I've been working very hard on my Pass-Offs. I've now passed off the first three lessons, and had a Zone Leader check up, and am working on the big, tough one - lesson 4: The Commandments. The vocab words I need to learn for it are just so weird! My goal is to have completed my pass-offs by the end of this moves, so that if I get a senior companion call, I'll at least be able to teach all of the lessons, if not actually be fluent.
I did get to see President Hinkley's funeral, and thought it was wonderful. One speaker (whose name right now, unfortunately escapes me) said exactly what I was feeling; that President Hinkley is the prophet of this young generation. He is MY prophet. I thought the burial had some nice touches; like burying President Hinkley on Lancastrian soil, and a man playing the bagpipes. It was nice having a prophet who had such a love for our home country - and who had such a sense of humour! I will certainly miss that about him.
But I think that the new First Presidency certainly is an all star cast of hard hitters. President Monson, Eyring and Uchtdorf; three simply wonderful men. Of course, any of the Apostles would do wonderfully, but these three are certainly among my favourites, who seem very suited to take on the responsibility. And the First Presidency certainly is a lot younger now. I'm really hoping for a world tour that'll bring President Monson or one of his counsellors over to Asia. Apparently, when Elder Alspaugh and Elder Walgren were new in the mission, Elder Bednar came to speak to Hong Kong, and spoke to a stadium full of people. He also came to Mission Conference; a slightly more personal setting with him and just 150 or so missionaries. It'd be great to see something like that while I'm here.
A fun thing happened earlier this week. We were contacting by a park and said hello to a man on a bench. He made the facial expression as if we were offering him a plate of mouldy cat brains to eat and tried to wave us away. I said goodbye and kept walking, but Elder Shupe, who I was with at the time, dared to ask for a referral. He asked if the man had any friends who might like to hear about our church, and the man was confused for a second. He then suddenly realised that we were speaking Cantonese. This generally has the same kind of effect on people as if we pulled a $500 note out of our pocket and handed it to them. He was astounded. He asked us how on earth we had learned Cantonese, and asked, as many do, if we were native to Hong Kong. We explained that Elder Shupe had been here for 6 months and myself 4, and the man was blown away. I asked him if he knew how we'd learned to quickly and he suspected we studied twelve hours a day. I then explained that, of course, it was God's blessing upon us to help us talk to people. We chatted with him for a while until a friend of his turned up and he had to go, but he kindly accepted a flyer. It's amazing how the gifts God gives us to help us teach the Gospel can so quickly soften people's hearts - originally he wanted us as far away from him as possible, and within the blink of an eye, he was the most friendly, warm person you could imagine.
Everyone sounds like you're all doing well, be it with school, buying cars, missionary work, making friends, counseling, or whatever else. Keep up the good work!
One thing that occurred to me when I was watching President Hinkley's funeral, was something I'd thought about before; studying journalism at university. With the ability to speak Cantonese, and then if I can learn Mandarin from somewhere, I'd probably be able to do a lot, and would be able to study writing. The only difficulty would be the whole learning Mandarin by myself thing, but beyond that, I think it would be really good. Although, a job like that, with the ability to speak Cantonese, will probably see me travelling around a lot, and I'd like to have a career that keeps me close to my family, but it'd definitely be worth looking into. Would you be able to help me with that? :)
Love you all lots, hope you are well and continue to be so,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
PS Happy Birthday Dad! :D
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