Dear all,
Yes, Brother S's baptism went without a hitch. It was a very different experience for me than K's. At K's, with the dozen or so friends he brought to church, I found myself trying desperately to keep everything from collapsing into chaos, and it was a rather stressful experience. With Brother S, we arrived to see him already dressed in white and ready to go; the Ward Mission Leader, Brother C, had already got everything sorted. I didn't have to wait for a companion to change, and everything else was sorted because two people were being baptized at once (Brother N of the Tai Wo ward, which also meets in our building, was baptized in the same service) so I didn't need to worry about giving a talk or anything. I was able to sit back and enjoy the service, which went without a hitch.
Brother S had requested an opportunity to bear his testimony, and so he shared about the trials of his life before he met us - a gambling addiction, his family problems and various other things. Then he shared about how Elder Sharp and I had found him and helped him to overcome his trials. Most of all, he shared about how through the peace in his life that he has now, he knows that God lives and loves him, and wants to bless him, and he knows that this truly is God's true church. While it's clear to me that he hasn't yet had a confirming, huge spiritual experience, it is clear that the Holy Ghost has subtly whispered to him the truth of the Book of Mormon and the message of the Restoration.
We met with him again on Tuesday and shared a little about Family History work, because I want to give him something really productive to do with all of his free time; and afterwards we asked him to stick around while we taught an investigator called A. A has a lot of family problems and wants to change his life, but I don't think he really wants to change himself. Plus, he's pretty certain, like most Hong Kong people, that money is the most important thing in life. Here Brother S performed brilliantly - he was clear and direct in explaining that before he started investigating the church, he also thought that money was most important, but now he understands that his family is the most important in his life. It was wonderful to hear his testimony again.
We're a little concerned about one thing with him, though - on Sunday he came to church in a white short sleeve shirt and tie, instead of the blue shirt without a tie he had been wearing. He wore exactly the same thing when we saw him on Tuesday. Elder Bagley and I are a little worried that because he's only ever seen members of the church in Sunday best, save a few instances when he's come to ward activities, and because he always meets with us - and of course, we always wear a shirt and tie, he may perhaps think that members of the church always have to wear a shirt and tie. We'll make sure to straighten this up when we see him on Sunday.
So Beth left without the Chinchillas? I'm sure Tim is thrilled, even if Jess isn't. The house does still sound awfully full, I'm not sure if there will be a place for me when I get back. I'm fine in a tent in the back garden if necessary. Let me tell you about the dream I had last night; it was rather strange. I dreamt that I was home from my mission, having finished (honourably, I might add - I don't have worthiness nightmares like Mum). I got home, and Mum said, "Well, you'd better get to work. Your room's still in a mess just like you left it two years ago." Sure enough, I was back in my old room, and it was a pigsty. I guess I shouldn't have worried; I don't have a bedroom. I have the space under the stairs, just like Harry Potter.
Give my love to Grandma and also to Auntie Katie. I'm sure everything will be fine for both of them. Also, whether or not you go to Uncle James' and Olivia's birthday party, please tell them happy birthday from me and send my love.
Isn't it amazing that we can send love via the internet these days? Back in olden times people had to use hugging or, if far away, letters on boats. Back when President Van Dam was a missionary, he's told me, the only way to get from Hong Kong island to the Mainland was by a big ferry called the Star Ferry. I mention this because yesterday, as we had some business back on the Island (in my old area, I might add) we took the ferry on the way home. It was Elder Bagley's first time, so I took a picture of him. The white guy in front of us asked if I could take his picture too, which I did. He told us he'd seen the missionaries before, back in his home town of... Reading! Isn't it a small world! He lives in Caversham, actually, right opposite the Monitoring Station where Dad works.
I think that John Willis would be an amazing missionary in Nauvoo. I had known that senior missionaries are allowed to choose where they serve to a degree, but it seems from all of the senior couples I've seen here that it was as much of a surprise for them as it was for us, the young missionaries. Mum and Dad, have you two ever thought about serving a mission once everyone's out of the house? Granted that's a long way away right now. One of the Elders in Elder Bagley's group was in the MTC at the same time as his parents - apparently their departure date was about 6 weeks before his, so they contacted the MTC and he came out earlier than he was planning, because otherwise there wouldn't have been anyone else in his house for the last few months at home!
Last Friday, Brother F, our summer missionary, was supposed to go home. Too bad for him that there was a level 9 typhoon; the worst since 1999. He had to stay in the apartment with us all day, and he was very bored. I was too; most of the time it didn't even look bad outside, so I got rather frustrated that we weren't allowed to leave. After having updated all of our records, we cleaned the entire apartment, and then played a board game that I had made up for a District Meeting a few weeks ago. You take your investigator to baptism, resolving concerns and sharing scriptures to help his situation as you go. Everybody seemed to like it in District Meeting, so we had it stored for an emergency in case of typhoon, and it turns out it came in handy after all.
Finally, on Saturday we took Brother F to the Mission Home. President Van Dam was there, and as we looked at the Missionary board he has in his office, he explained what various things on it meant. It's a big board of our pictures and names, and are printed on three colours of cardboard - yellow, blue and green. He explained that yellow is for the oldest missionaries, green is the missionaries in the middle and blue is the new missionaries. It worried me that there were so few yellow missionaries left, and mine was one of the first groups displayed in green. Perhaps reading my mind, President Van Dam, sitting next to me, clapped his hand on my shoulder and said, "You're getting to be an old missionary now!"
"That doesn't make me feel very good," I said in return.
Time's almost up, so I'll be going. Keep up the good work, and I'm hoping for university stuff to be finished before school starts again, because there's no way you'll have time once you're back at school.
Lots of love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Thursday, 28 August 2008
Another Summer Missionary - 45th email from Hong Kong
Dear family,
Yes, the package from Grandma, complete with everything, has arrived safe and sound. And yes, I'm going to go glasses shopping later today. I've spent the past week with broken glasses, as both my pairs are well and truly worn out and in several pieces. One pair snapped in half (the nose bridge had been weakening for a long time) and the frame in the other pair is broken so that only one lense is in place. So it's been a fun week. Hopefully I should have a nice, new pair soon that'll last to the end of the mission.
Please tell Steve that I enjoyed his email he sent me, and that a reply is on the way via post, as I'm not allowed to email anyone else other that family members - if there's another instance of email misuse, President Van Dam is threatening to take away our email privileges.
Good job Dad on picking the cheaper option. There's no real need for an iPhone anyway; a very expensive piece of kit. After having spent a year away from any new electronic equiptment, I've realised just how unnessescary the latest gadget is. I'm going to do things a lot differently when I go home - one important rule I've set for myself is that I can only buy a new computer game when I finish an old one, to prevent me from just buying tonnes of games and never really playing them to the end. I've also seriously re-evaluated my plans for getting an expensive, shiny laptop for school when I get back - so long as it does what it needs to do, there's no point in spending extra.
The iPhone does look good, though. K's the webmaster for a group of kids who've made their own little company making applications for it. He's been test driving the iPod Touch this week, and showed us a little of the things you can do with it. Nice and all, but I think the little iPod Nano you sent me for Christmas does everything I need it to.
Well done on handling things well with Beth recently. I'm sure it's been an emotional experience for everyone. I guess the house is getting awfully empty, what with just you two, Tim, Jess, Biscuit, Robbie and the Ferrets there. Not to worry though - with house prices as they are, I'll be living at home until I'm 35! :P
Tell Beth Happy Birthday from me, and that I hope all goes well in her new flat.
I did happen to notice a chart of the best few countries for the Olympics in the newspaper of the man next to me on the train this morning. How fun for Britain to be doing so well. All of the Americans in the mission have been laughing about the success of their nation, and we've also been happy to see China doing very well. But right down the bottom of the chart I saw, it listed Hong Kong: 0 medals. Too bad Hong Kong, but it's kind of like having London vs the rest of the world in something; the odds are somewhat against this little Special Administrative Region.
So as I mentioned in the email subject, yes, we have another Summer Missionary. His name is A F, and he's from West Point, my old area. Hurray! It's been a really fun week. He works really hard, more so than any Summer Missionary I've seen so far, and he really knows his stuff. While a little shy, he puts it all aside and contacts people and teaches lessons very well. The other day we met a man who was terrified of Elder Bagley and I, so we stayed out of sight as Brother F ran after him and talked with him. He got his phone number and rescheduled him! But considering that he tried to run away from us "white ghosts", it wasn't all that surprising when he didn't turn up.
So Mr S's baptism is all set for this Sunday. He passed his interview with no problem, so he's ready. The best part is who we're getting to baptize him. We were talking with the Bishop last Thursday to organize it in Priesthood Executive Commitee, and he told us to ask him. If he wanted one of us missionaries to baptize him, fair enough, but if he didn't mind, the Bishop thought it'd be great if Kelvin could do it. So as Brother Sou didn't mind and Kelvin's willing, my recent convert is going to baptize me other recent convert. Yay!
Serving here in Tai Po really has been a wonderful experience for me. I've been able to see so many miracles, and helped people come unto Christ through baptism. The moves in over half way done, and as I've been here so long, there's a chance I may move - but because I'm training Elder Bagley, there's also a chance I'll stay here. I'm not really bothered either way; I'd kind of like to stay, I guess, but I'm also ready to move on if it's nessescary and what the Lord wants me to do. Tomorrow I'm heading back to West Point for a little while, though, because Elder Bagley has a doctor's appointment. Nothing to worry about, just something run of the mill, but it'll be a lot of fun to go back to my old area. We're going to take the famous Star Ferry, which is on a list that President and Sister Van Dam have given us of recommended things to do while on our missions here.
How's Tim doing? I haven't heard much about him in a while. Is he keeping up with his scripture reading? If so, tell him well done from me. If not, tell him give it another try. Same goes to Jess - tell her I say that reading the scriptures is essential to developing and maintaining a testimony. It's interesting how those so called "Primary answers" to questions asked in church (pray, read the scriptures, come to church) are so essential. As a missionary, I've seen that the only investigators who really progress are the ones who do these three things. The first time we met Mr S, we invited him back to the church right then and there (Elder Sharp and I both agreed afterwards that this was kind of strange as we were kind of far away from it, but it felt right as I said it) and when we got there, he wanted to know when the services are. It was decided the first time we met him that he was going to come to church, and honestly, it was also pretty much decided that he was going to get baptized. He'd made that choice before he even knew it was a choice. K was the same. He described it as an addiction to church; he just can't get enough. And both of them just loved the Book of Mormon. They soaked it up. When K was quitting tea, he said that the hardest times were when he'd just woken up in the morning, and so that was the time he'd read his scriptures. Brother Sou had nothing to do all day, and so out of boredom he'd turned to gambling. With the Book of Mormon, he had something to do every day. I remember the shock on the face of the first councillor in the Bishopric when we reported that Mr S had finished 2nd Nephi. "Woah - he made it through the Isaiah chapters," he said. And as for prayer, Mr Sou found it a struggle at first because it was not a way of praying he was used to - his only knowledge of prayer was the ancestor worship everyone does here, reciting the same wish for a healthy life. As first he'd just pray very simply for help to quit gambling and have a happy family, but after attending church, he heard the prayers of faithful members with strong testimonies, and began progressing and really started talking with Heavenly Father.
So pray, read the scriptures and come to church - the steps to a lasting testimony. It's amazing how simple the Gospel is; God doesn't ask for much, so it's not really all that hard to do it.
So Tim, Jess, read those scriptures. You too, Mum and Dad.
Lots of love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Yes, the package from Grandma, complete with everything, has arrived safe and sound. And yes, I'm going to go glasses shopping later today. I've spent the past week with broken glasses, as both my pairs are well and truly worn out and in several pieces. One pair snapped in half (the nose bridge had been weakening for a long time) and the frame in the other pair is broken so that only one lense is in place. So it's been a fun week. Hopefully I should have a nice, new pair soon that'll last to the end of the mission.
Please tell Steve that I enjoyed his email he sent me, and that a reply is on the way via post, as I'm not allowed to email anyone else other that family members - if there's another instance of email misuse, President Van Dam is threatening to take away our email privileges.
Good job Dad on picking the cheaper option. There's no real need for an iPhone anyway; a very expensive piece of kit. After having spent a year away from any new electronic equiptment, I've realised just how unnessescary the latest gadget is. I'm going to do things a lot differently when I go home - one important rule I've set for myself is that I can only buy a new computer game when I finish an old one, to prevent me from just buying tonnes of games and never really playing them to the end. I've also seriously re-evaluated my plans for getting an expensive, shiny laptop for school when I get back - so long as it does what it needs to do, there's no point in spending extra.
The iPhone does look good, though. K's the webmaster for a group of kids who've made their own little company making applications for it. He's been test driving the iPod Touch this week, and showed us a little of the things you can do with it. Nice and all, but I think the little iPod Nano you sent me for Christmas does everything I need it to.
Well done on handling things well with Beth recently. I'm sure it's been an emotional experience for everyone. I guess the house is getting awfully empty, what with just you two, Tim, Jess, Biscuit, Robbie and the Ferrets there. Not to worry though - with house prices as they are, I'll be living at home until I'm 35! :P
Tell Beth Happy Birthday from me, and that I hope all goes well in her new flat.
I did happen to notice a chart of the best few countries for the Olympics in the newspaper of the man next to me on the train this morning. How fun for Britain to be doing so well. All of the Americans in the mission have been laughing about the success of their nation, and we've also been happy to see China doing very well. But right down the bottom of the chart I saw, it listed Hong Kong: 0 medals. Too bad Hong Kong, but it's kind of like having London vs the rest of the world in something; the odds are somewhat against this little Special Administrative Region.
So as I mentioned in the email subject, yes, we have another Summer Missionary. His name is A F, and he's from West Point, my old area. Hurray! It's been a really fun week. He works really hard, more so than any Summer Missionary I've seen so far, and he really knows his stuff. While a little shy, he puts it all aside and contacts people and teaches lessons very well. The other day we met a man who was terrified of Elder Bagley and I, so we stayed out of sight as Brother F ran after him and talked with him. He got his phone number and rescheduled him! But considering that he tried to run away from us "white ghosts", it wasn't all that surprising when he didn't turn up.
So Mr S's baptism is all set for this Sunday. He passed his interview with no problem, so he's ready. The best part is who we're getting to baptize him. We were talking with the Bishop last Thursday to organize it in Priesthood Executive Commitee, and he told us to ask him. If he wanted one of us missionaries to baptize him, fair enough, but if he didn't mind, the Bishop thought it'd be great if Kelvin could do it. So as Brother Sou didn't mind and Kelvin's willing, my recent convert is going to baptize me other recent convert. Yay!
Serving here in Tai Po really has been a wonderful experience for me. I've been able to see so many miracles, and helped people come unto Christ through baptism. The moves in over half way done, and as I've been here so long, there's a chance I may move - but because I'm training Elder Bagley, there's also a chance I'll stay here. I'm not really bothered either way; I'd kind of like to stay, I guess, but I'm also ready to move on if it's nessescary and what the Lord wants me to do. Tomorrow I'm heading back to West Point for a little while, though, because Elder Bagley has a doctor's appointment. Nothing to worry about, just something run of the mill, but it'll be a lot of fun to go back to my old area. We're going to take the famous Star Ferry, which is on a list that President and Sister Van Dam have given us of recommended things to do while on our missions here.
How's Tim doing? I haven't heard much about him in a while. Is he keeping up with his scripture reading? If so, tell him well done from me. If not, tell him give it another try. Same goes to Jess - tell her I say that reading the scriptures is essential to developing and maintaining a testimony. It's interesting how those so called "Primary answers" to questions asked in church (pray, read the scriptures, come to church) are so essential. As a missionary, I've seen that the only investigators who really progress are the ones who do these three things. The first time we met Mr S, we invited him back to the church right then and there (Elder Sharp and I both agreed afterwards that this was kind of strange as we were kind of far away from it, but it felt right as I said it) and when we got there, he wanted to know when the services are. It was decided the first time we met him that he was going to come to church, and honestly, it was also pretty much decided that he was going to get baptized. He'd made that choice before he even knew it was a choice. K was the same. He described it as an addiction to church; he just can't get enough. And both of them just loved the Book of Mormon. They soaked it up. When K was quitting tea, he said that the hardest times were when he'd just woken up in the morning, and so that was the time he'd read his scriptures. Brother Sou had nothing to do all day, and so out of boredom he'd turned to gambling. With the Book of Mormon, he had something to do every day. I remember the shock on the face of the first councillor in the Bishopric when we reported that Mr S had finished 2nd Nephi. "Woah - he made it through the Isaiah chapters," he said. And as for prayer, Mr Sou found it a struggle at first because it was not a way of praying he was used to - his only knowledge of prayer was the ancestor worship everyone does here, reciting the same wish for a healthy life. As first he'd just pray very simply for help to quit gambling and have a happy family, but after attending church, he heard the prayers of faithful members with strong testimonies, and began progressing and really started talking with Heavenly Father.
So pray, read the scriptures and come to church - the steps to a lasting testimony. It's amazing how simple the Gospel is; God doesn't ask for much, so it's not really all that hard to do it.
So Tim, Jess, read those scriptures. You too, Mum and Dad.
Lots of love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Olympics and other things - 44th email from Hong Kong
Dear Mum and Dad,
Before I say anything, I'll say this before I forget - both packages turned up this week. So we're all good.
Also let me say - don't worry about university financing, but please do something soon as far as sending me information goes. I am not decided upon BYU, and would really like to look at prospectuses from British universities. Courses of interest to me are computer animation, journalism (print), English Literature and Chinese. We've been talking about these things for a really long time now, and I'd like to actually get it all moving. So please actually send me some information soon. :)
And now other things: the Mission Olympics were last Tuesday, and they were a lot of fun. I ran the 100 metres, and represented Great Britain by wearing the Union Flag you sent me as a cape. Despite all logic to the contrary, I did not come last - I came second to last, and was very happy to do so. I wasn't intending to win, just to have fun, look cool and not come last, so mission accomplished.
We also got to watch the opening ceremonies of the real Olympics, which was amazing. I was really impressed by the huge show that they put on to begin the games; my favourite part was when they lit the flame. Did you see it? The torch was passed to the man who had the honour of lighting the flame, and then he flew up in the air, ran all the way around the stadium wall and lit the flame. Very Chinese.
Everyone is currently Olympics mad here. Every television is tuned into the games - and there are a lot of televisions here. So we'll be walking down the street, finding, and see a television display in the window of a shop showing Hong Kong vs Poland in Table Tennis or China vs Hong Kong in badminton. I guess every nation has different sports that they actually compete well in here.
Mission Conference ran late, so we had to cancel our weekly correlation meeting with the ward mission leader, and barely got back in time for the Family Home Evening we have at the church every week for our investigators and recent converts. So we were sticky and grimy with sweat, in shorts and t-shirts, and we hadn't planned the lesson that we were supposed to teach, as we'd had no time to go home, shower, change and plan. I decided to turn our unusual appearance into a lesson, and we talked about the Olympics, about having strength to overcome our trials and relying on the Lord. We shared Alma 26:12, where Ammon says that as to his strength he is weak, but he will boast in God, who has the strength to help him to anything.
I think it went well, but it was slightly spoiled when the Sister missionaries in our ward turned up about 15 minutes after us in regular proselyting clothes. They live on top of the train station, right next to the church, so they had time to go home and change, whereas we would have had to take a bus to get home from the train station which would have taken half an hour, and then would have had to take it back to the church again.
The glasses prescription didn't come a moment too soon - I snapped my pair in half the next day. They'd been wearing out for a while and weakening on the bridge of the nose, and they finally snapped in half. I wore the other pair for the rest of the day, but the screw is broken on one side so one of the lenses keeps popping out. It should do for the moment, but because we're so short on time today I don't think we'll have a chance to go new glasses shopping until next week, which means it'll be about 2 weeks until I can pick them up. In the meantime I'll try some superglue to hold my glasses together.
We have no time today because today is also our Temple day. It was a very good session - I was worried that I'd end up falling asleep as I'm still pretty tired from mission conference (even though I didn't really do much), but I stayed completely awake the whole time.
Brother S will be baptized on the 24th, and he is very excited for it. It seems that the rest of his family might take a while longer though; they're not really investigators yet, and due to bizzare schedules, it's pretty much impossible for us to teach them all at once. His wife has to work on Sunday and his daughter goes to another Christian church, but I'm sure that they'll gain more interest as time goes by. They seem to be happy enough going to activities at church and hopefully we can invite them to Brother S's baptism next week.
So all in all, it's been a really good week. I'm going to keep working hard, and praying for you all.
Love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Before I say anything, I'll say this before I forget - both packages turned up this week. So we're all good.
Also let me say - don't worry about university financing, but please do something soon as far as sending me information goes. I am not decided upon BYU, and would really like to look at prospectuses from British universities. Courses of interest to me are computer animation, journalism (print), English Literature and Chinese. We've been talking about these things for a really long time now, and I'd like to actually get it all moving. So please actually send me some information soon. :)
And now other things: the Mission Olympics were last Tuesday, and they were a lot of fun. I ran the 100 metres, and represented Great Britain by wearing the Union Flag you sent me as a cape. Despite all logic to the contrary, I did not come last - I came second to last, and was very happy to do so. I wasn't intending to win, just to have fun, look cool and not come last, so mission accomplished.
We also got to watch the opening ceremonies of the real Olympics, which was amazing. I was really impressed by the huge show that they put on to begin the games; my favourite part was when they lit the flame. Did you see it? The torch was passed to the man who had the honour of lighting the flame, and then he flew up in the air, ran all the way around the stadium wall and lit the flame. Very Chinese.
Everyone is currently Olympics mad here. Every television is tuned into the games - and there are a lot of televisions here. So we'll be walking down the street, finding, and see a television display in the window of a shop showing Hong Kong vs Poland in Table Tennis or China vs Hong Kong in badminton. I guess every nation has different sports that they actually compete well in here.
Mission Conference ran late, so we had to cancel our weekly correlation meeting with the ward mission leader, and barely got back in time for the Family Home Evening we have at the church every week for our investigators and recent converts. So we were sticky and grimy with sweat, in shorts and t-shirts, and we hadn't planned the lesson that we were supposed to teach, as we'd had no time to go home, shower, change and plan. I decided to turn our unusual appearance into a lesson, and we talked about the Olympics, about having strength to overcome our trials and relying on the Lord. We shared Alma 26:12, where Ammon says that as to his strength he is weak, but he will boast in God, who has the strength to help him to anything.
I think it went well, but it was slightly spoiled when the Sister missionaries in our ward turned up about 15 minutes after us in regular proselyting clothes. They live on top of the train station, right next to the church, so they had time to go home and change, whereas we would have had to take a bus to get home from the train station which would have taken half an hour, and then would have had to take it back to the church again.
The glasses prescription didn't come a moment too soon - I snapped my pair in half the next day. They'd been wearing out for a while and weakening on the bridge of the nose, and they finally snapped in half. I wore the other pair for the rest of the day, but the screw is broken on one side so one of the lenses keeps popping out. It should do for the moment, but because we're so short on time today I don't think we'll have a chance to go new glasses shopping until next week, which means it'll be about 2 weeks until I can pick them up. In the meantime I'll try some superglue to hold my glasses together.
We have no time today because today is also our Temple day. It was a very good session - I was worried that I'd end up falling asleep as I'm still pretty tired from mission conference (even though I didn't really do much), but I stayed completely awake the whole time.
Brother S will be baptized on the 24th, and he is very excited for it. It seems that the rest of his family might take a while longer though; they're not really investigators yet, and due to bizzare schedules, it's pretty much impossible for us to teach them all at once. His wife has to work on Sunday and his daughter goes to another Christian church, but I'm sure that they'll gain more interest as time goes by. They seem to be happy enough going to activities at church and hopefully we can invite them to Brother S's baptism next week.
So all in all, it's been a really good week. I'm going to keep working hard, and praying for you all.
Love,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Thursday, 7 August 2008
Storms are rumbling here too - 43rd email from Hong Kong
Dear all,
Yesterday, Hong Kong got a little battered by an annoyingly slow moving storm which refused to clear up for the entire day. When the storms are bad enough here, we're not allowed to go outside or leave the flat. This was particularly frustrating when the rain almost completely stopped, but as the storm was still nearby (although it had passed) and as such, we still were not allowed to leave.
Finally, President Van Dam decided that although the weather station had not given the all-clear, it was calm enough to let everyone leave. We rushed with all our might to the Temple, because yesterday morning we were supposed to have the Trainer-Trainee meeting, where everyone gathers together for a while for a little MTC reunion of sorts. As we waited ever impatiently for the storm to pass, the starting time of the meeting slowly changed from 8:30am to 6:30pm. Finally, 10 hours late, the meeting began and was a fun time together.
I've had a wonderful experience teaching Brother S this week. On Sunday, he brought his wife to church, and she is a simply wonderful woman who both Elder Bagley and I mistook for a member at first. Then on Tuesday, we had a ward Family Home Evening, with a lot of ward members there, and Brother S unexpectedly turned up (we had thought he was going to be at work) with his wife and teenage daughter. The ward YW did an excellent job of making friends with his daughter, and several members of the Relief Society happily fellowshipped his wife as well. I feel very good about the whole family.
When we taught Brother S this week, he came in very excited and shared a few scriptures with us that had meant a lot to him in his reading this week. He'd really liked the story of Enos, and had marked a few verses, which he offered to us to read, the same way we offer him scriptures to read when we teach. We, of course, have him read every scripture because he actually CAN read in Chinese, and while I struggled through the verse he gave me to read, when he offered the book to Elder Bagley to read the next verse, he stood no chance at reading it! Brother Sou has a really strong testimony of the power of prayer now, as thanks to Elder Bagley, we gave him several options to overcome his problem with the Sabbath day, and let him pray about which one was best for him. Because he works as a night-time security guard and can only have one day off, he always works part of Sunday. He told us that he had decided to keep his work schedule as it was - having Saturday night/Sunday morning off, but he begins his Sabbath at 7pm Saturday night. He seemed to really be thrilled at this, and also the answer to his other prayer. He told us that before we'd moved up his baptismal date, he'd been praying that he could get baptized sooner. Hearing this really confirmed to me the truth that we are indeed guided by the Spirit in our decisions.
Please say hi to Thomas for me. When is the family emigrating? I sent him a postcard a while ago, but wasn't sure if it got to him. I also have some comics I want to send him which I may burn to CD and post to him, so that he can put them up on my website. They're ones I never got around to posting online before.
Anyway, time's up. Love you all - see you later!
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Yesterday, Hong Kong got a little battered by an annoyingly slow moving storm which refused to clear up for the entire day. When the storms are bad enough here, we're not allowed to go outside or leave the flat. This was particularly frustrating when the rain almost completely stopped, but as the storm was still nearby (although it had passed) and as such, we still were not allowed to leave.
Finally, President Van Dam decided that although the weather station had not given the all-clear, it was calm enough to let everyone leave. We rushed with all our might to the Temple, because yesterday morning we were supposed to have the Trainer-Trainee meeting, where everyone gathers together for a while for a little MTC reunion of sorts. As we waited ever impatiently for the storm to pass, the starting time of the meeting slowly changed from 8:30am to 6:30pm. Finally, 10 hours late, the meeting began and was a fun time together.
I've had a wonderful experience teaching Brother S this week. On Sunday, he brought his wife to church, and she is a simply wonderful woman who both Elder Bagley and I mistook for a member at first. Then on Tuesday, we had a ward Family Home Evening, with a lot of ward members there, and Brother S unexpectedly turned up (we had thought he was going to be at work) with his wife and teenage daughter. The ward YW did an excellent job of making friends with his daughter, and several members of the Relief Society happily fellowshipped his wife as well. I feel very good about the whole family.
When we taught Brother S this week, he came in very excited and shared a few scriptures with us that had meant a lot to him in his reading this week. He'd really liked the story of Enos, and had marked a few verses, which he offered to us to read, the same way we offer him scriptures to read when we teach. We, of course, have him read every scripture because he actually CAN read in Chinese, and while I struggled through the verse he gave me to read, when he offered the book to Elder Bagley to read the next verse, he stood no chance at reading it! Brother Sou has a really strong testimony of the power of prayer now, as thanks to Elder Bagley, we gave him several options to overcome his problem with the Sabbath day, and let him pray about which one was best for him. Because he works as a night-time security guard and can only have one day off, he always works part of Sunday. He told us that he had decided to keep his work schedule as it was - having Saturday night/Sunday morning off, but he begins his Sabbath at 7pm Saturday night. He seemed to really be thrilled at this, and also the answer to his other prayer. He told us that before we'd moved up his baptismal date, he'd been praying that he could get baptized sooner. Hearing this really confirmed to me the truth that we are indeed guided by the Spirit in our decisions.
Please say hi to Thomas for me. When is the family emigrating? I sent him a postcard a while ago, but wasn't sure if it got to him. I also have some comics I want to send him which I may burn to CD and post to him, so that he can put them up on my website. They're ones I never got around to posting online before.
Anyway, time's up. Love you all - see you later!
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Sunday, 3 August 2008
The thrills and spills of leadership - 42nd email from Hong Kong
Dear Mum (and Dad when you get home from YM camp),
Yes, I decided to be sneaky and let President Van Dam tell you that I was training. I'm wondering if he also let you know that I'm now a District Leader?
It has, therefore, been a rather busy week. I immediately discovered that being District Leader means a lot less time in the evenings; I get a far larger number of phone calls over various things that need organizing. Plus, yesterday I went to the Temple for a DL/ZL meeting, where I felt rather out of place and like I didn't belong, as I came to grips with the idea of being a mission leader. I felt like I was still a new little missionary, in a meeting full of the actual mission leaders - except a substantial number of the Elders in the room were also from my MTC group. I guess I'm just going to have to get used to the responsibility.
It sounds like the ferrets are a lot of fun. Do they spend their time in a cage, or just run around the house all day every day? I assume they work out like Bubbles, except they have more fun on their trips outside because they can play with each other and they're not quite so afraid of every single human being.
Post certainly has slowed down a lot recently. I guess I'm in the big middle period of a mission where I'm too far out of sight and mind. Perhaps it'll pick up again in another six months when I'm on the home stretch. Some important news regarding packages - Grandma's package arrived last week, sans money. Just two shirts - it looks like someone cut it open and then taped it back together. Unfortunate, but it was still nice to get the two shirts.
You can tell Steve that I miss him too, and am sorry for never writing after Christmas to thank him for the last present. I shall try and write him today, but I have various others to write to - Grandma and Grandad, and another Elder who sent me an unsual postcard this week. It was one of the Elders in our Zone in the MTC, who went somewhere in America, English speaking. A lot of groups cycled through every 3 weeks while we were there, and so many of them blur into one, but I do remember this Elder. He seemed like he needed a helping hand and someone to talk to, so we'd talk together while we used the exercise bikes in the gym. I guess he remembered me enough to drop me a line, so I'd better be courteous and do the same.
It's very strange to think that the MTC was a full year ago now. Being a leader and remembering my experience when I first arrived in the mission as I've chatted with Elder Bagley makes me feel very old.
All in all, the Summer holidays sound like they're going well for you all. I think one of the nice things about Hong Kong is that you don't even notice the typical seasons and holidays that you're missing out on - even now that schools have broken up, we still see kids in uniforms all the time, as when they have an activity at school, they still wear their uniforms to it. I still think that, even though I've been in Hong Kong for almost a year, I've still not experienced all of the culture. I don't think anyone could as a missionary, as there are so many things we just don't do, like watch TV, films, play computer games, read comics - all things I used to really enjoy that are so very much a part of the HK experience. But it is very nice to just relax and not worry about such things.
Well, the Mission Olympics are on the way, and everyone's getting excited. We've all signed up for our events now - I decided to take a different approach to the way I used to view sports days at school and church. I've signed up for a lot of things, and figure I'll just give it a go. I don't need to win, but I'll just run as fast as I can and hope I don't come last. Even if I come last, no big deal really.
So I've signed up for the 100m sprint, football, darts and various other things. Not sure how many I'll actually participate in, because the Zone Leaders have to balance out what everyone wants to do with how many people can compete in every event. It should be a fun day though, so I'm looking forward to it.
Elder Bagley is a little downhearted right now. He's a really big football fan. He even went to Manchester for a month to some kind of football camp. He's a little down at the moment because he'd been looking forward to playing football with the Zone all week, and when we got there this morning, there was nobody there except for a group of little kids having some kind of lesson.
He is a really amazing companion, though - I know that the adjustment to Hong Kong is a little tough for him, but he just works so hard. I've been inclined to throw him in the deep end rather often, like leaving him on his own to make phone calls on Sunday night when I had to collaborate and collect numbers from the other companionships in the District. Then on Tuesday, we needed to teach two investigators at once, so we went on exchanges and he taught a lesson three for the first time, alone except for K, who was his companion for the exchange. He did amazingly well, though, and when I came in towards the end of the lesson, he was doing amazing as he taught the principle of Enduring to the End. He gave a great commitment for baptism, and so now as a result we have three investigators with baptismal dates. It's a good number as the Mission Focus for this Moves is on preparing people for baptism and confirmation, but all the dates are for some time in the future, so I'm not sure if I'll actually be here or not.
That reminds me - one last thing. At the DL/ZL meeting, the Zone Leaders all reported on the number of baptisms in their Zones that Moves. I was amazed to learn how many people got baptized this moves - it was a lot. Somewhere between 30 and 40 in total, probably. I remember when I was back in my first Moves, Elder Alspaugh was complaining that this was a low baptizing mission, and I told him that it was amazingly high, from what I'd heard so far. I think it comes down to the fact that you choose your own mission experience, whether you choose to see miracles every day, or you choose to be downtrodden and discouraged.
Anyway, time's almost up. I love you all lots and lots.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Yes, I decided to be sneaky and let President Van Dam tell you that I was training. I'm wondering if he also let you know that I'm now a District Leader?
It has, therefore, been a rather busy week. I immediately discovered that being District Leader means a lot less time in the evenings; I get a far larger number of phone calls over various things that need organizing. Plus, yesterday I went to the Temple for a DL/ZL meeting, where I felt rather out of place and like I didn't belong, as I came to grips with the idea of being a mission leader. I felt like I was still a new little missionary, in a meeting full of the actual mission leaders - except a substantial number of the Elders in the room were also from my MTC group. I guess I'm just going to have to get used to the responsibility.
It sounds like the ferrets are a lot of fun. Do they spend their time in a cage, or just run around the house all day every day? I assume they work out like Bubbles, except they have more fun on their trips outside because they can play with each other and they're not quite so afraid of every single human being.
Post certainly has slowed down a lot recently. I guess I'm in the big middle period of a mission where I'm too far out of sight and mind. Perhaps it'll pick up again in another six months when I'm on the home stretch. Some important news regarding packages - Grandma's package arrived last week, sans money. Just two shirts - it looks like someone cut it open and then taped it back together. Unfortunate, but it was still nice to get the two shirts.
You can tell Steve that I miss him too, and am sorry for never writing after Christmas to thank him for the last present. I shall try and write him today, but I have various others to write to - Grandma and Grandad, and another Elder who sent me an unsual postcard this week. It was one of the Elders in our Zone in the MTC, who went somewhere in America, English speaking. A lot of groups cycled through every 3 weeks while we were there, and so many of them blur into one, but I do remember this Elder. He seemed like he needed a helping hand and someone to talk to, so we'd talk together while we used the exercise bikes in the gym. I guess he remembered me enough to drop me a line, so I'd better be courteous and do the same.
It's very strange to think that the MTC was a full year ago now. Being a leader and remembering my experience when I first arrived in the mission as I've chatted with Elder Bagley makes me feel very old.
All in all, the Summer holidays sound like they're going well for you all. I think one of the nice things about Hong Kong is that you don't even notice the typical seasons and holidays that you're missing out on - even now that schools have broken up, we still see kids in uniforms all the time, as when they have an activity at school, they still wear their uniforms to it. I still think that, even though I've been in Hong Kong for almost a year, I've still not experienced all of the culture. I don't think anyone could as a missionary, as there are so many things we just don't do, like watch TV, films, play computer games, read comics - all things I used to really enjoy that are so very much a part of the HK experience. But it is very nice to just relax and not worry about such things.
Well, the Mission Olympics are on the way, and everyone's getting excited. We've all signed up for our events now - I decided to take a different approach to the way I used to view sports days at school and church. I've signed up for a lot of things, and figure I'll just give it a go. I don't need to win, but I'll just run as fast as I can and hope I don't come last. Even if I come last, no big deal really.
So I've signed up for the 100m sprint, football, darts and various other things. Not sure how many I'll actually participate in, because the Zone Leaders have to balance out what everyone wants to do with how many people can compete in every event. It should be a fun day though, so I'm looking forward to it.
Elder Bagley is a little downhearted right now. He's a really big football fan. He even went to Manchester for a month to some kind of football camp. He's a little down at the moment because he'd been looking forward to playing football with the Zone all week, and when we got there this morning, there was nobody there except for a group of little kids having some kind of lesson.
He is a really amazing companion, though - I know that the adjustment to Hong Kong is a little tough for him, but he just works so hard. I've been inclined to throw him in the deep end rather often, like leaving him on his own to make phone calls on Sunday night when I had to collaborate and collect numbers from the other companionships in the District. Then on Tuesday, we needed to teach two investigators at once, so we went on exchanges and he taught a lesson three for the first time, alone except for K, who was his companion for the exchange. He did amazingly well, though, and when I came in towards the end of the lesson, he was doing amazing as he taught the principle of Enduring to the End. He gave a great commitment for baptism, and so now as a result we have three investigators with baptismal dates. It's a good number as the Mission Focus for this Moves is on preparing people for baptism and confirmation, but all the dates are for some time in the future, so I'm not sure if I'll actually be here or not.
That reminds me - one last thing. At the DL/ZL meeting, the Zone Leaders all reported on the number of baptisms in their Zones that Moves. I was amazed to learn how many people got baptized this moves - it was a lot. Somewhere between 30 and 40 in total, probably. I remember when I was back in my first Moves, Elder Alspaugh was complaining that this was a low baptizing mission, and I told him that it was amazingly high, from what I'd heard so far. I think it comes down to the fact that you choose your own mission experience, whether you choose to see miracles every day, or you choose to be downtrodden and discouraged.
Anyway, time's almost up. I love you all lots and lots.
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
New companion - 41st email from Hong Kong
Dear all,
Yes, Elder Sharp is gone. I'm sad to lose him because I really enjoyed serving with him, and we had a lot of success together, but I'm now thrilled for my chance to serve with my new companion, Elder Bagley. He seems to be ready to do anything asked of him, and is happy to learn. He's my fourth Utah companion, and seems like a really nice guy. He has actually been to England before; to Manchester. He's a very big fan of football, so he went for a month for some kind of "camp" up there. My morning exercise may get a lot more exciting from now on, as he seems excited to go playing every day for the half an hour we have to exercise.
He's rather new on the mission, but is a little older than most new missionaries, as he's already 20. Before his mission he worked as a sound recorder, and apparently made the choice to serve after a lot of thought and prayers. I can see a lot of maturity in him, and feel that we will do well together.
This moves makes for some interesting changes to the district. One of our Sisters is leaving, and the other one, Sister Corbridge, who was in my MTC group, is training. Plus, our district leader has moved and so Elder Bowen, who came in with Elder Sharp, has his second companion in the field, Elder Forney. Elder Forney is two moves younger than me, so the district is very young right now, Sister Corbridge and I being the oldest missionaries. I'm fairly certain even we haven't been here that long yet...
Another surprising change has come with two new unexpected roomates in our flat. Elder Sardoni and Elder Cabrinha, two Mandarin speaking Elders, have been moved in with us. It will be rather cramped, as our flat is just about the right size for the four of us, but it should be fun and I'm sure I'll learn from the two of them. I haven't seen them much today as they're up at the Temple with a "Mainland baptism" - someone from the Mainland who came down just to get baptized. Elder Sardoni seems pretty thrilled to be living with us, as their last flat was way outside of their area. The Mandarin Elders get the entire zone as their area, so living outside of the zone was a rather big frustration for them.
I hope Tim heals quickly and I will pray for him - I certainly don't want him to miss camp! But I'm sure by the time you read this, he'll be healed up fine. I haven't seen anything like a YM Camp here; they have youth conferences and different things every now and then though. And of course, the Summer Missionary program. Speaking of which, Brother M is indeed now back home.
Elder Volk, having overheard me mentioning my looking into universities at last mission conference, told me there was a random 2005-2006 BYU prospectus lying around in his apartment, which he gave me when we dropped of Brother Mok on Monday. I've looked through it a little bit, and I must say this much at least - every single person I've spoken to keeps telling me that BYU's animation program is amazing. I sat down to chat with Elder Bagley about ourselves and the moment I showed him the prospectus and told him I'd looked at the animation program, he started singing its praises. From what I've heard, it has a 100% hiring rate in big name animation companies, like Pixar.
There's also the Chinese program, which is also good, and I could study Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) as a "minor" at the same time as studying animation. But having explored the prospectus, animation is really the only thing that appeals to me that they have to offer. I wouldn't want to go there for anything else.
As far as other options go, English in some way, for example, journalism (more print-journalism than film-journalism) appeals to me. I'd like to be a journalist, perhaps using my chinese in that way. That's really all I've been thinking about for now. English Literature would be fun, but I don't see that providing a very profitable job.
Anyway, all things are still going well here. We met with Mr S to teach him about the Sabbath day yesterday, but having already had a lesson about it in church, he had already decided to keep this law. He said something interesting that I really liked - "If God is with me, I'll willingly do anything He asks." That is certainly the attitude I enjoy to see people have.
In Hong Kong, there's a lot of negative feelings towards the Church from other religions. Many other ministers don't treat us particularly nicely. Mr S's daughter is 18 and goes to a Protestant church, and her minister told her some not very nice things, after which she worried for her dad. He told her that he'd been to the Church, he'd met the members, and he knew the things she'd heard weren't true. This week, she took him to her church to meet her minister, who then told him a lot of false things. He left from that meeting in their church with a greater testimony that ours is the true church, and told us how interesting he thought it was that other churches would attack other faiths like that, while we did no such thing, and bear testimony that ours is the truth, rather than others are false.
So all things are going well here, and I'm looking forward to serving here with Elder Bagley. It should be a very exciting moves, as we help Mr Sou prepare for baptism (I just wish we could interest him family as well!) and help our other investigators grow as well.
Love you all lots and lots,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
Yes, Elder Sharp is gone. I'm sad to lose him because I really enjoyed serving with him, and we had a lot of success together, but I'm now thrilled for my chance to serve with my new companion, Elder Bagley. He seems to be ready to do anything asked of him, and is happy to learn. He's my fourth Utah companion, and seems like a really nice guy. He has actually been to England before; to Manchester. He's a very big fan of football, so he went for a month for some kind of "camp" up there. My morning exercise may get a lot more exciting from now on, as he seems excited to go playing every day for the half an hour we have to exercise.
He's rather new on the mission, but is a little older than most new missionaries, as he's already 20. Before his mission he worked as a sound recorder, and apparently made the choice to serve after a lot of thought and prayers. I can see a lot of maturity in him, and feel that we will do well together.
This moves makes for some interesting changes to the district. One of our Sisters is leaving, and the other one, Sister Corbridge, who was in my MTC group, is training. Plus, our district leader has moved and so Elder Bowen, who came in with Elder Sharp, has his second companion in the field, Elder Forney. Elder Forney is two moves younger than me, so the district is very young right now, Sister Corbridge and I being the oldest missionaries. I'm fairly certain even we haven't been here that long yet...
Another surprising change has come with two new unexpected roomates in our flat. Elder Sardoni and Elder Cabrinha, two Mandarin speaking Elders, have been moved in with us. It will be rather cramped, as our flat is just about the right size for the four of us, but it should be fun and I'm sure I'll learn from the two of them. I haven't seen them much today as they're up at the Temple with a "Mainland baptism" - someone from the Mainland who came down just to get baptized. Elder Sardoni seems pretty thrilled to be living with us, as their last flat was way outside of their area. The Mandarin Elders get the entire zone as their area, so living outside of the zone was a rather big frustration for them.
I hope Tim heals quickly and I will pray for him - I certainly don't want him to miss camp! But I'm sure by the time you read this, he'll be healed up fine. I haven't seen anything like a YM Camp here; they have youth conferences and different things every now and then though. And of course, the Summer Missionary program. Speaking of which, Brother M is indeed now back home.
Elder Volk, having overheard me mentioning my looking into universities at last mission conference, told me there was a random 2005-2006 BYU prospectus lying around in his apartment, which he gave me when we dropped of Brother Mok on Monday. I've looked through it a little bit, and I must say this much at least - every single person I've spoken to keeps telling me that BYU's animation program is amazing. I sat down to chat with Elder Bagley about ourselves and the moment I showed him the prospectus and told him I'd looked at the animation program, he started singing its praises. From what I've heard, it has a 100% hiring rate in big name animation companies, like Pixar.
There's also the Chinese program, which is also good, and I could study Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) as a "minor" at the same time as studying animation. But having explored the prospectus, animation is really the only thing that appeals to me that they have to offer. I wouldn't want to go there for anything else.
As far as other options go, English in some way, for example, journalism (more print-journalism than film-journalism) appeals to me. I'd like to be a journalist, perhaps using my chinese in that way. That's really all I've been thinking about for now. English Literature would be fun, but I don't see that providing a very profitable job.
Anyway, all things are still going well here. We met with Mr S to teach him about the Sabbath day yesterday, but having already had a lesson about it in church, he had already decided to keep this law. He said something interesting that I really liked - "If God is with me, I'll willingly do anything He asks." That is certainly the attitude I enjoy to see people have.
In Hong Kong, there's a lot of negative feelings towards the Church from other religions. Many other ministers don't treat us particularly nicely. Mr S's daughter is 18 and goes to a Protestant church, and her minister told her some not very nice things, after which she worried for her dad. He told her that he'd been to the Church, he'd met the members, and he knew the things she'd heard weren't true. This week, she took him to her church to meet her minister, who then told him a lot of false things. He left from that meeting in their church with a greater testimony that ours is the true church, and told us how interesting he thought it was that other churches would attack other faiths like that, while we did no such thing, and bear testimony that ours is the truth, rather than others are false.
So all things are going well here, and I'm looking forward to serving here with Elder Bagley. It should be a very exciting moves, as we help Mr Sou prepare for baptism (I just wish we could interest him family as well!) and help our other investigators grow as well.
Love you all lots and lots,
Elder Matthew Loffhagen
羅 長 老
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