Chinese New Year - 16th email from Macau

Dear Mum and Dad,

Happy Chinese New Year! I've had quite an eventful week - but first, it's good to know that I have an option for Universities. We'll hold off before making a final decision for the moment.

So last Sunday was Sister W's baptism. She was absolutely thrilled; she's been waiting for baptism for a long time now. I maintain that she was ready to jump into the fountain in the park where Elder Liu found her and be baptized right then and there when he first met her - that very day she told him how desperately she wanted to be baptized. As we went to their house to teach them the lessons, she was thrilled to discover that this was God's true church, with His Priesthood authority and the proper form of baptism. She loves the Book of Mormon, and reads it to her children. Two of the most exciting things for her on Sunday was that the Branch gave her a Triple combination as a present - she was so desperate for a copy of the Doctrine and Covenants - and she was also thrilled that her two boys, J Y and J G will be baptized in two weeks' time. She is so happy, and although they don't really understand everything - they're only 10 and 8 - in some ways I feel that they grasp the gospel better than their parents do. So we're all looking forward to their baptism in two weeks.

Monday was the first day of Chinese New Year, and the streets were dead. Nobody was in Macau - they've all gone to visit their ancestral villages. We took the day to have our flat's Deep Clean, which is a traditional Chinese annual clean of the house, making it clean and tidy, ready for the new year and washing away any pesky bad luck that might be hanging around in the apartment. In the evening we tried a little tracting, but it didn't go too well. Most people weren't home, and those who were home were busy having a huge family dinner.

Wednesday was the Mission's yearly trip to Big Buddha, the world's biggest outside bronze statue of a sitting Buddha. Early Tuesday morning we left for Hong Kong, hoping to beat the holiday rush by going across as soon as possible. We did so, and with nothing to do for the entire day (normally we would have had our Temple day, but the Temple was closed because of New Year) so we had some study and just spent the day at the Mission Home.

In the evening we went to Tsim Sha Tsui to watch the New Year fireworks in the Hong Kong harbour. So did most of the rest of Hong Kong. There were thousands of people there, and we foud ourselves complately surrounded by a sea of black hair on all sides. The fireworks were beautiful, even though our view wasn't the best, and it was a fun experience.

The next day we went up to Big Buddha. I have to say, I enjoyed it a lot more this year than last year. Last year I spilt soup down myself, was freezing cold and went down the mountain very soon. This year I was wearing far too much clothes and ended up taking off my coat, hoodie, jumper and extra T-shirt in favour of hiking up Lantau peak, the second highest peak in Hong Kong, wearing just a T-shirt. And I was still rather hot.

When we were almost at the top, we hit the clouds, and everything around us disappeared. It was really fun - we stayed up for a while and enjoyed the company of pretty much every other Missionary - the climb wasn't particularly strenuous so almost everybody made the climb. I was among the first to make it up, and was at the lead of my group. as I climbed up the last few steps to the top, I discovered Sister Kap, the Senior Sister here in Macau, casually resting after having made the climb incredibly fast. That's not much of a surprise, nor is it the first time it's happened - one time we were exercising in the morning by running a huge reserviour close to our flat when we spotted Sister Kap working out on some public exercise equipment by the side of the water. She then took off running and completely outstripped us.

After a little while enjoying the peak, myself, Elder Liu and a few others decided to take the long way home - walking several miles across the mountain range back to the train station. It was much better than the trip up Lantau Peak - miles of climbing up and down mountains with a beautiful view and some very steep stairs bridging across canyons and gorges - it was like a mini, wooden Great Wall of China. That I think was the best part of the day, and we got home tired, grimy and triumphant. I woke up this morning aching in several places, very fuzzy after having not shaved yesterday, and very thankful for preparation day. I took a two hour nap to try and regain some energy (one of very few naps that I've taken on my mission because I hate wasting time) and am now feeling better. Certainly it was good exercise yesterday!

And so with all that's happened in the past week, I haven't actually done any real finding since Saturday. I'm looking forward to getting back into it tonight, but for the moment we're going to relax and try to rebuild our strength a bit first.

Anyway, happy new year everyone.

Lots of love

Elder Matthew Loffhagen