New Companion -18th email from Macau

Dear all,

Oh dear. It's not looking good for universities. I'll need to think about it. In the meantime, would you mind looking into BYU?

The decision to at least have a look came from a long period of praying and pondering about my choices. I haven't quite felt all that comfortable about Leeds more than any other option, and BYU has always been on the back of my mind - not least because everyone around me keeps telling me to go there. I can take solace in the fact that the main culprits are leaving for new areas today.

Anyway, I really don't want to have to put up with any more Americans than are absolutely necessary, so I was trying to ignore BYU for a long time. But ultimately, I felt that I didn't want to ignore a prompting from the Lord that was coming so strong. In prayer, I promised God that I would at least look into BYU, and if that really was His plan for me, I would accept it. I felt good about that, but the thought came to me that perhaps this was simply an Abrahamic test of my faith - to see if I would do something that I really didn't want to do. That said, after reading your email about the course content at Leeds, I'm not feeling too confident. It's still awfully vague and I don't like the word "Theory" in there - is the "Theory of Communications" just studying films and TV? That sounds awfully boring and ultimately useless as a degree. So as much as I may not like it, can you give me some information on the BYU journalism programme? I don't know that I want to be away from home for that long, but I can't deny the promptings of the Spirit, and to be honest, it does look like the best choice as far as schools go. But for the moment, I'll leave Leeds as my first choice and UCLan as second. We'll take a "just looking" approach to BYU for the moment.

In other news, Elder Liu has left Macau and I'm now with my new companion Elder Jackson. Like almost all of my previous companions, he is from Utah, is tall, handsome and seems like a fun guy. I don't know him that well yet, but am looking forward to the chance.

Today has been a hectic day. We left Macau at 9:00 and due to a series of unfortunate events, barely made it into the Temple for our session at 1:00. The session was in Chinese (but I understood it fine), and was actually really good - very peaceful and calm. There weren't many people in the session, but one man who was there was Brother C, the Ward Mission Leader for my old area of Tai Po. It was great to see him again, and he seemed very happy to see me too. He is retired, so he spends most days in the Temple as an ordinance worker, although this is the first time I've seen him since I left for Macau.

Today, as well as being a nice day of change, is a little sad as I've seen my Sisters "die". Of the four Sister Missionaries in my MTC group, two of them - Sister Chan and Sister Esplin - chose their late date to come home. The also just happened to be serving together as companions in Macau for their last two moves, so I've had the chance to get to know them well. Their visas ran out last week so were switched out to finish their mission on Hong Kong Island, but we all met up for the Temple and MacDonalds today. They have absolutely nothing to do until Friday, when their parents come to pick them up. It's sad to see them go, especially because it makes me have to face the reality that I myself will one day be going home. Oh dear. Still, I have six months left to enjoy the relative simplicity of missionary life before having to come home and deal with my somewhat uncertain future.

Elder Nelson's meeting tomorrow is no doubt going to be very interesting. We've been given a big list of DOs and DON'Ts for his visit - DO have clean hands, DON'T ask for a special blessing. DON'T ask him questions, but DO answer questions if he asks you. It's a very interesting list. I wonder if it came from the Mission or from Church Headquarters. I'm sure every one of the DON'Ts have at some point occured, which is why they're on the list. I'm sure Elder Nelson doesn't want to have to give every single one of us a special blessing.

I have absolutely no idea when Ryan Smith would have been caught a glimpse of me while at church recently, because I've been in Macau for so long.

Everything is going well. I'm enjoying myself and working hard. I love you lots and pray for your safety and happiness.

Lots of love,

Elder Matthew Loffhagen