23rd email from Macau

Dear all,

This week has been rather uneventful. Nothing too exciting has happened.

I do need to ask you about my camera - when we bought it, did we pay for the Currys super insurance? I'm hoping so, because my camera is now not working. Whenever I turn it on, it whirs a bit, the shutter opens and closes a few times and then something pops up on the screen saying "Turn the camera off and on again". So for the moment, I'm currently camera-less. I'm probably going to have to buy a new one whether we have the insurance or not (as I won't exactly have an opportunity to take the camera to a local Currys), but we can worry about that later.

As far as universities go, I really have decided on Leeds. I'm still not quite sure what the course will entail (for a Communications course, they are ironically vague about such things), but I feel the hand of the Lord in things, and feel that I need to take a step into the dark and just give it a spin. We'll see where this takes me. I'm stuck for choosing between Bath Spa and Preston for my backup choice, but I'm not really concerned about things. After having looked at the prospectuses and thought about it a lot, I felt that I've actually got three pretty decent options.

This week has been a little uneventful, but it's also been good. We've seen a lot of little miracles lately - good contacts and street lessons - but they're not really generating into much yet. Last week two of our investigators actively chose not to progress - one, a seventeen year old call A, chose to go rowing every week instead of coming to church. Brother C, who is in his fourties, loves coming to church, but ultimately chose not to quit drinking coffee. So at the end of last week, things weren't looking too well. But both cases are looking better now, for which I must thank my companion. Elder Jackson figured we should try an intense one week no coffee plan with Brother C, including a chart and stickers. He was thrilled to accept this, and told us that he really did want to quit and that he was willing to do his bit to quit. I was more than a little surprised, and thankful for my wise companion. Then we also found out that A is regularly attending Seminary, which was wonderful news. We had suggested it to him a while ago, but it started at 7:00 and he has to be at school at 7:30. I don't think the Seminary teacher was very impressed by me asking if they could start an hour early. So we dropped the matter, and then this week found out that they all arranged it without us missionaries being involved - now it starts at 6:30 so that A can come. He's blending in nicely and all the Young Men and Young Women love him. He says that after May, which is the wonderful Dragonboat Festival here in China (which is a lot of fun!) he'll start coming to church, but in the meantime he can't let his team down. I imagine that by May, there'll be some other reason to not come to church, because generally that's how procrastination goes (I should know better than anyone alive) so I'm hoping that Seminary will fill him with a desire to change. I'm confident that if he's willing to come to Seminary, he will eventually get baptized, but it's a little way in the future at the moment.

My time on my first visa runs out at the end of April, and we're not sure what's going to happen. Macau seems to be making some interesting decisions regarding visa regulations. Only one Missionary has a visa right now, and even the Senior couple who are currently serving as the international branch President and wife are going to have to leave soon. Oh dear. Macau's also been refusing some Hong Kong people from entry into the country, which has caused a little upset between the two of them. So as I'm currently the only missionary in Macau with a stable amount of time left in the country, I'm intrigued to see what will happen next Moves. I've already been here now for four Moves, so I don't really have very much more time left - and in my last interview President Van Dam pointed out that I'm "not going to be in Macau forever". I'd like to stay, but I've categorically told the Assistants that I don't want to influence the decision one little bit. They can feel free to do with me as they please - I don't want to get in the way of the Lord's inspiration. I could, therefore, potentially (and very probably) only have one more Preparation Day in Macau after today. So I'd better enjoy the time I have left, one way or the other.

Whenever I do eventually leave Macau, I'll probably leave behind or throw away a lot of stuff. If you remember, when I came here, my brand new suitcase broke, which left me with the big one we bought and the little one I took with me as an afterthought (which has behaved superbly, especially for overnight trips to Hong Kong). So I'll probably sift through my stuff and lighten the load a fair amount - certainly I'll be throwing away a lot of shirts. My shirts are getting really disgusting. It doesn't help that our washing machine is really bad, but simply being in China for a long period of time turns your shirt grey or yellow or both. Plus most of my trousers are by this point worn out. I'm thinking that when I go back to Hong Kong, I'll invest in some new trousers and just survive on what I have for the moment, but currently, with the exception of my shoes, pretty much every piece of clothing I have is getting to the point where it needs replacing.

So now we can play a fun game - how long can I go before I absolutely need new clothes?

Anyway, I love you all. You're all in my prayers.

Love,

Elder Matthew Loffhagen