Dear Mum and Dad,

Apologies for speaking too much about coming home. I can assure you that I'm very much enjoying my time here. My problem is more like Mum's nightmares about going back to school before you've broken up for summer rather than anything. I'll put it in the back of my mind and just enjoy the next little while. It doesn't help that in Mission Conference on Tuesday, I saw some of my friends from my older group give their "dying testimonies" as they prepare to go home in three weeks. But not to worry - consider the issue dropped.

As far as the XBox goes, I believe that you got the super Dixons insurance for it. You're going to want to get it to them soon, though, because you bought it April of 2006, so the three year warranty ends any day now. The papers for it were in the middle drawer in what was my bedside table. Good luck getting it fixed - it would be a big mah faahn to have to buy a new one.

The Temple sounds wonderful. I'm looking forward to our Temple session, which will be later today. We're really blessed here to have such a blessing so close - especially after seeing Mongolian and Cambodian Saints crossing the continent on trains to get here for the blessings of the Temple, I'm thankful that we Hong Kong Missionaries can go every six weeks.

A lot happened over the past week - it was one of the busiest of my mission so far. Since last Thursday, I had my interview with President Van Dam, exchanges with the Assistants, Mission Conference and a few planned service acts. Lots of fun.

President Van Dam said in the interview that it's fine if I call you a week early, which would be the 3rd of May, right? If I call at 10:00pm my time, it should be 3:00 in the afternoon for you - will that be okay?

We also talked in the interview about goals and plans for after the mission - that was President Van Dam's topic with all of the missionaries for interviews this time around. I guess that kind of goes against what I just said about not talking about going home, so I'll just give you the highlight. I mentioned my goal of being married and raising a family, and President Van Dam jumped on it (as apparently he has done with most missionaries) and asked "Do you think you've met your wife yet?" I responded with a definite "No." So in case you were wondering, I wasn't dating anyone seriously before the mission - if I had been, you can be assured that you'd be the first to know. In fact, hearing all the tragedies I've heard from other Elders about Dear Johns and other such problems, I'm very glad I chose not to. But all the Elders here enjoy hearing the story of the time Bishop Terry challenged me to date 20 girls before I left, and how I didn't actually make it past 5.

The exchange with the Assistants to the President was a lot of fun. I'd previously casually mentioned to Elder Weagel, who was a good friend in the MTC and current Assistant, that one thing I'd always wanted to do on my mission was sleep overnight in the Temple - as the Mission Office is for the moment located inside the Temple. I suspect that the overnight exchange was arranged to help me with this goal. But either way, it was fun and a good learning experience. I saw the Mission Office in a very different light when those lights were turned off and it became a normal study room instead. I also found myself very thankful to not have served in the Office myself - the jobs to be done; especially the job of Distribution Centre Manager, currently being filled by Elder Chan from Sollihul; look really boring - lots of sitting around and waiting for things to do. Elder Weagel and I were out finding in the rain for most of the day, though, which was fine. We had some good success.

Mission Conference was fun, but everyone was a little sad because only half of the Mission was in attendance. Our unique method of having Mission Conference - ie having it once every Moves period - is not the Church standard method and as such has raised some concerns with Elder Watson of the Asia Area Presidency, who has requested that we do things a more traditional way to fit in with how things work in missions that take up a larger geographical area. As such, President Van Dam has shown us all a great example of obedience by splitting Mission Conference over two days, with only half the mission in attendance each day. While it seems a little pointless, I've ultimately decided that it's better to be obedient to something that seems a little unnecessary than to be disobedient. I'm willing to follow President Van Dam's example and enjoy the fact that we're allowed to at least have some kind of Mission Conference still.

It was a good conference - the theme was "It Shall Be Done". We watched a film which we'd watched a year ago, about a one-armed man and a blue vase. He's given a hard, somewhat pointless assignment but he does everything in his power to get it done anyway. The parallels between the film and our half-Mission Conference seem very clear now. I'm thankful for President Van Dam and the wonderful way that he leads us by example.

The new white shirts fitted fine - thank you very much for them. There is actually a Marks and Spencers here in our Zone which we walked past the other day on the way to the Tsing Yi chapel for a baptismal interview. A white shirt there is $98HK, which I don't think is very worth it. So thank you for sending me shirts so that I didn't need to go buy any new ones.

Camera shopping was fun but tiring. In the end, after toying with it for a while, I bought the cheapest option available; which was not a Sony. I got home and explored it and quickly learned a valuable lesson - while not spending too much is important, when there are purchases that need to be made, quality should not be compromised just for a cheaper price. The camera's fine, but it's no where near as clear as my Sony was. I can't help thinking that if I'd just spent $100HK more for the Casio camera, I would have been a lot more satisfied. But there's nothing really wrong with the one I have now, so it'll do. But next time I'll be sure to spend the money for a quality product when it's nessesary.

By the way, the word "Pocketbook" came from Star Wars Episode II. You may be interested to know that the other day, I was testing out an umbrella before going outside. I member walked it - this particular member is one of those many Chinese people who take pride in their English - and told me that it was bad luck in China to open an umbrella indoors. I responded in Chinese that it's bad luck in England too, but I don't care much for "luck". She then said, in English, "I don't believe you are from England." Well that's interesting, I thought to myself, as she hadn't heard me speak English yet. I therefore told her, in English, that yes, I definately was from England, but she still didn't believe me. Out came my Driver's Licence, and we both read the words "United Kingdom" very clearly on it. That seemed to satisfy her, but apparently her argument came from the fact that I sound different to relatives she has who live in Newcastle. Whether or not I've picked up an American twang, we can at least be thankful that I don't sound like Chris probably does by now.

Anyway, time is up. I love you.

Elder Matthew Loffhagen