A 3:00am Hike

Dear Mum and Dad,

It's been a very, very busy week, and I'm now very tired - not least because I woke up at 3:00am this morning.

This week has been pretty full of exchanges. Last Friday/Saturday I went to Sam Seui Po, which is the ward that meets in the Temple, with Elder Rose who is a District Leader there. It was a lot of fun, but pretty tough as we had a meal with a older couple in the ward there whose two children - both RMs - are in America at BYU right now. They had more than enough food for six Elders to eat, and with just the two of us we were completely out of our league. First there was Portuguese chicken with rice, then fruit, then mango pudding, then cheesecake - all made fresh. I was full half-way through the chicken, so by the time we left, both Elder Rose (who is over 6ft tall and about 3ft wide at the shoulders, muscular and gigantic like Superman) and I barely made it home on the bus okay.

Earlier this week Elder Marshall had a career workshop that all "dying" missionaries have to go through before going home, and it made him more than a little trunky. During this time, I was on exchanges with Elder Auduong, a new missionary whose companion is also going home this next week. We worked very hard - and had a lot of success. We scheduled a few new people and visited a less-active, who was very glad to see us and will probably be coming to church on Sunday - he's more less-active because of health problems than because of laziness - his leg is very swollen with some kind of long-term joint problem, and his two elderly parents aren't far from death and need constant attention. He asked us an interesting question; he'd heard of friends who'd joined Christian churches and had started earning more money at work or being blessed financially soon after - why when he'd joined a church did life get so much worse. I turned to Elder Auduong and asked him what he thought. He said that sometimes God gives us trials and sometimes he blesses us - but all things work together for our good. I shared from Joseph Smith's experience in Liberty Jail and we encouraged him to keep at it.

Last Sunday I got a very special chance to do something very few Cantonese missionaries get to do in Hong Kong - I attended the Mandarin branch in the huge Wan Chai chapel on Hong Kong Island. Elder Lee, who is the Senior Companion in the Mandarin companionship here in our zone, needed to go to Kwai Fong to church so that he could see an investigator, so he asked if we could go on exchanges for church time. I was thrilled to do so. It was a lot of fun - I love the Wan Chai building, which is 13 floors, houses church meetings in three languages and also has the Asia Area office on the top floors. I was a little nervous about how well I'd be able to communicate with the members in the branch, but most spoke pretty good Cantonese. I was also very thankful to walk in through the doors to the 6th floor chapel where Sacrament was being held and see Dick, one of the coolest members in Hong Kong. He was on the cover of the Ensign a while ago, and even though we'd only met once before, over a year ago, he welcomed me like an old friend and chatted with me like we'd known each other for years. He and two other native Hong Kong members were visiting the Mandarin branch for the day. Most of the official membership of the Mandarin branch is from Mainland China, and the Elders who serve here have always been struggling to build up their little branch so that they can learn the Gospel in their native tongue. Apparently it's a challenge because people always end up moving back to the Mainland very soon. Another large portion of the branch are white RMs who served in Taiwan and then married Chinese girls, becoming "Larry"s as we nickname them. Not sure why we call them that. There was one man there, a little older, whose Mandarin sounded absolutely fluent - he sounded like a native - I guess that's what happens when you live in China for as long as he has.

We all decided to do something really fun for Elder Marshall's last Preparation day, so we woke up at 3:00 this morning and took a taxi to a famous mountain called Lion Rock - so named because there's a big rock on the top that supposedly resembles a lion's head. I couldn't see it, though - I think it looked more like a monkey or a man with a big nose. We went up there in the dark and then watched the sunrise - the view was amazing, and you could see all the way across to Hong Kong Island, plus all of Kowloon in the middle. We took a moment to pick out the Temple among all of the buildings scattered below us - it was almost lost in a sea of lights, but the spire with the Angel Moroni was distinctly visible and instantly recognisable.

As far as my cooking goes, I wouldn't get any hopes up. I know how to cook Chinese food - in theory. In practice it's normally a lot easier and quicker to throw a can of chicken soup mixed with tuna fish over a bowl of rice, or to just go buy a meal somewhere else. Certainly I'd feel a lot more comfortable cooking Chinese food rather than western food, but that's just because Chinese food is just cooked in a big pot - you throw in all the ingredients, add whatever sauce you want on it and let it cook for a while. Not too challenging. Fried rice or real deal chau mien is pretty good though too.

Thank you for your prayers on my behalf. It's been taking my every effort to build up something in this area, but I am not discouraged. Last week, Elder Marshall found another family for us to teach, but as the wife is from Indonesia and the father, although Chinese, speaks fluent English, we'll probably turn them over to the International Elders who serve here. We also found a very prepared lady the other day who the Sisters are now teaching.

Anyway, Elder Marshall needs to go to the toilet and has asked me to cut this short. I love you lots and hope you will all be well and not catch Swine Flu (people here are so scared of it being the next SARS that they've closed the Primary schools for two weeks, but I personally think we're safer here than anywhere else because so many people are wearing face-masks and washing their hands so regularly).

Lots of love,

Elder Matthew Loffhagen