Fighting to the bitter end

Dear family,

Wow! It sounds like a busy week!

I got a letter from someone yesterday. Somebody needs to talk to them about the exact content of the letters they send to Missionaries. The main bulk of the letter was describing the beautiful English countryside, which is a sensitive subject with me. While Hong Kong nature is somewhat more exotic than back home, it's not quite as peaceful as that of the British Isles. While it's nice to look at, if you stare too closely it might bite your face off - poisonous spiders and insects, more moquitos than you can shake a can of bug spray at, angry wild monkeys and dogs, and even the occasional cobra (Elder Marshall found one, but not in the jungle - in the High Street!).

At the end of the letter was a handwritten note that said "You must be counting down the days now! See you at camp." Yes, I will see you at camp. But I'm trying my best NOT to count down the days. It just gets more depressing every time I look at the calendar.

It has occurred to me recently that I am really scared to go home. I'm not just nervous - it actually does scare me. It's harder to come home than it was to leave. So for the moment I'll put it out of my mind and just work as hard as I can.

A brief note on the blog - a Sister missionary called Sister Wilson moved into our neighbouring district a few weeks ago. She told me that before my mission, she read the entire blog. She specifically remembers me wanting money to buy a new watch, and the fact that Immigrations into America was kinder to me than to the other Elders on the flight from Heathrow. It's put me in an awkward situation in that she has already heard all of my best mission stories. I have to wonder exactly what effect my blog is having on people with connections to the China Hong Kong Mission...

Anyway, this week has been interesting. Ivan has his baptismal date set for this coming Sunday. Both he and Elder Fisher have received a strong personal witness that it will definitely come to pass (I guess I'm just not in tune with the Spirit enough and I wasn't paying attention), but his mother has yet to be convinced. Elder Fisher is pushing forward with complete faith - I had his baptismal interview yesterday and passed. I feel that while prayers of faith are good, God also wants us to do everything in our power to make this goal come to pass. So we're going to try and arrange a time to go over to their house and make the case ourselves - explain all of the good things that come from membership of the Church and counter some Anti-Mormon lies she's heard.

In addition to meeting with investigators, we've been preparing for Zone Conference, which was held last Friday, and went rather well. Our theme for the Moves period is "Find Your Fire" so we gave everyone a candle and a piece of "sacred paper", promising them that provided they review it every day, any goal they write on the paper will be achieved. I've recently been thinking a lot about my goals for after the mission. I've felt that I really should devote the time spent at University should be totally devoted to studies, not to play. So I'm going to try my best to find a job, but as you've said, the world isn't doing too well right now. If the case is that I can't find part time work, I'll just live as poor as possible and devote everything I have to developing my time and talents. Outside of the subject of Communications, things I want to develop is my Chinese, including Mandarin, and my drawing. I can't remember if I've said this yet or not, but there was an Elder with me in the MTC, Elder Hamon, who will one day work for Pixar - that's his dream and I can see it happen. If I could draw like him, I'd draw for Marvel comics. The other week I was thinking about how I'm nowhere near as talented as him, and I said to myself, 'I'd give my left hand if my right hand could draw as well as Elder Hamon'. Then I answered myself - 'Elder Hamon's ability came from lots and lots of practice and learning. If you're willing to mutilate yourself for his gift, why can't you just put in the practice and effort to learn? If your desire is strong enough, you should be willing to do anything in your power to make it happen.' So after I finished talking to myself, I decided to take my own advice on board. I've come to the conclusion that the trick to being extraordinary at something is not to put in effort when you've set aside time to practice - everybody does that - the trick is to work on it in the idle moments when you're waiting for the bus, outside the toilet waiting for your companion, or just have a second with nothing to do. That's the time I've learned to pull out the flashcards and study - if I had relied only on the hour of language study a day, I would never have made it to language legend.

I've decided that the same principle applies in my drawing - the trick will be to do it in the few spare seconds I have, and to just practice and practice and practice. Yesterday while I was waiting outside I's baptismal interview, I pulled out a pen and my planner and just drew pictures of hands for a good half and hour. There is now a page of hands in my planner, in a bunch of different poses, and I'm a little better at drawing hands now.

By the way - no I never did find my lost money. Oh well, money doesn't bring you happiness anyway. I assume I must have thrown it away when I moved from West Point to Tai Po by accident. In this case, it has gone to a better cause - in Hong Kong, little old ladies who are retired try to grab some extra cash by rifling through rubbish bins and pulling out the recyclables to sell. I enjoy thinking of the look on one little old lady's face as she pulls an envelope out of a black plastic sack and discovers $400! That ought to make her day.

Yesterday was our District Leader/Zone Leader meeting, where we got to see the new President Chan in action. While Sister Chan chose to address us in Chinese (which was fine because everyone in the meeting has been in Hong Kong for quite a while, although she was throwing around some rather complex car vocabulary that perhaps not everyone got), President Chan spoke in English. His English is pretty good, but I'm fairly certain he hasn't needed to speak it much in recent years. I don't know if I mentioned that they're Hong Kong natives, and that up until his call he's been a Sealer in the Temple. They're both very excited and a little nervous. I'm making it my goal to do everything I can to support them.


Well, time is running out fast. I love you all. If there's anything I can do for you, let me know.

Lots of love,

Elder Matthew Loffhagen