We had the opportunity to attend the Hong Kong Temple this week. One of the wonderful parts of our mission will be serving in the Temple each week. The picture shows us at the Hong Kong Temple with Steve Tsai and Hashick Hong.
This has been a busy and eventful week for us. We had two managers/trainers arrive to get us started on our assignment. Both of them are Church employees in the Family History Department. One lives in Taiwan and the other in Korea. We have discovered our assignment is more far reaching than we had imagined. We will be responsible for all the Family History work in all of Asia. It is a daunting task, but we have been promised that we will be equal to the challenge with the Lord's help.
We spent $10,900 on suits for Tom. Oh, by the way that is Hong Kong dollars which is equal to about $1400 US dollars. For that he will have made 3 tailored suits, 6 long sleeve custom shirts, and 6 ties.
As we go shopping and we pay for things the prices are higher than in the US. When we hand over several hundred dollars for the 2 bags of groceries that we can carry back to our apartment, it shocks us until we convert from Hong Kong to US dollars then it isn't quite so bad. The exchange rate is $7.80 HKD to each US dollar.
Saturday evening we had an interesting experience. We attended a Sikh Temple ceremony. The Sikh religion was founded in India by a man who didn't agree with the caste system and believed all are equal. They serve a daily meal to all who walk through their doors at no charge.They have "5 Articles of Faith" and believe in many of the standards we have. Where we part company is in their belief of God. They believe He is a formless gender-less entity. The meal was ladled out of large buckets onto our metal plates. Everyone was seated on the floor so that no one was higher than another. Sikhs are vegetarians so there was no meat at the meal but everything was very tasty and spicy.
Because of our black name tags we have had some wonderful experiences. A mother and her daughter saw us on the street and stopped us so they could talk to us. They were from Palmyra, New York. Another time we were on the bus and a Philippina servant woman visited with us. She had a Book of Mormon and was headed on vacation to the Philippines, and she was going to discuss joining the Church with her husband. I have to admire the Philippina women who leave their families and come here to work because there are no jobs in the Philippines.
So happy for you both. Serving in the temple will be a bonus. You should have told me how much work was needed in family History. Luv u Shar
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