2013 has arrived--December 31, 2012-January 6, 2013

At our weekly devotional, Sister Marsha Castleton spoke on the importance and prioritizing our lives. She reminded us of the story we had heard of comparing our life to a jar. In the jar we place rocks which represent family, our spouse, health, and children--the things that if everything else was lost our life would still be full.  Then pebbles were put in the jar which represent job, car, and house. Last sand was placed in the jar which is everything else--the small stuff. If the order is reversed and the sand is put in first then there isn't room for the pebbles and rocks. The same is true of our lives, if we put all the small stuff first then there isn't room or time for the things that matter most.

We spent an enjoyable New Year's Eve with the other senior couples having dinner at the Sweet Basil Thai restaurant and then a movie in our movie room.

Tom Skyped with Elder Taber in Thailand about the possibility of a second family history missionary couple coming to Thailand and where they would be located.  The discussion was then passed along to Elder Wilson.  The Area Presidency will make the final decision.

 For New Year's Day we decided to do some exploring. We pulled out a booklet of sights to see in Hong Kong we were given upon our arrival by Area Office and chose to go to Che Kung temple.

This is a temple that was built to honor Che Kung who was a commander in the Southern Song Dynasty. He was reputed to have saved the area from a plague in 1629. His birthday is celebrated on the second day of the Chinese New Year.

 There are relief pictures all around the courtyard of the temple.
Since it was New Year's Day there were many people at the temple offering prayers and burning incense. There was a four bladed fan inside the temple and a huge drum that people would spin or beat three times for good luck. The outside temple wall.

 Good Luck pinwheels that were hanging along one wall of the courtyard. The bigger the pinwheel the better.

There were eight of these statues around the courtyard of the temple.

Inside the temple there were 60 small statues who are patron saints over a particular year. The middle statue here is for Tom's year of birth. The one below is for Garnalee's.

This is the huge statue of Che Kung that is in the main hall of the temple. We discovered in reading about him that Kung means General so he is General Che.

Each morning as we walk to work along the Promenade we can see small boats on the water. One morning this week there was one close to the Promenade that we could get a picture of. As we the man in the boat was pulling a wire basket attached to a rope from the water. Tom thought maybe it was crabs in the basket. There were more wire baskets on the top of the boat.

One of the things we enjoy about serving in the temple each week is to see the families come from other countries to receive their temple blessings. Here is a member of the Church from India with his daughter and son.  Also pictured are Sister Treasure and Sister Castleton.






This week Tom and Garnalee celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary.

Tom spent a lot of time this week helping to write a farewell song for the Meehans who will return to Houston, Texas, next week. It is a mission tradition that a parody is written for the departing couple listing all of the things we remember about them. The tune that was chosen to use was Johnny Cash "I Walk the Line".
He did a great job.

We were given tickets to use on Saturday to view a display of gold jewelry from India at the Asia Society of Hong Kong. The building was formerly an armory where gun powder was manufactured, stored, and issued to defensive locations throughout Hong Kong by the British Army in the mid-19th century. Tom said the Asia Society building was a very peaceful place in the midst of chaos.