Bearing Testimony of Family History Work--February 25-March 3, 2013

This has been our view for most of the last two months. We have had a high humidity of  95-100%. The clouds have been extremely low blocking the view across the harbor.

 This area was all water a month ago. Rocky dirt from someplace has been hauled in on large barges with big cranes to move the dirt form the barge and drop into the harbor to fill this part and start construction for something. Fifty years ago the harbor was right outside our building which is a hundred yards from the water today. Some of the largest buildings in Hong Kong have been built where there once was water.

As we go around Hong Kong we see people out walking their dogs. The dogs are very pampered. They are dressed up in little outfits like children. A dogie stroller is provided so if the dog gets tired they can ride. There were three or four more dogs in front of this group.






This week we had the wonderful experience of helping an 85 year old man try to verify some information on his ancestors. He had chronicled his family in a beautifully bound book with 600+ pages.  He is Jewish and wanted to verify information about has grandfather and was hoping to find some information about his great-grandparents. The first record we found was his father on a ship manifest. He was delighted to see that image and he said, "That is my father's handwriting." We were then able to find information on his grandfather as a married man in the 1891 England Census. He knew his grandfather died in San Francisco in 1907. We then found his grandmother as a widow in the 1911 England Census. We weren't success in finding anything about his great-grandparents. We knew he was going to California in a couple of months and he thought he would to Salt Lake City to the Church's Family History Library there. He had been there before. He knew about the Granite Mountain vault where records are stored. He started asking us questions about why our church goes to all that effort and expense to secure records and store them. We had the opportunity to bear testimony to him of our belief in the eternal nature of families and of ordinances that needed to be done for each individual to progress. We also bore testimony to him that if the information was available the Lord would open doors and he would be able to find it.

Tom was given a copy of the 1965 Cantonese Sounds and Tones Guide for missionaries. He has decided to retype it because in 1965 all of the diacritical marks were written by hand. Today's computers can generate those symbols at the stroke of a key. The digitized version will be easily reproducible for future missionaries.

Jennifer and Chad both celebrated birthdays this week. Jennifer turned the BIG 4-0 and Chad is now 38.

Tom has spent a lot of time going over the budgets for the other family history senior missionary couples in Asia. He gives final approval for all travel.

We walk a 5-K each day along the Promenade. Tom then over indulges on snacks and wonders why he doesn't lose weight.

Saturday was misty, windy and cold. We didn't feel up to doing any sight seeing but we did have to go to the grocery store.