Week 58--September 23-29, 2013

All of the Senior Missionaries and Area Presidency gathered on the patio for the Mid-Autumn Festival dinner. Tom was working on the Temple FHC computer and isn't in the picture.








The typhoon we had last Sunday passed us to the north and didn't cause any major difficulties that was predicted.

Tom left his scriptures in the taxi last Sunday and didn't get them back. Maybe the taxi driver will read them and seek out the Church.

Tom has written another farewell song for the Castletons. She is a California girl so he choose to use the Beach Boys song by the the same name. It was performed on Friday and it was a wonderful, raving success.

Cindy sent us several photos that we downloaded and labeled. There were some people Tom didn't know so we will need to check with Cindy on who they might be.

For Family Evening we read an article given by Elder Bednar at the New Mission Presidents' Seminar in June. The title of the article was "Missionary Work and the Spirit of Elijah." It was a very powerful article on how missionary work and family history work are all one great work and should not be separated. It gave several examples of using family history to strengthen members and introduce friends to the Church.

We had a professional genealogist from Russia come to our family history center looking for information. He was familiar with Family Search and had been to the Salt Lake Family History Library. He was able to find what he was looking for.

We have been asked to serve on a committee for an Area Presidency Initiative to facilitate more socialization among young single adults that will hopefully lead to marriage in the temple. We have a short time schedule of having a presentation ready for the Area Presidency by October 26. The plan will eventually go to the Area Seventy to be used throughout the Asia Area.

We received an email from Elder Wilson with the name of a Thai family that will be coming to the Hong Kong Temple. In order to make the trip they sold their only water buffalo to pay for their way here. We are never going to complain if we don't feel like we are rich because we are.

 Danise Mok and Flora Ho performed the cup song for Elder and Sister Castleton before they leave. We decided that we do the cups or clap our hands or slap the table or sing in harmony but not all four at once like these girls did. Great Fun!

Final evening with Sister Castleton at the Temple. All of the sisters gathered for a farewell picture.

Front row: Sister Lasson, Sister Chia, Sister Woo, Sister Wong, Sister Fung, Sister Lim.

Back row: Sister Ng, Sister Harrington, Sister Castleton, Sister Cheung, Sister Lee, Sister Lai.

Elder Lowell and Sister Marsha Castleton at their farewell luncheon on Friday.










We attended the temple marriage of Catherine Kong and Joseph Lee. Catherine is a secretary in Legal Department and Joseph's mother works in the HR Department. Catherine has become very special to us as she was Tom's go to person when he was working on his Chinese calligraphy project. He would check with her to see if he was making the characters correctly.
                                                                                   

After the Temple ceremony we all boarded a chartered bus to go to the reception in New Territories. We sat in the very back with the Copes, Castletons, and Watkins.

The beautiful couple.

At a Chinese reception everyone has their picture taken with the bride and groom. Tom hopes they click the picture quickly so he doesn't faint from holding in his stomach.

There was a wonderful buffet. Joseph and five of his friends sang and danced for Catherine. He is a very talented young man.