Week 62--October 21-27, 2013

Our Family Home Evening was a review of General Conference. Each missionary was asked to pick a special quote from one of the conference talks and explain why it impressed them. We got to recall each of the talks that we had read and analyzed for our assignment for the Area Presidency. We realized that the Spirit touches each person's heart in different ways that will be most meaningful to that person. 

On Tuesday we organized the conference talks into the four area invitations which are members renewing their baptismal covenants, young men receiving the priesthood and preparing for missions, members holding temple recommends, and couples married in the temple and families sealed as requested by the Area Presidency. We were then left with twelve pages and by changing the margins and the font size it was brought down to seven pages. So we are done. Elder Jackson reported to us the Area Presidency was very pleased with the job we had done. 

We spent some time on Wednesday creating a one page lesson for the bishop/branch president to use to introduce the "My Family: Stories That Bring Us Together" booklet. 

Tom finished up the Frandsens' farewell song on Friday. He found out on Friday that he needs to have a song ready for next week for the Bertins. The Bertins have been called as a mission president and wife to start their assignment on July 1. They are going home to spend time with their children before they begin their new assignment. 

Saturday we went to Stanley Market with the Copes. We had an enjoyable time wandering and making a few purchases and then lunch. We always enjoy going to Stanley as it is on the west side of Hong Kong island. It is very quiet and serene there. 

An outcropping of rocks with the high rises in the background. 

After our excursion to Stanley we helped serve a dinner for the Area Seventy and to honor the out going Hong Kong Temple presidency. We served the food and washed the dishes. The Seventy come from various countries of Asia and they were treated to an American meal of BBQ ribs, baked potato with toppings, and Skor cake. Even in Hong Kong you can find BBQ ribs. 

 The crowds on the platform across from us waiting to catch the train to mainland China on Sunday afternoon.

This one is looking to the left and below is the right. Thousands of shoppers come to Hong Kong from mainland China every week.

We met with the four Hong Kong stakes for their quarterly Family History meeting. President Chun reminded everyone that 2014 marks the 65th anniversary of the dedication of Hong Kong for missionary work.  He proposed that 65,000 names be submitted to the during the year. He broke it down that each ward or branch would be challenged to submit 2000 names. A worthy goal to strive to achieve. 

Week 61--October 14-20, 2013

October 14 was a holiday in Hong Kong similar to Memorial Day in the United States. The temple was open to allow the Filipino sisters the opportunity to attend and us the opportunity to serve. We attended our branch activity. We had just studied about the Martin and Willie Handcart Companies in Sunday School so we showed the movie Ephraim's Rescue and had popcorn, pop,  and Hershey's Kisses. The sisters loved the movie. It made all of us thankful for our individual trials rather than those of others.

Tuesday began with the Area Presidency devotional that is simulcast to all the service centers in Asia. The presenter was Elder Funk. He shared some of the things they had been instructed on in Salt Lake City during their meetings.  He also shared two stories of missionaries from India where he had been mission president. One was of a young man who was a top student in his high school and received a full scholarship to a school in Coimbatore. Because there are units of the Church in Coimbatore there were missionaries there. This young man was introduced to the Gospel and joined the Church. After graduating from college he decided he wanted to serve a mission. He went to Bangalore to work for a year to save money to pay for his mission and to give money to his family for their support while he was on his mission.

The YSA committee made the first presentation of the document we have working on to the Area Presidency. While they discuss it we will continue to polish what we have done.

The weather has cooled off so that we can start to walk the Promenade again.

Tom has been working on getting the printers and computers to talk to each other in the Wan Chai and Homantin buildings. We appreciate the help of the district councilman who has been assigned to help with the computers.

We are excited for the arrival of the new product from the Family History Department--"My Family: Stories That Bring Us Together" booklet. We feel it will be a real benefit to the members in Asia who have limited or no access to computers for the recording of their family stories. In anticipation of the roll out of this booklet Elder Wilson asked us to compose a letter that will instruct Asia area Church leaders on to present the booklet. It will be a fifth Sunday combined meeting for all members 12 and up. Tom spent Friday morning working on the letter. After Sisters' Institute we critiqued it together and then sent it to our Area Manager for his input before we give it to Elder Wilson.

Saturday we had a Senior couple activity, the first one in several months. We went to the Wong Tai Sin temple. It is one of the most beautiful and well maintained that we have seen in Hong Kong.

 The entrance to the temple.

 In one area of the temple grounds are Chinese zodiac statutes for the year of your birth. Tom is with his statute which is the Pig which is also this year.

 Garnalee is year of the tiger.

 Very colorful Chinese lanterns.

One of the things that many of  the people come to the temple for is to practice kau cim which  is shake a bamboo container full of sticks that have a number on each one. The container is shaken until one of the sticks falls out. The stick is then taken to a window where the person is given a piece of paper with the same number on it.  The paper is then taken to fortune teller who will interpret the fortune for the person.

 The Moon Gate at the entrance to the garden behind the temple.

Below is a beautiful waterfall contained within the garden. Notice the skyscrapers that completely surround the temple grounds.

 In the garden area is a pool of coy fish.

And in another area is a pool of turtles. The turtles enjoy the morning sun as they sun themselves on the rock.








We had a special conference from Salt Lake City that was broadcast to all 18 countries in Asia where there are units of the Church. Elder Hales, Elder Holland, Elder Evans, and Sister Stevens addressed us. Elder Holland has been given the assignment to oversee the work in Asia replacing Elder Oaks. The messages all focused on missionary work.

Week 60--October 7-13, 2013

It has been a pretty quiet week. We have worked on various projects. We have been keeping very busy. Tom likes to say, "It seems like we've been in Hong Kong three or four months now." In actuality it's been 14 months with only four months left.

Tom has begun working on learning to play the piano. We have a keyboard from our branch at the apartment. He is working on recognizing the notes and getting the timing down. Sister Lasson purchased a piano program from the Distribution Center that Tom is using as a guide.

The Frandsens go home in five weeks so Tom has begun composing a farewell song for them.

We helped with a two-hour presentation on Sharepoint to the secretaries of the various departments.  Family History is the biggest user of Sharepoint in Asia. Because we use it so extensively Sister Frandsen has noted that we are experts and can help train.

This is our General Conference weekend. We went to the Wan Chai building to watch the broadcast. The talks were very inspiring. We receive conference a week after it happens in Salt Lake City to allow time for translation to occur. It was nice to be able to print out the talks and listen with printout in hand to be able to highlight the thoughts we plan to extract for the Area Presidency. This makes us pay close attention as the talks are delivered as we strive to be in tune with the Spirit.

When we arrived last August this area was open harbor.  We understand that the fill has come from excavation of the MTR as they extend the lines. This fill is next to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.

Originally the harbor was 1.7 miles wide. Today it is just over 0.7 miles. So over the years they have filled in nearly 1 mile of the harbor.

It would be a shame if they fill in the entire harbor because it is such a scenic landscape. This harbor is one of the deepest and most beautiful in the world.

Week 59--September 30-October 6, 2013

October 1 was National Day in China which is similar to 4th of July in America. Since it is a holiday the Filippina sisters have the day as a holiday so they come to the Temple. It was an extremely busy day with some of the sisters not being able to attend an ordinance session because they were so full. We wondered if this might be what it will be like at the temples during the millennium. We officiated at the 9 AM session in which there was a group from Thailand. It was a very rewarding day.

Tom has started walking the Promenade as the weather is cooling off. Garnalee isn't walking as she has a foot that is bothering her. Tom encountered about 10 young Americans on the ferry who were headed to the Immigration Building and wondered if they were going in the right direction. He had the opportunity to assure them that they were.

Sister Jackson wanted to go to Stanley to exchange an item. She invited anyone who wanted to go to accompany  her. Garnalee decided to go thinking it was going to be a quick trip out and back. It turned out to be an all day shopping trip. She bought a couple of cute tops and necklaces. Tom stayed at the office and worked away.

Friday was a busy hectic day. We have a new missionary couple in Cambodia. We are trying to help them learn how to use Meeting Place. We weren't successful and decided to just visit with them on Skype. Garnalee visited with them until she had to go Sisters' Institute and then turned them over to Tom to continue answering their questions. Garnalee then went to the Family History Center to help a Filippina sister create an account on Family Search and start to put her information into Family Tree. It was then off to senior luncheon in which Sister Frandsen gave the presentation. She asked us to give our input on the value of SharePoint. Family History is the biggest user of SharePoint. After lunch we helped introduce Annie Wong to SharePoint who will be the program manager when the Frandsens go home in a few weeks.

Tom called his brother Skip on Saturday to wish him a Happy Birthday.

We then went to see "Gravity" with some of the other senior missionaries. The movie theater is housed in the ICC building which is the tallest building in Hong Kong. It wasn't a clear day or we would have gone up to the 100th floor to see the view of Hong Kong and the surrounding islands. Close to the movie theater was an ice rink. We saw young Hong Kong hockey players practicing. Who knew they had hockey in Hong Kong?

 

Located on one of the levels of the mall was this huge floral decorated chair. I felt like Alice in Wonderland. Where is the rabbit hole?

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.

Week 57--September 16-22, 2013

Elder and Sister Farmer accompanied a group of ten Mongolian members to the Hong Kong temple. We had an enjoyable dinner with them after assisting the members to exchange money. We met the Farmers when we went to Mongolia last October. They have become good friends.






We had a conference call on Tuesday with Elder Dennis Brimhall, Steve Rockwood, Steve Tsai, Joe Crandall, and us. It was 7:30 AM in Hong Kong and 5:30 PM Monday in Salt Lake City.We sense that the brethren are very aware of the challenges and problems that family history is having in Asia. We had our monthly Area Presidency devotional this morning. The thrust of the message from Elder Gong was the growth of the Church in the Asia area over the next five years. He anticipates there will be 41 new stakes. It is exciting to be involved in the hastening of the work.

We have had several new couples arrive over the past few weeks. We had dinner on Wednesday evening with Elder and Sister Clark who will be serving in the Victoria 2 Everyday Branch. Then we had dinner Wednesday with Elder and Sister Cope who are the new missionaries for the legal department.

We checked on the computers that were moved at the temple to see if they are operational. We found some bugs that need to be resolved.

Elder and Sister Walker, missionaries in Taiwan, had to go home early for Sister Walker to have surgery on her knee from an accident when a car hit her.

Thursday was Mid-Autumn Festival. We had a staff and missionary party.  Mid-Autumn Festival is like Thanksgiving in the United States. Families gather together, eat Moon Cakes, and look at the harvest moon. Moon cakes are a sweet bean pastry with an egg yolk in the center. We did not care for them. However, there was an orange flavored one without an egg yolk that was very good.

 Moon Cakes are cut into sections equal to the number of persons in the family. The ones above are traditional moon cakes with an egg yolk in the center. They look beautiful but not everyone likes them. Even some of the Chinese don't care for them.

 Fresh fruit and ice cream go along with the Mid-Autumn Festival. So there is always something that everyone will like.

Sisters Bertin and Heaps are debating which moon cake to try.






The Senior Missionaries were invited to have dinner with the Area Presidency. Since we are all far from home we are now each others family. We gathered on the Area Presidency patio for BBQ chicken and a variety of other pot luck dishes. We looked at the moon and played a game with Asian proverbs.

Friday we had another conference call with Elder and Sister Hollenzer who will be serving in Battambang, Cambodia. It was 8 AM in Hong Kong and 6 PM Thursday in Salt Lake City. The Knorpps, Moulders, and Davises shared how the Hollenzers can make their mission fruitful . The two hours went by rapidly. The Hollenzers are excited to begin. We were complemented on the book we had developed for the training of the new family history missionaries.

We had a big Branch activity on Friday for Mid-Autumn Festival with our Filippina sisters. Garnalee was in charge of the food. She found a recipe on-line for Copycat Arby's Chicken Salad Sandwiches. They were a big hit. We also had potato chips, moon cakes, homemade cookies, and ice cream. There were 48 Chinese lanterns scattered around the gym and each had a riddle inside. Tom's riddle was "What kind of soda is not good to drink?" Garnalee's riddle was " What starts with T, ends with T, and has T in the middle." Tom thinks no soda is good to drink.

Elder and Sister Farmer at Big Buddha.










Tom at Big Buddha.




We spent Saturday with Elder and Sister Farmer seeing some the sights of Hong Kong. We took them to Big Buddha and walked along the Wisdom Path. We took them to our favorite Chinese restaurant, Tin Tai Fung. We ended the day at the Symphony of Lights.

Tom saw this nativity scene when we visited the Farmers in Mongolia last October. When he found out they were coming to Hong Kong, he asked  them to bring him a set. They are hand carved and are very Mongolian.

This makes the third nativity set we have purchased in Asia. We were trying to down size but that doesn't seem to be happening.









We visited with Alene, Vernon, Leila, and Paul on Sunday morning. Leila and Paul are visiting Idaho for a few days. It was good to hear their voices. They are all doing fine.

We have a typhoon heading right for Hong Kong. It is predicted to be the worst typhoon in 34 years. We are at a T3 but is expected to go a T8. Typhoon Usagi was first rated as a super typhoon but down graded some to a severe typhoon. They have closed the airport and cancelled all flights this evening.

In Sacrament meeting today Tom confirmed Sister Mauricia Sab-it Abad whom he baptized last week. We had a very spiritual Sacrament meeting and then the rest of the meetings were cancelled because of the impending severe weather. 

Week 56--September 9-15, 2013

We start each Monday morning with a spiritual devotional. True to that format Brother Floyd Ko told a story that we had heard before. It was about a box of crayons that was compared it the trials we have. We don't get to pick our trails just like our favorite color of crayon may not be it the box to pick. We have to do the best we can and learn from those trails we given.

Our Family Home Evening with the other senior missionaries was sharing stories that have built your testimony or helped you to see the hand of the Lord in your life.

We have Country (Area) Advisers in countries in Asia where the church is established and growing. There were some guidelines developed by previous missionary couples because there weren't any from the Church. We decided that those guidelines needed to be updated with reference to materials from the Church that are now available to help them in their calling.

We have been working on several different projects so our plate is full. It seems that we complete one and get another added so the time is flying by. We feel a lot of pressure to get things done during our remaining five months. Elder Jackson asked us again to digest the conference addresses that are used extensively the Area Presidency and Area Seventy.

We are working on recording some information for the missionaries that will follow us. We want to give them as much information as we can so hopefully they will be able to hit the ground running.

We went to Central for dinner at Nico's on Friday. Nicos' is in what is called the Mid-Levels. To get there you ride on three travelators and several escalators. The travelator is a moving walkway and is the longest in the world. In the morning the travelator goes down the hill and switches to going up hill at 10 AM. To get back down you have to walk on a steep walkway and stairs. Sister Watkins is the beautiful, smiling blonde. It was their one year anniversary in the mission field. So they invited all the senior couples to celebrate with them.









We saw on Facebook a posting from Traci about all the flooding in Colorado. They had 15 inches of rain in a week which is a year's worth of moisture. We were very concerned about them and their safety. They are safe and only experienced minor flooding to their basement. It was amazing to see the pictures on TV. It reminded us of the Teton Dam flooding.

Garnalee spent time with one of the consultants from the Everyday Branch training her on using Family Tree. Working with the Filappina sisters is the only time we get to interact with members and help them with family history. Tom went to the temple to take pictures of the first floor family history center.

We had our Branch Conference on Sunday and came away with wonderful advice from our branch and district presidents. President Chai spoke on the 5 "Cs" of the world--cash, car, condo, credit card, and country club membership. As Church members we should be concerned about 5 different "Cs". They are being a christian christian, showing compassion, caring, commitment, and charity. President Tai spoke on 3 "Ds" of doubt of self worth, doubt of ability, and doubt of the existence of hope. He mentioned enjoying watching his children play sports but also the parents who rush in with a towel, a drink, and words of encouragement. Heavenly Father feels the same way about each of us.

Tom had the opportunity to perform the baptism for a new convert in our Branch. She has been taught by the sister missionaries.

Left to right: Brother Fullwood, the Branch mission leader;  Sister Lapaz; Sister Polidario; Sister Mauricia Abad; Sister Mabunga; Sister Lopez; and Elder Harrington.