Getting Out

We visited the fishing village Aberdeen.  When Lynn served his mission here there were lots of Chinese people living on their fishing boats.    They lived on these boats their entire lives.  Back then they were called  "Boat People"  Things have changed now,   not as many people  still live on their boats.  

We took the tram  up to  "Victoria Peak"

We had the perfect day to go to Victoria Peak.  It was beautiful.  Last March we went with Shan and Dave, and Jill and Kyle,  it was so foggy we couldn't see anything!   Some of the missionaries went the other day and it was cloudy and rainy,  they couldn't see anything.    We really lucked out!

We took this picture from Stanley.  It was really beautiful there.

Getting out

Monday, after two months of watching the world spin around us we took a day off. We decided to get more acquainted with Hong Kong so we took the "Big Bus Tour".   This tour runs buses every twenty minutes and has multiple stops on both the Peninsula and the Island. The buses are double decker’s that are open on the top deck and enclosed with air-conditioning in the bottom deck. The tour allows you to get off at any stop, explore the area of the stop, and then get back on another buss without waiting for more than twenty minutes.

We started on the Island in the Central District and followed the route to the Peak Tram. We took the tram to the top of the mountain that overlooks Hong Kong, and took some photos from the peak. We jumped back on a bus and went through a tunnel to the other side of the Island to Deep Water Bay, Repulse Bay and got off the bus in Stanley. We had a nice lunch in Stanley overlooking the harbor at an Italian Restaurant, ( pizza and lasagna).

We hated to leave but finally caught another bus and went to Aberdeen. Aberdeen was a fishing village populated with numerous fisherman that lived with their families on boats back in seventy-three when I was here serving a mission. Today it is very different with towering residential apartments and condominiums. We took a Sampan ride around the inlet and noticed a few boat people and had our picture taken in front of the old floating Jumbo Restaurant.

The next day we were back at work and Sister Beckstead published her first article in News Room. It was part of her learning experience with the software we use here to write, illustrate and publish church stories. Granted Annie wrote the story and I inserted the pictures, video and hyperlink, Karen is the one who cut and pasted it to the software and whose name is on it if you viewed it from the software. You can find the article if you go to Mormonnewsroom.org, click international and then click Hong Kong. It’s at the top of the page, - Church Launches “Light the World” Christmas Initiative.

We had another opportunity this week to see a number of Humanitarian Projects being considered for the area as well as newly completed projects that are helping thousands of lives in the Asia Area. I think it's  wonderful that in this highly politicalized world, the Church chooses to quietly invest in Government and Non-Government Entities all over the world improving the lives of millions of people and not make it a public issue.

Thank all of you for your support, we love and care about all of you. Hope you all have a good week we know we will.

The Ivory carvings are beautiful,   but I have to tell myself that these elephants died of natural causes before they lost their tusks!  While in Africa a couple of years ago,   we saw first hand the tragedy of poachers,  it was really sad.

We received a new Branch assignment

A Month of Sacrament Meetings in a Week

Hong Kong is a very wealthy city and it is very common for a Hong Kong household to employ a “Domestic Helper”. A Domestic Helper is a maid, nanny, cook, housekeeper, and anything else the employer needs help with around the house.

Most of these employees are woman from the Philippines although we have met some that are from Indonesia. 

They come here because they can make more money in a week here than they can in several weeks of work in the Philippines. This sounds good on the surface because it increases the quality of life for their families at home but because there is no preplanned means of leaving they create for themselves a difficult situation to return. Either their families encourage them to stay and send the money so that the beneficiaries can maintain their improved life style, or because of their ability to make a lot more money they go into deep debt that will take years to pay off. What starts out as a short term plan ends up as a very long term stay, most of these workers end up staying twenty years or more.

Hong Kong Labor Laws restrict the employer to six days a week and so to make it difficult on their employees the employer won’t allow them in the house on their off day. Unfortunately, the Domestic Helper who is far away from home and family has nowhere to go on their day off, so you will see these groups of immigrants hanging out in public areas as homeless people, mostly on the weekends but you can find them every day of the week depending on which day is their off day.

The Church has become a sanctuary for many of these sisters, who are members, by holding a block of Church Meetings every day of the week. Karen and I were invited to the Every-Day Branch this week to speak. This means that we attended church every day this week to partake of the Sacrament and speak. It was a great experience; the Sisters are mostly Pilipino and are so humble and lovable. They always make a dinner after the block of meetings to eat and visit together until they are able to go back to the homes of their respective employers.

Friday was our last day to speak and after the meeting one of the Counselors in the District Presidency came up to the tenth floor and called us to serve in the Saturday Branch.  So from now on we will go to Church on Saturdays. I have been called to serve as a Counselor in the Branch Presidency.   We are very excited about this opportunity, not only because of how wonderful the Pilipino Sisters are ,but also because we will be working with the Petts, Judy and Stan, a career Navy Officer, and Ross and Nancy Kendell, former president of Key Bank,  both of whom we love and respect.

This week also provided us the opportunity to do more work on the Light the World campaign, we are working with the translation of the Advent Calendars and Pass along Cards for the various countries. The Church pushes a lot of the translation work out to the countries rather than to have a centralized translation location. The challenge we have here is that there are a few countries in our area that have not been able to develop the resources necessary to keep all this translation work in house. So, we are outsourcing the work with multiple entities and it becomes a bit of a coordination problem. But if we can keep the translations at least one day ahead of publishing, it appears to the world that we know what we are doing.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving,  we are looking forward to Christmas!!!

We were given a  very traditional gift from the Area Asia Presidency's  wives.   It's a pillow box with little gifts inside.  For hundreds of years, many Chinese stored treasures in pillow boxes so that if danger arose during the night, the treasures were close at hand,  and should the owner have to flee,  he could readily take his valuables with him.  They actually used them for pillows.  I've noticed in some old paintings it depicts Chinese people sleeping on their pillow box.

In times past,  Chinese couples were given a set of chopsticks on their  wedding day,  representing two people working together in marriage to accomplish their goals.

The porcelain derives it's beauty and strength from the quality of the clay from which it is formed, the skill of the master craftsman,  and the great temperature at which it is fired - about 1,300 degrees Celsius ( 2,372  degrees Fahrenheit)  for the finest wares.  In Isaiah 64:8 we read, "O Lord, thou are our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of Thy hand."  (In the Master's hands, and with His help through fiery trials, we too become strong and beautiful.)

The Wisemen of China:

Fu, risked his life to save people from suffering,  is often depicted carrying a child and represents Blessings or Prosperity.  (To remind us of our children and grandchildren we are blessed with).

Lu, an ancient and noble government official, represents Success.  (To remind us of all we contribute to the success in building the Lord's kingdom.)

Shou,  who is believed to control the life spans of mortals, represents Longevity.  (To remind us of the eternal joy we receive as we "wear out our lives" in the service of others.)

Getting in to the Holidays

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner with the other Senior Missionaries.  Elder Roberts and Elder Chandler got the honors of carving the turkeys.

It seems different seeing all the sights and sounds of Christmas in the sweltering heat! 

We love associating with the local members here

We  attended a Stake Relief Society Talent Show with the Yans and the Stevens  the other night.  This was really fun to visit a Stake with so many wonderful members.  Each Ward Relief Society had a talent to share,  and it was a great activity.  It felt so good to be around so many families enjoying their relationships with ward and stake members.  I love how the Church really is the same everywhere.  The Spirit feels the same everywhere,   as well as the feeling of love the members have for one another.

Our Office in the Asia Area Office Building (referred to as the "Wan Chai" building)

We have been really busy working on the Church World Wide Christmas Campaign for 2016 -  "Light the World,  25 Ways over 25 Days"    Here we are in a meeting identifying where we are at in regards to translations needed,  adaptations necessary for culture differences,  and so on,  and so on.

I guess I could call this our home away from home,  which is also away from home!  This is my half,  well,  three quarters of our office!

Lynn's  half (quarter).  It's obvious who choose their space first!  I told him he can share my space when he needs more room!

Lynn with Elder Yan contemplating a dilemma.

Deck the Halls!  This was a lot of fun,  we all worked together,   Church full time employees,  young Elder and Sisters,  and Senior Missionary Couples. 

Our Nativity is what people see from the sidewalk.    The entrance to our building is all glass doors and this is right inside the door.  We're not allowed to put anything outside of the building (the Church's agreement with the Government).  But it is open to the public and last year they had some walk-ins who were curious and came in to take a look,   we hope that happens this year.  The Welcome Center  (we can't call it a Visitor's Center),   is just behind the nativity.  Sometimes people walk in and like to look at the chapels in our building.  The public can look around the building from the ground floor up to the 6th floor where it is all chapels,  classrooms,  Baptismal font,   Primary rooms,  nursery and so on.    Only Church employees and missionaries have elevator access to floors 7-10.

Today we are walking up to Big Buddha

This is actually our first "sight seeing" day.  We've seen lots and lots of awesome sights because they are everywhere we go.  But  Big Buddha is an out of the way sight.

Inside is a gallery of Chinese art.  There were some really old paintings painted with the artists blood.  This was a way the artist  showed their devotion to the receiver of painting.  They reminded me of sketches with pastels or charcoal -  but done in blood.

I took this picture  of the Monastery from Big Buddha

It is absolutely beautiful up here!

One of the rooms inside has 10,000 Buddhas.  Appropriately named "The Room of Ten Thousand Buddhas".    They are very tiny and cover all the walls.  Photos aren't allowed inside any of these sights or I would show you pictures.

A week of firsts. 

This week was a lot of fun because we have been here for several weeks and are still having first time experiences. Early in the week we joined the other Senior Couples for our first Family Home Evening with the group and participated in some “get to know you better” activities. It was interesting to find out more about the Senior Missionaries that are serving here. There is so much talent, ability and experience gathered here that it’s hard to imagine the work that we will be involved with over the next year and a half. 

This week we also had our first visit and dinner with a member at their home. We were invited to Bishop Jimmy Chan’s home and spent the evening enjoying a wonderful Chinese meal while sharing stories and getting to know each other better. Both Jimmy and his wife are first generation members, yet their family and home is no different than a family in Salt Lake that has evolved over multiple generations of activity in the Church. It’s a testimony to me that once you have received the blessings promised to Abraham's posterity there is an immediate adoption into the House of Israel and the blessings of the Covenant. 

During the middle of the week we were invited to Elder Evan’s home with three other Couples for lunch. They live on the eleventh floor and have a giant picture window overlooking the harbor which is spectacular. Both President Funk and his wife as well as Elder Wong joined us and three other new Couples to “officially welcome us to Hong Kong”. (It would be an understatement to say this was a first.) We had a nice meal and received a loving message from Elder Funk expressing his appreciation for us coming to Hong Kong as Senior Missionaries serving in the Asia Area. Sister Funk then gave each of the new Sisters a special gift as a token of appreciation for coming over to serve. 

The last day of the work week, at three o’clock, we all met on different floors in the building to decorate for Christmas. We were assigned different locations throughout the building. Employees were fetching and delivering boxes of decorations out of storage while Missionaries were sorting, fluffing, placing and hanging wreaths, holly, bells and poinsettias in what I would describe as organized chaos. After we emptied the boxes that were delivered to our assigned locations, (we were assigned to help in the Lobby),  everyone gathered down in the lobby and joined with others doing the same to decorate the big Christmas Tree and enjoy cookies, banana bread, and brownies.  

It is also a first for us, to begin a week set aside for recognizing all the blessings in life that we receive, a week of Thanksgiving.   We pray that we will all be blessed with blessings that are beyond our ability to comprehend,  and beyond our ability to express enough gratitude for. 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Every time we cross the harbor I am amazed at how beautiful it is.   

 We have made wonderful friends here in Hong Kong.  We met Jimmy Chan who was baptized by a friend of ours,  Matt Bagley.  As it turned out, Jimmy and his wife Jo are good friends with Annie Wong (our Assistant Director of Asia Area Public Affairs).   Even in Hong Kong it's a small world in the Church.   Jimmy and his wife Jo  invited us to dinner,  we had a wonderful time.  It was so cool to see the many wonderful blessings of missionary work.  Matt baptized Jimmy,  who served a full time mission.  He married Jo,  they have 3 children,   their 2 sons served full time missions in London and Washington D.C.  Their daughter is getting ready to apply to BYU Hawaii.   Jimmy is now serving as Bishop in his ward.   Jimmy's wife Jo is also a convert.  It was so fun to visit and hear all about their conversion stories and how the gospel has blessed their lives and the lives of their children.

(Left to right- Sinead, Jo, Annie, Sister and Elder Beckstead, Jimmy)

Every Day in Hong Kong is an Adventure

We love to take off and go exploring.  We decide where we want to go,  what we want to do and we are off.  We love all the different areas we walk through.  The sights and sounds are constantly changing from place to place.  We will be in a very modern area,  and within minutes be in a very old more traditional Chinese area.  We just take it all in,  the sights and sounds,  everything!

Walking around in Hong Kong we see many different extremes from one area of the city to another,  and we love walking through them all.

 There are so many candy stores and yummy bakeries.  I had no idea how many goodies would be available here.  We don't have any problem finding lots of good things to satisfy our sweet cravings!  Lots of pastries,  and lots of chocolate!

The mall's are all festive for Christmas.   Just like home,  the day after Halloween all the Christmas decoration and lights are going up everywhere.

The walk ways above the streets (flyovers)  are everywhere!  There are lots of streets that you can't cross unless you walk up the stairs,  walk across the flyover,  and down the stairs on the other side of the street.

Our apartment has lots of windows for which I am grateful.  It is larger than I thought it would be.  It's very small.......but I thought it would be even smaller.  It's very nice and we love the view (even with the freeway!).

This area is Whampoa.  It has some good American markets.  Actually they are Chinese stores,  just very westernized.  We come here a lot.  It's only a 15 minute walk from our apartment.  We have to shop often because we can only shop for a little at a time.   We buy just what we can fit in our little shopping bag on wheels.  Grocery shopping is really different when you walk to and from the store!

We attended one of the  Cantonese Branches this week.  Kids are the same all over the world. They were perfect little angels during their program,  but after in the foyer when parents wanted pictures,  they were adorable little angels!  I loved listening to the children give their little parts and sing the Primary songs in Cantonese.   We were visiting this branch for a Public Affairs project.

This was a very busy and productive week for us. The week started with the receipt of the Church’s Christmas Initiative packet from the Missionary Department. This year the Theme is to “Light the World” and the implementation of a new focus referred to as “Light the World in 25 Ways over 25 Days”.  A new initiative like this sparks a flurry of activity around the world in the Public Affairs Department of the Church. For us specifically we are responsible to make sure that all the Stakes, Wards, Districts, and Branches both receive and understand this initiative.  We do this by coordinating with the other Senior Couples in their Mission Countries and the Priesthood leaders they’re supporting. For example, Brother and Sister Patterson are serving in Malaysia as Public Affairs Missionaries, Karen and I help support them as they support the Priesthood Leaders in Malaysia. We help them understand the initiative, help them define how they can adapt the initiative into the culture of the country they serve,  and we help with all the translation work that is required with this project. The big challenge then is to get all the information out to the  Priesthood Leaders that need to be in front taking the lead,  with a very small window of time to coordinate a lot of people. In this example I use  the Pattersons, now multiply the efforts of this one scenario by the other eight active countries here in the Asia Area to get a “peek under the hood” of the activity that is triggered in Public Affairs whenever the Church initiates a worldwide program.

This week we also met with Elder Wong and reviewed multiple projects, initiatives and challenges pertaining to Asia Area. The challenges usually are created because of the large diversity of cultures that exist in the Area, language and etiquette particularly. The highlight of the meeting for us was Annie;  we have been working with her on her management skills and particularly how to present information as a leader in a meeting. She did such a great job in this meeting; she came prepared with a power point presentation and answered every question Elder Wong asked. At the end of the meeting Elder Wong commented on what a great meeting it was and told Annie how well she did. It gives us great pleasure to see her mature the way she is, we believe she is the future of the Pubic Affairs Department here in Hong Kong.

We ended the week with a wonderful glimpse of the Humanitarian Projects that are being carried out in this part of the world. We were not aware until Friday that we sit on a committee that reviews and makes Charitable Project recommendations to the Area Presidency for approval. What a great opportunity to see the wonderful temporal work that the LDS Charities and their partners are performing to meet the needs of the poor and needy of the world. It is often difficult for the presenters of charitable requests not to tear up during a presentation and for good reason, we have learned that it is difficult to help someone that is poor or in need temporally without a very strong spiritual experience.

"Light the World"   in Thai.   World Wide Church Christmas Campaign for 2016.  "Light the World in 25 Ways over 25 Days.