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.