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!