A Week of Highlights

Highlight of the week; Karen getting older. Karen's birthday is not only the highlight of the week but the best day of the year.

This week also included an Asia Area Presidency Devotional, a hike in the New Territory's with the Chatterton's, good friends leaving, and a personal meeting with Elder Wong.

Elder David F. Evans shared with us the duties and responsibilities of the First and Second Quorums of the Seventies in our Devotional this week. The main take away for me from his presentation is that the men called to these Quorums are traveling Ministers. Those in this Area Presidency are continually on the road ministering to half the worlds population in twenty-two countries. Each country with multiple recognized internal national languages and cultures. For example, I believe that India alone recognizes more than twenty national languages. Making the work here very complex. The continual shift of national and regional politics also adds the problem of a continual moving target of those who favor or oppose opinions of Christian tolerance. Thus the Area Presidency may have spent last week in a Country working on what was a top priority for them last week,  but this week, the same Country same issue doesn't crack the top ten in priorities so they are off to somewhere else working on their new top priority. Enough of that, let's move on.

We with the Chatterton's pushed the limits of our comfort zone on our off day this week through an adventure trip to the New Territories. We read about a Chinese ghost town that was built during the sixties and abandoned just after I came home from Hong Kong in the mid- seventies.  After a thirty-minute train ride and a twenty-minute mini-bus ride we arrived at a trail/dirt road.  We hiked a few hundred meters and found the Village of Luk Keng.

Not much of a ghost town, just a couple of abandoned duplexes. But like good missionaries instead of letting ourselves feel disappointed, we recognized we were out of the city and enjoyed being in the country. We found a small trail which we followed that eventually led to a small crypt that housed the remains of someone's grandma and grandpa. After paying our respect we returned to where we could board the mini-bus and headed home.

This week we experienced the completion of our friends, Elder and Sister Orton’s, mission. Telling them good bye and having them leave is probably the hardest thing we have done here since our arrival. But, we are happy for them and their family and know that we will see each other again.

This week I also had a wonderful meeting with Elder Wong. We talked about me teaching members of the Church in other countries how to make friends. He told me that I have been given a gift of making friends and that I should leave a legacy of The Elder Beckstead way of making friends here in Hong Kong when we leave.

We love sharing some of last week with you and hope that your week was as fulfilling as ours.

Here is the article Elder Beckstead wrote covering Sister Cordon's visit last week:

Children are anxious to minister and be ministered to. Let the children minister.”

Bonnie H. Cordon, Second Counselor of the General Primary Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints met with leaders and teachers from the Districts, Stakes, Wards, and Branches in the Primary Organization from Hong Kong and Macau.

In an interactive training meeting held at the Wan Chai Chapel in Hong Kong, Sister Cordon stated to those assembled, “We (here) have something in common, we are in the little people business.” She added “In the eyes of the Lord, Children are not secondary, in His eyes they are Primary.” Pointing out that the name of the organized program of religious instruction and activity in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for children from eighteen months of age until their twelfth birthday is “Primary.”

She then invited from those attending to share concerns, challenges, and personal experiences in their different roles of service in the Primary. Questions concerning a child’s reverence, physical handicaps, ADHD, Autism and other issues were discussed by the participants. During the discussion, Sister Cordon often referred to the scriptures and emphasized the responsibility of the Primary to help children come unto Jesus Christ by teaching them His gospel.

Sister Cordon concluded with a story about a Ward Primary Leader inflicted with cancer. This good sister, a friend of Sister Cordon’s, and like most cancer victims, would experience both good and bad days as the cancer advanced. One particularly bad day the doorbell rang, when she answered the door no one was there, but as she looked around she found that someone had taped a crayon drawing of a heart and a simple note to the door. Sister Cordon held up the copies given to her of the drawing and note so everyone in the room could see them. She then continued by saying that her friend, the primary worker told her, “The drawing made me smile and the note made me weep.” She knew before reading it, that it was from one of her Primary children.  In a child’s handwriting was scrawled these words; “Dear Sister Pearce, Believe that God can bless you.  We are praying for you,” signed; Your old friend Cooper (Cooper is 9 years old). 

Sister Cordon then shared her testimony of Jesus Christ, and His love for all children.

“Children are anxious to minister……let them minister.

It was fun to wander around and find these ancient abandoned homes in the Luk Keng Village

As you can see there is a lot of poverty here in this little village          

This is the view from Luk Keng to Hong Kong

As we walked farther along the path going up from the village we found this crypt.

This little restaurant at the village bus stop didn't look good at all,  but it was an experience!  It's fun to spend time with our friends Marilyn and John Chatterton.   We are so glad they were called to come to Hong Kong to serve too.  

A Busy Week and A Visit to Macau

This was a week of lasts for the Ortons and a first for the Becksteads.

The Ortons will be ending their Mission this week and returning home. As all of you know that have served it is a bitter sweet experience. The Ortons are reluctant to leave the many special associations they have developed here as Missionaries and a lifestyle of daily fulfillment. As they explain it, “knowing that we have something to do and somewhere to be every day.” Yet on the other hand they will be surprising their children and grandchildren by showing up at the finish line of a marathon that their family is participating in and has no idea that grandma and grandpa will be there.

 To celebrate their Mission all the Sisters went to a “girly restaurant” called the Passion and feasted upon salads and sandwiches. The Elders on the other hand visited the Big Bite, the best burger restaurant in Hong Kong, and celebrated in style.

The Becksteads on the other hand experienced there first assignment covering a high-profile church visitor. Sisters Burton, General Relief Society President, and Sister Cordon, 2^nd Counselor in the General Primary Presidency, toured the Asia Area and finished in Hong Kong this last week.

Sister Beckstead and I received the assignment to cover Sister Cordon’s visit here which included Friday nights Auxiliary Training Meeting.  All the Primary leadership and teachers from all the Stakes, Districts, Wards, and Branches from Hong Kong and Macau were invited to attend. Our assignment is to write an article reporting on the teaching and instruction given by Sister Cordon to all the primary leadership in the area that attended. When the assignment was given to us we were told that the article needs to be published in Newsroom but should be of such quality that it can be submitted to Salt Lake for the Church News.  I might just add that Sister Cordon's  instruction was very good and she was a pleasure to meet.

When we finish this article, and publish it,   we will make you all aware so that you can read it. Hopefully we will be able to present it well,  like I said,   the instruction was very good.

Talk to you soon…

For our P day  we went to Macau.   It only takes an hour from Hong Kong on a Turbo Jet Boat.  Macau was a Portuguese territory until 1999.  Then,  like Hong Kong,  when  it's lease was up, was returned to China.  We went with several senior missionaries and we had a wonderful day there.

 Behind us is what's left of St. Paul's Cathedral after a fire.  From  left to right:  Elder and Sister Kendell,  Sister Lee,  Karen,   Lynn,   Sister and Elder Yan.


We ended the day going to a show "The House of Dreams Dancing Waters"  It was incredible.  We saw so many beautiful and interesting things,  and  we really enjoyed spending the day with such wonderful people.

The inside of the Church was small and modest,  but nice.   This is the only Church building in Macau.  They have 3 Branches,  2 Chinese and 1 English.   The District President was our tour guide.  He is in his early 30's and has a little girl and new baby boy.  He is the first  District President in Macau.   He told me that when he received his calling,  he called President Lam (the Hong Kong Mission President),  and said "President Lam,  what does a District President do?".

Technology, Technology, and More Technology

This week like all the preceding weeks here in Hong Kong, was a great week to be a missionary with Sister Beckstead, the greatest Companion in Heavenly Fathers army of Missionaries.

We started the week with a coordination meeting with Annie, syncing calendars and checking for any specific needs for the week. We did not have anything specific this week so we reviewed the Opinion Leader Data Base, Country Fact Sheets, and Country Briefing Books. It was decided that we needed to finish the work we have been doing on the Fact Sheets, continue the review of the OLDB and begin the annual update of the Briefing Books.

Later in the week we were introduced to a new piece of technology, Meltwater News, which is a News Search Engine. Meltwater is a powerful tool that allows us to search for news stories in multiple news sources with key words and phrases. For example, we can type in the words, “LDS Church”, push a button and Meltwater within a few seconds will comb through thousands of news stories worldwide and respond with a list of any stories containing the words LDS Church.

We are now working with Corus, the software template used by the Church to publish electronic Newsroom Stories, Publisher, a Microsoft product used to publish newsletters, (fact sheets and country briefing books), Microsoft Dynamics, a CRM we use to manage our opinion leader data base, and Meltwater which we use as described above. Who would have ever thought that a couple old fogies like us would ever learn how to play with so much computer software.

We enjoyed another night at the Temple this week which is always a highlight of the week. The Chatterton’s have been assigned as our Temple trainers and we are excited to have them help us.

The hardest part of the mission so far is not being in charge, it’s more difficult than I expected to follow a leader, especially when you think you are smarter or have more experience than the leader you need to be following. I know this will probably come as a surprise to most of you but I thought I would share this challenge anyway. Humility and patience are virtues that are necessary as a missionary and if you don’t bring them into the mission field with you, you will, like myself, need to cultivate them while serving, which is an annoying distraction. I would suggest that if you plan on serving a mission,  you hone these virtues now and bring them into the mission field as part of your pre-mission arsenal.

We love serving the Lord and there is no greater opportunity to learn to serve as a missionary than to be a missionary.

Have a great week!

We went for a walk today with our friends Elder and Sister Pett.  This is the lobby of the Mandarin Hotel.  The carvings on the wall are beautiful!

Hong Kong Marathon

We love the members of our Saturday Branch.  They are making scarfs and having so much fun.  The Filipino members are always so happy,  their lives are tough,  but you would never know it.

We love the Petts.  They are from SLC.  They serve in the Mission Home as the office couple for President and Sister Lam.  We serve with them in the Saturday Branch and also in the Temple on Thursday evenings.  We get together every Tuesday night with them along with Elder and Sister Orton to play games and visit.  We have made wonderful friends here.

We walk past this Royals Royce Dealership quite often.  Lynn always stops to get a good look!

Chinese New Year Continues...

Chinese New Year continues…..

We had a nice day Sunday starting with Church in the morning,   then  we enjoyed a quiet afternoon at home catching up on some rest until evening. We then met up with the Chandlers and Sister Orton at the Wan Chai building and devoured some Chicken tortilla  soup that Elder Chandler had spent the afternoon perfecting. At about 6:30 the main road that leads to the harbor, just south of our building  closed in preparation for the fireworks. Elder and Sister Orton had learned the previous year that the police will let pedestrians walk down to the harbor on this road once it is closed and the cars are cleared. So we walked down to the harbor and had a front row, unobstructed view of the firework show.

The fireworks were coming from five barges out in the harbor and it lasted for twenty-three minutes without ever stopping. I am sure we saw more fireworks in the first five minutes here than we ever saw in the previous sixty years of all the firework shows combined growing up in Utah.

Monday and Tuesday the office was closed because of the holiday so we decided to take a little diversion and went to Ocean Park, Home | Ocean Park Hong Kong, a theme park here in Hong Kong. We saw a magical show that we and a roomful of Chinese were convinced that the lady hanging in the air levitating was real, as well as a variety of other illusions. We then moved to another area of the park and saw a Sea Lion show that was fun. It began to rain and we were close to the Jelly Fish exhibit so we ducked in to keep from getting wet. The room was dark with multiple cylinder like aquariums about three feet in diameter beginning on the floor and extending to the ceiling. Each individual liquid shape was lit up with different colored soft lights, red, green, blue, and yellow, with different sizes and shapes of Jelly Fish. It was both an eerie and beautiful sight to see these sponge like creatures with transparent domed tops expanding and contracting their tissue like bodies up and down while these colored lights penetrated through them.

During the week while sitting in our cubicle, a group of unmarried employees approached us giggling, chanting, and exclaiming a happy and prosperous new year while at the same time offering us a tray of Chinese candy and cookies. Sister Beckstead, following the holiday tradition, presented not one but two red envelopes to each of them, “you never give gifts in odd numbers because it’s unlucky”, thus per Sister Beckstead two is an even and lucky number.

http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/festivals/red-envelop.htm

We were able to get some work done this week despite the holiday. Tuesday, we went to the Temple to help out and spent most of the day working in different areas of the Temple. A lot of the missionaries helped that day because the Chinese workers are all still involved with different holiday commitments. It was a good day and like whenever you do a good thing you personally benefit the most.

We were back in the Temple Thursday morning with the Area Presidency for our monthly trip with them, unfortunately we missed the testimony meeting after the session, because of a scheduling conflict. We spent a couple of hours in the office in the afternoon and then went back to the Temple to begin our weekly Thursday night shift. Again, we had the opportunity to serve in multiple capacities and experience multiple languages while doing so.

This next week we expect most of the celebration to be behind us and for us as well as the Chinese people to begin the new year with a renewed emphasis and commitment to do the things that will bring happiness into our lives. We have learned a lot in the last four months as missionaries and we think it would be inappropriate not to recognize the effort that this culture puts into annually committing to a better tomorrow. We hope that we will follow the example the Chinese people set for us not only this year but in all the years to come and would invite all of you to do the same.

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