The Weeks are Flying By

News Room articles occupied most of our office time this week, providing us a great opportunity to practice our patience skills. Every since the upgrade of our Corus software we have struggled with the alignment of text and photos. The placement of priority content such as top stories versus a feature story in different page locations has also been difficult. Software support is a logistical problem in as much as we are located on the opposite side of the globe from Salt Lake, so we just fiddle around on the computer until we figure it out. We spent the better part of three days struggling before we conquered this electronic monster, but in the end, we finished our task.

We attended our first monthly Temple/Testimony session with Elder Peter F. Meurs, our newest General Authority called to serve as the second counselor in the Asia Area Presidency.  Elder Meurs and his wife shared testimonies as well as E/S Harmon and E/S Nielsen. The Nielsen’s have completed their Mission as the Area Humanitarian couple and are being replaced by the Harmons.

This monthly meeting is always special but when you add the emotions of Missionaries coming and going it is even more special.

Paul and Susan Hansen, our Alpine neighbors  arrived in Hong Kong about ten days ago.  Paul has worked for the Church these last fifteen years and was relocated to Hong Kong by the Church with responsibilities for all temporal affairs as the Director of Temple Affairs in the Asia Area. We've been to  dinner with the Hansen’s a couple of times now, we're excited they're here.

This week I was reading in the fifth volume of the History of the Church and I ran across a teaching that I felt a need to share. In the context of; “Happiness is the object and design of our existence” Joseph Smith taught the following principle:

“A parent may whip a child, and justly, too, because he stole an apple; whereas if the child had asked for the apple, and the parent had given it, the child would have eaten it with a better appetite; there would have been no stripes; all the pleasure of the apple would have been secured, all the misery of stealing lost.
     
This principle will justly apply to all of God's dealings with His children. Everything that God gives us is lawful and right; and it is proper that we should enjoy His gifts and blessings whenever and wherever He is disposed to bestow; but if we should seize upon those same blessings and enjoyments without law, without revelation, without commandment, those blessings and enjoyments would prove cursing’s and vexations in the end, and we should have to lie down in sorrow and wailings of everlasting regret…”

Left to right -  Tom Crocket and his wife Cory (Tom is the Director of Public Affairs),  Annie Wong (Assistant Director),   us,  and our good friends from Alpine,  Susan and Paul Hansen.  Paul has recently started working for the Church here in the Asia Area Office as the Director of The Department of Temporal Affairs.  It's so fun to have Paul and Susan here.  We will be working closely with Paul.  It's been so fun to get together with he and Susan.