Baptism

This week we had some new experiences beginning with a new place to eat and a new Senior Couple arriving in Malaysia.

We enjoyed a great meal with one of the members of our branch who is returning to the Philippines next week. We treated Melody Avena to the Cheesecake Factory, which just opened about a month ago in Tshim Shao Tsui. It was like experiencing a bit of paradise to eat something that did not look, smell, or taste Chinese. Melody is retuning to get married and, as one Sister stated in her testimony Sunday, is going home to multiply and replenish the earth. 

Karen and Melody have become very close in the months that we have served in the Branch and is feeling bad that her friend is leaving but good that she can go home and live a life without being separated from those she loves.

The Montagues arrived this week from St. George to serve as the Public Affairs Senior Couple in Malaysia this week. We talked to them on the phone for a few minutes to introduce ourselves and are excited to get to know them better. We know that he is a retired Radiologist and that she is a stay-at-home-mom. They have six children and seven grandchildren. One of their grandchildren was born two weeks before they entered the MTC and one of their sons was married just two days before they entered the MTC.

Mary Rose Ellerma, one of the investigators that the Sisters have been teaching, asked me to baptize her this week. This was a very unexpected blessing for me because we were told in Salt Lake before we came that Public Affairs Missionaries seldom have an opportunity to perform a baptism.

In the Temple this week we experienced a Mongolian company of ten or twelve. In the group of men attending was a really old brother that could not hear and also a middle-aged brother that was blind. This created a few challenges but somehow it all works and we get to be a part of it.

We have been able to watch a few sessions of conference and are looking forward to seeing more.

I suppose that we have been guilty of framing a Senior Mission as nothing but fun in our blogs. It is easy in the social media age to glamorize our lives and not include some of the hardships that are also part of Missionary life. So, I’ll share some of the difficulties associated with the work we do. It’s sometimes hard to be a long way from home and we are not fond of a lot of the food or the effect that it has on our digestive tract.  Other than that,  things are great.

Lynn had the opportunity to baptize Mary Rose.  The sister missionaries, Sister Alamanzor, and Sister Bacolcols,   are amazing missionaries.

Emily and Jessel

We had a crazy week as the Area Presidency and others, with Area leadership responsibilities, finished last minute preparations before they left for Salt Lake to attend conference. They have been so busy lately; Elder Funk wrote an article for the September issue of the Ensign and Elder Evans is speaking in the Priesthood session of Conference. Elder Meurs is a new General Authority but is a very talented and humble man.

 Working in the Area Office has given us a new perspective of the human side of these special men and how they experience the same kinds of challenges in life we all do. The difference is that they are so much better at applying virtuous principles in their behavior than most of us, which I have come to understand is developed over a lifetime of practice.

Elder Meurs while in Mongolia, met a man that owns and operates a large commercial bank in Mongolia and is interested in learning more about American banking. I suggested  to Elder Meurs that we introduce him to the American Banking Association (ABA). Elder Meurs though this was a good idea and asked me to pursue the idea. (Never volunteer a good idea!) I googled the association and saw that Scott Anderson was a member of the Board of Directors of the ABA. I reached out to a friend of mine, Steve Peterson, and asked if he could help set up a meeting with Scott and Elder Meurs while Elder Meurs was in Salt Lake attending Conference, which Steve was able to do. I mention this because it’s one of the few things I have contributed to our mission that is the result of a relationship I established before coming out here. My expectation was that I would be called on to do this kind of thing much more than I have.

We received some new assignments this week to work on while everyone is out of town. Annie asked us to help her with a calendar for Vietnam, and the Area Presidency asked us to research what is behind the growth of the Seventh Day Advent Church in India. The Catholic Church is also experiencing a lot of growth there as well.

We took four of the Sister Missionaries to lunch at Triple O’s this week. We enjoy taking them out and Triple O’s is one of only a few places here in Hong Kong that serves real ice cream, so I insist all the Sisters order a shake with their lunch. All the Sister Missionaries that serve in the International District are from the Philippines, so a simple lunch of a hamburger, French fries, and a milkshake makes for a very special treat and a wonderful experience for us to share.

We also had a great Temple experience this week as we were able to attend the Temple with two of the Sisters in our ward that were receiving their own endowments. This was a first for us as missionaries,  and was possible through the work and inspiration of the Kendell’s.

My experience with the Filipino Saints here in Hong Kong is that they are the happiest people in the world, so when Sister Chatterton mentioned to me that there was an article in this month’s Ensign on happiness I was very interested in reading it. I enjoyed it so much and experienced such a different perspective concerning happiness that I want to include it in this blog:

The Gospel Path to Happiness

By Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

From a devotional address, “Living after the Manner of Happiness,” delivered at Brigham Young University–Idaho on September 23, 2014. For the full address, go to web.byui.edu/devotionalsandspeeches.

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Jesus Christ is “the way, the truth, and the life.” No one comes to true happiness except by Him.

In a phrase I am sure you have heard many times, the Prophet Joseph Smith (1805–44) once said, “Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it.”¹

It is that worthy quest for happiness of which I wish to speak. Note that I said “quest for happiness,” not happiness itself. Remember the Prophet Joseph’s choice of language: he spoke of the path that leads to happiness as the key to realizing that goal.

This is not a new quest. It has been one of the fundamental pursuits of humankind through the ages of time. One of the greatest intellectual minds the Western world has ever known once said that happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.²

That was Aristotle, but note how presciently his statement parallels that of the Prophet Joseph—almost the exact phrasing. In the opening lines of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson immortalized both our personal and political quests by forever linking (at least in America) the three great inalienable rights of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” But notice in that magnificent troika that it is not happiness that is a right (like life and liberty) but specifically the pursuit of happiness.

So how do we “pursue” happiness, especially when we are young and inexperienced, maybe a little fearful, and life lies ahead of us as a challenging mountain to climb? Well, we know one thing for sure: happiness is not easy to find running straight for it. It is usually too elusive, too ephemeral, too subtle. If you haven’t learned it already, you will learn in the years ahead that most times happiness comes to us when we least expect it, when we are busy doing something else. Happiness is almost always a by-product of some other endeavor.

Photograph from Getty Images

Henry David Thoreau, one of my favorite writers from my university days, said, “Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.”³ This is one of those great gospel ironies that often don’t seem obvious, like “the last shall be first” (Matthew 19:30; D&C 29:30) and “lose your life to find it” (see Matthew 16:25). The gospel is filled with such ironies and indirections, and I think the pursuit of happiness is one of them. So how do we optimize our chance for happiness without pursuing it so directly that we miss it? Let me go to a most remarkable book for some answers.

Living “after the Manner of Happiness”

The first 30 years of Book of Mormon history do not present a pleasant story. The hostility within the family of Lehi and Sariah became so intense that the two halves of their family split asunder, with one group fleeing yet farther into the wilderness, fearing for their lives lest they fall victim to the bloodthirsty quest of the other. As the first group plunged into unsettled terrain to seek safety and fashion a life for themselves as best they could, the prophet-leader of this Nephite half of the family says they “lived after the manner of happiness” (2 Nephi 5:27).

In light of what they had just been through for 30 years and with what we know yet lay in store for them in the trials ahead, such a comment seems almost painful. How could any of this be described as anything remotely like “happiness”? But Nephi does not say they were happy, though it is evident they were. What he says is, they “lived after the manner of happiness.” I would have you understand that there is a wonderful key in that phrase that can unlock precious blessings for you the rest of your life.

I do not think God in His glory or the angels of heaven or the prophets on earth intend to make us happy all the time, every day in every way, given the testing and trials this earthly realm is intended to provide. As President James E. Faust (1920–2007), Second Counselor in the First Presidency, once phrased it: “Happiness is not given to us in a package that we can just open up and consume. Nobody is ever happy 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”⁴

But my reassurance to you is that in God’s plan we can do much to find the happiness we desire. We can take certain steps, we can form certain habits, we can do certain things that God and history tell us lead to happiness with the confidence that if we live in such a manner, that butterfly is much more likely to land upon our shoulder.

In short, your best chance for being happy is to do the things that happy people do, live the way happy people live, and walk the path that happy people walk. As you do so, your chances to find joy in unexpected moments, to find peace in unexpected places, and to find the help of angels when you didn’t even know they knew you existed improve exponentially. Here are five ways we can live “after the manner of happiness.”

Live the Gospel

Woman Healed, by Kathleen Peterson

Above all else, ultimate happiness, true peace, and anything even remotely close to scriptural joy are found first, foremost, and forever in living the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lots of other philosophies and systems of belief have been tried. Indeed, it seems safe to say that virtually everyother philosophy and system has been tried down through the centuries of history. But when the Apostle Thomas asked the Lord the question young people often ask today, “How can we know the way?”—which for many translates, “How can we know the way to be happy?”—Jesus gave the answer that rings from eternity to all eternity:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. …

“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do. …

“If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it” (John 14:5–6, 13–14).

What a promise! Live my way, live my truth, live my life—live in this manner that I am showing you and teaching you—and whatsoever you ask will be given, whatsoever you seek you will find, including happiness. Parts of the blessing may come soon, parts may come later, and parts may not come until heaven, but they will come—all of them. What encouragement that is after a mournful Monday or a tearful Tuesday or a weary Wednesday! And it is a promise the realization of which cannot come any other way than by devotion to eternal truth!

In the words of then newly ordained Elder David O. McKay (1873–1970) just short of a full century ago, unlike gratification or pleasure or some kind of thrill, true “happiness is found only along that well beaten [gospel] track, narrow as it is … [and] straight [as it is], which leads to life eternal.”⁵ So love God and each other, and be true to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Choose Happiness

Second, learn as quickly as you can that so much of your happiness is in your hands, not in events or circumstances or fortune or misfortune. That is part of what the battle for agency was over in the premortal councils of heaven. We have choice, we have volition, we have agency, and we can choose, if not happiness per se, then to live after the manner of it. U.S. president Abraham Lincoln had plenty to be unhappy about in the most difficult administration a president of the United States has ever faced, but even he reflected that “most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”⁶

Happiness comes first by what comes into your head a long time before it comes into your hand. Joseph Smith was living “after the manner of happiness” in a very unhappy situation when he wrote from Liberty Jail to those on the outside who were also the victims of great injustice and persecution:

“Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God. …

“The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth” (D&C 121:45–46).

“Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly.” That is not only good counsel against the modern plague of pornography, but it is also good counsel for all kinds of gospel thoughts, good thoughts, constructive thoughts, hopeful thoughts. Those faith-filled thoughts will alter how you see life’s problems and how you find resolution to them. “The Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind” (D&C 64:34), the revelation says.

Too often we have thought it was all up to the heart; it is not. God expects a willing mind in the quest for happiness and peace as well. Put your head into this. All of this takes effort. It is a battle but a battle for happiness that is worth waging.

In a popular book a few years ago, the author wrote: “Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and … [look] for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness … to stay afloat on top of it.”⁷

I love the phrase “participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings.” Don’t be passive. Swim upward. Think and speak and act positively. That is what happy people do; that is one aspect of living after the manner of happiness.

Be Kind and Pleasant

Here is another. In preparing this message, I sat in my study for a long time trying to think if I had ever known a happy person who was unkind or unpleasant to be with. And guess what? I couldn’t think of one—not a single, solitary one. So learn this great truth early in life: You can never build your happiness on someone else’s unhappiness.

Sometimes, maybe especially when we are young and insecure and trying to make our way up in the world, we think if we can tear someone else down a little, it will somehow miraculously lift us up. That is what bullying is. That is what catty remarks are. That is what arrogance and superficiality and exclusiveness are. Perhaps we think if we are negative enough or cynical enough or just plain mean enough, then expectations won’t be too high; we can keep everyone down to a flaw-filled level, and therefore our flaws won’t be so glaring.

Happy people aren’t negative or cynical or mean, so don’t plan on that being part of the “manner of happiness.” If my life has taught me anything, it is that kindness and pleasantness and faith-based optimism are characteristics of happy people. In the words of Mother Teresa, “Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness—kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.”⁸

A related step along the path toward happiness is to avoid animosity, contention, and anger in your life. Remember, it is Lucifer, Satan, the adversary of us all, who loves anger. He “is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another” (3 Nephi 11:29).

After quoting that verse in general conference a few years ago, Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the Seventy said, “The verb stir sounds like a recipe for disaster: Put tempers on medium heat, stir in a few choice words, and bring to a boil; continue stirring until thick; cool off; let feelings chill for several days; serve cold; lots of leftovers.”⁹ Lots of leftovers indeed.

Anger damages or destroys almost everything it touches. As someone has said, to harbor anger is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. It is a vicious acid that will destroy the container long before it does damage to the intended object. There is nothing in it or its cousinly vices—violence, rage, bitterness, and hate—that has anything to do with living the gospel or the pursuit of happiness. I do not think anger can exist—or at least be fostered and entertained and indulged in—in a life being lived “after the manner of happiness.”

Work at It

Here is one last suggestion when there are so many others we should consider. Nephi said that in an effort to find happiness in their new land after their 30 years of trouble, “I, Nephi, did cause my people to be industrious, and to labor with their hands” (2 Nephi 5:17). By contrast, those from whom they fled became “an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety” (2 Nephi 5:24).

If you want to be happy in school or on a mission or at a job or in a marriage—work at it. Learn to work. Serve diligently. Don’t be idle and mischievous. A homespun definition of Christlike character might be the integrity to do the right thing at the right time in the right way. Don’t be idle. Don’t be wasteful. “Seek learning, even by study and also by faith” (D&C 88:118). Be industrious and labor, including laboring for and serving others—one of the truly great keys to true happiness.

Now, let me close by citing Alma’s straightforward counsel to Corianton. With all the encouragement a father would want to give a son or daughter, he said that in the Resurrection the faithful are raised to a state of “endless happiness” wherein they “inherit the kingdom of God” (Alma 41:4). At that time, he added, we will be “raised to happiness according to [our] desires of happiness” (Alma 41:5). But he also sternly cautioned: “Do not suppose … that [without repentance] ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness” (Alma 41:10; emphasis added).

Sin is the antithesis of “living after the manner of happiness.” Indeed, those who believe otherwise, Alma says, “are without God in the world, and … have gone contrary to the nature of God; therefore, they are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness” (Alma 41:11).

Reject Transgression

Detail from Jesus and the Woman Taken, by Kathleen Peterson

I ask you to reject transgression in order to live consistent with the nature of God, which is the nature of true happiness. I encourage you and applaud you in your efforts to “pursue the path that leads to it.” You can’t find it any other way.

My testimony is that God, the Eternal Father in Heaven, is always encouraging and applauding your pursuit even more lovingly than I. I testify that He wants you to be happy, to have true joy. I testify of the Atonement of His Only Begotten Son, which provides the right path and, if necessary, a new start on it, a second chance, a change in our nature if necessary.

I pray that you will know that Jesus Christ is “the way, the truth, and the life” and that no one comes to true happiness except by Him. I pray that someday, sometime, somewhere you will receive every righteous desire of your heart as you live the gospel of Jesus Christ, thus living “after the manner” that leads to those blessings.

Show References 

Notes

1.   1. 

Joseph Smith, in History of the Church, 5:134.

2.   2. 

See Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, trans. H. Rackham (1982), 31.

3.   3. 

Henry David Thoreau, Thoreau on Nature: Sage Words on Finding Harmony with the Natural World (2015), 72; this quote has also been attributed to Nathaniel Hawthorne and to anonymous.

4.   4. 

James E. Faust, “Our Search for Happiness,” Ensign, Oct. 2000, 2.

5.   5. 

David O. McKay, in Conference Report, Oct. 1919, 180; emphasis added.

6.   6. 

This quote was attributed to Abraham Lincoln by Dr. Frank Crane in the Syracuse Herald, Jan. 1, 1914 (quoteinvestigator.com/category/frank-crane).

7.   7. 

Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia (2006), 260.

8.   8. 

Mother Teresa, in Susan Conroy, Mother Teresa’s Lessons of Love and Secrets of Sanctity (2003), 64.

9.   9. 

Lynn G. Robbins, “Agency and Anger,” Ensign, May 1998, 80

Sister Jessel.  The Filipino Sisters go by "Sister  (their first name)"  It's a good thing,  I still can't pronounce their last names!  

Sister Emily

Navigating our Lives

Another great week as we navigate our lives through the difficulties and challenges, the back and forth, and the good and bad of missionary life. Some weeks are long but the days are short, yet other weeks are short but the days are long. None the less, at the end of each week we reflect and realize that the sum of the whole is a positive and productive experience. Each week seems to come attached with lessons learned and blessings recognized.

The work in the office seems so much the same each week that it is redundant to continue to write about it. But, it is what we do to move the work forward,  and seems to be agreeable to Heavenly Father because he continues to shower down blessings to us and our family.

We are continuing to get closer to implementing the CRM that will help the efficiency and consistency of the PA work here. We have much better communication with Salt Lake and can feel their commitment to the project. We hope to have it in place by the end of the year so that we will have time to train those that will be using it. If we can have January through March to implement and train, we believe that would be adequate for our purpose.

We (Karen) continues to publish a newsletter multiple times during the week containing news articles relating to information requested by the Area Presidency. I have encouraged her to include the baseball scores, particularly the Rockies, because I know that Elder Funk has a interest in that team’s success. I have not been able to convince her yet of the relevance but still have until the end of the month before the season ends.

We attended our weekly meeting with Paul Hansen, the Area Director of Temporal Affairs, and other Welfare Correlation Council members, including Humanitarian, Legal, and Financial representation. I can only share that we are active in helping the temporal needs of many in this part of the world. Karen and I are blessed to serve in an assignment that allows us to be aware of the good work that the offerings of the members of our Church are sustaining.

This week two of the Sisters in our Branch will be receiving their personal endowments. Although Sister Beckstead and I have enjoyed many hours in the Temple while serving here, this will be a first for us. We have not personally known any of those we have seen realize personal Temple blessings, so this week will be very special.

We attended a concert sponsored by the National Public Affairs Council featuring the Choir, “Songs of the Heart”. Those that participate in the Choir are church members from different Stakes here in Hong Kong. It was held in a very nice auditorium in Tsuen Wan. I would estimate two-hundred or more members attended and I must admit it was a very enjoyable and entertaining evening. The Choir has been performing together for twenty years and this was their last performance. In addition to the Choir singing there were performances by musicians and soloists. We were able to see a lot of old and new friends at the concert including Sheldon Poon.

We met with the other Senior Couples this week for a grand buffet at the Hopewell Center and feasted well beyond what our bodies have become accustomed too. It would not be an exaggeration to admit that the hour spent feasting led to more than twice or even three times that amount of time spent in our bodies recuperating. A good lesson on the concept of keeping desires and passions within certain bounds.

Our home away from home.  We love serving here in the Asia Area Office.     We love the people we serve with.  The Church Employees and all the other missionary couples are really fun people.

We've talked about Annie Wong before.  She is the Assistant Director of Public Affairs for the Asia Area.  We love working with Annie and consider her a wonderful life long friend.   For the first 3 months of our mission the position for a PA Director hadn't been filled.  During those 3 months we and Annie had to just wing it and figure things out!  Looking back,  it was fun.  Now we look back on things that happened during that time and we all just laugh!

Elder Jenson (left) serves in the Every Day Branch here in Hong Kong.  He has Church,  attends all    the block meetings,  and all  associated meetings and responsibilities every Tuesday through Saturday, every week.   Elder Thong (right) is the Auditor for the Asia Area,  a huge job!  These 3 guys love to hang out and have a good time!

Last Monday we went with all the other Senior Missionary Couples to have lunch at the Hopewell Center's Revolving Restaurant,  The Grand Buffet.  It had lots of American food and was delicious !  Lots of "every" kind of food,  but believe me,  I was only interested in the American food!  The restaurant is on the 62nd floor.  The view was great,  the food was great,  and the company was wonderful!

Looking Back Over the Years

This week was another great week, typical of the past weeks we have experienced serving as Senior Missionaries in Hong Kong. I look back over the years and reflect upon how Karen and I would talk about someday serving a mission together and what I thought we would experience together as Missionaries. I naively thought we would experience a lot of the same of what I experienced as a nineteen-year-old Elder. After all, up until the time of my release, my Missionary service was the best two years for (not of) my life that I had lived.

I am embarrassed, now that we have served together close to a year, to admit that I could have thought it would have been the same in any way.

My first Mission is the time in my life when I developed the beginnings of a Testimony or the, “Light of Christ within us”. I gained a greater knowledge of the Gospel through learning, memorizing, and teaching lessons, reading the scriptures every day, and praying for help for things I knew I could not accomplish by myself. These things brought new light and understanding to me early in my mission. As my mission progressed I began participating in the conversion process of others, this exposed me to the Atonement of Christ, repentance, and forgiveness. Witnessing the physical, emotional, and spiritual change in someone embracing the Gospel by giving up old habits and committing to new concepts of obedience and sacrifice, brought into my soul even a greater and brighter light. These experiences with the lessons and feelings that came with them were an obvious model to me of a way of life that I could see would bring me and all those I love peace, comfort, and happiness in this life and the life to come.

A second mission as a Senior Missionary with a handpicked companion and a life full of blessings predicated upon a life consistent with lessons learned as a young Missionary cannot begin and end in the same place as the first mission. The lessons to be learned and the blessings in store today are not the same, our life’s dynamics are different, and so it is logical that our necessary experience’s will be different as well.

We have learned so much on our mission, beginning with the opportunity to be together twenty-four-seven. I think this is the first obstacle to a celestial marriage. How can we be together for time and all eternity if we can’t be together for eighteen months?  We have learned to love being together as days turn to weeks,  weeks to months,  and now  I liken the end of our mission to being expelled from the Garden of Eden. I am not sure that when we return that I will be ready to share Karen with others. Our mission has taught us to love each other in a way that we would never have known had we not served.

While serving here in Hong Kong we have had the opportunity to see each of our children and grandchildren through a special spiritual lens. A blessing that comes to those that are willing to serve.

We have received inspired thoughts and ideas of how we should spend our time and talents to bless the lives of our family that may have never been as clear to us as they are today while we are away. We have been blessed with the synergistic effect of receiving more Gospel knowledge, a clearer path to Heavenly Father in prayer, and all blessings predicated to the principle of obedience.


In looking forward to serving a mission together we could have only underestimated the experience. It just seems rather disingenuous on my part to think it was going be a similar experience to my first mission. It is so much better!!!!!!

Temple Experiences

This week was about Temple experiences, a third typhoon and possibly one of the reasons I’m in Hong Kong.

Two separate storms developed over the ocean into hundred mile an hour plus winds and serious amounts of water crashed into land masses within a hundred kilometers of Hong Kong within five days of each other. The first, a historic storm that measured 10 on the Hong Kong Warning System a spin off  of the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, the second storm measured 8. A third storm began to develop this week and the cautionary storm warning was hoisted indicating a storm to reach land this weekend. Computer models were projecting it to reach land within a hundred kilometers of Hong Kong making it a third typhoon in ten days to reek havoc here.  Fortunately, the storm moved north and landed a hundred and fifty miles north of Hong Kong. The force of these storms is so incredible that although we did not get the hundred mile and hour winds, we received buckets of rain which will cause flooding on the peninsula.

We had a group of twenty Laos members come to Hong Kong this week to attend the Temple. The patron-housing units were full of not only those from Laos but also members from India and Thailand as well. When we went to the Temple Wednesday evening for our weekly assignment we were told that there were eighteen first time endowments  on Tuesday as well as sixteen sealings. In our session, we had fifteen patrons representing all the above-named countries. The session was presented in Cantonese, the witness’s spoke mandarin and the rest of the company from Laos and India. The Patrons were very well prepared so they could perform  many Ordinances including Washings, Anointings, Baptisms, and Sealings that evening.

Sunday, we had another special Sabbath Temple Day. Although it was raining for most of the day, the hundreds of domestic workers that participated would not have had the opportunity if the storm had not moved north. (Another Mission Miracle)

 I had the opportunity to officiate in one of the sessions with Karen that was so full we brought in folding chairs to accommodate the faithful Patrons. It was a good session and another special Mission experience for Karen and me.  The Temple was busy all day with Endowment Sessions,  as well as baptisms,  sealings, and initiatory.

At the end of the session one of the Chinese Sealers and I talked for a while about the Chan family that I became acquainted with on my first mission. The Sealer remembered me from Rita and Alvin’s Temple Sealing because (he had sealed them). He asked me if I would approach the Chai Wan Ward’s Bishop and help him find Chan Gaa Yan’s Mother and Father. The Bishop knows that they have some age issues that would keep them from attending Church regularly but would like to assign them Home Teachers and maybe send the Priests with the Sacrament.

He then discussed Chan Gaa Yan with me and suggested that this may be the very purpose than I am here, to help him back into Church activity. It’s given me a lot to think about and I hope that if this is the case I’ll be able to find a way. (I think Nephi gave some council on this)

Sister Arago and Sister Rodriguez.  They are both from the Philippines and serve here in Hong Kong.  Melody is a member of our Saturday Branch.  She is going home to the Philippines to get married,  the members in our Branch had a shower for her after Church.