This week Karen and I were walking home on the promenade enjoying the beautiful lights of Hong Kong Island reflecting off the water in the harbor and realized that someday we will be leaving all this behind. We experienced a bit of separation anxiety before concluding the fallacy of the thought and realized the truth; that we will never leave this experience behind because going forward it will be a part of us forever.
This epiphany applies not just to the view we enjoy every night, but also to the many wonderful people, the culture, the food and even the smells, as well as every other “good or bad” experience we have enjoyed as missionaries on this side of the world. The Lord revealed to Joseph that all his experiences “shall be for thy good’, and we have lived to enjoy this lesson as Missionaries.
This week we visited Yuen Long, in the New Territories (they were called the New Territories the last time I was a Missionary here forty-years ago) not so new anymore. We found a hiking trail and walked towards China for a while and soon came to a river. The river similar in size, depth, and smell to the Jordon back home had a ferry service that we paid a fee and were carried across. The farrier rowed us across the river in this rag tag piece of junk that defied the laws of physics by floating. After we boarded he offered a disclaimer warning us that we may get wet, but the water was only a few feet deep. Of course, this was in Chinese and he seemed quite surprised when we responded to him in his native tongue.
In addition to our weekly Temple Assignment we attended our monthly Area Presidency Temple Session. This was different than any previous like session because the Area Presidency were all out of the country, so they were not able to attend. Our zealous District Leader claimed that someone told us that we should do it anyway, so we did. The Sellers and Beckstead’s provided lunch after, pizza, green salad, and doughnuts.
In the office we spent most of the week working closely with Annie, we really enjoy this part of our Mission. She is always making sure that we are having a good Mission and loves to side with Karen in helping me stay humble. She reminds me often of the Dog House video and that I should stay out of the dog house.
Speaking about staying out of the doghouse, we were talking the other night and we are hoping that all our children will be able to serve a Senior Mission because of the opportunity to spend so much time together. It is a wonderful blessing to spend time with your best friend in the Mission Field because it is an environment that is magical. You are in a realm of the world but not of the world, a place where we can escape the noise of mortality and find stillness. We have experienced glimpses beyond the present into immortality and what we are promised if faithful.
I would caution our grandchildren that as they serve Missions that the growth experienced as a Missionary does not come fast. It comes slowly, day by day, hour by hour, through faith, obedience, love and a lot of hard work. None the less, it will happen and just like us, before you leave your Mission you will realize that all the hard work, obedience, and love will lead you to experiences gained that will be a part of you forever.
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