Many Changes, Lots of Work

This has been one of the busiest weeks of our Mission life!

We started the week attending a wonderful Devotional with the other Senior Missionaries and employees presided by the Area Presidency (Elder’s Funk, Evans and Meurs). Each took a turn at the pulpit and shared personal experiences with President Nelson and then bore their individual testimonies of the process concerning the succession of the President and First Presidency of the Church. They pointed out the professional and academic accomplishments of President Nelson and his two Counselors; President Oaks and President Eyring, and specifically their work in our part of the world. It’s such a special experience as a Missionary to be taught by members of the Quorum of the Seventy, and we have had the privilege and blessing of multiple opportunities here in Hong Kong.

We thought that we had finished the work on the Country Fact Sheets last week but were informed early this week that the numbers provided us by the Humanitarian Group were inaccurate, so we need to start over.  It is a bit strange that we have not experienced much frustration with the obvious inefficiency of this event, but “like water off of a duck’s back” we just make it all work with a positive attitude.

 I had a personal experience at the Temple this week in the first session while working the veil. I had an overwhelming feeling of peace, love, and confidence come over me when I recognized Karen’s hand, heard her voice, and felt her spirit assisting a patron on the other side. It was “a tender mercy” I am sure that could only be received in a Temple. I am also confident that the opportunities we have in front of us are beyond our comprehension.

Tomorrow is another Sunday opening of the Temple and we will be involved with Sealings, Initiatory, and Baptisms. This will be our last Sunday Temple Session for a while unless they start opening Temples on Sunday in the U.S. of A. We are glad that we have been able to participate in these sessions and be a part of the Temple experience with so many Sisters that can not come on any other day.

We helped  Elder and Sister Yan with the English Class they teach every week. This was the last week of the class and we helped give the students their oral  exams.  They are working to pass a test qualifying them for acceptance to an American University.

Most of our week was spent on updating all the Church literature and dealing with a multitude of issues arising with the changes announced this week. It seems like everything in the closet (we share a closet with the legal department) became obsolete after the Press Conference, which started a race for information worldwide. Karen was busy scouring hundreds of  online newspaper articles (here in Asia),  for information being published by the press that she could share with the Area Presidency.  They like to be aware of what the press in the  different countries are saying about the Church.

I was coordinating with Salt Lake and posting the latest updates on Newsroom. It’s interesting that with all the changes in leadership announced this week photos are still unavailable of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as now constituted. If you were to go to Mormon Newsroom Hong Kong under leadership you would find current information with current photos of all but the Quorum of the Twelve. The names are updated with Acting President Ballard and Elder Uchtdorf but the picture is noticeably not accurate.

We are now officially trunky with such a short time left to serve.   We received our return home flight itineraries, so we realize that we need to start preparing to wind down.

We are so looking forward to Ryan and Lisa coming this next week so that we can share Hong Kong with them! There coming was a milestone that not long ago seemed so far in the future, but one that marked an event that we realized was toward the tail end of this experience. We can’t think of a better way to bring our Mission to a close than with members of our family.

Having lunch together before Elder and Sister Norman go home next week.  Left to right:  Elder Norman,  Lynn,  Elder Sellers,  Sister Sellers,  Karen,  Sister Norman.  We will really miss the Normans.

This happens every once in awhile.  I'll order a sandwich and it will come out on black bread.  The bread has absolutely no flavor at all!  The chicken mango inside of it was really good!