Getting close to winding things up

President Kendell once described time spent in Missionary work as, ‘long days and short weeks”. This week we experienced a short week and short days, yet another fun week as Missionaries. As we near the end of our Mission it feels as though every hour of every day, “we are living the dream”.

Monday was a holiday here, so we just stayed in our apartment, made some Face Time calls, met Chatterton’s for lunch (at John’s favorite pork knuckle restaurant), then a tenacious game of five crowns at their apartment.

Traditionally the New Year is celebrated for two weeks, so the rest of the week was still being celebrated by the Chinese. We were in the office during the week working, mostly catching up on loose ends created by the change of leadership. Karen did attend institute but then didn't feel well enough for our Temple assignment, so upon the insistence of Karen stating that she would be fine left alone and the shortage of volunteers I attended by myself.

She felt fine the next day and we both attended our weekly Welfare Meeting. As I have mentioned before we enjoy being a part of this committee and recognize the blessing it is to us to be able to see all the humanitarian work the Church is involved with in Asia. It also gives us a glimpse of how the Church manages at a General Authority level.

The Area Presidency is going to hold a Mission President Seminar in Taiwan next week, so we helped Elder and Sister Hyde with several other Senior Missionaries prepare materials for the seminar.

President and Sister Funk joined us for lunch Friday to celebrate Sister Beckstead and Sister Seller’s February birthdays. They were both born on the 26^th of February although Karen was several years later than Sister Sellers. (Sister Beckstead is not only the prettiest Sister Missionary in our group but one of the younger ones as well).

We ended the week with Branch Conference. President Holyoke and his wife attended with other District Officers. He was telling me that he is going home for a couple of weeks and that he lives in Cedar Hills. It sounds like he lives just a few streets west of the Sarah, so we’ll need to get is address so that we can see them after we come home.

Happy Chinese New Year 2018

We love Hong Kong,  it has become our home, it is where we live.

 We share a five hundred square foot apartment with one couch, one chair, four cereal bowls, two rice bowls,  and barely enough silver ware to set our small table. We take turns washing dishes after each meal usually consisting of a bowl of rice, a bowl of noodles or peanut butter and jam sandwich. Karen washes our clothes daily in a small machine made in Italy that both washes and dries up to three shirts at a time. The small oven provided is affectionately referred to as our “easy bake oven” and has the energy capacity and space to bake up to 8 cookies at a time at a temperature of 180 degrees Celsius in twenty to thirty minutes. The shower nozzle, with barely enough water pressure to force water up the pipe and out the nozzle, is aimed about four inches above my belly button. A height that makes a shower more of a gymnastic exercise for me but is just about right for Karen. We have one small bedroom measuring eight feet by twelve feet that Karen uses for her office and if I want to stay out of trouble, I never go in. Our master bedroom is just large enough for a queen size bed and a small wardrobe.  To get between the bed and the wall,  one has to stand with their back to the wall,  and do a side step across the width of the bed.

This humble abode is apartment 1615 in the “C” building at the Harborfront apartments in Hung Hom on the peninsula side of Hong Kong. Our daily schedule includes a walk on the promenade, personal and companion study, reading the Book of Mormon each morning together, and prayer before we head out. Each morning we walk several hundred meters to the bus stop, catch the #104 double-decker which takes us under the harbor through a tunnel and drops us off in front of the old Wan Chai police station next to the Church’s Asia Area Administration building. We office on the tenth floor which is the executive office floor with all the Area Presidency offices on the same floor.  We have 4 attorneys on the 10th floor also.   Everyone on the floor with exception of the us and the Yans are in nice offices, we on the other hand have deluxe cubicles. Karen and I share a cubicle; two thirds and the window for her,  leaving one third for me.

This week we went to Victoria park to the Chinese New Year Festival. It was crowded with people buying flowers, trees, bamboo, and pussy willows in preparation for the weekend of Chinese New Year. It is fun to share in another culture's holiday and observe traditions that have been practiced for centuries.

 After the park Karen and I split up with her attending a hot pot dinner with the other missionaries and me meeting up with Edward Lai and Jerry Yu for dinner in Fan Ling. Karen and the other missionaries met the Wrights who are new arrivals at dinner and said goodbye to the Thongs who were leaving the next morning. I was able to meet the Wrights at lunch the next day. We will miss Roy and Pricilla Thong here in Hong Kong but look forward to a continued relationship with them going forward.

Rebekah and David Stringham arrived this week and we were able to spend some time with them. We spent the better part of a day showing them around both the Island and the Peninsula. It was fun seeing Bekah happily married and full of life.

We  had a wonderful dinner with the Asia Area Missionaries and the Area Presidency the second night of the New Year. Sister Funk hosted it and went all out on the decorations and food. It was originally intended that after dinner we would watch the fireworks from the Funk’s patio on the top of the building,  but because of a terrible tragedy killing nineteen people in a bus crash this week the fireworks were canceled.

The third day of the New Year we were invited out to the Fan Ling Ward for a special baptism. Ethan Chan, the great grandson of a man I helped baptize forty plus years ago, was being baptized. Ethan is the fourth generation to receive baptism in his family. It was a wonderful blessing for me to be included in the circle when he was confirmed a member of the Church. It is surreal to me that something I was involved with so long ago could come back into my life after so many years of not even being aware of what was going on in this wonderful family. And to be able to share it with Karen and have her participate in this experience has sealed our Mission with a real sense of purpose. She will return now with a feeling of fulfillment and honor in the title of a returned missionary. She is a firsthand witness of the power and change associated with conversion and her involvement in helping four generations experience the love of God. I would have never served a mission if I had not met Karen, therefore I would have never met grandpa Chan.

Although Hong Kong has been our home for the last seventeen months we are ready to relocate back to a home near our children and grandchildren, our real home.

We are beginning to tie things up here and hopefully prepare a soft landing for the next couple that will be taking our place. The Mortenson’s from Houston will be arriving shortly after we leave. We have talked to them on the phone and believe they will accomplish things here that we have never even thought of.

Happy Chinese New Year 2018

Elder and Sister Chiu are Temple Missionaries here.  They are wonderful friends!

Saying goodbye to Elder and Sister Thong was hard.  They finished their mission,  we are really going to miss them!

Lynn's assistant from his days at Security National,  Bekah,  and her husband David.  We enjoyed getting to see them while they were here in Hong Kong

One of our favorite things we do here in Hong Kong,  taking the missionaries to lunch!  Front left - Elder Larsen.  Back right - Elder Cabrae,   middle -  Elder Earls, and front Elder Parker.

Baptism for Ethan Chan.  In 1973 Lynn baptized Ethan's grandfather and great-grandfather.  What a blessing to be gathered with their family,  4 generations now living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Brother and Sister Wong live here in Hong Kong.  They serve in the Temple on Wednesday nights with us.  

Visits, Service, and More

Another great week in Hong Kong!

This week we had visitors from the States. The Founders Group of Entrepreneurship & Technology from BYU,  the same group  we traveled to Africa with a few years ago.  They arrived on Saturday night and left on the following Saturday morning.   Among others that we knew, Lanny and Carla Smith, our neighbors from Alpine, were in the group visiting. We joined them all for dinner Sunday night in Wan Chai which for us was a fun reunion.

Monday, after leaving Karen still in bed I caught the bus over to Wan Chai to watch the first half of the Super Bowl with the Cory’s and Hansen’s in the Executive Conference room on the tenth floor.   I then left Wan Chai and caught a taxi up to the Peak and showed the Founders Group the rock with the date 7/14/49 scratched in it. It is the site that Mathew Cowley dedicated Hong Kong for the preaching of the Gospel. I then hustled back to Hung Hum to meet Karen and the Chatterton’s for lunch and a movie.

We were in the Temple early morning Tuesday and officiated a special morning session for the Founders Group. What a great opportunity for us to be able to participate in this manner with our friends visiting from the states. We spent the rest of the day in the office taking care of this week’s business because we knew that we would be spending more time this week with our friends.

The next day we met Lanny and Carla at their hotel in the morning and took them first to Mei Ho House. We wanted them to see a H-Block housing building,  and to familiarize them with the history of how the British responded to the huge migration of Chinese in the late sixties and early seventies.

We then went to Hung Hum and the wet market. This is a must stop tourist site that is guaranteed to make you gag. We then crossed the harbor and met Annie for a wonderful Thai lunch. Probably the best meal the Smith’s ate while in Hong Kong. After that we came back to Hung Hum to our apartment and visited until they needed to get back and meet their group for dinner. It was a wonderful opportunity to spend time with Lanny and Carla, they have been good friends to us for years.

Thursday, we took all six of the Filipino Sister missionaries out to lunch at Triple O’s. This has become quite the monthly tradition for us and we are going to miss this experience a lot. We insist that in addition to a burger and fries that each Sister order a milk shake with their meal. This is one of our favorite activities here in Hong Kong, spoiling the Filipino Sister Missionaries. Needless to say, we are one of their favorite Senior Missionary Couples.

Karen and Annie helped supervise a Missionary service project on Friday with a Charity here, Food-Link. This is a Charity sponsored by Wendy Gwok who is a very influential person here in Hong Kong that we have been developing a relationship with for most of our Mission. It was a big step and the beginning of a great new relationship.

Learned something interesting this week that we want to share. While in a meeting this week one of the Senior Couple Missionaries shared with the group that a Missionary Couple replacement for Cambodia will not be coming. Apparently while processing their Missionary application they failed the health exam. The doctor found a cancerous tumor on the Brother’s thyroid. Elder Evans commented that he has seen a lot of members lives prolonged  because they had committed to serve a Mission, and in the process of getting a call, a health issue was revealed that would otherwise not have been discovered in time for treatment. He mentioned that he has witnessed many members that  have had decades of years added to their lives to enjoy their posterity because of the medical exams during preparation to serve missions.

It was so nice having our friends Lanny and Carla Smith here.

Elder and Sister's service project bagging rice for the needy.

More Mission Experiences

This week we bid farewell to Lisa and Ryan, spent more time than usual in the Temple, and ended the week with the Vienna Boys’ Choir.

Lisa and Ryan left Tuesday morning to return to the States. We already miss them but know we will see them and the rest of our family soon. We have less than two months left to serve and are beginning to feel the reality that we are in the home stretch of our Mission.

We worked in the Temple Wednesday evening as weekly Ordinance Workers with Patrons from Cambodia, China, and Hong Kong. The Cambodians are always a special session because most of them cannot read as a result of the Khmer Rouge Occupation.   They are all relatively young but are so attentive and so eager to learn when receiving their Endowment. We had a wonderful evening.

The next morning, we attended our monthly special Session with the Area Presidency. Because we will be going home soon Karen and I were asked to Officiate and Follow the Session.   After the Session we met for our small testimony meeting where Elder and Sister Tong shared their final testimonies before returning home this month. Elder and Sister Hyde then shared their testimonies as the newest Missionaries to arrive. President Funk then shared as part of his Testimony a story that we think is worth sharing.

He said that while sitting in the session he was pondering how wonderful the Temple is and how good it feels to be in the Temple. While thinking, he reflected to a time some years ago when he was released as a Stake President. In the process of selecting a new Stake President and all the distraction associated with the change he had neglected to renew his recommend knowing that it would expire in a few weeks. He attended the Temple a few days after the release and the worker at the front desk pointed out to him that his recommend would soon expire. Even with this reminder he forgot to renew his recommend,  and the next week went to the Temple with his now expired recommend. As he got out of his car in the Temple parking lot and began to walk toward the Temple it occurred to him that he did not have a current recommend. He knew, because he had been a Stake President, that without a current recommend he could not enter the Temple. He knew the worker at the front desk, he knew the Recorder the Assistant Recorder, and all the Temple Presidency personally and they knew him, but he also knew that without a current recommend that he could not enter the Temple. He went back to his car feeling terrible and made a promise to himself that he would never allow himself to be in a position again of not being able to enter the Temple.  

After our testimony meeting,  the Temple President then asked if any Senior Couples could help Friday morning because forty American couples were coming in from China. These couples all teach English in different Universities throughout China and can come to Hong Kong and attend the Temple once a year. We saw this as a good opportunity so we spent the morning in the Temple helping out.

The Vienna Boys Choir performed Saturday night at the Town Hall in Sha Tin and we with several other Senior Couples attended the concert. I was a bit apprehensive, but I thought it would be a special treat for Karen,  so I attended in support.  It was, after all, a once in a life time experience to hear them in Hong Kong.   I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed the performance, although not my preferred music genre, they were very impressive. Maybe all Karen’s effort over the years  is paying off and I am a diamond in the rough!  Actually,  we always enjoy all the activities we do with all the other Senior Missionaries!

Lisa and Ryan's Visit

And I thought last week was a great week here in Hong Kong….

This week began with the two of us joining some of the other Senior Missionaries on a hike called  “Dragon Back”. Before we committed to go it had been represented to us that this would not be a difficult assault against nature but a moderate effort with spectacular views, and a “must do” before our Mission ended. My only comment is that although we set records of steps, miles, and calories burned in a single day, we are both glad we can say, “we did it”.

We then had a couple of normal days in the office before a formal announcement was circulated that Annie Wong is being promoted to be the Area Director of Public Affairs effective February first. Helping her prepare for this promotion was one of our primary objectives when we arrived as new Missionaries sixteen months ago. She is so capable, and we are so happy that someone of her caliber will be overseeing the work of bringing the Church out of obscurity here in the Asia Area. The opportunity to be here for this well deserved promotion is a wonderful blessing for us.

Lisa and Ryan arrived Thursday night.  Karen had her pedal to the metal without stopping for the next four days. It all began visiting the tailor we like here,  Mario.  Ryan was fitted for a suit, which was finished before they left to go home.  Then we went to Mei Ho House, Monkey Mountain, Ikea in Sha Tin  where we enjoyed lunch in the restaurant there.  Hong Kong Temple,  cable ride with transparent floor, Big Buddha, Stanley Market, Goldfish Market (and all the pet stores on that street so Lisa could check all the puppies!).  Wan Chai Office, Victoria First Branch, Wong Tai Sin Temple (which was closed, so we only saw the outside).   Aqua Luna Harbour Night Cruise (Red Sail Boat), Symphony of Light Show,  Hung Hum Wet Market, Wan Chai Dim Sum (with Annie), Office tour and meeting all the Senior Couples, and Cheesecake Factory. We rode in taxies, busses, ferries, and trains. Sometimes we walked, actually, we walked a lot. After spending the rest of a great week with them we hugged, said goodbye and put them back on the plane.   Karen went back to the office to work and I went back to the apartment to sleep.

Their visit was so good for us, it was great to connect with one of our children again. While serving we have learned how much we love our family and how important they are to our wellbeing. There is simply nothing dearer to us than our children and grandchildren, and we feel that by serving this Mission we set an example for all of  them. 

We are so glad that while we were here Sarah, Jill,  Lisa and Ryan were able to come over and visit. We also appreciate all of our children for supporting us in their own personal way, there is no way we could have taken on this assignment without each and everyone of them.

Hong Kong Temple

Dim Sum with Annie