March/April 2018

Blaine and Kathy Ferguson

I have to say that the time flies by here!  We suppose it is because we are so accustomed to our schedules and enjoy everything that we do and everyone whom we interact with!  We have been sad to see some of our fellow missionaries return home, but welcome each new couple and their unique life experiences.  In these two months we've said goodbye to Roy and Priscilla Thong from Seattle, Lynn and Karen Beckstead from Highland
and Blaine and Kathy Ferguson from Bountiful. We look forward to keeping in touch with these friends!  Yesterday we said goodbye to Tim and Joyce Cory from Las Vegas, but they will be living in their 'cabin' in Pine Valley near St. George so we will be seeing them occasionally as well.
















 We miss the Temple missionaries as they leave, also.  There is a strong bond that develops among the senior missionaries as we work together on a daily basis and do activities together.  Since the new year we have welcomed Gerald and Shauna Edgar from Layton, Paul and Jan Hyde from Salt Lake City, Randy and Teddi Jones from Mona, Stan and Carol Parry from Las Vegas, Allan and Arendje Whidden from British Columbia, Lynn and Marian Wardle (yes, another Marian!) from Provo, Hap and Jeanne Holmstead from Paradise and Jeff and Sandra Wright from Boise. Now there are only three of us couples left from our old group and we will all be leaving in July.  The work moves on!

The Family transportation

Ganesh

My Driver in Rhajamundry

Amithab Dubey, Vijayawada

The doctor in Guntur seeking assistance for her Ob-Gyn "Hospital"

Dan left in February to go to India for two weeks to check out hospitals and identify ones that are fit for sending our missionaries to.  They have to fit a certain criteria such as cleanliness (which is often difficult to find), caliber of doctors, specialties, location and a hundred other areas.  He spent his days going from hospital to hospital, traveling to several cities in India and meeting with many doctors and administrators.  There have been several of these wonderful people who have kept in contact with him and one or two are even meeting with the missionaries!

One tender mercy--one night I was texting with my sister, Karen, from Oregon.  She happened to mention that there was a young man from her ward serving a mission in India whose mother was worried about, and wouldn't it be neat if Dan could meet up with him.  I texted Dan to find out where he was (India is a very big place), and lo and behold he was flying to that city that evening!  He made arrangements to take this young man to dinner with his companion.  When Karen called the mother and sent her the picture that Dan had sent she cried and felt that the Lord had made that happen to calm her mother heart.  Yes, tender mercies!

While Dan was away, I was busily preparing for our Asia Area Women's Conference.  I was asked to be on the committee over music and I was thrilled to help.  I attended the conference last year shortly after our arrival and was very impressed with the quality of speakers, the leaders and the happenings of the conference.  It is just like a mini BYU Women's Conference!  Ten years ago some of the ex-pat women in the Asia Area which includes all of Asia except Japan, Korea and the Philippines lamented that they felt a disconnect with a part of their social, emotional and spiritual life while living away from their families and in some cases their spiritual strongholds.  They decided to have a women's conference modeled after the one that takes place each year in Provo.

Therefore, these women enlisted the talents and resources of many of the ex-pats in the Area and have put on some wonderful conferences over the past ten years.  They don't bring in other speakers--they are all ex-pats and do a fabulous job with their classes.  The classes range from mothering to how to cope in a community where you don't speak the language or share the culture to how to keep the spirit of the Lord alive in your hearts.  Many, many topics with many, many knowledgeable women to share experiences and wisdom with.

My job was to select hymns, choristers and organists, special musical numbers and conduct the instant choir.  Those who wanted to participate in the instant choir contacted me by email, so I chose music that I felt we could handle with one hour of practice.  I sent the music to them to work on at home; then I identified where I felt the problem areas would be and we rehearsed those first and longest, them put it together.  We performed three numbers and each one was beautiful.  I was very pleased with the performance and the dedication of the sisters in learning the music.  We had over 300 women including 20 from Japan!

As I look back at my journal, I see that our days are filled with so many things that we do frequently and never tire of such as having more friends to dinner, taking people to dinner, attending Family Home Evening, Temple assignments, writing reports on our 'assigned' country (Vietnam), Institute, musical numbers with various people, keyboard classes, missionary applications, doctoring by phone, Area Presidency Temple sessions, District Meetings of which we are now in charge of.

Rachel in the production department asked me record some more music for some of their videos that they are making.  This is one of my favorite assignments!  Then she sent me a copy of one of the videos that they had made.  If you listen really hard, you can hear the music in the background!

We went to a concert one night which was arranged for by Sheldon Poon featuring the orchestra from Northwestern University.  All of the senior missionaries had free tickets, thanks to Sheldon.  During the intermission a few of the orchestra members came onto the stage to warm up.  While we were visiting with some of the missionaries I heard 'I Am a Child of God' being played by the flutist.  Of course we clapped and stood so that he could see that yes indeed, there were members of the church in attendance that night!

The stake where we've been attending had a wonderful music/video presentation for Easter in which each ward participated with a musical number.  As the culminating number, the entire group sang the Hallelujah Chorus with the virtual Tabernacle Choir on the big screen.  Dan and I were asked to help prepare them ahead of time and it was wonderful to be able to be in attendance once more with the Tabernacle Choir!

Once again we were able to have Apostles here for the Area Review.  Elders Christensen, Causse and Stevenson were here with their wives and spoke in a special meeting with all of the missionaries--young and old alike.  This was a neat experience not only to listen to this wonderful leaders, but to meet with all of the younger missionaries.  This is the only time that happens.  What a group we are!

I have picked up another conducting class and two more keyboard classes in the past few months.  These two keyboard classes are local Chinese women instead of the Filipina women that I have been teaching since we've been here.  Now I teach five keyboard classes, plus private lessons for Brian and Celia Burrell, and one conducting class.  I'm hoping that my keyboard classes will all have finished the beginning book this month and graduate to the simplified hymns.  Progress for most is slow since they don't practice during the week because of their work loads, employers, etc.  The local women are moving quite rapidly since they are not domestic helpers and have time to practice.

Yvonne

One of my Chinese students, Yvonne, is a woman who works here in our building as a custodian.  She is a delightful woman who takes her lunch hour twice a week, one for conducting and one for keyboard.
She also practices after work three days a week for an hour.  She recently remarried a few weeks ago and we were privileged to attend her wedding.  She bounces in to work each day with a smile on her face.  I'm so glad that she is happy!  She is a mother of four grown children, either serving missions or at BYU-H.









The highlight (there have been so many highlights) of our mission was when President Nelson and Elder Holland came to Hong Kong.  We were blessed to be able to sing in the choir with Esther Chow conducting.  We sang 'Lead Kindly Light', one verse in Chinese, and 'This Is the Christ'.  I was worried during our six weeks of practicing that it would never come together well, but that night there were angels singing with us.  I was so moved by the

                                                                                                                 beauty of the choir of which I'd not heard before.  I think we all felt the same way.  How blessed we
were to sit at the feet of the Prophet of God and one of his Apostles!  There were about 4,000 in attendance in the large room, and I don't know how many in auxiliary rooms.  Even though the Prophet went to Thailand and India, there were saints here from many countries in our Area.  It was a very inspiring event for all of us.

 

It was our pleasure to host Dan's brother Kent and his wife, Rolayne.  We visited the Big Buddha, victoria Peak, Nam Lian Gardens amongst other places.

They left for Seatheast Asia on Tuesday, and that aafternoon we met up with our Bountiful neighbor Al Hess on his way to the Mainland, even working in a Temple session with him.

Then my brother Carl and his wife, Pam graced us with a visit from Wednesday of that week to the next Monday!  We took them to the 'highlights' of Hong Kong which are some of the Buddhist

Temples, the LDS Temple, Victoria Peak, etc.  We had a wonderful time with them and feel honored that they would come to see us






Thus concludes another chapter in our 'sometimes' blog which are the highlights of the past couple of months.  We feel blessed to be here to help further the Lord's work in this part of the world.  We have testimonies of the truthfulness of the gospel which gives us the motivation to serve here in Hong Kong. We love these people dearly and will forever pray for their well-being and the future of the church here.  God bless!

2018 started off with a 'bang' of fireworks across the harbor.  Even though the Chinese celebrate Chinese New Year in February, they still observe the official January 1 New Year like the rest of the world.  Again, the fireworks spread across the width of the skyscape with beautifully synchronized rockets and plumes that orchestrated majestically against the beautiful, colorfully-lit buildings.  The fireworks here make all other fireworks displays we've experienced pale in comparison.

Overlooking Hexagonal Columns at East Dam

Esther Chow asked me to teach rhythm/sight-singing classes each Friday night throughout January.  I put quite a bit of time into the preparation for this class which consisted of about 25 members of her past choir.  As much as I was worried about teaching that class, I really did enjoy it.  I love music theory and love to see the lights go on in others' brains when they 'get it'.

With Ricky and Celia Wong, Leon giving tours!

One Saturday we went hiking with Ricky and Celia Wong (Keung) to the Geo Park at East Dam.  We had been there with Alky and her family months ago but didn't do the big hike.  We hiked around the big mountain and ended up on a point overlooking the ocean.  What a beautiful sight!  To save a lot of time we hiked back across the front of the mountain where there were a few frightful steep drops.  We made it--but were a bit nervous for Ricky since he is afraid of heights.

After the hike we sent to a little resortish place for dinner.  Since it wasn't a very cold day we ate outdoors on the veranda.  I don't care to have my dinner looking a me one minute and end up on my plate five minutes later.  But--most of the food was pretty good (I didn't eat Sebastian) and the atmosphere and company were wonderful.

Sai Kung Fish Market for dinner

We went to a stake event in the evening and watched the Hong Kong Island Stake put on a musical play.  They had worked very hard on it and had some very clever props.  Somehow they managed to use a lot of the youth and even some adults as they sand and acted out how to make everyone feel of worth.  It was a great message and was well-supported.

Sunday night we had Jackie Chan (not the famous one) and his cute family for dinner.  Dan has been meeting with him as he has been semi-active up to this point.  After several meetings he has been actively coming to church with his wife and children, not just once a month when he taught Elder's Quorum.

Rachel in the publishing department asked me if I would play some music for a video that they were making about baptism.  Since one of my favorite things to do is improvise on the hymns, I was very excited to do this.  So one day we went to the chapel and recorded about five hymns/Primary songs.  Fun for me!  Now I'm waiting for the royalties......

One Tuesday

Normans, Becksteads and Sellers at Verde Mar in Wanchai

Lynn and Karen Beckstead took Craig and Tussy Norman to lunch as a 'farewell' to them before returning home to Texas. They have been serving as assistants to the Area Presidency for the past 18 months.  Although we have had several people return home since we came a year ago, after this much time we have developed a relationship with the remaining missionary couples.  A week later we again went to lunch with Normans and Jack Lau and his wife.  Jack was one of Craig's converts while on his mission years ago.  We have become friends with them.

January 19-21 was the quarterly Area Council meeting when Area 70's come from all over our area.  Our job was to feed them lunch on Sunday immediately following their final meeting before returning to their homes in Thailand, India, Taiwan, etc.  It is a bit tricky coming up with a hearty meal that will please everyone and be cooked in crock pots over rice.  Ubiquitous rice!  This is our second time to prepare their parting meal.  Sister Christine VanWagonen in the Vietnam Mission office supplied a wonderful recipe for a white chicken chili.  Finding all of the ingredients was a bit tricky, but it seemed to be a hit.  Now we're starting to think about the next meeting in three months!

Parry, Whidden, Ferguson, Cory, Hyde in line at wheel

Our senior missionary group went to the newly reopened Observatory Wheel, or large Ferris Wheel one Saturday afternoon.  As high as it is, it wasn't as high as the Eye in London.  However, it was fun to be in the enclosed cabs and see over a lot of Hong Kong.  After that we all went to dinner together.

Mingo Chow with son and Roy and Pricilla Tong

The last Sunday of January we had Roy and Priscilla Thong from Seattle to dinner along with Mingo Chow and her son, Henry.  I'm always a little nervous preparing an American meal for Chinese people, but they always seem to really like American food.  I tried making a Chinese meal once for Chinese people and I won't do that again.  It's not my forte.  Mingo is the choir director in the Ho Man Tin Ward where we attended last spring to help them sing for Stake Conference.  The Thongs are serving in that ward and work here in the area office as area auditors.  They will be returning to Seattle end of February.  We will miss them immensely.

Ashley holdin Barnabie, Manfred Lai; Lillian and Jimmy Fung

That Monday we had Zeno and Esther Chow, along with Sheldon Poon to dinner at our home.  Sheldon and Dan were friends when Dan served here in the 70's and Sheldon was the District President.  He now lives mostly in China with a shrimp business and many other side things he constantly works on.  We get to see him about once a month.  The following Sunday we had Manfred and Ashley Lai, and Jimmy and Lillian Fung to dinner.  We enjoy all of these friends so much.  They have truly blessed our lives.

Unfortunately for us, I jinxed our health.  I stated at the beginning of February that we had been here nearly a year and hadn't been sick a day.  Well, two days later we both caught a doozy of a cold, Dan's turning into the flu.  We missed a couple of days of work due to severe fatigue and malaise.  It's now end of February and we are still not fully recovered but much better.  .

Dan has spent hours meeting with many people who have come to him at his office and out to dinner just discussing doctrine.  The bishop in the ward we've been attending for the last two months has asked that Dan help in this area, as well as people not in the ward coming to him for counseling and instruction.  Several of these individuals are now coming to church more regularly and some of them continue to come for gospel 'training'.

One man in particular, Aktar from Bangladesh has become his email missionary since there are no missionaries in Bangladesh.  Dan has been trying for months to get Primary Children's Hospital to allow his daughter to come for some pretty aggressive surgery.  He has been so grateful for the effort that our church has extended on her behalf that he began studying online and asking some very deep questions of Dan.  There is a small branch in Bangladesh and the branch president took a Book of Mormon to Aktar, but Dan has become his mentor.  I believe that when he is able to join the church he will be a great asset to the people in his area.

Jimmy Keung's Family (sons Jeffrey and Japheth), with
Edwin Kwan, who Dan working with.

Besides our regular Tuesday night temple assignment we had our monthly Area Presidency temple session on Thursday and then served Friday morning in anticipation of the BYU Kennedy Center China English teachers temple sessions in conjunction with their annual conference in Hong Kong.  It was wonderful talking with some of them and hearing of some of the experiences they are having.

Bike trip to Airport

Since the new year began we've been able to attend several cultural events.  A Russian Ballet Company performed the Swan Lake Ballet, which I have seen a couple of times before and love, Rachmaninoff concert with the Hong Kong orchestra and the Vienna Boy's Choir.  Manfred and Ashley Lai had given us the orchestra tickets for Christmas as her father plays violin in the orchestra.  I love the cultural events here!

Our monthly family home evening Monday night was Chinese hot pots hosted by Ted and Audrey Yan as a teaser for the beginning of Chinese New Year on Friday.  Hot pots a similar to fondue pots, but much larger and is a soup that you place meat, vegetables, etc. into to cook, then fish it out with your chopsticks.  Luckily, you can decide for yourself what to put in.  Afterwards we tried our hand at a dragon parade.  Holding those sticks and making them dance is harder that it looks!  We had lots of fun.

Raybin Ng, Kerry his new wife, Tony and May
(Kerry and Jason's parents), Jackie and Jason

The office was closed on Friday and will be closed Monday for Chinese New Year.  Wow--it's a huge deal here with people dressing up in traditional colorful Chinese clothing, fancy foods, parties, and giving out ly-see envelopes--little red envelopes that people put paper money into and exchange.  Tuesday the single ladies in our office will parade through and we will give them each an envelope with money in it. 

Chinese New Year at Leon and Chi Fung's with a lot of Keungs:
Jackie, Alson, Chi Fan, Jason, Chi Mei (Celia), Kerry, Chi Kuen,
Jenny's daughter Kelly leaving on mission to Temple Square, Ricky,...

Friday afternoon we went to Leon Au's home (married to one of the Keung sisters) for an extended family party.  Leon's office is next to mine.  We only stayed an hour since we had to get over to where the nighttime parade would begin.  Several of us stood in line at 5:30 AM a couple of weeks ago to procure tickets to the grandstands in which to watch the parade.  It was fantastic and the area was decorated to the hilt with beautiful lights and decorations.  The floats were phenomenal and we were very glad that we had seats.  Then last night we had a New Year's dinner hosted by the Area Presidency here in our building with a fun Balderdash type game afterwards.  The original idea was to watch the fireworks from the top of this building.  However, one week ago there was a terrible bus accident here in Hong Kong in which a bus tipped over and killed 19 people.  Because of that, the fireworks were canceled and the money donated to the victims' families.

"Gung Xi Ni" (Gung Hei Neih)

Chi: Fung, Fong, Mei, Fan, Kuen (Lai in US)

That brings us up to today, Sunday, February 18.  Yes, our mission continues to keep us busy with wonderful activities and more ways to serve, as well as our regular service such as our missionary applications job and four weekly keyboard classes, Dan's doctoring responsibilities, and of course his meetings with his activation friends and Operation Smile board meetings.  We wouldn't have it any other way.  When I worry that we could be bored upon our release end of July, I just look at pictures of grandkids and know that our lives will be plenty full!


 Marian continues teaching keyboard.  Progress is SLOW with a few of the students...

November 6---

As usual, the days and weeks continue to be exciting and full.  November began with our dear Mavon Lee, the mental health advisor next to our offices leaving for home.  It's always sad to see one of our fellow missionaries complete their missions and leave for home, but we're so happy for them to be able to be with their families again.

In anticipation of Steffani coming with Nic and the girls, we decided to 'check out' Ocean Park, a

huge, wonderful aquarium filled with every kind of fish and sea creature imaginable.  This is a very large park with part of it dedicated to the aquarium and part to rides, activities, etc.  The best part is that 'seniors' get in free!  Hong Kong is very generous to seniors with their many discounts and freebies.  I had fun riding on a few rides, but unfortunately, by myself as Dan doesn't like thrill rides.  Some of us just never grow up!  By the end of the day, we decided that Steffani's kids would enjoy Disneyland more because, well, Disneyland is Disneyland!

One of our senior activities was to visit an island called Tung Lung Chau.  After a lengthy ferry ride we hiked around the island and observed some beautiful foliage and habitat; but the best part was of a large rock with carvings on it reminiscent of the petroglyphs in St. George and Kona, Hawaii.
The island has become popular for campers.

                         





                                      Marian and Audrey Yan

Our Group for the day included the Normans from Houston, the Corys from Las Vegas, The Thongs from Washington State, and the Yans from Washington State.

This is one of the oldest known rock carvings in Hong Kong.

We had been asked by the Kowloon West Stake Relief Society to sing two broadway songs for their stake Relief Society fashion show entitled Modesty is the Beauty.  We chose two songs that we had sung years ago, People Will Say We're In Love' from Oklahoma! and Somewhere Out There from An American Tail.  I have to say it went very well for us, despite our nerves and our personal reservations.  Chalk another one up for getting out of our comfort zones.  The evening was absolutely outstanding.  They do things top notch here.  They started by showing a video called 100 dresses that was made in Arizona for a Young Women's project.  A young woman gathered 'pre-worn' prom dresses to loan to other young women so that the young women in Arizona would have plenty of modest prom dresses.

The fashion show was divided into differing categories such as sports, casual, Sunday, formal, bedtime, school, family.  They even had two brides in gorgeous wedding dresses with super long trains!  One was young and the other was probably in her 50's.  There was a runway outline with tiny lights which went down the middle of the gym floor.  The models came out from the chapel, went down the runway, turned, posed and went back.  Afterwards they all came out and lined up in front so we could see them all at once.  There were about 60 models total, a good representation from each ward.  The 'family' category was adorable with moms and kids dressed alike,  coming out together.  Chinese small children are the cutest!  (except for my grandbabies!  :)  There was no narration, just music and models coming out one after another.  The decorations were wonderful, the entertainment between the categories was good--the entire evening was very, very well done.

We had a very nice visit with my cousin, Don Nicolaysen.  We went to church together in the English speaking ward, my first time there.  It was delightful as it was the yearly Young Women's program.  We were so impressed with the talks and the caliber of youth here in Hong Kong.  Don had dinner with us and stayed to visit until evening.  The next day we spent most of the day together going around Stanley and other places.

Steffani's family arrived on Thanksgiving day after visiting Beijing for a couple of days.  We had a delightful time with them visiting the Sun Yat Sen Museum, which is the site of the old chapel where the missionaries including Dan lived for years.  We went up to Victoria Peak on the tram and saw the lights of Hong Kong, saw the light show on the front of the skyscrapers from the ferry and from Tsim Sha Tsui which by

now had Christmas lights on them.  We shopped in Mong Kok (Ladies Street) for trinkets and cheap 'stuff', saw the monkeys and nearly got attacked by a couple of them, went to Big Buddha, Disneyland (always a Sellers favorite) and a few other places.  We loved having them come and were sorry to see them leave.  It's unbelievable that we will be seeing them again in
seven months!

Dan's fireplace creation on back of piano

We were in charge of Family Home Evening for December.  Guess what we did?  Just what we do each year in our neighborhood:  a Christmas carol sing-a-long!  Everyone brought delicious soups and breads, then we sang the beautiful Christmas music which begins the Christmas season.









I have added another keyboard class since there are some women here in Hong Kong who have

wanted to learn to play the keyboard.  So Wednesdays have become a very busy, but exhilarating day beginning with Institute, then keyboard one, keyboard two, and finishing up the missionaries applications before meeting with Elder Meurs to go over and submit the applications to Salt Lake.
Why do I love it?!!

Perla Buana

I continue to have a keyboard class on Tuesday and Friday also, and meet with Alex on Thursdays to help him with his ward choir conducting assignment.  On Fridays I have had my darling Perla from the Philippines who began lessons the end of March knowing nothing about music.  She has been dedicated and faithful about finding time to practice, mostly late at night after she has finished with her duties in her employer's home.  Unfortunately for me, but wonderful for her, she is going back to the Philippines tomorrow to stay!!!  She has three children, two in their 20's with good jobs, thanks to her working in Hong Kong as a domestic for the past seven years, and one in high school, and thanks to her parents who have raised her children in her absence since there is no father in the home.  These ladies (and few men) make such sacrifices for their families by coming here to be servants so that they can raise the standard of living for their families.  However, many of them don't realize that where they are needed most are in their homes.  Perla joined the church a year and a half ago and went to the temple this summer.  She spoke in her branch at Discovery Bay last week where we went to hear her talk and  play the piano for their Sacrament Meeting.  She has been their branch pianist for seven months.  I'm very happy that she will be joining her family but will miss her terribly.

Last week Raybin Ng and Carrie Wong got married.  Carrie is the daughter of one of the Keung sisters that Dan baptized long ago.  Her brother, Jason got married shortly after we arrived in Hong Kong.  I played the piano for her wedding in the Kowloon Tong chapel, then we went across the road to the Temple where they were sealed, followed by a large wonderful traditional multi-course Chinese banquet.  Then there was a reception a week later!  Weddings are a big deal here!

Dan and I were privileged to go to Pakistan a couple of weeks ago to check out hospitals for the local missionaries.  I have to admit that I was a bit nervous to go to Pakistan, but it turned out to be one of the choicest experiences of my life.  We were hosted by a wonderful doctor,
Aquil Baady who took us to tour the hospital of choice.  He is not a member of the church, but had performed surgery on one of our missionaries several months prior.  He and Dan became good 'phone buddies'.  We went to lunch with him and two Pakistani missionaries.  All of the Pakistani missionaries are from Pakistan.  The church is growing very fast in Pakistan with over 8,000 members now.  That night we went to dinner with Dr. Baady and his lovely wife, Almas.

The next day Dr. Baady drove us to the border of Pakistan and India where we were to walk across the border into India and hire a car to take us to the airport to catch our flight to New Delhi.  However, we were turned back at immigration.  Apparently India had a brand new rule which no one in our travel department or the mission president in Delhi that they would no longer accept the type of visa we had to walk across the border.  We had to fly.  Since there are only two flights per week from Pakistan to India we called our driver back to take us back to Lahore.  Luckily for us, one of those flights was the next day.  Since I was going to be flying back early from Delhi because of my music responsibilities I requested my flight directly back to Hong Kong.

We spent the remainder of the day with Dr. Baady (he's retired) visiting historical sights around LaHore.  We saw mosques, both Muslim and Sikh, and even had a private reading of the 'book' by a Sikh holy man.  I only had to cover my head twice.  I was a real hit with my blond hair. 

People would run up to me for a 'selfie' to have their picture taken with me!  They rarely see Caucasian people--especially with light hair.  They were very friendly and we never felt in harm's way.  That night we took Dr. Baady and his wife, daughter and her husband to dinner.  After two days of answering questions about the gospel of Jesus Christ, he is ready to have the missionaries come to visit.  He considers himself an inactive Muslim.  Even his daughter felt that we were sent back for a reason.  We bonded with this wonderful family and will never forget them and their kindness.  I flew out that night and Dan flew early the next morning to India.

Dan's visit to India was also a success.  He met with many hospital officials and was able to talk to quite a few people about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He left the missionaries with three referrals, with a possible fourth!  So many people in this part of the world are hungry for the gospel of Jesus Christ.






Anil was one of the drivers Dan had in India.  He is a member of the church who is trying hard to earn enough money to go to the Hong Kong Temple.  His job is to drive for the Mission office.  Here is his wife who set up a little business selling chips and snacks in front of their "house" in the slums.  She earns about 200 rupees per day which equates to about $3.
He took Dan on a tour of his "slum".  They also had time to visit one of the popular sites in Delhi, where many old rulers were buried and a massive tower was built.







Because of the Christmas season, I have been asked to provide music for the Area Presidency Christmas Devotional as well as the
office party following the devotional.  I had all of the senior sister missionaries sing a beautiful song called Slumber Song.  Then I had the office women sing and perform The 12

Days After Christmas.  It was a hit!  They did a great job with choreographed actions and props. 

Our next 'choir' was for the Temple Workers' Devotional on the 30th.  This choir is comprised of all of the senior missionaries that serve in the Temple.
Star Bright ended the Christmas season.

Last week I was able to have "tea" with Katherine Tan and Lena Wong who are friends that we met years ago on an Operation Smile mission to China.  Katherine has been on several missions with us and we have been in contact with her several times over the years.  She is a very spiritual, wonderful woman from Singapore.  I really hope that we have occasion to go to Singapore to see her again before our mission ends.

We senior missionaries had an enjoyable time one evening carolling in Whampoa to the holiday crowd.  We joined some of the full-time missionaries who were greeting people and passing out coloring books and treats baked by one of the local wards.





The morning of Decem-ber 23rd, we met Manfred Lai and his four-year old daughter, Gabby for breakfast at the Landmark Shopping Center.  They have the most incredible Christmas display we have ever seen!  It was a scene in the 'round' with houses, people, musical instruments, dolls and trains on a track around the ceiling, and more things than I can possible describe.  Every half hour it
comes alive with actions and music for about five minutes. 

Unfortunately, Manfred's wife, Ashley was not able to come since she is still in 'confinement' since the birth of her baby nearly six weeks ago.  Chinese tradition says that you stay in your home, or your mother's home if you have other children for six weeks!  She has only been out of the house once to see Star Wars (which wasn't worth it, in my opinion).  She has two more days of confinement at which time she moves back home with her precious baby girl, Barnabie.

Sunday, Christmas Eve, we spoke at the combined Causeway Bay and Chai Wan Wards.  Lucky us!  (that comfort zone thing again)  I based my talk around some remarks that Sister Kathy Andersen, Neil Andersen's wife spoke about last Christmas in our Sacrament meeting.  She talked about putting up her nativity only to find that the baby Jesus was missing.  Dan and I opened the box of Christmas decorations that have been handed down from past missionaries only to find the same thing--three pieces of the nativity with the baby Jesus missing!  What a good topic for Christmas!  Dan delivered a wonderful talk--in Cantonese--based around the story The Gift of the Magi.

Christmas day we will left our apartment early in the morning with other senior missionaries to take the ferry boat to an old ancestral village called Lai Chi Wo.  This is a 400 year old village that was left mostly undisturbed over the years.  It was a Hakka settlement, placed there because the other Hong Kong citizens didn't want the newcomers from the mainland to settle in the Harbor area. 
It was a long ride out:  90 minutes on a ferry AFTER riding out to Tai Po on the MTR.

Since next week is a regular work week and there are no more events other than the temple devotional, I will end this blog of 2017 with a wish for all of our dear family and friends for a very Merry Christmas!  Thanks for sharing our mission with us this year.  Thanks for your comments that you leave on the blog and on our email.  We love to hear from you!  May you each have the love of Christ in your hearts as you celebrate His birthday.

We love you all!

Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma, Dan and Marian