Weeks 31—36

Jill and Marian at Farewell Party

We are having so many varied experiences on our mission that it is hardly a ‘normal’ mission!  Week 31 started off with me going to book club with Jill Andersen.  I had read the book while in Vietnam and could hardly remember the little details but enjoyed going to a ‘real’ home and mingling with some of her friends from the English speaking ward, Victoria 1.  I also enjoy very much spending time with Jill.  We met approximately 25 years ago after one of our Operation Smile trips on a layover in Hong Kong.  Her husband’s business was an Op Smile donor at the   We connected one or two other times after Op Smile trips and from then on via Christmas cards, the old-fashioned Facebook.  She and I have gotten to be good friends since coming here.

Scott and Ricky, Celia Wong (Keung Chi Mei)

That Saturday I met with a young man from the Causeway Bay Ward who has been made his ward choir director and needed to learn how to lead music.  Alex is a quick learner and has such a tender spirit about him.  He is very shy.  He and his mother have only been members for about three years.  We have since been meeting once a week wherein I’ve seen remarkable improvement not only with his musical skills, but with his personage.  He thinks deeply and conveys to me his feelings regarding his testimony, meaning of the words in the hymns and some of his personal life. 

Ryan and Olivia Young's Wedding

That afternoon Dan and I  sang at the wedding of Dave Young’s brother Ryan, who has been living in Hong Kong for about 25 years.  The wedding was held in our Wan Chai building and performed by the District President of the Victoria 1 Ward.  It was through Shawnee that Ryan knew to ask us to sing.  Way out of our comfort zone!  However, they were grateful and now we’ve made some new friends, Ryan and sweet Olivia. 

After the wedding we hurried to Tsing Yi where we, actually mostly Dan gave a presentation to their stake Relief Society.  Before they listened to the Women’s broadcast they had a Women’s event with workshops, service activity, food, then culminating with watching the broadcast which was one week later than Salt Lake.  Dan’s presentation was entitled ‘The Positive Power of Music’ and was given in Cantonese, thus letting me off the hook!  My little bit of piano playing didn’t hold a candle to the many hours of preparation made by dear Dan.  As part of the powerpoint presentation we included pictures of our grandchildren singing and playing their musical instruments.  It was sweet and those in attendance seemed to enjoy his presentation.  And he did well!

Mid-Autumn Festival Incense Dragon

The next week was the annual Autumn Festival which they also call the Lantern Festival.  This is   The celebration goes on for several days.  Wednesday night we went with Esther and Zeno Chow to dinner and then to the festival.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get close enough to get a good look at the dragon because of the crowds.  They make one of the dragons out of incense sticks and light them.  It’s pretty spectacular!  We ended at a park where they made lots of visual displays with different shaped lanterns.  There were lanterns in every size and shapes.  Little children were walking along holding lanterns in the shape of cars, fire trucks, animals, etc. 

when they have the dragon parade down the streets of Hong Kong.

The next day was Chinese National Day so the office was closed.  On holidays the temple always has special openings so that all who have work schedules that make it hard to go to the temple can go.  Therefore, we worked in the temple to help accommodate the influx.  It’s so rewarding! 

We had our General Conference a week later than Salt Lake.  The talks as usual were very inspiring  and uplifting.  How appropriate that Neal Anderson was able to deliver part of the message that Elder Hales would have given.  We will miss him.

I have grown a bit frustrated with the slow progress of my keyboard classes, Wednesday in particular.  They are quite behind the other two classes, both with having missed a day due to a hurricane as well as their own schedules.  Since they have a hard time practicing in their employers’ homes, they usually don’t practice between lessons, which equates to not much progress.  I had tried a couple of tricks trying to get them to remember their notes, but to not much avail.  My last trick was to get their favorite candy bars and have them read the notes as I put them on my wonderful magnetic staff.  This seemed to do the trick for most of them.  However, for the next couple of weeks one or two of them were still working on earning their candy.  It was so funny with Kate hollering our, ‘I want candy!  I need my candy!’

Picture made of about 1000 photographs, repeated into nearly 5,000

This next Saturday began the first of four farewell concerts we were to give in four different stakes during the next three weeks. 

Saturday was the true celebration where the public was invited as well as past members of the choir.  Esther went all out, which is her typical style, with catered food (we eat at many of our rehearsals but it’s pot luck), presentations,  displays, etc.  One of the displays was a huge backdrop that she had made of Christ standing at the door and knocking which was made entirely of photos collected from her 27 years of conducting ‘Songs of the Heart’.  It was absolutely spectacular and became instantly the backdrop for most of the pictures of the night.   The highlight of the evening was a surprise for us choir members:  unbeknownst to any of us Esther had contacted each member’s family and obtained a video clip of them talking about how their parents have instilled in them a love for music while they were growing up.  What a thrill to see each of our children talk, and Holly’s children singing ‘I Am a Child of God’ in Cantonese.  That was a real hit!  Esther is truly amazing!

The next day was the day Dan was rescheduled to give a talk in the Ngau Tau Kok Ward and I playing a piano solo since it had been canceled in August due to a typhoon.  I know that he has put around a lot of hours into his talk and I was so glad for it to be over.  While he was putting the finishing touches on it early Sunday morning I looked at my phone and saw that we were expecting a category eight typhoon in the next couple of hours.  Sure enough, all meetings were canceled again that Sunday, including our second concert!  What are the chances?!  So we stayed home all day long and worshipped (and baked) from afar.

Our dear Mavon Lee, a fabulous therapist and wonderful lady, is completing her mission as the Area Mental Health Advisor on November 8.  Her office is next to ours.  We have become quite close to her over the past eight months and will miss her greatly.  I’m sure the replacements, a couple, will be wonderful, but we will surely miss Mavon.  Lynn and Karen Beckstead and we took Mavon to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory on Monday.  The CF has only been open for a few months and has a reputation of great food and long lines just like the states.   We’re always on the lookout for good American food. 

We received a new legal couple this week so had them over for dinner.  It’s always good to get to know the new missionaries and include them in our senior missionary family.  They are the Perry’s from Las Vegas and will be a great addition. 

The weeks have just been getting busier with practicing the piano for the concerts, teaching keyboard classes, working with Alex, choir practice, Perla’s lessons, missionary applications,  temple work, etc.  Dan has been equally busy with his talks, presentations, his doctor job, choir and other things.  We love keeping busy and we love the variety in our schedules. 

We were finally able to deliver that talk that Dan has worked so hard on and my musical number.  No typhoon!!!  Chi Kuen Keung (Jenny) happened to come to listen to Dan’s talk (as well as Leon Au-Yeung (who works next to me in the office and is married to Chi Fung) and Manfred Lai (his first time back to church in about 6 years)) and was please that he mentioned her and her family in his talk as being the family of eight children that he tracted out during his mission.  Seven of the eight joined the church and are all still active, most are or have been in leadership positions.  Since she is in the choir with us, she came home with us to have lunch and then with us to choir.  We gave a great concert and are looking forward to one more concert!

Monday night was a senior Family Home Evening in our building.  We all contributed to the dinner.  We and the Becksteads were in charge of bringing 40 baked potatoes.  Since we have very limited oven space in our building and the ovens were being used for meatloaf we cooked our potatoes in four large crockpots which worked beautifully.  The Sorensons showed us pictures of their previous mission to the Philippines several years earlier.    We also said goodbye to Ross and Nancy Kendall, a fabulous couple who were the President and wife of the Filipino Branch (Everyday Branches).  They have done a phenomenal job, working very long hours, contributing both time and money to these dear Filipina sisters.  They will be sorely missed but I’m sure that the Jones who will be taking their places will likewise be wonderful.

Scott came on Tuesday!  We have been anxiously awaiting this day for a couple of months.  We picked him up at the airport in the afternoon and immediately went to the temple to work our shift.  Scott was very happy to be able to attend a session in our Hong Kong Temple and meet many of our co-workers.  Over the few days we went to several Buddhist temples including the Tze Shan, Ten Thousand Buddhas Victoria Peak with dinner at Forest Gump’s Restaurant at the top.  We took Scott hiking with Manfred Lai over Dragon’s Back on Saturday.  After our hike we boarded the ferry to Macau to see the dancing water show.  Twenty minutes into the performance they canceled the remainder of the show due to technical difficulties.  So sad! 

and Big Buddha.  After 10000 we hiked Monkey Mountain.
Other places visited: Hopewell Center for lunch, Repulse Bay, Stanley, and

The semi-annual mission presidents’ seminar happened to be that same week.  Friday morning President Funk had Dan and me come to one of the meetings to help with a presentation that he was giving regarding preparation.  He used the Tabernacle Choir as part of his object lesson which was rather clever.  The senior missionaries usually have quite a bit of responsibility during the conference, but since Scott was here we made the lunch for the Area 70s luncheon instead.  We made Italian chicken which they seemed to enjoy.  We worked with the Thongs on this meal.  After the clean-up we went for our warm-up with the choir and then gave our final concert.  What an emotional evening for many.   A few of the choir members have been in the choir the entire 27 years with Esther!  The concert was the best one yet so I was very happy for Esther that we ended on such a good note.  (hee hee, get it?)  Scott enjoyed the concert and we enjoyed showing him off to our friends.  He’s a good son.

We were so sad Monday that we had to give Scott back to his family, but they certainly needed him.  Bless Amy’s heart for attending to an ear infection, a sleepless baby and a fever while Scott was gone.  Thank you, dear Amy, for sharing Scott with us.

Other than our regular weekly obligations, we senior missionaries went to the temple together on Thursday morning.  Since the entire Area Presidency is now out of town for three weeks we were not able to have them join us for our monthly temple session.  After the temple Becksteads and we served lunch to everyone—pizza and salad.  It’s always nice to gather together once or twice a month in a social setting with those whom we serve with. 

Even though choir is officially done we had a celebration on Friday night with a huge dinner and testimony meeting.  Esther presented each of us with a necklace with a pearl pendant and a letter to each of us.  Then we were presented with pictures of ourselves alone in a beautiful frame.  We shall treasure these.

That brings us to today, November 5!  We had a wonderful and spiritual morning attending the Tsuen Wan Ward, then going back to our building where we joined up with the Causeway Bay Ward for their choir practice.  We’ve been going to their ward choir quite a bit for many months to work on Mazie’s arrangement of Nephi’s Courage of which I have made a piano accompaniment to her specifications.  Their ward conference is in two weeks at which time we’ll finally put that song to rest.  Aahh!  It was so good to have Alex direct his hymn with the choir, ‘How Wondrous and Great’, which will also be performed at their conference.  Alex’s confidence has increased so much since working with him.  It makes it all worthwhile!