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