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! 

Weeks 23-30

My, how time flies!  It's amazing how generic some weeks can be and others are so full of various activities.  However, the generic are never mundane!  This week was a temple day with our Area Presidency.  We are blessed to go to the temple once a month with these wonderful men and their wives, but since these are the summer months Elders Funk and Evans had gone home to the US for a month and left us with our new authority, Elder Meurs.  While Elder Meurs returned to Australia to pack up his house we were orphans for a couple of weeks.  We look forward to having the entire presidency back with us again.

Saturday morning Dan and I decided to hike up
to Lion Rock behind the temple which is about a two or three mile hike up a fairly steep mountain.  Much of the hike has steps cut into the mountain which made it double hard to come down since it's very hard on your legs.  To make matters worse, it was one of the hottest days of the year at 34 C which equates to 93 degrees F with 95% humidity.  Very miserable!  Up at the top was the real treat with a 360 degree view of Hong Kong and a breeze!  Along the trail going back downhill we ran into a very large monkey!  He was walking toward us on the trail.  Since we had just heard that monkeys

are mean I was very scared, but he veered off just before we were about to meet.  The best part about the hike was the Fanta float that we drank at the end of our hike.  Later that evening we went out for pizza with some of the senior missionaries and saw the new Cars movie.

We left for Vietnam on Monday morning.  We spent the first few days in HoChiMinh City which is down South Vietnam.  The mission president, President Hassell assigned us two sister missionaries to take us to the hospitals that Dan was supposed to evaluate.  We were quite impressed with how modern and beautiful these hospitals and clinics were since our last visit to Vietnam about 15 years ago.  At that time in

Hanoi the hospitals were very old and rundown and of course did not have any modern technology.  These new hospitals were outfitted with all of the latest and greatest.  Unfortunately, there are so  many new hospitals there now that they are very expensive so they people go to the older less expensive hospitals.  Many hospitals and doctors' offices are quite silent.

Dan had the blessing of the Area Presidency to continue his Operation Smile surgeries as long as they were in the Asia Area, so he spent the next couple of days repairing cleft lips and palettes on little children in Vietnam.  I, meanwhile, had a glorious time reading and eating M&Ms ALL DAY LONG since we were staying in an area where there wasn't anywhere to go and it wasn't safe to be out alone.

After eating our first dinner in a not-so-yummy restaurant we found a Pizza Hut the next night.  While we were eating a Caucasian family came in and one of them had a BYU-I shirt on.  We had a great time talking with them.  They were from North Dakota visiting their daughter-in-law's parents who lived way out in the country.  The son had served a Vietnamese mission in California, met a girl from Vietnam and was taking his parents to meet the in-laws.  They had been there for five weeks and were very anxious to get home.

Dan went alone the next day to visit a hospital since he had been operating all day (I read a second novel!)  He was chatting with the hospital administrator and his assistant after the visit when the administrator told his assistant to take Dan to see the new clinic.  She promptly handed him--a helmet!  So Dan hopped on her motor scooter behind her (the main mode of transportation in Vietnam) and rode an hour away to visit the new clinic, and then back home in the driving rain.  The entire two hours on the scooter ride they discussed our religion.  She agreed to have the missionaries visit her and we just got word that she wants to be baptized!  Mysterious ways......

Dr. Nguyen The Hung and Daughter-in-law Phuong

This Vietnamese Elder is from Mesa, just a few miles
from where Dr. Hung's daughter Hanna lives!

When we flew to Hanoi we were met by two Elders who accompanied us to the hospitals there.  Dan has quite a few contacts in Hanoi due to his Operation Smile visits over the years.  One of the doctors, Nguyen The Hung stayed with us in the early 90's for six weeks and bonded with our kids.  We were so happy when he brought his family to Utah to see us two years ago.  We were able to take them to Temple Square, chat with the Vietnamese sister missionaries and give them a Book of Mormon.  At the time there was no mission in Vietnam. 

This mission is only 15 months old.  We went to see Dr. Hung and his wife at their home and found that she has advanced cancer.  We were very happy to see each other but it was bitter-sweet.  He took us to dinner with several of the doctors that we knew from past visits, and the next night had dinner in another doctor's home that Dan also knew from before.

We were able to see the water puppet show which was very fun.  They had a live 'orchestra' and singers.  Google Hanoi water puppets for a look at what it is.  The next day we went to church which was held in a rented home and met several very faithful Vietnamese Saints.  It's amazing how fast the church is growing there. 

Back in Hong Kong, we were in charge of the senior activity the next Saturday which was to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum.  It's an amazing museum which has many facets to it including basic Chinese history, artistic history, history of the royalty and even a large Bruce Lee exhibit.  We all had a great and instructional time.

On Wednesday we had another typhoon.  This time it was a category 10 so all of Hong Kong was shut down.  Since our computer system had been so slow for the past couple of weeks and most of my job requires much computer uploading we decided to go to the office anyway and get our work done while no one was using the bandwidth.  We managed to get here via the last train before even the subway trains quit running.  We were the only ones here working but got much done while looking out the window and watching the trees bend nearly to

the ground.  Afterwards we saw the destruction of the storm with windows blown out, trees uprooted or broken, etc. Certain parts of Hong Kong had very much destruction.  However, Texas had their hurricane on the heels of ours which makes us grateful that we didn't suffer the same type of damage.

I had to give the devotional message on eternal marriage the following Monday, and Dan had to give one shortly thereafter on faith.  These are 15 minute lessons from Preach My Gospel that we take turns giving to the senior missionaries during our district meeting which follows the devotional which includes all of the employees.

We were so happy to have our dear friends Alan and Julianne Holland spend a day with us!  They
were on an Asian cruise which stopped one day in Hong Kong.  We mapped out ahead of time the most interesting things to see and do in Hong Kong in one day and even did a trial run!  We took them to the Wong Tai Sin Temple which is a large Buddhist temple with lots and lots of statues (gods) and incense.  Next we went to our temple, to an outdoor market, to dim sum, to Victoria Peak and had them back to their ship in time to sail away.  What a wonderful day!

This was the week for flu shots!  We had people traipsing into Dan's office all week long for their
flu shots.  No one really wanted to get the shots, but all agreed that his shots were painless!  Way to go!

We attended an Operation Smile gala with our good friends, the Anderson's, which was a fundraiser for Hong Kong.  It by far was the fanciest event I've ever attended.  The decorations were way over the top.  The tables were magnificent.  The theme was Masquerade so they had wonderful singers who performed the song from Phantom of the Opera.  Each place setting had a beautiful mask as well as a bag of goodies to take home.  There was lots of professional singing and dancing and of course, talking.  (in Chinese)  With the amount of money they spent, I hope they received a lot of donations!

Alice and Tai Chan, Alice Chiu, Alan and Jill Anderson

Saturday was our first concert in our 'series of concerts' for our choir.  It wasn't really our concert, but we sang six songs.  It was held in a cultural center and featured Mormon talent from throughout Hong Kong.  It was fabulous!  It had singers, instrumentalists including two stringed instruments that are native to China, drummers, etc.  The talent was very outstanding.  I was able to accompany Sydney Walker on two songs.  She is a young woman living in Hong Kong with her husband from Mesa, Arizona and has a wonderful voice.

The next week we were blessed (yah, right!) to speak in the Everyday Branch, which means that we spoke Tuesday through Friday to the Filipino Branch.  This was our second time doing that since we spoke shortly after our arrival here.  It works out to about once every six months.  So we're off the hook on that for awhile.  However, the next week I taught the Institute lesson to the senior sister missionaries, so I guess I'm off the hook on that one for two months. 

That same week we went with an Operation Smile representative to give a presentation to a group of Brownies and their leaders at an international school on Operation Smile.  I was amazed at some of the intelligent questions they asked.  Hopefully it raised their awareness of some of the seemingly injustices in the world involving children of other countries and cultures.

A fun outing this week with the senior missionaries, including the temple and mission home senior missionaries was to have lunch at the Hopewell Center.  We were on the 62nd floor (not the top--and not even close to the tallest building in Hong Kong!)  and had a wonderful revolving view of Hong Kong--like the Seattle Space Needle.  The lunch was outstanding which was a buffet of Asian and American food.  We all enjoyed
this fun socializing event.

I end our epistle with our delightful dinner with Manfred Lai and his wife, Ashley and four-year-old daughter, Gabby.  They treated us to dinner at a Thai restaurant Saturday.  We had spent the day running quite a few errands so it was very relaxing to be with them.  Gabby was very happy to receive the little gift that we brought for her, a small collection of Disney princesses.  She reminded me of our precious granddaughters when they were her age enjoying the same little toys.

 We send our greetings and love and testimony of the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all.

Weeks 16,17,18,19,...

We started out week 16 with a typhoon!  There was a lot of hype regarding the incoming typhoon of big winds and rain.  Our apartment complex used duct tape to make a large X on all of the major glass doors and windows to keep them from blowing in.  The neighboring complex placed a netting from the top windows to the ground in front of their windows.  As the day progresses the typhoon warning became stronger so that by 2:00 people were starting to l

eave for home.  We, of course, did not.  We didn't see that it was raining any more than usual so we waited until 4:00.  As we neared the bus stop it started raining buckets upon us.  Unfortunately, all of the other procrastinators had the same idea so that the bus line ran down the street and all the way down the next block.  To make matters worse, the buses were not stopping at our stop because they were already full.  After about a half hour a bus came by that was not one that most people ride, but worked for us.  We were able to go home and watch the remainder of the storm from our big window that overlooks the harbor.  We love our harbor window!

Each Monday morning we have a devotional meeting in one of our chapels downstairs (there are 3).  It involves all of the senior missionaries who work in our building, about 19, and the local employees who work here in the Area office.  We always sing a hymn, have an inspirational message and a prayer, followed by District Meeting only for us senior missionaries.  We take turns teaching a lesson from Preach My Gospel, which is fabulous.  So Monday morning was Dan's turn to teach about faith.  He is a wonderful instructor and gets people involved in lively discussions.

Dan's best birthday present ever (for me, anyway) was a season pass to Hong Kong Disneyland.  It is very cheap for seniors.  One Frida
y when we had not much to do (doesn't happen very often) we went to Disneyland with Jill Anderson.  What a fun experience!  It isn't as big as CA or FL but it's fun.  We spent several hours there and then on to choir practice.

Remember Dr. Jones Fok who wanted to take us to karaoke?  Well, he did!  We had a lovely dinner with he and his friend, and sang karaoke.  Dan started to not feel well towards the end of the evening so we went home.  As the evening wore on he felt worse and worse.  At 2:00 in the morning he was in excruciating pain and he recognized at that time what it was----kidney stone!  Again!  We didn't know where to go so called Dr. Fok who advised us what to do.  We ended up at Baptist Hospital where he was x-rayed to confirm that it indeed was a kidney stone.  Yes, there were seven kidney stones!  Only one was bothering him at this point.  Two days later he had it blasted.  Interestingly, Holly and Scott were also suffering with kidney stones at the same time.  Darn genetics!

We went to Stake Conference that Sunday in the Tolo Harbour Stake and saw some of our dear Chinese friends.  President Lam, President of the Hong Kong Mission was one of the speakers.  One of the reasons that we went there was to hear Carrie Wong's stake Primary choir.  They sang I Am a Child of God, which is what our grandchildren sang in Chinese for our mission farewell.  It was precious!

The temple re-opened the end of June so we are back to work on Tuesday nights.  What a wonderful place to learn our responsibilities!  The temple is a small one with two small endowment rooms and sealing rooms, but beautiful.  Our first night back the workers went into a small panic because a bus unloaded out front with everyone who was here for a service training meeting for the Area.  That was trial by fire, but very rewarding and fun.

July 1st was a Special Administrative Region Establishment Day holiday, which means that it's been 20 years since China took back Hong Kong.  There were celebrations all week long, special lights on the skyscrapers, and festivities all over Hong

Kong.  It all culminated on Saturday night with a special fireworks display over our harbor.  We all piled into the Corey's apartment since they have the best view of that part of the harbor and the promenade was too crowded.  The Chinese know how to do fireworks!  They literally started up with a bang!  Instead of having one central spot, they had three!  They were synchronized to all happen in unison so they filled the entire sky.  It was absolutely amazing!

July 4th was celebrated on Elder Funk's deck which is on the top floor and overlooks a large part of Wan Chai.  They barbequed and we all provided the remainder of the meal.  It was so fun to share our Independence Day with the Area President and his wife.

It was my turn to teach Institute Wednesday and it was Revelations 4-11.  Oh my!  I studied hard for that class since it's all about the seven seals and calamities of the last days.  There is so much symbolism and imagery in Revelations.  I could think of at least a dozen songs that take their texts from Revelations.  We look forward to starting the Book of Mormon in a few weeks.



Dan and I went downtown Wan Chai to meet with Jack Lau, a convert of one of Dan's former mission buddies.  He had served long and hard but became inactive for various reasons.  He owns a very large corporation and is quite a wealthy man.  He was very gracious and the next week invited us to dinner with his wife and two other couples.

Our choir has been getting ready for quite some time for the arrival of Craig Jessop of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  He came at the invitation of Sheldon Poon to China to judge and be the guest conductor of a music festival in China.  Then he came to Hong Kong to meet with our choir--Esther Chow's Choir--and rehearse a couple of songs with us, one of which was Consider the Lilies, our all-time favorite.  We had prepared long and hard for his visit.  He came with two other music professors from Utah State University, a piano instructor, Kevin Olson and Cindy Dewey, a vocalist.  Saturday night they conducted an area-wide music workshop of which I accompanied for Craig.  Sunday was a fireside in which Brother Olson played a number and Cindy Dewey sang a beautiful song.  Then Craig spoke about some of his experiences while be the Tabernacle Choir conductor.  We were able to spend some personal time with Craig of which we will always be grateful.  We grew to love him when he was the choir director.

Celia (one of the Keung sisters) and Ricky Wong have a 15 year old daughter who is a piano prodigy.  She spent the last year living in American Fork to attend high school and take piano lessons at BYU from their top piano instructor.  She is home for the summer, but recently left for Utah to participate in an audition with the Utah Symphony for Salute to Youth.  If she wins in her age group she will be able to play a concerto with the symphony at a concert.  Professor
Olson and we listened to her play her piece and were blown away by her expertise.  We wish her the best!

Once a month we have Family Home Evening, usually here in the Wan Chai building, with all of the senior missionaries, including the Mission Home seniors and the Temple seniors.  The Chandler's hosted this one with Hawaiian haystacks followed by a video of a performance by the Canadian Tenors.  Fun night!

Alan and Jill Anderson have their three children and grandchildren in town for a few weeks.  They invited us to dinner at a  wonderful Italian (thank goodness!) restaurant of which they have part ownership at Festival Walk, the largest mall I've ever been in, next to the Temple.  It was fun to see their kids since we hadn't seen them since they were very little.  The food was delicious, and a welcome change from the Chinese cuisine that we usually have when we go to dinner.

Saturday morning Dan went with Manfred Lai on a hike to High West Mountain.  They both enjoyed being able to get away from the city and visiting with each other.  They stopped at the Hong Kong Dedication Site (where Matthew Cowley dedicated it in 1949 for the preaching of the Gospel) near the Peak Tram stop.  We enjoy the two Lai boys, their wives and babies and their mother, Julie.  That night Dan and I went to a movie, Dunkirk, a very realistic World War II movie about all the soldiers stranded at Dunkirk.  I'm so grateful for the freedoms that we so enjoy, and pray that we will continue to enjoy them.

Sunday we were awakened with a phone call letting us know that church had been cancelled because there was a category 8 (very high) typhoon warning.  It was nice to have to be home all day and worship on our own.  However, the typhoon didn't materialize, at least not here.  The New Territories had storms but we only had some mild wind and rain.  When a category 8 is expected, the red duct tape goes up anyway.  Since it was cancelled by mid afternoon we went to choir practice.  When choir is on Sunday they have a meal halfway through the practice.  I took a tuna-noodle casserole that they loved.  I thought they would since it had two things they like to eat--tuna and noodles.

We had a new office couple come to take over the Nielson's job of humanitarian.  They arrived on Pionner Day.  Pioneer Day is mostly overlooked here since they are so far removed from that part of our heritage.  However, our lesson at district meeting was about pioneers.  "Their faith is our inheritance.  Their faith is a reminder to us of the price they paid for the comforts we enjoy."  Gordon B. Hinckley.  Blessed honored pioneers!

Last Saturday we went to Dim Sum (Chinese brunch) with Alky and her kids.  It is a very large room with lots of round tables where they bring carts around with dumplings, etc. that you eat family style.  Some of it I like, some of it I don't.  Afterwards we went upstairs to the Chinese Food Museum, a very interesting display of the heritage of Chinese food and some of the old restaurants that graced Hong Kong.  That night we went to see Cars with the senior missionaries.  We're not used to seeing so many movies!

Adria

The next day was a very special day in the temple.  This is the only temple that has Sunday sessions. They are four times a year and are for the Filipina domestic workers.  They have to sign up ahead in order to accommodate the number of people.  Most of us senior missionaries worked in the temple that day (two sessions) as well as many local temple workers.  It was such a joy to be able to serve these faithful sisters.

Vivi

Daddy and William

Again, we are so grateful for this opportunity of serving this mission.  We are thankful for your prayers in our behalf.  Please know that we pray for you, too!

Love, Dan and Marian, Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Grandma