December 17-23, 2012

I was just reading the Kenleys' weekly missionary letter and realized another week has gone by and I need to do my blog.  It was an amazing week.  A couple of firsts.  Paul was able to present at the veil in Cantonese, a major accomplishment.  He has been receiving for some time.  I also was able to do some of my veil presentation in Cantonese also.  We are getting better.  Maybe by the time we come home we will have it memorized.  Wow, we will feel really good.

It was a little slower week at the temple.  We did not have any big groups come in and it was mostly locals and some individuals from outside Hong Kong.  We did have one lovely couple from India.  He had already been endowed but she received her endowment and I was able to help with that and then later in the week be a follower on some of their sessions.  What special people we meet.  There was a mother and her two sons from the Philippines and several young people from China who were here doing baptisms.  This week I spent several days in baptistry helping out.

Monday several of the temple missionaries met and went to the St. Michael s Church bookstore to look at nativities.  They had some very nice ones and some that looked Chinese.  From there we took a ride on the cable car up the peak where we had lunch at Bubba Gumps and the fish and chips were great.  I think we had fish & chips three times this week.

On our way home we walked through the Hong Kong Park and then went home a different way than we have ever been before.  We ran into the Victors and Sister Hathaway everywhere we went even though we took different routes.  First at City Super, then the shuttle.

 This is Heritage 1861 square.  Lots of people want their pictures taken with teddy and today there was a band concert here.  It looked like high school students.

Wednesday was Paul's 69th birthday.  It happened to be our extra assignment day so took advantage and celebrated.  First we left the apartment at 6:45 and took the shuttle to the MTR where we went to see Dr. Ming Lee, a member of the Church who Elder Chan told us about.  He does acupuncture and chiropractor work.  Unfortunately we did not realize we should have been at his office at 7 am because he has many patients and first come first serve and so it was 10:45 before we finished there.  His neck and shoulder were bothering him and you remember last week Elder Chan gave him an adjustment.  After finishing there we took the MTR to the Branch building where we took care of some Branch business.  I doubt if he will ever get everyone's records straightened out.  The main question is "Where are these people"?  Slowly we are finding them and getting their records in the right place.  When we finished there we finally got onto the MTR headed for Disneyland.  Now we wouldn't be going except that for seniors it is only $22 for a two day pass.  Who can pass that up?

Looks familiar?

We had a really fun afternoon.  The park is not too large and there were not many people there.  First we took the train around Disneyland, actually one stop then we watched the Main Street Parade.

 We went to Adventure land where we saw "The Legend of the Lion King".  What a great production about 30 minutes long.  Absolutely wonderful.

 Of course we had to go on Cinderella's carousel.

 The fireworks are really great and worth waiting around for.

 We went on Buzz Lightyear a couple of times and Space Mountain and the Mine Train.  Actually we rode a lot of rides since it was not busy.  Lots and lots of fun.  We missed all the grand-kids.  May be next time.

 Paul said since he hadn't driven since he got here he had to go on the autobahn.

It was a very fun birthday and thanks for all the calls and remembrances.

Meet Sister Chow, our Friday trainer.  She has been so very good to me helping me with the language.  She speaks very good English and has two boys.  

 Friday evening we had tickets for the "Nutcracker Ballet".  All the area missionaries and most of the Temple missionaries had seats close together.  Two of our couples were working at the temple that night so they will go Christmas eve.  It was a great performance and we enjoyed it.

Saturday morning we were at the temple at 6:45 and had a very good day.  Several of our Filipino sisters were in the temple and were on my session.  I love it when there are people I know.   Sunday we had our Christmas program which was really lovely.  The choir sang and we had a narration and a couple of speakers.  Sister Castleton did a great job putting it together.  After the block we had Home Teaching.  Paul and Bro. Sequeira had to finish up counting so I cleaned through the class rooms downstairs and then off to home we went.  

It's hard to believe Christmas is so close.  We miss our family but are so grateful to be serving this mission and meeting these wonderful people here in Hong Kong.  We serve with such awesome people, we are very blessed and we love our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  

Merry Christmas