December 23 - 29, 2013

MERRY CHRISTMAS WEEK

Monday we were off so went to Ocean Park and Stanley.

 In Stanley we had to stop for New York Fries, now one of our favorite places.  It was a beautiful day and very pleasant out.

Splurged with caramel corn

 At the temple on Friday the Ubah family came to the temple from Gwonjo to be sealed.  Several of their Branch members came with them for the special day.  Bro. Ubah is from Nigeria and is married to a Chinese sister who received her endowment on Saturday and were sealed afterwards.  I was fortunate to help with the boys and then attend the sealing which Elder Castleton did.  He has received permission to be a sealer in the HK Temple.

Bellarmine, Nelson and John

Benjamin Ubah wife and Nelson and John

 On Thursday, the temple holiday, Rowena and Rommel were able to come to the temple for the first time in a long time.  It was a special day for them.  Her mother is here visiting from the Philippines and so she was watching the children.  It was also their 20th year anniversary.  We love this couple and their three girls.

 Mariah and Abraham Wilson were also in Hong Kong visiting their uncle, Pres. Wilson.  They are both very talented musicians and vocal performers.  Elder & Sister Sullivan organized two concerts for them while they were here.  We attended the one Saturday night in the Kowloon Bldg.  It was sponsored by the YSA and they had brownies afterwards.  Very enjoyable.

 After the concert we popped in to the mission office to visit with the missionaries.  We have some questions for them so we can report to Rob's Priest quorum when we get home.

Elders Lee, Woodburn, Kho, Lewis, Woo, Bradley, Brown

Sister Loh, who is from Malaysia, has been in the temple all week.  We have got to serve with her all week.  A very faithful sister. 

Sister Fong, Sister Li.  Sister Fong and her husband teach the new member lessons to the converts from China.

 Velma and another sister from Victoria 2 were in the temple early Saturday morning to do baptisms.

 After the concert we ran into the Wongs.  What is funny is that everywhere we went this week they were there.

Christmas Eve were were invited by the Area Missionaries to a Christmas eve dinner and evening of fun:  singing, games and gift exchange.  Sister Harrington did the games.  We had a relay race between the Elders and Sisters.  We had to put on socks and open a candy kiss and eat it before moving to the next person.  

Elder Salmon played and accompanied our caroling.  He is terrific and so fun to watch.  He plays by ear.

 One of the games was to put out five pitchers of water.  Blindfold Elder Heaps, Aardema and Wilson and give them directions on how to step over the water without knocking it over.  The answer was they removed the pitchers.  Here is Elder Heaps trying to maneuver himself through.

 The gift exchange was everyone bringing a gift for themselves.  They were all put on a table and we each chose one.  We opened it and then had three chances to guess who brought the gift.  Then they got to take their own gift home.  I had the best gift.  A white "Time First" watch for the temple.

 We finished up the evening by hearing from President Funk. 

We had a delicious dinner of ham and turkey and all the trimmings.  Everyone brought something.  Elder and Sister Aardema put it all together.  They brought a wonderful shrimp cocktail drink.  I'm going to include the recipe so I don't lose it. 

3 cans tomato juice large, 3 cups chopped celery, 14 oz catsup, 2 bottle cocktail sauce 14 oz, horseradish to taste (1 bottle) and 1 1/2 # salad shrimp.

 Paul did not want to walk home so we caught the ferry but when we got off on the Kowloon side we found out it was Silent Night count down.  All the roads were blocked off and there were literately thousands and thousands of people down at the TST waiting for midnight.  We ended up walking all the way home.

 Elder Hoskins came to the temple for a few hours.  His first time since his stroke.  He was able to help in sealings and then went home.

Christmas day we were up early and thanks to face time we watched Kelly and Rob and kids open their presents.  As soon as they finished Kimberly called and we got to see all of them open their gifts.  We were able to talk to Katie and Kory and boys later in the day.   We left the apartment around 9 for the Church.  Velma was off and came over and spent the day with us in Kwai Fong.

We started out caroling at an old folks home right across the courtyard from the Church.  That was a special experience for us.  

Janet and others getting some treats together to take to the Rest home

Brother Rommel holding the book for our Chinese friend who was playing the guitar.  The children also sang some songs for them and then all of us sang about 8 Christmas songs.

Megan and Gillian

Rowena in charge of the kitchen

Paul, Janet and Janet's friend who came with her two children to spend the day with us.

Velma spent most of the day practicing the piano.  I have her started on the Church's keyboard book 

Shannon and Megan had some gifts for us.  

 We played a ton of games after lunch.  They were so fun and we were all laughing and having a great time.  Sister Victor trying to walk with a balloon under each arm and between her legs.

Each team had to build a Santa.  This is Paul Sequeira

Elder Lewis worn out

 Saturday evening at the Wilson Concert where they sang, played the harp, violin and piano.

 Sunday Velma came and spent the day with us.  After Church a few of us hurried off and headed back to Wan Chai for the Wilson concert.  We are in the foyer of the bldg.

We had a very fun and long week.  It went by so quickly with lots of wonderful experiences.  We are so grateful for our Savior--for his birth, life and death.  How blessed we are to know the Plan of Happiness and have the opportunity to live it.  

December 16 - 22, 2013

Monday Paul got up early 5 am and took off for the chiropractor, Dr. Lee, to have his neck worked on.  From there he went to WanChai to drop off the Branch funds and clear up some membership problems.  Then off to Kwai Fang to the Church and stop by and got a hair cut.  After all that I met him in WanChai and we hopped on the bus for Stanley.  It was a little wet and cold.  14 degrees today, the lowest in some time.  

I slept in until 7:15 and then after the maintenance people came up to fix a noisy door Sister Hoskins and I walked over to Aeon to get some groceries.

 We actually went to Stanley to help celebrate Riley (7) and Josh (10) and Paul (70) birthday.  Kelly and Kory and family were getting together at Kory's for ice cream cake and we didn't want to be left out.  We stopped at New York Fries and then McDonalds and enjoyed our lunch.

This morning I looked out the window about 7 am and saw the moon.  It was so beautiful.  

Friday morning Elder Hoskins had his first physical therapy session.  Paul brought a wheel chair to him and then Jackie and I went to the hospital in the cab.  They were very good to him and someone got us a wheelchair and took him all the way up to the floor he needed to be at.  They worked him hard but he was able to do everything they asked.  An hour and half later we were on our way out.

Elder and Sister Hathaway took off Saturday for a cruise thru Asia and then home to Northern CA.  We were working Friday night at the temple but the rest of the group wen to dinner at Outback to say goodbye.  

Saturday we were privileged to speak in the Everyday Branch in WanChai.  We got there early because I wanted to stop at the nut stand and good thing we did because they were starting Sacrament meeting early (half and hour) and we might have missed it.  We felt like the Holy Ghost really helped us and felt good about our talks on the temple and being disciples of Jesus Christ.  We decided we make a good team.

The Branch was having a Christmas party after the Block and they put together this manger made out of newspapers.  It looked so great.  After our speaking we headed off to Mon Kok for the wedding reception of President & Sister Yuen's son and Sisster and Brother Poon's daughter.  Our first Chinese wedding reception.

President & Sister Yuen, parents of the groom

Sister and Brother Wong

This sweet lady is still serving in the temople.

The Bride and Groom.  They will be staying in Hong Kong and both work for the Marriott.

Sunday in Kwai Fong we had our Christmas program.  Each organization did a song and had someone seak.  Of course, the Primary children were the sweetest.  President & Sister Collins are in Scotland for three weeks.  We miss them.

Janet, Sister Watkins and her daughter, Amanda who has a beautiful voice.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2013

 It was a wonderful week in the temple.  We had 42 members from Thailand come and spend the week.  They are such wonderful people.  We had five own endowment sisters and two brothers and they came to the temle and did at least four ordinances a day.  They kept us very busy along with a few members from the Mainland.

We are getting ready for Christmas and sent out our Christmas letter.  Here are the pictures I included.

Paul & Mar Jean

Kimberly, Gary,Courtney, Brayden, Mallorie, Kaylee

Kory, Josh, Gage, Katie, Tyler

Robbie, Rob, Brody, Kelly, Riley

December 9 - 15, 2013

Monday ended up being a very busy day.  We had the Temple Christmas luncheon at one of the hotels in TST at noon.  That morning Elder Hoskins was really bad and Jackie decided to take him to the hospital.  So Paul got a wheelchair and she called Pres. Wong and they picked him up and took him in.  They did some MRI's but it would take all day to get the results.  Jackie stayed until that evening when she felt she needed to leave and get some food.  When she got home she had a message from her daughter that their grandson had been in an accident and had undergone surgery.  That was the frosting on the cake for her.  She later found out that Jerry had had a mild stroke.  He will be in the hospital for the rest of the week.  We also learned that Pres. Wan was in ICU with an infection he picked up in China over shutdown.

The luncheon was very nice and Paul finally made it around 2 and had someone with him.  Kristin Cobb was in HK trying to get a visa to get back into Mainland China.  She saw him at the train station so he stopped to help her.  She is now staying with us for a few days until it all works out.

President & Sister Wong, Castletons, and Salmons

Sister and Elder Victor and Warners

Temple staff

Tree in our apartment lobby

Outside the temple

Sister Lee and myself

Entrees

Dessert Bar

Later at 5 pm we went to the theater to watch "The Polar Express" which the Victors hosted.  I think this is the first time I have seen it start to finish.  I really liked it.  After that we had choir practice for our performance on Saturday at the Temple Devotional.

Kristin.  She ended up staying two weeks.  Never did get her visa and ended up flying from HK to Beijing to Michigan.

Kristiin, Paul, MJ and President Wong

Tuesday we were all happy to be back to work at the temple.  We had some patrons from China and so along with local patrons we were kept busy.  It was so good to be back serving.

Saturday it was the Temple Workers Devotional with the Area Presidency, President Gong, Wilson and Funk and their wives along with President and Sister Wong, Yuen and Hui.

Brother Steven Lee Temple Recorder

Sister Chan, in charge of the temple laundry

Sister Chow, Lau and Hui.  The two on each end are coordinators.

Add caption

Sue Victor and me

Bonnie Hathaway and me

Sister and Elder Aardema, formerly mission president in Slovenia/Croatia

The busy train when we were trying to get to the Christmas musical program in CauseWay Bay

It was also raining

After leaving the devotional we headed to CauseWay Bay for a Christmas Musical performance by a Stake Choir.  Even though we had a map we had to ask many times.  We finally ran into some other members who were going and found our way there. Victoria 2 Branch also sang a number and we wanted to be there because Velma was singing in that choir.  It was a wonderful evening.  When we left it was raining hard and we headed home with the Lassons and made it home by 10 pm 

Val and Doug Salmon

MJ, Velma, Paul

Victoria 2 Branch

Sister and Elder Clark, serve in the Every Day Branches

Sister and Elder Lasson, Humanitarian Missionaries

Victoria 2 Choir

Sister and Brother West, live and work in HK

MJ and Sister Ng, coordinator at temple

Sister and Brother Wong.  

Sister Wong comes to the temple every day and does two or three sessions.  She is incredible.  When we first met her she was coming to the baptistery every day at 1 pm to do ten names.  After receiving her own endowment she has continued to come every day. 

Sunday Paul got to Church early to help with tithing settlement.  I came a little later and got the program printed and ready and things for my class.  Shannon and Ika played all the music and did a great job.  Great Sunday Block, as usual.  Sister Serreno, missionary, Sister Sally Balad and Sister Watkins were the speakers.  Paul taught his Gospel Doctrine class and I taught my Primary class.
No dinner afterwards, everyone headed over to Wan Chai for the First Presidency Devotional.

Paul and I stayed and he finished up some tithing work.  President Collins will be gone for three weeks for the holidays.  He deserves a break with his family.  He travels so very much with his job.

Sister Watkins and her daughter who is visiting for the holidays.

President Collins who we love and works endlessly for all our welfare.

Shannon and Rommel Jacinto 

Yessie and the girls, Michelle, Gillian, and Megan

Yessie and Michelle

The Jacinto Family.  Rowena, Shannon, Rommel, Gillian and Megan

We are very fortunate to be in such a loving Branch.  We came home and rewatched the First Presidency Devotional.  Loved Elder Nelsen's message and his grandchildren.