March 18 - 24, 2012

We often take the Star Ferry across from Wan Chai to Tsim Sha Tsui.  On a clear day it is beautiful.  It has been a lot warmer this week with the humidity in the 80's.  We are not looking forward to summer.  We were in the temple on Wednesday  on the 4 pm session and heard these huge two claps of thunder.  When we got out we found out there had been a huge rain storm. 

We are starting to see more and more cruise ships pulling into the Harbour Mall area.

This is the Star Ferry from Central.  It takes about 15 minutes and is free for seniors.

Elder & Sister Bertin, medical doctor for Area missionaries, told us about the flower show at Victoria Park.  It will be here for ten days so Monday we decided to go down and take a look.  We got there early, 9:15 am and it was pretty quiet and we could get a good look at all the displays.  By 10:30 it was so crowded you couldn't get close enough to see them.  Early is always better around here.

It is always a good week at the temple.  We are on the Tuesday, Wednesday evening shift.  We go in at 2:00 and stay until closing.  It has a whole different feel from the day.  President and Sister Wan are on the evening shift.  We usually start by helping to finish up initiatory before the morning group go home and then get ready for the 4 pm session.  We will either be the officiator and follower or the witness couple or patrons.  The temple closes its doors when this session starts and doesn't open again until 6 pm.  It is an interim time with not lots of workers.  The evening session is at 7 and 7:30 and initiatory and baptistery are all working until closing.  

Thursday and Friday we are back on late morning 8:45 - 3:45 schedule.  At this time we serve with President and Sister Tai.  I was the follower on the session with our wonderful group from Ghungzhau, which we didn't know until after our Fireside with them.  

We went over to the Paron Housing building to check out the room we would be meeting in and ran into this young man, Andrew.  We had met him before because he had one of our cards.  Paul wanted to throw the basketball a little.  

Friday after the temple we went down to Nathan Road to check out a watch place and then go and get pizza from our favorite place, Paisano's.  We bought the big one so we can have it all week.  They are huge as you can see.

Saturday morning I went over to the temple to meet Velma, our Filipino friend from the Victoria II Saturday Branch, who was there to do baptisms.  It was great to see her in the temple. She is moving her two children, 13, 8, to her parents home where they will be better taken care of.  

 

Saturday afternoon we were invited by President Aki to visit with a group of Chinese Saints from Guangzhou who were here at the temple for two days.  What a great privilege this was for us.  You can see they are wonderful people from their pictures.  Even though there is a language barrier the spirit speaks to us of their love and devotion to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We feel very blessed to be serving here among these most wonderful and loved children of our Heavenly Father. 

The only member of her family.  She is the newest member in their Branch

 I asked what is the hardest thing about living the gospel in China.  She said, enduring to the end.

Mother & daughter.  Daughter wants to go to BYU Idaho.  They heard the Church was good for families.

Two sisters, Sandy and Hailey, 22, 23.  I met them in the Baptistery.  Their whole family are members.

Sister on the left found the Church in TX.  Mother and daughter on right.  Joequeenie was our translator and is going to Pocatello, ID on her mission.  

Sister on the left was introduced to church in 2006 by Bro. Ho, a sealer at the temple.  The other sister found the Church in Korea where she was working.

Branch President Yeung and his wife who were introduced to the Church  by a brother.  Their daughter is at BYU Hawaii.

These sisters found the Church in Korea in 2006.  they heard it was good for their family.

Joequeenie,  (Zhang Yukun), our translator, will be serving in Pocatello , ID in May, 2013

She attended school at BYU Hawaii.

The Ghungzhou 2nd Branch

I sent a note to President Aki thanking him for the opportunity to visit with these wonderful people and this was his reply.

Elder and Sister Lewis,

Thank you for your report and pictures.  Sister Aki heard from Sister Yeung that you folks gave wonderful talks that they all appreciated.  Sister Yeung was so appreciative in hearing from the temple missionaries rather than just the local members.  They realize that this is an international church, but still small and family like, and all brothers and sisters although we may not speak the same language. 

As a new convert at Church College of Hawaii (now BYU Hawaii) I remember a student from New Zealand who spoke at church.  He said when he left New Zealand, his mother told him that she would not see him again for 4 years or more because of the expense.  But she told him that whereever the church was, there he would find his home and family.  Many years later and with a PhD from BYU Provo, he return home to New Zealand to be the Headmaster of the Church College of New Zealand.  It was the high school that he graduated from before going to the Church College of Hawaii.

Mahalo and Aloha,

President John Aki

Sunday is always a wonderful day.  We left for the shuttle at 11:25 and took it to the TST station where we caught the train to Kwai Fan.  Paul had a Presidency meeting at 12:30 and I worked on an invitation for the RS Birthday celebration.  

Paul was the first speaker and spoke on the responsibilities of the priesthood.  He did a great job as usual.  I had three girls in my primary class.  Angela is a friend of Michelle's and she came last week to her baptism and wanted to come again this week.  We had a lesson on the blessings of the ordinances of the gospel and took some time to explain the Faith in God Award to Michelle and her mother.  Her mother, Yessie, has been a wonderful help in putting the Branch pictures on the web site.  She came over to our apartment on Wednesday and spent a couple of hours working on it.  

After the Block we had Home Teaching and we finally got a picture of our group.  We are growing and Paul always passes out some of his favorite chocolate pies as a treat.  

Home Teaching Group

Finally a picture of Lingling.  Sister Victor, Kristy Ann, Lingling and Lindzy in the clerk's office.

Letty and Velma doing most of the work.  

Megan joined the party.

The girls practicing for the May District Enrichment party

Like I said, it was a wonderful day.  Hope you all have a great week.  We love you and the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Go out and see who you can serve this week.

March 11 - March 17

Our sweet Sister Clyde will be going home on Thursday.  She has several medical problems and will need to take care of them in the States.  We all met at OutBack for lunch.  They offer a great lunch special with soup, salad, and main entree.  I had the chicken wrap (suggested by Elder Victor) and Paul had steak.     

Elder & Sister Hoskins, Lewises, Victors, Chans, Hathaways, Aki, Tai, Sister Aki and Sister Clyde

Sister & Pres. Aki, Hathaway, Sister Clyde, Tai, Hathaway, Chan, Victor

Mary Ann Clyde

Paul is such a sport and takes care of all the laundry.  He's ironing a sheet cover we got from Sister Clyde.

Here he is helping me clean out her apartment.  He's the best companion in the world.  He makes my life very good.

Walking to the temple we pass by a park and here is a worker cleaning up the leaves.

Sometimes we see the Elders running around this small park getting their exercise.

On our way home one day we came across this Lamborghini   Must be here waiting to pick up a child from school.  

As we were walking up to the temple, we decided it had been some time since we had taken some pictures here.

Brother Suen does a great job of keeping it looking beautiful.

Saturday we decided to head over to Shenzhen to see if we could find WalMart and look for fabric at the market.  We had to ask many people and found some really helpful young men at the train station who were able to head us in the right direction.  Actually it was not as hard to find as we thought.

You can't see it but Sam's Club is behind me.

We just had to walk across a large field and we were at the Coco shopping center which had a Sam's Club in it.

Paul trying some tasters but there were many he passed up.

We had lunch at KFC in the mall

They have a great subway system

After leaving Sam's we went to find a WalMart and it's outside the B Exit

It's in the ground floor of this building and is quite large.  Too bad we didn't need anything.  We did buy some really good pineapple.

We went back on the train to where we started.  Paul took off and walked over to the Best Western where we are going to stay during shutdown and I went to look at fabric at the big and spacious building.  We decided it was a good idea that the Chans went to pick up the painting for the Kellys.  We might have a hard time finding it.

Connie, are these colors way too bright for the quilt.  I don't think I am going to be able to pick anything out.  When you enter this shop, which is quite large you have tailors  and sellers on you every minute.  It is very hard to just look around and get a feel.  I just wanted to leave.  We had a fun day and got home about 5:30. 

We had a few changes today in Sacrament meeting.  Pres. Tai came to make the changes.  He released Paul Sequeira as 1st Counselor.  Paul has done a marvelous job and has been in over three years.  Brother Wen was sustained as 1st Counselor and Elder Watkins as 2nd Counselor.  The Watkins have moved over form the Peninsula 2nd Branch to be with us.  They are mental health missionaries for all of Asia missionaries.

Sunday we met with Elder Bingham.  Brother Lythgo, from Camarillo,  saw his picture on facebook and recognized him as the son of a college roommate.  So here is another picture of him.

After the Block, we had an 8 year old baptism.  Everyone was so excited for Michelle.  Sister Victor is her Primary President and I am her CTR teacher.

She was baptized by Elder Castleton and confirmed by President Collins.  I was privileged to give the Holy Ghost talk and Joy (her first Primary teacher) gave the baptism talk.

Michelle and her Mom, Yessie

Fe, Yessie, Joy, Michelle, Mar Jean &

After the baptism we had a wonderful Branch dinner prepared by Letty and her crew.  They do a great job and keep us all happy.

Sister Collins is back in town for a few weeks from South Africa.  We are all so happy to see her.

Michelle and the Lewises

President & Sister Collins

This morning we watched the Saturday night session of the River Ridge Stake conference.   We received some good instruction.  Pres. Snow reminded us of the obligation we have to the children of the rising generation.   He spoke of two things.  The first was work.  You cannot be truly happy without work to do.  You should learn it early.  It teaches commitment, discipline, stick-to-it, tired after working, thrift, learn and understand, pride, joy in hard work, follow through and industry.  We are now getting ready to watch the Sunday session.