Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Sunday , August 28, 2011

Monday, 8/22:
    Love those P-days.  We spent most of the day home to prepare for the talks on Tuesday, to clean and to PrePare for the week since we have morning shift at the temple from 8-3 this week.  We walked to the local market to get some grocery shopping done.  Grocery shopping can be a daunting experience.  There is no one-stop shopping here.  We shop at various places:
  1. "Wellcome", a small local super market that's close to our apartment.  We don't even have to get outside of the apartment complex to get there.  We go down to floor 1, walk through the parking lot, and open the door to the shopping center, we are there.  On a rainy day, we can walk to the MTR station this way without even getting wet. 
  2. "Park N' Shop":  a larger super market that has just about anything one needs, except it's crowded; fresh fruits and vegetables are not as fresh.  A package of 8 tortilla costs US$4, a small bag of tortilla chips is US$7.50.  So only we buy it occasionally when we have the urge for such extravagant stuff.  
  3. "Wet market":  There are several around us.  The floors are always wet, but you get the fresh stuff.  
    1. Fanling Wetmarket, close to us
    2. One beyond "Avon Mall", which I found in my morning walks, it's a little further, but has more choices
    3. "Luen Wo Hui" Wet market:  a 2-part market place.  One with vendors lining a street with fruits and vegetables, a fresh noodle shop that makes all sorts of noodles and pastas, a couple of bakeries with delicious french bread, mien-bao (sweet bread).  One of them carries cheese and butter.  I purchased a 1 KG (2.2 pounds) of sliced American cheese from US$12, a cube of butter (quarter pound) for $2.50. To get there, I now take a bus #278K from the MTR station.  I used to walk there which takes about 20 minutes going, but coming home with the groceries takes much longer.  So, I was delighted to find a bus that goes there.  It only costs 18 cents each way. The second part of this market is a large building that includes all kinds of fresh meat, including live chickens to be butchered in front of you.
    4. Wah Ming Estate Wet market, Park N' Shop, Wellcome:  all in the same area.  I came across this shopping area on one of my hikes.  It's on the other side of "Butterfly Mountain Path" and takes 2 hours to get there, but probably takes only 30 minutes if one were to walk straight there from our apartment.  
    5. Sheung Shui Station Markets: This township is just one stop on the MTR north of us.  It's full of shops, from Gucci, Dior, to small vendors, Dim-shum eateries, wet markets, medicine shops, flower shops, baking supplies,...you name it, and you'll probably find it here.  Since it's only minutes away on the train, we go there from time to time to find hard to find items, such as lime, okra, etc.
    6. "Taste":  Located in Kowloon Tong, at the Festival Walk Mall where all the upscale shops are.  It's a fun mall to go to when we have time after our work at the temple.  This grocer has anything from avocado to Butterball turkeys (about US$80 each).  Needless to say, we only buy things there when we can't find at other places. "PrizeMart":  We stop at this store anywhere we could find it.  Yes, we got off the bus one time when we saw the store sign.  They carry American stuff, a lot of them are Kirkland brand stuff that you buy at Costco.  A big container of mix nuts costs US$20, about twice as much as you'd pay in the States.  They have all the American candy bars... Here is the PrizeMart, Hong Kong store list if one is interested.
Tuesday, 8/23:  We met a couple of Church members from mainland China, who came to visit the temple.  It's always special to see them as they come to Hong Kong and spend most of their time at the temple.  Definitely a special group of visitors that we treasure and love to see.  In the afternoon, we were asked to speak at the Filipina Sisters' Sacrament Meeting at the Wan Chai Church Building.  The topic is on "temple, a place of refuge".  We love these special sisters.  We could feel their love of the gospel.  We wrote a blog about this special group of people a few months ago.  Most of these sisters are domestic helpers in Hong Kong.  They are joining the church in record numbers.  Because of their work schedule, most of them have to work on Sundays, the Church has set up schedules so there is a sacrament meeting everyday of the week except for Mondays.  The Brown's, who served with Elwin in Taiwan at the same time, were called to be the branch president of this special group.  What a special feeling it is to be in their midst.  We are grateful that church meetings were organized for these sisters.    
Wednesday, 8/24 - We went to Central (a district on Hong Kong island) for Elwin to get a routine blood test and checkup at Dr. Fung's office.  Afterwards, we went to Tin Shui Wai to meet Feng Qin and her daughter Angela.  This is the family we met a week ago.  Sister Feng方芳, a member in our Vic III Branch introduced us to her sister and niece.  Sisters Smith and Farr, a couple of young missionaries, met us at the Yuen Long MTR Station and took us there.  It was a great meeting.  We hope we have helped them make some connections to the church.  Unfortunately, it took 2 hours to get there and 2 hours to get back.  We were exhausted when we got to the temple to work for the rest of the day.  Luckily, the temple has a way of rejuvenating us.  When we got home at around 10:30 PM, we hit the bed in record time. 

Thursday, 8/25 - The young missionaries came to the temple today.  We were delighted to see them.  Some sisters from Zhong Shan came to visit the temple and it was a delight to see them.

Friday, 8/26:  Two Chinese sisters, and then around 25 youth from Guandong II Branch, came to visit the temple today.  What a handsome group of people!  Just a few years ago, we didn't even know there were Chinese members in the mainland, but now, we see them, adults and young people.  It's amazing...just last week, we met a young woman who came to the temple to get ready for her mission in Australia.  These 25 youth are from the same unit.  What?  We didn't even know they have a branch of the Church there.  I think everyone is doing a good job following the Church's counsel to not have any direct contact with local Chinese members at their home units.  But they are free to come to the Temple in Hong Kong where we can interact with them.  Very cool! 
Sat. 8/27 - Vic III Branch Temple Day at 10 AM.  Brother Poon came to the temple for the first time.  There were 18 people in attendance to support him.  What a great Branch!  We feel their spirit as they participate in the Temple affairs.
Sunday, 8/28 - the Dai family spoke at the Sacrament meeting today.  Sister Dai is from Japan and it's amazing to hear her speak Mandarin.  She's done well.  They have 6 children and I believe their children go to International schools where they speak English.  The 4 older ones spoke on "Our body is the temple of God".  Except for the oldest, who spoke in English with his dad translating, all the younger once spoke in Mandarin, fluently.  It's so nice to get to know the children through their talks.  Brother Dai was the concluding speaker. What a great guy he is.  Since we have the same surname, people thought he was our son.  We don't bother too much to clarify that.  We'd be happy for him to be in our family. 
Elder Davis, 12-year-old from China, Sister Davis, Sister Wong
After church meetings, a baptism took place at 12:30.  A young girl of 12 was baptized.  She is from China.  Her mother was introduced to the Church a year ago and came to Hong Kong to be baptized.  Her daughter gave her a lot of encouragement to accept the gospel as she was also introduced to the gospel at the same time, but she couldn't come to Hong Kong at that time.  After her baptism, the mother bore her testimony and thanked her daughter for the strengths she gave her to accept the gospel.  The little girl got up and told us that she knew the gospel was true and had wanted to be a member for a long time, but she was not allowed the leave the country.  She kept praying and finally her wishes were granted.  Her mom apparently got a job in Hong Kong and was able to apply for her to come.  We don't know all the rules of how people could be baptized into the church, but were so grateful to hear from a 12-year-old about how she kept her prayers alive and how miracles happened.  Above is the picture of the girl with Sister Wong and us. 

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Monday, 8/15:  We took the Dean's (the other temple missionary couple) to Shenzhen, China, to do some touring and shopping.  It was a fun and relaxing time for us as we enjoyed our P-day together.  We found Carrefour, which is the French equivalent to American Wal-Mart.  It is a super store, located in the mall connected to the Hui Zhan Zhong Xin (会展中心, Exhibition Center) exit.  The actual address is:  深圳市福田区福华一路怡景中心城B一层.  It's worth a stroll as they have much to offer.  We are selective about what we could get in China or in Hong Kong.  So far so good!

Tuesday-Wednesday, 8/16 and 8/17:  "Suosday", hello in Cambodian was in order for us as we greeted the 15 or so members from Cambodia.  I was able to pull some greeting words together and put them on an index card as a cheat sheet.  Loved the smiles from the Cambodians as I struggled to pronounce those words.  It was great!  But, how do we tell them that they have brought us so many blessings?  What a faithful great people!

Thursday, 8/28:  Another special day as we were invited by a sister, Jean, from Hangzhou to participate in her sealing to her husband from Fuzhou (both in China).  They are both return missionaries from Australia, one from North Sidney, the other from South Brisbane.  They met at church in Singapore where she was going to school and he was working there, but nothing came of it at that time.

Jean came to the Hong Kong Temple in May to do some ordinance work for her grandmother and to renew her commitments to the temple ordinances she made before her mission.  Both Elwin and I helped her walk through all the work as she had to leave Hong Kong within 3 hours.  She felt the Spirit and was so happy to have reached her goals and vowed to wait for someone to take her to the temple to be married.  She thought the chance wouldn't be great as she was working in Hangzhou and there weren't any young men in the Church around in that area.  The following is the amazing story of what happened:

After coming back from Hong Kong in May, one of Jean's friends e-mailed her and told her about Jim in Fuzhou.  She remembered meeting him in Singapore and decide to write to him to renew their friendship.  Within a very short time, they fell in love.  They decided to marry.  Both sets of parents went into panic mode and refused to give permission for them to marry.  (This story is especially special to me as I went through the same thing when I told my parents about Elwin.)

After some pleading, Jean's parents gave permission and Jim flew to Hangzhou to meet the future in-laws.  In the meantime, Jim's parents called for him to leave Hangzhou and fly home immediately.  He obliged.  Once he got home, he was locked up and his parents forbade him to  communicate with Jean.  You can imagine the many tears that were shed and many prayers said.  Jim's parents believed that Jean's parents were involved in some illegal investment schemes in Guangxi.  Finally, Jim's aunt asked for permission to meet with Jean's parents in Guangxi where they were investing in some vacation resort villages.

After the meeting, Jim's aunt was so impressed with Jean's parents and what they were doing that she arranged for both sets of parents to meet in Guangxi.  The rest was history as both parents gave their blessings for them to marry.  They got married on August 13 and the parents gave them a very nice reception.  They came right down to Hong Kong to have their marriage sealed in the Temple.  Jean's boss, an American from Utah, flew down from Hangzhou to be a witness of the sealing.  It was a beautiful ceremony and we couldn't be happier to see this young couple beaming with joy.  There happened to be some young Americans visiting at the time and we had some beautiful pictures taken in front of the temple.




Friday, August 19:  The Americans are back.  It was so nice to see the American LDS community come back to the temple.  Most Americans in the business community go home for the summer from Hong Kong.  Since schools will be starting soon, they are back.  It was so good to see many of them come to the temple.

Saturday, August 20:  A nice relaxing day, finally.

Sunday, August 21:  The Cao family spoke today in the Sacrament Meeting.  The mom speaks Mandarin, but the two youngsters speak English.  The mom translated the children's talks into Mandarin and then put the pin-yin down for them.  They did a fabulous job in Mandarin Chinese.  Some Hong Kong people send their children to all English schools and some of them don't speak any Cantonese or Mandarin at all.  But it's good to see that this parent is trying hard to help her children learn their native tongue.  We had a good day! 

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Monday, Aug. 8:  Hard to believe that we were almost out of pages in our passports.  Since one has to leave at least 2 blank pages for the US Consulate Services to add pages, we had no choice but to apply for them.  The US  Consulate Service is located on 26 Garden Road in Hong Kong.  The best way to get there is to take MTR to Admiralty and walk up the hill.  Here are the procedures:
  1. Make reservations by logging on to http://hongkong.usconsulate.gov/acs_passports_adult.html
  2. Take your passports and US$82 or HK$656 (HK$16 more than paying in US$)
  3. Fill out applications there
  4. Pick up your passport between 3-4 p.m. if your appointment is in the morning and if you are only applying for adding pages to the passport. 
The cost was surprisingly high.  We were quite surprised to have to pay US$82 each to add the pages.  We were told to pick up the passports later in the afternoon.  Since it's an hour and half away from home, Elwin opted to go home and I stayed around, shopped at Central and also went to Sham Shui Po to run some errands and had lunch.  Glad that was done.

Tuesday, Aug. 9:  Sawat-dee 撒挖地 as we happily greeted the large group of members from Thailand on Tuesday, August 9.  Thailand is called the land of smiles and true to that description, the 12 sisters and 4 brethren brought a lot of smiles and excitement to the temple.  Out of the 12 sisters, 8 of them came for the first time.  We only can guess the sacrifice they have made to be able to come.  Several temple workers knew Thai or some have managed to learn a little of the language, making it a lot easier for the Thai members to communicate.  These members brought the Spirit of Christ into the Temple.  How we love them!

Thursday, August 11:  Our young missionaries came to the Temple.  What a privilege to serve these young missionaries.  There are about 100 young missionaries serving in Hong Kong.  They come to the Temple once a month.  Except for the 8 serving in Victoria III Mandarin Speaking Branch, they are all Cantonese speaking.  We are amazed at their language skills.  Surely, the Lord blesses them with the gift of tongues.  I listened and watched them singing hymns using only the Chinese hymnals.  Not only do they speak the language, they learn to read too.  Amazing!  Sister Gung (her husband is the newly appointed member of the Asian Area Presidency) told us that Utah is starting a Mandarin Chinese Language Initiate for the middle schools.  Hooray for Utah for taking the lead in language training.  We knew several primary schools in Utah already have the Mandarin Chinese immersion programs.  Hopefully, our grandchildren will be involved with the program.

The Temple continues to be the source of inspiration and place of worship for many members from afar.  At any given time, one can see members from Mongolia, Thailand, India, Singapore, the Philippines, and other places in the world, congregating together in one place, the House of the Lord.  How great it has been to serve here.

Sunday, August 14:  We were privileged to hear from a few leaders of the Church from Salt Lake City during our Sacrament Meeting.  Elder Subandriyo, an Indonesian, spoke to us about worshiping with music.  A family who sings together stays together, he admonished.  Elder Zhong 仲, of the Quorum of the Seventy, admonished us to read and study the scriptures every day.   Elwin and I have just finished reading the Book of Mormon together this year.  He would read 5 verses in English and I'd read 5 in Chinese.  The understanding I received and learned from doing this was great.  This would mark the first time I read the Book of Mormon in Chinese.  When I joined the Church, the Book of Mormon was not translated into Chinese yet.  Except for some pamphlets,  we relied on the missionaries and the Spirit to convert us.  How grateful we are that the translations have been done in many languages to bless many people in various parts of the world.  One can go on the web and read the Book of Mormon, Church magazines, announcements and lesson manuals in Chinese or other languages.  The final speakers were Elder and Sister Gung 江, the newly called Asian Area 2nd Counselor in the Presidency and his wife.  They both served a mission in Taiwan and speak fluent Mandarin Chinese.  They told of the love our Heaven Father has for each of us and that the plan of salvation is to help us navigate through the turbulent waters of the world.  The chapel was full.  We again met several investigators from China.  Some of them had families who have joined the Church, but others were just curious.  We were happy to have them in our midst. 

We had a great week and ask our Father in Heaven to continue to bless us with health and strength to carry on His work and to bless and protect our children and grandchildren at home.  The prayers are heard as we struggle through the hot and humid weather, and quite polluted air in Hong Kong as we walk from the MTR to the Temple.  It hasn't always been easy, but we are loving it. 

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Taiwan Journal, Part II, June 27-July 4, 2011

     I grew up in Tainan and have fond memories of this quaint, sweet place.  I'm glad Elwin loves going to Tainan as much as I do.  He has a sense of family history and is happy when I find more and more connections to my past.

   Rain helped cool Tainan to be a lot more bearable.  Taking a high speed rail from Taipei, we arrived in Tainan in 70 minutes; it used to take 5 hours as I remember from my youth.  The next 10 days were amazing.  We did amazing things and met amazing people.  We chose to stay with cousin Ah-Jean, instead of staying at a hotel.  It's not really to save money, as you end up paying for a lot of things while there, but it seems to be a lot more like a family when you stay with relatives.  In a way, I wish my parents were still alive for me to go home to stay with them.  It's not the same staying with relatives as it would have been staying with ones own parents.

    I'll organize this portion of the trip by date and also by people we met.


6/27/11:  Ah-Jean and her boyfriend, Gung, picked us up at the Tainan train station.  Ah-Jean lives in her mom's (my dad's #6 sister) apartment.  She just divorced her Japanese husband of 19 years.  He was a prominent doctor from Tokyo University, but had mental problems and was living in an institute in Sendai.  They decided to get a divorce, so she came back to Taiwan.  She was adopted by Aunt Ah-yu when she was born because Aunt Ah-yu couldn't have anymore children after she had Hong Zhi, her son.  Grandfather Sung told the family that whoever had the first girl after they found out Ah-yu couldn't have any more children, would give up the baby to Aunt Ah-yu.  Actually, #4 Aunt had a girl that was supposed to be adopted by Ah-yu, but this aunt cried and cried because she couldn't bear to give up her baby girl.  Finally, Grandpa Sung said to forget it.  Then, Dad's #4 Brother and his Japanese wife had their #5 daughter.  It was determined then that the baby girl would go to Ah-yu's house to be raised by her. 

After picking us up at the train station, Ah-Jean and her boyfriend, Gung, took us to a very nice Western restaurant for dinner.  It was a set dinner and served western style.  It was one of those very fancy dinners with appetizers, soups, salad, dinner entree and desserts.  She knew the restaurant owner and the pictures we took included the owner. 

Aunt Ah-yu's apartment on the main floor is large with modern facilities (it's 4X the size of our apartment in HK).  She has two large refrigerators in the kitchen.  There are 2 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms on the main floor.  Two bedrooms were used to store Ah-Jean's clothes and things.  Wow, she has tons of clothes and shoes.  She has 2 children from her previous marriage who are grown.  She looks more like her mom who is Japanese.  Since she lived in Japan for the past 19 years with her Japanese husband, she maintains mostly a Japanese lifestyle.  She is 59 years old, but looks like 40 and is a fun loving girl.  It's nice to get to know her.  She and Gung drove us around town making our visit to Tainan very easy, convenient and pleasant.  We actually were able to visit a lot more people and places because of them.  Thanks, Ah-Jean and Gung.    

6/28 (Tuesday):  Went to "Tao-Shan" 桃山  Japanese Restaurant for lunch.  It was one of the nicer restaurants in town.  We met with Waka, En-Jiang, and Gung at the restaurant.  Elwin was fast as he paid the bill before anyone noticed.  Good job, Honey!  Waka and An-Jiang are the two cousins I always call first when I go to Taiwan.  I love them so much.  Waka's dad is my dad's #5 elder brother.  En-Jiang's mom is Dad's #3 elder sister (who just passed away in January this year at the age of 96).  I love visiting with them.  Waka, in her 70's, lives alone in Kaoshiung and En-Jiang, in her early 80's, lives with her daughter and son-in-law.  He's a doctor and she's a vet and loves taking care of animals.  She also takes care of her grandson who goes to the University in Tainan.

After lunch, we all went to En-Jiang's house for a visit.  We decided to call our cousin, 秀雄 to come to join us as none of us had seen him for a while.  Ah-Jean says he was her picano teacher.  He and my dad were close in age (Dad being the youngest of 13 kids, and 秀雄's dad was the second oldest), they grew up together.  I remember him being at our house at lot.  He studied music and was always singing.  So, we called him the singing cousin.  He taught high school music for many years.  After he retired, he went to work for Chi Mei Industries, Richard Soong's company.  He said the job was very nice, but he quit to give young people a chance to take his place.  What a nice guy!  He gave me his children's information for genealogy purposes, but later asked me not to publish the information in the family history book that I was working on (2nd edition).  He lost his wife last year after taking care of her for many years during her illness.  I was so happy that he came.  Apparently, even though the cousins don't live very far apart, they seldom see each other.  We all had a wonderful visit.    

6/29/11 (Wednesday):  Ah-Jean and Gung took Waka, En-Jiang and us to our old homestead and met with a distant cousin, Wen Yan Sung (宋文炎).   Cousin 文炎 still lives at the old Sung homestead. His grandfather and my grandfather are brothers.  His health has suffered and he couldn't remember very much, yet he seemed to have memory of the old times.  It was so good to see the altar with our Sung ancestrial names still there.  But Cousin 文炎 said that that place is not going to be there very much longer as someone had bought the land and will tear it down.  What to do?

That night, we met Ah-Jean's brother, Hong Zhi Shih for dinner at "Tao-Shan" Japanese Restaurant.  One can see that the Taiwanese people love Japanese food.  It's an honor that they'd take us to such a nice restaurant as this each time we visit.

6/30/11 (Thursday):  Met with the Frandsen's in Tainan and attended the AIT Independence Day Celebration

Phil Frandsen was Elwin's missionary companion when they served in the Southern Far East Mission.  He and his wife are serving a mission a Taiwan.  We thought we'd see them in Taipei where they were serving.  As it turned out, they were coming down to Kaoshiung to attend a gala event to celebrate July 4th by the American Institute in Taiwan (a replacement of the American Consulate Services since Carter recognized the People's Republic of China in 1978).  We met for lunch at Sister Frandsen's favorite restaurant, the Tainan Hotel Jade Restaurant.  It must have been a favorite place as there were people lining up before it opened at noon.  The cost was NT $680 (US $24) per person, a little on the expensive side, but was excellent.  They had fancy prawn tempura, a roast beef station, and also Hagan Daz ice-cream.  It was so fun to catch up with what we all have been doing.  This is their 2nd mission in Taiwan and they encouraged us to come back to Taiwan for a mission after our services in Hong Kong.  Very interesting indeed since we've been thinking about that. 

I arranged for everyone to tour the "Chi Mei Museum" after lunch.  Posted on their webpage, the Chi Mei Museum is described as follows:

"Thinking Globally – The ChiMeiMuseum
Chi Mei Culture Foundation was established in 1977 under the instructions of Mr. Wen-Long Shi, the founder of Chi Mei Industrial Corporation. In February 1989, the Chi Mei Museum Preparatory Office was established, and the museum was opened to the public on April 1, 1992 with free admission.


In 2001, a Branch Museum was established in the Tainan Science Park, with displays that focused on the development of technology from primitive hand tools to modern machinery.
The Chi Mei Museum, which occupies the fifth to eighth floors of the Chi Mei headquarters building, covers a total area of approximately 6,600 square meters. The Museum's rich and diverse collections include ancient artifacts, violins crafted by world-famous instrument makers, centuries-old Japanese samurai swords, and classic paintings from the Renaissance and from later artistic movements; the museum also holds a large number of bird and animal specimens. At the Chi Mei Museum, visitors can experience the finest masterpieces from different civilizations and cultures without leaving Taiwan, thus offering a broader view of the world..."

See more information on http://www.chimeimuseum.com/english/

The guide at the front door of the Museum greeted us politely.  I noticed his surname was Sung.  So I inquired if he knew or was related to the CEO of Chi Mei, my cousin, Richard Soong.  It turned out that he was the grandson of my cousin, Sung Cao Yuan.  Cao Yuan, 秀雄, and my dad studied in Japan together.  I was very excited.  Before we even reached the front entrance of the Museum, the word already came out that "#6 Uncle, Sung Han-chiu's (my dad) daughter is here".  Wow, what a welcome!  We went up to the third floor, the Headquarters Office to take care of some questions and was met by the manager of the Museum, Mr. Hsu Fuchi.  I mentioned that the founder of the Museum is my cousin's uncle, and I just bought his second book, "From Zero to Infinity".  He asked if I'd like to see him as he was in the Museum at the time.  Within minutes, he was right there in front of me.  He autographed my book (I had it in my bag), and we talked.  He didn't have the air of a very wealthy businessman.  He was kind and gentle.  I could not believe that I was at his presence.  His first book was "The Perspectives" and I wish it were translated into English as I'd have loved for our children to all read it.  I sent one to each of my sisters.  They loved it. 
許文龍,宋文惠
As it turned out, Mr. Hsu and my dad were good friends growing up.  How wonderful to meet an old friend of my dad.  It was a special day indeed.  Well, more fun things were yet to happen.

A beautiful young lady Julie came to introduce herself to us that she was also a Sung.  It turned out she is the sister of the guide that we met at the front station.  The Frandsen's, Julie and we had a good visit.  The Frandsen's mentioned that they were attending the gala event at the AIT.  Julie said that she was also attending too and asked if Elwin and I were going.  I told her we've tried many ways to get an invitation to no avail.  She said:  Auntie, please come with us as Chi Mei guests.  Wow, just like that, we were invited.  I had resigned myself to not going as I wasn't able to find anyone who could get more invitations.  The Lord blesses those who are willing!  We took a cab to the train station and went to Tso Yin where the event took place.  It was a grand event attended by over 1000 guests, including mayors, the CEOs of companies, including my cousin Richard, who I didn't think I was going to see on this trip.  To my surprise too, many LDS mission presidents, stake presidents, and leaders were all invited too.  The 7th Fleet Band from Okinawa played and other groups also performed.  The place was as big as a football field, and the food table ran all the way across the hall with fabulous dishes.  Glad we didn't have dinner before coming.  It was such a fun night to be remembered.

7/1/11 (Friday):  Meeting my cousin, Lai Ya Zhi 賴雅枝
賴雅枝 and I were classmates throughout my primary school years.  She's the daughter of my father's #4 elder sister.  Her father was a doctor and they lived next to the Land Bank of Taiwan.  His practice was downstairs and they lived on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors of the building.  It was a beautiful, grand 4-story building and I remember walking by to get her so we could go to school together.  Her sister Jean used to live in Pittsburgh, but has moved to Seattle to be close to her son.  She was the one that helped me make the connection back to 雅枝.  Again, Ah-Jean and Gung, drove us to Hsin Yin to visit with them.  Ah-Jean has been perfect.  She said:  they are all my cousins too and I haven't seen her since I grew up.  Wow, what a good attitude.  Julie Sung's dad, 世英 also came to meet us to make the trip.  This was my first time meeting him.  He looks like his dad.  I am so happy to meet him. 
Shirley (文惠) and 雅枝
  雅枝 married a guy who worked for Ah-Jean's dad, the president of Taiwan Sugar Inc.  So, there are many relationships in this large Sung family.  雅枝 and her husband took us on a tour of Taiwan Sugar.  Since Taiwan imports most of their sugar now-a-days, the company has diversified into other fields.  One of them was an orchid growing industry.  We were treated to a delicious luncheon at the company's restaurant.  It has become a resort with various buildings to house tourists.  The fun thing was to go to the little company ice-cream shop and sit by the banyan tree to eat popsicles as we did when we were kids.  Mom and Dad used to take us on a train ride around the perimeter of the Sugar Company which is still in operation.  It takes 45 minutes to go around.
雅枝 and us at the Orchid House







The passenger cars that go around the Sugar Company

7/2/11 (Saturday):  Our day with the Shih Cousins

    I love my mom's two sisters, and, of course, I love those cousins.  We don't see #2 Aunt, Mei Duan's children very much.  It's especially special when we get to see each other.  The oldest of Mei Duan's daughter lives in Kaoshiung, so we decided that we would meet at around 2 pm.  I thought we'd have time to go visit my favorite cousin, Maylin (or Miyoko)'s brother and sister-in-law.  It was a good visit.  They are aging beautifully as they are active people who played tennis.  I stayed with them for a few months when my family moved up to Taipei during my senior year in high school.  I actually stayed with Miyoko's mom, but her brother and sister-in-law lived there too.  I love that family.  They were good to me.  While we were there visiting, Miyoko called from New York (where she lives).  We had a good 3-way conversation.  The picture even showed her on the phone.  :-)  It was a great visit and I was happy to find them happy and healthy.
阿花, Miyoko on the phone talking from NYC, Hong-yin, 文惠
My Aunt, Ah-Duan's girls are:  瑪琍, 麗琍,莎琍, 伊琍 和 曼琍。 Except for 麗琍 living in Taipei, we were able to see all of them.  曼琍 and her husband came early to pick us up to tour the country side.  We met a couple of years ago and loved the opportunity to visit the mango city, 玉井.  So 曼琍 and her husband came early to take us there, plus many other places.  It was so much fun to get to know them, and they sure took good care of us.  We had the famous mangoes in shaved ice, frozen banana boats and also visited a Hakka village.  The slideshow below will tell a lot of stories.  We even visited 曼琍's mango orchard in Tainan.  We also purchased a whole basket of mangoes to share with everyone.

We had dinner together with all the Shih cousins after we came back from our trip to the country side.  We had a good time talking about my aunt or their mom and also their dad.  Aunt Ah-duan died of diabetes complications as my mom did.  I told the story of Aunt Ah-Duan when she was a young adult.  She was very beautiful.  After high school she went to Japan to live with my mom and dad for a while.  There, my dad's younger brother fell in love with her.  They dated and decided to get married.  When Ah-duan came to her sister (my mom) about the marriage.  Both Sung and Shih familes were wealthy, prominent members of Tainan, hence the arranged marriage of Mom and Dad.  My mom's answer was an emphatic "no".  She reason:  The Sung was not so almighty to deserve 2 Shih sisters.  Ouch...Mom!  Aunt Ah-Duan was sent back home to Tainan.  My uncle, in dismay, joined the Japanese Imperial Army, was sent to the Philippines, where he died of malaria.  What a sad love story.     


 

7/3/11 (Sunday):  We attended Church at Tainan II Ward at 8:30 AM, then switched to Tainan I Ward at 9 AM.  It was hard to decide which ward to go to since we didn't know anyone.  So we thought we'd try both to see if we meet anyone we might know.  People were so friendly.  We actually went to the Family History Center in another building Wednesday night in hopes of finding some genealogy information.  It was so far away that it cost us over NT $300 to get there.  One of the high councilmen, Brother Wei, offered us a ride to come home to Ah-Jean's house.  Brother Wei noticed I was coughing in his car and asked me about it.  Then he told me he was a Chinese Medicine doctor, and if I wanted to, I could stop by his office in the morning and he'd check me out.  He was so kind.  We stopped by his office the next morning and he gave me some medication for my cough and only charged me US$3 for it.  What a kind man.  We met him at the 9 AM Sacrament meeting and he told me that I needed more medication and should stop by his house to pick it up since we would be leaving the next morning.  He even called later to invite us over for dinner.  A lady at the Church also invited us over for dinner after church.  We are overwhelmed with all the kind deeds people have shown us.  We noticed people greeted us kindly even though they didn't know us.  Blessings of being missionaries are amazing.

Sunday afternoon, we decided to go to Kaoshiung to visit my dear cousin John's sister.  She and her husband are in their 80's now and they said to come over when I called.  Of course, Ah-Jean and Gung drove us again.  Dr. Zhen 曾 was a prominent doctor, and according to Ah-Jean, people lined up in front of his clinic each day like it was a market place.  At the end of the day, the bank would send someone to pick up the money for deposit.  His wife, 昭碧, my cousin, is the eldest daughter of my dad's elder's brother.  She was about 13 years older than me, and was always kind to us kids.  We visited and she insisted on taking us out to dinner at a Japanese Restaurant called Sea World, 海天下.  Waka, the other cousin was with us too.  We had a good time.  Dr. Zhen gave us some interesting advice on how to stay healthy.  Good man!  We stopped at Dr. Wei's home to get some medication.  So we didn't get home until after 11.  It was a full day!

Elwin took a picture of cousin 昭碧's wedding pictures and then zeroed in to enlarge parts of it to show some of our relatives.  Those dear relatives almost came alive to me.  Thanks, Dear!  
Dr. Zhen, 昭碧, Elwin (front row)
Shirley, Waka, Ah-Jean

Dr. Zhen, 昭碧's wedding picture


Uncle (eldest) and Aun (昭碧's parents)
#3 Uncle at the center, Cousin Cao Yuan in back to the left

#2 Aunt, bottom left; #3 Aunt (Richard's mom) in the center left

#1 Aunt (Miyoko's mom), center

Cousin 秀雄 (middle of middle row), John Sung (behind 秀雄)

Grandfather Sung in the middle with his eldest son on the left and 昭碧, the bride

7/4 (Monday):  Time to go home

Hong Kong Temple reopened on Tuesday, July 5.  It was time for us to go home.  It was a wonderful break.  We can't thank all the people enough who entreated us with kindness, food, friendship and love.  We are forever indebted to them.  May God bless them all.