Sunday, September 11, 2011

Sunday, September 11, 2011

    Monday, P-day (9/5):  President and Sister Aki took us out for a special p-day.  We went to the 4th tallest building in the world, the ICC Building.  What a fun place that is!

     We ate lunch at a Thai restaurant at the Elements Mall next to ICC.  It was very good.  It took us over an hour to find our car though.  It was parked in the MTR parking lot instead of the Mall parking lot; the two buildings are connected and we were only looking in the building parking lot.  Most of us don't have a car here and we are not used to remembering where we parked anymore.  Guess we'll need some help when we get back to the States.

     After lunch we headed for Sai Kung, the fishing village on the east coast of Hong Kong .  It took a lot less time to get there in a car than it did when we went in a bus.  We saw very interesting things...People were buying seafood from the fishing boats.  You can see from the pictures below that one gets to pick what one wants.  Watch the lady trying to catch the slithering eels, whack their heads off, clean out their guts, and cut them into bite size pieces, all captured in the video (which I might add to youtube).  After this was all done, the lady took a long bamboo fishing pole and pushed it up to you; you then put the money in the plastic bag.  I believe she'd even give you change.  Oh, my! Now, what do you do with these fresh things?  Have no fear, if you are with Sister Aki, you are in luck as she knows just what to do.  She bought us some bass, all cleaned, and some abalone; then we walked down the beach promenade and found an honest looking cook.  She handed him the catch; we sat down and ordered more other foods, like sweet and sour pork and fried rice for the Americans :-).  Within minutes, the fish and the abalone were all done, pretty on the platters for us to enjoy.  Wow, what a day!  President and Sister Aki, you are the best. My parents used to take us out and pick the seafood we wanted, and then the cook(s) would fix up the dishes for us.  I'm so happy to experience one of those great moments from my childhood memory. 

P-day with our friends

     We went back to work at the temple on the 8-3 shift this past week.  P-days always rejuvenate us and help us to roll up our sleeves and get back to work.  The temple workers are the coolest group of people.  They tirelessly volunteer their time, energy, and money to come to the temple to serve the Lord.  Some travel an hour plus on the rail and buses, some came as far as Guangdong Province to work at the temple once a week.  There are no problems coming once a week to Hong Kong from the Mainland to visit the temple, but it is very problematic for some sisters coming from further inland to work at the temple for a week and then going home.  The Immigration authorities usually question their motives of coming to Hong Kong so often for fear of them not going back.  What these sisters endure each time when they go through the Immigration!  We love them and appreciate their services to the temple.

     Wednesday, 9/7, was another special day as we met with the Wong family (it was our day off since we have to work on Saturday this week).  The Wong's daughter is our daughter Elaine's exchange student.  She's 15 years old and is spending a year with the Wiley family.  We had no idea she's from Shenzhen, a city about 15 minutes from where we live in Hong Kong.  The family is so appreciative of what the Wiley's are doing; they treat us like kings.  They came to the Futian Port of Entry to pick us up.  I have mentioned to them that I make myself do some type of exercises, such as walking or hiking, before we go out to dinner.  They took that to heart and took us to the beach last month for a very long walk in the sun (I think we melted on that one).  This time, they took us to Lianhua Mountai, a cooler destination, to hike.  Since it was a Wednesday, there was hardly anyone there.  Mrs. Wong told us that on weekends, it'd be so packed that you'd just move with people.  What a beautiful park that is!  There is a kite park, various floral centers, and on top of the mountain is the statue of the late Premier Deng Xiao Ping, who created the city of Shenzhen.  He died before Hong Kong was returned to China by the British, so the government had his statue positioned to look at the Hong Kong Harbor.  We weren't able to go up because the Wong's didn't want to risk Elwin's condition to hike up the last part which was very steep, even though Elwin protested.  These people treated us like we were their parents, and they took very good care of us.

    After the hike, they took us to pick up their other daughter at her middle school and afterward went to a beautiful Northwestern Chinese village/restaurant for lunch.  Xibei was located in Futian, Shenzhen.  Mr. Wong must have ordered at least 10 dishes of famous food there.  Musicians came in to our dining room to serenade us.  The website above (click on Xibei) gives you an idea of what they do.  They serve only grass-fed beef and lamb.  They even have a little kitchen by the dining room where they made us some freshly made tofu.  It was still warm and they served it with a special tangy sauce.  It was delicious.  Their daughter is 12 years old and she gets to go home for lunch because the school cafeteria can not accommodate so many students during lunch time.  She speaks some English too, but is shy.  It was so good to be with them.  Mr. Wong had to go on a business trip after lunch, so Mrs. Wong drove us around and took us to Shekuo where a new athletics arena was built for the world class sporting events that took place in August.  It was a wonderful day!
  
slideshow of our trip with the Wong Family

    Thursday was our granddaughter Abby's 6th birthday.  How we miss her!  Here is a picture of her first day as a kindergartener.  We also celebrated our oldest grandson, Enoch's birthday.  He turned 15 on 9/11 and informed us that he would be picking us up at the airport when we come back.  That's a scary thought, and reminded us of when our own children started driving.  Wasn't that when our hair started turning grey?  We are so blessed to have such a fun young man.

Abby
Enoch










    The temple attendance has been steady and we stay on our feet most of the day.  We are looking at very large numbers coming to visit next week.  Will be reporting on that next week!

    Sunday, September 11 was a special day in many senses of the word.  We called Enoch and sang him happy birthday, as we did with Abby on her birthday.  It makes a special day to see our children and grandchildren on Skype.

    Our Sunday service brought us speakers from our own branch.  The Mu 木 family moved in to our Branch a couple of months ago from the US.  He's a young lawyer and they have 3 young children, named Doudou, Yaya, and Caicai.  They called them Dou-Ya-Cai, 豆芽菜.  It was hysterical, but cute and meaningful.  They both served a mission in Taiwan, so they spoke fluent Mandarin Chinese.  We also heard from 2 brand new young missionaries who bore their testimonies in Mandarin.  It was amazing how prepared they are with their language skills.  The MTC (Missionary Training Center) does a fantastic job preparing the missionaries, young and old, to come to the fields to serve.

    Adios until next week!  We love and miss y'all!  E/S Davis 

2 comments:

  1. I keep thinking you'll run out of fun places to visit but you don't! :-)

    You're keeping busy as usual! I'm glad the temple has you. Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete