Welcome Home!

     On May 1, 2012, we boarded Cathay Pacific CX882 in Hong Kong at 4 PM and arrived in Los Angeles at 2:40 PM.  (Cool, isn't it?)  Then we flew the United Express to St. George, arriving at 7:30 PM.  Not bad for a trans-Pacific flight.

     We were greeted by Kong, Cami, and their 4 children at the new St. George airport.  We were surprised by Nelson and Hilary and their 3 children as they drove down from Provo to meet us.  What a reunion!  We met Morgan Rei for the first time.  She is as cute as she can be.  All the children have grown an inch or two.  We came home also to celebrate Max's 3rd birthday that day.  He was grandpa's boy when we left.  We were flabbergasted that he talked and talked.  In fact, he sat on grandpa's lap and talked for an hour, non stop.  Wow!  He was just a baby when we left and spoke only a few words.  Now, he's little boy.  Nelson and Hilary stocked our pantry, bought us new pillows, towels and had the carpet in the whole house shampooed.  We were also happy that Kong and Cami took good care of our house and the fish in the ponds were all alive!

     Then on Friday, May 4, all the children and their families came to give Elwin a surprise birthday party and homecoming.  As Elwin was overcome with joy and giving each a big hug. He looked at I-Shuan (thought she was Elaine at first) and said:  hey, what are you doing here?  You see, he didn't know I-Shuan flew in from Portland for the occasion, and it was a happy one.

I-Shuan flew in from Portland to surprise Dad

Family and friends gathered for the homecoming and Elwin's and Megumi's birthday party
Of course it included hiking in the trails behind our house

Davis family, except for Ryan, Peter and Thomas who were in Portland

Davis Grandchildren

     We are so happy to be home.  We didn't realize how much we missed everyone.  Thanks to our wonderful children, some of whom traveled a long way to come to help us celebrate!  We love y'all so much.  Thanks for our dear friends who came to the open-house to welcome us home.

     We gave talks at the Red Cliffs 3rd Ward (our old ward before splitting) on May 20, then we spoke at our home ward on May 27.  For those who would like to read the talks, they are linked below:  (click on title or URL, or if it doesn't take you there directly, copy and paste the URL and paste in the address bar)

Elwin's talk - http://www.scribd.com/doc/95305916
Shirley's talk on May 20 - http://www.scribd.com/doc/95220772/Sacrament-Talk-at-3rd-Ward
Shirley's talk on May 27 - http://www.scribd.com/doc/95220775/Sacrament-Talk-at-9th-Ward

     On top of all these happenings, my dear youngest sister Ling came to visit us  from Spokane, Washington, the week after we got home.  What a sister!  We had a great time catching up what we missed the last 18 months.  We hiked, talked, shopped and ate only healthy foods.  :-)

     Elwin and I just gave our homecoming talks at our home ward last Sunday, which marks the end of our Hong Kong Temple Mission.  Now we begin to prepare for the Taiwan Mission.  We are arranging to get as much training on family history know-how as possible.  We starting doing indexing and will be taking classes at the St. George Family History Center.  The next step would be to the Salt Lake Family History Center where several people will be giving us training on Asian family history research and all the exciting things that we look forward to doing concerning my roots, and the roots of the many Taiwan people.

     Love y'all, family and friends!  It truly has been a great journey!  We have been greatly blessed!  Thanks for all your prayers, good wishes, love and support!  We couldn't have done it without you.

Love, Elwin and Shirley