Special P-Day

     June 13th was a special P-day for us.  Without a car, we usually only can go where there is public transportation.  Our dear President told us to make a list of places that we'd like to go if we had a car.  What an offer!  We and the Wilsons had a delightful time visiting places that we've been want to go.

1.  We went to visit the Sheung Shui Ward.  Elwin and I walked there one day and thought the chapel looked like the Kirkland Temple.  Poor President drove and drove and we couldn't find the place.  I guess one really gets a different perspective when walking than driving.  We visited some very old country side and were happy to see the old country homes and temples.  It was an unexpected bonus when we got lost.

2.  Fat Wai Hakka Village in Yuen Long:  Our dear President served in this area 45 years or more before.  We found this place from his memory of where it might be.  It was amazing.  If you've been to Hong Kong before, you know Hong Kong so a totally different place from 10 years ago, let alone 30, 40 or even 50 years ago.  It was amazing that he drove us right to the Hakka Village.  This Hakka village was established during the Ming Dynasty, a place that has been renovated to represent the old and the new.  As we walked in, 3 Hakka women put on their Hakka black rimmed straw hats to welcome us and told us to take pictures.  They were friendly, but aftwards, they each asked for HK$10 from each of us.  It was an expensive photo, but meaningful as it confirmed my belief that Hakkas were great merchants.  You can see many pictures in the slideshow below.  There is also a 3:51-minute youtube video that gives a more detailed account of the migration of the Hakkas to Hong Kong.  http://wn.com/Walled_villages_of_Hong_Kong

3.  Hungry bunch:  The temple president and matron spent some time in Wan Chai on their previous missions and took us there for lunch.  Wouldn't you know it, we walked into Tony Roma's restaurant for lunch.  It was a special western lunch.  I guess some of us miss American food.

4.  Aberdeen Harbor:  Home to hundreds of people living on fishing junks. Their traditional lifestyle is dramatically juxtaposed against a modern high-rise community spread over the nearby hillsides. In the evenings, the thousands of twinkling lights reflected on the water are a magical sight.   On the slideshow below, there is the magnificent floating restaurant anchored there, decorated with swirling red and gold dragons and other traditional Chinese motifs.  The interesting things were the make-shift rafts.  One of them was a baby crib mattress if my eyesight served me right.  Take a close look at the slideshow and decide for yourself.  It's much like asking my 4th graders to make a contraptions of sorts using materials I gave them.  Some creativity is definitely required.



5.  Stanley's Island via Repulse Bay:  We drove through the  Aberdeen Tunnel, a two-tube tunnel linking Happy Valley and Wong Chuk Hang near Aberdeen on the Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It shortens the travel time between the north and the south of the Hong Kong Island.  We strolled through the shops of Stanley Market and had a great time there.


Aberdeen Tunnel traffic jam

6.  We drove through Shek O and Hok Tsui (Cape D'Aguilar) on the southeast corner of Hong Kong Island, then up to Chai Wan, to North Point, and crossed the Cross Harbour Tunnel to Hung Hom back to our home turf of Kowloon Tong area again.



7.  Grand Finale:  My sister told me that if I wanted good Cantonese food, follow the Cantonese people.  They know where to go.  Well, we did.  We went to the Luk Fu and had the wonderfully delicious food, including Peking duck (pictured below with the man serving) at Joy Luck Restaurant.    Wow, you see, you don't even need to go to Beijing to have Peking duck any more.  Just follow us!

Thanks, President, it was a great day and we appreciate the time, the company and the many beautiful places in Hong Kong. 

 

    

 

Sunday, June 5, 2011

    As reported on the last blog, I caught the flu and stayed home for a couple of days from the temple during the week.  By Saturday, I was feeling much better and was able to get a few things done.

   We had a great fast and testimony meeting.  One thing that stood out was the newly baptized lady who got up and bore her testimony.  She has been looking for a church to attend.  She remembered her grandfather telling her about the LDS church when she was very young.  When she met the missionaries, the memory came back.  It didn't take her long to know that this was what she wanted, to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It was a powerful testimony.  A couple visiting from the States shared their testimonies too.  The man was from Hong Kong and served a mission here.  He went to BYU, some 40 + years ago.  Married a sweet girl and settled in the States.  His sweet heart passed away about 5 years ago.  He met his present wife in Los Angeles.  She's from Shenyang, China.  I'm not sure if I heard it right that she joined the Church when she was still in China.  Both have strong testimonies and planned to stay in Hong Kong for another week visiting his relatives.  Visitors do bring a special spirit to us.  We are very blessed.

     One of the highlights of the month was to have the young missionaries over for lunch.  We usually do this on the fast Sunday.  Since we missed Memorial Day weekend, we celebrated on June 5 with the missionaries.  We had the traditional hamburgers, grilled chicken, a big pot of chili, coleslaw, and ended with homemade brownies, topped with ice-cream and chocolate sauce.  Personally, I think the dessert was the best part, but our conversation was a lot of fun too.  By the way, this is not typical fare for us; it was special for the missionaries.

    We had 6 missionaries, plus a new convert, Brother Lee, who we joined us.  We talked about Sunday School lessons, working as missionaries in Hong Kong, and other tidbits.  The Leonards couldn't come, so we didn't talk about Chinese history as Scott is an avid Chinese history buff.  Two of the missionaries will be going home in a few weeks.  We could see the love they have for the people of Hong Kong, especially the Mandarin speaking people.  These missionaries were trained to speak Mandarin, to meet the needs of the influx of people coming out of Mainland China.  It was awesome. 

    We are now finished with 1/3 of our mission.  In less than a year, we'll be home.  We miss our children, grandchildren, and friends.  Hope you are all doing well.

Being Sick in Hong Kong

    While Elwin went through some serious issues with his heart in Hong Kong, we came to respect the medical professionals who treated him.  Both Dr. Fung and Dr. Pei received their medical degrees from UCLA and were very competent.  They made decisions on what needed to be done and carried through efficiently.  The thing that impressed us the most, of course, has to be the skills, but one thing stood out.  The doctor gave us his cell phone number and e-mail address in case we had questions after office hours.  After the surgery, the good doctor called each morning for 3 days to insure that things were going well.  Except for the dear medical friends in our neighborhood in St. George, we don't think we ever got that kind of treatment from any of our doctors.

    I caught a cold a couple of days ago.  I went down to the temple basement dining area to have some lunch, but didn't feel very well.  Immediately, when my friends at the temple saw that I was feeling sick, they went to work.  Sister Chan made me a very strong cup of herbal drink to treat colds, and watched me drink it.  She then gave me directions on what I needed to do at home.  I felt better and went upstairs.  Then, Sister Shau saw me.  She said that I didn't look well.  So, she gave me a wonderful neck and shoulder massage.  By then, my lymph nodes were swollen.  She advised me to go home and rest.  I thought I'd just rest a little and wait for Elwin.  Then, two more sisters came to check on me and took over whatever I was doing so I could go home.  By the time I got home at 3 PM, I was running a fever.  But it was comforting to know that people cared about my well-being and were so helpful.  

    Not knowing if we should go to the hospital or a clinic somewhere near us to treat my ailment, Elwin called the Church doctor in Hong Kong since I looked pretty sick.  The good doctor prescribed some medication.  We live about an hour away from the pharmacy we usually use.  Elwin called the pharmacy and the LDS pharmacist filled the prescription and told Elwin she would deliver it to the Temple (half an hour's travel time) for him to pick up.  She did this once already for Elwin when he needed some medication.  We insisted that it would be too much inconvenience for her to come all the way to the Temple to do such thing, but she did it for us.  We are truly surrounded by angels.

    We also met a special gentleman who practices "Tui Na", the Chinese bodywork massage therapy.  I did some research and found this website to be very helpful to explain what "tui na" is.  http://tcm.health-info.org/tuina/tcm-tuina-massage.htm

    A brief description is as follows: 


Tuina (Tui Na) is an Oriental Bodywork Therapy that has been used in China for 2,000 years. Tuina (Tui Na) uses the traditional Chinese medical theory of the flow of Qi through the meridians as its basic therapeutic orientation. Through the application of massage and manipulation techniques Tuina (Tui Na) seeks to establish a more harmonious flow of Qi through the system of channels and collaterals, allowing the body to naturally heal itself.

   Brother Cheung is a health professional who does "Tui Na".  He has treated us regularly and I certainly can feel the difference after he manipulates my musculoskeletal and ligamentous alignments.  It hurts like crazy when he works on me, but afterwards I feel such relief.  I came to Hong Kong with serious plantar fasciitis and every step I took was painful.  He told me the problem was the circulation on my ankle and my leg.  After a couple of manipulations, my pain on the foot was gone.  Now I can walk normally again.  It was truly amazing.

    For those who need to see a doctor in Hong Kong, go to the local doctor's office, and they are board certified.  Don't know the cost though.  But if you are in China, you would go to the hospital and they'd assign you to a doctor.  The cost is very little, 50 cents to register, 75 cents to see a doctor that they assign you, or if you want to see the head of the department, then you may need to pay as much as US$2, plus whatever prescriptions you need.

    We truly are surrounded by angels.  We are so grateful.   

Sunday, May 29, 2011

    We made it to Church in record time, 48 minutes. today, Sunday, May 29.  It was because Bus 104 (takes us to Church in Wan Chai) at Hung Hom MTR station was there loading their seemingly "tons" of people.  It kept loading and loading, giving us time to run from the train station to the bus stop.  Wow, lucky us...we would have been late if we had to wait for another bus.

   We heard three people speak to us this Sunday.  They all talked about listening to the Spirit as it whispers to us to give us directions, warnings, and comfort.  After the church service, two young ladies were baptized.  They bore testimonies of how they came to meet the missionaries and felt the Spirit.  One young lady, Sister Yang, was attending another church at the time when she came across the missionaries.  They invited her to attend church with us, and she immediately felt the spirit when she walked in.  She has been coming and bore testimony that this is the happiest day of her life to find the a church that she truly feels that she belongs to.  We were touched by her spirit.

   After church, we came home and fixed a chicken and rice casserole for the dear friend who has been sick.  At 4 PM, one of our student-friends, from Shandong University days, sent his brother to see us.  Henzer and his brother Hayden live in Shenzhen.  Hayden is graduating with a Master's degree in IT and is looking for a job.  He sent his resume for Elwin to critique.  So, Elwin invited him to our house to interview him and to help him finish up his resume.  They spent 3 hours talking and sharing ideas.  Hayden left happy.  We hope his job hunting is successful!

   Monday, May 30, is our p-day.  After doing our p-day work, we headed for Ocean Park, an amusement park in Hong Kong.  It was a beautiful day, in the 70's, and we had a fabulous time.  We even took a roller-coaster ride, and Elwin did just fine.  He's ridden many roller coasters, and this one was tame. No worries!  We spent about 3 hours there and enjoyed the beautiful surroundings.  The Wiley's will enjoy this very much.

   Something eventful happened on Tuesday, May 24, when an Apostle from the Church came to speak to us.  A special missionary meeting was called at 3 PM on that day.  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland came to visit and his talk focused on the young missionaries.  He gave them praises for coming on a mission for the Church.  He, then, admonished them to be diligent in proclaiming the gospel, to listen to the Spirit and to be the emissaries for the Lord.  It was a very powerful talk as I saw these young missionaries (around 100) came out of the meeting very touched.  On Wednesday night, Elder Holland spoke to the Hong Kong saints at the Wan Chai Church Building, while Elder Bednar spoke to the single adults at the Kowloon Tong Church Building.  Unfortunately, we were on duty at the Temple and were not able to attend either one of the meetings.  The Temple stayed open during this time, and we did have a couple of visitors from the US at that time.  We did feel very special to have the Apostles visiting us here in Hong Kong.