A week w/Hot Pot, Chinese genealogy...

It was a slow week, but we were happy to see the faithful who braved the rain and cold to come to visit the temple. Cold means it was in the low 70's.  The weather has been beautiful even when it rains. 

On Friday, 11/18, we were invited to join the Young Men/Young Women group from our branch and had a delicious hot pot or 火鍋 dinner.  We've had that before as it is a Taiwan tradition to have hot pot dinners when the weather turns cold.  According to Wikipedia:

Hot pot (Chinese: 火鍋; pinyin: huǒ guō), less commonly Chinese fondue or steamboat, refers to several East Asian varieties of stew, consisting of a simmering metal pot of stock at the center of the dining table. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table. Typical hot pot dishes include thinly sliced meat, leafy vegetables, mushrooms, wontons, egg dumplings, and seafood. The cooked food is usually eaten with a dipping sauce. In many areas, hot pot meals are often eaten in the winter.

It was a fun way to know the young people better.  Hong Kong students are under such tremendous pressure that we seem to read of students as young as 9 years old jumping off a  balcony to commit suicide.  Our friends' 7-year-old daughter goes to school from 7 AM to night time.  Some nights she has to go back for extra tutoring sessions to brush up on her English and Chinese reading skills.  The young people we had dinner with seemed to be doing fine since they came to the dinner on a Friday night.

Sunday:  We met a 3rd generation Chinese American with lots of genealogy.  He is retired and is traveling with his wife to find his roots.  I was asked to help him translate some of the documents that he has collected through the years.  It was interesting to see some of the customs that we knew or heard of, come through in his genealogy documents.  Some tidbits are:

• Women were not usually recorded in the Chinese genealogy.
• In some instances where women's records were recorded, their names were "first daughter", "second daughter", etc.  
• For men, if there was an official name given 號, such as for government officials, then the chance of recorded genealogy could be traced back a long way.  We saw one being 2300 BC.  
• If it was a polygamous family, the second wife gave the first or second son to the first wife (who may or may not have had a son).  The son, then, was given proper status as the son of the first wife, instead of the son of a concubine.  
• In some occasions, if the wife's family did not have a son to carry on the family name, her son might bear her maiden name, provided it was agreed to by the husband.

It inspired me to work harder to find more of my ancestors.  Going to Tainan during the temple closing in June was to visit the relatives to gather more information.  One great tip we found was that the Sung family came from Zhangzhou, Fujian, contrary to what my dad told us about coming with Koshinga; Koshinga was the man who lead a group to Taiwan about 300 years ago as he fought against the Qing Dynasty's rule and also drove the Dutch out of Taiwan.   

Want to try a new recipe?  Sounds yummy!
http://www.rd.com/food/chocolate-hazelnut-cheesecake-recipe/ 

Chocolate-Hazelnut Cheesecake

from Eat Well, Stay Well

Crunchy toasted hazelnuts top this velvety cheesecake. For more of that heavenly hazelnut flavor, substitute 1 tablespoon Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur) for the vanilla.

Ingredients

• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs (5 ounces)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 pound silken tofu
• 1 cup creamed (4%) cottage cheese
• 1 ounce semisweet chocolate, melted

• 3 cup hazelnuts
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 egg
• 2 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

How to make it  1 hour, 5 minutes

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Toast the hazelnuts on a baking sheet for 7 minutes or until the skins begins to crinkle. (Leave the oven on.) Transfer the hazelnuts to a kitchen towel and rub to remove as much of the skin as possible (some skin will remain). When the hazelnuts are cool enough to handle, coarsely chop them; set aside.

2. In a small bowl, stir together the crumbs, oil, and 1 tablespoon of water. Press the mixture into the bottom and partway up the sides of a 9 1/2-inch springform pan. Bake for 8 minutes or until the crust is set. Cool on a rack. Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F.

3. In a small bowl, combine the cocoa and 1/4 cup of water until well moistened. In a food processor, combine the tofu, cottage cheese, melted semisweet chocolate, granulated sugar, brown sugar, flour, whole egg, egg whites, vanilla and the cocoa mixture, and process until very smooth.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared crust and bake for 40 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 250°F, sprinkle the nuts on top and bake for 10 minutes or until the cheesecake is just set. Cool to room temperature; refrigerate for 2 hours or until chilled.

 

Nutritional Information(per serving)

• Calories: 207
• Fat: 7g
• Saturated Fat: 1g
• Cholesterol: 20mg

• Sodium: 189mg
• Protein: 8g

• prep 15 min    cook 50 min
• serves 12

Families are forever! Nov. 7-13, 2011

    Families are forever!  This has been an amazing week as we welcomed members from India, Thailand, Jiangsu Province and Shanghai, China.  We'd like to share the following:

   Sister Raji (name changed) lost her husband 16 years ago.  She raised her daughter alone.  She was able to bring her daughter and son-in-law to Hong Kong, so they could get married at the Temple this week.  It was a very special occasion.  Another couple from India brought their two children with them to be sealed as an eternal family.  It was wonderful to see their happy faces.

    A group of Thai members came on Thursday.  Included in this group was a young couple who came to be married in the temple.  Her parents, older sister, brother-in-law and members from their ward all came to witness the big event.  I was told that the big flood in Thailand affected most of the families, and yet, these people still came.  Both sisters and their husbands were sealed for time and for eternity.  I saw happy faces, especially the parents.  I'm sure it's a sense of accomplishment to see ones children marry in the temple.  We are grateful for our children and their commitment to the gospel and all married in the temple.  We see blessings in their lives because of the decisions they made.

    The Jiangsu sister from China was a seminary teacher who came a couple of days before the Seminary Teachers Training to enjoy the temple blessings.  What a amazing thing to know that the LDS youth also enjoy the blessings of attending seminary, a scripture-based teaching for high school students.  They do all this online.  How technology has helped the saints learn.  We are grateful for that.

    The Shanghai group came.  Three couples came to be married in the temple.  One of the couples was about our age and it was so good to see that they've been married for over 40 years and found the gospel and made the efforts to come to the temple to be sealed.

    The week went fast as we witnessed these great people who made commitments to come to the temple.  Surely, they have made sacrifices and are rewarded with many blessings.

    Over the weekend, we attended the Hong Kong International District Conference.  Again, we were blessed with many wonderful speakers.  Two of the speakers came from our Victoria III Branch.  Sister Wan talked about her own conversion.  She came to Hong Kong from China 15 years earlier with her husband.  They struggled as jobs were hard to come by.  She learned to speak Cantonese quickly in order to get a job.  They had a baby shortly thereafter.  Her husband left her and the baby, and she was left to raise the child herself.  She went through some tough times, but when the gospel came into her life, her outlook on life changed.  She knew she didn't have to do this alone and joined the Church.  She is now a successful business woman and happy to have the gospel in her and her daughter's lives.

    The other speaker was Elder Wong (not his real name).  Elder Wong came from San Francisco and is a missionary in our Branch.  He talked about his religious upbringings.  His father is LDS, and mom is a Buddhist.  He was in the second year at Berkeley studying mechanical engineering when he decided that he wanted to go on a mission.  When he told his mom, she questioned his purpose in delaying school to go on a mission.  After some explanation, she said:  so you want to go.  Who's going to pay for this?  He said to his mom:  Yes, I want to go on the mission, and you are paying for it.  She said:  okay!  He said that he didn't grow up in a family who sings:  "I hope they call me on a mission"...but my good parents taught me commitments and influenced me in doing good.  I'm grateful to be on my mission here in Hong Kong.  I've learned so much.  What a cool missionary Elder Wong is.  He'll soon be going home to continue his education.  We know he'll do well.

     After the District Conference, one of our class members in the "temple preparation class" had an interview with the District president for a temple recommend.  We are so grateful that young people such as Tara is committed to enter the temple.  She was elated when she came out of the interview.  We are looking forward to going to the temple with her in a couple of weeks.

     Some hymnals about the temple blessings came to mind.  One of them is:  “We Love Thy House, O God” (Hymns, no. 247): 

http://broadcast.lds.org/churchmusic/MP3/1/1/words/247.mp3

Week of Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 2011

Monday, 10/31:  Halloween in Hong Kong

Believe it or not, Halloween is a big, market-driven deal in Hong Kong.  It has become a socially-acceptable, self-indulgent event as reported by CNNGO on Oct. 28, 2011. 

Halloween satisfies Hong Kongers need for a) escapism and b) feeling cozy within large crowds.  Read more...

Teenage girls get into the Halloween mood by doing what they do best. 

School children dressed in their Halloween costumes that day.  Our little friend Cindy was a princess.  She was excited as her mom put finishing touches to her princess outfit.  It was just another p-day for us.  But it was important to us as Elwin hiked up to the top of Butterfly Mountain as reported in a previous blog.

This week at the temple:  A significant week as we met 40 members of the Church from Indonesia.  President Aki sent us a list of Indonesian words, and I made up some index cards with the following words:  (It was fun practicing on the Indonesians, but mostly they taught us)

English	Bahasa Indonesia
Welcome	Selamat datang
Hello	Selamat siang Halo (on phone)
How are you? I'm fine, thanks. And you?	Apa kabar? (What news?)
	Baik-baik saja, terima kasih. Bagaimana dengan Anda?
What's your name? My name is ...	Siapa nama anda?
	Nama saya ...
Where are you from? I'm from ...	Anda berasal dari mana?
	Saya dari ...
Pleased to meet you	Senang bertemu dengan Anda
Good morning	Selamat pagi
Good afternoon	Selamat siang
Good evening	Selamat sore
Goodbye	Selamat tinggal (leaving) Selamat jalan (staying) Sampai jumpa lagi
Have a nice day	Semoga hari anda menyenangkan
I don't understand	Saya tidak mengerti
Please speak more slowly	Tolong bicara pelan sedikit
Please write it down	Tolong tuliskan
Excuse me	Maafkan saya / Permisi
Sorry	Maaf
Thank you	Terima kasih / Terima kasih banyak / Makasih
Where's the toilet?	Di manakah kamar kecil?
I love you	Cinta kamu / Saya cinta kamu / Saya mencintaimu

On Friday, we had a surprise visit from David Archuletta.  He was in Hong Kong for a special engagement and found time to come to visit the Temple.  What a guy!  We were so happy to meet him.

On Saturday, we were happy to see our Branch President and Sister Lin visiting the temple.  Afterwards we had an "afternoon tea time" at Dan Ryan's with them.  What a fun time to have time to chat and share ideas to strengthen the Branch.

Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011

Sister Hu, the young lady who was baptized a couple of weeks ago shared the following:

The missionaries encouraged me to read the Book of Mormon.  I started reading it as a historical fiction.  The more I read the more I realized it was a true story.  Reading the Book of Mormon helped me to develop my own testimony.  During this period, a dear family member became very ill.  I started praying to God for his recovery.  I was sure God will bless him even though he wasn't a member of the Church.  Even though he is still sick, I saw the improvement in him and felt the love God has for him and for all His children.

Sister Feng, who was in our first "temple preparation class" said:

I had a chance to go back to visit my hometown (in the Chinese mainland) and decided to share my conversion story with the people I grew up with.  Most of them were ranking party members and balked at my religious experiences.  A few weeks later, I received a phone call from a teacher who was in that group when I visited my hometown and asked me to meet him.  Not much was said, but I knew he understood what I said and had been touched by the Spirit.  Sharing the gospel is necessary to strengthen our own testimony.

Sister Cáo shared the following:

I was grateful to be called as a Primary teacher.  I have worked in many different positions since I joined the Church many years ago, but this is my first time working in Primary.  What a wonderful experience it has been for us.  Just when I thought the kids weren't listening to me, the sweet feeling of being patient came to me that they are children of God.  Then, they'd all come around and join me in the activities I have prepared for them.  What a blessing it has been for me.

Sister Wong Jin said:  my son's gone now and I felt a sense of loneliness.  But my cat just gave birth to 4 kittens.  Watching the cat caring for little kittens reminded me of motherhood.  My hat's off to all the mothers in the room.  I'm now a grandma to my 4 kittens.

Sister Dong, trying very hard to speak Mandarin with a heavy Cantonese accent, shared the following: 

My son is going to BYU Hawaii now and is 21 years old.  He called me last night to tell me that he wanted to go on a mission for the Church.  He was wondering how he could do this as he would be 23 when he comes back from the Mission, 2 more years of college, 2 more years of special training, he would be 27 years old.  We decided that we'd all pray about this.  I told him he needed to go see his Bishop in Hawaii.  

She then apologized for not being able to speak Mandarin well, we assured her that we nevertheless understood her.

What a wonderful Church meeting it was!  We are thankful for the Spirit that was there.

After the Church meeting, a baptism was held for Brenda Fu, a senior from Hong Kong University.  It was a wonderful baptism and she shared the following with us after the ceremony:

She told of the three things she seeks after and shared the following scriptures:

1) light:  John 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.  I seek after the light of the world

2) water:  Nephi I 21:10 They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor the sun smite them; for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.

3) shepherd:  Psalm 23: 1-6

 1 The Lord is my ^ashepherd; I shall not ^bwant.

 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he ^aleadeth me beside the still waters.

 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of ^arighteousness for his ^bname’s sake.

 4 Yea, though I ^awalk through the ^bvalley of the ^cshadow of ^ddeath, I will fear no ^eevil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they ^fcomfort me.

 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou ^aanointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

 6 Surely ^agoodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

It was very touching to hear a young lady sharing her testimony quoting scriptures at her own baptism. 

The day is not finished until we feed the missionaries, all 11 of them.  We love our missionaries.  They are so cool and doing a good job too.  One more missionary came this Sunday.  He is Elder Stevens and he got up to bear his testimony in Chinese.  We are impressed.  The MTC (Missionary Training Center) is doing a good job preparing the missionaries to go out into the world, spiritually and physically too.  The menu is as follows for those who are interested in ideas.  We actually served a traditional spaghetti dinner, but with some ingredients not readily available, we ended up doing a lot of home cooked versions of the same stuff.  I'm finding that it's healthier.  For example, the tomato sauce that I made was full of good stuff that you don't want to tell the kids about.  But, because I put them all through the blender, it's just a wholesome tasting tomato sauce. 

Sunday Menu

Spaghetti:  made with ground meat, tomato sauce* + 1 jar of Ragu
Pork chops breaded
mixed vegetables
green salad
garlic bread
dinner rolls
red velvet cake**

*Tomato Sauce recipe:

• 10 ripe tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 2 carrots, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/4 cup Burgundy wine (I skipped the wine and put in 1 red +1 yellow pepper)
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 stalks celery (Chinese celery worked very well)
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste (optional)

Notes:  I browned the ground beef and pork with garlic and onions first.  Put the meat mixture into a crock pot.  Blend the above tomato sauce ingredients in the blender.  Pour it into the crock pot and cook for 10 hours.  To add more protein for the missionaries, I put in 12 pork chops into the crock pot and took them out when they were done.  Bread the pork chops with bread crumbs, top with cheese and put in the toaster oven for about 20 minutes.  Serve.

**The red velvet cake mix came from our children for my birthday.  I saved it to share with the missionaries.  Thanks to Elaine, I-Shuan, Nelson, Kong and families.

Sunday, Oct. 30, Week That Belongs to the Thai Members

    We welcomed members from Thailand this week.  Last week we reported the floods in Thailand, but it didn't dampen their spirit.  We saw happy faces as we entered the temple on Tuesday, Oct. 25.  They came...knowing the floods might come during their absence.  On Friday night, a dreadful phone call came.  One of the sisters lost her home to the floods.  She was told she could not go back to her house.  It was gone.  She was sobbing...we all surrounded her and hugged her.  Then, she smiled...a beautiful Thai smile that we all know.  She said:  the Lord will take care of me.  What humble people!  I know why they come to Hong Kong.  They come to teach us.  What a group of faithful saints!  We love them all.  There were also 3 members from Beijing visiting the temple.  Two of them were there for the first time.  They brought such beautiful spirit.  We were so happy that we were able to speak to them in Mandarin Chinese. 

    We received a phone call while we were out running errands on our p-day, Monday, Oct. 24.  Sister Chan Ping insisted that she already bought groceries to treat us to a home-made dinner.  In a humble one room, kitchen and bathroom apartment, she fixed up 6 dishes and invited 6 people to come to eat with her.  We were sitting on her bed, on her son's bed, both in the "living room", and we had a great time.  Again, these humble people are here to teach us about being humble.

     On Tuesday, Dr. Liu, our Chinese Medicine doctor treated us to a wonderful fish lunch. On Thursday, he took us to a Buddhist temple to have a vegetarian lunch.  It was so good!  Wow, my vegetarian friends, wish you were with us that day.   Dr Liu is teaching us about eating healthily.  He's doing a very good job.

At Fung Ying Sin Koon‎ 66 Pak Wo Road, 蓬瀛仙館, Fanling

    Saturday, we were looking forward to the Branch outing, but lo...Elder Davis got sick.  I swear...he doesn't like trips.  He would work himself sick, so he wouldn't have to go.  Hmmmm...I was ready to leave him as he said he would be okay.  But, I know better, he'd spend all day on the computer.  But, he'd have a good time.  On the other hand, he may get sicker and need some help.  Would I feel good leaving him, and would I have a good time at the outing without him?  Yes!  Absolutely  :-)  I called Pres. Lin immediately and told him the situation.  He and Sharon were very understanding and encouraged me to go if I could.  After more prayers, I decided to stay behind.  I got on the web and found out where they went and got enough information that we'd be able to take Elaine and her family there when they come to visit.

    It turned out to be a fun day.  Elwin did get better and asked if I'd go out for a walk with him.  We walked to Luen Wo Hui and did some grocery shopping.  It was so nice to have help carrying the groceries.  We took a bus home afterwards and was really glad that I stayed home with him.

   I was able to attend the coordinators' training at the temple that afternoon since I was available.  It was great to see all the coordinators there.  They are very committed people and I was glad that I could attend.  Sister Aki treated us with a delicious dinner afterwards.  Michele Dean and I hopped on the MTR and went home.  It was a good day.

    Sunday at the Victoria III Mandarin Speaking Branch was amazing.  The chapel was full of investigators and visitors from China.  Sisters Hu and Zheng were confirmed members of the Church and were given the gift of the Holy Ghost.  It was a day not to be forgotten.

Sister Hu and Sis Zheng on their Baptism Day

One Small Step for the hikers, One Giant Step for Elwin

He's on top of the world...well, on top of Butterfly Mountain any way.

When we first came to Hong Kong, Elwin had a hard time to even climb 1/3 of the way up to the top of the mountain path behind our apartment complex.  After putting in a stent, we thought he would be cured.  But, he didn't even go up as much as the 1/3 that he did when we first got here.  He continued to have dizzy spills, out of breath moments whenever he had to go up (on his own).  Then, one day, the light bulb got turned on, he had too much blood thinner; Plavix, aspirin, fish oils, etc.  Kong, our son, called and said to check Dad's meds.  Well, when Elwin put 2 and 2 together, in his scientific mind, he said:  too much blood thinner.  Being very logical, careful, obedient, he called up his cardiologist, and had a discussion.  After spending $4000 HK, the cardiologist agreed to let Elwin back off the fish oils.  After that, he felt better each and every day.

On our P-day, October 31, he said to me:  let's go climb Butterfly Mountain.  Of course, I obliged.  He did so well, no one would have even suspected that he had any heart problems.  My conclusion:  had he followed me around, hiking and walking, he probably wouldn't even have any heart problems.  :-)

How grateful we are that Elwin is all better now.  He's back to his old self; on the computer all the time...hehehe...