Thanksgiving before going to Hong Kong

It's hard to believe we'll be leaving in two days.  The last few days have been so much fun.  Thank goodness for family.  Sister Alice from LA came Monday, 11/22, daughter Elaine, her husband and their 5 children came on 11/23, so did sister Ling (from Spokane) and her husband, Stan, their daughter CayeLing and Paul (Provo) and their two children.  Nelson and Hilary with their 3 kids came on Thanksgiving morning, braving the sub-zero temperature, but no snow.  We had a blast.  Since I-Shuan and her family couldn't come, we skyped each other.  What a fun day!

 Hiking at Snow Canyon Mountains, the Gap Trail

Thanksgiving with family

Because we'll miss Christmas here in the US, we decided to opening Christmas presents on Thanksgiving night.  No one objected.  The children had a great time and I'm so glad it's done so I don't have to worry about it.  Thanks for all the sweet gifts from our children.  Cami spent days, weeks to make a beautiful hand-made quilt with oriental theme.  It's exquisite!  Megumi, with the help of her aunt I-Shuan made us a beautiful Christmas chain with faces of each grandchild on each link.  Beautiful!  What a great send-off from everyone!

Everyone will be gone by mid-day Saturday, except for Ling.  She offered to stay to help me finish packing, clean up the house and tie up the loose ends.  What a sister!  I'm so lucky to have super sisters, great husband, great children and grandchildren.  What more can I ask for?  I'm so grateful.

Our minds go back to preparing for our mission in Hong Kong.  Will keep you posted.

Hope y'all have a great Christmas Season!

E/S Davis

Happy Thanksgiving!

TWAS THE NIGHT OF THANKSGIVING, BUT I JUST COULDN'T SLEEP. I TRIED COUNTING BACKWARDS, I TRIED COUNTING SHEEP. THE LEFTOVERS BECKONED - THE DARK MEAT AND WHITE, BUT I FOUGHT THE TEMPTATION WITH ALL OF MY MIGHT. TOSSING AND TURNING WITH ANTICIPATION, THE THOUGHT OF A SNACK BECAME INFATUATION. SO, I RACED TO THE KITCHEN, FLUNG OPEN THE DOOR, AND GAZED AT THE FRIDGE, FULL OF GOODIES GALORE. GOBBLED UP TURKEY AND BUTTERED POTATOES, PICKLES AND CARROTS, BEANS AND TOMATOES. I FELT MYSELF SWELLING SO PLUMP AND SO ROUND, 'TIL ALL OF A SUDDEN, I ROSE OFF THE GROUND. I CRASHED THROUGH THE CEILING, FLOATING INTO THE SKY, WITH A MOUTHFUL OF PUDDING AND A HANDFUL OF PIE. BUT, I MANAGED TO YELL AS I SOARED PAST THE TREES.... HAPPY EATING TO ALL - PASS THE CRANBERRIES, PLEASE. MAY YOUR STUFFING BE TASTY, MAY YOUR TURKEY BE PLUMP. MAY YOUR POTATOES 'N GRAVY HAVE NARY A LUMP. MAY YOUR YAMS BE DELICIOUS. MAY YOUR PIES TAKE THE PRIZE, MAY YOUR THANKSGIVING DINNER STAY OFF OF YOUR THIGHS!! HAPPY   THANKSGIVING   TO  ALL  Also, try this recipe that I got from my friend, Doris.  She invited the Posse (the hiking ladies) to come to her house for breakfast and as a farewell.  We all had a great time.  Doris served Creme Brulee French Toas).  The best ever.  Here is the recipe.  (my modification:  use a cookie sheet with rim instead of the 13x9.) Crème BRULEE FRENCH TOAST ½ CUP UNSALTED BUTTER                                             5 LARGE EGGS 1 CUP PACKED BROWN SUGAR                         1 ½ CUP HALF-AND-HALF 2 TBSP. CORN SYRUP                                                       1 TSP. VANILLA BREAD SLICES TO COVER BUTTER MIXTURE          ¼ TSP. SALT IN A SAUCEPAN, MELT BUTTER, BROWN SUGAR, AND CORN SYRUP. POUR INTO A 9 X 13-INCH GLASS BAKING DISH. ARRANGE BREAD SLICES ON TOP. BEAT TOGETHER EGGS, HALF-AND-HALF, VANILLA AND SALT. POUR EGG MIXTURE OVER THE TOP OF THE BREAD. COVER AND CHILL OVERNIGHT IN THE REFRIGERATOR. THE NEXT MORNING, BAKE UNCOVERED AT 350 DEGREES FOR 35 TO 40 MINUTES. ENJOY!

MTC Training - Day 9, Nov. 18

Can hardly believe this is the last day of training for us.  We appreciate the Hammonds for taking time to be with us this week.  They truly are good examples for all of us, and the epitomy of how Christians should behave.  They admonished us to remember 3 things:  love, humility, and patience.  My order should be patience, love and humility.  What a learning experience this has been.  

We had a delicious lunch with our colleagues.  The chicken with lobster filling was delicious.  Since we packed this morning before leaving Nelson's, we were able to just hop in the car and head back to St. George. 

We met Cami and the boys at Costco in St. George since we were all going there.  (I think Elwin and I were having a Costco withdrawl).  It was quite a reunion.  Max kept calling Baba and put his head on Grandpa's shoulder and wouldn't let go of him.  It's going to be hard leaving these sweet grandchildren.

MTC Training - Day 8, Tue. Nov 17

We just have 1 1/2 days of temple training left.  Time sure flies.  We've learned a lot and people have been so kind.  We'll treasure the memories of these 2 weeks of training.

Today we had our last Cantonese tutor session with Brian.  He went over the verbs, question formats and reviewed a few important rules that he taught us.  Then we went on a field trip.  We looked at the pictures hanging on the walls of the main MTC building and had to create a conversation using Cantonese.  It was fun.  Hope we remember how to do it in real life.  :-)

We were done by 6 PM today.  So we went to visit Elaine and her family.  We had a delicious meatball with teriyaki sauce and rice dinner.  Delicious!  Homemade meatballs beat cafeteria food anytime.

MTC Training - Day 7, Tue. Nov 16

A view from Nelson's house in the morning

Becoming a Disciple of Jesus Christ

     Tuesday is a special day at MTC because at 7 PM, there is a weekly devotional as we mentioned in last week's blog.  My friend Hazel would be proud of us...most people were in their seats by 6:40.  The choir director started the music for us to sing.  Then, at 6:50 everyone was there.  It was amazing.  They did say to be in your seat by 6:50.  Senior missionaries had reserved seatings, so we were told to be in our seat by 6:40...no saving seats.  After 6:40 the seats would be given away.  Honestly, most everyone was there by 6:30.  What a show of respect for the people in charge and the speaker.

    The speaker was Kevin Pearson, a former mission president in Seattle/Tacoma, Washington.  He's in the first quorum of the Seventy (for my non-LDS friends, this is a relatively high position in the Church) and has held many other leadership positions.  A graduate of University of Utah, and having received his Ph.D. from Harvard, he was a great speaker. He told us to rely on the Holy Ghost to teach us, to make moral choices.  He said that we are free to act as we want, but are also accountable for our actions, or lack thereof.  The Holy Ghost is here to help us develop our divine identity.  We should ask ourselves if we are committed to become a disciple of Christ.  When we realize that we are a disciple of Jesus Christ, then we will know who we truly are.  Those are great words of wisdom.

    Various people came to talk to us about the significance of the temple today.  We also had some people talk to us about the day-to-day operations of the temple.  We toured the laundry facility.  Wow, it was more like a science lab.  It was amazing.

    The food at the Provo Temple was super.  All in all, we had another great day.   

MTC training - day 6, Nov. 15

This week is temple training week...we are very excited!

    The rain and snow this morning didn't dampen our spirits.  In fact, the snow-capped mountains were beautiful!   The picture below is a summertime picture of the Provo temple.  We'll post a picture later of the snow on the mountains.

    People ware so friendly at the temples, especially Provo Temple.  We had a wonderful morning with the Hammonds.  They gave us words of encouragement.  Nice people.  In our group, there are people going to Germany, Paraguay, Chile, Nova Scotia, Hawaii and Hong Kong.  It's fun meeting these very interesting people.  They are very dedicated people.

    At lunch we met several young Asian missionaries.  One of them almost cried when I asked him how the food was.  He missed his mom's cooking.  One of the young men came from far northern China, just south of Siberia.  It was so fun to listen to him talk.  He wanted to know why he couldn't serve more than one mission.  What enthusiasm!  Great kids!

   The Hammonds came to be with us again in the afternoon.  Then, we had dinner with Brian, our Cantonese tutor.  We talked about Hong Kong and the Cantonese language.  We all agreed that it might be one of the hardest language to learn with 7 tones.  Have no fear, we'll get it..... someday.  :-)

   Good news!  Our colleagues in Hong Kong may have found us an apartment to live in.  Hooray!  The apartment is less than 500 square feet but more than $1000 a month.  That's pretty expensive square footage, but it is nearly penthouse level - second floor from the top.  I think that it was the 27th story.  We wonder what a typhoon or earthquake will be like.

MTC Training - Day 5, Nov. 12

This is the last day of our week 1 general training.  The focus was on how we can help the local wards and branches.  The message is we are servants of God and should offer our support to the local leadership and membership without telling them what to do.  One of the main assignments may be to reactivate members.  We role-played various scenarios and it was quite interesting.  Two returned senior couples came to share their experiences as they labored in the Philippines, New Zealand, Ghana, and other places.  It was a very beneficial opportunity for us to learn from these people who served unselfishly.  One couple came from Brigham City and was there at 8 AM for our workshop; they get early every Friday morning to travel 1 1/2 hours to come and instruct us.  We are meeting a lot of amazing people.  We learned a lot from them.

For the language session tonight, a young couple came to visit.  We were able to relate to them quite well.  The girl is from Hong Kong and her husband is a returned missionary from Hong Kong.  They both spoke Cantonese and Mandarin.  We had a great time practicing with them.  We also practiced what we would say at the testimony meeting later on.  Our tutor told us to forget that we were speaking Cantonese and just let the spirit guide us.  It did.  We were so grateful for that.  At the testimony meeting, one couple spoke Russian, one French, one Spanish and we did Cantonese.  The spirit was there with us, so we didn't feel that we stumbled.  We came out of the meeting feeling very happy that we are learning Cantonese. 

2 Ne. 32: 2  Do ye not remember that I said unto you that after ye had ^areceived the Holy Ghost ye could speak with the ^btongue of angels? And now, how could ye speak with the tongue of angels save it were by the Holy Ghost?