A flower show in Fanling on 12/28, updated w/ more pics on 1/4

   On our way home from the temple, we decided to stop to see the flower show just west of the Fanling subway station.  It was about 4 PM when we got there (temple schedule was 7:30 am - 3 pm that day), but there was still a big crowd since it was the last day of the show.

   What we saw was very amazing.  Elwin took a bunch of pictures for your viewing pleasure.  I missed posting a bunch of the bonsi trees.  They were so pretty.  You have to see them.  Also, the orchards were out of this world.  All so pretty.

 

 

Ventured out to China

 

    Thursday, 12/30, was our day off, so we took a trip to Shenzhen, China.  Actually, we live in a town called Fanling, in the New Territories, which is only 2 MTC train stops away from the border.  We were in Shenzhen two years ago when we went to Hong Kong for a China Teachers' Conference, but it was a very short visit then.   So we looked forward to going back for a visit.

    We left at 10 AM and got to the border in no more than 10 minutes.  We already got our visas when we were at home in the US, so it didn't take very long to get through the Immigration to go into China.  What we saw when we got out of the Customs/Immigration building was amazing. 

    Luohu Commercial City Mall is one of the worlds' most intense shopping experiences, over 700 shops are squeezed into seven floors. Everything you can imagine is for sale, but clothing and custom tailoring are the biggest ...  There must be at least 100 stalls of fabric shops tightly clustered together.  Electronics, nail salons, arts and crafts, massage places, you name it, it's there.  They are so eager to do business with you.  Elwin and I went in to have foot massage or reflexology for RMB$35 each, but they asked for $15 tip each.  So, it came to about US$7.50 each.  Not bad, is it?  After all the walking we have done since we came here, it was a great relief!  Wish it were around the corner though.

    We even ventured out to find WalMart.  We were there 2 years ago, but had no idea where it was, but after some investigation, we took a city bus and found it.  WalMart carried a lot of things they do in the States, but not everything.  It was fun to be there.  Things were a lot cheaper in China than in Hong Kong.  We carried 3 bagful of grocery home.  Well, Elwin did.  Bless him.  We stopped at another grocery store and found pigeons in the cages by the meat department.  Hmmm...what are they doing with the live birds there? 

    We had lunch at the mall and loved their mapou tofu and rice noodle dishes.  They were close to what Taiwanese foods taste like.  May be that's why we liked it.

    It was a fun day, but sure not worth the money they charge for the visas to go in to China though.  It's gone up from $30 for multiple entry visa to $140 for multiple entry if you are lucky as most Americans were given only single entry visas even though they protested.  We were so glad to know ahead of time to get the visas before we left for Hong Kong.

Christmas Luncheon

President and Sister Aki treated all the temple staff to a wonderful lunch buffet at the Quan Dong Restaurant.  It was so interesting to see what kind of foods they had there.  About every 30 minutes or so, the waitress would bring in a big platter of salmon fillets.  People would crowd around and fill up their plates.  This is raw sashimi.  I hope no one gets sick from eating so much raw fish.  There was a grill station, but the lady would not grill my salmon because, as she said, it was only for beef and pork grills.  Nice try, Sister Davis!

It was fun to get to know the people you work with each day at a relaxed atmosphere.

 

Christmas Celebrations

 

     The LDS Church puts on a Christmas Devotional each year.  Watching the devotional helped Elwin and me catch the spirit of Christmas.  If you haven't watched it yet, it's worth the time as the Spirit is strong there.  The Bishops, fellow temple missionaries from Utah, invited us to watch it with them a week ago.  We were glad we did.  If the link above doesn't work for you, you can go straight to lds.org and click on the Christmas devotional and watch it there.

     Other than the 4 temple missionary couples, there are also at least a dozen senior office missionaries at the Asian Church Office.  We see them once a month at the monthly activity night.  We also see some of them as they volunteer to work at the Temple.  One of the couples from Idaho, the Taylors, hosted 3 Christmas parties to accommodate all the senior missionaries (three parties because the apartments are so small that even 5 or 6 couples make it a tight squeeze).  We were invited to the 1st of the 3 on Wednesday, Dec. 22.  At the Taylor's Christmas gathering, we sang a song that goes with the tune of Jingle Bells and reminded me of my life in December back home:

"Dashing through the house, a million things to do.
Got to get the shopping done, and make the fruitcake, too.
Christmas Carols ring, making spirits bright.
It's time for peace and joy on earth, so why am I up-tight?"

    There are 9 more verses that describe the holidays that should not have been.  So, I'm especially grateful that we did our Christmas over Thanksgiving and now am really enjoying the holidays with friends. 

      On Christmas Eve, we attended a concert at the Tsuen Wan City Concert Hall.  It was an LDS singing group and very well attended by mostly church members.  The missionaries were able to bring their investigators to the concert, so it was a good effort for missionary work.  We had dinner at the mall by the concert hall and it was very nice.  The bus ride was about an hour each way, so we didn't get home until after 11 that night.  

     On Christmas day, we, the 4 senior couple temple missionaries, gathered at the Bishop's apartment and had brunch together.  Elder Bishop made a ham and egg casserole, the Wilson's and the Arnell's brought fruits, rolls and breads.  We made wassail, carrot cake and even found some small mince meat pies at a local store for the occasion.  (Elwin was especially delighted to have the mince meat pie because he says "What's a Christmas dinner without mince meat pie?")  After eating, we watched the video of our children that our daughter I-Shuan put together for us for Christmas.  Then we played a couple games, and exchanged white elephant gifts.  But there were more things to do... 

    We then headed to Kowloon Tong to watch a movie.  Since it's a holiday in Hong Kong, it was crowded everywhere.  We couldn't get the tickets for Narnia, but were able to get in to see "Gulliver's Travels".  After the movie we had dinner at EXP, a pasta restaurant.  Elwin had Thai prawn fried rice and I had baked sea bass on a bed of rice.  Others had pasta dishes.  :-)  It was very festive, but I missed being with our children and grandchildren so much.  
 

    We are so grateful that I-Shuan called after we got home on Christmas night when it was Christmas morning in Oregon.  Nelson and his family called us using Skype on Christmas Eve in Hong Kong, or Christmas "Adam" in Utah.  It was so good to see them.  Thanks for getting a webcam for the occasion.  We talked to Kong and Cami before that, too, and were so happy to see them and the boys.  Max kept on trying to crawl up to the screen.  He missed his Baba so much, and we missed them all too.  Kong and Cami drove up to Sandy, and Cami's dad picked them up and drove them up to Wyoming for Christmas.  There was so much snow that they would have had a hard time driving up there.  Thanks, Wilson's.  We haven't had a chance to talk to Elaine and her family as they were traveling to Virginia to be with David' siblings.  We finally heard from them this morning that they were snowed in and had very limited internet connectivity.  They are safe and sound.  We are grateful for that as most of you know traveling during Christmas can be very stressful.

     Monday is a half day at the Temple, so Elwin and I are supposed to be at the Temple by 6:30 AM, meaning catching the train at 5:40.  But we finish at 1 PM affording us to see the Nut Cracker's Suite at 2:30.  We are looking forward to it.  As I said, life is busy here.  But then, you could put us anywhere and we'll find ourselves busy digging holes.  :-)


     Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our friends and relatives!

Temple Schedule

For the benefit of those who might be contemplating coming to Hong Kong for a visit, here is the temple schedule:

1.  The temple is closed Sundays and Mondays, except for Dec. 22 and Dec. 27 (half days).
2. Maintenance closings:  June 20-July 4, and Nov. 28-Dec. 12.
3. Other dates closed:  Jan. 1, Feb. 2-4, Apr. 9, Oct. 8, and Dec. 24.

Temple Phone #:  (852) 2339-8100
#2 Cornwall Street, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, China
e-mail:  hkong-rec@ldschurch.org
http://lds.org/church/temples/hong-kong-china?lang=eng

shoppers' world (updated 12/16)

    Hong Kong is known as the shopping mecca of the world for a long time until China's large cities started competing.  But, still, it's a great place for bargain shopper like me.
   Our apartment is right next to the Fanling Mall.  When we come down from our 26th floor, the guard (yes, the place has a doorman/woman on guard 24/7), there is the Seven-Eleven next door, a spa, a buffet restaurant, then the mall with hundreds of stores.  To go to the MTR subway station, about a 10-minute walk, if we go through the mall, we'd go pass at least 3 or 4 bakeries, several restaurants, shops for anything you can imagine, dim sum fast food, smoothie shops, 2 grocery stores...the list goes on.  It's hard to be on a diet here when temptations abound.

    We do a lot of our grocery shopping at the "park and shop" at Fanling Mall where one can find a lot of western food products.  To give you a little idea of the cost, a 6-oz Yoplait yogurt is US$1.50, a quart of milk is HK$20 or US$2.57, a bag of 24-oz oakmeal is US$4, a stick of butter is US$2.57, 4 slices of multi-grain bread US$1.30.  As you can see, western type of foods are available, but quite expensive, but fruits and vegetables are fresh and inexpensive.  One of the images below is that of a "dragon apple" with red skin outside with white and sesame seed like black spots inside.  It wasn't as sweet, so I didn't like it very much.  But star fruit is great and mangoes are plenty.  I saw several different kinds of fruits that I grew up with in Taiwan.  It was exciting. 

    There are shopping centers at each area/district.  Some are world famous, such as Stanley's Market, Tsim Sha Tsui, the Nathan Road shops, Mong Kok, Kowloon Tong, to name a few.  Elwin and I stopped at Ikea and picked up a few household items for the apartment.  The only thing is whatever you buy, you have to carry it home.  Consequently, we bought most of our stuff right by the apartment if they are available.  Carrying heavy bags can be hazardous to ones health as we experienced in China.  Not having a car to go places probably is one of the biggest adjustments for Americans here.  We are quite spoiled, aren't we?

 
    There are more pictures to upload.  So please come back to this page to check for updates.  Please leave a comment so I know who's been visiting our blog.

Our first week in Hong Kong

    Yes, we got through our first week here.  It's been GREAT!  We work with a group of very special people in the temple.  First, our fellow senior missionaries are great, and they take very good care of us!  Their help has been invaluable.  They took us on the MTR (subway) to the temple, to church, to markets, to anywhere we needed to go.  They are the Wilson's, the Bishop's, and the Arnell's, all from Utah.  Their dedication to their work as temple missionaries is exemplary.  What a blessing to know them and work with them.

    Since we are in training the first week, our schedule has been a little different.  Monday is always P-day, Tuesday and Wednesday we worked from 8 AM to 3 PM.  Thursday and Friday, we worked from 2:15 to 9:15 PM.  Since it takes about an hour of traveling each way, we are exhausted when we get back to the apartment.

    Can anyone expect to have a better place to go than to the temple each day?  I have had to pinch myself a few times because I'm not sure it is for real.  We are so happy doing what we are doing serving those people who come to the temple.  We were especially thrilled to have met several members from Mainland China.  Their love of the gospel touches me each day we meet them.

   This week three (church) sisters traveled from a branch of the Church between Shanghai  and Nanjing to be patrons for a week.  We guess that the distance is seven to eight hundred miles away.  They brought their genealogies with them so that their ancestors could also share in the same blessings we have in being together as families in the hereafter.  We find it somewhat overwhelming to see the sacrifices they make to travel so far.  When we think about how much we have and how little effort we sometimes make, these faithful saints who look up to us make us feel very humble indeed.   

   Elwin and I are learning our work in Mandarin Chinese so as to be able to communicate with our patrons from Mainland China.  We are also assigned to attend Sunday services in a Mandarin Chinese Branch in Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island, south of us.  We take the "blue" line MTR from Fanling to Hung Hom, then walk through the station for about 10 minutes and down the steps to take Bus #104.  The bus takes us through the Harbor Tunnel and a couple of stops later, we are at the vicinity of the Wan Chai Chapel.  This is probably the most expensive area in Hong Kong with financial institutions.

   The church office building houses several wards and branches from first to 7th floor.  The 8th to 10th floors are the church offices and apartments housing Area General Authorities.  It's simple but also magnificent.  We were there for the senior missionaries activity night and the night view was unbelievable.  There are many senior couples working at the church office building.  Most of them were there as volunteers and a few others who are church employees working on buildings and/or other projects.

   Over all, this has been an eye opening week.  We feel very blessed to be here.