Miracles are still happening today!

It's only been about a week since I last wrote but so much has happened.

Great story.... Friday night we decided we were going to go into a part of town called Tsim She Tsui for dinner. They have several good Mexican food restaurants and we wanted to try one so off we went. Joe had been working on some of the engineering  projects and was working with BYU that afternoon and so we left later than planned. We were on the shuttle that took an hour instead of 15 minutes because of a traffic jam, but we just let go and thought that this was an adventure and we would get there eventually. We went to this "swanky" part of town... It is really cool and reminds me a lot of So Ho in New York with its eclectic artsy vibe and it's just a fun part of town. We get to this restaurant called Tequila Jacks, and they tried to sit us at the bar and we thought that was not a good idea (Imagine that picture with the caption, "Two LDS missionaries at the BAR" ... Yeah, not good.) So they sat us at a table and we ordered steak fajitas which were excellent and we enjoyed dinner and walked around town. Because of all the weird delays, we got back to the shuttle bus to go back to our apartment several hours later than planned.

While waiting in line, I saw these three boys who were playing around and this woman talking to them. I thought she was the mom, but she was the domestic helper of that family and is from the Philippines. We were just chatting and it turns out that she had changed employers and had only worked for this family for a few months and is looking for a new "church home". I shared a few things and then mentioned that there are congregations of women just like her and that there was a lot of support. She also turned out to not only live in the same apartment complex as us, but the same building three floors up! We exchanged numbers and she messaged me that night saying thank you and that she was wanting to go to church.... Now, out of eight million people in this city, we just happened to be in the same line, in the part of town that is 30 minutes from where we both live at the same time to have this conversation. It was a witness and reminder to me that we are not in charge! Heavenly Father knows us and loves us. He knows what we need even when we think we have the answers. Sometimes, when things are not going the way we think they should, remembering to trust that things are as they should be and quite often there is a higher purpose that we may not understand at the time. Most of the time it's just not about us. She is now meeting with the missionaries.

Our week was filled with many different things. We fed 140 missionaries for zone conferences, and had lots of meetings and worked with some of the young single adults which is always fun. Saturday we were invited by some friends to go on a "junk boat" for the day. It is really just a big boat that has a kitchen and huge covered sitting area, as well as several open areas and a deck on top. They attached a slide to the top of the boat and also tugged a ski boat with "toys" that could be used as well. We went to an area called Sai Kung which is a beautiful area by the ocean with a lot of islands, beaches and rainforest areas in the South China Sea. It took an hour to boat out to where they dropped anchor and we stayed for the day. They served food all day and we had a great time!  It was awesome to be in the beautiful surroundings with fun people!

Something else amazing that happened is that when we first got here two months ago, we met a man named Payton Kwan, and because of the last name, Joe talked to him about genealogy. Joe brought some copied pages from home of what he was told was his genealogy, but he doesn't read Chinese so he had no idea what he had. Payton said he could connect Joe to his mother-in-law, Sister Chiu who is a master genealogist thinking that their families might connect somewhere up the line.

In China they take their ancestors very seriously, so all Sister Chiu needed was the village that Joe's family was origionally from, any papers he had and see what she could find. The story is pretty crazy but in the South of China (remember that is different than Hong Kong) they have these "temples" for their ancestors that they keep books of all the many generations of family. They have them with different family names and she found his family's Temple with their name on it.... She also found the grave of Kwan Nam Hing and his wife, who were the ones who migrated from the North down to the South of China only a few hours from Hong Kong around 1200AD. She brought back a completed book of 24 generations of Joe's family all the way back to the Song Dynasty.... THOUSANDS of names of people in his family. He was also able to provide current information, so now his name, and his children's names are in the "Kwan temple" in China. Isn't that the coolest thing??

It is interesting because before we left on our mission, we were "set apart" as missionaries by our Stake President. In that blessing, Joe was told that there were "multitudes of people on the other side of the vail who were excited he was coming to Hong Kong". At the time, we didn't know what that meant and now it makes sense with this incredible miracle that has happened.

There is such a bigger plan in play in all of our lives and often we will find meaning as we look back at different things that have brought us to where we are right now. Sometimes we don't understand the timing of things, like us going on a mission right now when we are young and most couples don't do this for another decade or so.  We just never know what is around the corner or where life will take us or what lessons we will learn along the way. What I do know is that when we have faith in God's plan and stop fighting what He's trying to do in our lives we are a lot happier and have much more peace.  I'm grateful to be here and to be building the relationships we are right now. We love the YSA's, humanitarian work, working with the young missionaries, working with congregations, working in the temple etc. Usually these are all separate types of missions for couples. How cool is it that we are blessed to be a part of all of these things in Hong Kong. It took a bit to settle in and find our place. The Lord knows us and what we need and we feel a lot of peace and are so grateful.

John 14:26-27
"But the comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth, I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

No matter what is happening in our lives, peace is available to us if we choose it.
Love,
Sister Kwan

Inside the Kwan Temple that holds all of the genealogical books of the Kwan family.

The door of the Kwan temple with the name written in Chinese on the top of the door frame.

Dinner with Payton, his wife, two kids, and his mother-in law, Sister Chiu.

This is the grave of  Kwan Nam Hing and his wife who were the original "Grandparents" where his Kwan genealogy book begins in about 1200AD.

This is Noble and Eleanor Coker, who rented the "Junk Boat" for everyone.  He is the CEO of a company that builds amusement parks in Asia.

This is a picture of the boat.

Gorgeous hills and rainforest in the distance.

Ready to get on the boat.

Seafood, noodles, fried rice, and a few salads. No one left hungry..

In Sai Kung they have random cows running around in the village. We were cracking up that  they literally were jumping over bushes and walking in front of cars and walkways by the restaurants.

Another friend on the boat.  We had so much fun.

This is a picture close to the LDS temple in Hong Kong as we were walking to the MTR station (subway train). People don't realize how much green rainforest there really is in Hong Kong.

This was the coolest place. It is called "Smile", and it is a frozen yogurt place with only a vanilla tart flavor, but they make all these creations and layer stuff in between. I definitely was smiling. :) Zoom in on the picture.  It's worth seeing all the detail.

Hong Kong - Utah - Hong Kong in 5 days :)

What a wild few weeks... More of the same but interrupted by a lightning fast trip to Utah for my brothers memorial. We left on a Friday and were in Utah for 2 1/2 days and flew back to Hong Kong. We both should have been destroyed by the crazy travel (22 ish hours each direction), but I know we were totally blessed because we both did ok with the travel and are back to it. I was happy to be in Salt Lake City and honor my brother and be with my family as we celebrated his life. I also went to Costco and picked up a couple things to bring back... several different kinds of cheeses that I can freeze and a huge bag of chocolate chips. (You know, the 5th food group.)

I was scheduled to teach institute the day after we returned and was asked if I wanted to reschedule and I said no way. :) The lesson I taught was on Ether 6-10 in the Book of Mormon, about the Jaredites and their successes, failures and then ultimate destruction. It is interesting to me that there are so many civilizations over time who have risen and fallen for the same reasons. They struggle.... turn to God.... become successful.... decide they don't need to take their commitments seriously.... fall away .... become hardened.... and then are "humbled" by something rough.... and return to the faith (or not). In that process, the prophets always warn the people of the dangers ahead regarding their attitudes and actions, but often isn't taken seriously because the danger is not real to them. Interesting what we see happening today in general. The real question is, where are we at personally in this cycle?

We are beginning several projects working with different groups of people. Joe continues his work on three engineering projects for the Asia area. One of them is to create low cost housing to replace the traditional Mongolian Ger... Which is basically a big tent that several generations of a family live in. Another project is changing from coal to electric heating for the Gers they currently use. The third project is using LED lights for air purification systems in these developing countries like Cambodia and Mongolia where the air quality is so bad. He is leading these projects from start to finish and working with the BYU engineering department so the students can be involved. There is a tremendous amount of research, conference calls and putting proposals together to make this happen. It could really change the way these people live and help improve their quality of life.

We had a meeting with the Stake President (the leader of an area with several congregations or wards) on Friday night at 9:30pm, ha ha... They do things a bit differently here. Culturally, the Chinese work 12-14 hour days 5-6 days a week and have their meetings later in the evenings. The president asked Joe to be on the High council and for us to run the young single adult program ages 18-29, setting up activities, firesides etc. to support them. The statistics of returned missionaries becoming less active are astonishing (not just here but everywhere) and they are wanting to have more support for that age group. We are excited and it will be really fun. As a matter of fact, Sister Wong who served in the Sacramento mission is in that Stake and we get to work with her.

Joe was also asked, as a member of the high council to speak in a different ward every month... in cantonese. He smiled and of course said yes, and then once we left, completely freaked out. ha ha.  I'm sure it's wrong of me to be enjoying this entirely, but I couldn't stop laughing! He always has things so "under control" and everything is "noooo problem..." so to see him sweat a bit is quite enjoyable for me. :)

The International district which includes the Pilipino branches (the women here as domestic workers), is having a "self reliance" symposium in October and we have been asked to be a part of creating that. Our first meeting is tomorrow and that will be a lot of fun. Basically it will be an all day conference helping these women and giving them tools to become more self reliant and possibly be able to get back to their countries and be with their children. Part of the problem is that culturally, they are expected to work and pay for their entire family back home. If they don't, they are extremely pressured and manipulated to do it. 

There is a young missionary here from the Philippines that joined the church and is now serving in Hong Kong and her mother isn't writing her because she's so upset she left. The mom feels she abandoned the family because her sister is in college and this daughter who is on a mission is expected to work to pay for it as well as her parents expenses. Culturally, healthy boundaries are nonexistent. If you have money and a family member wants it for ANY reason then you are expected to give it to them. Then these ladies of all ages, go into debt to give their families what they want and they end up having to stay here for decades to pay it back. It is a very delicate situation and has to be handled carefully but this is a huge issue. I'm looking forward to being a part of the symposium, and hopefully can make some inroads with a few of them. They are expecting about 250-300 at the event. We will see how all of this unfolds.

Wednesday night we went to dinner with the mission President, his wife, and 10 newly arrived missionaries. They were exhausted and pretending to not be scared. :). We joked with them and reassured them they would be fine and testified that he Lord would help them adjust and it would be ok. After dinner, we went to Victoria Peak, which is the highest point in Hong Kong. The views overlooking the city are breath taking! President Philips showed us the area where the mission was officially opened with a dedicatory prayer in 1949. It was pretty cool and the history is very interesting. In the 69 years since the mission in Hong Kong was opened, the church has expanded to include over 850,000 members meeting in 1,500 congregations in 22 countries in this region.

Next week will be very busy as we have zone conferences and will help with the food and work with the missionaries which is always fun. In other words, we will be doing a lot more reassuring. :) It feels like we are finding our place and will not be short on things to do! There is a lot of work and many ways we can help in moving the work forward. We have been away from home for two months and it kind of feels like a dream and not totally real.

We are grateful for our blessings, and miss our family and all our loved ones very much. At the same time, we know this is where we need to be for this short period of time in our lives.

Love you all!
Sister Kwan

My two sisters Deb, Crystal, and brother David
at our brother John's memorial in Utah.

Dinner with another missionary couple, the Whiddens and the young
Sister missionaries, both from the Philippines.

We were waiting for our train.
Look at all the people waiting on the other side....  Literally a sea of people.  It's amazing how many people they can move on public transportation here.

Lunch.  Noodles, pork wantons, and a pork bun. (sweet bread with meat inside) If you like the salty sweet thing you would enjoy this.

The way the skyline reflects on the water is so beautiful.

On the Ferry going over to Hong Kong Island to the Peak with President and the new missionaries.

Another view of the skyline from the ferry.