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
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
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| My two sisters Deb, Crystal, and brother David at our brother John's memorial in Utah. |
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| Dinner with another missionary couple, the Whiddens and the young Sister missionaries, both from the Philippines. |
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| 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. |
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| Lunch. Noodles, pork wantons, and a pork bun. (sweet bread with meat inside) If you like the salty sweet thing you would enjoy this. |
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| The way the skyline reflects on the water is so beautiful. |
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| On the Ferry going over to Hong Kong Island to the Peak with President and the new missionaries. |
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| Another view of the skyline from the ferry. |
Nooo problem... ha ha ha ha!
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