Christmas in Hong Kong

Christmas in Hong Kong is quite an experience! Culturally they celebrate Christmas very differently than we do in the States, where at home we celebrate with family traditions and most everything shuts down. Hong Kong in general has more "community" traditions verses individual family ones and the city is all a bustle and open every day no exceptions except maybe Chinese New Year. One example is, many wards (congregations) have their Christmas parties on Christmas Day. I know of about five, one of which we are going to! Hong Kong decorates the city like nowhere I have ever seen before. Even in our apartment complex there is a massive real Christmas tree in the lobby. I have no idea where they even cut it down, or how they got it into the building. Seriously, they must have used a crane or something but it's beautiful. Everywhere you go you see all kinds of the most elaborate decorations. You hear Christmas music in elevators, markets, malls, and YES, it's Christian Christmas music and is quite beautiful.

The obvious question is how is it being away from home during the holidays? Christmas time with my kids has always been a huge deal with a lot of traditions and fun things we do as a family. I would be lying if I said I didn't have a few weepy days here and there, and I can do without singing "I'll be home for Christmas", but the good news is we are SO BUSY doing all kinds of cool stuff!

We were invited over to Payton Kwan's for a real traditional Hong Kong BBQ. He works for the church in the Asia area office and he is the connection that helped Joe get 24 completed generations of his genealogy. Their apartment is about 500 square feet. Payton, his wife, two little girls, and their helper live there. This is normal Hong Kong living. They are blessed to have a roof top in their building that they can use for BBQ's and other outdoor entertaining. Hong Kong style is you have a table full of different kinds of meat like fish balls, chicken, pork, beef, shrimp (they were dead but still had eyes, eek) etc. and everyone has their own skewer and you just BBQ it like you would a hot dog. It's Hong Kong, so no s'mores, but if I had known I would have brought marshmallow and chocolate and introduced them to that incredible goodness. :) Next time! We really enjoyed the time with them. Their girls are so sweet and they are the a great family. Joe and Payton are related but their genealogy doesn't connect back until the 1500's.  Who has genealogy that goes back that far? AMAZING. I think there are only about 100 common Chinese names, that's why there are a million Wongs, Chans, etc... Interesting, right? Anyway, we love them.

We have been to several Christmas parties, devotionals, and dinners. It has been fun to see the different ways people celebrate here. On Sunday was our wards Christmas devotional/dinner. They had a beautiful program of the Christmas story with a Chinese twist. The narrators were dressed up in old traditional Chinese robes with fake mustaches and long beards as "wise old Chinese masters" and shared the story of Christ's birth with musical numbers in between. The program and music was traditional Christmas music, and of course was in Cantonese. For one of the songs, the music started and it was my favorite arrangement of a primary song called "He Sent His Son". My Aunt Sue's mother wrote it decades ago. It was sung in English... It was the coolest thing ever to be across the world and have something so familiar that I love. Yes, I was a mess. We both really enjoyed the whole program. For the dinner, they had asked me to make the dessert and I made a layered brownie, chocolate pudding, whipped cream and fresh raspberry trifle. There was a huge catering pan and a smaller 9x11 and I thought they were going to lick the pan. They had never had anything like that before. It's funny because they will tell you, "We don't like things too sweet", but that's not been my experience. Ha ha... It was fun.

Christmas Day (today) we invited the Senior missionaries over for brunch and we all made something to share. We had 14 people in our little apartment but it was so fun. Later we are going way out to the New Territories (close to mainland China) to a Christmas party and then to another church building that night for a concert the young missionaries are putting on. It will be a very fun day.

Tomorrow (26th) we have a special all day Zone Conference for the entire mission of 119 young missionaries. We are catering it from a very high end Italian restaurant. The owner is a member of the church here and the mission is only being charged about a quarter of the real cost. They are going to have two kinds of pastas, two different salads, fresh bread, and olive oil/balsamic vinaigrette and we might see tears, ha ha. They just don't get food like this... EVER. It's pretty cool because they will have all just talked to their families and it will be a good fun focus to be spiritually fed and have a couple really fun meals. The second meal is New York style bagels, savory and sweet, lots of different meats so they will have options, and a table of different desserts the Senior missionaries have made for them. They get to play some fun games and have the day together. I'm looking forward to it!

This season has made me appreciate how the little things we do and experience together as family and friends that may not seem like that big of a deal but really do create lasting memories for you and your loved ones. Appreciate and love those around you because tomorrow is not promised. This year we go into this season with three less people here (physically) and it is a reminder that life goes on and we need to make it count. We need to say what we need to say. Tell others we love them. Forgive who we need to forgive. Realize that most things are just not that big of a deal and enjoy right now. Letting go of things we have no control over gives us a lot of peace. Christ made the ultimate sacrifice for us so that we could choose. In the end, hopefully we are choosing Him. This is why Christmas is a big deal to me. It celebrates the birth of Him who made it possible for all of us to become more of what we need to be. THAT is the good news of the gospel.

This morning I was in the kitchen listening to Christmas music while preparing food for the brunch, and I could physically feel peoples prayers on our behalf. Family members who have passed on feel very close as well and we feel the love of the Lord. The truth is we are never alone. Thank you. We love you and are so grateful for you in our lives.


Merry Christmas!
Sister Kwan

Merry Christmas!

A real Christmas tree in the lobby of where we live. It smells amazing.

Roof top of the apartment building Payton's family live in.  It's in a little 
village that is way out in the New Territories for the Hong Kong BBQ.

We had fun. It was quite an experience.  If you look off into the distance, the tall buildings you see is Shenzhen in mainland China.

Joe's turn to carve the turkey and a different Ward party :)

This was the dessert I made for the party. If you look, the big pan underneath they had already devoured, so I put the small pan inside the big one.

Brunch for the Senior missionaries at our apartment.  I made an egg frittata and everyone brought all kinds of good stuff. Waffles, bacon, fruit, a berry cheesecake, juice, etc.

Sister Barlow even made cinnamon rolls!

14 people in our little apartment. We all had a great time.

6 Months already....

Well...  It's been the longest, fastest, weirdest, hardest, fulfilling six months of my life! That’s a lot of emotion in one sentence, and let me tell you, try living it! It can be summed up in four words. Learning to let go... I think Heavenly Father is trying to teach this to me in about five million different ways.

Going on vacation to a new land is a very different experience than learning to live, function and work in a culture that couldn’t be more different than your own. After the initial shock of the first 6 weeks or so, we both (well, me really, ha ha) settled in and adjusted to life here in Hong Kong. I learned how to shop, get around, do laundry, and use my little Easy Bake oven etc. and our assignments continued to evolve and get more spread out and interesting!

* Supporting and having assignments in a Cantonese Ward/Stake (multiple congregations).

* In charge of YSAs in our assigned Stake (Joe is High Council)

* Support YSAs in the whole Hong Kong region (6 Stakes)

* Work a 4 hour temple shift a week

* Advisory couple for FSY 2019

* Planning, buying, preparing food every six weeks for two days of Zone conference and one day of MLC.

* Social media for the Mission

* 3 engineering projects Joe has in Taiwan and Mongolia with the Asia Area Presidency.

There are other short term projects and assignments that come up that are fun too. We. Are. Not. Board...  I need a nap, is what I need!

As Senior missionaries the rules are very different for us. We don’t have to be "within sight and/or sound of each other at all times" and our work is different than the young missionaries. They primarily proselyte, and as you can see our assignments include many different things. Sometimes Joe is working over in Wan Chai on HK Island and I'm in Kowloon Tong at a different building an hour away. We do wear dress clothes EVERY DAY... shirt/tie for Joe, dress/skirt for me.

One of the recent assignments I had is, the mission president and his wife asked me to go purchase what we need to complete the supplies/equipment for the kitchen. Last Thursday I gloriously wore tennis shoes and pants and went with a friend to this area where there are a lot of stores that have restaurant kitchen equipment.The goal is to get things set up so when the next person comes it will be a lot easier! So here I am on the streets of Hong Kong with a 4 gallon stainless steel pot, a HUGE bowl for mixing stuff, several knives, and more. We decided we should jump in a taxi instead of taking all that stuff 40 minutes on public transportation (eek) and then walking with it for another half a mile. That is life here in Hong Kong.

Speaking of changing things, the mission office is part of a huge two story church building. (Kowloon Tong) where other meetings are held. It is across the street from the temple and is a different building than where the church office is. (Wan Chai) This is also the place where Zone conferences and other missionary trainings are held. There is a tiny kitchen in this big building with one little oven, bigger than the Easy Bake in our apartment but small by American standards, and a small refrigerator.

I had asked the powers that be why they only had one oven and a small refrigerator in the kitchen where we hold these Zone conferences and asked how hard it would be to get another one? They said, "Not hard at all! Do you want another one??" I said, "YES!" So they are completely redoing the kitchen in the Kowloon Tong building and added a second oven and stove top. Life changing for sure.

We also got an American size refrigerator in the mission office which is just down the hall from the church buildings kitchen. It needed to be in a separate place from the main kitchen because everyone traveling from China, Mongolia, Cambodia etc plus the a few Chinese wards use the kitchen so it needed to be in a place that can be locked. It was so funny because again, Sister Phillips (mission presidents wife) said, "Order what you want"! I said, "Are you sure?" and she said, "Yes, really get what you think is best!"... So I said, "OK...." The facilities employees who are Chinese that handle the ordering and installation of these appliances see this huge monstrosity of a refrigerator and said, "Sister Kwan... This is really big!" I said ,"I know isn't it great"?? Ha ha.. Our mission president is so happy! It's big enough to fit large trays of food, etc. and plenty of freezer space as well. Changing Hong Kong, one refrigerator and oven at a time! We are still cracking up.

We just had our first 3 1/2 hour FSY training with 13 people tonight from 7:30-10:30pm. It was very successful and we feel like the group of leaders are moving forward. One thing about the Asian culture is, in general they are very responsible and duty bound. If they commit to something, they are all in. I love that about them.

Hard to believe Christmas is around the corner! We are involved in several fun Christmas projects that bring the spirit of Christmas into our hearts and that is really fun. A beautiful video, "He is the gift"... reminds us all of what this season is about. You can go to Youtube, "He Is The Gift"and it's worth the 2 1/2 minutes. This time of year can get crazy with so many things to do and it's quite often a bustle of activity. For some, it can also be a difficult time of year reminding many of losses, and other things. May you feel the love of the Savior at this time of year and know that He is the author of all peace.

Love,
Sister Kwan

All the Senior Missionary couples combined resources and created some Christmas boxes for about 12 missionaries who could use a little extra support. Some are the only member in their families and have zero support from home.  It was a very fun project. Joe was working away while I put the boxes together. :)

Decorating the Christmas tree in the lobby at the church office building, otherwise known as the "Wan Chai building". This tree was huge.

Adding ribbon!

I was pretty high up there... in. a. skirt. :)

Finished tree! The signs on the Christmas gifts say, "Peace", "Faith", "Joy", "His Love", etc.

This was a show in a mall!  It was really cute and they had professional dancers, singers, and acrobats.

Part of the show.

Our tiny Christmas tree with a baby can of honey roasted cashews in honor of my Dad. :)

Dinner with the sister missionaries and a new member, Alex.

A Chinese cat!  For real...