An obscure village ...

Super cool story! Sometimes people will come into the church building in Wan Chai and want to talk to a missionary about the church. This is a huge 12 story beautiful building that has several chapels for attending church but also has the Asia Area church offices on the 7-10th floors for the church in this part of the world. There are also a lot of missionary couples who have offices here and we are one of them. When someone comes in and wants to talk about our beliefs etc., the security from downstairs calls one of us to go talk to the guest, and this is what happened to Joe the other day.

He was a 19 year old Chinese young man from Beijing with an older woman. As the story goes in his words, he was born in Mainland China and comes from a very poor village that is traditional and strongly holds the communist party's views on government and especially religion. He does have a Buddhist background but always felt like something huge was missing in his life. He kept having dreams that he needed to "get to the west" and learn more about "this God" that many people from the west believe in. He ended up going to Los Angeles to visit for a period of time, and while he was there, met missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One of the missionaries "just happened" to be from Hong Kong serving in LA. He took the lessons for a while and then had to return to Mainland China.

Side stepping for a moment, in Mainland China there are no missionaries. It's against the law. There are many branches (congregations) but there are a lot of rules around it. The foreigners can not under any circumstances go to church with people from the Mainland. They are separated by law and the church takes all that very seriously. If you are Chinese, you can give a Book of Mormon to your family, but you can not give it to a co-worker. (against the law) If someone wants to get baptized who is from the Mainland, they have to come to Hong Kong and have all the lessons in one day and get baptized here.

SO, this was the case with this young man. He had gone back to China after his trip to LA, had found the church, and his Bishop (or Branch President) told him that if he was ready to be baptized he needed to come to Hong Kong. In the mean time, he had made contact with the mother of the missionary serving in LA from Hong Kong who had taught this young man the gospel in the States.  Turns out, this young missionary in LA is the only member in his family and NOW this 19 year old from China had come to HK and was staying with and teaching the missionary's mother about the church! This was the woman he was with when he was talking with Joe. He was here for a few days and was baptized last Tuesday. He was so excited and feels like he found that "thing" that had been missing in his life and is feeling so much purpose, joy and peace. That is amazing to me!

There is a flu going around Hong Kong that is pretty rough. It's an influenza strain that is extremely contagious and a beast if you get it. Neither Joe or I ever get sick, and this one hit us both really hard. We were both down about 4-5 days and is taking several weeks to get completely well. They have closed kindergarten schools for several weeks trying to stop the spread and hospitals are at 111-123% capacity. The senior missionary couples are dropping like flies and everyone is just struggling with their health! Personally, I don't remember ever being that sick before. The good news is, it was right in-between some big events/assignments coming up so it didn't interfere too much with the work we are doing. We both still do not feel 100% but are getting there.

This week we are doing lunch for the missionary leadership training for the young missionaries. It's always fun to be with them. Chinese New Year is coming up on February 5th and in Hong Kong it is seriously bigger than Christmas. Several days of celebrations and the city basically shuts down. Most of the missionary couples and and the Asia Area Presidency got tickets to this parade that is broadcast all over Asia. It's supposed to be a huge deal so that should be a fun experience. A group of us went to stand in line Saturday morning from 5am-10am to get tickets to this thing. (5 hours) I thought, WOW! This must be some parade!! :):) I'll take lots of pictures.

God hears and answers our prayers. Even in an obscure little village in any and every corner of the world. It may take time and it may not look the way you want it to, but He will answer your prayers.

Love,
Sister Kwan

Dinner at the Lam's home. He is the Stake President of the Island Stake. We were also with the Phillip's (Mission President for the China HK Mission). We had a wonderful time. The Lam's very huge and beautiful "flat" is on the 60th floor over looking the city.

Taco bar at our apartment with the Elders from the Ward (congregation) we attend and Garmin who is learning about the gospel. He is also from Mainland China and is here studying engineering at a University. The one Elder has a mask on because he has a cold.  (That is what you do if you are sick at all...)

Another dinner with four of the Elders. It was Elder Francom's birthday (second one from the end)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Started the year off with a bang having Natalie and Riley visit! They arrived on the 27th of December after all of our assignments and cool things we were doing were complete! I think we may have been as exhausted as they were when they landed in Hong Kong, ha ha, but what an amazing time all of us had! 51 miles, 2 theme parks, many fun Hong Kong famous sites, and a whole lot of fun story making Hong Kong culture! (Ask Natalie about the chicken in the wet market! She might need therapy. Eek) At least in the winter time, the "half naked man with a big knife" is DRESSED. Still smoking over the "food" he's "preparing", but dressed. So that's good, right?

One of the wonderful things about serving a mission as a couple is that family and others can come visit. I think out of the 20 couples serving in Hong Kong right now, about 8 had family in town that week. We did get several meetings set up and took care of a few things, but there was a natural break in there with the holidays. It was just perfect! I got to do lots of fun "grandma things" like making cookies, and pancakes and eggs and all kinds of fun stuff I do with the kids back home. Made my heart happy!

We are busy setting up 2019 with all the events we have within our many different assignments. Joe is going to Taiwan January 23rd for the day to meet with Formosa Petrochemical Corporation. They are the ones who are developing the LED lights for air purification. Joe is working with the BYU engineering team to determine the effectiveness of these LED's. The purpose is to find a viable option for the future development of air purification systems as part of the humanitarian outreach for the church. The goal is that they would be used in developing countries around the world. Of Course, Joe is LOVING it and is totally in his element with all this technical stuff.

Every Sunday in January is packed with meetings in different areas of Hong Kong for the youth and leaders in preparation for FSY that will be in July. We also have a big fireside with Elder Homer who is the 2nd Counselor in the Asia Area Presidency that we are helping with. It is for all YSA's, youth, leaders, and parents... That pretty much includes everyone. It is interesting here, because if they have an activity for any group, they usually include all the others as well. In the States, a youth activity is strictly for the youth. A Relief Society social is strictly for the RS. Here, my experience has been that everyone is included in most events. Also, they don't do weeknight activities. They are only on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday evenings because that is all they have as everyone is working crazy long hours wether it's a job or school/study. Even High Council meetings for Joe are every other Friday night from 7:45pm to 9:30pm.

Culturally, you don't ask an employer, "So how many hours a week is this job?" ... That is a big no no. Generally, you get a job and do whatever is expected and it is a standard 8:00am-7:00pm (ish) or later.... Duty, accomplishment, status, and achievement. Asians will tell you, that in general there is a "class" distinction as well. If you haven't seen the movie, "Crazy Rich Asians", go see it. Joe laughed so hard, and in parts I wasn't because he could painfully relate to some of the cultural things portrayed. We personally know families who have their pre-K children in classes to help them get ready for interviews to get into the Kindergarten. This is a pretty standard thing. The right kindergarten means the right elementary school, to get then into the right Secondary School, then the right University. SO... You must interview well as a kindergartener. There is SO MUCH pressure to perform. Like I said, there is a class system and for schooling, you test into them. Once you have a job/career, they call it "Work Life Integration"... (ie... little bit of life in your work) If you are not willing to do it, there are hundreds of people who are. That is just how the system works here. These are great people who love their families and work so hard to fulfill their responsibilities. They are incredibly smart, industrious, loyal and committed. They serve, work, reach out to others and are so kind.

Culture is just that... Culture. How we do things, how we live, shop, work, relate with one another, and what love looks like to different groups of people. It's neither right or wrong, but just a different way that some can call "weird", but really it's just different than what we are familiar with. We are all creatures of habit and are comfortable with our "own way". There is a sweet young sister missionary here from the Philippines who is really missing her culture... She said, she misses going to buy the fish and killing it herself. She misses eating fish with bones, and many other foods she's used to. She misses using her language to express herself, and many other things only familiar to her culture. It's ok to love our own culture. It's also ok and good to embrace and understand others cultures so we can better love and serve whomever we are with.

I love New Years. I love new beginnings and to be able to set goals and start again. It doesn't have to be a new year to start again, but for me it's a natural time to evaluate where I am and where I want to be. It's also a time to feel gratitude for all I have been blessed with and see all that is possible. I can speak for both Joe and I that we are so incredibly grateful to be here in Hong Kong serving these people. It is a blessing and is going by very quickly. We want to make it count and do all that we can with the time we have.

Love,
Sister Kwan

In Macau at the Venetian canal shops.

There is a screen at the arrival hall's doors and we
could see Natalie and Riley about to come out.

Riley's first MTR ride..(Hong Kong's subway rail system)

On the way up the hill to the monastery to the
10,000 Buddha's, which is actually about 12,000.

More 10,000 Buddah's.

Making cookies with Grandma!

 Outside the Jumbo Floating Restaurant.
You literally have to take a boat to it.

This was on the Teacup ride at Disneyland, BEFORE the ride.
Joe was not a happy camper after the ride. :)

At Ocean Park. Another spinning ride Joe opted out of, ha ha.

The end of the day at Disneyland.  Smaller
park but still has the Disney magic.

Visiting "Big Buddha". It was freezing and raining,
so we got these rain ponchos and looked like great big marshmallows. ha ha

After Big Buddha, we went to this fishing village on the other side of the island and rode a boat out to see the pink dolphins. The water was very rough, and no pink dolphins. Riley was NOT amused.

A really cool street on Hong Kong Island in Central.