Lunches, dinners, and goodbyes OH MY....

The last two weeks have been a flurry of social events! Four Thanksgiving dinners, one of which was Zone Conference for the young missionaries and several that were with friends, ward parties, and older missionary events. My daughter said, get out the fat pants mom! ha ha :)

Zone conference went well although there were a few hiccups, which is Hong Kongs middle name. You just have to know going into anything like that, things are going to happen. We have 86 missionaries now which means I plan for 110 when feeding 50+ Elders (young adult men) and the Sisters. Thanksgiving dinner for that many people is pretty intense and with only two small ovens and some crock pots, it made sense to cater part of it. So I made the meat, and the dessert (ham, turkey, and pumpkin chocolate chip cake with cream cheese frosting) and we catered the breads, mashed potatoes, green beans with walnuts/bacon, and this amazing green salad with pears, blueberries, broccoli, pine nuts, feta, and this blueberry vinaigrette.. Sounds great, right??

When the food arrived we quickly saw that there was plenty of breads and salad stuff, but the potatoes and green beans were enough for about 50 regular people, not Elders. Anyone who has fed them anywhere in the world understands what this means. They eat A LOT. So I had a mild heart attack and we served small portions of those two things and the world didn't end. The pumpkin chocolate chip cake made up for it and they were very happy and of course super appreciative as always no matter how much they get. :)

We have enjoyed getting together with so many people we have met and worked with in our various assignments. There are four couple missionaries who are going home in the next week so at the big Thanksgiving dinner with the Asia Area Presidency and older missionaries, they did a video/slide show set to music of each of the couples mission experiences. THEN they expected us to talk. (Really?) I think that is when it really hit me that this experience is coming to a close and we are going home.

Saturday night we had a Thanksgiving Chinese Hot Pot dinner for the Kwun Tong ward that we attend. Think of Melting Pot, with only the meat/veggie part and no chocolate fondue. It was very good, although I missed the chocolate. :) You have a big pot of boiling water in the middle of the table and then you can cook anything in it, (veggies, different kinds of meats, fish etc) then add garlic or whatever seasonings in your own bowl. They also had two cooked turkeys they bought that I helped carve and serve and I brought several bags of chocolate chip cookies. I had to get some chocolate in there somewhere. Joe was asked to speak about Thanksgiving and that was interesting having him talk about what it means in America and how it applies to them. (In Cantonese, but the translation I got back was great! ha ha)

Sunday was a Young Single Adult big meeting called "Super Sunday". Four times a year they all meet together from the whole Hong Kong area and have regular church meetings which are Sacrament meeting, Sunday school and a meal afterwards. They had us bare our testimonies during sacrament meeting and later gave us a nice card that many of them had written in. All of these "last" events, are full of goodbyes, and "see you later". We had about 132 in attendance and of course I had a translator for the church meeting but most of them speak English so conversing before and after meetings is no problem. Joe had other meetings after so he stayed and I was able to go home and have some quiet time. There hasn't been a lot of that these past few months.

The rest of the week before we go is full of more of the same and tying up loose ends. A lot of pictures are included in this post! I will write one more blog post... "EPILOGUE - Lessons from Hong Kong."

When asked what we will miss the most, it's the people of course. Like life and all kinds of different experiences, people come into our lives for seasons and many relationships continue and change but the memories and lessons will always be there. The Savior is real and so is His atonement. I'm grateful for many many things, but I'm especially grateful for knowing that!

I need a nap.

Love,
Sister Kwan

Sunny and Lorraine who were the YSA's in charge
of the Super Sunday. They did a great job!

A new member who is a YSA named Lawrence.
Great kid and doing very well!

Sunny and his family invited us over
for a really nice meal. Great people!

Part of the food from one of the amazing
Thanksgiving dinners we had.

Funny story... Dinner at our apartment with 8 missionaries, that we thought was only going to be 4. Made soup and bread and clearly we didn't have enough. So with some fast thinking, I had some sausage, corn and a few other things in the freezer that I literally just cut up, added more water and chicken bullion and it worked out great.

Our great friends, the Hansens. He is the Director of Temporal Affairs
here for all of Asia. It is a 5 year assignment as a church employee.

Group picture on Thanksgiving with part of the Asia Area
Presidency, legal council, and the older missionaries.

Missionaries!

Missionaries!

Missionaries!

The Lams and the Luis at the Lams home for
 a great meal. We love these two families!

Edwin Lee, one of the YSAs and us at the Super Sunday.

Leo Ho and his wife from the Kwun Tong Ward.

Irene, a new member. She has an amazing story and is doing incredible.

Kwun Tong ward Thanksgiving party.
Bishop Yau is in the plaid shirt in the middle.

Becky and I carving the turkey.
I had a knife and she had chopsticks. :)

Our friends, Elder and Sister Lemmon

Went to this really cool Korean BBQ Buffett with
Sister Lau and Sister Chiu. (S/Chiu is the one who
connected Joe with his complete genealogy)