Once in a Blue Moon!

 

Elder and Sister Johnson, our friends and fellow Victoria II Branch leaders on Saturdays, had a change in their mission and were called to open the small island of Timor Leste near Malaysia.  We are excited for the rare opportunity they have, but we really miss them and their enthusiasm!  They are the ones holding the shirts.

We had kind of a sparse month of leaders after the Johnson's left because Elder Smith, standing next to me,  ended up in the hospital after suffering severe chest pain.  They were able to put in a stent to prevent a full on heart attack, but he is still suffering from double vision as a strange result of the surgery and doesn't have much energy.  Then, our other Saturday helpers, Elder and Sister Pack, on the right, started a Saturday evening missionary effort at our apartment to inform anyone interested as to why there are 22 Senior couples living in our complex, so they have to run off as soon as our meetings end.  Still, the branch hasn't fallen apart so far.

We were so excited to have our friend, Shelley Li come to visit us from Mainland China.  She joined the church in Cambodia and was our 2nd Chinese convert.  She is still active in the church and it was interesting to hear about her group in Shenzhen.

Our Sisters made her feel at home.

One of our Sisters, Jenny, went back to the Philippines in June to get married, and then came back to Hong Kong to work.  Her husband is a domestic worker in Brunei.  After a couple of months, they decided they didn't want to be apart, so she broke her contract and left to join him and hopefully get a job there.  Here she is at the farewell party for her.

This is one of our favorite friends, "The Paper Lady" who sits out on the steps of the Wan Chi Building selling her newspapers and collecting all the cast off newspapers people would otherwise just throw in the trash.  She always has a smile and a thumbs up or wave for us!

Our building is right next door to the Maserati Dealership and the Porsche Dealership is almost next door to that.  I have never seen so many expensive cars on the road!  Here is David checking out a baby blue Lotus with a sticker price of over $1 Million HKD.

We are the "parents" of Heleman Family FHE group on Saturdays.  We had a big sports competition  with the other groups playing basketball, badminton, table tennis and relay games.  Check out David's neon shirt he bought at the market!

This is some more of our Heleman Family in a more dignified setting.

Our activities continue to be fun and interesting.

We had a sewing class where everyone began to make something that they will wear in a Fashion Show planned by May Ann in the purple.

Here's May Ann in her finished outfit.....

Note the shoes!

Sister Myrna showed us how to make bead art and then the next week presented me and Sister Smith with these lovely little Bead Lights that she made.

Sister Kriska, a registered nurse, gave us a First Aid Class and took our blood pressure.

I am busy teaching piano lessons......  This is my prize student, Nimfa.

And helping people with Family History....

Here we are with the Smiths and Sister Nimfa at the Temple after our Quarterly Sunday Opening.  On her only day off, she is an ordinance worker at the temple in the morning and comes to church in the afternoon.  We love her!!

You can see we also have a few men in our branch.  They are great to come and help us man the Baptistery on our weekday Temple Trips.

An interesting Filipino meal we had one night where all the food was just spread out down the table and we all stood around and ate it with our hands!




We had a Blue Moon this month.  I have seldom seen the moon so big.  This picture just doesn't do it justice.  It was amazing!  This is right in our front yard so to speak!

We'll probably only get to be Hong Kong once in a Blue Moon!!!