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!!!

Our Busy July

 

The Fourth of July was just another day to most people in Hong Kong, but we Senior Missionaries celebrated in style with a big American BBQ complete with ribs, potato salad and all trimmings.

David's comment, "How am going to eat all THIS!"

 Note the Apple Pomegranate Salad we brought in front of David.

 

One week a month the missionaries and branch missionaries and members go out finding every day of the week.  They tell us that they have never had Senior missionaries go with them, but now David and President Smith go with them every day and I go when I am not busy teaching piano or sewing or helping our prospective missionaries with their mission papers or doing Family History which all seem to take up my mornings!

 

Here is a group of women we found who committed to come to church and really came.  The parks and malls are full of Filipina women who have a day off and "spend their time sitting, waiting for nothing" as one member told me.  She said she did the same thing before she found the church and has a much better way to spend her days now.  David is taking the picture.

This is a family that David and the members found.  They said they would come to church so David went out and bought some milk in case the baby got hungry.  They got sidetracked, but we still have the milk (in a box) in case they make it someday.

We were excited that the Dragon Boat Races were going to be held right in our front yard so we walked over to watch. 

For some reason, there was a Chinese Scottish Band Marching around....bagpipes and all.  We thought that was pretty random!

 

We expected huge crowds like they have in Cambodia for the Boat Races but in spite of lots of teams, there were few spectators.  We didn't mind that at all!

One afternoon we got away before dark and since it was a Statutory Holiday (an extra day off for the domestic workers) we happened to run into some of our sisters, so we all jumped on the ferry and we treated them to dinner on the other side.

 

 

It was so fun to be with them outside of regular church activities! 

Meet Pearl, Katrina and Kathy.

 

We got to experience preparations for a big typhoon.  The day before, all the windows in town and in our hotel were taped to prevent flying glass.  Barriers were put up against the waterfront.  The day it was supposed to come, Church was dismissed early so everyone could get home safely.  The streets were packed with people and the buses and the MTR were jammed so we opted to run to the ferry in hopes to make it before it quit running.

 

As you can see, it was a good choice as we took this picture from the ferry. 

Below you can see the crowds on the streets.

The wind blew and we got a little rain, but the Typhoon never hit us. 

 

We were excited to have two of our former Cambodian Sister Missionaries come to Hong Kong with their American fiancés that they met on LDS Planet to be married. 

 

Sister Mat Navy and Matthew and Sister Tol Vanny and Terry. 

 

Navy and Matt dropped in one evening and stayed for dinner.

 
 

 

We joined Navy and Matt at City Hall for their Civil Marriage

 

Then we all went to the Wedding Registry in Hong Kong Park for the Marriage of Vanny and Terry.

 

In the afternoon we all attended the temple sealing of Navy and Matthew.

 

We have many different activities after all our church meetings are over. 

 Here is Sister Claire teaching us how to make mango pickles. 

 They were yummy!

 

We have choir practice.  I have been blessed to be able to play the piano well enough to accompany the sisters! 

There is no end to the selfies around here!  This one is called "Fun after Choir"

 

You can't see me, but I am off to the left playing the piano......a real miracle!

 

 

We learned how to fold towels into animals and cakes just like they do on cruise ships!

 

We have fun cooking in the kitchen!

 

We had a class on how to put on makeup.  They asked for volunteers to be made up, but what they didn't mention is that the person applying the makeup would be blindfolded! 

This would be a great YW Activity!!

 

And of course.....we always eat together!

Here we are on a P-Day at Dim Sum with the couples who help us with Saturday Family.

 

They took an official mission picture of us here.  I think it's pretty bad, but maybe that's just the way we look!  I wish I would have known that it was going to be taken and I would have worn something besides my black sweater that I wear every day to keep warm in our freezing building!