Taking It Home With Me

This was an EFY song but can also apply to me as I return home to Arizona. I hope to keep up the early to bed, early to rise pattern I started in Hong Kong. More importantly, I hope to keep being a missionary when I return home. Missionary work with Chinese people has always felt more natural/easy to me than with fellow Gwailos but I need to do better in this. I started off with a happy medium by helping invite a Chinese girl in Arizona to get to know the Church before I left Tempe and happily found out she was getting baptized a couple days after I returned from Hong Kong. Now I’m trying to help her transition to Church activity as she returns to her native land of Hong Kong. Before she goes we are having a last hurrah of fun at my family’s cabin with a bunch of friends from my singles ward. What would missionary work be without some partying mixed in?

Trip Takeaways

1) A testimony is precious. As I visited with the people I had taught/baptized and I discussed the Church with them it because apparent that they had not nurtured their testimony and over time it disappeared. Their circumstances varied and all had encountered difficult challenges, but I think the thing that really made them vulnerable was that they quit strengthening their testimonies. The simple principles of daily scripture study, daily prayer, Church attendance, and service in the kingdom build up our faith and prepare us for trials. If we don’t do anything to grow our testimony it doesn’t just stay stagnant, it shrinks.
2) I love Hong Kong and Asia. For some reason ever since my mission I have had a fascination with the events, countries, and development of Asia. This knowledge helped in my internship a lot and tempts me to keep coming back to Asia. However, what I learned on this trip is that my love of Hong Kong and Asia is mostly Church-centric. I love to see the gospel grow in this part of the world and hope I can play a small part again at some time. In time I hope to return to Hong Kong, but am pretty sure now it will be for the Church and not for career or other aspirations. It would take A LOT of money for me to live there unless it was the Lord directing me back.
3) I love the USA and especially Arizona. There were so many things about Arizona I missed. Sure Arizona is blazing hot, but it doesn’t rain every day and isn’t so humid you feel like you’re in a shower all day everyday. I love open spaces and sunshine. These two at times are very difficult to find in Hong Kong and Arizona often provides in abundance. Just having a yard, fairly clean air, and living on the ground are a few of the things I have a renewed appreciation for after my time in Hong Kong. Finally, I love my family and being around them. We are so lucky that all of us live within two hours of each other in Arizona and are able to get together often. The idea of moving away from this blessing is not really appealing.
4) The Lord moves in mysterious ways. I saw this often in my work and my activities in Hong Kong. Often things don’t seem to go according to the plan we want but God is always watching over us and things will work out in time. Sometimes we must endure struggles, setbacks, frustrations, and progress takes much longer than we would desire, but in the end, things will be OK. I relearned that I need to trust God in all and cultivate favor with the Lord. As a missionary I often remarked that there was no rhyme or reason to missionary success other than God’s grace (at least in Hong Kong it seemed that way). This might be applicable in many areas of my life.
5) I’m sure there are lots of others but I’ve been blogging for a few hours and my contacts are getting fuzzy.

Last Meeting in Hong Kong

I started the day by checking into my flight at the in-town check-in at 7:45am and then took a taxi to the Temple in Kowloon Tong. Elder and Sister Jackson had invited me to a special Temple session and testimony meeting. Once every month or two the Asia Area Presidency and senior couples do an endowment session together and then have a testimony meeting in the chapel floor of the Temple. It was an amazing experience. The session was great and I understood much more of the Cantonese than I had just five weeks before. When I walked into the room for the testimony meeting I knew it was going to be emotional for me. I loved these wonderful people so much and the room brought back so many powerful missionary experiences for me. It was the same room we had our zone and mission conferences in. It was the room I had been taken to after arriving in Hong Kong and the room we had our last meetings in before leaving Hong Kong as missionaries. I had even fallen asleep on the floor my 2nd day in Hong Kong I was so tired because of jet lag.
The testimony meeting was very powerful. President Hallstrom opened the meeting with a powerful testimony and message about families and the important work the missionaries do. Then senior missionaries followed sharing their experiences and how their missions had blessed their lives and families back home. I shared my testimony and started off by trying to compose myself and joking that they might need to get the tissues ready. Five of the sisters pulled out tissues for me as if on cue, it was funny. I was just so thankful for the blessings that have come into my life from the wonderful land of Hong Kong. It was here that I learned to see the Savior’s Atonement work in people’s lives, here where my testimony grew and matured so much, here where I learned to love and serve others, and so many other remarkable experiences. Being back in the room where I had so many choice experiences as a missionary was very humbling. Finally, I thanked the senior missionaries for their kindness and example. As I was the youngest person in the room by at least thirty years, the hymn ‘True to the Faith’ came to mind and I shared the first verse and pledged to them to do my part as a member of the youth of Zion. I’m not sure what else to say, it was one of the times in my life where I felt the Spirit in greatest abundance. I wanted to keep the feeling all day long. President Watson closed the meeting with his testimony and shared some of his remarkable experiences throughout Asia. I doubt I will ever again participate in another meeting with such a unique and small setting where I get to learn from General Authorities on that personal of a level.

My Boys are Grown Up

As I was wrapping up my time in Hong Kong I had an increased urgency to track down people I had taught and/or baptized on my mission. I tried calling them throughout my time there but had little success schedule many until my final week. In my last three days I tracked down three young men I taught the discussions to and had the pleasure of seeing be baptized. The only person I was not able to track down was Jasmine Lee and I think that is because she lives in mainland China now.
Chan Po Sing was the first person I ever taught who got baptized. He had a remarkable conversion in both outward appearance and inward feeling. Helping him come unto Christ was one of the true highlights of my mission. After I moved out of his area I hadn’t communicated with him in over six years but he agreed to meet with a few calls. It was funny how guys that I couldn’t get to schedule because they were too busy for three weeks urgently found time in their schedules when I told them I was leaving Hong Kong in three days. I took a bus out to Tin Shui Wai (over an hour) and met him at the bus terminal. We went to a McDonalds and chatted for over an hour. I wasn’t sure what to expect since we hadn’t talked in so long but he was very happy to see me. We caught up on each other’s lives and there was a real feeling of happiness there. He isn’t active now but he still has warm feelings for the Church and his time/associations there. He is very happy as he got his dream job as a cop and is doing really well in general. Since we met when he was 16 he has really grown up in maturity and is a man now who is planning his life and making wise decisions. We exchanged contact information (he’s already added me on IM so that was nice) and took some photos. After a hug and best wishes we said good bye for what I suspect will be another long time. It was so nice to see him again and see the happy smile on his face. The ride back to Wan Chai was so peaceful and happy as the visit had gone better than I ever expected.
Mui Jan Sing and I visited one more time before I left. He is the kid I watched Wimbledon with and regularly keep in contact with through IM and Facebook. Currently, he’s saving money and trying to visit the US so I told him to add Arizona to his itinerary and I’d show him around. Visits with him are always fun, I just wish he’d make some changes in his lifestyle and return to Church activity.
Shum Ga Git is the young man I taught while serving in Shau Kei Wan. Last year on my trip I arranged to meet him at the Library but we missed each other so that was bitterly disappointing. Thankfully this year we were able to see each other for about 15 minutes and catch up on life. He’s working as a courier now and all grown up. He even has a girlfriend which is kind of funny because at 16 he was more scared of girls than any guy I’ve ever seen. He stayed active for a few years after his baptism (and even met his girlfriend in the Church) but has gone inactive as he works lots of hours now and says he doesn’t have the time. It is disappointing because he had a really strong testimony and many spiritual experiences. He was really apologetic to me about not going to Church and I think kind of ashamed about it. Our visit finished about three hours before my flight and he had to get back to work so we said good bye after exchanging contact information and went our separate ways.
I care deeply about each of these young men and their welfare. The fact that they are all not active in the Church now is really disappointing but not surprising for Hong Kong. Each was active for months if not years and had real testimonies so I know there is a foundation still there. I will keep in touch with them better now than before and try to encourage them. This trip to Hong Kong at least let me know there is still a happy friendship between us and they were all happy to see me again.

Senior Couples

One of the best things about my time in Hong Kong was the chance I had to associate with so many wonderful senior couple missionaries. They were some of my closest co-workers and we shared many wonderful jokes, lunches, spiritual meetings, and other experiences. The work they do is so vital to the Church. In the Asia Area Offices alone there are about ten couples with another 30-40 couples scattered throughout the Asia Area who carry on the Church’s operations in humanitarian efforts, family history, local leadership, legal affairs, CES, proselyting, and many other important activities. They leave family (grandchildren are what they really miss), friends, comfort, and go into the world to new challenges. It is not easy for them, but they love the work they do and the lives they bless. Before this trip I already looked forward to the day when I will serve missions with my eternal companion but I look forward to it even more now. They taught me an important lesson that serving a senior mission doesn’t just happen when you’re 65 or whatever age you leave at. It starts early in your life with a willingness to serve, wise financial management to get yourself in the position you can support yourself, and an ability to put your comforts and family aside for a time. I guess I have one more thing on my short list of things I desire in an eternal companion: a desire to serve senior missions. Here are some of the couples that I got to know in Hong Kong. I didn’t get pictures of everyone I would have liked to as some were traveling around Asia but I thank all of them for their example of faith and the love they shared with me. Also, a big thanks for all the meals they took me out to eat and all the baked good shared! It was like I had an extra 5 or 10 sets of grandparents for six weeks.

Elder and Sister Gibbons are the Asia Area Employment Resource specialists. They help train local leadership and membership throughout Asia on how to find and improve their employment. This is their second time serving in Asia as they also served a remarkable mission in Mongolia. Elder and Sister Aki are the public relations missionaries for Hong Kong. I wrote a blog entry about them earlier but they were such a pleasure to work with. Elder Aki is absolutely hilarious and Sister Aki is tons of fun too. For the last two weeks I think it was her personal goal to hook me and Annie up. Elder/Dr. and Sister Bench serve as the Asia Area Medical Advisors. They help keep the missionaries throughout Asia healthy and also train about health issues. Sadly they were down on the 8th floor so I didn’t get to spend as much time with them, but they offered me some wise advice about career-planning. Elder and Sister Workman serve as Branch President in the Victoria II Branch. They go to Church every day Tuesday to Sunday and help the wonderful branch members progress. This calling has to be one of the strangest in the world. Elder and Sister Baldwin (no picture) serves as Asia Area Humanitarian missionaries. They were always very kind and supportive to me. My last day in Hong Kong they gave me a granddaughter’s number and said to give her a call when I got back to Arizona. Elder and Sister Newell were my closest colleagues as they worked with me in the legal department. They were always providing laughs and making feel like a slacker because of their amazing work ethic. Elder and Sister Jackson serve as the Asia Area Presidency Executive Secretary. I’m not sure exactly how to describe these two but they are amazing. They have skills I can only dream about with technology and are some of the nicest people I have ever met. Elder and Sister Smith are the Asia Area Family History Specialists. Elder Smith served in the Southern Far East Mission when it included Thailand where he served. They were always very generous to me with their time and insights. Additionally, they were lots of fun and Elders Smith and Jackson, and myself enjoyed making Annie’s life difficult at times. Elder and Sister Toone are the Asia Area Auditors. They travel a lot around Asia visiting the local leaders and teaching them how to keep the books. They are from Gilbert in Arizona and were always there with a kind smile and word. Elder Toone is another Hong Kong mission alum so that’s worth big points. I love these senior couples! The Lord’s work needs all the help it can get and every Latter-day Saint couple should prepare to spend some time out in the Lord’s vineyard when the time is right in their life.

Wan Chai Bridge

One of Hong Kong’s busiest pedestrian walkways is bridge that runs from the Wan Chai MTR station to a collection of huge office buildings in downtown Wan Chai. During the morning and evening commutes times it is jammed with people to the point that you just have to walk with the pace of traffic as there is no room to maneuver and you would bump into people if you tried to move quickly. When the bridge is slightly less crowded the rest of the day there is always people out there passing out leaflets/advertisements. As I walk down the bridge I like to collect a handful to help them do their job and see what is for sale. Sure I can’t read the Chinese but most have some pictures. Other attractions on the bridge are musicians and singers. Occasionally there are even protests or sit-ins. On this trip I even learned that the bridge is deserted if you walk down it around 2am on a weekday. You don’t learn such things as a missionary. The bridge really is a fascinating piece of real estate.
One of my best/craziest mission stories happened on this bridge. Sadly I don’t have any pictures to illustrate it although I did debate asking the missionaries to help me re-enact it. One day while serving in the Causeway Bay Ward my companion Elder Vang and I were contacted people on the bridge. While contacting a notorious Mormon-hater in Hong Kong who went by Elijah came upon us. Elijah is British, about 6’5”, 230 pounds, with long straight hair that goes down to his shoulders. Nobody could ever establish if he worked for another Church or why he hated the missionaries but every time he ran into some there was an unpleasant confrontation. Elder Vang was down the bridge a bit contacting when Elijah walked up to me and started yelling at me. I paid him no attention and continued trying to talk to the Chinese people. This did not make him happy. He yelled at me some more, a little louder, and yelled at the Chinese people to stay away from me. I continued to ignore him. Next thing I know, he puts his hands on my head and says something like, “In the name of Jesus, I cast the devil out of you!” and then pushed off my head, causing me to stumble a bit to the side. I kept vertical and went back to contacting the Chinese people and he started yelling and screaming, when Elder Vang comes running up. Elder Vang is 5’6” maybe, somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 pounds when soaked, tiny guy. He did come from the ghetto though and had been in his share of fights. So Elder Vang comes up to Elijah with his fists cocked and ready to go. Thankfully, Elijah gives up and storms away. According to Elder Vang, I looked white as a ghost and was scared to death. I don’t think I’d argue with him, it was not a fun experience.

Mom's Visit

Trying to write blog entries nearly three weeks after events occurred is not a good idea, but I’ll try nonetheless. My mom and Don’s visit to Hong Kong was very enjoyable. My favorite part was just having some family in town. The first day we went and visited the Kowloon Peninsula, did some shopping, and visited some sights. Don was a sport putting up with my mom and me shopping, but both Don and I enjoyed cracking jokes every time we passed a store/market with baby clothes. Grandma mode kicked in and she couldn’t resist looking for a while, although she didn’t end up buying much.
The next day we made a big lap around Hong Kong Island. We started with the peak and got some photos up there mixed in with rain and wind. After a nice lunch we took a bus down to Wan Chai and hopped on the DingDing which we road east along the harbor front all the way until it ended in Shau Kei Wan. From Shau Kei Wan we took a bus to Sehk O (really nice residential/beach area), a taxi to Stanley (more shopping), and then a bus to Aberdeen to the Jumbo Floating Restaurant. This last visit was totally a tourist thing as it is in all the guidebooks and well-known. You take a boat out to the restaurant and have a beautiful view of Aberdeen Marian and its many multi-million dollar boats. The food was not good at all, which was a major disappointment considering the bill.
Our next day Don and Mom wanted to take it easy so we lounged around the hotel for a while and visited a few sights close-by. In the evening we went and visited the NightMarket on Temple Street (not the LDS Temple). It was interesting and fun as this was the first night market I had been to and was much more orderly and clean than most markets I had shopped at.
The last full day Don and Mom visited we caught a boat and visited Macau. Macau is a former Portuguese colony that was returned to China in 1999. It is administered separately from the rest of China, much like Hong Kong. About five years ago Macau decided to open up its gambling licenses to foreign companies and big corporations like MGMGrand, Wynn, Venetian, and others moved in. The change and development in the tiny little colony is rapidly increasing with all the gambling money that is flowing. Asians love to gamble and now they don’t have to fly to Las Vegas to do it anymore. I read somewhere that Macau passed Las Vegas in terms of gambling revenue last year and is increasing at something like a 30% annual basis. What makes it even more remarkable is that Macau is probably less than 15 square miles of land. Its tiny, and any growth they have no comes from reclaimed land created by filling the sea/ocean.
Photos Description 1) Hong Kong skyline during the nightly lights/music extravaganza. 2) A picture of some of the stalls in Lady’s Market. 3) My reaction to news that Mom has found another store with baby clothes, or maybe just taking a picture when I wasn’t paying attention. 4) Mom and Don on the road of tall buildings in Admiralty. 5) Mom and Don at the Peak. 6) Me in front of the curry restaurant I ate at almost every week when I lived in Shau Kei Wan as a missionary. Our apartment was upstairs 20+ floors. 7) Sehk O Golf Course. Sehk O is amazing. The houses are on acre-plus lots and there is lots of open space with no buildings over 2 stories. 8) Jumbo Floating Restaurant 9) Me on Nathan Road, just down the street from the Night Market. This picture is a good example of the craziness/energy of Hong Kong. 10) Me and St. Paul’s in Macau. Catholic Church ruins that date to 1500-something. 11-13) Various pictures of/in the Venetian. I took a nap in Starbucks when Mom and Don went off to gamble. They came back poorer while I left energized.

I'm Famous and, more importantly, Mom's in Town!

As part of her assignments for the public affairs department, my co-worker Annie puts together news releases related to articles in the recent Ensigns. This month she did one on sharing the gospel through electronic means and decided to use me and my blog as her introduction. She even made me take a picture at home one night. Her news release got approved and is currently the lead item on the Church’s website for Hong Kong. Here’s the link: http://www.lds.org.hk/english/ Bonus points to whoever is the first to find the difference between the photo on my blog and the one used for the Church article.
Late last night my Mom and her boyfriend Don flew into Hong Kong! I was really excited for their arrival. By the time we got them checked in, took a quick look at Victoria Harbor, grabbed some ice cream, and returned to their hotel it was after 1am. I’ll post more later about our activities but it has been great so far. I love having them here and am very thankful they decided to visit.

Victoria II Branch

One of the completely unique things about Hong Kong is the Victoria 2nd Branch. It meets Tuesday through Saturday, offering a full block of meetings every day, but not on Sunday. This is totally outside of Church Handbook guidance but got First Presidency approval due to extenuating circumstances. Basically, the branch members are maids here in Hong Kong and don’t get to pick their day off. Their boss just randomly picks whatever day of the week they want and often it isn’t Sunday. To accommodate their needs, the Church decided to have a unit meet every day and encourage the sisters to make whatever day they have off their Sabbath that week. Tuesday there is probably only ten members that come but by Saturday the attendance pushes 100. It is a really unique experience and two senior couples are called specifically to run the branch and the younger missionaries help out with the Sacrament, giving talks, musical numbers, etc. when needed.
Due to this branch and the many units that meet in the Wan Chai building on Sunday you could easily take the Sacrament seven times a week and attend a full block of meetings each time. If you just went to Sacrament Meeting you could push it to nine times in a week. Last year on my travels throughout Asia there were areas with no Church so we just planned to drop by the Wednesday services in Hong Kong to partake of the Lord’s Supper. Very unique and a blessing to the members here.

Ko Family

The Ko Family is a great story. I am pictured with the three sons, but there are also three wives, numerous grandchildren, and a great set of grandparents. Grandma joined the Church about 25-30 years ago with the two oldest sons when they were 10 and 12. Grandma took the boys to Church herself and taught them the gospel. All three are active (rare in Hong Kong), married in the Temple (rarer in Hong Kong), university-educated (even rarer in Hong Kong), and now work in the Church offices. Each had great jobs in the private sector but decided to take less money to help build the kingdom and have be able to actually see their children grow up (people over here work insane hours). As a missionary Tino (far right) was my branch mission leader for five months in Shau Kei Wan and the other two were helpful members during my stay in Causeway Bay (Alec, far left and Floyd next to me). So finally after 20 or so years of Grandpa Ko holding out because he was too busy (he was really high in government) he got baptized a couple weeks after retiring. Within a few years he and his wife were called to serve as a counselor and assistant matron in the China Hong Kong Temple. It has to be one of the shortest stints from new member to sealing power in Church history! They are all wonderful people and exactly what the Church needs more of in Hong Kong and throughout the world. Generations of faithfulness and families sealed in the gospel.
The other picture is of me and Leo Marcello. I ran into him today at the Victoria II Branch and we caught up. He was a new member during my time in Discovery Bay and he has been fire ever since. Served a mission in his native Philippines and is now attending BYU-Idaho. Great guy and amazingly capable. He has already and will continue to help the Church marvelously.

Housecleaning and Final Area

While I need to do some literal house cleaning (my boss gets back to HK tomorrow) the title refers more to other matters. I want to thank everyone who has read or just taken a quick look at my blog. I have been very pleasantly surprised by the number of people who check it out and am very appreciative. My entries are much too long, self-centered, and rambling so please forgive my verbosity. In a way this has turned into my journal for my trip to Hong Kong and also an addendum to my mission journals. The opportunity to be back in Hong Kong and relive the people/places where I spent two years (and look at all my old photos) is something I have loved very much and am thankful I will have a record of it (even if it is too detailed and lacking focus). I would fail law school if I wrote like this!
My last area as a missionary was the Peninsula II Branch. It is a unit with roughly a hundred Filipina sisters who worked in Hong Kong as maids and no Priesthood. The leadership was taken from senior couples and ex-patriot members. Doing international work (anybody who doesn’t speak Cantonese as native tongue) was a really unique experience for me as it is totally different than Chinese work. We spent most of our time working with Filipina sisters and had great success. The style most missionaries use is to be friendly/flirty and talk like a 5th grader as these seem to produce great results. For those of you who know me well, these two characteristics aren’t my best. I still can’t flirt too successfully with a girl even when I want to (and abhorred the idea of doing it as a missionary) and often end up sounding like an old man when I talk who uses weird words. Needless to say I wasn’t the best international missionary. Thankfully I had Burkley Jensen (yes, both of us had college names) as my junior companion and he was an amazing missionary. He worked crazy hard and was very effective without being too flirty or ridiculous (although I did kind of get embarrassed when he’d chase the Filipinas as they would run away from us). I could tell by my second week in international that he should be in charge and basically just let him make the decisions and lead the way. We baptized a few sisters in our time together and taught another ton who eventually got baptized. We only spent six weeks together before I went home in the middle of the SARS virus (with a cold that dropped me down to 145lbs, my mom about cried when I got off the plane with anxiety for my health). I enjoyed my time in Pen II but it was definitely different than Chinese work.
I don’t have any photos of this time so I pulled out one from my departure at the airport that I’ve always loved. Four generations of women and me. The other is a shot of the Black Man where we did lots of finding and a cool shot of Victoria Harbor.

Return to Lantau

Yesterday for Church I went to the Tung Chung and Discovery Bay Branches. The Mui Wo branch was closed a few years back and the members now have to travel well over an hour to the nearest Church building in Tsing Yi. At Church I was able to see the Ho and Lee families again which was very nice. Ho Jing was the eight year old boy I baptized and he is now a lot more grown up and mature. His mom is still doing great and taking him plus two little sisters to Church every week. Bless her heart! The Lee family I remembered well because their dad served as a counselor in the Branch Presidency and our branch mission leader. They surprisingly remembered me and we reminisced about some good times. Their son was an absolute terror six years ago, running all over the Church, making all kinds of noise during Sacrament meeting, and just generally being a handful. Now he’s almost as tall as me and a really cool teenager. He was humble, funny, and seems like he is very capable. I really hope he goes on a mission because he’d be a great missionary. I took a picture with me and the two boys and told them they should both be on missions in five years. They were non-committal. We took group photos and caught up on old times, they asked about why I’m not married and requested a picture when I get married. I’ve gotten that request a lot the last few weeks. As they walked away from the Church building I was so impressed by the families’ faith and sacrifice. They had their local Church building taken away (ten minutes from their houses) because attendance wasn’t high enough and are now asked to take an uncomfortable hour bus ride followed by another 30 minutes of riding the train and walking to Church, and then do the same on the way home. They weren’t bitter and faithfully met the challenge.
After meeting with the Tung Chung Branch I attended Church with the Discovery Bay Branch (currently the two meet in the same building). There were only three families still there but it was fun nevertheless. The Sloans, Maks, and Suzukis were there when I was and they filled me in on all the developments about the branch, Discovery Bay, and the families who moved away. After Church Brother Sloan invited me over to his place to his place for dinner and offered to drive me around Discovery Bay in their golf cart to see all the changes. Dinner and visiting at their place was lots of fun as they have 4 kids under eight who are all a delight. It was like playing with my own nieces and nephews except with New Zealand accents. The same family had had Elder Newman and myself over six plus years, three kids, four apartments, and a few other things previously. It was wonderful to be back and feel their warmth all over again. They are an awesome family!
All in all the day was really great. I got to see some of the families I loved most from my mission and one of my favorite areas. Discovery Bay had grown/changed a lot but still felt like a resort compared to the rest of Hong Kong. That is the last unit I planned to visit on my Sundays in Hong Kong so I’m not real sure what to do with myself next week.
Photos LS 1) Lee's son and Ho Jing (on my right) 2 & 3) Discovery Bay International School = where we had Church and Discovery Bay's private beach 4)Lee family 5) Ho family, plus a few other kids mixed in RS 1) Brothers Sloan and Suzuki 2 & 3) Waterfront at DB and DB Plaza

Lantau Island - My Third and Probably Favorite Area

After seven months in the northern reaches of the mission (Yeun Long and Sheung Shui) I was transferred to the SW corner of Hong Kong. I served on Lantau Island (the biggest one in Hong Kong actually) and loved my time there. We lived in a town called Mui Wo and served in a small Chinese branch and a medium-sized English speaking branch called Discovery Bay. This are was completely different than the rest of Hong Kong. There were way fewer people and it was a much slower pace to life. When I was told about the move my mission president described it as the one place in the mission where you should feel free to sit down with a guy at a park and play a game of chess, just making friends, and not stressing over time. Compared to the rest of Hong Kong, this was a revelation. The scenery and lifestyle on Lantau was so peaceful and beautiful. Additionally, since the real estate was much cheaper here we had a large apartment for just my companion and me. It was the only time on my mission I lived with just one other Elder. Finally, the area was huge and yet so underdeveloped by Hong Kong standards. There pretty much was only one road on the south side of the island (where we spent all our time) with just a handful of villages. Trying to study Chinese while riding around on a bumpy bus was a sure recipe for a headache.
Companions = Elder Newman was my companion here for the first six weeks. He was a great missionary and one of my favorite companions. We worked hard but also had a lot of fun doing it. His Chinese was really good and he kept our companionship humming. I remember moving to the area and walking into the apartment to see one wall covered with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups cereal boxes. I guess the local grocery store had had some close-out sale and Elder Newman bought over 50 boxes. He had that cereal at least two meals a day for the first month I lived with him. Pretty entertaining.
My second companion on Lantau was Elder Law. He was my only native Chinese companion during my mission. I haven’t been able to track him down since getting home though.
Members/Area = I loved both branches we served in the members in both. The Mui Wo branch met in a rented facility about a 5 minute walk from where we lived but only had about a dozen active members (half of which were children) so we became tight with everyone. Each Sunday we would bless and pass the Sacrament which was a unique experience on my mission. Trying to get the sounds and tones just right for the Sacrament prayer s was very nerve wracking. I think the Branch President might have used a lot of mercy in allowing some of my efforts to pass. The Ho family had a son who was approaching the age 8 so they had us come over and teach him the discussions. It was a nice chance to visit each week and say hello. Since the father was inactive they asked me to baptize him which was really nice.
The Discovery Bay Branch is where I would most likely live if I come back to Hong Kong full-time in the next ten years. There were lots of young families with another dozen or so Filipina sisters working in Hong Kong as domestic helpers. We would meet in the local international school and Church was very enjoyable. The families were all very accomplished, with the fathers working as lawyers and bankers and the wives staying at home raising families. It was in a way the prototypical ward on a small scale. Our branch mission leader was a good guy who’d served his mission in Taiwan and was back working for Merrill Lynch. His wife was younger than me so that was a little strange. Finally, a different member family would have us over every Sunday for dinner and serve us the most amazing home-cooked meals. It was like being back in America.
Missionary Work = This is another reason while I loved this area so much. I was able to meet and teach two wonderful people who were baptized. The first was David Athukorala and the second was Jasmine Lee. David was a golden investigator who we couldn’t baptize fast enough. Jasmine took a little bit longer but was real pleasure to teach. Teaching her was also different than normal because she was from mainland China and her native tongue was Mandarin. She also spoke good Cantonese and a little English but lived in Discovery Bay so she wanted to join the English speaking branch. To teach her we needed to women to fellowship so we’d get two of the wives in the ward to help. One was Sister Ou from China who would re-teach/clarify everything in Mandarin for us. It was really funny listening to Sister Ou take over and explain concepts like the law of chastity, tithing, etc in another language and then after her and Jasmine talking uninterrupted for five minutes we would simply ask, “Any questions?” The other members who helped us out was Sister Combs from Oklahoma. She didn’t speak Cantonese or Mandarin so she’d just sit in the room and knit during the whole discussion but we appreciated her presence as she made us legal according to the missionary handbook.
Memorable Experiences = This area offered my first opportunity to baptize and my only time living in a building other than a skyscraper. Also, since the members all worked at big companies they would have access to yachts and such. One time they invited us and we got permission from the mission president to go if we took an investigator or two along for fellowshipping purposes. We called every person we’d taught in the last six months and eventually got two to come with us. It was a fun day cruising on the boat, eating great food, and listening to non-Church music. We had a great story to tell at the next mission conference and make all the other missionaries jealous. Also, since the island was so big and isolated we would take big hikes out through tiny villages and talk to random people who had rarely seen white people, let alone ones who could speak Cantonese. We went and visited Big Buddha, the world’s largest outdoor bronze Buddha. Had my year out mission party here. It was a great area.
Favorite Song = “Prayer of the Children,” see blog entry.
Favorite Meal = Home-cooked meals by American families.

Running Description of Photos: Left side 1) Athukoralas = pride and joy of my mission 2) Jasmine's baptism = I loved how we got to baptize in streams and rock pools in this area. It was so unusual and yet beautiful. Almost all the branch would come out to support the new member and it was so almost re-enacting the Water of Mormon. 3) The Baptismal Cart = In Discvoery Bay no cars are allowed so people rent golf carts for their transportation (or walk everywhere, it really is like living in a resort). For baptisms we'd all walk or golf cart a half mile or so up the mountain to the pool/stream. 4) Group trip to Big Buddha 5) Elder Newman and I out on the Linklaters company boat. We had to wear proselyting clothes while the other 15 people were in water attire but we didn't care. Cruising on the ocean with the wind whipping through your hair was not a usual missionary feeling. Right side 1) Me in Tai O. A small village on the SW corner of Lantau with lots of buildings built on stilts over the water. 2) The rented Church facility in Mui Wo 3) Silvermine Bay - Our apartment is just out of view to the left of the hotel seen in the picture. Every morning we'd wake up and look out the window to the sight of a beautiful beach / bay. It was amazing! 4) Party with my fellow MTCers at our year mark. Sports on the beach and tacos.