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.