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.