Mission Reunion

I need to try to catch up on a few items from a week or more ago. I randomly found out about two weeks ago that a Mission Reunion was scheduled for July 12. This was great news as I could get lots of my Chinese friends together in one place, say hello and catch up, and hopefully take a few pictures. The speaker was Elder Perkins of the Seventy and he talked about missions making a difference and how often we don't see the consequences of our service. His topic is very true for Asian missions where baptisms are scarce, language difficulties makes communication post-mission hard if not impossible, and inactivity is rampant. He told some wonderful stories about people finding out 30+ years after their mission about a convert they had taught and what that produced. It was powerful stuff. Afterwards we took group pictures by Mission President and I got to see which of my friends had showed up. It was a little depressing as there were only 6 missionaries from my time there and two of them were white guys. I lucked out though because except for one all the Chinese missionaries and members that I had hoped to see showed.
The people in the first picture are left to right: Elder Lai with his wife and son, Sister Lam (name during mission) and her husband, me, Elder McIntire, Elder Cheun and his wife. Three of them could each be blog entries but I'll do the condensed form tonight. Sister Lam was an AMAZING missionary. She is a convert and the only member of her family from the Pok Fu Lam Ward on the southwest of Hong Kong Island. She had been at BYU-Hawaii for 3 years before her mission and spoke really good English, as well as fluent Cantonese and Mandarin. She was awesome as a missionary in so many ways. She could do member work, finding, teaching, trained multiple times, and worked hard. She baptized a ton and ended being called as a travelling sister to rotate throughout the mission. She was the only one I can remember doing that in my two years. Elder McIntire was a Mandarin Elder but we served in the same zone for a few months so we got to know each other that way. He is a really nice guy, went back to BYU and studied Chinese, is now at Duke getting a law degree and Master's in Asian Affairs. He's doing summer school here at Hong Kong University and we've hung out a couple times. Great guy, and he even found the old suit shop from mission days that will sell us suits for roughly $70US. I'm headed there next week. The Chinese guy next to Elder McIntire is Yeung Yick Cheun and his wife. He is a wonderful story. My first Sunday in Hong Kong he was baptized by my companionship out in Yeun Long and he's been on fire ever since. He served a mission just over a year after his baptism, married in the Temple within a year or so of getting home, is studying to become a translator (translated for Elder Perkins at the meeting), and is serving in his ward's Bishopric now. He is really smart and fun to talk to. We keep in touch via IM on occasion.
The last picture is of me and the Chan family. Elder Chan and I lived together for at least 3 months in Shau Kei Wan. He has one of the best hearts of any person I've ever known and speaks nothing but kindness and uplifting words all while maintaining an amazing humility. He is also one of the strongest pound-for-pound people I've ever met. He and my companion (a 6-2, 260 lbs former football player) would wrestle occasionally and Elder Chan could hold his own. He is one of those people that I really admire and hope to become more like.