Some of My Co-Workers

Elder and Sister Aki are two of my co-workers and some of the most wonderful people around. I had heard of them before I came to Hong Kong this time because he served as Mission President here during the 1990s. He also served as a young man here in the 1960s and Sister Aki is originally from Hong Kong although they met at school in Utah after his mission. They are always offering me food and sharing a good laugh or story. Every weekday since I have been in Hong Kong Elder Aki has tried to provide me with lunch by either sharing his or paying for mine when we eat out. They are too nice!

The two people in the third picture are George Mak and Annie Wong. They are the Asia Area Public Affairs Department, with much assistance from senior missionaries in Hong Kong and scattered throughout Asia. George is the Asia Area Public Affairs director and we met when I was a missionary. He was a member in the Discovery Bay Branch (ex-patriot unit) and actually served as a witness to the baptism of one of our converts. We were baptizing a young woman from mainland China (Lee Jong Ling, in baptismal picture) in a stream (there was no meetinghouse or baptismal font for the Branch) and at the last minute she requested that we perform the baptism in her native tongue, Cantonese. Brother Mak was probably the only member who spoke Cantonese and gladly helped out, even in his street clothes. I almost didn’t recognize him when we met as in the six years since we last saw each other I think his hair has gotten darker and he has lost weight. Not a bad way to age.

Annie Wong is a superstar! (she has full editorial control of anything I say about her in the blog so I have to be nice) We first met in May or June of 2002 when she was preparing for baptism in the Causeway Bay Ward. She had to wait for over two years to be baptized because her parents wouldn’t give their permission but she hung on and made it. Annie could speak amazing English even as a teenager so she became friends with everyone and was one of the few investigators from other companionships I actually became friends with. She was baptized while I served in her ward and I was likely one of the witnesses to the ordinance. A few months after her baptism she moved away to BYU-Hawaii and eventually transferred to BYU in Provo. I bumped into her in Provo a few times and we would say hello. Before coming to Hong Kong this summer I hadn’t seen or heard from her in over two years (other than Facebook of course). As it turns out, she recently served a mission in San Diego and is now doing an internship here to fulfill her major requirement. My first day at work I sat down in my cubicle and turned to look at the person next to me and with total amazement asked/stated, “Annie!?” She smiled back and laughed at me like I was a total retard. It is tons of fun to have a friend at work and we can joke/talk about all kinds of stuff. A few of the senior Elders like to give her a hard time about being short, among other issues, and it is so funny to see her reactions. Yesterday she threw a pen at me after I got her assigned to give the Devotional for the Asia Area Office in a couple weeks (I’m doing it next week so I thought it was only fair). Annie is great and makes my already wonderful Hong Kong experience even better!