Work Trip to Macao

Tuesday this past week (July 15) I had the pleasure of going to Macao for the first time. Macao was Portugal’s version of Hong Kong, in that they had a history going back hundreds of years living in Macao and had sovereignty over it for over a hundred years. It was the last territory from a foreign power to be handed back to China in 1999. It is about an hour boat ride from Hong Kong via a fast ferry. While Macao was also in my mission, I never had the opportunity to serve there. It had the reputation of being a little slower-paced by Hong Kong, and also kind of spiritually dead as gambling and prostitution were legal. It was also regarded as something of a back-water as it was poorer than Hong Kong and not quite as modern.
Elder Newell and I left the office around 930am and made our way to Sheung Wan and the ferry pier. After the hour boat ride we caught a taxi and went to our lawyer’s office to have a meeting. The meeting was interesting but not too productive as our attorney wasn’t really an expert in the area where our problem is. After lunch we had lunch with the one senior Elder in Macao and he filled us in on how the Church was doing there. The restaurant was really quite good as I ordered a curry chicken meal while the two senior Elders got American food. Also, the restaurant was right across the street from the Church so I got a picture of it.
Macao’s Portuguese history is still visible because many of the colonial buildings are still there and the Portuguese language is much more common than English. While it still has lots of history, Macao is now changing quickly as well. The government decided to end the gambling monopoly of Stanley Ho and has sold licenses to foreign companies/people like MGMGrand, Steve Wynn, Sands, and others. Gambling revenue in Macao has already passed Las Vegas and continues to grow something like 30% annually. If I didn’t have moral qualms doing it, I would totally invest in the stocks of companies with casinos in Macao because Asians love to gamble.
The trip was good and I filled up the last blank page of my passport. It has been a nine-plus year effort but I finally got the job done. When my mom comes to visit we plan on visiting Macao again so I hope they won't hassle me about my passport. I don’t have any future plans for foreign travel after that and will retire this passport with many fond memories attached.
Pictures are of boat to Macao, Sands Casino on the waterfront, Church in Macao, old style Portuegese building, new development in Macao with tons of big cranes (China is growing like this all over; its amazing), and Macao space needle or whatever its called. Sister Newell is trying to find someone to go bungee jumping / zip line thingy with her off of this. Its something like a 500 foot fall. I took a pass.