TIME TO SAY GOODBYE

 Farewell to Hong Kong

It is hard to believe that our mission is about to end.  Eighteen months has gone by so fast!!  Our replacement couple will arrive in Hong Kong on April 7th and we will depart for home on April 12th.  We will leave with mixed emotions as we have really enjoyed our time here in Hong Kong and have made many good friends among the other senior missionaries and also the local people who have been very kind to us and made us feel welcome.  But we are looking forward at the same time to being home again with our family and friends there.

We spoke in our branch on Easter Sunday and Monday we did our last shift in the temple following which we were released as temple ordinance workers.  Doing our weekly shift in the temple has been a real highlight for us.  This coming Sunday will be our last Sunday in our branch.  It is general conference weekend but conference is shown here the following week due to the time difference.

On March 26 we were invited to a farewell dinner with the members of the Area Presidency and their wives in President and Sister Watson's apartment.  We were served a wonderful meal, had a nice visit and shared testimonies.  We shared this evening with another couple who are leaving for home the week after us and a couple who recently arrived to start their 4th mission.

We are happy to report that the Asia Area achieved 100% on time yearend audit completions.  We have been able to maintain this achievement for all three audit cycles we were here.  A total of 481 audits were completed.  It took a coordinated effort of the local priesthood leaders, our Assistant Area Auditors, Church local country Service Center staff, mission presidents, etc, to get the job done.  There are very few areas in the Church that get all their audits completed on time.  So we like to brag about it.

Serving this mission has been a very rewarding experience for us and we are grateful for the blessings we have received from doing so.  We hope we have made some small contribution to the growth of the Church here in the Asia Area.  Here are just a few of the people and places we will miss.

With our Asia Area Presidency at our farewell dinner.  They are all wonderful people.

 Our young friend Mark played and sang for us when he came for dinner including a good Canadian song "Four Strong Winds"

Our special friend Jenny and her friend Nate

 Couples we served with in our Branch full of Filipino and Indonesian domestic workers.  President and Sister Nield are on the left standing.  He is the Director of Temporal Affairs for the Church in the Asia Area and serves as the Branch President.  Standing on the right is Elder and Sister Rhyasen - Jolayne's sister and husband who were here serving a temple mission.  The other couple standing are the Jackson's.  He serves as the Executive Secretary to the Area Presidency.  Sitting are the Heiner's.  He served as the Area Medical Adviser

 Some of the sisters in our Branch Family Home Evening Group.  we will miss all the sisters and brothers in our branch.

 

 Jolayne will miss the little children of Asia who all seem to be so cute

We will miss the association with the other senior missionaries serving in the Area Office.  This, for the most part, is the group we said hello to when we arrived.  We have had the opportunity to work with  23 couples during our tenure here.  All dedicated faithful people.

This is where we spent most of our time.  The Church Administration Building (above) and our office cubicle (below)

We will miss the amazing Hong Kong skyline as we walked along the Promenade and the interesting Harbour sights

We quite often would ride the Star Ferry to and from the office

We will not miss the often crowded streets

We are thankful for the Lord's blessings in our lives and for this opportunity we have had to share this mission together.  We are very grateful for the love and support of our family while we have been away and look forward to being with them again.  We know the gospel is true, that Jesus is the Christ and that this is His work in which we have been engaged.

 

This and That

 Christmas 2012

We enjoyed another nice Christmas season in Hong Kong.  We attended several events including the Area Office staff devotional and party, the Temple workers dinner and our Branch dinner and party.

Christmas tree in our apartment lobby

 Five story tree at Festival Walk Mall

 

 Santa and his entourage at the Festival Walk Mall

Some of the food at the Area Office Christmas party

President and Sister Aki of the Hong Kong Temple

Below are some pics from our Branch party

 

A Round of Golf

I was fortunate to get a round of golf in during the month of January.  Played with President Aki of the Hong Kong Temple and David Berrett, Area Legal Counsel and his brother who was here for a visit.  There is only one public golf club in Hong Kong.  It is on an island and has three courses to choose from.  Beautiful setting.

Assistant Area Auditor Training Conference

On February 1 and 2 we held our annual Assistant Area Auditor Training Conference here in Hong Kong.  We had 10 of our 14 AAAs here plus a few Area Office Finance staff.  Micheal Beck, Director of the Church Auditing Department in SLC attended and assisted with the training sessions.  Elder Gong of our Area Presidency and Chairman of the Area Audit Committee also participated in the conference.  The session was a great success and the AAAs seemed to enjoy the opportunity to get together and share experiences  and exchange ideas and challenges.

Jana and Ethan Come to Visit

Jana and Ethan came to visit us for two weeks the first of February.  They stayed with us in our little apartment and it was fun to show them some of the sights of Hong Kong.  We visited Big Budha, Tai O fishing village, Nan Lian Gardens, The Peak, Lamma Island, Stanley Market, the Night Market, the mid-levels.  We enjoyed having them here.

Here are a few pics of their visit.

  

The Year of the Snake

We  enjoyed the hype of the Chinese lunar new year.  It is a big deal for the Chinese.  Hong Kong was invaded by over one million visitors from mainland China.  We joined the throngs along the harbour to watch the amazing fireworks. 

 
 Jana and Ethan enjoying the New Year Wishing Tree

  

It is hard to believe that we are two months away from being finished our mission here in the Asia Area Office.  We are now into the year end audit cycle and are hopeful that the Area will maintain its' 100% on time audit completion record. 

 

 

Cambodia Visit

In early December we traveled to Cambodia to provide financial record keeping and audit training to local priesthood leaders.  We held three training sessions in the city of Phnom Penh.  In total we trained 65 priesthood leaders including all 7 district presidents from Cambodia and Vietnam, the Cambodia mission presidency, district presidency counselors, district clerks and branch presidencies and clerks from the units within the four districts located in Phnom Penh.  We were joined by our Assistant Area Auditor for Cambodia/Vietnam who shared the training duties and translated for us.  This was a very successful trip.

Priesthood leaders who attended one of the training sessions

The Church has grown in Cambodia from about 400 members in the mid 1990's to about 7,000 members today.  These are wonderful, humble, friendly people who all seem to be very happy in spite of the terrible things that took place in that country in the 70's and 80's.

This is Keut Channa our Assistant Area Auditor in Cambodia with his wife and baby

Primary children and missionaries at the branch we attended

Jolayne makes friends wherever she goes

We also had the opportunity to meet and spend some time with Jolayne's two ESL students who work for the Church in Phnom Penh.  She tutors them on Skype twice a week from Hong Kong.

This is Rathana and her family.  She manages the distribution center in Phnom Penh

 Mory and his family.  He works for the Facility Management Group for Cambodia.

We were able to travel to the city of Siem Reap where we spent a day touring the ancient temples at Angkor Wat.  They were built from the 9th to 13th centuries.  We were able to hire the local branch president to drive us around.  The temple sites are amazing. 

Arrival in Siem Reap

 Here are a few shots at Angkor Wat - doesn't really do it justice.  The place is huge.

Then we headed to Angkor Thom - Bayon

 Next is Ta Prohm - Where Tomb Raider was filmed

We also went to Tonle Sap lake and took a boat ride out past a floating village.  The families here live in houseboats on the lake and make their livelihood from fishing.  It is the largest freshwater lake in Asia.  The people are very very poor.  But everyone seems happy.

This is President Loy - our driver and guide in Siem Reap

This little guy had a snake with him in the washtub that he was showing off so I took his picture.  He then demanded that I pay him $1.00 - which I did

A few random photos around Siem Reap

Our hotel lobby

On the way home from school

Rice field

Family on the go

In the evening we attended a cultural show

 Some photos in Phnom Penh

Motorbikes and Tuk Tuk's everywhere.  We used Tuk Tuks to get around a few times.  A little scary but cheap.

The Royal Palace at night.  We were not able to tour it as the king's father had passed away so it was closed to the public until after the mourning period is over -3 months.

Our last day in Phnom Penh we visited the Genocide Museum.  It was a very sobering experience to learn about the atrocities committed against the people of Cambodia by the Pol Pot Khmer Rouge regime.  Over 2 million innocent people were killed.  The museum is in a former school which was used by the Khmer Rouge to imprison, torture and kill.

This man survived the imprisonment and has lived to tell his story in a book which we purchased.  The proceeds go toward funding for the museum.