Chinese New Year's Eve

 

For New Year's Eve here we were invited to a dinner in the temple lunch room with the temple president and matron, members of the area presidency and members of their family (dressed casual here as their wives contended the temple president always wore his Aloha shirt to these gatherings; yet we were all dressed up because "the area presidency were coming"), the mission president (white shirt without jacket; first time out since his 5-bypass heart surgery) and his wife, another temple missionary couple, two couples from the mission office, and the four office elders (here showing off their "lucky money" packets which are given to the single generation at this time of year.

What Are The Chances?

 

When Lowell and Susan were in the MTC, they met Elder Wall who was being called to speak Mandarin in Hong Kong. Lowell worked with Elder Wall's father in the Translation Division at Church headquarters for a number of years, so it was fun to make this connection. Recently, here in Hong Kong, we ran into Elder Wall with a new companion of his and were chatting with them on the way to the train station. Just before separating to take different trains, Lowell asked Elder Wall's Chinese companion what his surname was. He replied, "Ngai." He had already told Lowell that his parents had both been born and raised in Hong Kong but were now living in Canada.

Only moments after leaving the two elders, Lowell began putting two and two together. He and Susan had known a Charles Ngai and the girl he eventually married, Shirley Fung, forty years ago in the Tsim Sha Tsui Branch of Hong Kong. They continued their association with them as they both attended BYU and Lowell, Susan, Charles, and Shirley were all members of the Asian Branch on BYU campus. Charles and Shirley later married and eventually moved to Canada. We knew they had at least two or three children ( in fact, Elder Ngai is their fourth and youngest).

Could this possibly be a youngest son of their's? He would be about the same age as our youngest daughter, Amy. Lowell found the missionaries phone number and called to ask Elder Ngai if his parents were Charles and Shirley Ngai? He answered in the affirmative . We had the two elders over for dinner and a nice chat. What are the chances that Elder Wall (whose father Lowell worked with) and Elder Ngai (whose parents Lowell and Susan both know) would be called as companions? What are the chances that we would meet the two of them together during a ten minute walk to the train station and rediscover this long enduring relationship? Some things are just meant to be. This was one of them; a tender mercy.

Temple at Ping Che

 

Susan has been wanting Lowell to take her to see the Chinese temple at Ping Che (about 30 minutes' ride from where we live) for some time, but Lowell has been saying, "If you've seen one Chinese temple, you've seen them all." Well, we finally went and they did have some interesting things on the grounds, though the temple itself looks much like most of the others seen previously. This one is particularly outstanding, however. We enjoyed the ride, the grounds, and the beautiful architecture. Because Chinese New Year is just around the corner, some added decor (like the large tangerine trees) had been added.

Chinese New Year and More

As we move away from the red poinsettas of Christmas adorning the temple grounds, we come into preparations for next week's Chinese New Year as witnessed by the festive decorations (even a dragon at the grocery store), the "must have" tangerine tree (like our Christmas tree at Christmas) and the large lighted lanterns adorning the walkways of our apartment complex.



We recently visited the Wetlands Park in Tin Shui Wai, Hong Kong with the Elias who are originally from Hawaii, but more recently from Kaysville, Utah. It took us two weeks to complete our goal as the first week we went, we discovered the park was closed on Tuesdays (the very day we had gone). We went again last Monday which was a better weather day and enjoyed some beautiful flowers, scenery, a few wild birds, and a nice time with a couple who we enjoy getting together with.

Recent Invites and Our Own Little Mountain

We get together with the other temple missionary couples once a month for family home evening and a meal. Upper left are the Poons (originally from Hong Kong, but more recently from Canada) and the Lindsays (from Arizona) in one of those settings. Lower left are the new missionaries for our area (Sister Kim from Korea and Elder Wortham from Kansas on either side of Lowell) along with Sister Hawkes and Elder Harding who have been here for some weeks. Continuing down the right side are pictures of our recent invite to a "hot pot" party by members of our ward where everything from noodles to veggies and meat are put in a pot of boiling water and then everyone fishes out what they desire to eat.



We discovered only recently that there is a paved trail up Butterfly (Wu Tip) Mountain (Shan) which we see out our window every day and is only ten minutes away. Susan has decided it makes a good exercise activity for her so we have begun the trail on a number of occasions and each time are getting a little closer to the top.