Remembering Old Friends, Old Times

With the Ngai's visiting Hong Kong these past two weeks, we have had opportunity to find, visit, or eat with people we knew many many years ago. Charles Ngai was a clerk to a branch presidency which included Wong Chung Hei, a mutual friend of ours. His wife, Kathy, was here from Australia last week so she was invited out to lunch along with us by the Ngai's (top). Charles and Shirley Ngai also knew Stephen Tse Yuen Kai who we have mentioned before as one we are fellowshipping (from our acquaintance 40 years ago). They joined us in paying him another visit (lower right) now that he is recuperating from his recent triple by-pass heart surgery. Another close friend of Shirley's and a favorite member of our former acquaintance (though now not active) is Sister Pok Wing Lan (left) who we were finally able to contact and meet with. She subsequently came to a Church musical presentation with Susan and me. Susan and I have received speaking invitations for May in three wards (due to our new responsibilities with the temple presidency) and providentially, two of the wards we are to speak in are the ones that Bro. Tse and Sister Pok are tied to. We have invited both of them to come out to those meetings. The reactivation process is sometimes a slow one, but we will keep at it.

Flower Show at Victoria Park

We had the opportunity to attend the Flower Show at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay on Hong Kong Island this week. It was quite stunning and in fact reminded us of what is done each year at the Rose Parade in California. There were a number of creatures created almost entirely out of flowers and several had moving parts. Featured below here (moving clockwise from top left) are: 1)a ruffled orchid, 2) a dragon, 3) an octopus, 4) a display of tulips from Holland, 5) a horse and carriage, 6) Nemo and a clam, 7) a dophin and jellyfish, 8) Sebastian the crab, 9) arches of flowers, 10) a lobster, 11) a seahorse, and 12) Kungfu Panda.

The Parents of Elder Ngai

A short time ago we posted a blog asking what the chances were for running into the missionary son of two people we knew forty years ago, both here in Hong Kong before their marriage and later at BYU after they were married. It so happened that they were coming to Hong Kong to visit aging parents and to update their identification cards. Charles and Shirley Ngai now live in Calgary Canada where he serves as president of the Chinese branch. They happened to attend our chapel for the baptism of a Mandarin-speaking sister Sunday who actually lives within our ward boundaries. When we learned of their coming, we separately arranged for not only them, but their son, Elder Ngai (standing behind his mother ), and his new companion, Elder Chung, to come to dinner afterwards. We also invited Moxa Wong (bottom row left), a mutual friend, who was visiting here from SLC. We spent an enjoyable time reminiscing about people we all knew.

A Change in Assignment

We were surprised and humbled by a call from the First Presidency for Lowell to serve as second counselor to President Goo in the Hong Kong China Temple Presidency and for Susan to serve as an assistant to the matron. We begin our service on Tuesday, 16 March 2010.

The former second counselor, William Heaton, and his wife, Lisa, return to their home in Virginia on Monday. They are pictured below seated in front of the Bishops in the group picture taken at a farewell dinner (note the fixings) given in their honor in the temple cafeteria. Others in the picture are the temple recorder, Steven Lee, and the other temple missionary couples, the Poons and the Lindsays.

The new temple presidency consists of Pres. Goo (bottom center), Pres. Yip (bottom left), and Pres. Bishop. They are accompanied by their wives, Sis. Helen Goo (center), Sis. Elizabeth Yip (left), and Sis. Bishop.

A Stake Senior's Day at Ma Wan

 

We were invited, along with the other temple missionary couples (being that all of us live in the same stake), to join a busload of seniors in a Tolo Harbor Stake senior's day outing to an island off the Kowloon peninsula and went to Ma Wan where a recently opened Noah's Ark exhibit is located. We didn't actually enter Noah's Ark (a pricey diversion, mostly for children, funded jointly by about five religious entities and built to Biblical specifications) but got to visualize its size and enjoyed one another's company in a nearby park and later on at lunch. Our stake president, Pres. Cheng, and an area seventy, Elder Wong (middle left) along with the first counselor in the stake presidency, Pres. Chan (left, front row in group picture) were among the group. Our stake patriarch and his wife, Bro. & Sis. Chan (bottom left), who Lowell home teaches and whose son Lowell has been successful in reactivating, also attended.

What About Your Spare Time?

 

We are frequently asked, "What do you do in your spare time (since we only work at the temple four days a week)"? There doesn't seem to really be much of that. When one has to wash dishes by hand and dry them two or three times a day, wash clothes twice a week (washer is small, so whites; then darks [but not on the same day] get washed about every 5 days) and hang them up to dry (no dryer), iron shirts, prepare Sunday School lessons, bake bread (Susan's ongoing obsession), cook meals, and cut hair (Lowell does his own), there really isn't a lot of SPARE time left. You note earlier from our blog, we did a fair bit of looking around (parks, temples, etc.) at first, but we don't find much time to do so any more.

Lunch in Sai Kung with Good Friends

 

We went to Sai Kung, a fishing village on the outskirts of the Kowloon Peninsula, with our good friends, Elder Kaleo and Sister Helene Elia who serve in the Hong Kong Mission, being responsible for missionary apartments, among other things. This week they suggested we go to a restaurant (Anthony's Ranch) run by an American who lives in Sai Kung. Most people who go to Sai Kung go to eat at a seafood restaurant for which there is no lack. You can see the variety of fresh seafood people select, from clams, crabs, eels, lobsters, to cuddle fish, and have cooked on the spot for their meal. We, however, enjoyed barbequed sandwiches and the atmosphere of the American West in the middle of this quaint little seaside village.