Hong Kong

 Hello all,  This is Dad writing this week. We have been very busy since mom last wrote. I spent a lot of my time working on some new Articles of Registration for the church in Cambodia (required by a new law passed a couple of years ago), a land acquisition, and several leases in Pakistan, India, and Indonesia. I also spent some time dealing with an auto accident involving a missionary here in Hong Kong and a building permit for the new temple in Taiwan. I am working with some very talented people here and in lots of video conferences with attorneys in these different countries. It has been fascinating. Things move very quickly here. We show up every morning at 9am for a prayer with the attorneys and para-legals for the OGC (Office of General Counsel). And then we go to work. I feel like we are getting shot out of a canon every morning. Mom has been very busy this week. She ended up in charge of executing all of the lunches and a dinner for all of the visiting mission preside...

Hello all! I promise not to inundate you with blogs this often for the entire mission but this event just earned its own spotlight moment. As if we hadn't eaten enough already since arriving here, on Wednesday we received an invitation to join one of the other senior couples for a dinner with some members. The details we got were a little vague but since we're always game for something new we showed up at the designated subway stop as instructed. We met some of the people there and got on the train and took a 40 minute ride out to the New Territory's out close to the the Chinese border. It was an older part of Hong Kong with buildings that were old enough to have been here when Grandpa was on his first mission  When we got off the train we walked down some small narrow streets and when we got there the restaurant seemed to be a just a small hole-in-a-wall kind of place. We were not prepared for what was to come! As people gathered it eventually became clear that this was a ...

Dear Family,  There are actually several ways I could title this letter, such as: Coming to You Out of the Fog! Smothered With Love! This Is So Fun! So Much Good Food! And every title would need an exclamation point, what a week it has been, I honestly can hardly believe we've only been here 9 days.  They have been foggy days as we've struggled to adjust to the new time zone, but at the same time we have been overwhelmed by the warm welcome that was orchestrated by the other senior couples. There was a driver holding a sign at the airport as we came out of customs and he escorted us to a van to drive us to our new home. As with every new place you move to it was exciting to see our new city begin to take shape as we drove down the freeway and wound through the narrow city streets.  When we arrived at Harborview Hotel, our new home, we were met in the lobby by Sister Hansen who took us up to a fully stocked and furnished apartment. The cupboards and fridge were even full o...