Busy Week

February 26, 2023

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 presidents for their training seminar this week. She had a lot of help from both senior missionaries and several employees. She did a great job. Everyone was grateful she was here directing the whole affair. Some pictures will follow.

We also took a tour of a buddhist nunnery and gardens last week, and attended a John Williams concert yesterday with several other senior missionary couples.

This afternoon, Char and I took a bus over to Kowloon Park and walked around enjoying the trees and people watching. We also attended a muslim mosque just outside the park later this afternoon just in time for the afternoon prayers. Fascinating. So many different people and religions here.

So on with the pictures.

Char in front of the nunnery in Kowloon.

Observing prayers in the muslim mosque in Kowloon.

One of the super-heroes in the park. A christian prayer meeting was being held in the hut behind.

Another superhero

You can see nine women from Indonesia (muslims) praying in this little hut in the park.

We saw hundreds of Indonesian muslim women (and many Philippino women) in the park today. They are here in Hong Kong working as domestics in the homes of many Chinese families. They get one day off a week and many of them come to the park to eat, sleep, and just be with each other. They are here working to help support their families back home. They can be gone from their families for many years at a time. It is very sobering to see so many of them here in one place.

Mom at the park.

And a mopping robot in the subway station.

At the John Williams concert last night. And we followed this up with dinner at California Pizza Kitchen.

Mom with most of senior sisters. At the beginning of their weekly Come Follow Me study group they gathered in the stairwell (because they new the acoustics would be so good) and sang Brightly Beams Our Fathers Mercy. They loved it and Mom reports that the spirit was instantaneous and powerful.

This is me eating the HK version of Kentucky Fried Chicken. It came highly recommended by the girls in our office but alas...not so good!

And then there is Eric Kayser's chocolate chip bread. Really, really good and a great memory from Cambodia. Could become a habit.

We went to the temple this week. First time since the changes. We loved it!

Mom also loved the carpet in the waiting room.

This is me on the way to the "looks like a yacht" mall to do some grocery shopping. We take this little bag on wheels thing to carry the groceries in.