Here We Go Again!

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 of food. Along with that was a schedule of dinner appointments for every night for nearly a week with couples who have taken turns feeding us so we didn't have to worry about meals. Not only that, they had a schedule for people to walk us to and from the office everyday so we don't get lost on the trek to work. They have made it so easy. 

I have also been on at least 4 shopping outings with different women who have eagerly knocked on my office door and invited me go exploring and get up to speed on where all the good places to shop are. As we all know I'm not really a shopper and my jet lagged brain has not allowed me to retain very much, but I now do know that there isn't much you can't find here and I know who to ask when I'm looking for something specific. 

It would be hard to overstate how kind everyone has been here. Sunday we were even invited to President and Sister Andersen's for lunch. You might remember that they were AJ's mission leaders and we were honored that they would reach out so quickly. I'm just sad I wasn't together enough to make sure we got a picture with them.

All in all it's been a wonderful week. We feel welcomed, we are finally sleeping when we're supposed to and staying awake when we need to, we've had some good noodles and and this morning I figured out a way to do some FaceTiming in the mornings (your evenings), so I hope to be able to see you more in real time. 

We love being here but we have your pictures plastered all over in our apartment and office!

Love always and always!!

Now for pictures:

It's been an adventure from the very start as instead of traveling in economy we traveled business class which was a definite upgrade with bigger seats that reclined further back AND had a foot rest!
This is me 30 seconds before getting off the plane. The bleary eyes are due to the obviously long 15 hour flight, but also to the gentleman you see to my side...he snores like a bear!! It was stereo snoring for me all around the planet! Luckily I had a foot rest!

Our first look at our apartment! As soon as Sister Hansen left we dove into the bread and peanut butter as we were both starving for something to eat. We didn't really eat much with y'all at the airport and  Asian airplane food is not amazing, even when you've been upgraded!

Me with my toast and milk and an amazing view!

It was chilly but we were ready for a walk in pants and sandals. Here we were reminded that we've moved to the land of Bruce Lee! You should all watch a Bruce Lee movie just to appreciate this Chinese icon! 


And finally...some noodles! We wandered for blocks till we found just the right noodle dive! They were amazing. It was in this moment that we began to feel grounded, like this really might be happening!

When I was cleaning out my mom's closet after everyone had gone through it, I grabbed this skirt and took it home and altered it so it would fit me. I  thought mom's skirt should go on a mission since that's what she always wanted to do.  So this is me on my way to my first day at the office this morning. 

I got overly excited when on one of my shopping outings I found this eatable gold icing spray! It won't do me any good, but if Jenn wants to come to Hong Kong know where to get her some supplies!

Finally it was Saturday and we got some time to ourselves. Our goal was to stay above ground (no subway) and see as much as we could. We took the Star Ferry from our apartment  over to the island...

...where we got a front row seat on the upper deck of the bus and rode up to the Peak. There is lots to say about the peak, but this weekend it was just a tourist destination for us. 

...of course there were more noodles. Yum!

And we ate a McDonalds ice cream cone as we watched kids play. (We actually just put this picture in for AJ and Kelsey, assuming they've been here with Harper)

It was amazingly wonderful to just be traipsing around by ourselves!

Monday the OGC---the legal department--had a welcome the Christensen's to Hong Kong lunch. I got pretty excited when I came around the corner to see we were going to eat on this wonderful street. AJ and Kelsey brought us here last time we were in Asia and it was one of my favorite places. 

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