Dragon Boat Racing

 Dear Family,

It has been an eventful week. Lots of work and lots of play (we had a holiday for the dragon boat races). 

This last Thursday, the two of us went to the original site of the Kowloon walled city. This was a city within the city of Kowloon that was at its height when I was serving here as a missionary (50 years ago). We were not allowed to enter this area because of the amount of lawlessness and crime. It was also the most densely packed, highly populated couple of acres in the world -- over 50,000 people lived in these densely packed buildings.

This is a model of the interconnected buildings. The buildings were razed in the mid 90s and the area now is a beautiful park.

There were a bunch of these unruly, semi-cared for bonsai trees. I thought I would share them with you.

On Saturday we attended the international dragon boat races. They went on all day Saturday and Sunday. The races took place in three different locations. These races took place in the harbor just down the walk from our apartment. 

This is the temporary dock that was built for the races. You can see the barges in the background which were located out in the harbor to create this racing area.

There were teams from all over Asia. There were men's teams, women's teams, co-ed teams. Young paddlers and old.  I think everyone was more interested in having a good time. I took pictures of some of the paddlers to give you an idea of the people competing. 

This team was busy doing a lot of rah rahing and having their picture taken.

This is one of the older women.

This team was being interviewed for the night's news.

And then Mom and I got interviewed by this TV station from Great Britain. They were interested in why we were wearing badges.

And here we are posing with some friends (our ping pong buddies).

This week we also went out to dinner with some of our fellow missionaries at a traditional street restaurant. Here we are rinsing our bowls before eating.

This guy is cooking to order from his "kitchen" in the street. The food was delicious!

This is our table just off the sidewalk. You can see Mom with her head turned away from the camera.

This is me singing happy birthday in Cantonese with our legal coordinators. It was Steve's birthday (in the foreground of the picture).

Here we are reading the Book of Mormon with Cindy. We try to read with her two or three times a week.

This is a big fancy yacht off the promenade. We took the picture because of the floating island on the back.

We attended a chinese concert last night. We couldn't take pictures during the concert so Mom snapped a quick one just before the concert started. It was beautiful.

We attended stake conference this morning. It was great. All in chinese so we had help from a couple of translators. I'm still at the 10-20% able to understand what is being said. But my comprehension improves a little bit every week. 

This young man (with his girlfriend) is my ministering brother companion. We went out and met with an older couple (both n their 80s) this last Friday night. We spent a couple of hours with them while they told us about their experiences with Mao's China during the cultural revolution in the 1970s. Amazing, terrifying stories!! They both arrived in Hong Kong in 1973, the same year I was in Hong Kong.

Mom with her two young women and their mother. These are the only young women in our ward and Mom is their teacher.

We loved Stake Conference this morning -- even though it came to us through translators. We were both moved as we sang the hymns -- everyone sang with such gusto.. To think I was here working in young fledgling branches over fifty years ago.  Today there are several stakes. Such a blessing to be here again and to see the growth and maturity of the members.

Well, it is late and I've got to get up early. So I'm signing off. We love and miss all of you. Have a great week.