Happy 4th of July!

 Dear Family,

You are all getting ready for the reunion right now and I know it's complete chaos. At last count for me Michael had just done a baby blessing (Rosie), a birthday party (Grey), with all Utahn's in attendance, Carli moved out of her house Saturday and into her in-laws, AJ, at last sighting, was stuck in Winnemucca with 3 kids and a busted belt on his car, Kelsey was making an emergency trip to NY,  Jenni has house guests, Sarah is navigating an unasked for promotion, and Mark has worked non-stop so he could have reunion days off. And this is just what I know about! I'm hoping that somehow you all make it to the lake and have the energy to have fun!!

Meanwhile, here in Hong Kong life continues to NOT be the 9-5 experience we were expecting! Our work days are long and our social life is humming! Here's just a smattering of social events this week:

Cindy wanted to take us to the University Canteen for noodles. they were delicious and included a long conversation about how much she wants to have some romance in her life

Indiana Jones with the Senior couples! We highly recommend it for a good time...I only had to close my eyes during the cave spiders so it was a perfect raucous time at the movies with a bad asian hot dog and a worse asian burrito!

The boys and Cindy...

The ping pong crew taking Coco ( above left sitting next to her daughter Jenny) to her favorite place for a birthday breakfast. This turned out to be the Chinese Denny's. Decidedly not yummy, but fun.

A Saturday afternoon field trip to the building where Dad went to church as a missionary. It has been turned into a museum for Sun Yet Sen, a Chinese political revolutionary now, but they preserved the baptismal font as a nod to the years the church owned the building. Everything about this was interesting and we'll definitely take you there when you come.

Then an impromptu visit to the Neon Light exhibit, a couple of markets, and a hamburger dinner to top the night off. 

Sunday Coco cooked all day for us and we crammed 10 people into their tiny apartment to eat.  Be sure and check out the blue bowl and container of mango's next to it. I made some amazing Thai sticky rice for dessert. If you're real nice to me I'll make some for you when I get home!

But, lest you think all we do is play, we've also been busy doing missionary work. Friday Cindy had another lesson and she's committed to a baptismal date of August 8th. She's like a sponge, learning and continuing to amaze us with her questions. We taught her about fasting and challenged her to fast this last Sunday. We taught her that you begin and end with a prayer and she promised to try fasting one meal. We all promised to fast with her and for her that she could know for herself if baptism was the right thing for her. She was with us for dinner at Coco's and just before we ate she excused herself quietly and told me she needed to go say her prayer to end her fast before we ate. I don't know where she went, she left the apartment and came back a few minutes later ready to eat. Her faith and willingness to try never stop making me marvel.

Sunday we sat in two more lessons and I was able to-very discreetly-snap pictures. 

This is Jason. He's being taught by the elders in our ward, and he speaks English so the elders asked us to sit in. Jason is loving what he's learning, declares he know's it's true and that what he loves about the gospel is that it makes him feel safe.

After dinner Coco, Michael and Jenny had their second lesson with the missionaries. We watched the first vision and tried to teach them about the apostasy and restoration. This is us watching the First Vision movie on the elders phone. Not ideal, but it worked. Coco and Michael are interested but they feel like all Christian churches are the same and they seem to be content with the church that sponsors Jenny's School. We'll see what happens.

So I'll end this letter on a 4th of July note. Saturday was July 1st, the 26th Anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China. It's been a fascinating experience. There have been beautiful banners of "celebration" all over town in oversized Chinese characters and I used my google translate to try and figure out what they say.

This lighted sign was 10 stories high!

This one is across the street outside our office window

That same sign caught my eye as I sat in our sisters scripture study. We were having a remarkable lesson that day and I couldn't help but wonder what the future for this kind of meeting will be.

Many parts of town looked like this...

But here's the deal. When we talk to our friends here the long term doesn't feel peaceful or stable. There has been a decided out migration of saints from Hong Kong in the last few years. So we asked our paralegal what she and her family were planning to do, she has 3 small girls and a whole life ahead of them. She paused and slowly said they didn't know, but they would try and do whatever Heavenly Father asked. She said she has learned from working with the church all over Asia that the Lord needs knowledgable people in all the difficult countries so if needed, she was willing to stay. 

After this week, it felt meaningful in a new way as all the senior couples had a love fest with America at FHE tonight. We listened to a lecture on the Founding Fathers and then sang some patriotic songs, ending with a standing rendition of the Star Spangled Banner! Absence is certainly making this American heart grow fonder!

So, Happy Fourth!!! Have a wonderful week and know that we will miss you in extra doses this week,

Love Mom and Dad