Hong Kong

 Hi Everyone, I'm starting off this letter with a picture of a bunch of old, and some very old, people. If you look carefully, you will recognize one of the old people in the center of the back row. But more about the old people in a minute.  First, I have to share with you this wonderful picture of Mom/Grandma with Annie Wong (communications director for the Asia area). These two have worked tirelessly together to create a Book of Mormon reading program for the entire Asia Area. This is the finished printed Come Follow Me reading schedule. The front is the introduction of the program; the back includes the actual schedule. Jenni will be bringing copies home with her for all of you. So exciting -- Annie screamed with excitement and started jumping up and down when Mom walked into her office with the first printed copy of these documents. I could hear her squeals from my side of the office! We went to lunch a couple of days ago with the Smiths and Rodolf who lives in our buildi...

 Dear Family, Chinese New Year continues here. The office was much more quiet than usual with most everyone taking extra days off to travel to the mainland or out to the New Territories to visit family. I knew academically that this was the big Chinese holiday, but now I know it from experience. The streets are empty, the stores and markets are shuttered, and the formal dressed up business wear on the streets has been replaced by much more casual and recreational clothing. Multigenerational families on the sidewalks have replaced the brisk efficient business people and massive displays of dragons and red shrines are in every mall and plaza, and red lanterns are everywhere hanging from ceilings, walkways and lining the streets. So much R E D!!!    One of the unique features of Chinese New Year are the trees, the cherry tree, and the mandarin orange trees. These trees are all over in the lobbies and buildings and displays. Our building has two giant cherry trees and so many...

 Sun Ninh Fai Loch  Happy New Year to all of you! What a great time to be in Hong Kong. It is Sunday, day three of a five day celebration. The lunar new year (Chinese new year) started here on Friday. The office closed down early so everyone could get home early for their family dinners. Actually the new year started Thursday when everyone is supposed to clean their homes (kind of a spring cleaning activity) which is then followed by family get togethers and visiting    through the weekend. Monday and Tuesday are also off to give everyone more time with families and friends. We wandered around town on Saturday to see what their biggest yearly holiday was like. Not a lot of people on the streets and many, many shops closed. Unusually quiet outside – almost eerie.     Saturday night was the big parade in Kowloon. Some pictures will follow. And tonight (Sunday night) was the big fireworlks show – 23 minutes straight of fireworks from three big barges in the mi...