Dear Family!

 Dear Family,

It's been a blessedly quieter week with no crazy senior missionary activities and no major Chinese cultural events. I'm glad for that, because although those things are easy to write about, they don't communicate well the fact that we really are on a mission and that most of our hours here are spent working at a desk, or in meetings. Everyday we leave the house no later than 8:30 and we're at the office by 9:00 a.m. for our prayer meeting.  After a full day of work we generally don't leave the office until between 6:00 and 7:00 p.m. We head home for a bowl of soup or scrambled eggs and hope for an hour to read or watch a little TV.  Our days are always full of interesting issues to puzzle through and interesting people, so it's never boring, but it is work.

If there was an event this week it was that Kim and Jeff Smith, our ping pong missionary partners have completed their missions and returned home. That meant there were a few lasts, and a whole lot of apartment cleaning to help them. 

Last night of ping pong with them.

The only picture I grabbed was this one at the end because my BeReal reminded me to take a picture. But trust me, an hour before this picture was taken all 8 of their suitcases were open and it looked like a bomb had gone off!

We will miss the Smiths, their zeal for traditional find and teach missionary work is legendary here and they have taught us to be bolder and more willing to speak to new people about the gospel. They also have been handing off their relationships with "friends"("friends" is the current vernacular for what used to be investigators) to us and so we will do our best to keep things moving forward. 

Meet Ashley, our new friend!

One last picture before they climbed into their airport shuttle! (Dad hates this picture, he says it makes him look old!)

We also welcomed the Smith's replacements, the Orgill's, and took them to our favorite pizza place.

Sunday night I got to go to my friend Leslie's house and she taught me how to make cake! She's a certified baker and makes the best, lightest chiffon cake I've ever had. We made two cakes, this Black Forrest Caked and then an amazing vanilla chiffon. I can't wait to try it on my own, I have lots of notes, pictures and videos.
My friend Annie came to translate. 

After that we did Hot Pot for dinner, a favorite around here on cold days, and it's been cold. 

The beauty of a quiet week is that it gives us a minute to talk about one of the things that has animated much of this mission--the temple. Our schedule makes it possible for us to go every week and we have embraced the opportunity to rotate through all the different ordinances on a regular basis. And while this might seem repetitive to the outside observer, this has been the perfect partner experience to so much of the work that we do in the office. We have spent a significant amount of time here doing temple related projects. I've made travel and financial arrangements for dozens of people around Asia so they can attend the temple for the first time, and for many more missionaries for post mission trips. Dad has facilitated purchasing temple properties, unraveled easement issues, and helped import building materials. Our testimony of the sacredness of temples has grown as we have been sitting in our office working. Repeatedly we have felt the spirit enter unexpectedly into our little space as we sit at our computers. It kind of sneaks in and one or both of us find our eyes watering and our breathing quicken. There are no words needed in those moments, we just look at each other and quietly acknowledge that these temples, and the work done there must be terribly important to the Lord.  These moments follow us when we actually go to the temple and make us more alert, more willing to watch, listen, and ask questions, digging for what is there that makes temples the center of our worship and the focus of our prophets. This quest is enlivened by the people we attend with, by the fact that we have to use head sets and subtitles or just do ordinances in un-translated Cantonese. We are taught as we see individuals and couples in fervent prayer as they sit in the celestial room, sometimes even kneeling at a chair or sofa. So many that come to Hong Kong have come from far distances and at great expense and they don't waste their experience there. Our own experiences lead us to spend hours in conversation and we regularly marvel at the small, but significant moments we are having. We look forward to spending temple time with you when we get home. 

Till then, just keep going yourselves!

Love you forever,

Grandma and Pampa