Dear Family
I thought I'd start with a very interesting story. The picture below is of Sue and Ryan McCortney. They are from California and joined us in the Office of General Counsel two months ago. He is a specialist in human resources and their mission is to spend a couple of months at a time in different areas dealing with HR. She also is a lawyer who practiced for a few years before having kids and raising their family. These are two very good, fun people to work with. We had a great time with them here. They just left this last week.
 |
| The thing that makes them so interesting is the fact that only Ryan is a member of the Church. Sue is an active practicing Catholic. They have been told that they are the only interfaith senior couple in the church. Ryan always wanted to serve as a senior couple and she agreed to tag along and work alongside him on the HR issues in the church. She goes to Mass every Sunday when he goes to his Sacrament Meeting. She is a remarkable woman. They raised their children participating with respect in each religion. She willingly joined us in our daily prayer meetings and took her turn praying. |
|
This is a picture mom snuck of Sue speaking in the Filipina Branch Sacrament Meeting this last week. She spoke three days in a row about "Compassion". She ended her talk each day sharing the prayer she often offers to our Heavenly Father. We both loved this wonderful morning prayer and asked her for a copy of it:
“Lord, grant me an opportunity to encounter someone who needs your love today. Plant them in my path and bless my eyes that I may see them, bless my hands that I will reach out to them and bless my heart that I may love them as you do. Amen.”
|
 |
| We took the Sister missionaries to dinner this week. We all go to church in the same ward. Sister Cox (next to mom) goes home in two weeks. So this was kind of our goodbye dinner. Unfortunately both Sisters were very sick with the flu this morning. But they came to church anyway with masks on. They had too much to do (both at church and at a big choir concert this evening -- Sister Cox is the pianist) and insisted they couldn't stay home and rest. They asked me to give them both blessings so I enlisted the Elders (the other missionaries in our ward) to help me and we gave each of the sisters a blessing after Sacrament meeting. When I asked one of the Elders to annoint, the senior companion sheepishly said that neither of them had ever given a blessing. So not only did we have the opportunity to bless both sisters, but I also had the opportunity to teach both Elders how to anoint and seal a blessing. It was a moving experience -- I love missionaries! |
 |
The lanterns are still up on "Lantern Street" from New Years. We had to take one last picture of them. I even took a short video below. We've never tried including a video so I hope this work.
|
 |
| This last Thursday -- Saturday Mom attended an Area-wide Woman's Conference. This was a conference for expat women from all over Asia. There were women from Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Philippines, Cambodia, Korea, and Vietnam, who all came together for three days of devotionals, music, and workshops. The closing devotional was given via zoom by Sister Kristen M. Yee. Mom was energized by being with all these interesting and wonderful women. |
And it made her think of Kelsey all week. When Kels was here she was in charge of the 3 days of food. No small feat!
 |
| This evening we attended a special Easter choir concert made up of Chinese members and select missionaries. This was an unexpectedly beautiful concert. Very well done and very moving. I had to keep wiping tears away from my eyes throughout. Although it was primarily celebrating Easter, the opening two songs were sung by the Missionary Choir as part of the year long celebration of 75 years the church has been in Hong Kong.. They sang rousing renditions of Hope of Israel, and With Faith in Every Footstep. While they sang they showed pictures of all the former mission presidents and pictures of the major milestones in the church's history. I snapped this picture of the mission home that was used while I served here. It is now the site of the Hong Kong Temple. |
 |
| At the end pictures were taken of the whole choir. If you look at the top of the picture you'll see why everyone is looking up. I've never seen that in a chapel before! |
 |
| After the concert this gentleman came up to me and asked me if I remember him. Of course, I didn't, so he reminded me that I was the husband of the one Leigh sister that we have not been able to see here. You will remember that the Leigh sisters are the three girls I found and started teaching before I went to Vietnam and who send us Christmas cards every year. They were baptized while I was gone and we have stayed in touch with all three girls and their husbands over the years. It was so fun to see him again. |
__________________________
 |
Finally, we can't end this letter without acknowledging that the entire week has been lived with Will West in our minds and hearts. It has been a hard and very sad week for us all. We are still processing his sudden passing and we wish we could have been home for his funeral. We love Will and count it a blessing that we were able to spend so much time with him when Michael and AJ were home. If you look carefully, you will see Michael with Will in the picture on the table.
With that, it is time to close. We love and miss all of you. Jenni and Danny will be here tomorrow. So we look forward to lots of pictures next week. Dad and Mom
|
Comments
Post a Comment