2012 May 4

Our stay in the Hong Kong Mission Home was short, hectic, memorable, and is all in a muddle in my mind because of jet lag and overall weariness.  My first impression was, "Where's the mission home?" Forty or so years ago the mission home was just that - the place where the mission president and his family lived, where missionaries were greeted in a lovely living room, and where visiting guests would stay and meet the local elders.  Today the mission home is a three-story office area with an apartment facility for visiting temple patrons on the top floor (Floor 2), classrooms on the second (Floor 1), and the chapel and office on the ground floor (called "0" Floor here).  It is also located across the street from the old mission home.  The 6-story Hong Kong Temple now occupies the location at #2 Cornwall Street.  The next impression is that everyone is unbelievably friendly and seemingly anxious to make us feel welcome.  The greetings almost made us feel like celebrities - but we know better.  There is a lot of learning and work to do just figuring out what our role is.  Getting here, hard as it was, is going to look like the easy part in retrospect.

Wednesday morning (I think it was: the days got all muddled up in there somewhere.  It took me almost a week to figure out what day we were actually on), we went over to Hong Kong Island to the immigration bureau and applied for our Hong Kong Identification cards - a simple, almost formulaeic procedure that takes a lot of time.  Hong Kong doesn't look the same as I remember it either.  In the first place, instead of riding the Star Ferry over, we went on the subway.  The Star Ferry was the Chinese version of the old American railroad boxcar / passenger car you see in old movies.  It got you where you were going and that's about the best you could say for it.  Comfort was not an issue.  Now they have built a subway tunnel between the mainland and the island.  Trains run every few minutes, and you don't even know you're under water.  Clean.  Efficient.  Often crowded, but not like the old double-decker buses we used to pack ourselves into.  Amazing.  There are also at least three beautiful freeways crossing the harbor for the adventurous land travelers.  We did take the old Star Ferry back to Kowloon just for nostalgia's sake, and to get a couple of pictures of the Hong Kong Harbor as it is today.

Hong Kong Island from Kowloon

Looking at Kowloon from Hong Kong Island.

On the left center you can see the old Star Ferry, still in use as a tourist attraction.  On the right we are on the "Walk of the Stars" on Kowloon.  It is located next to the Hong Kong Cultural Center.

Hong Kong Ferry Terminal

Thursday afternoon we met four young elders who had been to a conference in Hong Kong and who were returning to Macau where they work.  They helped us with finding our way, and with our luggage.  The Hong Kong Ferry Terminal was another surprise.  I expected it to be the same old crowded, dirty place I remember the Tiu King Ling and Star ferry Terminals to be.  Instead I found a modern, clean and shiny facility with convenient shopping areas, restaurants, stools for waiting passengers to sit on, and modern ticket counters in which to buy tickets.   These are Elders Smith, Li, Li, and Tyauh.

The Macau/HongKong Ferry

Interor of the Macau Ferry

The boat itself is is a turbojet-powered boat with air conditioning and bucket seating for probably a couple hundred people in the economy class.  Cost of the trip from Hong Kong to Macau is about $25 US, depending on when you travel.  Seniors get a discount, usually.  The trip to Macau is about 40 miles long and takes almost exactly one hour on a normal day.  The ride is sort of like being on a slow-motion Merry-go-round, except you're moving forward very fast, and unless the sea is choppy.  You're actually going across the mouth of the Pearl River, but it very much affected by the ocean tides, waves, and currents.

Home Sweet Apartment

Once in Macau the elders told us that our apartment really isn't very far from the terminal, but nobody really wanted to carry the luggage that far, so we took a bus home.  I think it is a good thing that the bus run starts at the terminal.  Imagine 4 missionaries, 2 senior missionaries, and at least 10 large pieces of luggage getting onto a rather small bus.  We filled it pretty good all by ourselves.  By the time we reached our destination the thing was packed.  A rather lengthy, circuitous drive through narrow, crowded streets took us to within about a block of our new home.  We are on the 16th floor of this building.

As we entered the living room of our new apartment, we were greeted with shouts of "Surprise".  All the young missionaries and a couple of members were here to greet us.  They had spent at least one entire day scrubbing down the apartment to make it liveable for us.  Pictures of them working were posted in the various rooms.  They had also purchased some basic food stuffs and eating and cooking utensils, which must have taken no little part of their preparation day.  What a beautiful, great bunch of people.  I've said this before, I know, but I really think I'm going to like it here.  I hope we will prove to be worth all the trouble people have gone to for us.

In case anyone didn't already know, fifteen hours on an airplane is a really long time.  Claustrophobia is not a problem for me, but I have to admit that getting off that airplane was one of the most welcome experiences I can remember.

As we were navigating our way through the Los Angeles Airport we met an interesting trio of Chinese young people who seemed to be having a bit of trouble.  I first remember seeing them at the security desk at the international terminal.  As the good-will ambassadors we want to be, we naturally thought we'd lend a hand with where to go, and they pitched in and helped us with our luggage..  After a little bit, we discovered we were all going on the same plane to Hong Kong.  We introduced ourselves, and found their names were Monson, Sara, and Nelson - not  atypical adopted Asian names. At the final security check, due to a lack of adequate time, the other passengers in line allowed all of us to move to the front of the line, and the young folks came right along with us.  Once past security they continued to help us to the boarding area, where we parted, presumably for good.

To my surprise, as we got of the plane in Hong Kong (we were among the last off), there were our three new friends waiting to help us find and get through the Chinese security and customs and to just generally help us through a most unfamiliar terrain.  I thought, "What sweet young people these are."  Somewhere along the about the time we headed for the baggage claim area, one of them casually mentioned that our ride was already at the terminal waiting for us.  With those names, and that clue, I should have figured out what was going on, but  even that wasn't enough in my over-fatigued brain (at least that is the excuse I like to give myself).   I innocently asked Nelson just who it was that he thought was waiting for us.  He replied "President Chan and his wife".  So what do these young folks know about President Chan, I wondered.  After about a minute of thought processing and interrogation, I found out that these three have been attending school in Utah (not BYU), and were returning home for the summer vacation.  Two were headed for Hong Kong, one to Macau where his father is the Branch President of the branch we'll be working in.  They are all active members of the church from good, strong families.

We have enjoyed a good chuckle over their little charade, as I'm sure they have.  So much for the "inscrutable" Chinese psyche.  That is just the type of joke I would love to play, if I could only keep my mouth shut long enough to pull it off.  What a great start to our Adventure.  I have a hunch I'm really going to like it here.

Sorry I don't have any pictures this time.  I have some good ones for future posts, but I was just too jet-lagged to even thing about cameras or pictures that day.  I hope to get more posts on here in the near future, now that we have the internet in our apartment.

1 May - 6 May 2012

I didn't get the other family stories done as I had hoped.  Life got really busy there for a while.  Maybe I will be able to write them later.  They are worth telling.

Our adventure has officially began.  On 23 April we entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah for one week of intense training, basically in how to teach effectively without offending or being offensive.  We were able to spend the nights with Elaine's sister, Margaret, and the days in study.

The MTC is a unique experience and environment.  It has to be lived in to be understood.  I expected everyone there to be serious and long-faced and totally focused on gospel subjects.  Instead I found a place with a lot of good-natured laughter and smiles, easy friendships, and an environment open for learning.

Of course, the traditional pictures needed to be taken.

             

In the main hall there is a large map of the world, where the missionaries love to stand and point at the places where they are going,.  We had in our group people going to Cambodia, Viet Nam, parts of Africa, Europe, the USA, and even to Hong Kong.

The pictures above are Sister Welling and myself pointing to our place - Maccau, SAR, China.

Our Study Group

Senior Missionaries This Week

The main group would eat together and have some general instructions, then we would break into smaller study groups to practice and learn more about the specific duties we would be called to fill.  It's hard to realize that we'll probably never see most of these people again.  They were great.

As we were walking across the campus one day, we met up with a young elder from our home ward who is headed for Mexico.  So of course we had to get a picture of him with us.

With Elder Walker

And that about wraps up the week.  I am writing this from Maccau, SAR, China.  For some reason my computer thinks I have become Chinese so all the directions for entering information are in traditional Chinese script.  That has made doing this really interesting!  We will be getting the internet in our apartment hopefully next Saturday, so I should be able to write more frequently.  In the meantime I just want to say how much we are enjoying this place and these people.  We have been here almost a month now.  I can hardly believe it.  I'll try to write about the people and the differences as I see them before they become too familiar and I no longer notice.  Until then, joi gin.