With Christmas and New Years done, we now look forward to the next celebration...Chinese New Years...and what a celebration that will be, especially here in Hong Kong. Already, the city is decked out with red lanterns, lions, monkeys, firecrackers, endless posters, red envelopes, red decorations, and pretty much anything red, to welcome in the Year of the Monkey.
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| Red and Gold, Gold and Red...the colours of Chinese New Year |
John and I decided to get into the spirit of Chinese New Years so we went shopping for some decorations for our apartment. So much to choose from.
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| Meet our pet lions: Mini Foo and Dim Sum named after Auntie Betty's 2 dogs. |
January 19 (Tuesday)
Today I was privileged to meet a wonderful Cambodian family. The husband was a missionary there many years ago. He returned to Cambodia many times and finally married a beautiful Cambodian girl. They soon had a little girl. Today, the family came to the temple to be sealed for time and eternity. What a touching ceremony. I was assigned to look after their baby girl for a bit. She fell asleep in my arms. When it was time for the sealing, I carried her to the alter. She was still asleep as I placed her tiny hand on her parents hands as the sealing was pronounced. Such a touching eternal moment. Memories flooded back into my mind of the day that John and I knelt across the alter and had our son Rylan sealed to us almost 40 years ago. This little primary song about eternal families says it all.
"Families can be together forever,
In Heavenly Father's plan.
I always want to be
With my own Family,
And the Lord has shown me how I can.
The Lord has shown me how I can."
January 20 (Wednesday)
The final bounce...The Ball's left this morning around 7:00 a.m. It will seem different without them. I'm excited to meet up with them in Boise when we go there in June. It was our OAD so we went to semi clean their apartment since it is one of our assignments to prepare the apartment for the next set of missionaries. Elder and Sister Hathaway will be arriving on Feb. 20 to replace the Balls. They are from California.
John and Elder Lee had a meeting at Wan Chai, so June and I decided to go shopping while they were in their meeting. I had told June about the New Years decorations I had picked up, so she wanted to go to the market and check it out. After the meeting, we all went out for dinner. Can't be out and not eat!
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| Looks more impressive than it tastes...googlie shrimp eyes starring you in the face...sorry, can't do it! |
January 21 (Thursday)
I didn't have a good sleep last night. Of course, that's not uncommon. I haven't been sleeping well since we've been in HK. I guess I miss my own bed. Hence, I was so tired at work today. When I got home, I just crashed and had a 2 hour nap. Woke up. Made supper. Then went to the Ball's apartment since the Lee's wanted to pick through some of the stuff that was left behind. We ended up just visiting there till 11:00. We decided that we would claim the foam mattress. Hope it will help me sleep better.
January 22 (Friday)
Sure glad we got the foam mattress. I had a very comfortable, uninterrupted sleep. Hope this is the beginning of good sleeps from now on.
January 23 (Saturday)
I guess I spoke too soon. Had a terrible sleep last night. Tossed and turned and turned and tossed. We had the early shift at the Temple and had to be up at 5:00 to start work at 6:30. AHH! Had a hard time staying focused. Glad we were off at 1:00 and I came home for a nice long nap.
January 24 (Sunday)
Everyone was talking about how dreadfully cold it was. Winter parkas, scarves wrapped abound their neck, and boots and gloves...you'd think they were experiencing a Canadian winter. There wasn't even any snow, just an occasional sprinkle of rain. The temperature was about 45F. I had to chuckle. I did wear a light wool jacket to church, but took it off when I got there. Everyone else kept their coats on and shivered through the meeting. As with most buildings in HK, they have no central heating, since it rarely gets cold enough to warrant it. I must admit however, this week was the first time that I did feel the chill in the air, after all, it is winter.
Note: I had more pictures on my camera but for some reason they will not download onto my computer. Kind of a slow week anyways. Not much to show.
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