Happy New Year...Happy New Beginnings...

December 28 (Monday)

Christine started her own church hence the name on her license plate.

It has been nice having Christine's chauffeur this past week. By the way, his name is Kenny. He has been delightful to ride with and takes us wherever we want to go. Today Melisa wanted to go out to Stanley where we could spread some of Vivian's ashes. We were going to go to Victoria Peak, but thought there would be too many people around. We found a quiet spot along the beach at Stanley by some rocks and quietly, set her ashes into the bay. Always a hard time for Victor, but fitting since Vivian loved Hong Kong, it was nice to leave some of her here.

Spreading some ashes, Vic and his cousin.

Contemplation

Melisa and I did a fast shopping trip into the market and hit upon a store that was closing. Today was their last day and the deals were super, but not much left. We were both fortunate enough to find a sweater each for $50.00 HKD and I got a sweater coat for $80.00 HKD about $15.00 CAD.

Kenny then drove us over to Tai Koo to meet Auntie May Soo for dinner at Maxim's  with the rest of her family. It was Victor's birthday and Melisa bought an assortment of fancy cakes for dessert.

Back: Louisa, Judy, Melisa, Cynthia, Agatha, Mark.   Front: Steven, John, May Soo, Victor

No calories here!

I love my Auntie. She's so Cute!

 December 29 (Tuesday) 

Today Melisa goes home to Burnaby. It's been a wonderful vacation for her. I was so glad her and Victor were able to spend Christmas with us. Again, Kenny was at our disposal to take us to the airport to see Melisa off. Victor will leave tomorrow as they were unable to get on the same flight.

Melisa, Me, Victor, Kenny at the Hong Kong Airport.

December 30 (Wednesday)

We had to work at the temple so Vic was on his own. Good thing Cynthia was available. She took him out to lunch. They did a little shopping, then came to pick John and I up to go to the airport with them. We were glad that Vic had come to revisit his old stompin' grounds.

We were supposed to meet the Balls for dinner at 6:00 pm. However we were a  little late, 45 minutes late, due to traffic. but enough time for a short visit before they had to head out to the Symphony Concert.

Melisa just posted on Facebook that Vancouver had an earthquake. Nothing too serious, but everyone felt the tremor. Yikes! glad I'm not there.

December 31 (Thursday)

How the week has flown by. Here we are at New Year's Eve. One thing we know we do not want to do tonight is go down to Tsim Sha Tsui. I'll avoid the crowd like a plague.

I rented the theatre in our complex and invited the senior temple missionaries to come see,"Once I was a Beehive." Everyone showed up plus the Pack's and Coffey's. Then everyone came to our place for post movie treats aka sweet Christmas leftovers, Almond Roca, Lindt Lindor, Malteesers, shortbread cookies, egg tarts, cheese ball and crackers, nuts, chips, and fruit salad with almond jelly.

Shortly after 10:00, people started to leave since many had an early morning start for their hike. We sang "Auld Lang Syne" before wishing everyone Happy New Year. Just before midnight, John and I made it out to the palisade to catch the fireworks. They were nice and only lasted about 10 minutes. The crowd was huge. Some idiot uncorked a bottle of champaign and expoded a can of beer right behind us and we got totally showered with the stuff! Yuk! So that's how our New Year started.

Hard to get a good shot using an ipod and shooting over peoples head.

January 1 (Friday) 2016

Formula for a Happy New Year

 Fill Your Mind with Truth.

Fill Your Life with Service.

Fill Your Heart with Love.

"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

John 13:35

I was hoping to sleep in today, but for some reason, I woke up at 7:48. Man, I hate it when that happens. It was a bright sunny morning, so I laid in bed and checked my email and Facebook. That seems to have become a routine. Our usual New Years Day routine is to take down the Christmas tree. That's one thing that I won't miss doing this year.

The Christmas tree in our lobby.

The 4-storey tree in the mall.

Our humble little tree in our Branch.

It seems like it's been awhile since we've had a day off when we could actually just hang out at home and get things done. It was great having company throughout December, but nice to get back into a regular routine and slower pace of life. We stripped all the bedding and linens and took it to the laundry. Our weekly housekeeper is coming tomorrow.

The Temple schedule had to be revamped, so that took a couple of hours. Then I had a bunch of paper work to catch up on to submit claims to health insurance. Then it was time to cut John's hair. He was getting pretty shaggy. Next picked up our laundry, then went for an early dinner at Metropolis. Came home and had a nap while waiting for maintenance to come replace our air conditioning vents.

Maintenance showed up, but not with our air conditioner, but with a new TV. What? We didn't need a new TV...we just needed the AC cleaned. Well, we get a new TV anyways. They are changing over all the TV's in the complex! Maybe they'll return the AC tomorrow. Good thing it's only 70F and not 90F.

I'm doing the Happy Dance...Sister Mendoza and Sister Stromberg who have been working with Phoenix and Constance just called to inform me that Constance has set a baptismal date for March! What a way to start the new year! Phoenix isn't quite ready yet, but is progressing well. It's so exciting to see how the gospel can change people's lives for the better. We'll meet with them on Monday.


January 2 (Saturday)

I had just revamped the schedule and sent it out to everyone. Then Sister Wong emailed and said she needed to talk to me about the schedule. Oh no! Here we go again. This is the third change already and the month has just started. Apparently, there will be about 20 members from Mongolia coming this next week, so we have to adjust the schedule to accommodate for them. They will likely stay for the whole week to do temple work. I love it when we get people from other countries.

Hong Kong China Temple

I had just checked our sales figures for Subway. We truly have been blessed with great sales. Malou has been a super manager that's true. But more than that, I know we're being blessed because we are serving the Lord and Malou is part of that blessing. We probably wouldn't be here on a mission if it wasn't for her looking after things for us. So a great big Thank You, Malou!


January 3 (Sunday) 

So another week is ending. Not quite as exciting as last week. As with every new year, I think I would love to lose weight. And like every other new year, it doesn't happen. Jade had given me a Jillian Michael's workout DVD. Wouldn't you know, I put it on, and it wouldn't play. Apparently not all DVD's are formatted to play in all countries. Not an excuse...I was actually hoping to get started on an exercise routine that I could just do in the privacy of our little apartment. I'll have to go shopping for one that will work.

Being Sunday, I was reminiscing about our Sunday family dinners, roast beef, mashed potatoes, carrots, corn, and lots of gravy. Well, the closest thing we have here is stew, small chunks of beef, potatoes, carrots, and "jip jip" chinglish for gravy. I was looking forward to dinner after our fast.

It wasn't a scheduled eating day at church today, but as so often the case, it ended up being an eating day as we celebrated January birthdays. Guess my stew will hold till tomorrow.

I love this picture of Jesus and the Asian children. It reminds me of this song:

Jesus loves the little children,

All the children of the world, 

Red and Yellow, Black and White, 

They are precious in his sight.

Jesus loves the little children of the world.