Coincidence? Or by Design?

September 19 (Monday)

Today, Sister Chau, one of the local temple workers came to our apartment with her tailor from Shenzhen. He had made her a beautiful temple dress and Sisters Bodily, Ngai, Hathaway and myself all wanted to have dresses made. They bought some sample fabrics and he measured us up for our dress. I'm excited to see the finished product. He'll be back in a couple weeks for a fitting. In our excitement, we forgot to take a picture of the event.

Just wanted to get your attention!

September 20 (Tuesday)

We didn't have any orientation to do today. Things look like it will be quieter at the Temple this week.

Dinner: The Hopewell Centre Grand Buffet! And let me just say, it was definitely grand, large, huge, humungo! Cuisine consisted of American (roast beef, roast pork), Japanese (sushi, tempura), Chinese (dim sum, and all kinds of Chinese dishes and soup), seafood (lobster, crab, muscles, clams, shrimp), salad bar, dessert bar, ice cream bar, and a bunch of other stuff. And stuffed we were. The Grand Buffet came with a grand price, so we felt we needed to get our money's worth. We were on the 62nd floor in a revolving restaurant. The view was spectacular!

Starters...

Seafood Bar

BBQ Meats

The Buffet runs the circumference of the restaurant on two levels.

Sushi Bar

Dim Sum, Tempura, and Soup Bar 

Grill Masters

Now that's a Chocolate Fountain! 

Great food...Great company, Rancie's, Bodily's, Hathaway's

Great View from revolving 360 degree Grand Buffet

September 21 (Wednesday)

We went to see Sister Hung today for our massages. I've had a sore arm for weeks. It feels like a pulled muscle. She worked it real deep and did "cupping". Hope it helps. John also had cupping done. It looks pretty weird, but the chinese swear by it that it really works well for drawing out toxins.

Creepy...

September 22 (Thursday)

We had the late shift, so decided to do supper at MOKO. We had just finished dinner and were walking to the escalator when I was hit with a tachycardia episode. That's when my heart decides to take off racing. I don't know what triggers it. Sometimes it is only momentarily, sometimes it takes a while before it settles down back to normal. Unfortunately, this was one of the longer episodes. It was difficult walking because that just agitates it, and my heart goes even faster and takes longer to settle down. So what generally would have only taken us 10 -15 minutes to get home, took about an hour. Things settled down once I was able to lay down and put a cold pack on my heart. No worries, I'm OK.

September 23 (Friday)

Another evening out, this time with Elder and Sister James. They have been working in the mission office and fill other support roles where needed. We enjoyed getting to know them better and had a lovely meal at one of our favorite places, Korean #1 BBQ.

Shrimp, Sausage, Port, Beef, Steak, Ribs

Dessert - Blueberry Cheesecake Shaved Ice

Sister and Elder James and yours truly.

September 24 (Saturday)

Last month we had gone to Sai Kung with some of the area office missionaries. It was such a good experience that I wanted the Temple missionaries to also have the opportunity to experience. So today was the day that we went to Sai Kung and then to the Kau Sai Chau Golf Club. We had a wonderful scenic bus ride to the ferry then over to the island where there are 3 golf courses and the restaurant and club house. After a delicious buffet dinner, we all headed to the driving range to hit a few balls. All we have done with week is eat, eat, eat!

Ngai's, Chan's, Hathaway's, Bodily's, Rancie's, Sister Lee (back), Robert's

At the Sai Kung fishing village

"Junks" - fishing boats

King Crab

Seafood Selection - pick what you want for dinner - they cook it for you.

Local fisherman - today's fresh catch. 

Open street market

Sunset at Kau Sai Chau 

September 25 (Sunday)

Just another Sunday. Our Self Reliance class went very well. Maribel did a super job as facilitator. We initially only had 10 students, but now there are 14. It seems to be a very popular program.

It seems like most of the week has just been filled with going out to eat. So I thought I would share something on a more spiritual level.

Coincidence? Or by Design?

About 20 plus years ago, Elder Ong was serving his mission in Malaysia. He baptized a young lady named Laura. About 10 years later, he bought his family to meet Laura. His daughter Charlene was about 8 years old at the time. Sadly, after that, Charlene's parents became inactive. 

Charlene however, remained active and decided to serve a mission. She was living in Singapore and was to arrive in Hong Kong to take out her endowments before going on her mission. However, her flight was delayed a day, and instead of arriving on Tuesday, she did not arrive till Wednesday. Her mother came to the temple with her, but could not enter.

On that same Wednesday, Laura, the one that Elder Ong had baptized 20 years earlier, had decided she was going to go to the Temple. Since she had to rent clothes, she decided to come a little earlier. 

Laura and Charlene arrived at the same time. Incredibly, Charlene recognized Laura from their meeting 10 years earlier! What a joyful reunion! Laura was able to be Charlene's escort for her endowment session. Coincidence? or by design? 

Charlene's mission call is to England. This same week, another sister from Macao came to take out her endowments before heading out on her mission, also to England. The third endowment was a young elder from Thailand who also got called to England. Singapore, Macau, and Thailand, all three brought together at the same time, going to the same place, the MTC in Provo before heading to England. Coincidence? or by design? The Lord is watching over his army.