Elder & Sister Chan Meet Elder & Sister Chan

September 5 (Monday)

Happy Birthday, Mikey Goodman, our favorite American son-in-law! You're so special, that they declared today a holiday. Enjoy your day.

Guess what we're doing for FHE tonight?

This might be our final potluck FHE gathering with our fellow temple missionaries. It was to get better acquainted with Elder Charles and Sister Fanny Chan. Yes, another Chan couple. There are more Chan's in China than any other surname. If you don't know someone's name, just call them brother or sister Chan, and you have a pretty good chance of getting it right. haha...

Rae and Rob Rancie were missing since they had family here visiting from Australia. What a feast we had: fried rice, spinach salad, curry noodles, taco soup, wonton soup, lions head (Shanghai cuisine), deep fried wontons, and fresh fruit salad with almond jelly.

Charles & Shirley Ngai, Fanny & Charles Chan, J&J Chan, Gary & Deb Bodily, Bonnie & Brent Hathaway 

Merry Christmas!

Just thought I'd start getting rid of stuff now since we will be leaving in 2 months. "White elephant" welcome gift for Fanny & Charles. This tree gets handed down to lucky new missionaries. We inherited it from Helga and Robert Wilson when they finished their mission. Time to let it go... haha!

John gave each of the couples a Hong Kong Temple picture which he drew.

We'll certainly miss getting together with all the senior Temple missionary couples, BFF. We've experienced a lot of fascinating, fun, fattening food, and forever friendships throughout our fabulous mission.


September 6 (Tuesday)

The start of another week with orientation to all the new patrons in patron housing. This week we have visitors from Shri Lanka, India, and Thailand. This will be quite challenging since we don't have any written or recorded information in Sri Lankan language. We'll have to depend a lot on the spirit conveying the messages. Must say that my playing charades does help to some small degree. The Indian people mostly can speak English. And we have workers in the temple that can speak Thai.

 Family from Thailand

Left to right: 6 members from Sri Lanka, 2 from Canada, 4 from India.

Brother and Sister Woodruff from Cardston, Alberta, served a mission in Sri Lanka a few years ago. When they heard that these 6 members were coming to the Temple to be sealed, they decided that they wanted to be here for them. What a precious moment.

All dressed in white for family sealing.

September 7 (Wednesday)

OAD and wouldn't you know it, it rained all day. This was one of the very rare days when we stayed in the whole day. It gave me a chance to start going through our stuff and cleaning out the closet, mini purge. I packed up a bunch of clothes and shoes which I've decided not to take home. I'll take it to the branch and see if any of the sisters want any of it.

Also got all our travel arrangements confirmed for our cruise and return to Canada. Countdown is on.


September 8 (Thursday)

Because there was a Mission Presidents Seminar in Hong Kong today, there was a special temple session held for them. It's always exciting when we to have church leadership come to the temple.


September 9 (Friday)

We had the early shift so it gave us time to go to Central after work. I had another lazer hair treatment. Thought I'd better get in as many as I can before we go home. Shopped a bit a Li Yuen Street. We're starting to look like regulars there. I look so big in this picture, next to this little lady. Really, she was really a very little lady. I'm only 4'11", so I don't know how tall she is. I guess I shouldn't complain about being short.

Korean style kids clothes - so adorable. 

Tsim Sha Tsui - Traffic Jam on the way home - no one going no where...

People Jam in the MTR Station - why you should avoid rush hour!

September 10 (Saturday)

The Church headquarters in Wan Chai was very busy this week with Mission Presidents and Area Seventies coming for seminars. Today it was the Area Seventies turn for a special session at the Temple. Because the session ran after our normal Saturday closing time, the Temple Presidency put on a nice little "snack/treat break" for all the Temple Missionaries who stayed to help run the special session. Always nice to sit and visit with the presidency in a casual atmosphere and munch goodies.

One last photo with our Indian family before they head home.

Out for some last minute groceries before the Sabbath. John has a few favorite places he goes for specialty items. This is his favorite dessert stop. He's a regular there too.

Tofu King Dessert Stand

Very friendly Tofu King employee

September 11 (Sunday)

I had collected 2 large bags of clothes and shoes which I decided I was not going to take home. So today, we took them to church for the sisters to have. There will still be more purging before our time here is done.