Everyday Branch

Hello dear family and friends,

Do you like this beautiful view of our apartment building which has 1,422 apartments in total?  Our apartment is just up twelve floors.  Elder Chandler took this photo as we walked home from the bus stop. Isn't the tree beautiful?

Here's some of our neighbors on the elevator. Aren't these little boys just the cutest dressed in their school uniforms?  The mom speaks a little English and the boys are pretty shy.  They will give Elder Chandler high-fives, though.

 Here we are at the Area Office building walking in the hall to a chapel. Besides the offices, there are three chapels on three different floors in the building.  Most of the meetings are made up of Filipino sisters who are here working as domestic helpers in Hong Kong.  They are here because they can find work and make considerably more money than they could if they could even get a job in the Philippines.  Many of these sisters are college graduates. They are very intelligent and they speak very good English. Unfortunately for them, many have been here for many years. They send most of their money back to their families there in the Philippines who aren't able to find work.

This is Sister Brojan who is one of the best missionaries in the church.  She comes from the Philippines, too. She and her companion bring many investigators to church.

There were two sweet sisters who were baptized on Saturday. Unfortunately, I forgot their names. Pictured above is one of the sisters with the sister missionaries.

Here is the other sweet sister who was baptized. There is a baptismal font on the ground floor so the baptism was held there and the baptismal service was held in the chapel.  It was a very special service and the baptisms were very special, too.

One thing about the Filipino people is that they are very happy and loving. Many of them work extremely long hours, have difficult working conditions, are only able to go back every two years for a few days, and they have to leave husbands, children, parents, and family.  There are some very sad stories that we have heard but they still have a cheerful outlook on life.  They truly believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ and know that he is our Savior and Redeemer. They trust in Him and show their love by their wonderful unselfish service that they give.  We could all take a lesson from them on how they live their lives.

The Filipino sisters attend church different days of the week so there is church every day here. This week we spoke in church Monday through Friday.  Aren't you glad you weren't here to have to hear us?  It was a different group of sisters every day.  Of course that means we attended church every day this week.  The Filipinas love pictures of everyone.

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In the background is Elder Kendell, (Bishop Kendell's father for those of you in South Jordan who know the Kendells), and President Towers, the branch president.  They and their wonderful wives attend church every day!

With many of these sweet sisters, we feel that we have knew each other in the premortal life.

This is May Ann; she is so excited because she is going back to the Philippines to start her Sweet Tooth Fairy bakery with her sister and a friend. She has been working and saving for over a decade.  She took the self-reliance classes and they taught her the principles she needs to start her business.  She is so wonderful and though I barely know her, I feel she will succeed because of her faith and trust in the Lord that he will help her coupled with her business experience and college degree.  She told me that she puts the Lord first in paying her tithes and offerings.  When she was a relief society president here, she taught budgeting classes to the sisters and she taught them the importance of paying a full tithing and she taught them that they should contribute to the humanitarian fund as she does, too.  These sisters make very little money and doing these things shows their great faith and trust in the Lord. She told me that she has a wonderful husband and children in the Philippines.  She said that her children will be so surprised and excited to know that their mother is able to come home for good.

We were very surprised to see our friends, Richard and Qian Folsom, from our old ward in Tokyo.  They moved to Hong Kong last summer. They attend an English speaking branch and Qian is also in the primary presidency in a Mandarin branch.

                                                                                   

This is our favorite picture in the office building.  I love to see the Savior with the Asian children.  He loves us all, and especially, all the children!

Also, you may enjoy reading about the Hong Kong temple in the article below.  We are very happy because we just got called to serve there in the temple on Tuesday evenings.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865655017/An-answer-to-many-prayers-Hong-Kong-China-Temple-reaches-20-year-milestone.html

Our Asia Area Presidency

Hello Everyone,  We hope you are having a great week.  We thought you might like to meet our Asia Area Presidency.  Unfortunately, this blog isn't publishing as nicely as normal so the lines aren't all straight and the links kind of disappear as you go to click on them.  Just click where the words were and the sites should come up.  If not, you can copy and paste the URL after and find it. 

Elder Funk is the President of the Asia Area, and he is pictured in the middle of the photo. On his left is the 1st counselor, Elder Chi Hong (Sam) Wong, and on his right is his 2nd counselor, Elder Siu Hong Pon.  They are all extremely kind and wonderful men.  Their wives are just as 

wonderful, too.

If you would like to see or read a talk that 

Elder Funk gave in LDS General 

Conference, click on this link: Elder Randy

 D. Funk "Called of Him to Declare His 

Word  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/called-of-him-to-declare-his-word?lang=eng

The following is from the news release that 

was posted in January 2016:

Elder Randy D. Funk was serving as First 

Counselor in the Asia Area Presidency 

when he was called to serve as the Asia 

Area President, replacing Elder Gerrit W. 

Gong. Prior to his calling into the 

India Bangalore Mission. In addition to 

mission president, he has served as a full-

time missionary in Indonesia, bishop, high 

councilor, stake president and Area 

Seventy.

Elder Funk received a Bachelor of Arts 

degree in history from Utah State 

University 

and a Juris Doctorate degree from the 

University of Utah. Professionally he was 

an attorney and partner in a law firm in 

Denver, Colorado. He also served on the 

board of directors of several community 

organizations.

Elder Funk was born in Logan, Utah (USA) 

and is married to Andrea Clyde. They are 

the parents of six children.

Here is a link to a wonderful talk given by 

Elder Wong.  Just click on it if you want to 

see or read his talk.

Elder Wong "Rescue in 

Unity"  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/rescue-in-unity?lang=eng

Elder Chi Hong (Sam) Wong was the Asia 

Area Second Counselor and is now 

serving as First Counselor. He was serving 

as an Area Seventy in the Asia Area when 

he was called to the First Quorum of the 

Seventy. Since joining the Church in 1982, 

Elder Wong has served in numerous other 

Church callings, including ward financial 

clerk, ward clerk, Sunday School 

president, Young Men president, bishop’s 

counselor, bishop, stake president’s 

counselor and stake president.

He received both a Bachelor of Science 

degree in accounting and an Associate of 

Science degree in computer science from 

Brigham Young University-Hawaii. He also 

received an MBA from the Hong Kong 

Open University. In his professional life he 

was the founder and partner of a business 

and quality consulting company and also 

worked at a materials testing and 

inspection group.

Elder Wong was born in Hong Kong. He is 

married to Carol Lu and they are the 

parents of four children and have one 

granddaughter.

Elder Siu Hong Pon was named a member 

of the Eighth Quorum of the Seventy of The

 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day 

Saints on March 31, 2012.  He is currently

 serving as Second Counselor in the Asia 

Area Presidency.

Elder Pon received a master’s degree in 

Business Administration from the 

University of East Asia in 1993. He began 

his career working for the Church in 

February 1980 and has served in several 

management positions in the Asia Area 

Finance Department. Prior to his 

retirement on March 1, 2015, he served in 

the Asia Area Controller position for 15 

years.

Elder Pon has served in numerous Church 

callings,including bishop, branch president, 

mission president’s counselor, and stake 

president.

Siu Hong Pon was born in Hong Kong on 

July 2, 1958. He married Cindy Wai King 

Chiu in October 1982. They are the 

parents of four children. Elder and Sister 

Pon reside in Hong Kong SAR, China.


We hope you were able to click on the links and watch the videos of their great talks, too.
Have a nice day!

Volleyball and boating

 Hi Everybody,  
The BYU girls' volleyball team came to Hong Kong and presented a fireside on Sunday night.  Some of the girls spoke and gave testimonies about Jesus Christ and the blessings of the gospel in their lives. Chad Lewis, a famous former BYU football player and a Philadelphia Eagles player was there, too.  He is the father of one of the girls on the team so we took a photo with Elder Chandler.  You might think Elder Chandler is the tall good-looking one but no he is the old guy with the white hair.

Here are some of the Filipino sisters getting a photo with some of the team members.  

The tallest member of the team is six feet four inches tall and most of the Filipino sisters are very short.

Another day we were at the Hong Kong temple with some good friends of ours, Elder and Sister Kendall, who live in South Jordan and who are also serving as missionaries. They work in the everyday branch of the church where they have church everyday for the different Filipino sisters who only get one day off from work each week.

Here is Elder Chandler on a walk that we took.  Isn't that a cool fountain?

Anyone for an ice cream cone?

There were some performers inside the Hong Kong cultural center where we went.

Here's another photo taken inside the cultural center.

Isn't that a beautiful ceiling?

On the way back, we stopped to get some delicious pork and vegetable dumplings.

Check out the prices

(Okay, so the prices are in Hong Kong dollars.)

Here's the view from the Promenade in front or our apartment.

This is an evening photo showing across Victoria Harbor from where we live.  The golden looking building is right across the street from the Area office where we work.  It's 78 stories tall plus the spire on top.

If something is green, we know it was made with green tea.

Sometimes in the evening we will go out by the harbor and look at the lights.  This is a new 63 story office/hotel under construction very close to where we live.

Hong Kong is often considered the most beautiful skyline in the world.We never tire of looking at it.

Here's a cruise ship leaving Victoria Harbor.  We have sailed on this very ship at least a couple of times.  It used to be the Celebrity Century but was sold to an Asian cruise line last year.

Here's another small cruise ship in front of lots of residential buildings.

Another day, we went with some of the senior missionaries to go to Sai Kung, which is an island northeast of Kowloon. Here we were waiting for the bus.

After the bus, we waited for the boat.

It was a beautiful day, and although rain had previously been forecast, we were pleasantly surprised to have great weather. 

We saw many hexagonal volcanic rock formations. 

We stopped at one of the little islands to see this little Buddhist temple and do a bit of hiking.

We were told that this is a female lion because she has a baby under her foot.

The foot of this lion is on a ball so it is a male.

Here is the Buddha in the temple. There is a small portable Buddha in front of the large one that can be taken out to different places where they need blessings.

This is one of the guards who protects the Buddha.

Here's another guard on the other side of the Buddha.

Outside of the temple is an oven where they burn offerings.  We were told that when someone dies if you want them to have nice things to take with them, then you burn those things that you want them to take.

Even in the water, there are little statues that are placed there to give good luck and good fortune.

We saw some beautiful butterflies and moths that would only go to certain trees.  This wasn't one of the most beautiful but the only one that would hold still enough for a photo.

Fisherman live on these boats part of the time.

Here we are with our "boss", Leon Au, who really made all the arrangements for this trip and who guided us around.

We stopped at a fish farm where they gave people sticks with strings and a little fish tied to the string which the missionaries, including Elder Chandler, would hover around the fish to get them to all congregate together and then try to keep them from getting the little fish, but they always did!  The lines had no hooks.

The workers there were pretty busy betting, and fast and furiously playing Mahjong.

We hope you have a wonderful week, everyone!