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