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!