A Farewell Party

We were invited to a wonderful party yesterday at the Thursday Everyday Branch which meets just a couple of floors down from our office.  The sweet Filipino sisters invited us because we facilitate their self-reliance course on Thursdays. The family home evening/party was in honor of Elder and Sister Towers who will be finishing up their mission soon after spending eighteen months here working with the sisters in the different branches as their assignment. Previously, they served in Cambodia as the mission president and his wife for three years. They are wonderful and will be missed so much.  It was also in honor of Noravee who, after many years of working here in Hong Kong as a domestic helper, will soon be going home to the Philippines. 

This is Noravee and she is an amazing woman. Her husband is in the Philippines and he is paralyzed from the waist down from an accident he had many years ago. Now, she will be returning to the Philippines and trading places with her daughter who will be coming here to work as a domestic helper. Noravee supported her daughter through college, and her daughter has been the one taking care of her dad.  Now the daughter is old enough to come and trade places with her mother as there aren't enough good paying jobs there in the Philippines, even with a college education.  Being a domestic helper doesn't pay great and the hours are extremely long but they are able to support themselves better than at home. Noravee spent much of her only day off cooking most of the food for the party.

The decorations were so creative.  Here are balloons with photos hanging from them.

The sisters used their scarves to decorate the food table, and folded fan napkins to place on the table, too.

This photo shows some of the beautiful satin hearts which Noravee made and gave to everyone at the party.  They are all hand sewn together with a braided edge, and beautiful embroidery on both sides of the pillows which says, "I Miss You, Love, Noravee" Think of all the time and expense and work this was for someone who has no extra time or money and works too long and too hard anyway.  We will always treasure our pillow.

Look at the intricate balloons that were twisted and fashioned so beautifully. 

See all the butterflies they made, too.

It was pretty emotional when we sang, "God be with you 'til we meet again" to the Towers and Noravee.  Sister Towers is just like everybody's sweet little grandma.

The sisters did a cute little dance for us, too.

 So after they danced, they insisted that we dance, an you can see that we tried to ham it up for them since we aren't dancers if you click on this link: Chandlers know how to dance?   They already put this on Facebook so it's public anyway, as everything we do with the sisters, they put on Facebook.

Some of the sister missionaries were able to come for part of the time, and eat dinner with us.

Noravee gave the biggest heart to Elder and Sister Towers and she gave a wonderful tribute to them. 

Everyone who had purple clothes wore them in honor of Noravee who loves purple, even Sister Kendell and Elder and Sister Towers.

This sweet sister made this beautiful bird for the Towers.  It is made of 1,000 small folded pieces of paper.  We asked her how long it took her and she didn't know, only that she said she would work on it here and there when she would have a minute or two. It is so intricate and must have taken her forever. We tried to take a little closer photo in the next picture.

Of course, we needed to have a photo with Noravee and then many of the other sisters wanted one, too.

Then it was time to go home and as you can see from the heavy, slow traffic, our commute home was going to be an extra long one, with traffic even stopping in the tunnel under Victoria Harbor.

As we were climbing the stairs to cross the street, we took this photo of some of the sister missionaries standing in front of the church area office. Occasionally they stand there and hand out pamphlets and talk to people who stop and want to find out about the church. This night there were many who stopped to talk and ask questions about the church.

We appreciate these young Sisters and also the young Elders who are so willing to spend their own money and dedicate their time while the young men serve their two-year missions and the young ladies serve eighteen month missions. They share the gospel with great joy and enthusiasm and bear testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and his gospel.

By the way, if you would like to see the result of how learning the principles of self-reliance helped one of the Philippine sisters who was a domestic helper here in Hong Kong learn how to save her money, plan, and return to the Philippines to support herself and her family, click on this link:  May Ann's bakery She is a wonderful person who is working very hard in her own little bakery and who is so happy that she can be home with her family and raise her own children.

WE LOVE YOU ALL, TOO, DEAR FRIENDS AND FAMILY!