Mid Level- Old Area Office

We had forgotten to upload this little video showing before the typhoon hit the other week so we thought we would add it just to show you a bit of the wind.

Last Saturday we went on the world's largest out door covered escalator system.  You can read more about it if you click here:  MID LEVEL ESCALATORS

We were going to see Sun Yat-Sen museum

You will want to read this link so as to see why we would want to go there: Museum

Why there's Dr Sun Yat himself.  Oh wait, maybe that's Elder Chandler. Several of the "elder" Elders who were with us used this chapel in their missionary days.  We understand that some of them even lived here in the building. There are some unique classrooms here, too.  We forgot to take a photo of one of the rooms which is a walk-in-safe. Elder Thong (pronounced Tong) talked about how he taught a Sunday School class in there. Anyway, this photo is where the chapel  was in the building.  It is really pretty and ornate and even has two fireplaces in this room.

The preserved the baptismal font was a favorite spot among the missionaries.  Sister Thong really likes it because she was baptized here.

This cute couple is Elder and Sister Thong.  

Here's Elder Chandler relaxing on the veranda there.

Here's the view from the veranda.  Don't you just love the colors on the buildings?

There was too much light behind these stained glass windows in the building to get a good photo but we took it anyway.  When our church built our new building, they took some of the designs from this one and recreated them inside our new building. 

This might be a good place to throw in this photo of our office building.  It doesn't show the inside that was mentioned, but it's a great photo of the outside.  We were stuck in traffic on the bus and had this perfect photo opportunity.  It is really unique and beautiful and really stands out from the other high-rise buildings. Because of the unique architecture, people sometimes just walk in from the street to find out what kind of building this is.  The guards in the building usually call Elder and Sister Thong to come and speak to them since they speak the language and then the Thongs usually come and give them a tour and tell them about the church.

Here's another unrelated photo but got thrown in, too, because the table setting is so beautiful.  The Area Presidency had a lunch for the outgoing Hong Kong temple presidency and this is how we decorated the table for them.

Here's one more unrelated photo we took from our office building looking out at the men putting up the bamboo scaffolding across the street from the office building. Don't you think it looks like kind of a dangerous job?  The scaffolding is still growing and getting higher and higher.  We'll have to take another photo of it one of these days.

We've also had several new senior couples come to serve here in the last little while and some of you might recognize this sweet couple.  This sweet couple is Elder Blaine and Sister Kathy Ferguson. They lived in our neighborhood when we lived in Sandy, Utah like forty years ago.  We hadn't kept up with them but have seen them occasionally through the years. We're so happy they have come to serve here as volunteer missionaries in the Asia Area Legal department. Elder Ferguson previously worked as a lawyer at the Utah State attorney General's office.
We wish you all a great week and hope you are planning to serve a mission or a senior mission in the future, too!

Lantau Island and Typhoon Haima

We'll here's another weekly post.  It has been a rainy and stormy week.  But we have a nice comfortable apartment to live in a nice office to work in so we don't mind the rain.

Just as we were leaving our office on Wednesday, our phones signaled Black Rain which is defined as: This signal means: Very heavy rain has fallen or is expected to fall generally over Hong Kong, exceeding 70 millimetres (2.76 inches) in an hour, and is likely to continue. When the BLACK signal (Chinese: 黑色暴雨警告) is issued, Hong Kong will come to a complete standstill.

We were walking in ankle deep water part of the way to get to the bus so we believed the weather warning, too!

Here are some of the photos from the news.

Now we are getting the winds from TYPHOON HAIMA and all flights are cancelled today.

You can see that it is pretty stormy and there are no boats in Victoria Harbor which only happens when a typhoon is coming. You can hear the wind and see some of the waves in the video below but the wind and the waves are getting larger and stronger by the minute.

Here's one more link that I'm adding the day after the typhoon in case you're interested:              After Typhoon Haima

Here's the view from the window as we were departing on the ferry from Central Pier going to Discovery Bay.  The window was pretty dirty as you can see.

Last Friday evening we made a little trip to Discovery Bay by ferry boat with some of  the other senior missionaries.  It is on Lantau Island, about 30 minutes away.  Most of the 20,000 people there are expats and no cars are allowed.  You would think you're in Southern CA.

We ate dinner at the Coyote Grill so here we are (and below) with the other missionaries.  I think it was the most pleasant evening (weather wise) we have had in Hong Kong.  Cool, dry, and we sat outside for a nice Mexican dinner.

The beach at Discovery Bay and some new condos under construction.

These condos look just like you would find along the Southern CA coast--stucco and red tile roofs.  And they are a lot more spacious than living in Hong Kong but also very expensive.

This is the ferry boat we came on from Hong Kong Island.  Since we are seniors our cost was only $2 HK (25 cents US).  The cost for non-seniors is $40 HK which is still very cheap.  We passed right by Disneyland on the way.  Going home in the evening we watched the fireworks.

Here we are enjoying a nice candlelight dinner.  You can see that everyone was happy -- except Elder Chandler doesn't seem to be smiling.

Mango ice cream- delicious!  I think this is a surprise picture.  And Elder Chandler's glasses broke so he can't see anything anyway.  He got his new ones yesterday so he is happier now.

Chuck and Laraine Chamberlain left us last Saturday to return to the US.  Even though they came from the East Coast (New Jersey?) they are going to Rupert, Idaho (that's a big change from Hong Kong) to live with their daughter and then plan to go to China to teach English in a year. We're sad to see them go.

The sunset was beautiful the other night from the train station near where we live.  We walk along here two times every day but usually don't see a nice sunset like this.

This was kind of a weird accident we could see from our apartment window.  The car was turned on its side somehow.  It took the wrecker crews about two hours to figure out how to right it and tow it away.

To end our little blog today, besides wishing you a very good day, we thought you might want to read this heartwarming story:

Good Story

Kowloon Park

Lucky us, we had another national holiday last Monday.  Amazingly enough, we didn't have an activity in our Branch and the temple was closed so we didn't need to help there so we actually had a bit of a holiday and for a few hours visited the Kowloon park which is nearby. You might enjoy scrolling through these photos to see what we saw.

Aren't these steps into the park pretty?  We think all steps should be artistically painted, don't you?

There were several interesting Banyan trees there.

Is that a cannon?

Is this a castle?

Is that Rapunzel?

There were hundreds of Indonesian and Filipino women who were camped out on the sidewalks and everywhere for their day off.

Elder Chandler and Elder Roberts trying out the fitness equipment.

Here's Elder Chandler getting ready to check out the museum there at the park, but first he's checking out the see-through glass on the escalator which you can see below:

Don't you think that hat almost looks like a glorified Mexican sombrero?

This was the floor in one of the rooms

Here's a closer look

And a closer look.  Now there's an idea for all our broken dishes!

We saw more Indonesian ladies than Filipino because the park is close to a Muslim mosque.

And then it was time to climb up to the aviary.

But first we needed to stop for a special treat at the local park McDonald's.

Have you ever seen this before?  It tastes like a orange creamsicle.  When the slush starts to melt a little bit, stir it up and then it tastes even more like one.  Delicious!

And then it was on to see the birds at the aviary.

These two birds were listed as pigeons

Isn't that a pretty fancy pigeon?  It's a Victoria crown pigeon.

At first we were amazed that there was a totem pole in China and wondered if they made them, too, but then we read that it was a gift from Canada.

It looks like it's time to go home.

We recently went to an interesting night market but they had signs everywhere prohibiting photos.  You might enjoy seeing one here that someone photographed and put on the internet.  So click on this:  Outdoor market   and, no, we didn't buy anything.  You can skip the ad by clicking on "skip ad".

We hope you have a great week!