10,000 Buddhas

We decided to take a couple of hours and go see the 10,000 Buddhas. FYI: Just for the record, there are actually 13,000 Buddhas. These children looking out the window in the train were so cute and talkative that we just had to take their picture. 

From the train we snapped this photo so you can see that it's springtime in Hong Kong and the trees are blooming.

Instead of getting off at the stop where we would go to see the Buddhas we decided to keep on going on the train and we traveled almost to the border. We got off the train at Sheung Shui and we finally saw where they've been hiding a lot of their bicycles as there were bikes parked everywhere.  We almost never see any bikes where we serve in Hong Kong.

We climbed up on a pedestrian bridge so that we could get this photo of a Ping An Finance center building (in the distance on the right) completed in 2015, 1,969 feet tall, with 115 floors, the fourth tallest building in the world and it is in Shenzen, China.  Missionaries aren't allowed to go to mainland China because of our religious visas. There are 54 buildings that are 500 feet or taller under construction there in Shenzen right now.

The view from the bridge is of a few of the buildings in Shueng Shui.

While we were on the bridge a girl walked by with an ice cream cone so we went in search of the ice cream place but were unsuccessful in finding it so instead took a couple of photos in the mall.

So then we got back on the train, went back a few stops and got off at Sha Tin  to go see the Buddhas.

Starting up the hill we were greeted by all kinds of Buddhas.

We took a few close-ups of some of the Buddhas.

Along with a few others, we just kept walking up and up and up and up. The internet says there are 431 steps up but we would have guessed that there were more than that.

These Buddhas are lucky, they don't need to walk up they could ride their animals.

Can you reach that for us?

At the top, there are even more Buddhas and a few shrines, temple, etc.

There were women Buddhas, too.

Here's a short video, too: 10,000 Buddhas

We wish we had smell-a-vision photos as the burning incense was pretty strong smelling.

Here's another short video:One more

Here's the view looking down from the hill.

Walking back to the train station but still on the lookout for ice cream, we stopped at another mall and could have bought a car instead but decided to continue our search.  This photo is inside the mall not outside the mall.

Success at last; Mango Gelato which was yummy!

Just so you can see that we mostly work, this is what we did on Tuesday which was a holiday and a day off for most people.  We helped with an indexing marathon where we taught the Filipino sisters how to help and index records so that people who search familysearch.org can use this free internet site to find their ancestors.  Everyone enjoyed doing this and it was a great success

We also traveled to the temple earlier that morning and by 7:30 a.m. we were dressed in white and beginning a wonderful day.  Here we are with some sweet sisters from Thailand where we are ready to travel back to the office to do the indexing marathon while Elder Chandler was going to go in a different direction to go and teach the English class.  All in all it was a great "day off" and a great opportunity to serve.