The Hong Kong Temple and other great sites

Hi Everybody,

We just got home to our apartment from serving in the Hong Kong temple this Sunday afternoon.  The temple is the beautiful building pictured behind me in the above photo.  It is beautiful inside, too.  There is a very special spirit that we feel in all of the temples.  In the temples the members of the Church are able to come and participate in ordinances such as baptism.  They act as proxies for their deceased ancestors who weren't able to do these things when they were on the earth.  The ancestors will be able to accept or reject these ordinances which are done in their behalf. 

This is a covered area in front of the temple.  There were many Filipino sisters who came to the temple today as there are many who work here in Hong Kong.  They are very sweet and loving and they gave us a very warm welcome. 

Also, we thought you might like to see what our missionary badges look like.  Elder Chandler's Cantonese name is pronounced like Chan jéung-lóuh (Chun jung low) meaning Chandler Elder.

Sister Chandler would be like Chan jí-muih prounced Chun Jee Mui. 

Across the street from our office on Hong Kong island.

Looking up the street from our office.

Looking across Victoria Harbour from our office at Kowloon on the other side.

A typical little shopping street in Kowloon near where we live. Elder Chandler thought he might like to visit Dr. Tong Moon Tong just to see what he does.  Then he thought that maybe with the name of Tong he might be a dentist and decided against that.

Here's Sister Chandler standing in front of the entrance to the Whampoa shopping district very near our apartment.  There are lots of good things there like chicken feet soup, pigs knuckles, and many other delicious items.

A new 63 story hotel under construction just down the street from us. Across the harbor is the International Finance Center.  As you may know, New York, London, and Hong Kong are the three major financial centers of the world.

Here's the ship shopping center in Whampoa.

Pictured here are more residential towers around our apartment. Everyone lives in high rise towers.

This looks like a great bakery and it smelled really good as we walked by.  Next time we'll have to stop and buy something.

We don't know if you've ever seen Dragon Fruit but here's a blurry photo of them in the store.  They are beautiful in color but neither of us were impressed with the taste of the fruit.

Here's another photo of the Dragon Fruit when it is cut. Interesting, isn't it?  We really couldn't taste much of any flavor at all eating the white and black polka dot fruit but then maybe our taste buds aren't that great.

We walked to this market called The Welcome Market. The vegetables and fruits are really good, too.

There are all kinds of balls that they sell for food like fish balls and Octopus balls.  Yum, Yum!

We thought it was pretty interesting watching the butcher as he was vigorously and loudly chopping away at the meat.

Notice that most of the buses in Hong Kong are double decker.

One night we went out for some Dim Sum.  There was a lot of shrimp and meat etc. all served in these little wooden steaming bowls.  Dim Sum just means little individual portions most of which are steamed.

Another night we rode the ferry back to Kowloon.  It is just as beautiful looking that way from Hong Kong as it is looking at Hong Kong from Kowloon.

Here's Elder Chandler with some of our new missionary friends as we got off the ferry to walk home.  Elder Orton is the Area Medical Advisor, and the Elder and Sister Chamberlain are the Area Public affairs advisors.  (Elder Chamberlain isn't in this photo.

Here we are looking back at Hong Kong again at night.

Part of the nightly Symphony of Lights Show from the Kowloon side.

Here's a very sweet couple, Elder and Sister Oveson, who lived in South Jordan most recently before going on their mission to Cambodia.  They have been teaching us over Skype about how to be Self-Reliance missionaries.  There are many wonderful missionaries just like them who are serving all over the world. They all dedicate their time and their resources to go out and serve the people wherever they are called to serve. 

Okay, to end on a fun note, don't you think this a great way that they deliver pizza here?  Wouldn't we all love some Pizza Hut delivery right now?

Hong Kong!

Hi Everybody,

Before we left Seattle had a minor mechanical delay so it was fifteen hours on the plane, but we were very happy to arrive here in Hong Kong last night at 9:30 pm and be greeted by Elder and Sister Whitman, the Area Executive Secretary and his dear wife, who waited patiently for us to arrive an hour late and then waited while we went through customs.  It is always wonderful to walk out from a strange airport in the middle of the night and be greeted by kind and caring senior missionaries!  They took us by train and taxi to our apartment which is pictured below.  Our fridge and pantry had been stocked with a few essentials so we are very blessed.  They gave us this first day off to get on the right time schedule so we did a little walking on the harbor promenade and did a little shopping, too. 

We love our apartment building and our apartment (1,422 apartments in the complex).  We are spoiled here.  If it was just closer to the office it would be perfect.  We like the nice palm trees but it's quite chilly today with the wind off the water.

Here's a photo Elder Chandler as you look across Victoria Harbor to Hong Kong Island.  We live in Kowloon and this is in front of our apartment building.

We walked along the Promenade along the harbor.  The above and following photos are all taken looking across the harbor.

There's a new building under construction by where we live and across the harbor is the Two International Finance Center which used to be the tallest building in Hong Kong at 1,364 feet.  Now the tallest building is the 118 story International Commerce Center at 1,588 feet.  Hong Kong has at least 1,294 buildings of 100 M (328 feet) or higher.

We thought it was pretty cool to see a sampan, too.

Here's some road construction near us and expansion of the subway (we think).

This is Whampoa shopping area with a big ship as part of the shopping.  This area used to be in the harbor so someone thought it would be cool to build a fake ship.  We wandered through Aeon which is a very large Japanese grocery, etc. store which made us feel at home (and it was very crowded).

The Hong Kong convention center is the building with the wavy kind of roof and is pictured to the right of the ferry.  The Church area office building is right behind it but you can't see it.

Here are some other residential buildings around our complex.

This picture and the one below are views from our apartment window which is on the 12th floor.

Here's an interesting "statue" by our building which represents a dragon.  It is made of several big rocks all hanging together. Right now we're kind of "dragin", too, but we'll be ready to go and get to work tomorrow.  We miss you all back home but we are very happy to be here and to serve the Lord in our humble way and in any way that we are asked to serve.