Bun Festival in Cheung Chau

Bun Festival Parade - the "floats" are little children who appear to be suspended in the air - it's amazing how they accomplish this. 

With Cheung Chau Island's annual "bun festival" falling on Buddha's birthday, a national holiday, we realized the crowds going by ferry to Cheung Chau would be huge. We left at 7:00 AM with Elder and Sister MacBeth, who were excited to see this cultural phenomenon. We met up with Elder and Sister Valentine (evacuated from Nepal) and Elder and Sister Coffey.

Our hour-long ferry ride to Cheung Chau cost just a couple of dollars. Sister MacBeth was our little "tour guide" as she had read up on this festival and had brought a map. She pointed out the "dragon holes" in some of the Hong Kong buildings on the way there (buildings built so that dragons can have access to the water by going through the holes - see pictures below), and explained some of the traditions she had been reading about,

When we arrived, we had clearly beaten the crowd. Within a few feet of the pier was a Chinese shop-owner who informed us he had graduated from BYU. He gave us some tips on seeing the parade that would start at 2:00 (we were there by about 9:00).

The rest of the story can be seen in pictures below. By parade time, there were 14 of us sitting or standing on a tiny platform of about 5' X 2' - a pretty intense crowd. Waiting for the parade to start, Laraine saw some people walking with shaved ice in their hands. She wanted me to ask them in Cantonese where they bought them. Instead, I taught her how to say it. As soon as I started this little tutoring class, the Chinese couple next to me sat up straighter and looked over at us, very startled. Then they laughed because it was so funny to hear Americans speaking their language. This started a conversation and friendship, as they confirmed what I was teaching Laraine. We then talked about their family etc. I invited them to come to our visitor's center in Wan Chai to hear more about the church. Later on, we got separated from them a bit but I looked over and caught the husband's eye. He was eating a fish ball and motioned as if to offer me some. I declined. Then a few minutes later he walked over and said he would go buy me some. He brought back fish balls for us. What a nice couple!

A funny thing happened earlier as we had started to wait for the parade. I saw something that was deep fried on a stick and went to the shop owner to ask what it was. She explained that it contained "dau fu" (tofu) and "syuh jai" and I told her I wasn't familiar with syuh jai. She looked amazed and started to laugh. She then told passersby that I had told her I didn't know what syuh jai was. Everyone laughed. For the life of me I couldn't figure out what it was, and I was embarrassed that I didn't know. Then as I walked away with this food, it dawned on me that syuh jai is potato. I had never eaten or ordered potatoes in Hong Kong, so I had forgotten the word. Now I realized why the laughter. It was like a Chinese person coming up and saying in pretty good English, "What is 'rice'?"

Nepal Earthquake - Church News Story

What an experience we've had this last week! After the April 25th earthquake in Nepal, Jim and Chris Valentine were evacuated. They were the only missionaries serving in Nepal, and were there to do humanitarian work. They were first evacuated to Thailand, but eventually came to Hong Kong where they now occupy the cubicle next to ours.

As part of our duties in Public Affairs, we are to make the public and church members aware of events related to the church. So, we decided to interview the Valentines. We were so touched by their story, Laraine and I couldn't keep the tears from flowing. When Elder Valentine told of being separated from his wife during the earthquake (she was home preparing a special dinner for members and he was at the church meetinghouse showing recordings of general conference), he ran quickly home to see about his wife. They lived on the 7th floor of an apartment building. As he rounded a corner, he thought he would either see a massive tangle of debris where their apartment building was, or that it would still be standing. It was still standing. Sister Valentine had been banged up, but miraculously made it out of the building. They had other stories to tell, but that will probably be another blog entry.

When Elder Randy D. Funk of the Asia Area Presidency returned from his trip to Nepal, I wrote an article which included  some of the Valentines' story. It got picked up for the Church News and was printed on the second page (haven't seen it yet). Here's the link to the article:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865629161/Asia-Area-leaders-visit-Nepal-devastation.html

Here is the Mormon Newsroom link:

http://www.mormonnewsroom.hk/eng/article/asia-area-leaders-visit-nepal-devastation

Here are some pictures from the article:

Walled City and the Atonement

We had a small "teaching moment" when we went to visit the "Kowloon Walled City" last week. It is an area that was off limits to missionaries 40 years ago, and happened to be in my first area as a young missionary. The stories of corruption and crime in the tiny "city" were known by most of the missionaries, yet we walked by the 6.5 acre block of buildings every day. I recall wondering if the people there would ever be able to hear the gospel. 

Our visit to the site last week brought back memories for me. Now, it has been transformed into a beautiful, serene garden. Laraine and I were touched by what we saw, and the Spirit whispered to us something about the Atonement's redemptive powers.

Painting in the lobby of the Church's Asia Area Building

First a little history:

In 1898, the British government extended their control of southern China by signing a 99 year lease to include more land area (called  the "New Territories). However, a Chinese fort sitting on a tiny 6.5 acre piece of land on the peninsula was excluded from the lease because it contained a small Chinese military contingent assigned to protect the area. The “walled city” soon became the subject of jurisdictional controversy and eventually neither government maintained a presence there.

Without government enforced standards of sanitation, engineering or police presence, the city had serious problems. By 1990 the area had become a ramshackle heap of multi-story apartment buildings five to fourteen stories tall. The crumbling apartments were not built according to approved standards, had very little water or utilities, few elevators, poor drainage and very dark, narrow passageways. An existing building would be surrounded by newer buildings on all sides, with only a few feet between. The area became the mostly densely populated piece of land on earth. With as many as 50,000 residents packed together, the population density of over 3.2 million people per square mile stood in contrast to Hong Kong’s density of a mere 17,000 people per square mile. Residents also had to contend with a powerful crime syndicate, a thriving drug trade and miserable, unhealthy conditions. (For a better description of living conditions, click here)

In the mid 1990's the government of Hong Kong cleared away the buildings, brought in Chinese landscape artists from the mainland, and created an incredible garden. As Laraine and I walked around the quiet ponds and waterfalls, we sat to consider the significance of what we were seeing. It brought to mind the tender mercy of the Lord in offering Himself as a sacrifice so that we, too, could transform our sin-scarred lives into something of beauty. 

We are so grateful to our Father in Heaven for His plan of happiness, for the transformations that take place every day in the hearts of His children, no matter how dark and miserable they have become. 

Note: Our P-days are being transformed into opportunities to receive inspiration and take pictures for potential Mormon Newsroom or Church News feature articles. These thoughts about the Walled City of Kowloon may end up in a publication near you!   

  

First Full Week in Hong Kong

Our first full week in Hong Kong. Highlights of the week:

Took this picture last night on walk home from the ferry

• Friday lunch. Having lunch with Elder and Sister Gerrit W. Gong, Elder and Sister Chi Hong (Sam)Wong, and Sister Funk (Elder Randy D. Funk was away on assignment). These are very wonderful general  authorities of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their gracious wives who invited us to lunch at the Wong home. They are so very involved in everything happening in Asia. To take the time to have lunch with us was an incredible honor for us. 
• Projects. One project was our "Candy-bar wrapper" project. We were given the assignment to design and create candy bar wrappers with uplifting messages so that the candy bars could be given to members of the church in Nepal. We are now just getting started on our main roles in Hong Kong, which are to create and implement a social media plan for Asia, to create a more useful Public Affairs training website site for Asia, to ensure Mormon Newsroom has great content, and to work with local Hong Kong public affairs council for HK Public Affairs issues. 
• Drummers. Some professional Japanese drummers performed at the Star Ferry pier. Chuck and Elder MacBeth were asked to come forward and do some drumming. It was amazing. 
• Black and White. McDonalds has a promotion with two kinds of hamburgers--one all black with white sesame seeds, and one all white with black sesame seeds. They have hamburger or chicken, bacon, and mashed potatoes all in the bun. The black buns are made with squid ink. It was delicious. 
• Walking. We walked about 1.3 miles to the ferry every morning and walked back nearly every evening until Chuck got a blister. We love taking the ferry ride across the harbor to our offices. 

Just off the Star Ferry. Sunset. 

Hong Kong Harbor scene we shot the other day

Sister and Elder Gong, US, Sister Funk, Sister and Elder Wong

Top of our office building

Japanese drummers at Star Ferry pier

McDonald's Black and White burgers (w/mashed potatoes and Squid Ink)

Getting "Orient"-ed

Snippets of May 5- May 8:  15 hour flight to H.K. Mis-communications--No one to greet us. Finally discovered greeting party, Elder and Sister Lyon. Very sweet people. Worried about losing us. Jet lag!! Day at the temple. Area Presidency meeting with all Asia area couples. Blown away by scope of our responsibilities. Kind couples took us out to eat for three days, showed us around. Food, marvelous food. Ferry rides, crowded buses, walking along the promenade. Setting up our cubicle, speaking a lot of Cantonese, Lots of excitement. Loving THIS!!

My cubie mate - doin' the missionary work

View outside our office window in Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong

Contains calamari, squid, rice, cashews, sugar, pinapple, Chinese sausage, etc. 

Hong Kong LDS Temple

Tai Chi Group

L-to-R(Back): Me, Elder Inouye, Sister Inouye, Laraine; Front: Elder Johnson, Sister Johnson, Sister Lyon, Elder Lyon

Goodbye, MTC -- Hello Hong Kong!

Our MTC District--(LtoR)Gubler, Tuesher, Fagans, Jarrards, Reeve, Chamberlains, Ramsey. We love these people!

Our final few hours at the MTC. We head to Hong Kong in just a few short hours. Unless you've experienced it, you won't fully understand when I say the spirit here is something else. We've loved every minute of our time here. (pictures coming soon. Right now I need to get a few ZZZ's)

Next blog entry will be from Hong Kong.