Our Apartment in Hong Kong

Home is now a small apartment on the 12th floor of the Harmony Mansions (that's a very euphemistic way of saying it's not even close to being a mansion). It's on the corner of Hennessey Road and Tin Lok Lane, and it's just 10 minutes from the office.

We have the greatest view of Victoria Harbor from our windows, high speed internet, two bedrooms (okay, one is really just a big closet), a living room, a small kitchen, and an even smaller bathroom. We have cable television with two channels in English (some times). We actually get the ABC nightly news every morning at 7:30am, and we have come to appreciate TVB and ATV very much.

Our biggest problem with the apartment is that it's never dark, or quiet. Hong Kong is a city of lights and it never sleeps. So on any given night, you can walk around in the "dark" and never have to worry about tripping over something. And you can judge the time simply by listening - if the Ding Ding is running - it's either before 1am or after 5:30am and if the street crossing is "blink, blinking" it's either before midnight or time to get up.

And best of all there is a "wet market" right behind us. Fresh veggies, fish and pork, all available right on the street. That is, IF, you are brave enough to purchase. And just two blocks away is a huge, modern mall, "Times Square", that has every upscale shop you have ever wanted. Hong Kong is a certainly a city of contradictions.

Elder and Sister Reuschmann Leaving Hong Kong

One thing about missionaries - they are always coming or going. New couples come and all too soon it's time for them to go back home. Our latest couple to leave is Elder and Sister Rueschmann. They have been here 18 months, working with the Philippino sister's branches. They have had a very unusual calling, they go to church everyday from Monday to Saturday - but never on Sunday, thats their Pday. These sisters are in Hong Kong working as domestic helpers and have different days of the week off, but usually not Sunday. So there is a complete block of meetings (and then some) held everyday of the week for them. Elder and Sister Rueschmann have been our most "senior" couple and they have made the rest of us "younger" seniors run to keep up. We will miss them!

Trip to Cheung Chau Island

We have eleven missionary couples and we try to have a combined activity each month. In February we went to Cheung Chau Island for our activity. The island has no cars, but small utility vehicals are used for construction. Upon arriving Shirley was so happy because there was a McDonalds right next to the ferry terminal.

We all met in the lobby and headed out for Cheung Chau Island. Dew has been studying the bus and bus routes and we walked ½ block, caught bus 11 and it delivered us right in front of the ferry terminal. How about that!

We ferried over and got off at the ferry dock, and there right in front of us was...two exciting things, a Wellcome and a McDonalds. This place isn’t all that small! We soon spotted rental bikes, there are no cars on the island! And off we went, some in bike pulled buggies, and some on just plain bikes. How fun it was to be “on the road again”. But my favorite biker of the day was the Chinese woman who was tooling down the road on a bike...with training wheels!

The bikes split everyone up and we all headed in wild directions. But met again at 1 for lunch. Some did the authentic Chinese, some McD’s and some, well, I don’t know where they all went. Some left right after lunch, others stayed on.

Dew and I stayed and walked back to the other side of the island to see a bronze age rock carving that we had missed. Seems that we were within a 100 feet of it and went the other way. On the way back we tried taking back streets and got lost a few times and dead ended a few times, but finally made it back. We left about 3:30pm.

Walk to Work

As we walk to and from work everyday we walk along Gloucester Road. It’s a major street and it is also new car alley. We counted in the 4 blocks along Gloucester Road, 12 new car dealers and one that sells yachts. In just this small area they sell Maserati, Lotus, Ford, Alfa Romero, Nissan, Volvo, Opel, Renault, Mini Coopers, Lamborghini, Land Rovers, Volvo, Richberg and Saab’s. My favorite is the Land Rover.

How to Live Well Amid Increasing Evil

This message came from Richard G. Scott, and is found in the May 2004 issue of the Ensign magazine.

"You have a choice. You can wring your hands and be consumed with concern for the future or choose to use the counsel the Lord has given to live with peace and happiness in a world awash with evil. If you choose to concentrate on the dark side, this is what you will see. . . . Now the brighter side. Despite pockets of evil, the world overall is majestically beautiful, filled with many good and sincere people. God has provided a way to live in this world and not be contaminated by the degrading pressures evil agents spread throughout it. You can live a virtuous, productive, righteous life by following the plan of protection created by your Father in Heaven: His plan of happiness."

Relief Society Birthday Social

Today is Easter Sunday. Easter is pretty low key here in Hong Kong, you see a few Easter Eggs in shops, but not much else.

Beautiful decorations

As we got ready to go down from the office to our Sacrament meeting we met Sister Aki in the elevator and she said, "you have a visitor down on the first floor." So down we went to check it out. And there was a familiar face from home. Kent and Sherry Winder, what a surprise! Seems that this is their 35th Anniversary and they are on vacation. So they came to church with us, and then stayed for the Relief Society Birthday social.

Food preparations underway

The Birthday Social was, as everything the sisters do, a knock out. I gave them a script called "Emma’s Garden Party", and they took the script and ran with it. They had sisters play the parts of the general RS presidents, and then had the music and dances and characters for the time periods. The highlight for me was "Elvis", and Superman, oh yes and two sisters dressed up as pizza. They really know how to throw a party. They had sandwiches, veggies, chips, soda, and pop corn for desert. Interesting combination again! What a fun night, and such fun to see familiar faces from home.

Theme - Relief Society Presidents over the years

The Winders from Salt Lake loved the social

Christine preparing for program


Sister Apple dressed as Superman

Yes, even Elvis

Our Mission in Hong Kong

It's October 2007, and two very bewildered seniors get off the plane in Hong Kong. So just how did these two happen onto this adventure? What brought them to Hong Kong?

Well, it's a long story!

And as with all good stories, it began a long time ago in Utah. Shirley from Ogden, met DeWayne from Salt Lake at Weber College, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Now its four children (2 girls, 2 boys), 13 grandchildren (3 girls 10 boys), one house, and one previous mission later, and the wanderlust is back.

Our mission in England, Birmingham in 2003/04 was a wonderful opportunity and very much like "going home". Most of our ancestors were English/Irish and visiting those green hills was a dream come true.

So when the opportunity to come to Hong Kong came along, we just couldn't pass it up. Who could pass up an opportunity to serve the Lord AND broaden our horizons - all at the same time.

Little did we know that our mission in England would be like "going home", but our time in Asia would be definitely be "life changing." We invite you to follow along on our adventures in Hong Kong.