Shirl and Dew's Blog: Eighth Quorum of the Seventy Meeting

The Eight Quorum of the Seventy meeting is a two day conference. Ashley and Shirl wanted fresh flowers for the table, but went into sticker shock when they priced them. So they bought rocks, vases, plants and fresh flowers and lugged them back. They spent most of the day putting together four arrangements. If they were getting paid by the piece they would not make money.

Ashley and Shirley's Flower Arrangements

At 4:00pm we sprinted over to Ho Choi, each carrying a flower. With the colored flowers and the matching name cards it looked very festive. Elder Oakes and Clayton are the visiting authorities. Ho Choi served 11 courses of food, with just a little bit of food on each plate. We had soup, Peking duck, mango pudding, fresh fruit, vegetables, and other dishes. It was very typical Chinese food.

Ho Choi Restaurant

After the dinner we carried the flowers back across the street. As we exited the restaurant I am sure people must have thought we were stealing the flower arrangements, because we got some very funny looks.

This conference was a bit of an experiment. They kept the Eighth Quorum members from the Pacific Area in Auckland, New Zealand, and the rest came to Hong Kong. It took some serious efforts to re-wire and gather all the needed equipment, but the conference was conducted via video conference and went off very well. They were able to see each other and hear each other and converse. It took an amazing amount of work and sophisticated equipment to carry it off. This could be something we see more of in the years to come.

Ryan our Camera Man

Sunday was a half day session, followed by lunch and they were on their way back home. After we finished the Eighth Quorum Meeting we quickly tore the equipment down and started setting up for the Mission Presidents’ Seminar. By 4:30pm we were ready for the next session and on our way back across the street carrying our flower arrangements again. Dinner included wives and was very successful. Again, we got some strange looks as we marched out carrying the flowers with us!