Last Day of our Mission

At noon the tenth floor lunch bunch had lunch for us. They brought all the fixins for good sandwiches, chips, fruit and cream puffs. The best lunch bunch lunch we've had bar none - but way tooo much!

Tonight we went to the Peak with Vivien, Ashley and Edward Ho. We planned on running home and doing a little packing and getting back by 4:30 in time to go. We never made it home so we just went as we were, suit, tie, skirt and all.
We took the Peak Tram up, we've never done that before. We have gone down, but never up. Then we walked out to show them the date carved on the rock, which none of them had ever seen. We just kept walking, all around the peak trail which took us almost two hours. By the time we got all the way around it was dark and we headed for Burger King for dinner. Dew jumped on the escalator too quickly and missed the floor where Burger King is located, so we had to wait for him to go up two floors before he could come back down to where we waited patiently.
We all ate way tooo much. In fact Ashley and Vivien both ordered Whoppers cut in half and ate half. Poor Edward ended up eating his Whopper, and 3/4 of theirs. He was to the brim by the time he finished. We then caught the bus back down, and it was nice to find out that riding the bus down made all of them slightly sick too. We walked Ashley home and then on to our house, which won't be our house much longer.

All evening they kept thinking of little pieces of advice to give us for our trip to China. And as we left they all told us to call if we needed help. They are soooo very good to us.

Lunch at Tony Romas

Some of the staff took us out for lunch, and guess where they chose? Tony Roma's - American all the way.

Those that attended where; Edward Ho (taking the picture), Samuelanna Woo, Lock, Kam, Anna Leung, Jennifer Chan, Jamie Wong, Nicole Hui, Ashley Chan and Vivien Poon. We had a wonderful lunch, and we are going to miss them, they are such great people.

Last Monday Devotional

When Elder and Sister Newell went home we decided not to have anymore farewell songs, because of the effort of those writing the music and lyrics.


Today was our final devotional with the staff. Elder Woolsey gave a great message about his wood carving. Following the devotional they asked if we would come up on the stand. I thought they wanted us to talk, but NO they sang a special song and it included the entire staff. When they finished singing Sister Bench had prepared a poem for us and then awarded us with a wonderful scrap book with pictures and comments from the staff and coupoes. And then they asked Shirl and I to talk. What a wonderful gift, we don’t know how to thank them.

Poem by Sister Bench
FAVORITE THINGS OF HONG KONG
(Words by Carol Bench to My Favorite Things)
Black rain on Hennessy,
8 typhoon warnings,
Smells of the wet market,
Teleconference mornings,
Chirping of traffic lights,
Screeching ding dings,
We know that these are your favorite things.

Jade market, junk market, Stanley and Soho,
For trinkets and porcelain - shopping you go.
Macau, Big Buddha and views from the Peak,
Sometimes you see all three things in one week.

Early morning hikes
Tsing Ma Bridge lights,
When you're feeling sad,
Just simply remember your favorite things,
And then you won't feel so bad.

Island 2nd Farewell

Today was our last Sunday with the branch. Dew left early and said he felt totally useless, no assignments, no tithing counting, no Home Teaching, just like a visitor. Then we had to speak in church, and luckily we took the whole time!

Group Picture of Branch Members

Tonight our HT group threw a going away party for us, and what a party it was. To begin they all had on grass skirts they had made out of the ever present plastic tying string that you see tied around everything here. Most were green, but there were a couple of white and even a blue. They made them this morning!!! They danced a hula and were they ever good. Then they sang two songs to us, and then made us dance. I am sure if they realized just how bad at dancing we were they would have skipped that part. Then they each told us something they had learned from Home Teaching. They are such wonderful women.

Home Teaching Group

And as a closing song they all sang “Leaving on a Jet Plane”. What a teary way to send us off. And then we took a kazillion photo’s, what fun! And Angel Santos even made sure that little Raphael came today because it was our last time. We will certainly miss them all!

Wonderful Entertainment

Biking from Tai Wai to Tai Po - Senior Couples

The countdown is down to Four days and counting.

Beautiful bridge at Sha Tin

Today we scheduled one last bike ride. And so at 9am we found that the Woolsey’s, Gibbon’s, Erikson’s and the Halversen’s were all willing to go with us.
A bus ride to Sha Tin, and a short MTR ride got us to Tai Wai where we rented bikes. We had several very nervous sisters who hadn’t been on bikes in a very long time, but it was "just like riding a bike" it all came back quickly.

Beautiful flowers along the trail

Left to right - Gibbons, Halversens, Elder Erikcson, Jacksons, Sister Erikson and Woolseys

Along the way we had beautiful spring flowers which off set the foggy skies. The river was full of sculling boats, and even a couple of dragon boats out practicing for the next Dragon Boat races. It was an absolutely wonderful temperature for biking and we loved it.

After a quick lunch in Tai Po Market, at...McDonalds where we saw "Crew" who remembered us, we took the bus towards the Brass Market. By the time we crossed over the mountain we found where the sun had been hiding, and the temperature was much higher. We shopped a bit, and then headed for Yuen Long and our favorite bus ride home, and back into the fog again.

Our Friend David (Crew)

What a great way to spend our last Saturday in Hong Kong!

Lunch with Akis and Dinner with Ashley and Vivien

The countdown continues. Five days and counting.

Today the Aki’s invited us to lunch with their family, who is visiting. We went to the R66, the revolving restaurant at the top of the Hopewell Centre. Actually the building is still, and the floor of the restaurant revolves like a huge phonograph record. If you were still and watched the concrete pillars around the windows you could actually feel it move. The food was wonderful and if you didn’t have enough it wasn’t their fault!

Elder and Sister Aki with granddaughter and daughter.

Left to right - Vivien, Ashley, Shirl and Dew

Our weather has been very foggy this spring, and today was more of the same. Not good if you are having lunch in a "view" restaurant, but it was still beautiful. Everything had that "other world" feeling.

The fog tuned to rain and did it ever! We had great plans to play tennis one last time with Vivien, but it rained too hard and turned all the courts to ponds. But we went anyway, Vivien, Ashley, and Us. This is the first time Ashley has been out to Vivien’s house. In fact it’s the first time she has been out to this part of the New Territories, so it was fun for a couple of "out-of-towners" to show an actual Hong Kong native around.

Serious tennis players?

We had dinner at Pizza Hut, and then headed back home still carrying our un-used rackets.

Beautiful gardens at Vivien's residents

Rained out again!

BBQ at Deepwater Bay - Couples Family Home Evening

Tonight the senior missionary group surprised us by planning a BBQ on the beach at Deep Water Bay. It was such fun! They had hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans, chips and veggies. Elder Woolsey got there early and got the fire going and by the time we got there it was perfect for hot dog cooking.

Wonderful Night with the Couples at Deepwater Bay

And to top it off - S-mores! And the coals were just right. We cooked those marshmallows over the coals then slathered them on graham crackers and chocolate. The only problem we found is that the Cadbury chocolate is thicker than our Hersheys at home and it doesn’t melt, but what the heck.
After dinner we sang some songs around the campfire. There was a cute group cooking fish next to us and they couldn’t get their fire hot enough, so when the smores were done they took their food off their fire and put it on ours. Their fish was cooked in no time.

Beautiful Night with Lights Reflecting in Water

What a fun FHE this was! And the lights reflected on the water was beautiful.

Sisters Jackson and Bench Enjoying Hot Dogs

Elder and Sister Gibbons - Guarding Their Food

Elder and Sister Olson

Inter Island Ferries, Hikes and Food

Left to right - Gibbons, Halversen, Benchs, Woolsey, Erikson

As with all things - the end comes.

And today was the last of our couple's days out. It would have been great if it had been all blue skies and beautiful. Well it was foggy and gray, but still a great day. We bused to the ferry terminal and caught the ferry to Peng Chau. We walked through the town center and headed for Finger Hill. Elder and Sister Smith stayed down and explored the town and up the hill we went. It was a good hike, and would have been a great view without the fog. On the way down we passed some really pretty flowers.

Hiking to Discovery Bay

We had a short wait, then caught the ferry to Trappists Jetty. The wait gave us enough time to go to Wellcome and stock up on drinks and treats. The ferry is an old "tub", but it made it safe and sound. We walked up to the monastery and the Smith’s headed down the trail towards Discovery Bay to meet up with us at the end.

Elder and Sister Smith - good sports

The monastery was quiet and peaceful and we fed the fish and turtles. Then headed back down and across the trail towards Discovery Bay. We told the Smith’s it was a nice flat walk. Funny the games your mind plays on you, it had some pretty steep ups and downs on it, but at the end of the trail there were the Smith’s all smiles, waiting for us.

Another short walk and we found the Mexican restaurant. It was such a warm day that we ate on the patio which would have been beautiful on a nice sunny day, but at least the temperatures were perfect. Lunch was delish, then we headed back on the ferry. I think most of us caught a few winks on the way home. Nice day!

We are certainly going to miss these days out together!

Cute sisters in Peng Chau

Flowers everywhere

Our Farewell Dinner

As we prepare to leave Hong Kong, we were invited to the Hallstroms for our farewell dinner. The table and decorations were beautiful. We had a lovely dinner, shared testimonies, took pictures and departed for home. We received the last of the items for our treasure box. It was a lovely evening. Wasn't it just last week were having our welcome dinner?

Island 2nd - Relief Society Birthday

Sister Ancient - Sister Nerlyn

Another Sunday, another busy day. Today the branch celebrated the Relief Society Birthday. They had a skit featuring Youngest RS Sister, Sister Ancient, Sister Young Married, Sister Middle Age, and our favorite Sister Old Maid. It featured an angel as well as tinkling bells. Our sisters certainly know how to put together an interesting event.

Sister Hillim, the District Relief Society President spoke, Sister Oakes gave a brief history of the Relief Society and we played a Relief Society Quiz. These sisters are nothing, if not competitive. Then dinner after. A thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Enjoying Dinner - Chicken Curry and Rice

Playing competative games

Relief Society skit

Park Island (MaWan Island)

We only have three Saturdays left in Hong Kong. Shirl went to the Asia Area Womens’ Conference and then out for the afternoon with Ashley. I went out to Park Island (Ma Wan Island) and what a treat. It was a mix between the modern residential area and stilt villages. It is a support island for the Tsing Ma Bridge before it continues over to Lantau. A few weeks ago, we hiked to the top of a mountain at night to take pictures of this beautiful bridge, but from Park Island, you are taking pictures from under the bridge, a totally different view.

I hiked and hiked and then decided to get on a circular bus and see more of the island. I came back to the ferry terminal and took five and then caught the ferry to Tsuen Wan to see this city. It had a spectacular park that went on and on and on. Playgrounds for children, water falls and shopping areas. The only way off Park Island is by bus and ferry, there are no cars on the island. The ferries are big high speed ferries departing for Central and Tsuen Wan (major MTR station). I returned back to Park Island, because I wanted to take the ferry back to Central.

Wish we had more time, there is so much to see.

On Top of Finger Hill

Another Saturday, they have been coming around very quickly lately. We decided to go back out to Peng Chau and see if we could find our way to Finger Hill. This time we didn’t follow the hike book, we followed the signs and found it easily. However, we found that we were very close the last time, we just didn’t keep on through a little village, or we would have found it before. Today there was a huge black dog blocking one way, so we went another. At least that way the big, ugly dogs were inside fences, and not running loose. They certainly have big, ugly dogs out on these islands, and they all look pretty much the same, and they are ALL over.


After our successful accent up Finger Hill we went back to catch the ferry over to Discovery Bay. As we approached the pier it was just pulling out. We couldn’t figure it out, it left 10 minutes early. And the ferry we came over on this morning left 10 minutes early also. Why don’t they stick to their posted schedules?
Good question! It wasn’t the ferries that were off schedule, it was Dew’s watch that was dying! That’s right, the battery in his $3.00 watch is dying. Guess we can’t complain tho, he’s had it for a year!

View from Finger Hill

At Discovery Bay we hit the Mexican Restaurant and had a huge lunch. It was soooo good. I have really missed Mexican food. It was a little taste of home.
Then back on the ferry, which also left 10 minutes early also, and back home to grocery shop and get ready for Sunday.