Monkey mountain

We had a great day today and we wanted to share it with you. It has been a busy week so let me start there. Last weekend was District Conference. We have a district rather than a Stake because of the large number of Filipino sisters. We don't have enough Priesthood brethren for a Stake. Carlos was called to the District Council. That is exciting and he is looking forward to serving with an incredible District President whose office is next to ours. He is an employee of the church. He heads up the legal team in the Asia Area.

We also had an assignment to speak Tuesday through today (Saturday) in the "Everyday Branch." Which really is just daily church to accommodate the Filipino workers who only get one day of work off per week. So different members meet on different days and we spoke everyday.

We also worked in the temple this week. A wonderful experience. A deeply spiritual experience. Especially since we, English speakers, are the minority. Imagine being the only English speaking worker during a session (or other ordinances) of the temple. So tender and humbling. I truly am gaining a testimony that Americans do not have a corner on happiness, love, and spiritual strength. I am learning so much.

So back to today. We had a Senior missionary outing this morning.
we went to a place called "Monkey Mountain." (I have attached pictures). So there is a mountain here that grows a plant that is poisonous to humans but monkeys love it. Monkeys are not indigenous to Hong Kong. People had pet monkeys, knew they loved this plant and let the monkeys go (or they escaped) on this mountain. The monkeys reproduced into the thousands. Sterilization projects have been utilized over the past several years to control the population.

The monkeys truly are everywhere. They come really close. There are fines (stiff fines) for feeding them. They can also be aggressive. Well rather than me go on and on just google Monkey Mountain Hong Kong there are some youtube videos or here is a pretty good article explaining the mountain: http://www.abctales.com/story/wevvywoo/monkey-mountain. It was great fun. We ended the outing with a yummy lunch at a Canadian hamburger place called Triple O. I thoroughly enjoyed my grilled chicken sandwich. It truly was a taste of home.

Carlos and I had to scurry back to give our last talk of the week. In the other meetings there were between 15 and 20 members in the congregation. We were well received every day. The women are just so tender and sweet. Many of them hugged me and kissed me on my face when they thanked me for my talk. Today there were around 100 in the congregation. I wish I could record their songs and prayers. They are so beautiful and tug at us. They were so tender, cried through my talk and afterward swarmed Carlos and I. For some reason the women each had one rose today. They gathered up some of the roses, hugged, kissed me and gave me the roses. One sweet lady wrapped her arms around me and sobbed into my shoulder Thanking me for my talk. (I have attached a copy of my talk).

We decided to take the Star Ferry home after our talks. Normally we would ride the bus but we wanted the extra walk on the way home. As we approached the dock we could see that there was a ferry and we were going to miss it. We walked faster but missed it anyway. We were a bit disappointed then heard, "Look! Missionaries!" Can I just say how hearing that thrilled me? We looked and sitting, waiting for the next ferry was an American family, mom, dad and four children (oldest was 12 and youngest was 2).

We got to sit and visit with them and learned that they were in Bejing for 2 years on a work contract. They are members of the church and taught us about how being a member of the church in mainland China was for them. It was so good to be around kids again, although it did make us miss our dear grandchildren even more than we already do.

On the way home a man came up to us and using sign language let us know he was hungry. Carlos took him to a store close to us. The man picked out some rolls, milk, and biscuits of some kind, bowed and escorted us back to where he had met us.

I am grateful, grateful, grateful; for the spirit I feel, this great opportunity, and to have a wonderful, loving companion to share it with.