Whew! We made it!

Friday evening we boarded a huge airliner in Los Angeles at 11:50 PM, chased the sun all evening and arrived at the beautiful Hong Kong airport Sunday morning at 5:20 just as the sun was rising. Although it was long, it was a great flight. We were served two meals on board that were not that bad, in fact, I quite enjoyed them. I (Alane) watched three movies that I had been wanting to see and two documentaries. I did sleep some. I think the total flight was just under 15 hours.

We took a train from the airport (if you want to know about this incredible airport, watch Extreme Engineering season 1 episode 2...so interesting what they have been able to do). We arrived at our apartment around 7:00.

Other senior missionaries met us there. We found our refrigerator filled with food...enough for the entire week. You should see the carrots here, they are bigger than potatoes and so yummy (we are told). We haven't needed to cook yet because we are invited to dinner every night this week (and I was hoping to lose weight...ha!). The missionaries are friendly, supportive, kind, and make sure we are safely escorted to and from the office.

We spent the morning unpacking and organizing our things and then attended sacrament meeting at 1:00. Now remember we have not laid down since leaving our room at the MTC on Friday afternoon...not slept in a bed for I can't even calculate how many hours. Up to this point we were running on adrenaline, when we sat down for the meeting both of us struggled terribly to stay awake. During the closing prayer I (Alane) fell so soundly asleep that I tipped forward and caught myself just prior to falling on the floor, we were seated on the front row facing the speakers (bad planning on someone's part).

We were escorted home by wonderful Sis Jackson and we slept off and on for the next 12 hours.

A challenge has been getting our computers working at home and at the office. Funny we have only been without them for a few days...we felt lost without our ability to email or use our wifi. Hopefully those challenges will be overcome soon.

This is an amazing place. I wish I had the words to describe it. It is very crowded, people everywhere yet their system is effective and we have spent very little time standing in lines. We walk a great deal and always seem in a hurry to catch a bus...which there are hundreds of double decker busses. It seems the majority of the population rides public transportation. The busses can be very crowded but it doesn't seen a bother as we aren't on them long.

I've included some pics of our apartment. I am going to try some other posts with labels and pics to give you some idea of our adventure.

I want to add that we learned Katie and Walter have some friends whose parents are serving as the medical advisers here. They came to FHE last night with a picture of Katie's Bella playing with their granddaughter when I saw the picture, spontaneous tears welled up in my eyes and I couldn't talk for several minutes. How grateful I am for small tender mercies that the Lord loves me and is interested in my happiness. Ok pics to follow. Love you all