Sunday June 19 Visit two Ward today here in Hong Kong.

This was Sunday June 19 th, we had an early breakfast at the hotel as we walked in and passed the girls there to see that we were staying at the hotel, a young Chinese boy was with them.  One of the girls turn to the boys and ask if he knew what the tag on Johns suit coat was?  They were talking Cantonese and the boy said "He is a missionary.   John caught that.   Today we are attending two church meeting  that John served in.  We took a taxi over to Kowloon.   When he got to the area where the church was, the taxi driver  had no idea where to go.   So we got out of his taxi and found another one driver that was familiar to the area.   The church was located close to a freeway, almost under it as you can see from the picture above.  Derek and John are standing in front of it.  We weren't sure if it was going to rain that day, so we brought our umbrella's.  It didn't rain. They have nice racks for them.  The Filipino members were so happy to see John.  Rita is taking a picture of John and a Chinese boy he was companion to at one time.  I think, but I'm not sure now.  As the meeting got underway, a young Chinese boy sat behind us and interpreted the whole meeting for us.  We looked over and saw the other Missionary who's parent who come to pick them had interpretors too.   At the end of the meeting, the Bishop had the three missionaries going home come up and bare their testimonies.  They all bore a great testimony.  The young boy was right there to interpret their talks to us.  It was a pleasure to hear John speak so fluent in Cantonese.  Being Fathers day, the youth came up and sang to the fathers.    After the meeting we talk to the young boy who had interpreted for us, he wasn't 17, he was 28 and had served a mission in the San Francisco area  several years ago.  No wonder he knew English so well.



Being Fathers day they gave each father Orchid and mug.  Here you see Derek with the Orchid and mug, someone did a lot of work to put that together.  The other meeting were good, and everyone were so friendly to us.




After the meeting in Kowloon, we came back to our hotel room and rested a little then got a subway above and went to the Filipino Ward in Hong Kong.  




Here John, Rita, and Derek are standing in front of the church, that's just the entrance, there were rooms up on the 2n floor.  A couple from Idaho is the Branch President.  He ran a farm and said he had made enough money to retire, so they decided to go on  a mission and the church sent them here to Hong Kong.   This meeting was in English so didn't have any trouble hearing, but we did have a problem trying to stay awake.  It was 3 p.m. in the afternoon.




This is the Chapel, in this area is a lot of Filipino sisters who have joined the church.  John and his companion taught many of these girls.  One of the talks was given by a young  girl about her father, who had died a few years ago and she told us about his life.  .  We talk to her afterward, her name was Irene, she is engaged to a boy back in the Philippine's and they will be married in the Temple in October.   They gave all the fathers a flashlight to remind them to be a "Light" unto their family.  They invited all to stay after the meetings was over with for a special father day program.  In that ward they didn't have many children or youth, cause is mostly made of up of young women from the Philippines.
All the  teacher in the Gospel Doctrine class and Relief Society were very good teachers.  The teacher in the Gospel Doctrine had us break in four different groups.  Each of us was in a different group, except John and I.  We were to discuss  "Why do we keep the Sabbath day holy"  so Derek represent his group and John our group.  It was a wonderful class.




Rita and I went into the Relief Society class, the President was one of the older Filipino women and the teacher was one of the young girls.  The lesson was on "Talents"  I had that lesson in my ward the week before, and this girl gave lesson equal or maybe even better.  I was very impressed with these sisters.  After the meeting they were all so friendly and greeted us and wanted to talk to us.  So I got out my camera to take some pictures, before we knew it they wanted Rita and I to be in a picture with them above.
As you can see of the pictures of the children that was about all they had in their primary.  The picture below is of a couple from California, who were recently assigned there as missionaries.  In talking to them I found out that they had actually lived in the area of Grossmont Ward in San Diego at one time.  It's a small world people say.




After church we all gathered  in this big room for the Fathers Day Program.  Talks were given about fathers, they had all the girls get up and sing some songs about fathers, like the Primary would do.  Then they wanted to play this game, the leader tells some one something and it goes down the line and at the end one has to repeat what is said.   Derek got up with the men to play it.  Rita got up with the women to play it.  The Branch President is the heavy set man you see in the picture above, he is a very jovial man and lets his counselors lead out, he more or less makes sure every thing is done right.




Above some of the sister singing the fathers day songs.  The tall lady is the Branch President's wife.  The sisters playing the game and Rita getting whispered too.  She will whisper it to the Relief Society next to her




The table of food was prepared, they do this quite often so these girls get to mingle and enjoy a meal.  I talked to the Branch Presidents wife, they give the Relief Society the money to buy the ingredients to buy the food out of their own pockets and the sisters fix it right  there in the church kitchen.  Most of the girls couldn't afford to bring anything, they don't make much money and most work for wealthy families who live in Hong Kong, that is why they are there.  Rita and I talked to one girl , that told us she went to college in the Philippine's  and got her degree to teach school.  They hardly payed her any thing and wanted her to just donate her time to it.  She couldn't support her self under the circumstances so came to Hong Kong like the other girls did, and now working for a wealthy family.





On the way back to the hotel John took us by the area where the girls from the Philippine congregate on their days off.  They can't stay at the home where they work.  So they gather here in this area.   So the girls that have been converted to the gospel, will go down and talked to the girls and invited them to come to the International House, were it's safe and the Missionaries have taught all these girls you see at church and help them have better life knowing about the gospel.