Departing For Hong Kong

We woke up bright and early on the morning of April 16th to prepare for our 11:00am departure from the Salt Lake Airport.

Elder Bodily pushing the cart carrying approximately 300 pounds of our possessions for the next 18 months, which included 4 large pieces of luggage, two carry-ons, a laptop, and my large tote bag.  He did a great job strategically maneuvering it down the hall of the Radisson Hotel.

Meagan and Josh met us at the airport to bid us farewell.

With smiles on our faces, we shed a few tears as we said goodbye to Meagan, Abigail, and Mailie, knowing it will be at least 18 months before we hug our children and grandchildren again.  But, we go forward to serve the Lord in one of His holy temples.

On our flight to Seattle, this is what we saw as we flew above our home in Meridian.  Lake Lowell is in the background.

This was the view shortly after we left Seattle, Washington.

This was the view for the majority of our flight.  It looked like we were flying over the Arctic.

During our almost 14-hour flight, we watched 3 movies, had two scrumptious compact meals, a few snacks, and a couple of naps.

We arrived shortly after 8:00pm on Friday, April 17th to a more crowded airport than where we had left 21 hours earlier, and still with smiles on our faces. 

The first thing we saw after going through customs were these monks among the crowd.

At the door of our new home away from home - still smiling!

We found our kitchen/laundry room clean and stocked with the basic essentials, as well as a few sweet surprises, thanks to the other temple missionaries.

This is our living and dining area moments after we arrived.

The master suite!

The beautiful view from our apartment on the 11th floor of the Harbour Front Hotel, which is actually  the 9th floor because there is no 3rd and 4th floors due to the fact that the Chinese believe the numbers 3 and 4 bring bad luck.

We are grateful to have arrived safely, been given a warm welcome,  and have found this apartment to be clean, comfortable, and compared to our travel trailer, quite spacious.

We must have been more tired than we realized because we didn't think to get one photo of President and Sister Wong, who met us at the airport and took us to our apartment.  Nor did we get photos of the wonderful missionaries who were waiting there to welcome us.  But, Elder and Sister Ball (on the left) and Elder and Sister Solomon (on the right) were two of the couples we met on our arrival.

Elder and Sister Wilson and Sister Chan were also there.  

You will see photos of them in posts to come.

Just got everything unpacked and put away, and it is now 1:00 in the morning.

We are off to bed, anxious to see what tomorrow will bring.