Moon Cakes Are Back!

Autumn Festival is about to begin, and moon cakes are very much a part of that.

We were pleasantly surprised today, when President and Sister Hui brought a bag of their home baked moon cakes and asked Elder Bodily and I to deliver a package to each of the temple missionaries.

They are not your traditional mooncake, but rather delicious, and for that reason we like them.  

Sure wish we could find them in the states.

We Met Scar Today!

It wasn't all that busy to begin with today at the temple.

In fact, it was being discussed as to whether the 9:00am session would need to be cancelled because no one had showed up to attend the first session of the day.

Those who had showed up, were planning on attending the special 10 o'clock session.

But then, a nice young couple arrived about 8:45, and since neither of them spoke Chinese, guess who was assigned at the last minute to take care of the session?

Thanks to Brother and Sister Lee, we had the smallest and the quickest Endowment Session, 

 at least for Elder Bodily and myself.

With only four of us in the room, it felt a bit strange.

The Lees basically had their own private Endowment Session.

Even though we were small in number,

 we felt the Spirit attend just as strong as if the room had been filled.

This is Quentin and Angela Lee
We each visited with them for a few minutes afterwards, and found them to be so pleasant to talk to.  We learned that she is from Utah, and he is from California,
but they met in Manhattan at a YSA activity.
They will soon be celebrating their first wedding anniversary.
They live here in Hong Kong, where Sister Lee is a theatre director in Tin Hau, and Bro. Lee plays the part of Scar in the production of The Lion King at Disneyland.
Kind of makes us want to go to Disneyland now just to see him perform.
We are glad to have met them, and maybe we'll see them again before our mission ends.

The Williams Are Leaving The Country!

Jonathan, Kristin, and their family are moving to Great Britain this Thursday, and plan on staying for 3-5 years.

We  Skyped with them this morning before they leave the good ol' U.S. of A.
to live in the village of Aldwincle, England.

With our kids living on the other side of the world, we are grateful for technology that makes
Skyping possible.
It will help us feel not quite so far away.

Macie was helping her mom out with her hair.

Bye Bye, Macie!

A Friendly Competition Between Ortons, Chamberlains, & Bodilys

Thanks to the Chamberlains, we recently learned how to play the card game, Hand and Foot.

Since then, we have learned that we are about the only ones around here 

who have not heard of it before. 

 Its a good game though, and if not careful, a little addictive.

We have since got together with the Hathaways and Rancies to hone our card playing skills, only to lose big time.  There is no winning against them - they are masters at this game.

Surprisingly, we were finished at the church today earlier than usual, so we excepted Chamberlain's invitation for another try at Hand and Foot, but this time at the Orton's place.

We discovered that the Chamberlains are quite competitive and rarely lose.

But, tonight it seems they were down on their luck.  Guess who reaped the benefits of that one?

No, not Elder Bodily and I, but we proudly came in second.  It was Elder and Sister Orton who came off as the winners, and by a landslide.  We obviously need more practice.

We had an enjoyable evening with these
 hard working and fun-loving Asia Area missionaries.
Sister Orton even baked and served a yummy pumpkin pie.
Anyone for a game of Spoons?

A First for Lai Hung Jou

We needed to pick up an order at the Distribution Center today.  Look who we saw while waiting?

Elder Bodily's new friend, Lai Hung Jou.  He is just a little guy in size, but he is twelve years old, and today was his first time to come to the temple to be a proxy for the dead in the baptistry. 

 Elder Bodily was thrilled to be the one standing with him in the font 

and assisting him with that ordinance earlier today.

Farewell To Towers

Once again, the time has come for another senior missionary couple to head back home.

This time it is Elder and Sister Towers who are leaving, and they are sure going to be missed.

They are MLS missionaries serving in the Everyday Branch where Elder Towers has served as the Branch President, and the Filipino sisters are sure to miss them terribly.  However, there are others who will miss them too, including Elder Bodily.  When he learned of Elder Towers passion for hunting, he immediately felt a connection, and they began sharing hunting stories. 

 Turns out that hunting is a family affair for the Towers.

The evening began as always, with great food.  This time it was Cafe Rio's Sweet Pork and Rice,

followed by a tribute in song for the Towers, which was written by Sister Roberts, and sung by all, or at least almost all.

 Sisters Hathaway, Roberts, James, Elders James, Nielson, Sis. Nielson, Elder Thong.

 Sis. Thong, Elders Whitman, Kendell, Sis. Kendell, Elder & Sis. Chandler, Sis & Elder Norman

Sis & Elder Chamberlain, Bodily, Orton, & Elder Roberts

Elder and Sister Chamberlain planned an entertaining game:

Wheel of Chamberlains

Our team didn't do so well, but we still had quite a lot of fun.

 Its been our pleasure to know the Towers and we wish them a safe return to Salt Lake City.

Best of Luck, David with your moose hunt.

64 Hours To Come!

Sister Caroline Yue Yang and her aunt, Sister Fu

Caroline speaks English and we learned from her that she and Sister Fu traveled
64 hours to come to the temple for the first time.
Incredible and inspiring!