Time Flies...

It's been several months since we've added to this blog - good intentions to keep up and document what we've been doing are lost in the daily 'busyness' of missionary life!  We are now (as of today) looking at 68 days left in the mission field.  68 DAYS!  Where has the time gone???  To quote Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Never before have we had so little time in which to do so much."
We experienced our last Chinese New Year on Feb. 3 (and the 15 days following),  and the Cheng Ming Festival in April.  One of our very favorite festivals is the Tam Kung Festival in Coloane (this year on May 10)--sort of a small celebration by Chinese standards, but great fun!  There is a parade through town, led by the Dragon Dancers and Lion Dancers, followed by Portuguese folk dancers, line dancers, fish carriers, flower carriers, scary-face guys, stilt-walkers and  children dressed lavishly as characters from Chinese legends or dieties being carried on poles on decorated platforms high above the crowd (they appear to be floating)--along with whatever groups want to dress up and participate!  The spectators join in and parade with everyone else - so of course we joined in!  Coloane has managed to keep its small fishing-village atmosphere and is a wonderful place to go to get out of hectic, noisy, crowded Macau and Taipa.
There is always so much going on in our Branch; always so much going on with the Mission and the other missionaries we have the opportunity to serve with; always so much to see and do!  We continue to LOVE Macau and the wonderful people we meet each day.
Our work in the Macau 2nd Branch is the most rewarding thing we've ever done - we laugh and cry and celebrate and worry and sorrow and hurt and trust right along with our beloved friends in all of their life experiences.  Our greatest joy is knowing that we WILL see them and be with them again as we are all faithful.  The gospel is true!

Macau 2nd Branch (May 8, 2011) - THE FAMILY

Hoi Hoi and Sam Sam OR Kai Kai and Xin Xin (depending on who is talking--the names put together mean "happiness" in either Cantonese or Mandarin) the giant pandas at Seac Pai Van Park in Coloane.  We actually caught them one day at snack time!

More "streets of Macau".  Not sure whether they're kissed by the sun or something else!

Who's minding the store?  (On the Rua de Tercena.)

Cutest rickshaw puller in town!

Lion Dance in San Mah Louh.

Tam Kung Festival in Coloane - Dragon Dancers at the start of the parade.

The Mandarin's House - Macau.  Now a landmark historic site, this was the home (complex) of Zheng Guanying (a celebrated author) and other family members during the late 1800's and early 1900's - a beautifully restored reminder of past times in Macau.

BEAUTIFUL MACAU!



A Brand New Year!

It's been over three months since our last post.  We have experienced the International Fireworks Competition, Mid-Autumn Festival, National Day, Chong Yeung, the Lusofonia Festival, the Macau Grand Prix, AND Christmas and International New Year--plus so many other adventures we can't begin to name them all!
Missionary work is exciting and wonderful - as well as sometimes being routine, disappointing, and even hard - but we love it, and can't imagine being anywhere else and doing anything else at this time in our lives.
We have just passed the 16-month mark in our missionary service - and are actually able to think about some of the things we need to do before returning home in August.  There are so many things to do, and so many people to meet - and so little time!
We are looking forward to Chinese New Year - our last one in Macau. That is a sad thought...it makes us think we need to make the most of every day, of every experience because we don't know when, or if, we will have the chance to do some things again. So, we think we will smile a little more, spend a little more time on things that really matter, forget about things that don't really matter, and bear our testimonies more often. We are grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ - He lives - He loves us!

Festivities during National Day Celebration at the A-Ma Cultural Center, Coloane

Incense coils at the A-Ma Temple - Barra

Rabbit Lantern at the Mid-Autumn Festival

At the Red Market...

Black chickens (yum!)

Chicken feet (yummy!)

Flat ducks (yummier!)

Pig parts (yummiest!)

(We won't EVEN talk about all the other things there are in the Red Market...)

The postmen in Macau are our heroes!

How would you even deal with this?

AND, if there are no mailboxes, well...

More 'Streets of Macau'

Christmas Day at the Changs - and this was only part of the group! 
 It's a good thing we don't have much furniture!

New Year's Serenade at Flores Garden



September Again - Already!

Next week (Sept. 7) we celebrate our one-year mark as missionaries.  We're starting to realize that there are some things we won't see again while we're here (see the picture of the 'Hungry Ghost' Festival).  We celebrated our 40th anniversary last week, and Ida's birthday--we won't say which one - but it's more than 40!  It's been a HOT summer - and it will be awhile before things cool off, but we made it! 
Much has happened in the past couple of months, as it always does in this line of "work".  We've seen wonderful people--missionaries, members, friends--come and go, and there are little pieces of our hearts all over the world.  The good thing about that is the spaces are filled in with bits and pieces of those we've come to love so much. 
Our attendance at Sacrament Meeting was over 100 last week - which is awesome!  We are hoping the numbers keep climbing...the members of the Church see the benefits of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives and love to share it with their friends.
We're looking forward to Mid-Autumn Festival 2010 (September 23rd this year) - Roland has committed to trying "mooncake".  By the way, I tried durian - and it really wasn't bad!

Feast for some of the hungry ghosts.

This festival falls on the 7th month of the Lunar Year and it is believed that during this month, the gates of hell are opened to let out the hungry ghosts who then wander the earth. They create mischief unless appeased by food, or other offerings which are burned - the most popular being fake money (called "hell" money). The food is placed on the streets and sidewalks in the evening - not in the doorways, because you don't want the ghosts to come to your home!  This meal was on the corner next to our building - and was evidently meant for three.

August "Mormon Morning" at Camoes Garden.

A small portion of the "birthday dinner" celebrants. (Richard and Louise - do you recognize the guy with the orange tie???)

 

One of the SIX birthday cakes!

The pandas are coming - to Macau!  The zoo in Taipa is getting a pair of pandas - hopefully by October.  There are panda displays EVERYWHERE.

The streets of San Mah Louh today.  It's raining - again.

HOT June days and nights...

Macau International Dragon Boat Races

 2010 Winners - Team from Mainland China

Bored at the boat races?

Macau's Praia Grande

View from the Mount Fortress

A Hard Day's Night

(The truck drivers just park on the streets and sleep and wait for a call to go to work!)

We celebrated our 9-month anniversary as missionaries on June 7. Where has the last month gone? We made three trips to Hong Kong – all within an 8-day period between May 26-June 3. We enjoyed meetings with Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve along with Elder Donald L. Hallstrom of the Seventy and their wives; Bishop Burton was in town also, along with other members of the Seventy, Area Authorities, and Mission Presidency. Roland was able to attend a Priesthood Leadership Conference along with other Stake, District, and Administrative Unit leaders on Saturday. Other than the fact that I lost my cell phone in Stanley while Sister Elia and I were checking out the markets when the guys were in their meeting, it was a great time. (I DID get the cell phone back – miraculously. Someone found it and called one of the numbers in the contacts—it was the Sisters here in Macau, and they arranged for an Elder in Hong Kong to pick it up; he gave it to me when we went to Zone Conference the following week.)


We celebrated Mother’s Day – a wonderful outpouring of love from all the Branch members. The missionaries and Primary even sneaked out of the church and heart-attacked our apartment door while we were at meetings! It was so fun to be able to visit on the phone with Trevor, Jacque and children; Tori, and Mom. Sarah and Riley played songs on the piano – our own little recital. They were awesome!  Jake told jokes.  (He was awesome, too!)

We shared some P-Day adventures during May with our Zone – we visited the Macau Science Museum, the Macau Tower, and a wondrous buffet at StarWorld (one of the large hotel-casinos in Macau). We watched a guy bungee-jump off the top of the Macau Tower – very neat to watch, but not on my list of things to do before I die! We also tried sushi at the buffet (not the uncooked fish, but one of the myriad other choices). We can now check that off—it wasn’t really that good, but I didn’t gag.

Our visa expires on June 20, and we’re getting a little nervous. We turned in papers for the renewal quite some time ago, and haven’t heard anything, so tomorrow we’ll trek on down to the Labor office to see if they have any news for us. We hope our next blog post will be from Macau!

Macau from the Macau Tower.  On the left is the Inner Harbor; at the top right (waaaay in the distance) is the South China Sea.  In front are Nam Van and Sai Van Lakes (man-made reservoirs).  The land leading up to the tower and where the tower stands is "reclaimed"--part of the Outer Harbor area.

Macau Science Museum - also on reclaimed land in the Outer Harbor.

School kids lining up in front of their bus - getting ready for a fun day at the science museum.  We had all of them waving at us as they entered the museum!

Eating sushi at StarWorld - you can see how we loved it!

Stanley Bay - Hong Kong

Old Macau house.  We just saw it when we were out walking.

 

May Day! May Day!

It's May already - May 1st - Labor Day (in Macau, anyway).  It's a BEAUTIFUL day - I can see blue sky and white clouds, the temperature is just about perfect, and the humidity - well, we won't talk about the humidity... 

We've had some good experiences the past few weeks - two trips to Hong Kong - one for a Branch temple trip, and one for a Multi-Zone Conference.  The temple trip was wonderful; one of our sweet sisters from the Philippines, Jean Berido, received her endowment--and others went who hadn't been able to go for a long time.  The trip for zone conference makes for a very long day when we have to be on the 6 a.m. ferry, but it's well-worth the effort.  Thank goodness the sea was calm for both trips, and thank goodness I brought a supply of Dramamine!

We had a wonderful Branch Family Home Evening activity - "Missionary Night".  All of the branch members received a mission call assigning them to "foreign" missions, and were to report to the Macau Mini-MTC at the appointed time.  They participated in classes to learn how to "find", to "fellowship", to "contact" (we actually had a little call center), and they learned phrases and words in their "mission language" - Cantonese, Indonesian, Mandarin, or French.  Roland cooked up a special missionary meal of boxed macaroni and cheese (YES, we found some at the US Mart!), hotdogs, and floats.  Most of the people here had never had a float, and didn't know what it was - but they liked them!

We mourned with the people of China for those who lost their lives and were devastated by the earthquake which struck the Yushu region of the Qinghai province on April 14.  The National Day of Mourning was April 21.  It was especially heart-wrenching to hear about so many children who lost their lives because their schools collapsed; I'd love to tell the grieving parents about eternal families.
Now for some REALLY good news!  There is a Dairy Queen in Macau!  It just opened this week - and we've been there already.  It's not "quite" the same, but we'll get over it.  Of course we may not ever try the green tea-and-mango or green tea-and-chocolate blizzards, OR the red bean-strawberry, red bean-lemon, or red bean-mint lemon slushes, OR the jelly-grapefruit, orange-carrot, or apple-carrot fruit drinks.  THAT just doesn't say "Dairy Queen" to us!  We may have to tell them what a hot-fudge sundae is one of these days. 
We've been doing some actual teaching - both temple preparation, and missionary discussions, and feel productive most of the time.  It's great to be here!

TurboJet - High-speed ferry between Macau and Hong Kong

    Missionaries in the rain

                                                     

                         DQ - Packing them in!

                                              Tunneling under Macau!

Guia Hill and Lighthouse

Macau - Looking Southeast from our window.

Chinese library on the Rua do Campo