Our Mission Statement

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!