BYU Comes to Hong Kong

In May we had two encounters with people from BYU. The first was a special dinner hosted by the Hong Kong Chapter of the BYU Management Society that hosted 22 traveling Executive MBA students from Provo. Elder Gibbons, our Asia Area Employment Resource Welfare Missionary, was asked to be a speaker, so we were able to go along as a former BYU Professor. We went on the bus with the Gibbons to Aberdeen. This city is on the South side of the island but to the West rather than to the East as is Stanley. This was our first trip to this part of Hong Kong. The Aberdeen Harbor is picturesque and features Chinese junk boat tours.

Our dinner was at a floating restaurant in the harbor known as the Jumbo Restaurant. We took a junk ferry out to the restaurant and enjoyed seeing the Aberdeen skyline and the large variety of boats in the harbor. The restaurant was very elegant and the dinner area was beautifully arranged. There were about 100 for dinner. Three BYU faculty members and their spouses accompanied the students on this tour. They had already been to India and after Hong Kong they were going to China. I knew only one of the faculty, Burke Jackson, who is the director of the program. The EMBA students each take a business trip at the end of their two year program. There were three touring groups this year: (1) India, Hong Kong, and China, (2) Japan, Korea, Thailand and Hong Kong, and (3) Europe. We had the first one. One of our daughter Relia’s employees was in the group, Scott Hunt. He spoke very highly of Relia as his boss for the past several years. We also had one of the students at our table who was from Nepal.

The dinner was amazing. 11 courses, including fish, vegetables, chicken and dessert. In between courses, another student, Peter Evans who works for the Welfare Department in Salt Lake, spoke as did Elder Gibbons. Elder Gibbons spoke on networking with BYU students. It was 11:00 by the time we got home, but it was a fun evening.

The second encounter in May was a performance by the BYU Folk Dancers across the Harbor in Kowloon. They put on a fabulous evening of entertainment. We couldn't take pictures during the performance, so you will have to imagine the whirlwind evening of dancing from around the world. Many of the missionary couples joined to share in this fun evening.

Elder and Sister Gibbons are one of four missionary couples on our 8th floor in the Church Administration Building here in Wan Chai. They are the Asia Area Employment Resource Missionary Couple. They are responsible to help develop and train employment resource center directors throughout Asia. Prior to this mission they served in Mongolia as Employment Resource Missionaries to that country. Sister Gibbons is also Sister Smith's hair dresser and Elder Smith's barber. She is considered one of Sister Smith's miracles here in Hong Kong. Elder Gibbons is a life-time CES teacher and director. They lived in Sugar City, Idaho for several years, and weathered the Teton Dam flood. They also have 11 children. Their home in America is in Farmington, Utah

The Aberdeen Harbor is full of boats. This harbor is on the South side of Hong Kong Island opposite to Victoria Harbor that is on the north side and near to our apartment. We took a boat like this one to the floating Jumbo restaurant.

Some of the boats are house boats that serve as homes for Chinese families.

The floating restaurant was brightly lit as we approached it in the early evening hours.

The junk boat took us right to the entrance of the restaurant.

A golden dragon greeted us as we left the boat and headed inside.

One of the picturesque pieces of art on the wall of the restaurant. You can make up your own story to go with it.

Scott Hunt works with our daughter Relia at BYU and has earned his MBA going to school mainly during evening and weekend hours. We enjoyed visiting with him.

The tables were all round with lazy susan centers for sharing sauces and food. There were 11 courses with clean plates for each one. The menu on the table gave us a description of what we were eating. Shrimp, chicken, rice, dumplings, duck, vegetables. All very good.

After the talk, Elder and Sister Gibbons were presented a certificate of appreciation from the president of the Hong Kong chapter of the BYU Management Society, Samily Kwok. Sister Kwok also works with Sister Smith at the Temple on Thursday nights. She served a mission for the Church in San Jose, California and her English is very good.

Some of the happy missionary couples enjoying the BYU folk dancers. The performance was held on the campus of the Hong Kong Technology College on the Kowloon Side of the Victoria Harbor. (We went on the bus in the tunnel.) It was a beautiful auditorium. The campus is quite new.