Hong Kong LDS Temple 13th Anniversary

We went to the Hong Kong LDS Temple on the afternoon of May 23. It was the annual celebration of the dedication of the Hong Kong Temple in 1996. It was held in the basement garage of the Temple, a huge room with a tile floor. It can hold a couple of dozen cars. In addition there is a partial garage one floor up where I saw seven cars parked. They had tables set for over 100, and almost filled them all with people. Sister Goo, the temple matron, spent the day cooking with help from a few other sisters. All of the missionary couples came plus lots of temple workers. President Goo presided. We met the new Mission President, President Chan. He will take over July 1. He has been a counselor in the mission presidency and in the temple. After our meal, we had entertainment including songs, music from Samoa with dancers, and even a magician with dazzling tricks. The whole thing lasted over two hours. We helped clean up and headed home with the other couples. So, we have seen how the Chinese celebrate. Lots of food and fun.

We serve as ordinance workers in the Hong Kong Temple each Thursday evening and in the mornings on Hong Kong holidays.

President and Sister Goo serve as the Temple President and Matron. They are from Hawaii. Sister Goo was a caterer in Hawaii, and fixes delicious meals for the temple workers on special occasions.


President and Sister Heaton serve as the 1st Counselor and Assistant to the Matron in the Hong Kong Temple. They lived in Virginia for many years. The other counselor is President Yip from Hong Kong. We enjoy working with these dedicated temple leaders.

Elder and Sister Pearce are 18 month temple missionaries from Provo. We served with them in the Provo Temple, and now in the Hong Kong Temple. They are a great example to us.

President and Sister Chan will take over as Hong Kong Mission President on July 1 from current Mission President Van Dam. They sang an excerpt from a Chinese opera as part of the Temple celebration. Very lovely voices.

Elder and Sister Kau serve as missionaries in the Mission Office. They are most recently from Mapleton, Utah where they know many of our old friends.

Brother and Sister Wong serve as Temple Coordinators on Thursday evenings and we work with them. They are wonderful examples of the Chinese temple workers here in Hong Kong.


As part of the entertainment, we had two visitors from BYU-Hawaii who were in Hong Kong and performed some Samoan dances for the occasion. This brought back vivid memories of our year in Hawaii in 1973-4 with eight of our children.