Island II Branch Activities

As I have mentioned in earlier blogs, an important part of our mission is working in a branch of the church with 200 Philippine sisters and 3 Philippine brothers who are working as domestic servants and drivers respectively here in Hong Kong. There are 4 other branches like ours. Most of the sisters were Church members in the Philippines before they came to Hong Kong. Many served missions for the Church. Many are married and left husbands and children to come to Hong Kong so they could earn money to send home to their families. The children are raised by husbands and extended families, and the mothers go home on holiday to see their loved ones. They keep in touch with cell phones either talking or texting their families. Other sisters are converts from missionary efforts here in Hong Kong. Our branch has had ten converts this year.

I am serving as a counselor in the Branch Presidency. The other counselor and the branch clerk are also senior missionaries. Our wives wotk with the sistersin visiting teaching, class instructors, and just being a listening ear. The Branch President is a church employee, Terry Oakes, who happens to be one of my bosses during the day. So, on week days we are on the 8th Floor of our building. On Sundays we are on floors 1-6. Since the sisters only have one holiday a week, all church activities are held on Sunday except for a few on national holidays. That includes our worship three hours of block meetings, leader planning meetings, baptismal services, home teaching lessons, visiting teaching discussions, family home evenings, socials, dinners, interviews, and handling donations. I start my Sundays by walking to Church at 8 a.m. and end by walking home about 7 p.m. Sister Smith comes a little later and often goes home before me. But it is still a long day for her as well.

The following several pictures were taken at the Relief Society Visiting Teaching Conference in October held after our block meetings. All of the preparation had to be done on Sunday morning. The Relief Society Presidency had pictures of each branch member and individually placed them on a cut out figure and then on a large poster board. Part of the theme dealt with growing in God's garden. The activities included a talk, choral singing, dancing, and then food. Each month the branch has at least one big activity like, this including a dinner for over 100. Many of the sisters are excellent cooks, so they know how to take care of large groups.



This poster took a lot of planning and preparation by the leaders.

The finished project with Sister Divina in front. (Click to enlarge and read the scripture)

The activity committee working on the lunch. They do have fun. Sister Jane, the chairperson of the Activities Committee is in front in the multi-colored dress. Other sisters from left to right are Sisters Violeta, Trinidad, Paz, Sheryl, Roselyn, Leonora, Divina.

Sister Beverly is the Home Teaching Coordinator for the Branch

Sister Gemaly



President Oakes is always ready to add his counsel and blessing on the activities.

The sisters can make costumes out of anything. They love to dance, and get a lot of participation. The sisters range in age from early 20s to 60s. It is hard to tell their age.

Sister Dona loves to dance and her gracefulness is noticeable.

They also love to sing. Their pronounciation of words causes most "i's" to come out as long "e's", but that just adds to the charm. e.g., I am Elder Smeeth. Left to Right Front Row: Sisters Rio, Maribel, Paz, Florinda, Maricel, Emily, Roselyn, Precy, Jocie . Rear visible Gloria, Divina

Sister Jenetta, the tree, is one of the few grey haired grandmothers in the branch. The idea of this skit is to care for each "flower" through love in visiting teaching.



A smiling and fun quartet of dancers. L to R: Sisters Arlyn, Dona, Rhodora, Marynn

The following pictures were taken of our farewell dinner for Elder and Sister Bench. Elder Bench was serving as a Counselor in the Presidency the last few months of his mission. Sister Bench assisted the Relief Society in many ways each week, including with her husband in a family home evening and home teaching group that meets two times a month. (There are 5 groups of 40 sisters, each led by a missionary couple)

The head table with President and Sister Oakes and Sister and Elder Bench ready to eat thedir dinner. Elder Bench served as the Area Medical Adviser for 18 months. His specialty is rhematoid arthritis. Sister Jhona of the Relief Society Presidency looks on.

Their Family Home Evening group performd and sang to them. It is hard to say goodbye to these sweet sisters. They truly become your friends. We are already feeling sad at the thought of saying goodbye in six months.

Sisters watching the performances.

Sister Luz and Brothers Isidro and Noel get ready to sing to the group. Brother Noel is the Elder's Quorum President. His wife and children are in the Philippines. He gives the sisters in the branch a lot of support, and he has a wonderful voice as well. He is 40 years old.

More dancing with impromptu costumes to add to the fun.

I gave a few remarks to thank them for their service. The flowers were presented by their family home evening/home teaching group of sisters. The Benches returned to their home in Salt Lake City.

The couples on the 8th floor took the Benches to lunch at Del Antes. From left to right, E/S Gibbons (ERS), E/S Smith, Welfare, E/S Woolsey (Welfare), E/S Bench (Medical), Sister Oakes, wife of Branch President.

Visit to Macau

October 31. Halloween Day, and we spent it in a neighboring island, Macau. This island is now the gambling center of Asia. Before 1999, it was a Portugese colony just like Hong Kong was British. The gambling started in the days of the Portugese reign, but it has really taken off since the transfer a decade ago. There are 32 hotel casinos, with several names from Las Vegas. Sands, Venetian, Grand. The Venetian is the largest casino in the world with 3,000 hotel rooms. 22 missionaries from the Hong Kong area spent the day as tourists. We travelled by a turbo jet boat for an hour to go the 50 miles to the island. (A 35 mile bridge between Hong Kong and Macau is under construction to be complted in 2016). Elder and Sister Halverson arranged for a bus tour on the island and made the ferry arrangements. In addition to 6 couples from the office, we had the Nields and Berretts, church employees in our ofice. We also had Elder and Sister Kau from the Mission office, Elder and Sister Elia, a new couple working the apartments for the mission, and Sisters Baker and Spoonover from Discovery Bay. The weather was dry and pleasant. The tour guide, Victor, showed us many of the sights. Much of Macau has been built on reclaimed land. Long bridges connect the island to a peninsula and to mainland China. 22 million visitors come to Macau each year. Macau’s population is 500,000, many of them workers for the government and the casinos. One man owns a large share of the casinos. There are no taxes in Macau. That makes the country popular for corporations. .

(Click on picture to enlarge)

Some of our companions. Elder Bench in foreground, Elder and Sister Elia on right.

We stopped at a cultural center with a manmade mountain. The rides for the theme park weren’t open when we stopped at about 10:30, but Jeanie and I walked up to get a good view of the harbor

The theme park and shops are in the front of the "mountain"

Sister Smith on her "mountan" hike.

Some of Macau's hotels and businesses from the mountain top.

The mountain even had a man-made waterfall.

We were dressed casual. The Latter-day Saints Charity shirt was a gift from Elder and Sister Millecam in Indonesia.

We went to the “tower, a needle like structure that had an observation deck on the 58th floor with window floors to look down, and an outdoor observation deck on the 61st floor where they had installed a bungee jump. We didn't see anyone actually try it, but they did have pictures. That was definitely not for me.

A beautiful view of the Macau harbor and downtown from the "Needle"

This is where the bungee jumpers took off. A platform was pushed out and the participant went flying. Not for me!!

We visited a standing wall of an old Catholic Church. The wooden church had burned over a 100 years ago, but the stone front with its statues of Saints was preserved.


We drove by the Government Buildings homes of the rich casino owners on the way to the largest casino, the Venetian. They have recreated Venice with a canal, singing gondoliers, shops, beautiful sky ceilings, and a food court. We had our lunch there. Following is the advertisment for the Venetian.

The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, is one of Asia's most exciting entertainment destination, and nowhere else in Asia will you find such a rare combination of facilities, attractions and amenities. The 3,000 suites, each with more than 70 sqm of space and lavish Italian marble bathrooms take luxury to a new level. Step into the world's largest casino with over a 1000 slot machines and more than 600 gaming tables open around the clock. Experience shopping with over 350 international shops, be dazzled by the street performers, or take a ride on an authentic Venetian gondola, all at the resort. Food service is available any time of the day or night at The Venetian from gourmet meals, to noodle bars, to in-suite dining. The bars and lounges at The Venetian are the perfect places for you to kick back, relax and enjoy quality time with your friends. Leisure activites include swimming pools, the V Spa, V Gym, and the Grado Golf course.

The entrance to the Venetian from the parking lot.

This is the created Venice shop area with its beautiful cloudy artificial ceiling.

This gondolier had a beautiful operatic tenor voice that flled the canal area. They had two boats going. Passengers sometimes were in the boats.

These containers show how busy the Hong Kong ports are. We passed them on the way back home from our Macau adventure.

Visit to Shenzhen China

Liana and Cecil Lee were our host and hostess on our special day to Shenzhen China on October 24. This city has developed from a small fishing village to one of the fastest growing cities in the world. It was declared a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) by Premier Deng in 1979 as an experiment in capitalism with a socialist twist. It has grown to over 8 million residents and is the home of many of China’s largest companies. It has a large manufacturing base, and much of the worlds ipods and computer products are produced in this province. Many high rise buildings have arisen and the port is the 2nd busiest in China next to Shanghai. Because it is next to Hong Kong, many students go to Hong Kong and many from Hong Kong come to Shenzhen to work. Liana and Cecil picked us up in a van. Liana is the director of Human Resources in the Asia Area Office. Cecil is a bishop in Hong Kong and sells used cars for a living. There were three couples besides the Lees; Woolsey, Berrett and us. The Berrett’s are full time church employees. Brother Berrett replaced Mike Jensen as the Asia legal expert. We took the van to Fanling, parked it and caught a train to the border. It was only two stops further, but it was really packed. It was three day holiday week-end. Monday is a family remembrance day, and many Chinese go to their mainland home to visit. We made it through immigration without too much problem. We had to purchase a visa for the trip since Hong Kong has its own separate visa. They took our temperature and we had to complete a health questionnaire form. We are just over two hours from Hong Kong.

Cecil Lee, David Berrett, Elder and Sister Smith, Sister Berrett, Liana Lee and Sister Woolsey

This time Liana took the picture and Elder Woolsey got into the picture.

. Our first stop was to a large market next to the train station. Most of the stalls were not open, but Liana had made arrangements for us to shop at a pearl shop where she had purchased fresh water pearls. We ended up buying several pearl necklaces for Jeanie and for Christmas gifts. The other women also made purchases. They made up the necklaces and had them for us at the end of the day after our evening show. By the time we left, other stalls were open and the vendors tried to get us to stop to see their ware. They were often very aggressive. One of the big things were imitation ROLEX watches. Elder Woolsey ended up buying two of them for about $50 US. They look very nice. If they run, then it is a pretty good deal.

Cecil found a van and driver and we all went for about 30 minutes to an art village. Here there were hundreds of art stores with local artists willing to make oil paintings of any photo you had. They also had hundreds of beautiful paintings for sale. Landscapes were popular as well as portraits. We mostly looked, though the Berrett’s got the email address of a couple of artists that Cecil had worked with. He will produce pictures by email order

Our next stop was to a Cultural Village with artisans and attractions such as a zip line over a lake, canoes in the lake, and displays. Attached to it was Splendid China which was a miniature recreation of many of China’s man made attractions including the China Wall, Emperor Palaces, Temples, the excavation of the Terracotta Warriors, Mongolian Villages, Reclining Bhuddha, Statues etc. We walked a long way, attended a Mongolian horse show with about thirty horses racing around the field with warriors carrying flags on their backs. They acted out fighting on horseback, did trick acrobatic moves, and kept things moving for about twenty minutes.

Our wonderful tour guides, Ceil and Liana Lee. The weather was in the 70s and very comfortable.

Realistic elephant twin statues

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The village had recreated buildings, crafts workers, and recreationl facilities.

The village was a re-creation of an early Zhuang tribe village. There are 15 1/2 million descendants of this tribe in China today.

A beautiful Chinese pagoda.

Elder and Sister Woolsey enjoying a tret on a stick. It is a type of fruit treat.

Boats on the lagoon

An ancient crop watering system. When the top of the bamboo becomes full, gravity turns the pole over and the water flows out the other end.

Ripe bananas ready for eating.

The Bhuddha of many arms

The Mongolian Warrior horse show was very spectacular.

This small replica of a famous house of a royal family has over 100 bedrooms. It truly is a hotel.

Recreation of a Chinese palace with miniature flag bearers along the road for hundreds of feet.

Replication of the great Chinese Wall. The park is known as Splendid China and includes scores of the famous Chinese buildings and historical locations built in miniature. Tourists can walk around or take small trains or golf carts to view the various places.

The reclining Bhuddha is one of the famous statues in China.

The Terracott Warrior statues were unearthed years ago and are now a popular tourist site. This is a recreation of the thousands of individual warriors, chariots, horses etc. I don't think we will get to actual site, but even the replica is impressive.

In the evening we attended the special night show in a big outdoor arena. It was fashioned after the Polynesian Cultural Show, and started out much like it. But then it changed to many scenes depicting different stages of China life with very elaborate costumes, lighting, moving stages, acrobats doing handstands and pyramid building, live animals, including a horse, water buffalo and goats. It lasted over an hour and was like a three ring circus with part of the action on the ground level and other up on an elevated part of the stage. There were over 100 performers and the arena had two or three thousand people watching the show.

Even fireworks at the end of the show. We backtracked to Hong Kong getting home just before midnite for a full day adventure.