Visit to Chung Yi Orphanage- Taipei, Taiwan (Maya's early home)

A highlight of our trip to Taiwan was a visit to the orphanage where our son David and his wife Janalee picked up their daughter Maya Xiao Pin Smith in 2006 at 8 months of age. We were hosted by Sally Chang, the Social Worker who assisted David and Janalee in finalizing the adoption. She is a member of the LDS Church and works with several orphanages in helping make placements. She met us at the Church Service Center and we took a taxi to the orphanage. Sandy and Vickie, two aides, greeted us and showed us the facility. The orphanage has been licensed since 1955. It houses children from babies to teen-agers. We toured the facility and saw the dorm rooms for the older children, with the boys and girls in separate rooms. We took recent pictures of Maya to leave with them and also some pencils, crayons and books for the children. We were impressed with the love shown to the children. We had our temperarures checked with a measurement gun pressed to our foreheads before we could go in. The new swine flu scare is making everyone cautious.

Maya playing in the orphanage in 2006. Isn't she cute!!!

David and Janalee with their new princess. She became the younger sister to four active boys.

The front of the Chung Yi orphanage in Taipei. Notice the bicycles.

Vickie, an aide at the orphanage, and Sally Chang, our guide.

Joined by aide Sandy and the Director of orphanage (in white blouse).

The shoes are off and in place.

The large play area for the younger children.

Here is where Maya spent much of her time. The babies are in beds in the adjoining room. Three aides are working with the children. We could not go into this room. This picture is through a window.


Cute welcoming bears.
The school has placed bird feeders near the entrance.
The cafeteria for the older children.

AND HERE SHE IS TODAY. STILL AS CUTE AS EVER WITH HER BROTHERS.

Seeing some Taipai Taiwan sites

In addition to our training and visiting humanitarian projects during our five days in Taiwan, we also took time to view a few sites. We were housed in a nice hotel, the Howard Plaza. From our 12th floor window, we could view the beautiful pool above and the cascading waterfall below.

We even could see a US type parking lot. Land is so scarce in Hong Kong that you would never see a lot like this. Parking is all in underground garages in the urban area. Another interesting feature was that in Taiwan, they drive on the right as we do in the United States. Every other city we have visited follows the British system of driving on the left. We had to be alert because now the left seems normal.

There are many Bhuddist temples in Taipei. This is one of the largest. It is known as the Lungshan Temple. There were scores of worshippers with candles, burning brands, food set out for Bhudda etc. They seemed very devout. There were only a few tourists like us. The Bhudda was seated inside a chamber.

The seated statue is of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, a patriot for freedom in China who lived in the early 20th Century. A memorial has been built in his honor that also houses a museum. The unique thing about this memorial is that two military guards stand guard at all times at the side of the statue. They stand perfectly still for one hour and then guards from a different military branch enter for the changing of the guard on the hour. Everything is in perfect motion as the old guards "come to life" and come down from their platform to turn their command over to the new guards. All four go through an intricate set of maneuvers with their rifles and then the new ones step on the two platforms and face each other and the old ones march off. It takes about 10 minutes to change the guards.

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High-stepping guards.

> Premier Chiang Kai Shek was the Chinese Nationalist leader who led his people out of mainland China to what was then Formosa. His reign did not include much democracy, but his son who followed him opened up the country to more reforms. This huge building and park is dedicated to his memory. The building houses a large statue of the World War II leader. The Sparrow's were our tour guide.

The gardens in front of the Memorial Building

The memorial hall honoring Premier Chiang Kai Shek.

Taipei had lots of motorcycles like Jakarta.

Taiwan will host an international flower show in 2010. Outside the train station they have cute displays with flowers and figures to advertise the event.

Tower 101, one of tallest buildings in the world. it has 101 stories.

More flower show advertising. 513 days until the show starts. (See time sign)

Orchids on display in the hotel restaurant area. We had a delicious full buffet breakfast each morning.

The high speed train viewed from our hotel window.

The country-side is beautiful. We are on the way to the airport. Taipei is on the northern tip of the Taiwan. The island is about 200 miles long and 50 miles wide.

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.

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.