Hong Kong Temple

Gavin and I went to the Hong Kong Temple yesterday. It was quite the adventure. Not as easy as it was when we lived in Utah only 10 minutes away and could just jump in our car. We were blessed many times throughout the day.

It was our branch temple day so we went with a few other couples to show us how to get there. We left our house at 6:45 a.m. and had a driver take us to the Shenzhen border. Even though Hong Kong is now under China we still have to go through customs each time. The whole border process isn't that hard but it really helped having someone there the first time so we new exactly where and what to do. We had to buy our bus tickets on the Shenzhen side before we went through the checks. Somewhere between the borders I had left my bus ticket on a counter. We had to fill out papers and I left it on the counter. Fortunately, the person taking the tickets went back in to find it for me or else it would've taken me forever to go back through myself and I would have missed the bus. She came back a few minutes before the bus left with my ticket in hand. (blessing #1).

The bus ride was about 40 minutes to Kowloon then we had to walk a few blocks from the bus terminal to the temple. We got there about 8:30 so it's about an hour and 45 minute trip. The temple is small. Even inside it seemed small, probably because it was built for small chinese people. The halls, bathrooms, changing stalls, all seemed really small but it was really beautiful. The session we were in was in English. They said that sometimes when we go we'll have to wear headphones because it will be in Cantonese at times. It was really cool being there. Here we are half way around the world and the spirit in the temple is still the same. It was neat to see a room full of Asian people going to do their work. It doesn't matter your race, language, color, the people are all the same and they are there for the same reasons.

After the session we went down to the front desk to get our camera that we had checked in and Gavin couldn't find his claim ticket. He emptied all his pockets out and finally found it stuck in the pages of his passport.

We all went out to lunch at an Italian Restaurant in the mall by the temple with a group from the branch. It was so good. Maybe it's just that we hadn't had good food for a few weeks but we felt like we were in heaven. The bread alone made the trip. They even served us Diet Coke in a glass with lots of ice. We went to pay when we were done and Gavin couldn't find our Hong Kong money. He had some American dollars, RMB's, but all our Hong Kong dollars were missing. It was about 1300 Hong Kong dollars (about $180.00) We knew he had it at the temple because I saw him take it out of his pocket when he was looking for the camera ticket. We searched and searched through all our pockets and things but it was gone. Mary, our Relief Society President, happened to have the temples number on her phone so she called and they had found it on the counter. (blessing #2)

After lunch we spent sometime in the mall and bought a few things. It was really nice to just be in a clean mall that had normal things in it. We have malls here and really nice ones but I don't recognize any of the store names here. We are hooked on Hong Kong and will go at least once a month if not more.