Spider Fruit and other Surprises

When I was little, I lived in Vietnam.  One of my favorite memories was of a fruit I absolutely loved – “spider fruit”.  At least that was what I called it.  Juicy, mellow, and fun to eat, these little oval shaped fruits reminded me of spiders with all the little “legs”.  Moving away from Vietnam, and years before the advent of Google, I always wondered what that fruit was really called, and could never find it.  Eventually I found it on Google, but it wasn't until today that I found the actual fruit again.  Rambutan – native to Indonesia and Malaysia – and available here in the outdoor Hong Kong markets!

I think the memory was better than the actual taste of the fruit, but we had fun peeling them and eating the sweet mellow fruit tonight after our dinner! And it brought back wonderful memories....

The outdoor market held all kinds of fun surprises - including live fish just waiting for a dinner partner. We picked up two of them - not sure what kind of fish they were but they were great at dinner.

Me checking out the dried fruit.

                                      One of the many streets                                          of the open air market.




What a variety - and farm fresh!

We won't be buying our meat here, but it looks tempting!

Always a big assortment of baked yummies!

Elder Coffey checking out the packages of dried beans.  Much cheaper than in the grocery stores!

Next post we'll share with you some tender stories of the wonderful humanitarian work going on throughout Asia. It is such a blessing to be able to be here and help out with this amazing work that mostly goes on unheralded and largely unnoticed, unless, of course, you are one of the recipients of the services. Grateful to be in His service. Until next time - 再見!

Elder and Sister Coffey

Just Monkey-ing Around in Hong Kong

Missionaries are typically allowed one "P" day a week, a "preparation" day - or in other words - a day off.  Today was our first P day since last Saturday we were busy with a project and had to get it done.  But today we had free time, so we got brave, rode the subway and then the public bus into unknown territory, and successfully made our way to the Kam Shan County Park, home of thousands of free-roaming Rhesus and Long-tailed Macaque - also known as "Monkey Hill"!

They say that most of these monkeys probably descended from several released pets in the 1920's.   Many people love to come and feed them, even while ignoring the prominently displayed "Do not feed the monkeys" signs all over the place.  It is said they can become very aggressive if they think you have food. We went empty handed, and thus were largely ignored.


Dozens of monkeys came to check us out as we walked along the road.  Inside the 3.37 km² park there are also beautiful trails, waterfalls, and wildlife. But besides monkeys, all we saw were butterflies and teeny frogs.

                               

On the way home, we stopped by a noodle shop and enjoyed a delicious lunch - Hong Kong style!

Just monkeying around - here in Hong Kong!

Elder and  Sister Coffey

First Sunday in Hong Kong - Philippine Branch

What an experience!  Today was our first day to church.  We've been assigned to the Philippine Peninsula 3^rd Branch, or "Penn 3" as they call it.  Filled with mostly domestic workers whose families are still back in the Philippines, these sisters have incredible faith even while often amid tragic stories of survival. 

There are several chapels throughout Hong Kong.  Here we are standing at the entrance to the Church building where Penn 3 meets. 

Today we celebrated Mother’s Day and all the sisters wanted a group photo!

The Primary came in to Relief Society to sing – all 5 of them!  Two of these little ones come from non-member parents – they just send them to Church with their domestic worker, also not a member of the church – because it is a good place to go.

Then the Relief Society handed out candy for Mother’s Day – everyone wanted some!

Afterwards, we enjoyed a delicious meal with everyone in the branch – rice, eggplant, won ton thingy’s, chicken wings, fruit and cake.  They have group meals after church twice a month – a “linger longer” event. The below photo is Japanese-style eggplant in a slightly spicy sauce - it was delicious!

The Philippine sisters are extremely, extremely friendly, loving, social, bubbly, huggy, talkative –  you wouldn't know they suffer from often tragic backgrounds.  Our role in the branch is to offer support, love, and strength.  This has been a wonderful day.  Happy Mother's Day to all my daughters and daughters-in-law, friends and loved ones!  Life is good here in Hong Kong serving the Lord's daughters in the Penn 3 Branch.

Elder and Sister Coffey

Humanitarian Project in India

Here is an example of one of the humanitarian projects done in India. This was one of our church's vision projects done over a 4 year period:

12,000 people  fitted and received eyeglasses
 6,000 diabetes patients screened
75,000 individuals in villages received a general eye screening
36 technicians trained
60,000 children in schools received an eye screening

Eye Clinic in India

Inside eye clinic with patient receiving care

People waiting to be assessed for eye care

 This was a four-year project, resulting in helping 153,036 people receive better eye care and vision health.

Fun Fact:  Did you know we have about 3900 members of the Church in Pakistan?  

Elder and Sister Coffey

Arriving in Hong Kong

We have arrived in Hong Kong!  It has been non-stop busy every second!  We have a small furnished apartment on the 21^st floor of the HarbourFront Hotel, right on the harbor. 

 Our apartment faces the other way, however, so our view is a little more like this:

 

View from our apartment 

View from our apartment at night

A missionary couple has been assigned to escort us to and from the office, temple, stores, etc, until we can learn it on our own.  It is a little daunting.  A typical day includes walking, taking the shuttle, riding the ferry, taking the public bus under the harbor tunnel, and riding the train. We live on one side of the harbor and take transportation to the Hong Kong Island where the Asia Area offices are.  It takes 30-45 minutes depending on the time of day and the type of transportation chosen.  Ferries are cheapest and slowest, taxis are fastest and more expensive.

Several missionary couples have been assigned to feed us dinners at their apartments for a couple of nights until we can get time to get to the store.  We are being well cared for.

We met with Asia Area Presidency yesterday and got acquainted with all the office staff and missionaries.  There are about 15 Asia Area missionary couples living in several apartment buildings nearby.  They each have different assignments – Family History, Perpetual Education Fund, Member Leadership Support, Communication, etc.  Ours is Humanitarian.  We work in a beautiful building on the 8th floor:

Asia Area Office Building, 118 Gloucester Rd., Wan Chai, Honk Kong

We are still getting over jet lag, but should be up to speed in a day or two.  There is SO much to do with our assignments!  More later!

Elder and Sister Coffey

Welfare Training Begins

Greetings from the MTC – still!  Today we began training for our specific assignment of humanitarian and welfare work.  We were given a tour of Welfare Square in Salt Lake City.  The tour included the Bishop’s Storehouse:

At The Bishop's Storehouse, excellent selection and quality!

Deseret Industries:

An amazing selection!

The granary:

The jam canning facility:

It was strawberry jam this time!

The cheese making facility:

We tasted some - it was yummy!

  

We learned there are 142 storehouses throughout the world, including 30 wheat-filled silos in the United States holding 13 million pounds of wheat, enough for every person in the United States to have 2 pounds!  

And for an example of disaster response, for the recent typhoon in the Philippines, the Church has so far donated 500,000 pounds of supplies, 40,000 food and hygiene kits, with 25,000 hours donated by 10,000 LDS volunteers. They are also building 3200 homes. But they didn't just build the homes - they had 5 men learn how to do the trade from a master carpenter, and then they shared the labor to build each of their homes together.  After those 5 were built, those men helped train others to build their homes, and on it went.  Thus hundreds of people have learned a trade and skill they otherwise would not have known, became certified in carpentry, and are now employable in their own communities. The local carpentry companies are happily hiring these trained men. This is one of ways humanitarian efforts work - immediate help for the immediate needs, and then begin training and coaching toward self-reliance and independence.  I love this work!

Elder and Sister Coffey

Entering the MTC - What Is It Like?

Our first day in the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah!  Ever wonder what goes on?  We were met at the door by a couple who gave us our name tags, met at another door by young missionaries who carried our luggage up to our room overlooking the mountains and the Provo Temple, 

escorted by another missionary to help get oriented with where things are in the building, met by other senior missionaries to get us started in our orientation, ate all we could eat for lunch, then back over to the chapel for more orientation.  Then ate all we could eat for dinner.  We do a lot of eating and sitting at this point!  And friendly people at every turn to help you with anything you might need.

Found out we need some more immunizations for our exciting labor – Japanese encephalitis and typhoid – very costly – but beats getting sick in Asia!   

                                                              The world map - we are pointing to Hong Kong!

                               


                         The MTC - with tulips!

It is fun to visit with the other couples and hear their stories, where they are going, and the kind of mission they will be doing.  Some come with tons of Church leadership experience and some are just normal people like us.  There are 40% more senior couples this year than last year and the Church is thrilled, but they need so many more.  This is so much fun! Come join us!

Elder Greg and Sister Deborah Coffey

It's Starts!

It has begun!  Our missionary training officially began today even though we don’t check into the Missionary Training Center until Monday.  Today we were able to meet with the head of the wheelchair initiatives for the whole Church. Our meeting was at the Welfare offices of the Church, located on the 7^th floor of the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City – seen in the photo below. 

We learned that the Church has about 7 or 8 different kinds of wheelchairs it donates, depending on the size of the recipient and the specific need.  Thousands of wheelchairs are donated throughout the world to the poorest of the poor who cannot otherwise afford one, making for a life-changing experience for them and their families.  We work through local government agencies and non-government organizations in each of the countries to distribute the wheelchairs. 

We learned that rather than just give wheelchairs away randomly, it is important to work closely with the local organizations in training them how to properly fit a person for a wheelchair.  If a person is not properly fitted for the right kind of wheelchair, they could possibly develop pressure sores, some of which could be dangerous and even life-threatening, particularly in the more developing countries where disease is common.  Thus the importance for the Church to work closely to teach the organizations what to look for, how to make sure the wheelchair is the right one for the person, and then to be the on-the-ground contact point for continuing support.

Tomorrow – more training from the Church Office Building on emergency response, medical cares, water initiatives, etc.  This is way fun!!!!

We are official!

On Sunday, April 6th, Greg and I were set apart as missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is a special blessing given to us by our ecclesiastical church leader (President Terry Slezak) that recognizes us as official missionaries and by the authority of the priesthood bestows upon us the rights and privileges of serving in that capacity.  So we are officially Elder Greg and Sister Deborah Coffey!


The next day, Monday April 7th, we loaded the last of our belonging in our Budget truck, locked the door, and drove away.  It was a tender moment.  We have lived here for 14 years, the longest we have lived anywhere. We leave behind dear friends and one of our sons.  God bless them all!

We will spend the next 2 weeks visiting family and friends in Idaho and Utah, and slowly make our way to Provo, Utah where we will begin our 2 weeks of formal training in the Missionary Training Center (MTC) on April 21st.

We will arrive in Hong Kong on May 6th.  After we get adjusted and settled, we'll add some photos to show where we are and how life will be in our new home. The journey has begun!

Serving as the Savior Served

We have 29 days left until we report to the MTC!   The time will go so fast. We will be busy selling our home, putting our things in storage, saying our goodbyes, and visiting with family before we begin.  These are exciting days.

As soon-to-be humanitarian missionaries, we are endeavoring to serve our fellowmen as Jesus Christ served people.  This set of Bible videos, based on the King James version of the Bible, will help all Christians come to feel closer to Christ.  It is our hope that you will be able to find ways to also serve your fellowmen as you enjoy watching the life of our Savior as He "went about doing good."

       http://www.mormonchannel.org/bible-videos?v=1330140158001

New Start Date

In case you are wondering what happens after a senior couple opens their call letter, here is what has gone on so far:

• We received a phone call about a week later from a senior couple in Salt Lake City who are over the senior couple welfare missionary assignments.  It was nice to talk to someone who knew we had received our call!  They had us verify our start date - June 23rd.  They had a little discussion back and forth about that date - seems that is during the time reserved for mission president training, not senior couple training.  So they looked into it and got back to us a little later.  A computer glitch was discovered - and we were asked if we wanted to be reassigned several weeks later or earlier.  We opted for earlier of course!  Our new start date is May 26th - Memorial Day.  It will be a very memorable day for us!!!

• A box is on the way from Salt Lake City with materials and other information in it for our mission.  We are looking forward to it!

• We received an email from the executive secretary of the Asian Area.  Seems we are for sure on "the grid" now - they know we are coming!  He confirmed we'd be speaking English for our mission, but if we wanted to take advantage of the church's pre-mission tutoring for seniors we could, learning either Cantonese or Mandarin.  We opted for Mandarin, since we have already learned a bit over the years.

• A phone call to the Language Training center (as found in our packet) got us signed up for the online tutoring - which will begin this coming Friday.  We get one hour a week of Skype tutoring, along with downloaded materials for homework, both in written and audio files.  Can't wait to start!

• There is on-line Pre-MTC training you "get" to do on your missionary portal - so we've been busy doing each of the required items - watch certain episodes of The District, teach certain parts of Preach My Gospel, get our required immunizations, read the Missionary Handbook, etc. 

• We are required to make sure our Tdap, MMR, Hepatitis A & B immunizations are all done, as well as the flu, meningitis, pneumonia, and possibly shingles.  Nothing outlandish!

It's an exciting time - the real work will begin soon!  We will be doing a variety of assignments while on our mission - we are told we may be invited to also work in the Hong Kong temple as part of our assignment. So excited!