i have ankles

As I woke up in my hotel room at 6 this morning (which I’m sure was caused partly by the headache I have from the smell of smoke due to the nice ash tray next to my bed, and partly by the time difference), I noticed two very beautiful things: there was a man speaking Spanish in the hall (I heard a lisp so he must have been from Spain) and my lovely cankles had disappeared. Obviously I was overjoyed but I’m scared to lower them to the ground for fear they’ll blimp up once again.
I thought I’d just share a little about a few things I’ve learned in Hong Kong so far. I’m also going to add pictures because I’m afraid some of you were those finicky kids who wouldn’t read a picture-less children’s book when you were younger (some things just never change). First of all, driving in Hong Kong is terrifying. I first realized this when on the shuttle from the airport to the hotel. They go about 60-70 on small, inner-city streets and change lanes by swerving in and out of seemingly impossible gaps in between cars. And they leave about three feet in between themselves and other vehicles. I had white knuckles the whole ride. This was again witnessed when we got a taxi to go to the temple. I even had a front row seat to experience it that time. I have also learned that all the websites and travel books which told me most everyone speaks English fairly well in Hong Kong lied. They know as much English as the average American knows Spanish. This makes communication fairly difficult. Example: we called the Hong Kong temple to find out its hours and the best way to get there. The man who answered the phone was extremely nice and spoke English enough that he was able to help us. He told us to just take a taxi and to tell the driver to go to the LDS or Mormon temple. When we actually got in a cab to execute this plan, we found out that no one actually knows what the Mormon temple is. They will try to take you to Temple Street, a large Buddhist temple (as a few girls in our group unfortunately discovered), or they will just stare at you saying “temp-o?” Once we found out the address (which they also had a hard time understanding) and got a driver to take us there, he pointed at the building, assumingly making a connection, and said “oh, Mormon temple!” The other half of our girls ended up far away with a nice $200 HK fare. Amazingly, we said a prayer for them and they showed up five minutes before they took us into the baptistery. I won’t talk too much about that because it wouldn’t be appropriate and because I know I have a few readers who don’t share the same beliefs as I do. But, I will say that it was the best part of this trip so far. Hong Kong is huge and I’ve felt a little homesick with the language and cultural barriers, so to get to the temple and be able to feel the Spirit so strongly was amazing. It was comforting because it was familiar. We did the baptisms in Cantonese with a youth group and the girls (who were about 13 years old) were slightly obsessed with us. They asked to hold my glasses while I was doing baptisms! It was adorable.
I think that’s all for now.





Pictures: 1. Hong Kong temple. 2. In front of the temple with Abby. 3. Welcome to Hong Kong! 4. Hong Kong airport with Abby. 5. The end of a very long day of flying, with Jillian.