Hong Kong #4 - Churchy stuff

I kept that Lo home from church yesterday. The doctor had said something about possibility of atypical chicken pox (though Lo has no fever nor itching, but the spots are just varicella-esque in appearance) so I didn't want to risk him exposing more people than we already had. He's had one dose of the vaccine and people are generally considered immune only after the second dose.

Anyway, about this churchy stuff in Hong Kong. The LDS church actually has a strong presence in this Chinese city. While we took our open-air "rickshaw" bus tour (see photo below), we came across a skyscraper that looked a little different than all the rest. Isn't it cool how "churchy" this building looks, even though it is right in the middle of this business district. Sure enough, there on the base is the logo: "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Our church uses this facility for regular sacrament meetings, residence of some church leaders, and I'm not sure what else.

And what would a trip to Hong Kong be without visiting its LDS temple. This LDS temple is totally unique, having twice as many floors as a typical temple. The mission office is located in this structure, as is a parking garage, residence of mission president, and so forth. Real estate in Hong Kong is so precious, the church makes best use of its resources by doubling the functions of its buildings there.

There we are so tiny at the base of the temple. This is a tricky shot to get, because the street is nearly right up against the temple wall. Henry had to cross a couple lanes of traffic to get far enough away to get the temple top in photo view. The spire is up there on the roof somewhere...just not visible in this photo.

While Jerry and Brandon did temple work inside, I stayed outside with Henry, Jerry's Dad (Ye Ye), and that Lo of course. I intended to do a session myself, but had accidentally forgotten my temple recommend. =(

Climbing temple stairs--that Lo was tired as usual but kept us busy with all his running around.

We couldn't get Lo to look at the camera for this shot with his Ye Ye. Babies just love water fountains!

Families can be together forever, through Heavenly Father's plan. In the temple, we focus on families, both the parents, siblings, spouses, and children we know and enjoy at present, and also our ancestral family members who have already passed on.

I love my sweetheart! We always feel closer to each other after going to the temple.

More cute family pictures on the temple grounds...though I just noticed that Lo is looking tired in this photo as well. As usual.

Note the blue polo instead of the white shirt and tie he wore inside the temple...Jerry had already changed into his street clothes after his temple session. One funny memory of this trip is when my brother Brandon changed out of his white shirt/tie from the temple as we drove away in a taxi. He kept modest while doing so, as he put a polo on over his white shirt, then unbuttoned the dress shirt underneath and extracted it through the sleeves of the polo. Only he forgot that his seatbelt was also on underneath the polo--but over top of the dress shirt. Or something like that. Guess you had to be there to visualize/get a laugh out of it. At one point he was a bit stuck and I'm just glad we didn't have to exit the taxi with him half-dressed.

We went on to have a full day of fun after our time in the temple, but I'll have to share more from that later. And I guess while I am talking about church parts of our trip, I'll just mention that we got to attend two different sacrament meetings in Hong Kong since we were there two Sundays. Both services were in Cantonese, so I did not get much out of the speakers, but really did feel the spirit of love and joy that is present among the Saints. I am so grateful to belong to this church.

Temple Tears and Rainbow Promises

In that previous post, I alluded to some of our quality weekends lately. Since a lot of our weekend fun happened to be recorded on Jerry's phone, it took awhile to get uploaded. Here is the beginning of my backlogged report: Three weeks ago: We attended an endowment session in the Columbus Ohio temple. This was as "extra" temple visit for us Tams since we have the goal of just quarterly attendance during our life stage and had already gone the month prior. We knew there was a ward temple trip planned, but did not intend on going until one of the stake leaders announced, "ALL endowed members should plan to attend." We felt an inner stirring to follow this counsel, though it would mean some sacrifice at this stage of young parenthood and living so far from the temple. As usual, God seemed to recognize the extra effort on our part to be faithful; we felt an abundance of revelation for ourselves during this temple trip. Definitely happy we made the journey, though it meant a few tears from that Lo. The video shows him in the moments following our return from the temple (he'd been babysat by sweet young men/women from our ward in the chapel adjacent to the temple). When we walked out to our car from picking up Lo, there was a rainbow flying over the temple (pictured above) and I took it as a beautiful promise from God that we would be greatly blessed as a family for our work in the temple that day.

Before driving home, we had dinner at Red Robins with some friends from church. Oh, and before the temple session we got to spend some time visiting with our good friends "the Jarretites," who live in Columbus. They just got a new puppy, and I was gratified to see that Lo has gotten to the age of being excited about animals.

Makin' the rounds

The luxury of living this close to a billion church sites is that we get to see them gradually, spread over the space of a year or so, instead of cramming tours into the usual day or two most patrons take. After 7 months of living in the area, we finally made it out to the Kirtland Temple. Our friends Jonathan and Sunny were in town, so we got to go with them. They are basically our favorite people. Lo eating grass. My most memorable part of the tour had to be during the movie when our precious son got himself stuck under a seat, and even Jerry attempting to lift the seat could not free that crying Lo. (the chairs were conveniently linked together). Maybe I'm not explaining very well. Anyway, it was mildly embarrassing but I can smile about it now. Jonathan and Sunny. Aren't Asian/Caucasian couples the cutest.

Jerry looks like he's wearing some kind of period clothing, but it's just the mei tai. I really felt the Holy Spirit when we sat in the temple and our guide explained how angels had walked the aisles, roof, etc. during the dedication, and the Savior appeared in vision here. This is a special place, where God restored power on earth to link families together for eternity.

After the temple tour we ate lunch at McDonalds...and won the "bad parent of the day" award by giving our baby those infamous fries. His first time eating french fries--and of course he became instantly addicted.

The chewing motions of his lips look so cute to me. Make sure to watch the video three times in a row like I just did in order to fully appreciate the chewing. =)

Palmyra Temple

Members in our church are encouraged to make temple worship a regular part of our lives. The term "regular" allows for some individual interpretation, so even though we Tams used to have monthly temple attendance as our goal when we lived closer to many temples (in Utah), the current goal for us is quarterly. We don't have a temple near us now, and Lo needs a babysitter whenever we go, so it feels like such a treat to make this experience happen in our schedule. This past weekend we did some sealings at the Palmyra Temple. Our sweet friends Clegg and Kim watched Lo during our time inside. Here is Lo on the temple grounds. Such lovely flowers. It was a pretty muggy day, so we tried to keep Lo hydrated by using his sippy cup. He likes to pretend he can drink out of it...

But he always ends up needing a bit of assistance to get the cup tipped into his mouth.

Columbus Temple

I almost forgot to record something important from last weekend. We spent time with dear family friends in Columbus, Ohio and then left Little with them while Jerry and I attended a session at the temple. This is one of the smaller versions of LDS temples, so there were some interesting differences in the structure from most other temples we have attended. Actually, I think it might be the same blueprint as the Regina, Saskatchewan temple that I attended while serving in the mission field. The layout seemed familiar.

Anyway, it was a very unique session for me, because I felt simultaneously distracted by thoughts of my baby and noticed an enhanced, expanded view of the temple ceremonies in my "new mother" frame of mind. It helps me to feel my Heavenly Father's love when I think about how I feel toward my sweet Little. I am grateful God's plan for the world includes a way to build strong families that can last through eternity.

We chose a Chinese name for Little recently. Though I suppose I will still refrain from posting specifics on this name, I could probably get away with revealing the meaning of the characters: Son Eternal. Little, you are forever ours, born in the covenant we have made to be a family for eternity. We love you!

This photo shows Little a few weeks ago, wearing special jewelry sent to him by some of his Chinese relatives. They know how important our Christianity is to us, and included a necklace with the Cross. Thank you for being so thoughtful.

Boston Temple

Last weekend we did a session at the LDS Boston Temple. Due to a missed exit and several wrong turns (I was driving), we ended up missing the session we were aiming for and instead had a good half hour to enjoy the grounds before going inside to the last session of the day.

The floral scent felt terrifically heavy in the humid air, and I found it interesting how tropical many of the flowers seemed--different than the "usual" varieties I am used to back West.


Is this enough profile to call it a belly shot here sitting by the flowers? I think I was at 27 weeks when the picture was taken, maybe 28?

Jerry always takes such nice pictures. I'm grateful he doesn't mind being our family's designated "camera man," because if it was left up to me we'd never take time to get photos of anything.

We got chills as we came around the corner and caught sight of this spire for the first time.

We love the New England trees. Autumn will be gorgeous, so we'll have to do more temple pics around that time.

I got a new calling in church--Young Women's secretary--which means I get to go with the youth tomorrow morning to the temple, to do baptisms for the dead. I am excited to go again and wish we could make it there more often. When I was listening to General Conference last April, I sought specific counsel from God regarding our move this summer. I asked Him, "What can I do to make the transition a positive, happy experience?" The answer I received, from both speakers' words and the impressions of the Holy Spirit, is this: "Make the temple a priority."

The peace and eternal perspective I gain inside those holy walls is exactly what I need at this time in my life. I love the temple!

Draper Temple Open House 參觀聖殿

Self-conscious citing of the photo at left: I do not know what the appropriate method is to give credit to photos found on Google image searches. This one is a lovely picture of the Draper, Utah Temple of the LDS church, and came from a4gpa on flickr.com. I liked this photo because it was taken at night, which is when we visited the temple--so the view was just this striking to us as we drove up in a little ferry-van.

For those who don't already know, temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, like the one pictured above, are different from ordinary chapels or meeting houses (pictured below). Temples are special places of worship where baptized church members may go only when they are living good Christian lives and adhering to the highest of moral standards. We go to the temple to worship, pray, and ponder as we learn and make sacred covenants with God. Meeting houses, on the other hand, are open to both church members and visitors for any Sunday service or weekday activities.

After a temple has been constructed, there is usually a period of time during which the general public may take tours inside. After this "open house" time period, then the temple is dedicated to God, and only people following the specific tenets mentioned in the paragraph above may enter in.

Jerry and I have a Korean friend who is very curious about the temple and has said he would like to visit the open house with us soon. We are very happy for him to go and experience the peaceful beauty of that place. We attended once already, as we went this past weekend with a family from our neighborhood. Here we are pictured among photographs of temples from all around the world, which is appropriate because our party that night consisted of a Puerto Rican, a Chinese, and a few Americans. Nearly as global as the display.

We also had a chance meeting up with Uncle Carl, Aunt Becky, and their family at the refreshment table after our tour. How fun to see them and chat a bit. Here is one more picture taken at the display area located outside the temple (in a local chapel):

No photos allowed inside the temple itself...so there is some motivation to go see it for yourselves! One of my favorite parts of the inside is how local artists have painted murals on the walls. These paintings depict the surrounding Wasatch front, so the mountains inside the temple look just like the mountains outside. Also, the bridal changing room is spacious and exquisitely decorated. When we entered the sealing room, where countless families will soon be united for eternity, I felt very full in my heart. I took some time to reflect on my own marriage in the temple to sweet Jerry.

I have made a concerted effort to keep this blog as non-sappy as possible, but will go ahead and take this opportunity to just say once and for all: How wonderful it is to me that a man of such intelligence, understanding, and kindness saw fit to be my partner through this life and forever. I love you, Husby!