Hong Kong Temple

We had the wonderful experience of going to the Hong Kong Temple twice while we were in Hong Kong. It was so wonderful to be able to actually go to the Temple after 5 months of missing it. The closest temple to us is the Seoul Temple. Our branch is going to go some time this spring, so it will also be a wonderful trip.

Our first night in Hong Kong, we stayed at the Temple Housing. My bunk is the bottom one there. These are the same type of bunks we slept in a Heber Valley Camp. Ann Perry and I stayed in this room. Gary and Kent Perry stayed in another room. They did have a small mattress on the bed, so it was not completely hard.

This is the view from Temple Housing.

This is the view of the temple from across the street. You can see the little opening in the wall at the bottom. This opens to a courtyard into the temple. This courtyard is open 24 hours a day and it is very beautiful. It is a beautiful temple in a quieter part of Kowloon. You can feel The Spirit just being in the courtyard.

We checked into temple housing and then went to tour part of Hong Kong. We went to Hong Kong Island and went to a dumpling shop. There we had the most amazing fried dumplings. Yummy!

Anyway, after dumplings and the Apple Store, we came back to temple housing to get ready to do an endowment session that evening. I was able to do a Chinese person. That was pretty cool. Of course, the Spirit was very strong during the session. I was taken through the veil by the Temple President and Gary did his in Cantonese (well not his part, but the other part). We actually got to speak to the Temple President and his wife while we were waiting to leave the temple. What a wonderful couple!

The Celestial room was beautiful as you can imagine! Gary and I and Perry's were deciding if we wanted to go out to eat. It was about 8:30 pm by that time. I did not know why, but I got the feeling that we should not go to dinner, that we should go back to temple housing. Gary did not seem like he wanted to go to dinner either, so we decided to send the Perry's off by themselves and we headed back to our room at temple housing. 

The temple housing building is also the mission office. We had seen a couple of Elders there before we went into the temple. These same Elders were there at the mission office when we got out. I had heard earlier that perhaps one of the Elders was from Utah. I asked the Elder where he was from and he said that he was from Springville, Utah. That was neat, so I told him we were from Layton, Utah. He immediately said, "Oh, we have a sister missionary from Layton, Utah." I was thinking that Becca Stromberg was in Hong Kong, but I did not think it could possibly be her. Then the missionary said, "Sister Stromberg is from Layton." I said, "Rebecca?" He said, "Yes, and she may still be here in the building." 

Another part of the same building holds a church where the missionaries were having an activity for some recent converts. The Elder (I do not even remember his name) told us to go check and see if Sister Stromberg was still there. We walked to the cultural hall and I took a look. I could not see her, so I was ready to leave when Gary called me back. I came back to the door of the cultural hall just as Becca Stromberg was coming out. We both saw each other at the same time and our faces lit up. Well that's what Gary said anyway. She recognized me and was genuinely happy to see me.

It was such an amazing experience for me. I had been feeling like I wanted to go home to Utah, I mean, not to China. the Lord knew I was feeling this way and He brought a little bit of home to me. It renewed my spirit and rejuvenated me to return to China and continue to help the Chinese people. Before going to the Temple, I had no idea that something so wonderful would happen besides the opportunity to be in the temple. It reaffirmed to me how much The Lord loves me and how well He know me and knows what I need when I need it. Even now, the feeling about this incident are so wonderful! The other young woman is a recent convert to the church. She was baptized in October.

The next morning we left temple housing and went to a hotel, but Gary and I were able to get back to the temple on the next Tuesday to do some sealings. I had brought some family names with me from the U.S. One of the names that we did was Gary's uncle. We were able to seal him to Gary's grandparents. What a wonderful experience that was. We also sealed some of my relatives to their spouse or parents. The first few couple sealings were done in English. When we got to the sealings to parents, the sealer struggled to say it in English, so he asked if he could do it in Cantonese. We agreed wholeheartedly. What a wonderfully spiritual experience that was. Once we finished all of our family names, we did temple names. The sealer continued to do the sealings in Cantonese. Gary and I answered our part in Cantonese, too. This was amazing. I was trying very hard to remember the words I have heard so many times in English, so that I could maybe understand some of the Cantonese. I didn't really, but I still felt the Spirit very strongly. 

It does not matter what language you speak or what country you live in, the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. The Holy Ghost speaks to all of us through our spirits. We can understand the Lord's love for us and the truthfulness of temple work despite not understanding the language. What a wonderful experience I had being in and near the temple of the Lord. I can't wait to go to Seoul this year and back to Hong Kong next year knowing that I will be able to go to the temple again. I am even going to try to find some more names to take with us. 

Please go to the temple as often as circumstances allow you. For those in Utah, please go often because you have access to so many beautiful temples. I am so proud to know that the young women in the Adamswood Ward go do baptisms often! It makes me so proud of them! The temple is one of the best places on earth!