Hong Kong and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

It would be impossible for me to write about Hong Kong and not write about the growth and what we saw about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Dustin lived in Hong Kong for his senior year of high school before he left on his two year service mission to Taiwan.  They moved here so his parents could serve a three year service mission for the church as the Hong Kong Mission Presidents.  So the church was a major part of his life when he lived here before, and the legacy left behind by his parents and all the people that knew and loved them.  

So our first Sunday there we knew that there was a new church building downtown where we would meet and attend the international ward.  It took us awhile to find it, and little did we expect this enormous 12 story building.  It was absolutely beautiful inside with a nice reception area and theater on the first floor where you could watch the Joseph Smith movie, etc. The design was extremely well done and they have planned well for expansion. 

Here is Dustin outside of the new Stake Center in the business district of downtown Hong Kong.

 Views of the building.  It was fun going to church since some of the members still remembered the Hintons when they were serving.

 We then had to go back and visit not just the Hong Kong temple and house of the Lord, but this is also where Dustin lived.  The 2nd floor was the mission office (I hope I'm getting all of this right, Hintons feel free to correct me if I'm missing things), with the 3rd floor at the apartment for the Mission President, where is where Dustin, his sister Tiffany and his parents lived. Then the 4th and 5th floor are the temple.

 It was neat because I was talking to a few ladies in the temple and they of course asked what brought me to Hong Kong and I said that I was here visiting since my husband lived here before and when I told them my last name was Hinton, they were like Oh!! You mean your mom is Sister Hinton who found the dedication site??  It is nice to be related to a celebrity :)

 Some more views of the temple, it was really bright that day....

 Here is the new mission office/institute building/meeting house.  Here is the wall in the mission office.  You can see mom and dad in the top right.  The far top left is a picture of the dedication site where it says that mom found it.

 Me in the mission office.

 Dustin took some more pictures of the mission office and the building so everyone could see just how much the church has grown in just the 9 years they have been home.

 Pictures from the outside of the building.

 They even have a little bookstore.

 View of the temple across the street.

 The mission office/institute building/meeting house

 more views

 The temple.  Can you see why Dustin loves this temple?!? Not just because he lived here, but it just has a peace and spirit around it that you cannot deny.

 Us in front of the temple.  Dustin really did get really good at the point and shoot while on this trip.  All but one picture of both of us were ones he took.

 This building also has a lot of history as far as the church goes.  The church bought this building after World War II because the Japanese tortured people in the basement and it was considered to have bad karma (again correct me if I'm getting this wrong) so the church bought it for a very cheap price.  But they converted it into a meeting house.  Dad Hinton lived here when he served his mission back when he was 19.  This was also where Dustin got his mission call to Taiwan. But the property became worth a lot and the church ended up selling it for very cheap if they made it into a Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum who lived here in the early 1900s. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL inside.  They gave credit all over for the church being responsible for the condition it was in because it was so well taken care of. I mean huge wooden staircases, beautiful ball room, amazing woodwork, it was cool.  You don't see things this old very often in Hong Kong, and so I just ate it up. There was no photography allowed or else I would have taken tons.  I tried to sneak a few times to take some because there was a lot of Greek Architecture throughout the building and I thought it was cool to see Western Civilization and Asian collide back in the early 1900s.   

 But the one thing I did get a picture of was of the Baptismal font that they kept in the building from when the Church put it in. 

It was so neat to see how the Church is spreading and the work is rolling forth.  I do believe that this is Christ's church and I have a strong testimony of that.  I am grateful to be a member of a family who has helped to pave the way for that work to progress.