Hong Kong Women's Conference

I've been looking forward to attending the Associated Sisters in Asia (A.S.I.A) Women's Conference for several months now. So when I decided to change my departure date from Shenyang, a few people asked me if that meant I'd be cancelling my trip to Hong Kong. Um, no! I already bought the tickets, and besides, who says you can't go on a huge international trip a week before moving to a different hemisphere?

We left on Thursday morning, bright and early. I set my alarm clock for 5:15 AM, and then I woke up at 1:30, 2:30, 3:30, and then finally at 4:30, before finally getting out of bed at 5:15. I hate that. I felt groggy and awful, but I was excited to go. Naomi heard me bumbling around in the kitchen, so she woke up to see me off. I put her back in bed with a hug, and it was a sweet way to leave my kids for three days-- which I hadn't done before in their little lives.

We arranged for our Ayi to come watch the girls on Thursday and Friday while Kevin was at work, and then Kevin took care of them in the evenings and all day Saturday. I wasn't worried that they'd have any caloric shortages while I was gone, but I did make a list of healthy-ish snacks and meals that we had all the ingredients for. Otherwise, I didn't do much micro-managing before taking off. 

Four of us LDS ladies from Shenyang got to go: Kim, Cici, Amy, and me. Three of us were on the same flight leaving Shenyang, and because of the pollution/fog/rumoured sand storm, our flight was delayed on the tarmac for 2 1/4 hours. We missed our connecting flight in Shanghai, but they put us on the next one a couple hours later. Amy had worse luck, since she flew through Beijing where the pollution was even worse. And she had brought her baby with her. I don't envy her the horrendous hours in airports! (She also had misfortunes on the way home, including spending a 4-hour night in the airport. I'm not really looking forward to flying through Beijing on our way home.)

So the three of us rushed over to the church building by taxi, and we made it there by 7:05, missing the registration and service project, but only missing 5 minutes of the first meeting. 

The next day was Friday, and I had signed up to play the organ in both the combined meetings. I play the piano quite well, and I have taken 30 minutes of organ lessons at a BYU music camp in high school, making me an expert in all things organic. I knew I'd need to get there early enough to unlock the instrument, play with the stops and volume controls, and hopefully run through my songs and play some prelude music. 

None of that happened.

I didn't sleep well, again, knowing I had an early wake-up call, but I scarfed down my breakfast and made it out the door at 7:30. I didn't see any taxis in the first few minutes of my search, but I found myself at a subway stop, so I took the metro. The only problem was that, once out of the metro, I had no idea where the church building was-- only that I was close enough that any sane taxi driver would laugh at me if I hopped in a cab and asked to be taken right around the corner. 

So I walked.

Hong Kong is lovely this time of year.

The Wan Chai district of Hong Kong. I know it well. Now.

By the time I found the building, it was 8:15. I walked in to find the congregation singing the last verse of my opening song. And that was not me accompanying them, not on the organ, either. During my frantic wanderings, I'd eventually resigned myself to the fact that the meeting would proceed despite my not being there to accompany the singing, but that didn't keep me from plopping down into my seat and crying once I got there.

I loved the conference! I don't gush a lot about my emotions or my spirituality, so when I say that my favorite thing about it was the spiritually uplifting aspect, believe me that it was amazing! The theme of the conference was Proverbs 3:5, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." I learned a lot about trusting in the Lord, and I found strength and spiritual nourishment from the classes I attended.  

Old friends, new friends; virtual friends becoming real-life friends.

It's challenging to attend our virtual branch of the church. We have a large group here in Shenyang, so we do get to fellowship together. But we often don't hear much of Sacrament meeting, due either to technology issues, or the rodeo of children going on in the middle of the room. Or both. But over the last few years, I've gotten to know some great people, and it was fun to meet many of them in real life at the conference.

Virtual branch members (plus and minus a few)

After the conference ended on Saturday, I ran into some friends on the street who asked me if I was part of the group going to Disneyland afterwards. No, unfortunately! But I was anxious and excited to get back to my family and wake up bright and early to speak in church the next day. 

Honestly, the best way to prepare a talk for church is to go to a 3-day conference and take notes about it. I just rearranged my notes, fleshed it out a little bit, and voila! there was my talk!

I'm so happy I got to go to the conference this year. It wasn't an option last year, with a nursing baby and an older child who was still scared of our Ayi. None of us from Shenyang went, actually. But this year, the four of us who went all had a great, building experience. It was great to have a last big hoorah before we head our separate ways this year.