The 2015 Chinese New Year is Here

 Chinese New Year has some amazing things to see:  

1. A busy robust town comes to a stop.  Nearly, all the businesses are closed.
2. People go visit family...similar to what we do in Thanksgiving.  It is family oriented holiday.
3. We did not buy much bread and it has taken us 3 days to find bread.
4. It is hard to find medicines.  We walked the streets for over an hour to find one yesterday with no success to help a missionary.  Today, we heard where a pharmacy was open and passed dozens that were closed.
5.  The parks are not full.  People are home with family.
6. Yes.  Missionary work is slow too.  We have been invited to a number of parties and special events.

7. Lots of festivals and colorful decorations.
8. Dragon Dancing...
9. Colorful prades...
10. Do it yourself fireworks--you buy a huge fireworks and a team of people help you set it off.  The fireworks are non-stop from 8PM to 2AM--for 10 days.
 11. It is the time business pay a bonus and they can be sizable.
12.  We even had our two daughter's and their families come and join the festivities from Hong Kong.

We are enjoying the fun and build up of the Chinese New Year.  It certainly is a time to cherish the blessing in life you have been give.  No question families are apart of that great blessing.



We have had some wonderful members help us celebrate the year.  They help us all the time and make us feel of value.  Each has greatly blessed our life.




We have a very special group of missionaries here in Macau that watchover us.



It was a long time ago (48 years), I remember, celebrating the Chinese New Year by eating watermelon seeds, being cold, without our housekeeper/cook and watching a few colorful prades.  This year we are more refined and progress in a beautiful and growing country.  We wish you Good Health and Prosperity for 2015.

Macau--Moving toward Chinese New Year 2015

We had the opportunity to go to the Venetian Hotel to check out their Medical and Dental Clinic.  The place was amazing!!  It has 7500 hotel rooms.  They are planning to have 2500 stores in their mall.  It would knock your socks off!!  They have a full outpatient medical and dental clinic.

When the missionary's get sick they like to have an established set of physicians to seed the missionaries too.  It is plan of Joy's job to establish that network here in Macau.  While the all foreign missionaries are covered by Aetna International.  It is hard to find doctors that really accept the insurance.  These missionaries have little or no money, so getting the medical people to accept the insurance is a big deal.

Macau Venetian Hotel and Casino

The gambling makes this city go...it was the fireworks capital of the world before gambling was made the number one priority.  There a large number of big buildings in Macau.  Some are really lite up.  The city is building everywhere.

 The cobblestone streets in some areas remind you of Europe.  It is an amazing place to be and see the mix of the cultures.  We have many new adventures each week.

Cobblestone Streets in many Places

Chinese New Year is 3 weeks away.  We have all types of preparation occurring.  The building are decorated inside and outside.  It is beautiful and colorful.

2014 Macau Chinese New Year Preparation

Most families decorate their door and throughout the house. It is time to prep for the coming New Year.  It is the year of the goat.

2014 is the Year of the Goat

We are blessed to be part of helping the church growing opportunity.  We are happy and involved!!  We continue to be humbled by the language and sweet giving people.

Scott and Joy with one of the beautiful Filipino Sisters

Sister Joy Holbrook

Elder Scott Holbrook

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Macau and the Wonderful People We Work With

We have a super fantastic mission president and his equally impressive wife, President Val and Julie Hawks.  They direct the efforts of 150 missionaries in Hong Kong and Macau.  We only have 2 senior couples assigned to the mission president.  One works in the mission office and we are in Macau.  There are other missionaries that work at the temple, other district and area assignments, but we have limited contact with them.  Macau is the place we expect to spend for about 18 months.

The people are wonderful.  They are so giving and generous.  My heart is softened each week as I see the sacrifices these people make to provide for their families.  Many of these Filipino sisters come here to work without their families and sending the money back to provide for their families.  They labor here for years in support of the their children (who is usually raised by grandparents) and their father who also working.  

One of these Sister Missionaries was a helper in Hong Kong.  She joined the church and is now serving a mission here in the China Hong Kong Mission.  The other has limited family support but had a burning desire to serve the Lord and is here with much sacrifice.  Can you imagine the faith of these wonderful people?  It touches me to the very soul.

Sister Holbrook is supporting the missionaries with medical issues.  While these missionaries are young they still have stomach problems, colds, bumps and bruises.  Plus, some much more complicated issues.  This week one missionary had some emergency surgery--it was very rough week for the missionary and Sister Holbrook was right by her side all the way. She is really involved.

We live down a beautiful, cobbled street.  See the pieces carefully laid into place for 1/3 of a mile.  It is like some of the streets of Europe.  It is fun to walk down, but it can get slippery.

We are very fortunate to be by all these high committed young missionaries and good people you live here.  Their energy and excitement for the gospel is never ending.  We are proud to be representatives of Jesus Christ!

Christmas in Hong Kong and Moving to Macau

Hong Kong

We arrived in Hong Kong late on the 20th of December.  We were met by President and Sister Hawks of the Hong Kong China Mission and two of our daughters (Sunnee and Kelsey).

We were briefed and had the opportunity to spend several days before Christmas with our daughters and their families. See the special Christmas Socking they made for us.  We had a beautiful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with some of our family.  Sunnee and Kelsey made sure we were taken care of....including this fantastic Elder and Sister Socking from Santa.

Macau

The day after Christmas, we had President and Sister Hawks escorted us to our apartment in Macau.  It is very nice and the Hawks had spent a couple of days in the clean up process.  It looked super and more space than we had expected. See part of the Front Room and the chair we both want.







We had our first Sunday with 3 separate branches...it was 8+ hours of church meetings.  We also attend Church Services on Saturday for those that could not make it on Sunday.  All the people were wonderful.  My heart was touched and I was over whelmed by their goodness and kindness.  We are in a wonderful place.

Missionary Training Center

Scott and Joy Holbrook Mission Blog
December 18, 2014

Joy and I went to the Provo Mission Training Center on December 8th, 2014.  Each day we would drive down from 8 AM-5PM.  We were grouped with other Senior Missionaries.  There were about 30 people from all over the USA.  We were in a district with 4 couples.

On the weekend we finished packing and moving out of the upstairs of our home so Tait and Liz could move upstairs with their family.  It is wonderful having them watch after our home.  Several of the kids and their families came to dinner on Sunday night.  Yoalt dressed up like grandpa.





















On the 15th we began Medical Missionary Training in Salt Lake City.  It was a great training program.  We enjoyed the experience.

We are now ready to go to Hong Kong. We hope to be great contributors.  As we leave, we are sure there are things we forgot to do.  We will miss our family and friends, but we are ready for the adventure

On the way to the Mission 12-7-14

The beginning:

Tomorrow Joy and I enter The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Mission Training Center in Provo Utah.  It is one week of training for all senior missionaries.  We will then be going to Salt Lake City for Joy to be trained as a medical missionary.  It is four days for training.

 

We will leave for the Hong Kong Mission on December 19, 2014.  We are very excited to be going.  Below is the LDS Temple in Hong Kong.



We have been assigned to work in Macau, China.

 According to Wikapedia, Macau is one of the two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China, the other being Hong Kong. Macau lies on the western side of the Pearl River Delta across from Hong Kong, which is about 64 kilometers to the east, and it is also bordered by Guangdong Province to the north and the South China Sea to the east and south.^[9] With an estimated population of around 624,000 living in an area of 31.3 km² (12.1 sq mi), it is the most densely populated region in the world.^[10]

A former Portuguese colony, Macau was administered by Portugal from the mid-16th century until late 1999, when it was the last remainingEuropean colony in Asia.^[11][12] Portuguese traders first settled in Macau in the 1550s. In 1557, Macau was rented to Portugal by the Ming Dynasty as a trading port. The Portuguese administered the city under Chinese authority and sovereignty until 1887, when Macau became a colony of the Portuguese Empire. Sovereignty over Macau was transferred back to China on 20 December 1999. The Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration and the Basic Law of Macau stipulate that Macau operate with a high degree of autonomy until at least 2049, fifty years after the transfer.^[13]

Under the policy of "one country, two systems", the PRC's Central People's Government is responsible for the territory's defense and foreign affairs, while Macau maintains its own legal system, police force, monetary system, customs policy, and immigration policy. Macau participates in many international organizations and events that do not require members to possess national sovereignty.^[13][14]

Macau is one of the world's richest cities, with the highest GDP per capita by purchasing power parity as of 2013, according to the World Bank.^[15][16] It became the world's largest gambling centre in 2006,^[17] with the economy heavily dependent on gambling and tourism, as well as manufacturing. Cantonese people from Hong Kong and Guangdong, in addition to the recent mainland tourism from Mandarin-speaking regions, have boosted the economy of Macau significantly. According to The World Factbook, Macau has the second highest life expectancyin the world.^[18] Moreover, it is one of only a few regions in Asia with a "very high Human Development Index", ranking 25th as of 2011.^[8]

We are honored to be servants of Our Heavenly Father to his children in China.  We look forward to this 18 month experience.  We bear testimony that Jesus Christ is our Savior and pray we can live a Christ-centered life.