I had the opportunity to attend the ASIA Area Women’s Conference this year. It was a conference of mostly LDS women, but a few of other Christian women also attended. It was a wonderful opportunity to recharge my batteries! We had 10 great speakers, 176 women, from 12 different countries; USA, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan, Korea, Germany, Malaysia, more but I can’t remember the places.
We also worked on a service project making bandages for a leprosy colony in India during our breaks from the classes. The bandages need to be made out of yarn and crocheted, so the people can wash them and use them again. The gauze, kind of bandages do not hold up to washing and the people sometimes just use old dirty ones again.
We did also have some time for sight seeing and were able to stop by a local market. The smells in market were awesome, but the sites were less than appealing.
I did see a really narrow trolley that looked a lot like the night bus in Harry Potter.
Mike and I also had a plan to meet up in Hong Kong on Friday, and attend the Temple with all the other women at the conference. He had already been gone for a week and still needed to leave the country for his “30 day visa thing”. But, on his way to the airport in Beijing, he lost his phone on the subway and had no way to contact me and arrange where to meet, although we were scheduled to stay in the same hotel. Not knowing about the phone issue, I found a computer at our hotel to check my emails, and lo and behold there was an email from Angela at Mike's work, telling me that someone found his phone, called his work, and now she was on her way to pick it up. Crazy!!!
So, there was no way for me to tell Mike where we were and how to get to the Temple, or the news about his phone. I spent the rest of the day fretting about meeting up with Mike and just how that would all work out. That night my group of ladies, all five of us, hopped into a small cab and headed over to the Temple. I was feeling a bit down that I would not get to see Mike for several more hours and just as we were rounding the corner to the Temple courtyard, there he was! He never looked as handsome to me as he did right then! He was in his best dark blue suit, with my favorite red tie and two suit cases, and one big smile! I ran over to him and everyone in our group let out a collective, "Aw!" 
Not the end of the story…..
The next morning as we were getting out the taxi to head back to Beijing, I grabbed my coat, paid the guy, Mike got the bags out of the trunk, and just as the taxi drove off I realized I left my purse in the taxi!
Horror! I am in a foreign country with nothing! No passport! No ID! No credit cards or money! Here in China you can’t do anything without a passport. No hotel! No flight!
A very long story short that involved numerous taxi companies, hours in a Chinese police station, (a first for me in any country), a missed flight, watching my husband get on his flight, calls to the US consulate office, and finally, because of the dedication of one very young police sergeant, my purse was found!
I was on the phone with the consulate office when I saw the sergeant answer his phone, write something down, stand up, put his hat on and say, “let’s go get your belongings!” Never have I hugged a Chinese man as tight as I did him! He was a bit uncomfortable about it but I did not care, I got my purse and passport back, and now I could go home! It still was four more hours before I was able to get it at another police station clear over in Kowloon (look it up), then make my way back, book another flight and head home. That was a very expensive mistake on my part. And that's all I have to say about that!
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