Hong Kong and Guardian Angels

First we want to say thanks to so many who have kept us in your prayers. We feel so blessed! This has been a busy adventure filled day. We could not have asked for a better outcome. This has been an incredible day.

On Saturday Elder Oveson started having weird effects with his eye. He was quite concerned when the visual effects increased. Several years ago Elder Oveson had cornea transplants on both eyes, so his eyes are a great concern to him. There was enough issues that he called his eye doctor back home. All the symptoms indicated a detached and potentially torn retina. With worries about quality medical care, he encouraged us to take a trip to Hong Kong and see a specialist there.

We took the doctor's counsel and booked a flight for Hong Kong for today. That included a leap of faith that we would be able to get an appointment and that we would be able to arrive safely at our destination.  We went to the mission office first thing and made some phone calls, and were blessed to get an appointment for 4:15 this afternoon. The glitch was that our flight was scheduled to land at about 3:00, then we would have to find the train across town and make it before we were too late.

As we went to the check-in line at the airport we found that we would be on the flight with friends (a mom and her three daughters from the International Branch). The flight was smooth and everything went well, except that weather in Hong Kong made all the flights delay landing by about 10 minutes. 

As we landed we knew our time would be tight, but we managed to call the office we were heading to and let them know we were coming as quickly as possible. They let us know we needed to just make sure to be there before 5:00 p.m. Here's where the we found our guardian angel. As the train approached the station where we needed to get off, Elder Oveson asked another passenger for directions from there to the clinic. This man was so kind as to walk us through the terminal, then pay an additional ticket fee (we didn't have any Hong Kong dollars), then made sure we understood directions to walk the two or three blocks to our destination. We arrived at the office at 4:55.

The best news of all came when the doctor did his examination and determined that the eye had problems, but Elder Oveson did not need any procedures on it. The  retina was partly detaching, yet there was no tear. Long story short, there was no further treatment required, for now. He recommended Elder Oveson be seen again in four to six weeks to make sure there are no further problems. We were able to catch a taxi to a hotel that had been booked for us, then find a return flight for tomorrow. Now we are exhausted, but so grateful for so many of you who have taken a moment to let us know we are remembered and loved.