About our bed...It is as hard as a rock. There is no cushion at all. Sort of like sleeping on a box spring. But it's big! About 6.5 ft. square. There is only one sheet, a duvet cover and two big pillow cases per set. The sheet just barely tucks in at the top and hangs about 3 inches over each side. It can't be tucked in at the side on the bottom. Then the duvet and two big pillows; like king size decorator pillows. I'm so glad we brought our own pillows.
So a few months ago I bought, what I thought, was another sheet to go under the duvet to keep it clean. No it was another duvet cover, but I liked the color better. The previous tenants were into neon green and such.
This new cover is a soft green. As soon as I zipped it open the zipper pull fell apart. You can't return anything in China. If it's broken, you did it. No returns. So the first time I used it I sewed it together. But I decided I should probably just have a new zipper sewn into it.
Today we took it to the tailor, who doesn't speak English, and showed it to him. He examined it, rummaged around in his stuff and came up with a zipper pull which he put on the end of the zipper. Then he changed the thread in his sewing machine and sewed the end of the zipper so the pull wouldn't come off. He charged us 4 yuan ...$.64.
I could have put a new zipper in at home. After I drove to Vancouver to buy a zipper that was long enough. And picked out the old zipper. Who would have thought to just put on a new pull?? Who would even have a zipper pull lying around??
This Is China!!
Monday, February 27, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Pictures from the trip
Ernie with an Eagle!
Li River
Reed Flute Cave
Yi Costume
Pat's shoe repair
Stone forest
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Feb 21
It was so nice to attend church Sunday. We haven't been to church for two weeks because of our travels. In fact, almost everyone was back from their holidays so it was fun to see them all.
We had also had a "hot pot" on Saturday night at our Relief Society presidents house. It's a big bowl of soup that you put meat and vegetables in, of your choice, and then you eat it. It was OK. The cabbage was good and so were the desserts that everyone brought.
Last Wed. we went to Beijing to hear Elder Dallin Oaks speak. Did I tell you? Anyway we stayed with the Quan family. They're from America. He works for the U.S. embassy. They live in a 4 bdrm. 3 bath apartment in the embassy complex. It's not at all the kind of apt. that we live in! I told Alice she was the queen living in a palace! They even had real napkins! The napkins we but are like single ply, or less.
When I was talking to Mel the other day I realized that maybe I haven't mentioned our classroom situation.
My sophomores meet in a newer building. The class is made to hold 30 students. I have 37. So it's crowded and they have to go scrounge up chairs to sit in. There are enough desks , but not enough chairs. In front of the class is a chalk board (they have very nice chalk) and a big metal desk that's about 4 ft. tall. The desk is locked and I pick up a key on my way in, from a guard. The desk top slides open in both directions and that's where there's a computer and keyboard and a place to plug in my laptop. Of course, there are no directions to plug it in and the computer is all in Chinese so I can't use theirs.
I haul in my laptop and class materials in my shoulder bag. The students bring in their books in their backpacks.
Their classes start at 8:00 am and go to 9:50 with a 5 min. break in the middle. The next class starts at 9:50 and goes to 11:30. Then they have lunch and a rest until 2:00 when I have my classes.So my first afternoon class goes from 2-3:35 and the next one from 3:50 - 5:30. Then the students have a dinner break and then more classes and homework. They are really loaded down with work! They don't hold down outside jobs and there's not much time for other activities, like basketball or ping pong. But we always see the boys playing basketball on our way by the dormitories.
They take a national test in sixth grade to see where their aptitudes lay and in high school they are pigeon-holed for their vocation and college according to their national test scores again. They also take tests in college to see if they can go overseas to a university. Their English has to be pretty good. Besides the oral English that I teach, they also have an English grammar class and a writing class. And their English classes are taught by Chinese teachers. They're so excited to have a real English teacher!
I've got to hike over to the printing office to pick up some materials. It was so fun trying to order some cards to be printed when no body spoke English! Pantomime is universal!
Love you all! More later...Mom XXOO
We had also had a "hot pot" on Saturday night at our Relief Society presidents house. It's a big bowl of soup that you put meat and vegetables in, of your choice, and then you eat it. It was OK. The cabbage was good and so were the desserts that everyone brought.
Last Wed. we went to Beijing to hear Elder Dallin Oaks speak. Did I tell you? Anyway we stayed with the Quan family. They're from America. He works for the U.S. embassy. They live in a 4 bdrm. 3 bath apartment in the embassy complex. It's not at all the kind of apt. that we live in! I told Alice she was the queen living in a palace! They even had real napkins! The napkins we but are like single ply, or less.
When I was talking to Mel the other day I realized that maybe I haven't mentioned our classroom situation.
My sophomores meet in a newer building. The class is made to hold 30 students. I have 37. So it's crowded and they have to go scrounge up chairs to sit in. There are enough desks , but not enough chairs. In front of the class is a chalk board (they have very nice chalk) and a big metal desk that's about 4 ft. tall. The desk is locked and I pick up a key on my way in, from a guard. The desk top slides open in both directions and that's where there's a computer and keyboard and a place to plug in my laptop. Of course, there are no directions to plug it in and the computer is all in Chinese so I can't use theirs.
I haul in my laptop and class materials in my shoulder bag. The students bring in their books in their backpacks.
Their classes start at 8:00 am and go to 9:50 with a 5 min. break in the middle. The next class starts at 9:50 and goes to 11:30. Then they have lunch and a rest until 2:00 when I have my classes.So my first afternoon class goes from 2-3:35 and the next one from 3:50 - 5:30. Then the students have a dinner break and then more classes and homework. They are really loaded down with work! They don't hold down outside jobs and there's not much time for other activities, like basketball or ping pong. But we always see the boys playing basketball on our way by the dormitories.
They take a national test in sixth grade to see where their aptitudes lay and in high school they are pigeon-holed for their vocation and college according to their national test scores again. They also take tests in college to see if they can go overseas to a university. Their English has to be pretty good. Besides the oral English that I teach, they also have an English grammar class and a writing class. And their English classes are taught by Chinese teachers. They're so excited to have a real English teacher!
I've got to hike over to the printing office to pick up some materials. It was so fun trying to order some cards to be printed when no body spoke English! Pantomime is universal!
Love you all! More later...Mom XXOO
Friday, February 17, 2012
Feb 9th
Thursday we are in Lijiang, northwest of Kunming. It's still cold. I'd expected it to be warmer since we're so far south. We walked around the Black Dragon Pool Park and walked through the old town. The streets are paved with big rectangular stones with a small canal with clear water running down the side. Often, because the stones are so old, they were shiny from being walked on so much.
On one street a man was standing outside his gate, as we looked in at his courtyard he invited us in. All 36 of us. His 84 year old mother came out to greet us and he offered us candy and oranges. In the middle of the courtyard was a cinder block pig sty with 3 pigs in it. In the corner was a corral with a few more pigs in it. There wasn't any pig smell. Their house and yard were pretty with beautiful wooden gates. Just down the street an 85 year old woman was working in her garden. She was widowed and lived with her son and daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in a stone and mud-block house. I love the old people. They are so withered and yet so agile.
Here we visited an embroidery school. They have always been well-known for their beautiful embroidery but it hasn't been kept up by the younger people, so now they're trying to carry it on. It was truly beautiful. They use very fine silk thread. Ernie bought a picture and I bought a scarf. It was just pretty!
We also visited a flower mart with fake and real flowers. I wished I could have bought some.
We enjoyed a hot pot for dinner. At another dinner I was digging down in the soup to get some vegetables and I scooped up a whole fish. He was looking me in the eye. They claimed that the broth was good for you, but you were not to eat the fish. Everything in China has a good purpose for your health.
Friday we took a long bus ride to Dali. On the way we made a bathroom stop. You had to pay 10 yuan ($.16) to use the bathroom which was a trough with waist-high partitions. I didn't have to use it. Dali was very nice. Our hotel had lots of character with flowers growing all around. Because we were so far south there was lots of foliage. Tianjin is very dry and dirty and everything is covered in concrete.
On our first evening in Dali we again noticed the cobbled streets with a small canal, maybe a foot wide, flowing down the side. We also noticed a girl, about nine years old, going to the bathroom in the canal. The next day we watched a woman wash her hands in the canal and later another little girl used it for a toilet. Then we saw a woman with produce to sell, washing her produce in the canal! It's China!
Saturday we visited the Three Pagodas. Very big and very gold and about 10 million steps to the top of the temple area. We didn't make it to the top, but almost. We also visited a marble factory. They cut the marble in slabs and the shading and whirls look like mountains and trees. It's really pretty, but very heavy; not conducive to hauling it home.
As we were walking down a street in the town a man came up to me and pointed to my shoes. They are splitting on the side and the shoe man on our street went on vacation. This man wanted to sew my shoes so we agreed, but we didn't agree on a price. He sewed both sides, glued the sole on one side, added some more sole to the heel and glued it and polished my shoe, and then he did the other shoe! When he was done he asked for 120 yuan. Dad gave him 100 yuan ($15.50) These shoes better last another 5 months!
We had a tasty lunch in Dali and later we found a restaurant that advertised brownies! We went there for dinner and ordered our dessert the same time as our entree. They brought our dessert first. It was a square of warm chocolate cake with ice cream! Yum!!
We had to get up at 5:30 Saturday morning to get to the airport and go to Kunming from there our group separated to fly to their own airports. We had a four hour layover and a four hour flight. When are flight was boarding there was a tour group of about 30 indigenous people. They were short and dark skinned. They had obviously never been on an airplane before. When the plane took off there was a collective "ah-h-h-" from the back of the plane, and when we hit some turbulence there was another collective "ah-h-h" from the back of the plane. They were very glad to get off.
Our flight wasn't non-stop and when we stopped everyone had to get off the plane. They gave you a ticket and then the cleaning crew went to work and 15 min. later those of us who were continuing on got back on the plane again.
Somethings that happen in China would just never work in the U.S., but they're coming along.
It was nice to get home. Even our hard bed was welcoming.
On Wednesday we went to Beijing to listen to a Beijing China International District Devotional with Elder Dallin H. Oaks, quorum of the Twelve Apostles. We went early to do some more shopping. We stayed with Steven and Alice Quan and their two daughters, Sarah and Emily. Steven works for the U.S. embassy and they live in embassy housing on the 19th floor. I told Alice her apartment is like a castle and she is like the queen. It's very different than our humble abode! It was a great devotional.
We spent the night, had lunch with Paula And Wynn Ferrell at Peter's Tex-Mex and came home.
We have another week of vacation and school starts Feb.27th. I'm looking forward to it. We'll be on the downhill slide!
XXOO Mom
On one street a man was standing outside his gate, as we looked in at his courtyard he invited us in. All 36 of us. His 84 year old mother came out to greet us and he offered us candy and oranges. In the middle of the courtyard was a cinder block pig sty with 3 pigs in it. In the corner was a corral with a few more pigs in it. There wasn't any pig smell. Their house and yard were pretty with beautiful wooden gates. Just down the street an 85 year old woman was working in her garden. She was widowed and lived with her son and daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in a stone and mud-block house. I love the old people. They are so withered and yet so agile.
Here we visited an embroidery school. They have always been well-known for their beautiful embroidery but it hasn't been kept up by the younger people, so now they're trying to carry it on. It was truly beautiful. They use very fine silk thread. Ernie bought a picture and I bought a scarf. It was just pretty!
We also visited a flower mart with fake and real flowers. I wished I could have bought some.
We enjoyed a hot pot for dinner. At another dinner I was digging down in the soup to get some vegetables and I scooped up a whole fish. He was looking me in the eye. They claimed that the broth was good for you, but you were not to eat the fish. Everything in China has a good purpose for your health.
Friday we took a long bus ride to Dali. On the way we made a bathroom stop. You had to pay 10 yuan ($.16) to use the bathroom which was a trough with waist-high partitions. I didn't have to use it. Dali was very nice. Our hotel had lots of character with flowers growing all around. Because we were so far south there was lots of foliage. Tianjin is very dry and dirty and everything is covered in concrete.
On our first evening in Dali we again noticed the cobbled streets with a small canal, maybe a foot wide, flowing down the side. We also noticed a girl, about nine years old, going to the bathroom in the canal. The next day we watched a woman wash her hands in the canal and later another little girl used it for a toilet. Then we saw a woman with produce to sell, washing her produce in the canal! It's China!
Saturday we visited the Three Pagodas. Very big and very gold and about 10 million steps to the top of the temple area. We didn't make it to the top, but almost. We also visited a marble factory. They cut the marble in slabs and the shading and whirls look like mountains and trees. It's really pretty, but very heavy; not conducive to hauling it home.
As we were walking down a street in the town a man came up to me and pointed to my shoes. They are splitting on the side and the shoe man on our street went on vacation. This man wanted to sew my shoes so we agreed, but we didn't agree on a price. He sewed both sides, glued the sole on one side, added some more sole to the heel and glued it and polished my shoe, and then he did the other shoe! When he was done he asked for 120 yuan. Dad gave him 100 yuan ($15.50) These shoes better last another 5 months!
We had a tasty lunch in Dali and later we found a restaurant that advertised brownies! We went there for dinner and ordered our dessert the same time as our entree. They brought our dessert first. It was a square of warm chocolate cake with ice cream! Yum!!
We had to get up at 5:30 Saturday morning to get to the airport and go to Kunming from there our group separated to fly to their own airports. We had a four hour layover and a four hour flight. When are flight was boarding there was a tour group of about 30 indigenous people. They were short and dark skinned. They had obviously never been on an airplane before. When the plane took off there was a collective "ah-h-h-" from the back of the plane, and when we hit some turbulence there was another collective "ah-h-h" from the back of the plane. They were very glad to get off.
Our flight wasn't non-stop and when we stopped everyone had to get off the plane. They gave you a ticket and then the cleaning crew went to work and 15 min. later those of us who were continuing on got back on the plane again.
Somethings that happen in China would just never work in the U.S., but they're coming along.
It was nice to get home. Even our hard bed was welcoming.
On Wednesday we went to Beijing to listen to a Beijing China International District Devotional with Elder Dallin H. Oaks, quorum of the Twelve Apostles. We went early to do some more shopping. We stayed with Steven and Alice Quan and their two daughters, Sarah and Emily. Steven works for the U.S. embassy and they live in embassy housing on the 19th floor. I told Alice her apartment is like a castle and she is like the queen. It's very different than our humble abode! It was a great devotional.
We spent the night, had lunch with Paula And Wynn Ferrell at Peter's Tex-Mex and came home.
We have another week of vacation and school starts Feb.27th. I'm looking forward to it. We'll be on the downhill slide!
XXOO Mom
Feb 6th
Sunday afternoon we left Hong Kong by bus and drove to Shenzhen where we flew northwest to Guilin. Monday we took a boat trip down the Li River. The boat was like an enclosed ferry. It was cold and rainy but the scenery was beautiful and three little girls Lily , Molly and Fiona made the trip entertaining. Nelson helped entertain them with finger tricks.
Jack and Carolyn Theler were sitting across from us at a table. There were some water buffalo on the banks of the river and a man in a traditional Chinese hat sitting there too. Jack slid open the window to take a picture, just as someone in back of him slid the window towards Jack and it hit his elbow and his camera fell in the water! They had gone home for Christmas and all of those pictures were on their camera.
We were bussed back to the hotel and that evening we took another boat to watch the cormorant fishing. The Chinese have used tame cormorants to fish for thousands of years. Fishermen set off on bamboo rafts after dark, with cormorants wearing collars to prevent them from swallowing their catches. The birds swim just below the surface alongside the raft that has a light hanging from the bow. When the bird makes a catch, it gets on the raft and the fisherman pulls the fish from the birds throat.It was so cold here I had to buy a fleece jacket for 80 yuan ($12.50)!
Tuesday morning we're off again. We visited the Reed Flute Cave. They were huge! We sang a hymn,"Firm As The Mountains Around Us", when we were inside. Our U.S. Forest Department would have a fit if they saw how the Chinese ran electricity and decorative lights all through this beautiful natural wonder! I bought a black over-blouse here. Supposedly hand-made. It's cute. Several women bought them.
That afternoon we flew west to Kunming. Everywhere we went we shopped. But there's only so many scarfs and trinkets you can see before they all start looking the same! Our breakfasts were advertized as "Western". There were always eggs, scrambled and wet or fried, bacon that looked like it was boiled, french fries, toast, fruit and cereal and a lot of Chinese stuff, like fish, rice, vegetables, congee (rice porridge) and other weird things. Lunch and dinner were Chinese style food. By Wednesday it was beginning to all look the same too although there was some variety. The bus rides were getting boring too!
Wednesday we visited the Stone Forest, a massive collection of limestone pillars in fanciful forms. The guides were in traditional Yi dress. Of course we had to buy one. I'll have Halloween costumes for several years.XXOO Mom
Jack and Carolyn Theler were sitting across from us at a table. There were some water buffalo on the banks of the river and a man in a traditional Chinese hat sitting there too. Jack slid open the window to take a picture, just as someone in back of him slid the window towards Jack and it hit his elbow and his camera fell in the water! They had gone home for Christmas and all of those pictures were on their camera.
We were bussed back to the hotel and that evening we took another boat to watch the cormorant fishing. The Chinese have used tame cormorants to fish for thousands of years. Fishermen set off on bamboo rafts after dark, with cormorants wearing collars to prevent them from swallowing their catches. The birds swim just below the surface alongside the raft that has a light hanging from the bow. When the bird makes a catch, it gets on the raft and the fisherman pulls the fish from the birds throat.It was so cold here I had to buy a fleece jacket for 80 yuan ($12.50)!
Tuesday morning we're off again. We visited the Reed Flute Cave. They were huge! We sang a hymn,"Firm As The Mountains Around Us", when we were inside. Our U.S. Forest Department would have a fit if they saw how the Chinese ran electricity and decorative lights all through this beautiful natural wonder! I bought a black over-blouse here. Supposedly hand-made. It's cute. Several women bought them.
That afternoon we flew west to Kunming. Everywhere we went we shopped. But there's only so many scarfs and trinkets you can see before they all start looking the same! Our breakfasts were advertized as "Western". There were always eggs, scrambled and wet or fried, bacon that looked like it was boiled, french fries, toast, fruit and cereal and a lot of Chinese stuff, like fish, rice, vegetables, congee (rice porridge) and other weird things. Lunch and dinner were Chinese style food. By Wednesday it was beginning to all look the same too although there was some variety. The bus rides were getting boring too!
Wednesday we visited the Stone Forest, a massive collection of limestone pillars in fanciful forms. The guides were in traditional Yi dress. Of course we had to buy one. I'll have Halloween costumes for several years.XXOO Mom
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Pictures
Pictures from the last few months:
Mom with the lady that sold her the scarf she didn't want.
A typical fruit cart
One of their classrooms
This is where they buy their paper goods from, literally the back of a car!
Feb 15th
Had a great fireside with Elder Oaks. Got to talk with him twice.
What a great man. Mom got to sing in the young adult choir for him as well. Ha,ha
The family we stayed with in Beijing had the cutest girls. One
played the violin great and accompanied the choir. The other, 11,
played the piano. Their mom played for the choir. It was great.
The Quans live in Housing for the Embassy workers. Nice place.
Mom will write more.
Love you,
Dad
What a great man. Mom got to sing in the young adult choir for him as well. Ha,ha
The family we stayed with in Beijing had the cutest girls. One
played the violin great and accompanied the choir. The other, 11,
played the piano. Their mom played for the choir. It was great.
The Quans live in Housing for the Embassy workers. Nice place.
Mom will write more.
Love you,
Dad
Feb 15th
On Friday we went to the temple with our China Teachers Group. That was a good time. We also met in the chapel across the street for a short meeting.The temple is about a 15 min. subway ride from Hong Kong.
That night we went to the Night Market in Hong Kong. Dad stopped to look at something (silver dollars) and I kept walking with the group. Then I stopped to look at something and when I looked up the rest of the group had gone on. There was no one around who looked familiar! I was pretty sure Dad was still behind me. I walked on and crossed a street and decided to wait there for Dad because it was a clear area. I was pretty sure I could get back to the hotel if I had too. I probably waited at least 10 min. before Dad came out of the crowd and crossed the street. He didn't even see me, but I was sure glad to see him!
Saturday we had to do presentations during the morning at the church offices in Hongkong. After that we went with a group to McDonald's for lunch and then to Victoria's Peak. We took a bus and then we took a cable car that goes almost straight up the mountain at a 45 degree angle or more! The view from the top was pretty. We also found a rock where it has the date 7-14-49 carved in it. The Apostle Matthew Cowley and others prayed there to open China to missionary work. Brother Henry Aki was the only Chinese priesthood holder in a land of four hundred and sixty-five million people.
Sunday we returned to Kowloon and the temple and held a four District Conference in the chapel at the temple. That was neat! Then we packed up and got ready for our Southwest China tour.
In Hong Kong we stayed at the YMCA Hotel. It's a four star hotel. Beautiful! It's not like any YMCA you could ever imagine. And it's right downtown by the waterfront. Our group also went out for a Western dinner Friday night. It was the best food I've eaten here. The carrot cake was 4 layers! We saved it for the next day.
Hong Kong is clean and huge! So many skyscrapers. It was under British rule for many years and that influence is still there.It's a very international area. XXOO Mom
That night we went to the Night Market in Hong Kong. Dad stopped to look at something (silver dollars) and I kept walking with the group. Then I stopped to look at something and when I looked up the rest of the group had gone on. There was no one around who looked familiar! I was pretty sure Dad was still behind me. I walked on and crossed a street and decided to wait there for Dad because it was a clear area. I was pretty sure I could get back to the hotel if I had too. I probably waited at least 10 min. before Dad came out of the crowd and crossed the street. He didn't even see me, but I was sure glad to see him!
Saturday we had to do presentations during the morning at the church offices in Hongkong. After that we went with a group to McDonald's for lunch and then to Victoria's Peak. We took a bus and then we took a cable car that goes almost straight up the mountain at a 45 degree angle or more! The view from the top was pretty. We also found a rock where it has the date 7-14-49 carved in it. The Apostle Matthew Cowley and others prayed there to open China to missionary work. Brother Henry Aki was the only Chinese priesthood holder in a land of four hundred and sixty-five million people.
Sunday we returned to Kowloon and the temple and held a four District Conference in the chapel at the temple. That was neat! Then we packed up and got ready for our Southwest China tour.
In Hong Kong we stayed at the YMCA Hotel. It's a four star hotel. Beautiful! It's not like any YMCA you could ever imagine. And it's right downtown by the waterfront. Our group also went out for a Western dinner Friday night. It was the best food I've eaten here. The carrot cake was 4 layers! We saved it for the next day.
Hong Kong is clean and huge! So many skyscrapers. It was under British rule for many years and that influence is still there.It's a very international area. XXOO Mom
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Feb 14th
Tuesday Jan 31,2012 we left Tianjin at 7:00am to catch a 9:00 flight to Shenzhen. When we reached Shenzhen our directions said to and look for the shuttle bus to go to Hongkong.We were going to the temple and I assumed we'd tell the bus driver where we wanted to go and he'd drop us off close to it. On the plane we sat next to a cute young woman from Tianjin,Amanda, who lived in Hongkong. She wasn't familiar with our directions so she wrote out a diagram...airport - bus - customs-railroad to Kowloon. When we landed she took us outside the airport to get tickets for the shuttle bus. The bus made a couple of stops and then at one stop everyone got off, so we did too. No place was there any sign about " customs". I made Dad ask someone and they directed us to climb a hundred stairs and go over the highway to the pink building. We did that and when we got to the pink building there were no other signs about customs. Luckily we found an American and he told us to take the escalator, that was around the corner, and go upstairs and follow the signs that say foreigners. We did that. Filled out a card for customs and got in line. When we got up to the window we had to fill out another card. Then we followed the crowd to buy railroad tickets to Kowloon.Kowloon is actually part of Hongkong, but it's on the mainland and Hongkong is an island. Nothing like learning as you go. And we did have a map.
So we took the train and successfully got off at Kowloon. Then we got a taxi to take us to the temple. He charged 5 yuan for every bag he put in the trunk. We had three. Then he drove about five blocks and we were there. An easy walk if we'd realized how close we were! He probably thought we were crazy or disabled. Anyway, we had arrived safely!
We went into the temple to register for the patron housing. It's across the street on the second floor of some church offices. The housing was nice. It had a huge kitchen where we could cook for ourselves, but there were two Chinese women who were visiting the temple and they cooked for us all the time, even when we weren't hungry! The beds were as hard as ours here, but we had our own room with a bathroom. If they're busy the patrons are separated by men and women. Jeanne and Nelson showed up too. to stay in the patron housing you're asked to do two units a day. Tuesday we did an endowment session in English and some initiatory.
Wednesday we did an endowment and sealings. The endowment was in Chinese and we used head phones.There were 10 people in the session. The room holds 40. There was the cutest old Chinese man there. His cheeks were hollow and his hands all gnarled and arthritic, but he was at the temple. How neat! We also met another couple from the China teachers group and we went with them to Hongkong island and shopping at Stanley Park. We took a ferry to the island and a bus to the shopping area. What an adventure.
Thursday we did an endowment session that was full of missionaries.It was their "p" day.That was great too. Then we packed up and took the subway to our hotel where our workshop was held. I'll write more later. So much to write about!
XXOO Mom
So we took the train and successfully got off at Kowloon. Then we got a taxi to take us to the temple. He charged 5 yuan for every bag he put in the trunk. We had three. Then he drove about five blocks and we were there. An easy walk if we'd realized how close we were! He probably thought we were crazy or disabled. Anyway, we had arrived safely!
We went into the temple to register for the patron housing. It's across the street on the second floor of some church offices. The housing was nice. It had a huge kitchen where we could cook for ourselves, but there were two Chinese women who were visiting the temple and they cooked for us all the time, even when we weren't hungry! The beds were as hard as ours here, but we had our own room with a bathroom. If they're busy the patrons are separated by men and women. Jeanne and Nelson showed up too. to stay in the patron housing you're asked to do two units a day. Tuesday we did an endowment session in English and some initiatory.
Wednesday we did an endowment and sealings. The endowment was in Chinese and we used head phones.There were 10 people in the session. The room holds 40. There was the cutest old Chinese man there. His cheeks were hollow and his hands all gnarled and arthritic, but he was at the temple. How neat! We also met another couple from the China teachers group and we went with them to Hongkong island and shopping at Stanley Park. We took a ferry to the island and a bus to the shopping area. What an adventure.
Thursday we did an endowment session that was full of missionaries.It was their "p" day.That was great too. Then we packed up and took the subway to our hotel where our workshop was held. I'll write more later. So much to write about!
XXOO Mom
Friday, February 10, 2012
Feb 9th
Hi All !!! We've seen wonderful things! And we've walked our socks off!! We are still buying things too. Pretty things and other stuff (you know dad). I'm guilty too. We are using the Nelson's computer so you can write to us still. Love you all and can't wait to get to our apt. This traveling is exhausting.
LOVE YOU MOM XXOO !!!!
We hope to skype you, some, Monday morning.
Mom is spending all my spending money. I have found some neat stuff
but getting it home is a concern.
We love our time here serving and learning about China.
We love you all and our boys and girl.
Say your prayers, read your scriptures, teach your kids what it means to love the church. Tell them that grandpa loves and misses them. Keep them close to you and the gospel.
Love you all,
Dad
LOVE YOU MOM XXOO !!!!
We hope to skype you, some, Monday morning.
Mom is spending all my spending money. I have found some neat stuff
but getting it home is a concern.
We love our time here serving and learning about China.
We love you all and our boys and girl.
Say your prayers, read your scriptures, teach your kids what it means to love the church. Tell them that grandpa loves and misses them. Keep them close to you and the gospel.
Love you all,
Dad
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