April 15th

We got back from Beijing today. It was a fun and successful trip. Our District President was called to be a member of the Seventy so we had to rearrange the District presidency. It was a good conference.
Saturday we got up at 6:00am to meet Marv and Becca at the train station at 7:15. We got there on time but Marv called and said they couldn't get a taxi. They wouldn't stop for them. Three times taxis did stop but then wouldn't take them. The train station is about a 20 yuan ride. They finally just got in the taxi and then told the driver where they wanted to go. So we all met and got tickets for the 8:10 train to Beijing.
Becca and I had a 10:00 meeting and Dad and Marv were going to buy a golf club and go shopping at the Silk Mart.We would meet again at the church at 7:00.
Because Becca has neuropathy so bad we were going to take a little longer route to our meeting, because it had less transfers. When you have a transfer you usually have to walk a ways. Well, it had less transfers, but we had to walk a long ways between transfers! We got mixed up a few times. Once a woman told us we were going to go the wrong way so we got off the subway and after it left we realized that we were not on the wrong subway. It only went one direction!
We were told it was a 20 min. walk to the house where our meeting was from the subway stop, or we could take a taxi. Luckily our friend sent a car to pick us up because there were NO taxis to be found at that subway stop! We got to the meeting at 11:10. At least they served us lunch!
Then we got a taxi and went shopping too. We had lots of fun and I spent all my money! We didn't take any more subways, we took taxis.
We had an adult meeting Sat. night for conference and then we spent the night with the Black's. They have 4 children, ages 4-12. He works for the U.S.embassy. They had a beautiful house,even a dog. They move about every 4 years to a different country or to the U.S. The have lived in Nicaragua and Romania recently. I don't think I could ever take my children to live in different countries like that. The children attend International schools and get a good education, but it is such a different type of life.
We had a good meeting this morning and then we were invited to Steve and Alice Quan's for lunch!
She had enough food for an army. We were joined by three youth from our branch, but even the two boys didn't make a dent in the food.
There was a youth fireside tonight but we came home in the afternoon.The subways were really crowded, especially with a suitcase.
...be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.... even if it's our little apartment.
Love you all, beautiful daughters of God and mine. Mom