Friday-Sunday

Oh boy oh boy! I am behind again... bare with me... and there will be pictures to soon follow.

Friday night, I met Sonia and Vickie downtown at the bus station and from there we took a bus to Guangzhou. It was so good to see them. On the bus Sonia took a little snooze and Vickie and I had a little Chinese/English lesson on the moon. It was absolutely adorable. She had the window seat and the entire hour in a half we takled about the moon. I taught her how to say it in English and I learned how to say it from her in Chinese. Those are the moments in this life that are worth remembering... wo xihuan zhege!

We took a taxi to thier apartment and by that time it was like 10:30. But the party was not over yet.... uh ah. Not even close. John had a friend, Simon come into town with his fiance Mickey who is Jananese and so... we went out to dinner! I was completely exhausted, but it was way too much fun, and ever so interesting. Simon doesn't speak a lick of Jananese, and Mickey only spoke about as much Mandarin as I speak (not very much :) so... it was really quite intriguing watching them try to communicate, and they are engaged. :) So funny. Love is love I guess. I tried Duck. It was curious.

That night I slept with little Christy in her bed. Another great experience. That liitle one is far worse than any adult I have ever shared a bed with. I got about 4 hours of sleep, but it's okay because she was so sweet every time she woke me up crawling all over me, stepping all over my face with that huge happy grin on her face. It really is phenominal how good both those little girls are. She really was up the majority of the night but she was never sad... just playful and fun. So sweet. I really am so lucky to be able to be here with them. Love it.

Saturday we woke up... and Sonia made French Toast. Oh, you have no idea how much I loved her right there in that very moment. It was so gratifying. So after breakfast, John took the kids and Sonia and I went out for the day! She took me shopping to a few of her favorite places there in Guangzhou. It was really such a pleasant day... we had a great deal of time to get to know eachother better and start strengthening that relationship :) She was such a sweetheart. We went to lunch and I insisted that I pay because she had paid for EVERYTHING up to that point. We hadn't really bought anything shopping wise but she took care of all the transportation so I just insisted that I pay for lunch and she said, "No. No... You are my sister," and I said..."SONIA! You are MY sister!" and she just thought for a second... laughed out loud and said.... "I'm older." HA. I couldn't help but laugh and I couldn't argue. It was a great time.

In China, they have a custom for when new babies turn one month old. They have a huge celebration and the parents of the child treat all their friends and family to a large feast! John had friend whose baby just turned one month old so Saturday night we all went to that and it was so much fun. A jesting experience for sure.

Sunday we just spent time together and visited. I got some fun pictures of the girls, they will be on here soon. I loved it. Sonia took me back to Guangzhou and again, so fun to spend time with her. She gave me the low down on shopping and have some great advice for our upcoming vacation to Beijing. Oh.. ha and while we were waiting for her bus back to the big bus stop near our flat, we went to the little market outside our complex and she was showing me all of the good snack foods to buy... the types of things that WON'T make me get fat. She taught me how to say sugar free bread in Chinese upon my request just after she told me that we WILL get fat if we eat the normal bread all the time. Ha. Our stinking incredible cooks just cook the most extordinary bread so it's inevitable. I will be eating bread :) Overall, a Marvelous weekend spent with Family and it was so splendid.

Here are the pictures I promised. :)

This is a Frog... What is it? A FROG!

Today started off kind of crazy! I woke up at 7:25. We ran (literally) to catch the bus at 7:45... I was sitting on the bus thinking about my lesson I had planned today which was Bowling, when I realized that in the hustle and bustle of things this morning I completely forgot my bowling pins! AH! So, I racked my brain and decided to do Leap Frog. It was a total disaster, and THAT'S OKAY because it's FRIDAY!!! It's seems like the more disastrous it ends up, the more things I have to talk about and the more memorable it is. Ha. I did have one class today though, with Lisa, Joyce, Haniel, Jay, Pepe, and Bella which isn't usually my talkative class where they were all communicating very well and I was thrilled! I AM thrilled! Wo hen kai xin!

I am going to Guangzhou to spend the weekend with John, Sonia and the girls! I am so excited.

Zai Jian.

Jin Tian...

The following is another conversation (if you can call it that) between a couple of my roommates. We were sitting very comfortably just relaxing in our living room.

Mikelle: My sister is Catholic.
Jillian: Cool...[kind of a long pause]... My brother is Mormon.

I don't really know... but I thought it was funny and random.

I'm going to give you a brief chinese lesson, even though it's not quite the same without the tones. But that's alright.

Zao shang hao- good morning
Xia wu hao- good afternoon
Wan shang hao- good evening
Wan an- good night.

jin tian- today
zuo tian- yesterday
ming tian- tomorrow

Mei mei [may-may]- little sister
di di- little brothers

You [yo]- have
mei you[may-yo]- don't have

American Day! :)

The cooks at the Bond Kindergarten, Jenny and Michael are so sweet. We love the food that they cook but I think that they just wanted to help us feel more comfortable. So today we arrived at the school and went into the kitchen for breakfast, expecting the norm; bread, and some kind of porridge or soup, but instead, there were hamburgers :) and cold crisp pieces of lettuce. It was so sweet of them, and just funny. The hamburgers weren't anything like American hamburgers and we don't usually eat that for breakfast anyways, but it was so thoughtful. And the lettuce, oh my goodness! It was so good. They really don't serve cold lettuce here at all. It's always steamed and hot. I haven't craved a nice big, cold, green salad more than I have the few weeks I've been here.

Then for lunch today, Jenny and Michael made us each HUGE plates of spaghetti. The plates were seriously packed full. I think it's the most any of us have eaten X 10 since we've been here. We didn't want them to be offended or hurt their feelings since they were so sweet to go through the extra effort to make us spaghetti and then have us waste half of it. ha. So after we did finish it and Jenny saw that our plates were empty, she ran to the kitchen to get us more! Ah! We just laughed and had to try to explain how incredibly full we were from the first plate. She is so funny.
Oh my goodness! One of the most memorable things thus far occurred this evening. Abby and I were at the track which is at the Kaiyin school working out, and we decided to go and ask a couple of boys playing basketball if we could join them. They were, I'm guessing about Brigg/Gunner and Kaleb's age so like 9 or 10. Maybe. There were just two of them so we were just thinking we'd go shoot some hoops with them or something. We walked up and I said,"Ni hao!" and they responded the same way...and then I asked, "Is it okay if we play with you?" ha. Without skipping a beat, the little boy, his name was Kevin... said with a super serious face and speaking very quickly, "Ya. you with me and her with him. Let's go!" We just looked at each other like... uh, then we just laughed and figured, shoot! why not? It was way fun. The longer we played the more kids joined. I'm pretty sure we're going to make that a weekly activity :)



These are the two ladies that work at the bakery by the bus stop. They're way funny. We love them.

Four things to say...

-I am freezing my toosh off. It really isn't that cold, that may be a small exaggeration. It's actually quite nice, and very beautiful but the kick is that there is no heating indoors. So where it's so chilly and you're shivering at home, you can always go inside and warm up... but it's just as cold if not colder inside here so it just feels like it's always cold. But it's nice. It just makes us look forward to bedtime THAT much more. One of my favorite, most savored feelings since I've been here is at the end of the day, when I hop on my bed, kick off my slippers and snuggle into my covers. Mmmmmm. LOVE IT.

-First Chinese lesson today! and I am really looking forward to the rest of it. Wo shi ying wen lao shi. Ni hen piao lieng. Translation: I am an English Teacher. You are beautiful. Uh.... I don't know... :) We learned the tones and how to refer to I, we, she, them, her, you, that kind of stuff today. It is such an interesting language. The tones liven things up and keep you on your toes for sure.

-I realized today just how superfluous most of the stuff I have really is. I haven't even worn half the clothes I brought. Really. That's okay, now it's just a great piece of information to have for the future.

-I am so happy to be here I could just scream..... ............ AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! check.


p.s... Catie! I love my Catie bug CD playlists. THANK YOU!

This is a view of some of Zhongshan from a park nearby the school. It is so beautiful.


And this is another view from the same park.

"Wo hen kai xin..."

I got to play the piano today. It's so wierd the way you miss something like that so much. I'm certainly no pianist but it just feels so good to sit down to something you love, something familiar and just enjoy it. A few of the girls I'm here with play so beautifully and I love just listening to them and letting the music just soak into my thoughts. Makes me think of the way I absolutely LOVE to just sit and listen to Josh play when he comes home. I could do it all day.

Teaching actually went quite well today (I think I can thank my niece Victoria and her good luck email for that). This group of kids for winter camp are not the same as the ILP kids and based on their behavior today, they behave much better than the ILP's... which is EXCELLENT!
I am satisfied with that, even if it does only last for two weeks. One of the little girls I taught today, her name is Bella... and she is absolutely darling. She totally stole my heart and I fully intend on smuggling her home with me. So don't fret, you will get to meet her :). I'm really starting to become attached to the children, and I can see how leaving will be hard when the time comes.


So... we have been here for 20 days, and driving home on the bus from the fruit stand today I decided that I feel comfortable here. It's starting to feel like home, almost like we belong. We certainly don't belong here, people still stare and gawk...because they always will :) Things are familiar, and a trip to the grocery store or the post office, or out to dinner isn't some crazy adventure anymore. Well it's always some crazy adventure, but you know what I mean. It's just everyday stuff; it just feels more relaxed. We were talking about it tonight and the girls were saying how they totally feel Chinese already. One said she's even starting to smell Asian. A direct quote from Jilly, "I woke up thinking there was an Asian in my bed, but upon further inspection, I realized it was just me." She always talks super formal like that, ha. I just thought that was hilarious. It seems like we're all on the same page. :)





We've started doing FHE's just with eachother here in our apartment, and I'm in charge of them, fancy that... funny eh? So tonight we had a little thought, D&C 50;40-43 (these are some of my favorite verses in the entire D&C) and then we played Pee Speed Scrabble and had Mud Pie Pudding for dessert. Past thoughts of having such a small bladder were confirmed. I have never had to use the facilities so bad in my entire life. I do indeed, in our little group at least, have the smallest bladder. Oh boy, don't try that at home :) It was amusing, we enjoyed some great laughs together.
All in all, it was a glorious day! And to top things off, I got to chat with Tarah tonight. She's so wonderful! She has class at 7, but she wakes up a half hour earlier every MON,WED, and FRI to visit with me and make my day. I love it! I am happy. Or as they say it here in China, "Wo hen kai xin..." I have just about everything I would ever want and/or need and I am so content with life just the way it is right now.

Wan an.

5 More MONTHS!

Whoooa! Where did that first month go? It is unbelievable how fast time goes by. We start teaching in the Winter camp tomorrow for two weeks, then we have 10 days off for Chinese New Year, and then another month will have come and gone. This is too crazy... We had our second Sunday here in Zhongshan today. We streamed another BYU devotional. It was by Elder John Huntsman Sr. titled, "God did not put us here to fail." It was really a phenominal talk, very thought provoking. He talked a lot about adversity and trials. A quote from Shakespeare he used, "Sweet are the uses of adversity." How we respond to the adversity we receive determines our character. If we allow them to, our trials can purify us rather than make us feel defeated. His talk went along quite nicely with the second lesson in our Gospel Principles Manual on Our Heavenly Family. A great day. I had a lot of time to write some letters, read my book, and I even got to chat with ELISHA for a little while. :) That really made me happy.
For the next two weeks, at the Winter camp we have 20 more kids than we have during the regular semester! It's going to be a WILD adventure. Wish me luck :)

Tai gui le!

Which means, "Too expensive!" Four of us, Abby, Mikelle, Jaimie and I went to walking street today to just gander and see what we could find. It ended up being quite a productive day at walking street. I am so excited! We are becoming quite the barterer's; none of us paid full price on any of our purchases today. It's really very fun. We ask them "Duoshao quien?" and they tell us how much it costs and if it is more than we expected or just not as much as we're willing to pay for the item, we say, "Tai gui le!" (the name sake of this post) and then they will either immediately lower it or refuse, to see how much we really want the item. If they remain stubborn with the price, we say..."Boo yao," which means I don't want. I don't know if that's the correct spelling but that's frivolous. Anyways, so then we tell them the very highest we will pay for it and they either say okay okay, or suggest another price. And eventually it ends with either us being content with the price, or us walking away saying "boo yao, xie,xie." And then they run after you and pull you back to their store and give you the desired item for the desired price. It is a beautiful thing! So I spent 65 yuan ($9.00) for a rad pair of kicks and a sweet bag. Not bad, eh? On the bus ride home, we ran into a little Chinese girl, her name she told us but I'm so sad to say I cannot remember. Any how, we were standing in a circle trying to bring in as much heat as we could because today was just frigid, Ooooophf, and this girl walks up to us and in very very broken english she started a conversation with us. It was a short conversation because our bus came shortly after it began, but at the end of the conversation she told us that that was her first time ever speaking english to someone who spoke english fluently as their number one language. And you could just tell the way she was talking to us, and how excited she was that she just wanted to talk to us so bad. She kind of had to put herself out there to begin with to even start the conversation but then during, there were a few awkward silent moments and we were expecting her to say goodbye and leave but it was like she was just racking her brain to come up with more questions... more to talk about, and after she told us that it all made much sense. It was so sweet.
OH! I've decided I'm going to really learn how to cook when I get home. I want to.

Walking Street!

Wan An

Ni hao ma?

Can I just start off by saying, I LOVE getting emails from everyone at home. It really just brightens my day. Thank you.

OKAY! Here we go... I have so much I want to share today! But i realize that some of these stories are the types of stories that you just can't appreciate unless you're here, but I'm trying to make them as real as possible because they are just the greatest.
First, just a quick interesting fact about China that I didn't know about until tonight. We went out to dinner tonight at a restaurant called Amethyst. The last group of teachers that were here LOVED it and they went to it quite often and gave a great review. So! We thought why not? and I will just say it really was quite fantastic. I had Thai, Red Curry for $3.50. And it was a good normal portion that you would get at any Thai restaurant in America. SO CHEAP and SO delicious. Anyways, because the waiters/waitresses over here don't get tipped, they don't really wait on you like they do there in America. So, we sat at our table for like 20 minutes just waiting before one of the girls remembered reading somewhere that you have to call them when you are ready. I don't know. Maybe that isn't new news to anyone else, but I thought it was interesting and it was hilarious for us because we were just chattin' have a great time and a half hour had passes while we were just waiting for the waitress to come back :)
Now the good stuff... oh my goodness! I just wish all of you were here with me so you could really understand. So, it's about 9:00 pm. We just finished dinner and we were waiting at the bus station back to Kaiyin. When we got there, there really weren't too many people at the stop but as we waited and waited more and more people started to gather. By the time the bus was there, we could see that it was clearly going to be packed on the bus. So at first once the bus stopped, because we're all trying to become "Chinese" :)we all started to push our way up to the front in order to get a seat. But after a second of trying we realized that there probably wouldn't be enough seats for us anyways and it might be fun to just stand in the isle. It might give us an opportunity to chat with the locals. We all just sorta hung out, and trailed onto the bus last. It was indeed packed! and we were definitely going to be standing in the isle. So Abby was standing right behind me, and just as the bus started moving the guy sitting in the seat next to her scooted over to the window seat opening a seat for one of us, so she sat down next to him. We smiled and said, "Xie, Xie." About 30 seconds passed and she looked over at him and said, "Ni hao ma?" which means "Hi, How are you?" which kind of took me by surprise and turned my head because we're always smiling and saying Ni hao (hello) to everyone but we don't usually say Ni hao ma? because that usually entails more conversing and questions and answers... all in Chinese which we do not speak well enough :) Anyways, she asks him and he just laughs. Like full out cracks up, he just throws back his head and laughs forever. So Abby and I just looked at eachother kinda confused but we're laughing to because we knew we said it right, but he didn't respond. Then a second later, Abby (and this says a lot about her personality because no one else would have kept going after that, ha but she did) tries again and says, "Wo shi meygoran",which translates to "I am American" and he looks at her and in broken, but pretty clear english says, "I know." HA. So again, we lost it and all of us were laughing, and by this time I'm standing in the aisle still and the two Chinese girls in the seats on the other side of me started to laugh and become interested. So he asks us, (still in very slow broken english), "you know...more chinese?" and we told him "yi dien dien" which means a little and so we just started having this conversation with this Chinese guy, Leo was his name and then Bou [Bow-woo] Michelle was her American name, the girl sitting across the aisle, started talking to us. Basically, we just laughed... A LOT and did a lot of communicating in Chinese and helped Leo and Bou with their english, and it made our day because we all just got so excited to learn the language and to be here with the natives and commuinicate with them. I LOVE IT! It was really hilarious, because every time we would say something in Chinese they would laugh and either nod their heads or teach us a better phrase to use instead of the one we used. It was so marveolous.

I wish I could show pictures of everything, Leo and Bou, but I can't :( Lo siento mucho.

Wierd thing that has happened the last few days, but incredibly interesting and I love it... I must talk about Tarah a lot because in the last two days, two of my roommates, Mikelle and Jillian have called me Tarah, then quickly corrected themselves and called me Sarah. And they were completely serious, not trying to be funny...they really truly got me confused with Tarah. HA! I loved it, it made me so happy :)

Thankful Thursday...

Hopscotch.... that was todays lesson :)It was the last day of teaching because it's the kids winter break and it went well. Slowly but surely... one day at a time. I really am so grateful for the Chinese teachers that come in and help us with the kids though. Cherry is one of the chinese teachers that speaks better english and she is a life saver during class. I'm so grateful for her. I was thinking today about this particular challenge in my life right now (teaching) and it just hit me as something I know, but sometimes we just need to be reminded that they are only here for our good...and depending on how I react to it, I can grow and become better, or not. So my goal is to embrace it, try to become better, and really just love this experience.



This afternoon we were all just kinda chatting, I had just finished talking to Mom and Dad on skype (which was so great. It was sooo good to see them and talk) and one of my roommates, Abby was talking about Thankful Thursday and how we should always just have to list off everything we're thankful for on that day or something along those lines and I loved it. So I will just start by expressing my gratitude for being here in China with such great girls. I really do love my roommates. Mikelle makes strange animal noises and always has a good guy story to tell. ha. Abby is so happy all the time, she's always smiling and I love it. It's inspiring. Jillian along with Mikelle and Abby just breaks out into song all the time, but Jillian specifically does it and it's funny because she'll be in the bathroom or have her headphones in or something and she'll just be dancing and singing outrageously loud. She also does this really funny thing where if anyone says anything funny or worth repeating, without even skipping a beat she repeats it in a loud, deep Austrailian accent as if she is some kind of Announcer. It really is quite histarical. Oh! and she pronounces her t's perfectly. That sounds normal, but try it. We either replace the t's with d's or we just don't pronounce them way more than we think and so when people do pronounce them it just sounds wierd and funny. But it's good. She's helping us all correct our lazy, sloppy grammar :)Shaila is very sweet. Her and Brianna are the logical thinkers and it's great having them around. Both of them are so much fun to talk to and I love Shaila's laugh. Jaimie just always makes us laugh. She tells great stories and is always up for anything! I'm so grateful for them. Next, I am SOOO grateful for the country I live in and the day and age that I live in. For opportunities like this one out there that we can take advantage of. I'm so grateful for my family,(and a wonderful twin sister) I can't even believe how much I love and miss them...Oooophf, and great friends that uplift me and help me be better. I'm grateful for children. They help me remember to live life as if I were a child. It is so much more enjoyable that way. I'm so Thankful for soft serve vanilla ice cream, and that I can find it wherever you go :) I'm thankful for the dying cat in our apartmet complex, and for my hands and feet. I'm grateful for music. I'm so grateful for my scriptures and for the inspiration that went into them so that I can be inspired every time I read them. I'm thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and my Savior. I'm thankful for the incredible scenery and the people here that put a smile on my face and provide incredible photographs and memories for me to look back on.I'm grateful for laughter... oh how I love to laugh! I'm so grateful that google hasn't pulled out of China yet and I hope it doesn't... (cross your fingers). AND THERE IS SO MUCH MORE... I'm just so grateful to be alive and to be living life where I am right now!

Wan an.....

Universal Language...

Morris is a devil child. Magnolia is an angel. Day three of teaching has come and gone and I cannot tell you how grateful I am that there are more Magnolias than there are Morris's.


Wheeeeew. I am happy to report though that today went a little better. Hopefully, from here it will just be a gradual up hill climb. We played a balancing game today. I taped a long piece of tape on the floor and we pretended that there was a big dangerous river underneath it with Alligators and Crocodiles, and all sorts of other mean animals that would eat a small child :)
So the idea was to balance ourselves across the beam without touching the water and falling in. The kids did pretty well. There were a couple of the classes that really just had no interest, but it seemed to go better than yesterday. I did a few things differently in organizing the class today too that helped quite a bit. We had our evaluations today. Our head teacher Jillian came in and evaluated each of our classes and filled out an improvement form for each of us. Lets just say, I have a great deal of room for improvement :)


My poor voice is pretty much completely gone still and teaching a gym class with 20+ kids isn't really beneficial to that at all, so I'm excited for the weekend to give it a little break.
I went running tonight! For the first time since my surgery. I cannot even express how great and wonderful it feels to be able to do stuff like that again. Tonight was more of a test run to see how things went, how it felt and I think it was pretty good. I'm excited to start easing back into the swing of things. :) I really have been so blessed to have had such a speedy recovery. I'm obviously not 100% there yet but I'm getting there and I feel like it's a good thing :)
On my walk today, there was this little girl at the basketball court with her Mom. First of all she was the most adorbale thing (I know I say that about every little chinese kid I talk about, but she really was). And secondly, it was just funny because the people here are so eager to talk to us, even if they know we can't communicate real well with them they still just take every opportunity they can to interact with us, and they are just so happy and smiley. The mom... I tried to talk to her a little bit, I told her I was a teacher here but besides that we didn't verbally communicate, but the whole time I was there playing peek-a-boo with her little girl she just stared at me with the biggest smile and you could tell she just wanted so bad to talk to me, and it just made me happy. I thought about how much of an impact smiles can make. Really though, sometimes it just seems like the smallest thing and so insignificant but today... that mothers smile sure made my day...so it just makes you think of the difference your smiles make in the lives of those you smile at! It made me think of the quote,..."everyone smiles in the same language." So, SMILE! :)
I talked to Mom and Dad some on Skype today. It was so good to see their faces. I didn't get to see them for long because the skype was being a pill, but we got to message back and forth and I LOVED IT! I sure miss my phenominal family.

WHY?!

I love being here. I love this experience. I love it all. But I just wish I could be home with my family and the people I love when incredibly exciting, breath taking, unreal events take place in their lives! Oh oh oh.... I wish I could be there!

Afternoon strolls.... are SO good for the heart, and mind, and everything else.

Teaching went a LITTLE better today. I tried to take more time and put more effort into my preparation. We try so hard to incorportate the words and make it fun at interesting at the same time but it just seems to backfire. The chinese teachers in the rooms with us just think we are insane Americans that just like to hear ourselves talk....which is certainly not the case. Some of the kids are just straight up evil. They just want to spite and wreak havoc. There is one kid, Jackson.... HA. This kid is a hoot. He lives with his gradparents becase his parents are in the U.S. and he was named after Michael Jackson. And it's funny because he actually dresses like him and he's always doing elaborate dance moves. It's hilarious. But anyways, him and this other kid in his class Morris are on a mission to drive us so crazy that we CRACK. I swear. OH! and another one... William is always doing Kung Fu moves... ON US! He doesn't just do them, he uses them on us! :) Oh boy But there are some angels too, thank goodness too. They keep us sane. This little boy Honey is my favorite little boy in the entire school. HANDS DOWN. He has the tiniest face with the most massive smile to go with it. Annd it never leaves his face. Rowdy or not though, they are who is making this such a great experience for me.

Funny. So last night I got an email from Tarah telling me I need a picture of a random cute old asian man. So, walking to the bus stop this morning, I saw this old man across the street.


He had a bird cage and he had hung it on the tree branch above him and he was just staring at it, it made my day, a great way to start off! Then at about noon on our way home from school, waiting for the bus at the fruit market I saw this sweet old man riding a bike loaded with sugar cane on the back, and he was selling it.

I fell in love with him the second I spotted him across the street. So great.

Being here with our program we have a few rules. Which are clearly for our safety... like most are, but... really? really. Anyways, one of them is that we have to always be with at least one other person in the group during the day, and 3 after nine unless it's in our complex.
So they're good, good rules, but it doesn't matter who you are, I think everyone needs alone time.
I don't know how missionaries do it :) So I usually take at least one walk a day all by myself around our complex. here are some fun pictures of the area I live in. It's beautiful. Very green.









So I'm kind of loosing my voice. Actually no, I LOST my voice and it makes it really hard for me to belt my music since we all know I really love that. Oh! and we had real pudding tonight,

not the watered down stuff I made a couple nights ago. Anyways, the only reason I'm blogging about this is because I had no idea how much I would miss good ol' chocolate.

*I'm talking to Tarah at 9:30. I'M SO EXCITED.

"IF I LET YOU GO....

I WILL NEVER KNOW....WHAT MY LIFE WOULD BE, HOLDING YOU CLOSE TO ME. WILL I EVER SEE'EE... YOU SMILIN' BACK AT ME? OH YEAYAAAA!" Just a quick shout out to Westlife and their unbelievably corny songs :)

That song... for me, is a song that no matter where I am, is just a belting song. Period. And it came on my ipod today walking home from the bus stop, fancy that. It made me so happy, and made me think of really great times. And on top of that, sometimes it just feels good to sing like no one's watching. I definitely still had an audience, but Americans are wierd here to begin with :)
I went grocery shopping today. I bought Asian apples (I'm not just calling them that because I'm in Asia, that's really what they're called). Waiting at the bus stop after shopping, there was a mom with her little baby and this baby was so cute... full of smiles and eyes that just twinkled! But the mom was the sweetest part. I've never seen a mother interact with their baby like this lady did with hers. She was clearly just so happy. Seeing those kinds of things just make me realize how lucky I am to have such incredible parents, especially during this day and age. It gave me a warm feeling inside just thinking about that baby and how lucky she is to have a mother that loves her so much. I wish I had my camera. It's moments like that, that are totally worth capturing (even if it makes you look like a total creeper).
I tried coconut bread today. Mmmmmmm mmmmmmm good.

Goodmorning Teacher Sarah!

7:30- Catch the bus to Bond Kindergarten
8:00-Breakfast at Bond
9:00-Opening with all our students.
9:15-11:30- First day of Teaching....AHHHH!
12:00-Lunch at Bond
12:30-Meetings with school Staff
1:30-Gmail chat date with Tarah. She stood me up. It broke my heart. I mean that.
2:30-walked to the Post Office, and the fruit stand (where we catch the bus home)
4:30- Caught the Kaiyin Bus home.
5:00-I got an email from Tarah that had me squealing... I'm still jumpy thinking about it :)
5:30- Dinner at Kaiyin
6:30- Grocery shopping at the One Plus One Market.

That is how my first day of teaching went. I was indeed very very nervous today and it went just about as miserable as I thought it would go. It was so crazy, and crazy and crazy, and I'm so scared for the rest of the semester. The kids are positively precious, especially my homeroom class. My homeroom is the oldest group. They are the 4 and 5 year olds. There is Alice, Angel, Bella, Belinda, Aiden, Josh, and Nicholas. Alice, Angel, Bella and Belinda are best friends. It's adorable. They all do what each other do and are by each others side no matter what. Aiden is hilarious. He doesn't want anything to do with Josh or Nicholas, he wants to be wherever the girls are. Smart kid :) Josh is so sweet. He has these cute little glasses that always sit on the tip of his little nose and the biggest smile.

First day of school today.
Nicholas is upbeat and happy. I love it. The part that scares me, is just teaching. It was very chaotic today. It was the first day, and a number of the kids were late or just didn't show, and it's a week before their winter break so I think they are just ready to bolt. I don't really know how to explain it, but it's just one of those feelings when you're super nervous for something. Every time I think about teaching, or the school even I just get this sick, nauseous feeling in the very pitt of my stomach. Oh boy. I think I worry too much. (the picture below is a picture of my school by the way)


I want the kids to get the most out of this and aspects of the lessons are just more difficult than others.

But.... just like anything, I'm sure I will get better with time and hopefully, I will just fall even more in love and get more attached to the kids and it'll be something I look forward to doing. I just have to take it one day at a time.
I'm teaching gym for the first few weeks, and today we played Duck...duck...GOOSE! :) We have 4 classes all together that rotate while we teach our lesson 4 times. One of the classes are just babies. They're two, and I feel like that is just so young to be expecting them to be responding to us when they barely speak chinese. Anyways, we basically just try to use as many words and phrases as we can in our teaching and try to have them repeat you. So in doing this, we repeat ourselves a lot! It'll be good for me. I just want to feel more confident about it.... and the sooner the better :)

Scrambled Brownies... AND... Watered Down Chocolate Pudding...

What part of that DOESN'T sound delightful :)? After dinner tonight, we together decided that we were all having chocolate withdrawals and it that it was necessary that we make brownies tonight. The original plan was to make brownie pancakes because our flat is missing an oven :) but it does have a stove. Mikelle and Abby were making the pancakes and they were yummy, for sure.... but it wasn't the best they could be. So Abby, being the bright mind that she is, suggest scrambled brownies!!! Lo and Behold, it was a stellar idea and very delicious. The pudding on the other hand, well... it satisfied the chocolate craving for us all. We didn't have milk so we just used water, and it had more of a likeness to puddy than pudding. Thick, chunky, interesting texture, but still tasted like chocolate. Needless to say, I think we're set on the chocolate front for a little while. It was a fun night. Personalities are starting to unfold and it's fun getting to know the girls better.


First day of teaching tomorrow, and I'm very nervous. Very very nervous. Vamos a ver.

Our first Sunday in Zhongshan.

So, as we all know, church meetings aren't really accessible here in Mainland so today was something new. This morning, we got up and we were able to stream last week's CES fireside that Elder Niel A. Andersen gave which was really great, and a few of the girls brought this years new Gospel Principles manual so Jaimie initiated a really good discussion for the first lesson. I am really excited about how it went. Before I left, this was something that I was really kinda concerned about, only because I knew that I would really miss sacrament meetings, taking the sacrament, lessons, relief society, firesides, everything that I'm so routinely used to on Sundays. But during our lesson today and my studying afterward... I was thinking and I realized really what a great experience this will be for me, and all of us here. I think that if we take advantage of the opportunity, it could be a great way to really build and strengthen my relationship with my Father in Heaven, and my Savior. Not having all that I usually have to depend and rely on and the support I usually have has kind of helped me turn to Him more and already I can see that difference, and I'm excited and encouraged to make this the best experience it can be. And on top of that, the girls that I'm here teaching with are incredible girls. Their testimonies are strong and I have so much to learn from them. Estoy emocionada. [I think that means I'm excited, my spanish is a little rusty :)] THanks Scott.

Happy Sunday!

2nd Nephi 4

In my reading tonight, I read in 2nd Nephi Chapter 4 which happens to be one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. Reading it this time around I understood it the same but my impressions were different and I really enjoyed studying it. Nephi is such a great example of trusting the Lord. I thought of the scripture in Proverbs 3, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Such a great scripture, one of my favorites. I don't know why but for some reason this chapter and that scripture meant a lot to me right now at this time in my life, and I thought I would share it. I recommend 2nd Nephi 4 to anyone looking for a good read :)

"Wo Bu Ming Bai..."

That is a phrase I used a great deal today. It means, "I don't understand." :) We went shopping on walking street which is the main place to shop here in Zhongshan. It was great fun. I went with Jaimie and we just walked the street. I wasn't thrilled with the prices only because before coming everyone talked about how cheap everything is, which it still is, for sure but some things are about the same. Anyways, Jaimie and I bought watches! It is such a great thing because we're so used to just telling time on our phones so we're totally lost out here without watches. And the cool thing was, he was a just a street vendor with a small booth and we found the watches we wanted and they were cheap. It was like 7 bucks for a nice watch with a leather strap, but it was like 50 RMB's and we weren't sure if we had enough so we totally bargained with him and got him to drop the prices. Jaimie ended up paying 35 RMB's for hers and I paid like 15 RMB's. Such a steal. Anyways, that was pretty cool, and we actually communicated with him lots in Chinese. It feels so good to know that your efforts are worth it and it's working :) Beside the watch we tried on some awesome jeans. They really have great jeans and shoes here... but they are just so tiny over here so the jeans came up to like our ankles. We'll find some elsewhere though... because I am determined.

I sat next to a sweet little man on the bus home tonight. It's so funny. You can see them staring at you in the corner of their eyes. I just smiled at him and said "Ni hao" ... and he just laughed. Ha. They seem to do that a lot when we try to talk to them.

OH! Two things I wanted to share that I forgot about today. #1, Asians drive so crazy! And for pedestrians walking across the street, even if you are in a cross walk walking when the light is green... they will not stop for you. I've almost lost my life numerous times. But at the same time, they are very .... I don't know the word.... but they just walk out in the middle of a street full of oncoming cars expecting them to stop. It's strange. But I like it. #2, They don't stand in lines here. They just push their way to the front. In super markets they do, but if your just ordering lunch, or you're at some store on the street if you sit and stand in line waiting for your turn, it will never come because they just walk right past you. You have to be aggressive :)

There is a cat... in our apartment complex, that whines A.L.L. N.I.G.H.T. LONG! It sounds like a dying baby and I want to kill it.

HIGHLIGHTS of the day!

- I got to talk to Catie, Bekah, and Tarah on gmail chat. Definitely #1 highlight of my day :)I'm usually on first thing in the morning your time and sometimes suuuper late your time, so get on chat or skype me... MOM AND DAD! :)
- Asian grapefruit... is.... delicious.




- Karaoke "ing" with a bunch of natives. For Jaimie's birthday she really wanted to experience KTV which is karaoke here and apparantly it is a really big deal. And after experiencing it first hand, I can concur that it is indeed a very big deal. Instead of just open mic at a bar or something, they rent out rooms that are all lit up and have huge screens to groups and they serve you food and drinks for as long as you choose to stay there. It was fun because we all knew Abby and Mikelle could sing real well, but once we got there, Jillian and the other girls got a hold of the mic's and went crazy! And holy cow... Jillian has a set of lungs on her. Abby and Mikelle are incredible too. They're all a bunch of performers. Hopefully I can get a video on here. Anyways, Tina our coordinator at the school brought some of her friends with and they were hilarious. When they sing, they get so into it. Where we're all just goofin' off, they go all out. Hand on the heart, eyes closed.... loved it. And they all had stellar voices too. It was fun. We actually just got home and I have a date with Tony in the morning otherwise I'd bore you with what else my day consisted of.

Zai Jian... Wan an.
(Bye, Goodnight)

Umm...

The following is dialogue that just took place between three of my roommates.

Shaila: Hey Jaimie you're from Murray right?
Jaimie: Yeah.
Shaila: So you know David Archuleta?
Jaimie: Oh yeah, I've known him for a while.
Mikelle: Yeah, I'm related to him. Which is why my crush is totally inappropriate.

HA HA HA! I laughed, kind of a lot, which is great. Turns out, it's more of a distant relation, but we didn't know that at the time.

Things I love about China ... so far

-laundry hanging from balconies. They have washers but no dryers here, so from the streets looking up to the apartment complexes, all you see is a ton of laundry hanging. and I love it.



-bikes, motor bikes, walking... i.e transportation



-fruit markets

-squatters


-the children
-the language...LOVE IT!
-chopsticks
-the old peple doing Tai Chi early in the mornings :)

Well on my way to becoming Chinese...

Phrases I have learned thus far...

I love you
I'm sorry
I don't know
I don't understand
How much is it?
That's too expensive
Thank you
this one
counting to ten
[some game phrases]
excuse me
you're welcome
no
yes
I am a teacher
Just a little bit
Hurry Up!

*I will be adding to this list :)

A good day.

Today was the first of our days off. We didn't have to go into the school today. So we woke up and did a workout with Tony, and then I went for a nice little walk around our complex. It was so quiet and nice out. The weather is slowly starting to warm up and I'm loving it. It's still super cool, when I say warm up, I mean still cool temperatures but the sun is shining :)I found a beautiful spot with a pretty view to sit and read or just go when I need to have somewhere quiet. We talked about working on our lesson plans but never really did :)and then, we actually had plans to meet up with John, Sonia, Vickie and Christy for lunch. I was able to communicate with them some yesterday and the day before and they live only about an hour in a half from here so they came down for the day. We ended up missing the first bus to meet them in downtown Zhongshan so we had to wait half hour for the next bus and I had no way to communicate with John so they were out waiting longer than they or I had hoped. I felt so bad. Anyways, it was so good to see them and the girls. Little Vickie has grown up so much, and she is just a fireball.

She has so much energy... she is everywhere! And Christy is just adorable, she's a happy happy baby, always smiling. She's a little chunker and looks so much like her Daddy. They took us all to lunch at this really yummy restaurant. Again, it was spicy but I'm warming up to that area, sort of :) So we visited with them, the girls in my group got to know them a little better and then they took the bus back to our flat with us and spent some time there. Little Vickie was so sweet. She was such a snuggle bug, and she acted as if she'd seen me everyday for the last year when I really haven't seen her for over a year and she was just a baby when I saw her last. She was calling me Aunty in Chinese the entire afternoon and I finally got her to say Sarah :) Around 6:00 that evening when they left, I walked them down to the bus stop and waited there with them, said goodbye.I can't really explain, but I've never really had a relationship with my brother because he's always been gone.


He's the oldest and I'm one of the youngest so we haven't really been able to get to know each other like I have been able to with my other siblings. And Sonia is so sweet. She wants so badly to be apart of and involved in our family but it's so hard with the distance. I just felt very warm and comfortable leaving the bus station tonight, just knowing that I'll be here and I'll be able to spend more time with them and get to know little Vickie and Christy better, and establish relationships with them. It was a great day. Tonight we celebrated Jaimie's birthday. We had the cake Jenny made for us, and we sang happy birthday. It was a fun night.

Lets get down to business...

So this morning we headed to the school with the intent of getting our lesson plans all planned and written for the whole first week of school. We started going to the Opening exercizes with the kids to just observe and see how things are to be done, and then we spent the majority of the morning writing and planning lessons. I have gym class for the next month. I'm so nervous it's not even funny but we'll see how it goes. After lunch which was rice and this beef and vegetable creation one of the chinese teachers, Cherry took us to the bank to withdraw money and the super store to get some things for the apartment.We all ordered in chinese and it was successful. It's a good feeling when you can communicate with someone you know doesn't speak your language. We walked and it was fun; It was a beautiful day out, the sun was actually shining and it was very enjoyable being outside. Once we got back to the school, we had to hurry to catch the bus back to Kaiyin (the area of Zhongshan that we live in) where we ate dinner at Kaiyin School and went back to the apartment. We bought cleaning supplies at the supermarket so when we got back to our flat, I finished unpacking all of my things, getting organized and then I kinda just went crazy cleaning in our bathroom and bedroom. I couldn't believe how dirty the last group left the flat. It was a little bit frustrating, but now it's clean and we'll just be sure not to do that when it's time for us to leave :)Productive night. We have internet now so I was able to communicate a little with some family members. Overall, a great day in China.

Zhongshan! Mainland China.

Zhongshan! ... First of all, Zhongshan is much coooler than Hong Kong so I take back what I said earlier about a light jacket... not the case here :) So two of the coordinators from ILP in Zhongshan got us and took us to the ferry on sunday afternoon. Their names are Tina and Lola. Tina is tiny. I swear she's like 4 foot something, and so adorbale. Tina speaks great english and Lola spoke very very little. But both of them are the sweetest things, just like every other Chinese person i've met thus far :) While we were waiting for the ferry, Tina and Lola taught us a card game they play with face cards in a random restaraunt, and it was
absolutely histarical! They are a hoot. I hadn't laughed so hard in a long time. And we learned a lot of new chinese. They're so
patient with us and our very beginner chinese :) I'm so excited to learn the language better. About an hour in a half later we were in Zhongshan!!! Oh my goodness, so beautiful. I'll forever remember the smell right off the ferry. It was so yummy, it smelt like some kind of sweet flower, and it was delightful. A big yellow bus was there waiting for us to take us to our flat. So we did just that. The ride was beautiful. The sky was very very foggy but the vegitation is beautiful. Everything is so lush and green just like Hong Kong, but different in the sense that everything was far more open and rural, less crowded and busy than Hong Kong which is a beautiful thing. Our flat is actually very nice. It is all tile which is sort of a down fall especially during the winter season and without heating inside but the apartment itself is quite nice. I feel spoiled actually, it is nothing like what I had expected.

So.... this should not be a surprise to anyone because I did warn you, I'm no good at this blogging thing. Because I'm so behind, I'm going to just post a few highlights from my experiences thus far to catch myself up to where I need to be :)

-serving hot water (which really isn't so bad considering it's so cold) but still not exactly used to drinking steaming hot water with my meals :)I'm sure i'll get used to it
-The air and the people smell funny. Not necessarily bad, but very strange. But I'm sure in just a short time I will be smelling the same way.
-Eating with chop stix. They just don't serve meals with utensils, it's not an option. Chop stix is where it's at and I'm so okay with that. I'm already well on my way to becoming a champ at eating with them.
-Transportation. There are buses galore, and bikes. Pedal bikes, motor bikes, scooters, you name it! There are bikes EVERYWHERE! and I LOVE IT!
-Chinese music rocks! I don't have a clue what they're saying, but I LIKE IT! I'm kind of notorious for singing along to songs I don't know the words to, which presents a problem because #1, I don't have a real... hmmm..... good (for lack of a better term) voice to begin with, and #2, this is a different language so I find myself creating words that sound somewhat chinese just so I can sing along. BAD BAD habit, I need to stop. Tarah, Rebekah and Catie know what I'm talking about :)
-The Food.... it is interesting. I'm always game to try anything, so I do, and I'm not a real picky eater, but there have been ups and downs on this trip so far I will say :) Some stuff is delicious! Such as, the steamed vegetable, fruit, dumplings, noodles, etc. And others, not so much... pig skin, dipsum a.k.a ball of fat. All the same, its growing on me and I'm excited to try many new and crazy things!
-The language is I.N.C.R.E.D.I.B.L.E! I love it! It's so exciting! English is so boring compared to Chinese. The tones and sounds, it's just fun. I can't wait to learn more.
-The School we will be teaching at, Bond Language Kindergarten, is way nice. It's a newer school and it's great. We spent some time there this week getting familiar with the chinese teachers and the school coordinators and the kids... it was fun. The kids are so adorable, I can't even explain. I'll get pictures up soon so you can see for yourselves :) It actually kinda makes me want to fall in love with some Asian man which puts me in a little bit of a pickle considering how much I'm determined to marry either an African American or a man with a foreign accent. :) ha. This is a problem. Those kids are just too much, their little big cheeks, full lips, and dark eyelashes. I LOVE it! I'm only kidding though, about all of that. Well, sort of. I'm half kidding anyways.
-The cooks at the school are so nice, and just funny. Michael and Jenny are their American names. Their really sweet, and they try really hard to make us feel comfortable with the meals and try to Americanize things for us every now and then. Michael will be teaching us a bread making class starting next week which I really cannot wait for. The bread here is DELICIOUS, and i'm afraid it might just get in the way with our lofty goals we've set to come home skinnier than we came:)and Jenny... she is a gem. Two of the girls had birthdays this week and the cooks made cakes both days and sent them home with us. It was so nice. I'm excited to become better friends with them and get to know them better.
-One night the coordinators at the school took us all to dinner at this spicy restaurant with the other English teaching teachers at the school. There were about 3 from London, a couple from Canada and four other Americans. Most of them have been here for a little while so it was really cool talking to them and getting familiar with things through them, if that makes sense. Anyways, the restaurant was actually a really spicy place and I wasn't aware of that to begin with. Once we started eating, my face was beat red, my lips were flaming, and I had tears rolling down my cheaks before the end of the meal. That is how uncomfortably hot the meal was. And it only made it worse that I was THE ONLY one who seemed to be responding that way. So, we've had one other hot meal since then and it went a little better... I'm thinking I might just come home with a liking to spicy things :)
-Workouts with Tony! I brought this workout with me on my laptop called Ab Ripper X and one of the other girls brought the whole other set of workouts that go with that cd and the guy that leads it is Tony. He's pretty hilarious, and we get up every other morning and work out with him:) It's a fun thing we've started that will hopefully keep us in shape a little bit :) And once it warms up outside, we can go running and do some other cool things hopefully. My knee is doing pretty good. I'm super nervous and hesitant to run on it but in a couple weeks I'll give it a try and we'll see how things pan out.
-So I get along lovely with all the girls in our group, which is great. They all seem to be really great, positive and somewhat frugal which is good because I am SO very frugal. Jillian is our head teacher and she's pretty funny. At first she didn't say more than like 3 words to me which were, "Hi I'm Jillian." and on top of that she seemed to never be smiling and very stoic... but she has definitely warmed up. She's my roommate right now and she does this funny austrailian impression in a big announcing voice everytime anyone says anything worth repeating. It's really quite funny. And she walks around the apartment with her earphones in singing and dancing like she's the only one in the apartment. So entertaining. We're glad she's around. Mikelle and Abby are the other two that are in our apartment right now and they room together in the other room. I get along well with Mikelle and Abby. Mikelle is very practical and Abby reminds me a lot of Tarah. Very happy go lucky, sweet, happy, positive. She's fun. Shaila is actually sleeping in our living room right now because she's waiting to take Jillians spot in my room while Jillian is waiting for the other room to open up so she can move in with the other two girls. Shaila is more quiet and reserved but once we get talking she warms up. Brianna and Jaimie are the other two who are staying in a dormitory at another school right now because the second room is still occupied at the present moment. Jaimie is suuper funny, kinda reminds me a little bit of Carly because she's just down for anything, funny, random, but her voice and the way she talks is totally a Barbara Clark. If I were closing my eyes and just listening to her in the same room I would think Barbara were here. WAY weird. Brianna is definitely a thinker. She's always the last one in the group to agree with the rest of us because she's disecting it for any problems. She's more the pesimist in the group, not to be negative because sometimes when you have 6 other girls who are just way excited to get and do and try everything it's good to have a logical thinker. It should be an adventure getting to know all of them better.
-We got wi-fi in our apartment which is great besides the fact that we pay for it every month and considering we have access at the school, that's the last thing I want to be spending my money on, but... it is bigger than me decision, so I'm okay with it.
-We end every day with family prayer in our flat, which is kind of a neat thing. So far I've enjoyed it. Our Father in Heaven has definitely been a part of our lives since we've been here and I love Him so much for that.

Hong Kong...

Well... Hong Kong is beautiful. The weather is not EVEN as cold as I had anticipated. Big coat, gloves, hats, really not necessary. At night the big jacket may come in handy but a light sweater will certainly suffice during the day.



The first night here in Hong Kong we found the temple and did baptisms. SUCH a cool experience. The little temple workers were so adorable. The sister working in the dressing room was the sweetest thing, with the warmest smile. I kinda want to bring her home with me. There were 6 of us that did baptisms and we joined a group of youth that were in the temple.
The girls in the group were about 14 and so funny. They were so interested in us, where we came from, our names, everything. One of them was determined to teach us all the Chinese she could. Ha. She was funny. The Brothers in the Temple doing the baptising and confirming all spoke English and they gave us the option to have it done in English or Cantonese. We thought it would be neat to hear it in Cantonese, so we did and it was a memorable experience.


The Temple itself wasn't at all what I had expected. It doesn't sit on a big piece of property at all like all the ones that we see. It is right beside the main road, that's why all my pictures are so angled, there wasn't much room to work with. However, still such an incredible feeling being on the Temple ground. Beautiful inside and out. It's crazy how the same it is, no matter where you are. The feelings you get and emotions you feel. I'm so glad we were able to go.




Today we woke up and went to a bakery down the street for breakfast. Things here in Hong Kong are more expensive than Mainland so we haven't eaten much because we're responsible for food during the weekend here. Anyways, then we had a tour for the first part of the morning. Our tour guides name was Alan and he was hilarious. Ha. And he was super sweet. He was telling us all the places we need to go while were here and everywhere we shouldn't waste our time going to (which is great because we eliminated a lot things off our list :)
We went to the top of Victoria's peak and saw the entire island and city from the highest point. It was incredible. It's phenominal how many buildings there are and the picture dosen't even show everything because the fog is so thick. CRAZY! The drive to the top of the peak was beautiful too. Everything is so green and lush. Mmmmm. LOVE IT! So, on our way back down the peak, we stopped by a little fishing village called Aberdeen Fishing Village. That was fun, fishers make good money here.
After our tour, we went to a restaraunt for lunch to try dipsome, a food that Hong Kong is known for apparantly and there are many different kinds of it... but evidently the kinds that we tried were the worst ones to try because we weren't too excited about it :) Tasted more like a ball of fat. ha! but... hey, we had the experience and we tried dipsum!
The rest of the afternoon was ours, so after lunch some of the girls took naps or updated their blogs (ha) I'm so horrible at this, you guys are lucky you have something to read right now :) Anyways, Jaimie, Brianna and I took a walk around the city just for kicks really and to find some American food for a girl in our group that was having issues with food. I don't know... but.... it was way fun. We saw a different side of the city, a good side. We found a bunch of cool parks and met some nice people and.... AND...... I HAD A SOFT SERVE VANILLA ICE CREAM CONE! Only Rebekah, Tarah, and Catie can really appreciate that because they know how much I absolutely love it! Mmmmm.
So that night we went to a really cool thing they do here in Hong Kong. It's called the Symphany of Lights.
We went to the pier and saw the whole skyline and the city lit up,.
but then they played music and lights to go with the music on the tops of all the skyscrapers. It was pretty awesome. Everyone should google it. We ate a a really cool burger place on the pier called WOW burgers, haha... so awesome and listened to this guy who had a gig that night on the pier. He was absolutely awesome. I'm gonna try to post a video of him. SO COOL.
Sunday Morning.... ah yes. We woke up early and went to church on the first floor of the Hong Kong Temple. SUCH an incredible experience. Seriously, that made Hong Kong all worth it for me. It was just a small ward but the Bishop and the Stake President were so sweet. Everyone made us feel so comfortable, they set up headsets for us and a translator so we could understand. One of the speakers was a younger sister. She was in her late twenties and she gave an incredible talk, but her testimony afterward was so special. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true. There is no question in my mind. The members here are just like members anywhere else. They love the Savior and are striving to be more like Him and they have trials and struggles just as we do. The church and the gospel are perfect. We are not, but because the gospel is, someday we can be. We have so much to learn. There is so much I don't know. The Lord's plan is designed for us to succeed and learn. It is so great. I loved the members, I loved the feelings...I loved being there in the temple. No matter where we go, the feelings are the same. I am so grateful to be apart of it.

*** pictures to come very soon. ***