Letter #7, October 5, 2008 – October 11, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008 – Mom – Fast and Testimony meeting for us. Next week, we will have received DVD’s of conference from Hong Kong. We will actually follow the same schedule as you have this weekend – just a week later. We will meet at our branch president’s house to watch the conference. Our testimony meeting was very spiritual – Dad conducted so he began with his testimony then a young American student studying in China and married to a Chinese girl, who is pregnant, bore a beautiful testimony about families. A man from Ghana who is studying here shared of his conversion to the gospel in Ghana and how difficult it is to be separated from his wife and 4 children, but needs this education to get a better job to support his family when he returns. The single lady (early 40’s), who runs the orphanage here shared of her experiences and answers to prayers as she receives money to help run the orphanage. Plus, the branch president’s son, Caleb 16, shared how grateful he was for his parents and for Jesus Christ and repentance. (I don’t know details, but know that was a special step for him). Then their 14 year old son bore his testimony sharing how his life had been spared on a rafting trip when his life jacket was caught on a tree branch and the rushing water kept pulling his face under water. Dad has not felt well since last night and is blaming it on the dumplings that we had for dinner. He had the blahs and chills today. He has gone to bed early.
Monday, October 6, 2008 – Dad – Oh my, I have been sitting on the toilet all day. I am beginning to feel a little better – certainly hope so since we have class tomorrow. I ventured out for a walk to the grocery store to get bread, snickers and lay potato chips which didn’t taste like them. I couldn’t eat them. As you can see by my shopping list the snickers and chips were for mom. Our cleaning lady came today – nice to have the apartment clean. We are both getting lazy in reference to cleaning. Why should we – all we have to pay is $3 for two hours. It seemed like a regular P-day of washing, cleaning, clean sheets, etc. Tomorrow should be a different day – the freshmen struggle with English and we hope we can be understood.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008 – Becki’s Birthday – Our first day of teaching with our own students. Dad still is having intestinal problems. It started raining before we arrived at the school to begin our classes by 8:00 am and, of course, neither of us brought an umbrella. Dad said his one class today was good and I really enjoyed my two classes. The students are freshman and are pretty good with English, but have not had the occasion to speak it very often. Both classes were so excited to have a foreign teacher and they loved seeing the pictures of our family. Having 7 children and 23 grandchildren is so amazing to them. Two girls in particular told me they were so glad to have a foreign teacher. One said she loved me and the other one invited me to her home during the semester break. It is easy to love teaching these special Chinese students. In the afternoon, Dad was contacted about recording 5 more sentences for the “pronunciation” book that should be printed soon. While he was gone, I prepared for my Wednesday classes.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008 – Dad - Well, I am still on my special lose weight fast diet today. Everything I put in comes out in just a few hours. I am going to ask our waiban (Chinese helper to the foreign teachers) what would be good to purchase here. That is if I have time to get there between you know what. Mom is still nursing her ankle but mending well. We each had two two-hour classes today. I teach the degree seeking students and Mom teaches the certificate seeking students. We think the difference is that the degree students are here four years and the certificate students either two or three years. We can tell the difference in their English skills as well. The certificated students have less skill. We hope we can help them. Upon arriving home I did some Branch Presidency calling to arrange talks for October. We always have two speakers which required both to speak 20 minutes. Our rest songs are normally the longest in the song book to help take up some time. We had two investigators today – a 20 yr old from Tahiti and another of similar age from Canada but her parents are Chinese. Over here we receive a DVD of conference and will meet as a branch on Saturday and Sunday to view all sessions as directed by the Area Presidency. They have not turned on the heat yet and will not until November 15. Government controlled you know. So, we have already added our only blanket to the bed but sleep warmly.
Thursday, October 9, 2008 – Mom – Classes went well. The kids are so excited to have a foreign teacher. They are very polite and seem to hunger to hear anything we want to say. I can tell that some do not understand everything I am saying, but they smile and say “yes.” Dad is not feeling so well today and we think it is because he is becoming dehydrated, so now he must drink more water than he wants to. I stand on my foot most of the four hours of teaching, but when I come home, I stay off and put it up. Dad went to the grocery store alone again today. In the mornings, many businesses that have several employees gather them together for “roll call” and they do morning exercises—tai chi. I hope to get a picture soon because as we ride the bus to school, we see them on the street or parking lots doing their exercises. Another different thing at the grocery store is, you buy your eggs individually and carry them home in a baggie. I am amazed that we have not had a broken egg yet. I can’t say that I always get the eggs home safe without a crack in the egg carton in the states.
Friday, October 10, 2008 – Addi’s birthday – Dad – My first day of teaching “certificated students” rather than degree seeking. Some of them did well in English but the majority struggled to communicate. I think my diet is coming to an end for now. I seem to holding my own. I did slip out to the store to purchase some yogurt and peanuts.
Saturday, October 11, 2008 – Mom – We talked with Trent, Janell, Kaysen and Addi this morning. They all sound well and having a birthday celebration. We left at 9:30 to catch a taxi to the branch president’s house to watch the first session of conference via the internet. They were supposed to have DVD’s mailed to us from Hong Kong, but they did not arrive yet. There were 12 of us there and tomorrow, there will probably be quite a few more because we will be having a potluck in between the sessions. After the session today we went to “Best Foods” to eat our lunch. It is like a fast food hamburger and chicken place. We had good tasting hamburgers, fries and an ice cream cone. Dad splurged and ate it all. Now he is waiting for a reaction ---- so far he is doing okay!!!!!!
Sunday, October 5, 2008 – Mom – Fast and Testimony meeting for us. Next week, we will have received DVD’s of conference from Hong Kong. We will actually follow the same schedule as you have this weekend – just a week later. We will meet at our branch president’s house to watch the conference. Our testimony meeting was very spiritual – Dad conducted so he began with his testimony then a young American student studying in China and married to a Chinese girl, who is pregnant, bore a beautiful testimony about families. A man from Ghana who is studying here shared of his conversion to the gospel in Ghana and how difficult it is to be separated from his wife and 4 children, but needs this education to get a better job to support his family when he returns. The single lady (early 40’s), who runs the orphanage here shared of her experiences and answers to prayers as she receives money to help run the orphanage. Plus, the branch president’s son, Caleb 16, shared how grateful he was for his parents and for Jesus Christ and repentance. (I don’t know details, but know that was a special step for him). Then their 14 year old son bore his testimony sharing how his life had been spared on a rafting trip when his life jacket was caught on a tree branch and the rushing water kept pulling his face under water. Dad has not felt well since last night and is blaming it on the dumplings that we had for dinner. He had the blahs and chills today. He has gone to bed early.
Monday, October 6, 2008 – Dad – Oh my, I have been sitting on the toilet all day. I am beginning to feel a little better – certainly hope so since we have class tomorrow. I ventured out for a walk to the grocery store to get bread, snickers and lay potato chips which didn’t taste like them. I couldn’t eat them. As you can see by my shopping list the snickers and chips were for mom. Our cleaning lady came today – nice to have the apartment clean. We are both getting lazy in reference to cleaning. Why should we – all we have to pay is $3 for two hours. It seemed like a regular P-day of washing, cleaning, clean sheets, etc. Tomorrow should be a different day – the freshmen struggle with English and we hope we can be understood.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008 – Becki’s Birthday – Our first day of teaching with our own students. Dad still is having intestinal problems. It started raining before we arrived at the school to begin our classes by 8:00 am and, of course, neither of us brought an umbrella. Dad said his one class today was good and I really enjoyed my two classes. The students are freshman and are pretty good with English, but have not had the occasion to speak it very often. Both classes were so excited to have a foreign teacher and they loved seeing the pictures of our family. Having 7 children and 23 grandchildren is so amazing to them. Two girls in particular told me they were so glad to have a foreign teacher. One said she loved me and the other one invited me to her home during the semester break. It is easy to love teaching these special Chinese students. In the afternoon, Dad was contacted about recording 5 more sentences for the “pronunciation” book that should be printed soon. While he was gone, I prepared for my Wednesday classes.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008 – Dad - Well, I am still on my special lose weight fast diet today. Everything I put in comes out in just a few hours. I am going to ask our waiban (Chinese helper to the foreign teachers) what would be good to purchase here. That is if I have time to get there between you know what. Mom is still nursing her ankle but mending well. We each had two two-hour classes today. I teach the degree seeking students and Mom teaches the certificate seeking students. We think the difference is that the degree students are here four years and the certificate students either two or three years. We can tell the difference in their English skills as well. The certificated students have less skill. We hope we can help them. Upon arriving home I did some Branch Presidency calling to arrange talks for October. We always have two speakers which required both to speak 20 minutes. Our rest songs are normally the longest in the song book to help take up some time. We had two investigators today – a 20 yr old from Tahiti and another of similar age from Canada but her parents are Chinese. Over here we receive a DVD of conference and will meet as a branch on Saturday and Sunday to view all sessions as directed by the Area Presidency. They have not turned on the heat yet and will not until November 15. Government controlled you know. So, we have already added our only blanket to the bed but sleep warmly.
Thursday, October 9, 2008 – Mom – Classes went well. The kids are so excited to have a foreign teacher. They are very polite and seem to hunger to hear anything we want to say. I can tell that some do not understand everything I am saying, but they smile and say “yes.” Dad is not feeling so well today and we think it is because he is becoming dehydrated, so now he must drink more water than he wants to. I stand on my foot most of the four hours of teaching, but when I come home, I stay off and put it up. Dad went to the grocery store alone again today. In the mornings, many businesses that have several employees gather them together for “roll call” and they do morning exercises—tai chi. I hope to get a picture soon because as we ride the bus to school, we see them on the street or parking lots doing their exercises. Another different thing at the grocery store is, you buy your eggs individually and carry them home in a baggie. I am amazed that we have not had a broken egg yet. I can’t say that I always get the eggs home safe without a crack in the egg carton in the states.
Friday, October 10, 2008 – Addi’s birthday – Dad – My first day of teaching “certificated students” rather than degree seeking. Some of them did well in English but the majority struggled to communicate. I think my diet is coming to an end for now. I seem to holding my own. I did slip out to the store to purchase some yogurt and peanuts.
Saturday, October 11, 2008 – Mom – We talked with Trent, Janell, Kaysen and Addi this morning. They all sound well and having a birthday celebration. We left at 9:30 to catch a taxi to the branch president’s house to watch the first session of conference via the internet. They were supposed to have DVD’s mailed to us from Hong Kong, but they did not arrive yet. There were 12 of us there and tomorrow, there will probably be quite a few more because we will be having a potluck in between the sessions. After the session today we went to “Best Foods” to eat our lunch. It is like a fast food hamburger and chicken place. We had good tasting hamburgers, fries and an ice cream cone. Dad splurged and ate it all. Now he is waiting for a reaction ---- so far he is doing okay!!!!!!
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