PLEASE OBSERVE

So below is something that I reference a lot, so when you see it in my posts, you can laugh that much more with me :D Hahahaha. Just a friendly picture that Shelby and Marissa introduced me to. This is what Shelbs posted on Marissa’s facebook wall when she found out she couldn’t date in China. It’s pretty much a term you can just use for anything. And life is just that much funnier when everyone knows what you’re referencing. ;)

 

Also, please take a look at this lovely…pile. This, my friends, is after I swept my bedroom floor. Please note, this is only waiting 6 days. And that’s not just dirt because I’m careless, those are dust bunnies…snakes. Hahaha. So I don’t know if you know, but because pollution is so bad in china, you rarely see the sky here. I’m being completely honest when I tell you that I haven’t seen a blue sky in a really long time, and that’s not because of any clouds, the sky is just that gross. Would you like a picture in your mind? It’s so bad that people literally wear doctor masks when they walk around outside. WAT. Hahahaha. So this is how much dust accumulates on my floor after less than a week…yum. WELP! Guess that means I need to make my weekly clean….half weekly? If bi-weekly is every 2 weeks, and weekly is every week….what’s a cool word for every half week? Hmmmm.

Halloween Fun!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! So this week we were asked to dress up for two days, the 30^th and the 31^st. The first day I didn’t really know what to do. I thought about doing my zombie costume, but I was afraid I would scare the children (and I would have been sooo right….hahaha), so I went with the typical Steve Erkal look…the only problem was….nobody knows who steve erkal is….so they just kept saying I was “cute” and kept asking if I was Harry Potter….hahaha BUT it’s okay J I threw it together really fast the morning of, and it wasn’t too bad!

PANTS AND SHIRT: hand-me-downs. Courtesy of Monique Larkin

SUSPENDERS: ribbon. Courtesy of the school.

TIE: Shanghai market, a present for my brother (shhhh). $1.50

SOCKS: borrowed. Courtesy of Sabrina

SHOES: Supermarket. $8

GLASSES: foam and paper. Courtesy of the School.

BODY: God. Priceless.

Anyways, it was pretty successful. The next day, I had to be something different, so it was time to kick my creative juices into gear. I cannot tell you HOW I came up with this idea, because I honestly have no clue. But I wanted to be a princess! So I decided to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast! So I made a beautiful yellow dress….out of trash bags :D

It was great! The kids loved it, the parents loved, and so did all the teachers! I felt like I was at a tourist attraction, because people kept asking to take pictures of me. It was so funny to see people say“beautiful!” and then realize it was made out of trash bags and they immediately begin speaking in rapid Chinese getting really close scrutinizing the whole dress. And despite the 20+ 4 year olds that love to give me hugs all day, it stayed intact all 8 hours! I was pretty pumped at how well it turned out. AND! It’s super easy! It only took about an hour

DRESS: trash bags. Courtesy of the supermarket, $0.50

HAIR: yours truly JCourtesy of Google and Stephen (he would watch the YouTube tutorials and tell me what the girl was doing. And of course he was very helpful explaining how she could have made the video 10 minutes shorter by just giving a step by step instruction rather than showing how every step was made “if a man was making this movie….” Gotta love him J)

 

 

 

 

Any ways, we had a great week of Trick or treating between classes, halloween crafts, and of course lots of candy J Alltogether a very successful holiday!

Sunbeam meets Sun

A sunbeam. Most people think of a ray of light, but I think of a familiar primary song J Now of course I can’t teach that song to my kids, or I’ll risk getting sent home. SO! I changed the words, and it’s still they’re favorite song! J (Let’s all pretend we’re a sunbeam, and shine so bright each day. In every way let’s be happy, at home at work at play. A sunbeam, a sunbeam, let’s all pretend we’re a sunbeam. A sunbeam, a sunbeam, I’ll be a sunbeam today). A sun beam is just a small portion of a great light source; one that can warm the entire earth and provide nutrients for numberless life forms. A sunbeam is like an example of the sun. Since you can’t handle the full sun, you get to experience just a small portion that can warm your skin…or your heart! 

                 That brings me to my next point. I think I’ve been a rather dull sunbeam lately. When I came to China, I had expectations, and I have come to a novel conclusion (at least I think its novel haha).

If you spend all your time trying to make your situation match your expectation, you unavoidably prevent reality from influencing you positively, therefore robbing yourself of a situation that would surpass your expectations.

                The story behind it: Here I am, in freaking China, and all I can seem to get done is minimal because I keep trying to make my experience here what I expected it to be. I expected a third world experience, with dirt floors, walking a mile or two to school every day, and poor children starving for knowledge. Instead I live in a city, much like Seattle. They have AC, and life is normal. My children are 50million times more rich than my family (and that’s ALMOST not an exaggeration….), and I walk 8 minutes to get to school. I have a supermarket that’s like a walmart right down the road with everything I need, and I’m now a master at taxis and the subway. I am so busy, I haven’t seen much of China, and I keep trying to force myself to go without things so it will be more like what I imagined. 

                WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING?!?! The world grew up and I stayed naïve….hahaha.

I have an amazing ward, and the sisters need to go back to the states and teach everyone how it’s done. I realized I need to be more proactive in accepting the modern changes that China has undergone, and start learning how to be better at taking advantage of opportunities. I keep beating myself up because I haven’t traveled very much, and I stay at home on weekends….but then I realize I never have an empty moment when I stay home. I’m always working on something, or attending ward activities, or helping someone. THAT’S OKAY! Yeah I still want to travel, and I have every intention of doing so, but beating myself up over not getting the experience I expected is…..preventing me from getting an experience worth getting! I have travel plans, yes. I have cooking plans, yes! (I’ve learned how to create some of the AMAZING vegetable dishes here!). And I have a new plan to delve myself into the language. I know enough to get me around, but I want to actually learn it. 

                My real goal is to enjoy what I have, and take advantage of what’s here. Everything is modern, so it’s really hard to really experience the culture like I wanted to, but I’m going to try, and enjoy what I get to. Time to be a brighter sunbeam J

Trunk or Treat!

So Halloween is almost here!! And this last weekend was the ward’s trunk-or-treat event. It was loads of fun, and the costumes people came up with were priceless!!! We all met at a giant golf course. They had a bunch of different “booths” set up. There was a cake walk, cookie decorating, bowling, water bottle “horse shoeing”, dancing, face painting, it was a blast! Seeing as how there are no Halloween places around here (most people in the ward had theirs taylor made because it’s so cheap here. So I took an ugly shirt and ugly skirt that someone gave me, wripped them, burned parts of them, and speared red lipstick and black eye shadow all over them. Then I did the same to my face, and vwala! I’m a zombie J Here are some fun pictures J

Cousins! Happy visit :)

This weekend Cousing Scotty and his wife Kailey (pronounced Kiley) came and visited me!!! Oh it was a blast and much needed! :D Friday after school I got on a motorbike taxi to the subway and took a train to the railway station to pick them up! They were 4 other people from their program.

Scott and Kailey knew this amazing Italian restaurant that was authentic and super cheap! So we headed there and had some AMAZING food J And of course I forgot to put my memory card back in my camera, so I didn’t get a picture.

After dinner we helped the other 4 people get to their hostel, and then we headed to my place! I filled Scott and Kailey in on all my crazy news with missions and marriage and they were excited for both.

We got back to my apartment and showered and FINALLY went to sleep around 1 J

Please examine this beautiful felt crock. Yes I said it, felt.

The next day Scott and Kailey slept in, and I got up early to go grocery shopping. I came back with breakfast and a surprise for later. By the time we had a plan, were dressed, and ready to go, it was about 11, so we stopped at a German bakery so Scott and Kailey could try their amazing sandwhiches!!!! (that’s pretty hard to come by here ;D) Then we hopped on a bus to head for the subway. When we got on the subway we headed to The Science and Technology stop to do lots of Christmas Shopping! Except it was then that I realized I didn’t know much of what anyone needed…..so I got stuff for me J Hahaha. I got a great winter dress coat (It’ll be great for the mission) as well as a good jacket (it’s starting to get cold here…and I don’t have one). You should also note that it’s a $100 Northface, and I bartered it for $20….and got it :D I got some cute really good polarized sunglasses for $6, and brand new large, sturdy, and durable suitcase (because I’m gonna need another one to bring stuff home) for $28, and a cute vintage mini suitcase for my photoshoots! I also got a bunch of things for my dad/brothers/boyfriend, and a few things for my sisters. All in all, it was a very successful shopping day!

We were going to go to an acrobat show that night, but all the cheap tickets were sold out L So, as we were exhausted from walking around ALL day, we headed home and finished the night with showers and a movie! Okay so the movie didn’t work…..but it was a relaxing thought! Haha. I skyped my parents to go over mission stuff, and then we went to bed.

Probably my favorite part of our time together were the pillow talks. When the lights were out and we were all snuggled in our beds just talking across the room to each other. I absolutely loved it, and it’s something I’ll treasure J I’m a nerd like that. Hahaha.

The next day was Sunday so we got ready to go and then one of my visiting teachers gave us a ride. It was the first time Scott and Kailey had had the opportunity to go to church since they got here, and they were sooo happy. Plus! The secretary in the Relief Society is from Argentina, and that’s where Scott served his mission, so they got to reminisce. She was so happy to have someone who talked her same espanol, and Scott was so happy to know he still had it ;) after we headed back with the Branch President’s wife, helped her get to a dinner thing, and went home and watched a movie.

We talked more, and then it was time for them to leave  to catch their train L But it was a wonderful weekend!!

Mission/Marriage Update

So I met with my Branch president, and it was great! We had a verrry long conversation about Stephen, marriage, missions, schooling, and all that good stuff. He gave very wise council as a realist (his motto is hope for the best but prepare for the worst). He read to me from the Bishop Handbook that if women are in a position to get married they should. But he also told me a story of an experience he had in which the moral of the story was, sometimes the Lord wants you to choose a specific decision that might not work out, so you can know for sure that the former was the right one. In addition, he said that they’re in great need of more missionaries, and I would make a great one, and I would never regret it. He also said it might be ideal for Stephen as well, to get more schooling out of the way (provided he’s still around). He made a point that he would not sway me either way, and that it definitely had to be my decision. I filled him in on how I viewed things.

I told him how I had felt the Lord confirm that both getting married to Stephen and going on a mission are both worthy experiences and that it was up to me to decide. I told him that since the Lord had already confirmed that marrying Stephen was a righteous decision, he would not tell me not to marry him, but if I chose to go on a mission, if he wanted me elsewhere, he would tell me. I also said that I felt it was too soon to back out because I know I would regret not knowing if I should have gone or not. Plus I WANT to serve! So badly! We decided (meaning I decided and he said it was a good idea) to continue with the process and submit my papers.
President Larkin had a similar experience with his wife to me and Stephen (like almost identical) and he said that things change when you’re in person. It either is confirmed that it’s definitely right, or it’s not, definitely not. I may go home and see Stephen and it doesn’t work at all, so I’ll continue with my mission. I may go home and see Stephen and it works out great, and I still decide to continue. Or I may go home and meet Stephen and decide that’s where I want to be, and that’s where I want to stay. With any of those possibilities I’m covering all my bases. I’m registering for classes in November (you can’t submit a missionary deferment until you have your call, and your report date has to be before the end of that semester date). But if I end up following through with a mission, then I can easily defer the next 18 months. When I register for school, I’m going to register for all online classes in case I do decide to stay home. I can look into the institute in Bellevue and get some roommates, a job, and do my schooling from there so we can be in the same city.
So what am I doing? I’m filling out my papers, seeing physicinas, going to the dentist, getting a picture taken, all the while getting a wedding dress made and buying bridesmaid dress fabric. Let me tell you, I have to be on two separate tracks to function….hahaha, but for right now, I’m just going to live in the now, and let the future take care of itself J

Snot-nosed Tykes and their Loving Parents

Yes in the literal meaning of the phrase….it’s cold season!!! And my lovely children, who have successfully deflected any means of sanitization, blowing their noses on something other than their hands, WASHING their hands, and covering their mouth, have graciously passed their delicious germs onto me, their loving teacher. We have a very close relationship you see…..

Hahaha but thankfully I’m doing well! I got a priesthood blessing last Sunday for my infection, and they threw in a nice piece for my cold :) That and my added amounts of sleep and eating oranges every day (AND THE SAVING REALIZATION THAT I HAD PACKED NASAL SPRAY), life has been a whole lot less miserable :)

**Side note super-fast!!! So things with my roommate have been going very well! If you didn’t hear,  the school rehired her, so I got to keep her :)She has come to church with me every time I’ve invited her, AND Last Saturday night, I needed to catch up on the afternoon session of conference that I had missed, she came in and asked if she could watch it with me! So of course I plugged in the ihome for a more in-your-face not-so-surround surround sound, and brought out the cookies! Hahaha. I invited her to come with me the next day to watch Sunday conference with the YSA’s (it may or may not have been the food in between sessions that lured her, but hey!), and she even brought a notebook and took notes!..you know…when she wasn’t dozing off ;) Hahaha. It’s been going very good though :)

ANYWAYS!(sorry, that was connected in my head, I promise). Back to what I was talking about :) So funny story about being sick:

I was walking down the hall, trailing my kids, when Phyllis, the western teacher coordinator, stopped me. She pointed to my water bottle and asked what it was for. I lifted it up and said, ‘oh, yeah, I’ve got a cold, so I’m drinking lots of water’. Apparently carrying around a water bottle is against the rules, and I quote: “this not allowed. If parents see you with water bottle they think, OH! Western teacher only think about themselves! Only take care of themselves and no one else, this not good. But I see you are clever! You use THIS kind of water bottle (you know, the recyclable ones you buy in a vending machine but twice the size) because parents not know who iss for. I think you are clever. Take care of health!” And she was on her way. This school cracks me up, let me tell ya.

 

ALSO the parents are a bit different too! At first, they seem like your typical parent who only has one child, so they see to their every needs, but when they come to pick them up, the school literally turns into a zoo....okay not literally, but I wanted emphasis....haha

 They put up a bar to block parents from coming in. Look at the picture. 1^st of all, notice the lovely Halloween Decorations I’ve put up J yes that is the Western Teacher’s handy work! 2^nd, that is the BEGINNING of what is to come. And that’s also 30 minutes before school gets out. They hoard by this rope until it’s lifted and then the RUN, I’m not kidding you. We actually have to lock our door to our classroom until it’s time for the kids to come home. At about 10 till, there are about 25 parents trying to press their noses on this tiny little window to see in, and then when it’s time to open the door, I turn the handle real quick and jump out of the way so I’m not stampeded. It’s great fun ;)

Chawaii Part III: Jellyfishing and Divine Intervention

Why yes, yes that is me crabe-ing in the middle of the Beautiful Pacific Ocean :) (in my tacky tourist shirt nonetheless :D)

Friday was again, empty. Hahaha. We spent the day reading scriptures, sleeping, tanning, crabbing, swimming, (hey it’s vacation. We don’t have to do anything@) and then headed to the same place where the fruit ice creams were J we walked around, shopped a bit, and then decided to go home again.

On Saturday we walked to the bus station so we could get our tickets for our bus ride the next day. We stuck to street food for breakfast and hit the Muslim place for lunch! J We were having a pleasant morning on the beach. There were darling children all around, the water was nice, beach was mostly empty... I mean. We were happy. I'd even venture to say... we were all three ecstatic.

 A man came and set his things nearby, and spoiler alert. But he was singing and I kind of felt like, hey. We love him. He swam out to this rock in the ocean and kept waving to us. So we're in the waves having a real nice chat about the men when all the sudden I casually say, "Oh, hey, a jelly fish." And they were like, "Oh, cool." Then there was that split second where you actually think about what was just said. AND WE FLIPPED OUT AND RAN LIKE THE WATER WAS FULL OF CRABE-ISTS. And not the safe kind of crabe-ists DANGER. But we actually were really curious, and Marissa and Shelby being Spongebob fans, we thought. Now is the ideal time to try jelly-fishing. Well, the singing man - who we never named, came and thought he'd be a dear and help us out. Which was fine. Things were all kind of glorious.

 

Until he insisted on pictures with each of us. Holding our hands in a familiar fashion. Making a face to the camera like, "Yeah. I'm working this situation to my advantage." We couldn't get him to stop watching us. So we started taking pictures that looked like victorious jelly-fish hunter poses...haha. We started attracting children and attempting to get rid of the slippery ocean friend. And also the jelly-fish.

At this point, we just decided to flee to the stuff and lay out. We went to put the camera away and realized... somewhere in the jelly-fish excitement, the case was gone (it also has our room key that costs 50yuan-almost $10- to replace, which we’ve already done once this trip because Marissa accidentally snapped it in half). But where would it even GO?! We said a prayer and looked everywhere. Combed that beach, if you will. We dug all through the sand, seriously looked for like a mile up and down in the shallows, all through my bag - nothing. Finally, we dig up the fifty yuan and do the walk of shame back to Joe's to buy yet another new key. We're almost there, and Marissa turns in exasperation and is like, "What am I not learning?" And we all laugh - but more like the I-wanna-die kind of laughing, because we're all wondering the same thing about ourselves. We walk into Joe's, and his cute wife is being weeeird. Vibes are not ideal (she’s not so fluent in English). She keeps talking about taking pictures and we're like, the last thing we want is to take pictures right now. But then, she pulls out the camera case. In the drawer. Someone found it on the beach and brought it back. Joe's wife was still way worried, until we explained that WE had the camera. But everything else was intact. Her money, the room key, and this random scrap of paper from our first hostel where we wrote down the address to Joe's in Chinese. It couldn't have been more perfect. Joe stopped us on the stairs and he just kept emphasizing how crazy it was that a man took the case and brought it here, because apparently this area is crrrrawling with thieves. The Lord is always looking out for us, even when we can only see a tiny piece of the puzzle.

 So we went back to our room and said a kind of emotional (we’re girls, and yes, it was approaching that time of month) prayer of thanks.  It was a really good testimony builder for all of us. And we KNOW, we know. That God has everything in hand, and that if we can let go of the control and trust in Him, even when things go really, really wrong. They are going right. And we loved it. J

At about midnight we decided to go to bed, so Shelby was skyping one of the guys that had left, Marissa was lounging on a bed, and I was drifting in and out of sleep when Shelby says, “Blythe, did you hear that?” I rolled over and sleepily responded now, when Shelby repeated, “In a move to expand the opportunities for young members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to serve full-time missions, Church President Thomas S. Monson announced today that, effective immediately, men may now begin serving at age 18 and women at age 19.”

Marissa burst in to audible, happy tears, and I stared in shock for a full minute. Then my world flipped upside down, yahda yahda, read my post, Two Callings: One Decision for the reaction J

Sunday we hopped on a 4 hour bus (MUCH better than our first one. We actually got seats this time J ) went to the airport, hopped on a plane, hopped in a taxi, and headed for home J And so goes our wonderful Chawaii adventure J

 

Chawaii Part II: Men :)

The next day (Tuesday) was time to move to the hostel that we were going to be staying in for the week—Joes Inn. It was amazing, if you ever go to Sanya, stay there. Joe is so nice! (and he speaks English! Hahaha). He and his wife run it, and it’s very clean and efficient!

Well the morning that we moved hostels, there seemed to be some tension going on between us, and it was extremely uncomfortable, so before we left the hostel to go to the beach I said that we had to have a meeting and fix whatever was going on before we went anywhere. So we ran it like our family meetings at home, and started with a compliment circle. Hahaha. At first Marissa and Shelby felt weird, but then we finished and I started with the agenda. Finally we started opening up and saying what we REALLY thought about things, and everyone felt a whole lot better J

As we headed downstairs, we saw all these American men…and then I said, “Hey! We know him!” and they all turned around. It was our friends from Nanjing!!! They were at District Conference from the BYU study abroad group. We were sooo glad to have run into them. So we all headed down to the beach together and had a blast playing ultimate Frisbee in the water and just lounging on the beach J

Chris, Ryan, Dan, Troy (he has the best mustache in the world), Marcus, Jameson, and Jake, we LOVE them! :D Later we all headed out for dinner. We walked along the beach and decided on a Brazilian barbeque/buffet. It was definitely pricy, but worth it! (Actually, it was cheap compared to America’s, only about $11). The only difference was one of the skewers had baby chickens speared through….head, face, feet, everything…..we didn’t opt for that one….hahaha but man, we had a blast together!


On the way home there was a guy with a microphone and speaker singing songs. Marissa told me to go sernade us, so I walked up and asked if I could sing. I broke out into a loud refrain of At Last, and a healthy sized group conglomerated. Through in some Ingrid and Taylor, and we had our only little party! Then Jameson and i did some duets and then I handed off the mike to Marissa. We had so much fun! :) It’s so good to have lots of friends! Hahaha.

 The next day was Wednesday, and it was a little weird :P Time went by wayyy too fast! We slept till 9 (but of course the boys slept till 10), and then we went and got breakfast from the street venders. They have these really yummy bread pockets filled with leak, and these yummy vegetable baotsa (at least that’s how it sounds when you say it….haha). And of course, delicious fruit J Then we decided we needed to be desperately tacky and buy those touristy Hawaiian clothes, because we can. :D Hahaha. So we haggled down the prices and got them for 20 qui (a little more than $3).

Then we headed for the train ticket station so the boys could buy their train tickets. They were leaving the next day L After what seemed like an hour, we hopped on a bus that went over the mountains. It was a long bus ride (but not as uncomfortable as previous rides!) and so I fell asleep. But by the time I woke up, we were getting off at a stop that felt like we were very high up…except I don’t know if we were because the beach was fairly close. Actually that’s a lie….I remember walking for about 45 minutes before we actually got to the beach…..hahaha. but before we started walking, we stopped for some lunch at a restaurant. It was really hard to find because it was about 4pm, and food places aren’t usually open during that time. But we finished and then headed on a long walk to the beach, but it was well worth it!! The waves were HUGE! I never really knew how powerful the water can be….wow, that was an experience. Half way through I was so stressed out I had to get out of the water, it was kind of pathetic actually…..hahaha. The waves are just so strong and big and full of salt, it killed my eyes. And then while you paused to try and recover, you just kept getting hit with these giant waves!!! Finally I got a grip on myself and headed out to the deeper water to try riding the waves. It was funny though, so I finally got there (where all the guys were) and said, “I made it!” because let me tell you, it’s quite a fete getting that far, it takes work! But anyways, so I was excited that I finally made it, and they all kind of paused and nervously said, ‘oh….well…be careful”. Alarmed, I looked around, to find a couple of the men holding their shorts….apparently the waves are quite strong.

Don’t worry, I kept my distance ;) haha after a couple hours of exhausting swimming, we headed to find a way back to the city. We crammed 6 of us into this tiny little bike house (it’s a little bench house thing built on top of a bicycle. Think emperor’s new groove, and you’ve got it), until we found a bus stop J WE then went on an hour ride back to our area. We decided to get off where our Mexican hostel was so the men could try the yummy food! :D And of course then we had to introduce them to the amazing fruit ice cream!

We then headed to the beach because we heard music! There was a live band, so we made some requests and they started playing “I got a feeling” by Black Eyed Peas, and then took over the dance floor and had a BLAST! After 20-30 minutes of our dance party, (and when all the drunks started coming out to dance with us) we decided to head to the water. Night Swimming! It was great J There were definitely some creepers in the water though…turns out there job is to ‘make friends’ with you, and then they have people in position on the beaches to get you to come get a ‘massage’. The number of brothels I’ve seen in China is ridiculous, and incredibly sad. We did some research on it when we got home, and it turns out that a lot of the woman will live far away and be promised waitressing or office jobs, and then they get there and have no money to get home after they find out what it really is. It’s awful L

But anyway, after the beach we headed home (it was like 1am), so we hit the pillows J

 

Thursday-the men’s last day! So what did we do? Relax J we got breakfast and headed to the beach (1 minute walk from the hostel J ) and went crabbing (or craybing as we liked to call it….haha). You go in the water and scoop up a handful of sand. Shake it a little, and lo and behold you’ve got about 9 little crab shells with little crabs in them! It sounds super childish, but it was amazingly enjoyable….hahaha. We then had chicken fights (aka the men had chicken fights) and they practiced standing on eachother’s shoulders. Later we had lunch at a muslim place (I have one in my city, and it’s my favorite place to eat!) The noodles are SOOOO good! The make them right there in the restaurant! They beat the dough, and then depending on what type of noodle, they’ll either string it or shave it into a boiling pot and vwala! It’s delicious!! Then the boys had to start getting ready to head out. They had already checked out, so all their stuff was in our room. They traded off showering while the rest of us looked at the pictures for the day! J Before they left, we asked if they could give us blessings.

I am so grateful to have met such great men who honor and uphold their priesthood, so when 3 women from random cities in China want to experience the power of the priesthood, they are ready and worthy. It was wonderful! Then they headed out and the three of us felt quite empty…we didn’t really know what to do with ourselves! Hahaha. So we wrote in our journals, took naps, and wen t and got dinner. Then we came back together to watch a movie together, and fell asleep J

Chawaii

China's Hawaii=Chawaii :D
SO Hainan!!!!! Oh my it was SOOOO much fun! A much needed vaca J
 So it started off with Shelby and Marissa coming to my house Friday night. The next day I went to school (we worked the Saturday before holiday), and as soon as I got home we hopped in a taxi and headed for the subway! The subway was taking too long, so we got off early and grabbed another taxi for the rest of the ride to the airport. We were able to get on our plane with no problems. Though let me tell you, it was the most uncomfortable plane I’ve ever been on….hahaha. The seats were all very skinny, very close together, had almost no leg room, and the seats were straight up and down and did not recline. Needless to say, it was uncomfortable. Haha. Oh but it was funny, at the beginning there was a Chinese person talking, and then an automated English translation, our favorite line was “if you are in the aisle during turbulence and are unable to get back to your seat, please hold the handle under the cubbies to fix yourself”. You just had to hear the voice, it was so funny.  The end of the ride was great! The flight attendants do what they call “refreshers” after each flight. We caught a video; it was kind of priceless Hahaha.  

When we arrived we stayed in a super cute hostel called “Twinkle Star”. It was heaven! There were real mattresses on real beds with real comforters and real PILLOWS! (not that I don’t LOVE my rice pillow…..).  We got settled, went and got some yummy street food, and then went to sleep!

The next day slept in :) Not gonna lie, it was the first time I’d slept in  in over a month, and it was bliss! Haha. We had bought 2 loaves of bread and 3 pomegranates the day before for our Sunday meals. We fasted breakfast and listened to some talks on lds.org. Later we broke our fasts and ate a yummy coconut I had bought the night before! We then planned out our week. We needed to go 4 hours south to Sanya.

 

 

We decided to walk to a beach later. It wasn’t a pretty beach, and it littered to the max with garbage, but we were happy to be out and about.

We started to build the great wall of china in the sand and a group of Chinese college students came over and asked to take pictures with us. So we did a couple rounds of that, and then they started helping us with the sand wall!

 

It was so much fun. There were also these darling kids nearby that we got to play with JThat night we had the last of our bread and poms, and watched a Disney movie together before falling asleep.

We awoke early the next day to head to the bus station. We were able to finally communicate through broken Chinese (Go Marissa!) where we needed to go, and this lady helped us get on a bus.

A four hour bus where we sat on that plastic/rubber, grasslike/turflike rugs put over….well I’m not really sure what they were put over. Let’s just say that the plane ride to Hainan was looking pretty fun. But despite our soar butts, we made it to Sanya!!! The first night we stayed at the Sombrero Inn Hostel. It was funny, because we were staying in dorm  room, we had one other roommate we didn’t know. When we came in we introduced ourselves. Her name was Erin and she was there with some friends from the Air Force Academy. We talked for a bit about where we’re from, and then she left. About 10 minutes later the door opens, and in walks this man and he looks up at me (I was on a top bunk) and says “I’m from Idaho!” I, somewhat shocked at how bold he was to burst into our room and announce where he was from, choked back a laugh, and with the same enthusiasm said, “well great! Me too!”

“And I’m Mormon!” Hahaha everything made sense now. “Well come in!” we said.  He came in and there were about 5 people behind him. Apparently he was one of the friends of Erin! We all talked introduced ourselves. His name is Shelby too!(....so we call him man Shelby J). Though one of the guys behind him came to introduce himself and he shook my hand when he said his name…and then he didn’t let go for a little too long to be comfortable…..hahaha anyways. Shelby reminisced about the church with us, and then they headed out with a promise to meet up later (at least when the others started drinking).

So we went to the beach!!!! So great! And it was so cool. So I looked over and saw this man that looked like a cross between Santa and Gandolf…and he was even in a speedo, so it really can’t get any better. Well I pointed him out and of course Shelby needed a picture with him. What we thought would be a funny picture with a random stranger, of course turned into a missionary opportunity ;)

The man looked at Shelby while I was taking the picture and said, “You’re LDS, aren’t you”. He said he could tell, so naturally we started asking him what he knew. He was from Belgium and had been taught by the missionaries himself for a little while. He had to leave, but we told him that we loved our church, and he said he could tell. He said that we had more figured out than the missionaries that taught him, and it was noticeable. He was such a sweet man.

Then we headed back to the Hostel to enjoy some Mexican food!!!! It was such a welcome changeup ;) Chinese food is amazing by the way. Oh my heavens, I have fallen IN LOVE with vegetables! I never knew there could be this many!!!! But we were craving Mexican J

 

Then we headed to the streets to do a little shopping and we stumbled upon my favorite thing in China so far!!!! I have NO idea what it’s called, but it’s amazing. So you take a fruit, any fruit –we started with mango, (later in the week I chose banana and pineapple, and it’s to die for) and they juice it right there. Then they mix a bit of coconut milk or sweetened condensed milk (depending on the recipe) and pour it into a big metal dish. The dish is frozen, and somehow freezes the fruit liquid very quickly (If you’ve ever been to Sub Zero in Utah, it’s like that, but complete fresh fruit J ). You use a scraper to scrape it along, (it actually reminded me of scrambled eggs….hahaha), and then the pile it into a cup and it’s yours to devour! Oh my, it’s heaven.

Later we got cleaned up headed for bed. Stay tuned for more stories!

Missions and Marriage

Life is beautiful :) So I decided to go on a mission! I have decided that I can get married, or I can go on a mission AND get married. I can’t just prepare for both because if I do, I won’t go on a mission, because my heart’s going to pull me a certain way. If I gave my all, 100% towards going on a mission, the Lord would tell me if I should stay and get married. Whereas if I decided to get married, Heavenly Father’s not going to say no. So I want to go, and I’m going to start preparing!!! I’m meeting with my branch president this weekend to start the process :)
Stephen has been nothing but wonderful. At first it was a bit hard to digest (for the both of us), but he is so supportive and excited for me! Ah I’m so blessed!
It's crazy. Even though there are so many things going wrong (like my pilonidal abscess coming back and needing surgery, and being in china through it all, and needed to get physicals, and figure out how I’m going to pay for a mission, and figuring out how to make sure I'm focusing on the Lord, and focusing on the present, and all the other things with school and the culture), I feel so calm and so at peace, I'm not worried at all! You can call it the greatest tender mercy I’ve ever received. It's so rewarding! I can just feel Satan trying to use the fear factor on me. It's worked in every instance in the past to drag me down. But coming to China has taught me beyond belief that fear does not come from God, and that it's all in His time, and in His hands. I need not fear at all! Satan's gonna have to change his tactics :)

Two Callings; One Decision.

                                                                                                              Sunday, October 7, 2012
    I have tons to tell you about China's Hawaii, Hainan, but I've got more pressing news.
My world is spinning in a million different directions....Okay, just two.
    Every 6 months the church holds a worldwide address (like the state of the union address times 2) in which modern-day Prophets and Apostles speak and give modern day revelation. During these addresses, at the beginning they'll have news like where we'll be building a new temple. Last night at about 1am (General Conference is broadcasted a week later here, but we were still awake), Marissa, Shelby and I heard word that the age for eligible missionaries has been changed for boys from age 19 to age 18, and for women, age 21 to age 19. I stared in shock, I didn’t know what to think. My whole world flipped upside down.
    I have always wanted to serve a mission. I have a vivid memory of when I was 16, sitting in the foyer of our building in Pocatello. I don’t know why I wasn’t in class, I can’t remember. But I was talking to a woman, and she asked if I wanted to go on a mission. I said that if I was not romantically involved with anyone, I definitely wanted to go. She looked at me and shook her head, “You’ll go,” she said, “no doubt”. That memory has stuck with me my entire life.
    That statement I made to her was based on the fact that I would be 21. The circumstances have changed. I now have the opportunity to serve a mission and get married. The tides have changed. I truly believe that they changed it so more woman could do both.
    My heart instantly began to ache. I didn’t say anything for a good 10 minutes. I just stared at the ceiling. Finally, I grabbed my Book of Mormon and headed for the roof. I needed to be alone. I knelt down and instantly started crying. I prayed and prayed and prayed.
    The last couple of months I've fallen in love with a man and after 3 weeks we knew we were supposed to get married. We both talked to our families (and prayed like no other) and the spirit testified of the goodness of this desire.
    I want to serve, but I’m also in love with Stephen. I didn’t know what to do. Both are righteous decisions, and Heavenly Father would be so please with both. But which one is better, and which one is best? My heart was torn.
    I started opening my Book of Mormon to random pages, and reading underlined scriptures. All of them said to prepare, and all were kind of linked to missionary work. I went back to our room and got on Skype.
    I asked Matt to text mom and dad and see if they could get on Skype. Mom said she was in Sun valley, so she couldn’t, but dad could. He got on and I told him I didn’t know what to do. He responded with “We will support you in whatever you decide”. I asked him to pray for me so that I might know what would be best for me.
   I have always yearned to go on a mission, but it never really seemed to be feasible, but now it’s knocking at my door. At age 21, it’s advised to get married if you have the opportunity, rather than go on a mission. But at 19? This is my chance to do both. It’s my chance to serve. My chance to help bring the rest of our brothers and sisters to the fold. I need to be out in the field. It’s not a question about whether or not I have been called, it’s whether or not I want to heed this calling.
   Oh please pray that I will receive the Lord's will and make it my own. Pray that I will be in tune with the Holy Ghost so that I might know what the Lord would have me do.