I am SO happy to be in China. I want to take some conversational Chinese classes. I think babies have more fun learning Chinese than learning English. I find myself always wanting to imitate the speech I hear. It's irresistible.
Zhao Ting is Xiaomei's roommate. She is so sweet. I want to package her in a Chinese takeout box and bring her home to America with me. Last night she played some hymns on her Kawai piano and I sang I know that my Redeemer lives, a song Sister Wang always wanted to sing my first transfer, and truth reflects upon our senses, one of her favorites. I love that I could sing those hymns in a Communist country without missionaries.
I took a most interesting shower. They don't use the bathtub in this apartment. They just shower on the floor. There's a drain on the floor. I think I left my shower shoes...
On the way to church (taxi - subway - taxi), we passed an old man sitting on a bench with his pet rabbit on the ground next to him. We passed a couple of bikes with the guy pedaling and the girl on the back side saddling. I thought it was cute. Apparently it's illegal.
The RS president reminds me of D. Grant.
Brother Lewis suggested accurately that Sister L. [my mission president's wife] is one of the world's greatest missionaries. [My mission president and his family used to live in Shanghai and attended church at the same branch.]
So excited to see my converts in a few hours. My sheaves.
ZHENGZHOU
I am feeling laden with sheaves. I arrived in Zhengzhou to Richard, Jackie, Amber (Jackie's fiancee/wife), and Richard's uncle (husband of father's sister), though so far he has no name. We went to eat at some little restaurant. I had some trouble with my chopsticks. So funny. So Jackie served me food every once in a while. As we walked out (we had a private room to avoid smoke and staring), a teenage waiter boy was poised with his camera phone open and pointed directly at me. Premeditated paparazzi behavior. It was all I could do to keep from laughing but I lost composure when I walked out.
Oh, for dinner we had some kind of vegetable that apparently grows in the mud. The cross section looks like this: [ drawing ] okay that was a poor representation but it resembled Swiss cheese and reminded me a little of water chestnut. Also, some kind of preserved pork, spicy tofu, baby Chinese cabbage, and soup with noodles like 1 inch wide and in some cases a couple of feet long.
Caption: Lotus rootI wanted to make a note that Jessie from the airplane scolded me for not using more expensive beauty products. She asked me if I use Clinique. She was disappointed when I said I use the stuff that costs $3. :)
So at church Xiaomei introduced me to Brett E. from Bountiful, who served in Hong Kong then learned Mandarin at the U. I also met a Chinese Australian from Perth. I was so excited to hear his accent. His name is Kaolin or something.
OH. As we got off the subway, Silent Night in English was playing on the speakers. Weird: It's February and this is not a Christian country.
Tomorrow we visit the Shaolin temple. I am so excited to spend time with these people. I am so happy to be here.
People at church today talked about the L.'s (I went to their old branch) and how wonderful they are and how thy miss them. It really makes me want to be excellent and develop good habits and be selfless so I can have an excellent family. Elder, oops President, Eyring's most recent First Presidency message said that many people he's interacted with report that the Mormon family they knew were the finest people they ever knew. I want to live so others can say that about my family and be attracted to the gospel. I have a lot of practicing to do. I think living in a foreign country as a family is great preparation for being those fine people.
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