Happy Thanksgiving

So yesterday was Thanksgiving. This was our second Thanksgiving in China, but would be our first real Thanksgiving dinner. Gary made reservations at a restaurant called "The Canvas" for us. We decided to take 5 of our closest Chinese friends to dinner with us, so they could experience their first Thanksgiving dinner: Caroline and her boyfriend, Leo, Linda Hu and her husband, Chen and their daughter, Christy. For some reason we don't have any pictures of Linda and her husband.

It was a wonderful night!! We had turkey (and I mean real turkey. Usually we have to settle for chicken), mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, vegetables, roll, salad and for dessert pumpkin pie cheesecake. So delicious!

We also got to have some fun and do some dressing up. See what I mean!

As is typical with Thanksgiving dinner, I ate too much and was full afterwards. It was just such an enjoyable experience. It made me feel so blessed that I could have Thanksgiving dinner with people we consider family here when we couldn't be with our family in America. The Lord has truly blessed us with an abundance of wonderful family and friends.

I am so thankful for all the Lord has given me. I am thankful for Gary and his sweet love for me. He takes me as I am and loves me anyway. He supports me, encourages me, teaches me, and truly cares about me. 

I am thankful for my children. They have truly been the greatest blessings in my life. They continue to teach me about the kind of person I want to be someday. They achieve, learn, grow, make mistakes, get back up and try again. I miss them very much!!

I am thankful for those who I consider my children both in America and in China. They are many. They are family. They are a part of me. 

I am thankful for my parents who taught me to live and love the gospel. They taught me about what a marriage is, both the good and the bad. I am thankful for Gary's parents who raised him to be the wonderful man he is today.

I am thankful for my siblings who continue to help me and who continually strive to be better each day. They take care of our parents because I cannot. They take care of their other family members and friends.

I am thankful for the rest of my extended family. They are many from both my side and Gary's side. They are amazing.

I am thankful for my best friend. I miss her so much. She has always been there for me and I hope I have been able to be as good a friend to her as she has been to me. She has gone through some tough times, especially in the 6 or so years I have known her, but she keeps going. She has taught me how to endure and enjoy!!

I am thankful for all of my other friends, old and young They help guide me along my path and make my journey more enjoyable. I watch them as they go through the changes and challenges in life and have so much admiration for them. I watch as many are becoming adults and going out into life. They are bringing souls unto Christ, becoming wonderful disciples and becoming even more wonderful as an individuals every day.

I am thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Lord is my shepherd. He guides my love. He protects me, helps me, strengthens me, forgives me and comforts me. I do not know where I would be without the gospel. I am glad that I am a part of it and will continue to try to be strong and be like my Savior.

I am thankful that I am in China. I am thankful for the opportunity to grow, learn and become a better person. I am thankful for the experiences here that help me to know that I can do hard things and that no matter where I am in the world, I can feel the Lord's love for me and His hand in my life.

New Experiences

I have stated this many times in this blog, but I am been so happy and grateful that I have been able to overcome many of my fears. I am grateful that I have gained much more self confidence so that I can do many things and try many things.

Once a month we go visit our friends in Chengyang. When we first started going, we only visited with one family. Now it has evolved to visiting 4 different families and one single lady at the same time. It is so much fun. I am actually getting to where I can stay and talk for hours instead of the one hour I used to stay. I am much more comfortable being with people, well most people. There are still some people that I struggle to spend time with, but this too is changing.

  

We went to a new place last night. It was unusual and wonderful. We got to BBQ our own meat and food. These new wonderful experiences make me feel so loved by my Heavenly Father, my Savior, my husband, my family and my friends. 

Even though I am far away from much of the turmoil that is going on in the rest of the world, I see it all as I check the internet. I am saddened by all the things that have happened in Paris and many other places in the world. Being with my friends here helps me to feel peace for my family while we are away. It helps me to realize that there is still good in this world.

Here are a couple of pictures of the delicious food. This may be one spot to have friends visit when they come to China.

Friday the 13th

In America, Friday the 13th, has always been considered a day for bad luck. I have never really taken much stock in this. In fact, 13, is one of my favorite numbers along with 9 and 21. Today is Friday the 13th. I definitely no longer think that Friday the 13th is a bad day. In fact, this Friday the 13th has been one of the best days I have had in China. I have had many great days, so for this to be the best, you can imagine it was a very wonderful day. I don't even know if I can put it into words, so that you can feel what I felt, but I will try.

I was able to sleep in this morning until the hour of 7. I am usually up between 5:30 and 6:30 during the week, so I feel lucky when I can sleep until 7. Had a lazy morning until 9:30. Then I went with my friend, Shelly, to a store called "Metro". It is like a Costco. There I found cheese (real cheese from Ireland) in a big package. Normally I pay about $6 for 8 oz of cheddar cheese here. I have had to buy it in these small amounts because I could not find bigger packages. Today I found a 2.5 kg package. I splurged and bought it. Cheese for a while now. Yeah!! I was also able to finally find me some bread pans, so that I can make an actual loaf of bread in my new apartment. I was so excited and happy.

After I got back from shopping with my friend, Gary and I went to meet another friend, Abner. We went to see the new James Bond movie, Spectre. It was a great movie; lots of action with a good story; not a lot of swearing; the Bond girl actually wore pretty modest clothing. A good time spent with Abner. He is our Chinese son.

Then the day just got better and better. Gary and I took a walk to get some dinner before he went to do his tutoring. We had delicious Korean barbecue. Yummy. We parted ways after dinner. I headed in the direction of the school. It was a nice night, only a little rainy, so I decided to walk. Gary headed to the bus to get class. I have always loved the rain and I love to walk in it.

On the way back to school, I passed a couple of cute little girls playing in the rain. They said hi to me and were so excited when I asked if I could take their picture.

They made me smile! I was feeling so happy and so grateful to be in China at that point and it got even better. 

There are so many times when I just do not have any idea of what the Lord has in store for me each and every day. I cannot comprehend how much he knows each one of us and how we can all be instruments in the Lord's hands.

I was continuing my walk back to campus, when I saw this lady pulling a dolly with a big box, a little box and a suitcase on it. It looked heavy from where I was. I got this feeling that I should ask if I could help her. Unfortunately, I did not immediately react. It took a couple of more times for the Holy Ghost to prompt me before I went over to the woman and asked her if I could help her. I should also note that she had a backpack on, too.

I was right the boxes were heavy. I cannot even imagine how she got that far from the long term bus station to where she was walking. It was heavy for the both of us to pull. As we walked, we started a conversation. A little conversation that is. She speaks only a little English and I speak only a little Chinese. She asked where I was from and if I was teaching English. I said yes, I teach English at Qingdao Da Xue. She said she had a 16 year old son. She told me the bigger box was filled with Yantai apples.

We walked for about 6 blocks. Then I helped her pull the dolly up to her apartment. It was on the 6th floor. It was very difficult. I don't know how she would have done it by herself. She may have called her son to help. I was happy to help her. It made me feel so good inside to do it. Her name is Zhong Yan and her son's name is Liu Haining.

Of course, as is Chinese culture, she invited me into her home to meet her son. She had me come in and sit for a bit. She opened her boxes and gave me some Yantai grapes and Yantai apples. It turns out that she works in Yantai while her son lives here in Qingdao. She comes home every Friday and goes back to Yantai every Monday. Her husband is a sailor. He is in Europe right now. Sometimes Haining's grandmother comes to check on him. Zhong Yan is a doctor. It always amazes me how many families have to go to another city for work.

I forgot to tell you. The box filled with apples weighed 25 kg. It had about 150 apples in it. No wonder, the packages weighed so much.

We took pictures and then they asked if I had eaten dinner. This is the Chinese way to ask you to eat with them. I had already eaten, but she was so excited to have me come with them that I said no. I told her I would be happy to go with them to dinner. Haining wanted to go to McDonald's, so that's where we went. I had a Big Mac. Tastes just like at home.

It was wonderful to listen to them speak in Chinese. I was so content and happy just to be with them. We went home together on the bus, a very crowded bus. They sent me home with a bag of grapes and a big bag of apples.

 

I just couldn't help but marvel at the blessings of the Lord. If I had decided to take the bus back I would have never had met them. I would have not been able to do some service and help. I would not be feeling so blessed, happy and at peace if I had not listened to the Spirit and helped her. What a great day to be alive and what a great day to be in China!!! I am truly blessed!!

Almost Winter

China uses the Lunar calendar as well as our calendar, so their first day of winter is different than ours. They actually celebrated the first day of winter on the lunar calendar on Sunday night. A friend of ours took us to dinner to eat dumplings. This is a must on the first day of winter. It means luck.

Because winter is coming soon, I wanted to take perhaps my last fall walk of the year. Badaguan is the best place to go. It is beautiful, peaceful and relaxing. I was walking by myself, so I had my headphones on listening to LDS music. As I was walking, looking at the beautiful trees, and listening to beautiful music, I was able to feel the Spirit. What a wonderful day it turned out to be!

I love fall!