WEEK 21

Seven Days, seven different views--

Monday- Sophie's view:so today i memorized 3 articles of faith 1,2,3. Our primary teacher said we get a prize when we memorize all 13. Big news! Spuddy, our elf,  has been back since Thanksgiving.  Brynn, Brigham, and Brooke said he would not come but he did.  It was such a big surprise. Some of the places we have found him are hanging upside down from the chandelier,holding a note.  Stuck in the a/c hole in the wall-half inside, half outside.  In the office with snowman shaped peppermint marshmallows.  We also found him in my mom's new apron pocket.  He hid in our green vegetables that looked like trees and he hid in the blinds.  For the nativity, I got to be Mary and Ian Ho was Joseph. I had to hold a jacket for baby Jesus.    

Tuesday-Brigham's view: Today is Tuesday! Well today I did a ton of school and finished algebra and digital photography. Later when I was done with school I went down to SeaWorld and picked up some pics for our visas. On my way back from getting the pics I went to my favorite restaurant and got fried rice for 10RMB ($1.60 US) so that was pretty sweet. After lunch I came home and watched sports center and Cake Boss.

Wednesday-Jane's view:Preparing my final lists for last shopping trips for the Christmas party.  We are having US imported ham, mashed potatoes, spinach/romaine salad with mandarin oranges, cranberries and toasted almonds and balsamic/orange vinaigrette.  Pies, cookies, rolls, red and green jello, green beans. The standard for the party is a US meal.  My friend Kathy is heading back to the states for a month so we went to lunch with her. We sat outside under an umbrella and ate ribs and sandwiches and salads and fries and cokes at Gypsy's. Kids had tennis and then we went over to the church to work on the program "passports". After they were cut, I sewed them together and we attached the flag stickers for the kids.  They will use these as their "ticket" to see Santa.  We also added the program and Christmas carol lyrics in the passport.  The youth played Christmas music and happily worked without complaining. They were super helpful and productive. Donna brought banana bread. We cleaned up our mess and called it a day.  

Thursday-Chase's View:On Thursday we woke up and had Seminary. I did about 2 hours of school. We had basketball practice at a nearby gym on the 3rd floor of a building. Before and after our practices there are tons of Chinese paying badminton. One of the corners of the room smells like pee. I think from the Chinese guys. After we practice we run back to their campus while doing workouts along the way. The Chinese people love staring at all of the foreigners running around and doing planks in the middle of Sea World. We went to Shannon's school play. The students made all of the plays and everything, so that was weird.

(Jane here- had a long day of errand running for the Christmas party with Rhoda, Pon, Elsa, Joyce.  We picked up our clothes from the tailor. Kind of a miss.  Sam's club for a cart full of food. After the play we walked to the music store to check out the ukuleles and guitars.  The kids started playing pianos and we made videos of Chase mock playing to Brooklyn's real playing.  Great fun. There were a couple of cats living in the music store, one mom and one baby kitty climbing all over the books and accordions. The dirty litter box is right there by the water bowl and food.)  

Friday-:Friday

(or as our chinese tutor calls it: "firday")

before I start, I need to apologize in advance for any grammatical errors... my English is getting progressively worse everyday we're here. ;)

This was my plow-through-school-all-stinkin'-day-until-my-eyes-burn-out-of-their-sockets day. You'd think I missed out on all the action, but what's more interesting than learning about the middle ages and how to graph quadratics? I even missed out on going out to eat at Bombay. They brought me back some curry and rice though, so that was good. Even though I was stuck in front of the computer screen for most of the day, mom freed me at about 8:30 by taking us on a "mandatory" shopping trip. Love my momma. We grabbed a taxi and headed to Coastal City mall. When we were almost there, we stopped at a stoplight at just the right moment  to witness 5 guys simultaneously peeing on the bushes. RIGHT BY THE ROAD. Get a bathroom people. We tried to forget that  nastiness by looking through the new forever 21. We then headed to Uniqlo (probably our favorite clothing store in china), and finished up at Starbucks. Do yourselves a favor and go buy a gingerbread hot chocolate there. (You're welcome) So after that we kinda lost track of time and ended up frantically trying to catch a taxi at 10:30 pm. Did I mention Brynn and Sophie were with us too? #waypasttheirbedtime. We passed some throw up, and lost 2 taxis because people kept beating us to them. Sophie said "If we catch one, you guys have to thank me because I said a prayer." A few minutes later, Brynn caught us a taxi. So good thing the little girls were there haha! Our taxi driver was super funny. He didn't speak much English, but he was really good at understanding our broken mandarin! So that was a fun ride. We didn't pass any peeing guys this time (score!) or at least we didn't SEE any. :/ Brigham, Chase and I stayed up a little longer to watch cake boss, and then we all headed to bed. We probably should've gone to bed earlier because the huge Christmas party was the next day, but who can pass up an episode of cake boss?

While Brooke was schooling it all day I took the little girls to the hair salon and they had hair wash/blow dried/shoulder & arm massages for 21 RMB, $3.50 US. They found a new activity-one they will miss when we move back home.   

Saturday-Brynn's View: Today was pretty legit. I didn't have to do school. HOLLA! Brooke and I decorated our room with Christmas art and white lights and a branch with stockings hanging from yarn.   Mom had to go to the bank and post office to mail a package of warm things to Ally, so the girls tagged along and got our nails done after.  We went home and then started preparing for the Christmas party. Dad, Brooke, Sophie and I watched an episode of the one and only CAKE BOSS!! I love that show! haha! After seeing the coolest cake ever made,  Brooke and I headed over to the church to help Sister Ho, Sister Sears and my mom. I got to peel those annoying stringy things off the oranges. I really like sister Ho, we were about to leave and she said to my mom, " You're gonna change right?" Went home and then got on my shoes for the party. I grabbed a few things and then headed down to the SPAH. I sat around while everyone was working super hard. I am a kid, what did they expect me to do?! That party was a blast! The food was dang good and the country presentations were very interesting. Got a new boyfriend! Cutest 1 year old ever! He would get on the stage, come back down, walk over to me, give me a hug and then sit on my lap. He did this routine about 16 times. And hey hey hey, i got to be a stinkin' cute donkey in the Nativity while all my friends were angels and wise men! All thanks to the blue eyed baby Gregson-he didn't want to be a donkey. We had to take off our shoes for the Netherlands tradition with the present in the shoe thing. Got a cool pen, a ball and two laser rings! YAY! Santa came and didn't even ask us what we wanted for Christmas! Dang I was excited. Can't fit all the details, siblings (A.K.A Sophia and Brigs) are rushing me. Went home and The Sharkowsi's and Shane slept over for church in the morning! Love and miss you all! - Brynn

Sunday-Todd's View A family who lives a few hours away, the Scharkowski's stayed the night after the Christmas party.  They have a little girl and boy who speak English and Mandarin fluently.  (Makes me feel like slacker :)  )

We left to church early to prepare for sacrament meeting and practice the songs for the program.

The program was really nice.  Jane sang with a group of women, Brooke sang with the young women, Brynn and Sophie sang with the primary and.....Jane played the flute, our friend Milani played the piano while Brooke, Brynn and Sophie sang "Stars were Gleaming" (in harmony).  It was really well done.  Chase, Brigham and I sat back and enjoyed.   There are some really talented folks in our small branch.  This south China district includes branches in Guangzhou, ours in Shenzhen and groups that meet together and connect in from a few other locations.   They are starting the process to organize branches in some of these other locations.

--One thing I learned about the church here a few weeks after arriving is that there are "native" China wards/branches that operate in parallel to the international branches here in China.  Current govt policy doesn't allow the 2 to mix.  So, we can't speak about the church or gospel topics to native Chinese or invite them to participate in any church-sponsored activities.--

Chase is still running all the technical aspects of the branch.  We have several monitors in several different rooms of the rented house we use for church and he keeps the video and audio piped into each room.  He also ensures that those connected remotely are able to see, listen and participate as needed through our video conference set up (China limits Skype so we use a service called "fast meeting").  He was running around a bit today because someone disconnected one of the monitors.  Brigham is starting to help him a bit and is in training so he can take over when Chase heads out on his mission.

(*btw.  We were checking on Chase's mission papers this week and found out that they were just sitting in the Area office...Salt Lake hadn't even received them yet.  The church doesn't give District Presidents access to the online system so it's really delayed things.   Chase has been ready to turn his papers in since October. Maybe his particular assignment is simply not ready.:)  )

A highlight from today for me was hearing our friend, Hey Ho, bless the sacrament.   He was ordained a priest last week, but Hey doesn't speak extemporaneously in English.  I think someone made fun of his English several years ago and he just stopped speaking.  He speaks at home and to his family in Cantonese, but won't speak otherwise.  He will read scriptures in seminary but won't speak off the cuff.  However, he gave the sacrament prayer today and did a great job.  He was asked to teach the lesson in YM's next week so we will see how that goes.  He wants to serve a mission, so speaking with people is something he needs to get comfortable doing.

A new member family came today.  Husband is not a member but grew up in Idaho and works for Oakley overseeing their manufacturing operations here.   Really nice folks.  2 little boys.  Jane invited them for FHE tomorrow. 

That's a wrap!

Trying hard to make it feel like Christmas over here.  Making plans to go somewhere soon.