January 4, 2015
To our dear family and friends,
Life in Jinan is very good.
We can hardly believe that this Friday, January 9th, we will
finish our first semester at SDU. As the
song goes “our life as a dream, our time as a stream.” We hope that all is well for everyone at home
and this new year will bring great joy and happiness to you. Our virtual branch president has given us a
challenge to set new goals to be more like the Savior and his other challenge
is “what happened in 2014, stays in
2014.” What he means is that we need to
leave our mistakes in the past and try to be better this year, try to start the
new year with a clean slate in our personal lives and in our relationships with
others. I love you all and hope that you
will forgive me for the mistakes I have made in the past.
We have had an exciting week!
Besides teaching every day, we did the following:
-Monday – Our last night with our BYU Idaho boys, Bryan and
Omar. We already miss them and the joy
they brought into our lives and our home.
All of the singles came to say goodbye.
We went to dinner at Southside Story Restaurant, then back for one last
game of Farkle and many goodbyes.
Wandale and Lulu were there. They
will be coming by tonight to celebrate his birthday, then we probably won’t see
any of them until the end of February when we return from the USA.
-Tuesday – Symphony concert at SDU Main Campus. All I can say is WOW! These students were fabulous. They played the music of Dvorak, Brahms,
Mozart and many other selections, then ended with a full choir and orchestra on
the finale of the Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. I have played almost every number they
performed and was so grateful that Richard and I could go. The line to get in was so long that they had
to turn away many students who wanted to come.
We were fortunate to have reserved seats. There were students crammed into the aisles
(sitting) and around the sides of the auditorium for the 90 minute
performance. I’m sure that it was a fire
marshall’s nightmare.
- Wednesday – Teaching, grading and packing for Harbin
- Harbin – We flew north for 2 hours and landed in 20-30
degree below freezing Fahrenheit temperatures in Harbin, China. None of us came totally prepared and we all
had to buy extra face masks, gloves, hats, hand and feet warmers. Even then, our fingers still felt like they
were going to break off from the cold when we took them out of our gloves to
take a photo. We were so glad to be back
in Jinan’s “balmy” weather. Actually, it
is much warmer than it was when we left.
On our Harbin trip, we saw Chinese men and women swimming in the
freezing lake. We were all amazed as it
was our first attempt to take pictures in the bitter cold and our fingers were
numb! Richard took some videos we will
have to show you later. We went down a
slide made of ice and Richard sailed over the ice on a sailboat with ski’s on
the bottom. He loved it. I was too cold to try that adventure, but
enjoyed watching him have so much fun.
He can’t wait to get home and get his boat on the water again…but no
arctic sailing for me. We then went to
Sun Island and walked along the ice covered paths to see some of the most
amazing snow sculptures in the world….animals, people, castles, etc. After that, we went to a tiger refuge with
tigers, white tigers and a colony of ligers in a natural environment (though I
don’t know what is natural about living in the snow in sub zero degree
temperatures) J. The next stop was the Ice Festival, like
Disneyland, only made of ice. There were
castles, cars, fish, people and hundreds of other amazing carvings, all
illuminated by the colored lights imbedded in the ice. After taking a horse drawn carriage ride
around the park, we had a photographer take us on a walking tour where she took
us to every site and took great photos.
Our friend, Mary Morgan who teaches in Xi’an came with us. It was a little pricey, but definitely worth saving
our fingers. It was also breathtakingly
beautiful. We will send some pictures,
but you might want to check out Harbin, China on the internet. We loved our trip and had a great flight home
to Jinan Saturday afternoon.
-Sunday – What a wonderful day it was with our Jinan
group. Our numbers were few (only 7),
but we were still one of the largest groups reporting in after sacrament
meeting. They mentioned today that they
don’t know of another branch like this in the world (virtual) that covers the
distances that we cover. I believe that
we have members all over China. Tonight
Wendale and Lulu will come over to celebrate his birthday. We probably won’t see him again unless we go
to South Africa one day. He leaves soon to
begin his 18 month residency in S. Africa.
Lulu is a member of the church and is the only member on our campus,
other than Richard and me. Wendale and
Lulu are boyfriend and girlfriend and met here in China. Ironically, their parents only live a few kilometers
apart in a town near Johannesburg. We
are glad to know them both. We hope to
keep the singles group going after we return from the USA at the end of
February.
Best wishes to all of you.
We hope Becky and Adam’s move to Payson, UT went well, that Brigham was
able to find a great apartment so he can begin his new job in San Antonio, TX
in a few days, that Melody and David are successful in their job hunting and
that all of you are doing well in your work and with your families. We love and miss you. May the Lord bless you always!
Love,
Mom, Carolyn, Grandma, Richard, Dad, Grandpa
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