January 18, 2015
Dearest family and
friends,
Hope all is well
with you in the states. We hope Josh
and Rachael and the kids are staying warm in Ohio and Brigham is driving safely
to San Antonio to his new job that starts on Tuesday. Thanks to Lindsay, Jessica and Andy for all
of your help in getting the Billings moved to Payson. Richard really enjoyed his 2 hour talk with
Rachel the other night. We really miss
you and look forward to seeing as many of you as we can when we are home.
We have enjoyed our
week off, however, we have been busy getting everything ready for our upcoming
travels (we leave our apartment at 5:30 am on Tuesday and return February 26th). We now have 2 large 44 pound suitcases to
take home, besides our carryon luggage.
We will be dragging those across China, Vietnam and Cambodia until we
leave for Las Vegas on February 15th. We will empty them in our storage unit and
fill them again and bring them home in June.
J
The weather in
Jinan has been cold, but the skies are blue and the air quality has been very
good the past 2 days. Yesterday morning,
we visited our dear friend, Dr. Trisha at her apartment. We met her parents, who are our age, and her
little two year old boy. It was fun
watching Richard on the floor playing cars and trucks with Bao Bao (which means
‘Treasure’ in Chinese). He and I went in
the bedroom and had a wonderful time with his canister of small black
beans. It is amazing how many fun things
a 2 year old can find to do with black beans. He could also name every car in the parking
lot (Honda, BMW, Toyota, etc.) It really
made us homesick for our little ones. Trisha’s
maid and her mom made homemade Chinese fried noodles (like in the packages back
home, only better). It was a very good
day.
We are grateful to
have our Virtual Branch and enjoyed the talks and lessons today. Some of our members are the only ones in who
live in their cities. There is a family
of seven in Harbin (yes, the city where we nearly froze). Other cities have just 2 or 3 members. We feel blessed to be able to meet
together. Our plans for our trip include
training in Hong Kong at the end of January as well as a trip to the Hong Kong
temple. I have missed the temple! I love the peace that I find there as well as
the knowledge that in the temple, families are sealed for eternity. I hope that you will go as often as you can
and that temple attendance will be a high priority for us all. I’m grateful for the years of service that
our family members have given in the temple.
In a few days, we
will be half way through our China experience.
I know that I need to send pictures, but most of them are on Richard’s
computer, so I will have him put them on my flash drive.
Some China
experiences that we mostly take for granted now are:
-tiny cars with 3
wheels (Richard wants one J)
-scooters and
bikes with children riding in the back – no hands
-village fruit and
vegetable markets with the same owners every day, standing in the freezing cold
or burning heat
-bicycles and
scooters with a small flatbed trailer behind carrying everything from recycled
boxes to garbage
-street sweepers
with wide homemade brooms
-cracks, dips and
crevices in all of the sidewalks on campus
-friendly smiles
and happy people, especially when we say “Hello” or “Ni Hao”
-getting off a
crowded bus and having Richard still on the bus when it pulled away
(fortunately, we had our cell phones and we were near our apartment)
-warm bedroom/cold
bathroom and kitchen
-short showers
(not enough hot water for two regular showers)
-laundry hung on
the porches
-beautiful Chinese
children who call us Meiguo [CL1] Nei Nei or Meiguo Ye Ye (American grandma
and grandpa)
We miss you, we
love you, and we are loving our Chinese experience. Please take care and be
safe. God loves us all and is watching
over us. Jesus is the “Savior, Redeemer
of our Souls.”
Love always,
Mom, Carolyn,
Grandma, Richard, Dad, Grandpa
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