No, we're not expecting. We'll leave that kind of news up to others.
We have known of an upcoming District Women’s Conference happening this month in Shanghai. At first we were all going to go, but we determined later on that our budget is tight enough that perhaps just Julie should go. After further discussion we determined to make the most out of our opportunities while we are here and decided, again, to take the whole family to Shanghai and make a weekend out of it. So we went ahead and booked a hotel, where several other branch families are staying, then we heard that President Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of 12 Apostles will be coming that same weekend and will be holding a Devotional just following the meeting. This is a pretty unique opportunity that might not otherwise have been afforded to our family back in Idaho. The whole district is still a pretty small group; perhaps only 500 people. Here is an interesting article about the LDS Church in China which includes some background history on President Nelson’s connection here.
We have known of an upcoming District Women’s Conference happening this month in Shanghai. At first we were all going to go, but we determined later on that our budget is tight enough that perhaps just Julie should go. After further discussion we determined to make the most out of our opportunities while we are here and decided, again, to take the whole family to Shanghai and make a weekend out of it. So we went ahead and booked a hotel, where several other branch families are staying, then we heard that President Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of 12 Apostles will be coming that same weekend and will be holding a Devotional just following the meeting. This is a pretty unique opportunity that might not otherwise have been afforded to our family back in Idaho. The whole district is still a pretty small group; perhaps only 500 people. Here is an interesting article about the LDS Church in China which includes some background history on President Nelson’s connection here.
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| President Russell M. Nelson President of the Quorum of 12 Apostles Of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints |
For the weekend we have a hotel about 10 minutes from the
Shanghai Branch Conference Center. We plan to swim, go to a museum, see the ‘knock
off’ market, (where copy cat brand name items are sold for cheap), attend District Women’s
Conference (Julie) and devotional following the meeting, then attend church
with the Shanghai branch on Sunday. I thought I had purchased train tickets
correctly online, until I prepared to go pick them up and discovered I had
purchased the tickets with the wrong departure date. Luckily our good friend
Bonbon, Maggie Hubble’s cousin, helped us get the departure date corrected at
the station and we are set to travel. Should be fun.
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Shanghai Science and Technology Museum
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Girls Camp – Klora and Kendra just returned from Girls camp
Saturday night. Since their young Women’s leader lives close to the church,
they just went home with her after camp and we met them there Sunday morning.
The theme of Young Women’s camp this year was “Embark in the Service of God”. Doctrine &
Covenants 4:2 . The girls stayed at a hotel and had “camp” at Baiguoyuan outside of Shanghai.
They ate S’Mores, roasted Starbursts and drank Hot Chocolate. What a treat.
They had a cooking contest, (Won 2nd place), hiked, had a testimony meeting,
etc. On Sunday morning Klora and Kendra were both invited to share their
testimonies with the branch and it sounded like a great experience for both of
them. Kendra collected email addresses from several girls there and has already
emailed them back.
Who doesn’t love school? Well, it might just be Kaleb, but
who really loves starting school in Kindergarten? He has had a particularly
hard adjustment. Not only is school uncomfortable, he barely understands “Hello”,
“Good bye” and “Sorry” in Chinese right now, so it has been a bit overwhelming
for him (and us). His school is nice and his teacher is great. She has already
had us over for an outstanding dinner that was equal or greater to a
thanksgiving feast in size and taste. Very, very nice. Hopefully he adjusts
better in the coming weeks.
New Teacher – This week Julie’s school got a new English teacher
from London named Daniel. He seems like a very nice guy and connects well with
the kids. Kyle invited him over for Dinner Saturday and he got a lot of
attention from our kids, including walking with Klarese, Ping Pong with Kyle
and Chess with Krista, we apologized several times. Nice to hold long
conversations in English though.
Rose Ice cream? – On Friday evening we took the kids who weren’t at girls camp out for ice cream. We avoided the durian and potato flavors, but Julie couldn’t pass up the Rose flavored ice cream. It was … unique, but good enough to eat.
Other adventures
We recently walked to Ta (Tall) Shan (Mountain) Park near our flat. We have gone there a few times before, but this time we made it to the top. Spectacular view.
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| Temple half way up Ta Shan Park |
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| View from the top |
For Mid-Autumn Festival, we were invited to Maggie's parent's house again for a wonderful traditional Chinese dinner followed the next day by a BBQ with teachers from Julie's school. We went to a hotel owned by one of the teachers families in Mogan Shan, which is a bit more of a resort town outside of Wukang, where we live. Mid-Autumn Festival was a great experience.
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| Maggie's parent' house |
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| Swimming in the stream |
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| Maggie's Dad |
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| Dinner at Maggie's Parent's house |
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| The BBQ at Mogan Shan |
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| Jane, the teacher at Julie's school in charge of the English program^ |
Well, this blog is getting a bit long in the tooth, we’ll
try to update again next week after we return from the devotional and Women’s
Conference in Shanghai.
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