shi - yes

Tuesday was the least eventful day out of our vacation because ILP gave us the OK to leave YangShou and head back to Zhongshan. For the morning and afternoon we just shopped, ate food and watched movies. It was nice to relax though because we were so tired from the previous days! When we were about to leave, the hostel owners took lots of pictures with us and left two spots on the wall for us. The owners are a young couple who are about 30 years old. I decided it would be really cool if I started a hostel in the States because you would get to met so many cool people from around the world, but then as I thought about it there aren't nearly as many cool things to see in the States then there are to see in China.

As we started heading to the bus stop to get on another sleeper bus it started pouring rain again. It was unfortunate because we were all wet on the bus so it was a little stinky. We made it back to Zhongshan safely but as usual we looked liked a massive mob of stinky sleepy white people walking through the city.

gongyuan - park

Monday morning we relaxed all morning and did some shopping. Majority of the group left to see the cave we had found yesterday, so the rest of the group and I decided we were going to go hiking in Xing Ping. If you look on the back of a 20 Chinese dollar bill you can see where we hiked to. Once we got to Xing Ping we started hiking up the mountain. The hike consisted of very steep stairs and ladders we had to climb up. It took us about 30 minutes to hike up but it was TOTALLY worth it. It is definitely the prettiest view I have ever seen. As we got to the top it started pouring rain! It made the hike even better though. Although, as we started hiking down the stairs got super slippery. It was a little bit dangerous but we made it down safely. When we got down the mountain we chilled inside a hostel for a while and ate pizza. Then we caught a bus back to YangShou. We were completely soaking still so we took showers and watched movies in our hostel.

shui - water

Sunday morning we went to the bakery to get breakfast and then we rented motor scooters. I was too scared to drive so I made Anna drive me. Anna, Brittney, Mckenna, Trent, Zach, Sabriana and I all rode on motor scooters and drove back to the same bridge jumped off of on Thursday. It was awesome because we got to see more of the city! I eventually got brave enough to drive the scooter... almost crashed a couple of times, but I got really good! As we were exploring we came across this really cool cave that was filled with water. I still had a cold but the other kids I was with jumped in the water and swam in the cave. We did some more exploring and after a while we stopped to get lunch and then headed back to the hostel. As we started driving back it started raining and was super windy... we got a little piece of the typhoon.

xia zai ji dian - what time is it now

When we woke up on Saturday we were told that we wouldn't be leaving that day because of the typhoon. They said the typhoon was going to hit while we would be traveling back. Zhongshan was supposed to get hit pretty hard and all the buses and shuttles would be shut down. I was very excited we would get to stay longer in YangShou, but some of the other people were mad because they wanted to see the typhoon hit.

After hearing about the good the news we went on a bamboo raft ride. It was a 45 minute bamboo raft down the river. Along the way we saw Chinese guys swimming in the river looking for valuable along the river floor. When we got halfway we motioned to our driver that we wanted to hike along the shore. He some how understood our charades and so we stopped along the shore a walked around for a little bit. We were scared he was going to leave us so we couldn't go far.

After the awesome bamboo raft we got breakfast, did some more shopping and took a much needed nap. After our naps we rented some more bikes and biked to the mud caves that were about 40 minutes away from our hostel. When we made it the mud caves they took us on a 15 minute tour of the cave. The cave was lit up with lights and during one part we had to bow to a Buddha. I didn't know what they were saying to me but I bowed three times with an incest stick they gave me. Once we made it far into the cave we jumped into the pool of mud! It was pretty cold but it felt like swimming in thick chocolate milk. It is every kids dream to swim in chocolate milk! After soaking in the mud for a while we rinsed off and headed to the hot springs. The hot springs were in the cave as well but we had to walk a little while to get to them. The hot springs made the whole experience! We relaxed a while in the hot springs and met some people from Australia. After we biked back to the city and got some really good dumplings. It was definitely one of the funnest days I had in YuangShou!

ke min - Camille (my Chinese name means smart)

On Friday me, Trent, Carmen, McKena and the camera a crew decided to go to the rice fields. We were the only ones that wanted to go because the others didn't want to go on a three hour bus ride to get to Guilin. We had a bus pick us up at 7:30 in the morning and we drove for three hours until we got to Guilin. Once we got there we decided to pay extra to visit the Long Hair village. At the long hair village there are a bunch of women with hair as long as 2 meters. They did a few dances and acted out one of their bridal ceremonies. Afterwards, they showed us one of their homes. It was a cool cultural experience, but we were a little rushed during the whole thing. We immediately got on a different bus that took us to the rice fields. Once we got to the rice fields we started hiking up to the top with our tour guide, but a long the way I got distracted... I saw some cute bracelets that I wanted. Trent stayed behind with me to look at them too. It took a while to buy the bracelets because I had to barter with the lady. Once I finally purchased the bracelets Trent and I had completely lost the group. We wondered around for a while looking for them, but we had no luck. We didn't know what time we had to be back at the bus so we decided to just hike to the top of the mountain by our self. It was very pretty when we made it to the top... of course! However, once we made it to the top we were scared we were going to get left so we hurried down. As we were headed down we found part of our group and they didn't even know we had been left behind. Trent and I felt really loved...not. Since we headed down early we stopped to get some lunch. After lunch we had another three hour bus ride back to YangShou. Once we got back to YangShou it was around 7:45 so we met up with others for dinner. It was awesome because we found this place that sold hamburgers! I got a hamburger because I can't remember the last time I ate protein. It wasn't very tasty but I felt like I had a lot more energy after eating that much protein!

xianxin - careful

Once we arrived in YangShou we walked in a huge line along the side of the rode till we made it to our hostel. When we got to our hostel it was about 6:30 am and we wern't allowed to check in until 1:00. So we decided to rent bikes and bike a river. Ever since I got to China I told myself I would never drive, because of how crazy it is here. There are no rules to follow when it comes to driving and there are zero cops to enforce laws. However, when we rented bikes I broke that promise I made to myself... when we were in the city there were defintely a few close calls. We all swevered in and out of the cars, motor scooters,  and people. After getting out of the city a little bit though it was very pretty! We made it to this beautiful river with bamboo rafts all along it. We saw a bridge over the river and decided it would be a great idea if we jumped off it. It was pretty funny because there were so many bamboo rafts floating in the river we had to wait for them to pass and then hurry and jump in the water! Once the first person jumped in the water we had a huge crowed of tourists and Chinese people watching us. The Chinese on the bamboo rafts were so excited to see us jumping off the bridge they would tell us to jump while they were right below us in the water. We tried explaining to them that they had to move before we would jump, but that language barrier is still an issue for us. After bridge jumping for a few hours we ate some lunch and biked back to our hostel. Once we got back we showered and went shopping. While we were in YangShou, China was celebrating the Mid-Autumn festival, so there were a ton of people! YangShou is tourist city so they had a lot of shops and vendors a long the street. After shopping for a while, my friend Carmen and I got seperated from the group and had to find our way back to the hostel.

Later that night we went to a fish show. It was very interesting because we piled onto a bamboo raft when it was pitch black outside. As we started driving away another bamboo raft with a small light pulled up along us with a man standing up rowing it. Attached to the front of his raft were about 10 ducks. The ducks would swim for a while under the water catching fish and then would come back up to breathe. After a little bit the man rowing the raft would grab a duck, squeeze it's neck and empty all the fish into a basket. Apparently the ducks don't sallow the fish because they have a rob tied around their necks. Our tour guide was a very loud and funny man which made the experience even better.

 On our bike ride we passed this health clinic with people sitting outside with their IV's

 On our bike ride to the bamboo river. The mountains in Yangshou are amazing!

wǒ xiǎng nǐ - i miss you

Alright I am way behind on my blog, but that is because I have been in YangShou the past few days and didn't have access to my blog. I will re-start my blog from last Wednesday.

Last Wednesday I was told by my head teacher that I would be changing classes. Apparently ILP has a rule that every teacher should only be teaching 8 kids. Since me and a few of the other girls have more than 8 kids, ILP had to hire 2 more teachers. These teachers are not ILP teachers, so they get paid, don't teach the kids through the ILP method and are allowed to teach more kids at a time. The two hired teachers are from London. On Tuesday and Wednesday one of the teachers watched me teach all day because he would be taking over my class. Wednesday was my last day with my Junior A class and my Chinese teachers were super upset. They kept grabbing my arm telling me not to go. I kept telling them I didn't want to leave their classroom either and I told them to convenience my head teacher to let me stay!

After school on Wednesday we headed back to our apartments and packed for our vacation. We met up with the Kiayin group and headed to the bus stop together. We all made it to the fruit market on one bus, but we had to separate onto different buses when we got to the fruit market. Everyone made it to the bus stop expect one group. We had no clue what to do because we couldn't get a hold of them and they only had 15 minutes to get to the bus before it left. It was scary because one of the girls that had gotten lost had all our tickets for us girls. Thankfully, they made it the bus stop with 30 seconds to spare.

Once they arrived we all crammed on the sleeper bus. This was our first experience on a sleeper bus. The bus ride was 12 hours from Zhongshan to YangShou.  I wasn't able to get a picture, but the inside of the bus had two levels of beds. The beds are very skinny and are a little shorter than me. I ended up getting the bed in the very back corner. It was actually a lot better than I expected, but during the middle of the night the ride got extremely bumpy. So bumpy that I caught air as I was laying in bed. I thought I was going to throw up but fortunately I kept it together and didn't throw up. While I was a little sick I looked out the window to the BEAUTIFUL landscape. I can't get over how pretty it is here...that's saying a lot since I have lived in Canada.

xiao - small

On Saturday I woke up and started doing my lesson plans for the following week. As I was finishing them the girls in my apartment were leaving for the water park. I wasn't finished with my lesson plans so I told them to go without me. Thank goodness I didn't end up going because while they were at the water park they got a tablet, an iPhone and 900 Yuan.

After I had finished my lessons plans a few of the girls from the apartments below me and I went to walking street. I bought some crazy Chinese pants, beats earphones cute hair ties. Along walking street there was this park we decided to explore. Holy smokes. That is one of the prettiest parks I have ever been too. It was a massive park that was so peaceful and green. Within the park there were Chinese structures that looked really cool. I didn't have my camera at the time so I'm going to have to go back and take pictures. After we left the park we went to get our to nails done and went out for diner.

gongyuan - park

On Friday after teaching we had kung fu class! If I heard right our instructors name is Spring. He made us warm up by doing a lot of stretches, push ups and sit ups. He thought it was funny to see us complain about doing warm up. After we were warmed up he showed some legit moves. I don't know what they were called but we were swinging our arms,  punching our fists and doing kicks. He made us go to the front of the room and practice our new moves in front of the whole class. Afterwards he showed us his pro moves.

After kung fu class we went downtown to a Karaoke place. It was way cool because we reserved a room for my group, the Kaiyin group and a few of the Chinese coordinators. It was a room full of couches and a big TV. We karaoked for the full 4 hours! And of course he we karaoked/ danced to Gangham Style. After karaoked we went to dinner at McDonalds.

gonggong qiche - bus

Well I have gotten behind on my blog and can't remember everything I have done...

On Thursday our filming crew came. Yes, we have a filming crew that will be following us around until the end of November. ILP hired them to help advertise for their program. Because of the missionary change they don't have has many volunteers as they once had. Tell everyone you know about ILP and tell them they need to be volunteer! Our filming crew consists of one couple and a married man. All three of them go to BYU Idaho and are very nice people.

They showed up on Thursday as we were teaching. After school we had cooking class with the cook at my school. Our cook's name is Michael and he is the BEST! He is so nice to us. He makes awesome food everyday for us and everyday he gives us a bag of fruit. On the weekends they make us a bag full of rolls. (This is why I'm going to gain weight while I'm here). During cooking class Michael showed us how to make fried dumplings. They were dang good!

Later that night after dinner we played badminton with the Kaiyin group and their coordinators. We thought we would challenge the Chinese coordinators to a game of badminton! We taught them how to play around the world. It was way fun!

bu young xie - you're welcome

Tuesday was TEACHER'S DAY! When we got to school kids were handing out flowers to all the teachers. One of my students mom came up to me after giving me a flower and said "Nicole doesn't know English yet." I was a little thrown off by her comment because I have literally only had lesson with my homeroom twice. What does she expect after the first week? For her daughter to be fluent in English.... Out of all my students she is one of the hardest students for me to get to speak. So i'm really going to have to focus on Nicole and getting her to speak. As my kids were lining up today to have outside time, little Bosco grabbed my hand and put it in his pocket of his pants. I think he was just trying to show we me he had pockets, because he grabbed the Chinese teacher's hand too. He is SO cute!!! After school we had another training meeting of how we can improve our teaching.

When we got home from school a few of us girls did some insanity! I get so lightheaded working out here. We sweat pools of sweat, so we have to drink a ton of water. After my apartment did some major cleaning. Then we got ready for our teachers day dinner. My school took all the teachers our to eat to this very nice restaurant. There were at least 50 teachers there (including the Chinese teachers) and there was a ton of food! They probably brought out around 20 platters full of food one right after the other. I ate duck, shrimp, beef, mushrooms, and chicken (the was included). However, majority of the food I ate I had no clue what I was eating... After they gave out prizes. The Chinese teachers acted COMPLETELY different at the dinner party then they do at school. They were singing, dancing and doing the splits at the party. At school I am sometimes scared to talk to them... The Chinese sure know how to party!

 Anna and I at the dinner

 All the ILP teachers at Bond

 First thing they brought out was this soup

 This plate had duck and bacon... the rest of the meat was mystery meat

 Mushrooms and mystery meat

 There is the chicken head!

 The shrimp... I had troubles peeling everything off

 Yummy soup with sprouts, beef and I don't know what else

 This had corn, nuts and some random things in it. It was pretty good!

 This was straight up beef so it was legit.

 Fish... I actually didn't try it because I got distracted with the prizes they were giving out

 Anna and I both won a bottle of windex... oh yeah!

 This was the dessert they brought out. It was some weird sticky jelly cake.

 This is me trying the dessert... 

 Me and my Chinese teacher! She is AWESOME. I'm so glad she helps out in my class, because she is very helpful and she is good with the students.

dui bu qi - i'm very sorry

Monday was a good day! School was good...no exciting stories. After school we had our first Chinese class. Daisy, one of our coordinators taught the class for about 40 minutes. She told us briefly about the Chinese language, went through how to pronounce certain letters, and taught us some words.

After school all the girls at my school decided we would go to a Chinese spa. We walked up to this huge building with a Ferrari parked out front. We attempted to explain to the people at the front desk that we wanted to go to the bathhouse and get massages. It was a disaster... not one of them could say any English. After 15 minutes of no success, we put our technology to use and used Google translate for our entire conversation. It was pretty funny, we passed our phones back and forth with the Chinese to communicate. After we got everything situated, we got escorted back to the women's spa area. The fun part about living in China is we are millionaires here! The spa was so legit. We got our own lockers with our own flip flops. After we changed we took showers, which included nice shampoo and body wash and face wash! And the showers were so clean (unlike our apartments) Then we swam in this huge hot tub with fancy seats and bubbles. They also had a counter full of fresh fruit and drinks. We lounged around eating the food, swimming and sitting in the sauna rooms. After we all decided on a different service to get. Majority of the girls, me included, decided to get a head massage. A few of the girls did cupping...it was terrifying to watch. They had the girls lay down and then they lit a cup on fire and placed it all over their backs. It looks like the girls have 16 massive hickies on their backs.  Thankfully, I decided against getting the cupping. For my head massage they took us to the top floor of this building and took us to this huge room full of comfortable recliner chairs with TV's. In the middle of this room they had a long bar of more fresh fruit. If there was any fruit we saw that hadn't been cut, we just handed it to the workers on the other side of the counter and they would cut it for us. The massage felt awesome of course. The lady massaged my face, head, and shoulders for a whole 45 minutes! Afterwards we lied around in our recliner chairs for a couple of hours. After we got sick of the fruit and wanted a real dinner we showered again and left the spa. I should mentioned I spent an evening at this spa and got a head massage for less than 50 US dollars! Wassup! After we went and got pizza.... and then we went swimming at the Kaiyin pool.

 This is my school I teach at! It's such a nice school to teach at! It is one of the few schools in China that teaches English all morning.

 Anna and I getting pumped to go to the spa

 Inside the Royal Spa

nǐ hǎo ma - how are you?

I really love Sunday's here. Some might think that we don't gain much from church while we are in China because we only have sacrament meeting over Skype. However, I believe I have gained a lot more from church while being here. I feel the spirit so strongly. I feel as if living in China is kind of like living in a spiritual "fog" that you must penetrate personally. I am thankful I am able to still attend church here. My first counselor here sent out an e-mail on Saturday night and I really liked this comment he made, "Let us fill in the spiritual gaps in the environment here with more fervent prayer, scripture study, service, and attention to the living prophets and apostles." It is my responsibility to fill in those spiritual gaps.

After church I still wasn't feeling great so I hung out with Anna while some of the girls took naps. Later we went to Kaiyin for dinner and then walked around the track and played on playground with the Kayin group. After we had the Kaiyin group over for snacks and games!

cèsuǒ zài nǎli - where's the toilet

On Saturday I relaxed all morning and then started planning my lessons for the following week. We have to turn in all our lessons for the following week on Saturdays by 4. After I finished my lesson plans me, Karina, Anna, and Brittney took the shuttle downtown to get some food. We went to A-Ok to get a smoothie and then we got some noodles at a restaurant. After we walked around and did some shopping. While some of the girls were shopping I was on the street taking pictures when I noticed a boy around 11 years old was peeing! He was with his mom just peeing on the sidewalk! How is that normal here?! After we did some shopping we decided we needed to go back to our apartments to get some more money. However, we must have taken the wrong shuttle because we got lost for two hours. We finally rode the shuttle back into town and got on the right shuttle. Once we got home it was time for dinner so we tried a different pizza store. It was SO good! In the pizza store they had some American food like tortillas, cheese and nutella! We got back to our apartments and the other girls wanted more pizza and food so they went back. I was kind of in a bad mood and I had lost my money so I just stayed home. After they got home we watched some more how I met your mother.

 The traffic here is crazy scary! Every time I get on a shuttle bus I feel like we are about to crash.

 Peace out.

 Smoothies at A-Ok with Anna and Brittney! Mmmm SOOO good!

wo ai ni - i love you

On Friday I taught my kids how to make pizza. It is kinda hard to get my kids to talk and when they do it's in Chinese. I told one of my kids "No Chinese!" and he freaked out and started speaking more Chinese really fast. While I was in the baby class today I was helping Nikki with her lesson and I was holding this little boy named Tommy. Nikki was trying to get the kids to say "I want a turn." So while I was holding Tommy, I kept saying "I want a turn", "I want a turn". Next thing I know he started stuttering for a while and then he said 'I want a turn". It was the highlight of the day!

After class on Friday I unintentionally took a 2 hour nap. After waking up from my two hour nap we went to Kaiyin for dinner. After dinner we played some more soccer. When we were playing soccer two Chinese guys started taking pictures of us. It's so funny people will stare forever at white people here. They don't care that it's rude. We are just so foreign to them! After playing soccer me, Anna, Brittney and Karina went back to our apartments and watched how I met your mother.

zàijiàn - goodbye

Today I was actually able to teach my lesson in my homeroom class, because we had enough time. I taught them how to make ice cream cones. It was a little difficult because they didn't talk much, and when they did it was in Chinese. I get evaluated by my head teacher tomorrow, so she will be able to give me some pointers. I have this one kid in my class named Colton who is very disobedient. He often times is in a corner doing his own thing because the Chinese teachers can't get him to do anything. So today I tried get him involved and went over to him and started giving him high fives. I started walking backwards while giving him high fives to get him to sit down at his seat. As soon as we got half way he realized I was tricking him and ran back to his corner...

After school today we meet up with the Kaiyin group and hung out with them for a little bit. Then we took the shuttle to McDonald's again because we were craving an Oreo McFlurry. Then we went to the bakery to get some bread and peanut butter. Afterwards we relaxed at our apartment since we haven't done very much relaxing.

 This is part of my group and the part of the group from Kaiyin!

 This is the Kaiyin school - it's a lot bigger than my school because it's a boarding school.

 This is very common in China.

The entrance to our apartment complex. It's so pretty here!

buyao - no thank you

On Wednesday we had another day of school... some of the kids still cry when they come to class, but they are warming up to me. I know I'm not supposed to have favorites, but my favorite right now is this little boy named Bosco. He will grab my hand when he walks in line with the class and waves to me when I walk past my classroom. And when I change him he likes to grab my head and hold it against his forehead. I'll have to get a picture with him. Also during class today one of my girls, Nicole, banged her head on something. I don't know what happened because I was not in the room at the time, but when I got back in the classroom the Chinese teacher made me hold ice on her head. While I was tending to this little girl Bosco went on a long tangent in Chinese about Nicole's head. I know he was talking about her head because he kept pointing to it. It was so cute watching him try to explain to me what happened to Nicole in Chinese.

After school some of the girls from my school got together and did insanity with Shuan T. It's even harder doing insanity here, because there isn't AC in the living room! It's a good thing we worked out though, because we eat so many carbs here. We have rice and noodles for every meal, but we don't get full so we like to eat bread with peanut butter for a snack....I'm definitely lacking on protein here. After we worked out we ate dinner at Kiayan and then played soccer with the ILP group from Kiayan. It was SO much because the grass was super damp so we were sliding every where. I completely with collided with this dude and now I have nasty bruise on my knee. After we were done the Kiayan boys offered to take us home on their newly purchased scooters. (here in china you don't have to have a license to drive an electric scooter) So I braved getting on a scooter on the crazy Chinese roads. No worries, I survived! :)

wǒ bù zhīdà - i don't know

The second day of classes were a lot better because I knew the schedule. One of the kids in my class had his named changed to "Sparkle", because his parents didn't like the name Hayden I gave him. I feel bad for that dude.

After school we went to McDonalds and then to Walking Street for some major shopping! I got three shirts and pjs for my little brother. I love and hate the shopping here. I love it because a lot of the items are one of a kind, but that means things only come in one size.

 McDonald's delivers here in China! It's so cute seeing these guys walking around and riding on their bikes.

Hittin up the McDonalds

jiǎozi - fried dumplings

First day of school... I was pretty nervous starting the day. We got picked up by a bus from our apartments in the morning and went to the school. We had a few minutes to prep for our classes. Afterwards I had to lead opening with my kids. During opening we are supposed to go through a weather chart and a calendar explaining those things to them. But since I have my own classroom with 12 kids I have to do opening by myself. For the first two weeks my head teacher just wants me to sing songs with them.... so I sing in front of 12 children while they give me a confused look. Afterwards the kids go to the bathroom, wash their hands, and get a drink of water. Then they eat breakfast in their classroom with the Chinese teachers while I eat breakfast in the cafeteria with the other American teachers. After breakfast I go back to my homeroom class and I am supposed to teach them my lesson, but we ran out of time for me to give my lesson because I had to give them names. I named all the kids who didn't have an American name. Some of the names I picked the Chinese teachers thought they were too hard to say (example: Tanner). I also accidentally named a girl with a boy name, so they made me change that... And then to make things better one of the parents requested that their child have a name with a "x" in it. The only thing that came to mind was "Exodus", but I knew if the teachers couldn't say Tanner, Exodus was going to be a stretch. He ended up getting named Harry. After they go through the same process again of going to the bathroom, washing their hands and getting a drink of water. Then they went outside for an activity. After we brought them back into the classroom and changed them into different clothes. I don't know if I mentioned this but IT'S SO HUMID HERE, so that's why we change them. Once again they go to the bathroom, wash their hands and get a drink. Next they have a snack. During this whole time there are 2 or 3 Chinese teachers instructing them, but I tell them what to do in English after the Chinese teachers finish talking. In the chaos of everything I turned my back on two kids playing and next thing I notice was one kid biting the other on the shoulder. Poor kid had an intense bruise!  After snack time I went to the Pre-K classroom while Anna rotated to my homeroom class. It was so hard teaching the little 2 year old's, because they don't pay attention. After teaching/ watching the pre-k for about 40 minutes I went back to my home room for playtime. Then as they started lunch I was finished for the day and went back to the cafeteria to eat lunch. My school has the yummiest food! The bus picked us up again and drove us back to the apartments.

After school we met up with the boys from the Kaiyan school and went downtown to explore. We tried stuff at the bakery and tried smoothies from a store called A-OK! The Kiwi smoothie is the most amazing smoothie I have ever tasted. After exploring for a few hours we went and ate at a yummy restaurant! It was a long day, but it was fun!

 It's so pretty here. I never knew it was so jungle-like and green in China!

 All the girls teaching at my group!

wǒ chī bǎole - i'm full

On Sunday we had church at 10 am. We crammed 25 people into a tiny living room. In China we have to Skype into a branch and listen to their meetings. It was a very neat experience. Experiences like these make my testimony grow for the gospel. As I was sitting in our tiny living sweating during sacrament meeting I felt the spirit so strongly. It's amazing that even in a country where religion is less tolerated by the government, that people still gather for church. I am grateful we have a group of men close enough to us to administrator the sacrament to us each week. I was talking to the girls that have been here for a month and they said they haven't been able to take the sacrament because there weren't any guys here. This Sunday it was testimony meeting so we were fortunate to hear from people from all over the world. I enjoyed the Stake President's testimony about repentance. He explained that it is a hard process because of Satan's temptations, but yet it is so easy if we just reach out to Christ for help.

After church we ate lunch at the Kiayan school and then we headed back to our apartment for a training meeting. At our training meeting I was assigned the "Junior A" class - they are  3 - 4 years old. I then planned my lesson of the 3 Little Pigs for my drama lesson.

Afterwards me and the girls in my group went out to get pizza. We were craving the pizza we had had from the night before... As we sat down we noticed a white man in the resturant.  In China when you see a white person there is an automatic connection. As a result my head teacher walked up to him and invited him to dinner. He accepted the invite and joined our table full of girls. Come to find out he is from Switzerland and was in China because he doing an internship for some business. It was entertaining as Anna talked to him...