Letter from mom to Kids

This is a letter Susan e-mailed to her kids.  I hope she doesn't mind that I added it to her blog.  It contains some nice information about church experiences, dad teaching double classes, and Halloween creativity that I thought she'd want to remember later...  Julie

Hello Dear Ones,

Seems like awhile since I’ve written a personal note.  I’m behind on the blog, but trying to catch up.  Our calendar is filled nearly every minute.  Soon I will write about the Terra Cotta Warriors and our excursion with Mr. Gao—which lasted 16 ½ hours on Wednesday. We were supposed to go to some waterfalls, but detoured to a city where the Chinese revolutionaries lived before and during WWII, including a museum for Chairman Mao, and his home and several others in the caves.  Stay tuned for that in the blog.

In the meantime we had a district conference today—which is like Stake Conference.  Only we dialed into Sat. night meeting from our home and listened.  Then we went to church today and phoned in and all listened together.  Themes included:  the importance of families, and family history, the atonement, and keeping the Sabbath Day Holy—which is my encouragement to you.

After our meeting today, our Branch Pres.’s daughter was baptized.  We had a sweet program, including a letter from her grandma in U.S. and singing of “I Am A Child of God” in both Spanish and Japanese.  I shed enough tears to fill the font myself.  We had hoped to use the swimming pool at their apt. Complex, but that was closed. So they filled the large round bathtub in the master bedroom and performed the baptism.  There was even room for all 30 of us in the bathroom! (We could have put our whole apt. in that bathroom.) The spirit is very strong in our little meetings.  We truly know the Lord is here with us.

I made her a little ribbon bookmark and a card using some paper we brought, and cut out a rose off a printed paper sack. We really have to be creative here. 

Elder Russell Nelson  spoke in Beijing on Thursday night.  No earth shattering news, but he did bestow an apostolic blessing on the saints in China—particular for protection—which he knows we need while/when crossing the streets!  Fortunately there are walking bridges out of both the main gates of the university, and the stores and restaurants in our neighborhood are on our side of the street.  I only cross the street once a week when I go to the Dutch bakery for delicious treats.

We are gearing up for a Halloween party for our English students on Thursday.  I bought round suckers and kleenex to make ghosts, and made chocolate cupcakes to give the winners of the “Cake Walk”.  And we’ll play Bingo and show some ppts. And video clips.

Some of you know that Herb, our neighbor had to fly to Beijing this week to have his toe amputated.  He has diabetes and it had turned black with gangrene.  Guess who the university asked to sub for him….Yes, DAD.  And their classes are taught at the very same time, next door to each other.  So dad starts in one class, gets them writing, them scoots over to the other class and gets them going.  I hope they find another solution quickly, because he’s going to wear out at this rate.  NO way he can handle both classes with  essays, etc.

Anyway,  Pres. Nelson also said “this life is about doing hard things; that will make us stronger and bring us closer to Christ.”  So I guess we shouldn’t shy away from hard things, but it would be nice to have a rest now and then….

You all know grandma Taylor is on hospice.  So Dad is preparing to lose her.  It will be a blessing in many ways, but still sad. We feel very far away, but close when we hear from you or get to chat occasionally.  We love you all very much, and miss you lots!
Mom

Another Week

Yes, time is flying by, mostly because we are so busy.  I have long teaching days on Monday and Thursday, Timon Tuesday and Friday.  Wednesdays we have free time together to do laundry and go exploring.  You already know we found the International Mall, and Dairy Fairy.

We got our faculty charge cards—so now we can have lunch or dinner in the canteen—which is a mixed blessing.  We wander around until we find something that looks tasty, edible, and not too spicy.  Dad isn’t much with chopsticks, so the other day he ordered a plate of  rice and went to the utensil box, where they mostly have chopsticks.  There was a wire basket of soup spoons on top, so he grabbed one of those to shovel in his rice.  The next day when we went back, we realized there were clean spoons below the chopsticks—the ones in the basket on top were already used!  Gross, but everyone has laughed about that all week.

We met our BYU friends for dinner at the Pizza Place on Friday.  They have a wonderful chicken Caesar salad with bacon and parmesan cheese and real lettuce.  It’s been the only lettuce we dare eat.  They also have great pizza, lasagna, baked potato skins, and various other assorted burgers and steaks.  It is only 2 blocks from our apt.  So very convenient, and 2-for-1 on Wednesdays.

Tim has lost about 10 lbs.  I’ve lost 5. He is mostly like the energizer bunny—runs around the track on his days off, and over to the office once or twice a day…I can barely make it home in the afternoon, have discovered a bus near the south gate that delivers me to the Rainbow Bridge, and cuts about 20 min. off my walk time. I will be doing that on long days….

Saturday, Dad had interviews with the District Pres.  So while he was gone I was a good Hausfrau, and went shopping for vegetables on Market street.  I picked out some broccoli, pointed to a red onion said “yellow,” found a couple of zucchini (skin was lime green instead of dark.)  I grabbed a couple of ears of corn, and 2 peaches, put them all into my tote bag and brought home my own “Bountiful Basket”. Plus a stop at the bakery for some little treats.  Then I even made a macaroni tomato zucchini casserole for dinner!

Sunday we hailed a taxi for church.  The new Branch Presidency is 2 of the American men who work for Micron.  They called Dad to be the Young Men’s President.  (He wished he hadn’t told him so much about his Scouting experience).  So now he has one Deacon to teach, work on Duty to God, and Scouting merit badges.  It will help keep him in touch with his grandson’s activities, and he’ll be a nice surrogate grandpa to “Tommy.”  So send your scouting ideas.

In between, we’ve had to have extra passport pix taken for our “Work Permit.”  People on the street are very helpful with translating or helping us find bus stops, etc.  We have a couple of students who can order on Amazon.china or TaoBao for us.  We are going to request a paper punch!  Our neighbor Herb, is diabetic, and has an ulcerated sore on his foot.  We are quite worried about him—the walking is taking its toll—although they arranged a taxi for him today—right to his class building.  Yesterday he lost his keys to the apt. and office.  Last week he left his backpack in the taxi.  Poor Tim is basically taking care of 2 invalids.