Thanksgiving in Xi'an

We have enjoyed a most interesting Thanksgiving week in Xi'an and are glad to have a chance to say hello, to wish you well, and to tell you we are grateful for YOU.

Each time an American holiday rolls around I like to share it with my oral students and Thanksgiving was a very special time to be able to do so. I prepared a power point presentation to teach them about our traditions. Then to get them talking I passed out popcorn and raisins (in memory of corn and dried fruit that the Pilgrims may have eaten) and had each student stand in turn and talk about what they value, what they were grateful for and what they wished for in the coming year, before they could eat their popcorn and fruit.

The rules I set up required that they could not repeat what someone else said and they had to explain WHY they valued, were grateful, or wished for what they shared by telling of an experience or a story that illustrated those things. It was a very successful week and in the process I was filled with gratitude for all my blessings.

Certainly at the top of my list are family relationships. Whether we are near or far, they are treasures in our hearts. I am very grateful for the opportunities we have been blessed with and wish for the Lord’s choicest blessings to be with us all and that through His grace we can learn the things we are supposed to learn while we are on this beautiful earth, in whatever place we find ourselves.

We have had a glorious week of perfect autumn weather. Crisp and cold but nothing demanding the long underwear the Chinese wear every day from October until April. They even have furry lined long underwear that is amazing. If temperatures drop significantly we may follow their lead, but for now we are savoring the season and are not feeling sad about having missed Utah's bitter cold and stormy skies of this week.

Our week included our first Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday night at our friends, Dave and Julie Monson's apartment. I made "pumpkin" pie from Chinese squash, which we balanced on a bus without mishap.

Our branch then had a Thanksgiving dinner at the Tang Dynasty restaurant with our members as well as a number of guests--foreign passport holders from Germany, France, Mongolia, Armenia, and the USA. Most of them are teachers at one or another of our various universities. It was fun to reach out to others to join with us. The Algerian/French fellow, who brought his fiance, a beautiful Mongolian/Korean girl named Bulgan, made the comment to Julie Monson, that this was the first time anyone had invited him to anything since he came to China 18 months ago. It was fun to enjoy their company, sitting as they were across from us on the long, long dining table. It was a nice evening.

Friday was another big teaching day for both of us, though particularly for John, who had his usual eight-hour marathon, but with a twist. He had a ball with his students teaching process writing by distributing ziploc baggies of kiddie legos to groups of his students. They were asked to design a puzzle toy and to write a description of each step to assemble their creation. Once that was completed they disassembled their puzzles and passed their bags with their written instructions to another group to try to assemble it. The students loved the class. (They may look like they are 15, but these are serious, and very bright, graduate students!)

Friday night John and I spend our traditional day-after-Thanksgiving by decorating our Christmas tree. I had been shopping at Kung Fu Lu--an amazing assemblage of tiny stores where you can find just about everything Light Industry doesn't have, including a couple of little holes in the wall that had pint-sized Christmas trees. I had bought one for 30 kuai (about $4.50) only to then find one that was taller for Julie that was only 10 kuai ($1.50)! I think I was taken advantage of. But whatever, we laughed our way through shop after shop and I came home with an odd assortment of this and that. John then decorated the tree while I looked on. He said it was sure easy this year. He could pick up the tree and wind the lights all in one step. The various little lights and lighted fruits we put on are pretty amazing. They have a little box attached to the strand that allows you to click a button to change the pattern of the way the lights work: blinking in different colors, fading in and dimming out, holding steady, etc. etc. There are eight variations in all. All worth a laugh. Anyway, we hope the beginning of your Christmas holiday season is a happy one.

Our Week in Xi'an

Last week we enjoyed a visit from Midge and Kirk Evans, our China Teachers Program (CTP) directors, who were here to meet with our university officials, visit our classes, check out our living quarters, and make sure we were all surviving our adventures. They were at JiaoDa with us on Friday and slipped in after their meetings to catch the last half of my 10:10 two-hour oral English class. The students were all on their very best behavior, so impressed to have foreign visitors from America! After class I took the Evanses home to our apartment to give them a welcome break from Chinese food. At this mid-point of their lengthy sweep of China they had been under way for some two and a half weeks with a lot of cities and teachers to visit still to go.

They laughed with us about our apartment's charming exterior with its piles of concrete stacked just outside our door saying, "Well, your place is not the best we have seen, but its not the worst either." We remain grateful for the blessings we enjoy of being so close to campus and having such great folks at our school to work with. Later that evening, after John's usual Friday marathon day, we met with all the Xi'an BYU teachers for dinner with the Evanses. They were with us again on Sunday for our meetings, where we enjoyed hearing from them. (So nice to have new faces to speak in our branch!) After our meetings and lunch we bid them farewell as they headed for the airport then on to Jinan on the next leg of their journey.

Monday evening that week I had been "invited" by the dean, through Mr. Chen, to judge the second-leg of the public speaking contest at our university prior to JiaoDa's winner moving on to the national competition on Saturday the 20th. I had already spent Wednesday evening in a similar fashion on the first level contest. I didn't mind doing it through having to judge each contestant and then being the Question Master to ask each student to respond to a question was sometimes a little tricky since I had to concentrate carefully on their English that was too often a bit difficult to understand. John and I had both been fighting colds and staying on top of our regular teaching and preparation loads while also taking on these extra curricula was becoming a challenge. Tuesday between my morning sections, Mr. Chen was waiting for me outside the classroom with the winner of the competition from the night before in tow. He told me that the dean had "invited" (there's that word again!) me to be the "guide" for the winner to work with her to get her ready for the upcoming final competition. I wished her well but told Mr. Chen to tell the dean that I was not able to take on more right now. All the extras were cutting into my being able to do my best with the classes I had full responsibility for. My extra class teaching the primary school teachers was also taking much more time than I had anticipated and I simply could do no more. He told me he would send me an email about it. He did, again inviting me to coach the winner. I replied by saying "no." I was doing all I could right now without getting seriously ill. I received a very nice email back saying that the dean was very pleased with my teaching and understood my not taking on more. I was relieved and had learned something about how things work here.

One of the challenges of teaching in China is that the Chinese work harder than any people I've ever seen. They work from early to late, seven days a week and think everyone else ought to as well. We had been cautioned about escalating schedules and reminded that since we were the first at our school, what we agreed to do would set the pace for all the BYU teachers who would follow after us, so be careful. Though we had tried to follow that counsel things were getting a bit out of hand! Three different preparations with classes Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (seven two-hour sections), English Corner on Thursday evening from 8:00-10:00 pm, my branch RS presidency responsibilities, and other branch assignments (we spoke in sacrament meeting today, for the second time in two months) all keep me relatively busy. John's schedule is similar with its own heavy load while he also is acting branch president with the Brittons' move. Being branch clerk adds to keeping him scrambling.

If, as you read this description, you think that I am complaining, you are mistaken. It is a glorious journey that we love very much, despite our working harder than we have for years. We feel it such a blessing to be here doing what we are doing with the people we are serving.

Friday evening this week we had a wonderful time at our fall social for our Relief Society. We met in Julie Monson's boxcar apartment to enjoy dinner and watch the Women's Conference. All but two of our numbers were able to be there. A wonderful warm gathering on a crisp autumn evening. Julie had made hot chicken salad. I brought broccoli cheese soup and homemade bread. (It is an adventure in and of itself to transport soup on a bus:) Because my companion and I were going visit teaching before the event with no time to make the trip home before the social I lugged soup in quart-sized yogurt containers in my handy canvas bag to Starfish and back, actually making it with no mishaps.

Bethany and I are Amanda Delange's visiting teachers. She is the director of Starfish foster home, where, in three apartments, she remarkably oversees some forty-five to sixty at-risk babies for whom she provides wonderful care, overseeing her Chinese nannies and foreign volunteers, and arranging for the baby's many surgeries always hoping to get them well and then facilitate their eventual adoptions. Sometimes we go and just hold babies who are always happy for warm hugs and cuddles, sometimes we actually get a little message in, but just being at Amanda's we are privileged to watch someone doing Christ's own work of caring for and loving the "one."

Amanda, born in South Africa, joined the Church at 23, served a mission, went to Taiwan where she learned Chinese, never knowing why. Through a remarkable series of miracles, she was able to set up a foster home with the support of the Chinese government (you have to be in China to know how remarkable THAT is!) She has never married but is mother to hundreds of babies over the six plus years since she has been in China making a difference. (She told Heavenly Father on one occasion that she understood that she was not going to have the chance to marry and she was OK with that IF he would give her something really interesting to do with her life. Well, He has certainly honored her request! Interesting is an understatement for sure.)

To conclude our week, on Saturday morning the Monsons met John and me at one of the south gates of the city for us to enjoy a really beautiful autumn morning to walk in the park and observe the older generation at play. The park runs between the wall and the moat and is home to taichi devotees, kungfu groups (with swords), the coolest adult playground mechanical equipment of every kind that can be imagined.

It is an older generation playground. Children are welcome--they come with their grandparents--but it is the adults who come to play. In the park you can see men out walking their birds, hanging their cages from trees in order to sing to others likewise brought while their owners chat below. (I never knew owning a bird was such a responsibility!)

From the park we walked up into the old city to enjoy a morning market (Xi'an's answer to Salt Lake's Farmers' Market) where we bought breakfast on the street--egg crepes and hot scones--wandered here and there looking at and sampling the fresh veggies, fruits, candies, and looking at the wares of clothing, buttons, shoe repairs, and anything else you can think of intermixed along the way.

John and Dave left to go home teaching together while Julie and I walked on to the Muslim Market to do a little shopping before heading home to get ready for Sunday. What a week. We hope yours is a full of joy as ours has been. Talk with you next week.

The Church in Xi'an

I keep intending to write about being an expat member of the Church in China in general and in Xi'an specifically, but have not taken the time to do so. But today is the day.

We arrived in Xi'an to find we were a part of a wonderful functioning group of expat members. The branch president, Edwin Britton and his wonderful wife Elise are here from British Columbia, Canada. They have three of their nine children here with them--Bethany, a lovely young woman with beautiful red hair, who is a student of Chinese at our university. She is one of a number of foreigners who are seeking to not only learn Chinese but also major in Chinese as a degree seeking student; Isaac, our one teacher in the branch; and Curtis, our one deacon. They have lived in Xi'an now for six years and have been the backbone of the branch for all those years as so much of the rest of the branch comes and goes as part of BYU's China Teachers Program.

We meet at a board room at the hotel for the Xian School of Foreign Language. Each week we arrive to find a different configuration of tables and chairs. It is always a surprise. This week we had the directors of the China Teachers Program, Midge and Kirk Evans, here from Provo and they were quickly coerced into speaking in Sacrament Meeting. A pleasant change from listening to all of us repeatedly.

For Relief Society we walk across the way to one of the teacher's apartments, leaving the hotel to the priesthood to enjoy. We are cozy but we can all fit.

Shortly after we arrived John was called to serve as President Britton's first counselor and branch clerk in the branch presidency with Dave Monson, another CTP teacher, the second counselor and executive secretary. (From left to right above: Gary Phillipi [mission leader], John, Pres. Toronto [district president], Pres. Britton, and Dave Monson.) Dave's wife Julie was called as Relief Society president with Elisa Britton as her first counselor and me as her second. We have made a great team, the double three of us.

The balance of the branch includes two other CTP couples, the Jefferies (here for their second year) and the Phillipis (former missionaries to Cambodia). We also have three single sisters who are teaching English, Karen Robinson, Ruth Ann Prather, and Sue Nibley. Those are the teachers. Between us we teach at three different universities.

Beyond the teachers we have Amanda DeLange, a remarkable woman who runs a foster home for some 45-60 babies who have serious physical difficulties in a variety of forms of spinal bifida, heart conditions, and cleft pallets. She arranges for surgeries and helps get them placed for adoption. Her foster care is called Starfish and was recently featured in several documentaries. She reminds me of Gladys Allwood of Inn of the Sixth Happiness fame, for those who saw that wonderful old movie starring Ingrid Bergman. Amanda in a similar manner is making a huge difference in the lives of some of Heavenly Father's most challenged little people and experiences some of his choicest tender mercies on a daily basis. She often comes bringing with her a volunteer or two whom she has staying with her, helping in the foster home in a variety of ways--contractors who are renovating a new facility for her, or folks who come to lend a hand in her work with the babies.

Recently the branch's limited numbers were expanded by two with the addition of the Judds, Conrad from California and his Chinese wife--of only one month--Ning Ning, a lovely young ophthalmologist. She has been having the missionary discussions and plans to be baptized in December. Because she is married to an American she is able to choose to meet either with the Chinese group or with us. We feel fortunate to have her with us. You may be aware that we are not allowed to meet with Chinese passport holders who are members of the Church nor may we share the gospel with any of them, even when asked about it. But we can love the people and we can try to let our light shine.

Shortly after our arrival we had the remarkable experience of sitting in the Brittons' front room participating in a District Conference over Skype. Our district president, Steve Toronto, who has been in China for some 20 years, is over the Bejing China International District which takes in all of China but for the Shanghai district and Hong Kong. With the amazing help of the Internet and Skype we heard from the presidency in Bejing and other speakers scattered across China. Elise Britton was one of the assigned speakers sitting with us in her own living room and speaking on cue to the rest of the district. President Toronto is fond of calling upon members to speak extemporaneously and would say, "We will now be pleased to hear from Brother or Sister X who will speak to us from X." One of those who spoke was visiting family in Tennessee and the fact that it was the middle of the night there didn't prevent his participating with us. What an amazing thing the Church is. The ability to adapt to meet the needs of members where ever they find themselves is such a marvelous thing. We are all part of a Church family which provides us with a place to truly call home.

We have enjoyed spiritually uplifting meetings weekly in spite of the challenges of sometimes being asked to teach classes on the weekends, in spite of our needing to travel some distance in buses with no shocks, or in taxis that we trust to take us where we want to go, hoping we are handing them the right instructions in Chinese, in spite of our small numbers, in spite of not having all the programs of the Church operative in our midst.

But even so, as President Toronto likes to remind us, we have the pearl of the gospel in its simplicity. We have all we need to function: We have the priesthood among us; inspired leadership both in our branch, the district, and the headquarters of the Church; we have the ordinances; the scriptures, and the pattern of worship of the Lord's true Church. We are blessed by the Atonement in our lives and have the privilege of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with those, like us, who are foreigners in this vast land, though we can not do so with the Chinese themselves. We can try to be an example of the believers by living our testimonies. It is enough . . . for now

We have been very happily going along in the comfort of what we knew for the last two months, until two weeks ago when President Britton announced that he had accepted new employment with a Canadian company in Xiamen--a city on the coast of China, directly across from Taiwan and a long, long way from Xi'an!

Today we bid farewell to Elise and the boys. President Britton left last week. We do get to keep Bethany here in the branch while she continues her schooling but goodness how we will miss these dear, dear people who have become such an important part of our lives in such a short time. Whoever said that it takes a long time to make an old friend was wrong. In two months, this couple has influenced our lives in incalculable ways. Elise has been our mentor and guide in everything from helping us find whipping cream in the restaurant supply shops, introducing us to her tailor and taking us to the fabric mecca in Xi'an (that's a story for another day), to sharing with us her favorite walk along the city wall to see the grandfathers out walking their birds, carrying the cages with pride, then hanging them in the trees to enjoy a songfest together while their owners chat below. We now pick up the gauntlet to share with those who come after us so that the legacy of knowledge can continue if only in a small way. We wish the Brittons the best of all good things and thank them for being who and what they are to us all.

John and Dave will continue to run the branch until President Toronto can come in December to reorganize it. Meanwhile we pray for others to move here to become a stable presence of the branch as the teachers come and go.

This week we will have our autumn social for Relief Society at Julie's apartment (she calls it her boxcar apartment--long and narrow). It will be a change from the spaciousness we have become accustomed to at the Brittons, but hey, it will work, and we will have a wonderful time listening together to a DVD of the women's conference broadcast from October in this little part of Zion.

Hope you all have a wonderful week.