Anniversaries

The first week in June means Patrick’s Evan’s 5th birthday on the 2nd and our 43rd wedding anniversary on the 4th. The month of May was a busy one for our family as well with Kymora’s arrival on the 19th, Kamryn’s the 24th and Nya’s the 26th. May 17th was the 97th anniversary of Grammy Tate’s mortal life. These are all important occasions, important because each one is precious to us.

John always gets a kick out of the strange things we come across in Xi'an--like this exposed rolled wire just off an overpass. He always wants to take a picture to show Lorenz the quality of work you find in China.


On Thursday this week, after my morning class, John met me for an outing that he was excited to take. I finished my class and met him at the South Gate as bus 508 came by. I jumped on to join him.

Several days ago as we traveled by taxi we had spotted out a window a Steinway Piano Company in Xi’an, located next door to a music conservatory, which we were also unaware of. Both were close by the Small Blue Goose Pagoda where we had gone with Karen and Elaine. We found the shop and found there a beautiful Steinway, Hamburg D concert grand. They also carried other pianos made by Steinway but that didn’t carry the Steinway name. John was invited to try out the grand and for 30-40 minutes he savored the sound and touch of that beautiful instrument. It was a delightful adventure. After we walked a block to the north to the Beilin antique market which I had been to but John had not and we had fun searching there for a little jade pendant for a friend in Russia that we will visit on the way home.

It is hard to believe John and I have been married twice as long as we have lived before being married. I am so grateful for the miracles that have preserved John’s life and allowed us these challenging and wonderful years together. I frequently remember and thank the Lord for my not losing him when I was just 40—Chi’s age now. How blessed we have been to be allowed this time together.

Our actual anniversary was not as full of cheer as we had hoped. We had planned to go out shopping in the afternoon and to dinner in the evening. That didn’t happen. Instead I graded research papers all morning and finished one of my two classes. Hurrah! But in the afternoon I had one of my students who is a computer guy come to help get my system sped up. My computer is old and runs too many programs and was soooo slow it seemed a good idea at the time. It was instead one of the more disastrous decisions I have made when it comes to electronics. I now have a computer that runs a bit faster, but the system that was reloaded and the programs (Microsoft Office) on it turned out to be all in Chinese! Thus far we have not found a way to translate them into English. At least my documents are all in English. Fortunately we are here for only just over one month and I have only three more powerpoints to produce. Email is tricky, I have no Skype, no outlook and no a lot of other things so my computer life has become simplified. I wouldn’t have chosen it to simplify in this manner but it is what it is. Meanwhile we will celebrate our anniversary Monday so we have that to look forward to.

Fortunately the next day, Monday, one of John's grad students came and worked on my computer and got at least some things into English. I will just limp along until I get home and replace the whole configuration or buy a new computer. Sigh.

About 10:30 pm last night it popped into my head to check to see who was to teach Relief Society and I found it was ME! I immediately knew that I would teach on the topic of being grateful in ALL thing—even when your computer has suddenly become Chinese!

Today in our Church meetings we had a wonderful set of meetings. Our branch swelled to the point it looked like a ward as we welcomed our visitors—a family of 8 here to pick up their adopted daughter from Amanda’s foster home, 12 BYU engineering students with their professor and his family, and two or three of Amanada’s volunteers. It was so lovely to enjoy hearing testimonies from a number of the young engineers as well as from both the adoptive mom and one of her sons—a boy who looked to be about seven.

Sunday School was about Joseph Smith’s Matthew (from Chap 24) focusing on the destruction of Jerusalem and the signs before the Second Coming of the Savior. Everyone participated under the teacher’s capable guidance and we are came way cautioned not to allow ourselves to be deceived and to watch and wait, faithfully keeping our sights on our prophets and leaders. I loved a statement read by Bruce R. McConkie cautioning us to not be extreme in our preparations or our focus but to be faithful and adhere to the basics—therein lies safety for us even in these days of great trial.

In my Relief Society lesson I focused on Elder Wirthlin’s wonderful talk “Living in Thanksgiving Daily.” In it he teaches us to do so by 1) opening our eyes to see the wonders and beauties of this works as though seeing them for the first time. I think that requires us to really see. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote “The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.” 2) We need to open our hearts. I especially like this point. We must let go of the negative emotions that bind our hearts and instead fill our souls with love, faith, and thanksgiving. We don’t have to harbor thoughts and feeling that drag us down and destroy our spirits. 3) To live in thanksgiving daily we need to open our arms. We show our gratitude by blessing the lives of those around us. By choosing to do these three things we will have so much more joy and happiness in our lives and bring more joy and happiness to those around us.

Joining us for Relief Society was a Chinese American woman visiting from San Francisco here attending some scientific conferences for a few weeks. She had tried to attend all our meetings but, as often happens, was unable to find us. Following our meeting she asked if it might be possible for her to still partake of the Sacrament. I called John’s cell to pass along her request to him. Together we walked back over to the hotel where John enlisted the help of three of the returned missionary engineering students to administer this sacred ordinance to the one. As I quietly watched, I thought how pleased the Lord must have been, though the circumstances were unusual, that these good men were willing to administer to the one who had that special need.

Know that we love each one of you. I am grateful for this marvelous experience of mortality and for the promises to come. We are indeed a blessed people, even when my computer speaks only Chinese. Have a wonderful week. I hope you choose to live in thanksgiving daily. It is a wonderful way to experience greater joy and happiness in each of our lives.


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