Sunday

We made it to the LDS church in Suzhou, China! I looked up the information about the meetings times and place on LDS.org, and had Mr. Mao write down the address in Chinese. I tried calling the contact number, but never got an answer, come to find out he went back to the states for a vacation. But we decided to go anyway. We hailed a taxi, and off we went. It cost 30 RMB to get there, which is about $5.00, but we split it 4 ways. As we got out of the taxi we had no idea which apartment building to go to, but saw a nice looking man in a shirt and tie and asked if he was LDS, and Ha! He was. He led us thru the apartments and into the church! They were singing the opening hymn when we arrived. After the sacrament the leader got up and had us introduce ourselves. We grew the group by 20%, he said. There were about 25 people there. They told us that they have 75 usually, but many people are in the states for the summer. I mentioned that I was from Cedar Hills, and 2 people in the congregation have children living in Cedar Hills. I will have to look for them. Small world. Anita and Cherre met a young couple whose grandparents are in their ward in Highland, Utah. When you are a member of our church, it is like that, no matter where you go! I remember when Bonnie and I were going to church in Beijing we met someone that had a sister in Alaska, and we knew her!

We were able to participate in all three meetings, and it was wonderful. It is so awesome to me that our church is the same wherever you go in the world, it is set up the same, we have the same lessons, the same sacrament, the same rules and law, and the same wonderful people. It is truly wonderful to be part of it.

There were people from Japan, Hong Kong, the US, and Russia. Because our church is not recognized in China there is not proselytizing, and we are not to talk about the church to the Chinese people, so only people holding foreign passports are allowed to go. But the day is not far away, I believe, that the church will be opened here. There was one young family from Sandy, Utah that had 3 small children, and have lived there a year and a half. He is running a company that loans money to factory workers, to help them start business’. She talked to me for a bit and I asked her if she liked it. She said they live with a lot of expats and has made many friends. Her 6 year old goes to a Chinese school, and she has a cook and housecleaner cause it’s so cheap, but she missed family. She and her husband met on their missions in Brazil. Very nice lady, and very on the ball. They bought a car last month and drive it on the weekends.

After church we caught a taxi to Walmart, and the shopping area there. Because we didn’t go to the amusement park we are on our own for food today, so I had a whopper from Burger King! Yum! It was so good! We picked up some dinner from Walmart for tonight. And now we are just hanging out at the hotel, and catching up on rest and computer time.

Tomorrow we start our second week of teaching with a new set of students. I’m going to do the same set of lessons over again, so it should be an easier week not having to plan so much.