Not Your Usual Saturday!

Saturday, July 23rd proved to be different than our usual Saturday. Every other Saturday we would be preparing to teach English to the Chinese and at 11:00 AM we would leave to drive into San Francisco to begin the class at 11:30 AM. However, this Saturday Elder and Sister Leavitt taught for us. Tom and I met with Elder Lapierre to review his budget for the upcoming college year. Almost all missionaries return home to their home area immediately upon completing their mission assignment, but Elder Lapierre is the exception. If he steps on Taiwan soil he will be drafted....compulsory military service. So he wanted somewhat of a parental view of his plans. He has a binder with all his information and he has prepared well!!

While our class was in session, we drove to San Mateo to pick-up Lan.   She only has one more month in San Mateo for her summer internship and then she'll be returning to Monterey to complete her master's degree. The Brightons  wanted Lan to meet Shan Gao who works in Monterey so they planned for us all to meet in san Francisco Chinatown for lunch. Shan's mother is presently visiting her from China; so we had the pleasure of meeting her as well. We met up at the Caltrain station because none of us are familiar enough with Chinatown to know where to meet. Lan and Shan seemed to hit it off very well and lunch was delicious!

After our late lunch, we dropped Lan off at the Caltrain station so she could travel to Palo Alto to visit a friend who is studying at Stanford. Then we hurried back to Pacifica to prepare for the baptism of Julie Neva. We found out her official name is Yuliya Nekludova. She took the first two letters and last two letters of her Russian name to form the one she uses in the US. The baptism was well attended. The Primary room was packed. Everything went very well!!!Now we will be involved in teaching her the new member lessons and we're so glad we can still be closely involved with her.