Our Firstborn Came Visiting!!!

San Francisco showed it's best face when Susan was here visiting.  The temperature was in the mid-60s, the sun was shining and there was little breeze. She flew in on Thursday afternoon and as soon as we arrived at our place in Pacifica, we took her to the beach that is just one block directly to the west of our apartment. Then we went out to dinner at Grannucci's, an excellent Italian restaurant. Followed by a shopping trip in Chinatown.

Friday, she had a pedicure and I had a manicure before we headed into the city to view the art at the Legion of Honor museum. That evening she attended English class with us. It was easy to see that she enjoyed the students, just as we do.

Following English class on Saturday morning, we walked down Irving Street to see how the immigrants live and shop in San Fran. We lunched at a Japanese restaurant and then drove to Golden Gate Park, where we viewed the buildings and toured the Japanese Garden. Of course, we had to visit Golden Gate Bridge. After a dinner of Mexican food, we attended an uplifting Stake Conference.  Sunday, we were at Stake Conference once again and then to the airport to send Susan back to her husband and girls.  It was WONDERFUL having her here!!! And now that she's left, the weather has changed. We're having clouds and a stiff, cool wind.

The Beautiful Beach

Our apartment is located one block east of the Pacific Ocean.  After months of construction there is now an access path directly in line with our apartment to the beach below.  Today is Wednesday, the 4th of January (Kayla's 11th birthday) and the sun is shining ( high of 64 degrees F), the water is sparkling and the whole scene is beautiful.  It doesn't look or feel like a Madison, WI day in January.

New Year's Eve With the Chinese!

Anna, in the red sweater, invited the students in the Intermediate English class to her house (she rents a room at this house and her landlady, in the bright blue top next to Anna, joined us for the party)for a "hot pot" party on New Year's Eve. As the pictures show, there were two large pots filled with water each divided into two sections on butane burners on the table.  Note the serving dishes holding shrimp, beef, chicken, pork, fish balls, dumplings, turnips, cabbage, spinach, bean sprouts etc.  This is how it worked.  Using tongs, you drop whatever food you want to eat into the boiling water closest to you. When it is cooked (the dumplings rise to the top when done), you use your own personal wire scoop to retrieve it and put it on your plate.  The individual bowls are for the sauce you have mixed for your own food.  The Chinese barbeque sauce is HOT!!! I know! They provided chopped garlic, green onions, fish sauce, barbeque sauce and soy sauce to mix for your own personal sauce.  It really was very tasty and the quantity of food was amazing.  Yi Chen was to my left and Anna was to my right next to Tom and they BOTH kept filling my plate. I told them I was full, to little avail. Tom was smart. He left some food on his plate and they quit filling his.  I ate until I had the hiccups and then they all had remedies to suggest. How they love to take care of their teachers. They are so kind to us.

Playing Santa to the Young Missionaries

Christmas Eve the senior missionaries arrived at the mission office in Oakland shortly after noon. We were to deliver the mail and packages to the young missionaries that afternoon and evening.  There are three senior couples on the Peninsula to deliver to about 18 apartments.  Tom and I and the Sorensons each filled our cars with packages and headed to our apartment to start the sorting process. Thank goodness Sister Lyman at the mission office had separated the mail and packages that needed to go to the missionaries on the Peninsula. Our job was to do the fine sorting....a separate pile for each apartment. When that was accomplished we bagged and labled each pile.  Then the Leavitts came to our apartment and we divided the bags according to our area on the Peninsula...Leavitts-downtown, Johnsons-the center and the Sorensons to the south.  It proved to be quite difficult to coordinate with the missionaries when they would be home to receive their packages and this is not an area where you could leave them on a doorstep. We took a break from 5:00 PM until 6:30 PM to Skype our grandchildren and join with them as they presented the Christmas Story.  It was so fulfilling to see and hear each of them!! It made my Christmas!!! We ended the evening delivering more packages. There was little time to be homesick and that was a good thing.

English Class Christmas Party

We have such a good time with our Chinese students.  They are so appreciative of the opportunity to have free English classes and they work together so well.  To our surprise they pooled their money and presented us with $100.00 at the party. We'd like to buy something "very Chinese" to place on our mantle at home to remember the warm and wonderful time we have shared with them. Looks like we'll need to go shopping in Chinatown.

This is the message they printed in our card. "Thank you for helping us learn English. Thanks God let us get together.  Best wishes to you and your family. Merry Christmas & Happy new Year."
As you can tell, their English still needs a little work, but doesn't that just melt your heart.

Theresa (in the black and white coat), Hoa (wearing the burgundy sweatshirt) and Elder Luo (tall Chinese elder on the right) all flew to China yesterday, the 28th.  Fortunately,they were all on the same flight to Beijing. Theresa and Hoa will return to school in the US after Chinese New Year. Elder Luo has completed an excellent mission. He'll be attending BYU in Provo spring semester.

Then there was the food! Atleast twenty different dishes, all very tasty. Of course, there was a whole roasted pig. On Saturday we attended the birthday party of a lady who turned 73 and was retiring the end of this year. This time, not quite twenty different dishes, but the center feature was another roasted pig. Both were very elaborate, expensive parties. Too my surprise, the bride and groom were at church on Sunday.  I guess no honeymoon, to them the party was more important.

Filipino Festivities

Last weekend we celebrated with the Filipinos we work with. Friday the 3rd was the wedding and reception for Pierre and Venus. We arrived at the temple in Oakland to find the mothers of both the bride and groom dressed as fancy as the bride herself. Each mother wore a long off-white heavily embroidered dress. They each had their hair done in an updo and their nails complete with a French manicure. Both were laden with beautiful pearls. As for me, I was wearing regular missionary clothes...skirt, blazer and plain black shoes. I quickly realized I needed to be more dressed up for the reception. Even the men had on traditional Filipino off-white shirts that were also heavily embroidered.

The only "special occasion" wear I have with me is a red and gold silk Chinese jacket.  I'm told, according to the Chinese, that it is only be worn for special days; so that's what I worn in the evening. And the Filipinos seemed to be pleased with my efforts to show respect for the special day.