Sad Day

Yesterday was Chinese New Year.  It's the most important Chinese celebration of the whole year.  All the family members gather together for a feast of special foods.  There's always a whole fish and that must all be eaten so the family will be prosperous in the new year.  The Chinese children love the celebration because they receive new clothes and red envelopes containing money from each of their relatives.  They show their respect and love for the more senior members of the family by kneeing down in front of them and touching their foreheads to the floor three times before they request the red envelope. Chinese New Year celebration extends for fifteen days...a full two weeks of feasting and visiting the homes of all your relatives. It's a time of warmth, kindess and bonding together.

However, we arose early on the 23rd to drive Elder Fini to the airport so he could return home. It was not a day of celebration for us.  Elder Fini is one of our very favorite young missionaries.  He has been struggling with clinical depression and we so desperately hoped he would be able to conquer it rather than need to return home to recover. Elder Fini is an exceptional young man.  He has been on full scholarship for the past two years at Northwestern in Chicago in Organic Chemistry, he plays the piano with such feeling and skill and he has mastered Mandarin more quickly than any other American young missionary we know.  He's just a delight, quick and witty. However, he's been so engaged and focused on school and music that his underlying depression has been submerged. He knew he wasn't happy, but felt like when he was through school, or on a mission, then he would be happy and all he needed to do was prepare and accomplish so he could reach those goals.  Well, here in the mission field there are so many things out of our control.  You can work hard and teach well, but the results are in other individuals' hands.  We also have slow times, very slow times that give you lots of time to think and to realize how you feel. Elder Fini has a strong, genuine belief in the Church and the teachings and divinity of Jesus Christ,but he at this point cannot handle not being more in control of the outcome. So his counsellor has recommended he return home to a schedule he can control, to a familiar environment and then with counselling and careful medication adjustment prepare to return to finish his assignment.  He deeply desires to do that too. We will dearly miss him and his classical prelude to English classes.  It was heavenly!!

Now a word about Elder Jin, his companion.  Elder Jin is from mainland China.  He and his family, father, mother, grandpa, grandma and aunt, make up the only members of the church in their large city. He has been an exceptionally kind, wise companion to Elder Fini.  I have great respect for his maturity at such a young age.

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.