District Conference

On Sunday we had District Conference. Our district spans all of China. There are branches in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou (our branch!) and a few other cities. We couldn't all meet together in one place, so the conference was held through a conference call. A lady from our branch gave a talk. Instead of standing at the front of the room at the microphone, she went into the branch president's office and spoke into his telephone. It was quite a different experience from Stake Conference back in Utah! It was cool to know that there are members of the church throughout China. We are blessed that we are even allowed to gather together for church each Sunday.

Chinese Hospital

The other day I went to a Chinese hospital to visit a member from the branch. I am so grateful for hospitals back in the states! The hallways were filled with patients in stretchers. I guess either there weren't enough rooms to put these people in, or they couldn't afford to be in an actual room. There were six elevators, and everyone used them....doctors, nurses, patients, and visitors. When an elevator would arrive, everyone would try to be the first to push themselves on...they'd even butt in front of a doctor pushing a patient on a stretcher. If you try to be polite by letting patients on first, then you'll never get on an elevator. While I was riding one elevator, a woman got upset because she wanted to squish onto our elevator, but there wasn't any room. Instead of waiting for the next one, she yelled at a mother to make her son, who was sitting in a wheelchair, push himself closer to the wall so she and her family could squish themselves on. It was ridiculous. The nurses and doctors seemed very nice, but the hospital experience was very crazy. I feel lucky I didn't catch someone's disease while I was there! Oh, and for all you grown men here in China...stop picking and flicking your boogers! It's disgusting!!
~Sam

Chinese Street BBQ

We went to a Chinese BBQ last night. Lance ordered the food by going over to the "fridge" the BBQ guy had and picking out the skewers of meat and vegetables that he wanted. I thought most of it tasted good but..... I ate a chicken heart!! Lance didn't tell me what it was until after I asked him why it was crunchy.