Church in China

 So, Will and I had our first day of church in Beijing today. (Joel had to give a presentation at school, so he couldn't come.) After our 25 minute subway ride it was so comforting to walk into our "chapel" and hear other saints singing Redeemer of Israel. I almost cried because it was so comforting to be there!

Our branch had a big group of kids from BYU Idaho who came here to teach English. They were leaving from Beijing to go to more remote villages throughout China. They wanted everyone from that group to meet in a separate room (which I didn't know because we were a little late!) and I just followed a big crowd of people to what I thought was Sunday school. So I sat down with Will and all of our stuff and slowly started to realize everyone else in the room was under 21 and single. I had ended up in the YSA class.... oops. I was too embarrassed to haul all of my stuff out of there so I just tried to get Will to lay quietly on my  lap and hoped no one would notice! Will, of course, hated that and so my plan completely failed and my face was bright red through the entire class. I did learn some cool stuff though. They have a virtual branch of the church for those members who are too far to attend one of the international branches. You call a toll free number and enter a pass code and, voila! You can listen to church on the phone. So cool!

I am continually amazed at the people here in China. Overall, we have found the Chinese to be very helpful and nice. And very understanding of us when we are completely unable to communicate with them! It's a common sight here to see teenagers walking arm in arm with their parents and grandparents, I love that. And I still cannot get over everyone's fascination with Will. Today on the subway, a nice lady gave me her seat since I had a baby. Will was totally conked out in his baby carrier that straps to my chest and his face was partially hidden behind the strap. This lady stood next to me and wanted to see his face so badly that she unhooked the carrier so she could see him! There really isn't a personal space boundary here.

On another note, this city is really amazing. There is ancient architecture right next to modern skyscrapers. And this city becomes even more lively at night. Street vendors come out of nowhere and occupy every inch of free space on the sidewalk selling anything you could imagine. The other night when we went outside, there was a group of people flying kites that had lights in them. China's version of fireflies, I guess.

The tall building in this picture is our apartment building. So far, we really like living here.

I saw these strange things at the supermarket the other day and couldn't resist putting up a picture. Weird cucumber maybe?