Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Weekend in SLC




The last weekend in August (the day after my seminar) we headed to SLC for the weekend. I rode up early with Gavin and Lainee to try and catch Mykelle's volleyball games. I was able to catch the last one on Friday. From there we went to the Snow Canyon Football game against Orem. Gavin & Lainee went down to Jacob's baseball games and met us at Orem for the FB game.

Saturday we watched Mykelle's volleyball games, then went to the BYU football game on Saturday afternoon. We are turning Amanda into a football fan! She loves football now! Even from the backrow at Cougar Stadium. After the BYU game, we ate at the Mayan and watched the divers.

Sunday we went to Music and the Spoken Word. Following it, we saw the sister missionaries singing on the steps and Mykelle saw Aniela Ebisch there singing. She is now a sister missionary on Temple Square, but was an exchange student at our house for a short time in 2001.

After our fun meeting with her, we went to tour the Conference Center. We ran into a group of Chinese people who had just begun their tour and the Sister said she would love a translator. It turned out to be a really neat experience with Amanda essentially teaching these great people through interpretation. At the end of that tour, they began asking a lot of questions and Amanda helped translate the answers. That little group wanted to stay with us as we toured Temple Square, so we found a sister missionary that spoke Mandarin and she took them through the North Visitors Center, the Tabernacle, and the South Visitors Center. They asked a lot of questions and we had NO clue what was going on. We just chatted with the companion and had a great time. At the end of that tour, they all wanted to go see the Beehive House, so I took them over there figuring that Amanda could translate for that tour, but upon our arrival, the Couple Sister that was there asked if there were any young sisters that spoke Mandarin and one had just walked in. At the end of the tour, Amanda said to us that she felt like she should cry and there was something she could feel in her heart. Paul and I were in tears and told her that it was okay to cry.

Since then, she has been asking a lot of questions, is nearly through reading the Book of Mormon, has scheduled to meet with the Sister Missionaries, and is reading everything she can get her hands on.

Sunday in Relief Society when they were asking for good news, she raised her hand and nearly jumped out of her seat and said, "I have good news!" I was wondering what in the heck she was going to say! She said, "The sister missionaries are going to start teaching me soon!" Pat was in tears, and everyone was just so happy for her. It was the sweetest thing!

It has been a privilege to see the miracles and the Lord's hand in her life teaching her and preparing her to take the gospel back to a country that needs it so much. The Lord really is getting the gospel into China-- it's just in His way! What a joy we feel at being able to be on the front row watching it all unfold!

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