Back from our Trip- Dad

Dear Family: As you know we arrived back to Tianjin safely. We had an interesting trip. We have now seen much of China. We flew four and 1/2 hours to Urumce. Pronounced yer-room-chee. Stayed there for a couple of days, Saw poverty, pyramids, mountain lakes, Buddist Temples, etc. We ate native Chinese food. It's no wonder the Chinese people are so thin. After the first day, I decided that I would rather not eat, than eat their prepared food. We could usually buy water mellon or nuts or something to tie us over. The water mellon was great. Really sweet. We went to the Gobee desert to ride a camel. I don't know how to sell Gobee, so that's the best you're going to get. We each rode our own camel. Up and over the sand dunes. There were literally hundreds of camesl there. We took a train to Xi'an. There we say Terricata Warriors and where they were excavated. We went to several markets, I rode a bicycle on top of the wall on the city of Xi'an. It was very bumpy and was about ten miles around. Went to a beautiful production and then home. Along the way, I went to an evening market. There were hundreds of vendors, many of them preparing hot foods on their small carts. The food looked awful. There were lots of fish and lamb. I think. Anyway, there was this one guy who was preparing his fish. he told me that when he put his spices on it, it was the most delicious fish that I would ever taste. He took the fish, (whole, head and all) and nailed it to a thin piece of wood. He sliced some cuts across the fish to open the meat section up. I put lots of spices and sauce on it. He than layed the board and fish above a fire pit of charcoal. The fish was layed so that the oils and herbs would run down the fish, onto the board and eventually back into the fire. It smelled great. After he was finished, it looked good enough to eat. I bought the fish, board and all. I sat down to eat the fish. It was hard and tasted awful. However, the spices that he prepared it with was really good. The problem was, that the spices all ran into the board, and not the fish. So, not to be wasteful, I threw the fish in the garbage, and ate the board. One night, I was out walking, looking for something good to eat. I could find nothing. Finially I looked inside of a little hole in the wall restaurant. I saw someone eating some french fries. My mouth started watering, so I went inside and told the guy that I wanted some french fries. He couldn't understand, so I took him to the table where the lady was eating the french fries. i pointed to the french fries. When I pointed to the french fries, the waitrer picked up the ladies french fries and handed tham to me. I said no, I want my own. he said, no, pushed me down into the chair, put her french fries in front of me. I put the french fries back in front of her. She put them back in front of me. I put them back in front of her. All this time, the waiter was holding me down in my chair. I finially handed the french fries back to the waiter. He then had to take his hands off of my shoulder. As soon as his hands were gone, I was out of there. (without any french fries) I purchased a nice Mcgregor winter coat at one of the markets. We negotiated on the price for a few minutes, but finially got it for about $28.00 A friend of mine said they are about $250.00 in the states. Last evening, we held family home evening at our friends home. He is the first counselor in the Area Presidency. They are the Tams. They are both Chinese. She invited us for dinner and FHE. We have a great American dinner. For FHE, he told us some funny stories about the church in China. He said that he attended a Sacrament meeting several months ago, in a branch with only a few members. It was in Central China. The branch president had been a member about one year. Elder Tam noticed that the branch president did everything. He conducted the meetings, he prepared, blessed and passed the sacrament, etc. After Sacrament meeting, Elder Tam asked the branch president if there were any other priesthood holders who could help him. The branch president said there was one, but he had only been a member for about 10 months. Elder Tam said, 'why don't you use him and give his some experience?' The branch president said that he was working with him a lot and trying to prepare him to do those things, but he said that the man was not quite yet perfect. Another time, Elder Tam was in a Sacrament Meeting and a lady blessed the sacrament. After the meeting, Elder Tam spoke with the branch president and told him that a Priesthood holder should bless the sacrament. The branch president said that he would take care of it. A few weeks later, Elder Tam attends the same Sacrament meeting, and the same sister blesses the sacrament. After the meeting, Elder Tam reminded the branch president that the person who blesses the sacrament shoule be a priesthood holder. The branch president said he took care of it after the last time they spoke. The branch president said that after they spoke the last time, that he ordained the sister a priest. Elder Tam said another time, he was at a branch, and after the three hour block was over, he noticed that several primary children were all lined up outside of the kitchen. He said they were all very neat and orderly. Elder Tam asked the branch president what the primary children were doing. He said they were taking turns eating the left over bread from the sacrament. Elder Tam asked why they were lined up eating the left over sacrament bread. The branch president said,'well before this, that after the meeting, they all ran in a disorderly fashion to eat the left over sacrament bread. The branch president said, 'now I have taught them to stand in an order line and take one piece of the left over sacrametn bread at a time. That way everyone received an equal amount. Elder Tam said, 'why are they eating the left over sacrament bread in the first place?' The branch president said, 'it had been blessed and therefor it was very good for them to eat.' In the church, China is a very developing country, and American leadership turns over so fast, that many times the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. Elder Whitney Clayton is in charge of China. he will be here in a couple of weeks for training. We will meet with him then. We are very much looking forward to the daughter's/daughters's in laws coming to China in the spring. We will spend a couple of days in Tianjin, probable two days in Xi'an and probable three days in Beijing. There is so much to see and do. Please work on your passports now. If you already have one, please check the expiration date of the passport. I am told that you can't apply for a visa prior to about a couple of months before traveling. I think that we are looking at April. The weather should be pretty nice by then. W will work on a date in the next week or so. Please give us your input about the best times for each of you. I will do my best to accomodate everyone. I will need to purchase the airline tickets within a month or so, in order to get the best deals and the flights we want. You will fly out of either Los Angeles, or San Francisco. So, I suppose that each of you will meet at one of those airports and fly to China together. it is about a twelve hour flight. You will either fly to Korea and then to Tianjin, or fly directly to Beijing and then take the bullet train to Tianjin. If you fly to Beijing, I will meet you there and help you get to the train station to go to Tianjin. When Brit and family come out, it will be the same itenery. When everyone comes out, I am going through a travel agency and hireing a van to take us around, so we can all be together and not have to travel in seperate cabs. When each of you come to China, we will do our best to eat American food, so you won't get sick on the trip. Most places will serve some Chinese food, some is ok and some we just leave on our plates. I went to a restaurant one day and I found a BLT burger on the menu. I ordered it. When it arrived, it was a large piece of meatloaf, (such as it was) with a slice of ham on it, with a tomato and some lettuce. Well, they were right. It was a BLT meatloaf sandwich. It wasn't a hamburger, but it wasn't bad, Well, I've got to run to class. I teach juniors in about an hour. We will send some photos as soon as we can. I love you all. Dad