Sunday, September 26, 2010

Shanghai Part 2

First, I want to start by asking everyone that is reading this blog to leave a comment so I know who is reading.  I am doing this for two reasons, first to make sure my parents are reading this blog and second to know which experiences experiences I should focus on to be the most interesting to my readers.  If you could do that it would be much appreciated.

 

So Sunday I got up at 8:30 AM to make sure that I would have time prepare for our 10:00 AM meeting.  Well as I was in the shower I hear Trevor call out, don’t we have a priesthood meeting at 8:30 AM?  As soon as he said this I realized that he was right, but by the time I was done getting ready we had already missed the meeting.  It was really annoying because I wanted to go, and I only missed because I forgot it.  It made me sad.

After the main session of conference there was a YSA lunch and fireside.  The lunch was completely uneventful, but I really liked the fireside.  It was Elder Pratt and his wife talk about how their courtship progressed.  Let me tell you it was certainly not an easy process and it gave me hope that the crazy story of my life would also have a happy ending Smile

Surprisingly when I got back to Nanjing that night I was super excited to be home.  Being in Shanghai was wonderful, but being at my home was even more wonderful.  If anything being in China will make it so that I cherish home back in Utah even more when I return.  In other good news I heard back from my old manager at Microsoft who is currently working in China.  He was able to put me directly into the interview queue for MS interns in China.  Hopefully this should help me get a job even easier.

 

On Monday we had a real spirited discussion about 新疆.  It could have been really good but unfortunately half the class were stereotypical Americans.  What this means is that they think that the only valid way to think of issues is the ways that people in the US think of issues.  They cannot accept that other people could have different opinions and values in relation to an issue.  I fear that talking about more sensitive topics in my classes will not be good.

In the afternoon I continued talking my computer science classes.  They are still going really well.  The class is pretty slow, but that is the case in America too, so nothing really new.  I guess there is less talking overall, but that is nice so that the class doesn’t have to hear the know-it-all's that like to attend CS classes.

 

On Tuesday I tried to go another CS class just to get there and see that everyone had books for learning Russian.  I guess I could learn Russian here if I wanted, but that isn't really my goal at the moment.  I called up the department just to find out that they had changed the class time and location.  Ah, Chinese college, changing every time your not looking.  Instead of going to that class I headed to the abstract algebra class I was considering taking.  Bad, bad idea.  The class blew my mind.  I had already missed 5-9 class periods so I was jumping in the middle of the class.  That would be crazy hard in the US, and it certainly didn’t help that I didn’t know so much of the vocabulary.  I do think that it is true that with the book I could take the class and get a good grade, but I just don’t feel like it would be the best option for me at the moment.

For dinner that night I went with 6 other people to a good Chinese restaurant.  We ended up getting 8 different family style dishes.  It was heavenly, all the food tasted so wonderful and I was stuffed by the end.  It was also great that it came out to be only about 2.25 USD for each of us.  You can get amazing food for dirt cheap if you know where to look.

 

Wednesday was the first part of my 5 day weekend thanks to 中秋节 (Mid-Autumn Festival).  I actually didn’t like having so much time off.  I don’t know how to use that much free time so I end up wasting too much of it.  In the afternoon I did get to go with several friends and enjoy an afternoon of karaoke.  I have to admit, I have fallen in love with karaoke, I am so happy whenever I am singing, and the songs have such beautiful messages.

At night we went to one of the married couple’s houses to celebrate their son’s first birthday.  Like always it was good to spend time with my other flagship shipmates.

 

Thursday was a day of mostly wasted time.  I did go get steak with Trevor and Jonathan.  At night I watched the movie 《南京!南京!》.  It is about the massacres and rapes that happened when Japan took Nanjing during WW2.  I am not going to lie, the movie did a number on me.  It was just horrible to see the things that people were doing to one another.  It was just like what Moroni described the Nephites doing at the end of their civilization.  It was just disgusting.

 

I don’t know if it was because of this movie or something else, but I did not sleep well at all.  I woke up exhausted, but I needed to get up and do things.  In the morning I watched a second film about Nanjing.  After watching both films in such short time, I have to admit that I was emotionally and spiritually drained.  I had to have an hour and half of gospel study to even function that day.  It was just so sad.

In the afternoon I tried to go and return my cell phone.  It hasn’t been working very well.  Well to make a very long story they were completely unhelpful.  I ended up speaking with one of the managers at the Wal-Mart and they were also also unhelpful.  In China if you want to get something returned you have to pretty harsh in how you talk pretty harsh to get any results, and since I hate criticizing or acting angry it was a very stressful process for me.

I ended up going to a Lenovo repair shop where they basically replaced the phone for free.  It wasn’t the solution I was looking for,b but it was better than nothing.  The day had some other stressful things that happened which made me completely lose my apatite, which wasn’t very good because I hadn’t eaten much the preceding day and half.  I almost collapsed in my home that night, but luckily I had bought some bananas and I was able to eat those.  I really hope that it was just stress and that I am not getting sick.

 

When I woke up today I was feeling a lot better, but the rest of today will have to wait for next week.  As for the spiritual portion of my blog, my thoughts this week have mainly revolved around one poem that I read in one of President Monson’s talks.

 

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

“Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown!”

And he replied:

“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.

That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way”

(In Masterpieces of Religious Verse, ed. James Dalton Morrison, New York: Harper and Brothers, 1948, p. 92.)

 

Reading the poem made me realize that up to this point I have been willing to walk on the dark road because I hoped that at some point I would be able to see the path.  I love to walk by sight.  What this poem made me realize that walking by sight is still not as sure as walking with the Lord in the dark.  I realize that in my life I should not just endure the dark roads in life, but rather that I should learn to love them.  When we walk the dark roads of life we know that the Savior is our guide.  What more could we ever want.

I was also listening to the song “Bless the Broken Road”.  One of the longs in this song says “… God blessed the broken road, that lead me straight to you.”  I would like to say that this applies to more than being lead to any one person.  In fact this describes many moments in our lives.  Often as we walk on the roads of life we feel that we are walking on a broken road, but when we reach our destination we turn around and see that the Lord has lead us on the road that lead us directly to where we were going.  This is but another one of the paradoxes of a gospel full of them, and isn’t it wonderful Smile

I bear my testimony that I know that Christ lives.  That through the power of the atonement all of our wounds, both emotional and spiritual, can be healed.  I testify that the power of the atonement is great enough to make any ones life successful.  If we will but turn to the Lord he will lead us down the road that he has prepared for us to return to the Father.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Adventures in Shanghai

Sorry that it has taken me so long to write, I have been in Shanghai for the weekend attending district conference.  I would have written sooner but the beginning of this week has been pretty busy.  Luckily I have three days of school off to get caught back up.

 

I started attending my CS classes this last week.  Overall they are just like the ones in the US, and so far I am not having any problem understanding what the teachers are saying which is a really good thing.  I have decided on who my Chinese student who lives with me is.  His name is Shen Dayu.  He is a second year graduate student in CS.  He is researching computer security, so very close to the area that I was researching myself.

I also went to the gym on Monday.  It was really good to be able to lift some weights again.  I won’t really be able to go consistently till next week, but after that I am going to really enjoy going.  There is also a pool at the gym, so I will be able to do a lot more swimming which will be just wonderful for me.

For FHE evening that night I went over to one of the other flagship students houses and just hang out with them.  It really is good being around others.

 

On Tuesday the craziness of class in China hit for the first time.  In China they will change the time and place of a class without publicly posting this information.  I went to my abstract algebra class to find that there was an entirely different class in that room.  It took me till Friday before I was able to find out the new information about the class.  At night I watched a movie called 建国大业.  It was a movie about the communist revolution, it was actually done really well.

 

On Wednesday I went to do service at the school again, but this time we took the bus.  It actually turned out to work really well, the bus system in Nanjing is very impressive.  The only problem is that after we got off the buss the path we needed to walk was literally covered in 3 inches of poo.  It was rather nasty.  We ended up walking on the freeway to avoid that particular road.  All in all an interesting way to get to service.

Service went really well, I had Lars and Spring from the flagship program to help me this time.  From now on we will be teaching 3rd year students which means we are the first intro into English that they have ever had.  At the end of class they all came up and had us sign there books.  It was really cute.

For dinner everyone went to Aaron and Crystal’s house for dinner.  There we had psuedo-Mexican.  Crystal cooked up some 抓并 and then we put rice on them.  It actually tasted really good, just not like the rice filled tortilla taste we were going for.

 

Thursday didn’t have too much interesting happen.  I did get my tickets for Shangai, and I had a really good papaya shake, and a really great dinner with my roommate.

 

Friday was the grand trip to Shanghai.  We headed off to the train station and got on one of the really fast trains.  The train gets up to 200 MPH so we were there in just an hour.  It was a really nice way to travel, we should get some of these in America.  Shanghai is just amazing, it reminded me so much of Taiwan.  At first I was starting to doubt if Taiwan was really nice as I was remembering, but Shanghai proved to me that it was.  Shanghai and Taiwan share a lot of the same chain stores so in some ways it was just like being home in Taiwan again.  They even have a lot of the foods that I had been missing.

In Shanghai we first went to the peoples park.  The coolest parts there were hearing an old man play a Chinese version of the flute, and some really cool sculptures that people had done in the park.  We eventually made our way to the river front in Shanghai, which is apparently in all the movies.  It really is a pretty cool skyline.  We went to dinner so that we could also get some good night shots.  At night we took some really sweet pictures and were also mobbed by Chinese girls for photo ops.  It was all really cute.

We finished the night by first going to an underground market.  There was a lot of really cheap stuff there and I was able to help some people haggle to get even better prices.  Lastly we went to a not-quite-good night market.  It was a little disappointing way to end the day, but nonetheless it was a good day overall.

 

IMG_0958

IMG_0897

IMG_0745IMG_0756IMG_0763IMG_0779IMG_0792

IMG_0812

IMG_0816

IMG_0817IMG_0847IMG_0849

IMG_0861

IMG_0862

IMG_0884

IMG_0886

 

The hotel we stayed in was rather small, me and Trevor only had a precious few inches between the two of us.  It was also really expensive.  Everything is pretty cheap in Shanghai, except for housing which is ridiculously priced.

 

Saturday started with me sleeping till around noon.  The night before me and Trevor had talked till about 3:30 AM so I was pretty tired.  We woke up and got some amazing Taiwan style breakfast.  It made me extremely happy.  In the afternoon we had district conference which was really good.  At night we headed to Papa John’s for dinner.  Normally I like to eat Chinese food, but one of the group was having some stomach problems so we went somewhere a little more American.  It was good if pricy.

 

I will finish up the rest of the Shanghai trip, which isn’t much, on the next blog post.  As for my spiritual thoughts this week, it all had to do about being married.  This was both the subject of an Elder Scott CES talk I watched this week, as well as a several talks in the district conference.  What was repeated over and over was how couples need to constantly show love to each other.  They should do something everyday to let the other side know just how much they love them.

I was thinking how I was to go about building such a habit now, and I can not say that I am totally sure, but nonetheless I will try.  Maybe before we are married we could try doing this same thing with those that are around us, especially are family.  I know that we all show love for our family, but do we do it as often as we should?  We could probably all do a lot better if we tried to daily say something nice to at least one of our family members.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Getting Lost in China

I thought this week was going to be a little slower, but of course this is China and things are crazy by definition.  All of my weeks feel like months, it is crazy just how much I do here.

 

On Monday I got to start class at 8:00 AM in the morning =/  Overall I have two classes and one activity that all start at 8:00 AM.  I am a morning person, but 8:00 AM is just too early for class.  You have to wake up, get ready, eat breakfast, and then leave immediately for school.  I don’t really like it.  The class was also really slow, so it was hard to stay awake.  After that I went to attend my next class just to be met with an empty room.  When I returned to the flagship office I found out that my Nanjing Daxue class do not start still next week.

Luckily during the afternoon I was able to figure out how to watch Pysch from China.  Hulu doesn’t work from China, but luckily Pysch is popular in this country so I was able to find it on one of their websites.

That night I went out to Pizza Hut to celebrate Trevor’s birthday.  It was absolutely ridiculous, after we order they come back and tell us they are out of large flat crusts.  Eventually we talk them into giving us other crust types at the same price.  They came back again to tell us they didn’t have enough of the other types either, so one person had to switch from pizza to pasta.  It was just crazy, what Pizza hut doesn’t have pizza crust?  After Pizza hut we went to Karaoke.  It was a lot of fun, I really do enjoy singing.

IMG_0571

IMG_0572

 

Tuesday I had my writing class, and was scared to death by Ni Laoshi.  I thought at the time I was going to fail that class for sure.  Definitely not a helpful day for my anxiety.  After class I went with Drew and Cassi to Ikea.  It is funny that they have this here, but it is very nice to be able to buy cooking utilities for this cheap.  We even got to eat an Americanish meal.  When we came back I went to get my stuff (including umbrella) out of the office, only to find out that it was already locked.  I ended up walking home carring about 50 pounds of Ikea stuff in the pouring rain.  It was actually pretty fun.

 

Wednesday morning I went to teach English at a school for underprivileged children.  It was actually a lot of fun, I would say something and they would all repeat it at the top of their lungs.  The class had about 50 students.  I don’t know how well I taught English, I personally feel more comfortable with smaller class sizes.  The first part of this was all being filmed for a news report later that day, so I am already on TV in China Smile  I hope to go back again, but I need to bring other people with me to help teach such large classes.

 

Thursday was the first day that I felt like I might actually survive my flagship classes.  In both of the classes the teachers loved all of the answers I gave, it almost felt like I could do anything wrong.  I just loved it.  For lunch I headed to a steak house that we found.  It is five dollars and you get juice, bread, salad and fruit bar, soup, steak, chicken, egg, and noodles.  It really does feel you up.  To expensive to do too often, but still really really good.  After lunch I picked up a VGA cable so I could hook my computer to my TV.  Really wish I had brought my displayport –> hdmi cable, but I never expected that I would have a TV here.

 

Friday I went to get my resident Visa.  I am now approved to stay in the county till July 31.  It was supposed to be till August 31st, but some of them require that you get a physically inspection if you are to be in China over a year, so our teacher just told us to make it earlier.  Realistically I won’t even be in the country till then anyways.  After that I went with Aaron and his wife and walked around town.  We also met up with Drew and Cassi had dinner at the same steak house, and went back to Aaron’s place to watch a movie.  It was a really fun night.

 

Saturday morning was pretty slow.  I did laundry and finished up a bunch of my homework.  I watched Toy Story 3 which I bought on DVD for 70 cents.  As you can imagine it was totally recorded from a movie theater, and the theater just happened to be in Russia.  All of the text in the movie was in Russia, so I couldn’t read anything, but luckily the voices were all in English.

About 3:30 I left my house to find some swim trunks. As I was walking I saw a gorgeous scenic area. I entered it thinking that it looked beautiful, and that it was basically going to where I needed to go. There were a lot of older buildings that looked amazing. On one of the bridges there was a giant 象棋 board. It was really cool. There were also a lot of beautiful flowers throughout the entire place. One of my favorite parts of it was a giant calligraphy garden that was in the middle of the area. There were some parts that looked like they were 古文. I just loved this place. There was also a giant wall mural carved into stone. It went on for quite a bit. I didn't have time to figure out what it was really talking about, but it was still really cool.  Pictures are at the bottom.

will have to go back some other time and take less time snapping pictures and more time looking at what was written. The one problem was that when I exited from the other end I realized that I wasn't anywhere near Drew's house. In fact I recognized the place as somewhere Trevor and I had come before. I was now about 3 subway stops away from where I am supposed to be :) I hopped onto the subway and got quickly back to 鼓楼区. I met up with Drew and we went to get gym memberships. The memberships are a little expensive for me, but I think that getting in shape is also very important.

 

As for this weeks scripture study I started the week by studying about how virtue allowed us to stand with confidence in the Lord’s presence.  I have come to believe that when we have faith and are filled with virtue we know that the Lord will grant us what we ask for.  We no longer approach the father tentatively asking that he maybe might, if its okay, and its not too much to help us with something, but rather we come to him knowing the mind and will of Christ and ask him with true power for the things we want, knowing we are worthy to receive and that he can give.  As we ask in this attitude we come to receive more than we ever thought we could.

This same principles applies itself to revelation.  I have come to realize that in far too many areas we limit the Lord as to what he can reveal to us.  The Lord can reveal anything to us and we should not be unwilling to ask.  The Lord cares about even the littlest things in our lives and is more than willing to give us help with them.

Lastly I just want to bear testimony that God lives and that he will not let us fall.  A song I love listening to is “Walk on Water” by Britt Nicole.  One line from it says: “When you take that first step into the unknown you know that He won’t let you go. … Your faith is all it takes and you can walk on the water too.”  I love these two lines because of the truth therein contained.  I testify that God will not let us fall.  The first step is a step into the unkown, but why need we fear, the Lord is with us.  He may not tell us where we are going, but he will go there with us.  Sometimes we like to walk by sight, but maybe we should all become like the person in “Lead Kindly Light”: “I loved to choose and see my path; but now, Lead thou me on!”.

If anything, for me coming to China was not just taking a step but rather a giant leap into the unknown.  I now know where I am going, but I did not know when I cam here, all I knew was that the Lord told me to come here, and that he would lead me.  Taking this leap into the darkness has taught me more about my relationship with God, and helped me build faith more than any other experience in my life.  I testify that this is the pattern of heaven; all of us will come to the edge of what we know, and we will be asked to walk into the dark with the Lord.  I testify that he will walk with us and that we will never regret the decision to go.  I pray that when you hit that moment, that you to will choose to jump and not try to only walk roads that you know.

 

 

IMG_0731IMG_0584IMG_0591IMG_0598IMG_0599IMG_0602IMG_0614

IMG_0617

IMG_0629IMG_0639

IMG_0650

IMG_0666

IMG_0682

IMG_0686IMG_0716IMG_0719

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Homeless no longer!

So Sunday has to be one of the best days of the week.  When I have Sundays in China I feel as if I am at home.  There is no sense of missing anything on this day.  I am close to my Lord here in China as I am anywhere else in the day.  Truly the Sabbath is a sanctified day.  As long as I have my Sundays I think I could get along anywhere in the world.

Monday started with a test to determine which of the two writing classes I would be in.  We had to write a story based on some pictures.  While others wrote some interesting life moral stories, or something like that, I wrote a funny story about a man who used trickery to get his daughter married.  It was pretty funny.  I ended up testing into the higher writing class.  At first I was a little bummed as I knew that teacher was really strict, but after I had the first day of class with her I am now really excited to take the class.

In the afternoon we had our flagship orientation meeting.  I have to admit that I was a little nervous about all the work that we are going to do.  I feel this way at the beginning of every semester though, so hopefully everything will turn out okay.

Late afternoon I went and bought stuff to setup my new apartment.  If you want to see pictures of it, I have uploaded a bunch to my Facebook profile.  You should all go and see them.  It is really small, but it is also extremely nice.  I feel really blessed of the Lord to live in this place.  I think this might even be the nicest apartment I have lived in, even if it is missing a dryer =/  Well back to buying stuff, apparently I have a king bed, which caused problems when I tried to put my sheets on.  The first set was too small so I took it back and got the largest sheets possible.  They were also too small.  Luckily there is no fitted sheet in China, so I was able to make it work out.

IMG_0425

IMG_0426

The only problem with my apartment was that I can’t get internet in the same was as the other apartments because that company was not yet to my place, and all the other plans I found were for two years.  On Tuesday I was able to figure out a way to get the internet working.  Lets just say, trying to get someone in China to change a contract themselves is a very hard thing.  We had to eventually talk to the manager who finally made us a deal.  I have to pay an arm and a leg, but I think that it is worth it so that I can talk to my family and friends in America.

Tuesday and Wednesday I also cleaned the apartment from top to bottom.  It was actually pretty clean to start with, but I just wanted to get it undusted and perfectly cleaned.  It looks really nice now that it is clean.

On Wednesday I learned of the terror that is hang drying ones clothes.  Unlike other missionaries, I never had the opportunity to learn this skill.  I was able to figure it out, but it took about 24 hours for my clothes to dry.  Another day when I did another load it took 48 hours.  With how damp it always is in this country it takes for ever for things to dry.  I have to admit I am very tempted to buy a small drying machine.  They sell them for not too much here, and it would be nice to have clothes that I didn’t have to iron every morning.

That night I went with Trevor, Drew, and Cassi to see the Confucius temple.  It was a lot of fun.  We didn’t go into the main part of the temple because it costs money, and if I have to pay money I want it to be in the day when I can see more things.  We did go around to all of the stores.  I even got to put my haggling skills to the test.  Sad to say, they are not as great as they should be.  I did end up getting a should bag, which I have wanted.  I can now take the bag around instead of my large back when I am being a tourist.  There were also some really cool swords, hopefully I can find a traditional sword while I am here and buy it.

 IMG_0364IMG_0373

IMG_0378

IMG_0403

On Thursday I started school.  I started feeling a little better about my ability to do well this year.  There is a lot of work for me to do, but I don’t think that any one piece will kill me.  I just need to be diligent.  Both of the teachers are really cool which is good.

On Friday I finally started the process of getting my residence card.  Once that is done I will no longer have to take my Visa around with me.  That will be so convenient.  Friday was also a fun day in that Bank of America decided to put a hold on my card.  Staying up to midnight to fix that was a fun way to finish the night =/

Saturday we got to go to the Sun Yat-Sen (孙中山) and Ming dynasty mausoleums.  They were really amazing, and it was fun to spend the day with other flagship students.

 

IMG_0463

IMG_0511

IMG_0562

IMG_0564

I ended this week with another really good Sunday.  We ended up singing hymns for an hour in sacrament as we waited for a person from the district presidency to show up.  Sacrament meeting ended up being two hours, but I must say that it was fun.  Sorry that this post was so long.  If you ever find these too long, feel free to just skim and look at pictures.  I only know that mom and dad will like them being this long, and since they are the main reason I blog, I guess post will continue to be this long Smile

 

As for my spiritual study, this week has been kind of a continuation of last week.  I returned to thinking about what you often hear in Utah, that we need to stop just believing in Jesus, and come to actually believe his promises.  It is so easy for us to believe that Jesus successfully wrought the atonement, but one of the hardest things to do is to truly believe that it applies to our lives in all the ways that the Savior has promised.

I find myself often caught as Nephi is in 2 Nephi 4.  I see my weakness in every direction, I see the sins that do so easily beset me, and it becomes really hard for to see the fact that I am meant to succeed in in this life.  I know that Christ can bring peace and joy to every life, but sometimes I find myself doubting that I will ever fully obtain these blessings.  Much as Nephi, though, I shout for my soul to give no more room for these thoughts, and I remind myself of the greatness of God.  As I do this the Lord teaches me once again who I am, and what I truly destined for.

When we are focused on the Lord, and lose ourselves we find our true selves.  The self that we think we are, is nothing more than a pale imitation of what we are.  All mankind are spiritual children of our Father.  We came forward at this time as capable children.  All of us are destined to be happy and find our hearts desires in this life.  It is easy to forget this, but as we lose “ourselves” the Lord shows us who we truly are.  This true self is outward centered, and is one who will always find happiness because they know of their inherit worth.

To believe this fact takes no more than knowing that what Christ has taught is true.  Yet sometimes how hard is it to believe.  As I read the scriptures tied with those that saw God, the common thread I found was that they knew God was a God of truth that could not lie.  This one fact seemed to be enough to allow one to return to the presence of the Lord. How easy is it for us to say that we know this, yet if we knew truly that God could not lie, we would all live with true power.  We would not fear, we would not doubt, we could do all things in Christ.  To truly know that God is a God of truth is to have perfect faith.  This is one thing that I am going to strive really hard to come to know while I am in China.  I want to know for a surety that all things will be as the Lord has said.  His promises to us our great, and I want to know that I shall obtain.

 

As I write this, I think I come to understand a little better how Moroni felt.  Putting things to paper is much harder then saying them.  Sorry if what I wrote is jumbled and confused reading, my writing skills need some practice.  Good thing I am writing a blog every week to practice them Smile