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.

 

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   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.