Church in Nanjing

Yesterday, we went to church in Nanjing.  Lane and Cherie picked us up at the hotel.  It took about 40 minutes for us to get there.  It will probably take about an hour when we start riding the metro. I think Natalie forwarded a picture of our new meetinghouse.  It is held at the Yuhua Jingli Hotel.  There were 32 people in sacrament meeting including a newborn baby.  Most of the young single adults (YSA) have gone home, so the numbers are decreasing.  Nanjing is a university town, so a lot of the members in the branch are YSA. Starting next Sunday we will go to a two-hour block for the summer.  One week we will have Sunday School and the next week Relief Society.  The spirit was very strong in the meeting.  Lane and his son, Carson, prepared the sacrament and two men passed.  Tracy Crump was the first speaker and then Carson reported on his mission.  After that we had Sunday School and then RS/Priesthood meetings in the same room.  There were seven children in the primary and 3 in Young Mens/Young Womens  The people were very friendly and interested in who we were.  There was a lot of love and friendshipping/fellowshipping there.

One interesting side note:  In the Nanjinger, a magazine for the Nanjing expat (an expat is a foreigner—like us), under Faith Houses it has four entries for the expats. They are listed as Christian Fellowship, Korean Buddhist Club, Catholic Church, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Under the heading for the LDS Church is written: Mormon Service on Sundays at 10 am.-Foreign passport holders only.  The Christian Church also says the same thing.

After church we had quite an interesting experience.  A sister in the branch had asked Cherie if she had some totes she could borrow because she was moving.  Cherie brought the totes to church.  Carson took the metro home with Tracy so we could take the sister and the totes to her place.  Lane asked her for the address to plug into the GPS.  She didn’t know her address and wasn’t sure how to get there.  She said she had the address of the school she teaches at, so he plugged it in and off we went for the ride of a lifetime through downtown Nanjing.  Does “wild goose chase” ring a bell?  She always rides the metro and didn’t have a clue where we were.  She kept trying to call her husband to get directions, but he didn’t answer her calls or texts.  I felt kind of sorry for her.  We went up and down streets looking for the place.  It’s not like checking the streets out in Newton, Utah.  There are cars, bikes, skooters, people, etc. coming at you from every direction and every street looks the same.  There are little shops/stores up and down every street.  The mass of humanity is amazing in downtown Nanjing.  Eight million people live in about the radius of Cache Valley.  When we were about a block away from her apartment building, she started to recognize things and we finally found it!  We then started back to the Sparks’ for dinner.  By the time we got back, it had been about two hours from when we left the church.  Carson had been waiting an hour in the parking garage because he didn’t have his keys.  Cherie had invited a YSA (Brad Johnson) for dinner and he was waiting with Carson.  Needless to say we were very hungry.

Brad is from Washington DC and is an ESL teacher.  He graduated from BYU and came to China to teach English for a year.  When the year was up, he wasn’t ready to go home and decided to stay.  I’m not sure how long he said he had been here—a few years.  He told us about China and the different places to visit.  He has traveled through a lot of China.  He helped Cherie and Carson make their reservations for their trip Bejing and the place where the terracotta soldiers are (I can’t remember the name of the city.  They all sound the same to me).  They are leaving tomorrow morning and won’t be home until Sunday evening.  I am on my own for a few days.  We will have to see how that goes.  I am not sure how brave I am, but I might try to visit some of the historical sights in Nanjing.  We’ll see about that.

Today Cherie and I went with Sherry and Richard to look at the two places we have narrowed our search to.  On the way to pick up Cherie, I had a very interesting conversation with Richard and Sherry about only having one child and families, etc.  I will write about it later.  This email is getting too long. We looked at the two places and I think we have found the one we want.  Now, the negotiations begin.  We tell Sherry the extras we want and she negotiates with the landlord.  Some of the things the apartments don’t have in China that you need to negotiate are ovens, microwaves, clothes dryers, water purifiers, water coolers with cold water, dish washer, international satellite TV, dehumidifier, bathtub, and parking stall in the parking garage. 

Cherie and I went to lunch at the Potato Bistro again.  We had a nice visit and then I took a taxi back to the hotel.  I was glad to get back and try to get caught up on a few emails.  I am so thankful for modern technology.  I will write more later.  I am afraid I might have put some of you to sleep.