My little baby's going off and saving China!

Dear each and every ones,

 Sister C just blows me away every day. She's speaking miracles! She really loves these people and 
has such great faith. I'm so thankful for her talents, too--we just got asked, through a church member,
 to SING at a "chyun lyuhn fun wui" which is basically a town party for New Year's. 
(There will be a lion dance!! I can see my first one up close!!)

They want "pioneer American songs" and we auditioned last night. It was so neat--a miracle that 

we just HAPPEN to have Sister C--who's been singing and playing in bluegrass bands her 

WHOLE LIFE--here at this time!! It was so awesome. We tried out for the presidency of the town 

board thing--two Chinese men with ponytails who didn't want anything "too Jesus-y". We sang

 "I'll Fly Away" (with like an hour the night before of practice--and I'm a little sick) and just blew 

them all away. They don't want us to sing that one, actually (because it says the word "die" in it, 

and Chinese people are SO not ok with that) but it was a great show of our talent :D and 

enthusiasm!

And awesome harmonies! Anyway. They wanted us to sing something in Chinese, too, so Brother D (the member) went and grabbed a couple hymnbooks from his house. It was a really special and simultaneously
heart breaking (is that called poignant in English?) moment as they were picking from the hymns. They were skipping anything that mentioned "Jyu" (Lord) "Sahn" (God) or "Yeh Sou" (Jesus) and we were a little worried. THen, however, they turned to "Love at Home." This really is our special message and the reason we usually start on the train or bus with "Our church really focuses on families; we have a special message about how to have more happiness and unity in YOUR home that we'd love to share with you..." Chinese people are so focused on their families. And Satan is doing everything he can to destroy or distort that into an obsession with money or prosperity, even to an obsession with school work... It was pretty cool.

We'll also be singing "Faith in Every Footstep," which I have NO IDEA how it got approved... it's SO LDS-y... whatever, super excited. We'll be pulling that off somehow--

AND We'll be MC'ing the whole night because they think it's cool when white people speak Chinese--this will be Monday night. So, pray that our Elders can learn the piano music that fast :D

Lately the 2nd ward has been asking me to play the piano in Sacrament. This should help the stress level right? I used to play the piano for peace and calm in high school. This invitation has led to some hilarious happenstance the last couple weeks because of the yat jihk = (...english... english... can't remember english constantly?) it's the up-beat heartbeat that happens to me every Sunday morning...

Anyway, back to the excitement of Sundays,

Last Sunday we had to be at church for correlation at 8 (= wake up at 6 and leave the house by 6:45) and then we had the next ward's correlation at 8:30, simultaneously trying to call a couple investigators and less-actives to get them up for church, THEN trying to find Sacrament (I forgot to bring it last week--I always use this special rice cracker that's pretty much as common as the equivalent of their Oreo here. I didn't bring one last week--but prayed hard--and in between the Sacrament meetings a member who is deaf ushered us outside and gave us each a bag of food--which of course included this special cracker! = I could have Sacrament! YES!)

What with welcoming members AND trying to find someone to sit next to the new investigator who came and someone to translate for the Phillapina lady who comes sometimes with her employer so that she can understand the meeting (I ended up doing it tee hee) and AFTER all that racing up to the piano and sitting down and playing "Sweet Hour of Prayer"...

Is it any wonder that I played it at LIGHTSPEED -- making the "hour" of prayer into about "Sweet 30 seonds of
prayer sweet thirty seconds of prayer" bwahahaaa. I sped along the whole congregation sprinting behind me until my heart rate finally went down on the second chorus and I look up to see the conductor frantically signalling "SLOWER, Sister, Slower! MERCY!" and... yup. That's about how the peace of playing in Sacrament goes. Hilarious.