suprise!‏ Wed 5/12/10

Dear family,

It was so good to talk to you on Mother's Day! What a delightful family I have.

Today was the temple trip. We woke up bright and early (5am) to make it to meet the bus at 6:15 in Zhanghua, but the bus driver slept in and didn't come until 7:30, so we all could have woken up at 6. Oh well. The temple was still completely worth it.

Guess what - Xing Hui got baptised on Friday! We decided just to ignore the fact that the older sister decided she didn't want to get baptised and continue talking about Xing Hui's baptism like it was still a sure thing. It worked - she got baptised. It was really fun. We took the three girls out to McDonalds and bought them happy meals before the baptism. McDonalds is more expensive than chinese food on the street so they were really excited. They got to play on the play place, eat french fries and get a little doll. They were pretty much in heaven. McDonalds is very smart about it's marketing for children. We were heros for less than $10.

I am just going to take a minute to write an ode to my ward Correlator, Brother Jiang. At first I didn't know if I would like him, and now I am pretty sure he is the greatest ever. Sister Dewyea and I started having a feeling that Xing Hui needed to be baptised Friday, not Saturday. We didn't have a good reason except we both felt like it was what needed to happen. So we called Jiang dixiong on Thursday, and he said, okay, let's do it on Friday. He organized it all the night before. On Friday Sister Dewyea and I started calling the ward to invite them, and everyone said that Brother Jiang had already called them. He called the whole ward, had speakers, organized it all. It was really great. He is the best ward correlator I have ever had.

Xing Hui's baptism itself was really amazing. After she was baptised, standing wet in her white clothes, she looked transformed. I will never forget her face. I could tell she was feeling something but she didn't know what it was. She was so still and the spirit was so strong. I told her she needed to always remember that feeling and never forget it, never forget Heavenly Father's love for her. It was really special. I felt the spirit more strongly at her baptism than at any other I've been to, maybe because she is a child.

Yesterday was Sister's Exchanges. The sister that came was a very, very bright and cheerful sunbeam. Sister's exchanges is always valuable if for nothing else than to remind me how much I love the companion I already have.

Well, that's about it for me - I'll email again on Monday as normal!

FML
Sister Johnson