Chinese Thanksgiving

We heard the Chinese Ward was having a big dinner this weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving. Since we are technically not part of the Chinese ward, we brainstormed how to legitimately attend and thereby feast in the joys of Chinese culture and also eat all that good food. We decided to invite one of our friends, James, who is Chinese, to go to the dinner with us. While he is not yet a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, James fit right in with the happy crowd that night and seemed to have a lot of friends there. Way to be social, James! He won a doorprize: a pumpkin. He let me bake a pie from it yesterday--and apparently it was delicious, because he phoned later that day to say he and his roommates had finished it off so I could go pick up the empty pan.

The day after the ward activity Jerry took James to the MTC where they volunteered to be taught by missionaries learning Chinese. Guess who was there! Elder Brandon Steele! Jerry felt so grateful to see him, and even snapped a quick picture--but didn't have a chance to chat, of course, as the missionaries were all pretty wrapped up in their work. Only about one more week and then Elder Steele, with the rest of his district, depart for their respective areas all around the world.