Caden {5.25.15}

Another week has gone by. It has been SOOOO stressful this week but in the end I absolutely loved it. We moved out of the terrible place into a slightly less terrible place! So that is good. I was supposed to go to the OKC temple with Ivan but due to a very small window of opportunity I had to stay and contact some referrals. That was really sucky but I did what is right. I got to see Melissa on our way back from KANSAS!!!!!! (3 state missionary) We need to go back up to see some more YSA's but man that is a lot of miles! Sunday was truly amazing though. We had dinner with the Shumway’s, some missionaries that came back to visit, and the Tulsa zone. It was the last dinner that will take place in the OTM mission home. It was a very special experience and a really fun time! I love the OTM with all my heart! I want to give thanks this Memorial Day for all those that have gone before us: in the line of patriots and as faithful saints. God loves this country... and God loves his followers! I hope you all have an amazing Monday and be safe.

These are from the clean up last week! Today we get to go do clean up on some flooding that happened this weekend! Tulsa was not even in the storm and we got 6 inches within a couple hours!

Caden {5.18.15}

We had three baptisms this weekend. The two girls were baptized by the bishop and I got to baptize Rico! I just love this family sooooo much. I think every single one is a convert besides the mom. Rico is 8 but was baptized with his two sisters. I am so excited for them and their confirmations were a very powerful experience as well. There was another tornado but it was at least 7 miles away so we are safe but I am going to clean it up today! We are meeting with Richard tonight. I think it is time...is what he told us yesterday! So we are super excited for that! And the mission is no longer the OTM after July 1st. It will now be called the Arkansas Bentonville Mission. So I am super excited to see how that goes. Just a long crazy week! We had a goal to get 7 active member lessons and 14 referrals this week and we got 6 or 7 lessons with 22 referrals so I am okay with that! Haha. Love you all a ton. Talk to you next week:) 

P.S. We met storm chasers so i made Sydney pull over on the side of the road so I could get a pick with them... and then I got to see a ton of people I love and miss from past areas! But no Elder Reynolds:( and Chaz needs to come visit me!!!!!!!! And I had to do some IT work for the mission office: destroying the old computers.

China {Beijing}

In China they celebrate "May Holiday" which we think is some sort of Memorial Day. Either way.. our school gave us a ten day vacation for it, so no complaints here. (:

We have been planning and looking forward to this ten day vacation ever since we got back from our month long trip! We thought it would never come, but it came and went real quick. 

Our first stop, where we spent the first half of our trip was in Beijing! 

You really just can't justify going to China without visiting Beijing. We spent five days there and I'm sure there was so much more we could have spent time seeing.

Day .5: This was traveling day. We decided to take a bullet train and turn our thirteen hour train ride into four. Best decision of the trip. Bullet trains are so nice. It's basically an airplane on the ground. No surprise, but we literally almost missed our train and were quite the scene sprinting through the train station with our suitcases dragging behind. Luckily, we made it within seconds and were on our way. The four hour ride flew by and next thing we knew we were at The Leo Hostel, where we were staying in a 14 bed dorm. Always an adventure. Haha.

OH. Did I mention that this trip was just me and the girls? SO glad we did that. I love those girls so much.

Day 1: First we went to the Temple Of Heaven! It was awesome! At this point in China, we've decided everything (as far as temples and landmarks go) all look the same. But this didn't. It was super pretty and a fun place to be!

Then.. it started raining, so what better thing to do than shopping? We found the Pearl Market and spent 8 hours taking it all in, memorizing all five floors, comparing prices, eating some good food, bargaining our lungs out and spending a whole lot of money. It was fantastic.

Day 2: We went to Tienanmen Square and The Forbidden City! In Tienanmen Square, we didn't even realize that that's where we already were and ended up buying a ticket we didn't need.. Lol. But The Forbidden City was huge and gorgeous. We also went on a little hike up to a look out point where we  could look down and see the entire thing. It was really cool! 

Then.. that night we went to the Wangfujing Night Market! This is where they have all the nasty things to eat, that you probably shouldn't try. We decided to be brave and tried scorpion and starfish! Ew. 

Day 3: We did the majority of our shopping this day, again at the Pearl Market. That place is madness. Everyone wants you to buy from them, and they all sell the same stuff, so it's just a big battle. It's pretty hilarious. But we got some great stuff, and made some good friends with the salesmen. (:

Day 4: We went to The Great Wall!! My first wonder of the world was pretty wonderful. We went to the Mutianyu part of the wall, which was practically empty! It was so awesome. It was just great not being stuck in a huge crowd, and instead being able to just explore and see every view we wanted to! We even got to toboggan slide down the wall which was pretty epic. (: That night we played pool and hung out with some people we met from the UK. Hostels are awesome. We've met the coolest people from ALL over the world.

Day 5: Another part of our group of teachers came to Beijing so we showed them around the shopping and were on our way to the train station! We took a 15 hour train ride to Shanghai! Luckily, we had sleepers, which means that we had beds instead of seats! So it really wasn't all that bad. We met some cute Chinese people who helped us with ALL of our bags and slept through the night! 

We loved Beijing!

Up next: Shanghai!