This is Sister Holbrook. When she was younger the Young Woman Recognition program was not available. Because of our branch being given special permission for all of the sisters to participate in the program Sister Holbrrok immediately went to work on personal progress. She knew she would need to have everything finished by the time she left to go home. And, she did it!! The Sunday before she left President Alayon recognized her efforts and presented her with her Young Woman Recognition Award! Ashley is also in this picture. I am really hoping Sister Holbrook receiving her medallion has motivated her to work towards hers, especially since she will be graduating this year. We also found out that if Ashley works diligently and faithfully this next year in seminary she will be the very first one to graduate from seminary in Macau. Knowing that would motivate me to strive to finish seminary! Hopefully that motivates her as well. :) We will see.
Miscelleneous pictures of Cam. The first one is Cam showing his card he received from Grandma Fern for his birthday. Then there are pictures one of the boys took of him in "action".
Eric and I had an opportunity to go to our first Chinese weddings. One of his co-workers invited us. It was held at the Sheraton Hotel. Here are some fun things I learned form this experience. When going to a Chinese wedding the guests are not to wear white, red, or black. If a female guest wears red or white the bride might take it that she is trying to take her spotlight away. Nobody should wear black because it makes them seem like they are sending bad omens to the new couple. I am grateful I found out that the correct colors to wear I are pinks, yellows, and light colors. However, when we were there I noticed some of the Chinese guests did not abide by these rules. When I first arrived I was shocked at how big and yummy the cake looked. I was shortly told it was a fake cake. The only reason they have it is because it is part of Western tradition. Eric and I also learned about lei se. This is the "gift" everyone gives to the bride and groom. It is basically an envelope with money inside it. What I didn't realize is there are different types of envelopes. I thought we had the right envelope, but we shortly learned we had a New Year envelope. There are special envelopes made for weddings. Oops!! Howeve, she realized it was from us and probably thought "my silly American boss". Next time we will know exactly what to give to them.
For dinner it was an 8 course dinner. The food was placed on the round part on the table. When somebody wanted something they slowly spun the table around and used their serving spoon to take what they wanted. There was a couple sitting by us who are local Macanese. They started to chuckle a little when they saw me trying to use chopsticks. They ended up asking the waiter for a fork. Lol! Eric, however, is a pro at using chopsticks.
Before the reception started Eric's boss took us to see where a private dinner was being held for the opening of the Parisian. All of the people here in the room are VIP's or something like that. It was fun to see. We are excited for the Parisian to open!
Sister Siu is leaving us to go back home to the UK. We will really miss her and the way, as Kyle says, speaking British. She is such an outgoing, confidant person who has a very bright future ahead of her.
Elder Griffiths, who will also be leaving Macau soon, was excellent at taking selfies on my phone. WE love missionary selfies when we ask them to take pictures for us. :)
More pictures of Cam and the boys.
On our way home from the store on the shuttle.
Kyle taking selfies. What a silly boy!
Connor and Cam were invited to a birthday party at the Qube. However, this top picture is one from when Connor visited the kids place in City of Dreams.
With some of the sisters at church. From left to right: Sister Flor, Sister Maria, me, Sister Madelon, Sister Adora, and Sister Raquel.
On the bus. We went to see where one would take us. To get from our stop to the very last stop took about an hour. By that time the boys didn't think riding the bus was very fun anymore. ;)
Relaxing after a swim.
Macau had a pretty impressive thunder and lightning storm. Usually the boys sleep through the thunderstorms but they woke up to this one, except Cam. The lightning was so bright we had to clothes our curtains to keep the light out. As long as everyone is safe these storms are actually fun to see and hear. A friends friend took this picture. Amazing!
More to come on our summer fun.....
