Miscellaneous Pictures

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.....

End of year Activities

I have really liked who the boys' teachers were this year. Each of them was the exact type of teacher they needed. 

Ms. Ali and Mr. Joel was very supportive, encouraging, patient, and helpful to Connor. Ms Ali is from Florida and Mr. Joel is from the Philippines. Ms. Ali says Connor would make the class laugh. She really enjoyed having him in his class. 

Cam had Mrs. Barks and Ms. Lorna for his teachers. Mrs. Barks was very active with her class. They would sing and dance a lot. I was very impressed with Cam at the student-led conferences. He was able to do many of the activities without any help. They both exude love, happiness, and patience. One thing they really noticed about Cam is how he is always happy. If he can't figure something out or somebody can't understand he just keeps on trying. All of his classmates loved him. They would always say "hello" and "goodbye" to him whenever they saw him. They said he has a very outgoing and "go with the flow" personality. 

 Kade had Mr. Lovestone. He is from Canada, but recently worked in Korea. Again, he was very supportive, helpful, and kind. There was a couple of incidents with mean students and he handled the situations with professionalism, caring, and love. When he comes back next year he will be married to one of the other TIS teachers. Mr. Lovestone was very impressed with Kade and his ability to empathize with others. He received the "service" award from Mr. Lovestone this year. He did say Kade really needs to work on his math facts. If he does this he will be more confidant in his ability to do math.   

Mrs. Tse is from Australia. She is married to one of the P.E. coaches. She was firm, but kind. She made sure all of the students were responsible and considerate. At the beginning of the year she was worried that Kyle was not at the right reading level. However, by the end of the year she thought he was doing great! He is reading at grade level. Keep on reading Kyle!! She was also very impressed with Kyle's handwriting. His writing really is perfect. It is the complete opposite of Kade's. Another talent people notice about Kyle is his ability to draw and attention to detail in the drawing. He really wants to be a police officer, but I think he should go into a profession that has drawing involved. We will see.... 

Cam and I went to the end of year TISPA lunch. It correlated with the ILCM lunch. Kay was kind enough to offer her helper to watch Cam. It was really nice enjoying some really delicious food without interruptions. Here are some of the others moms that helped with the activities. Below is also the menu. Before moving here I had never tried risotto. I had seen it made on Hell's Kitchen and Master Chef, but never tried it. It is amazing!! So, So yummy! IF you haven't tried risotto yet you definitely need to try. 

There was an end of year assembly for all kindergarten, Division 1 and 2 students. It was mainly about saying goodbye to the departing teachers. 

Cam waving hello to Kyle. :) 

All of the 4th graders sang a song and gave the teachers a flower. 

Kyle, Connor, and Cam each had a trip to the City of Dreams Kids City. All they had to do was walk across the street. Unfortunately I was only able to go with Cam. He had so much fun with his friends Tommy and Will. 

Afterwards we went on Hagaan Daas for ice cream. Cam loves ice cream! 

When we went to pick up the boys for the last time this year Cam and I stopped in to give his teacher her "end of year" gift. He was really happy to give the present to her. all of the students gathered around to see what was in the wrapping paper. Cam will sure miss Mrs. Barks next year. We really hope he has another amazing teacher for JK. 

We look forward to another year at TIS and who the boys' teachers will be. We also look forward to watching how the grow and the knowledge they will gain, especially as they keep working hard and striving to do their best. Congratulations boys! One year down, many more to go! ;)