Church

yesterday was the first sunday in our new ward

we started with sacrament meeting first.

the ward is awesome.

i have never been to a ward where so many of the primary children bear their testimony in sacrament meeting

there was literally 20 children that went up

(i counted)

i asked some members of the ward if it is usually like that

to my surprise that was a "low" day

wow!!!

it is so wonderful to hear the testimonies of children

they are so precious and so brilliant !!!

not to mention the powerful spirit they can bring

here are some of the things i just had to jot down that they said:

>>>>>><<<<<<

"...and i know that it is good to eat good foods..."

"...i know that jesus live in the clouds..."

"...i am grateful that i get to see my family in Oroville (neighboring city) after church..."

"...i know that joseph smith is a hero because he made the bible..."

and our very own fijian/tongan/white nephew decided to start his testimony by saying "ola"

it was such an awesome testimony meeting =]

our niece mele sat with us during sacrament

she asked us "what are you guys doing after this?"

i thought she meant after church... so i said "i dunno"

she went on to say "oh, cuz you guys can go to old mens or old womens!"

HAHHAHAHHAHAHAAAA

she is sooo cute!

right after sacrament we met with the bishop and his counselors

bishop takahashi...aka... michios dad

he just wanted his counselors to get to know us better

so we both told them about ourselves, where we have worked...if we're going to school

and then michio's dad went last and told us about himself

he is soooo sweet!!!!!!!!!!

he told us a little bit about his life

and he ended with how happy he is that michio found me

he called me a "miracle"

and then he started crying and said "ok im done"

then last was elders chorum and relief society

michio said there was a whopping 8 people in class

bishop told us there are about 700 members in the ward

but only a little over 300 attend church

relief society is so funny

after they did their announcements they had time set aside for "good news" moments

so women would share what is going on in their lives,

like "my first grandchild is graduating from high school this friday!"

then the women would say their "ooooohhhhs" and "ahhhhhhs" in perfect unison

another cool thing about our ward is that they have a high hmong population

so in every hour you will see people with headphones.

they have people translating everything for them

in relief society a hmong women sits in the back with a microphone translating everything for the other hmong women.

one of the hmong women also bore their testimony in relief society.

one of the other hmong women translated for her....

but she did say "amen"

so i guess we are liking things here so far =]

and i forgot...
i started school today!!!
not fun...
my class today was 4 hours long.
it is kind of boring and the people in my class are so smart!