Engrish!

We have fun during our English lessons!

Maybe sometimes a little too much fun!

We went out to eat after lessons today.

We actually went to a cafeteria I have never eaten at before! 

We use to eat this same meal every week during the Xi'an Bring Me Hope camp!

Soup is never high on my list of likes, and while I love noodles

I do prefer dry ones, but this is a really good dish! 

Brought back some great memories!

I miss my fellow Xi'an staff members.

So many of them have not been back to camp in so long!

What struck me while we were out at eating today was

how I hear so often about the huge portion

sizes in America and how it is small wonder so many people

are overweight with the amount of food each serving size contains.

But the servings sizes here are often even bigger

then they are even in the States!
Often times, I can't finish the amount given to me! 

Not sure if you can see the plate next to this little girl

but it was her lunch. I thought at first it was for her to share

with her Mom, who was sitting on the other side of the table.

But then her mom came back with a bowl of her own

food, and the little girl sat down to eat her lunch! 

It was crazy big! 

I have been wondering if I was failing at being 

an English tutor. While my friend is doing great at learning

I didn't know how well she felt it was going

as far as how I did to teach and how

we progressed in each lesson, etc,

Today, she asked if next week she could start bringing

her Chinese boyfriend. 

I am to give her new vocab words, we talk about them a bit

then she will go on to write them and try to learn how to spell

them as I start from ABC with her boyfriend. 

It was a huge boost in confidence to think she 

had that much faith in me that she is still bringing new 

people to join in our times! 

The plan is to, from now until the semester is over

{which is only about 10 more Sundays!} 

do our lesson together, then go out to lunch the three of us.

I really loved our lesson today and hope for more opportunities like it!

I showed her a video of my parents singing

{Which,btw, made me miss you guys a lot!

I miss hearing you sing, I miss singing with you,

I miss the fact that we all just break into song at times! 

And I miss seeing the two of you together!} 

and then we talked about what the song meant. 

It was a song about Hope. 

I asked her what her hope was in and then was able to

tell her a TINY bit about what mine is in. 

The song talks about the grave having been robbed

of its goal, and so I was able to explain what that meant!

Also,this afternoon while at Family Group Meeting

I was writing out a thank you card for something that is coming up,

Even though it is for someone who does not speak Chinese

I wanted to put some of the Word in there in characters.

I found the one I wanted, then looked it up in my Chinese Book. 

As I was writing it, I was struck with how awesome it

was....I understood it!

And not just because I knew what the passage was saying.

I understood the words! I knew which one meant you and 

which ones were saying not to worry

and which said that today had enough trouble of its own. 

Getting to read this Book in another language is so cool!

One day, I will be able to share about it more in the same tongue!

That is my goal!!

#ItsTheSmallThings