Starting to Celebrate Halloween Daily Now‏

Hello Dear Friends and Family,
Just a note to tell more about the festivities leading to Halloween. Yesterday and today were unforgettable ! My students are so special and I know that I will never forget them or the great experiences I have shared with them. They are the most unpretentious, innocent, loving, caring human beings I have ever had the privilege of associating with. I am in love with them - as you can tell... I always tell them that they are awesome and they just grin at me.
It is important to the Chinese students,to learn all they can about the English language and culture. Therefore, the celebrated American holidays are very interesting to them. I have been explaining Halloween and the customs to them for the past week and I will finish this next week. As you all know, I have the Freshmen one week and the Sophomores the next week. This past week has been a Sophomore week.
I have shown them how to trick or treat and they are so cute trying it out . They are not afraid to share their talents and they are talented. They have the sweetest singing voices and their pronunciation is so dear to me. I feel very defensive of them. They are so meek and mild - perfect examples of what the Savior taught us we should all be! They treat us BYU teachers like we are of royal blood. It is going to be very hard to go home and back to the life I had before coming to China. I am a changed person - and for the better, because of these wonderful people. I will be forever grateful for this experience.
Today, in my 2 morning classes, I was taught with love. You all think that I am over here teaching the Chinese, but actually, I am the one that is being taught! They are so patient and eager to listen to anything I say. I have their undivided attention all the time I am teaching. We talked about Halloween and I sang them a Halloween song, and they wanted to try trick or treating. They were so child-like in their enthusiasm and excitement, as they went out the door and knocked and yelled, "trick or treat". I always stand close to them as they sing or recite, I know how frightening it must be for them. And I can feel them trembling and even see their lips trembling. They look at me with such trust in their eyes that I cannot fail them in any way. It is a very spiritual experience, knowing they put all their trust in me. Oh, how I have learned to love them!
We had a fun game today,to help them with their speaking skills. They were divided into teams and each team had a spokesperson. The spokesperson came to my desk and I explained that each member, of every team, was to participate in the activity and they could earn a treat. Each spokesperson was given a different picture showing something to do with Halloween. They had to do one of four things: 1. explain the picture in detail or 2. tell a story about the picture or 3. do a play, explaining the picture or 4. sing a song about the picture. I then gave them 20 minutes to explain to the teams and come up with one of the above to present to the class. It was so much fun to watch them interact with each other. They are always so happy. I love to watch their faces and walk around the room and eavesdrop on the conversations. I learn alot from them. The presentations were unbelievable. I wish that I could have taped the entire day. They are so talented and inventive. They had great ideas and some very interesting ones. They did not want the class to end - they were having such a good time. So was I ! ! ! ! I wanted to take every one of those student into my arms and hug them.
Tomorrow we go to Gufu, the home town of Confucius. Also, to Mount Tai, and I hear it is quite the hike, up hundreds of stairs! We leave at 7:00 a.m. and go on a 7 hour bus ride. We will spend Saturday night and return home Sunday afternoon late. I am apprehensive to go - I have so many things to do to get ready for school next week. Hopefully, we will have a tame bus driver. Some of the bus drivers are pretty wild. The bus we rode home on last night was another wild ride. The drivers are out to hog the road and not allow others to pass or get ahead of them. It is so comical to witness - makes for great entertainment. Never a dull moment here.... I love it. Life in Cedar City seems so dull in comparison.
I will report again when we return home on Sunday.
Please know that we love you all so very much. You are never far from our thoughts and prayers. May the Lord bless all of you.
All our love,
Mom and Dad