My little room mate, Mildred

We were told when we first came to Changzhou that we would each have our own rooms. I was so excited to have this wonderful freedom. Well I got my hopes up too high because about a week after I moved in a rat showed up. I named it Mildred. It had gotten into my garbage but not a big deal, right? I didn't worry to much about it. Eventually each night things got a little worse. Mildred ended up taking a bite out of all my granola bars and ate some other things. This isn't the worse part, though. Me and the girls stayed the night in Nanjing to go to church and Mildred decided to surprise me when I got home. I opened up my sock drawer and he had made a little home, including his own bathroom! We were all screaming! I didn't sleep in my room for the next few nights. I had a serious talk with one of the faculty at the school, named Jo. He got me a trap and some poison. I put the trap out that night and miraculously, and after much prayer, the next morning he was caught. Muah haha. I was so happy! The Lord does answer our prayers, even the most simple ones.

My School!

These are some pictures at the school that I teach at. The school's name is Qingying (ching ying). It is a very wealthy school pretty nice inside. We each have our own class rooms, which is so nice. We really are spoiled here. At first there was only 3 huge rooms to work with and we told the faculty that we need 5 rooms. Well low and behold the next time we went to our rooms they had built walls inbetween the huge rooms, making six rooms for us. It was perfect. We have some free time every now and again and so some of us have taken up cross stitching. I am pretty much a pro now. You should see my work. In the school there are posters all over the walls with funny inspirational sayings. Some of the sayings are really funny like "take a deep breath with the world." My favorite is in one of these pictures. Carly is posing underneath the words "love every day!" We are fed pretty well each day. Some of the food here is quite authentic. We see a lot of what looks like piranha, chicken stomach, and hardened pigs blood. Most of the food is pretty good though. They have plenty of vegetables and yummy eggs plus plenty of rice. I will not go hungry here. hehe.

These are pictures from my first Hong Kong trip. This city is so beautiful. My favorite part was going and doing baptisms for the dead at the Hong Kong Temple. It was the most amazing experience I have ever had in a temple. After struggling with traveling and the beginning of our Chinese experience it was so nice to get away and visit a temple of the Lord. Wow, China kicked off to a great start in Hong Kong. Hong Kong at night was very beautiful too. There was a light show on all of the buildings. Man, I wish that Salt Lake City had a light show! My favorite picture of this bunch is with me and Abby next to the biggest firehydrant in the world! It was so huge.

These pictures are of infront of the temple. I loved these chinese people that were at the temple. They were so excited to see us and so kind. They totally radiated. I loved them. The next picture is with the mission president of the Hong Kong Temple. He was such a nice man! The last picture is with real LDS missionaries in Hong Kong. We were so happy to see them! They were so nice and totally stoked to complete the Lord's work. They were such a ray of sunlight in Hong Kong.

The Kids I Teach

These are my adorable children.

I love them all so much and am planning on shipping them home with me. They learn so incredibly fast. There are plenty of days where each one of them have serious ADHD but this is when the lesson of patience comes in. My favorite thing is to say good night to my kids. I stop by their rooms to see them and they run to me yelling "Teacha Kat!!" and then give me huge hugs. I'm sure that a hug from a child can cure any type of illness.











I also taught my kids a "secret" handshake, which they love. I am so grateful for this awesome experience. These kids are seriously changing my life.

Our Visit to Beijing

Beijing was absolutely incredible. As you can see we did not have a dull moment. From the Great Wall of China to dressing up as hot Chinese ladies, one could never be bored in Beijing.









The Forbidden City was amazing and beautiful.We had an awesome tour guide that explained the history of it. The Olympic sites were so awesome. It was so hard to believe we actually stood where the Olympians raced (at the Birds Nest pictured below).