September 4

For Church today, my group gathered in the head teacher, Marie’s room. We wore Sunday dress. We now belong to a very unique branch, which uses Skype to communicate. The branch is spread out over the entirety of China, and the members just call in from their computers to a certain phone number. We had opening song and prayer, and our Branch President addressed the announcements. Then we muted the speakers, and Scott, the only Priesthood bearer in my group, who had previously received permission to bless and pass the Sacrament, gave the Sacramental prayers and we had Sacrament. This was very nice, as I had been concerned that I wouldn’t be able to partake of the Sacrament for four months.
After this, we tuned back into Skype and Fast and Testimony meeting began. Those who felt prompted, wherever they were, simply spoke to the microphone in their webcams like you would on Skype. It was an interesting, but special, experience. We sang, I Need Thee Every Hour and I was touched that, especially now, while I’m in a foreign country which has banned God, I need Heavenly Father’s guidance and comfort.
After lunch, we decided to check out the beach that can be seen from my apartment window. A few days ago, most of the group went to the International Beach a 30 minute bus ride away, but we didn’t feel like traveling so far so we walked to this new beach. It took us a while to find it on foot, but we eventually made it. The beach is surrounded by what seems to be an abandoned mini amusement park: there are old water slides, broken down go karts, dinosaur statues, and life-size castles.
The beach itself is large and sandy, and wasn’t very populated, which was nice. There was a lot of trash on the beach and sometimes in the water, which was slightly disgusting, but it was so hot we didn’t care. The waves are mildly decent, and it stays shallow for a long ways out; I have yet to reach the drop off where I can’t touch the bottom. The water is super salty.
Adam and I think we saw a sting ray, but other than that there was no marine life. I can now say I swam in the Yellow Sea! It’s about a 30 minute walk, which doesn’t seem that awful once you’ve climbed nearly a thousand stairs every day for a week. (Been there, done that.)
Anyway. That night, Maren, Kelli, Marie, Kristin and I watched music videos on youtube for about two hours, and it was great. We were laughing so hard, checking out hot guys, talking about hot guys, being silly girls. We had a lot of fun.