Burton's on the Go! Shenzhen, China: Sweet Sabbath

Views from the waterfront outside our apartment (no filter top pict, bottom sepia)

Sunday we made our first appearance at our new church branch. They meet about 7 minutes from our apartment in the community where The Shekou International School is located called Jinshan Villas. (Shekou by the way is the name of the district we live in within Shenzhen city). The church group meets in a large residential house. We got a little lost in trying to find it so we were a few minutes late.

This Sunday was the Christmas program featuring narration, scripture reading and musical performances. The main room seating - which would be the equivalent of a living/dining room area could hold about 100 people. It was full when we came in so we were shown upstairs where they had a tv feed of the downstairs. In addition to the camera feed going upstairs, they had web cams showing the meeting to some people who live in outlying areas via Skype or FaceTime. A few minutes after we sat in the "overflow" we were told they had made space for us in the main room. The program was really nice and the spirit in the room was wonderful. After the meeting we got lots of greetings, a welcome packet with helpful area guides and were shown where the subsequent classes were held. The boys are together in a nursery downstairs for the little kids. They were excited to play with the other children and toys.

After church we stopped by the Taylor's home. They are a family of 7 here from Arizona working for IBM. They had some items in their basement that other expat families had left and offered anything we wanted from that stash. I found a couple of storage bins I could use. They also invited us over the next night to share dinner and Family Home Evening with them. What is Family Home Evening? - in the LDS church we are encouraged to set aside one night a week to spend as a family - talking, counseling together, playing and sharing a gospel message followed by treats! - click the link for more info.

When we left there we stopped by a place called Sea World - no, not the amusement park in California. This Sea World is an area with a giant ship, lots of restaurants and a boardwalk like area where families hang out. The kids enjoyed mixing with some local children playing with bubbles and looking around.

Next it was home for some lunch and time to ride the new scooters. Cole caught on really quickly. Kenney likes pushing with his feet, but is slowly figuring it out. I like them because it slows them down just enough for me to keep up!