District Conference

Today was awesome! We got up at 6 am to go to District Conference, it happens annually and we happened to be here in China to go! I don't think that was a coincidence. We traveled by walking, bus, metro and taxi to the Ramada Hotel in Guangzhou. It is about 2 hours away from where we live. It started at 10 and we were on time! In fact we were early-that is not like us, we usually are late because of unexpected travel issues. It went until 12, there were about 8 speakers consisting of 2 youth speakers, the President of Beijing China international district, a young women's president, some other people from different branches and 2 men from the 70 were there! Elder Stanley Wan from the 70 and Elder Anthony D. Perkins from the 70. We didn't know what they looked like, but when we saw them we knew they were from the 70, they have a different light to them. Elder Wan talked about if the Savior were to enter the room, would we recognize him and we should keep the commandments. Elder Perkins spoke about how Satan is trying to hold back the gospel to non-members but the gospel is still moving forward. There were about 200 people in the conference, a black person, white people, children and Asians, it was so awesome to look back on the congregation and see the different people. It was an amazing experience, afterwards we walked across the street and had lunch, which was spaggettii and hot ham and cheese sandwiches! The ham and cheese sandwiches were so amazing! I kept eating them! When we were done eating, we stayed in our seats and Steven L. Toronto, President Beijing China international district, Scott L. Bayles, 2nd counselor district presidency, Elder Anthony D. Perkins and Elder Stanley Wan spoke to us single adults, there were about 40 of us. We had a question and answer with them. We got to ask any questions we wanted and they would answer it. For example: How could we meet in a Ramada Hotel when the gospel is prohibited in China by the government? The answer is that the church works closely with the government and they permit us to meet but we need to be careful so we don't teach the Chinese people. The government, in a way, trusts us. Or What do Chinese people think about before and after life? They believe that if you go throughout your life being good you will be a king or a queen, if you did poorly through life you will be a dog or a cat. It was very interesting and I learned a lot about church in China, I loved this experience!