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3:51pm (12:51am PST) – Wow.. it’s Wednesday already.  This trip just keeps going faster and faster.  I told my mom last night that it feels like I’m running on a missionary schedule again.  Mackenzie came back to the room just before midnight (that is when their curfew was), so he woke me up to get in.  Then Kristin Nielson called about a half hour later to make sure that we were in our room.  I hadn’t heard that there was call in tonight, nor did I know what room she was in.  Then I slept all the way through to the wake up call at 6:30am.  I was so very very tired when I woke up, for I need more than just 6 hours of sleep.  Our “favorite” breakfast this morning was there to eat and then it was down to the lobby to leave at 8am.  Sheldon talked to us for a bit about the religious situation in China and gave some interesting information about the Church and it’s history in this country.  Very cool!  Our first stop was a Silk factory where we were able to see the process of how they take the silk from the cocoon, how they stretch the silk to become a blanket, etc.  (continue reading…)

9:46pm (6:46am PST) – Alright, another late update here. We’ve just been on the move so much these last few days that it has been hard to keep up with everything. I’ve even been busy on the bus! Today I was showing pictures that have been taken, slideshows, and other things to people on the bus. Then I talked with Jeri and a few others for a while about some publicity ideas. So lets recount the story of the day! (continue reading…)

As was mentioned earlier in the Tour, Clayton Allen received his Mission Call to Madagascar while on Tour in China. Here is the video of how he received it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1PRo-YQeA8

11:25am (8:25pm Saturday PST) – And here we are, this nice Sabbath morning.  We had some extra time to sleep in this morning and didn’t have to be up till 7:30.  It was light outside by 5:30am and I was up and going by 6:50am.  In fact, a lot of yesterday’s blog entry was written this morning because I was so tired after yesterday.  Breakfast started at 7am and we had to be ready and at the buses by 8:45am.  I went light on breakfast again this morning, just because I can’t eat as much anymore.  Last night they had all these different drink selections and this morning we had our choice of warm milk, red tea, or coffee.  I don’t care for the last 2 and so I went with the milk.  BLEH!  Tasted horrible.  I don’t understand how people can drink the stuff warm.  Breakfast done, we met at the buses at 8:45 this morning and were out of here by 9am.  Jeri made sure and asked everyone on the bus if they had brought everything for we were not returning to the hotel at all during the day.  She went down the list of things, item by item and slowly people got up and ran back to their rooms to retrieve forgotten items.  With that over and done with we were good to go.  So we are now in the middle of our 1h 30min ride to go see the Great Wall once again, this time at it’s starting point on the coast.  The city/area is called Laolongtou.    When we get there I’ll let you know more about it.  (continue reading…)

8:28am (5:28pm Friday PST) – We had a fun beginning this morning. Wake up call at 6:00am with bags down in the lobby by 6:30am. Way way way way to the nth degree too early!!! I want my rest! The kids were good about it though and everyone cooperated just fine. Breakfast was the usual: rice, beans, eggs, sausage, bacon, soup, other stuff and I topped mine with a doughnut. Yum and oh so healthy for you too. We met back down in the lobby at 7:30 where Jeri announced that she had received a text message from Perri Ann. It could have meant only one thing… Clayton’s mission call arrived in the mail back at home. So we all crowded around in a circle as Jeri called Perri Ann and then handed the phone to Clayton. They talked for a moment and then Perri Ann asked if we had access to a computer. She had scanned the call letter and sent it to him via email. So I handed my camera to someone else and brought out my laptop, logged him in and stood there with the computer in my hands as he checked his email. Then he began to read: (continue reading…)