上海 Shànghǎi Shanghai

District Conference is where all the small branches of LDS members get together twice a year in Shanghai and get to see each other! And hear talks. And when you are in Shanghai, you get to tour Shanghai and make new friends.

I'll picture overload you in a minute - but if you want to get to the pictures, you have to read this miracle first. I think this brings me to miracle #3 I've blogged this year. This was shared by one of the speakers in District Conference.

A friend of the speaker was a woman who had a really busy day and had a thought to bake a plate of chocolate chip cookies. She didn't need cookies for any reason and pushed away the thought. An hour later, she felt the prompting again, and followed it. She baked cookies, put them on a plate and then prayed to ask what to do with them because she had no idea. The first person that came to mind was a woman in her ward she had just been asked to visit teach. So she went over to her home, knocked, introduced herself as her new visiting teacher and said she had a plate of cookies for her. She left, and that was that.

A year later, the receiver of the cookies was speaking in church. She shared that a year previously, her family had been having a horrible day. Some family issues, and the car had broken down, among other things. Feeling desperate, she knelt down to pray, and told Heavenly Father that a plate of chocolate chip cookies would make her feel better. Voila! Enter new visiting teacher with prompting to bring over a plate of cookies.

This experience teaches me that maybe God won't fix the car. Maybe he won't take away the family issues right away. But he will provide the miracle that brings us closest to him. That miracle showed her God hears prayers and loves his children, that he loves her. When I heard it, I was reminded of some difficult periods in my life where the trial was not resolved immediately, but daily I was reminded of God's love and drew closer to Him.

You've been so good to read that and let it soak in. Here are pictures from Shanghai!

No thank you sir - I don't want your son's information.

Should I add my profile to an umbrella in the matchmaking market?

This is like Times Square kind of?

#SubwaySelfie

I found the great stone dragon!

Soup dumplings are delicious

Making dumplings

My favorite Chinese tour guide Darren 

Finally - trust me to find Harry Potter wherever I go in the world.