The Nikki Madi Dynasty

Oh I love China so much! Miracles happen every day, and one thing I've realized is if you don't participate and look for the miracles, life really seems to leave you in the dust. If you pray for something here, you'd better expect Heavenly Father to hear it-He answers every prayer, and if you don't look for it, it's like asking someone to go do you a favor and then not even caring to follow up on it. What kind of a relationship is that? Well apparently it's how alot of people treat God. Wow, it's quite humbling to think about treating God that way, yet many do it all the time. I think that is one reason ingratitude kindles His wrath so much (D+C 59:21).

Imagine someone asks if you'll go to the grocery store and pick up all the means for a meal, then to prepare the meal for many people. Imagine this is a very good friend of yours so you do it and then after the meal has been consumed you get no thanks, no mere mention of the favor you've done, and no payment. How would you feel? I can imagine we'd feel a little offended and unwilling to do anything like that for them again. That is how many people treat prayer. We pray for health and safety and that things will go well, and when the prayer is answered, we just keep praying the same things expecting that God will still do them for us...Now you can see why God's wrath is kindled by ingratitude. I mean seriously, WHY would someone still answer our prayers consistently when we hardly give a glance of thankfulness to what they've already done? Because God is EXTREMELY merciful, that's why. He's hoping eventually we'll get the hint and deliver thanks to him.

This has been so easy for me to see living here in China. If we were to mathematically calculate the chances here in China of anything going according to our plans relatively well is pretty low, the chances of a majority of our plans going accordingly is very low, and the chances of most things going according to plan and working out pretty well is pretty much impossible, yet here in China, it happens ALL THE TIME! I can't even describe it. Here in China communication is really random, there aren't many store chains, because of the lack of much local TV, you never know big events except by word of mouth, and the government can change anything as it pleases, so there are really not many things you can count on that in America we take for granted: any transportation leaving on time, reservations anywhere, business and people directories...no really, you could go to a extremely delicious place one day and the next day they will be gone and never be back and no one knows a thing about them. You will figure out something a million times faster asking someone on the streets than you will trying to look something up on the internet or watching for an ad via TV, magazine, anything. They have internet but no one uses websites for advertisement, and much information is blocked in China. Go figure. You look to look up something China doesn't want to release and it's completely blocked. Then you try harder and if you succeed hackers jump your server and try to block anything using your IP address. It bites. So if this is a "free country", as my students say, it is just free from: global truth, associations with people outside the PRC, having definite work schedules and calendars (for instance, the government decides last minute when schools will start teaching in the year and when they will get out), a stable living, counting on the government (people can bribe the government to do just about anything), having a relationship with members of the opposite sex before graduating from a university, choosing occupations they would be passionate about, and essentially accessing information to know what is really going on. They think they are "free" because they can legally pirate music, they get to choose what to eat from menus, they can choose hobbies to practice once they graduate from high school, they can watch, read, listen to anything China allows, and they can sing in the shower (when they get the chance to take a shower); they think they are free, but they are not. They highly esteem any philosopher of communism and many people say their hero is Mao Tse Dung. That is communist China.

So that's life in China. I learn not to count on things in China, except one, and that is my Heavenly Father. Yeah, I trust Madi, Sam, and the others, but they are American and LDS-not Chinese. The people here for the most part are amazing, genuine, kind, helpful, and beautiful, but the corruption in the government really changes things, and the fact that it's third world (for the most part) puts EVERYTHING up in the air. Anything could happen hear in China and it really wouldn't surprise me too much. Crazy huh? Well that's my speal for China. Haha.

Back to my first point, getting around China and having things work out is really an accumulation of miracles. Every day that things work out to my expectations or better I know God has a hand in it. So I pay attention to what I pray for even more, because here in China I have no one to tell me everything will be alright and help me for the first few steps. It's all on me. Anything I do here in China is because I want to-I am an active part in planning things, making sure things work out, teaching my classes, feeding myself, exercising, purchasing everything, taking care of my physical well-being as well as Spiritual, mental, and emotional. It's one thing to be 2,000 miles away from home and be able to call family and close friends on a regular basis, and it's another thing to be halfway across the world with extremely limited communication. Being in this sort of situation really forces change. I've seen people going through these experiences and every day feel crushed by the inconveniences of China and how things don't work out according to plan, and I've seen people thrive, mature, and grow so much. The one thing I did learn from my fat old Cross Country coach in High School still sticks with me. After every hard workout he used to ask, "Did cross country beat you, or did you beat cross country?" So every day when I am confronted with many inconveniences and some hardships I keep it in mind, and at the end of the day I ask myself, "Did the obstacles of the day beat me, or did I beat the obstacles of the day?" It keeps me focused on my goals and the things I should be keeping in mind. Here in China I have felt the companionship of the Lord's Spirit in all things I do: teaching, visiting with students, feeding people, sharing love for those around me, thinking of others first, cleaning my apartment, and I've realized that you can be drown in the midst of the world but still keep yourself and your surroundings a place the Spirit can dwell and where others can feel God's love. Isn't it incredible? The Lord has really taken me in His arms and blesses my life every day. It's great to have Him here in China with me. Things just go SO well...so well compared to odds and chance-they are miracles.

Well this week has been a great one! With my classes I taught how to create a band (for music), so I split up each class in groups of 2-6 people, and in each group they had to pick a topic or two they would sing about, a genre, instruments for the individuals in their bands, and make a name banner. These were ALOT of instructions for my classes who don't understand much English, but they got them all figured out, (I am SO proud of them :) and this upcoming week they will present. Some even got creative and WROTE SONGS! Seriously, some of my students make me so thrilled and full of joy! Have I mentioned I LOVE being a teacher?! I do! I am so excited to take videos and pictures of their band presentations! Well other than teaching this week I got my camera fixed, but it is going downhill so I'm very excited to be receiving my new one in the next couple weeks from home! We designed our classes so a bunch of us could all go together to Guilin and Yangshuo this weekend, which we did. Mariah and Savanna (from Longhui) and Cierra and Shelby came in town Thursday night and we all went out to eat with 3 students (Twinkle, Bruce, and William-some of my favs!) at a Chinese-American restaurant and then just hung out and had a great time. Friday we finished our morning classes and took a bus to Lengshuitang to the train station, and took the train to Guilin, meeting up with Nora Evans and Alyssa Petersen (all of the above are people we came to China with and are all good friends now) and picking up Matt and Kristal Carter in Dong'an. It was a party! We stayed in a pretty nice hostel there in Guilin and all went to PIZZA HUT! (minus Sam, who decided to be a rebel). Oh cheeeeeeeesy pizza...delicious. Then we learned how to bargain viciously in the night markets and I got a few souvenirs, (Madi got a bamboo flute!). Then Saturday morning we took a bus to Yangshuo and met up with Parker Abegg, Quincy, and Lawrence and our reservations at a hostel were apparently useless, but Madi, Quincy, and I managed to get a hostel much nicer than my apartment in Ling Ling, and so needless to say we took advantage of soft beds, a bath, and a more-clean environment! Wooohoo, I felt like I was living it up posh! We tore up the markets here in Yangshuo with our amazing bargaining skills and I got some more souvenirs. I also purchased 2 very beautiful dresses that are custom made to me, which I am super thrilled about!

It was so great to have so many people for Church on Sunday!!! We are not doing General Conference until next week due to the time difference, but we will watch DVD's of them next week for church. This week we had Fast Sunday and we called in, which is always so awesome-we had SO many people for church!!! Matt and Kristal Carter (Dong'an), Shelby and Cierra (Shuangpai), Quincy and Lawrence (Daoxian), Mariah, Savanna, Nora, and Alyssa (Longhui), Parker (out in the boonies somewhere, I forget), and Madi, Sam, and I (Yongzhou). 14 people for church! Woot! Oh I love being with members and being with as many as I can on the weekends. Yangshuo is gorgeous! Awesome shopping (for someone who doesn't like shopping, it's SO much fun to bargain, which makes it so much more fun because if you are more shrewd you get a pretty dang good deal and then you are proud of yourself). I'm not a huge shopper, but I thoroughly loved Yangshuo. Not only that, but it's gorgeous. We went to a pagoda look-out, and man it's something else. Then we went to a cave lit up in different-colored lights and woah! I've had my fair share of breathtaking moments this trip. I would live there in that cave for a while if I could. Everywhere you turn-BAM-incredible view! This has been an incredible weekend, to say the least! I am so thrilled to do more future traveling. :) Needless to say this trip has made a happy Nikki off the roof happy...or is it "off the walls"?

Man, my turn of phrase is getting mixed. I'm around people who try to use English phrases and end up saying "break your legs" instead of "break a leg," and today I said "I'm wearing every color under the umbrella." Madi corrected me, "It's either 'under the sun' or 'of the rainbow'." Oops...sorry if I come back saying things weirdly. But that's life in China! You rub off on others and they rub off on you. Haha, it's pretty funny though sometimes. Wow...this weekend I have been so spoiled! A soft bed, a bath, casual shopping without heads of animals and body parts hanging everywhere, being with 13 other Americans who I know and love, meeting German, English, Australian, and Swedish people who speak English (!!!), eating pizza, a hamburger (it wasn't fast food and it was SO good...MMM...MMM!), and on top of that it was Easter Weekend! Gotta love it! Well, that's my week in a nut shell.

Take care! Keep up the good work!

I love you lots!

Nikki Checketts

C/o Zhou Zhixi
Foreign Affairs Office of No. 1 Middle School of Yongzhou City
Hunan Province, P.R. China
Post Code: 425006