Last night we welcomed three Chinese guests into our home for a delightful dinner and evening. Our guests—Steve Chan, Fayer Lee, and Danielle Wei, whom we work closely with in China—were here for convention last week and have been at the home office this week, attending lots of meetings.

In the evenings, however, they’ve been invited to different people’s homes for dinner, our way of sharing our culture with them. Last night was our turn!

We loved it. All the grandchildren who live nearby wanted to meet them; in fact, Sidney and Seth dressed up and wanted to eat with the “grown-ups” in the dining room. They loved listening to their stories and their perceptions of Western culture.

It was Danielle’s first trip to the US, and she was especially surprised by how nice people were. She said that, based on the movies she’s seen, she didn’t expect Americans to be nearly as friendly as they had been! I’m glad we surprised her!

They saw a picture of Sterling on a horse, wearing a cowboy hat and chaps, and were immediately intrigued by the idea that he was a real cowboy! When he pulled out his cowboy hat and let them try it on, they were even more impressed. So then he had to go get the horse and let them pet it—it was fun to see them experience that! You could tell they were nervous, but they were excited too!

They didn’t act at all overwhelmed by the fact that 7 children under 7 were running in and out, around and about. They smiled and were gracious, but after they left, someone mentioned that they must have felt both amazed and amused at their evening at the Gardner home!