China Trip, Part 2

There is so much that I want to say about my trip to China, and in a way that has prevented me from writing, because it all seems so overwhelming! But thanks to an email from a Psychology student (wondering why I posted a picture of the literature class, and not the psychology class (thanks Yue Qi!), I'm going to post today and hopefully make some other posts in the future.

First of all, here is a picture of my awesome psychology class:

Looking at this picture now, I still know all of their names; I love these students and I think about the lessons that they taught me. One of my favorite experiences in class is when we played the Prisoner's Dilemma. We were able to have fun playing the game, but also had a really good conversation about it applied in real life today. One student wrote a paper comparing the Prisoner's Dilemma with the intense traffic in the city of Chengdu. She drew some amazing parallels! We had many wonderful discussion in class, like the time we attempted to use "Operant Conditioning" to get Max to move around the classroom, or when we talked about the Asch Experiment and how it relates to us today.

Outside of class we had some great experiences. I had my first karaoke experience with members of the psychology class. Even though it was a fun outside-of-class outing, I did take the opportunity to ask some psychology questions pertaining to the song "Keep Bleeding Love" (does that describe a healthy relationship?) Here's an action photo:

I also got to have fun with students from my literature class. We went to a "hot pot," which is a traditional type of restuarant, and especially famous in the Sichuan Province. There were some questionable foods (pig intestine - actually not that bad, cow brain - I didn't try it, etc.) but overall the food was great and the company was incredible.

What I loved most about this trip was getting to know my students and learning from them. As I've been writing this post and going through pictures, I can honestly say that I really, really miss them.

China Trip, Part 1

The Hilton Family has recently been reunited after I (John) spent 5 weeks teaching two summer courses at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China. I left at the end of June, Lani joined me at the end of July, and we traveled back together to Seattle (where Lani had bravely driven 900 miles by herself, and my mother bravely watched all of our children). We've been at a Hilton reunion here in Seattle, and start an Olsen family reunion later this week.

I plan to make several posts about the trip to China, which was incredible, but thought at this point I'd just answer a few questions about the trip:

What did you teach? I taught a Psychology course (my PhD was in Instructional Psychology and Technology) and a Western Literature course. Both were so fun!

Where is Chengdu? Chengdu is the capital city of the Sichuan province, in western China. It is ironic that most Americans have never heard of this city, which has a population of 13 million (by comparison, New York City has 8 million). I taught at Sichuan University, which is one of the highest ranked universities in China.

Why did you go? For me, the main driver was a chance to immerse myself in Mandarin Chinese. I've been dabbling in it for a few years and this provided the opportunity to go deep. I studied with tutors for 3.5 hours a day and had lots of natural opportunities to practice. Lani and I have also considered taking our family to China for a month since Annemarie and Maria speak Chinese and it seemed like a good idea to do a test run.

What was your favorite part about China? Definitely the students! I'm including a picture of my literature class (any psychology students reading this, don't worry, I love you too! It's just that Lani took the pictures of the Psychology class and they haven't been transferred to this computer yet). I have so many wonderful memories of having great discussions with incredibly smart people about topics relating to psychology and great works of literature.

More to come...

Merry Christmas from the Hilton Family!

The Latest Updates…

Katrina (2) is speaking in full sentences and brings smiles and love to all who see her. She loves little dolls, receipts and writing utensils. Joseph (5) loves Joy School and is starting to read. He also loves dirt piles and bugs galore. He made his first jump off the diving board and can swim the length of the pool. Maria (7) continues to do well in her Chinese immersion program. She loves homework (seriously) and writing stories and also loves taking piano lessons from her aunt. Annemarie (9) is at the top of her 3rd grade class (also Chinese immersion), and was happy to start wearing glasses and loves helping around the house, cooking food, and mothering Katrina. She is amazing. Levi (10) is a genius who can correctly identify every country in the world on a map (not counting small islands). He has been very interested in football and loves to play it whenever he can. He can finally run faster than his mom in a sprint and is a sensitive and wonderful son. Lani published her first book - What guys need to know about girls/What girls need to know about guys. She ran her first half marathon, had great experiences at EFY, Education Week, and speaking at firesides, but the most fun was satisfying motherhood moments of joy and gratitude, children serving each other, smiles and kindnesses shown and feeling so content. (These moments help her get past the many other not-so-perfect times). John did some very fulfilling work with Seminaries and Institutes at the beginning of the year, and also helped with the LDS youth videos and website. In the summer he was hired as an Assistant Professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU and has been loving it there. Firsts for 2011: Yellowstone and feeding bears at Bear World--wow! A week at Aspen Grove’s Family Camp, a trip to Seattle for John's sister Janet's marriage, floating the Provo river, hiking Mt. Timpanogas (this was a first for John), and John and Lani traveled to China with John’s brother Cameron (a first for Lani). The highlight of the year: the Hilton Family had an incredible service opportunity where we lived in a Hogan for 5 days and helped a Native American family construct a bathroom for their house (previously they had used an outhouse). We feel heavens blessings permeate our lives and find joy in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Love, John and Lani Hilton family.

A prettier version of this card, with additional pictures, is available below...(Update: sorry for the low-res picture. My bad).

Amazing Experiences in the Anasazi Valley

When I heard the talk "Opportunities to do Good" by President Henry B. Eyring in the April 2011 General Conference I excited about the blessings he promised, particuarly to families who served together. Following the example of a great family in the ward we (as a family) have been doing regular service with the Provo Food and Care Coaltion, but I wondered if there was more we could do. Another family in the ward had had a great experience serving in Mexico with Charity Anywhere, and we arranged to go to Tijuana for Christmas (that's why we were making blocks). But as the time drew closer, we were nervous about being in Tijuana. Many of our friends who lived in the LA area warned us of kidnapping, drugs, danger, etc. We had already paid money to Charity Anywhere toward the trip to Mexico, but I called the leader (Gordon Carter) to see if he was anywhere of any state-side service project we could do. I set a tentative deadline of Wednesday meaning that if another door to serve opened up by Wednesday great, and if not we would go to Tijuana. On Wednesday night we got a call from Gordon Carter asking if we wanted to be an answer to somebody’s prayer.

There is a family that for 20 years has no bathroom. They just recently got electricity installed and Home Depot had committed to donate materials for the bathroom but that day (Wednesday) they had backed out. The leader of the program was so bummed and could scarcely bear to call the family and say that no indoor plumbing would be made available.

Then within one hour he got a call from Gordon Carter explaining of our interest in serving. For him it was an answer to prayer. Everything worked out quickly from that point.

So on December 15 we drove to St. George and got things ready to go. We were actually serving in a place 15 minutes outside of St. George, a place called the Anasazi Valley. It is a place sacred to some Native Americans. A couple named Jake and Betty live on 80 acres there and serve as caretakers of the property. Jake is in a wheelchair; both are in their 60s or older. Their home is probably 600 square feet, no electricity, no indoor bathroom (there is a sink). It is heated by a wood stove.

Some generous members of the Native American Branch had framed an indoor bathroom and gotten several things ready – we came down and did the insulation and dry wall. We also did several other projects for Jake and Betty like feeding their animals (that was a hit with the kids), unloading and chopping wood (Levi loved chopping wood), and picking up trash around the property.

We stayed in a Hogan that was a stone’s throw away from Jake and Betty’s house. It is a real Hogan. Some people are hoping to turn the Anasazi Valley into a historical area where people can learn of the Native American ways and brought the Hogan there is a relic of sorts. But for us it was home for 4 nights. It had a wood stove that kept it warm…the only problem was you had wake up every hour to add wood. The first night we all fell asleep and woke up cold at 1 AM. But my fire skills were so weak the fire never got restarted. The next day we got lighter fluid, and the next night we did a little better. By the fourth night we were warm all night (but mostly because Lani got up 5 times to add wood to the fire). It was much easier to keep the fire going than to let it die out and try to start it again.

The kids loved hearing Jake, and another Native American named Anna tell stories. Jake did a lot of Indian drumming. We got to work closely with some great people from the Native American branch, including President Saling, Nephi and Reuben. We had two nice dinners with their family (President Saling made amazing food). The service was great and brought us closer together. We also had some fun times – we went to the Snow Canyon and played in the sand dunes. We also went on several hikes and saw petroglyphs. We went to the Native American branch Sunday services as well as their Christmas party and enjoyed both. We felt loved, and able to give love.

You know it’s a rough environment when the state park bathroom looks like a paradise, and sleeping on somebody’s apartment floor seems like an upgrade from the Hogan, but the memories and experience were priceless. Jake and Betty were so grateful for the service we provided them, and we were grateful to them.

Raking Leaves

We had a great time this last week raking leaves with Grams. Levi mowed up a ton of leaves!


Everyone participated ... with so many people working we were done super fast.


Even Katrina helped!


Afterward we went to Rancho Markets and had a sweet Mexican dinner.

Halloween 2011

We had a great Halloween. Everyone had been very excited. Our friend Okyhun Son came and joined the festivities. Above is a picture of her, Lani and all the kids!

Katrina in particular was very excited about getting candy, even if she got tired later on and had to be carried.



After we got home from trick or treating we (the kids) ate tons of candy and then we went and visited Grams and trick or treated there. It was fun! That led to us going back over to her house on Friday and watching the movie The Great Race. It was a great memory.

Making Blocks

For my Eagle Project many years ago I made toy blocks for children at a homeless shelter. As our family prepares to go to Mexico this Christmas we have been trying to figure out some projects we could do now that we could perhaps give to those we serve this Christmas. Sister Stokes, an awesome lady in our ward, suggested making toy blocks, and since I have some experience with it, we decided to give it a go. Making T-Shirt dresses, and doing a cookie sale at Target to raise money are also on the list.

Yesterday we went to Lowes to buy the wood for the blocks (for my Eagle Project I worked hard to get donated lumber, but figured that would be too much hassle this time around). We selected some pieces of wood, and everyone was excited!


Mom and dad we really excited because Bryson (the employee who helped us find the wood) gave us the ultimate hookup when he volunteer to do all the cutting for us for free (normal charge = 25 cents a cut which would have been about $50.00 in our case). He said that because the blocks were for orphans he would do it no charge.

We marked the blocks right then and there to get the right lengths on all the different lengths of blocks.




Then we watched Bryson in action!


Levi counted up all of our blocks and we have about 200. We'll be sanding and oiling them in the next week or two and the kids plan to sew bags for them. We're excited!