"It seemed like a good idea to document Fred Hilterman's first trip to China for GDC with a lot of digital photos. When we were at DaQing Oilfield (0635.html), I showed Fred the photos I had taken to that point. As he was stepping through the photos, he focused on himself, which we all do when we are in photos. And he focused on his paunch, which is certainly something I do when I see any photo of me. Then he simply said, "Geophysicists with guts," and thus came the theme for this week's Thoughtlet.
Of course, there are several ways this phrase can be interpreted, including:
I'd like to add to this list spiritual geophysicists. Fred was kind enough to take a chance on catching the 9:30 plane out of Harbin to Beijing. As mentioned in the previous Thoughtlet, the plane was late, and it was 1:00 AM Sunday by the time we arrived at Hotel Kunlun. He did this because I mentioned I would like to get back to Beijing in order to go to church and see my friends.
The Beijing Branch is special. When I walked in, the Otis elevator marketing manager said hello and gave me a hug. I asked how elevator sales are going, and he said they were going to sell about 38,000 elevators this year. I estimate US$5,000 to $10,000 each, or $190-$380 million in sales in Beijing this year. That is a big market. If I wanted to make money, I have been in the wrong business my whole career.
Beijing Branch President Lewis talked about how the Ministry of Religion visited the previous week, and thanked everyone for their contributions to making this a very worthwhile meeting. He went over the rules which allow the church to be recognized in China. These include no active proselyting - not even answering questions asked about the church, no one attending church except for foreign nationals, no distribution of literature about the church, etc. No one in the Branch is to attend the local Chinese Branch, which now meets in the same facility in the afternoons. He then said how impressed the visitors were with the Church, and how the church is being accepted step by step in China. This is quite different from the reaction some Christian Churches are receiving in China, as summarized on pages 40-43 of the August 28th time magazine.
I was very touched by both of the Sacrament Meeting talks, and found my self crying between writing down four potential stanzas for Prime Words:
Gospel Doctrine class was not very good. It covered the books of Jonah and Micah in The Old Testament. I guess I just wasn't impressed with the teacher, as compared to past teachers at the Beijing Branch. However, at the end of the class, the teacher had a missionary couple who replaced the Shakespeare's stand and describe their mission. They were looking forward to going on a proselyting mission, even to knocking on doors, only to come to China, where they are instructed not to talk about the gospel, neither directly nor indirectly. However, when they hand out their card, which says LDS China Charities, the church is typically recognized. Then Mack Coleman's daughter Cheyenne stood and talked about her mission call to the Ottawa French Speaking Mission. What enthusiasm. She is almost as beautiful as Rachel.
After Sunday School, Mack Coleman came over to say hi, and sit by me. He asked some questions to catch up. I congratulated him on his daughter's mission call, pointing out that only one of my 10 children has gone on a mission so far. He asked where, and I told him Siberia. Having worked in the Air Force overseas his entire career, his next comment was interesting: "That is right on the frontier." Then I told him how Cheyenne's comments really touched me, and got me thinking, and I showed him what I had written down on my copy of the program:
Mack read the words, and he started to sob. Mack's about 6'2", wears cowboy boots and a big belt buckle. Between sobs he mentioned how proud he is of his daughter, and how he is very biased. And I started to cry again. And between sobs he said, 'You didn't do anything wrong!' And we both sobbed for a few more minutes. He put his hand on my shoulder, and it was a very spiritually touching moment for me. I found my mind going back to Fred's comment about geophysicists with guts, and wondered if it is guts which allow two grown men to sob together.
Priesthood meeting wasn't as strong as many have been in the past, either. As I left I said hi to Steve Western, congratulating him for being the scoutmaster, then made my way to the elevator. When an elevator freed up, I found myself on the elevator with Steve and his 14 year old son, who has long hair and a bit of an attitude. As we walked out to the front of the building, Steve was telling me how they are sending about $3 million a month on their (ConocoPhillips') new giant FPS (Floating Production System). He is the Chief Financial Officer. I asked his son if he knew how important his Dad is. His son said, "Not really. I think he just plays pinball at work." I couldn't help but wonder if Steve's son will go on a mission. I also could not help but think of you kids, and how it really doesn't matter what I've accomplished, especially if I didn't spend enough time with you. Because I walked out of the building with the Western's, I did not stop at Dairy Queen, but just went back to the Hotel Kunlun. Probably a good thing as my gut has probably grown three sizes while I've been on this trip. Oh well! Geophysicists with guts!
I read until Jialin came over to get Fred's presentation material to print for the course. Later in the evening Jialin brought Du Shuhua, a Hua Bei Oilfield Petrophysicist to the hotel for dinner and an interview. She is a very nice lady, who does not speak very fluent English. We had a nice Korean dinner, and both Fred and I ate too much. Guess his is typical of geophysicists with guts.
I called Andrea after dinner and learned that Adam Salt has received a mission call to Baltimore, Maryland and that Nathan is going to Oklahoma on his mission. I didn't know Adam had decided to go on a mission, and it really pleased me to hear these words. Maybe I helped encourage him a little with this decision when I told him how old I was when I went on my mission.
Fred and I met for the buffet breakfast at 6:45. Neither of us ate that much, specifically, because we have been eating so much at all of our other meals. After breakfast we took a cab to RIPED (Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development), where Fred's course was to be taught. Attendees at the course were the same technical team that did the initial evaluation of Fred's report when we first got to DaQing (0635.html). I stayed with them until Fred was set up, and had gone through a couple of sections of his class material. Then I left, telling Jialin there were some things Mike Dunn wanted me to do. I spent most of the day putting together a summary of our interactions with the DaQing Oilfield. I also read, answered e-mail's, and worked on this Thoughtlet.
Jialin had written an e-mail to Dave Johnson where he said GDC should have hired some technical support for him rather than pay for my plane ticket. I agree. In fact, it would have been nice to have been given the cash difference between the $9,800 Business Class plane ticket and a $1,500 coach ticket. In fact, this difference is much more than my bonus and raise for the year, and I intend to point this out to both Dave and Mike at an appropriate time. I would have liked to have been in Fred's course, and felt it was important to create a little fear and uncertainty in Jialin regarding what I am up to. Sad to think it is important to do this in order to get business to progress. I stayed in the room all day and ordered a Greek Salad, Salmon, and cheesecake from Room Service. At times like this, I recall Sara Ellyn's comment her first night in China: "No wonder you like to come to China. They treat you like royalty!" And maybe it is better to think of geophysicists with guts.
Tuesday I stayed in Fred's class all day. He is a very good teacher, and it is obvious to me that the course represents 25 years of polishing of concepts he has learned though hard work. He makes very complicated mathematical concepts seem very easy and straight forward. The lunch was a buffet, and I definitely age too much. Jialin drove us back to the Hotel Kunlun. He made one wrong turn, and it took him 45 minutes to get back to where he made the wrong turn. Oh well! I still had half of Monday night's dinner in my room fridge, and so I did not go out to dinner Tuesday night.
Wednesday was the last day of the class. It was also Fred's 65th birthday. I ate too much at lunch again. It was a little hard to stay awake for the afternoon lecture as a result. I did stay awake, and again I enjoyed it and learned a lot. Fred's computer has a problem with the power connection, and he ended up using my computer to present from. That night three of the Da Qing team took Fred, Jialin, and I out to dinner to celebrate Fred's birthday. It was at the Urumuchi restaurant which I like, and where Mr. Yan hosted Peter and Kathy Duncan. They had dancers, and Dr. Pai, the leader of the Da Qing group, got me out on the floor dancing with the snake and belly dancer's twice. There are some movies, along with all of the photos I took of Fred, at http://www.walden3d.com/photos/GDC/060821-31_FJH_DaQing. The birthday cake had Fred's name and 65th birthday written on it. It was a sponge cake with sugar flowers. Very pretty. All in all it was a nice and a fun evening, even though I ate too much lamb and everything else. Oh well! Guess eating too much goes with geophysicists with guts.
Thursday we were suppose to go to Ji Dong to present my new interpretation of the CDF well trajectory. However, they did not have time to see us. Dave told me to get back the presentation and to tell them it was a gift and they really messed up not having Fred come and visit them. Jialin wanted us to spend the day with the Da Qing people, confirming we had the data we need. It was a very frustrating day. When we broke for lunch, Fred asked if we were going to KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken). They told us no, but we could go to McDonalds. Which we did. They sell seafood soup in this McDonalds. Fred tells me in Germany they serve beer in McDonalds, and in France he has had wine in McDonalds. I had Chicken McNuggets, French fries, water, and an ice cream cone. The discussions got a bit heated in the afternoon. And I think everyone left with a better appreciation of where the other side is coming from.
Fred and I took a cab back to the hotel, then went to the Pearl Market. I bought a pearl necklace and earrings from Andrea's friend Marva Thompson. Fred bought a robe for Kathi and a necklace. I also bought 10 boxes for my upcoming lesson on tithing and a neat fossil. We came back and ate at one of the Chinese restaurants at Hotel Kunlun. It was the nicest meal we have had, and we have eaten very well this trip. The shrimp were baked in some kind of cream sauce, and were absolutely wonderful. There was a Chinese xylophone in the background. Jialin came by to tell me why he can not work with Jeremy Fu. He was talking in circles, and so I excused myself after about a half an hour. I watched a movie about a zebra winning a horse race. I think it was called Stripes. Cute movie for grandkids. Went to bed about 1:00 AM.
Friday, after our regular breakfast, we packed, checked out, and were picked up by Jeremy Fu. We received a detailed presentation by Jeremy's partners at GeoSun regarding work they had done for DaQing. I was not that impressed with how Jeremy carries himself. I laid out the GDC party line, and stressed to Jeremy that it was up to him to loose the opportunity with GDC. Fred independently shared my same evaluation of Jeremy. We went from Jeremy's office to the airport, where we checked in 3 hours before the flight. The Business Class lounge was packed. I ate some seafood roman noodles and worked on this Thoughtlet. Fred read. The business class flight was nice. I slept well, and watched two movies: The Sentinel; and Cool Hand Luke. The meal was tenderloin steak with a shrimp salad. It was really good. When we got to Newark, we just had time to go through passport control, recheck our bags, and walk to the other gate, and they were loading the plane. Ken Turner's oldest daughter was on the flight, on her way back to San Antonio from Paris. It was good to see her and to catch up. I slept and watched X-Men, The Final Conflict. It seemed to take a long time for bags to come, to get the car, and to drive home. Andrea was asleep on the couch when I got home at about 11:00 PM.
Saturday we worked in the yard. Roto-Rooter came by, ran a camera down our main drain line, showed us there was a tree growing in the line, talked us into spending about $2,0000 to fix it, sent a Hispanic crew to dig up our front lawn, pulled a section of pipe full of roots out, and reran the camera to show there are more problems on the city side of the drain. Oh well! At least part of it was fixed. I was wiped out, and fell asleep in the afternoon. Andrea woke me up to ask what I wanted for dinner. I said chicken, and so she went to HEB and got one of the lemon-pepper chicken's I like. It was a fitting end to a week summarized by the phrase 'geophysicists with guts.'"
