After 25 years of not talking, or communicating in any manner, all of Laura’s teammates jumped into action to help.

Each of us had an assignment from another team captain, Bridgit Sparlin, who had some of us looking up the area, others calling local TV stations, newspapers, people we knew in Maui and more, starting massive prayer chains across the world and anything else we could think of.

My assignment along with a few other teammates was to look up the birthing pools, find it on a map and see what we could find. Anything.

What we found was disturbing, and to this day keeps me away from this island. We found several websites begging for any information months and years apart, of women, just like Laura, who had gone missing within a few miles of where Laura was last seen. Shockingly, this was also within several hundred yards from a local elementary school.

Many of us were looking at these sites at the same time, bringing lots of attention to dormant web addresses, while more of us were calling Maui police, asking locals questions and spilling more time, money & attention into a problem they did not want attention paid.

Within the week, ALL of those sites went off-line over night.

We called Governor Richardson, the current governor of New Mexico at the time, and though we didn’t talk to him directly, we said that a New Mexican who graduated from High School and College here and is definitely NOT a vagrant or druggie needs his help NOW. That she is missing in Maui & the local police are ignoring our pleas for support.

To our shock, our Governor called Maui. Thank you Governor. To this day, we appreciate your efforts, without which, it would have been an even tougher battle.

The ball, very reluctantly, started rolling, and a few officers started looking into what happened to Laura almost a week after she went missing. We know now that it was too little too late, but was that by design?

Read more about Laura & this story (coming soon in a sub-story) and watch the many exposes about her missing persons story here.

Meanwhile, I was trying to stop a fever which was bringing me down for weeks, today being 40 days. We had tried everything, but nothing was getting this fever to leave my body.

Good thing, because when Susie called me, I was about to run to the airport and hop on a plane to Maui, without much thought or luggage, to go support my teammates. My hubby was not ok with me traveling with a fever, and said I needed to wait until I was better to travel, especially to Maui, by myself, into a hostile murder (missing person) investigation.

So, I went to my favorite acupuncturist, Dr. Eric Zhao, and he used needles and some tea in a session that lasted about an hour, and just like that, my 40 day fever was gone.

When I came out of my treatment room, it was dusk outside, and the small, empty reception area, was quite dark since the inside lights had not caught up with the fading outside light.

Dr. Zhao was in another treatment room with another patient, and I sat alone, in the dark, by the water cooler, quietly waiting to pay. I was thinking about how to help Susie, who I could call and what actions we could take to force the police to take this case seriously.

Just as I was staring out the window at the gorgeous New Mexico sunset, Dr. Zhao’s front door opened with a loud ringing as several bells were attached to the door handle.

To my surprise, more than 6 people shuffled into the dusk, cramped reception room, embarrassed—first by the loud bell ringing door and next about bringing so many people into such a small space.

I stood up to make more room only to realize and adore these cute, short, bald, brown robed nuns trying to take the least amount of space as humanly possible. The last nuns walking through the bell clanging door ran into each other as they hesitated, which caused a traffic jam, when they realized that there wasn’t enough space, but made the quick decision to in fact, walk through the door into the crowded room because the alternative of standing in the cold was not the best idea.

The next few minutes were very uncomfortable. All 7 of us stood there, spoke no words, hardly moved, exchanged a few nods & very little eye contact, all waiting for Dr. Zhao.

Having Laura Vogel on my mind, and just remembering a dream I had about Laura early this same morning, I decided to take a chance and speak up to ask for prayers and support.

“Hi,” I bowed, “I have a friend who is missing in the mountains in Maui, just 2 days ago, and I was wondering if you could pray for her, that they find her safe and are able to rescue her.”

All the nuns were watching me, some nodding, some bowing, just as surprised as I was that I was talking to them.

I stopped talking with great anticipation, yet it was clear that they didn’t understand what I had said. From their glances to each other and to one main person, Sister Star was in charge. She stepped forward slightly, touched my arm and motioned to wait just a minute. They were going to find someone to translate.

It was that awkward time in a group who don’t speak the same language where we all nervously bow to each other until the next step is decided upon.

Dr. Zhao came out of his treatment room and Sister Star talked to him in Mandarin, to which he immediately motioned for all of us to follow him into his largest treatment room.

Sister Mona, who, at the time, was a novice nun & not called “sister”, nor was she allowed to travel, touch money or use a phone, however because of her excellent translation skills was able to break the rules and travel as their translator.

We all shuffled into Dr. Z’s largest treatment room, with a fireplace and several comfy chairs. The sisters collectively offered me to sit, by an open hand gesture, in one of the comfy chairs.

I obliged, and expected the others to also sit in other chairs available. Instead, Sister Mona stayed standing, Sister Star sat in the other comfy chair, which had been placed to face my chair, and all the other Sisters sat on the cold floor in lotus-or a criss cross apple sauce— position.

Later, I was told that the lower ranked sisters would sit under the “Head Nun” or “Sister Superior”, therefore sat on the floor since Sister Star was sitting in a low chair.

Sister Star sat quietly, gently, in lotus position, calmly ready to receive my words.

Sister Mona began, asking me to “Please, start from the beginning.” She had a way of bowing her head with minimal eye contact to make sure I knew, and Sister Star knew, that she was not in charge, and was a mere helper in this important exchange.

I started again, speaking in chunks of information, so Sister Mona could translate without missing details.

I spoke of how my friend, Susie had called in a panic about her sister having gone missing on Monday morning, that they were both soccer teammates of mine, and Laura was a strong, brilliant individual with a big heart and even bigger dreams.

How her car was found with the keys still in the ignition, surfboards and gear inside, wallet & phone missing, but Laura no where to be found.

On I went about how the Maui police were not being cooperative, unwilling to search for a vagrant woman, sure that Laura was not missing, but just ran away on purpose or was coming down from being high and would turn up soon.

How Laura had once lived outside, hugging trees, using 1 pack of ziplock bags for an entire year to take care of many things she needed, just to prove it could be done.

That she was a warrior for Nature and treated all living things with immense love, respect, honor and gratitude. She could have fierce but level headed arguments about different styles of politics or cultures and have both sides smiling and considering the other one’s point of view.

This was so frustrating, I continued to Sister Sun through Sister Mona, because Laura was a dedicated athlete, a surfing instructor and one of the best soccer players I’d ever played with.

I explained how the soccer team’s current internet efforts yielded disturbing situations, very similar to Laura’s, of families asking for ANY INFORMATION about their missing loved one, disappearing from the same area in Maui. All single women, under 40, alone, in a car, disappearing without any sign or word.

I didn’t know then that I would have this story memorized and have to tell it over and over as we continued to try and find any answers, any clues, anything at all.

Also coming, were months of expensive, heartbreaking searches for Laura by her family that would be pulled off track by ugly and evil intensions.

In the early morning hours of the day I met the sisters and decided to ask them for prayers & explained to Sister Star what had transpired in Maui, I had a scary dream about Laura.

I mentioned this to Sister Star, through Sister Mona, and Sister Star wanted me to go into as much detail as I could about this dream.

“In my dream, Laura was flying around, above me, smiling, snickering even, as if she was very happy & that she knew something I didn’t and was excited for me to discover the secret.

There were several people (or something) flying behind her, following her, not as happy, erratic, confused, disorganized & distraught. They were also not noticeable until they were closer to Laura because Laura was bright and her light made it possible to see them easily.

They were following Laura because they could, and she was bright, and they were desperate.

Laura didn’t seem to mind them, but also maybe wasn’t 100% aware of them, and was instead focused on a quick check-in with me. There was clear contact with me with this dream, direct eye contact and and intense happy smile, all to say that she was ok, and she was happy to give me this gift. She was deeply joyful, happy, excited & aware.

And, as quick as she flew by, she flew away towards the ocean, joining some of her favorite and beloved animals, trees, people in the water, air and land.

But, what came after her fly-by was extremely scary and woke me straight up in bed.

Behind Laura, these spirits, maybe people, maybe things—instead of following Laura, came directly at me in a frenzy fashion. After Laura’s bright light was further away, these entities were dark & lost.

They kept flying at me, like the scene from Indiana Jones & the Raiders of The Lost Ark, when they open the Ark, and all the spirits or things come flying out of there, dangerously circling people who have their eyes open.

In my dream version these spirits or entities were dark, not the smoke looking version in Raiders of the Lost Ark. They came flying at me, as if they had lost track of where Laura was and were desperately looking for something, it turns out, for answers. They were looking for answers and were deeply, deeply sad.

Laura didn’t say anything, no utterance, just her wide, beautiful and very telling smile. She was flying along, turning from me to the ocean and so very truly happy and joyous.

These following her were the opposite: disturbingly vocal, angry, blaming, yelling louder and louder at me and anyone as they got closer to me, flew away and came back at me like a swarm of mosquitoes attacking me.

Laura was long gone, yet these nags were extremely persistent.

Though all the yelling wasn’t completely understandable, the main theme was that something had happened and it was extremely unfair, someone was wronged—not Laura—but someone else, and they were desperate to find any type of attention and support.

“It’s NOT FAIR!” “It’s Wrong!” “It’s NOT Fair!” “It’s AWEFUL” “Help us!” “We Need Help!” “It’s Not Fair!”

I woke up, sweating, jolted up in bed holding my chest with a very deep gasp.

I knew then, sadly, that Laura was no longer alive.

Sister Star was gently nodding her head as I explained my dream. When I finished, and Sister Mona had completed the translation, Sister Star continued to nod her head gently for a few minutes.

She also closed her eyes and then stopped nodding or moving and was clearly meditating for 3-4 minutes.

Though I understood the meditation part, it was uncomfortable to sit quietly for just 3 minutes. Three minutes is a long time.

Sister Star slowly opened her eyes and started to talking to Sister Mona.

“Sister Star wants you to know that your friend, Laura, is no longer in this life. She came into a very short turmoil, without much pain, and gave her life in order to bring attention to this area of the world.”

I wasn’t shocked. I never said anything about my dream or what Sister Star said about it to Laura’s family or friends. I still had hope that we could find her.

The amazing gift from Laura was meeting the sisters.

That night, after meeting the sisters, John and I had a finance class at our church. We agreed to attend this 8 week course to follow marriage counseling suggestions from our priest, Father Olona.

To help in our marriage and communication about money, this class was turning out to be a helpful idea.

I was still feeling quite under the weather since I had still had a fever earlier that day, and for the past 40 days. But, this class was important to our marriage, and I decided to make it happen, even if I didn’t feel well.

We also had a babysitter confirmed, and John was anxious to go to each class, since we had made an agreement that we would with Father Olona.

Note:  I wasn’t contagious, even with a fever, so the only concern about being around other people was my energy levels.

The class was over at 9 pm, and we were in the car, driving home from church to relieve our babysitter and get to bed when the phone rang.

It was a Northern New Mexican area code, which John suggested could be the monastery calling, so I answered the call.  There were a few words spoken in the background, and then the line went dead.  They had hung-up.

A few seconds later, another call, from the same number, with a bit of speaking in the background, and another hang-up.

I recognized some of the words in the background as NOT English, but instead, Mandarin, and realized it was the sisters trying to call without being able to speak English.

The phone rang again, and I answered, saying “Sisters! Sister Mona?”

They were calling to request that I work on their second in charge: Sister Min.

She had a bad headache with ringing in her ears and was hoping that I could help her.

We arranged to meet at Dr. Eric Zhao’s office the next day.

When I arrived at Dr. Zhao’s the next day, there were several sisters, Dr. Z put us in the same room we were in the night before.

Dr. Z had a massage table set up in the room, and I was able to arrange it so I could set a chair up behind and in front of the table so I could better work on her upper torso.

Sister Min explained, through the translator, Sister Mona, where and how her head was hurting, and that her ears were ringing.

I worked on her, face up, while sitting at the head of the massage table, and started by working on her shoulders and bottom of her skull.

Meanwhile, the other nuns were all sitting on the floor, to be below the highest ranking nun, who was lying on the table.

Sister Mona stood in front of me, on one side of the table, staring intently at my face, in case I had some words to share with Sister Min.

Sister Min was completely clothed with her brown robes, over a long overcoat, over a t-shirt, over an undershirt.

I asked if I could work on her back, on the skin.

To make this possible, Sister Min slightly pulled down the brown robe, and the next layers a few inches.  It was just enough room for me to reach some skin at the bottom of her neck.  I used some lavender salve to massage some tight spots on her neck and upper back, and up into her skull (occiput).

Sister Min would talk in Mandarin once in a while and Sister Mona would let me know what hurt and what helped Sister Min’s headache or ear ringing.

Sister Mona taught me the words to say “Pain’? —Tong Ma?— and “Take a deep breath” —“Tsin Hushi” (find the correct spelling for these)

We were able to create a efficient system of communication where I would ask about pain and deep breathing, and Sister Min would indicate a number from 0-10 that represented the amount of pain represented by each point on which I was working.  Zero = no pain, and 10 = getting your arm ripped off by a shark.

After some time, I decided to start a technique where Sister Min would turn onto her side, with a pillow under her head and a pillow between her knees, with me sitting behind her.

Her neck, occipital area and upper back were relaxing nicely, but her head was still hurting and her ears were still ringing.

Next, I started some Core Synchronization, holding her spine at the occiput and sacrum.  I held this position for over 10 minutes, feeling her craniosacral rhythm, synchronizing the two areas, and just concentrating on pulling blood and energy out of her head and neck area.

I had my eyes closed and was really concentrating intensely, when someone started singing.  Like a chant with lots of words.

This really annoyed me because I really needed quiet, and I opened my eyes and shook my head in disgust.

Sister Mona, who had been standing in front of me, waiting for any signal that she was needed, immediately looked very concerned and asked what was the matter, and if she could assist me in any way?

“Well, I really need to concentrate, and I was hoping you could ask who ever is singing if she could please wait for a few minutes and chant after I’m done?”

Sister Mona looked around, confused.  “Yes!  Yes, of course,” and nervously looked around, confused.

“Um, thank you, Ms. Ruth.  Please, from where are you hearing the singing?”

“Oh, right here.  Didn’t you hear it?”

“Um, well.  No.”

“Oh, that’s weird.”

Sister Min was now very interested in what we were talking about, and Sister Mona explained that I had asked for who ever was singing or chanting to please be quiet and wait until the session is finished.  But, that there wasn’t anyone singing or chanting, so she didn’t know how to help.

There was a fast exchange between Sister Mona and Sister Min, with some “wow” sounds and other sounds of surprise and awe.

“Ruth, Sister Min is very surprised, because SHE was chanting, but only in her thoughts! And you heard her!”

I stared at Sister Mona with my eyebrow up, not understanding what she was implying, until the idea that I had “heard” Sister Min singing in her thoughts as I was working on her started to sink in.

We were all quite quiet for a long while, as I finished holding the spine and synchronizing the areas, excited about what had just happened.

Sister Min’s headache & ringing in her ears was gone.

The next day, I invited the sisters to our house so I could work on Sister Min again.

Her headache had stayed away for the night but came back in the morning.

We didn’t want to keep bothering Dr. Z, so I suggested that we meet at my house so they could meet my family and I could work on Sister Min at my house.

They agreed and came over after dinner.  It was a Thursday, and they would drive back to their Monastery that night.  I didn’t realize that they were 3 hours from their monastery, and it was cold and snowy, and to stay this late was a major exception.

I set up my massage table in a back bedroom and worked on Sister Min again.  The other sisters shuffled into the bedroom, finding places to sit in the small area.

It went well, and Sister Min was happy, but also, not quite rid of her headache.

This was frustrating for us both, and I wondered if I could see her again soon.

Sister Mona explained that they needed to get back to their monastery, but maybe I could come up there and stay for the weekend and work on Sister Min again, and possibly other nuns that might need some support.

After the treatment, my kids and dog, Fred, were very curious about our guests and wanted to engage with them in any way they could.

My kids turned on a new video game and were hoping the sisters would play with them.  At first, the kids played, dancing and laughing, but the sisters just sat on the couch and nodded.

Jake, my son, handed his controller to one of the nuns, who quickly handed it to Sister Min—the head nun—.  And, to Elizabeth’s surprise, Sister Min started playing the game with Elizabeth!

Everyone was laughing and the sisters were trying to tutor Sister Min on how to actually play the game.  It was so fun and playful.  It had a long-standing impression on my family.

The next day, Sister Superior, Sister Christine, called to introduce herself and invite me and my family to the monastery the coming weekend.

She thanked me for helping the sisters and that if I was willing, they would be very happy to have some help with Sister Min and some other nuns who had similar headaches and neck stiffness.

We arranged that 2 of the sisters could watch my kids while I worked on more of the nuns, and we could stay together in a house on the property.  She also explained that we were welcome to eat with them for lunch and breakfast, and for dinner, they would take me close by to a local ski resort for an evening meal.  They only have 2 meals a day and don’t eat solid food after noon until breakfast the next morning.

My husband already had plans, so I would drive out by myself with the kids on a Friday and leave Sunday after lunch.

The kids had a Friday off this week, so we were able to leave right after breakfast for the 3 hours drive North, into Northern New Mexico.  It was cold and snowy on the day I drove there, and we left with plenty of time to make it by 11:00, their lunch-time.

But, it was in the mountains, in an area I had never been to before, and the directions were not amazing.  Also, there was no cell service, and GPS was not yet something easily available.  So, I had to look around a bit to find the “hidden” monastery just outside of Penasco, New Mexico.

We pulled into the snow covered baptist-summer-camp-turned-Buddhist-monastery, driving my family minivan up the long, slightly elevated, ice packed driveway towards the main buildings.

I parked next to another car, and we started to get out of the car & walk into the lunch room.

My kids were 6 and 4.

It was 11:01.

In my opinion, we were right on time, and I expected to walk into the lunch room with everyone walking around, getting food and sitting down at high school style, foldable cafeteria tables, or maybe wooden indoor picnic tables with 6-10 chairs per table.

My kids were expecting the same thing, or at least similar, with people moving around, like a church pot-luck type setting, casual & not very quiet.

We were all 3 shocked as we walked into the lunch building.

It was drop-a-pin quiet.

40 Sisters were sitting, 20 per side, lined up along very thin (about 16 inches wide) camping tables, with chairs on one side facing each other. One side of the 16 foot wide room had 1 long row of single person tables facing a second long row on the other side with 20 nuns on each side.

They were about to say a prayer, and we were interrupting.

I was so thankful to see a friendly face, Sister Mona, who quickly rushed over and pointed us to our 3 lunch areas set up with a place mat, tray, bowl, 2 plates, a coffee cup and a water cup, fork, spoon, knife, a napkin, and a very small piece of sponge.

The chairs were short, round stools, the kind you would pull up around a coffee table for a game of cards.

The kids were clinging to me, so all 3 of us were sitting on one of those little, teensey stools, one of them on each of my legs.

The mandarin Buddhist blessing began, and my kids sat as quietly as they could, hungry and a bit in shock, and not understanding the prayer which was being chanted by each nun and lead by the head nun, Sister Christine, whom we had not yet met.

They finished the prayer, and started to eat their lunch, which each had apparently collected BEFORE 11:00, so they would be ready to pray by that time.

Again, our savior, Sister Mona, left her own lunch to assist us with ours.

Because the kids were still clinging hard to me like monkeys, Sister Mona offered to gather our food for us.  I was thankful for her support and kept nodding in agreement with anything she asked.

She took 2 bowls and came back with them filled with what looked like warm water and a single, very small, round potato.

I looked at the bowl & knew I was in trouble with my kids and eating.

Sister Mona took another bowl and a plate and came back with another lone, small potato in the bowl and some vegetables on the plate.

My kids (and I) were starving.  I had promised them lunch on our new adventure, and they had been looking forward to something, anything they recognized.

We started to eat the potatoes, and they started to complain a bit, which I quickly muted and made the look with my face to “Eat your potato! Now!”

My oldest tried her best, and I did my best to divert my eyes from her glares to me, saying with her eyes, “Are you kidding me, Mom? A warm leaf and a water soup potato?”
My 4 year old said as quietly as 4 year old can, “Mommy, I’m hungry. Is there a MacDonald’s close by?”

To my surprise, more than half of the sisters started laughing, and were amused by Jake and his honesty.  The other half were not so amused.

I found myself snickering as well, and thought that I might need to find some food they recognized and appreciated.

To my surprise, what Sister Mona told my kids changed our lunch and the way my kids (& I)) saw food forever.

Sister Mona saw the dismay on my kid’s faces.

She had established trust and kindness with them when we were all in Albuquerque together, and my kids liked her very much.

“Do you know where that potato came from?” whispered Sister Mona with a smile, leaning in, as not to bother the others.

“From the store,” said Jake.  The Sisters snickered again.  Partly because of Jake’s answer, but mostly because his hair was sticking up in all directions, he was pulling on his hair and his “quiet whisper” he attempted to respond with to Sister Mona by leaning into her like she was leaning into him, came out more like a muffled yell.

I immediately recognized that my kids were not clear about where real food came from, even though we had a garden & had talked about farming, at least I thought I had.  I felt embarrassed for not teaching them the reality of food clearly enough.

“Actually, that potato has had quite a long journey,” continued Sister Mona’s whispering.

My kids didn’t respond, but were looking intently at Sister Mona, which she interpreted as an invitation to continue her story.

“Many, many miles from here, a nice farmer planted a very small seed in some dirt.  He took great care to protect the seed in the ground by making sure no one stepped on it, by watering it & making sure it received plenty of sunlight.

Soon, a very, very small green plant started coming out of the ground.

The farmer watched over this little baby plant and took great care to get up early and stay up late to make sure this potato plant grew.  Insects tried to attack it…”

“What kind of insects?” Asked Jake, enthralled with this story and anything attacking anything else.

“Well, potato attacking insects.  BUT, the farmer chased them away and made sure the potato plant was safe to produce the potato in your bowl.”

Jake looked in his bowl at his potato and back at Sister Mona.  She was sipping her potato bowl “soup” and poking her potato with her fork to start eating it.  Jake & Elizabeth started doing the same thing.

“Well, how did it get here?  Did the farmer bring it to you?”

“No.  The farmer needs to stay to care for many many plants.  But he calls on his friend, the truck driver and that truck driver picks up the potatoes and delivers them to the store.”

“Does the truck driver chase away the potato attacking things?”

“Yes.  Yes he does,” Sister Mona said with a soft, reassuring whisper.

Everyone was eating and quiet.

Sister Mona continued, “Now, when I eat my foods, I try to remember and be grateful for the seed it came from, the dirt that protected it, the water & sun that nourished it and the farmer & the truck driver who worked so hard for my one little potato.”

By the end of lunch, some Sisters had found some ice cream sandwiches and packets of hot chocolate which they offered us without words, and were so very much appreciated.

I was tickled when I noticed that many of the nuns were taking a sandwich and several packets of hot chocolate and tucking them under their robes.  Jake took another packet and brought it quietly to Sister Mona, understanding its currency, and she smiled & tucked it away.

After lunch we were escorted to our house, for a rest.  Next, I would meet and work on several nuns in the “medical building.”

The kids & I set our few belongs and pulled beds together, as it was cld and we would need to sleep together to stay warm.

Sister Connie had volunteered (or perhaps BEEN volunteered) to babysit the kids while I did my massage work.  They went with her, off to a big building as I went to the medical building.

This building was an old First Aide station from the summer camp long ago.  It was a single wide trailer which had been made permanent, with many windows on each side and a small staircase leading down into the long clinic area.

I set up my massage table, sheets, blankets and turned on the heating blanket and the space heater provided.

Later, the sisters would share with me that turning on the space heaters and blankets was only done on special occasions for special people.  I felt bad because I was so cavalier with electricity and heat, making assumptions about what was normal or acceptable.

It was 35 degrees outside and not much warmer inside, especially to have ANY skin exposed, like for a typical massage.

I wasn’t sure if any of the sisters would be allowed to expose any skin, but I was ready for them to be able to relax and not be tense from the temperature, no matter what clothing they kept on.

Sister Mona came in and asked if I was ready, and she trotted off to fetch my first client:  Sister Min.

All in all, I treated 12 sisters in the time I was there, and my kids drove Sister Connie crazy.

They built a snowman, played with snowballs, learned to write their names in mandarin, and tried some drawing and other arts.  It was too cold to go hiking, so the activities were confined inside, except making a snowman.

Sister Connie later told me, laughing, that she was “not cut out for this”, and didn’t want to do it again.  But, she did, and my kids remember her, through the years, very fondly.

After I finished my work for the day, Sister Jennifer, also an English speaker, drove us in an SUV to our cabin, even though it was only 200 yards away.  There was still snow, now ice, and some mud to contend with along with short road.

We gathered what we needed for a trip out to dinner and climbed into the SUV with Sister Jennifer and Yuan Chen (Jane).

The sisters were taking us to Sipapu for dinner because they don’t eat after noon, but they were well aware that we typically eat dinner and were happy to accommodate our normal routine.

The Sipapu ski area was only 8 miles away, and the stairs to the 2nd story restaurant were made of metal grates, like those best for ski boots.

To our surprise, the restaurant in the dark, cold mountains, was almost full & busy with many skiers!  It didn’t look busy from the mountain road and snowy parking lot, and we were relieved to be in a familiar setting.

We happily ordered spaghetti, a hamburger & chicken fingers, and sat in a room with a movie playing, air hockey available and lots of voices filling the air.

The nuns didn’t order any food and just sat close by and waited.

“Want some water, tea or anything?”

“Oh no,” Sister Jennifer assured me.  “We are just here to pay.”

“Oh, you’re not going to have anything at all?  Just here to pay?  Thank you very much!  I can pay for our dinner!”

“No.  We are very grateful for your hard work helping the sisters, and we happily will pay for dinner.”

“Well, thank you,” I said.  “I appreciate you paying.”

“Well, actually,” explained Sister Jennifer, gesturing to the other sister, “Jane is going to do the payment, because I am not allowed to touch money.”

“Oh, you can’t touch money?” I repeated, confused.

“Correct, but Jane can, so she will pay.”

“Wow, are there other things you can’t do?”

“Haha, yes.  There are 348 precepts, which are like rules that we follow,” Sister Jennifer continued.

“Why can Sister Jane touch money?”

“Because she is not a nun, she’s a layman, so she doesn’t have to follow all the rules the other nuns and I follow.”

“Ah, so ‘Jane’ and not ‘Sister Jane’.”

“Correct.”

We enjoyed our dinner with Sister Jennifer & Jane looking on & then quietly and tiredly drove back to the manastery into our warmed cabin room and went to sleep.

Breakfast was promptly at 6 am, and Sister Jennifer met me at the house door with Sister Connie.  She drove me across the ice and mud to the mess hall for breakfast.  We were not late, thank goodness.

The kids were still in their warm bed and would sleep for another few hours.

Someone had turned on my massage table blanket and space heater, so after breakfast, my work area was already warm and inviting.

I had time to see a few more sisters until the kids just couldn’t stay away any longer and came into the medical building for some mom attention.

By this time, it was time for lunch, so my kids and I got there before the prayers started, collected our food and bowed our heads quietly during the meal prayers.

Lunch was great, with more foods we recognized, and the kids were trying some different veggies which they ate more than the “American” food.

After lunch, we all took our tray and each dish we used, back to the deep, aluminum kitchen sinks, with out teensy little piece of sponge, and we each washed our own dishes, dried them and put them back on the thin tables.  Even the kids did their own chore, learning from watching the nuns beside them doing the same chore.

We walked with sister Superior, Sister Christine to the main office, where she talked with us and gave us directions to get to Santa Fe.  I knew the way from there.  She had a wonderful gift for me:  a beautifully written poem, in Mandarin, ready for me to frame (which I did and have hanging in my office).

On our way to the car we were saying goodbye to the all who supported us while we were there.  A cockroach walked across the sidewalk in the middle of all of us gathering.

Jake, who had been trained well, pounced on the insect and smashed it with his 4 year old foot.

The sisters ALL jumped into action to save the cockroach, protecting it from 4 year old feet and placing it out of harms way.   Jake watched in amazement, and realized his mistake, next trying to support the cockroach triage.

“Jake, Jake,”  said Sister Christine, softly.  “We can easily take the life of insects or other creatures.  But, is there any creature that you can create life for?”

“I don’t know,” whimpered Jake, who was shocked and a bit embarrassed.

“The only life we can create is another human, a baby.  But we cannot create life of any create or insect. And their life is precious.  It can be taken but not given.”

“I’m sorry.  I thought I was supposed to kill cockroaches.”

“Many people feel this way.  You can choose to let them live their life, because they have a life purpose.”

“Ok,” said Jake, like he was surrendering.

Jake continued, “Sister Christine, what do you do here?”

All of us looked at her, as it was a cute but sincere question.

“We send love into the world by doing specific meditations 8 to 12 hours per day.”

“What do you mean?” Asked Jake.

“Well, do you know how you can walk in an airport, and you can see people walking, and you can tell when there is a very nice person you could say hi to?”

“Yes.”

“And, there are some people who seem sad, angry or worried, and you can tell just by looking at them?”

“Yes.”

“There is good energy and negative energy.  We meditate to put good energy into the world.  We want to put more good energy in the world instead more negative energy, Each time you have a good thought, a loving thought, it adds good energy into the world.  This is what our days are dedicated to do.   You can dedicate your days and thoughts to producing good energy also, and that helps the entire world.  Can you do that, Jake & Elizabeth?”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

We didn’t stop at MacDonalds on the way home.