By a Western practitioner from the San Francisco Bay Area

(Clearwisdom.net) Western Practitioners from the San Francisco Bay Area together with Chinese practitioners participated at the 2004 Art & Pumpkin Festival in Half Moon Bay - an event that attracts over 250,000 people yearly. The largest pumpkin this year weighed over 1200 pounds. There were lots of participants and events. Half Moon Bay is yet another city in the Bay Area - right on the Pacific Ocean coastline - that we get to clarify the truth on a large scale, following the cities of Santa Cruz, Monterrey, Watsonville and Capitola.

Adults and children all enjoy Pumpkin Festival

People show interests in learning the practice of Falun Gong

A number of people watch practitioners' demonstration and read truth-clarifying materials

Some people learn the exercises on the spot

Children also enjoying learning the exercises.

When practitioners arrived at the location, we had not made previous arrangements for a booth or space. However, soon through an interesting set of circumstances, we talked to the owner of a house that was right in the middle of the main walkway, who let us use her front yard to set up a table with flyers and posters. We were there both days of the event.

Below is some sharing from practitioners who participated:

Many people and kids wanted to learn the exercises right away.

Practitioner M:

In my experience, being there was really wonderful. It took us 2 hours to get there, when it usually takes 30 minutes, but it was well worth it. When we arrived there, I felt an incredible peace and a feeling that "everything finally made sense."

My experiences in clarifying the truth in New York helped me a lot. I didn't feel discouraged if some people didn't receive the flyers and I tried my best to keep righteous thoughts all the time. The more I persevered, the more people I was able to reach and to talk to.

The more we kept clarifying to truth, the more we were eliminating the evil and the more people asked questions, read our banners, took flyers and learned the exercises. I also saw some people being touched by the power of Dafa right on the spot, like the young guys who learned the exercises. Half of them started learning the exercises and they already started to behave different than their friends.

I was moved by the intelligent bright eyes of kids, shining with delight when they got a flyer; they went out of their ways to reach for a flyer and took it as a precious object to their distracted parents.

I enjoyed seeing my fellow practitioners, cheerfully clarifying the truth. Although no words were exchanged, everybody knew what to do and every time I made visual contact with another practitioner we smiled at each other in complete harmony. It was wonderful to be participating in another miracle of Dafa.

Practitioner B:

By the end of the day, especially the first day, my face hurt from smiling so much. I realized that when passing out fliers like that, there's no reason to not try and exhibit your full compassionate heart, and that's the best form of communication. When I was really clear that I wanted the best for them, that I wanted them to be saved, it worked out best. Through the two days, I really saw that kids know what's going on--from the toddler copying the movements of the third exercise, to little kids wanting a flyer or video CD of their own even when their parents already had one.

But also, after a big day like that, I saw how one really can't think anything like "I clarified the truth a lot today, so now I'm done". I went somewhere later that night and I realized that in some interactions with people it didn't even occur to me to clarify the truth to them until the chance was gone. We have chances all day long.

Practitioner S:

Towards the end of the 2nd day, the weather had gotten worse. It started raining very heavily and was very windy. We decided to stay a bit longer and continue to pass information to people. Now we would just pass VCDs, because the flyers would get wet. It was amazing how many VCDs we passed that last hour during heavy rain and wind. Almost everyone was taking one towards the end. Out of the box, we had maybe 15 left at the end.

Practitioner A:

I seem to always think that if some event is not working out the way that I want it to, then it must be because I am not righteous enough. So when I went to the event my righteous thoughts were even weaker, because it seemed to not be working out. Than later I realized that Teacher had it planned all along, the best and most perfect!

My points are that what I think will be good, is not always good...Masters plan is best. And that I must completely entrust in my faith in Dafa and Master at all times and under any circumstance, giving up my human side so as to maintain my righteous thoughts.