Our gift to Taiwan…

Lots of great stuff this week! On Monday we went with one of the girls from the Shilin ward (the other ward in our district) first to XiMenDing and then over to the presidential museum! The museum shows all of the gifts that have been given to Taiwan’s presidents by leaders of other countries who have visited Taiwan over the years.

On Wednesday, we had Zone Conference from 9am to 3pm – it was comprised of a total of three zones, so it was a fairly good number of missionaries! We were all able to see a lot of people we hadn’t seen in a while plus learn a lot throughout the day. Of course, the Costco pizza for lunch only made a good thing better!

Got my ears lowered @ 100NT Haircuts. Not bad for around $3.00! (Thanks, Hellen, for the pic!)

President Jergensen still really likes the new English class video. He’s showing it in all four of the zone conferences that are happening within a two week period of time, so that all the missionaries in the Taipei mission will be able to see it…if they haven’t already. We’ve also been strongly encouraged to show it as much as possible so that we can get lots of people to see and share the video! He called me last week because he said he wanted to personally thank me again for helping out with the project. We’re all hoping that it can be effectively used to generate lots of interest in English class! People here in Taiwan refuse to believe it’s free – they’ll literally call the mission office (since the phone number is on the tract we hand out for it) to ask if it’s really free, but then they’ll refuse to accept that it really is when the office elders tell them! We’re also hoping it makes it easier for people who come to English class each week to share English class with their friends…on both Facebook and Line, since all they have to do is share a video.

Elder Huntsman’s birthday was yesterday. A little over a week ago I bought a huge birthday card at the store and have been slowly accumulating messages from others in it. Whenever I saw someone he knew, I’d take it out of my bag (which it barely fit in) and have them sign it. It was lucky we had Zone Conference this week since I was able to see a lot of missionaries he knew and get them to sign it. This is his last transfer in Taiwan, so he’ll be going back home in several weeks. After church yesterday, some people brought food and cakes and we celebrated at the church for a couple hours!

These are bigger than the mango cones!

Saturday, we went to Shilin Night Market, which is the largest and most famous night market in Taipei. It’s always busy, so we have plenty of people to talk to (although many are tourists). Kevin Yang went with us. The food is great (there are over 500 food vendors) and there are many shops that you can barter and get reasonably priced clothing.

Is he still behind me? Chia, you distract him and I’ll destroy the “evidence”…

Elder Chia and I enjoyed potato rolls (spiral cut, deep-fried potatoes on a stick), among other things. The top half of my potato roll was seasoned with salt and pepper; the bottom with confectioner’s sugar. Can’t decide; both halves were good! (Thanks Kevin, for the photos!)

Today we’re going to be heading out to this place called 九份 (jiǔ fèn), which is about an hour drive away. Elder Huntsman has a friend who is a taxi driver, so he’s going to take us there and back for free, which is awesome! We’re probably going to sleep on the way there since we woke up at 5am today for emails. It should be pretty fun though, since I’ve seen pictures of the place and have heard lots of great things about it!

– Elder Austin Simonson
文長老