Taiwanese Sabbath......

So today is Sunday and we attended a Taiwanese ward. I can’t even put into words how great of an experience it was. The spirit was so strong and the members were even stronger. We didn’t understand a single word that was said but the spirit was still there….. and strong. It was a testimony to me that this church is true and that it is the only true church on earth today. The church is universal and the spirit exists wherever there is faith. It’s unaffected by who the individual is, where they live, or what language they speak. It was an amazing experience. At the beginning of the meeting they confirmed a new member. He was an elderly man that looked in his sixties (and Asians hardly show their age so I’m assuming he’s actually older than that). It was so touching because he was grinning from ear to ear. There was a light about him that shined throughout the entire room. He was in casual clothes and didn’t dress up at all. You could tell he wasn’t very wealthy, but none of that mattered. He found something that made him happy and now he’s dedicating his life to it. I now know exactly what missionaries are talking about when they baptize new members and they talk about the glow the new members have. It was definitely another testimony builder. Another thing that really impressed me is how happy the members are here. Every single one was grinning and so excited to be there. I definitely think that the members in Utah take the church for granted (obviously not everyone). Overall it was a great experience and it made me realize how blessed I am! The members were so excited to have us there and we spent a considerable amount of time talking to the members that could speak English after. The picture is of us bored at the bus stop after church. We lined up according to how tan we were......

Also we saw our first Americans today! Ha ha It’s surprising how few Americans there are here. We’ve been here for a couple of days and we’ve been to a lot of places with a lot of people but we haven’t seen a single American. The American’s were missionaries J….and I think they were more shocked to see us than we were to see them. As soon as we walked in the door they both just froze and didn’t know what to say. We immediately said Hi and they just sat there in silence. Ha ha It was so funny! (the pic is candid no joke, you can tell he was shocked) We finally got them talking and you could tell they were soooo relieved to see someone from back home.

After church Hayley, Rainy, Christina, Sophia, and I decided to get dropped off at a little street market so we spent a little time there. Then we were starving so we decided to go find a little shop for some lunch. You wouldn’t think it would be that hard to find food here but it is. It’s actually everywhere but the whole language thing is a significant barrier. Most restaurants don’t have any pictures and the menus have NOTHING in English. Plus here it’s a little risky to just point at some characters on the menu because you’ll most likely end up with something including fish heads. So we spent about an hour walking the streets (no joke) till we finally came to a buffet (woohoo) so all of the food was laid out. We just pointed at stuff and ate it. We ended up eating whole fish stuffed with fish eggs, intestines, and liver….only because we had no idea what it was until after ha ha. It’s all part of the Taiwanese experience.

The rest of the day was just chillin at our apartments and getting adjusted (a lot of the girls were really tired d/t jet lag). Later on that night we went out for dinner and had some of the absolute best meat I’ve ever had in my life. We went to a random street vendor for food on a stick. I got some pork and then some mushrooms. The guy grills them and covers them in layers and layers of sauce and it’s soooo delicious! It’s fun because the Taiwanese people looove eating but they never eat at restaurants. There are literally hundreds of vendors on every street selling stuff so you just skip around and get what you want from each one. Also our apartments don’t have kitchens or fridges so we have to eat out every meal…and I don’t mind.



Afterwards we went to this little café for some Beef Noodle Soup (Taiwan is also known for this) and I had probably my most favorite experience here so far. The owner of the café is a HUGE baseball fan. The entire café is decorated in signed baseballs of teams from Taiwan and he has like 3 tv’s in the café all playing different games. I told him that I loved baseball and he said that he LOVES the Yankees! I told him that was my favorite team and he literally freaked out! He just started jumping up and down yelling all of this stuff (none of which I could understand except for random names of players on the Yankees). He then sat next to me while we were eating citing random facts about the Yankees and talking about them with me (as much as he could, he didn’t speak more than a couple words in English so it was a lot of charades). He knows WAY more than I do about baseball ha ha He then showed me all of his baseballs and all of his memorabilia. He even gave me a baseball signed by a Taiwanese player (who we figured out lives in my apartment building). I asked him for a picture with him and he was sooo excited. We talked for longer and he made me promise that I stop by some time before I leave. It was such a fun experience and now I have a new baseball friend.