A New Assignment!

The bishop of the Wuquan 3rd Ward, where we meet, asked us to serve in the Primary, teaching the "Sunbeam" (3 year old) class. It's an "assignment," not a "calling," since full-time missionaries can't have any other callings. And, we only teach every other week, as the regular teacher has a work conflict on those weeks.

Sister Wells was apprehensive - not about teaching children, as she's done plenty of that, but of being able to communicate with the little ones in Chinese, since they don't have the vocabulary of an adult. Well, there was nothing to worry about! She had those kids in the palm of her hand! They were transfixed, sitting in a little semi-circle with their big eyes staring over their little masks, first at Sister Wells, and then at me and back again. She used a great visual with pictures of all the Easter story elements, along with a chick and an egg to explain how that fits into the story. They children ate it up - including the candy treat inside the plastic egg that that we gave to each of the children at the conclusion of the lesson. 

After class, we took a picture with all the Sunbeams (and the 6

year-old who joined the class) They are SO CUTE!

We had a chance to get out of the office, too, as the Sisters in Tanzi district needed some curtains hung in their apartment. Sister Card hemmed the IKEA curtains to fit, and we were assigned to hang them. On Tuesday, we took the bus (# 55) and met the sisters at their apartment. The job took about an hour or so, but we had some problems. The 3-M "velcro"-type strips refused to stay up, so I got the idea of using foam tape. Fortunately, we found some in the corner market just a block or so from the apartment! After hanging the blinds, we headed home. But, the sisters sent a Line message right away with pictures of the curtains fallen off the wall. That was discouraging, since the walls are concrete and I didn't want to drill holes for screws. I decided that epoxy glue was the answer and bought some. Thursday, we returned (taking the mission car this time) and put them up using the glue. It seems that was successful.

On Saturday (P-Day) we took the car again and visited the Fengyuan Lacquer Art Museum. It was located in a large park with some interesting features, including a fish growing facility and some pretty grounds. The museum itself was disappointing. It was quite small and only a few items were for sale, and quite expensive. They were featuring a student art show and some students had just finished a workshop in their hands-on space, so we had a brief conversation with the teacher who showed us some of the techniques used, such as employing leaves to apply the paint to the piece.  The docent was new, she said, but she was able to share some interesting facts about how lacquerware is made from tree-sap, and how various materials such as eggshell, gold and silver flakes are used in the decorating process.  We took some photos, of course:

The greatest work in the museum, by a lacquerware master. It was quite lovely!

The bull's horn was right on Taiwan. We decided it meant a bullish future for Taiwan!

A beautiful woman poses by a picturesque bridge across the street from the museum.

Outside the modest lacquerware museum.

The kind docent showed us some of the technique used to make lacquerware. 

You're looking at pretty much the entire museum.

On the way to the museum, we spotted this enormous statue at the 

Zennching temple and just had to stop for a photo and look-around. 

On the way home, we hit Cosco and my barber "Roger," who gave me another (very short) haircut, complete with wash, massage, and styling. He scolded me for letting it get so long! haha.

In the evening, we helped out with the ward Primary Easter party, helping the Easter Bunny hide some eggs in the church house's small front yard. Naturally, the children vacuumed them up in no time!