EARTHQUAKE!


Last Sunday, we fell into bed about 10 PM, exhausted after a full day that included Sister Wells teaching part of the Sunday School lesson. (She did an excellent job!) Anyway, a few minutes after we laid down, the building started to shake. It was an earthquake! After it died down, only a couple of minutes passed and the building shook again! And, this time, it shook worse than the first time. We were actually pretty scared, not knowing if it would quit or get worse. After it stopped a few long seconds later, I got up to look out the window to see if everyone was running from the building. But no, nothing unusual was happening. Someone was jogging around the little park, but they seemed unconcerned. We had experienced one other earthquake since we arrived in Taiwan, but it was just a little one compared to these. The news report said the temblors were magnitude 5.8 and 6.2, on the other side of the island, so the effective magnitude in Taichung was only 3. Whatever the science, it was pretty scary for us!

Back in the office on Monday, Elder Galbraith gave us our first mango in Taiwan. The elders and sisters often present us with little treats, and we can feel their love. (The mango was delicious!)


We soloed in English class this week, since the Elders were busy with another appointment. It was a big class, and Sister Wells did a wonderful job, as always.  Here's the selfie after class:


On Sunday - Wednesday, we hosted the sisters who were going home this past week. All but one were headed to their homes in Taiwan, while Sister Rojo was going to the Philippines. They were wonderful house guests, and we enjoyed getting to know them, and bragging about our grandkids!


Sisters Chen, Wang, Hsu, Yu, Luo, and Gaban.
Sister Chen and Sister Hsu lived nearby our
apartment, so we got to know them better. They are so sweet!

On Thursday, we took our first trip to the Taoyuan International Airport near Taipei, to drop off Sister Gaban. I drove, and the trip went smoothly (we only missed one exit, and that was on the way home!) The airport was busy, with long lines to check in and again at security, but everyone was very patient and kind. On the way home, we stopped at the "Gloria Outlets" in Taoyuan. It is a very large outdoor mall, exactly like one you'd find in the United States. We wandered through the mall and even went in a few stores, but they were mainly high-end clothing and the like. We did enjoy huge hamburgers at TGI Fridays, and took a photo to remember the occasion:


Those sisters (and Elder Wu) went home, which also means that new missionaries arrived. We had a busy day with that, as there are lots of details that Sister Wells manages with great efficiency, and a very short financial overview I pretend to present (since it has to be translated, we know who really makes the presentation! Haha). All the incoming missionaries get a classic picture in front of the mission map, so we decided to get one, since we hadn't had the opportunity when we first arrived.


We had a little excitement this week, too, as the water rationing finally affected us. Our building ran out of water, and when it came back on a couple days later, our water heater no longer worked. We finally resolved it with the help of our building guard/super. It's nice to have water - especially hot water!

Friday we did some more "Operations" work. We drove to the storage unit, far in the south of Taichung and picked up a dryer and a refrigerator, and delivered these to two missionary apartments far in the north of Taichung. So, lots of driving a big van down crazy streets, eventually arriving at the apartments, where, of course, there is no parking. So, we just double-parked like everyone else and hauled the fridge up 16 flights (using the elevator) and installed it. Luckily, the appliances are smaller than their US cousins, and a bit easier to manage. Whew! We were hustling around so much that I forgot to snap a photo.

Today, our P-day, was the birthday celebration of Baosheng Dadi's (the God of Medicine) birthday. We know this because the air started ringing with the sound of beating drums and loud music about 9 am. I looked out the window and saw a bit of a parade going by Jinhua Road, which we can see from our apartment. We ran downstairs and jumped on our bikes to get a closer look. We enjoyed the show, with colorful costumes, lots of drums, fireworks, and an image of the relevant god being carried along. After we got back to the apartment, we heard more sounds and, upon looking out, saw that it was a different group. So, we chased them down and found two more groups marching, each with more colorful and interesting costumes and performers than the last. It was a lot of fun to see these devoted people worshiping in their own way.


Walking home one evening, I grabbed this picture of my beautiful companion as we walked through the Yizhong night market:



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