Time Flies...

Time flies when you're keeping busy! (And, when you're having fun!) And, boy, have we been keeping busy. Also, the days have turned cooler, and we can feel the change in the seasons (finally). It makes us realize, again, how quickly our time in Taiwan is passing.

On Monday, Oct 11, we taught a boy who needs a little extra help preparing for his baptism. Vic is a sweet kid, and very quiet (especially around us). We especially enjoyed helping him say his first prayer.

Friday, Oct. 14, Sister Wells and I took the Honda Odyssey to the dealer for servicing, and, as planned, went to tour Central Park with our new friend Julia. She was a wonderful guide, and insisted on buying us ice cream bars and drinks. At the conclusion of our time together, the entire staff wanted to have a photo with us. They were all so sweet!

On Saturday, Oct 16, we joined the Turners and Elder Lin in a P-Day trip to Sun Moon Lake! Elder Lin (a professional tour guide) was just wonderful to take us to the lake and other interesting spots. We started out at the terrific Xiangshan visitor's center, and took a nearby hike through the beautiful wooded area.

Next stop was the Xuanguang Temple, a small Buddhist temple overlooking the lake. We got a beautiful calendar of watercolor prints for 2022, as a souvenir.

Then we drove to the Ci'en Pagoda, a famous landmark at Sun Moon Lake. A short hike brought us to the pagoda. Elder Lin had thoughtfully brought us a nice snack. The pagoda, built by  Chiang Kai-Shek in memory of his mother in 1971, is 150 feet high. Of course, we hiked to the top for a gorgeous panoramic view of the lake.

I estimate Sister Wells is about 320 feet tall!

He's got the whole pagoda in his hands...

Continuing around the lake, we stopped at Wenwu temple, an enormous Buddhist temple which we had visited with Sally in 2019. This time, Sister Wells didn't need to babysit the suitcases, and she was able to tour the temple. She was impressed, as were we all

! 

We next visited Puli, a small town in the mountains not far from Sun Moon Lake. We had a nice, authentic Japanese lunch. I chose the tempura shrimp (with okra, eggplant, and egg), which came with cold noodles on a bamboo leaf and a soup that "wasn't my favorite" haha.

With renewed energy, we drove around the sprawling Chung Tai Chan Monastery. It was closed to visitors due to Covid, but we got to take in the huge monastery and the schools and other facilities they sponsor. The main building includes an enclosed pagoda and seemingly hundreds of rooms for the monks. Not a great picture, but you can get the idea...

By this time, we were getting tired, but Elder Lin had one more stop planned. He has taken young missionaries to Guanyin Falls, and remembered them sprinting up the 1.5 miles hike to the falls in just a few minutes. Needless to say, we trudged up in 30 minutes or so. There were multiple smaller falls along the beautiful trail, and we were rewarded with the 180 ft. falls at the end of the hike. It was lovely, cool, and not too crowded with people.

To top it all off, Elder Lin stopped to buy us ice cream on the way home!

Next day, Sunday, we got to teach our Primary Sunbeams again! What fun! We counted out 10 quai for each child, who dutifully gave one back for "tithing". The sweet youngest girl wanted to give me another coin to help the poor people - how sweet!! Sister Wells also taught a lesson incorporating photos of nature from our trip to Sun Moon Lake, and photos of the children from our earlier class with them. They loved seeing themselves in the lesson! We truly love these beautiful Chinese children (who make us miss our own grandchildren!).

After church, our friend, as usual, cornered us for a video:

Later that afternoon, we had another lesson with Vic. This time, I was able to help his dad practice doing Vic's baptism. It was a wonderful experience for us all, I think.

Next day, Monday, the missionaries for the Wuquan chapel acted as pallbearers for a brother whose funeral was held in our building. I didn't know him, or even who he was, but I appreciated being able to honor him with this service. It was a little different from US funerals, as everything was decorated in white, and we all donned little crosses for the service.

Later on, our Office District recorded a version of "Amazing Grace" for Zone Conference to be held on Tuesday. We sounded pretty good, I think!

Finally, I want to include this photo of some sweet little flowers outside our office door, which, like crocuses at home, just appeared one morning:

I know this blog post was kind of long, but there has been a lot going on. And, I didn't bore you with details of our "real" work, including a trip to Tainan to swap out a refrigerator, bike repairs, delivering stuff to our quarantining senior missionaries, buying office supplies, sending the mail, etc., etc. Yes, we're tired when we get home!