Happy New Year!

 Today is Chinese New Years Day! It's the biggest holiday of the year, and most stores are closed and people are spending time with family, paying tribute to their ancestors, relaxing, and EATING! Gift giving is common, and this is the time for Hong Bao Na Lai! Here's our little hong bao we had printed up and are giving to friends and associates this year:


With heightened concern in Taiwan over the Covid pandemic, and in an over-abundance of caution, the Asia Area Presidency asked that we not meet in member homes over the new year holiday. So, the wonderful moments sharing meals and love with our Wuquan 3rd warders last year will not be repeated this year. At least we had the opportunity to experience the joy of Chinese New Years in 2021.

Riding to work has been unusually quiet (and safe!) the last couple of days. But, even this afternoon, it seems things are returning to normal, traffic-wise. Our dear friend and fellow senior missionary, Elder Lin gifted all the seniors hand-made chun-lian (scrolls) with a couplet specially suited to and including our Chinese names. We all posed for a picture:



We enjoyed a P-Day shopping outing to a temporary street market set up for the holiday period. There was lots of good food and many interesting shops. We were able to buy a couple of presents for the grandkids, and some Chinese new year bling at this shop:


The new pandemic restrictions has also cancelled in-person church meetings, so we returned this week to in-home Sacrament meeting, and invited our neighbors, the Beitun sisters to join us. We enjoyed an uplifting time together, and took a selfie afterward with Sister Lin Li Hong and Sister Lin Lan Xi.


Last Saturday, we attended a baptism for a youngster in our ward. It was a glad time, although the baptism itself was a bit traumatic, as the dad got nervous and there were several repeats. Sister Wells baked peanut butter cookies and brownies (individually bagged) for the attendees to take home afterwards.

We spent that afternoon with our friend Jeff. We got a meal from a nearby restaurant and returned to the office to eat in the mission president's office.


Our friendly neighbors at the Chung Yo shopping center brought a new years "neighbor gift," as they always do. This time it was Birds Nest with Hashima drink The beautiful boxes (2!) each contained 12 bottles (about 3 ounces each, I'd guess), of this expensive product, which is actually made of the saliva of swallows! The male birds use their thick saliva to make nests in caves. The nests are harvested and made into this elixir which is supposed to have wonderful health characteristics. I drank a bottle... it was not yucky, but not especially tasty, either. The texture was like a thin gelatin with some lumps, and the taste was kind of weakly sweet. 

Sister Wells sang in the women's choir at the funeral of one of our ward member's family members. It was a pretty standard LDS funeral. I couldn't understand a thing, since Sister Wells was seated with the choir, and I... wasn't. Here she is, leading the alto section during the rehearsal:


Let's see... here are a few more photos from the past week or so:

Our our front gate, I saw this truck passing by, full of garlic. It's the typical "pickup" in Taiwan.

This beautiful traditional dress, and another in red, caught our eye in a wedding shop nearby.

This little box of cherries, about two handfuls, is selling for an eye-popping $25.00.

We saw this cute little car (yes it has 4 wheels!) on our outing with the Turners,
and had to take a picture. It's the perfect car for Taiwan, where parking is at a premium!



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