Lots of fun... and hard work!

The past two weeks have been just about typical for us, with long, tiring days, and some fun thrown in. Chinese New Years lasts two weeks, so we've been doing lots of celebrating and well-wishing lately. Last year, we enjoyed many meals together with members and missionaries, but the last few weeks have been a time of increased Covid fear, and our Church leaders have placed restrictions on missionaries which precluded visits to members homes, or regular Church meetings. We were sad to have to refuse the many kind offers we received. We were allowed to eat in restaurants, though, and we enjoyed a hot pot meal at Bulu Bulu with a couple from our Wuquan 3rd Ward!

Interestingly, we have had an egg shortage in Taiwan recently, so we've had to buy eggs as we can. The last batch (10, not 12, here), included some mismatched sizes.

Because we're not meeting in our churches, the missionary Elders are once again providing sacrament services to the Sister missionaries. Our neighbors, the Beitun Sisters, joined us for a lovely service Feb. 6th.

Sisters Lin Lan Xi and Lin Li Hong

Not too long ago (one transfer ago to be exact), I recounted how we had to make a Sunday run to Tainan to move a refrigerator for a set of missionaries who were moving to Minxiong. Well, this transfer, our leaders decided to move the missionaries back to their previous apartment, which necessitated another Sunday trip to move their refrigerator back to Tainan. I didn't get any photos of me on the end of the hand truck moving the refrigerator, but, along the way, I got a couple of photos I thought were fun and interesting.

I liked this mixture of east and west in a small Christian church in Minxiong

The view of the bear was even more interesting on the trip back... :-)

Meow!

This was one of those "hit the window down button, grab the phone, switch
from 'map' to 'camera' and shoot the picture before the stop light changes to green."
Yes, it was better in real life!

And, because it was a transfer, we also said "goodbye" to 12 missionaries - about a fifth of our entire mission! We had the pleasure of hosting these two sisters who were going home, on the evening before their departure. (The Elders stayed with the APs in their apartment over the mission office.)

Sister Tsai and Sister HuangLi

One of my jobs for a mission transfer is moving the missionaries bikes to their new areas. This move was large, with 36 missionaries transferred, and complicated, since we were forced to vacate a number of apartments due to the decreasing numbers of missionaries, and missionaries not being where they are "supposed to be" due to shuffling around between transfers. In the end, all the bikes got moved and I survived the frustration!

One day, the mission leader's housekeeper, "Daisy" came in with her missionary directory from the time she served a mission in Taiwan. (She is a wonderful lady, and has been a good friend to us.) She showed us a photo of Cynthia Balser, who she trained as a new missionary. We know the Balsers and were happy to make the connection over the years.

In preparation for our (and the Turners) leaving Taiwan next month, we have been helping get things ready for the other senior missionary couple, the DeWitts, to move to Taichung from Kaohsiung. It was decided that our apartment will be closed, an the DeWitts would move into the Beitun apartment, while the Beitun sisters would move to the Wuquan 1st apartment. So, we've been spending some fun-filled (haha) hours with the Turners moving furniture, setting up beds, etc. to get these moves accomplished. We took some time out for pizzas from our local on-the-street pizza vendor, and even played in the adjacent park!

Sister Wells and Sister Turner played on the slide.

I was just plain "played out" after assembling the DeWitt's bed.

The DeWitts treated us to a nice Taiwanese lunch!

Yesterday, the APs joined us for a tour of the Earthquake Museum in Wufeng, and a nice lunch. The museum remembers the devastating 7.3 magnitude earthquake of Sept 21, 1999, where 2,415 people lost their lives. It was quite sobering, and reminded us of the terrible destructive force of such an event.

The earthquake-prone region where Taiwan lies

Elders Volz and Chuang, making an earthquake!

Don't mess with this Sister!

After touring the museum, we enjoyed a nice lunch of noodles at a notable noodle shop nearby. I entertained the others by falling off my chair. Fortunately, it was all laughs, since I wasn't hurt!