E/S Morehead, church public affairs missionaries; Sis. Groberg, the mission nurse; Sis. Calvert,she is works with the Sister Missionaries; Sis. Venables, a delightful lady from England. We had finger food and watched "Miss Potter" which delighted Sis Venables because of the English accent.
Christmas day was spent with the Missionaries at a Mission conference in TianMu about 45min bus ride from where we stay. The missionaries played games in the morning before a great AMERICAN picnic of hot dogs, hamburgers, KFC chicken, drinks and several cakes. After lunch we had two talent shows; 1) A fun show with a variety of talent including two Santa Clauses that pantomyned two musicians playing drums, piano etc, etc on music stands. It was really fun and we saw so much talent. 2) The second show was more Christmasy with Carols and Hymns. After the talent show the mission Pres. wife Sis. Nielson led us in singing several Hymns. The music was projected on a screen; one Elder that could make a piano do anything but dance accompanied us and used the projected music to play from. Then Pres. and Sis Nielson gave us a Christmas card from the first Presidency with their picture on the front; I did not know they could write Mandarin. Each Missionary also received very nice stainless steel Chopsticks in a case with a clip so a person can carry them in a suit pocket. These gifts were passed out by the Mission Pres. adopted Chinese daughter; a delightful 12 year old young lady.
The next day (Dec. 26th) two Chinese ladies; Sis. Xia from the Temple and her RS companion; Eva, took us by train (MRT) to Danshui; a resort town where the Danshui river empties into the Yellow Sea. While waiting for the train a lady came to us and talked to our friends in Chinese; she asked if we were Mormons (name tags!) she also wanted to know where our church was located. Our friends really spoiled us; we could not spend any money. We had hot fish balls on a stick, took us by ferry across the river (it was about 15-20 Mins); rented a four person bike with canopy and carriage seats, then bought us a warm sugar cane drink which should be good for our throat. Then we found a bakery where we could sample the baked goods; which looked awful but tasted really good. The owner saw our name tags and told us he to was LDS also. We found a Japanese restaurant like Benihanna but less expensive. They had a Chinese menu and an English menu; the English had higher prices. Next to me was a couple that had a bottle of liquid refreshment in her purse which was about a third full of Grubs.
Dec. 27th (Granma Millers birthday) Sis. Su a worker at the Temple took us to the national
Museum and to the new Tower 101. She has very good English, interprets for us at temple meetings. She went to BYU and also went to school in the UK. She has at least one Masters degree. She likes to travel and has been to much of the world.The Museum houses many pieces of Chinaware and art from thousands of years ago. Before the Communists invaded China, Chiang Kai Shek (led the resistence) took this ancient stuff and moved them to Formosa (now Taiwan).
We then went to tower 101; it is the tallest building in the world (at the moment). It also has the fastest elevator in the world; 89 floors in about 37 seconds. We were able to see all Taipei and much of the surrounding country side. It was fun except I did not enjoy the movement that we could feel under our feet. This building has a 700 ton pendaleum to counter balance any earthquake movement. We have really been well treated by the people at the temple.
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