Here is the best part of the whole trip. We miraculously met Jerry and Minnete Chen, who wanted to have us tell them how they could receive the blessings of being together forever! Jerry had been baptized a little over a year ago, but had not been active in church and had a lot of questions. His wife is Catholic. We did not have time to talk to them while we were with Brother Lin and the Seows, but went back down to FengYuan on the train two days later and had dinner with them and talked for a couple of hours with them. Now they know about the Temple and the committment they will have to make to be a forever family. Now it is up to them to chose how much they want this great blessing from the Lord. We pray for them to make the right choice and go to church and have the missionaries give the discussions to them, so that they may have the desire they expressed to us!! They are really a great little couple. Their first baby is due in October! I need to tell you of the great, many miracles that had to happen to have us meet them. First of all, we would not have stopped in their town at all if it hadn't been that Brother Lin and Dad were talking about what kind of food Dad liked and he told him he liked pie. When Dad said this, Brother Lin asked him what kind of pie and Dad responded with - "hot or cold". So, to please Dad, Brother Lin stopped in FengYuan, the town he grew up in as a boy, and bought us something "hot" (wonton soup), something "cold" ( an ice slush drink), and he was leading us to a pie shop for a piece of pie when we had to stop for Jerry, who was parking his motorcycle on the curb and he noticed our missionary badges. Had he come a second later, we would have been past him and he never would have seen our badges! Also - when we came back down two days later, we did not know exactly what train to catch or how to do it, but there was a very sweet man we sat by as we waited for the train, who not only told us which track it would come on, but went and bought us two bottles of water to drink and just happened to be going the same way and stayed right by us on the train until he had to get off one stop ahead of ours! Then as we got off and began looking for Jerry's optical shop, we could not remember which way to go! As we stood on the corner, wondering, a motorcycle drove up beside us with a young man and his mother on it. He recognized us because he had been to the temple doing baptisms for the the dead and had seen us there! Then they proceeded on their motor bike to lead us to Jerry's shop! Another amazing "perfect timing" incident occured when Minette and Elias and I were waiting for Jerry to bring his car around and pick us up to go to dinner, two missionaries just "happened" to be going down the street across from us and came over and made themselves acquainted with us and Minette! So now they are aware of the situation and can take over where we left off with them! How the Lord must love these two! The many "coincidences" that He orchestrated to have this all happen in such perfect timing was almost unbelievable! Oh, another miraculous thing that happened was that we were three hours earlier getting to Jerry's than we said we would be. We actually had bought tickets on a faster, much more expensive train that brought us to FengYuan in one and a half hours rather than three to four hours, yet Jerry and Minette were able to leave his shop at that time and spend those two hours with us. And had we been later we would not have had the help of the kind man at the RR station, nor the guidance of our friends on their motorcycle, or the Elders coming by at that particular time to meet Minette and us! I know the Lord loves His children and I know more now than ever before, to what extent He will go to to see that they have every opportunity to hear what He wants them to hear - WHEN He wants them to hear it!! We feel very humble to have been a part of His plan for them! 
The Buddhist Monastary we stopped at on our way home.
The Buddhist Monastary we stopped at on our way home.
Further on down the road, we stopped at this huge Buddhist Monastary. It was massive. Across the valley, there was a golden Buddah that was so big that you could see it for many miles! We did not go over there, however.
Brother Lin and the Seows - patiently waited for us to hike down and back up those 366 steps to the water below! I can't imagine why they didn't want to come.
Dad and I would have liked to have stayed longer at Sun-Moon Lake, but our driver and the Seows did not want to take the time to find the Aborigini Village we were hoping to see, so the next best thing we could do was hike down to the water. They had 366 steps with each one having the date carved in it. You could pay money and buy a "prayer" to hang on the wrought iron fence on either side of your step. Hiking down and back up these steps took a lot more effort than I anticipated! We really had a work-out!
After a couple of hours driving, we came to Sun-Moon Lake - still high in the mountains - a gorgeous place which now is quite a tourist spot. This lake received its name because the major part of it is round like the sun, but one part of it is crescent-shaped like the moon.
After the "sunrise" tour, having taken our pictures, we packed up our things, had breakfast, and headed down the mountain. Right along the side of the road were some aboriginal "sales persons" selling their wares - All in tribal dress! 
There you have it - complete sunrise!! It was worth getting up at 3 am for this event! I forgot to tell you that we stopped on our way up here, while it was still pitch-dark, and looked at the stars, and our guide pointed out some of the constellations to us!
The first shaft of light breaking over the mountains even though we could not see the sun yet.
A little brighter picture - a little more daylight - the pinkness of the clouds now gone.
The beginnings of the sun hitting the cloud in back of the mountains and making it a pink color.
Here we are - (it was cold just before sun-up) - waiting to catch those first rays of the sun over the mountain. Brother Lin is in the forefront in the white jacket. I was surprized at how light it was even though the sun was not up yet!
Dad and I would have liked to have stayed longer at Sun-Moon Lake, but our driver and the Seows did not want to take the time to find the Aborigini Village we were hoping to see, so the next best thing we could do was hike down to the water. They had 366 steps with each one having the date carved in it. You could pay money and buy a "prayer" to hang on the wrought iron fence on either side of your step. Hiking down and back up these steps took a lot more effort than I anticipated! We really had a work-out!
After a couple of hours driving, we came to Sun-Moon Lake - still high in the mountains - a gorgeous place which now is quite a tourist spot. This lake received its name because the major part of it is round like the sun, but one part of it is crescent-shaped like the moon.
After the "sunrise" tour, having taken our pictures, we packed up our things, had breakfast, and headed down the mountain. Right along the side of the road were some aboriginal "sales persons" selling their wares - All in tribal dress! 
There you have it - complete sunrise!! It was worth getting up at 3 am for this event! I forgot to tell you that we stopped on our way up here, while it was still pitch-dark, and looked at the stars, and our guide pointed out some of the constellations to us!
The first shaft of light breaking over the mountains even though we could not see the sun yet.
A little brighter picture - a little more daylight - the pinkness of the clouds now gone.
The beginnings of the sun hitting the cloud in back of the mountains and making it a pink color.
Here we are - (it was cold just before sun-up) - waiting to catch those first rays of the sun over the mountain. Brother Lin is in the forefront in the white jacket. I was surprized at how light it was even though the sun was not up yet!As I mentioned yesterday, we did not have to sleep in our hard beds very long, for we had to get up at 3 am to catch our tour bus to the top of Ali Shan so we could take pictures of the sunrise. Here are some of those pictures:
No comments:
Post a Comment