We flew to Taiwan the day after Christmas. We checked into our hotel and headed straight to the temple. We arrived a little early so had time to walk a few blocks from the temple and eat mango and strawberry shaved ice first. James bought three Books of Mormon at the distribution center. He plans to give them to school friends. One of his friends also asked for the D&C — he had been chatting with missionaries online and asked James if he could help him get these books.
The Chen Family (a family John taught on his mission) are now in the temple presidency. They greeted us at the front door. Sister Chen had made arrangements for a babysitter to watch Tessa across the street at the mission office. The Shaner family also joined us (they were our neighbors in Shanghai and now live in Taiwan). Brother Chen welcomed us in the baptistry by first talking about his conversion story, with John translating, and they were both pretty emotional. This was Eliza’s first time in the temple and she said it felt much more peaceful than she thought it would. The Chens arranged for John and I to do initiatories after the baptisms. We then picked up Tessa at the mission office and went out to eat at Chilis with the Shaners.
Strawberry Bing (shaved ice)
Taipei Temple
The next morning John and I returned for the 7am session and also did sealings. We picked up the kids from the hotel and spent the rest of the day touring around Taipei. After a few hours the rain was too much so we went to the movies instead and watched “Night at the museum 3.”
Chiang Kai Shek Memorial
We caught a train to Hualien (2.5 hours south) to sight see the next two days. The highlight in Hualien was hiking around Taroko Gorge. Hualien is known for its beautiful mountains and cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Sunday morning we were excited to see Amy George there as a missionary. I taught her in young womens a few years ago. After church our first stop with the tour guide was the ocean. Tessa was excited to see one of her classmates there and they had so much fun throwing rocks into the water. The kids loved the big breakfast buffet but lunch wasn’t so great —our tour guide took us to a small restaurant where every dish was seafood. So the next day we ate snacks at 7-eleven for lunch.
Our pictures can’t really capture the beauty of this place!
James
This bridge was super high! The sign said only 8 people allowed at a time.
This was an area our tour guide took us to that reminded Emma of “Merlin” — a TV series she loves right now. Across the street were beautiful yellow rice fields.
The part of our hike right before this picture we were required to wear helmets — good thing because a few rocks came off the mountain and landed on Eliza’s head.
We took the train back to Taipei on Monday night. Tuesday morning we met the Shaners again — this time at Costco. We happily filled up two empty suitcases and a carry-on with our purchases (granola bars, Ritz crackers, gluten free pretzels, 15 lbs of cheese, shampoo, dishwasher detergent…) and headed to the airport.
What a fun temple trip!
