Oops!

August 27, 2013 changed our mission and our lives.  Wayne and I had gone to the visa office to drop off paperwork early in the morning.  Mid-morning I discovered that the tracking number on the receipt had been transposed, so I needed to go back and have them fix it.  Otherwise the visa would be lost forever.  Wayne was busy and Sister Day volunteered to go with me.  We had a fun afternoon, visiting the Chinese Handicrafts Museum.  I bought some things.  As we approached the bus to go back to the office, we had to hurry to catch it.  Busses don't wait for you.  Sister Day got on, I grabbed a rail and my feet tripped on the stairs.  I fell sideways into the door, breaking my right arm in three places and smashing my right foot against the step, breaking it also.  She managed to get me onto the bus, although I kept feeling faint.  We got off at our stop and I hobbled across the street (busses have their stop in the middle of the street) and sat down on a flower planter.  I told Sister Day that I couldn't walk the five blocks back to the office and that we needed a taxi.  There were three in the lane waiting for the light to change.  The first two wouldn't talk to her.  They kept their windows rolled up.  The third agreed to take us the short to the office.  She helped me get upstairs.  Fortunately there is an elevator in the office building. 

Wayne was horrified when he saw me.  He and Elder Timothy gave me a Priesthood Blessing and then Wayne, Sister Day and I went to the Emergency room at the New Taiwan University Hospital.  Sister Day went with us because she had been there before and knew where to go and which line to get in to.  They didn't make me wait long.  They took xrays and the doctor recommended surgery.  I got a prescription for pain pills and we went home.  When we arrived, it was pouring down rain.  We had to climb to the fourth floor and I had a broken foot.  I sat on the bottom step and looked at Wayne and said, "Now what do we do?"  He said, "It's time for a prayer."  He told Heavenly Father that we had to get up the stairs because there was no other place for us to go.  When he ended the prayer, I said "I don't care how much it hurts, I'm going to ignore the pain and get up the stairs."  I stood up and began and went right up the stairs as if there was nothing wrong with me.  It was if I was as light as a feather.  We think the Lord blessed us with a miracle. 

Once in the apartment, I stayed there until we had plane tickets home.  It was about 6 days.  Sister Day had the hospital send the xrays to the Area Mission Doctor in Hong Kong.  We were amazed to find out he was and orthopedic surgeon.  (Our mission doctor in Nauvoo was an obstetrician.)  He said I had a really bad break and needed to go home for surgery.  If I stayed in Taiwan, I would be no good to anyone for 6 months.

The church booked us on Eva Air because they have a direct flight from Taipei to San Francisco.  Wayne upgraded our tickets to first class.  Our seats folded out into flat beds and we slept most of the way home.

Mark picked us up at the airport and took us straight to the emergency room at John Muir.  I had more xrays and began getting a doctor lined up.  Surgery was on Sept. 6.

We have been reassigned to the Colorado Denver North Mission.

Office

This is my work station.  I look out over the lobby area.  The work stations are enclosed in glass.  We call it "The Fishbowl".  Missionaries are not allowed to step over the line into The Fishbowl.  They stay in the lobby area.  There are four workstations.  Mine, Wayne's, the Recorder (Elder) and Operations (Elder).  The Assistants to the President use a big table in the back of the area.  It gets crowded when elders are training elders to take over.  Right now Operations is training an elder and in two days, Recorder will be training an elder.  We have enough chairs, but the "stuff" is messy.  Elders are no longer able to carry backpacks.  They are to use shoulder bags or brief cases.  They look really sharp.  It sets them apart from high school kids.

This is Wayne's work station.  He likes having a wall in front of him.  It gets noisy sometimes and he needs to concentrate.  He is in charge of finances.  He makes rent payments on all 84 apartments, reimburses missionaries for expenses that the church pays for, creates a budget for the mission, takes care of the missionaries ATM cards and whatever else needs to be done.  Last week, he cleaned the lowest garage in the Service Center because it had accumulated junk over a number of years of missionaries going home and dumping stuff.  It is now closed to all missionaries.

Dallin's wedding

Grandson, Dallin Edwards, married Angela Marie Hall on August 10.  We weren't there but received some stunning pictures.

Newport Beach Temple.  Angela had to stand a step up.

I love this picture of Janet and Wayne

 The whole Edwards Family:  Kristi, Nolan, Janet, Dallin, Angela, Wayne, Amy and Jonathan Carver.

Joy

Chaing Kai-Shek Memorial

This is the actual burial place of Chaing Kai-Shek

It's night time because it is too hot for us to visit during the day.

Opposite the burial building are these twin buildings.  This is the concert hall the other is a theater.  They are luxurious, opulent and state of the art accoustics.

We went to hear a choir sing.  We were given the tickets and they were 2nd row center.  The choir was wonderful and we enjoyed the music, the people around us and the opportunity to enjoy Chinese music.  (They sang "Summer Time" from Porgy and Bess.)  They did everything from classical to folk songs - 4 costume changes!

Friends

 

May I introduce you to some of our new friends.  The Petersons are on the left.  They are in charge of Humanitarian Aid and Welfare.  The Bairds are on the right.  They are in charge of Public Affairs.  We really enjoy working with these people, although they aren't in the office much and we aren't out of the office much.  We three couples work with the Young Single Adults on a rotating basis.

Taipei 101

 

This is Taipei 101.  It is the second tallest building in the world and the tallest building in Asia. It has 101 stories  It is on our list of things we want to see.  There is an observation deck on the 91st floor and the elevator only goes as far as the 89th.   I will post more about it when we get the chance to see it.  It is reachable by subway, but we need to allow half a day.  It is expensive to take the elevator and you have to stand in line to get a ticket.  We'll go when we have a half day and it isn't so hot.

Park

This is a pretty little park which we walk through morning and night to get to work.  There is always a guard somewhere.  It is between the Vatican Embassy and a huge elementary school.  It is always 10 degrees cooler in the park than on the street.  It is kept immaculate. Someone sweeps up falling leaves every morning.  The red thing in the middle is a little gazebo next to some play equipment.  This is one of our favorite places.  A sign has blown off of the school fence but it won't be there long. 

Doors

We are fascinated by apartment doors.  We have seen no evidence of burglary, but then how would a burglar get past all of the doors?

Wayne coming out of our apartment.

We call this "Cell Block 4"

The bottom on the stairs - another metal door before the street.

Entry way to the stairs.  Last night we found a full on motorcycle parked here.

The street side of the apartment building.

Our apartment is on the fourth floor, just below the pretty grill work and just above the pretty plants.  We don't have a balcony on this side of the apartment.  The air conditioner on the right is our livingroom and the one on the left is our bedroom.

Young Single Adults

They had a Family Home Evening the second Monday in July and this time, I brought my camera.  There weren't nearly as many kids as there were last month, but everyone had fun.  These pictures are of the big group activity.  We were amazed at how patient they are.  They were asked to get into lines according to "family group" and then be boy - girl - boy - girl.  It took about 10 minutes to pull that off.  Meanwhile, they stood patiently and waited.  This was a relay race.  Remember we don't speak Chinese, so we didn't know what they were doing until later.  Each person, had to pass a number to the next person in line.  The numbers were long - like a telephone number (including the area code)  They couldn't use anything but their faces and heads.  There were a lot of blinking, winking, tongue waggles, head bobs.  It was hilarious.  The young man at the lecturn was so funny, they asked him to do it for the entire group (which is when we caught on to what was happening)

Click on this one to blow it up.  His eyes are way up!

More Whatsis!

These are called Mountain Apples.  A vendor cut one and gave us a taste.  They taste like apple and are delicious.  We haven't bought any because they are twice as expensive as the Fuji's we've been eating

We're going to have to buy one of these just to find out what it is.  I photographed it at a fruit stand, so I assume it is fruit. 

We pass by the Sun Merry bakery morning and night and they have these "pineapple pies advertised.  They come in a pretty little box.  We bought one and found 12 little "pies".  It is actually a little cake with a pineapple filling in the middle.  We were very disappointed - but we are eating them anyway.

 

Whatsis

Our Mandarin teacher has asked us to learn 2 sentences every day and to use them.  Today is shopping day and my sentences are:

Nin jiao zhege shenma?  What do you call this? and

Zhege jian yao duoshao qian?  This thing requires how much money?

My next questions will be: 

"Is it fruit or vegetable?" 

"Do I cook it or eat it raw?"

These are sold at the open air market just a block from our apartment. 

 

This is eggplant.  Since we like eggplant, we will probably try some.  However, we don't have an oven.  All we have is a little toaster oven.  It isn't big enough to do much other than toasting bread.

 

 

They call this guava but it isn't like any guava we know.  They must be in season because Wu Mama (who gives the office gifts from time to time) gave us a bag full.  We brought them home and cut one open.  It is fruit.  It has seeds in the middle which Wayne immediately put into his mouth.  He says the center is tasty but the seeds are too hard to eat.  We both ate some.  It tastes a little like an apple, but if you love apples, it is very disappointing.  The texture is between an apple and a pear.  It has the grainy pear feel.  We decided to give these away.  They are wasted on us.

 

 

 

Little Problems

I took these pictures to work and had Elder Tang tell me what each meant.  We wrote on the picture and keep it by the air conditioner remotes.  The washer, I only use one cycle 99% of the time anyway, so when I got that figured out, I was in business!

Back on line

I'm back - June 23 - my toolbar for blogger is in Chinese and I can't get it to speak English.  That has been part of my problem with this blog.  This morning, I decided to do what I've seen my 7th grade students do.  I just pushed buttons until the log-in menu popped up.  I still don't recognize the symbols, but I know now where it is on the page!   Hoo Hoo!

Rain - I tried to get a picture of the torrents coming down.

This is where we cross the street to go to work.  We call it the 2 minute light

These are ducks for sale.

Since there are no yards, people have pots everywhere.  This is a typical doorstep outside of a gift shop.

We walk by this shop every day.  The clothes are expensive designer clothes.  Can't afford them.

This is one of my favorite gift shops.  I haven't been inside yet, but look at all the fun stuff.

Pizza place outside the office.  This man has a pet parrot.

This is mango shaved ice.  There is mango on the bottom, shaved snow (ice and frozen milk) mango on top and orbet on top of that.  This is yummy beyond belief.

This is amazing.  This wall has a rack that holds 6" square plastic flower pots (the kind you get at the nursery)  We've seen several of these.  This one is on our block.  

TheTaiwan Taipei Temple and Service Center

 

The Taiwan Taipei Temple

I think it is one of the smallest temples - surely the smallest one I have been in.

The Spire with Moroni is free-standing and faces west.

These pictures were taken from the roof of the office building.  The view is pretty spectacular.  The skyline is modern.  The clouds are a fixture.  It rains all the time.

President and Sister Day took us up on the roof where there is a modest garden.

This is the courtyard between the Temple and the Service Center.  The Service Center has 3 basements and four floors.  It is possible to add 6 more floors without worrying about the foundation.  The Service Center has offices for finances, visas, humanitarian/welfare, family history, translation and other stuff.  It is all on the 3rd and 4th floors.  The first and second floors are chapels, classrooms, cultural halls.  The foyer on the first floor doubles as a visitors center and sisters are assigned there to lead tours and answer questions.