Well on Wednesday we carefully made our way to school. We were able to make up our finals. Our teachers were all very nice and sympathetic about what had happened. Our 101 teacher told us that we could take as much time as we needed on the test, and to not worry about it. We also were able to turn in our receipts from the hospital. Health care here ROCKS! We got Hannah all checked out including X-rays and they cleaned up my cuts and we spent less than 2000nt (approx 68USD). We will get up to 70% of that back too from our insurance through the school.
Once we finished our finals we headed to the embassy to get our visas renewed. There was a long wait but we got to watch some sponge bob on TV. :) When it was our turn we found out that the embassy in Kansas city had told us wrong about our dates and that we needed to leave the country on May 30th! ( 2 days before our flight is scheduled to leave Taiwan.) And since we bought the cheapest round trip tickets we could find, the tickets are non transferable. So we headed home fairly upset and stressed. When we got home we prayed to Jehovah asking for help to know what to do. Hannah received a text message from one of the sisters suggesting that we go to the Philippines to rest up after our scooter accident because it is beautiful there and flights can be as cheap as 40USD. We also thought about going to Hong Kong but it was going to be more expensive to travel there.
We thought, "hey this is perfect we can go relax on a beautiful beach fix our visa and do it all really cheap." So we started trying to plan. We also prayed again to make a decision that would help us to handle everything in the best way and to help us stay focused on why we are here. We spent all day looking for tickets and hotels and doing research on what area to go to. Well after about literally 11 hours of frustration in trying to plan the trip and realizing that it was going to be super expensive and possibly not very safe to go there. We stepped back and realized that we had not been paying attention to our prayer; it was clear that Jehovah was not blessing this decision. So we said another prayer and decided to rest on it and see what Jehovah worked out for us. The next day Hannah got a call from Ashia letting us know she was in Taiwan. Hannah was really excited and started making plans to go visit her. As they were catching up, she heard about our visa situation. She insisted on paying for our tickets to Hong Kong to fix our visa issue. Hannah refused a few times but then Ahshia said "Hey! Remember I'm your Taiwan Ma ma. I want to do this". Jehovah took care of us and our visa problem.
Friday at the meeting I got to run the amp for the first time. It went pretty well although I started a few songs a little early and didn't have some of the mics quite loud enough at first. Not too bad for my first time here and since it has been probably 5 months since I have ran an amp if not longer. It was really nice to be able to help the congregation since I can't do much else.
After the meeting, we had a really strange experience! We were both starving and since we didn't have any food ready to go at home, Hannah convinced me to just go to McDonald's. (Which I don't even like in the states.) After ordering our food a man came up to us and started talking to us, asking where we were from. He seemed nice enough but a little crazy. He kept talking really loudly and putting his arms around us. He said he was Taiwanese and from Barcelona so he also spoke Spanish. After our food was ready we tried to dismiss ourselves. He came up to Hannah, grabbed her, and kissed her on one cheek and then smushed her face into his cheek. I was shocked and angry, but then he did the same to me! We left feeling very awkward and uncomfortable. After getting home we immediately washed our faces. I refuse to go McDonald's ever again!
Well that is the big update our next post will have some pictures from Tim & Jamie's going away party
until next time..
Love Phil & Hannah
Once we finished our finals we headed to the embassy to get our visas renewed. There was a long wait but we got to watch some sponge bob on TV. :) When it was our turn we found out that the embassy in Kansas city had told us wrong about our dates and that we needed to leave the country on May 30th! ( 2 days before our flight is scheduled to leave Taiwan.) And since we bought the cheapest round trip tickets we could find, the tickets are non transferable. So we headed home fairly upset and stressed. When we got home we prayed to Jehovah asking for help to know what to do. Hannah received a text message from one of the sisters suggesting that we go to the Philippines to rest up after our scooter accident because it is beautiful there and flights can be as cheap as 40USD. We also thought about going to Hong Kong but it was going to be more expensive to travel there.
We thought, "hey this is perfect we can go relax on a beautiful beach fix our visa and do it all really cheap." So we started trying to plan. We also prayed again to make a decision that would help us to handle everything in the best way and to help us stay focused on why we are here. We spent all day looking for tickets and hotels and doing research on what area to go to. Well after about literally 11 hours of frustration in trying to plan the trip and realizing that it was going to be super expensive and possibly not very safe to go there. We stepped back and realized that we had not been paying attention to our prayer; it was clear that Jehovah was not blessing this decision. So we said another prayer and decided to rest on it and see what Jehovah worked out for us. The next day Hannah got a call from Ashia letting us know she was in Taiwan. Hannah was really excited and started making plans to go visit her. As they were catching up, she heard about our visa situation. She insisted on paying for our tickets to Hong Kong to fix our visa issue. Hannah refused a few times but then Ahshia said "Hey! Remember I'm your Taiwan Ma ma. I want to do this". Jehovah took care of us and our visa problem.
Friday at the meeting I got to run the amp for the first time. It went pretty well although I started a few songs a little early and didn't have some of the mics quite loud enough at first. Not too bad for my first time here and since it has been probably 5 months since I have ran an amp if not longer. It was really nice to be able to help the congregation since I can't do much else.
After the meeting, we had a really strange experience! We were both starving and since we didn't have any food ready to go at home, Hannah convinced me to just go to McDonald's. (Which I don't even like in the states.) After ordering our food a man came up to us and started talking to us, asking where we were from. He seemed nice enough but a little crazy. He kept talking really loudly and putting his arms around us. He said he was Taiwanese and from Barcelona so he also spoke Spanish. After our food was ready we tried to dismiss ourselves. He came up to Hannah, grabbed her, and kissed her on one cheek and then smushed her face into his cheek. I was shocked and angry, but then he did the same to me! We left feeling very awkward and uncomfortable. After getting home we immediately washed our faces. I refuse to go McDonald's ever again!
Well that is the big update our next post will have some pictures from Tim & Jamie's going away party
until next time..
Love Phil & Hannah
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