Service, Waffles and Rock climbing

Today (Monday) we didn't have class since our teacher was taking a vacation. We made service arrangements with Tres, a brother from the English congregation. He gave us an intersection to meet at. So we looked it up on Google maps and headed out about 8:40. After driving for like 30 min and not seeing the intersection we decided to pull over and ask for directions. As it turns out we had over shot it by like 20 min so about 9:40 we finally met up with Tres. But we were able to witness to several people on the way there. We decided to head to one of the local colleges to witness to students in between classes. We Explored the campus but only found a few people to talk to. The whole time we swapped experiences with Tres, and though the morning wasn't extremely productive, we felt really up built.

After service Tres took us to a restaurant in the mall that had really good waffles with ice cream. This is a regular spot he comes to and we plan to make it a regular place we visit as well. :)

Scooter parking garage in Mall

Panini

Waffle with Chocolate ice cream

After lunch we went to a rock climbing gym with Tres and Daniel. It was bouldering, not the normal rock climbing I have done before. It was really fun though, and there were huge squishy mats on the floor so falling wasn't a big deal. Its a lot harder than it looks! The rocks are numbered with different routes so you only use certain rocks depending on the difficulty you want.We both loved the work out. It was really nice too that no one else was there, we had the whole gym (which was just a room) to our selves.

Hannah Climbing

Hannah Climbing

Daniel and Tres

Me Climbing

Me Climbing

Well that was all for today love and miss you all
Phil & Hannah

Feng Jia Field Trip to Strawberries & Beyond

Friday we went on a field trip to the strawberry fields. Originally we thought it was going to be just a few hours going to the strawberry farm having lunch and coming back. boy were we wrong we arrived at Feng Jia at about 7:20 and got on the bus 10min later. once on the bus we recieved a packet with the schedule and a brief description of the places we would visit. There was much more than just a strawberry farm.

The Bus

Inside the bus

Page 1 of the packet

Page 2 of the packet

The Strawberry farm was about a 45 min drive from the school and was located in Miao Li. Most of it was just beautiful. Below are just a few of the shots we took on the way.

 When we got close to the strawberry farm on of the school assistants told us that it was free to enter the fields but that anything you picked you had to pay for. She also told us that you are not allowed to eat any of them until you buy them so if you want to eat while you are picking the strawberry don't get caught. After looking at the field and the ones that were for sale we decided to go into the field but to buy the pre-picked strawberries.

Store at strawberry farm tons of different strawberry items.

Strawberry Wine 10% alcoholicity according to the label

In the fields

 After an hour at the strawberry farms and trying several different things including strawberry ice cream we got on the bus and headed to the strawberry winery. There were lots of neat little shops there and lots of samples.

 Next we got on the bus and traveled another 30min or so to the Shengsing train station. from what i understood it was one of the first train stations in Taiwan. Trains no longer run through it but it is a tourist site with lots of little shops now.   Once there we had lunch at a restaurant that the school had arranged for us. To my dismay it was traditional Taiwanese food. And yes I did eat it there is photographic evidence below...

Me eating...umm... well I don't really know what it was...

Hannah Drinking Black Chicken soup broth 

The first Train tunnel

 After lunch we visited the stores around the site including a store called happy cat, which as you will see in the pictures had entirely things with a cat theme.

BatCat, SuperCat and SpiderCat

Sooooo many cats!!!!

 Here are some more pictures around the train station...

 After the Train station we got back on the bus and we thought we were headed home for the day but we were wrong we still had another stop. They took us to a wood carving museum. Some of the pieces were interesting. Most were very strange and some just plain weird. We were pretty amazed at the detail of some though and could only imagine the amount of time effort and skill it would have taken to create them. We would have loved to have taken some photos but the museum had a strict no photos policy so we couldn't. Also we might have enjoyed the museum more if we were not so exhausted.

The bus ride back was another 45 min or so but felt so much longer since for some reason they had the A/C turned on even though it was probably 50 out side. By the time we arrived back at school we were both shaking and had horrible migraines. To top it off our scooter acted up on us when we first tried to go home. But after a few panic stricken moments it started working fine again. We finally made it home about 7 pm. We tried to get ready for the meeting but after a few min it was clear we were not going to make it. We were both asleep by 7:30. I slept until 8:00 am the next day and Hannah slept until 10am. I made it out in field service but Hannah was still feeling really bad.

Field service was very nice. We worked pretty close to the Kingdom Hall, Tim helped shorten the bible study presentation for me so I was able to work with the magazines and got 3 new calls. I worked with Raymond (his English name) our new Secretary. Here is my presentation "ni zhidao shangdi de mingzi?"  (most of them said either buzhidao or shangdi) then I said "hen duo ren buzhidao" and then turned to Psalms 83:18 and had them read the scripture. Then I said "Shangdi de mingzi shi Yehehua" and gave them the magazines and said "qing ni kankan". After which Raymond talked to them some more and included that I was an american and was just learning.

In English that was "Do you know God's name? .... many people don't know... Psalms 83:18.... God's name is Jehovah... please carefully read"

It was one of the best days in field service I have had and it felt really good to get to speak so much Chinese (even if it really wasn't that much). It was still a huge jump from my "hello I have good news for you please read".

Oh, cool stats from the pioneer meeting with the CO, our congregation has 30 regular pioneers 4 Special pioneers and we had 5 auxiliary pioneers this month so there were over 40 at the pioneer meeting. Our congregation here has 86 publishers.

Well that is about all I have for now oh and Hannah is feeling better now just FYI.    
Until next time Love Phil & Hannah

Our day with the English congregation

This is Hannah, I'm giving Phil a break from blogging tonight. We have had a very busy week! On Sunday  we decided to go to the English congregation since it was the Circuit overseers visit. It was a treat to get to hear his special talks in English. It was so refreshing to understand every word! The congregation was very warm and welcoming. Over half of the congregation is Filipino, and speak Tagalog as their first language. All of them do very well with English, and made really beautiful comments. They were so inspiring! A Canadian brother in the hall explained to us that most of them worked the whole night up until the meeting, and still attend and participate. Then, to enjoy more fellowship most everyone went out to eat together after the meeting. AND then they go preaching into the late evening!

At the restaurant with the friends 

The C.O. and his wife

The first thing the C.O said to Phil at lunch was,"We both did what you are never suppose to do, we married a woman taller than us." :) In this picture he looks taller, but she is actually a couple inches taller than him. Of course we instantly liked them. They had a great sense of humor and were very down to earth.

Trey (an American bro) showing off his safety gear for driving a scooter at lunch

After lunch the friends invited us to go preaching with them. Though we weren't prepared, we knew we had to take advantage of the opportunity. Devin, the Canadian brother that helped us find the congregation, was extremely enthusiastic about the ministry in English. He is a single brother that has been living in Taiwan for over 9 years. He speaks Chinese quite fluently, and sounds Taiwanese. He just attended the Bible School for Single Brothers, and was unexpectedly assigned to the English congregation. We got the impression that when he first received his assignment, he would have preferred to stay in Chinese. But he told us how he quickly discovered that the English ministry here is a blast. He kept telling us we were going to love it. It was really easy to tell that he already loves the congregation too.

We drove our scooters to a very busy area near a large mall and shopping area. Devin showed us the area where the brothers set up a booth of literature, and told us here people will even come up to you and say "I'm going to talk to you." Not two minutes after he said that a man approached Phil and I and said word for word, "I'm going to talk to you"! We were shocked. We talked for ten minutes. He accepted a tract in Chinese and English  The people we talked to were very nice and accepted literature. The way the brothers arranged it was to have two publishers stay with the booth, and then send others to do street witnessing in different areas. We went into the mall with two sisters and brothers. The brothers armed us with literature in 5 different languages, since this area is very diverse. Somehow I still only managed to talk to Taiwanese people. (I think Jehovah wants to keep us focused on Chinese.) :)

First thing we had to do was buy Phil a hat though, we were freezing! Not Missouri cold but a damp-chill-you-to-your-bones cold that felt a lot colder than it was. Despite the cold, Devin was right. We had a blast. It has been our favorite day since we came to Taiwan. The ministry was exciting, and the friends we a lot of fun. We hit it off really well with the young couple in the picture below and the brother across from them. They invited us out to dinner after service, so we hopped in their car and went to a Indian restaurant they like.

Break time at McDonalds

Indian restaurant

The Indian food was delicious! (Phil thought it was tolerable, but isn't in a hurry to go back.) One of the crazy misconceptions that we had before we came was that Taiwanese people ate dogs. And that you wouldn't see any stray dogs or dogs as pets since they were food. There are dogs everywhere! We see tons of people with their pet dogs. People with businesses often have their dog there in the shop. We also see many people with them on their scooter driving down the road. At the Indian restaurant the owner had her little chocolate poodle pictured below. He was so cute! As soon as I reached down to pet him he hopped into my arms.

We didn't get home til about 10! It was a long, encouraging day that we really enjoyed. We keep dealing with difficult things here from time to time, but Jehovah always gives us the encouragement we need to keep on going. I have to admit, I'm really falling in love with Taiwan. Its only been a month and I can tell 6 months is not going to be long enough. But we love and miss our friends back home. We think about all of you every day. I wish you were here!


Love Hannah (& Phil)