Week 20 Can I just say I LOVE ZHEBEI!

So yeah another week in paradise. Can I just say I LOVE ZHUBEI. 

But yeah anyways its been great. This past week Chinese New Year finished up and we've been able to really start work again. Though all the time spent with members during Chinese New Year was great, its great to be back hitting the streets and finding those ready to receive us. Lately we've been going to the more mountain/village part of our area and have actually had a lot of success just doin that good old door knocking. Its been super fun and we have already had a few people ask us to come back and share our message. 

So as some of you may have heard, they changed the missionary schedule. One of these changes includes the ability to go out in the morning, rather than requiring us to stay inside all morning studying. So this week we did some exploring on the morning activities in Zhubei and found a super lit morning market! And there are so many people there every morning. On Saturday it was so packed that we had to call another companionship to bring some more English class tracks and help get them out to everyone. A couple nights ago we also came across another little Zhubei gem: The Zhubei Lantern Festival. This is an annual event where they have these huge lanterns in many different shapes just lit up in a local park. And its apparently a huge deal, because we met families from all across the island that came to come check it out.

 

But anyways let me tell ya'll about this weeks little miracle. So we haven't been able to see our beloved little Liao family for a little over a week because they, like everyone else, were out of town for Chinese New Year. And we hadn't been able to see Nick Liao in over a month because before the New Year he was on a business trip in America. So me and Elder Aiono were kind of stressing out, trying to figure out how to go about meeting with them again. We decided that they really needed to go to a family home evening at a member's house and see how to really live this gospel as a family. So we planned on talking to a couple of families in the ward to try to coordinate this and hopefully plan a time when it could happen. But on Saturday morning we got a text from Helen Liao and it was game changing. "Hi, this is Helen. I am calling from the church. We did the family research this morning with Ni sister and had lunch together. But the food prepared is too much. So Ni sister wants to tell you if you are nearby, you could come back for the lunch." So Sister Ni invited Helen for lunch to do family history. That itself is amazing. And they had extra food? That's just too good. But wait... it gets even better. We then go to the chapel and say start talking with Sister Ni. She said that herself and another family in the ward had the Liao family over for family home evening the day before and committed them to do family home evening themselves every week. And at this FHE the Liao expressed desire to move up their baptismal date! And the next morning as they were doing family history, Helen said that she was really excited to take the names she found to the temple to do their work! 

Honestly Zhubei 3rd Ward doesn't even need us missionaries. Our members are so awesome! But yeah I'm so excited for the Liao family and the wonderful road of happiness ahead.

This morning we went to the Taipei 101 and the CKS (Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall) Memorial so here's some pics from today's journey so far.