A Week in Taiwan- not long enough!

So after a crazy summer (about which i'll go into more detail later on) i finally got on the plane to start my trip to taiwan and then china. It had been a year since i left...and i was stoked to get back. Taiwan was way fun as a missionary-i could only imagine how fun it would be to be back without the responsibilities i had before. as fun as it was...it could be stressful. after meeting up with the guys (Marc Waters and Dave Kelley) we flew to LA and waited for forever. Then, after a 13 hour flight we were finally there.
A cab ride away was our hotel-the Shen Keng Holiday Inn- laught as you might, you probably won't laugh as hard as the three of us will at mentioning the Holiday Inn. And you wouldn't understand why if i tried to tell you.
The next day we went and met up with Brother Lin (formerly Elder Lin who served with us) and went to a driving range on top of a 6 or 7 story building. It was pretty tight. Then we went to the temple and mission office-i ran into some missionaries i had known at the very end of my mission. they were in their last tranfers...crazy how time flies. we ate lunch with the two Sister Jians that had served with us before and then attended a temple session. For dinner we met up with Sister Qiu from Neihu and Ian my good friend from Yilan. Ian and I took off after that and headed to Yilan. I spent the night at his house and went to church there the next day. It was awesome to see the Branch again. The same core people were there. I didnt get to see everyone i wanted to, but i got to see most of them. Ben, Trista, Faith, Brother Dong, President Zhang, Brother Chen Dong Mao, all the members i had served before. I met Ted a recent new member-he took me surfing later that week. Later that day we went for a walk to some waterfalls with the singles in the branch.

<--Ian and Faith I really wanted to stay in Yilan for longer but most of the members had work the next day and Ian had class Mon and Tues, so I decided to return to the hotel for the night. The next day i hung out with Marc and Dave and went to Taoyuan and Bade. Plans fell thru with Yilan, so why not chill with these guys right? we had a good time seein some of their members and eatin out. I ate a clam the size of my hand...not that good trust me. here's the pic...its huge, the biggest i've ever seen, i'm used to the ones i've seen my dad eat. pretty gross huh. Not the tastiest thing i've ever eat, and the texture, oh the texture...like boogers. HA. So yea, at that same restaurant i tried fish eggs-interesting to say the least. i like trying new stuff though. to top off the night we ate dinner at the 貴族牛排 or Nobel Steak House with some members from Bade. The ride back to the train station was a lot of fun. Marc is on the left, me in the middle and Dave is on the right. We had a race...just kidding no we didn't. Would have been fun tho.



The next day i hung out with Robby Lin, a member friend from Zhongli 1st Ward. We played in Taipei. we had a lot of fun. take a look.

The wind was blowing on the escalator so we tried to get it in a pic.


<--goofing off this is outside 101-its pretty impressive. second time i've been there but i'm still super impressed. way expensive stores inside to...like PRADA, GUCCI, ARMANI, DUNHILL, LACOSTE and many more. too expensive for my taste...



So after a day of fun with Robby Lin i crashed again at the Holiday Inn. The next day we went to a BBQ with the Nielson Family. It was awesome to see President and his family again. We talked a bit, but not nearly as much as i would have liked. They were busy...such is the life of a mission president and his family. Later, Dave and i met up with Ted from Neihu (not to be confused with Ted from Yilan). We went again to the driving range. it was pretty fun. let me show you wat was so cool about this place...




pretty cool huh?
After golfing I got in contact with Elder McSweeney and Elder Huang. They were on their way home from WuLai and would pass right throug where we were. So I got to go see them and chat with them for a while. It was good seeing them again. McSweeney was in my district in Yilan when he was trained by Steve Osmond-a good friend of mine. Huang was my companion in Luodong for a transfer before i left. Later that day i met up with Ian and we headed to the ShiLin night market. I got an awesome Taiwanese hat. Pretty sweet. Dave, Marc, and 3 members form Neihu met up with us later. We went looking for shirts that had bad english on them...and found them. Ha, many had dirtly language on them, but it was pretty funny what some of them said. One that Marc and I both got was one of the colonel with a huge Fro. Pretty tight. The next day i met up in the moring with Yalefei or Jenny (formerly known as Sister Yellow, but she changed her name) and Scott. We got on the train to Yilan, met up with Ted and Ben and then went to the beach. At the beach we met up with Ian and Brother Guo-who is an awesome surfer, he's been going for more than 15 years. He's taught his whole family to surf. We were at Wushigang, in Toucheng. A very pretty place. GuiShanDao (Turtle Mountain Island) was off in the distance. It was an awesome day. I didnt do great, but i got up quite a few times and rode the waves for a pretty good distance. I think i did pretty good for my first time. In the pictures my stomach looks red, thats because all the skins gone...ha. it got rubbed off under my arms and my knees too. Hurt real bad. It scabbed up later. My first experience surfing...and it was in Taiwan-awesome.



Later that night after saying goodbye to Ian, Ted, Ben, and Brother Guo, we met up with Dave, Marc, Natalie, Brother Wu (formerly ElderWu when we served with him) and a member friend of Marc's. We ate Coldstone Ice Cream by 101-you'd be suprised how much American stuff they have there. Pretty amazing. Later that night Connie (Shuli) met us there at Coldstone. Later that night we went to the church and Rusty, one of my member friends from Sanxia (Tucheng Ward) came to meet us. I hadn't seen him in a long time. It was fun to see everyone, even though it was the last night and i wished i had more time. That night i went with Marc to the top of Yangmin Mountain with his member friend that was at coldstone and one of those members friends and Scott. It was really pretty up there. Pretty cool way to end the trip. My weeklong trip that went too fast. It brought back so many memories, two years worth...it brought back so many feelings and emotions. I can't explain the feeling of being able to go back and see members who i helped join or helped become active or find the church and they're still active. I hope it'll be like that everytime i come back.