A TYPICAL SIGHT WALKING TO THE OFFICE EACH DAY.

This mother has a unique way of taking her children with her. The baby on the front is standing on a stool and her sister behind is actually tied to her mother's waist. I guess that it beats paying a babysitter. There is a law in Taichung forbidding more than two people at a time on a scooter but no one pays any attention to it and it is not too unusual to see two adults, a couple of children and somestimes a dog all sharing a single scooter. this mother's jacket is on backward to protect her shirt from getting dirty. It is also common to see many younger women wearing mini-skirts or short shorts on scooters.
This is where you can find Sister Greene, fulfilling her responsibilities about ten hours a day. It is remarkable the work that she gets done but she always finds time to give the sister missionaries a hug, a spiritual thought and a lot of love. Below is Sister Lin, a local missionary who finished her mission last week and returned to her home in Taipei, Taiwan. She was a special helper to Sister Greene for a few days before being released and saw her almost like a mother figure.

The Chinese people love beautiful green plants, flower gardens and fish ponds and they can be found all over Taichung. The gold and white fish in this small pond below, at the local "water" office complex, were huge and would swim to the edge of the pond expecting to be fed.

TEACHING IN THE NIGHT MARKET

This is the "Night Market" packed with hundreds of people socializing, shopping and eating. This is where new missionaries are brought their first night in Taichung, Taiwan teaching the gospel standing on a "Dan Jones" Box in the center of the busy street packed with people. They had arrived in Taichung just about twenty hours earlier. We come out to give support, sing hymns and encourage the new missionaries as they bear testimonies in their new language, Mandarin. It is a real confidence builder for the missionaries. After bearing their testimonies they each go with a seasoned companion and teach among the crowds of people. From tonights efforts collectively the missionaries received 87 referrals. President and Sister Hoer are in the center of the picture. We had twenty four Elders and Sisters with us.

While I was acting as a photographer for the mission Sister Greene, at the far left in the picture, joined in with some of the missionaries singing "Love at Home". The boxes that they individually stand on to preach from is in the forground.

We have a few Rexburg, Idaho missionaries in our mission. Above is Elder Lundin and the picture below is of Elder Gardner, who just arrived with this new group of missionaries.

164 Missionaries on the steps of a Daoist Temple at Sun-Moon Lake. It was a major production to get everyone lined up so all could be seen.

The popular "Hawaii 51" restaurant not far from the mission office. The owner of the restaurant is taking the missionary lessons and one of the young men working there is a member so they give all missionaries a large discount when we go there to eat. They have American hamburgers, fries, onion rings and all kinds of other Western dishes. A hamburger with fries costs 160 Taiwan dollars, about $5.00US, but she discounts it to us for $99. The exchange rate here is about $1.00 to 32 Taiwan dollars. The six sisters with us are great missionaries, Sisters Chen, Sollis, Infanger, Bretzke, King and Tung.

Inside a very ornate Buddhist temple, which is housed on the first floor of a high-rise building owned by a Buddhist television station in Taichung, are two stone Chinese Tigers. Below is a huge brass Buddha with an equally large brass insense burner. The walls and the ceiling are covered with thousands of impressive personalized brass plaques of financial doners.

                    We often passed this site on the way to Costco!

A group of young men dressed up like ancient Buddhist characters, beating on drums and collecting money from shop owners and people on the street for charity.

EVER CHANGING LIFE IN TAICHUNG

It is interesting what you can see on the streets and in the buildings of Taichung. There is little question as to this man's best friend who gets to sit up front for the world to see! He was thrilled to have me take this picture, before they took off down the street on the scooter with the dog's ears flapping in the wind.

While sitting in the Cathay Bank today a sweet lady sat down nest to us and sitting on her shoulder was a cute little bird. She held it up for a picture and then she set it down on the back of the bench and it quickly jumped on JoAnn's shoulder and gave her a kiss. Actually I think that the bird spied some left-over lunch on her teeth and decided that it was his for the taking.

We have English teachers and young members over quite often. Bush, the boy next to me, is soon to turn 18 and though his dad isn't against him becoming a member of the church he felt Bush needed a little more time to decide for sure if it was right for him to be baptized. Angela, next to JoAnn is a young member and a helper to us all. Lisa Hammon, holding up the "victory" sign, is an English teacher and has just finished teaching in Taichung. She leaves in five days and will travel all over Asia for almost three months before returning home to the States. The new English teachers arrived a few days ago and ten of them showed up at church yesterday. Eight are LDS and all are college graduates. They will be a great blessing to our small English speaking branch.

President and Sister Hoer trying to get 164 Elders and Sisters to line up on the steps of a huge temple to have our picture taken. It was a remarkable feat to get us all lined up according to height on about a dozen or more steps so that every face could be seen, and then to stand still long enough to have a picture taken.

CHRISTMAS CAROLING IN THE TAICHUNG PLAZA

We began our Christmas celebration with the missionaries in a local shopping plaza. They shared the spirit of Christmas with their carols and with many tracts and copies of the Book of Mormon given to interested passers by. It's amazing how many people, even on the streets, wish us a Merry Christmas, but so few celebrate the real reason for the season. Even the immigration office had a decorated tree and chocolates to pass out!

Strolling the modern plaza with President and Sister Hoer in the lead. This is where JoAnn had the special experience with the woman selling plants. She was prompted to buy a certain one for Jim for Christmas when the woman refused to accept any payment but gave it to her as a gift, accompanied by a hug! It was a beautiful expression of love and kindness.

Jim with an old missionary friend from his Hong Kong missionary days, Jim Phillips. Elder and Sister Phillips are public affairs missionaries in much of Asia but they live in Taipei. We enjoyed a lovely dinner with them.

         President and Sister Hoer with Elder and Sister Phillips.

Christmas 2009 at "Sun-Moon" Lake in Taiwan

Sun Moon lake is a beautiful alpine lake divided by a tiny island so that the eastern portion is round like the sun and the western portion shaped like a crescent moon. Its beauty is created by the combination of mountains and water with a 760 meter elevation giving the impression of a Chinese landscape painting of mist-laden water and clearly defined mountains.

Looking towards the Wunwu Temple. The area was originally discovered by ancestors of the Dao people during the Ching Dynasty and was later occupied by the Japanese during the war. The Han Chinese also invested in construction and today the area is a popular tourist spot with festivals of the Dao (Thao)-Taiwan's smallest indigenous tribe.

In front of the Wunwu Temple originally built in 1938 in the Northern Dynasties style.

Beautiful ornate "gods" and an intricately designed golden dome ceiling in the temple.

Long rows of ornate golden bells in front of us line the entrance of the temple.

The sister missionaries with the president's wife, Sister Hoer in the middle front.

Sister Tung, a missionary from Taoyuan and the only member in her family.

Overlooking the largest lake in Taiwan, Sun Moon Lake, a huge beautiful crystal clear lake a couple hours drive southeast of Taichung in the mountains. The tranquil lake has become a popular retreat for locals and tourists alike away from the bustle and pollution of the big cities.

                     A floating fishing dock.

 Some of our friendly sister missionaries, Sisters Stebar, Clark, Chen, Infanger, Bretzke, King, Sollis and Tung.

At the Cihen pagoda built by Chaing Kai -shek in memory of his wife. It rises 1000 meters above sea level on a mountain overlooking the lake.

               Entrance to a Daoist Temple at Sun Moon Lake.

                 Elder Greene getting ready to gong the huge bell!

Grandma Greene loves turtles - a good luck symbol in the Chinese world!

Some favorite sister missionaries returning on the bus from Sun Moon Lake to go to a wonderful steakhouse in Taichung for a Christmas dinner before the evening devotional.

THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT IS CONTAGOUS

The owner of our apartment complex is showing a little of the spirit of Christmas by displaying this full-size Christmas tree in the foyer of our apartment where we can see and enjoy it every day. We have three guards who takes turns sitting at a desk in the entrance to our apartment and they very joyfully greet us, usually in English, with "good morning" or some other friendly and appropriate greeting. Their English isn't very good but their hearts are in the right place.

We are preparing for Christmas and enjoying our small, two-foot tall Christmas tree that the last senior missionaries left for us. Here in the mission field we are ever aware of the real meaning of Christmas and are so impressed with the sweet spirit found in the hearts and actions of the Chinese members. Although we are often exhausted when we come home to our apartment after a long day working in the mission office, we have the knowledge that we are helping further the Lord's work here in this part of His vineyard. The mission office, with the missionary apartment on the top floor, is like a beacon in the neighborhood with the star above and the beautiful lights surrounding the entire compound. In the evenings people come to sit on the benches and enjoy the beautiful lights.

This beautiful old building is one of the government buildings in Taichung. It is now also a cultural center with a fountain in front and a special Christmas tree ride for the children. We park here about three or four times a week as we bring all the mail received at the mission office to forward on to the missionaries. The postal service is great here and most of the postal workers already know us by name and treat us with great respect. The post office, with the green signs, is across the street behind the tree, with little kiddie airplanes that go up and down as it turns around. Decorations are going up all over the city.

HOME IMPROVEMENTS & THE TAIPEI TEMPLE

We have a king size mosquito net hanging from our ceiling and it assures us of a good night's sleep during mosquito season! It sure is a life saver for us. We were up at 5:00 this morning and on the bus at 6:00 with about 40 of our missionaries leaving for the three hour trip to the Taipei Temple. While there we participated in endowment sessions in the temple and afterward Jim was able to visit with a missionary  friend, Jim Phillips, that he hadn't seen since leaving Hong Kong and his Southern Far East Mission in 1964.  Elder Phillips and his wife are finishing a Public Relations Mission in Taipei. We arrived back in Taichung at about 4:30, worked in the office until almost 7:00 and then helped with an English class of 15 students. We finally got home about 9:00 pm exhausted but very happy with our days activities.

The Taipei Temple is right in the down town city center with a large stake center right next door and a  mission home office and apartment complex across the street.

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                   The beautiful back yard of our Mission Home!

  We loved watching this Heron and his bobbing throat when he made sounds.  He doesn't appear to be afraid of us and seems to have a mate nearby.