Amazing people, food, and a dog...what more can you ask for?

It decided to get cold and rainy in Taiwan these past couple of days, and I'm not a fan. Mainly because there is no central heating in the dorm. It hopefully won't last long and then it will go back to the sunny warmth I love so much.

This past weekend Stephanie and I went back to Taipei to meet up with a family that a woman my mom works with knows. The story is a little complicated, but it was an amazing weekend! We got there Saturday afternoon and then we went to Sunday School at a little store-front church. They have children's Sunday school on Saturday because there isn't enough room for them to have regular church and Sunday school. Anyway, it was tons of fun. We sang Jesus Loves Me in Chinese, although I don't remember the words anymore, and then there was a lesson and the preacher let us use a Bible with Chinese and English! It was amazing and I am definitely getting one. I could try and read the Chinese and when I failed, I could just look over and see the English and then understand what was going on again. Then we got to draw and an adorable little boy loved Stephanie's so she gave it to him, then he said mine was ugly but I gave it to him anyway. After that there was a youth group meeting at the family's apartment and although there was only 5 of us, it was still tons of fun. I met a girl that spent most of her life in the US and is home schooled, and a girl that loves drawing and wants to go to school for Industrial design, in fact she has an interview for the school she would LOVE to go to so everyone should pray for her! Anyway, they were great girls and it was tons of fun to hang out with them and play spoons and rich man, poor man. Then on Sunday morning we went to Grace Baptist and met tons of fantastic people. This church just so happens to be the church Chiang Kai-shek went to and his minister came and talked to the congregation. A little bit of history spoke to me (which makes waking up so early for Chinese History that one semester almost worth it), and since it was his birthday, he gave everyone a gift, a beautiful cup (although that sounds kind of lame, if you saw it it wouldn't be. Also, Asians like their tea so it makes perfect sense). After the church service, we went to a Bible study and met some more fantastic people. There was an Australian guy, Canadian, and quite a few Americans. But the most exciting part, was out of all the people in the church that could sit next to me in the Bible study a woman sat down and started talking to me. After she found out I went to school in Taoyuan she told me about the her home church in Taoyuan. She said there used to be a fellowship for MCU students and even a program there for English speakers. How amazing is that?! She said she was going to give our contact information to the church, so hopefully soon there will be a place for us to go while we are in Taoyuan. I think the sermons are in Chinese, but that is even better! More practice!

In other news, yesterday Stephanie and I went on a journey to the store so that we could buy laundry detergent and do laundry (we tried this once before and ended up getting fabric softener instead...we didn't pay much attention to the characters on that particular occasion). On the way there we stopped by a little restaurant to eat dinner and after asking a couple of questions about what was what (we are a little illiterate especially with traditional characters) we finally ordered and it was good! Stephanie said it was just like home, and then told her when we had a McFlurry and fries the night before that was like home for me. Then we had a discussion about what non-Asian Americans have for dinner. It's kind of funny how alike we are, but how different our lives were growing up because she's Asian. Anyway, then out of nowhere this little dog walks up and stretches like it had just woken up. It was adorable, it just sat there and let us pet him (or her...I don't know which) and then we decided that we would make friends with the owners and go there more often. Good food and a cute dog, what more can you ask out of a restaurant?

I love you all and you're still in my prayers!