On Sunday morning Katelyn and I went for a hike/nature walk with Sister Sanders. Not gonna lie, I was kind of shocked by how beautiful Hong Kong was. I never pictured a big city to be so green, mountainous, and CLEAN! The Sanders live at Parkview on a mountain and are surrounded by mountains, AND have an incredible view of the city! And I loved that every structure in a public place has a sign taped to it saying "this surface is sanitized every X hours"...and I have never seen more than 4 hours. Needless to say...Hong Kong was incredibly clean. Anyways...our walk was beautiful! and mostly downhill :) We passed several reservoirs and saw lots of fish and turtles! After the conference we just relaxed with the Sanders and the Gaylees. I loved it. We had a fabulous dinner of homemade chicken enchiladas and fresh fruit. It was Sister Sanders birthday, so dinner was followed with some delicious homemade chocolate cake, compliments of Katelyn and I :)
Monday was a good day. We woke up to strawberry crepes (Mama Sanders is the best) and I just took it easy until we met up with the group for lunch. We went to Stanley Market which was a darling little place, not to mention great shopping! We spent the afternoon resting and watching 'House' at the Lais. Her helper made us dinner and it was amazing! Felt kinda weird though. It may seem crazy, but I would never choose to live like that. That night we took the Star Ferry across the bay to Kowloon to see the light show on the buildings in downtown HK. It was sweet! We kept to our nightly HK tradition of a McFlurFlur before heading home to catch some 'NCIS' with Ma and Pa Sanders.
We woke up early on Tuesday to head back to Taiwanwan. After a wild bus ride of trying to keep our 100 pieces of luggage under control, we arrived at our Taipei Backpackers Hostel. There are two bunk beds in our room that has to be smaller than 10' x 10', but it is pretty great. We made a friend here. Matt is from San Diego and is just on a 4 month adventure to 'find himself'. I think he has been here less than a week and is already getting bored. He was thrilled to be speaking English to someone. Last night he joined us for a night market and the snake market, where they had lots of live snakes just waiting to be eaten! We all shared a barbecued snake and I thought it was quite delicious- just not enough meat for all those little bones!
Today we visited the Taipei Temple, but we weren't able to call for reservations beforehand so we weren't able to do baptisms. I was thrilled to find out they got permission from the Temple President for us to come tomorrow! (they normally only allow baptisms for the dead on Saturday) Who would have figured..the Taiwanese people going out of their way for us...ha, note the sarcasm :) While on the temple grounds we met an amazing woman, Meng Wei. I got talking to her and found out she had been a member for 10 years, and her husband was baptized 7 months ago. Immediately the tears came and they would not be held back. I was so touched by her story and the witness that was born to me that our Heavenly Father does answer prayers. Her daughter has recently returned from a mission and she and her husband are preparing to be able to go to the temple. What an amazing testimony.
I am continually amazed at how much my testimony has grown over these 5 weeks halfway across the world in Taiwan. I am realizing more and more how much our Father in Heaven is involved in the details of our lives. He concerns Himself with a group of nine women cluelessly traveling in Taiwan. He has placed countless people in our path that have had a huge part in the outcome of this trip. Without His guidance and the people we have met, this trip would be nothing in comparison to what it has been. I am grateful for my Father in Heaven, my Savior Jesus Christ, and their loving care and concern for me. I hope that I might become a better steward as an instrument in the Lord's hands that I may have opportunities to be an answer to someone's prayers.
This afternoon Meng Wei joined us to pay a visit to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. I loved looking through the art museum at the traditional Chinese paintings. We also got to watch the changing of the guards. As we parted and thanked Meng Wei for taking us there she sweetly said, "I pray every morning that I might find someone to help that day". How grateful I am that today WE had the blessing of being helped by Meng Wei. May this be our prayer each day, that we might bless the lives of God's children.
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