The week of Christmas has arrived, and what do I see...Sun? Eh. Life in Paradise.

Its still interesting to see the take that this culture has on Christmas. Its influence is definitely here, but as I said before only superficially. I am curious to see how the actual day goes. As it stands we still have no plans for Christmas. Maybe I will drag Sister Li out to some nice restaurant (a change from quick food grabbed at vendars on the side of the street or at open corner shops that are found every 30 feet.) in our dinner hour between procelyting. I will probably hold my own solitary christmas celibration on the monday morning following. I'm lucky my P-day lies so close to christmas. I am composing christmas cards, but they will be sooo late. Forgive me my lack of time, I'm on the Lord's Errand!

This week was largely taken up by my continued illness. I was sick from Wednesdays aforementioned food poisoning up until Friday morning. Wednesday night when we got back from Taipei I had serious chest pains and couldn't teach the english class that we teach every wednesday. Sister Li had to shuffle around all the teachers and I called Elder Calvert, the elderly mission nurse from England. Luckily the next day we had previously planned events that were or could be taken care of from my apartment where I was within easy reach of the bathroom and my bed. Sister Li was very patient with my sickness, and with the diet of toast that I've made her suffer through. I'm still a little off on my foods but it is improving.

When I started to feel better we did a lot of tracting, we met the most interesting man. He is probably in his early 70s, he came down the stairwell from the 3rd floor apartment he occupies to talk to us in person instead of through a the call box. He started speaking to me in English when he saw me, fair english too. He thought Sister Li was Taiwanese so it was funny for a few minutes as he spoke to me in English then to her in Chinese, until she let it slip that she was actually from America too. He was a bit relieved I think. He made us come up to his apartment and talk with him for a bit. We technically are not allowed to be alone with a male without another male in the room but we left his door open and stayed within sight. The entire living space of his apartment was stacked with books, boxes of books and paper, learning materials, and cassette tapes. He didn't even have a bed because it too was covered. He said he sleeps on the wooden couch bench in the corner sitting upright (most Taiwanese homes in my so-far-experience don't have a lot of couches. Most people have wooden benches and chairs that have thin cushions on them. Some of the more well off people do have couches, but like the lack of carpets, they do not have cloth couches. Mostly vinyl, as cloth doesn't do well in the humidity.)

There was one small preserved foot-by-foot wide area on his tiny two person table that was his work space. He lives alone except for on the weekends. His wife, her mother, and her sister all died of cancer. he has one daughter, but she has schizophrenia severe enough to confine to to the hospital all but the weekends when she gets to come home to live with him. He has nothing to do but study to pass the time. As a result he speaks Chinese, English, Spanish, Japanese, and Russian. We gave him a Book of Mormon to read and he wants us to visit him again when his daughter is there too.

We also met another woman (passed to us by the elders) who is every interested in the gosple. Her name is Li Si Ying. She came to church on Sunday and afterwords we had a lesson on the plan of salvation with her. She had many good questions. We set a baptismal date! Hopefully she will continue to progress. Our other Baptismal candidate is at somewhat of a stand still (her name is Luo Yu Ting) because her grandfather opposes and overrules her grandmother's ok. We are praying for a miracle.

Well, tomorrow we have another day of Temple tours. Yay! I love temple tours, they seem to be fun days. I love using the paintings and the visual media available in the building to tell people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Art can hold such power when used correctly. Maybe someday I'll be able to speak the language well enough to relate that power. As for now, I smile and bear testimony. I do that real well.

Well, I wish upon all of you a very merry Christmas! I love you all, and miss you dearly.

Sister Melissa Thiessen