Happy Chinese New Year! I think you should all start celebrating, they take almost a week of school and work and hang out with family and eat. A. Ton. We have had meal appointments every day for the past week, both lunch and dinner. the type of meal appointments where after every meal you leave and are so full you never want to see food again, much less eat again in about 3 hours. Its been fun.

This week since most of these appointments have been on the little island that parallels Danshui we have spent a lot of time traveling. We leave in the morning, not able to finish our studies to get to an appointment for lunch and it takes about an hour to get out to the island by bus and MRT (train). Then we are there for the expected couple of hours. then we have to travel home and try to get some more studies in, then we have to do it again for dinner. Usually we have returned home late, past the 9:00 curfew. But because of this travel time and spending pretty much all day every day with Elder Benson and Hall (our Danshui Elders) we have all become very close. We refer to ourselves as the 4 musketeers. This has been the best week of my mission thus far, even if we haven't been able to do almost any missionary work outside of working with the members. We have a lot of fun together.

Unfortunately next Friday harrolds move calls. I think we will be moved, at least two of us. Elder Benson will probably be moved up to Zone leader, and I think either Sister Li or I will be moving. Its a sadness. We are all a little bummed about it, In the words of Elder Benson "I don't know if another transfer can top this one, its been epic." Even the rest of our district is really cool.

Last week on p-day we all trooped to Costco, an endeavor that took us all day. But it was worth it, it was much like a group of children going to Disney land. We were all ridiculously excited to buy American food, like cereal, salsa and tortillas. And Costco rolls! It was just like the Costco's of old, but yet still managed to retain an Asian feel. Like the pizza in the food court was pepperoni, Hawaiian or teriyaki chicken and mushrooms. And instead of just chicken bakes they had bagogi bakes. Interesting. But I had myself the first real salad I have had since entering Taiwan borders. And I was like mana from heaven.

Besides that, this week we have really gotten to know all of the members in Danshui. They are all amazing people! So faithful in the gospel. Every appointment we go to we ask to hear their story about how they became acquainted with the gospel. Sometimes they are pretty amazing. One Brother Zhong received a Book of Mormon from a friend at work, and without much more than a brief invitation to give it a look read it front to back. Then, having a thirst for more, by himself, got his hands on the gospel principles book and a number of other church resources. After a few weeks of coming to church one of the members was shocked to hear that he wasn't baptized yet. When are you getting baptized? He asked, have you set a date with the missionaries? No, brother Zhong replied, he hadn't even met with the missionaries, but he thought next Saturday would work well for the baptism if that day was too soon. Wow haha.

Well, this transfer is coming to a close, and I'm sad to see it happen. But I'm late for another lunch appointment. I love you all!

Sister Melissa Thiessen.