Food and American Aliens

well, kaohsiung is a big city. big big big city. there is a huge skyscraper here called the 85. i bet if you type 85 kaohsiung and google it you can find the building. we live right underneath that building. no joke, the building shades our apartment. every day except sunday we run around the park next to the ocean. its really cool, but the ocean is kinda gross. it reminds of san franciscos ocean.

it is starting to get cold here. its not really cold, but moderately cool. i hear in january we will wear our coats. so far though i have only worn a long sleeved shirt once.

the food over here is really good. we eat a lot of rice and noodles. actually every other meal we eat rice and then every other meal we eat noodles. the noodles are so good, i will have to make you all them when i get back. i like the cold noodles, but the hot noodles are also really good. there are a lot of different flavors and kinds of noodles they usually have meat and vegetables mixed in.

the rice meal is usually just a chunk of fried pork and sausage with some vegetables, steamed or fried or whatever. then you can put on soy sauce and other stuff. i have only eaten orange chicken once and sweet and sour i have seen but i havent eaten it. american chinese food is so different. the rice meal they usually put this crunchy vegetable stuff on the side. i think it is fermented ginger and garlic, i am not sure. when i first came to taiwan i hated it, then the other day i realized that they lady for got to put a the scoop of fermented ginger on the side and i was so disappointed. it made me laugh because i realized i am slowly becoming chinese. i have learned one thing about the food over here, that is dont ask what it is just enjoy it. its really good food, but sometimes asking what it is ruins it. and to honest sometimes the people dont even know what it is, which is a little scary, but dont worry they dont eat dogs very often over here. as a matter of fact it is illegal unless it is your dog. and even then i am not sure.

right now we are teaching some pretty neat investigators. we have a lot and they are all slowly progressing. most of them are newer investigators that we have been meeting with for maybe about 4 weeks now. there is one man in particular whose name is Chen Zhao Feng. He works in Kaohsiung but he lives farther north, monday to thursday he works and then he goes home. but next week he is staying so he can come to church. at work he reads his scriptures and he always bring awesome questions. he is about 29 30 ish, not married but really smart. he is a really sweet man. since Kaohsiung is not his home, at nights he doesnt really have anything to do so he always is willing to meet after he gets off work. then after we teach him a lesson, he goes home and reads the scriptures that we invited him to read. i hope he can start coming to church more often. he says he can probably work it out so he can come every other week. which would be an awesome start.

well. my "new" companion he is from taiwant. next week is our last week together. this transfer period has gone by so fast. he is a good guy. obviously there are cultural differences but thats what makes it fun. he has helped me with my chinese a ton, and since he doesnt speak english we speak chinese 24/7. its great, i feel really comfortable now.

since mom asked me about food this week i have to tell you about the most delicious drink in the world. they have a drink over here called Winter Melon Tea (its not really tea its just called tea) Dong Gua Cha. anyways, its really good. food is so cheap too. for 2 american dollars i could eat until i am ready to pop. i usually spend about 2 dollars on an average meal. if we want to go eat at a really really nice buffet, i am talking really nice, it is 10 dollars. of course there are some really expensive stuff, like McDonalds and other american restaurants, but for the most part we dont eat there at all.

this week i didnt have a chance to kick any scooters, but we did run into a lot of strange people this week. one man told us that his body could sing. i told him it was his mouth, but he insisted that it was his arms and legs that were singing. i felt really bad for him, because he seemed normal at first but after talking to him for about 30 seconds it was obvious. apart from the singing limbs though he was normal and could have a normal conversation.

then another man stumbled into the church, who was dressed very nicely he looked like an older gentleman, but when you looked into his eyes, you knew he was not there. i think it is so interesting how from someones eyes you can tell if they are crazy or not. anyways this older man told us about his encounter with aliens and how these aliens looked like americans. i didnt feel as bad for this man because it looked like someone was taking good care of him and dressing him and stuff. there is no welfare system here so there are a lot of elderly people on the streets with out homes or food, it is really sad, but atleast this man had someone who was helping him out.

love ya.

Elder Anderson