Secret Agent Church

I finally found a closer church that speaks english!

Well...they have translators and I get to wear those cool secret agent ear pieces.

It's such a blessing because going to Taipei 2+ hours away for full-english church was a struggle (yes, I know there are people in Africa who start walking Friday night just to make it to church by Sunday...I know, I know)...

and the 10-minute-bike-ride-away church was in full-chinese (of which I do not speak)...

but...

the one I found (as told by a missionary) is a 50/50 mix of both english and chinese speaking people and only a 20-minute train ride away in Jubai.

Holla!

It's a huge stake center and the ward is half english / half chinese.  So the english speakers wear the ear pieces and then go to our own classes afterwards.  Only took me 4 months to find out about it!  Everybody was extremely nice and made me feel welcome.  The Bishop's name is Bishop Who and came up to me to introduce himself...he can speak both english and chinese.  A recent convert invited me to sit next to him and showed me around to all the classes.

Also, there were at least 4 sets of missionaries that I met...five of them which were american...and all five being from the exact same city in Utah: Kaysville, of which I know people from there...all five knew at least one person that I know.  What are the odds?!

Also, I have to share this story.  On the train ride home the train stopped in Hsinchu, and I thought it was just a normal "stop-for-20-seconds-and-those-getting-off-get-off-and-those-getting-on-get-on" deal.  But the entire train got off, and I thought that was odd.  So I waited for about a minute when I felt like something was fishy.  So I got off and looked around at all the train schedules and tried to match my ticket to something on the screen (all in chinese symbols) to see if I missed something.  But nothing matched or I just didn't notice anything. (I later figured out and/or realized that the train I was on was stopping for an extended amount of time in Hsinchu and I had to switch trains to keep going home).  So then an elderly taiwanese lady noticed me in my confused sweaty state-of-being and started talking to me, and of course I didn't understand.  She grabbed my ticket and looked at it and said something and I said "No chinese, no chinese!" and kind of laughed it off.  So she grabbed me by the hand and walked me to the other side of the train platforms and stood by me for 25 minutes to make sure I made it on the right train.  The crazy thing is she didn't even got on the train I was waiting for...she just waited for me to get on and then went on her way.  I thought that was cool; kindness has no language barriers.

This is the view on the train to church; by the ocean.

It was a great Sunday.