Merry Christmas from Taiwan!!!

We got to Skype with Silas on Christmas Eve. It was already Christmas Day there in Taiwan, or as it is known to most Taiwanese -- just another Sunday. He was Skyping at church, before church meetings started. He is still the same Silas we know and love. As always, he said a lot of funny things. We got to see what a Chinese computer keyboard looks like. It looks similar to ours, but it has Chinese characters on it. He told us some funny mission stories and, at our insistence, he spoke a little Chinese for us, and we had a big Q&A session about life in Taiwan. He eats a ton of seafood and rice. We got to meet his companion Elder Meanea. He seems like a good guy. We miss Silas, but we know he is where he is supposed to be right now.  Being able to Skype with him was a highlight of our Christmas!!

This afternoon, we got his usual P-day email. It was Monday in Taiwan. Here is his email:

Hello! ........Again.

Yeah Skyping was really fun yesterday! It was really hard to work after but... Worth it! Yeah that night we literally just rode around and explored our area. We went to the baseball stadium and it was really cool actually. Apparently previous elders have done "baseball game contacting." ....I might want to try that.

Sounds like Christmas was a good time! I can't wait to be home for that again. That'll be really fun.

Last night, we had to explain to our Bishop what Panda Express was. He was weirded out. Hahaha, we were laughing so hard. We were eating some Christmas Chinese dinner with him and they always ask us if we eat this stuff in America. And we always say not really. Then I explained to him what Panda Express entails. We told him it was super fake Chinese food. I think he was Googling pictures. He wasn't sure what the freak we were talking about. He thought it was super weird. I don't know, he was just weirded out that we called it "Chow Mein". It's actually pronounced "Chao Mi-en" I'm going to be so cringed out when I go back to America and try to order something in Chinese.....

I've come to terms with the Chinese language. I just take it one day at a time....I'm not sure if I'm going to learn how to write well, but I'm definitely going to be really good at reading. That's why I've been pushing so hard for reading. Because actually, Taiwanese people are forgetting how to write. So I said, "不用!" (no need to). Yeah, I'm going to learn how to read.

This is my friend Anthony eating ice cream in our pews at the church. He's like 68.  He loves learning English and he claims us as his grandsons. He says hilarious stuff. He likes to buy missionaries ice cream. He's not baptized, but he claims he's been baptized before, because he's been to a ton of baptisms, and he stood right next to the font and the water splashed him.  So, he counts it. Hahahaha!