ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #31
DECEMBER 23, 2013
Merry Christmas from Taiwan!
We're emailing a day
late today because our P-Day got switched. We had a normal day yesterday
(Monday), P-Day is today (Tuesday/Christmas eve), and then we have a
special Taibei zone conference tomorrow on Christmas!
It's interesting that Christmas is not as big a deal
in Taiwan. In that way, it doesn't really feel like Christmas. There
are some decorations, but not as many as in America, and I think most
people don't get off work for Christmas. So imagine like Valentine's Day
in America - a minor holiday. It's really interesting, but next month
when 過年 (Chinese New Year) comes around, I'll have more than enough
celebrating to compensate.
One of our new potential investigators is named
Julien. He is such a cool guy. He owns a restaurant and a gelato cart,
and he also teaches high school French cuisine. His gelato is REALLY
good, and apparently he makes it himself! The only problem that we run
into is his father. His father LOVES foreigners (especially ones that
speak Chinese), and is always drunk. Every time I've been there, the
father comes out too and tends to dominate the conversation. He's a
happy guy, but very distracting. Luckily last time I had Elder Zeng
there to distract the dad while I talked to the son. We're going to try
and meet with Julien this week without his father there.
Yesterday, we got a free lunch from a member, and
then we helped her set up a mini art gallery in her really gaoji
business place.
Our whole apartment has
been sick this week. My companion had the worst of it last week, so I'm
trying to get him to take it easy, which he doesn't want to do. I've got
a little bit of it, and now Elder Morgan is getting really sick.
Hopefully we'll all get better soon. It doesn't help to be outside in
the cold and the rain all day!
Taiwan hospitals are really different from the US. It's very cheap,
because they have universal health care. Since it's so cheap, the first
thing that the Taiwanese people do when they get sick is to go to the
hospital. When you go, the diagnosis is usually fairly brief, then you
pay $5 for a co-pay, and then you go to the pharmacy and they throw tons
of medicine at you.
It's always funny when people look at me and assume
that I don't speak Chinese, and then see their surprise when I pull out
semi-fluent sentences.
Over the past few weeks,
I've gone through a couple of different pen colors. I started with
green, and then I switched to purple and now I'm on blue. Pens are a big
deal here. The book stores all have shelves and shelves of different
kinds of pens.
That's all for this week. I'm excited for the Skype call this week! Merry Christmas to everyone! Or rather 祝你聖誕節快樂！
Elder Richardson
田長老
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