March 1st Birthday

As we near the end of our mission, many people want to take us out to eat. On Tuesday, 28 February it was

Carol and Ivan Chung.
He is one of my piano students. We ate at a Chinese restaurant with English menus.
On Wednesday, 29 February it was

Emma and Vanessa
Emma is one of Sister Hahn's piano students and Vanessa is one of mine. We ate at a French restaurant with English menus.

Here we are shown with lobster and salmon.
On Thursday, 1 March, the real birthday, we ate at a Thai restaurant with English menus, with four other senior missionary couples.

Pulley, mission office

Hill, public affairs

Yu, family history

Calvert, mission nurse & mission office
(He is the nurse.)
On Friday we worked in the temple and couldn't eat out anywhere.
On Saturday, 3 March it was a real Chinese restaurant with no English menus and a large, round table with a "lazy susan" in the middle.

President & Sister Ho, with his mother in red.
He was an area seventy for seven years, spending some of his time in Beijing. He is now a counselor in the temple.

And here we are that same evening.
It was a good week.

2011 Chirstmas Pageant

The Taibei 7th Ward has staged an outdoor Christmas Pageant for the last eleven years. Sister Hahn and Elder Hahn sang in the Pageant Choir last year and this year. These two years it has been held right beside the temple. This year we gave three performances, two on Saturday 10 December, and one on Sunday 11 December at 7 PM.

The Set
All week it had rained every day, and many were wondering what we would do if it rained those nights. There were no alternate plans. A lot of prayers were said. There was heavy mist each night, but the show went on.

Chinese Choir
They sang as people were gathering.

The Narrators - Sis Chiles
They told the Christmas Story by reading from the scriptures, first in English and then in Chinese.

Philippine Choir
It was announced that a Philippine Choir would sing. We have a lot of Philippine brothers and sisters attending the English-speaking 7th Ward.

Emma

Lenora

Townspeople milling around Bethlehem

Elder Calvert

Children's Choir

Pageant Choir - Elder Hahn

President Horner

Pageant Choir

Roman Soldiers

Mary in Spotlight
entering on "donkey"

Mary
arriving on a little horse

Joseph Asking for a Room
There were no speaking parts - just music and narration.

Joseph and Mary going to the Stable

Pageant Choir

Pageant Choir Director

Angel

Shepherds

Missionary Choir

Sis Calvert - Missionary Choir Director

Wiseman

Two more Wisemen

The Three Wisemen
Photos by Vivian Pan - organ student

The Double-car Garage

There are a lot of motor scooter in Taibei, partly because there are so few automobile parking spaces. There are some underground parking lots, under parks and big buildings. Quite a few of the large apartment buildings have parking garages underground. Some people have a car AND a scooter. That way, if there is a traffic jam, they can leave their car at home and take the scooter. Some people have a single-car garage. I posted a couple of them earlier. But I had never seen a double-car garage until last October, as I was walking home one day. Here it is:

A Double-car Garage
Hmmm... not too handy for getting the one car out.