Thanksgiving

The United States is the only country I know of that has a Thanksgiving Day set aside as a holiday. It's not observed in Germany or China or Brasil or Taiwan. So today was just an ordinary day with normal activities. We went to the temple at 8:30, left about 5:00 and taught piano lessons until 6:15. Then we came home, had something to eat, read scriptures, checked email and Alma went to bed. I'm working on the blog.

However, we have had TWO Thanksgiving Dinners. The first was at the temple president's apartment on 1 November.

All of the senior missionaries meet together on the first Monday of the month for FHE. So for November it was Thanksgiving Dinner, even if it was on the 1st.

We had turkey (roasted upstairs in the mission president's oven, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries and assorted things contributed by each couple.

Our second Thanksgiving Dinner was held on Friday, 19 November for members of the 7th Ward, which is an English-speaking congregation. It was a "progressive dinner" hosted by four members of the ward who are close neighbors. Beforehand, those who signed up to go were divided into four groups, assigned to one of the four houses to begin the evening. Also beforehand, we were assigned what to bring and where to take it. You go to the first house for appetizers, then progress to a second house for the main course, and then go to a third house for dessert. Each time you switched, the people were switched also, so you got to meet new people each time.

These houses on top of a mountain north of the city are huge, and were once occupied by US troops. We got there by bus. Everyone brought some part of the meal to share with 12 people. It was a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner as we know it. Just prior to sitting down for the main course, I sat down at the piano and played a ragtime number. Each of the two fellows closest to the camera in the picture above then took a turn and played a ragtime number also. I was pleasantly surprised.

Taipei Taiwan Temple

Here we are near the front entrance of the temple.

We stopped to take a picture on the day that we arrived. Here we are with President and Sister Horner. Notice the flowers and palm trees.

Looking down on the temple from Pres. Horner's 5th floor apartment, you can see the whole building and the steps where we were standing in the picture above.

At the top of the spire is a statue of the angel Moroni, facing west inviting all of the Chinese on the mainland to come.

To the right of the temple is a plaza.

To the right of the plaza is the Service Center and Stake Center.

Here you see another gate entering onto the grounds and a door into the 1st floor of the Stake Center where we go to church on Sunday.

Here is a view from the other end of the building. Pres Horner first came to Taiwan as a missionary in the 60's when we were starting our family. Then about 20 years ago they came to Taiwan to be the Mission President. Now they are here as the Temple President.

During the 1980's there were about a dozen temples dedicated which had the same architectural design as the Taipei Taiwan Temple. (Boise, Manila, Dallas, Taipei, Guatemala in '84; Stockholm, Chicago, Johannesburg, Seoul in '85;
Lima, Buenos Aires in '86; Frankfurt in '87; Las Vegas in '89) You can see all of these temples if you go to
http://lds.org/temples/main/0,11204,1912-1-67-1,00.html
which is for the Taipei temple and then click on the chronological list.