Chinese New Year - Year of the Tiger

With no Chinese blood to speak of but having yellow fever none the less, we wish you a happy Chinese New Year!  This year is the year of the Tiger.  I can't help but think back to the memories that the Chinese people and their culture have impressed on me.  So, for your Chinese New Year pleasure I share with you some treasured memories of my time in Taiwan:

Driving through the rice patties

The morning market

Lunch, a different buffet style

Dragon dances in local parks

Taiwan provides many great spectacles.  From enormous and ornate temples and palaces to the savory selection of fruit markets and box lunches.  Driving through the streets and seeing the days meat in the shops and occaisional flashes from fried rice pans all while riding through rice patties in the tropical air was always a joy.

This was one of the fonts that we baptized people in.  It was great to see the water splashing over the sides.  No cannonballs allowed though!

Chinese New Year alway provided large gatherings and more than enough food to last a month

The missionaries that I came with to Taiwan with President and Sister Kim

And of course it wouldn't be Taiwan without the wonderful people that we saw enter the waters of baptism.

This is a painting that rolls out to be about 5 feet long.  It is a depiction of 1 Nephi 8 and the tree of life story.  It is personalized with the number of brothers and parents included in the painting.  The painter was in a ward that I served in and had painted one of these for President Hinckley.  It has been in issues of the Ensign.