Ok so I forgot the Taiwan picture.

So I forgot the put in the picture of Taiwan. It's the top picture and then I decided to throw in a couple more i thought were good.

Dear Dad: I can't get the pictures to email or upload to Facebook so here ya go!

Hey pops here are the pictures that you wanted. It is not all of them but I did the ones that I thought looked the best. Just let me know if you want any more. I have some more. Also there is one that is from here in Taiwan. We drove by this place and there was these cool breaks in the mountain. I thought you would find it interesting so i took a picture in your honor.

Wild Monkeys, Church, and a whole lotta goodness!

Spiritually fed by Taiwan

(Ps I don't know how to move the dang pictues so there just going to stay there)

Well Taiwan, good old Taiwan. Tis a great place to be!! Ok well, in the past couple of weeks a lot of great things have happened!

To start er off two Saturdays ago we went to this place called Eurshui. It is this little tiny town that has a forest with monkeys! Yes I know real life wild monkeys, fantastic. This place was incredible. It was the first time I really got to experience the jungles of Taiwan, which by the way are truly a sight to be held. So after a long, and FREAKIN HOTTEST bike ride of my life we got to the place. Ok, great I was thinking we’re here. Nope, then you’ve gotta walk up the mountain, I literally thought I may melt at any moment. But anyways it was really cool. We start walking up this path and were burning up right? You’d think the people on the sides with their little stands would be selling drinks and ice cream right? Nope, these people decide this place would be a good place to sell underwear, socks, and hard boiled eggs. What the Hail?!?! I couldn’t fathem what in the devil these people are thinking. C’mon people this doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that while people are hiking it the forest in freaking 100 degree weather WE WANT WATER, NOT UNDERWEAR AND HARD BOILED EGGS!!! Ok well aside from the weirdness of that Eurshui was great! The locals treated us a little more like the monkeys the way they would look, point, and wave. It was also really cool because as you walked up there was tons of bamboo plants and when they blow in the wind it sounds like old creaky doors. Creepy but really cool.

Ok, so moving on last Sunday we go the pleasure of going to Taipei to hear President Uchtdorf speak. Simply amazing is about all I have to say. Hearing that man speak anytime in general is generally bliss, but hearing him talk, in person, in Taiwan well I’ll just leave that up to your imagination how unforgettable it was.

As for this week, this week yet again was great! I really use the words great, amazing, cool, fantastic, and unforgettable too much but there is just nothing else to describe it, Taiwan!! But this week one of my students parents invited us to go to dinner with them at a restaurant called, Tasty. Oh baby oh it really is called Tasty for a very good reason! We had heard that this place served you a several course dinner, but I was blind to what I had in store for me to eat that night. We get in there and ladies and gentleman they served us a 7 yes, I’ll spell it differently SEVEN course meal!! I thought I had eaten a lot on my cruise with my grandma, no this puts that to dire shame. I seriously can’t even recall some of the dishes they just kept on a comin and a comin.

That was on Friday night and on Saturday we again got the pleasure of going to Taipei with our ward. We got to go to baptisms for the dead, again I will say it, bliss. The Taipei temple is so adorably quaint! It was really is the tiniest temple I’ve ever seen. Seriously the font water came half way up my thigh and my toes were touching the front and when I got dunked I was real scared I was gonna hit the back. Amazing though, made the whole experience all the better. Yet another reason why Taiwan is bliss. After this we got the pleasure of going to Taipei 101! WOW OH WOW! That snickerdudle is large!! It’s like a freaking giant!

Well yet again this post is ridiculously long and I apologize for that. I really will try to post more often because I have to leave out so many ridiculous stories and details this way!!

Oh by the way…. I got a calling in our ward today. Ready for this…. Ward…….. Re………..li……ef……. So….cie….ty….PRRRRREEESSIIIDENT. Yes, me Kailey Jean Larsen Relief Society President. I think I’ll go and crap my pants now. Buh bye.

Funerals, Big Buddha Celebrations, and oh wait BLISS!!

So, this past week? Words can’t even quite describe, I fall more and more in love with Taiwan everywhere I go.

Let’s discuss the lovely art of funerals here. There are much less than quite the spectacle! They set up these big honkin tents pretty much anywhere they please, middle of the street, in front of a business, in a garage, wherever. So there was this one set up on the side of the road, and I noticed it had been there a couple of days right? One night we were walking home and BAM coolest thing ever. There were all of these people dressed up white robes, they kind of looked like they were in the KKK or something and they had all these fires in cans and they were like skipping around the fire. I wish I could’ve taken a picture but I didn’t want to be rude. It was so incredibly cool. But wait it gets even better. The next day we woke up early and went to the morning market, well on our way back we passed the same funeral. We were yet again treated with a pleasant surprise. They have all these tiers set up and a big Chinese dragon was there, and apparently (I didn’t actually get to see it myself) but the dragon with people in it started jumping from tier to tier! Sweet right? But OOOHhhh wait there’s even more!! You’d think this guy was some kind of god here or something, but no it’s just what they do in Taiwan. So that same day we were in our apartment and we heard all of this racket. We look outside don’t worry there’s just a parade going on, for that guy. Let me tell ya, when I die don’t even have a funeral just have a parade and party it up, I’m sure I’ll pretty darn happy in heaven!

Next and best event that has happened it Taiwan to date, and right up there with one of the best events of my whole entire life! So today in the US they are celebrating the 4^th of July and honestly I was a little sad, the 4^th is my favorite holiday! But man oh man was I pleasantly surprised with what Taiwan had to offer. We woke up today and were just going on about our business. While we were taking out the trash we heard a crap load of noise coming from the street, so we went to check it out. I bet you can’t guess what it was this time? Yep, a parade again except this one wasn’t for a dead person, apparently it is some Buddhist holiday so they had quite the parade to show us. We watched it until what we thought was the end of the parade. No, a little while later we hear it again the freaking parade is still going on! At this point I didn’t know about the holiday and really had no idea what in the devil was going on. But anyways we decided to ride our bikes to the store, well on our way there what do we hit again? Oh wait another parade?!?! What the what?! I’m telling you these Taiwanese people know how to PARTAY!! So we keep going and hear all this loud banging, we come to the street and there literally is thousands of fire crackers that people have lit off as the parade went by! It was NUTS!!!

Now after all the parades and fireworks you would think that this day couldn’t have gotten much better but Taiwan never ceases to amaze me and it did. So Karyn had seen at the big Buddha there were fireworks tonight, so we decided to go. We get up there and there are TONS I mean TONS of people. We walk into the park area and there are people dancing all around in traditional dances it was so amazing, I was in awe. I seriously kept thinking to myself is this real? Am I really standing by a 70 foot Buddha watching people dance the night away? Then the fireworks begin, they started on this little overlook at the opposite side of the Buddha and they were great. They finished and we thought the night was over. We were sitting trying to get a hold of what just happened when…. The countdown began! Fireworks start buzzing out from behind the Buddha! At this point I just want to collapse, it was truly amazing! Words really can’t even describe it. I think the happiness and joy I felt in my heart compares to that I will feel on my wedding day, truly one of the greatest moments of my life.

Oh and yes we did start teaching this week, which was great! I think I am really going to enjoy it the kids are adorable! I really need to start writing more often….. those two stories are only the icing on the cake, but oh well I’ve got six months can’t write them all down!