Sister Museus, August 8th, 2011

Dearest Family Who I Can't Wait to See, How exciting it was being able to talk to you all one last time before you all come and see me and take me home. I'm glad Mom finally answered the phone. President Bishop gave me permission to call you so I could tell you the new plans of how I would be meeting you. Mom and John I hope I didn't confuse you both on how to get from Taipei and Kaohsiung. Here the instructions again as you wanted again: 1. From the hotel take a taxi to the Tapei Main Station (in Chinese it is the Gaotian Zhan, this is Roman Pinyin...you might pronounce it in English phoenics saying "Gaow Tien John" 2. After you arrive at the station go directly down the stairs.3. On the left side you will find a place to buy the HSR tickets (this will all be in English too)4. Buy tickets from Taipei to Zuoying (which is in Kaohsiung). The tickets will be a little pricy since it is a very fast train and will get you to Kaohsiung in 1 hr and 30 min. One ticket will be about $1,500, which is $45 dollars in America.5. After buying tickets go back towards the stairs and head straight until you see two sides where you can board the train.6. Go on the left side, which will be #1 A platform (make sure this is still the right one to get on because I don't know if they change, just ask someone who works near by and they will direct you)7. #1 A platform will be down the escalators.8. Board the HSR train on your right side (make sure you get on the right car # and seat #.9. The train ride will take about 1 hr and 30 min. Once the train stops at Zuoying (they will say it in English and on the lighted sign) make sure you get off.10. Once you get off take the stairs that go up.11. You will now need to find the MRT station (subway station), which you will find a sign on your left side that will say MRT station Exit #2 (in yellow). 12. Keep going straight until you hit the ticket place where you need to put your ticket in the machine.13. Afterwards, keep going straight and follow the MRT Exit sign.14. Once you get outside go in the next building right across from it (if you keep going straight you will run into it). This is the MRT station that will take you down the escalator. Make sure you don't drink or eat anything in the MRT because they will fine you.15. Once you go down the escalator, you will find a 7/11 store on your right side. Next to the 7/11 is a ATM and where you get tickets for the MRT subway station. It is a touch screen.16. Push the place for Kaohsiung Main Station and then how many tickets you want. (These tickets are really cheap, about a dollar per person.17. The machine will give you your change and your tickets, which consists of a small, blue, plastic-looking coin. 18. Afterwards, you will need to show your coin on the touch screen in order to get through the small-looking gates.19. Next, find the Siaogang Direction sign and follow it down the stairs. 20. Next, make sure you are getting on the right train that leads to the Siaogang direction (there will be signs in English that will tell you).21. Next, get off the subway station on the Kaohsiung Main Station (which is 5 stops over from Zuoying, the stop number is R11). You will find a map on the subway that will say all the stops that the subway will stop at. 22. Once you get off take the escalator upstairs and make your way towards the train station, which is next door and there you will find me waiting outside to greet you all :). Sorry that I gave you so many steps to follow. I thought I would try and be more specific so you wouldn't get lost. Just remember if you get lost just try and ask someone. A lot of the Taiwanese people know some English and most of the workers at the subway and train station and speak pretty good English. Please forgive me family for not being able to talk to you more. I would have loved to hear more from all of you, but I had only so many minutes left on my phone card. I am really excited to see you all and to visit the island of Taiwan. I hope the schedule that I gave you for each day sounds like fun. I did tweek it a bit and changed/added some things to them. I failed to bring the schedule for Taipei, but some things that we will do consists of going on a cable car in the rain forest, visiting the temple, seeing Taipei 101 (very tall building), going to the jade and flower market, visiting the art and science museum, seeing some fun historical sites such as the National Palace Museum, Yat-sen Museum, go to some night markets, etc. The plans can definitely change, but I thought a planned schedule would help and we can go over the stuff we would like to visit. President Bishop would like to meet you all. He will be in Kaohsiung at the same time for Combined District Training Meeting and will meet us all at our hotel lobby in the morning around 7:30 (Wednesday, before we head off to Tainan). He is really excited to see you all and had some things that he still needed to give me and I needed to give him my mission debit card. Most likely he will ask about Paige's wedding so please tell him that it is still on because that is why he is allowing me to leave earlier. Please don't get me into trouble with him. In addition, my fun English teachers (who all graduated from BYU, a couple and a girl) want to meet you all. What a blessing they have been to us as we have been to them. It just felt like a taste of home when we see or meet with them. I just thought we could have lunch or dinner together and maybe go see a tourist sight together. Some fun things happened this week as well as some bad news with some of my investigators. On Monday and Tuesday I spent the day in Taichung and Taipei. I did my final interview with my mission president, then I had a career workshop, homemade dinner at the mission home, a fun devotional and then we went to bed at the senior couple's apartment. Afterwards, we woke up early and headed to the temple in Taipei. Afterwards, I go onto the train and headed back to my area. It was really fun, but it helped me realize that my mission was coming to an end real quick. On Sunday, Nathan and Carlee (English teachers) invited us over for a delicious pasta dinner and then went to visit our Nigerian investigator. Sister Lee and I found out that our investigators couldn't get baptized before I left because of family problems, which was sad, but we did help two people get baptized while we were companions. Last night Sister Lee and I only got 2 hours of sleep since we stayed up talking (it was basically our last night together since her new companion we are going to pick up real soon. We will have a three-some for a week so I can help her new companion out since she is a new senior companion). Today, we got up early and hiked to Monkey Mtn. with our English friends. We enjoyed each others company and the fun monkeys we saw in the trees. We were going to go to an island, but we knew we didn't have much time so we just had lunch together. I will definitely take you all on this fun hike and island. Mom, I'm glad you had fun with Johnny and Jessica and the boat ride/bad mitton game. Your Terrace workout sounds like fun :). I'm glad to hear everyone is still having fun with the boys. I can't wait to see them. I asked my English friends if they could get more info. on car rentals for me, but still try and find some. We could ask our hotel for some info. if you can't find any. Love mom and can't wait to give you the biggest hug. Whit, thanks for the email. Love you tons and can't wait to see you. Thanks for helping mom out packing up some of my shorts and shirts so I don't have to wear my old skirts. Love Whitee and will also give you the biggest hug and your b-day present. Love you lots and I cannot wait to see you all sooooo SOOOOONN!!!!! Love you Always,Sister Museus p.s. I did get into another car accident almost 2 weeks ago that involved me getting doored. It was pretty bad; I will tell you about it later :).