Garlic Chicken Dinner

So, scratch what I said about making lunch together. It turns out that Amy is supposed to go to the Hualien Branch, not the Ji-An Branch. Natalie is going to go with her, but they don't meet until 1pm. So, we decided to make Sunday dinner after all.

Rewind- I got up this morning, took a shower and got ready for church. The Relief Society lesson was on obedience (I know, we're a little behind). The teacher mostly read out of the manual. At the very end, she did have some sort of wrap up, but Sister Woods (whom we use for a translator) had to step out of the class really quick and so we missed the part where the teacher actually spoke.

In Sunday School we talked about sacrifice. The teacher was asking about things that we really like and that are important to us. She asked if anyone was wearing jewelry and I showed that I was wearing earrings. She asked if I liked my earrings (they were ones I bought in Thailand and this was the first chance I had to wear them). I said yes and she asked if she could have them. I handed them over. Then she pointed to my watch and so I handed that over to her too. She was shocked that I actually handed them over. I figured I would get them back, and if I didn't, the earrings were less then a US dollar. Although, as I sat in class I was contemplating asking for my watch back. I use that a lot. But, there were no worries, at the end of her lesson she thanked me for giving her my jewelry and then told me she would return it.

Sacrament meeting went better then last week. By that I mean that Kaylene stayed awake and the Branch President didn't chew out the members of the congregation. There was a white guy who spoke today. I guess he's in the Stake Presidency and he spoke about how there aren't enough Taiwanese people going on missions and shared ways that everyone can start preparing because you're never too young to prepare, and you're never too old to go. Most of the things he spoke about I can check off the list. I know how to cook and clean and be on time. Things I'm not so good at: money management (I mean, I'm cheap most of the time, but when I splurge, I splurge) and self control/will power.

After church I came home and read scriptures, my lesson manual, and the Liahona. I did take a little nap because I didn't have anything to do, I had prepped most of dinner last night expecting that it would be lunch. At 3pm I went into the kitchen to finish up everything for dinner at 4pm. I always jump the gun. Dinner was ready way before it was time. Church gets out at 4pm and so we waited until 4:10pm but they still hadn't shown up and so we started putting the food on the table and getting ready to eat (it was getting cold because it was done early, remember?). Luke, Kaylene, and I started eating without them. It's a good thing that we did because they (Amy and Natalie) didn't end up coming until 4:40pm. By that time we were done with dinner and halfway done with dishes.

When everyone had finished dinner we sat and chatted. Amy had to go tutoring at 7pm and so right before 7, she left. And that's when I headed out of the kitchen too. I went into my room to work on some props for my lesson tomorrow and looking up facts about Spider Man (I'm teaching about him tomorrow afternoon). It's not that late, but maybe I'll go to bed early because I've got nothing else to do with my time.

Oh yeah, the dinner turned out well. We had garlic chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and watermelon. Although it turned out well, it didn't turn out like it was meant to. But that's the story when you try to cook American food in Taiwan.