I was in Taiwan Sunday Jan 11, to Tuesday Jan 13.
In Singapore Friday Jan 16, to Monday Jan 19.

Battling Deaf Mutes.

Because of the whole storage fiasco, I lost my mission journal and feel I should write memories down as they come back to me. Today I was telling stories from my mission and I remembered the time walking home at dusk in Podolsk, these two men being held back from each other by their friends. They were trying to fight but couldn't reach each other. I noticed they weren't saying anything, no one was saying anything, but they were all just making hand gestures at each other with angry drunken faces. They were all either deaf or dumb. I stopped in my tracks and said "You gotta be kidding me" as I tried to force back a smart aleck 20 year old's grin and lift my gaping chin up from the shock. My companion and I watched what was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Two men facing each other about 10 feet apart trying their hardest to free their hands enough to make out the sign words that would bring the most disgust to the other. When one would get through an entire gesture, the other's face would explode with furry and he would try to respond with sign words of his own. The point at which I couldn't hold back my laughter anymore was when I watched the worst insult of all as one of the men actually dared to turn his back on his colleage. The other man was insanely furious that his sign language insults were completely futile. After a few moments the man turned around again and there was a quick exchange of more sign language then the other guy turned his back causing the same anger to appear on the other's face. This exchange went on in a drunken deaf mute stupor for a good 10 minutes before we had our fill and walked away. I love that we stumbled upon that and watched. I think I was eating Shwarma at the time. Mmmmm.

Talks about lady boys. So many from Thailand and the Philippines. Manette came over on Thursday night.

I went to HK today to get pages put in my passport. As luck would have it I was slowed down in every way possible and was only 10 minutes away from not being able to get the pages. That would have been the pits. Then I spent nearly 4 hours in the book store looking at mostly atlases and trying to map out where I'm going to go. I met up with Victoria London for a late night bite to eat in Lan Kwai Fong and basically chit chatted. She seemed a bit over compensating in her conversation style, it was very directed inward, but she had a lot of interesting things to say so it was entertaining to be with her. I think she's someone worth knowing. I had to take Turbo Jet home and actually pay for my ticket. Grrrr. However, it's been awhile since I rode Turbo Jet and it definitely is quite a bit nicer than the Cotai Jet.

Yesterday I went to Zhuhai, China for the first time. I was with Priscila and we had some interesting conversations. I bought tons of movies, bartered for a watch. I was reminded of eating Raw Shrimp with her at the fisherman's wharf, which in turn reminded me of eating live octopy... which she had. She ate Durian icecream which I thought was vanilla so I tasted it, and it was nasty and I could taste it the rest of the night. The bathrooms were crazy gross even in the little cafe we ate at.

I have a new slogan for Asia: Asia...where you just never know.
Or... Asia...girlfriend or daughter?

At the border to Zhuhai, they have a video of Jackie Chan being a customs officer trying to stop illegal things from happening at the border. Basically it's a warning not to buy pirated and fake merchandise or bad things will happen to you.

I watched Good Luck chuck with Priscila... it's pretty much a porno. I'm amazed Jessica Alba was even in it.

-NuSkin ideas - Success stories of going against conventional wisdom.
-LeBron James jumped over college and now is making huge money.

Have you ever driven a car with the wheel on the right side?
Driven a boat?, Wakeboarded? Jet skied?

-I still haven't gone a Sunday in Macau without a cell phone ringing during Sacrament. About 10 went off today.
-For the first time during fast and testimony meeting, a girl pulled out her phone to read a text to the congregation from the pulpit.

*** On New Years I was with Tingting and went to the MGM. I saw Rachel there, performing. I ran into Doctor Dalila. I was pulled onto the dance floor several times to dance in front of everyone, and Tingting got picks of it. I was turned off by Tingting self interest. However I spent New Years day with her and it was a good day. We went to Coloane and sat at the beach as we ate crazy BBQ stuff and she showed me how to eat sunflower seeds the Chinese way. We talked about Kenton and his "date house and car".

-In Church today a Philippino I've never seen before got up and during his testimony he started singing some Philippino gospel song. All the other Philippinos in the room joined in and it seemed like a baptist choir/congregation spontaneous celebration. It was odd to say the least, and of course while it happened I just chuckled to myself, smiled and thought.... I've seen way too many things in my short life, this is hilarious.

-On the way to church I walked past the foreign employment office. There were about 30 Philippino women all scrunched in on seats waiting to find jobs as house cleaners and nannies. I feel so bad for them... and it's better for them here than at home in the Philippines.

I need to come up with a name for my international movie business. -world movie store.com?