March 17-23 In-field Training

 

Sister DeVictoria writing:

This week was a week of training.  We received training in the MTC, but many things are done differently here.  For example, we were trained to use Canva to be able to do newsletters.  But the young Elders in our mission office do the newsletter, so I won’t need to do that.  I’m actually really happy to have their help.  When I was a young missionary, there were no senior missionaries, so young missionaries did all of the office work.

Here is Elder DeVictoria being trained by Elder Croft

 

We spent so much time traveling back and forth to China and staying in all kinds of Air bnbs and hotels that staying here feels much the same.  Our apartment is nice.  I especially love the bed.  It is much firmer than our stupid memory foam mattress back home.  We will probably move to the other senior apartment when the current office couple (the Crofts) return to America.  Everyone says that apartment is better, and since we will be here for 23 months, we might as well take the nicer apartment.  The only draw back to this apartment is that there is a big gym across the street that keeps its lights on until the early morning hours.  We do have curtains, but there is also a lot of noise and traffic from the gym in the middle of the night.  The weather has been wonderfully cool all week.  I’m sure that will not last long. 

We have really been enjoying the food here.  I’ve been inundating my family with pictures of our dinners.  There are several self-serve cafeteria style restaurants in the neighborhood.  There are a wide variety of dishes, including plenty of vegetables.  The food definitely tastes different from the food in mainland China.  Not too much spicy food here, much milder.  I also think the soy sauce has a different flavor.  But we are enjoying it all.  Today (preparation day) we did some shopping at the open-air market so that we can make more food at home, especially for the weekend.  Here is the market, and a very faint Taipei 101 in the background.

 

The mission president has to interview each missionary at least once every 6 weeks.  This week was interview week, so we had an office full of missionaries every day.  They have so much energy!  I wish I could bottle it and take some every day.  We enjoy getting to know the missionaries, they are all really good people.

Sister Croft showed me how to get to the post office, and where to go to apply for the Alien residency card.  I have to apply for each missionary who comes.  After 6 months they are eligible for Taiwan’s national health care.  I will also apply for that for each missionary.  We applied for ours the day after we arrived, and they told us we can pick up our cards this coming Monday.  So, we shouldn’t have any problem traveling back to the States for our son’s wedding on April 7^th.  I’ll probably just be getting over jet lag when we leave for the wedding…..

In the basement of the mission office is a storage area.  (Our own little D.I.)  Many missionaries have put old clothing there.  I was able to get a used set of character cards to study.  As I started going through them, I noticed I already know a lot of them, so I may have to advance to the next set.  I’m still studying German on DuoLingo and have 1425 day streak. 

 Elder DeVictoria writing:

 This has been a full week of training in our mission office duties.  What I learned is that this is a cash-based mission, and a bicycle-based mission.  Every young missionary buys a bicycle upon arrival.  With each transfer, the bicycle must be shipped to the new area. The Church provides the monthly money to each missionary’s credit card, then the missionaries go to an ATM and withdraw it all as cash.  Very few vendors in Taiwan accept credit cards.  Also, this mission has only 5 vehicles;  three associated with the mission office (one for the president and two vans), then there are two senior couples that live in very remote towns that each have cars. 

Each missionary also gets a cell phone that is provided by the Church.  When the missionaries are transferred, the SIM card stays in the area, but the phone goes with the missionaries. The amount of money each missionary receives is 9,000 TWD- Taiwan dollars which is about US$280 per month.  This is for food, travel, and minor personal items.  One of the major tasks of the financial secretary (me) is to supplement each missionary’s monthly allotment with extra money to cover travel expenses for zone conferences, mission conferences, and transfers to new areas.  This can get complicated with about 120 missionaries.  There are 8 zones and 59 areas.  

It's been a pleasure to learn more about how the mission works.  We are just getting started.  

 

 "And we ask thee, Holy Father, that they servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them;"  DC 109:22