You Shake My Nerves and You Rattle My Brain

 Sister DeVictoria writing:

Hello again from the land of earthquakes.  We thought the earthquakes were pretty much over, but woke up at 2:30am this morning to another.  Not as strong as the first big one three weeks ago, but still enough to jolt us awake and out of bed, and it is very unnerving to be jolted out of a sound sleep by an earthquake.  I could hear little feet running on the floor above us...probably to their parent's bedroom.  Somebody said there was an earthquake about the same time the night before, but we slept through that one.  I received a call at the office from a young member girl in Hualian asking if all of the missionaries had left town.  I told her the missionaries were temporarily living in other cities.  She expressed how scared she is.  I told her she could ask one of the Priesthood brothers in her ward to give her a blessing of comfort.  I regret that I didn't think to pray with her right then over the phone.

The temple and the mission office have been going through some maintenance this past couple of weeks.  There was some earthquake-cracked walls that needed to be repaired in both buildings, and also they power-washed the spires of the temple.

Below is a picture of our office building.  This is the same office building as when I was a young missionary here over 40 years ago.  Our office is on the fourth floor.  The new mission president's residence is on the top two floors, this is being renovated by construction workers right now.  Temple patron housing is I think on the first three floors.

While the previous office couple were still here they trained us for 2 weeks.  But I have to admit, that first week my brain was kind of fuzzy because of jet lag.  Now I am finding there are many things that I just don't even remember learning.  This week I was kind of stressed at times, because I just didn't remember how to do certain things.  But I have felt the Spirit help me each time.  Many times I received ideas on who to ask for help.  It made me think of this saying,

“God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs.”
― Spencer W. Kimball 

Sometimes the promptings have been so subtle, but I recognize it as heavenly help.  I finally figured out most of the tasks I needed to accomplish.  After all I have learned this week, I feel much more able to continue on in this position.

I should remember from when I lived in Taiwan before, but I have been surprised to see so many beautiful orchids growing outside.  I try to take pictures of flowers that I like.

 I was so excited to see this one (the red flowers below) on our way to the post office, until Elder DeVictoria informed me it was plastic.....

 I also snapped a couple of pictures at the store of vegetables and fruits that I am not familiar with.  I think the larger one is Kohlrabi.  I have no idea about the other smaller green things.

Last night we took the subway to the Raohe night market in the Songshan neighborhood of Taipei.  We ate a few foods that are Taiwan specialties.  I had lurou fan which is a braised meat with sauce on rice, and some Taiwanese style pickled cabbage. We also had an oyster omelette which is another famous dish in Taiwan.  I didn't think I would like it, but actually I really enjoyed it. 

Elder DeVictoria had stinky Tofu.  I ate a piece or two, but this kind was very crispy which I wasn't too fond of, and also the stink was pretty strong.  He ate it all. 

Here are a few street scenes we took pictures of this week.  This first one is a tall building being constructed just down the street from our apartment.  I didn't know cranes could be this tall!

Here are some students during their play time at the elementary school.  They are wearing uniforms.

Here is a typical street scene, lots of traffic, lots of people.  With some old lady in the foreground. 

Regarding our apartment:  When we first got here we were told that when the other office couple left for home, we should move into their apartment which is nicer.  However, we are so accustomed to living in Airbnb's in Suzhou that we were fine with this somewhat older and simpler apartment that we started in, it seems just the same as what we're used to.  Also, this one is on the second floor, and the other apartment is on the 3rd floor with very steep steps.  And, since the tendonitis in my knee has still not quite recovered, so we put off moving to that other apartment.  But I have felt all along from the first that someone else would need that other apartment, and that we should not move.  The president has hinted that he likes to use the apartment we are in now to temporarily house missionaries who have to come to Taipei for various reasons.  So we thought, yes alright, eventually we would move, but I have still felt like someone else would need that other apartment.  Now with all the earthquakes centered in Hualian, this week the mission president decided to quietly and temporarily evacuate the missionaries from Hualian, and the senior missionary couple who was serving in Hualian is now staying in that empty apartment here in Taipei.  That couple (originally from Taiwan, but called from Canada) they are reaching the end of their mission and have some family coming to visit this weekend who will stay with them. So, I feel like it's a good thing they can use that place which is nicer for hosting guests.  Also, we were just informed by President Yang that there will be a new senior couple coming to be health missionaries in this mission.  The husband is a doctor, and the wife is Taiwanese.  She will be helpful to navigate the language aspects and he will of course serve as the main mission health resource.  The president said he would like to locate them somewhere a little further away from the office where they can also serve a local ward and provide member-leader support.  I want to make sure they are well situated before we consider moving to that other apartment.  We really do feel at home in this one so we don't mind staying.

Elder DeVictoria writing:

We've been here in Taiwan over a month now, time just flies by!  It's really a pleasure to serve the Lord.  But I am thankful that we as senior missionaries don't have to follow all the young missionary rules and schedule.  It makes things really nice to feel somewhat unconstrained and free to do whatever we need (or want) to do. I love the flexibility, it's very nice. Also the physical demands on us are more appropriate to our age and condition.  There is no way we could do what those young people do, riding their bikes everywhere, constant physical activity.  As it is we do have to climb the stairs up and down to our apartment, and walk back and forth between our apartment and the office (it's only a short block away), and walk within our neighborhood for shopping and to get meals.  For sure it's a lot more walking than we ever did back home, but we're handling it.  But we're usually pretty exhausted by days end.  

Here's a snapshot of a part of the menu at a bing parlor (bing = ice), we shared a mango bing last night at the night market, the first one since we arrived.  Soooooo good.  There is also a couple pictures of the entrance to the night market, and a fresh fruit stand with cold air vapor billowing out.  Night markets are pretty interesting, lots of unusual food items. I actually topped off our night with a watermellon juice drink, and a serving of barbecued steak.  A delicious taste of home.

When we got home, while walking back from the subway station, we found the garbage trucks had arrived.  You can see the people from all around carrying their trash bags to the trucks.  Taipei makes great efforts to recycle, you can see cans set out for different items like bottles, cardboard, etc. You can see our apartment in the background, second floor up, on the right (our windows are just above the yellow truck in this picture).

This afternoon (Saturday, which is our Preparation Day) there was a parade outside our house.  You can see the truck with the speakers and the drums, followed by the dragon dancers.  There were quite a few items in the procession that preceded the truck, it took me a minute to find my phone and snap these shots of the end of the parade, from our balcony. 

"For after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the ground and shall not be able to stand."  

Doctrine and Covenants 88:89

Tacos, Trains, and Talent

 Sister DeVictoria writing:

This has been a crazy busy week.  It started last Saturday (our P-Day) with us going with Pres. and Sis. Yang to Costco to buy food for the mission zone conferences.  We decided to do soft tacos.  Taiwan's Costco is very similar to the U.S. Costco, although they replace most American foods with Taiwanese food.  They did have plenty of cheeses.  We were able to buy flour tortillas to use in the zone conferences lunches.  We also were able to buy salsa and sour cream.  There were so many Asian foods I would like to try, but couldn't do a big shopping because we were buying so much already for the mission.  I did grab some of those tortillas and some cheese.  On Monday we cooked up the meat so that we would only have to warm it up later.  

On Sunday we attended a musical concert put on by the young missionaries.  It was AWESOME!  It was surprising how much talent they have!  They sang and performed with their whole hearts.  I wish we could have recorded it, but the songs were under copyright, so we couldn't.  They have one last concert tomorrow night.

One of the young Elders did not sing in the concert so had to wait for his companion.  I think he used his time well. Young missionaries need all the sleep they can get. :)

 

Earlier in the day we also prepared dinner for them before the concert.  This is me with the mission president's wife, Sis. Yang

 

 

Tuesday morning we drove about 40 minutes to TaoYuan for the first zone conference.  We prepared all the food and ate with the young missionaries.  The American missionaries really liked the soft tacos.  I told someone I think it is an American comfort food.  As soon as all of the meat was gone, the young missionaries kept coming back and making rice and cheese tacos.  Some of those young missionaries have hollow legs I think, they ate a lot!  We planned for 70 people.  

Elder DeVictoria and I left after lunch and took a train and subway back to Taipei.  We both had pressing matters to take care of in the office so wanted to get back.  In the Subway we saw this blind accordionist.  Since I have been learning to play, we appreciated him earning money this way. 

On Wednesday morning we repeated the process of making the food for the Taipei zone conference.  This time we planned for 80 people.  Both times we also had pears, and in Taipei we also had watermelon.  I have to confess that we were exhausted at the end of the day.

On Thursday I had to send some government letters to Salt Lake to the church travel office so that they could apply for visas for the new president's family.  Their names hadn't shown up in the system, so both I and the person over travel had forgotten we needed them.  I quickly got them ready but then had a LOT of trouble trying to get them sent through Fedex.  The online forms were in Chinese, so I used my Google translate camera to go over each line, but still couldn't seem to get it right.  So finally someone suggested I go to the church offices across the street and ask their help.  The man who helped me ALSO had a hard time.  Right then a Fedex delivery man showed up and he tried to help, but even HE had a hard time!  Finally they got it figured out and the delivery man was able to take it right then.  After I got back to the office, I figured out that I could change the online page language to English, so I'm going to try it in English next time. I think a few of my gray hairs went white through this experience!

There is a church member here who seems to be mentally ill.  She is homeless, so hangs out at the chapel most of the time.  The church is usually open during the day because there are church offices there.  (Distribution center, the church's Taiwan country office etc)  She is a wonderful artist and tries to sell her art to make money.  She sold us this picture.

 Elder DeVictoria writing:

Yes it was an exhausting week with the zone conferences.  It was a lot of work for us to assist with preparing and serving all the food. We're not young and strong and agile anymore, we tire easily. The mission president explained that in this mission there are 8 zones and he decided to combine together the 8 zones in to only three larger "zone conferences" per transfer period. Then later each zone holds its own separate zone council meeting run by the zone leaders, once each transfer.  So, the zone conferences are larger than would perhaps be found in other missions.  A lunch is always provided, but it is usually a take-out style meal that is ordered and delivered, such as biandang (bento box), or pizza, etc.  But he tries to make a more enjoyable home-cooked deluxe meal (like the soft tacos) once in awhile, maybe two or three times a year.  The missionaries eat a lot of biandang bento boxes in their daily diet here, so they do get tired of them. They loved the soft tacos! 

Our Biandang bento box lunch today.

 

My regular mission office duties include reimbursing missionaries for various expenses, ordering replacement payment cards, doing the paperwork and computer processes for closing down apartments, etc.  It's not too difficult, the hard part is remembering each step.  These tasks are quite procedural, rule-based, accounting-ish. (Is that a word?)  These kinds of things aren't things I've loved doing in the past, but in retrospect I've done a lot of tasks like this in my old work life.  It is gratifying to serve the other missionaries.  

"And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

Mosiah 2:17

Home again, home again, jiggety jog

 Sister DeVictoria writing:

What a wonderful opportunity we had to return home for our son Daniel's wedding.  We love him and Noel and think they are perfect for each other.  The wedding was absolutely beautiful and was held at a nursery that has a wedding venue.  Flowers and plants everywhere.  Noel looked beautiful!  She had her dress made in Ukraine.  It really suited her.  She is pretty without the fancy clothes, but they just added to the effect.  :)

We felt so blessed and happy to see family and friends who came long distances to attend the wedding. Daniel's friends from California all came to be his best men.  Our two other sons, Joseph and Samuel were also his best men.

Our daughter Teresa was one of the bridesmaids.  She was such a big help to us throughout the weekend.

Two of our grandchildren

Even though it was a quick trip, we feel so blessed that we were able to go to the wedding.

A few hours before our flight back to Taiwan, I decided I should make a trip to instacare and see if they could do anything for my knee.  As I talked to the doctor, he became concerned that maybe I had a blood clot in my leg.  He asked me to go get an ultrasound.  We really didn't have time to do that, but we made time.  Elder DeVictoria went home and grabbed our luggage while I finished with the doctor.  The doctor gave me a steroid shot in the knee and tried to relieve some of fluid on my knee.  We quickly headed to the ultrasound place in American Fork.  I was so relieved when the technician told me she didn't see any clots.  Later the doctor called and confirmed that.  If there had been he would have wanted me to not fly back to Taiwan for a couple of weeks while I went on blood thinners.  Just as I expected, my problem was just tendonitis which I've had before.  The shot has helped though so I'm glad I went, even though we were tense wondering if we would make our flight okay.  We made it with time to spare.  Thank you everyone for your prayers in our behalf!

That is one long flight.....  The flight from SLC to LA was about 2 or 3 hours. Then the flight from LA to Taipei was 14 hours. 

We took the subway back to Taipei.  We sat in priority seating which is available to those who fit the sign below.  I had a knee brace on, so Elder DeVictoria said that I fit the picture with the cast.  He said he fit the picture with the big stomach.  ;)

At another place in the airport they had the following signs.  Elder DeVictoria said The first sign was a face washing station.  The last sign was a tickling station.  I told him the middle one must be a dating game with the host sitting in front and a curtain between the two people.  ;)

We have enjoyed eating at local places near our apartment.  Just down the street are several cafeteria style restaurants.  One is Vegetarian.

Right across the street is another restaurant with a big sign that says, "Eat meat".  Pretty good advertising!  lol

 

 

 We got back to town and rested a little bit then went straight to the office.  I had a matter I was concerned about resolving, and a lot of other things that needed to be done, so we went straight to work.  We have been helping with the food for mission leadership meetings.   We enjoy working in the office.

The young missionaries have been preparing for a special musical fireside that they will be performing in several places throughout the mission.  The concert is called "Love, share, invite".  Some have been given permission to bring musical instruments to the mission, and these are stored in the mission office.  We will get to hear their concert Sunday night here in Taipei.  

Elder DeVictoria writing:

What a whirlwind week!  Returning from Taiwan back to Utah for Danny's wedding, then back to Taiwan in 6 days time.  Danny and Noel's wedding was wonderful.  So well prepared and so nice and enjoyable.  We had just enough time to do some errands and the family dinner at Michelle and Kawika's house was great.  Our deepest thanks to everyone who supported us. 

 

Now we've got to perform all of the mission office couple tasks on our own.  It's a little daunting.  I think we will get through it.

It is really nice to back in Taiwan and to enjoy the culture here.  It's wonderful to see the young missionaries working so hard and having such success.  It seems there is a steady stream of baptisms occurring which is wonderful.  With each baptism, the missionaries post on the Line app (local social media) a brief introduction telling about their friend who is joining the church.  Also, the young missionaries are quite friendly towards us, which is nice for us.  

One interesting thing that happened to us during our travels is that a number of Chinese people approached us asking for help.  The Los Angeles airport is so confusing, it's no wonder these people were bewildered!  I think they saw our name tags in chinese, and came to us to ask for help.  For example, one approached us about finding the shuttle to the rental cars.  Another asked us to help her speak with the hotel where they were staying so they could find the transfer bus to take them there.  Another asked how to get to a certain terminal etc.  I think LAX needs to have chinese people stationed there to help all the chinese travelers.  

 

"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

 Hebrews 13:2

 

The Trials of Travel

 Sister DeVictoria writing:

This week started off our last few days of training before the previous office couple returned home from their mission.  It is a scary thought to not have them there to answer questions.  But we will just trust in the Lord to help us along the way.

Early in the week, the assistants to the president asked us if we would be able to take a Taiwanese sister to the train station that evening.  She was finishing her mission and was headed home to Kaohsiung.  We did get our international drivers licenses before going to Taiwan, so Elder DeVictoria agreed we would drive here there in the mission van.  We mapped out a route to the train station, but as we drove, we found that the map didn't account for one way streets!  We may have gotten a traffic ticket in the process; they have cameras at all intersections.  They would send it in the mail.  We struggled to even find where to park.  She had two heavy suitcases and we knew it would be difficult for her to get those to the train alone.  We finally found underground parking, but we still had to walk quite a ways to the train station.  We ended up getting her there late.  But she was told her ticket would still be good on another train if there was room.  We had trouble getting her suitcases to the gate, so she missed two more trains, but finally got on the last one.  Trains come every 10 minutes.  When she arrived in Kaohsiung, there were about 25 family members waiting for her!  Then Elder DeVictoria and I had a hard time finding our way back to the mission home, but finally were able to get our bearings.  We had to hustle because we were asked to start teaching the English Institute classes.  We were able to get back in time to get a quick dinner before heading to the chapel.  We prepared a lesson with a power point, but sadly no students showed up.  We will teach on Tuesday nights.

One of my favorite things to do in the office is prepare official documents to be used in registering missionaries with the government.  I get to use the official stamp on the letters.  Small thing, but it makes me happy.  lol  

On Wednesday morning Elder DeVictoria woke up at about 3:30 a.m.  He had some business to do with regards to financial affairs in the U.S. so he got up and made some calls.  He got showered, but then got drowsy so laid down to take a nap.  About that same time I got up and got myself ready for the day.  At 8:00, we suddenly felt an earthquake start!  Elder DeVictoria woke up from a sound sleep and yelled out, "Earthquake!"  I immediately went to the door frame and steadied myself there.  We were really rocking!  After the quake stopped, we quickly got ourselves ready and left the apartment.  Our apartment didn't suffer any damage, but I did hear a crash of metal during the quake.  Down the street from our apartment is a construction site that has a huge crane on top of the building.  I was afraid it had fallen, but it didn't.  But something fell because we saw emergency crews come to that site.  It turned out that in Taipei, it was a 4.4 earthquake, but at the epicenter in HuaLien it was a 7.4.  They sustained serious damage including two buildings that toppled, and a landslide.  On this map, Taipei is the top area circled, and HuaLien is the bottom circled area.  

Thankfully, none of the missionaries were harmed and only minor damage to their apartments.  One senior couple who are stationed in HuaLien had left early in the morning to come to Taipei to take care of some business.  As they arrived and parked their car, the earthquake started.  If they had delayed their trip, they could have been killed.  

Before we went to the MTC, our son told us they had scheduled their wedding for April 7th.  We told him that if he could arrange to have it before we left for Taiwan, we would give him the money we would have spent on airfare to come home from Taiwan for the wedding.  He said that this was the only time they could get the venue that they wanted.  I felt the Spirit tell me to just go with it, that everything would work out.  We were quite concerned because we needed to get our Alien Resident Card ARC before leaving Taiwan or we would have to reapply for a new visa.  Our scheduled flight was on Thursday, and we got the cards on Monday by the skin of our teeth.  

We left Thursday morning and took the subway to the airport.  We only had carryons, so it was actually a very convenient way to get to the airport.  We flew to Korea and had a layover there.

A woman came up to us in the airport and told us she is a member of the church.  We had a nice chat with her.  Then on the plane, we met her three sisters who were traveling on a tour with her.  We sat by a young man from Salt Lake who with his girlfriend had quit their jobs a year and a half previously and had been traveling all over Asia.  They were headed to Houston to watch the eclipse, then they planned to return to SLC and get jobs.  We also met a young man who told us he is a member.  We asked him if he had served a mission.  He said he is still trying to decide whether or not to do so.  I didn't want to pressure him, so just told him how fun it is to serve.  But later I wished I had expressed to him what an honor it is to serve the Lord and wear His name on our name tag.  I wish I could have expressed to him how life changing a mission can be.  

I've said it before, but I will say again that I absolutely hate the L.A. airport!  I wish I had worn a fitbit to see how many miles I walked there just trying to get to the gate.  While we were walking, we happened to pass a mainland Chinese woman who was jabbering away in Chinese to an airline pilot she had run in to.  It was obvious he didn't speak any Chinese, but was trying to help her.  We stopped and looked at each other and we both knew we had to help.  We offered to walk her to her gate.  But she insisted that she needed to go to a ticket counter and get a physical ticket.  We could not convince her that she had an electronic ticket.  So we finally showed her how to go out and explained that she would have to go through security again.  She was happy to do that because she was convinced she needed a paper ticket.  Her flight to BeiJing didn't leave until 11:30 p.m., so she had plenty of time.  We said goodbye and went on to walk the 50 miles to our gate......  Our son Daniel picked us up at the airport.  I think in all, our trip was 30 hours door to door.  But as I look back at our trip, despite the long tiring day, the interactions that we had with people along the way were very meaningful and the best part of the trip.

Last night we had a dinner for the two families of the wedding couple.  Elder DeVictoria's sister and brother in law offered to make the dinner and host us at their house.  That was a huge service for us which we greatly appreciate.  We had a wonderful time and enjoyed getting to know our daughter in law's family.  We really love her.  The food was excellent!

We can't wait to get back to Taiwan.  It was hard to leave, especially because the mission president had been asked to go to conference in Utah.  He has been called as an area seventy and needed to attend training.  It was hard to leave the missionaries, but our president's councilor said he would come stay in the office to be on hand to help.  I know it was especially hard for our mission president to not be present during the earthquake.  We use a communication app called "Line", and he asked for an immediate accounting of all missionaries.  I'm sure he was very worried to not be there during that time, but the Lord protected us all.  But we need to get back, we have a lot of work waiting for us.

Elder DeVictoria writing:

Well, our training is complete and we have to stand on our own two feet to perform all of the duties that are assigned to us.  I expect there are going to be some tasks that are going to be forgotten, then we will get a rude awakening when something doesn't get done.  We will do our best to remember all the steps and all the tasks of our roles in the mission.

This earthquake was really something.  I have never felt anything like it, and I grew up in California where I had felt a number of quakes in my life.  It was really powerful and it seemed like it lasted quite a long time.  An article said there were 40 recorded after shocks.  It seems like I felt every one of them; a tremor, a shaking.  Through this experience I can really imagine what a more serious earthquake that causes buildings to collapse would be like.  In fact, if this magnitude of earthquake continued for a longer period of time, like for 10 minutes or so, I'll bet a lot of buildings would have started to fall down. Magnitude is one thing, the duration is another.  Ever since it happened, it has continued to be on my mind.  If it doesn't happen again, I'm sure the memory will gradually fade.  They reported this was the largest earthquake in the last 25 years in Taiwan, but the previous earthquake of this magnitude killed over 2,000 people and caused a lot more damage.  So we were blessed.  In this case, in this instance, we were spared.

The flight home was pretty miserable, but just like in previous years of heavy travel back and forth to Asia, we just live with it and survive; grit our teeth and bear it.  

An interesting fact that came to my attention this week is that except for the local Taiwanese couples, all of the foreign senior missionary couples, both husband and wife, previously served as missionaries in Taiwan when they were young. We are the only ones assigned to the office.  All of the other senior missionary couples are assigned as MLS missionaries to specific wards.  

The family dinner with our future daughter in law's family was really nice.  It was such a pleasure to get to know her parents, brothers and sisters.  Really excellent people.  Our son is joining a really wonderful family.  We hope our daughter in law feels the same way about us.  

We caught most sessions of conference but not all during our visit back home.  There has been a lot of comings and goings of people related to Danny's wedding.  We've also had preparations for the dinner to take care of.  I haven't had time to really deeply digest the messages of this conference.  We will review it all again in the coming days and weeks.  

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."
Helaman 5:12

Building in HuaLien that tumbled.