Sister DeVictoria writing:
It's surprising how fast time flies when you are our age. Our 23 month mission is already down to 21 months. I keep a chart in my journal that has a square for every month we will serve. I cross off each month that passes. I don't do this because I'm anxious to go home, but to remind myself how little time we have left. I remember when I was a young missionary the first year seemed to crawl by, but the last year flew by. Before I knew it I was going home.
I am constantly amazed at the help the Lord gives me in my duties. He reminds me of things that I have forgotten to do. For example, this morning I woke up really early and suddenly remembered that I hadn't sent the mission home address to the incoming missionaries. They will need that to go through immigration at the airport. Also, He prepares things ahead of time for me. For example, the other day I was looking at the missionary application of a young missionary who is scheduled to come here. I have to do this to get the home address to fill out the alien resident application. I was thinking about our own applications, so decided to pull up ours and just poke around looking at it. Right then Pres. Yang came in and I asked him about reserving a temple session for the departing missionaries. He asked me to call the temple right then and make the appointment. When I talked to the scheduling person at the temple, he asked for my membership record number. It just so happened that because I had been looking at our missionary application, I had my membership number right there in front of me on the screen. Another time Elder DeVictoria was talking to me and reached over and clicked on my "Teams" app. I didn't even know I had that! And there just happened to be an important message there that had recently arrived! One more example: I was looking through my top drawer of my desk to pull out all of the passport photos that were there. I happened to see a key ring with tons of business card sized cards on it. I got to looking at it and saw that it had addresses for places like Costco, Beauty shops and barbers, etc. as well as cards with simple phrases like "Where is the bathroom?" I recognized that it was probably used for the wife of a former mission president. The next day Pres. Yang came and asked the office Elders to make up a map showing the location of important places around this neighborhood that we could give to the new mission president and his wife, as part of their transition. I suddenly remembered the cards and brought them out! This will be a big help to the new mission leaders. I can't tell you how many times this kind of thing has happened! If this just happened once I could maybe write it off as coincidence, but this kind of thing has been happening all the time.
We are experiencing a phenomena that we have experienced in our Asia travels before. You know how people in America say, "All China-men look alike"? Well that is obviously ridiculous. But before when we have ever moved to Asia, or visited, there comes a time when we are walking down the street and we suddenly can't tell if the person walking towards us is Chinese or American. Elder DeVictoria came up with a code for us to use. Of course we can't tell secrets in Chinese like we do in America, and we can't speak in English because many, many people here speak English. So we just say to each other "YES or NO"...meaning "is that person a foreigner?" In addition, we sometimes see a Taiwanese person that looks like someone we know back home! Their Taiwanese doppelganger if you will.
Health update: My leg is SO much better! It's not 100%, but I am almost there. Thank you for your prayers. I also developed a skin rash on my arms that is a chronic thing that I usually get in warm weather, now it is also almost completely gone. I have a cold now, but this too shall pass. Thanks again for your prayers on our behalf.
Every time we walk to or from the church (about 50 feet from our front door) I see plumeria blossoms on the ground. I have never seen a plumeria tree before, so didn't know where they were coming from. Then one day we happened to see blossoms at the very tip top of a tree. These trees are planted all over the chapel and temple grounds. My Dad loved plumeria which are used in making leis in Hawaii. They smell heavenly. A woman I met on the street said in Taiwan they call it the chicken egg flower. Not sure if it is the shape of the blossoms or the color that remind them of an egg.
I had to go to the immigration office this week. I saw this tree, but don't know the name of it. But I thought it was interesting. Banyan maybe?
Because it had an escalator, I went out a subway exit that I don't normally use. I had to walk past this old city gate.
I am part of a Facebook group that is for missionaries from my first mission. This week one of them sent me this picture of when I was a teacher at the MTC. Paul and I were newly married. I don't know what the event was that had Paul in attendance, but wow we were young!
Elder DeVictoria writing:
Today (Saturday) is our preparation day but we have some duties to fulfill in the office at 10:30am because yesterday evening 2 new missionaries arrived at the airport, they were picked up by the mission president and his wife and the assistants. They have stayed overnight in temple patron housing (men stay on 3rd floor and women on 2nd floor, the office is on 4th floor). This morning they go to a local park to play frisbee with the office elders, and then try some local breakfast items. Then the new missionaries will receive their "office orientation" that I will give, and Sister DeVictoria also has a form for them to fill out and she will take their passports for safekeeping in the office. We are allotted 1.5 hrs with them. I will explain their interface with mission finances and their monthly Missionary Support Fund (MSF) budget; how to get their cash from ATMs; reimbursement procedure for travel and other expenses; the bedding situation, laundry and house cleaning expectations; and bicycle safety. They are also supposed to pay for their bikes today, in cash. Later in the day the office elders and assistants will train them on their cell phones, and the area book, and the Line app -- there is a long list of things for them to do today. Transfer day is on Monday, when they will meet their companions and find out where exactly they are going to start their service; they will take their new bikes with them when they go to their areas.
Every young missionary in this mission has a bicycle (just as when we served here 42 years ago). Now the bikes are made-to-order for the missionaries at a bike factory in Taichung. Here is a picture of our mission bikes storage area (for the new bikes) in the basement of the church building across the street from the office. The new bikes are made-to-order according to the height of the missionary and cost 9200NTD (~$285USD) and used bikes that are rebuilt by the factory cost 3000NTD (~$93USD). In this picture it shows there are now about 10 rebuilt bikes, and there are 2 brand new bikes in the front; the women's bikes are on the left side and men's bikes on the right.
FYI the missionaries serving in this mission are mostly from USA (about 80%) and the rest are from other countries like Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, etc and the local Taiwanese missionaries are about 10% of those serving, but of course all these numbers and ratios fluctuate with time. I think the ratio of elders to sisters serving is about 75%/25% roughly. There are some large groups of new missionaries scheduled to arrive later this year, up to 14 in a group arriving in September, and another in October. Sister DeVictoria prints out their pictures with their name and date of arrival and puts it up on the arrival board as they show up in the system each day. It's exciting to see the new missionary calls show up one by one in the system.
We had a baptism in the Taipei English ward 2 weeks ago, then another last night, and there will be another baptism this Sunday after church. I have been asked to speak about the Holy Ghost. The man baptized 2 weeks ago is from Australia, the woman baptized last night is from Myanmar, the brother being baptized tomorrow is (I think) from India. These are all young adult-age people who are in Taiwan as students. There is also a steady pace of Taiwanese people joining the church in this mission, I think over 60 since the beginning of the year.
I attended a zoom meeting devotional for the Asia Area employees of the church, and they invited certain missionaries like me who are involved with finance, to attend. The presiding bishop Elder Clause spoke. He made a number of very interesting comments. Such as: The church is transitioning from a historic practice of frugality and conservative management (to be so very careful to run the church on as little expenses as possible) to a new era where much bigger spending will occur for the sake of growth and for "Spiritual Dividends". There are 12 big prophetic initiatives that have recently been approved (and budgeted/funded) by the first presidency and quorum of 12 apostles. The first is obviously Temples. Others include YSA programs/facilities/events, also FSY events, and a big one is young adult education throughout the world ie. the BYU Pathways program (especially in Africa and the Philippines). The decision making and management authority for running the church will become more devolved from Salt Lake City to each Area organization, it will become more and more decentralization as time goes on.
On the lighter side, this week I cut my chin shaving. I wasn't paying attention (I think I was thinking about something from the Book of Mormon and letting my imagination run wild) and I mistakenly manipulated the razor the wrong way. So for the last 2 days I didn't shave in order to let that spot heal. I'll shave this morning before going in to the office. Hope I don't cut myself again.
"We should not underestimate or overlook the power of the Lord's tender mercies. The simpleness, the sweetness, and the constancy of the tender mercies of the Lord will do much to fortify and protect us in the troubled times in which we do now and will yet live...I testify that the tender mercies of the Lord are
available to all of us and that the Redeemer of Israel is eager to
bestow such gifts upon us." Elder David A. Bednar (The Tender mercies of the Lord April conference 2005)
That’s pretty cool about the promptings you receive to remind you of things. I’ve had that happen to me also & it’s amazing to me every time! ♥️♥️. Love you both- Marlene
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