Water, water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink

 Sister DeVictoria writing:

We had the most incredible thunderstorm this week!  We were working along in the office and suddenly it started POURING down!  Then suddenly we heard a huge CRACK of lightening that sounded like it struck something very close to the office!  We heard some other large and loud "cracks" that were also close to the office, but we kept wondering what that first big one hit!  Needless to say, I was happy I didn't have to go out for any reason!  After a while it all died down.

The other day we went to pick up some pictures from the photo studio.  The Immigration Office has tightened its requirements for photos and they are getting very picky.  They must meet the following criteria:  

--Well lighted white background

--The face must take up a large part of the frame (and proportioned just right)

--Both eyebrows and both ears must be showing

--The image must be different from the previous photo used if renewing the alien resident card.

I have been asking the missionaries to take photos of each other with their cell phones according to these guidelines.  Sometimes I have to edit the photos to brighten them or change the framing.  But so far they have accepted all of the ones that the missionaries have taken themselves.  It's working out.

While we were at the photo studio picking up some of the prints, I noticed the owner lean down and pet something.  I looked down and there was a huge tortoise!

 

He explained that this tortoise was put up for sale at an auction, but no one wanted to buy it.  Then the sellers just chucked it out.  So he went and got it.  He actually has two of them.  It just wanders around the store all day.  He feeds it vegetables.

We had our last staff meeting with President and Sister Yang before the new mission president arrives with his family next week.  It was kind of sad.  We will miss the Yang's.  I did crack my joke with them when I said, "You need to let us know when you are coming to visit so we can clean up first."  They both laughed.  Pres. Yang said he will work a regular shift in the temple after he returns home.  He said they never released him from when he served in the temple before, so he's going to start back up.

A new senior missionary couple arrived the other day, Elder and Sister Millington.  They will be serving in Hualien where the earthquake epicenter has been.  But our housing coordinator missionaries have found a new apartment for them that is sturdy and safe.  Just like us, both the Elder and the Sister served in Taiwan when they were young.  They are a little older than us and so served in Taiwan earlier than us, one in Taipei and the other in Kaohsiung. 

Some church physical facilities employees came to our mission office to look around, they are thinking about how to renovate and improve our office space.  I was thankful that we were there when they came so that we could put in our ideas.  One wanted to put up walls instead of the glass windows around the work desk space.  We told him that would make us feel like we were working in a cave.  We showed him how we can close and lock the sliding glass door so that we can have quiet and keep unwanted visitors out.  I had two suggestions.  One was to get us a bigger safe.  One was to help us organize the closet where we keep our flyers.  Oh, I also told them I really like sitting right below the air conditioner outlet. :)  Elder DeVictoria thinks we could use updated/higher quality and larger working surfaces at our desks.  They're old, worn and outdated; they weren't very high quality to begin with and kind of junky now.

This week a local couple who used to have our positions in the mission office took us out to lunch.  When we arrived at the restaurant there was another couple there who are members of the church, just finishing their lunch.  The two couples knew each other.  When I saw them, I could see they had a light about them.  I could just feel that they are good people.  They kept thanking us for our service.  Then right before they left they sneakily grabbed our bill and paid it too.  Taiwanese are such great hosts.

As we were returning to the office walking through the temple grounds after lunch, I snapped this picture of some flowers they have planted all around.

The other day we went to the cheap cafeteria style restaurant on the corner near the office, where we often eat.  As we were taking our food to the table, I suddenly heard a lady scream!  I whipped around in time to see one of the employees shoo something out the front door.  I'm kind of glad I didn't see what it was, but I'm thinking it might have been a large roach or maybe a mouse...

As I work in the office, missionaries often come in or contact me with problems they need help with.  I recognize that I need to give them my full attention.  I pray every day that I will be Christlike in my interactions with others and that I will be led by the Spirit to know what I should say and do.  My mission is not to go out and preach the gospel, but maybe I can still be of service to those around me.

Last night we went to the Shilin night market.  It was really hot and humid, but we stuck it out until we got some dinner.  I'm not sure what this building it, but it is near the night market.

Elder DeVictoria writing:

Five new missionaries arrived last night.  I can only use my imagination to appreciate what they were feeling upon arrival.  For such young and inexperienced 18-19 year olds, their first time leaving home, to go live in a foreign country, it's really a shock.  Culture shock.  And this is just the beginning.  I overheard one of them talking with an AP last night, she said her biggest concern is the language.  I would agree, for sure that is the biggest intellectual mountain to climb, the biggest immediate challenge to face.  To be effective they simply have to learn the Chinese language and this will take the greatest mental effort.  But there is also a whole world of differences to adapt to, differences of living standards and lifestyle, differences of culture, the diet, climate, housing, time schedule, on top of the language, there is just so much that has to be adjusted to. Then the work itself, teaching the gospel of our dear savior according to the pattern he has established for our day and time, it's incredible.  This is all just such a HUGE transition.  It permanently affected me, I was never the same after serving as a missionary in Taiwan. The shock of being forced to adapt is really monumental.  But it's a good thing.  It will be a special remembrance they can treasure for the rest of their lives (or look back with dread?) 

The one Elder went to stay at the AP and Office Elders apartment overnight, the four sisters came to our apartment to stay for the weekend. We have two extra bedrooms with twin beds in each room. Since our arrival we used one of the rooms as our "dressing room" with our luggage laying open on the beds, using them as our "dressers".  Now everything of ours has been collected into the master bedroom, and it's a little tight in there.  After the guests leave we'll probably move the luggage back to the other bedroom as before. The new missionaries have a whole weekend of orientation, instruction, and fun ahead of them.  Plus they have to deal with jet lag, that usually lasts about a week or so. 

On the second night of our guests stay, after a long day of orientation and adventures on the subway and to the night market etc, the sisters finally returned to our apartment and got ready for bed, and in the middle of one of them washing their hair in the shower at 10:30pm all of a sudden the water went out.  She had to use one of our jugs of emergency water to rinse the soap out of her hair.  I got up and heard the neighbor upstairs in the stairwell speaking to their next door neighbor, asking if they still had water?  They said they did.  I spoke up and said our apartment lost water.  So it seemed that one side of our building lost water.  We had to got along without water overnight and in the morning the same neighbors rang our doorbell asking again if we still didn't have water (we didn't). So we called around and arranged for Sister DeVictoria and one of the sister missionaries who hadn't showered last night, to go over to the mission presidents apartment to shower before church.  It all worked out in the end.  The water came back on around 10:30am.  

“In one of the most profound verses in all of scripture, Alma proclaims, “If ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?”… It is not surprising that some in the Church believe they can’t answer Alma’s question with a resounding yes.  They do not “feel so now.”  They feel they are in a spiritual drought.  Others are angry, hurt, or disillusioned.  If these descriptions apply to you, it is important to evaluate why you cannot “feel so now.” … For any whose lives are not in order, remember, it is never too late to make the Savior’s Atonement the foundation of our faith and lives. In the words of Isaiah, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” My sincere prayer is that each of us will take any necessary action to feel the Spirit now so we can sing the song of redeeming love with all our hearts.  I testify of the power of the Savior’s Atonement, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”  Elder Quentin L. Cook “Can Ye Feel so Now?” October 2012 General Conference