Sister DeVictoria writing:
We are in the midst of typhoon season here in Taiwan. That might sound scary, but basically it just means we are getting a lot of rain. Up until now, Elder DeVictoria and I have been borrowing umbrellas from the office, and also one that we found left behind in an empty apartment. Many umbrellas get left behind in the office, so we just borrow them for the day. But the other day I bought a new one for myself.
We had a funny thing happen with an umbrella. The other day one of the assistants to the president was going out and needed an umbrella. There was a really nice one there so he asked who it belonged to. I said, "I don't know, we just borrow whatever is there." So he took it. After he left with the umbrella, the President was leaving to go somewhere and said, "Hey, where is my umbrella?" I had to tell him that I suggested the AP borrow it. lol He wasn't upset, he just grabbed another one. :) Separately, the other office elders had previously went to meet with someone and grabbed another nice umbrella from the office. After they finished teaching the woman, it started raining and she didn't have an umbrella so they let her borrow their borrowed one. At some point the stake president of our stake (Taipei North Stake) called our mission president and said, "Hey, I left my umbrella in your office when I met with you. Can I come get it?" The mission president said, "I don't know anything about it! I don't even know where it is!" Then this random woman buzzed the call box and said "I have an umbrella to return". Elder DeVictoria went downstairs and got it from her. A short time later, like within an hour, here came the stake president to retrieve his umbrella.....the very one the woman had borrowed. lol It was just a weird coincidence of timing. I decided to put a sticker on my umbrella with my name on it. lol
Yesterday a general authority of the church from the Asia Area Presidency came to release President and Sister Yang. When I came to the office in the morning, there was Pres. Yang busy cleaning up the office, so Elder DeVictoria and I joined in. He wanted to make sure it looked decent for the general authority. Pres. Yang has already been set apart at the last general conference time as an Area Seventy. I really wanted to say, (but I was good and didn't) "When you come back to visit us, do we have to clean up first for you too?" ;) He would have just laughed.
This week a senior missionary couple finished their mission. They are Taiwanese but have lived in Montreal, Canada for something like 30 years. This is their third mission. They served twice before, helping with member leader support in China. They said they will probably serve another mission. They are awesome. The President wanted to take them to lunch and invited all the other senior companionships to attend too, because he and his wife are also finishing their mission this month. So we all went to lunch at a really nice duck restaurant. I really learned to love duck when we were living in Wuhan. We used to have duck for holidays since we couldn't find turkey in China. This restaurant was really good.
Here is a panorama shot of our table, minus me because I was taking the picture. Sorry for the warped picture of Elder DeVictoria's face, I guess I moved the camera wrong. lol
Here are some pictures of the duck that we ate. It really was delicious!
Here is a fish that we had, it was also really delicious! Also a cabbage dish. There were about eight different dishes, I won't post pictures of everything. :)
But here is a final food picture that shows my lunch that I got at 7-11. It's a cold noodle dish with chicken, cucumbers, carrots, and a peanut sauce. Also some potstickers with soy sauce that the attendant heated up for me.
This is a picture I snapped during staff meeting. Elder DeVictoria and I are sitting behind the camera.
I also snapped a few pictures from our Zoom devotional today. Don't judge that I took a picture of the Elders praying. ;)
I wanted to tell about an experience I had this week. A young woman called the office and asked if she could go to our church. She began to cry over the phone and told me that she has had a lot of hard things happen in her life lately. She said that she has seen our missionaries going around and they appear to have a strength about them and she wondered if they could help her get that same strength to help her through her trials. I told her I would contact the missionaries in her area. I also told her that at the very least, they could pray with her. I told her that prayer can bring peace. I sent her info to the missionaries in her area. I followed up with them this morning and they said they have already had two discussions with her and have another planned! I think what she is feeling from them is the Spirit of God and she recognizes she needs that in her life.
Elder DeVictoria writing:
Our mission president has been released technically, but will continue serving as acting mission president under his calling and authority as an Area Seventy until the moment the new mission president arrives (in 3 weeks). I guess they wanted to handle things this way because of logistics. He said "the new mission president will be in charge the moment the wheels touch down at the airport". He reported that the general authority (Elder Johnson) who visited our office last night, reviewed the progress and success of the Taipei mission and commented that it appears this mission is at peak performance, with a higher rate of baptisms now than in the past 7 or 8 years, with everything functioning well and ready for the transition to a new mission president. This is a deep compliment to the mission president and the missionaries currently serving.
President Yang has explained to us in the office that his future role as an Area Seventy within the Asia Area will be to focus on serving the church in the following countries or territories: Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan. (The Philippines is it's own area, and the North Asia area is separate for Japan and Korea). He said they expect him to be in attendance at church meetings away from home for 3 out of every 4 weekends, it's a heavy traveling position. He also said the church gave him some choice of duties to focus on in his new role, one of which was "Audio Visual" development, which is right down his alley and that's what he chose. He said he will try to develop local vendors and infrastructure in each country to provide local audio-visual production resources within the Asia Area. I think he's quite suitable for this role because he is a very artistic person himself, and has been quite involved in translation of temple ceremonies into Chinese; he did a lot of "voice work" for the Mandarin temple ceremony; he's very familiar with the needs of the church in this regard. There are several dozen major languages within Asia with hundreds of millions of speakers, so there's a lot of work to do. Perhaps a next step will be to portray Asians visually in our temple ceremonies? It's interesting to think about. Currently the temple ceremony here in Taipei is presented visually with the actors who are white (or, whatever race they are?)... anyway it's the exact same visuals as in Utah and every other temple (I suppose) but with the presentation language in Mandarin, including the subtitles. Where am I going with this? I personally think the future is bright for the church in Asia and it wouldn't surprise me if the membership in Asia far surpasses those of North American or European descent. Especially during the millennium once that gets started any day now.
1 Nephi 21
6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
12 And then, O house of Israel, behold, these shall come from far; and lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.
13 Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; for the feet of those who are in the east shall be established; and break forth into singing, O mountains; for they shall be smitten no more; for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
No comments:
Post a Comment