Sister DeVictoria writing:
I gotta admit that this has been an exhausting couple of weeks. It could be a combination of having a lot to do, and not getting enough sleep. We also have had a lot going on for the past few weeks on our Pday, so we haven't been able to rest as much. We have one sister that needs to go home a little earlier than planned because of a family situation, so I needed to have her flight plans changed. She needs to leave within a week or so from now. In order to do that, I needed to stay up until 11:00 last night to call the church travel office at Salt Lake City. I thought they would be open by 8:00 a.m., (10:00 p.m. Taiwan time) but they didn't open until 9:00 a.m. (11:00 pm Taipei time). So we are dragging today, but I'm so thankful the flight plans are made and she will be able to leave on time!
We started off this week speaking in church. There is a non-member friend who comes to church every week and she took this picture of me while I was speaking. I really think that in the future they should ask Elder DeVictoria to speak first because he always gets cheated on time when I speak first. I plan out my talk, and time it, but in real life I seem to always go a little over my allotted time.
Our Pday is on Saturdays but we had so much to do that we really didn't get much preparation time. We went to the office to help get things started for the Whiteley's residency permits. Then we did a temple session. Then the Taipei stakes here had a going away party for the Yangs / welcome party for the Whiteleys. The office Elders prepared a video of the young missionaries saying goodbye. Three missionaries performed a musical number; the two office elders played the violin and a sister sang. Pres. and Sister Yang took one look at them and the tears came. I took one look at the Yangs and the tears came. Then the Yangs spoke...more tears all around. You know, sacrificing three years of your life really is a big deal!
One night this week we went to our favorite "13 Burger". It is just so good, and every time we walk away from the restaurant we find ourselves saying out loud "That was so good!" I told the owner that he hit another home run. YUM!
A funny thing happened at lunch this week. We went to the cafeteria style restaurant and were sitting at a counter that has a big mirror on it. I happened to see a guy behind me (in the mirror) who was wearing a special mask to eat this food. He conveniently cut away the mouth part of the mask so that he could eat. I HAD to take a picture (look closely!)
The girl who cleans our office told me today that there is another COVID variant from China that everyone is worried about. That's probably why he had a mask.... Wouldn't want any of those mosquitos getting through the chain link fence...
On Tuesday the Whiteleys held a "Get to know the Whiteleys" for all the missionaries. They each introduced themselves. Then they had us play a Jeopardy game where the questions were all about what they told us about themselves. The winners all got a prize that was to get treateed to a mango shaved ice. Then the Whiteleys had the missionaries participate in some team building games. They played one where they would say something like, "There are 5 ants sitting on a log and they all have the same color shoes". Everyone would have to find a group that had no more than 5 who were all wearing the same color shoes. Then they would sit down and act like they were ants on a log. It was a pretty fun game.
We are supposed to teach the English institute class tonight, but I think we might have some competition with a game night that is going on, so we will see if anyone comes. The Chinese institute class always meets together beforehand to have a pot luck meal and play games before institute. But we haven't had enough people attend our class for them to do that. We substituted for the Chinese institute this week and I have to admit that it was a challenge for us! There were so many quotes in Chinese, which we can't read. I made a power point presentation with the quotes. Each slide was numbered. I printed out the English version of the lesson and highlighted all of the quotes and numbered them according to the slides. Then we just had the students read them. I think the class went pretty well, but it was stressful for us!
Today during our Pday we went on an expedition to shop for some items Elder DeVictoria wanted (spices ofr Indian cooking). We took the subway. I snapped a picture of the crowds changing trains. I also found a picture I took awhile ago of a decoration in the subway. It is really cool
Most people here live in apartments without a yard. They grow a lot of plants in pots out by their front door. I particularly love to go down these little lanes that have pots of plants all around. They are narrow little lanes, too small for cars. I think they are so pretty.
I'm thankful we get a Sabbath tomorrow. I really need a day of rest. Not just a rest from work, but a rest from the world. That is the blessing of the Sabbath.
Elder DeVictoria writing:
We got through the institute lesson somehow. It's just a little difficult for us, doing it live in front of an audience, in Chinese. The lesson material was from Pres. Nelson's talk, "Choices for Eternity". There is now a large delegation of students from BYU who are here in Taipei for the summer to learn Mandarin. Most of them already speak some Mandarin pretty well because they were missionaries speaking Mandarin somewhere in the world. There were about 20 Taiwanese students and about 12 BYU Students at the class. What a relief to be done with it. Then this morning (Sunday morning) we got a message from the institute director, he said the feedback was really great, and they want us to teach again "Will you substitute again this coming Tuesday?" He said the students expressed an interest in Sister DeVictoria and I telling about how we met, and our advice how to date, and how to find an eternal partner etc. Basically, they want dating advice or inspiration. So, now we have to prepare another lesson along those lines. It's easy enough to talk about ourselves but we need to make it relevant to them. We've got our work cut out for us. The institute director made this poster today, advertising the class (he's going to send it out to the students through social media):
We sat in on a missionary discussion today after church, the elders were teaching a young man from Indonesia who has been attending our ward for some time. I think this young man likes the social interaction he gets at church, but I don't think he understands the Gospel. He is learning very slowly. There seems to be some language and comprehension issues. He acts like he understands everything we're saying in English, but by slowing down and really asking him careful questions, it becomes clear that he really doesn't understand much.
During the week I got invited out to lunch from a Taiwanese member of the ward, Simon Lee. He is a single man about my age. He previously lived in North Carolina for 11 years. He invited me to lunch at a hotel associated with the Taiwan military, the "heroes" hotel, in downtown Taipei. That's when I found out he had been in the Taiwan army, he was a career Army officer, now retired. That was fun for me to talk to him for several hours. We walked around that neighborhood and he showed me all the government buildings. He pointed to a big sign on the wall of the restaurant written in big calligraphic letters that said, "Little oil, little salt, watch your health, live a long life". He read the characters out to me and we discussed it. He said, "In Taiwan everyone is worried about their health." And he added, "really, they are afraid of death." So if they are writing big calligraphy things on the wall of the restaurant about reducing salt and oil in their diet, this really is a genuine societal "thing" going on. As I suspected. He agreed with me that the food in Taiwan is a little bit milder than the cuisine in China. One interesting thing we talked about after lunch, was the issue of China/Taiwan relations. Obviously that's not a subject that gets discussed at church. I mentioned the old slogans "Take back the mainland", and "Strike back at the Communist Thieves" (etc etc) that I remembered being plastered everywhere during my first mission. He nodded and agreed "Yes, that's how it used to be. Now we don't talk like that anymore." I said, "I wonder if the mainland actually ever went through another struggle or serious internal revolution, couldn't Taiwan lead the way politically to help them get a better system going over there?" He said, "I don't know" but went on to say "about 70% of people in Taiwan do lie awake at night worrying about the China - Taiwan relations and the possibility of war, etc. But they don't show it publicly. They don't talk about it in the open."
Sister DeVictoria is right, we have been extremely busy these past few weeks. Starting off with the last transfer, then getting ready for the transition from the old mission president to the new president, then dealing with things during the first week of the new president's arrival, it's just really been hectic and kind of stressful. So, we feel a little tired this weekend. Today we fasted and prayed for more physical strength.
Isaiah 58:13,14
If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
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