Stay In The Boat

Sister DeVictoria writing:

I got a sad call at the office.  A young woman called and said a few years back she attended our English classes and the missionaries had taught and baptized her and now she wants her name removed from church records.  She asked me how she could do that.  I told her she could just stop attending.  She specifically asked if that would remove her name.  I told her no, but if she didn't want to attend she could just stop coming.  She insisted that her name be removed.  I told her I would try to find the right person to help her with that, but I explained it is a very serious matter.  After she hung up I discussed it with Sister Whiteley and she said we cannot contact her local church leader for her, the person would need to contact the local Stake President herself.  A few minutes later the girl called back.  She explained that after she joined the church, she had a bad fall at the chapel and injured herself quite seriously.  She said that because of this injury she is not able to do physical labor.  Her friends, who are Buddhist, said that she is being cursed because of joining our church, and that she needs to quickly remove her name from our records to get out from being cursed!  I probably didn't sound particularly soothing when I told her this isn't true and it doesn't make sense.  I said I've been in the church all my life and I know I haven't been cursed by being a member.  I asked, do you really believe that if you leave the church you will never again be injured?  She said she does believe that!  I told her it just isn't true.  But I did look up and give her the phone number of her Stake President and told her to make sure to tell him the whole story when she speaks to him.  I am sure the Stake President will be guided by the Spirit to know how to speak with her.

Our son Samuel came to visit us in Taiwan this week for his annual paid vacation.  We can't spent all of our time with him because of our mission duties, but we have tried to spend as much time as possible together.  He arrived early Sunday morning. He made his way from the airport to our apartment by himself on the subway system, he arrived here by 7am.  Later that afternoon we went together to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall for a stroll.  We were carrying umbrellas, but even with that little bit of shade it was unbearably hot!!  It is a beautiful place though.

 

 

Sam is very brave and has been going out exploring on his own.  In the evenings we have gone with Sam to a couple of different night markets.  One was the Shilin night market and the other was Raohe night market.  At the Shilin night market we found a Tepanyaki (tieban) restaurant. We were celebrating my birthday.  It was really good, a nice way to celebrate!  We also found a store with what seemed like a million different little things for sale.  We had fun rummaging around looking at everything.  

The Shilin night market has a small Buddhist temple inside.  

 

The Raohe night market has a huge Buddhist temple lighted up right next to the front gate.

 You can tell Sam is experiencing jet lag in this photo.

One day Sam took the subway north as far as it would go, to Danshui on the north coast of Taiwan.  He said it was also very hot there.  One day he decided to travel down to the south of Taiwan, he took the high speed train to Kaohsiung and stayed in a nice hotel.  I do think that his travels here are easier for him in this Chinese speaking environment since he lived with us in China for awhile when we lived in Wuhan. 

We've had a general authority here on a mission tour this week, Elder Teh, and his wife.  One night he invited all of the senior couples to go out to dinner.  We managed to squeeze 16 people around this table!

 

Elder DeVictoria writing:

We love seeing Sam again.  It's fun to share the excitement of a new visitor to Taiwan.  He's already somewhat accustomed to how things are over here in Asia and can get around pretty well. And like he says, there's always Google Translate. Sam was originally thinking of taking a side trip to Japan for a couple days, but there's a big typhoon hitting Japan right now and he decided not to go. Here's a short video about it that Sam found.

It's interesting that at the very same time Sam is here visiting us in Taiwan, our other son Joseph is on a 2+ week business trip in South Korea. I know they work long hours in Korea but he said when he had time off on the weekends he went in to Seoul to look around.  I know from personal experience how good the food is in Korea (it's excellent -- in my opinion). I've been to Korea about a dozen times, maybe more, and I like Korea a lot.  Japan is pretty nice too, but it's a much different culture.  I've been to Japan only 4 or 5 times, on various business trips over the years.  Taiwan in many ways is like being at home, for us.

 

 

“Brothers and sisters, stay in the boat, use your life jackets, and hold on with both hands. Avoid distractions! And if any one of you have fallen out of the boat, we will seek you, find you, minister to you, and pull you safely back onto the Old Ship Zion, where God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are at the helm and will guide us right, to which I humbly testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”

Spiritual Momentum

Sister DeVictoria writing:

It's been another busy week.  We had zone conferences this week.  There are 4 zone conferences held within every 6-week transfer period.  Elder DeVictoria and I ordered the food for two of those conferences (pizza from Dominoes) and set up for the meals.  We also bought sodas and fresh fruit to serve.  We recently found a really convenient fruit store that has good quality and is not far away.  We have been buying fruit for ourselves there, too.  I have really enjoyed the mangoes this season!  Recently the plums have been so sweet and delicious!

I ran across this little fellow while I was waiting for Elder DeVictoria outside our apartment.

I have been thinking a lot about my own conversion.  I grew up in the church and was taught the gospel by my parents.  I was thinking about how easily I believed their teachings because I saw the fruit of the gospel in their lives.  I trusted them implicitly.  But I still needed my own conversion experience.  I was told by teachers that I needed to pray and ask God if this church was His true church, and if the Book of Mormon was true.  I remember when I was a teenager, several times I knelt and prayed to know these things for myself.  I prayed and waited.  Nothing.  I chalked up my non-answer to my own lack of faith.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I did think that there would be some kind of transformative experience.  I did believe the church was true, so I kind of let it go.  

Then when I was about 20 years old someone at church said, "I bet you go on a mission."  I told her that I was not the missionary type.  The only sister missionaries I had ever seen were at least 30 or older!  They were lady-like and mature...so much unlike me.  But that thought planted itself in my mind, and I started to feel a desire to serve, and I had a feeling that this was what I should do.  At the same time I began to feel it was meant to be for me that I should serve a Chinese speaking mission.  I began to pray for this with all of the faith that I had.  When I was called to serve in Taiwan, I was so grateful!

After I had been in Taiwan for about 7 months I got a companion who really tore down my faith.  She constantly said things like, "I don't believe the spirit leads us to people, I think it's all coincidence", or "I don't believe our mission calls are inspired, I think I was meant to serve somewhere else where I could learn a romance language to help with my singing career."  This really wore on my faith.  Also, we were asking people to pray to know if the Book of Mormon was true, to get an answer, when I myself had never had that kind of experience.  Then I was given a new companion who was a breath of fresh air.  She was full of faith and that gave me time to think, and I remembered that I had many experiences of feeling the Spirit in my life.  I had felt the Spirit when missionaries taught my friends in our home.  I felt the Spirit when I listened to talks or lessons.  I realized that I already had a testimony, but it came to me in a different way.

I think of my testimony kind of like a bucket.  Each time I felt the Spirit, it was like adding a little bit of testimony to my bucket.  Each time I read the scriptures, or took the sacrament, it added a little to my bucket.  My testimony didn't come in one fell swoop, but in portions a little at a time.  I think this is common for people who grow up in the church.  Add to those moments all of the answers to prayers and miracles I have seen, and my bucket is now full.  But I've also seen people join the church or serve missions, then fall away.  They forgot that just like a bucket of water that can evaporate, a testimony will dwindle if it isn't constantly added to.  A testimony has to be nurtured.  It occurs to me that we can always add to other people's testimony buckets too!

Last Saturday we went to the temple.  Then afterward we went to go search for some craft supplies that I wanted.  Taking the subway to Beimen station and then walking a ways, after a little searching we did find a place near a HUGE cloth market.  I'm happy to know where to go in the future when I need supplies. 

We came upon this strange street vendor selling paintings on the sidewalk outside the subway station, with 10 dogs and a PRC flag.  I had to wonder how many people would be daring enough to get past his gauntlet of dogs to buy the paintings.   

My body likes to get tendonitis in different places.  Now it has decided to settle in my left thumb.  I bought a thumb brace and wore it all week, it has helped but it's not totally cured yet.  Surprisingly I was able to play the organ on Sunday without any problem.  Then I was asked to play the "As Sisters in Zion / Army of Helaman" FSY medley (long version) for one of the zone conferences.  I only had a couple days notice, so only practiced for about 1-1/2 hours total, but was able to play.  I did make mistakes which is unfortunate because they were recording it!  But I'm thankful my thumb didn't interfere.  I also played the piano for a baptism on Thursday night. 

One evening we went to a bakery and saw these cakes for sale in a display case, designed to look like fish heads.  Doesn't that just make your mouth water?  ;)  

Elder DeVictoria writing:

Yeah, those cakes made to look like fish heads are amazing.  I'll bet those aren't real ice cubes either, they're probably made of sugar.  You better believe these do make some Taiwanese mouths water.  

I'll never forget on a business trip to Taiwan years ago I went out to dinner with the local sales representative office staff in Taipei, and "Fish Head Soup" happened to be available on the menu.  I must have commented about it, because to Americans this dish is just the epitome of inedible food (it's even a cliche with a humorous song about it), but they all decided to order a big pot of it including a portion for me.  I couldn't deal with my fish head and so there it sat in the pot untouched, when one of the Taiwanese ladies in the group begged me for it.  She devouring about 3 or 4 fish heads (they were a little smaller size than shown here), she said it was her favorite food, she's eaten them since she was a child.  When she finished there was a pile of fish bones in front of her completely cleaned of all meat and flesh and skin and everything else.  Just the bones remained.  So that's how they're eaten.  Unforgettable. 

This week I started getting tooth pain.  I first noticed it after drinking a slurpee from 7-11 on a hot day, and all my teeth were super sensitive to the cold and my whole mouth ached (plus brain freeze).  That went away but some tooth pain seemed to come back again especially at night or in the morning.  Seems like it came and went all week long. And it became more localized on my left side, both top and bottom rows of teeth.  I finally went to the dentist on Friday and he poked around inspecting my teeth and took a whole mouth x-ray, he said they look pretty good, even the gums, but by tapping on each tooth he diagnosed that I had one tooth on the upper left (a molar) with a large filling, that is the most sensitive tooth.  He said to solve the problem I need to get a root canal of that tooth. They scheduled me for a root canal next Tuesday.  Well, last night I woke up in the middle of the night with a lot of pain, but only coming from the bottom left row of teeth.  Now I'm starting to figure out what I think is happening.  I must be grinding my teeth really hard in the night.  My dentist in Utah had told me before that I definitely do grind my teeth, he said it clearly shows on the tops of my teeth, and he wanted to fit me with a mouth guard thingy to wear at night.  I refused.  That was over a year ago, maybe longer.  Now I'm paying the price.  I think my unconscious grinding in the night is irritating or enflaming or pressuring the entire row of teeth and gums and bone on the lower left side.  I don't know what to say about the upper left molar tooth that is also sensitive, and for sure right now I can't chew anything strongly on the left side because of pain on both top and bottom.  But now I'm thinking, maybe I can put off the root canal until after I get my Taiwanese national health insurance coverage in about a month, which would save me quite a few hundred dollars out of pocket expense.  I'll ask the dentist what he thinks.  Probably at a minimum I'll need to get a mouth guard right away.

Samuel is coming here to Taipei to visit us on his vacation, arriving Sunday morning.  Can't wait to see him again.  He said he might make a side trip up to Japan for some days.  At the same time Joseph is on a job assignment in Korea for all this last week and through next week.  Four of us DeVictoria's all in Asia at the same time.  That's weird, what a coincidence.  I love my kids, so pleased with each one of them.

"We have never needed positive spiritual momentum more than we do now, to counteract the speed with which evil and the darker signs of the times are intensifying.  Positive spiritual momentum will keep us moving forward amid the fear and uncertainty created by pandemics, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and armed hostilities.  Spiritual momentum can help us withstand the relentless, wicked attacks of the adversary and thwart his efforts to erode our personal spiritual foundation."  President Russell M. Nelson

Let Your Light So Shine

 Sister DeVictoria writing:

Last Saturday the Relief Society President asked if I could teach Relief Society the next day.  They just called a new teacher but her child was sick.  The Relief Society president had spent most of the week in the hospital with a sister who had surgery for breast cancer.  So I was happy to help out.  The lesson was based on the talk "Be Still and Know that I am God" from last General conference.  We attend the English ward, so I didn't have to teach in Chinese

On Monday I had to go to Immigration but couldn't go until the afternoon because I was waiting for a passport photo to be printed so that I could use it for the application.  I got there at about 1:30 and was given the queue number 258.  I looked at the board and saw that they were only on #160.  I had to wait three hours just to get to a service window.  But the two applications couldn't wait any longer because they were time sensitive, so I just read a digital book and dinked around on my phone for 3 hours.  With travel, the whole trip took 4 hours.  It was kind of exhausting.  I took this picture but noticed that my eyes were closed.  But actually, this is probably more true to how I was feeling.

I'm borrowing a photo from the Whiteleys because I love it so much.  This is a photo they took at Shilin Night Market. The three sister missionaries in this photo had just arrived in Taiwan about 2 hours before this was taken. Look closely, the three of them are on the right facing away from the camera. Culture Shock!

I also ran across this old photo of the mission home from when I was a young missionary.  This building was where the Taipei Temple now is located.  Not long after I arrived, the church purchased the office building we are now in.

On Tuesday I had to go back to Immigration again.  I had planned to do the one application the day before, but the missionary was a day late arriving in Taiwan, so I couldn't do it the same day as the other two.  But this time I got smart and went first thing in the morning.  I was in and out in about 1/2 an hour!  Such bliss!!  

Last night the office Elders asked if we would be willing to attend a virtual discussion with one of their investigators.  We have attended his discussions live before.  We were happy to help.  It always makes us feel more like real missionaries.  :)  This young man has been going through some trials and needs all the spiritual support he can get.  He is from Indonesia. 

I wanted to mention that awhile back one of the Elders was talking to a non-member about the gospel.  When he was talking, he was literally glowing with the Spirit.  I remember teachers in church telling me that people can see a light about members of the church, but I never really believed it.  But as I have matured spiritually, I have come to see that light for myself.  It kind of always takes me by surprise.  It is a testament to the goodness of these missionaries.

On Wednesday I made a trip to reserve a certain restaurant for the missionaries who are going home in September.  We actually have two separate appointments because the groups aren't leaving on the same day.  I also went ahead and scheduled for October.  This is an all-you-can-eat restaurant that the missionaries love.  While I was walking to the restaurant it starting raining like crazy!  The wind was blowing so strong and the rain was pouring down.  All the people I saw were waiting under awnings or roofs til it blew over.  I waited under a roof too because I didn't want my umbrella to get broken in the wind.  I took a small 20-seconds video that I will try to insert.

 

 

While I was walking in the Subway I ran across an art exhibit.  I saw this drawing and snapped a picture.  I was confused because the clothing looked like the clothing only an Emperor would wear, but I could tell the person was a woman.  I asked one of our senior missionaries.  She said this woman is a Chinese opera star.  In Chinese opera many women play the part of men, and this woman is one of the most famous. It was behind glass, and there is a little glare from a sign behind me (sorry) but I enjoyed seeing it and all the other drawings on display.  

Elder DeVictoria writing:

 

I too was in the subway station and saw this public notice on the wall, I thought it was interesting.  Taiwanese are pretty polite and sensitive to the needs of others, for the most part.  There's pretty strong social pressure here to behave within certain bounds.

We had a couple more earthquakes this week.  Each one is startling and emphasizes the point that we are powerless over the elements and the behavior of the earth and for that matter, political and social upheavals too, like war or economic disasters, etc.  All we can do is be personally prepared, especially spiritually and morally.  I don't want the building falling down on top of me while I'm unclean.  That's why I'm trying to repent constantly.  I often think to myself, "am I prepared to die at this time?"  I don't have a death wish, I would really like to witness and make it through all the events of the return of Jesus Christ to the earth...  I don't want to die, but I do want to be prepared for it.

 

 “As evil increases in the world, there is a compensatory spiritual power for the righteous. As the world slides from its spiritual moorings, the Lord prepares the way for those who seek Him, offering them greater assurance, greater confirmation, and greater confidence in the spiritual direction they are traveling. The gift of the Holy Ghost becomes a brighter light in the emerging twilight.” Elder Neil L. Anderson

Random Chance or Divine Arrangement?

 Sister DeVictoria writing:

Something really interesting happened to us.  We were trying to find a place to eat dinner so started walking toward a place we had seen that sells hamburgers.  When we got there we found that place seems to be closed permanently, so we decided to keep walking down the street to an area we had never been.  We were just hoping we could find a good place to eat as we walked along.  Eventually we came across a ramen restaurant, so decided rather than keep walking we would just eat there.  When we got inside, the guy behind the counter immediately commented on our name tags and asked if we were members of the "Mormon" church.  Elder DeVictoria told him that we are missionaries.  He said, "But you are old, how can you be missionaries?"  Elder DeVictoria explained that we served missions here when we were young, 42 years ago, and now we are serving again.  We agreed, "Yes, we are old."  He said, "Well, I'm over 60."  We told him we are too!  Then the guy said, "Do you know President Hyer?"  I said, "Yes, he was my mission president!"  He said, "Then you should know me.  I was in the Taipei 2nd ward."  I said, "Oh, I was in the Taipei First ward."  But then the more we talked, the more he revealed. At one point we went to our table and I told Elder DeVictoria that there was something about the man that was familiar.  So Elder D. got up and told him what I said.  Then he explained that he had served a 3 month mini-mission in Yilan.  I told him that I also served in Yilan!  Memories started flooding back.  I remembered a part-time missionary who had moved to Yilan right before I went home.  The more I thought about it, the more sure I was that it was him.  I asked him his name, he said "Hsu" and when he told me his name I KNEW it was him.  I don't think he is active in the church now.  We talked for quite awhile.  He remembered the name of the Elder who baptized him.  I told him that I am in a group with that Elder on Facebook, and encouraged him to join our group.  The more I looked at him, the more memories came back.  Pulling out the memories was like dragging pieces of a puzzle out of playdough.  The memories are in there, just so far back that they are hard to recall.  I pulled up a picture of myself from back when I was getting ready to board the train to leave Yilan, and showed it to him (here is the photo)

Then he recognized me!  I said, "I remember you!" and he said, "I remember YOU!"  Life is just weird sometimes.  I mean what are the odds of us meeting?  I normally wouldn't have walked that far to find a restaurant.  I had never been to that part of the neighborhood before, and had no real reason to go there.  It was so random.  We happened upon the one restaurant where an employee was someone I knew from way back in the winter of 1984.  Is this just a coincidence?  I've had too many of these kinds of experiences to think it was just coincidence.

This week I have been busy applying for residency cards for new missionaries, and I will reapply for a group of missionaries that has been here one year.  I knew it would be a long wait in Immigration when I got my queue number 220 and looked at the board and saw they were on number 160.  Including travel it took me about 2 1/2 hours.  But thankfully I can take the subway which is SO convenient.

Today is Tuesday.  Elder DeVictoria and I breathed a sigh of relief tonight when we realized we don't have to teach Tuesday night Institute any more!  We did love meeting all of the students and laughing with them, but teaching deep subjects in Chinese is so stressful!

There is a guy who calls the mission office almost every day.  When I answer the phone he says, "Are you an Elder or a Sister"  (I have a deep voice).  I tell him Sister.  Then he asks if I am an American, to which I reply yes.  Then he asks to speak with one of the Elders, or he asks me what time church starts.  The other day he asked to speak with an Elder so I asked one sitting near me if he would talk to him.  He didn't want to because this guy calls all the time with nothing to say!  Today when he asked me for the umpteenth time what time church starts I said, "I have already told you before."  So he said, "Okay, I'll go to church tomorrow goodbye."  I keep getting calls from someone who immediately hangs up when I answer.  I suspect it might be him.

We had a wonderful baptism on Sunday.  Our office Elders had posted on a "Foreigners in Taiwan" group on Facebook, asking if anyone would like to talk with them.  One woman called them up.  She is married to a man who is a member, and they have been going to church together for years, but she never got baptized.  So the Elders taught her and now her family can plan to be sealed in the temple!  They decided to take a group picture of everyone who attended.  I'm not in the picture because I was the photographer.  She is from The Philippines and her husband is still there, so they zoomed the meeting for him.

Here in Taiwan they use "chops" or seals to sign important documents.  These chops can be made from various materials.  I have one made of wood with my Chinese name, and Elder DeVictoria has one made of plastic. When I was a young missionary I had to use it for bank transactions.  I actually bought some marble ones but I never had my name carved into them.  Today we had to go get a key made at a place where they also carve chops.  They had so many beautiful ones you could buy.

Before the new mission leaders moved in, their apartment was completely renovated.  This included getting new furniture.  The old furniture is old but in excellent condition.  The senior couple in charge of housing wanted to make good use of it so brought the former presidents' desk to our house.  I can't help but wonder if my mission president from over 40 years ago used this desk.  The housing couple also arranged for our apartment to get three new air conditioning units.  They are the ones in the bedrooms.  The old ones in the two guest rooms weren't working and we need good air conditioning for missionaries who stay in our apartment.  The installers sure made a mess of our floor, so we spent this morning cleaning up, sweeping and mopping.

The Relief Society president messaged me and asked me to teach the RS lesson tomorrow.  She is staying with a sister in the hospital who just had breast cancer surgery.  I will do my best.  

Tonight we went to a restaurant that serves rice porridge.  Mine had pork and vegetables and bamboo in it, and Elder DeVictoria's was beef and vegetables.  This food is tasty and so comforting.

 I also snapped a picture of Elder DeVictoria on the subway.  Someone told me they were worried about my safety on the subway.  Trust me, this isn't New York City.  Taiwan is very safe.

Elder DeVictoria writing:

The large group of 16 missionaries went home together on Monday.  Here is the bus that we hired to take them to the airport with all their luggage.  They're all onboard, ready to go home, the bus is just leaving.

 

There is an interesting old house we walked past on Heping Road with a fence that looks like piano keys. The fence is new but I suspect this house itself was built before the takeover in 1945.  It looks original and well preserved.  This is similar to the era of house the first missionaries in Taiwan rented when they first arrived in Taiwan way back in 1956, to live in and teach in, and they used the living room for the first church meetings.  That house was located on Ren Ai Road which is parallel two streets to the north from this, but that has long since been torn down and there's some kind of office building or hotel located there now.  Here we are living right in the same downtown Taipei neighborhood where LDS missionaries have been serving continuously for 68 years. 

We decided to share a bing last night, this one was half mango and half taro.  I estimate we're eating on average about one bing per month.  About 4 bings in 4 months.

 “None of us ever fully utilizes the people-opportunities allocated to us within our circles of friendship. You and I may call these intersectings ‘coincidence.’ This word is understandable for mortals to use, but coincidence is not an appropriate word to describe the workings of an omniscient God. He does not do things by ‘coincidence’ but … by ‘divine design."  Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Just Keep Swimming...

Sister DeVictoria writing:

This has been a very busy and stressful week for me.  I'm having to learn how to do tasks for which I've never been trained.  I should mention that after the birth of our first child, in all our almost 38 years of marriage I have never worked outside the home.  So actually, if I were applying for a job with similar duties as I am doing now, the person hiring would say, "I'm sorry, you just don't have any experience."  But here I am with the attitude of Dory's mantra going through my  head, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."  I am learning as I go, but it is stressful.  I remember years ago when I taught at the MTC, I was given a class of senior missionaries.  I tried to teach them Chinese, but they had very closed minds and didn't believe they could learn.  Their attitude really hampered their ability to learn.  I don't believe that you can't teach an old dog new tricks.  I'm an old dog, and I'm learning new tricks every day.  But I might get a few more white hairs in the process.

We received some wonderful news this week.  The Institute teacher is feeling well enough to start teaching again!  Woo Hoo!  I can't remember if I said before that in addition to breaking 3 ribs, he also got the flu.  I can't imagine coughing with 3 broken ribs.  He thanked us for subbing for him.  I told him we are always willing to help, but admittedly we feel very incompetent.  He replied saying that at least we were able to meet the students and get to know them, and they were able to get to know us.  I told him that we loved meeting them because they are all so wonderful and are very patient with us and helpful.  I'm glad I snapped this selfie with them on the last day that we taught.

One night I went looking for a craft store that someone told me about.  We never did find it, but we stopped and had some dinner.  The restaurant had some really interesting decorations.

Every week we have a devotional via Zoom for the entire mission.  I snapped a picture of our view of the devotional.

Tomorrow our ward here is having another baptism.  One of the Elders asked me and another office elder to play for a group to sing a song at the baptism.  Elder Smith will play the violin, and I will play the piano.  At the last baptism he and his companion Elder Sims played a special song, but the music stand couldn't hold all his music so I stood and held the first page for him, then made sure the last page was all the way on the stand.

Don't die of shock that I'm not including any food pics.  lol  We don't really cook much at home.  There are two reasons for that:  first, we are so tired when we come home at night that we don't have the energy to cook, and two, it takes such effort to go out and buy all of the food.  We have a little grocery cart, but we are limited in how much we can fit in it.  Sometimes it is really heavy when we drag it home and have to heft it up the stairs.  So we just buy some necessities and eat out the rest of the time.  I do cook oatmeal every morning for breakfast.  Also, eating out here is not really expensive.  

We had to go to Xi Men Ding (popular tourist shopping area) to pay a deposit for a restaurant reservation for the departing missionaries.  While there we saw this restaurant with such a pretty ceiling.

Elder DeVictoria writing:

We got a surprise visit in the mission office from some strangers from church headquarters.  They wanted to do an audit of the mission finances.  It was a couple, a man and a woman.  He asked specifically about our petty cash usage.  I sat down right then and showed the cash box sitting on my desk, and the spreadsheet that I use to track it, and I opened up the online Missionary Portal software to show the matching cash balance in the system, and I had some examples of reimbursement forms and documentary evidence (receipts) processed earlier that day, right there on my desk.  He asked a few general questions and then they were done.  The woman remained completely silent the whole time, she said not one single word, just listened and watched.  Then they stood up and said they would come back tomorrow for a full formal audit with all their forms and checklists and their laptops etc.  OK then.  See you tomorrow at 10:30am.  So the next day they came in and counted my petty cash box (roughly 1000 USD equivalent, it was correct to the penny) and then looked at a couple of reimbursements in detail, then asked to see a specific rent payment, and the associated rental contract.  I showed them, but to me it is mildly humorous because it's written completely in Chinese (they don't speak or read Chinese).  They asked about our bank account and my interface with it, but I had to explain that there is none that I use or access.  All the actual banking transactions are handled by the church corporate office across the street that has full-time accounting and finance employees who handle all of that.  They asked about our budget, I showed them the monthly emails that are sent from headquarters with our spend totals, but I told them frankly, from my perspective we just ignore it.  Because as a practical matter, it's irrelevant to the actual decisions that the president is making for the needs of the mission. We are actually spending what is actually needed for the work in real time as we go along, regardless of what someone predicted or "budgeted" last year.  You can tell I'm an engineer, not an accountant.  Anyway they were satisfied and left.  Later in the week I saw them grilling the people in the country office.  I wouldn't be surprised if the encounter a lot of "findings". 

We got through teaching another Institute lesson last night, the lesson entitled "The Divine Gift and Sacred Responsibility of Sexual Intimacy".  A challenge for us because of the nuances of language and terms when speaking of such an interesting and important subject.  We did get a couple of laughs when we misspoke some words.  These lessons have been full-house events, the classroom filled with young single adults, usually around 30-40 students each Tuesday night at 8pm.  We prayed for help from above and I think we got it.  Although it's a little hard for us to tell, a hard crowd to read (for us).  But such wonderful people, the young adults of Taiwan, each one so precious.  I loved the statements they made when we did a breakout session and had each group report.  So pragmatic, so genuine, so well spoken and realistic.  One person commented that Taiwan is still quite conservative and traditional regarding sexual activity but for sure there are voices and forces advocating for all kinds of temptation and sin.  The lesson was supposed to be a bit more focused on how great and important sex is in marriage, and we read together plenty of statements from the prophets and apostles along these lines.  These are young adults not yet married, so they each will have to find their own way through dating and into marriage just as we did as young adults.  Each one a unique and precious person with their own unique path through life that is unknown to any of them (or us) before it happens.  And the differences between people and the particular things that happen to each person, it's so interesting how much variety there is.  I often ponder about what it's going to be like in the next world, I mean we'll likely be doing a lot of sharing and discussing and learning from each other, from our individual experiences on earth.  That could take a very long time.  Eternity, perhaps? 

I learned recently about a horrible incident that happened 10 years ago (August 2014) in the Taipei Mission, where two missionary companions died in their sleep due to carbon monoxide poisoning.  One Elder was from Taiwan, the other from US.  Their apartment had a faulty water heater that was mounted incorrectly on an inside wall, that was the source of the CO.  There are YouTube videos that show the local news broadcasts from the day it happened, that show the authorities wheeling the dead bodies out of the apartment.  Sister Chen told us that when this happened, it was a such a shock and terrible blow to the saints all over Taiwan, the mourning and sorrow was intense.  Now we try to take great precautions, to inspect and make sure about the installation of gas appliances, and we have monthly CO alarm checks that get reported into the Missionary Portal system, etc.  The other day a gas company inspector rang our doorbell, unexpectedly, and came in to inspect the gas system in our apartment along with all the other apartments in our building.  We're thankful for this service.  And we passed.  

Picture of our water heater, it is mounted outside on the back porch.

Today the new mission leaders President and Sister Whiteley and their Assistants will be holding a short mission-wide meeting online (at 10am) to announce a reorganization of the mission structure.  They will be reducing the number of zones from 8 to 4 and increasing the number of districts.  I think the particular transfer assignments will be issued later today or tonight.  Transfer day will be on Saturday this time.  New missionaries will arrive tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon.  There are now 13 scheduled to arrive but we're not entirely sure if all of them will actually come on this flight, there are some that will likely be delayed due to visa issues. I don't understand why we aren't told more clearly and earlier the exact headcount that is coming.  Anyway, when that happens to a missionary they get temporarily reassigned to other missions in the US until the next transfer.  There are 16 missionaries returning home this time, who will leave on Monday afternoon.  So this is a very busy week and weekend for the mission.  We're very involved with all of it.

Our mission leaders decided to install bunk beds in the two senior missionary apartments that are close to the office, which includes ours.  We got them installed just in time to host the newly arriving missionaries later in the day.  Now, in the two extra rooms of our apartment the single beds have been taken away and in their place are 4 sets of bunk beds, a total of 8 missionaries can sleep here at our house if necessary.  It's for the purpose of temporary use during transitions, for the coming and going of missionaries, for a few nights each time.  We will have to share the one main bathroom.  It's all good. 

 "Your responsibility to endure is uniquely yours. But you are never alone. I testify that the lifting power of the Lord can be yours if you will “come unto Christ” and “be perfected in him.”  

President Russell M. Nelson