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.”