"Embrace Change"

 It's been nearly a month since our last update, and we've been busy!

Sadly, President and Sister Card and their children returned home to Canada after completing their 3-year assignment here. We had the privilege of being the last to say goodbye, since we drove them to their airport for their flight home.


There was some discussion about President Card possibly staying on a while longer, as our incoming President and Sister Fields are unable to enter Taiwan due to the Covid-related travel restrictions currently in place. But, that was not to be, and so President Fields is serving remotely. Just yesterday, they flew to Guam so that they could be in a closer time zone while they await entry. Meanwhile, they have been very active in mission affairs and we think they are just great!

As we've written about before, we have been hosting nearby young Sister missionaries in our home for Sacrament services. (Sister Wells even found some little "shot glasses" to replace the plastic drinking cups we've been using, to make it a little nicer.) This has continued, and President Fields has begun a rollout of this service to all the young Sister missionaries. We were able to help by organizing this effort and getting it enabled, which was quite rewarding. Sister Wells interprets for me, and we love engaging the Sisters in gospel discussions (and in bragging about our grandkids!).

                                           





As it happened, the Cards departed just before a transfer, which involves moving about a third of the missionaries around. Also, some missionaries go home, while others arrive to begin their service. While the APs and the President organize the transfer, Sister Wells is deeply involved in this "coming and going" process, including making travel arrangements, getting official residency documents, arranging for Covid testing, etc. It's an organizational challenge and workload that would challenge anyone, but she pulls it off marvelously. I do my small part by organizing the moving of bicycles (which always goes wrong) and the moving of physical objects such as apartment keys and cell phones. And, without President here, we were the official greeters for local parents coming to drop off or pick up their missionaries. We also house some of the young missionaries for a day or so while they are doing their necessary Covid testing, etc. Here are some of the 10 recent departees:








Suddenly, Taiwan announced certain groups were eligible for Covid vaccine shots, and the deadline for registering was the next day! Sister Wells went into hyperdrive contacting all the missionaries about their preferred vaccine (or, none) and then had to get all the necessary paperwork done for about 70 missionaries and then register them all online. It was a crazy day, with APs, the Turners (and even me) helping. But, as always, she got 'er done!!

Finally, I should report on a couple of personal matters. First I got another haircut - my third in Taiwan. I always go to "Roger," who is a convert member barber who loves to cut the missionaries hair. He gave me what I can only describe as the "ulta-deluxe" treatment which includes a (very short) haircut, scalp, neck and shoulder massage, shampoo, and to top it all off, an eye wash / facial massage. I did not see that coming, but it was pretty awesome. I was a puddle of relaxation when he finished.

Oh, and Sister Wells and I have each lost about 20 pounds since we arrived in Taiwan. We're eating less and working hard! (Note from Sister Wells: Unfairly, I have only lost 15 pounds to Elder Wells' 20. I say "unfair" because I eat the same things and have nearly the same amount of activity - and the weight just falls off him faster!)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lots of fun... and hard work!

Image
 The past two weeks have been just about typical for us, with long, tiring days, and some fun thrown in. Chinese New Years lasts two weeks, so we've been doing lots of celebrating and well-wishing lately. Last year, we enjoyed many meals together with members and missionaries, but the last few weeks have been a time of increased Covid fear, and our Church leaders have placed restrictions on missionaries which precluded visits to members homes, or regular Church meetings. We were sad to have to refuse the many kind offers we received. We were allowed to eat in restaurants, though, and we enjoyed a hot pot meal at Bulu Bulu with a couple from our Wuquan 3rd Ward! Interestingly, we have had an egg shortage in Taiwan recently, so we've had to buy eggs as we can. The last batch (10, not 12, here), included some mismatched sizes. Because we're not meeting in our churches, the missionary Elders are once again providing sacrament services to the Sister missionaries. Our neighbors, ...
Read more

"Settling In"

Image
The last month has brought us our "sea-legs," it seems. We're both more at ease with our roles and duties, meaning less panicked every day! We've done most things at least once (I think), although "you don't know what you don't know." Here's the sort of thing I'm up against every day: But, the work is exhausing! I'm probably repeating myself, but I'm working far harder here than I did when I was working for a living! I've learned how to convert Chinese street addresses to their English (Pinyin) equivalent, which is a big milestone for me. That's only about a half of one percent of what I need to know, but it's a start! We've been asked by our Ward Mission Leader to do a short video message each Sunday.Here is the second of three we've done so far: The love and kindness of the Taiwanese Church members towards us continues. Brother and Sister Yu invited us to dinner again, along with the office elders. Our good ...
Read more

We Have a President!

Image
At long last, President Karl Fields and Sister Melanie Fields have joined us here in Taichung! After being released from their quarantine in Taipei (and a visit to the Taipei "Temple Square" and a few other sites), the APs drove them here to Taichung. We enjoyed a small soirée with them, in the mission office.  Elder Robert and Sister Gloria DeWitt, from Spanish Fork, Utah, were also released from quarantine here in Taichung. We enjoyed hosting them for a meal and to do some laundry, and after a quick visit to the office, they set off for their new home in Kaohsiung. They will be helping with missionary needs in the south, as well as helping with missionary health concerns mission-wide. Now we have a full complement of senior missionaries. A far cry from our early days here, when we were the only seniors in sight! We also attended the baptism of Zhiyun and Vic, the two youngsters we've been helping prepare for baptism. Zhiyun's baptism wasn't correct, so it needed...
Read more