Mission Backup

 This has been a busy week. In the office, Recently, one of our young missionaries sent me a LINE message with this photograph: He was wondering if we had any more of these cards. After searching, I couldn't find any cards like this, so I set to work re-creating two cards which can be used by our young missionaries in their finding efforts. It took a lot of effort, due to the need to update the information on the card, including the locations of all our meetinghouses. And, Microsoft Publisher isn't the easiest application to use! Anyway, I finished up work on the two cards I had photos of, and future cards will be much easier to create since they'll be based on this template. I made up a business card for our Mission Leaders, and I also assisted with a Chinese New Year "Hong Bao" (red envelope) insert card for the young missionaries to use, as well as one for Sister Wells and I to give to our special friends here! Monday, we welcomed three new missionaries to begi...

We're so happy to be here in Taiwan to begin 2022! With Covid-19 "Omicron" raging back home, we feel very safe in Taiwan, where the disease is rarely seen. The authorities have further tightened travel restrictions, and masking is obligatory. But our day-to-day activities are not otherwise hampered. The mission has held on to a number of missionary apartments since the pandemic began, but we now will close some of them, since the end of the pandemic is not in sight, and we can't justify paying for apartments we are not using. The first two will need to be closed this month, as their leases are due to be renewed. We made a trip with the Turners to Tainan and Chiayi to visit these apartments to scope out what needs to be done. Of course, while we were in Tainan, we just had to make a stop at the Anping Old Street. (It was P-Day, after all!) \ Sister Wells posed for a quick photo in front of the Grand Mazu Temple in Anping This artisan made me a great leather keychain in...

It's amazing that we spent the entirety of 2021 in Taiwan, as full-time missionaries! This year has zoomed by (literally and figuratively!) and it's hard to believe that we have only a couple of months left on our mission. That said, a LOT has happened since Christmas, so here goes: I'll review some fun we had, but we spend most of our time working. We made a short video documenting how to recharge an eTag, which is how we pay for highway tolls over here. Here's a screen shot of the opening screen. It took us a few tries (and help from the 7-11 clerk) to figure out the procedure. Remember, English is "Optional" on this mission. Haha! The mission (with special permission from the Area Presidency) held a mission-wide conference for Christmas! Elder DeWitt arranged for the entire mission to sing at the Chimei Museum in Tainan, after which we met at the Tainan chapel for dinner, fun activities, and a devotional. My assignment (I volunteered) was to make potato sal...