The final ten days of our mission were a whirlwind of activity. We were in the midst of a transfer, which always makes the office busy, intensified training, and lots of "goodbye" meals and activities. And, of course we had to find time to clean our apartment and pack our bags!
We began on Monday, Mar. 13 by representing the mission at an outdoor ecumanical "trade show" of sorts in Lukong. It turned out to be pretty much the local religions and us, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, along with a few product vendors. The foot traffic might have been a bit more on other days, but on Monday morning, there were very few, if any, visitors to our booth. There were several local members manning the booth, so we weren't really needed in case. But, we did enjoy visiting with the local members over a vegetarian lunch served by the Buddhists.
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| Our fellow booth-workers were wonderful local members. |
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| The Buddhist entry was massive, with five of these enormous canopies. |
After our shift, we had time for a little souvenir shopping at the Lukong "old street". I noticed these cats enjoying some sunshine at the front of a shop.
Tuesday, we stopped by our favorite Taiwanese restaurant to say goodbye. His was the first lunch place we stumbled into, and we've become quite fond of the owner/cook and his wife.
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| Wayne and his assistant came by for their periodic inspection of the mission property. I gave them the list of things I thought needed repair or replacement. Pictured are Wayne, his assistant, Elder Lu, and the groundskeeper. |
Elder Lin treated the office staff to a farewell dinner at a nice restaurant near our home. We all sat around a large circular table with a large "lazy susan" and enjoyed many traditional Taiwanese delicacies.
After dinner, we met for the last time with our English Conversation Group. We had a big turnout, as it had been advertised as a going away party for us. Sister Wells made brownies in the mission home oven in the afternoon, and everyone brought lots of goodies. We played language games and, at the end, everyone stood and sang "God Be With You Till We Meet Again." It was a wonderful way to say goodbye to these dear friends.
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| We all had fun playing "Pictionary" and other word games. |
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| Ming |
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| Jeff |
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| Hugo |
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| Aaron and Porter |
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| On the way home, we stopped to take a photo with our nighttime building guard, Mr. Bai. He always gives us a friendly greeting and bids us "Goodnight!" He has been known to scold us for coming home "early" (before dark), haha. We are quite fond of our building guards. |
Wednesday we bid farewell to our post office friends.
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| ...and our friendly Chung Yo parking lot guard |
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| Elder Turner tried squeezing into my jacket, but we caught him smiling on camera for once! |
On Friday, Daisy treated us to lunch at a very fine Taiwanese style restaurant in the Chung Yo mall. I somehow didn't get a photo of the people, but the food was wonderful, and the view from the 12 floor was great too.
Saturday, we spent the day cleaning our apartment thoroughly (and making potato salad!) . In the evening, the Wuquan 3rd Ward hosted a pot-luck dinner party in our honor (including my potato salad). We had such a wonderful time visiting and taking photos with our dear ward friends. We love them so!
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| The ward put together a wonderful goodbye video, including our little "Sunbeams" thanking us for teaching them. It was funny and heartwarming and perfect! |
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| These dear friends have made our mission extra special! The rule says you can take off your masks for a photo, but our little Marshall (Xiao Yu) wouldn't part with his! |
After the dinner party, we made a stop on the way home. A week before, we had dropped off some of my pants to a local alterations shop (just a lady working out of her home) to adjust to my weight loss. She had finished the work and we were just picking them up. We exchanged pleasantries and went home without trying them on. Next morning, I send a follow up Line text message confirming that the fit was perfect, and thanking her for her work. In response, she sent a screenshot of the Facebook page of the ward member, Constantine Huang, who had photographed the dinner party and then posted the photos. It turns out that our alterations lady was friends with Brother Huang's mother and had watched him grow up. It was a reminder to me that we need to be on our best behavior and set a good example to everyone!
Sunday was a full day, since we spoke in Sacrament Meeting, sang "I Believe in Christ" (in Chinese, of course) in the ward choir, and taught Primary too.
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| The faithful saints of the Wuquan 3rd Ward posed for a picture after Sacrament Meeting |
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| Sister Lin Pei Fen, one of Sister Wells' companions during her first mission in the Taiwan Taipei Mission, surprised her by coming to our ward party and then our final sacrament meeting. |
Sunday evening we gathered with Elder and Sister Turner at the mission home for a nice meal with President and Sister Fields. After dinner, we had a brief meeting to share some of our spiritual experiences and highlights of our missions. The DeWitts also attended, although they aren't going home at this time. We also sang the mission song, "The Army of Helaman" with a couple of slight variations
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| Salmon, corn on the cob, and all the fixin's! |
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| "...and we will be the Lord’s missionaries | , | To bring Taiwan his truth." |
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Monday was our last day in the office. We had planned to attend staff meeting, clean out our desks, and take the rest of the day to finish packing and last minute things. Naturally, it didn't work out that way. We were super busy, since it was transfer day, and we didn't get out of the office until late. We did find time to pick up our custom scrolls Elder Lin made for us for Chinese New Years.
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| The scroll maker was reluctant to pose for a photo, but he did a fine job for us. |
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| We finally got a picture with President Fields |
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Sister and Elder Lu, who became our dear friends in our ward here, have been called to serve in the office part-time, helping with some of the duties we had been covering.
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| I just had to get a photo of the beautiful "bottle brush" tree outside of the mission office |
We left our apartment very early Tuesday morning to travel to the office. There, we joined the others for the trip to Taipei. It was raining when we left, but we were blessed with good weather once we reached Taipei. Our first stop was a hospital to take the Covid tests required for travel.
Next stop was the Grand Hotel, which really is grand! We visited the hotel because Taiwan was dedicated for the preaching of the Gospel by Mark E. Peterson in 1959 at a site nearby, on the grounds of the hotel.
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| Elder Lin, Elder Green, Sister and Elder Turner, Sister and Elder Wells, Sister Lin Li Hong, President and Sister Fields, and Elder Sutton |
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| President Fields explained the history of the Church and the political context of the dedication. |
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We had some quiet time to review the dedicatory prayer and think about the
progress of the work in beautiful Taiwan, and our blessing to be a small part of it. |
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After our visit to the Grand Hotel, we enjoyed lunch at Dongmen's restaurant.
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| We all attended a session in the Taipei Temple. It was the spiritual highlight for us all. |
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| Stanley Yeh, from the Church Taipei Service Center, treated us to a nice dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. Stanley was the first representative of the church we met when we came to Taiwan, and the last to see us off! |
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In the evening, we were the companions for Elder Green. We stopped for
our favorite onion pancake, and of course, the famous mango ice treat. |
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Surprisingly, we also ran into the Turners, Sister Lin and Elder Lin,
who hadn't returned to Taichung yet after all! |
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| Our final task was to find a T-Star telecom location to pay our last bill and early termination penalty. We were blessed to encounter Frank "The Tie Guy", who sells neckties to the missionaries. He took the time to guide us through the subway, right to the store where were able to accomplish our task. |
What a day! We stayed the night in the Temple Patron Housing facility adjacent to the Taipei Temple. I was awakened during the night by another earthquake.
Early Wednesday, we rode the taxi Elder Lin had helpfully arranged to take us to the airport. We found a way to spend the last of our Taiwanese money on souvenirs at the airport and then boarded our flight bound for San Francisco. After a short layover there, we were on our way to Salt Lake City. The scenery changed dramatically from the lush green of Taiwan to a dull brown, as seen from our airplane window.
As we entered the airport, we were met by our entire family (minus Mia and Andrew's families), all dressed in matching Taiwan mission t-shirts, and chanting "Everybody say 'yahoo for NaiNai and Grampa!" It was the most wonderful reunion we could have imagined!
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| The kids had fun climbing around while we tried to pose for a photo. |
After gathering up our luggage, we had lunch at Tony Burgers in West Valley. A real, American hamburger and fries (that wasn't McDonalds or Burger King)! So delicious!
One more photo - when we drove up to our home in Springville, a huge sign welcoming us home as taped to the garage door. We were sure feeling the love!!
That evening, President Nelson, our stake president released us at his home. We took off our name badges, and now our exhausting, uplifting, fun, interesting, and truly wonderful adventure has come to an end.
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