Missionary Christmas - Taipei Style

So what is it like to be on a mission during Christmas?  Taiwan doesn’t really celebrate Christmas, not even the members of the Church - no special dinner, no singing, no gift giving, no scripture story reading.  Just hasn’t caught on here.  The stores and shops may have a Christmas tree here and there, but that is the only evidence of a celebration of any kind. Shops are all open, people still go to school and work, and the day just quietly passes with very little notice. But our little tree and poinsettia cheered up our apartment nicely and brought some Christmas color and cheer. 

It has been nice to have more time to focus on the true meaning of Christmas and lay aside, at least while on our mission, the hustle and bustle and clamor of a typical US Christmas. Our hearts have been tender as we’ve thought more about the humble birth of the Creator of the Universe. We’ve felt close to Him and have felt of His love. And we’ve enjoyed Face-Timing and Marco Polo-ing our children and grandchildren during their Christmas festivities.

Our mission has the tradition of providing two community concerts every year on the Sunday before Christmas, to help show the joy and the reason for the season. All missionaries from the mission (about 136 of them) were able to be together (no easy feat – they had to come from hours away and stay overnight with missionaries in Taipei) to provide a packed-chapel with songs sacred to the birth of Jesus Christ. The miracle of Christmas became very evident as these young people sang their testimonies of the birth of the Son of God. 

Our wonderful senior missionary who organized the concerts

A new missionary sister from Sweden visits with a friend

Our mission president's wife oversaw the concert planning, and
accompanied some of the songs

A few of the talented missionary performers

Two community concerts in one day - and both brought in a completely full house

This elder stops for a honey rush -soothing a throat sore from all the singing!

In between concerts we stopped for a group photo. It was a great time for a “family photo” of sorts. 

Two zone conferences were held the next two days – and we were busy preparing delicious holiday food for the missionaries, setting up, serving, taking down and cleaning up. They also enjoyed a talent show and watching Mr. Krueger’s Christmas, before resuming their zone training.

 Christmas Eve one of our senior sister missionaries and we invited our Office Elders and Assistants to the President missionaries to join us for a simple Christmas Eve dinner and the sharing of the Christmas story from the scriptures. These are amazing missionaries and we loved sharing Christmas with them.

Since Wednesday was not a Taiwanese holiday, the temple was open. It is always great to be in the temple. There currently aren’t many temples in the world open on Christmas day.  The missionaries were all invited to participate. What a special experience to be in the temple on the day we celebrate Christ’s birth.

The mission president and his wife treated all the senior missionaries to dinner and activities at their home Christmas night, which we followed with our weekly English group. Since Wednesday was not a holiday, we still had our English conversation group, and many came.

Dinner for the senior missionaries at the Mission President's home

Advanced English Group - Christmas night (not a holiday for any of them!)

In all, it was a busy time, which was great for lessening any feelings of homesickness, which of course set in. But you serve more, and spend more time talking to children and grandchildren, and focus on the blessing that it is to be in the service of the Lord.

One hymn sings - “mild He lays His glory by…” – Before He was born, before any of us were born, we all recognized His glory, power, love and purpose. If we sang for joy when the foundations of the earth were laid, surely we sang with great fervor and rejoicing at the moment of His holy birth, when He “laid His glory by” and came to earth for each one of us.

If we sang for joy then, and we sing for joy now, it’ll be an incredible day for all of us as we sing for joy when He returns to the earth, bringing His glory with Him this time, to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords.  It just can’t come soon enough!

Merry Christmas to everyone!  He is the miracle, the reason, the purpose of the season.

Meanwhile, the entire island is preparing for the big event of the year - the Chinese New Year which officially begins on January 25th. It takes precedence over Christmas hands down. As the Year of the Rat, representing vitality and intelligence, it's destined to be a great one!

Flickr.com Courtesy of Michael Rehfeldt

A Day at a Local Farm in Yilan

The passion fruit hung heavy on the vines, forming a think canopy over our heads. Kumquat trees, sugar cane and dragon fruit surrounded us. Geese cackled and dogs barked at the newcomers, while the goats and chickens looked on in oblivion. We were warmly welcomed to a local farm in Yilan,Taiwan.

Resting under a passion fruit canopy at a small farm in Yilan

P days are precious - and this particular day we got the chance to get away from the city and head out to the beautiful area of Yilan County. We went with  our Taiwanese senior single sister missionary to her cousins' house on a humble, secluded farm slightly northeast of the city of Yilan. Our other single sister missionary (from the US) also went with us. These are two of our senior missionaries serving from the Taipei office. Sister D grew up in Yilan. She excitedly pointed out some places of memory. Her childhood home, she said, looked a lot like this one.

At her cousins' home, the passion vine was heavy with hanging fruit. Cousin Zhang plucked several and showed us how to open and eat them.

Watch our video of Elder Coffey learning to open a passion fruit - HERE.

We were there to spend a day on the farm. Free farm labor is always appreciated! Elder Coffey rototilled a long row for potatoes while the rest of us planted strawberries in the greenhouse. Everything is organically grown. 

Cousin Zhang getting the roto tiller ready for Elder Coffey

Three of us senior sister missionaries help Cousin Zhang with her potato planting

Elder Coffey roto tills the potato row

Spreading empty rice hulls down the
potato row - for good drainage

Sister E and Elder Coffey fill the cloth containers for strawberry planting

Sister D and I help plant strawberries

After a lunch of fish ball with sticky-rice-triangle-thingy-filled-with-pork noodle soup(!!!), we planted potatoes and weeded. Cousin Zhang used to live and work in the city at a technology job, but on weekends would escape to Yilan to help on the farms for a rejuvenating get away. Eventually she fell in love with the work, and she and a friend took up farming full time. 


“I don’t do it for the money,” she explained. “Just for the peaceful lifestyle we can enjoy.” And peaceful it is! She, together with her friend who helps run the farm, loves the work involved, which also includes managing a number of rice paddies scattered throughout the city of Yilan. The next rice planting is in February.

Cousin Zhang's friend introduces us to the dogs

We loved seeing Cousin Zhang's fully equipped kitchen - all neatly stuffed in a small shed-like building adjacent to their home.

Fruit abounds in Taiwan.  It was fun to see the plants, the variety of shapes and sizes of the plants - amazing dragon fruit plants and turmeric (I guess I never thought of turmeric in plant form...) - 

Dragon fruit - the plants stretch out their arms over the rows. The fruit is  covered in white plastic bags to protect them from birds. Dragon fruit is a deep beautiful red when cut open, but taste a little underwhelming. It can also be a clearish white inside instead of red. 

Sugar Cane

Kumquat trees

Turmeric

The tubular roots are dried and made into tumeric powder.

Bamboo

Sister D explains that with this variety of bamboo, only the roots are useful for food.

Hibiscus roselle (Sister D made amazing hibiscus jelly from flowers like these.)

Taiwan orange trees

Pulling weeds near the potato rows, complete with the hat.  You 'gotta have the hat. 

These weeds will be mulched into goat food. Nothing goes to waste. 

This dog is a native Taiwan species - the only dog indigenous to the island. Sometimes called a Formosan Mountain Dog, these dogs are good at hopping, hunting, and are well adapted to the rugged mountainous terrain. Plus they make good guard dogs. Cousin Zhang explained that the geese, though, were better at warning of visitors - honking loudly and threatening a fierce attack to intruders. The dog can be tamed..... 

We had a blast on the farm! I had told Sister D. of my dream to plant rice in a rice paddy some day, and while that will have to wait till February, she arranged for this day in her cousins’ fields. 

Empty rice paddy fields - they have just recently been harvested.  

We will come back!

The Day to Day Work of an "Office Specialist"

The other office couple - doing their work

Not all senior missionary assignments are created equal, not even "office specialist" assignments. Our mission has two office couples.  The one couple does the finance and mission secretary assignments. They help keep everything running straight and organized for the whole mission.  It’s a busy job!  

Elder Coffey and I were assigned to be the Housing Coordinators.  We do all things related to the missionary apartments – inspections, repairs, contracts, finding new apartments, moving missionaries, closing out their old apartments, organizing the dazzling array of keys that no longer fit any of these apartments, and keeping the finances in order relating to rents, utilities, management fees, etc. With it we get to use the mission van to travel over the entire mission, seeing the beautiful island, as we stay busy hauling, lifting, loading, unloading, carrying, moving, crawling. It's busy too!

Keys!  Lots of them! But to which apartment do they go???  Ha!

Teaching the Elders the basics of dyer rep

We usually start our week on Mondays with a staff meeting. The mission president and his wife and the senior couples meet together to coordinate and plan upcoming mission events. Then Elder Coffey and I make plans for the rest of the week. At least two to three days each week we spend out on the road - doing apartment inspections, repairs, moves, or finding apartments. Those assignments take us to all areas of the mission, by use of the trusty mission van, affectionately named by the missionaries, "The Beast." 

The others in the office whisper to us in passing, as they see us hauling, driving, moving, cleaning - “We are SO glad we don’t have YOUR assignment!” Yet we look at them behind their computer and desk and think the exact same thing – so glad we don’t have THEIR assignment!  As tiring as our work can be, it keeps us on the go with a variety of non-behind-the-desk assignments.

Our two senior single sisters

We also have two senior single sisters here in our office. The one from Taiwan works with all the YSA’s  (young single adults ages 18-30) in the 5 Taipei stakes, and has made a HUGE impact in the success of the weekly YSA and institute programs. The other is from the States and, as a former high school counselor, visits with all the missionaries one on one to encourage, strengthen, and help them manage stress, learn educational and vocational self reliance, and plan for post-mission goals. She is known as the Happy Sister, because she endeavors to teach the missionaries how to recognize the happiness all around them. They love her!!

So many kinds of missions for so many people!  As a Senior Missionary you may find that you will begin to tailor-make your own mission as you go along – depending on your interests and talents and desires.

For example - in addition to our housing assignment, we lead a weekly English conversation group for the advanced group.  This is a true highlight of our week.  We love these students and love sharing with them values and gospel truths while also giving them English conversation opportunities. So much fun!

English group discussion time

Elder Coffey reciting a poem - from his "perch"???

Then we’ve volunteered to teach the YSA’s a bit of USA country round dancing.  We also invite some of the YSA's over to our home for dinner or to go get a fruit drink – encouraging them with their families or studies or work. Everyone wants to talk and share and feel loved and appreciated. 

We have the wonderful blessing of serving as Temple Ordinance Workers in the beautiful Taipei temple. Just a few steps from our apartment, it is a gorgeous place of peace and joy for the many who come from all over Asia.

Our temple assignments are all done in English. There are four couples who serve as full time temple missionaries – serving in the temple is their only assignment. They LOVE what they do and whisper to us in passing, “I would NEVER want to do YOUR assignment!”, yet we wonder the same thing – what would we do with all our spare time if “all” we did was a temple mission?

All of our behind-the-scene work as Housing Coordinators gives us the opportunity to get to know the missionaries more closely.  Most of them are so devoted and hard working.  Missionary work and life is hard – very hard!  But they are troopers, exercising faith in Heavenly Father to lead the way each day as they go out to meet the world. And when faith is exercised, miracles happen. Hearts are changed. People find what they are looking for.  They find Jesus Christ. They find His Gospel and they find peace.

We love working with all the young missionaries!  They are amazing!  We loving hearing their stories - almost daily - of miracles they see in the service they are giving.

Far from being "stuck behind the desk in an office" - we are blessed to be on the go with so much variety, hard work and fun. Is this a spiritually uplifting mission?  Not every day. But then again - a mission is really what you make of it. As we find individuals to minister to, we share testimony, teach doctrine, and strengthen faith. That part IS spiritually uplifting. Seniors are blessed by the Lord as they sacrifice and serve and put Him above all else. There really isn't anything else like it. Serving a mission is all about doing what the Lord wants, not what we want. 

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This blog is mostly dedicated to encourage other seniors to serve a full time mission. We hope it is helping to answer some questions along the way. We certainly had a lot of questions before starting our first mission - and couldn't find where to get the answers. So we decided to share what we are learning - hoping it might help someone else down the road.

Feel free to contact us anytime with any question about serving senior missions. Not that we are experts by any means - but we can share what we've learned on our three missions. We love our missions - they've all been very different - but all so wonderful.

Our senior missionaries and the
mission presidents wife

Best way to reach us? Email - coffey58@gmail.com. We get questions from a number of people considering serving. We are happy to share and discuss these together with you!

The answers won't all come until you move forward with faith and just "do it". I like this message: “Peace is not the absence of trials. It is the presence of Christ.” As you are guided by the Spirit, you will gain the courage to face the unknown and move forward. Missions are wonderful!

Overlooking Taiwan coastline

Beautiful Chinese architecture in the peaceful National Palace Museum

Taipei skyline as taken from our Elephant Mountain hike.

Called to Serve!