2021 is Sending Surprises Our Way - Already!

And so it begins. 2021 is already full of surprises, and it's only the first month of the year.

The Taiwan Center for Disease Control (CECC) announced that beginning January 1st, they are not allowing any more foreigners to enter the country, due to COVID, for the unforeseeable future. The news of mutating strains that are up to 70% more transmissible is a great a concern for Taiwan, and they are willing to do what it takes to try to keep the spread of COVID here at bay.

"CECC announces adjustments to regulations for foreign nationals entering Taiwan beginning January 1, 2021, in response to continued spread of COVID-19 pandemic. ....Entry restrictions and quarantine regulations for foreign nationals will be tightened...." The news article explains that with only a few exceptions, foreigners will no longer be admitted to Taiwan until the danger has passed.

To us, that means a lot less missionaries. Many foreign missionaries have been assigned to Taiwan but have been reassigned in their home countries, hoping for the time they can come to Taiwan. For now, this won't be possible

Many hearts are disappointed and tears have been shed. The pandemic has affected all of our lives tremendously. To those missionaries and families who have waited and hoped and prepared for coming to Taiwan, our hearts go out to you. We pray, with all of you, that this may be temporary. 

We are blessed here with many wonderful, faithful Taiwanese missionaries. They are confident and able to converse freely in their native language and with their local understandings - teaching their own people with their own cultural perspectives. They are vital to all the work that continues on here. We are so blessed to have so many local Taiwanese missionaries serving here.

But as the foreign missionaries complete their service and return to their home countries, and are not replaced by new missionaries, the total number of missionaries serving here will decline a bit. Or a lot.

To Elder Coffey and I, this recent announcement means we will be very busy in the next several months taking care of empty apartments. We will be hauling beds, desks, bookshelves, dryers, washing machines, microwaves, bedding and kitchen supplies out of empty apartments and storing them with our mission housing " storehouse".

We are humbled to acknowledge that all of us missionaries, whether senior or younger, are called to serve "as missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." We are servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. As to where we serve - that is just an assignment, it is not a call. It is subject to change.

Whether in Taipei or Tampa, whether in Hualien or Huntsville, the Gospel of Jesus Christ will be preached and will go forward. We bloom where we are planted, and we serve beautifully wherever we are assigned.

A beautiful delicate orchid grows out of a moss-covered brick wall

Sometimes we are called to scale unusual heights, like this tree growing out
of the roof peak of an old building. A modern building stands right behind it,
 representing the stark contrast between the old ways and the new.

Bloom where you are planted!

I love this message to Elder Stephen Burnett, an early Church missionary who received his call to serve in 1832.  Here is his mission call:

"Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you my servant Stephen Burnett: Go ye, go ye into the world and preach the gospel to every creature that cometh under the sound of your voice.

And inasmuch as you desire a companion, I will give unto you my servant Eden Smith.

Wherefore, go ye and preach my gospel, whether to the north or to the south, to the east or to the west, it mattereth not, for ye cannot go amiss." D&C 80:1-3

So to all our elders and sisters and senior missionaries now serving "elsewhere" - we love you; your service is recognized in the heavens; your sacrifice is accepted. Your willingness to serve wherever assigned is a testament of your faith and humility. God bless all of you!