The Hualien Experience

Bananas and papaya trees spring up seemingly randomly in every crook and cranny, while rice paddies are neatly tucked in between houses and earthen ridges. Palm trees are interspersed among thick tropical foliage. I wish I knew the name of every plant (there’s an app for that!)

We were on our way to Hualien to open an apartment and take a van full of furniture to outfit the new place. The trip down winding mountain roads was amazing in our 12 passenger mission van. The trip takes over 3 hours one way. 

Thick forested mountains on one side of the road - ocean views on the other.

The beautiful Hualien coastline and Pacific Ocean

After delivering the furniture, signing the contract and buying needed supplies for the sisters, we enjoyed a meal of dumplings with the office elders.

Apartment contract signing

Bafang Dumplings - amazing!

We finally pulled into the Hualien Holo Hostel Hotel where the Elders had kindly made arrangements for us to stay the night. They would stay with the missionaries serving in the area in their local apartment. They spoke to the person at the front desk, (no English here), got us set up, then left.

International "signatures" from
hostel visitors

The gentleman took us up two flights of stairs to our room. I was curious what a Hualien hostel might look like.

Our hostel room

My only requirement had been airconditioning – and it had a very good one in the corner of the room. I knew I’d be okay.

The room was very clean – even came with basic extras like a hair dryer, shampoo, bath gel and WiFi.

The room even came with a Gideon’s New Testament, vertical Chinese in the front, opening from left to right as in standard old style books, and English in the back.

We were exhausted. The mattress on the floor had about 675 very prominent springs and it seemed that 653 of them ended up massaging my back all night long. I woke up sore, but I wake up sore every morning these days! Lol Nevertheless, I had slept like a rock.

The sign above the toilet read, “Please do not throw tissue paper into the toilet bowl. P.S. Our toilet is not as powerful as you think.” So I left the toilet paper in the trash can instead of flushing it away, feeling a bit awkward but wanting to comply. I’ve seen that before in some areas, but still it seemed awkward.

At least they had toilet paper. And a garbage can. I was grateful.

The view from the window greeted our morning.

Now we’re off again, heading back up and down the winding mountain road overlooking the steep cliffs on the Pacific Ocean, heading back to Taipei. Elder Coffey is driving. Glad it's him and not me!

Click here for a test drive: Drive from Hualien to Taipei

The message on the wall of our room sums up the Hualien experience, English and all. 

It's amazing to see these servants of the Lord, in all corners of the island, bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to everyone they meet. They are determined, faithful, hard working, and dedicated. It's an honor to serve among them. May we all find ourselves farther down the road toward eternal life each day. 

It’s another very good day!

Villages along the Hualien highway

Village stacked up on the hillside

A cheerful elementary school!

The "chop" stamp - making it official.

A Good Day

Tuesday - August 27th -

Today was a good day.  But I feel like those little old ladies in the play A Christmas Carol. Do you remember them? As soon as Scrooge was determined to be dead, they rummaged through his earthly belongings, looking for useful items to pawn away for petty cash. Or perhaps they would find something useful for their own purposes- mulling over the pile of loot like hyenas at a kill. 

It was a good day, like I said. We did apartment inspections in 6 apartments throughout the West Zone in New Taipei City. We fixed broken items, took needed furniture to some elders and brought back superfluous items picked up at various apartments that they didn’t need anymore. 


An extra desk and fan. Several extra chairs. A broken dryer. A bag of clothes. A pile of unneeded sheets. An oven. 

Moving unneeded furniture - grateful for
the elevator!

Those items end up in the basement of the church building here in Taipei, where all extra furniture and miscellaneous items are stored, patiently waiting for the day when they’ll be called into service again at some new apartment. A row of refrigerators. Several long rows of mattresses. Desks, chairs, etc. They all end up in the basement.

And then I go “shopping” for our  sparsely furnished apartment. Whatever is needed for missionary apartments can be found there, so there I shop. And today was exceptionally good. 

Missionaries are always grateful when
 we  arrive!

Rummaging through old fridges I found a shelf that fit perfectly in our freezer, since ours was missing. A perfect rolling shelf came home too, making an ideal corner for our cooking appliances - a Martha Stewart corner as Elder Coffey calls it. A left over throw pillow added a nice touch to our couch. And a metal mixing bowl! I’m in heaven now! Ha!

I did leave the dulcimer at the sisters' apartment, but have plans to later go back and collect that along with the electric guitar with amplifier found in a second apartment. The electric dual foot and calf massager, unwanted in one apartment, was like Christmas to the elders in another apartment. I think we made their day. 

Electric leg and foot massager -
unwanted junk by one turning into
much loved treasures by another.

Missionaries staying focused on their missionary purpose! And with lots of cash to spend apparently! But these items get left behind when they leave - making happy hyenas rummaging through the left overs. 

Yes, it was a good day!

A happy trio of sister missionaries, complete with year-round
Christmas lights in their apartment.

Earthquakes, Typhoons, and Undaunted Missionaries

Typhoon Lekima made quite a bit of international excitement this week. Upgraded to a super typhoon, and headed to the northern part of Taiwan and places beyond, the Taiwanese government ordered schools, stores and even our temple to be closed on Friday. Just to be on the safe side. No one ever quite knows the exact path of these things though predictions are made carefully. So we braced for the worst, then watched while it veered farther north and just left in its wake lots of rain in this part of the island. So sorry to hear of the devastation it caused in China. 

This just after the 6.0 earthquake jolted us from our beds Thursday morning. Elder Coffey and I are used to typhoons and earthquakes so we weren’t overly impressed by the magnitude of either, though the quake did send us to a sisters apartment to examine long horizontal cracks in their bedroom walls. No worries - they're just surface cracks. The structural integrity of the apartment is still intact. 

Crack extending the full length of the wall in a sisters' apartment following the earthquake.

It also disrupted the mission presidents office with a smashed picture and a broken decorative pot, along with a noticeable crack in the corner wall. 

Life still carries on. There is work to do. We are all safe and the buildings are still sound. They are built well here and made to withstand earthquakes much larger than this one.

We’ve been here for a month. We’ve inspected many apartments, fixing faucets, dryers, microwaves, leaks, and whatever else might need attending to. We first try to teach the missionaries how to fix the problem themselves (self reliance), then try to get the landlords to fix the issue, then Elder Coffey steps in if the need still continues. 

Elders in front of their apartment building entrance

Each apartment has a water filter system for clean drinkinng water

Rain doesn't stop them!

And along the way we take them treats and get to enjoy these wonderful missionaries, all 126 of them. We love seeing them as they do what they do best - finding people with whom they can share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Sisters with their newly found friends

There are 8 zones, or areas, in the mission. Each zone has anywhere from 12-20 missionaries. So we travel by subway (MRT), bus, train or drive the mission mini van, slowly getting out to each of the areas, some of them hours away.  We are encouraged to do an inspection to each apartment once a quarter, checking for cleanliness, safety, and repairs where needed. This way we will eventually get to see the entire northern and eastern side of the island!  Pretty cool! 

It's always appreciated when they come out to meet us and help us find their apartment!

The missionaries stop to talk to everyone, even while waiting at a stop light!  Such examples!

Most apartments are pretty cleaned up before we arrive, some better than others.  But this pair of Elders win the clean apartment award - hands down. We haven't seen a more orderly, clean and neat apartment anywhere here. They will make their future wives proud! Good job Elders!

They also win the ingenious award. They had a leaky air conditioner, and rather than just mopping up the water each day, they devised a controlled drip system to channel the water down into collection bottles, until the leak can be fixed.

But sometimes we find ugly surprises, like this slimy moldy wall underneath some sisters' bathroom cabinet. We located the source of the leak and the sisters contacted the attentive landlord, who came in minutes to get it fixed. Not all landlords are as conscientious. We are grateful!

Arriving in Asia - The Smells Always Get Me

My dad always said that of all our senses, the sense of smell is the strongest - with the ability to bring back long lost memories enveloping us like fuzzy blankets, stirring the soul and enlivening the intellect.

I wait for it. The doors of the plane open and travel-weary passengers stream into the modern Taipei airport, complete with modern ventilation systems. The air is fresh. No memory streaming just yet. 

Our mission president and his wife greet us enthusiastically.

We head outdoors into the sultry night air. I anticipate the moment. 

Ah -  there it is! The warm cloud hitting the nose and mind with seeming simultaneous precision, then gently enveloping us like a heavy, pungent perfume-laden quilt. 

Memories flood my soul. Childhood playing on the back alleys of Saigon, exploring the beaches in Thailand, riding the ferry to Kowloon in Hong Kong. Then the adult-born memories of hubby-accompanied humanitarian trips to Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, China and Timor-Leste, with previous missions taking us back to Hong Kong and Vietnam. Yep - the smell is still there. 

Saying goodbye to MTC companion and long friend
who traveled with us on the same plane to Taiwan.
 She and her husband are serving in the
Taiwan Taichung mission, to the south.

The thing is - it smells so good! Like an old friend never forgotten- a warm embrace, a soft touch, mingled with a touch of salt air from the China Strait, flowing between China and Taiwan.

We are taken to our apartment, resting behind a rusting metal gate and up one set of stairs. While the blue gate doesn't exactly look like much, and the inside courtyard and dimly lit peeling staircase look like something out of National Geographic, the three bedroom apartment is nevertheless spacious and comfortable. We live like the locals. We relish in it! 

Our apartment is literally a 1.5 minute walk from the door of the church building, which is right next to the temple, which is across the street from the Mission Office. We are pretty spoiled! 

We see the temple as soon as we step outside our apartment gate. The beauty and grandeur of the Taiwan Taipei temple gleams, with tropical palms and fragrant flowers perfuming the humid night air.

The mission president and his wife treat us to shou zhua bing (Taiwanese pancakes) and bao bing (shaved ice - ours with fresh mango and a scoop of mango ice cream on top). 

Making shou zhua bing - thick pancake type breads with delicious fillings

Bao bing - big enough to share the tangy
 sweet Taiwan-famous dessert

Each evening, Fur Elise or other pleasant tunes comes floating through the air up and down the streets.

A bright yellow truck blocks the crowded intersection. Music cascades down its sides and floats melodiously through the neighborhood. The local residents have been gathering, waiting patiently.

An ice cream truck at 8:30 at night? It’s worthy of an investigation, peering through our balcony window to the street below.

No ice cream here – it’s the local garbage truck! 

Imagine if everywhere in the world garbage was soothed with music from the great composers of all time. It's a change of perspective worthy of much contemplation.

So we are welcomed to Taipei through our senses, both physical and spiritual. Our mission has begun!