Catching Blessings on a Lotus Leaf

I recently took an early morning walk through the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall gardens. They are beautiful. Aside from the absolutely stunning buildings on the grounds, the gardens are oases of remarkable peace and serenity in the midst of a busy crowded city.

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

National Concert Hall in the background

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall as seen through the outer gate

 A Malayan Night Heron, unafraid, walks near me on the garden grounds.

An early morning runner near the main entrance gate of 

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Park.

It was early morning, and the air was still cool enough to enjoy a walk without the heavy humidity that would settle in later that day. Other than the rustling of the waters now and then where the koi were gathering, the pond was still and calm.

I’ve always loved the beautiful lotus flowers. They carry thousands of years of meaning and symbolism, from culture to culture, from faith to faith. They rise up from the muddiest of depths, pure and unsullied, day after day. I’m told, though I didn’t stay long enough to see it, that the lotus flower dips down into the water or mud every evening, only to rise again in the morning, once again renewed, sparking clean and fresh. There is plenty of powerful symbolism in that alone!

When photographing one of the blossoms, what really caught my eye was the lotus leaf next to it.

Somehow it invited my attention. I was drawn to it again and again.  It was single, not overly stunning in beauty compared to the flower next to it, but I couldn’t help admire.

Beads of rain water collected on its surface, pooling in the center. A little drop here, a little drop there, all collected by the cupped outstretched hand of the lotus leaf.

I really liked that. It brought me somehow a spirit of peace and happiness.

I saw the outstretched hands of grateful people, receiving - and then dispensing to others - blessings throughout their lives.

Blessings are all around us.  They may seem like little things at first, a little kindness from someone, a whiff of flowers on a nearby shrub,

the adorable cuteness of a little child following us or the sound of a harmonica being played somewhere in the garden. Blessings shared in the pigeons that held still, calm and unafraid, lining up on the bridge they had long ago claimed as their own. Gifts from the Giver of all good things.

D&C 88:33 – For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him and he receive not the gift?  Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift.

What blessings, gifts, and joys are all around us, that we might be missing?  We can see the hand of the Lord all around, and those little gifts pool deeply in our hearts as we collect them, and then share them outwardly with others.

Our hearts are lifted. We walk in a spirit of daily gratitude. Sometimes it is easy to get too distracted with the busyness of life – with the noise and drama and work – the shuffling back and forth here and there – and one might miss the tender mercies of the Lord.  But when we take time to look, to reach our hands outward and upward, we will find little beads of blessings collecting on the edges of our lives, being drawn inward into our hearts, and then outward as we share them with others.

                                      Thank you - lotus leaf. 

Henry David Thoreau – “An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”

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!

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.