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!

Pack Your Bags, Cri-Kee - We're Moving Out!

We Pause Now for a Brief “Inter-Mission”

Who could have foreseen the pandemic coming? Of course, God knew it was coming and He prepared His Saints well. With Come Follow Me, stay at home church, Zoom social-distance-appropriate meetings, and inter-connections of ministering all in place, the shelter-in-place guidelines provided healing downtime for many people in an otherwise frenzied world. 

But for missionaries around the world, it changed the face and shape of their mission experience forever. On April 3, 2020, the Taiwan Taipei mission and the Taiwan Taichung mission boarded up their non-native missionaries to send them back to their homes. Our mission sent 99 young missionaries on air flights to their home countries. Some had just barely arrived on their mission.

In time, most of these missionaries would receive temporary US-based reassignments to continue their missionary service. Las Vegas, San Diego, Arcadia, North Carolina – the scattering of our Taiwan Taipei Israel. They were so cute – so eager and happy to serve in their new assignments.

Most senior missionaries were sent home the following week. We arrived back in the States on April 8^th.

Since our home was still being rented out when we arrived, we were invited by one of our daughters to live with them.  We assumed squatters rights in a bedroom in their basement.  We’ve spent this time enjoying grandchildren, doing family history work, helping with projects around the house, and enjoying this brief  “inter-mission” to our mission.  As restrictions have lifted somewhat, we’ve been able to visit some of our other family members as well.

We suspected we would also be reassigned stateside, following the pattern of the younger missionaries. We have 9 months of mission time left. We were on hold, waiting for a later time when we’d receive our assignment on where to finish our missionary term of service.

Then a couple of bombshells fell on us. Our renters needed to leave early from their lease, and told us they will vacate our house in July. That leaves us with reduced income for the mission costs. Maybe we could finish our mission in our own home with a stay-at-home assignment?

The next day, our mission president from Taiwan called us. Our scattered missionaries are being reassigned back to Taiwan right away, and they need us to come and help! There are currently only 4 active cases of  COVID-19 in Taiwan so young missionaries and a few senior missionaries who still have a valid resident card are being allowed back. 

“Urgent news from the General! We’re needed at the front! 

Pack your bags, Cri-kee! We’re moving out!"

Courtesy of Flickr.com - Pawarisa Ch.

The whirlwind begins: Pray for a renter. Find a renter. Prepare the house for a new renter.

Renew the international drivers license. Make arrangements for the car. Buy chocolate chips to take to Taiwan. Finish up projects. Wait for official reassignment.

And wait. And wait. And wait. Were we really going to Taiwan at all?

It seemed like forever, but finally the flight itinerary arrived in our email box - We're flying out on July 2nd. The reassignment back to Taiwan truly is happening!  

And so we were off again! Three months after arriving back home, we are excitedly heading back in the air, Taiwan bound.

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen".  Matthew 28:19-20.