Quarantining in Taiwan - Missionary Style

What is quarantine for missionaries like? It depends on who you ask.

When we arrived back in Taiwan, we quarantined in one of our senior missionary apartments for two weeks. It wasn’t bad. We enjoyed the quiet time to do many of our computer photo projects, family history, read, exercise, watch Netflix movies, study and prepare. We had the run of the apartment, and as long as we didn’t leave the apartment, we were compliant with the law of the land.

For the younger returning missionaries, however, it is a totally different experience.

Two missionaries quarantine in one apartment, but they must stay apart from each other the entire time. Their apartments have at least two bedrooms and two bathrooms.  One bedroom must have an attached bathroom.  One of the missionaries gets to stay there, inside that bedroom, the entire two weeks. The other missionary is the designated cook and cleaner. That person cooks meals and brings them to the other missionary. He or she will wash clothes, and do the other necessary household tasks.

Elder Coffey and I are outfitting three new missionary apartments that have been designated as “Quarantine Apartments”. In anticipation of the last two returning missionaries who arrive next week, as well as what we hope will be many more new ones coming later in the year, these apartments need to have special arrangements.

These new quarantine apartments are already furnished (beds, desks, tables, chairs, closets), and we bring the rest. 

This week we’re hauling bedding, (pillows, blankets, sheets), towels, microwave, rice cooker, toaster oven,  pans, cooking utensils, cups, plates, bowls, silverware, mixing bowls, toilet paper, soap, detergent, broom, mop, floor fans, dryers, ironing board, iron, and CO monitors to outfit these apartments. We also install the mission water filter system for clean drinking water.

Much of it we had to go buy. Much of it we already had in storage. All of it had to be organized and assembled and delivered.  Thank you to the fine two office elders and others who helped us load, carry and deliver all this!

We outfit the apartments with enough food for two weeks, plus offer a “mid-way quarantine re-stocking” for fresh items needed and also take away the garbage. We include wonderful snacks like ice cream and other treats to break the monotony. We also offer menu guidelines for how to use what is provided.

The designated cook gets to learn skills he or she never knew they had!  From curry to corn dumpling soup to fried rice – the missionaries have fun exploring new talents and culinary experiences. They get to take what ingredients are provided, and create meals for two people for two weeks. It’s no easy task. Here are some of the dishes our latest quarantine elders have come up with: 

The “solitary confinement” missionary gets a mini fridge in their room, which is stocked with snacks, water, etc. The doors of each bedroom remain open at all times, and the missionaries try to position their desks so that they can at least see each other for studies or talking. Or just for human interaction. 

Those younger missionaries who have been through the quarantine period sometimes described boredom, a sense of loss, discouragement, and depression. Especially for the one in “solitary confinement”. It’s a long two weeks.  They try to keep each other’s spirits up. Some sing and dance from across the hall with each other. Some have long chats together. With no computer to explore on, and just a mission-owned phone with limited access, there just isn’t much to do. But some love the time to bond with each other, talk and get to know each other. Much of the time they read scriptures, study Chinese, and prepare for their upcoming missionary service. 

And they emerge as heroes in our eyes, extremely ready to go to work. They’ve been through a lot.  They were all given basically an emergency evacuation back in April to return to their home countries. They spent months not knowing what the next step would be for them. Then through the graces of the Taiwanese government, the relentless efforts of the mission president to get his band of stripling warriors back, permission from Church authorities, and the grace of God, they were allowed to return to complete their missions, with strict face mask travel requirements and then this long two-week quarantine.

Indeed, they are “firm and undaunted."

And for those still on their way, their apartments are ready and waiting! We are excited to have you join this stripling band of warriors ready to serve the Lord in this part of His vineyard!

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.

The War Is Not Just with COVID-19

Hong Kong was the first. Other countries soon followed. The Philippines, Mongolia, Singapore. Foreign missionaries were being sent home. Others had “shelter in place” orders. The war was with the COVID-19. But the other war was with ourselves – how to keep people full of faith, not fear. Full of hope, not worry.

All around us, missionaries were being sent home. Then the US State Department issued recommendations for many Americans abroad to go back to the States as soon as possible. Taiwan closed its borders to any foreigners flying in – only Taiwanese nationals were allowed in the country and they all had to undergo a mandatory 14 day quarantine. The world is getting very quiet. 

Paris empty streets - courtesy of flickr.com Charlievdb

The Mission President pulled the senior couples from the office together to give them the news. Shortly after, he sent the message out to all the missionaries. All missionaries from a country other than Taiwan must be prepared to leave to return to their home country within a day, or a week or maybe a month – or maybe never!  But prepare nonetheless. Things were changing at lightning speed and no one knew for sure what would happen next.

Meanwhile, the ticker for the number of cases worldwide kept ticking. 237,095, then 246,126, then 310,642.

In times such as these, people find humorous ways to dissipate the stress and level the playing field a little. Even if only for a brief chuckle, people reach out to find humor, or compassion, amidst the blackening skies.

Courtesy of flickr.com Nenad Stojkovic

Meanwhile, the death count ticker is also rising. It becomes no laughing matter. 12,056, then 16, 597, then 19,607. The number rise hourly. 

Soon nearly everyone knows someone who knows someone who has the COVID-19. Our daughter had it. She was blessed to have a lighter case and recovered at home, now her family is in quarantine.

The young missionaries began packing. We began packing. It was all a rush. We might be going home the next day.  No one knew for sure.

But the next day we were still here. And the day after that. News came that Taiwan would be, for now at least, an exception to the rules, since the virus cases in Taiwan are nearly all contained, and it was deemed more dangerous to return to the US than to stay here.

However, missionaries and their parents were given the choice. If they wanted their missionary to come home, or if the missionary wanted to return, that would be fine. They wanted the families to feel comfortable during this unsettled time.

Turn out, no one chose to leave.

One of our missionaries sharing his
 faith in Jesus Christ

With his permission, I share what one of our missionaries wrote:

"There might be some people out there asking, Elder, aren't you worried about this epidemic? I would respond and say I believe it is inconvenient, but I'm not worried or afraid. Some others might ask, well why are you still out there as a missionary? You have such little time left on your mission, isn't it better to just go home? My response: I'm staying as long as I can because I love the Lord Jesus Christ. I am trying to help all the ends of the earth prepare for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. I'm staying as long as I can because I know the Book of Mormon is true. …. I'm happy I can continue to serve God and share His message with everyone. Remember, Jesus Christ has already overcome the world.”

Reminds me of some stripling warriors, a beloved people in the Book of Mormon:

 “Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it.” (Alma 56: 47-48)

These modern day stripling warriors are firm and strong in their faith. A sister missionary shares: 

Sisters stop to share a message of hope

"Faith and fear cannot coexist. Through this virus we either choose fear...or faith. The faith I use to block out my worry and doubts is faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in a God who is greater than any sickness in the world. I rely on the fact that most often through our hardest trials He won't take the trial away but He stands by us and gives us the strength to endure."

So there you have it - the faith our missionaries have in Jesus Christ. Overcoming fear with faith. Uncertainty with hope.

How long we will be allowed to remain in Taiwan is unknown. Maybe missionaries will be allowed to continue here without interruption. But whatever happens, we are surrounded by miracles, by Heavenly Father's love, and by an army of young people who, wherever they go, will continue to share the message of Jesus Christ, a message of faith and hope, in preparation for His glorious return. 

Doing quarantine with smiles!