This has been such a tender week with the birth of our ninth grandchild on the
ninth of July—sweet Golden haired Graham Walker Gessel to Lauren and Brandt in
Orem, Utah, weighing in at 8.2 and measuring 19.5” long! The timing was a week
overdue for poor Lauren but it was perfect for us in Taiwan because our week
prior as we arrived on island and traveled around to meet the Missionaries was
very hectic. The day Graham was born (or the night for us 😉🇹🇼) was just before our pday so
it was a tender mercy to not be distracted and have the ability to enjoy
talking w them and see pictures and pray for Lar while she was laboring and
delivering their sweet son! When we heard she still wasn’t dilated after being
in labor all night, we hit our knees in prayer for her, pleading for her to
start progressing and have a smooth delivery. We are so grateful she received
those blessings and are so grateful for her health and baby Graham’s too!
Every baby’s birth is such a miracle. We shared on LINE ( the texting App
all our Missionaries use) the happy news of Graham’s birth that morning to our
Missionaries and throughout the day they texted little joyful responses with
Asian “stickers” that move and hop and jump for joy to share in our joy as well
as their kind words which helped us feel so loved and comforted not being able
to be there. The other huge comfort was all the family support. Seeing pictures
of Spencer and Mckenna and Anne and Gma Win there to support and rejoice as
well as the “Army of aunts” who helped w food and baby holding this first week
has been an answer to my prayers and pleadings. What blessings!!
The Lord blessed us this week also in that a typhoon passed over us without any harm to our Missionaries. That Sunday night while we were waiting word on Graham’s arrival we were also watching the weather as a category 5 was supposed to hit the island. We sent out word to our mission to stay “in” Tuesday night and sent out instructions for safety. Fortunately it amounted to just heavy rain but no huge wind or damage! 😅.
Tuesday Mike began his first series of interviews w all our Missionaries. The first days it was nice that he could do all the Taipei zones at home in his office downstairs and then Thursday we drive to Taoyuan and Hsinchu for interviews there. While he interviews I get to talk w all those waiting. What a privilege to get to know our Missionaries, hear their stories, feel their spirits, have them teach me Chinese phrases and words, hear about English class, who they’re teaching, what miracles they’ve seen recently and enjoy basking in the light of their faith! What incredible hardworking and faithful Missionaries we have. We can’t get over the humbling privilege it is to get to be in their midst and cheer them on! Seeing them literally drenched from rain and or dripping from sweat from riding their bikes 45 Mins in the 90 degree weather w stifling humidity as they come in the door with smiles on their faces is an inspiration to behold. They love the work and work so hard! They have large teaching pools and are baptizing many converts. The Lord is preparing so many here and they are so ready to listen. I can’t say we don’t have any who struggle with anxiety or depression because we do and Boy does our heart ache and Boy do we pray hard for them to be able to see through the fog of doubt and recognize the amazing thing they are doing just getting up every morning and going out for another day. Oh how we pray for each of our missionaries to know they’re each so so loved and amazing because of who they uniquely are!
Fridsy night and Saturday we met future Missionaries of Taiwan! And how the Lord is preparing an army of youth we met yesterday—300 of them at an 8 stake youth conference on preparing for missionary service! They had three days of missionary prep activities including listening to Missionaries from our mission come speak to the groups who rotated thru and heard how our Missionaries decided to go on missions, what one does as a missionary and what joys they’ve found in being a missionary. So wonderful for our Missionaries who participated to get to share w these amazing youth and to see these future Missionaries from Taiwan! Mike was able to speak yesterday to the entire group and share his testimony about his mission and our children’s Missionary experiences via the video we showed at our missionary Meet n greets last week. They loved the video and the music to it and seemed to enjoy seeing and hearing about our family Missionaries. . After the talks they asked all the youth who want to commit to serve a mission to come up to the large stage where they were presented with an “Army of Helaman” pin that they will wear each Sunday in reminder of their commitment to serve. Mike and I were asked to join the stake presidents in greeting and giving these pins to the youth and shake their hands. It was such a joy to do so and so humbling too. What a powerful thing to commit together and be reminded by this pin each day. These youth amazed us as well by their patience to sit thru several talks and all the presenting of the pins to the 300 while wearing Sunday best while sitting in an outdoor university gym that had no AC! We were drenched w sweat and praying we didn’t faint ourselves! Yet these youth were all focused and engaged. I thought if only our prophet President Nelson could see all these amazing Mandarin Chinese speaking future Missionaries, he would be bursting with hope and joy! We were! What a sight to behold and what a privilege to be part of.
Mike and I look often at each other w tears in our eyes so humbled that we are treated like we know everything and they are so eager to go and go and follow. What a constant humbling opportunity to be here and to do this and to try to be that example that they’re looking to and to share w them how much our Father in Heaven loves them and needs them to do His work. We have realized these last weeks being here that they really are the ones who do the work and we are here to support and help THEM in this mighty work THEY have been called and foreordained to do. Our job is daunting in training them to be the best Missionaries they can be. So we pray and we pray and we study every day and try to catch up with these amazing Missionaries who inspire us in every way!
This week I’ve realized my mind is swimming in Chinese phrases and new words! It’s so hard to be on the outside of the Chinese world I’m immersed in. The Missionaries make it seem so easy to rattle off Chinese! It is so painstaking for me to learn and remember words and phrases and to memorize. I’m trying but it is so humbling. Every aspect of this calling is humbling but I’m grateful truly grateful for every word or phrase that does stick that I can use to try to converse or st least understand what is being said. The other day I went with the sisters —Sister Maynard and Sis Johnson? I think—as they took a lovely investigator named Andrea (actually in PMG update now we’ve been asked to no longer use the word investigator but call them “friends” learning about the church) on a chapel tour. Oh how I wanted to be able to speak and communicate w her! I could pick out enough words and phrases in the context of which room we were in to know what the gist of the conversation was but oh how badly I wished I could speak in Chinese. I did share my testimony briefly about how attending church blesses my life. As I watched these sisters and listened to them share their testimonies with such power and the spirit I wasn’t surprised when Andrea said she felt peace and warm feeling when they asked her how she felt as they were in the chapel. It was amazing to me that she had never heard of Jesus Christ who is central to all they taught her about the church. I pointed out pictures of Jesus indicating they could show her so she could get a “visual” idea about who He is and his mission on earth. I truly felt I was standing on holy ground not just being in the chapel but being there to witness what light these angel Missionaries are bringing to people who never knew it before but can now feel the warmth and peace of it as they get the opportunity. This “friend” literally accepted on the street the offer from two of our Elders to learn about our church. They “set her up” as they say to be taught in a matter of seconds and then referred her to the sisters. They then invited her to have a chapel tour and at the end invited her to be baptized as we saw the baptismal font. Wow. These missionaries were not hesitant at all to extend the invitation. While she wasn’t ready to say yes she wants to learn more and was excited to have them come teach her more. The finding of this woman I know was inspired. She was being prepared and the Elders saw something in her eyes that caused them to extend the invitation to her!
God is and has been preparing these beautiful humble friends in Taiwan! I love it and being a physical and hopefully vocal witness to it!
The Lord blessed us this week also in that a typhoon passed over us without any harm to our Missionaries. That Sunday night while we were waiting word on Graham’s arrival we were also watching the weather as a category 5 was supposed to hit the island. We sent out word to our mission to stay “in” Tuesday night and sent out instructions for safety. Fortunately it amounted to just heavy rain but no huge wind or damage! 😅.
Tuesday Mike began his first series of interviews w all our Missionaries. The first days it was nice that he could do all the Taipei zones at home in his office downstairs and then Thursday we drive to Taoyuan and Hsinchu for interviews there. While he interviews I get to talk w all those waiting. What a privilege to get to know our Missionaries, hear their stories, feel their spirits, have them teach me Chinese phrases and words, hear about English class, who they’re teaching, what miracles they’ve seen recently and enjoy basking in the light of their faith! What incredible hardworking and faithful Missionaries we have. We can’t get over the humbling privilege it is to get to be in their midst and cheer them on! Seeing them literally drenched from rain and or dripping from sweat from riding their bikes 45 Mins in the 90 degree weather w stifling humidity as they come in the door with smiles on their faces is an inspiration to behold. They love the work and work so hard! They have large teaching pools and are baptizing many converts. The Lord is preparing so many here and they are so ready to listen. I can’t say we don’t have any who struggle with anxiety or depression because we do and Boy does our heart ache and Boy do we pray hard for them to be able to see through the fog of doubt and recognize the amazing thing they are doing just getting up every morning and going out for another day. Oh how we pray for each of our missionaries to know they’re each so so loved and amazing because of who they uniquely are!
Fridsy night and Saturday we met future Missionaries of Taiwan! And how the Lord is preparing an army of youth we met yesterday—300 of them at an 8 stake youth conference on preparing for missionary service! They had three days of missionary prep activities including listening to Missionaries from our mission come speak to the groups who rotated thru and heard how our Missionaries decided to go on missions, what one does as a missionary and what joys they’ve found in being a missionary. So wonderful for our Missionaries who participated to get to share w these amazing youth and to see these future Missionaries from Taiwan! Mike was able to speak yesterday to the entire group and share his testimony about his mission and our children’s Missionary experiences via the video we showed at our missionary Meet n greets last week. They loved the video and the music to it and seemed to enjoy seeing and hearing about our family Missionaries. . After the talks they asked all the youth who want to commit to serve a mission to come up to the large stage where they were presented with an “Army of Helaman” pin that they will wear each Sunday in reminder of their commitment to serve. Mike and I were asked to join the stake presidents in greeting and giving these pins to the youth and shake their hands. It was such a joy to do so and so humbling too. What a powerful thing to commit together and be reminded by this pin each day. These youth amazed us as well by their patience to sit thru several talks and all the presenting of the pins to the 300 while wearing Sunday best while sitting in an outdoor university gym that had no AC! We were drenched w sweat and praying we didn’t faint ourselves! Yet these youth were all focused and engaged. I thought if only our prophet President Nelson could see all these amazing Mandarin Chinese speaking future Missionaries, he would be bursting with hope and joy! We were! What a sight to behold and what a privilege to be part of.
Mike and I look often at each other w tears in our eyes so humbled that we are treated like we know everything and they are so eager to go and go and follow. What a constant humbling opportunity to be here and to do this and to try to be that example that they’re looking to and to share w them how much our Father in Heaven loves them and needs them to do His work. We have realized these last weeks being here that they really are the ones who do the work and we are here to support and help THEM in this mighty work THEY have been called and foreordained to do. Our job is daunting in training them to be the best Missionaries they can be. So we pray and we pray and we study every day and try to catch up with these amazing Missionaries who inspire us in every way!
This week I’ve realized my mind is swimming in Chinese phrases and new words! It’s so hard to be on the outside of the Chinese world I’m immersed in. The Missionaries make it seem so easy to rattle off Chinese! It is so painstaking for me to learn and remember words and phrases and to memorize. I’m trying but it is so humbling. Every aspect of this calling is humbling but I’m grateful truly grateful for every word or phrase that does stick that I can use to try to converse or st least understand what is being said. The other day I went with the sisters —Sister Maynard and Sis Johnson? I think—as they took a lovely investigator named Andrea (actually in PMG update now we’ve been asked to no longer use the word investigator but call them “friends” learning about the church) on a chapel tour. Oh how I wanted to be able to speak and communicate w her! I could pick out enough words and phrases in the context of which room we were in to know what the gist of the conversation was but oh how badly I wished I could speak in Chinese. I did share my testimony briefly about how attending church blesses my life. As I watched these sisters and listened to them share their testimonies with such power and the spirit I wasn’t surprised when Andrea said she felt peace and warm feeling when they asked her how she felt as they were in the chapel. It was amazing to me that she had never heard of Jesus Christ who is central to all they taught her about the church. I pointed out pictures of Jesus indicating they could show her so she could get a “visual” idea about who He is and his mission on earth. I truly felt I was standing on holy ground not just being in the chapel but being there to witness what light these angel Missionaries are bringing to people who never knew it before but can now feel the warmth and peace of it as they get the opportunity. This “friend” literally accepted on the street the offer from two of our Elders to learn about our church. They “set her up” as they say to be taught in a matter of seconds and then referred her to the sisters. They then invited her to have a chapel tour and at the end invited her to be baptized as we saw the baptismal font. Wow. These missionaries were not hesitant at all to extend the invitation. While she wasn’t ready to say yes she wants to learn more and was excited to have them come teach her more. The finding of this woman I know was inspired. She was being prepared and the Elders saw something in her eyes that caused them to extend the invitation to her!
God is and has been preparing these beautiful humble friends in Taiwan! I love it and being a physical and hopefully vocal witness to it!
16 And there was no inequality among them; the Lord did
pour out his Spirit on all the face of the land to prepare the minds of the
children of men, or to prepare their hearts to receive the word which
should be taught among them at the time of his coming—
17
That they might not be hardened against the word, that they might not be
unbelieving, and go on to destruction, but that they might receive the word
with joy, and as a branch be grafted into the true vine, that they might
enter into the rest of the Lord their God. Alma 16:16-17
I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ once again restored to the earth through His prophet Joseph Smith and we have the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Every missionary is a walking miracle! What joy to welcome one these little miracles and future missionaries to the earth this week and to our family!
Wo ji dao jiohui si jenshede!
Wo ji dao Ue Se Si chi Shen de Chianzi!
Wo ganxie Jesu Jidu fuyin!
Wo ai chuanjiao shi de Taiwan!
Love and hugs to all!
Ping Xie Li Jie Mei
P. S. I got my new Chinese name this week! I love it bc it sounds like Shelley. The X makes a Sh sound and the “i” in the Li makes and E sound so it’s Sheea Lee. It means Ping: Peace Xie: Hope, Li: Beautiful.
P.P.
S: A funny moment was when we checked into our hotel In Xsinchu on Friday
the 13th and were given the room 911! Haha Mike said to the front desk
man—seriously? He then realized and chuckled and said So sorry! But
he didn’t change our room! I think it was the last room available and I think I
know why too! Luckily we are not superstitious and nothing bad happened either!
😂
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