We truly are living in the year of the PIG over here! Everyone has been feeding us to fatness! But as we have been feasting I am reminded of the scripture in 2 Nephi 9:51 in the Book of Mormon: "Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words which I have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel, and FEAST upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted, and let your soul delight in FATNESS!" We have truly been filled this month by the richness of the Spirit and I desire to share those things with you! That you too may feel the feeling of "fatness" or richness of the Spirit!
First off, what exciting news about missionaries now being allowed to call home! I think it will be a great blessing to families. Having had five missionary children who didn't get to call home weekly, I see this as a great blessing to parents and for the sons and daughters to be able to communicate real-time more frequently. This will build the missionaries' and family's relationships as well as provide more needed comfort and reassurance of support and strength from their greatest sources of strength other than the Lord (and hopefully the Mission President and wife too). I see families being so blessed to feel the exuberance and spirit of the work of their missionaries out serving and feel part of their work. And when they come home after two years, they and their families won't feel like strangers, to each other but fellow citizens in Christ! What blessings are in store! The missionaries are ingrained to think that's not ok but once they do it and enjoy it I think it will make for happier missionaries in the end! We hope our missionaries will call home with a purpose--to minister to their families and to build faith and give love to individual family members. I know we don't even know all the blessings it will provide, but I am confident it will change the hearts of many to now be willing to serve and to serve with greater confidence and reassurance just knowing they have a call to look forward to on Monday with those they love! I think of those converts whose families are not members and who must struggle to understand why their son or daughter can't call them. What a blessing and strength to those courageous individuals as well! We look forward to "counseling" together about the phoning/texting at Zone Conference this week and I know these missionaries will have great insights for each other and for us.
One of the amazing traditions here for Chinese New Year/Spring Festival is that all the stores close down so people can go visit their parents. Also people have you over for a Chingke and feed you and feed you! Their hospitality and generosity is incredible. As a guest you remove your shoes at the door and greet your host with the words "Gongxi Facai" which literally means "Congratulations on being so rich!" and then if you are a little child you say "Hongbau na lai!" (hand over the red envelope) and it is customary for the host to give children and older people red envelopes with money inside. Red is an important color! For Chinese new year you wear red (not white or black as those are associated with death and are considered bad luck) and you also bring fruit such as pineapple, apples or oranges to the host along with little red squares with Chinese characters written on them with symbols of Peace, prosperity and Good fortune. They hang them up and it is a way of bringing wishes of Good fortune to them for the new year. Before Chinese New year they clean and clean to get the bad spirits out of their homes. Then after Chinese new year they don't want you to offer to help clean up because you might sweep up all the good fortune they received! They put red around their doors with Chinese symbols of good fortune to keep out the bad spirits (which reminds me of the Children of Israel putting the blood around the door frame to have the destroying angel pass by them) and they put red lanterns up everywhere also for Spring lantern festivals. One of those we were fortunate to be invited to for a Chingke was the Yehs. He is a 91 year old former Navy Admiral and is not a member but his wife is and is so faithful and is patiently awaiting him to have a change of heart and be baptized! This couple is truly angelic! Their relationship is so dear and darling. She said: "I have one problem! He is so smart! He is always right!" ha ha but whenever he loses anything, he has HER pray to find it because she always will! He has definitely been prepared to receive the gospel so we are praying with dear Sister Yeh that he will! He told us an amazing story about how he learned of the church. He was attending the Naval War Academy in Newport Rhode Island in 1965(we assume he was invited there because of his stellar accomplishments in Taiwan.) He noticed two of the men in his unit never drank tea, coffee (or Coke!) and he couldn't believe it. He asked them how they could survive without those things and he was amazed they were happy to not partake because of their religious beliefs as "Mormons" --members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Now here's the amazing part. Because of these two men's examples, Brother Yeh wanted to find out what was the source of their faith so he got the idea to travel to go to the temple in Salt Lake City. So he contacted AAA to help him map out the way for him to drive all the way from Rhode Island to Salt Lake City --all by himself and in a beat up car that everyone told him wouldn't make it! But he did it and the car made it! He drove all that way and finally got to the Salt Lake temple. He went to go in and to his huge surprise and disappointment was told he couldn't enter because he had to be a member of the church and hold a temple recommend. He was told not even the governor of Utah could enter in at that time because he didn't have a recommend. He was so disappointed but he heard a children's choir rehearsing in the Tabernacle and went over and listened to them. He said they sounded like angels. He felt a great feeling there. Fast forward years later as he was back in Taiwan, Senator Orrin Hatch contacted him when the Taipei temple was having open house before its dedication in 1984. He invited Brother Yeh to come and go inside the temple and he did that! He loved it and he continues to receive Orrin Hatch when he comes to Taiwan. After his wife passed away about 15 years ago he re-married this sweet sister who had joined the church in LA and who felt impressed to leave all to come to Taiwan to take care of Brother Yeh as a job. They fell in love and her faith has sustained them both. He has had poor health and been healed miraculously. We pray that he will see that all these experiences are the Lord's hand leading him and that he will be baptized. What a joy to meet him and his sweet wife --she made us the most amazing spring roll buffet that we could make our own. Spencer and Mckenna were invited to come along with the AP's and Mike's parents. What an amazing and special time to feel part of this culture and to meet such special and inspiring people. Truly humbling and we are praying all the blessings and good fortune of the gospel on this sweet couple!
We had special time w our beautiful Wang family—dinner and FHE along with our missionaries Elders Ward and Embley and Sisters Chen and Smith. Amazing dinner and beautiful hospitality. (I got to pull meat off the chicken and reached in the bag to grab meat and grabbed the neck and head and then the ugly feet. Ugh! But the meat was delicious! We ate family style w it all spread out on the table. Everyone has a small bowl of rice and chopsticks. You just grab what meat or veggies you want onto your rice w your chopsticks. Very good practice on using chopsticks! The lesson Elder Ward gave was on D&C 27:15 about putting on the protective armor of God. He had a pot of water and slices of oranges w the peel. He gave each child a slice and asked them to put it in the pot. The children noticed the oranges all stayed afloat in the water. Next he had the children peel their oranges and put them back in the water. The oranges all sank to the bottom without the “armor” of the protective peel to keep them afloat. We all need the armor of God. Then we discussed what we need to do to keep our armor strong: prayer, Study scriptures, attend church and temple. We shared experiences about prayer. I shared about losing the key and praying and finding it. What a sweet thing to feel the joy of being in a family and to share these spiritual experiences w one another.
A few weeks later on Jan 19 we had them come for dinner at our apartment to celebrate their oldest grandchild's 12th bday and ability to go do Baptisms for the Dead. Their entire family traveled to Taipei temple so that those old enough could participate in performing these ordinances together and being with their grandson. They did the work for family names including their grandmother. What an amazing joy to be with them --All 17 and see the joy of their temple blessings. What joy to celebrate 3 generations in the gospel and now 3 generations temple worthy. So much joy to see these fruits of sharing the gospel.
A few weeks later on Jan 19 we had them come for dinner at our apartment to celebrate their oldest grandchild's 12th bday and ability to go do Baptisms for the Dead. Their entire family traveled to Taipei temple so that those old enough could participate in performing these ordinances together and being with their grandson. They did the work for family names including their grandmother. What an amazing joy to be with them --All 17 and see the joy of their temple blessings. What joy to celebrate 3 generations in the gospel and now 3 generations temple worthy. So much joy to see these fruits of sharing the gospel.
We received some amazing new missionaries this last transfer: An Australian, 6 Bundiren from Taiwan and two stellar Americans. We also had to say goodbye to 3 special Elders--Hogge, Robinson and Kirkman. What joy to greet the three going home in the temple celestial room and say "Xie Xie Ni de Fu Wu (Thank you for your service!) and feel how much love our Heavenly Father feels for them for their service here in Taiwan. (There's no way not to cry at these tender opportunities!) We loved taking these missionaries to the dedication site near the Grand Hotel so the new ones can consecrate themselves to the mission and the RMs can return and report. I'm so grateful for the things we have learned from these Elders. Elder Hogge: His mission helped him gain confidence in the Lord to face any challenge now Elder Kirkman: 2 Nephi 9:39 (S.M.I.L.E.) "to be spiritually minded is life eternal." No matter what trial, we can SMILE if we are spiritually minded and keep an eternal perspective. Elder Robinson-learning to recognize and live by the spirit has changed my life! We want to always recognize the promptings of the Spirit for what they are.
When we were in --Bade to do INTERVIEWS mid January...we met two recent converts with two great stories. The
Sister we met being interviewed for baptism was going through many challenges as a single mom and so she
googled “churches in Taiwan”. Our church’s website popped up and a link to Mormon.org. She looked it up and said "it just felt
really good" so the temple square VC sisters contacted her and she started
taking the lessons and has decided to be baptized. Her “Payke” or
friend/fellowshipper is Zoey and she’s been
a member for about a year with her young daughter. She said years ago as a
teenager (14) the missionaries knocked at her parents’ home door and her father
sent them away. She felt curious so she hurried and sneaked out the back to go
find them. She talked to them only for a few minutes but long enough for them
to invite her to learn more and to give her a copy of the Book of Mormon.
She sneaked the B o M back into her home and read it but was somewhat
confused as she read it. Soon her father discovered it and took the B o M away
from her. Fast forward time to one year ago when now she is a young mother and
was at a McDonald’s having french fries with her son when she spotted two
Missionaries in white shirts. She immediately got out her phone and started
looking down at it so that they wouldn’t notice her. She said she was nervous
for some reason. . But as she was looking down she noticed two pair of dress
shoes and dark pants standing in front of her. She looked up to see two bright smiling
faces—those of two missionaries (Elder Bradshaw and Elder Cline)—looking down at her . They
invited her to hear a message about Jesus Christ. How had they known to come
over and talk to her? She agreed to let them come teach her and was then baptized
along w her daughter and now she is an amazing member missionary. The elders in
this ward say that she comes happily to help teach the gospel to new friends
and new members. I told Zoey that what she does is everything to those fragile
new members and those investigating the church. I thanked her for her exuberance
and her joy in sharing her light which just beams from her from head to toe!
I wish every RC had a friend like Zoey. What a joy to meet her and what an inspiration!
January 30 was an exciting night when missionary world and family world joined together! It was the night Spencer and Mckenna and girls arrived in Taiwan! Same flight as our two new missionaries from America--Elders Bell and Duncan. Love them instantly and feel so blessed to meet each missionary because we have been praying for them for over a year and a half since Pres. Uchdorf issued our calls! What joy to meet these fine missionaries and feel of their faith. They were so excited to tell us that on the flight over they had taught a first lesson and given away a Book of Mormon! Off to a great start. And to see Spen, Mcken and their three adorable girls appear before us in the airport was surreal! What a long journey but they made it! Rose told Lauren about the flight--"it's the longest flight ever and you'll know what I'm talking about when you fly over here!" haha! Perfect timing for them to arrive right before Guonian--Chinese New Year! We have had so much fun celebrating the new year (Year of the Pig) and eating like pigs in doing so! we have been invited to several "Ching Kes" or hosted meals for us with several entrees by James Wei, who took us to a lovely restaurant for Peking Duck. In the course of the conversation he was telling us that in Taiwan if you golf and you get a "hole in one", you are obligated to buy everyone on the course a free dinner with drinks! So because of the expense, many buy "Hole in one insurance" in the event they have to "ching" after getting one. Pretty funny! , Brother and Sister Chen from Taoyuan was another CHINGKE adventure. They took us to the Grand Hyatt for all the Chinese New year festivities including the lighting of the firecrackers (loudest noises of our lives--Praying Spencer's girls' hearing isn't lost nor ours!) acrobats and Lion and dragon dances all to the steady beat of a very loud loud drum! Every day I pinch myself that Spencer and Mckenna and their girls are here. What a tender mercy to have the opportunity to share this culture and special place and missionary life/experiences with them! I was so touched to tears the first day after they arrived to see Mckenna's reunion with two of her former mission companions who are from Taiwan. They met up on the temple grounds and went to the temple together. What joy! And to see Mckenna speaking Mandarin so freely.
This is an amazing time in our lives to be here and have these stretching but powerful experiences that ever testify to us that this is the Lord's church. Gongxi facai! I testify of it's sweet and rich blessings by being members of it and by having His Gospel in our lives!
As we take delight in the fatness of those blessings may we seek to share them every day!
Jia you!
Ping JieMei/Shelley
This month as we traveled for interviews we delivered to our missionaries new language study editions of the Book of Mormon with the three columns : Mandarin Characters, Pinyin and English. The Elders in the office have worked very hard on getting the pinyin right for the new Chinese translation of the Book of Mormon. So grateful for their hard work. The missionaries in the TTM are thrilled to have this available for their study and teaching! It was fun wrapping them with the office and APs and delivering them with our testimonies to all the missionaries at interviews this week. They were elated to receive these so they can study and teach from them now. I’m equally grateful! The best part of all was writing our testimonies. As we did, the spirit testified to me that truly a man and a woman can come closer to God by studying this book more than any other book. The promised blessings we have received as a family from studying it have been fulfilled of peace, love and harmony within. We have been healed as we have learned of Jesus Christ and His gospel teachings throughout its pages. We have been reminded of how merciful the Lord has been to us and to all His children. We will continue to study it daily the rest of our lives and invite all to read and Come Unto Christ! How wonderful that we can use this language study edition to help us with our Chinese as well.
On Sunday Jan 13 we had the incredible opportunity to testify all day. We had a triple header day--speaking in two wards and then doing a fireside in the evening. The theme we were asked to speak on was “Meet the
Petersons” so we took Win and Eddie with us and had them bear testimonies and
sing and we had our missionaries who were there sing Army of Helaman.
After we shared our background and slideshow of our family, I shared my
testimony in Mandarin and Mike and I sang a duet of “I know that my Redeemer
lives.” I had a miracle in that I wasn't nervous! I was able to sing with all my heart and could hardly hold back the tears because we could sing and bear testimony as one as we sang together. It was an amazing experience. Then Mike spoke, ending the meeting with his testimony. This meeting was a beautiful night
filled with a sweet spirit. Many tears were shed by all. Never forget an RC who
came up And told us how excited she was to go to the temple for the first time
the day before. I have been looking for this my whole life she said. She was so
sweet she lingered and stayed around until we left and kind of followed us
around because she wanted to keep talking about the wonderful spirit that she
felt. It was so sweet and amazing to be a part of this night which capped off a very busy day with our speaking and singing in two wards. I can testify that the Lord sustained us because when I woke up in the
morning I was exhausted and didn’t know how I would do all that we were going
to be doing that day with traveling to Taoyuan and Xinchu and speaking and
singing at three different meetings. The Lord truly sustained us and blessed us
with a very special experience in each place. I do know my Redeemer lives and
will always sustain us in whatever we do for Him!
Another miracle of peace came after I spoke in the Danshui ward IN CHINESE. I was terrified to do my whole talk in Mandarin and literally felt like crying afterwards because I get so nervous. Afterwards the people were so kind and thanked me for my words. I was so lifted and touched. They even (embarrassed monkey face imoji) had us come outside the chapel to take pictures with their whole ward after Sacrament meeting! The couple who led the dancing and all the fun at the Danshui parade back in October were there. She came up to me and said "Ping JieMei--remember when you and I were CRAZY together at the parade?" Ha ha I said Of course! I will never forget that parade! I love her so much! When we took pictures her husband who is equally so enthusiastic and Mr. Cheerleader himself, shouted "Ping Huijang--shuai bu shuai and everyone shouted SHUAI! (handsome or not handsome) haha! and then he shouted "Ping JieMei --Piao bu piaoliang (beautiful or not?) haha PIAOLIANG and then he said "their talks --hao bu hao? HAO! So embarrassing and hilarious all at once. I love the Danshui ward! I felt such an outpouring of love that lifted me tremendously after my humbling talk! They were so kind and encouraging with my beginner Chinese!
January 30 was an exciting night when missionary world and family world joined together! It was the night Spencer and Mckenna and girls arrived in Taiwan! Same flight as our two new missionaries from America--Elders Bell and Duncan. Love them instantly and feel so blessed to meet each missionary because we have been praying for them for over a year and a half since Pres. Uchdorf issued our calls! What joy to meet these fine missionaries and feel of their faith. They were so excited to tell us that on the flight over they had taught a first lesson and given away a Book of Mormon! Off to a great start. And to see Spen, Mcken and their three adorable girls appear before us in the airport was surreal! What a long journey but they made it! Rose told Lauren about the flight--"it's the longest flight ever and you'll know what I'm talking about when you fly over here!" haha! Perfect timing for them to arrive right before Guonian--Chinese New Year! We have had so much fun celebrating the new year (Year of the Pig) and eating like pigs in doing so! we have been invited to several "Ching Kes" or hosted meals for us with several entrees by James Wei, who took us to a lovely restaurant for Peking Duck. In the course of the conversation he was telling us that in Taiwan if you golf and you get a "hole in one", you are obligated to buy everyone on the course a free dinner with drinks! So because of the expense, many buy "Hole in one insurance" in the event they have to "ching" after getting one. Pretty funny! , Brother and Sister Chen from Taoyuan was another CHINGKE adventure. They took us to the Grand Hyatt for all the Chinese New year festivities including the lighting of the firecrackers (loudest noises of our lives--Praying Spencer's girls' hearing isn't lost nor ours!) acrobats and Lion and dragon dances all to the steady beat of a very loud loud drum! Every day I pinch myself that Spencer and Mckenna and their girls are here. What a tender mercy to have the opportunity to share this culture and special place and missionary life/experiences with them! I was so touched to tears the first day after they arrived to see Mckenna's reunion with two of her former mission companions who are from Taiwan. They met up on the temple grounds and went to the temple together. What joy! And to see Mckenna speaking Mandarin so freely.
This is an amazing time in our lives to be here and have these stretching but powerful experiences that ever testify to us that this is the Lord's church. Gongxi facai! I testify of it's sweet and rich blessings by being members of it and by having His Gospel in our lives!
As we take delight in the fatness of those blessings may we seek to share them every day!
Jia you!
Ping JieMei/Shelley
