Merry Christmas to all from the Davis'

Merry Christmas 2012 and a Happy New Year 2013

Dear Friends and Family,

We finished our mission at the Hong Kong temple in May, but before we finished, we put in new mission applications hoping for a call to Taiwan.  We returned home to Saint George with a new Family History mission call to Taiwan already in hand.  We were a little sad to leave Hong Kong because we left many new friends behind: the workers in the Temple, members in the Mandarin-speaking branch, the Liu’s in Fanling, and the Guo’s and the Huang’s in Shenzhen.  We were home from the beginning of May through August.  While we were home, we took our family (kids and grandkids) to Yellowstone National Park for four days for a family reunion.  We went to several geysers, including Old Faithful, and canoeing.  Afterward, we drove on over to Spokane to visit Shirley’s sister’s family.  We spent a couple of days there and then went home. 

Shortly thereafter we had a young couple from Shenzhen, China, visit us St. George; we picked them up in Las Vegas and took them to St. George, the Grand Canyon (North Rim), Zion’s and Bryce National Parks and Salt Lake City.  As we were going to Los Angeles anyway, we took them down to L.A. and dropped them off.  We spent a couple of days in L.A. at a Taiwan member/returned missionary reunion, and then returned to St. George.  It was good to see so many old friends again!  We returned home and spent a couple of weeks at the Family History Centers in Saint George and SLC upgrading our genealogy skills before going to Taiwan.

Back in Taiwan, our present mission field covers the southern half of Taiwan; our previous mission field covered all of south Asia, from Pakistan through Indonesia and Vietnam, China and Mongolia. We think that we’ve been downsized!

We now live about half an hour’s drive away from where Shirley’s “old home” is. “Old home” is an expression meaning where her ancestors lived.  We have had opportunities to travel to Er Cheng Hang in Tainan County a few times and talk with cousins (both near and distant) who have never moved very far away from the old home.  The cousins we have met with so far are about our ages or a little older, and they know more about Shirley’s grandparents than she remembers.  They also remember things that happened in the family that she was unaware of because her family moved there when she was about three years of age, but moved to Tainan City when she was about five years old because her mother wanted her to go to a city school.  After graduating from high school, she went to Taipei for college and never moved back.

      

We attend church in a different ward (congregation) every week.  So far, we have attended more than a dozen wards in the local two stakes (dioceses).  When we attend, we are generally asked to speak during Sacrament meeting.  After the three block of meetings, Sister Guo, a sister from the Zuoying ward, does a Power Point presentation about using new.FamilySearch or the new replacement called Family Tree.  Questions are answered and email addresses are provided so that we can be easily contacted.  Because we don’t have a car to get around and public transportation is not very convenient, a Brother Liu drives us to most places on Sundays.  We are greatly indebted to them for their support in helping us to fulfill our responsibilities.

Another great year!  We’re blessed to have met many kind and wonderful people.  We are especially grateful for this time of year when we celebrate the birth of our Savior.  There are no words that can express our love and gratefulness we have for Him.  May this be your best Christmas and new year ever.

With much love,  

Elder Elwin and Sister Shirley Davis

Christmas Cheers!

A Collection of Christmas messages...

"The Christmases I remember best, the Christmases which touched my heart the most, are Christmases filled with love and giving and the Spirit of the Savior. . . . Bringing the Christmas spirit into our hearts and homes takes conscious effort and planning but can surely be accomplished."

—Thomas S. Monson, "A Bright and Shining Star", 2010 First Presidency Christmas Devotional, December 2012

‎"We are entering another wonderful Christmas season filled with music and lights, parties and presents. But of all people, we as members of the church that bears the Savior’s name need to look beyond the façade of the season and see the sublime truth and beauty of this time of year."—Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Can We See the Christ?", Liahona and Ensign, November 2012



‎"基督徒對主耶穌基督有信心，相信祂確實是神的兒子，由父派來為我們的罪受難；這種超然的愛之舉動，就是眾所周知的贖罪。"
"A Christian has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is the literal Son of God, sent by His Father to suffer for our sins in the supreme act of love we know as the Atonement."—Robert D. Hales, "Being a More Christian Christian", Liahona and Ensign, November 2012

Wise Men Still Seek Him
Three modern-day wise men show us that the greatest gift we can give Jesus Christ is the will of our hearts.  

Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol", the full and unabridged version. 
Listen to it at http://www.mormonchannel.org/a-christmas-carol

‎"Our Heavenly Father is aware of our needs and will help us as we call upon Him for assistance. I believe that no concern of ours is too small or insignificant. The Lord is in the details of our lives."

天父了解我們的需要，只要我們呼求祂的協助，祂必會幫助我們。我相信我們所掛慮的事，沒有一件是太小或微不足道的；主關心著我們生活中的點點滴滴。
—Thomas S. Monson, "Consider the Blessings", Liahona and Ensign, November 2012

Published on Dec 4, 2012 by Mormon ChannelCelebrate the true meaning of Christmas and watch "O Come, Emmanuel" featuring ThePianoGuys, Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson (piano/cello). 

江八點健身操

This is a great 12-minute workout. Just follow Mr. Jiang and enjoy!

Silent Night!

Learn the inspiring story behind the creation of the popular Christmas carol Silent Night—discover how Joseph Mohr, as new assistant priest, went against his superior to organize a church choir full of outcasts that performed in German instead of Latin.  (click on the black box below or use the url under the black box)

(http://byutv.org/watch/8902bf73-c22d-4a8b-964d-d30772e6a154#ooid=EyaDU1Nzph9kW4H6Q2MOSaDYK46aZfw5)

Thanksgiving to all!

We have so many things to be thankful for!

I'm grateful to have a companion who loves me, loves the gospel of Jesus Christ and honors his priesthood.  I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing here in Taiwan without him.  So, I know how blessed I'm because I had the good fortune of meeting him 47 years ago.  We've been married for 45 years now, with 4 wonderful children and their spouses, 14 beautiful grand-children and one precious one coming next June.

We love our children so much and are very grateful for their love and prayers for us everyday.  We love and miss the grandchildren a lot, but seeing them each week on Skype lessens the pain.

Morgan just took her first step

Max is doing well and hopefully still misses us 

Kai 2nd grader and big help to his mom and dad.

Caleb, my buddy!  I miss hiking with you!

Peter, the future entomologist!  Thomas, the boxing champ on wii and great contortionist

Madisen 15, the runner, gets all A's; Ethan, the runner and great in math; Abby, a first grader who loves school 

The Wiley kids in San Francisco - Enoch 16, a future linguist; Megumi 13, Volleyball champ; Noelle 12, mom's best helper;  Johnny 7, a wii champ and good reader; Renzi 5, with great smiles

    We enjoyed our first Thanksgiving holiday in Taiwan.  We went up to Taipei Temple for some work.  Then, we came down to Taizhong to have Thanksgiving dinner with our Mission President, President Bishop, Sister Bishop and the other senior and office missionaries.  It was a fun evening to be together to share our experiences and blessings.

The Kailliponi's

The Walkers and the Darrington's

The Office Elders

The Davis'

  

2nd visit to the Song Homestead

A couple of weeks ago we posted a blog called "Doing family history in Taiwan".  We were able to follow up on a lead and visited DaJia 大甲 again.  My cousin Waka's friend, Mr. Cao, drove us around last time while we were there visiting.  He mentioned a person with keen memory of the history that we should talk to.  He helped us make an appointment to visit with her on Friday, November 16.

宋冬菜, Waka and Shirley

宋金樹, 宋冬菜, Waka and Shirley

Mr. Cao picked us up at the little Bao-an train station.  We went to a place in town with a large yard, a shop, and a row of apartments in the back side of the property.  The man who came out to greet us is 宋金樹, the local magistrate and a cousin of ours.  My great-grandfather is his great-great-grandfather's brother.  He's a kind man with gentle demeanor.  He took the day off for us to visit with him and another cousin.  There were a few men sitting there chatting.  They were distant cousins.  There was also a table set up for us to visit.  We waited for a few minutes and the cousin with a good memory came.  She came on a bicycle.  宋冬菜 was sprite and looked no more than 80 years old.  I guess we were all expecting a sage who might be 95 years old and with long beard.  Her great-grandfather and my great-grandfather are brothers.  We share the same great-great-grandfather.  I asked her if she was born in the winter since her name means "winter vegetables".  She said it was Lunar September 9, and she was a chicken in the zodiac sign and said that I could figure that out.  She was 80.  :-)  She was friendly and started talking right away.  She knew my dad and remembered him as a nice man.  She said my grandfather was a very wealthy man, appointed by the government to be in charge of sugar and salt sales.  Isn't that what makes family history interesting?

We continued to visit until almost lunch time.  We offered to take everyone out to lunch, but the two cousins had to go somewhere.  Waka's friend, Mr. Cao, took us to Tainan to a SiChuan restaurant.  We had a special fish that was caught in the wild.  They steamed half of it and made the other half a miso soup.  It was so good, and so beautiful.  The food was excellent.

We visited a couple more cousins before heading home.  One is cousin Lin Hong Ji, the 2nd son of my father's eldest sister and Maylin's brother.  Maylin is one of my favorite cousins who lives in Manhattan, New York.  She came to visit us in Hong Kong while we were on our mission.

While we were in Tainan a couple of weeks ago, Elwin dropped his wallet in the taxi when we got out at the Tainan train station.  It had cash, our foreign residency cards and a Costco card.  It was truly a miracle to find his wallet again.  We didn't even know the wallet was lost until we were on our way to Jia Yi for a family history training meeting the next day.  We thought Elwin got pick-pocketed, or left it in the local bus on our way home.  Waka told me to report the incident to the police because it had foreign residents' cards in the wallet.

We didn't get a chance to call the police until Sunday afternoon.  The policeman came right to the church to meet us.  When he found out that Elwin was with me, he went back to the police station to pick up the cruiser instead of taking me to the police station on his motocycle.  It did crack me up when I found out he was going to take me to the police station on his motocycle though.  For some reason, it just wouldn't be right for me, a sister missionary, to ride with him...alone.  The ride in the cruiser was fine since most people were still in church when the police came.  They had to take a report from us.  They were very nice.  We also called our cousin b/c we took the taxi from his apartment complex.  My cousin's wife, Ah Hua, was so smart.  When we left their house a couple of weeks ago, she took us down to take the taxi and talked to the taxi driver.  The doorman also took pictures of the taxi.  So when I called her, it didn't take her long to find out what taxi company took us to the train station.  She called the taxi company and asked them to look out for the wallet.  The next day, she received a phone call from the local police station that someone had turned in the wallet.  Apparently, the taxi driver was washing the car Monday morning and found the wallet.  He took the whole thing to the police station and called his boss.  They contacted my cousin and she called me.  Wow, it's amazing.  Everything was there.  We asked my cousin to give the taxi driver $2000 NT as a reward.  He first refused, but was told it was okay to take it.  What a special event that was for us to find such honest people in Taiwan!

Before coming home that day, we went to visit Waka's brother 宋博明.  He owns a car detailing shop by the freeway.  He has a book including the village where the Song family settled.  He was so sweet to give it to me.  He believed that I would put it to good use whereas it would have just stayed in the drawer in his house.  I felt so blessed to have such wonderful cousins who value what I'm doing to gather information for the Song family.

Shirley, Waka, 宋博明/his wife, and Ah Hua

Cijin Island

Cijin (sounds like Chee-Jeen) Island off the coast of Gaoxiong

Cijin Island

Cijin Island, Kaohsiung is a small island just a 5 minute ferry (Cijin Ferry) journey across Kaohsiung Harbour (it is also reachable by car from a bridge further south). It’s a very exciting place to visit with lots to do and see. Cijin Island is reputed to be the best place to eat fresh seafood in Kaohsiung. As well as the attractions and food, the island offers a nice clean beach where the sea is lovely and warm for swimming.

We didn't go swimming, but went with a couple of special friends, LiYun and her husband Min for seafood.  LiYun and I went to primary school together in Tainan, and we both ended up in education.  She became a special ed teacher in Kent, Ohio, and I became a professor at Dixie State, also teaching classes for Utah State and University of Phoenix.  We connected back when we lived in El Paso.  After 50+ years we finally met in Macau last year when LiYun and her husband went to Guangzhou to do a speaking tour about education.  It was a joyous reunion and we both vowed not to wait so long before meeting again.

Well, LiYun and her husband came to Gaoxiong to do some workshops on International sign language at the local schools.  Here, we met again.  We were so happy.  LiYun had great impact on me when we were in 5th grade.  My handwriting was atrocious.  Mrs. Chang, our 5th grade teacher made me sit by LiYun to learn how to write by watching her and imitating how she wrote.  LiYun's father was an educator and a famous calligrapher, and she took after her dad.  My handwriting kept improving.  By the end of our 5th grade, I placed #1 in the school-wide "calligraphy contest" at our primary school.  My teacher was so proud of me, and, of course, I was so grateful for LiYun.  We became best friends the rest of our primary and secondary school years.  It was special for me to see her again.  She stayed in contact with Mrs. Chang, our 5th grade teacher.  I remember Mrs. Chang because she was what I called my "enlightening" teacher.  I don't remember much about my schooling before the 5th grade, but she opened up my understanding and helped me developed a love for learning and a love to do well in what I do.  We were going to visit her in Tainan, but she has been sick and has Alzheimer's.   Her son took her to Taichung to live with him.  Bless her for what she has done for me and for the many youngsters she has taught and influenced for good.

Seafood at the YaJiao Restaurant
Pick out what you want in a basket and they cook it for you 

Elwin/Shirley, Ming/LiYun at Cijin Island

Doing Family History in Taiwan

One of the largest, most widespread hobbies in the world is doing family history. Elwin has been an avid genealogist since his BYU days. Some of his lines span hundreds of years. Coming on a family history mission is a very fitting call for him. He probably would have enjoyed going to Wales to further his search for his kinfolks, but for the love of Shirley and her ancestry, he was willing to come to Taiwan and do whatever he can to advance the cause.

Shirley is a Song and her ancestors came from FuJian, China back in the 1600's with General Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga). They settled in southern Taiwan, a village called DaJia (大甲) near Tainan, which was the capital of Taiwan at that time.

This is a statue of Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga). Previous to his coming, it had been colonized by the Dutch and Portuguese, and before them by the aboriginal peoples of Taiwan. In that respect, Taiwan's history is similar to America's. The Americans settled in the Americas along the east coast beginning at about the same time.

It also means that most of the Taiwanese people face similar challenges to what people in the US faced in America when it comes to searching for ancestors. It doesn't take many generations before one has to start searching in the mother countries for their roots: Europe, for many Americans, and the Chinese mainland for the Taiwanese.

A few years ago when we were visiting relatives in Taiwan, we got hold of a Song Clan book.  It had my grandfather in it as he was a representative in the government.  It also has other information that might be of our line of the Song's, but we couldn't be sure.  After our call as family history missionaries, things started to open up.  The Spirit of Elijah has come to help, several times already.  We are truly grateful for this opportunity to come to Tainan.  So far we have found:

1. Government record of my great-grandfather, Song Lu (宋陸，meaning #6).  He's the number six son, born in 1835 and died in 1915.
2. Song Lu's record indicated that his father is Song Zhang 宋彰, his mother is Liu He （劉蚵).  No birth dates recorded.
3. My friend, Sister Lv found a thesis written by a Tainan Cultural University graduate student on the FuJian immigration to Taiwan, listing my great-great-grandfather, Song Zhang, who was born in 1791 according to his research.
4. In Da-Jia, we went to the old homestead and met a 2nd cousin, Song Wen Yan.  He told us that our great-grandfather Song Lu settled in Da-Jia and built a Song village with 8 homes with courtyards for each of his 8 sons.  I remember the old homestead as we lived there for a time when I was little.  Below are some of the remains of the old homestead.

   

   Da-Jia Train Station 

   

   2nd cousin, Song Wen Yan, Cousin Waka Song, Shirley Song and Yan's wife

   

   Cousin Song Wen Yan and me (He gave me the Song Genealogy book)

   

   The Song Homestead from 1791 AD

   

   The Song Homestead from 1791 AD

   

   Song Worshipping Hall

   

   Song Worshipping Hall with Ancestral Name plates

   

   fruit on the altar

   

   the altar

   

   the altar

   

   Guanyin Goddess 

   

   Song Old Home 

5. While in DaJia, a third cousin (related through a common great grandfather) came to visit.  He went to Zhang Zhou, FuJian, China and met the Song descendants who have been living there since our first ancestor was sent there during the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 AD). 

   

   3rd Cousin Song who went to China to meet the cousins there. He looks like my dad
   

   
   

6. That first ancestor's name is Song Yong (宋用). He was a court physician and was ordered there with the battalion to settle a rebellion during the Tang Dynasty. He was asked to stay and helped build what is now the city of Zhang Zhou.



Song Yong's graveside @Zhang Zhou, FuJian, China
Song descendants paying respect (taken from a picture)

7. Song Yong (宋用) had 6 sons (names all listed in the clan book).  His youngest had 4 sons and we are the descendants of the youngest son, Song Su (宋數). 
8. No records (yet) found between Song Su and the ancestors who migrated to Taiwan with Koxinga in 1636, a span of 750-1000 years.
9. There are also missing links between 1636 to 1791 when my great-great-grandfather, Song Zhang, who was born in 1791 settled in Da-Jia.
10. One of my grandfather Song's brother is 畑.  We could not find the character in various dictionaries.  Finally, I posted it online (FB), especially for my Chinese friends to land a helping hand.  The answer came.  It was a Japanese word, meaning "field".  How fun it was to learn the word.  I showed it to my aunt (mom's younger sister who lives in Taipei), and she immediately recognized the word as "field" since she went through Japanese education during her growing up years.  
     

These findings have been very exciting to me.  I know the Spirit was there to help us.  When we were at the government office to get the records for my great grandfather Song Lu, 1835-1915, the man told us to go to the Archives division where they kept the records dated between 1895 and 1945.  Taiwan (including the Pescadores) was a colony of the Empire of Japan. The lady searched reluctantly, as the Japanese Occupation period was between 1895 and 1945, and I was looking at records 50 years before that. Then I heard her exclaimed excitedly; "I found it". It was incredible.  On this record was Song Lu's parents, but without birthdays.  We found his birthday through a different document (the thesis).

Yes, things are happening and we are very excited.  We'll be starting mom's side of the family.  Her sister kept a pretty good record and we are hopeful that it'll go well.  Aunt Mei Juan also has lots of stories to tell.  She's 84 and in good health condition.  We look forward to seeing her whenever we can.         

We have also contacted all the bishops and branch presidents to offer our services where we serve.  We have great responses from these leaders.  Our October calendar after General Conference was full each Sunday.  Had a great time visiting the Qishan Ward, about 20 miles northeast of Gaoxiong.  We did a mini Family History workshop after the 3-hour block.  We were amazed at the number of people who stayed.  People are interested in doing family history here.  We were asked to come back to speak at the Sacrement meeting later this month.

Brother Liu, Sister Guo (Family History Consultants),  and E/S Davis

We visited Gangshan Ward and found the people there to be quite familiar with family history research.  We are delighted.

A lot of the Taiwan members do have clan books from their families.  Those without one are usually from the mainland when their grandparents came with Jiang Kai Shek in 1949.  Since China has opened up their national libraries, we are seeing some exchanges of information going on.  Similar to my 3rd cousin who went back to mainland China, a lot of the people with mainland ties have gone back to find their relatives and also ancestors.

It's an exciting time to be here.  We are grateful.     

Miracles Abound!

    The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a semi-annual general conference each year; one in April and the other in October.  This is a special time when we come together to listen to our leaders on church affairs, instructions, and ....  There are usually 6 sessions: one special women's broadcast ususally given a week before the conference weekend, one special broadcast for the priesthood holders, and 4 general sessions with 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday.  Since it takes time to translate all the speeches into 65 plus languages (it's a world-wide conference), overseas units of the church usually watch conference the week after the general conference in Salt Lake actually occurs.  This allows the members outside of the US and Canada to be able to watch the same conference in their own native language a week later.  Of course, the general conference is online, live or streamed for anyone who prefers to watch it live or during the week, in English.

     Here are the highlights of the 182nd Semi Annual General Conference:

     Or chick below for the urls.

music, Conference highlights

    We've been in Taiwan on our mission field for almost 6 WEEKS now.  We see the church as the church of many miracles.  To list a few:

1. Our call to serve in the Taiwan Taichung Mission as Family History Research missionaries is a miracle in itself.  We were serving in Hong Kong when we felt that we needed to send in our application for a mission in Taiwan.  Most of you may know that you may request where you would like to serve a mission (for senior couples), but the ultimate decision lies with the President of the Church.  We considered that we may not serve a mission after Hong Kong, but rather move to Taiwan for a period of time for me to do research on my family.  But, our inspiration to apply for a Taiwan mission was so strong that after we consulted with the children, we decided to throw our hat into the ring.  It was a miracle to us that we received a call in March to come to the Taichung Mission.  
2. Family History Training, part 1:  There is no any specific training for us that we knew of.  But we knew we needed training before going to Taiwan.  Miraculous opportunities presented themselves to us.  While driving in St. George one day, we decided to stop by the St. George Family History Library.  After explaining what we felt we needed to do, the couple in charge, Elder and Sister Midgely invited us to attend the mini-MTC for the family history missionaries, starting the coming Monday, and they had two spaces open for us.  The 3-week training was full of "aha" moments, research tools/skills, and many resources.  The training started at 8 and went to 5 each Monday and Tuesday for 3 weeks.  There was not one day that we were not surprised at the things we learned from the instructors.  We called it the best kept secret in the Family History field.  We are indebted to all those instructors who taught us and prepared us.  Even though they didn't teach much about Chinese family search, what they did teach us prepared us more in what to expect, what to do in Taiwan and what we could do to help develop the family history program in Taiwan.
3. Family History Training, part 2:  While attending the St. George Family History Library mini-MTC, our dear friends, the O'Bryants told us about their Family History Mission in Salt Lake.  Sister O took the initiative and called her supervisor in Salt Lake.  She was told that they had the final Family History Missionary training for the summer starting the coming Monday.  They were willing to include us in the training.  The problem was that we had our last week of mini-MTC in St.  George at the same time!  Another miracle, after talking to Elder Midgely about our situation, he told us to go ahead and attend the Salt Lake training.  He would personally make up the last week's mini-MTC with us.  Sister O helped us secure an apartment (timeshare) unit a block from the Temple Square so we wouldn't have to travel far each morning, fighting the I-15 traffic.  That was no small miracle in itself.  We were assigned individual trainers and spent 4 incredible days learning from these experts.  It was mostly on PAF, which we thought was going to be obsolete, but is what they use in Taiwan, because it accommodates Chinese writing.  
4. Church in Taiwan:  Elwin served a mission in Taiwan, the then Southern Far East Mission, from 1963-65.  The Church had barely started in Taiwan, and we didn't even have the Book of Mormon in Chinese yet.  I, for one, was one of the early saints, who was converted through the Spirit before reading the Book of Mormon.  The Church has grown many times over, from a few hundred to over 50,000 members. 

• When Elwin served in the Southern Far East Mission, it included Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines in the 60's.  According to mormonchannel.org - there are now over 50,000 members, 11 stakes, 70 wards, 22 branches, 2 missions, 1 district and 1 temple.  
•  Elwin served in Gaoxiong in 1964 where we are serving now:  He rode a bicycle in what was a town, but now it's a metropolitan area of 38 districts and a population of 1.6 million people.  

Gaoxiong today 

• Many church member families:  we are getting 2nd and 3rd generations of church members in Taiwan now. 
• Local missionaries:  Taichung received 30 new missionaries last month, 17 of them are local missionaries. 

New missionaries from the US

5.  General Conference in Taiwan:  To be able to watch the General Conference in Chinese is a miracle.  When I joined the Church in 1963, Book of Mormon wasn't even translated into Chinese yet, and now we have General Conference dubbed in Chinese, the Church Magazines, the Liahona, is in Chinese.  After our Relief Society Broadcast in Gaoxiong, Sister Li, the RS Stake president, held a special dedication meeting with all the sisters to present crocheted hats to the elderly in the old folks home.  It was such a great project as many sisters learned how to crochet and donated their time and gave their love to the old folks.  Dinner was served afterwards.  

Crocheted hats for the old folks home

Elder/Sister Anderson, Humanitarian missionaries, who helped secured funding for the project.

Elder/Sister Davis at the RS Activity

6.  Miracles during the Conference:  The Chen’s (name changed) 19-year-old daughter is attending BYU Hawaii and fell in love with a 26-year-old Haoli.  She called home to tell her parents that she was serious about marrying this guy.  This set the parents on a spiral of emotional anxieties.  When I saw Sister Chen at the General Conference she looked happy, not frazzled like last week.  I asked her how she was doing and she told me the most amazing story.  Since President Monson’s announcement during the General Conference about lowering the ages that young men/women could go on missions, we have heard many exciting stories.  This one beats all.  Sister Chen told me that her daughter called and said that she always wanted to go on a mission and she had called the bishop for an appointment.  The daughter asked it was okay for her to proceed.  Can you imagine the elation of these parents?  Wow!  It’s a miracle!  We are going to see many of them to come.  Miracles, miracles!

7.  Missionaries are treated well by members:  The first week we showed up at the Church, we were asked to bear our testimonies in the Sacrament Meeting.  Members asked what kind of help we needed.  People arranged to take us shopping at Costco, at Carrefour (the French WalMart), and various places, such as getting the internet connections, phone service, etc.  We've been invited out to dinner.  People brought us snacks.  Bishops are inviting us to speak at their church meetings.  One sister asked for a list of what we needed and posted it on the facebook and got us a lot of things that we needed to run a household.  It was awesome.  We may be able to feed the missionaries soon!

8.   Missionaries are treated well by non-members as well:  When we board the bus, young or middle age people stand up to give us their seats.  They are so respectful.  They come to look at our name tags and welcome us when they find out who we are.   

9.   Gaoxiong traffic:  with tens of thousands of scooters roaming the streets of Gaoxiong, we feel it a miracle for us each day when we get home safely.   

10.   Last, but not least:  Meeting my old friend, Mona Peng.  Mona and I grew up in the church together during our college days.  We both went to BYU at the same time.  She married Colin Kailiponi and I married Elwin.  We lost contact with each other after our BYU days.  Now we are serving in the same mission, they in ChiaYi and we in Gaoxiong.  They came down to Gaoxiong for the Missionary Zone Conference and stayed with us.  What a happy reunion as we found each other still strong in the gospel.   

Elder/Sister Kailiponi and Elder/Sister Davis

     We are grateful to be here.  Thank you for all your prayers.  We love and miss y'all!