Beautiful Taiwan

The Church and lush green foliage flourish on island

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September 13, 2008

Related content:
Missionary beats language barrier

By Greg Hill
Church News staff writer

TAIPEI, TAIWAN
When he stepped off a boat in Taiwan on New Year's Day 1959, Elder Gerald H. Walker from Utah was among the earliest missionaries to serve here, just three years after the first had arrived from Hong Kong in the Southern Far East Mission. He didn't know the Chinese language as he went forth to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ in a land dominated by Buddhism and Taoism.

Esther Tsai, with father, Nathan, and brother John, always wanted to follow in the footsteps of her mother, Rachel, and serve a full-time mission. An accomplished student at the Taiwan University of Art (see Church News, April 26, 2008), she graduated in June and will soon begin serving at the Oakland California Temple visitors center in the California Oakland Mission. Photo by Greg Hill

Few tracts were available in Mandarin Chinese and the Book of Mormon had not been translated into that language. But Elder Walker and his fellow missionaries faithfully labored among a people they grew to love. They saw success and the Church began to grow.
Elder Walker never dreamed that someday the Church would be strong enough on the Asian island to have its own temple. He shared those thoughts with the Church News on a Sunday afternoon in late August while sitting in his Taipei apartment where he lives while serving as president of the Taipei Taiwan Temple.
Taiwan public affairs senior missionary Elder James Phillips noted that the island of Taiwan is similar in size to Indiana. Rugged mountains dominate the eastern two-thirds of the island, squeezing a population of about 23 million to the west and north.
There are 16 stakes in the Church's Asia Area which includes most of the continent and the India subcontinent, but not Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Asiatic Russia or the Middle East. Ten of those stakes are in Taiwan. (There are four in Hong Kong and one each in Thailand and Singapore.)

Sister Noelle Teh, left, from the United States, and Sister Keshia Lai from Singapore are among the foreign missionaries who are joining forces with native missionaries spreading the gospel throughout the beautiful island of Taiwan. The Church is strong there with nearly 44,000 members in 10 stakes and with a temple in its largest city. Photo by Greg Hill

The few members in Taiwan's five small branches when Elder Walker served his mission had grown to about 4,400 by 1971 when Elder Norman S. Nielson arrived in the Taiwan Mission which only a few months earlier had been formed from the Hong Kong-Taiwan Mission. He said the Church had built two meetinghouses, one in Taipei in the north and one in Kaohsiung in the south. He added that many of the leaders among the members in Taiwan were still relatively new to the Church.
When he returned in 2006 as president of the Taiwan Taipei Mission, the Church had 10 times as many members. There were also seasoned Church leaders — including Area Seventies, as well as a temple and beautiful new meetinghouses dotting the island.
By simply spending a few hours on "Temple Square" in Taipei, the vibrancy of the Church can be felt among faithful members and spiritual, diligent missionaries.
Taipei, sprawling over green-covered hills, is Taiwan's biggest city with a population of about 2.6 million.

The north coast of Taiwan is surrounded by green-covered mountainous terrain typical of the spectacular scenery of that part of the island. Population centers are further south. Photo by Greg Hill

In the city's center is the temple block. In an area much smaller than Salt Lake City's Temple Square is nestled the Taipei Taiwan Temple, dedicated by President Gordon B. Hinckley in 1984, and the Church Administration Building, dedicated by President Hinckley in 2005. They are separated by a narrow but attractive courtyard with walkways, a fountain and landscaping including palm trees.
The block was bustling with activity on Saturday, Aug. 30, as it is on most Saturdays. Members were going in and out of the temple, young single adults were decorating for a dance that night in the cultural hall behind the chapel on the first floor of the administration building, and missionaries were giving tours and teaching investigators.
Among the members were Peng Mei Zhu Hsu and her Primary-age children Yu Wen and Jing Xiang. They joined other members on a temple trip from the Chi An Branch on the narrow east coast of Taiwan, traveling over the rugged mountains. Members do ordinance work; youth 12 and older doing baptisms for the dead. To help those such as Sister Hsu, who had no one at home to care for her children, branch members take turns watching children and doing ordinance work, a common practice on ward, stake and branch temple trips.
Jun Cheng Lin and his wife, Zi Ya Chen Lin, who brought their baby daughter, Yun Zhen, the 80 miles from Taichung so they could attend the temple, had a different blessing. Their toddler's uncle, Jun Rong Lin, a member in Taipei, met them at the temple and tended their toddler at the administration building while they did temple work.

Elder Chung-Hung Chen from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, tells a motor scooter rider on a street in Taichung about the Church. Photo by Greg Hill

Presiding over the temple is "just a sweet experience," President Walker said, especially seeing people coming for the first time, receiving their endowments, getting married and being sealed. "We have spiritual experiences every day."
The members are actively engaged in family history work, President Walker said, and a great number are doing temple work for their own ancestors.
With the temple active next door, missionary work was going on in the administration building. Missionaries teach many discussions there, including in the two chapels. Elder Greg Levesque from Meridian, Idaho, said the Taipei 2nd Ward alone has had 28 baptisms in 2008.
Sister Carol Lynn Azure and her companion, Sister Yu-Tong (Sierra) Chien, supervise tours of the administration building, training and scheduling other sister-missionary teams. The tour, as conducted for the Church News by Sister Azure and Sister Chien, begins in the foyer of the administration building, and is led down first and second-floor hallways where paintings give missionaries the chance to introduce and discuss topics such as the Godhead, scriptures, priesthood authority, the plan of salvation, the restoration and the 19th-century pioneer experiences. At a second-floor window framing a beautiful view of the temple, the purpose of temples is taught. Also on the second floor is a room where Church videos, including "Legacy" and "Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd" can be shown in Mandarin Chinese, English or other languages.
Many missionary teams include a native of Taiwan and an English-speaking elder or sister. In those cases, they help each other learn the other's language and most teams are sufficiently bilingual. Sister Cassandra Barker from Heber City, Utah, echoed the words of many non-Mandarin Chinese speaking missionaries who found it a challenging language to learn. She said it's a struggle for several weeks, and then seems to click almost overnight.

Soaring over Taipei's city center is the world's tallest completed and occupied building -- 101-story, 1,671-foot-high Taipei 101. Photo by Greg Hill

President Nielson said the native Taiwan missionaries do very well and many more are needed. But youth of the Church face challenges here that make it difficult. All young men in Taiwan are subject to mandatory military duty at age 20 and some full-time missionaries have been called to the military before their missionary service is completed. Also, the educational system is very competitive and if a slot in a university is earned, it usually will be lost if given up for missionary service.
Nevertheless, many do serve missions. Often, they are older, finishing their education and, for the elders, their military service before going. Most are called to one of the three missions on the island, the Taiwan Taipei, the Taiwan Taichung on the west-central coast or the Taiwan Kaohsiung in the south.
A 49-minute trip from Taipei to Taichung on Taiwan's high speed railroad gave the Church News a look at the work in another mission. In contrast to the older, hilly city of Taipei, Taichung is a relatively new, more modern city on the flat land of the western coastal plain. But the missionaries are just as enthused, cheerful and spiritually minded as their counterparts in Taipei. They are a similar mix of foreigners and native Taiwan elders and sisters.
After a short Church News interview, four elders wanted to demonstrate one of their contacting methods. Elder Chung-Hung Chen of Kaohsiung; Elder Kyle Evans of Tustin, Calif.; Elder Bradford Miklavic of Cape Elizabeth, Maine; and Elder Wen Wei Chen of Tainan took to the streets at an intersection outside the mission office.
For 10 minutes they approached pedestrians and people on motor scooters stopped at the intersection. Then they reported back with 10 phone numbers and/or addresses of contacts willing to talk to them again. With referrals coming in like that, they have plenty of teaching opportunities and it bodes well for the future growth of the Church on this beautiful sub-tropical island.

Sister Peng Mei Zhu Hsu of the Chi An Branch on Taiwan's east coast sits by temple with her children Jing-Xiang and Yu-Wen. Photo by Greg Hill

A typical street near the Church's temple in Taipei, a city of about 2.6 million, is alive with activity. Among the private vehicles, taxis and swarms of motor scooters in the city are pedestrians who come across as open and kind. Photo by Greg Hill

Photo by Greg Hill

E-mail to: ghill@desnews.com

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Missionary beats language barrier

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September 13, 2008

Sister Noelle Teh has Chinese roots. So when she arrived to serve in the Taiwan Taipei Mission, people would set her back by speaking to her in Mandarin Chinese. She told the Church News it was frustrating for her because her Chinese language skills were pretty much limited to what she learned in the Provo Missionary Training Center.
Her grandparents were all from China, but her father, Guan C. Teh moved from Malaysia to America to attend a university. Her mother, Marion, was born and raised in Canada. Sister Teh is all American, born in American Fork, Utah, and growing up in Georgia before attending BYU and leaving on her mission.
Now a year into her service, the energetic missionary, whose mother also served a mission in Taiwan nearly 30 years ago, is able to communicate and teach the gospel in fluent Chinese.