Church News
Blessings in Taiwan along correct course
By Greg HillChurch News staff writer
Published: Saturday, May 16, 2009
TAIPEI, TAIWAN
Many faithful young men and young women in Taiwan serve missions and marry in the temple. Following are the stories of four couples who did both.
Photo by Greg Hill
Ben and Shirley Tsai, with daughter, Kelani, are happy and faithful members of the Church in Taipei, Taiwan. They were both converted as young adults and served missions before meeting each other. They were married in the Taipei Taiwan Temple.
SHIRLEY AND BEN TSAI
First impressions are tricky, as Shirley Sun discovered in a "Building an Eternal Marriage" institute class for young single adults in Taipei, Taiwan. She pegged Ben Tsai as a "cocky guy trying to speak English and acting like no one else in the class knows English."
But the truth was that Ben, raised in Taichung, Taiwan, had recently returned from serving in the Idaho Pocatello Mission. Since relatively few people in eastern Idaho speak Mandarin Chinese, he had communicated almost exclusively in English for two years and had gotten out of the practice of speaking Chinese. So when he would respond to questions, sometimes the English words would pop out.
Shirley and Ben worked through those early impressions and capped their individual paths from convert to missionary with an eternal marriage in the Taipei Taiwan Temple on July 2, 2005.
They shared thoughts about their journeys during a Church News interview in their apartment nestled in the lush green hills of Taipei.
Completing the story of their institute experience, they said the teacher called several men to the front of the class for role playing. Each was told to pick one of the women in the class for their partner. Shirley said she suspected Ben picked her because she was in the front row. Ben confessed that Shirley impressed him when she earlier answered a question about overcoming conflict, sharing an experience she had with a companion in the Japan Tokyo South Mission.
He got contact information for Shirley from a mutual friend and called her for a date. As the dates multiplied, Shirley discovered that Ben fit all the qualifications for a husband she had listed during a Relief Society activity in her singles ward while attending college. Besides, she decided he was good looking as well. So from their first date in February, things progressed quickly.
Earlier in her life, Shirley had accepted the opportunity to go to an English class taught by missionaries. Two years later she was baptized, though she said she didn't have much of a testimony. At BYU-Hawaii, she was still learning English and didn't understand much of what was taught in English at Church.
One semester, there were some returned missionaries in a Japanese class she was taking and, through their positive example, she decided she would like to go on a mission.
As for Ben's conversion, after completing his mandatory military service and returning to school, he met the missionaries.
"I needed to find something that I really wanted in my life and really be converted to it," he said. "I had to be sure it was the right church."
It took him six weeks and the good example of members to find out, and he was baptized on Dec. 23, 2000, at age 24.
Some time later, Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve visited Taiwan and gave "a profound talk," Ben said. "He said as young men we should make serving a mission our first priority, instead of our job or education."
Taking the counsel to heart, he applied for a mission.
Now Brother and Sister Tsai feel extremely blessed. Ben, building supervisor for the Church Administration Building adjacent to the Taipei temple, is a former high councilor and is now teaching Sunday School in the Hsin Tien Ward, Taipei Taiwan West Stake. Shirley is the ward's Relief Society enrichment leader.
They agree that one of their choicest blessings is 2-year-old daughter, Kelani, who hears Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and English spoken in the home. Her parents cheerfully said they anticipate Kelani will go on a mission and get married in the temple, following in their footsteps.
Photo by Greg Hill
Eric and Kate Weng, with children, from left, Matthew, Iris and Faith.
ERIC AND KATE WENG
Three sister missionaries from the missionary training center in Taipei prayerfully set a goal one day to contact 10 people in a nearby park and have at least one join the Church.
Policeman Eric Weng, who was jogging in the park, knew nothing of the missionaries' goal when they stopped him to talk. But he saw their enthusiasm for their religion and told them how to contact him. The referral was given to elders who finally, on the third try, got him to agree to meet them at the Church meetinghouse.
Two months later, on July 6, 1996, he joined the Church. He heard the unknown part of his conversion story later from a returned missionary who was one of the sisters who approached him.
Brother Weng and his wife, Kate, talked to the Church News about their conversions, missions and marriage in their Taipei apartment.
Kate Chen was working in Taipei when a roommate invited her to Relief Society enrichment meeting. For her contribution, she took coffee and tea. After the meeting, she wondered why no one partook of her refreshment and had her first lesson on the Word of Wisdom.
"I liked the Church a lot," she said. She gave up coffee, a big hurdle to joining the Church, and was baptized in June 1995.
After baptism, Eric was a member of Kate's ward and they became good friends. He had strong feelings for both her and another sister in the ward and one night prayed that whichever one first said she liked him would be the one he should marry. The next day, he called Kate and during the conversation, shared deep spiritual feelings with her. She said she was so touched that she said told him she liked him. His reaction, he said, was, "Oh, no!"
"I think he preferred the other girl," Kate said. "She was prettier. But I was the answer to his prayer, so we had to get married," she laughed.
But not yet.
Though her bishop thought she should marry Eric, Kate decided to go on a mission and was called to the Taiwan Taichung Mission.
Six months later, Eric was called to the same mission. His choice to serve was a challenge, particularly because it meant he had to repay most of a tuition grant he received for police training when he terminated a six-year contract. But he had a goal to serve a mission, backed up by his patriarchal blessing.
Serving in the same mission was a problem. Mission leaders, aware of the ties between the two, at one time made them attend different zone conferences though they were serving in the same zone. Finally, to prevent such issues, Kate was transferred to the Taiwan Kaohsiung Mission.
When their missions were completed, Eric and Kate were married in the Taipei Taiwan Temple in July 2000. That fall, they moved to Hawaii where Brother Weng attended BYU-Hawaii, graduating with a degree in accounting.
Brother Weng is now a senior accountant for the Church finance department in Taipei. Members of the Hsin Tien Ward, Taipei Taiwan West Stake, Brother Weng is on the stake high council and teaches institute. Sister Weng is a Primary teacher. They have three children: Iris, 6; Matthew, 5; and Faith, 3.
Photo by Greg Hill
Kendra and David Lai, served full-time missions before marriage.
DAVID AND KENDRA LAI
David Lai and Kendra Kang met at a young single adult conference while attending college in Taipei, Taiwan, and began dating. Their relationship was interrupted after his graduation when he began mandatory military service.
A reason he survived and remained faithful during the service, he said, was Kendra's faithfulness writing letters to him.
A short time after the completion of his military obligation, he was a missionary, leaving from his home in Taichung to serve in the Taiwan Taipei Mission. But Kendra was still on his mind.
During a Church News interview in the Taiwan Taichung Mission office, he said after he was set apart by his stake president he couldn't resist the need to call Kendra at work and "tell her to wait for me." They said they both cried.
David's willingness to serve impressed Kendra and she contemplated going on a mission herself. She said she prayed and felt inspired to serve. She left from Taipei to serve in the Taiwan Taichung Mission.
They had a classic whirlwind romance upon his return from his mission on April 1, 2008: The next day they got together and he asked her to marry him. They were married in the Taipei Taiwan Temple on May 10.
David was baptized June 23, 2001, at age 20, after being contacted on a street by the missionaries. He said they were too friendly to reject.
Kendra said a friend invited her to join English classes at the LDS meetinghouse. Kendra accepted, though her interest was more in learning about the Church than learning English. Because of the death of a relative, she was looking for spiritual answers and was happy when she heard the concept that she is a child of God.
At age 16, she needed parental permission to be baptized. She prayed hard that her parents would give her permission and the prayer was answered. She was baptized on July 11, 1998.
Brother Lai, a machine designer by profession, is a counselor in the bishopric and Sister Lai is the Relief Society president in the Da Ya Ward, Taichung Taiwan North Stake. They are expecting their first child in August.
Photo by Greg Hill
Jim and Dawn Chang, met at a young single adults activity after both had overcome some challenges with their testimonies and served missions.
JIM AND DAWN CHANG
When Jim Chang was in junior high school, he picked up a Bible in a Christian hospital where he was helping care for his grandmother. He would read it when he was bored.
"I just knew it was true and that Jesus really is the Son of God," he said during a Church News interview in the Taiwan Taichung Mission office.
That knowledge served him well when he met missionaries who asked him for 40 minutes of his time to share a message with him. He said he was trying to find a church to join at the time. He had learned to pray from reading the Bible, so prayed to know if the Church was true and had good feelings. He was baptized in February 2001 at age 21.
As a student at a university in Kaoshiung, Dawn Zhao had a roommate who was a member of the Church. One night, her roommate was reading a book. "I asked her what she was reading and she said it was a book about Jesus Christ," Dawn said. "I asked if it was the Bible and she said, no, it was the Book of Mormon."
Dawn had never heard of the Book of Mormon and asked her roommate to tell her more. The roommate put her in contact with the missionaries and she joined the Church at age 21.
Jim and Dawn both had some struggles after their baptisms. Jim said that though he wanted to go on a mission when he was baptized, his testimony was weak. Dawn found herself often too busy to fully participate in Church.
Finally, Jim prayed earnestly to know for certain that the Book of Mormon was true. He also increased his Church attendance and began talking to his bishop about serving a mission.
At age 25 he was called to serve in the Taiwan Kaohsiung Mission. While there, he met Dawn, but they said neither made much of an impression on the other.
Dawn said that when President Gordon B. Hinckley delivered the challenge in August 2005 that members of the Church read the Book of Mormon through by the end of the year, "I decided to follow the prophet." She hadn't previously read the entire book, but did complete it by the end of the year.
"The next February, while reading the Book of Mormon, I felt I wanted to serve God," she said. She prayed all night about how best to serve Him, she continued, and the answer she received was to serve a mission. It wasn't an easy decision, primarily because she was pursuing a master's degree in education and would not be able to pick it up again afterward if she interrupted her studies to go on a mission.
She made an appointment with her bishop and when she told him of her inspiration, he said he had also felt impressed that she should go on a mission. She left from Kaohsiung to serve in the Taiwan Taipei Mission.
After their missions, on April 26, 2008, Jim and Dawn got together at a young single adult activity in Taichung. Jim had a friend introduce him to Dawn and Jim told his friend he should pursue her. He said he already had and wasn't her "Mr. Right." He told Jim he should see if he was her "Mr. Right." He was, and they were married in the Taipei Taiwan Temple on July 26, 2008.
Dawn agreed that was a quick courtship, but said, "We followed God's plan."
They had attended the temple as they were considering whether or not to get married. She said it was confirmed for her that they should, but Jim said he felt worried about economic conditions.
When she referred him to Matthew 4:4 — "But he answered and said, it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" — he knew it was his answer.
Brother Chang, an electrical engineer, is now a counselor in the stake Young Men presidency and Sister Chang teaches Relief Society in the Beitung Ward, Taichung Taiwan North Stake.
ghill@desnews.com
© 2009 Deseret News Publishing Company
Truman Madsen, well known LDS scholar and educator, died this morning after a long battle with cancer. 
