THANKSGIVING IN TAIWAN 2010

President and Sister Bishop with a delicious Thanksgiving feast for the four office Elders and Elder and Sister Greene. This was a wonderful dinner with a turkey and all of the trimmings. It was a pleasant surprise for all of us and we each had the opportunity to share stories of how we have been blessed for our time spent in Taiwan, and how thankful we are for the Lord's sustaining help.

From left to right: Sister and President Bishop, Elder and Sister Greene, Elders Mix, Opper, Lloyd and Young in the mission home's spacious kitchen.

A memorable Thanksgiving feast with wonderful friends.

A VISIT TO THE CHAING KAI SHEK MEMORIAL

Last week we had the opportunity of attending a session in the Taipei LDS Temple and afterward we spent a couple of hours visiting the huge and elaborate 20 acre Chiang Kai Shek Memorial just a few blocks from the temple. Within the walls of the Memorial are numerous beautiful sculptured gardens with all kinds of follage, encluding a cactus garden that reminded us of when we lived in Arizona. The buildings were huge and contained concert halls, an art gallary, a museum and various stores.

This is the main Memorial building which contains a huge statue of Chaing Kai Shek sitting in the upper chamber much like Abraham Lincoln in Washington, DC.

One of the concert halls with gardens on one side and a very large tiled parade grounds, about the size of a half a dozen football fields side by side, in front of the building.

There were a number of different groups of highschool girls marching in formations on the parade field and as we walked across the parade field all of the girls in one of the units became very excited and broke ranks and came running to us wanting their pictures taken with us. We felt like movie stars with adoring fans surrounding us and trying to get as close to us as they could.

It had been sprinkling and the girls all had light plastic rain coats on but the sprinkling didn't dampen their enthusiasm and excitement. If we could have spoken Chinese, more than a few phrases, we would have had a willing group to listen to a gospel message.

PLANTING THE SEED OF FAITH

I found a book with many pictures of beautiful wood carvings in Taipei, Taiwan. This picture, a wood carving of a plant growing in the wood carving of a person's hands, reminded me of a scripture in the "Book of Mormon", Alma chapter 32 verse 28:

"Now we will compare the word (of God) unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves--It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me."
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We have experienced a number of serious trials while serving our mission in Taiwan which has made us realize to an even greater extent our dependence on God. We often reflect on the scripture from Proverbs 3:5,6 that says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

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It is easy to talk about having faith but faith is something that has to be worked on constantly, like nurturing a plant. As Paul the Apostle said, "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). When we feel weak in faith and weighed down by our own problems and the sorrow we see others bear, we turn to the scriptures and words of latter-day prophets.

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These words of the prophet Alma teach us that the word of God helps strengthen faith and that if we can just muster the strength to "desire to believe", the word can be "planted in [our] heart" and enlighten our understanding. " This is just like planting a seed in soil and having faith that with good care it will grow. We know this is true; when it is hard to sleep at night or concentrate on our daily tasks because of our concerns, our prayers in the name of Christ and study of the prophets has given us peace. We have had many faith promoting experiences occur this past year that has strengthened us, such as help from doctors, people who have come into our lives at unexpected times, thoughts that have come into our minds, help from our family members, and support from missionaries and other friends here in Taiwan. Our faith has also been strengthened seeing how our children and other friends have dealt with major challenges in their lives through the help of the Lord.