Elder and Sister Croft in Taiwan

Thanksgiving was special for us in Taiwan. We attended three celebrations. Thanksgiving #1 There is an English speaking ward in Taipei and one of the families in the ward has made it a tradition to have the youth prepare a traditional American Thanksgiving meal for the missionaries. They met on a Saturday and made sweet potato casserole, pies, potatoes, etc. On Sunday evening the youth and the missionaries got together to eat and to share experiences. That was only our second day in Taiwan and we felt very appreciated and welcomed. The youth were great. We don't think they realize how different their lives are. They have lived and traveled in many countries and our associating with a lot of diverse people. Learning languages, and having a lot of amazing experiences. Thanksgiving #2 The next few days we helped the mission president's wife and the other office missionaries prepare a traditional thanksgiving meal for the entire mission. We needed to feed 100 people! I felt like we

  Our first week in Taiwan we helped prepare for an all mission conference.  The missionaries met for a morning of training, and a big Thanksgiving dinner (more about that in the next post). And the mission wanted the stake center decorated for Christmas before they came. We spent a good portion of the day decorating this tree. First we were supporting and helping the young missionaries, but it took a lot longer than expected due to two major problems. 1. The limbs kept falling off because of broken parts, and 2. we didn't have as many lights as needed to string them the way we wanted to. In the end it was adults doing the work while the missionaries went to other appointments, but despite the problems, we think it turned out really nice! We also have a Christmas tree for our apartment.

Zone Conference with Elder and Sister Martinez After two weeks in the MTC we went back home! Our visas didn't come through and we couldn't leave for Taiwan. We spent about a month living at home and serving as MLS missionaries in the Salt Lake City mission assigned to the Chinese ward. We just found out we'll be leaving early Friday morning for Taiwan.   At home it was a struggle to know what to do most of the time, but we had some great mission experiences and also got a chance to get some more personal things taken care of and did more Chinese study. We're grateful for these opportunities! Mission Experiences in the SLC Mission MLS training meeting District meeting Multi district council Stake conference Zone Conference with Elder Martinez (Utah Area Presidency) Dinner and a lesson with a wonderful sister who was baptized in China 5 months ago. She is preparing for temple blessings! Lesson with the young Elders and a young woman from China who is working nights to mak