11-25-15 Departing Missionaries

Before returning home, our missionaries all interview with President and then attend a 

Career Workshop to help them prepare for the future:

Taiwanese and foreign missionaries get specialized training:

30 seconds to present their qualities to others!

Gathering in the mission home for their last supper!

Always the first to return for seconds:

As well as the last!

Fireside afterwards to share what they've learned on their mission and how it will help them be successful in the future...

as well as sharing their closing testimonies with each other.

Our Operations Manager always prepares a special departing video for them:

Departure to Taipei early in the morning:

To attend the Taipei Temple together:

Reunited with Mom and Dad!

Such sweet emotions!

Such an excited family to see their son, brother, cousin, friend, uncle...

Young Elder Stevenson wants to see if his cousin serving in the Taipei mission has grown while he's been away for two years:

While his father, Elder Stevenson of the Quorum of Seventy, meets another of our returning missionaries:

We see this elder's mother in the temple all the time, she serves as a temple worker!

We are so grateful to meet our missionaries' family members:

Our office couple will be departing next month:

They will be SO sorely missed!

Our departing missionaries with the Stevensons:

And with all their family and friends:

Such a treat to always see our previously returned missionaries at the temple!

Lunch afterwards with Taipei mission President Jergensen, their Elder Stevenson as well,
and both mission presidents' wives' parents!

Such a delightful lunch prepared by Sis. Jergensen:)

11-23-15 New Arriving Missionary!

We are so blessed to have this sister serve in our mission while waiting for her visa to America to arrive!

11-23-15 President's Weekly Letter

Dear Elders and Sisters,

The beginning of each new transfer period is an opportunity to start anew. It is an opportunity to progress and improve, which, I might add, is best accomplished through personal change and repentance. When you receive a new assignment, do you look forward to a new start, and afford one to your companion? I hope you are learning to find out about your new companion by talking with him or her and discovering their talents and strengths. You may be pleasantly surprised! And don’t we all hope our companions will do the same?!

I assure you that, as I prepare each transfer, I carefully consider every missionary individually. I always start by asking myself, who can bless this missionary by being his or her companion? More important to me than where you serve or what is your assignment, is who will be your companion. I plead with Heavenly Father to help me assign the right companion for each missionary. I am grateful for the sacred calling to serve as your mission president. I know I can rely on the Lord to sustain me as I do my best to prepare each move call. I also know that He will sustain you as you serve in each assignment. I do not make perfect decisions, but the Lord, in sustaining both you and I, will enable each companion to be the right one for you.

Starting with this transfer we will no longer email the entire move call to each missionary. I hope this will decrease the tendency that some missionaries have to compare themselves to others and concern themselves unnecessarily with those assigned to be senior companion, district leader, etc. Please focus on your companion and those in your district. As we seek to be more consecrated missionaries, let us focus on serving others with all our hearts. Let us put aside all gossip, competition, etc., that our hearts may not be divided by envy nor pride. Let us follow the example of the Savior, who taught, “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matt. 12:36).

Please remember that missionaries are not to give their new phone number to members, investigators, friends, etc., when moving out of an area. When you leave an area, your primary method of communication [with members, RCs and others in that area] should be through email or written letters of encouragement. Politely discourage phone calls, texts and visits from members and friends from prior areas. If people insist on calling, texting, or making visits, please let me know so I can help you stay focused on your current area. See R&C, 27.

It will be our great privilege and blessing to have a mission conference this Friday with Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. With the increasing size of the Church, such opportunities are more difficult to come by and should be cherished! I can still remember a mission conference with Elder Ezra Taft Benson when I was a young missionary. He went on to become a great prophet and president of the Church! Elder Stevenson has asked that we study 2 Nephi 2 and 9 this week in preparation for our meeting with him. He would like us to come prepared to share our insights and feelings about these two great doctrinal chapters of the Book of Mormon. Please be in your seats by 12:40pm and quietly prepare yourselves for a rich spiritual experience. Let’s show him that we are well-trained, obedient and reverent missionaries. We look forward to seeing you all!

President Blickenstaff

Mentor of Champions

11-20-15 Specialized Training - North

 Every six months, specialized training is held to prepare missionaries about to, 

or have just become senior companions. 

 They are instructed on various leadership skills, including time management, companionship unity, ministering to each other, teaching, and the importance of diligence. 

APs instruct on companionship unity:

Discussing situations that cause stress in missionary life:

  Looking forward to leadership opportunities!

 And here are their patient companions, making good use of their time while waiting:

11-19-15 Specialized Training - South

 Every six months, specialized training is held to prepare missionaries about to, or have just become senior companions. They are instructed on various leadership skills, including time management, companionship unity, ministering to each other, teaching, and the importance of diligence. 

 Recognizing stress in missionary life: 

 Discussing situations that cause stress in missionary life:

 Role playing taking time to listen to a junior companion dealing with stress, then discussing how the missionary felt:

 And how the senior companion was able to help:

 Looking forward to leadership opportunities!

And here are their patient companions, making good use of their time while waiting: