Messages Item: Office Couple Needed!
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 -- Add Message
Dear returned Taiwan missionaries and friends,
The Taiwan Taichung Mission is in great need of an adventurous missionary couple to serve in the mission office as Financial Secretary and Mission Secretary. President Blickenstaff, the current mission president, recently sent me the following note:
“Hi Elder Walker! We are trying desperately to find a couple to replace the Darringtons. Do you keep in contact with enough missionaries from our era to put out the word that we need a good secretary and finance guy? I think it would be a blast for someone who is looking to come back and brush up on their Chinese.”
Let me give you a few more insights: Kyrstne and I recently returned from the Taichung Mission after serving about a year and a half as family history missionaries, and I want to tell you that we absolutely loved it. While there, our previous mission president was also desperate for an office couple, so he asked us to serve as finance and mission secretaries for about two months. If you have worked in an office before, I don't think you will find it extremely hard to do. It’s just a matter of being organized and getting things done when they need to be done. You DO NOT have to speak Chinese to do famously in this calling (although it certainly doesn’t hurt). When Chinese is needed in the office, you will have office elders all around to help you. The current couple, the Darringtons, did not serve missions in Taiwan, don’t speak any Chinese beyond “ni hao,” and had never worked in an office or with computers, but they are doing wonderfully, and having a ball doing it. They are two people with adventurous spirits and smiles on their faces and with the Lord’s help have settled in very comfortably.
Living in Taiwan is not expensive. We actually saved money while on our mission. Taiwan is not like it was in the 70s, either – it has grown tremendously. I would say your standard of living would be like living in Japan or other Asian first world country. You will have access to a car for mission business, which can be combined with personal errands, so you won’t have to ride bikes unless you want to. Office hours generally are 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday, with evenings and weekends free to see the country and the people. Unlike your earlier missions, in general you won’t have to work 60 hour weeks.
Also, unlike your previous mission, you won’t be moving around the island: you will stay put in Taichung. That will give you the opportunity to really get to know the local members, to make friends with them. Also, since you are in the office, you will see nearly all the missionaries at one time or another, and will get to know the office staff and Taichung missionaries very, very well. My wife would say that that was the best part of our mission: loving and taking care of our young elders and sisters, for whom we became something close to parents. I agree with her.
If our personal circumstances permitted, we would jump at this opportunity. If you are close to retirement, or already there, don’t hesitate – apply to be missionaries with your spouses. I don’t think you will regret it a second – we certainly have not!
If you have questions, please send me a note through this website, and I’ll try to answer it. You could also message Kurt Blickenstaff, the mission president, who will probably give you better answers anyway.
|
| |
|
|
|
List All | Add Message |
