Well, I survived the Wed trip to C.S. for the "Recruiting Party" and the Thursday return. Great time but talk about cold and ice!

http://www.ldsmag.com/index.php?option=com_zine&view=article&Itemid=3&ac=1&id=7444

This is truly an amazing story and worth reading in its entirety! It is also amazing how in country after country miracles happen as the Lord prepares the way for the introduction of the Restored Gospel among His children. As Joseph prophesied "... the truth of God (the Restored Gospel) will go forth boldly, nobly and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done."

Here are but a couple of excerpts:

...At the same time, we were teaching a professor at the Taiwan University, General Chang Kai Sheik's personal physician, a member to the Chinese National Assembly and a member of the Chinese UN delegation. They were very well off financially, well-educated, well-placed politically and socially. I was impressed by their "stature and importance" and wrote in my journal with the hope that they would receive the gospel and help us in our work and influence others. However, the experience I had with brother Hu, a humble man with meager resources, was simply entered as "…we are teaching a wonderful family, I hope they will continue to grow in the gospel and be baptized…" Clearly I still hadn't learned that the Lord chooses people based on His measure not on outward appearance....

... Three days later, I received a letter through the missionary that replaced me when I was transferred from Taipei. It was from Mr. Hu, and for the first time, I saw his full name in "Romanized" print, Brother Hu Wei Yi. He did not know how to get in touch with me but asked that his letter be forwarded it to me if possible.

In it Bro. Hu reviewed his life since our meeting some 40 years earlier. He had been baptized with his wife and two daughters. He is now in his 80's, has been a patriarch, (over 600 blessings), temple sealer (over 4,000 sealings for living and dead) and held many other church callings. He explained that he had been set apart by President Kimball to be a translator. He then listed the books he had translated into Chinese. There they were, name by name, the books that dad had given me. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, Jesus the Christ, Articles of Faith, Gospel Doctrine, Doctrines of Salvation And then I read, the Book of Mormon -- I couldn't believe my eyes! Yes, the Book of Mormon, the revealed work of God in the Chinese language, the most popular language in the world, the language of a billion and a half people was translated by a humble man whom the Lord had picked and prepared, who was introduced to the gospel by a pair of missionaries just trying to do their work as they understood it...

The rest of this miraculous event was published today. All I will say is just watch what takes place when the LDS missionaries are permitted in! So here is the rest of the story:

Dear President Albright,

I arrived in the Southern Far East Mission in December of 1957. I was released in December of 1960. My initial assignments were Hong Kong, Taipei, Taichung and Tainan. I was transferred from Tainan to Taipei in October of 1958. H. Grant Heaton was the mission president at that time. The Mission headquarters were located in Hong Kong so we saw very little of the mission president himself. The supervising elders and counselor to the mission president did an excellent job of guiding the missionaries between All-Taiwan Missionary Zone Conferences. However, when we were transferred to outlining cities we pretty much flew on our own. We rented an building, put up a sign, bought some chairs and started tracting. We began holding Sunday meetings the first Sunday after we entered a city.

Being transferred to Taipei was a different kind of experience. The Church was already established; we weren’t responsible for conducting Sunday Services and for the first time I was handed a list of existing contacts. When I took over Elder Poulter’s contacts I didn’t know that Hu Wei Yi spoke English. So we taught him in Chinese. It was comfortable for both of us to use Chinese.

At the time Brother Hu was still smoking and it took a little time for him to overcome the habit. He had wonderful classical music that we were privileged to listen to each time we went to teach him.

Hu Wei Yi was a very humble person. He asked interesting and often penetrating questions. Often I did not know the answer to his questions and explained that I would research the answers and bring them back to him. I had no knowledge that Elder Poulter had provided any gospel books to him previously, nor did he volunteer that he in fact possessed the LDS books. I am fairly certain that he had not read them at the time as it wasn’t apparent that he had a steeped understanding of the restored gospel at the time of our teaching. He was always kind, serious and gentle in his probing for understanding. He accepted the gospel as we explained it but was always interested in a thorough understanding, which was unusual for investigators. He attended church regularly with his daughter Hu Tai Li but Sister Hu, as I recall, did not come with him at the time. The church building was a considerable distance from his home.

At that time we had many investigators and were very busy. My companions and I baptized 12 converts between November 1958 and February of 1959 and left our replacement elders with a full contingent of investigators when I was transferred to Hsin Chu. I served with Elder Poulter in the Hsin Chu Branch. The church in Taiwan was making wonderful strides with the opening of each new branch.

It wasn’t until 1967 that I read in the Church News that Hu Wei Yi was the translator of the Book of Mormon. What a wonderful and uplifting spirit filled my soul as I realized that I had taught and baptized the person who had translated the Book of Mormon from English to Chinese. I was overwhelmed with gratitude and awe. Approximately one quarter of the earth’s population are Chinese. I could hardly believe it. When we went about teaching the gospel, working diligently and stumbling through the process of opening new branches we had no concept of what impact we would have on future generation. When I arrived in Taiwan we had one branch and twenty members. When I left three years later we had 10 branches and 500 members. I was overwhelmed to see what had transpired in my absence when I returned in 2005. I found two of the members I had baptized working in the temple. Tears well up in my eyes as I think about the opportunity entrusted to such innocent, ignorant, but diligent young missionaries in those days.

I hopes this helps a little.

Brother Jim Goodfellow

Just as a mighty oak grows slowly from a small acorn, so does the Restored Gospel grow in distant lands! From the few members baptized over 50 years ago this is the harvest that is still growing magnificently.

Here is the link to the 31st operating temple in the world. (now over 150 temples built or being built).

http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/taipei/

Here is an excerpt:

Temple Locale:

Situated just east of the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Ai-Kuo (Love of Country) Road, the Taipei Taiwan Temple stands out in its urban setting for its elegance and lofty spires. Adjoining the temple are other church buildings including a stake center, patron housing facility, and office building. Mature trees, terraced landscaping, and a striking series of fountains beautify the surrounding grounds.

Temple Facts:

The Taipei Taiwan Temple was the first temple built in Taiwan and the third built in Asia.
At the first regional conference in Taiwan, held August 14, 1975, President Spencer W. Kimball explained the purpose of the temple that had been announced for Tokyo, Japan. "You, too, can have one," he said. "We leave the blessings of the Lord upon you, upon your posterity, and upon this land."
The mission home in Taipei, which stood next to the stake center, was razed to make way for the Taipei Taiwan Temple.

The Taipei Taiwan Temple was constructed with respect for local tradition including a stunning blue tile roof that complements nearby National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

The open house of the Taipei Taiwan Temple attracted over 20,000 visitors including high-ranking government officials, prominent businessmen, and religious leaders of other faiths. Many requested the missionaries to visit them.

Both protesters and adorers descended on the Taipei Taiwan Temple during its public open house. Protesters, sent by a Protestant group in Hawaii, attempted to disrupt the event by creating a commotion outside the gates, though they were kindly invited to tour the temple and view informative displays. Other visitors who toured the temple were captivated by the spirit of the building—many expressing that it was the most beautiful building they had ever seen.

At the time the Taipei Taiwan Temple was dedicated, there were three stakes on the island. Twenty-five years later, membership had grown to ten stakes and two districts.
At the dedication of the Taipei Taiwan Temple, President Gordon B. Hinckley noted that a prison once stood on the temple site. He taught that through the sacred ordinances of the temple, the Lord had provided a way to release souls from their spiritual prisons.

Citizens of Taipei are so impressed by the beauty of the Taipei Taiwan Temple that it has been nominated as one of the most beautiful buildings in the city and studied numerous times by students of architecture.

But the real purpose of the temple is what President Gordon B. Hinkley stated: "The temple is concerned with things of immortality. It is a bridge between this life and the next. All of the ordinances that take place in the house of the Lord are expressions of our belief in the immortality of the human soul."

Additional information: Membership as of 2009 is 51,090; There are 10 stakes; 77 wards and 20 branches (wards in embryo) with a total of 97 congregations.