With “no success can compensate the failure in the home” as their rallying cry, for 52 years, thousands of young Mormon men and women, often on bikes, have been carrying out their missions in Taiwan.
“I am in Taiwan because I want to share the principles that my family had taught me when I was growing up,” said 20 year-old Brady Rice from Alpine, Utah.
Rice's clean-shaven all-American looks are not the image most people associate with the word “elder” on his nametag.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Church, the word “elder” is given to signify a high-level of priesthood. Latter-day Saints believe that all men, at age 19, who have been called to serve a two-year proselytizing mission, must receive this type of priesthood before they can wear the black nametag on their chests.
Young women at age 21 are also encouraged to devote 18 months to a mission.
Over the past few years, Taiwan has seen an increase in the number of senior missionaries. The Sparrows, a couple from Colorado Spring, Colorado, spearhead much of the Mormons' local humanitarian efforts. Most recently, they brought boxes of baby blankets knitted by church members to the children at a local Catholic charity.
The main duty of the missionaries, said Norman Neilson, the president of the Taipei Mission, is to “share the gospel of Jesus Christ and tell the Taiwanese brothers and sisters that families can be together forever.”
As a young man in 1971, Neilson served in Taiwan, and he recalls a country largely covered with rice paddies. The number of Mormons in Taiwan at the time was about 4,400, mostly US missionaries.
Nearly four decades later, its membership has grown 10-fold to 47,000 and its missionaries have to move through heavy traffic instead of dodging water buffalos.
The missionaries, who cover three missions in Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung, also come from a variety of places, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, Indonesia, New Zealand, Singapore, the Philippines and Hong Kong. There are also a handful of native Taiwanese.
“But a few things have remained the same and that is the hardworking ethic of the Taiwanese people and their love and commitment to their families,” Neilson said.
Tanner Jacobson, who hails from Chandler, Arizona, said the strong emphasis on family was a common thread between the Mormon church and Taiwanese culture.
“It's amazing to see how hard people here work to provide for their families,” he said.
Rice said he had found the topic of families and respect for ancestors is a good icebreaker. Missionaries often encourage people to set aside Monday nights as “Family Home Evening” so families can spend time together. A church-published handbook has ideas and topics for family nights.
“It is a special time to renew friendships and teach children the principles and values you want them to learn. If you don't teach them, who will?” Neilson said.
The idea has been emulated by the government to promote more quality time for parents and their kids.
Missionaries are also required to volunteer in their local communities, and many have done so by helping people move, volunteering at hospitals, serving as crossing-guards, giving free English lessons or participating in beautification projects such as the World Beach Clean-up Day. A Filipina missionary, Reyes, works with migrant workers from the Philippines.
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