Pappa Hardy's Musings on Life.

On March 31 I had a wonderful experience. Brother Ho Yu Chen, our good family friend, my former branch counselor, and now Area Authority 70, came to Salt Lake for conference. He had an extra ticket to conference since his wife and our dear friend Maggie could not come with him. As a result I wanted to take this opportunity to see him, have a reunion if you like, and attend conference.

I have attended conference 5 times before in the conference center. I got up early on Saturday and drove to Salt Lake, getting to the hotel where Philip was staying at a little after 9am. Downtown Salt Lake was a traffic mess. I moved along, we met up, and walked over to the conference center.

Once inside the center, it was a wonderful experience to talk with him, remember my mission and the wonderful family I have in Taiwan, and then listen to the opening conference session. It was a wonderful and powerful meeting. The music was inspirational and superb, the conference addresses were very spiritual and motivating (when else could I hear about a parable about a Cucumber), and then the meeting was over. At lunch, Philip offered an afternoon ticket to me as well.

This time I had the opportunity to talk to Elder George Nielsen, a friend of the Ho Family and the Elder who was involved in teaching and baptizing these wonderful people. We heard the dedication of the Tabernacle. The conference center, despite the fact that the action was taking place on Temple Square, was still totally full. It was another neat experience.

I will treasure this wonderful spiritual day for many years. For me, it was truly a Rocky Mountain Spiritual High. I will never forget my good friend. I hope to see him and his lovely wife again.

Our recent visit to Taiwan was a reminder of how much the Chinese taught us about love. These people are so polite, so loving, that they would rather take care of you and go without themselves than find you in want. They were wonderful to get to know. They made sure that we got where we needed to go, made sure we ate even more often than we needed to, made sure we had a place to sleep. It was a very wonderful experience, both in our recent visit, as well as when Bonnie and I were there as students and I there as a missionary. No wonder that those of us that have lived in Asia, particularly in China, fall in love with the place. You love them because they love you first.

You know, there is an old adage that you can never go home again.  I guess by that they may mean that things are never the same.  That is probably a very true statement.  However, I think sometimes that it doesn’t apply at all.

When we went to Taiwan, so many things were different there.  The landmarks that I knew and loved so well had all disappeared.  The old city, with it’s open spaces and with all of the pollution, etc., had also disappeared.  In it’s place was a brand new, spanking city, with tall buildings, wider streets, no outdoor sewers, and the old restaurants had disappeared.

Despite the changes, it felt like home.  I think the primary reason was the wonderful Ho family that we stayed with.  They treated us like family.  We felt like family.  We love them, and I could tell they loved us.  We also love the Chinese people.  Despite all of the changes, the Chinese are still the same courteous, thoughtful, wonderful people that they were when I was a missionary there and then when Bonnie and I lived there as students.

Finally, despite the changes, the place was the same.  I was so excited to see the old places, and the new, and the changes.  It was a wonderful experience.  I was so sad when we headed to the airport, and I knew that our Taiwan stay was over.  I now stare at my computer, with the wallpaper having Taiwan pictures on it, and I long for home.  I think I may have been born in the wrong place.  I love Taiwan.

I have often been asked, since my return from Taiwan, how my Mandarin Chinese worked while I was gone for two weeks to Taiwan. Well, that was a very interesting experience. On some days, it was liked I had never left. I could remember vocabulary, sentence structure, and could reach back into my past and just talk like a pro. Then, on other days, or when challenged with a person that was with me (someone called my wife) to translate a sentence that they had heard, I found that I didn’t do very well at all. I couldn’t remember a danged thing. It was such a different experience, one day the expert, the next, a bumbling fool. It was easy to pick up some words, and I was starting to get into the grove as I was leaving. Oh, I would like to go back.

Well, we have had some interesting experiences here in Taiwan.  This is Ghost Month.  They have a month where those that are Bhuddist, and of course honor their ancestors, must offer items to the Ghosts that inhabit the earth here so they will not bring them bad luck and will not interfer with the honoring of their ancestors.  Therefore, we have many times seen firecrackers going off, stuffed pigs and tables loaded with many items that are being offered to the ghosts.

This comes with much fanfare and noise.  We have happened upon several such events and it has been fun seeing them happen.  We have seen some interesting events.  In any event, they do get to eat the stuff that they put out, once they have done their thing.

Here I sit, in Philip Ho’s office room using his computer, looking for the last couple of hours over Tao Yuan before we leave to return to the states.  I am very sad to be doing so.  This has been an excellent experience.  The only bad thing that has happened I heard about this morning.

My good friend Clark DeWaal, had a heart attack on Thursday morning here in Taiwan and has been taken home to our heavenly father.  I am so sad, and wish that I could have been with him when he passed, so he could have had someone here who could have helped.  He was a good friend, particularly as we studied together here in Taiwan as students at National Taiwan University and the Kuo You Re Bau Language Center.  He was such fun, with his wife Lorraine.  I am sad this has happened before we left.  He passed while here in Taiwan on Thursday morning the 10th, while on a business trip.

In any event, I got up this morning, and prepared to leave for church after getting that bad news.  We went to Sacrament Meeting in the Tao Yuan 1st Ward and then Julie and I drove to Chung Li to see if I could find the Elders who said they had information on someone that I had baptized.  They had his address, we got it, and then we returned to Tao Yuan where we are finishing our packing and then we leave for America.  I am so sad.  This has been a wonderful experience.  Well, that is about it for now.

I am going to miss this place and this people.  We had a traditional Chinese breakfast this morning of You-Tyau (translated as oil stick, which means it has a ton of cooking oil), soybean milk (not the Americanized version with flavoring, but real soy bean milk), and sticky rice with meat.  It was so good.  This is the same meal that I had on the very first morning, after the very first night, when I first arrived in Taiwan as a missionary. 

This meal caused a flood of many, old, cherished memories to come back to my mind.  This trip has been a walk down memory lane for me.  I will never forget riding up on our bikes to the old street vending stand, watching a old looking Chinese gentlement, who had obviously seen a lot of better days in his life, fish out a you-tyau out of the vat of oil and give us a bowl of steaming bean milk, all on a street that wasn’t quite so clean and we sat there, next to the binjou, eating the oil stick and drinking the bean milk.  I wondered what it was that I had gotten myself into.  This time, the experience was much different. 

We went to a fast food stand in the best tradition of McDonalds, and they mass produced it and got it to us.  We sat, we ate, and we enjoyed.  Maggie Ho, who was with us got us the best and we really enjoyed the event.  I am going to be oh so sad to return to America.  This trip has reawakened my desire to come back, with Bonnie, as a couple missionary and live here for a while. I am going to love seeing family and friends again, but I am going to really miss this place.  This has been a wonderful experience.

I have been having trouble shaking a thought that keeps running through my mind each time that I take a taxi here in Taiwan.  The thought, born in missionary times when the taxis were less regulated is, “Taxi Drivers are the Enemy”.  Back in those days, they were less regulated and some times would try to seperate our money from us.  They would also drive insanely fast and dangerously, so much so that the Mission President banned us from using them as much as possible.  With a few exceptions, this trip has been different.  The taxi drivers are considerate, have drived with sense, and use the meter when taking us places.  I have been very impressed with everything I am seeing in this country.  Things are so well run.  I have decided, despite old habits, that “Taxi Drivers are Not, the Enemy”.

I have had a sad experience on this trip.  One of the first things that I became familiar with when I came as a missionary was a drink called Chi Shwei.  It literally was “air water”.  It was a little like 7 up, but had more bang for the buck.  Well, I came back, hoping to have a bottle of Chi Shwei.  What I found was a lack of it, and if anything, the only stuff they have is 7 up, which just isn’t the same.  Oh, my heavens, how could this happen.  How could such a noble drink as Chi Shwei depart this land of opportunity.  Surely there was room for everything, including a ping of Chi Shwei.  Oh, I don’t know if I will ever recover from this disappointment.

Another incredible experience.  We went to Chang Hwa, about half way down the island, for an island wide cultural performance and general Missionary member reunion.  It was a wonderful experience.  I was impressed by so many members who have served as missionaries over the years.  They were by far the biggest number of those who attended.  The members were talking about it all day today and about how wonderful the performance was.  They did just a wonderful job.

They were able to weave into the performance the story of the start of missionary work in Taiwan.  It was fun seeing how they portrayed the Elders and Sisters.  It was very fun to see them dance, sing, and also do martial arts demonstrations.

Today we had the experience to attend church in Yuan Lin.  The city was not even open when I came, and now they have a Stake Center there.  It is a beautiful building, every bit as nice as any building anywhere else.  We then drove up the freeway to Tao Yuan.  That was also a neat experence. What changes the island has seen.

Well, till we talk again.