One in a Million

Somehow they passed this guy up to be one of the 12!
Clearly, Q's handsomeness didn't negatively
impact his chances!
This is us heading out on a DATE!

Now General Conference has passed, I won't blow anyone's mind with the announcement that Q is NOT called to be an apostle. YET. Before you scoff at even the whiff of possibility, what might the chances be? Though current church membership is in the millions, subtract from that all the inactive members. Then take away the women. Then take away those who only hold the Aaronic priesthood. Then subtract those who are too young or too old. (Sure, 40 may count as too young, but whom God calls, he qualifies, right?) Now consider that of all those still left in this segment of the church population, that God recently called not one but three new apostles. I gave Q better than one in a million odds it would be him.

So the pressure is, or was, ON! Because we live crazy odds like that. What are the odds I would marry a guy who would support the crazy idea of a trip like this? And supporting the idea is one thing, but making it happen financially and in his work life is another! What are the odds we could find renters for our home for the EXACT period we will be away for?

Here's our most recent one in a million chance come to pass.

We live in the district of Tamsui. The district is home to approximately 160,000 people. There is a small ward here, but to be generous, and to make for easy math, let's give the ward 160 active members. So the chances of us living near one would be about one in 1,000 right?

Well, it just so happens that we live EXACTLY NEXT DOOR to Sister Yang and her husband! I kid you not, and we were as surprised and amazed as you might be reading this. Seriously folks, to me, this seems almost more incredible than Q NOT being called to be an apostle! Sure, if we'd known her before, or if she'd invited us to stay, if anyone in the ward knew we were coming, then maybe it wouldn't be so crazy. But our picking this home base was based solely on an assessment of our needs, Airbnb availability, AND REVELATION FROM GOD. Clearly.

And seriously. As I pondered various locations when we first booked our trip, I was leaning towards an old area of mine due to my familiarity with it and a friend's recommendation who had lived there for 3 years with her family. Then, one night, as I tried to picture us there, two things were brought to my memory. The first was my eyes stinging with the pollution in that area, and the second was Q feeling ill from pollution in a different area we visited when he and I came to Taiwan. As I lay in bed, I mentally put that place out of my mind and opened myself to WHEREVER it might be best we go, for whatever reason we go there. But instead of thinking of where, I thought of my family, our need for space, our love for the views from our home, our love of peace. I imagined that the perfect place might be near nature, near open space, and have a relaxing, nurturing feel, yet be close enough to the city, to transportation, and to all the things we would want to do to be convenient. As I thought of all this, I think I remembered a passing conversation with an elder from my mission. Why we might have had this conversation, I have no idea. It's only a very cloudy memory at all, or perhaps an imagined one. We served together, but were hardly close, and our mission's practice was to not talk about other areas. And yet, I think I remember (or at least it was brought to my mind) Elder Magleby saying that Tamsui was pretty and the air clean. I don't even know if he served in Tamsui. I didn't, nor did I ever travel here on my mission. Still, when I woke the next morning, I had Tamsui in my head and got on Airbnb to look again. There I found our present 3 bedroom apartment, near nature (I could see from the pictures and on google maps), convenient to public transportation, and with a hot tub and swimming pool for relaxation and kid enjoyment. Beyond this miracle, the landlord was willing to negotiate lower for our extended stay, and came within our ballpark on price.

All that I felt SHOULD be recorded as miraculous without a member living right next door! But Sister Yang DOES live right next door, and she is yet another blessing!

She and her husband have 2 children who live in Shanghai. In fact, they also live in Shanghai most of the time, doing business and managing property there. (See Shanghai opportunity below) She joined the church about 40 years ago. I don't know if her husband was ever a member or not, but he is a wonderful person!

Today, he took Sister Yang and I to the morning market. Because he drove, I was able to buy almost a week's worth of food because I didn't have to cart it back on the MRT!

I loved watching these ladies step around on the lids of the containers,
grabbing fish with their gloved hands!

AFTER that, they took the whole family to lunch. It was wonderful! It's been a rainy day that we might have otherwise spent the entirety of indoors, but thanks to their rescue, we had a squished, but beautiful ride to the northern sea shore and they treated us to delicious sea food. The food was good, especially considering that fish isn't generally our thing. Perhaps the freshness - all the food was alive when they ordered - made the difference.

There we are, with the Yangs AND the FEAST!

Sister Yang reminded me throughout the whole day of my mom. She haggled with everyone about price, she couldn't pass a good deal and got as many groceries for she and her husband as I got for my whole crew, despite the fact that she goes back to Shanghai tomorrow for a few days! And when lunch was over, she very diligently bagged up all the leftovers (something that is rarely done here) to give us for our dinner. She is a hoot, a dear, and words cannot express how blessed I feel to have her as a neighbor! Sister Yang is definitely one in a million!

(Though my poor filming missed most of the action, you can hear EV's startled reaction, hear a bit of the Chinese haggling, and even me trying to speak Chinese in this video!)