There is at least one sight that has not changed in Taiwan over the past half-century: There are still pairs of young Western men, wearing white shirts and black ties, riding bicycles through the roads of the island's cities and countryside. Their goal, now as then, is to convert Taiwanese people--who traditionally hold religious views that are a mix of Buddhism, Taoism and some Confucianism--to their brand of Christianity: Mormonism. There are a few differences these days, such as more Oriental faces at services at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Also, the young Mormon missionaries of the 21st century are perhaps more aggressive and outspoken than their predecessors of 50 years ago.
Appropriately enough, the church held a bicycle relay race to mark the 50th anniversary of its presence in Taiwan. The relay was separated into two segments. On June 30, an eastern contingent biked from Taitung to Taipei, while a western segment pedaled from Pingtung to Taipei. Finally, all the cyclists converged at the Taipei temple for the closing ceremonies.
In Taiwan, the iconic image of the "friendly American" is so deeply rooted and intertwined with that of the Mormon missionary that a popular grammar school textbook includes an illustration of two bikers in helmets wearing white, button-down shirts and black ties saying "hi" to pupils.
Sadly, one of the first four missionaries to arrive in Taiwan back in 1956, Keith Madsen, was killed in a bicycle accident during his service on the island. Another, Duane Degan, passed away a couple of years ago. The other two pioneers, Melvin Fish and Weldon Kitchen, returned to Taiwan in June to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the church's establishment and revisit the place where they preached the gospel and the teachings of the book of Mormon.
Language was perhaps the biggest obstacle faced by the young Mormon missionaries as they preached the gospel in a country where Mandarin is the official language. Before Kitchen and his three colleagues arrived in Keelung on June 2, 1956, they had to wait in Hong Kong for a visa to be issued by the ROC government. They ended up waiting for eight months. While there, they tried to prepare for their mission by learning some Mandarin from the Cantonese people they met in the British colony.
"The minute I got off the ship, I felt nervous with the unknown, knowing that I was about to face tremendous challenges out of the language and the culture," recalled Kitchen, who now lives in Highland, Utah with his wife Donna. There was no one to provide practical advice or guidance, as they were the trailblazers in Taiwan. Fortunately, they found the local people friendly and hospitable, and they soon overcame the language barrier. Before Fish and Kitchen came to Taipei, each of them had received only three months of formal training in Chinese, which was definitely not enough to handle their missionary work.
"The good thing was that the people are genuinely friendly. Whether they believed your words or not, they were always patient in listening to what you had to say in the not-so-fluent Chinese," recalled Fish, who is now a father of 12 and a grandfather of 41. "The kind of trust people had given us was so touching." In the end, they enjoyed staying in Taiwan so much that they pleaded with the Church to allow them stay and continue their missions, even after the tragic death of their colleague Madsen.
Their petition was granted. Preaching the gospel was difficult without the proper language skills, however, and it took them another 10 months to make their first Taiwanese convert and have her baptized. Cin Tan Shu-hwei, now 80, was that first convert. In her memoirs, she confessed that she was attracted by the content of Kitchen's lecture, but less than impressed with his Mandarin, which was marred by a funny foreign accent. "On May 24, 1958, I was finally baptized," she wrote.
Fish, who now lives in Cedar City, Utah, recalled that another convert, Guo Mei-siang, became a Mormon despite strong opposition from her parents, who owned a photo shop. At the time, she was just 14, and she went on to become a Mormon missionary herself in later years.
Guo tried to get back in touch with Fish after he flew back to the United States, but to no avail. "I always wanted to see Elder Fish," she confessed. "My father kept reminding me that I should contact Elder Fish before he passes away. When I learned that he was about to come back, I could hardly believe it."
Kitchen and Fish were not the only ones who left their hearts in Taiwan. Dennis Kim, a native of Hawaii, and his wife Linda were in Taichung when the Sept. 21, 1999 earthquake claimed thousands of lives. The very next day, Kim received a phone call from the Taichung office of the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation looking for volunteers. Kim and the elders in the Taichung area joined the foundation's efforts to assist survivors. They also distributed hundreds of emergency kits, provided by the Church of Latter-day Saints, to earthquake victims.
Some missionaries developed a real fondness for Taiwan. Jon Vawdrey, for instance, first served in 1959 but came back again to take up the post of temple president from 2003 to 2006. He recalled vividly that, in the old days, "one still could find dead bugs in the bread we bought from local bakeries."
Through the years, some of the missionaries later found jobs in business and industry, or joined the Foreign Service. According to Paul Hyer, whose Taiwan mission lasted from 1982 to 1985, Mormons with experience of Taiwan can be its best ambassadors. Hyer is now something of an unofficial representative, traveling from country to country on behalf of the church.
One of the most visible former missionaries in Taiwan is Scott Oelkers, who opened two Domino's Pizza stores in 1990 and turned them into the most successful pizza chain on the island, with 100 outlets by 1997. Oelkers, who is instantly recognizable because he stars in many of the Domino's commercials, first came to the island on a posting to a mission in Taichung in 1979.
Political figures like John Huntsman Jr., the current governor of Utah, and Tim Stratford, who was once chief counsel for Ford Motor Co. and is now a U.S. trade representative, spent time as Mormon missionaries in Taiwan and became firm supporters of the island country. Today, the Church of Latter-day Saints has approximately 45,000 followers in Taiwan. Kent Larkin and wife Pat, who came to Taiwan as young missionaries in 1963, believe that each of the missionaries who served on the island are surely grateful to the kind, helpful Taiwanese people.