Elder Shen

So, we usually don't get 4 posts in between two weekly e-mails, but this has been an unusual week. I had another interesting experience I'd like to share. Before he left, Eric registered for a website for missionaries from the England Leeds Mission. It's mostly to help returned missionaries keep in contact with each other, but missionaries can also register before they leave. Anyway, I went on the website this week and discovered a newly-called missionary who reports to the missionary training center on March 20. His name is Sheng Chaio Shen and he's from Taiwan. Now, I found this very interesting, because there are only about 4 Chinese-speaking missionaries in the England Leeds Mission, so it's very likely Elder Shen and Elder Hansen will be companions at some point.

Since he left a contact e-mail, I wrote to Elder Shen and told him about my son serving in the same mission. We have written back and forth a couple of times since then. His English seems ok. He sounds like a very nice and friendly young man, excited and very surprised to be serving a mission in England. He has lived in Taiwan all his life and is the first person in his family to serve a mission. Needless to say, England is not where he was expecting to be called. I think he was as surprised by his call as was Eric. It has been exciting to share information with him.