You Just Never Know...

A few personal thoughts, as we head into Year Two...

Let me share a little bit about my wife (The Baroness) and how she met the Church.

Taiwan is predominantly a mix of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism.  Christianity is a minority (not exceeding 10% of the population), and Latter-Day Saints are but a small minority of that.  My wife was working as a social worker, and realized one day (out of the blue) that she wanted to know more about religion and the purpose of life.

Coincidently enough, soon after, she was introduced to her best friend's new boyfriend, who happened to be a Church member.  The thing is...he was a really bad Church member.  Hadn't been to church in years and years, could care less about the Word of Wisdom or chastity issues.  Yet...oddly, if anyone asked him about his religion (like my wife did), he would proudly tell them he was Mormon.

"What do they teach there?" my wife asked.

"Oh, 'good' stuff...'righteous' things, you know..."  None of which, she noted, he was currently following...

It's hard to say why she felt at that time that learning about religion was a Really Important Thing, nor why after taking with this guy she suddenly felt that learning about the LDS Church was a Really Important Thing, but it happened...  Later, she found the missionaries on the street riding their bikes, and chased after them on her motorcycle for ten minutes before catching up and asking them to tell her about their church.  ("Uh...okay!")  The rest, as they say, is history...

I don't really know why things happen...but there's no denying that Things do Happen--all the time. Things that have a tremendous impact on the course of our lives--and yet looking back you're not sure why or how it all happened to come together at that one particular spot in time...

Anyway, to that guy--while not an ideal missionary by any stretch of the imagination--perhaps a word of thanks is appropriate, from The Baroness...and me.