Testimonies Over Breakfast
By Brandon Boey

Editor’s Note:  This is the conversion story of the now five-member Tsai Family. The story is written by Sister Tsai of the Taidong Branch in the Hualian District, of which her husband —President Tsai — is the Branch President. President Tsai was previously a bishop for four years in Taipei. Their eldest daughter currently attends university at BYU Hawaii and is planning on serving a mission in the near future. If you have any missionary experiences you would like to share with Meridian readers, please send them to Brandon Boey at missionary@meridianmagazine.com. 

In 1984, we lived in Taitung. Brother Tsai and I had been married for two years and recently had our first baby girl. We ran a restaurant named “I Love My Home.” In our little shop, we sold sandwiches, hamburgers, shaved ice with fruit, and beverages such as coffee and black tea. Our business ran successfully. Our life was overwhelmingly busy. Winter came, and the fierce north wind blew. Fewer customers came by our shop.

One night, two young Americans dropped by our restaurant. It was unusual to see foreigners in Taitung, and this was certainly the first time we had any come by the shop. My husband and I welcomed them with a big smile, asking them what they would like to order. They ordered French toast and nothing to drink. We began a casual conversation and quickly realized they were missionaries and that they lived across the street from our shop. They had come specifically for this purpose, having saved every dollar they could in order to come to Taiwan.

As the missionaries ate, they discussed religion with us. They asked us questions like, “Do you believe in God?”, “Do you know where we came from before we were born?”, “Why are you here on earth?” and “What happens after we die?” We were used to being polite to our customers. We didn’t know how to reject these people. As they left, they paid the bill and gave us a copy of The Book of Mormon.

We immediately became friends with these foreign missionaries.  Their names were Elder Novak and Elder Banry. They would come to our restaurant almost every other day to order French toast and to talk about religion. After one month of meeting with the missionaries, Elder Novak’s two-year service in Taiwan came to an end. His mission was complete and it was time for him to return home to the United States. Before he left, we invited him for dinner and listened to another missionary lesson. Elder Novak shared with us his testimony of the gospel. He expressed how he hoped we would continue to meet with the missionaries, pray and search for our own personal testimonies. From this we could decide to be baptized and become members of God’s church, he said.

From that time, although missionaries switched one by one, passing through the area according to their mission calls, all the missionaries in the area became part of our “I Love My Home” restaurant. There were four elders and two sister missionaries in Taitung at that time. We would give them a discount. When we were too busy to handle the crowded customers, they would drop by to help us serve and bus dishes. Sometimes they even washed them too. When we were not too busy, we received formal gospel lessons from them, studied the scriptures together and discussed the Church. Sometimes we also chatted about the missionaries’ families and our own families in Taiwan. We became very close friends. As they left on their bikes in the morning to do missionary work we would always wish good morning to one another. When we were together they would share with us how their tracting or contacting had been going. If the missionaries had any illnesses such as toothaches, earaches or if they’d need a plumber to fix leaking pipes or a help fixing broken doors handles they would ask Brother Tsai, my husband, for help.  As the missionaries were on a tight budget and didn’t have much by way of funds, we’d invite them over for a nutritious dinner every other week. The precious friendship between us and the various missionaries relieved us of the weariness from the hard restaurant work. They seemed to bring color into our lives.

We soon finished all the missionary lessons. Brother Tsai read the entire Book of Mormon in less than one month. To my big surprise, Brother Tsai, who’d been a smoker for nine years, finally quit after being with the missionaries for two months.  I just couldn’t believe he overcame his smoking habit so quickly.  I felt so touched from his change. I knew that this must be God’s power and love.

The goal for baptism became the most important topic between us and the missionaries. Despite their constant moving on to other areas, all of them new and old alike continuously encouraged us to achieve the goal. We would also need to accept certain principles, including proper observance of the Sabbath day and the avoidance of particular unhealthy substances. At this crucial point in time, we began to really struggle with these lifestyle changes. Sunday was the best day for business. Coffee and black tea were our customers’ favorite drinks at our shop. We had loans from the bank to finance both our home and the shop. Money was very short.  How were we supposed to pay tithing? We seemed to face many obstacles. Our parents were solidly against us joining the Church. Although we still kept the good relationship with the missionaries, we found ourselves becoming much more hesitant to progress toward baptism.

In the summer of 1985, a Japanese missionary named Elder Di was transferred to Taitung. He was the only son in his family. Elder Di’s father had passed away and his mother was retired. In order to go on his mission, he persuaded his non-member mother to allow him to quit school. We were moved by his faith toward God. Because we were all Oriental, we understood each other much better both in thought and in communication. The baptism goal once again was echoing in our hearts. We tried to go to church on the Sabbath day, and prayed as often as we could.  We prepared ourselves to obey all the commandments from God, including the paying of tithing. 

During those days, Elder Di wrote us a letter every single day. Sometimes he sent us homemade cards.  Each time he would write down one verse from the scriptures.  Sometimes it would be hand-delivered, and other times we’d find it in our mailbox. From his love and patience, our spirits were strengthened and nourished. We felt we were in God’s good grace. We were His sheep, and so many missionaries helped bring us back to His sheepfold. Once again we set another goal for baptism. At once, we received bitter chastisement from our families. We worried that the reason we were getting baptized wasn’t actually because of the Church but because of our relationship with the missionaries. 

We didn’t set another goal for baptism and never discussed it again. We vividly remember when Elder Di was released from his mission to go back to Japan. We would never forget the tear-filled scene as he left. We never really understood what he felt at that moment.  We only knew that he loved God and us, and desired that we receive baptism. It wasn’t until after our baptism much later and witnessing our own growth that we realized the love he felt toward us at the time.

Time passed, and our life changed still. In 1986 we reconstructed our shop. As a result, we seldom got the chance to see the missionaries. From that time on, business became worse, and at the end of the year we were forced to sell the shop. We moved far away, to Taipei — the big city. In Taipei, we didn’t know anyone. From a newspaper, we found a shop located on Li-Shuei Street, and we started to sell breakfast. 

We had to work much harder than before. Brother Tsai and I would get up at 3 o’clock in the morning to manually grind soybeans to make soybean milk. We were also compelled to learn how to make various kinds of traditional Chinese breakfasts to expand our menu to fit customers’ tastes. Why did life become this way? We did not understand. But it was our choice, there was no one else to blame.

One day, Brother Tsai came home very excited. He said he had discovered a beautiful chapel in our neighborhood. “It looks like the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,” he said. He was right. Next to it stood the Taipei Temple. We saw the missionaries walking out the entrance. What a familiar scene!  My husband and I stood there with mingled feelings. We recalled all the missionaries we had met over the years and stood before this church as outsiders looking in. Right then the impression was strong. Feeling suddenly lost out of the sheepfold, we realized we had forsaken the greatest blessing from God.

In the spring of 1987, our breakfast shop started to go under.  My husband and I both had to seek outside employment in our fields of specialty. We started to work from 9 am to 5 p.m., just like everyone else. We rented a small 30-square meter house on Wie-Chou Street. It was originally a balcony on the top floor of an apartment house. The landlord had it converted as an apartment. It was very cold in the winter and hot in the summer. My husband, daughter and I lived there, unnoticed by anyone. Only our parents knew that we lived there. 

Because of our unsteady economic situation, we didn’t keep in contact with any old friends since moving to Taipei. Luckily, Brother Tsai and I both found jobs, although the pay wasn’t very much. Those were the circumstances of our life at the time.

One day in June after returning home from a hard day of work, we received a surprise. Someone had left flowers and a note on our door. The note was from two LDS sister missionaries.  A returned missionary had written a letter to Sister Mei-Lin Chang with our address attached, and asked her to visit us.  That missionary was none other than Elder Novak, who was the first missionary to visit our restaurant and who gave us a copy of the Book of Mormon four years before. We didn’t know what to say. How in the world did he find our address? We couldn’t believe that he still remembered us. Only a month after he met us, he went home. Now, four years later he had a wife and children of his own. 

After suffering so many trials, Elder Novak, our first missionary friend, had knocked on our door again through other missionaries’ hands. God was giving us another chance to know his church.  All of this moved us deeply. We felt so touched. That night, we knelt down to pray to our Heavenly Father. We were grateful for his precious love towards our family, and especially for the many opportunities he had given us to know Him. We also thanked God for the comfort we now felt amidst all the suffering of mortal life. He had called us yet one more time. He blessed our spirits with his love.

On September 12^th, 1987, we were baptized at the Second Ward of the West Taipei stake. The lost sheep after many years of wandering had finally come back into the Lord’s fold. The feeling of the Holy Spirit was very powerful at our baptismal meeting. Tears rolled down our cheeks as we bore our testimonies to the congregation in attendance, many of whom too were moved by the Holy Ghost — particularly the sister missionaries who sang a duet hymn.

On November 12^th, 1988, our family was sealed in the Taipei temple for time and all eternity. In the years following, blessings have been realized in many ways: employment, family, children — everything in our lives. They were all direct blessings from a loving, caring Heavenly Father. We are grateful for God’s love, for the dedication and sacrifice of the missionaries and especially for the good examples of church members. These have all helped our family learn that true progress in the eternal sense is found in God’s church.

Thank you so much to Elder Novak, Elder Di, Sister Chang and every other missionary that played a part over the years. Your charity, patience and good examples have eternally influenced and guided us to come unto Christ. We leave our humble testimony and gratitude in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.