More about Taiwan

This is the Mission Home directly across the street from the Church Service Center and the Temple.  The Church purchased this building from a company as it was being constructed about the time the Temple construction was to start in 1982.  The existing Mission Home had to be torned down for the Temple to be built. The Mission President was able to move in and watch the construction of the Temple from his home on the 7th floor.  Today the 6th and 7th floors are the Mission Home,  the 5th floor is the Temple President's Home, the 4th floor is the Mission Office,  the 1st through 3rd are Temple patrons housing.

On our day off we took a tour of the Taiwan Presidential Office.  President and Sister Horner were with us; and Preident Horner recalled the day when he was a young missionary in 1963 when Chiang Kai-Shek came out on the balcony of the third floor on the right and spoke to crowds of millions of people who had gathered to hear him. He spoke over large speakers, and President Horner and the other missionaries were about three rows back on the right and could see him and understand what he was saying.  President Horner has a very good memory and started to talk like Chiang Kai shek and give us a little bit of his speech.  Chiang Kai shek was one of the most important political leaders in the twentieth century Chinese history.  He left China because he disagreed with Mao wanting Communism for China.  In 1947 Chiang Kai shek became the first President of Taiwan, and died in 1975.  The President of Taiwan today, Ma Ying-jeou, went to Harvard and his roommate was a member of our church. That roommate, Brother Gifford, had served his mission to Taiwan and later became the Mission President for the Taichung Taiwan Mission; and was able to visit his old roommate, the President of Taiwan.