OUR STORY
I fell in love with Taiwan first. I took one semester of Chinese in my senior year in high school, and got out because I hated the language, thought it sounded funny, and I wanted my free period so I could go home early.
I never wanted to speak Chinese again.
10 months later....
"Elder Carter, you have been called to serve in the Taiwan, Taizhong mission. You are expected to serve for a period of 24 months. You will prepare to preach the Gospel in the Mandarin Chinese language.
...
Oh well. Might as well turn my entire life around.
Anyway, I got to Taiwan. I immediately fell in love with the place. It smelled amazing (besides the pollution), the people were some of the nicest people I had ever met (its this mission that proved to me that Americans are scary), and I was with missionaries, ready to go out and experience the backroads and alleyways of cities, peoples' lives (if they let us), and the rugged outdoors itself on a beautiful sub-tropical island. In other words, I have a huge heart for Taiwan and a home there. This was the foundation for my immediate connection with Peifen.
She fell in love with the church first.
She'd been a good, closet-Mormon girl her whole life, and once she really got to know the church, she fell in love with it. She travelled to the States as an exchange student in Florida once, and met a super nice lady who treated her like a daughter. This wonderful woman introduced Peifen (Phina) to Jesus Christ and Christianity in general. I am ever so grateful.
Upon her return to Taiwan, she started going to the Catholic church she had been going to in Florida. Her little brother had been meeting with missionaries, and joined the church. He asked her to go to the LDS church with him. She agreed to go every other week, if he went with her to her church. She had no special feelings at her brother's church (the LDS church), and no inclination to get baptized. She rejected 4 sets of missionaries and every Book of Mormon ever offered her. Until she went to English class.
Jessica Lew was serving in Peifen's area (Fengshan, in Gaoxiong) and was teaching English. Peifen graduated college with a degree in English, so she had a lot of interest in the language. She was excited to go listen to Americans speak English, even if it was church people and missionaries. Jessica offered Peifen a Book of Mormon, and she took it. Didn't read it.
After a while, she would pick it up, read it, and her brother finally convinced her to meet with the missionaries. As she went through the lessons, she was touched. She didn't feel a lot, but knew this was a good thing. She really believed in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, so her testimony of this helped her understand the Book of Mormon, and our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's wishes for us. She read into Mormon and read that "ye should be baptized in my name". She was baptized soon after. She is now three years a convert.
All that time in Taiwan? Her whole conversion? Well, my trainer, Elder Ryan Krantz, moved out of my area to be a Zone Leader in Gaoxiong. He found Peifen's little brother and helped him get baptized. Over the next year or so, while I was in the north part of the mission, Peifen was rejecting missionaries. By the time I moved down to Tainan, Peifen was on her way to baptism. Right before I moved into my last area (Gangshan, a 10 min subway ride from Peifen's home), she was baptized and was thoroughly enjoying everything about the church.
Her love for English, and her love for the Church brought her to BYU.
My love for Chinese, and my being stuck in Utah, and my love for Taiwan brought me to the....
Tutor Lab.
I was in the Chinese Flagship Program, and Peifen was a Chinese Flagship tutor. We were randomly assigned, because I was lazy and didn't tell my teacher what my specific major and interests were. I ended up with my eternal companion. Huh.
We met on February 6, 2013. We started exclusively dating on March 3, 2013. Our first kiss was March 8, 2013. I met her parents on August 18, 2013. I proposed for the second time on August 29, 2013. I proposed for the last time with the real ring on March 21, 2014. The first proposal was me stealing a piece of string, copying Edmond Dantes from Count of Monte Cristo's fiancee Mercedes, and tying it around Peifen's finger for her to wear while she was in Taiwan before I joined her in August. We then bought $3 rings at the night market, so that I had a ring while I was in China.
Crazy, right? When I watched her walk out of the High Speed Rail Station the day I left Taiwan for China, I knew she was the one I wanted to marry. I knew we were right for each other, and I knew it would work.
We get married for Time and All Eternity, entering into the New and Everlasting Covenant, Sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise, in the Draper, Utah temple on May the Tenth, 2014. At 10AM.
See ya there!
