Dear Family and Friends,

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Miss you all!! I've been great here at the MTC!

It's wonderful snowy day today! This week the Provo Temple is closed because of the holidays but all us, missionaries get to clean the Temple for 3 hours! It's going to be so much fun!

This week was jammed packed full of different things.

• 600 New Missionaries came in on Wednesday'
• Teaching a new investigator
• New Roommates
• Language assessment!! :(
• Skype with people in Taiwan!

At the Beginning of the week I was going to the doctors a lot and walked a lot to the BYU Health Center to get some legal drugs. We've been there a lot lately because my companion & I are having a hard time to adjusting to the Utah's "not so clean air". My companion is also from Australia so it's been hard on the both of us.

Then on Wednesday my district & I got to Host again. 600 new Missionaries entered into the MTC right before Christmas! It was crazy and such a rush! The first Sister I hosted was from Arizona and she is going to Hawaii on her mission! She was so excited and ready to start working hard! I love hosting new missionaries. I remember my first day at the MTC and it was so overwhelming! So I always try to make a good impression! It's so sad to stand on the curb and take missionaries away from their families! Us, sisters, usually have to turn away when families start to cry. It's a touching moment when you see parents that don't want their kids to go but are willing because it's not about them. There are so many missionaries here away from home this Christmas. You can tell it's a hard time for everyone around you. But we all know that being on a mission is the greatest thing we'll ever do. I've heard so many missionaries, like myself, talk about how this Gospel has made their families into happy and blessed families. We're going around the world, away from our own families to bring that happiness to families in need of it's joyful message.

This message is that Families can be forever. Last night some sisters & I were talking about how we lost some people and didn't get a chance to talk to them about their lives. A sister mentioned that her Grandma just barely past away. I told them a little bit about my Grandpa and how He recently died too. And that I'm so grateful that I have the knowledge that I will be able to live with him again. Through this gospel I am blessed to firmly know that there is a life of happiness after this one! This is God's plan of happiness! This is a lesson I love to teach to investigators!

This week we lost one of our first teachers! Luo Laoshi. She's is the sweetest! I swear I've met her before! I told her that I met her on her mission at Temple Square. It was my first time going to General Conference I remembered her being in the Visitors Center. I remembered because of her loving smile ! I love and miss her! She left because she just graduated from BYU and is moving away. We were all so sad! She has such a wonderful Spirit! She will be deeply missed! We received another teacher this week that replaced her. Also because of new missionaries in our zone we lost some teachers to them too. We have a lot of teachers teaching us. They spend so much time on us, missionaries. I can't even imagine that they have real lives outside the MTC because they dedicate everything to us missionaries. They work with us one on one with our Chinese or with us spiritually. I'm so grateful for people like them. These teachers are usually return missionaries that learned that language on their mission too so they have a lot of good advice and experience. I am grateful for these teachers. I encourage you older people to share your past experiences with young people. You don't know the influence you have on us!

This week we also have a new investigator!  She is less-active member, which makes it kind of hard to teach her. She knows everything about the Gospel but just doesn't agree with it. She also knows it's true but doesn't see how it has to do with her life now. She fell away because she never had friends at church and she realized that all of them we're kind of "fake". They weren't really true members in her mind. She likes to party with her friends. She opened up to us about how she doesn't think God loves her anymore. My companions & I were heartbroken when she said that. She doesn't think He cares about her at all because her life isn't in line with what He wants. This was hard for me because she speaks so fast that I can't completely understand her and can't respond fast enough in Chinese. It was a touching lesson as my companion bore to her that God did love her and will love her no matter what she did. She cried and I hope she felt a little spark of love from our Father in Heaven. As long as she knew that we will be able to help build her faith in Him. 

I live with 5 other girls! It's crazy at 6:30am in the morning! We are a tri-companionship and so are they. They are Japanese speaking though! It's hard but it's good to have other people in the room. I'm okay with it because I've dormed with 5 other girls before at BYUI but I think it's a little hard for my companions to adjust. They are really great girls which makes it easier! They have to leave @ 6:30 in the morning and we don't leave till 7 so they're up @ 6 getting ready while we're trying to sleep for another half hour. It's crazy but that's missionary life here at the MTC!

So Chinese is still hard and now that I'm learning more I'm realizing that this language isn't going to get easier any sooner. We had our first language assessment, which is a "test" basically that tests you on your language skills while teaching. It's on a computer and your graded. It's harsh and pretty stressful. As the weeks count down I'm afraid that I won't even get the simple things. I believe I have three more weeks left here. I'm really really really afraid I'll get shipped straight to Taiwan. I do hope I get to stay in the States for a while and practice my teaching skills and then hopefully be really for Taiwan. It's scary! I have faith in my Heavenly Father that He will help me learn and speak enough to be a good missionary. This scripture has helped me this week with my language studies. It's from 1 Cor. 12:31 "But covet earnestly the best gifts; and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way." I will do all I can to study this language and get it right in my own way but I know God will then help me see a better way that will help specifically the people in Taipei.

Lastly, tonight my companions & I teach a member in Taiwan, Taipei over Skype! We're so excited and nervous! It's going to be great! We're teaching about Faith in Jesus Christ. This will help us be better prepared for Taiwan and get use to talking with people actually from Taiwan. I know this is Jesus Christ's church because no church in the world would work this hard to bring the fullness of the gospel to the world. 

There is a promise in the scriptures that says in D&C 133:37 "And this gospel shall be preached unto every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." 

D&C 90:11 " For it shall come to pass in that day, that every man shall hear the fullness of the gospel in his own tongue, and in his own language, through those who are ordained unto this power, by the administration of the Comforter, shed forth upon them for the revelation of Jesus Christ."

I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This is Jesus Christ's gospel at it's fullest. This is the true church. 

To the non-members: Please learn more about our Church and this Gospel. It has so much to offer to your families. I promise that if you do this you will be filled with something that has been missing in your life and your burdens will be lightened. 

To the members of the Church: Do not take this Gospel for granted. It can build you up or break you down. You know this Church to be true. Do not live beneath your privileges that Heavenly Father has so willingly given you. Be steadfastly converted unto the Lord that when people are shaken and the world is uneasy take heart and know in Whom you have trusted. David A. Bendar in 'The Character of Christ' told this story that his Mission President ask him "If a Apostle of the Church left the Church for some reason if he would care?" Bendar said that he would be heartbroken. Then his President said that it wouldn't bother him the least. And then said that yes he would be sad and disappointed but it's not the apostle he was converted to but to the Savior. Yes, are imperfect people but Christ is so perfect. His gospel is so perfect. 

I love and miss you!! Please have a safe and joyful Christmas!!

(Here are some pictures! By the way I cut my hair! I've never had hair it this short!!)

Love you eternally,

Sister Komatsu