Happy New Year ! From Taiwan

Dear Family & Friends!

I hope you new year's celebration was great and full of joy! It's definitely time to get back into the groove of things and get down to the do the things that are actually on our "to-do list"! I do hope you've all gained some inspiration and revelation to what you want to accomplish in the year 2016 because it's going to be so good! I'm super excited for this year! It's going to be full of surprises and prayer! I've been able to obtain a vision for the half of this year - the other half I'm not yet to sure about- but I'm excited to still be here in Taiwan serving the Lord and dedicating my all!

This week, there wasn't too much excitement! We had an awesome "qingke" or member dinner some a cute old couple!  Here's a picture of basically the best food in Taiwan! There is orange chicken, veggies, beef, "di gua" or sweet potates, fish cake, "dou fu" or tofu, and egg stuf! Super yummy. Us four missionaries had to eat it all! It was crazy !

This pasted sunday our ward church members took us missionaries to their monthly activity up in another part in MuZha. There we spilt up and "chuan-ed the jiao"- we all went to share the gospel in this little community called ShenKeng. There we went with members and talked

to people on the street - which is basically what we missionaries do! It was so fun and I'm so grateful for these members and their hope and diligence in being disciples of Christ!

Here is a scripture in the Book of Mormon! The one we love to share with everyone. It's in Mosiah 4:9! And here is my added testimony: I know that God lives and that He is a loving Heavenly Father. He desires everyone to trust in Him and wants everyone to partake of His goodness! While you're thinking about your vision for the year and the goals/plans you have also think about God and what He would want you to do this year!! "He has all wisdom" and knows what the end of 2016 will bring so rely on Him and trust in His plan!!

I love you all! And wish you a a brand new start!

Keep going! Love, Sister Komatsu

Sincerely, Sister Komatsu 小松姐妹

Serving in the Taipei Taiwan Mission

For address please email me or my mom at komatsu.ohana@gmail.com

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !

Dear Family & Friends,

Merry Christmas and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

WOW! What a week full of miracles and tender mercies!  

This whole week was so amazing! If first started at our Mission Christmas Party! We all went up to Taipei to met up together at the American Club Hotel to celebrate Christmas together! It was next to the Grand Hotel where there Prophet David O McKay dedicated the island of Taiwan to missionary work. We were able to go there and visit as a mission. What a spiritual and emotional visit we had. So grateful that missionaries are able to be here at this time to share the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! What a spiritual christmas party we had too. 

Then on Christmas Eve Night we has our planning session and we then we had a couple lessons! That night we had a lesson with an investigator named Sister Guo at a Starbucks across the street from the MuZha University. She is the cutest 20 year old ever! She goes to college right now and is having a great time learning about the gospel. She is so sweet and is just full of love! She is always smiling! She says that her life is going great right now and that she is so grateful for all the things God has given her. As we taught her the Spirit was strong and I knew in that moment I wouldn't rather be anywhere else on Christmas Eve. AT the end of our lesson we invited her to baptism and testified of our Savior. She accepted and wants to be baptized!!

It really was a WHITE CHRISTMAS! The lovely Sister Lan was baptized this pasted week!! She is so great and wonderful! She was so happy to be baptized! She said she felt at peace and she really knew that these things are true. What a beautiful daughter of God she is and I'm so happy and blessed to have met her! What a blessing it is. She met with the missionaries and they started teaching her and then a few weeks later she was baptized! God is truly mindful of everyone and desires everyone to be happy!

This Christmas I am deeply grateful for the opportunity I have to teach the restored gospel and testify of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. What a blessing and a true testament of our living Savior!! I hope you all remember Christ this new year and seek to have Him more in your life!! May God be with you until we met again! I love you all and wish you good luck this new year!

Sincerely, Sister Komatsu 小松姐妹

Dear Family & Friends!

CHRISTMAS IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER!! I love the Christmas season and what it has to offer.What an incredible time! Surprisingly they celebrate Christmas in Taiwan more or less. They just like the hanging decorations but don't really do anything fancy. In the church here in Taiwan on the other hand, they are prepping for their Christmas party this coming Saturday! These parties and activities mean everything to them so they are doing a lot!!

This pasted week we were able to throw our english class christmas party! It was so much fun! We had a couple games and activities and then us, missionaries, put on a Nativity performance! It was so much fun and I enjoyed the decorations we put up in our chapel!

This week we also went on a lot of bike rides to different places in our area! It was so much fun! It wasn't when it started to rain though. We were biking up this hill and saw this big christmas tree that was made out of CD's. Then we were stopped by this old man that thought we were lost but in fact we've traveled that way before. He stopped us and wanted to give us fruit. We accepted and walked across the street. It was the sweetest old man ever! We will never forget his kindness and love! After we talked with him and sharing the gospel I was reminded what the true meaning of Christmas was! It was just that and I'm so thrilled that I have this time to share about Christ our Savior!!

Then we went to visit a member at the hospital. It was a Christian hospital decorated with all things christmas! It was so cute and we were glad we were able to sing to her and her kids! It was fun and it felt like christmas even more!

Not to much happened this week but I'm happy to report that the the Lord's work is still moving on and I'm still trying to be an instrument in his hands. I'm grateful this holiday season to be representing Christ. I know that He lives and loves us!! Please remember him and all that He has done!!!

HOPE YOU HAVE A GOOD WEEK!!!

www.mormon.org/christmas/purpose-of-a-savior

Sincerely, Sister Komatsu 小松姐妹

Dear Family & Friends, ONE YEAR !  I've finally hit my year mark! I've been on my mission for a year!

There are no words to describe my mission so far but that it's been the most amazing experience I've been blessed to have. I can't believe it's been a year since I entered into the MTC and started my journey! What a joy it has been to be apart of Heavenly Father's work and to have the opportunity to bless the lives of others. It's insane how much things change, how much time flies, and how many countless times God has worked miracles int the lives of others.

I've been in Taiwan for just about 7 months now and have been able to do many wonderful things and have amazing experiences! I'm excited to see what the Lord has in stored  for me next and I am excited to continue my journey in helping the people of Taiwan find the greatest gift God has given to all of us, which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ!          

         

Nothing too exciting happened this week in the work but we were able to find an inactive member named Joyce! She is so cute and loves missionaries! She speaks english and so does her family. She is from the Philippines and just lives too far from the church - which makes it hard to come every week. We love her and it was a miracle that we even ran into her. We biked for about 1 hour to get to her house not knowing if she'd be home or not. But as we got to her house we stood around for awhile and she came up riding her scooter because she forgot something! It was a miracle and we were able to get her number and she said she wanted us to return a again so we could met her family! What a miracles!

This week we also had a Halloween english party to the chruch! It was fun! We had trunk or treat in our parking lot and played a lot of games! 

Sister Lindsay and I have been having a blast in TaiDong! Here are random pictures of our adventures and here are picture from our last Prep-Day! We went to a famous bridge in Taiwan called the SanChongTai in TaiDong. All us missionaries went and had a blast seeing the view and crossing the bridge to get to an island off the coast!!! As we were walking up and down the humps we realized that it really was the Great Wall/Bridge of Taiwan!! Amazing! 

Family & Friends! I love you all so much! Thank you for being apart of my mission experience and for allowing me to go on a mission to bless the lives of others! It truly has been a blessing and here in Taiwan we have been able to help people be baptized and come unto Christ!!

LOVE YOU ALL! CONTINUE TO DO GOOD AND LOOK TO GOD IN ALL THINGS!!

Sincerely, Sister Komatsu 小松姐妹

My brothers and sisters,

ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHA!

Happy Halloween! Hope you all had a good Halloween! The way we spent Halloween in Taiwan was just me and my companion sitting on our beds and talking about halloween in America and about the haunted houses we've been to..Then someone gave us a ton of snickers! That's basically it. Sister Lindsay and I are really excited for Christmas though!  It's almost christmas! WE just have thanksgiving left! It's crazy!

Family & Friends! This week was a hard week!

Sister Lindsay and I went tracking all week this week! To be honest it was ruff. No one wanted to talk to us and no one had any interest in our kuaile de message! WHY? you ask. We don't know. We did a lot of decision making and praying. But through trials and challenges we learned a lot about faith!

We know that we are imperfect beings doing the impossible but with the faith that we had we were able to accomplish a lot. We were biking along a ride that my companion had thought to go down - I saw someone over a gate cleaning. We stopped and yelled, what we usually yell, "Wuan, you ren zai ma?" A girl popped up over the gate and stood over the gate to talk to us. She was a sweet 22 years old. She said she'd never seen missionaries and hasn't heard much about Jesus Christ. I had this overwhelming feeling to share with her our happy message, the message about the restoration of the gospel! It was awesome and she was willing to hear everything we talked about. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted! 

"And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Song of God." Ether 12:18   

I believe in this statement because it really is true. I have seen these miracles play out in my own life and in the lives of others.

I believe this church to be God's church. I am just a humble servant doing his will! How lucky am I!

I love you and thank you all for your support and love!

PS. Here's some random pictures! Hope you have a amazing week!

Sincerely, Sister Komatsu 小松姐妹

Prayer !!

Dear Family & Friends

Prayer has been the center of my time here on my mission! I truly know without a doubt that God, our loving Heavenly Father, hears our prayers and does all He can to accomplish them. In Taiwan have a special opportunity everyday to teach people how to pray to God. Some people have maybe heard someone else pray, heard of prayer, or either don't know prayer is. Every day when we are out teaching and talking to people we always ask them if they have ever prayed. Most say know. I always say back that it's really easy. We usually say: 1. We address Heavenly Father by saying our Father in Heaven 2. We thank Him and ask Him to bless us 3. We close in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Then we pray with them or ask them if they would be willing to say their first prayer to God. 

I love hearing people pray for the first time!! I just makes my heart melt when I know that they are communication to Heavenly Father. And I know He hears their prayers and I know He is just as happy as I am!

This week I went on exchanges with my Sister Training Leader - Sister Griffin. She is the cutest and she is the tallest girl I've ever met! She is so sweet and together in my area we were able to met with Gao Xin. Her name is literally tall heart. She is one of our new investigators. She has such a big heart and such a big personality! She is only 14 years old! She believes in God and Christ so much - she is so young but so willing to learn more! We had such a great lesson about baptism and what it means to us - we unplanned invited her to baptism and she accepted! After our lesson Sister Griffin and I said a prayer of gratitude toward our loving Father!

Another story was about a less-active members who since I've been here has been having a struggle with believing God loves her anymore. She believed that he didn't love her personally which didn't make her very happy. After long lessons and conversations and advice - nothing came out of it. She was stuck and didn't want to change. It was so heartbreaking every time we met with her. We prayed for her a lot. Then this passed week she said to us that she wants to be more seriously involved. started to pray and read the scriptures again. She said she just woke up one day and decided she was going to be more happy! WOW! What a changed person she is now. 

Lately, our miracle story is Brother Xu. He is our investigator that we've been working with for a while - for about 2 months. He is doing well and be able to learn more about God's gospel and plan for him! The only thing is that he hasn't been to church yet which keeps him from getting baptized next month (11/7). Last week we asked if he could come to church but said he was unsure. Depending if he's boss would let him off so we weren't expecting but we were praying and hoping he would get that opportunity to come. Sunday came and after sacrament we headed to Gospel Principles class. During class our member looks out the window and says to us that Brother Xu was here! We ran out of class to only run right into him! He was shocked that we knew he was here! Our member said that it was God's House and that of course we knew! We grabbed our things and took him to another ward's sacrament meeting where he was able to partake of the sacrament!! We were soo happy! It was the happiest day of our lives!! 

Alma 37:36-37

:Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and withersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea let thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.

Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, yet shall be lifted up at the last day."

All I did this week was pray and ask of God. And He definitely answered. These people have strengthen and taught me a lot. I know that the power of prayer works. I invite you all every night before you sleep to kneel in prayer. I know without a doubt that God hears and does all He can to make them happen. Know that He is an Almighty God and a God of miracles!

Here are some scenic picture I've taken this week! I hope you love them as much as I do! I live in the most beautiful place ever!

LOVE YOU ALL! TAKE CARE!

Sincerely, Sister Komatsu 小松姐妹

Happy October !

Dear Family & Friends!

Happy October!! Wow the year has gone by so fast! Next month is November 

This pasted weekend in Taiwan we were all able to watch General Conference!! What a great conference! It has been my 2nd conference here on my mission and it was such a great time to spend it with other awesome missionaries in Taidong!

My favorite talk was from Russell M. Nelson, who is one of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He talked about women and about how our time is now! Women shall bare testimony of God and help to help build His Kingdom. President Spencer W. Kimball, a previous president of the church, foresaw women who would be women to organize, plan, make important decisions, and do great things to assist in this time of the growth of the church. He talked about this being a very unique dispensation compared from all the other dispensations. I'm proud to be a sister missionary in this day in age! What a blessing and a privilege. I'm grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I hope to do all I can to proclaim God's gospel with power and authority bringing many souls unto Christ! 

Every week I write about miracles that happen but this week was awesome! As we looking for a member who hasn't been to church in a long time we were able to teach a wonderful man named Brother Pan. He is about 50's and he was the security guard that day. We chatted and had a really good conversation about God and who He is. He asked if he prayed for money that it was just fall from the sky. We all laughed but said that it's something that won't make us happy. And God wants us happy in this life. It was great and we're excited to teach him about the God that we know! And that He truly is a loving and merciful Heavenly Father. 

Thank you for your emails and love! Continue to email me! Here are some pictures of the week. First one is a picture of our conference in a classroom at the church. Then a picture that says "I love Tai Dong". Lastly is the Taidong sister missionaries put into a small closet to watch women's conference!!