Happy Birthday ! To Our Missionary

Dear Family & Friends!!

Hello!!!!!!!!! Happy Month of May!

Thank you to all those so much for the birthday emails, cards, and gifts!! It was a great surprise because it didn't feel like my birthday at all! Let's just say I'm old now in my actual age and my mission age. My sweet baby made me pancakes and eggs in the morning. It was a great day not because of my birthday but because it was a regular good missionary day. We worked hard, met a ton of people, and did all we could to help them be converted to Christ. To believe it at the end of the day writing my journal I was happy to write that it was probably the first birthday I've ever had of not thinking about myself! What a blessing that was.

Also Mother's Day is next week! Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's out there! Happy Mother's Day Mom!! Thanks to all the mom's out there and for the many mom's that let there kids go on missions!! 

Well, this week was full of interesting surprises! We were able to hang out with a lot of missionaries in Taipei when we went to a Trainers and Trainee meeting. It was fun to see old friends and cool to see new missionaries. Another surprise was our two great investigators decided to stop meeting with us and preparing themselves for baptism. It was super sad but it's great to know that God is still helping them figure it all out and great to focus on our other investigators that need our attention! We love missions!! Sorry it's a short one this week but I love you all and wish you all a great week!!

Love you, Sister Komatsu

Happy March!

Happy March! Wow, time passes by so fast and slowly at the same time! This week was a week full of emotions, life changing events, and memories to always remember! What a great missionary experience it has been! 

This week the great Brother Xie got baptized!!  Super exciting! He was so nervous and excited all at the same time. So grateful for his determination and his desire to be baptized and come closer unto God! He truly has sought for God and I'm glad to say that he was blessed enough to have found the truth and was humble enough to accept it. Wow, what a huge change. When I arrived here in Zhongli he wasn't sure that God existed but now he knows who his Heavenly Father is and knows of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Sister Clawson and I have been working pretty hard and have been learning a lot of things along the way! This week was full of miracles and little tender mercies every now and then. We met 2 of the cutest girls on the street this past week and set baptismal dates with them. We also met a really cool girl named Sister Lai on the street last tuesday and shared with her the restoration with her on friday! She is super cool and had a ton of questions about the restored gospel. There are so many different religions and even different Christian churches that many are confused why. We shared with them that every church and religion has a bit of truth but it isn't completely true. Sister Lai has this question of why does there have to be one - why can't they all be true. Please pray for her that she may understand and be willing to act on the the message we give her. We also found out that her friend is a member of our church! Stay tuned!

Last week monday we went shopping for some fruits and veggies at an open night market. Scary and cool!

Here is an Easter Video!! Love all this church media that is being created! Please use it to your advantage in sharing the gospel!

www.mormon.org/easter

Love you all!!! Have a great week! Be safe and follow our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Sister Komatsu

Snow in Taiwan !

Dear Family & Friends!

Wow, it was the coldest week that I've been in since last winter in Boston, Mass! This weekend I had to wear gloves, scarfs, tights, and coats! I would have not believed it if someone told me that Taiwan actually got cold. In the summer it's super hot and coming from Taidong which is the hottest place in Taiwan I was in denial that it was getting cold till Saturday night. It was bone chilling cold and plus it was raining which was crazy. My fingers and toes were frozen literally. Then sunday came and it was even colder!!  A member was super sweet and made us these hand knitted scarfs! It was truly a tender mercy :) After sacrament meeting we heard that it was snowing outside! We ran to all look out the window and saw snow in the hills in MuZha!! Crazy right?! They said it hasn't snowed in Taiwan for 40 years!! Sister Everett and I needed to warm ourselves before we went our biking that day! It was a chilling cold and two american missionaries jumping up and down to warm ourselves definitely caught some attention IT WAS SO COLD!! I was freezing! Thank goodness it wasn't raining because that would have been worse!! It was wearing two pairs of tights, a cardigan, a jacket, and a coat, plus a two scarfs, and a member gave me her hat to wear, and my gloves that I surprising found in my stuff!!

This pasted saturday actually it was freezing (like it was bone chiling) and plus it was raining!! That was a bad day!!

Anyways, Thanks for the scarfs that you gave me! It was truly inspired and needed!

 It was a great This week was also an awesome week!

Our new investigator that we've been meeting with has completely decided to stop drinking and smoking to live God's commandments!! 

We also met with our other investigator  who has been waiting and looking for answer from God.

I love the members and people here in Taiwan! What a blessing to be serving alongside such wonderful people!

Sorry don't have pictures of snow but here's one of us in our elevator!

Love you all!!!

Keep warm and safe this chilly season!!

Sincerely, Sister Komatsu 小松姐妹

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