Happy July !

Dear Family & Friends!!

HAPPY JULY!!!!!!

It's a very very hot July here in the City of Taibei!! WOW! I've honestly learned to make the best out of the heat - I think I prefer sweating and biking in Taibei city then freezing and walking through snow storms in Boston! I've learned that water and sunscreen are very important things to have as a missionary in Taiwan. It's been so great to sweat and be active and just be a missionary!!

This week was a wild week! Just helping my comp get to know the area  while she is helping me understand chinese and how to be an effective missionary! Its been great! I've literally had 3 trainers so far since being on the mission - I had one in Boston, one here, and this last week I finished my training with my new comp Sister Oviatt!! Heavenly Father knows me really well. I needed 3 trainers to get it right. 

I'm still in Shuang He - the lovely New Taipei City where people aren't afraid to run you over with their scooters- LOL I love it here and I love how fast pace it is though!

Wei, Chin Chin is our investigator that we've been working hard with to help her come closer unto Christ! She has a coffee problem that she is trying to kick! So, your prayers would be most appreciated! 

We've been doing a lot of member visits at their homes: helping them strengthen their families and working hard to center their homes around Christ!

So many different things are happening here in Taibei that there isn't enough time or space to tell you everything but I can tell you that we are working hard and doing the best we can to find those that are willing to about God's wonderful plan!

In other news I heard about Gay marriage being legalized in America! I still can't believe it. Is it true? Someone email me back! A good member of ours came up to us last week and told us what happened then said in her broken english that, "Christ is coming soon." I couldn't help but laugh at her - she's just too cute! It is interesting though to hear the world around me changing and the different things that are happening - As a missionary we dont hear a lot about what's going on in the world - we focus all our efforts on the work where we are! I know in my heart though that God has His own time and time table. Last week my companion and I taught our english class about Time and we shared this scripture from Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, a time to heal, a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; ...A time to rend, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace... He hath made very thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that now man can find our the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end."

I'm glad for the time that I live in and for the many things that God has given me the chance to experience. I pray for all you that are experiencing times of trials and heartache. I know that God is mindful of us all! Please continue in faith and love!!!

I love and pray for you all!!

PS sorry there are no pictures this week - left my camera at home  SORRY!!

Sincerely yours, Sister Komatsu 小松姐妹

Summer In Taiwan !

Dear Family & Friends,

Summer in Taipei has been ruff but the people in Taiwan have been very very kind which makes the temperate a little cooler!

Another transfer has come and gone and I am still currently serving in the Shuang He Area in New Taipei City! This area is amazing and I'm excited to serve here with a new companion!!

My new companion is Sister Oviatt! We were in the MTC together, which makes it even more fun! She is a sweetheart full of love and patience. She might need some patience if I'm her companion :) She is from Texas and she has been on her mission just a transfer or generation ahead of me! So we are both young missionaries :) In our area we have Shuang He 1 & 2. We serve in the 2nd ward. Our goal in our two wards right now is to help make a Shuang He 3! We are prepping to work hard this transfer to help make this goal happen within the year!! Actual Work is just music to my ears!!!

 So many new changes are happening this transfer! The biggest one is probably getting a new mission president! His name is President Jergensen - he's from Logan, Utah and he is bringing his wife, two twin sons who are 14 years old, one daughter whos 17, and even his father and mother-in-laws! I'm excited for President Jergensen and his willingness to serving along side us as missionaries. The Mission President with serve with his family for the next three years in Taiwan Taipei.

These last few weeks together we ate a lot with members and had a good time! We did all we could to make our last week count! Here is a picture of us with our Bishop's wife, Xie JieMei. They took us to a Thai restaurant. Then we ate lunch at a family members home. Heres a picture of their cute family! & another member made us a big pan of brownies!!! We also found chicken katsu in Taiwan~! It is was delicious!!!

Lastly, we saw our old "A Ma" (like a grandma but older and wiser) She is a old lady that sells "pig's blood" on a stick (everyone here loves it - i dont). She is always at the stop light going to our favorite contacting area. When we first met her we gave her a Christ picture because she said she believed in Christ. This last week we saw her setting up her little cart and saw the picture of Christ in here stuck on inside her cart! I had to take a picture of it. I love and adore her smile when we ride by. She always smiles and says we're pretty, which just makes our day.

Anyways, I love you all! I'm feeling much better and have a good time here in Taiwan. Trying to bless people's lives one day at a time!

Sincerely yours, Sister Komatsu

Happy Belated Father's Day !

Serving in Taiwan
With Sister Akita

Dear Family & Friends

Happy belated Father's Day to all the father's out there!

This week was an exhausting week! Feeling a little under the weather actually. It rained really hard yesterday and we were biking out all day long that I just took and shower and crashed immediately. We had Zone Conference which is a big training day for us as missionaries! It was our Mission President, President Day's, last time of training us. This coming week our new mission president is coming in and taking over! It's going to be so exciting! His name is President Jergensen. Everyone in the mission is a little worried or unsure about what's going to happen in our mission but I'm so excited and really to have a brand new and fresh Mission President. 

This friday is transfer meeting, which is a meeting for all new companionship to get together and move to their new areas they are assigned to. Transfer meeting is this really fun and a scary meeting that everyone loves to go to. The missionaries that are leaving that transfer get to share their testimonies and experiences they have. Then they pull up the big screen and everyone has their pictures on the screen - They show the areas and the companionship's in that area then your photos shows up in that new area with your new companion! It's scary but exciting!

I'm actually afraid to stay in my area because that means that my trainer is moving and I'm going to "take over the area" which just means that I know more than the new comp coming in so I plan everything. But I would be so excited to leave to another area and see Taiwan!!!

Here are photos! There were a lot of successes this week. We talked to a lot of people and visited our members. It was a hard working week! We are ready to blow off some steam and go ice skating today!! YAY!

Okay, love you all!!!

Sincerely, Sister Komatsu 小松姐妹

More...From Kelsie in Taiwan !

Dear Family & Friends!!

This weekend was an amazing weekend! Clare was Baptized and Confirmed!! YAY! We were so happy for her :)

This Saturday, Clare was able to be baptized by our District leader, Elder Casper. It was a special moment for both Sister Akita and I. I never thought it would be true - that I would assist someone in making the biggest decision of their eternal life! This girl has truly been a blessing in my time here in Taiwan. I will never forget what she taught me!

Her testimony is one of the sweetest and self-less testimony's I've have every heard. She is so charitable and loving towards others that she expressed that she is excited to bear another's burdens - to mourn with others and comfort others.

"...to be called His people, and are willing to bear one another's burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ue may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life." Mosiah 18:8-9

Then this Sunday she was blessed and given the Holy Spirit to be with her always. She just had a big smile on her face the whole sunday afternoon! She then said the closing prayer at the end of our Relief Society meeting- I had no idea what she said but I felt every word of it. She was praying with so much confidence and with a burning fire within her. I expressed to her that, thats what I was seeing in her and she replied that was the way she was feeling.

During the baptism I thought about how she was ours and how we helped her from the beginning to end - but then a humble thought came to my mind - she is her own, she did it all on her own. We were just there to give her the building blocks and from there she was able to build her own relationship with God, her own testimony, and her own future. She belongs and has always belonged to our Heavenly Father. This is His work and I'm just the humble servant doing as He directs me to do.

Being a servant of the Lord is much more than going to a different country and meeting new people - it's about having Heavenly Father open your eyes to the greatness and goodness in other's potential. She was already a good person when we met her but now I've been given the opportunity to see the change that Heavenly Father and His gospel has given her. I'm very very thankful to be apart of her story! 

This has been the first gratifying experience I've had while being on my mission! I know that I'm here to also bear another's burdens. This has been my goal for awhile since being here. My Chinese is horrible and I'm not a very good teacher but I am very willing to bear another's burdens and help them work through them. I'm grateful for this opportunity to help other's change their lives and I'm indebted to God for changing my own. 

This is my email this week! Thank you again for your love and support - even if it's just reading my email!

From Taiwan to you!

Sincerely, Sister Komatsu

 

Kelsie in the Rain !

Blue Sky in Taiwan

Hop Pot lunch ...This members kid fooling around ....

So windy in Taiwan is blew our bikes down 

My Book of Mormon Scrap Book

Dear Family & Friends,

Love and miss you all!

This week was a beautiful week! The sky in Taiwan was finally blue. Ever since I got here it has always been dark and cloudy but this week was gorgeous! 

I love it so much here in Taiwan! The people are the sweetest people ever! This little old grandma sees us and tells us that were so cute! I turn around and tell her that she's so pretty. She stops in her tracks and stomps her feet and says "Naa" (which means no in old people language). It was so funny that we just laughed. The people here are such beautiful people - not in appearance per say but in their hearts - they have the sweetest hearts and they are always looking out for you. 

There we're so many tender mercies from the Lord this week! It was such a fun week full of new faces, new streets, new door bells that were rung, and much more.

The most amazing one was having lunch with May and Rosy, who are sisters. A few weeks ago we were "contacting" (which means that we were walking through the park purposefully looking for people to teach the gospel to) That day we talked to so many people but none we're interested. Then I saw this girl working out and stopped to talk to her. She was so friendly and her english was haihao (okay) so we chatted for a while about the weather and even about religion. I ended up giving her a Book of Mormon and a Plan of Salvation pamphlet while she gave me her number and facebook name. I called her the next day and we set up a time to meet and have lunch. On saturday we went to the restaurant and there she was with her sister! It was the greatest lesson we've ever had - not just because we converted them or that they wanted to be baptized immediately but that they were very sincere people. We talked about our religion and they talked about their religion. It was a beautiful setting - they even took us to a Christian restaurant - It was called 5 loaves and 2 fishes (LOL) They we're so cute! The sister kept saying that we were very brave for coming on missions. It made me grateful for the opportunity that I had to serve something as worthy as serving others. It also seemed like she wished she could be us, serving people in an unfamiliar place. We talked a lot and they promised to meet us for dinner at another time. 

This mission has been so worth while. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Rosy had asked us what we learned so far while being on our missions. My companion talked about patience - patience in herself and patience in this work. I found myself talking about change. About how I've learned to keep progressing and changing myself for myself, for others, and for the Lord. I also talked about having a good attitude. People here say "xinku" which means "hard or sucky life". Yes, missionary work is a "xinku life" but I know that through a good attitude it doesn't have to be "xinku". It can bring about the greatest achievements you could ever achieve and it can completely change you're perspective on the "xinku" life that we all experience and turn it into the points in life we're we seen the light at the end of the tunnel.

These pictures are of our beautiful week - I hope it describes what I've just written! I love you all!

This is my email this week! I hope to hear from you all next week!

Sincerely, Sister Komatsu

Rain, Rain, and more Rain !

Dear Family & Friends!

Miss and love you all!

This is a new transfer within my mission which doesn't mean anything at all to me and my companion because we are staying together in the same area! YAY!

I've excited and nervous for this new upcoming transfer. There are going to be at least two baptisms that we're going to have - and hopefully more!

But Clare and Chin Chin are going to get baptized! They are two extraordinary people with wonderful spirits! They are excited to be baptized and learn much more.

I'm excited to be apart of their conversion story!

Chin Chin is a sweet women that just makes my day whenever I see her!

Clare is this amazing young women that has been prepared all her life to be baptized! She told us the other day that she was so glad that we were her missionaries! She couldn't express enough that we we're hers! It just sent a realization through me! We are apart of her story. 

There are many more that we work with. Some other progressing investigators and a lot of less-active families. 

I really wish I would write about them all but I'll save them for later!

This week there was a lot of rain, hot pots, and mosquitoes. 

A lot of rain which is normal (Here's a pic of my comp in the rain by our home.) Hot pots are amazing here in Taiwan. You just turn the pot in front of you on and they give you stuff to put inside. Hot pots are always a treasure hunt because you find soo many different things in there! I don't even know what I'm eating half of the time! It 's great though! Also, Sister Akita and I found our favorite place to eat at. We don't know what it's called but it wonderful because they have Char Su (Cha Xiao) and vegetables! The only down side is, is that there are always ducks hanging from their window and we didn't realize it till we were taking pictures! Also there are a ton of mosquitoes here in Taiwan! A TON! More than Hawaii and they don't just bite you - they attack you. Here is a picture of my legs just for photographic evidence!!

Okay, I have to get going but I love you all!!

Thank you for all the photos and lovely emails!

Hope all is well! I pray for you all!

Sincerely from a little island and a little islander, Sister Komatsu

More From Kelsie !

Tender Mercies of the Lord

Dear Family & Friends,

This week in the South of Taipei my companion and I saw tender mercies of the Lord. The Lord here is working hard to help His missionaries by giving them subtle  mercies that full their souls with joy! It's been a hard few weeks for me and my newly just trained trainer, Sis Akita. We are inexperienced sister missionaries doing the best we can. We've received a few miracles that the Lord has truly prepared for us to teach. 

One of our new investigator!! She is a miracle from God! She just showed up at church last week and bore her testimony that she felt something good when she was in America and attended church with a friend. She has this burning desire to know who has been giving her strength throughout her difficult life. She expressed to us that she wants to know the message we have to share. She has true potential and I can see her being baptized soon. She is a Daughter of God. We are excited to teach her about her divine nature and potential. I expressed to her that many people don't think about who their Creator and God really is. I said that He is great and loves her. She expressed that she loved prayer and has been studying up on the books we've given her. She is truly wonderful and has great potential that will bless her life!

Another brother is a miracle  - one day I was randomly calling people to set up lessons and to practice my Chinese. I called him from our ward list. Turns out that he's less active and that he is a 14 year living with his nonmember parents. We met him and all I could see was a young 14 yr old boy with parents that just didn't understand. He seemed lost and confused - he loves basketball and wants to go to America and play pro ball but his parents wont let him. I could feel his struggle and we left with just a simple plead that he should pray and fast for the Lord's hand in his life. We also, invited him to church that sunday. I left feeling like I could have done more - my Chinese is bad and could not tell him everything I wanted to say so I left with a heavy heart- hoping that something good would have come out of it. Then we closed and left. Discouraged we went to church that next day.I sat down next to a sister and bowed my head to pray while the sacrament was being pasted - The next thing I know my companion shakes me and I looked up to see this young man passing the sacrament! he smiles and waves at us - we both smiled and wave back! He was dressed in his wrinkled white shirt (from afar you could still see the lines where it was folded up) and tie - what a change! He was a young discouraged boy in his home but while passing the sacrament he was a honorable, worthy priesthood holder who was happy to pass the sacrament. To me my heart was truly touched. I bowed my head and prayed for him, that the Lord would help him as he grows in the gospel in faith towards Christ! How simple and small was this experience but it meant the world to him and to us!

Our next miracle is a family ! They are crazy! Their dad is less active and they are a crazy family of 3 kids! I prepared the lesson like crazy the day before. I talked about the home and about temples - They expressed that their goal was to all go to church together and the dad expressed that he doesn't go because it's confusing sometimes and has a problem understanding - We've been visiting them for a while and have been wondering what their problem was. We left feeling better and more hopeful in helping them succeed to become an eternal family!

I love missionary work because all we do is help people and sit to listen to them. I'm still learning the language but they still talk and ask for our help in their personal life and in their family life.

How blessed and grateful I am to be with the amazing people of Taiwan! This is what my work consists of and I love every part of it!

The scripture for the week: Alma 37:6-7 by small and simple things are great things brought to pass!!

Love you!! Thank you for all the birthday wishes and your support!