Sister Allison Mae-Ling Ko

Monday, October 11, 2010

Sister Lin

sn't she gorgeous! She really is beautiful and such a fantastic missionary and companion, i love her!
And, it's hilarious that she is so dark, taiwanese love whiteness and do everything to keep from getting tan, but she gets dark so easily :)

9/12/10 Email

The baptism was a little hectic. Last minute the dad (yes, there is a husband, and he actually used to be the elder's investigator but he wasn't willing to keep commitments) really didn't want them to come to church and get baptized and so it took a while and we got started a little late, but it was a really sweet, quick but great baptism. It ended up that only the son was baptized on sat, but we are still working with his mom. But, I loved how the son said that when he received the gift of the Holy Ghost he felt really comfortable and really felt special. I love that. And yes, he really will be such a great support for his mom and a great example for his family. It's hard because he is only 9 and has such a great responsibility but is working so hard to do the right things.
And, this week we have a young women who will be baptized, and maybe two if we can get parent's permission for another of our investigators. It's funny how you always seem to have spurts of the same type of investigator. When I first came to Taiwan there were a lot of single mothers or mothers with dad's who didn't help out much, then we have a whole bunch of single young women(20's), then here in nantou we have lately had a whole bunch of young women-age girls (13, 15). But sadly two of them still don't have parent permission. It's interesting, they both have divorced parents and live with their fathers, their fathers are fine with them coming to church and activities but won't let them get baptized. But especially one of them has started developing such a desire to be baptized and follow commandments. She even has been setting such an example for one of our new members that I fear is not being as obedient as she was first baptized. They have started a really cute friendship and I think they will really help each other out a lot.
We are going to be singing in sacrament meeting as well. We are really trying to improve the situation of the ward here. The church is perfect, we as members of the church are not, but we can do our best. We can have love for one another and can help one another. It's just so sad to see sometimes and I'm still not sure what else we can do, but we are going to start by singing in sacrament meeting and having a little share.

9/5/10 Email

Sister Ke and her children were able to come to church again yesterday so she and her son can be baptized on Saturday. Have I told you much about them? They really are an amazing family that really really needs the gospel. She is a very young mother with 4 children but it has been a really awesome experience to see them changing. She does love children a lot but she just has so many that she doesn't know how to take care of them. But she wants to change and wants to be better. She loves relief society and learning there. Sometimes you come across people that don't seem like they would accept the gospel but today I was reading in Alma 6:5 and just love how he says that the gospel was taught to everyone. No respector of persons or situation. Every single person can be benefited from the gospel. The gospel is for everyone. Everyone has the opportunity to use the same Atonement and everyone has the opportunity to change. Jesus Christ is the Savior of every single person that has and will live on this earth, and it is only through His Atonement that we can be saved. No matter how many bad things or good things you have done, everyone needs the same Atonement, the same Savior.

We have also been teaching zhou yu ting and she is more golden than I ever thought possible. Every lesson with her is filled with the spirit and she loves to read, loves to pray and loves church. She came to stake conference last week with us and loved every minute of it. Then she was so excited to come this week. The members already love her and she won't be here this next week because she is leaving for school but she will come back on weekends and be baptized in this ward. But, she will keep going to institute and church down at school. But, what I really love about her is that she finds strength from the scriptures, I love following up with her on the phone--she gets excited to share what she has learned and how it helps her. Especially with faith and keeping commandments. When we shared the last couple commandments she was a little nervous because she thought they were asking a lot of her but the next day she shared 1nephi 3:7 (she just set a goal of reading from the beginning, and perfectly came across this perfect verse :) ) with me over the phone and talked about how she knew she would be able to keep the commandments because Heavenly Father will prepare a way for us to do so. And, she this week wore a shirt over her dress because she had learned about modesty. She is just fabulous, and she loves family. Every time we meet with her I imagine her as the cutest, sweetest mother ever and can imagine her being very very happy with the support of the gospel. She loves the gospel, and already knows how to apply what she is learning to her life.... Just golden.
dearest family, I love you and hope you are all doing well and school will go well this week--school does start this week, right? :) Good luck, add oil, jiayou
love!
sister ko

8/30/10 Email

It is so weird that september is already here and football season (by the way, love that tara, honorary bruinette.... :) ) and school is starting up--how is school preparation going? I can't believe how fast everything is going by. This move-call we are having general conference. I honestly couldn't believe it. I'm pretty sure we just had general conference last month.... But wow, I love general conference and the opportunity to let our investigators and new members hear from the prophet. We talk about him but conference is their opportunity to see him speak and, ok it is a translation, but they get to hear the prophet of God giving revelation to the whole world. President Monson is an amazing man and a prophet of God's church. Have you seen "On the Lord's Errand"? I've seen it a couple times and it is really powerful, you can see that president monson really has spent his whole life in serving the Lord and in helping others.
Yeah! I'm glad the ward is getting my letters. I made a goal to write everyone back on my mission so it might take a couple months but I promise that I will respond :) And, my companion, since she is taiwanese she already can buy all of the same things when she returns home and can visit these places easily so she loves being inside on preparation day which has given me a great opportunity to catch up on writing. But, she said next week we can go out and do something special so I found this 'vacation' book in our apartment and I'll pick somewhere fun to go..... :) But, wow, being with sister lin has been so fabulous. We have also realized, this week especially, that we have a lot to do here, but I am very excited to be with her and serve with her. She is super obedient and really understands what she is doing here, I've never been with a companion who uses her time so wisely. I really hope a lot of her rubs off onto me this move-call.
On friday the whole southern island held a youth conference and a lot of the missionaries got to go. It was amazing--we were just here for one activity, but the youth of two stakes put on a little show. And of course they sang that 'be strong' song--have you been singing that in young women's? :) It was so great, and the Nantun ward was there too and I got to see members from my old area which was so wonderful, they are so strong and such great member missionaries. Sister Crane recently told me about how one invited her roommates to church and 2 are getting baptized this coming month. And, then after the show there were some missionary shares and then we got to get into groups with them and share about missionary work. Then...they got to do their own missionary work! Everyone was given a book of mormon and wrote their testimony in it. Then they are going to give it to a friend and invite that friend to church. Have you had any missionary days or activities in young women's lately? That is a fun one to do, and of course you can watch the living waters dvd too, i love it :)
Stake conference was this sunday and there were some great talks. One was President Perkins, I think he's the Asian area president of some sorts. He shared some great stories about his own father and a family he met while he was mission president in taibei. It was really wonderful and really powerful and we have one investigator that loved it. She loved church and is so excited to come back next week. She is the cutest thing ever, 18 years old, and she has so much desire to learn more and learn how to prepare to have a strong and loving family. She learned how to pray this week and loves it, really feels that someone is listening to her prayer and wants to have family prayer when she starts her own family! We have not even taught her about that, she came up with that activity on her own. This girl is amazing and i'm so excited to keep teaching her :)
Ok, love you all so much!
-Sister Ko

8/22/10 Letter

Dearest family,
I love my companion so much! I've only been with her a week but it has been amazing and I just love working with her. She is an amazing missionary and really gets things done, gets appointments set up, really helps people realize the importance of the gospel and make commitments, and sees things that need to be done and knows how to do them. I am so excited to what will happen to this area with her here. There are things that I've wanted to do here, but wasn't sure how to go about doing it but she has the means and the drive. We are so busy every day and time goes by so quickly. She has great english, but sometimes it is still hard to understand her english, but I'm sure it's also really hard to understand my chinese:) But i love it when we speak in chinese to each other. Every once in a while she likes to use english or will tell me a story in english, but most of the time we speak in Chinese, which i absolutely love. She is so patient with me! But, i love that despite our language differences we both are still about to plan for our investigators, work together, and laugh together. We laugh a lot and it has just been a really fantastic time with my dear companion this past week.
One thing that is funny is that she has had a few american companions so her accent is pretty much an american accent. So, it's funny when we contact together and people say, wow, you guys have great chinese! But, yours is better (pointing to my companion, chinese people are very blunt and will tell you things the way they are), to which she will reply: yes, I'm tawainese. But, I love trying new foods with her too, there are things that regular missionaries still can't read because we focus on reading scriptures, and, well,....we just don't learn food words--- but are little food treasures that my companion knows about, so it's been great to try new things.
Yes, I have been noticing that too, how important our role in the ward is in this area. But I am really lucky and my companion understands it very well and after church yesterday she said we need to start visiting all the members and serving them. I love having a tawainese companion who understands what the members here need.
I've gone on exchanges where two companionships are in the same apartment, but i think that the sister's areas are usually really large so we don't usually have more than one companionship in each apartment, but maybe in the city.... I have always just been with my companion. So we have a lot of room :)
I have noticed more and more the importance of learning in the church and the importance of parenthood. We have a new investigator who is a mom with 4 kids under 10years old. It has been a really interesting experience to go to their house and see how different things are for them. They just really need the gospel in their lives and need to learn how to take care of their family. They are growing so much though and the oldest boy, 9 years old is the best older brother I have ever seen. He is so good and works so hard to take care of his younger syblings. Also from other investigators' family situation, I am just so thankful that you guys love me. That you care about what I do, you care what goes on in my life. There are a lot of things that I have taken for granted in my life that I didn't realize were blessings before my mission. I love you all, thank you.
-Sister allison ko

8/18/10 Letter

Haha, with it being so hot here I guess I'm almost used to it, I mean, you take a shower but immediately start sweating again so I think I'm getting used to it....I take a little handkerchief/towel with me in my proselyting bag so that helps. And make sure to bring a lot of water each day :) But! One of the members said that it would gradually start getting cooler in a little while! :)
So, Sister Pease is off and heading to Utah so I have a new companion! She is a Taiwanese! So this is my first Taiwanese companion! I'm a little nervous, not going to lie, but I'm really excited about the blessings and miracles she will bring to this area. And, she will help me a lot on understanding more of the culture and of course help me with my language a lot. She is one of the most beautiful people I've ever met, not kidding. I can't believe I don't have a picture for you--but I will make sure next week we have pictures. Lin yin zi, Sister Lin, is my companion. From Taibei, and has one little sister who is just about to start college, from what she was saying I think she and her mom were baptized when she was 8 and her dad was baptized, either 10 years after or 10 years ago. One thing I am also nervous about is that she came from a really busy, really prosperous area that was kind of like Nantun and Nantou is just such a country area, it's different.
But!! Sat we had a baptism! Ren zhi and gui mei got baptized! There was a youth missionary activity after which was their baptism! It was a beautiful service and we even had some investigators come and were able to enjoy and really feel the spirit. I am so excited to see them be baptized, ren zhi has completely given up smoking, but she found new work that originally told her she wouldn't have to work on Sundays so we are working with her to help find a way to work something out with her boss. They are both so fantastic, and after we watched Finding Faith in Christ with them, our investigators, and some members, it was amazing to hear our new member's testimonies and even our investigator is starting to get to know Christ and start to feel of His sacrifice and the significance of the Atonement and mostly of Jesus Christ's love for all of us. It was amazing.
Ok, I love you all and will write next week and send you pictures with me and my new companion. Thank you for your love and letters!
-sister ko

Sunday, October 10, 2010

More Pictures

Here is our zone, me and my beautiful companion, and our district at the temple. Elder Duncan, Elder Zhou and Sister Pease are now on their way home :( They are fantastic missionaries and will be dearly missed