12/5/10 Email

Dearest family,

I can't believe it's already December. I am so excited for the next couple weeks. We have some exciting baptisms scheduled and exciting events coming up. But thank you for sharing about your visit to Israel, yes, I would love to go visit someday and see those things, but I love how you mentioned that you felt the spirit strongest during church. That is so true! You don't have to go far away to remember Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. We can hold church anywhere and can meet together and worship Him and work to become more like Him. Everyone has the same opportunities to feel the spirit at church. I love church, and I love being there with the members and feeling their love. It's a different type of feeling at church and it's something that I took advantage of a lot before, it really is the time to spiritually recharge and feel of the spirit, and to do so around members and families. I love letting our investigators come and see the families and the people at church. Let's them see what the church really does for people and how it can help families. I did a horrible job at getting people to church this week, but I am repenting our leaders also had some great suggestions that we will try this week.

Do you remember that Guo xiu rong I told you about last week? We had some really emotional lessons with her this week. At the begining of the week she said she couldn't meet with us at all because she was too busy, but we got to sit with her on wednesday and then set up baptismal interviews during the rest of the week. She easily passed and just needs to tell her husband she wants to get baptized. Since she is over 20 she doesn't need permission but she needs to let him know. They have a really sad relationship. He is a bum, I don't know how else to put it, but she is the most beautiful, hard-working mom I've ever seen and her husband stays at home all day and drinks and chews binglan. When she lets him know she can get baptized. He is still in Taibei at the moment so she hasn't asked told him about her decision to be baptized, but the best part is that she now has realized her desire to be baptized. 2 weeks ago she said she didn't need to be baptized because she could keep coming to church and reading the scriptures and that would be good enough. This week when we called her and found out she hadn't told her husband yet, she said, don't worry, this is my heart's desire to get baptized, it will happen. She is great.

We also have a 20 year-old, jing yi, who is progressing so well, reads, prays, and has a lot of friends at church. Asks really good quesitons and is really curious about everything. Came to the baptism on Sat. Is learning a lot and progressing really well. Sometimes I worry that she is excited about us being her friend and is not as interested in the gospel. Sometimes it's hard to tell, but we are making sure that she is making good friends with the members and she loves to pray everyday and read so she should be ok. She knows our job is to help her prepare for baptism.

And, another, we are working with is a mom of 2 who loves reading the Book of Mormon and loves learning. We gave her a couple sections to read when we first met with her but last week on wednesday told her to start from the beginning. By friday she was almost into 2 Nephi :) But, we shared word of wisdom and because she works at a binglan shop, smokes, and drinks tea, coffee, and alcohol we think she doesn't feel worthy to come to church. She was confirmed for church and then when we called her yesterday morning she said she had plans and wouldn't set up with us for later. But we went to visit her at work yesterday night and she said she missed us and still loves the Book of Mormon. She was very willing to keep meeting with us, but also pulled out some other christian material and said, I also like reading these, and they don't tell me I can't do things(smoke, drink tea...) We love her though and will keep working with her. At first I used to think she was a really simple person, but she's just quiet because she really thinks a lot and ponders on things, especially scriptures. She said that since she has met with us she has noticed she has been a lot happier. We helped her realize that was the influence of Heavenly Father in her life, since she has started praying daily, and because she reads the Book of Mormon.

I love having investigators who love reading the Book of Mormon. These people will be a lot harder to be pulled away by Satan because they have developed habits that will keep their testimony strong. I have realized one of my favorite moments as a missionary. So, we have what we call; tracts. They are brown small pamplet/paper things we hand out on the street when we contact people and it pretty much explains the first lesson. The last page has how to pray and so we use it to teach and help people when they are praying for the first time. My favorite moments are when we are working with investigators for a couple lessons and when we ask them to pray and they don't reach for that paper because they know how to pray, they pray everyday so you know it has become a habit in their life. :) Those moments are one of my favorites.
Ok, so I sent a whole bunch of pictures and you can see my companion! I love my companion. She is practically everything I could ask for. She is pretty much the most patient companion I have ever had. I was looking over the Christ-like attributes the other day and when I read patience...that's my companion. I wasn't so much like this before, but lately I've been a lot more anxious about things and just nervous about a lot of things, but my companion patiently bears the day's happenings and helps so willingly. I love her attitude and her patience with me also learning this area. Sometimes I'll get anxious because we need to go to a new area and I'll look at her and say, I don't know where that is. And she will reply, "don't worry, I do." And, we'll get their quickly and safely :) She is so willing and happy to serve me and others. I am very grateful for her.

Well family, I love you all, have fabulous weeks!

Sister Ko

11/28/10 Email

Hello dear family,

I love Jiayi. I don't know how else to say it, there is just a good feeling here and I love being here and working among these fabulous people. There still are some more country areas but I'm back in a place where most of the time there are people everywhere and there are stoplights. I'm re-learning how to schedule travel time around stop-lights, but I love the opportunity to talk to so many people. We keep meeting so many amazing people. People are so willing to hear the gospel and we have some great people investigating the church.

This week was a really good learning experience but we were also able to see a lot of miracles. We got home late most of the week but were able to have such good, event-filled days. We were able to get more sit-downs than this area has had in a while. And hit most of our goals for this week. We have a really awesome Week B lined up, we had a lesson about baptism and the spirit was there and her real concern came out. Orginally it seemed her husband might be an issue, but she is afraid about not being able to keep commandments after she gets baptized. She went to the sat baptism so hopefully that will help her, she seemed to like it. She is one of the most beautiful mom's I've ever seen. And she really loves coming to church, but I think reviewing and helping her recognize her testimony and that she is not alone will help her keep working towards her baptismal goal.

This week we also started meeting with this really awesome investigator, jing yi. She loves reading and prays every day, and loved church and then came with us to a member's house for dinner. She has work on Sunday but was really willing to get things arranged so she could come to church. She really likes meeting with us and keeps commitments. At first when we met her she seemed really overwhelmed and didn't seem like she understood all of what we were saying, but she is so willing to keep learning and she really liked church.

Our newest member has a class that prevents her from coming to church until Christmas but she will come to church every week after that, but we will take special care to make sure we keep in contact with her and visit her every week. And she also wants to be involved in helping prepare for the Christmas activity so that will help her stay rather active. But, with the recent converts I've met it's been a little scary to ask them questions about how they knew the church was true or why they joined the church and find out they feel they haven't received answers or don't feel like the church has changed their lives. One has never prayed about Joseph Smith or the church. I feel like we need to treat a lot of our new members like investigators and start from square one. And really review what we need to do to develop our testimony and what actions we need to take. They are really awesome women but I think it is important right now for them to know that they have a testimony because the first year is the hardest and easiest to get lost if you don't have a conviction of why church is important. This is such a fragile time and I always hate this part of moving to a new area and seeing the new member list and seeing that half of them are already inactive. Sometimes it is really hard. But these people are important and we will keep visiting them and inviting them to do the things that will help them develop their testimony and choose the right.

The wards are fantastic and I am very excited to work with them. The bishops are very willing to help and I am so thankful for them. There are some great members and even one who loves to give us referrals and loves Madeline's picture. Her son is 11. :)
Also, Jiayi has so many food options, I think I have finally found a companion who loves food like I do, and she loves taking me to new places which is my favorite. Sister Lai is so great, she loves talking and she can read english but doesn't really understand much so I am learning so many new words and phrases. She loves to explain words and is so helpful, I am so thankful for her and her help. Especially here in this new area.

I actually kind of forgot about Thanksgiving this weekend, but yesterday we went to a member's house to eat and had a good amount of chicken which probably counts. She is like Grandma Ko and loves to dish everyone up plenty of everything that she has cooked :) If you still have rice in your bowl you are not done eating and she will make sure you have more food :)

Wow, you guys are getting snow, it's weird to be living in a place where pretty much everyone has never seen snow before. I am planning to print a page of pictures to send for Christmas-time, and yes, will send some to my new members, but it just takes a while for me to write :) But i will write slowly and eventually get it done. I can do it, don't worry and I will send a copy soon so if you want you can add it to our family christmas newsletter.

-sister ko

11/21/10 Email

Oh! I moved! I'm in Jiayi, a little bit south of where I was before. A little hotter, but I think it will be perfect for the coming winter (which is still fantasticly hot by the way. I hear it gets cold but I have a hard time believing it at this point). And, new companion! Sweet little Sister Lai! She is the cutest thing ever and is going to be the biggest help for me in getting to know this new area. I am so excited to be here and be with her. She had a fabulous trainer so I am very excited to be working with her and so excited to meet our investigators and new members. The language is coming, I am so nervous about it, but Sister Lin was telling me that it doesn't matter if I don't completely understand, the language of the spirit is the most important. And Sister Lai can help me with language issues :) She is from Taibei and seems to know a lot of english so it should be a big help. Honestly, I don't know if I'll ever be completely comfortable speaking chinese, it's tough. When I would read Michael's letters and hear him after a year say that he felt he was getting the language down i used to think, wow, that long?, what about the gift of tongues? But, hmmm, I don't think I will feel that way very soon. Everyone does get the gift of tongues, but it's a lot harder to develop and doesn't quite come as quickly and you would sometimes like--But every month is getting better :) I was telling marcus I love listening to conversations and hearing things that I just studied and knowing that last week I would not have know what it meant. But, yes, keep praying for me and for my investigators, especially this week. I really want to learn the area quickly and be able to help our investigators. Please specifically pray that we can know how to help them and know how to help them progress and make commitments.

Last week was a little hard, we dropped some long-time investigators, but were able to add some new ones and start meeting with some really golden investigators. Especially this one girl I contacted on the street, came with us to church last week and really reads scriptures and understands. She is really awesome and I'm excited to hear what happens with her. Really smart and hard-working student, really great personality.

My time in Nantou went by really really quickly. I felt like I was barely there and now I'm in a new area. It just feels like every transfer gets shorter and shorter. And it's weird how much you love the people you serve and your new members but you always know you are going to move eventually. It was actually a little hard for some of our new members. I think they don't realize that change happens where missionaries are concerned. Some of our new members were a little upset, but they will be fine, and Sister Gurr is coming in and I know that she loves people with all her heart and will really take care of the members in Nantou. I am really going to miss them. Momo was especially sad, and came to see us this morning and give us a present :) I love her, I love those people, but I am so excited to be here in Jia yi. Back in the city! There are so many stop-lights here I'm not really sure what to do anymore, and so many tall buildings. It's a little weird, but I love it and I'm excited to be able to talk to more people. I love the country and how green Nantou is but it's hard to find people sometimes.

Love you all, thank you for your letter!

-sister ko

11/14 Email

Hello dearest family!
Last week we had zone conference, I saw Elder Ammon Chung! He is doing great, and his chinese is fantastic. We mentioned how we both haven't heard from Jarom in a couple months so we speculate some sort of wedding announcement shortly :) During the conference we talked about setting goals and making plans and particularly in relation to our our daily goals and weekly planning sessions. Setting goals is something that I want to be better at and keep doing when I return home. I love how the assistants mentioned that there is a different feeling when you are around someone who sets and accomplishes their goals. I want to be that kind of person. But I am still learning, and in particular setting attainable goals....but it's coming along. It really does feel like the most amazing thing when you accomplish goals.
Remember how I talked about how it's funny when there are spurts in the mission when you are teaching the same type of investigators-- well, before we taught all young women, now we are teaching all amahs, grandmas. We have about 4 70-80year old investigators :) They are really cute and sweet but we are having some problems with memories and commitment issues sometimes. It's hard to determine if forgetting things is a legitimate excuse :) And sometimes these ladies can be very fickle at deciding what they want to do with their time or where they want to go to church....still working with them....
But one, who is not an old lady, is Iris. She is really cool and really smart. Really thinks about things and likes to ponder the scriptures. She is about early 30's and divorced. Loves to talk, but last week really opened up about her feelings and her divorce. Came to church for the second time yesterday and really loves it, and our members are doing so great and welcoming her in.
Oh my goodness yes, it seems to be going by way too quickly. I can't believe it. It seemed like the half-way mark took a little while but now that it is already past it feels like it's really going downhill. My trainer goes home in one week so next week all my previous companions will be in america. Sister Lin has until about February, but she might talk with President Bishop because the chinese new year is right around then and for taiwanese sisters, the year and a half mark falls in-between move-calls so her family is wanting her to come home the transfer before.
Have you been able to get a hold of your old converts?
Typical day...every day is a little different, one a week is district training meeting where our district meets and there are shares and practice of some sort. I always love those oppotunities to learn. Most of the time we only see members of our district, and with the new changes in meetings we are having less bigger combined meetings so we really don't get to see others very often, maybe every other month. And, wednesday nights we have english class. Fridays are weekly planning sessions where we stay in for a couple hours and plan for the week and set weekly goals and plans. Other than that it's all outside. If we have lessons a lot of time is spent getting to those lessons and then having them. On the way to lessons at stoplights we talk to everyone and try to find more people to....have lessons with. :) In between those times we use phones and call our progressing investigators, referrals, recent converts, or call old records or people we met but weren't able to set up with. Oh, and we eat. Can't forget that part :) I love eating. You asked what kind of things we eat. I think I can sum it up in a question that Sister Norman would ask me before every meal: "Rice or noodles?" :) There is a lot a rice and a lot of noodles. Hehe, but it's all so good! Fried rice is good, but also a lot of white rice with sauces and different vegetables and meat. Also I really love biandang's. Rice with some sort of meat and then you have a few choices for what kind of vegetables or side dish. I'll try and get some pictures for you.

-sister allison ko

Nov. Pictures

The banfa sign :) This is our mission motto, dad can explain what it means, mostly a lot of people say meiyou banfa, there is no way they can go to church or read scriptures or keep commandments, but we can learn to say you banfa, there is a way.

Me and sister swim, love that girl, we went on companion exchanges last week together and had a blast, we did the peace signs because all the taiwanese love doing this. it makes you look skinnier :)

Momo! Her baptism!

Our district visited a Buddhist temple

I couldn't help, it ----- this is the picture of the toilets and how to use them :) Hehe, it's actually very sanitary, no icky toilet seats to touch

11/7/10 Email

Hello dearest family!
I just have to start out and tell you about yesterday. It was probably the most fantastic Sunday I've experienced here in Nantou. Sometimes it has been hard getting the ward involved with welcoming our investigators or new members. But yesterday was just wonderful. Before church started there was one of the elder's new members sitting by himself in the front and I saw two members go up and talk to him and congratulate him on his baptism. Then, there were fantastic testimonies on service and then great lessons on the importance of family and gratitude. Momo received the Holy Ghost and of course, if you knew her you would understand, but she said she didn't feel anything special during her confirmation. But, during every single hour of church she said she was so moved and really felt something special. And, she loves learning and every week she learns more, and she loves to serve, she just fits perfectly into the ward. There were so many people who went to talk to her after sacrament meeting, but what I loved was when relief society started there were people who came in and specifically went out of their way to talk to her and just chat with her. Then, another investigator came and Momo got an opportunity to sit by her during the gospel principles class, and during relief society the peike from last week's lesson was ready and sat down by her and introduced her during announcements in rs. :) :) :) And, one of our new members is pretty shy and gets akward around so many people but she's hilarious, (zhang ren zhi, she got baptized with her daughter a few months ago). And we'll still been trying to find ways to get her more involved with members--after church the relief society president went up to talk to her and told her how she has always wanted to talk to her but didn't know how. Told her pretty much that she wanted to be friends and get to know her more and one day we could all sit down together and just talk. And! The bishop's wife was talking with our investigator after church as well and was working really hard to confirm her for church the next week, talking about the good aspects of church and how much they wanted her to come. I got to tell you, it really was the most fabulous church experience ever. It's really cool to see how much change my wonderful companion has brought to this ward and this area. She's a miracle worker and it really has been amazing to watch this progression.
We also have a cute little amah, grandma we are teaching. She has such a hard time remembering things, but on Sat when we were having a lesson with her it was the cutest thing--she finally sang with us. We sing the same song every time we go over and she finally was recognizing the tune and words and started singing along with us! She is so cute, almost 80, and the sweetest thing ever.
And, I love you all so much! Have a fabulous week, hope you enjoy the pictures...sorry, it's been a while without any, but here they are :)
-sister ko

11/1/10 Email

Hello dearest family!
This week we were able to see Momo (that's her english name), Liu bo tao get baptized! It was wonderful! She got baptized yesterday after church. Ok, it was actually pretty funny to start off with because I guess the baptismal font water wasn't quite turned off all the way so it just kept filling up and all of a sudden the bishop's wife runs into the sunday school room and tells us the xili water is all over the floor :) It was a funny experience and with help from the fantastic bishopric and other missionaries we were able to get it all taken care of. Luckily that day the ward was going to eat together so we ushered everyone in the gym to eat and had the baptism after everyone ate. It was so good too, because all the members except one, who had helped us teach with her, was there at her baptism. She is the cutest lady ever and her baptism was amazing. When we were walking with her to the baptismal font she was so moved and she got really emotional and said she was just so happy and excited! Yes! She is one of the investigators who doesn't really feel she has had any big feelings regarding the church but yesterday was just perfect for her, and we reminded her to write down her feelings of her baptism so she won't forget.
That's mostly the bulk of the exciting events. Yesterday we also had a mom and her two boys come! That was awesome, I met her on the street one day and when I asked her if we could share more about our church she invited us over for dinner. Her family is very much buddhist and Sister Lin thinks that her husband's job has something to do with Buddhism, but she is really nice...and most of all, came to church! Her two boys are the cutest things ever and they are really smart too. She reads the Book of Mormon and is willing to pray, but I think we need to follow up with that a little more to see if she is actually doing it every day. But, with all the baptismal font water excitement we weren't able to see them after church so I hope they are ok.
And! That cute taiyu-speaking grandma is progressing! She is saying prayers on her own and comes to church on her own. She really is so sweet and the humblest old lady you ever met. She is one of those ladies who doesn't like to sit around, her husband has money and they live in a pretty decent place, but she loves to go outside and collect trash and recyclables for money. But, it does make it hard to get a hold of her most days, but we have recently figured that nights we can usually find her at home. The only thing is, she lives in Nantou, at the top of the mountain, so it takes a long time to even see if she is at home :) But, it's worth it.
Oh, Costco cakes, how I miss them.... I hope you enjoyed Dad's cooking and the chocolate cake--dad really does have an amazing talent. It's weird how food is so cheap here that most people rarely cook for themselves. Even some mothers here in the wards don't really cook all that often.
With the computer at home and everything in the garage I hope it is more convenient to do the billing. Good luck with all that!
Oh! I teach english class and they like having topics they can prepare ahead of time and share with the class. It's the highest class so it's all in english--what do you suggest for topics they can prepare on? The past couple topics have been: animals, family traditions, food, holidays....
Wow, that really must have been a treat to listen to Sister Meyerhoffer, her mom really is amazing and an inspiration. I think we all take some things for granted and sometimes forget how everyone has different difficulties. And sometimes there are things that are hard, but we do them.


Love you all, good luck this week!
-Sister Ko