That Moment When You Realize...

You've been calling your investigator the wrong name this whole time...

We met her back early in November. We met her at the train station while English Boarding and I'm pretty sure she said her name was Cassie. Well, she came to church yesterday and I wrote her name on a piece of paper next to her Chinese name and she goes, "Not that 'Cassie'." And I just look at her and say, "Ohhh, which 'Cassie'?" I give her the pen and she writes it for me. She writes 'Kathy.' Oh my goodness...Sis. Akita and I tried not to laugh during Sunday School but we had a good laugh about it when we got home. HAHAHA!!!

On Friday, we got qing'd (fed) 3 times. How is 3 times possible when we eat breakfast at home? Yes, two dinners...I think it was probably one of the worst mistakes I've ever made. We were so full biking home. Yes, I learned my lesson...

Two weeks ago, we met with our Bishop and his wife one evening. We followed the counsel of Preach My Gospel and met with our Bishop to know how can we help him. We looked through the ward list together, name by name and he checked off specific people for us to go and visit. Last week Sunday, Bishop gave a shout out to the missionaries at Sacrament Meeting! He totally counseled the ward to allow the missionaries into their homes and to give us referrals! He talked about when we have the missionaries over, we are renewed and feelings of missionary work are re-kindled. I love our ward! And for the past two weeks, we've been able to have our 5 active member lessons each week! I feel like we're getting to know our ward members and we're able to build a relationship of trust!

I want to share this quote from Our Search for Happiness By Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: "The work they are called to do is hard and sometimes discouraging. But because they have the assurance that they are on God's errand, they are able to valiantly serve Him. I often suggest to those who want to know if the Church is true that they spend a few hours working with our missionaries. If doesn't take long to learn that no one can do all of things a missionary does every day without knowing beyond any question that what they are doing is right and true."

Love you all!
Love,
Sister Sagisi

My view from my window.

I love this stream.

A meadow of beautiful yellow flowers. 

Jenga pro's! We had FHE with the Chen family and they played for a good 30 minutes.

​Thank you to the Ayala family for my Christmas chocolates!!!! :)))

The Taiwanese Make It Work

We met a 98 year old amah on the streets! She's still walking strong with no cane and no glasses! She is the youngest 98 year old I have ever seen. She said that she had walked about a few miles that day. She is an inspiration to me!

I don't even know how to describe this incredible week! Can I just ask, is there another planner that comes after the Baptismal Planner because I think we need to start making a life planner for our investigator, Dai DX (Nick). He has such strong desires to go on a mission. And we were just mentioning in a lesson about how after he goes to the military for a year, he can go on mission and he was so excited and said that he'd love to. And you know that an investigator is so golden when you make daily contact with him on a Sunday and you ask him how his day went and he says that it's "bu hao" (not good) because he wasn't able to attend church. Then you ask him the reason and he says that he had to visit his parents! And you also know that he's golden when at the close of a lesson you ask him if he has any questions or thoughts and he says that he has no questions but instead he bears his testimony with you about how he feels himself growing closer to God and how he knows all these things are true! Dai DX even skipped his English class to meet with us because he says that meeting with the missionaries is more important. At the end of last night's lesson, he said how we elders and sisters are so "weida" (great) and the work that we're doing is so important. Honestly, this brother is so prepared and he's so ready. I think our peike even tried to set him up with her daughter and hopes that he would be able to convert her... haha. Our ward already loves him. But that's the wonderful Dai DX who has a date for 2/7.

On Thursday, we had 6 lessons back to back with the first at 2:30 and the last starting at 8pm. Two with members and the others were peikes. If everyday was like that, I would not only be going home in a stretcher, but I'd be going home with a permanent smile that would never go away. It was one of the best days! Those peikes were with our most golden investigators, too. Another golden one is Luo DX, who's been meeting with us for at least twice a week for the past 3 weeks now. His date is also for Feb. 7. He keeps all of his commitments and invites. One thing that I'm worried about is that he asks us questions that he finds online. Like one was about drinking coffee and tea, which he read on google. Another is about someone he saw on youtube who doesn't believe in Joseph Smith. Sis. Akita and I have been talking about how Satan is so real and he wants to bring our investigators down. But Luo DX has been open with us with all these questions so we're not too worried, but we're praying hard!

We also said two baptismal dates with a former investigator and his son. We showed them the "Because of Him" video and we just saw his countenance change and he was so touched. When he offered the kneeling prayer at the end of the lesson, we just knew that something was different this time and that we are going to work with him to get his answer about the truthfulness of these things before 2/28!

I love this work so much! The Lord has blessed us so much and is continuing to bless us. We know that it's hard work but it's worth everything. This work means everything to me. It meant so much to the Savior that everyone have an opportunity to return to our Father that He gave us His life. I'm only giving a short 18 months. But I know that I'll spend the rest of my life trying to show forth my gratitude.

Love you all!
Sister Sagisi

#TeamSakita

We really wanted McDonalds...

She was a miracle! This is Mercy. We met her outside our apartment and she noticed our tags. She couldn't read Chinese but she knew we were missionaries. She's from the Philippines and her husband and his family are all members. In fact, her father in law is a branch president. She's here for work. I asked why she's not baptized yet and she said that she has to work. But we asked if she had a Book of Mormon with her and she said no. So we asked her to wait and we ran upstairs and grabbed her a Tagalog Book of Mormon. Her 2 years of being here in Taiwan, she had never seen missionaries before. She was sooo happy to find us and it was seriously the Lord's hand in allowing us to run into her!!! She's not in our area but she's in the neighboring area so I know we'll see her around!

Love Your Taiwanese Everyone

Hello everyone!

I have a joke for you all: Why do missionaries have such large bladders? Because they only have one P-Day.

Happy P-Day!! :)

This past week, English Class was a success! Sister Akita and I teach Advance class and we pretty much speak English the whole time. We felt the Spirit so strongly as we invited everyone to talk about their ancestors and where they're from. It was part of our discussion about history. It was the perfect lead into our Spiritual Share where we talked about the Book of Mormon and how it is a record of the ancient inhabitants of America. We ended class with doing a demo about how the records were passed down from prophet to prophet and we had the last person read the promise in Moroni 10:1-5. Our invites included going onto familysearch.org and learning more about their investigators, reading the Book of Mormon, and keeping a journal! After class, one of our students, Scott, told us that he's going to start reading the book. He said that he's already a Christian and goes to church everySunday but is so excited to read the Book of Mormon. He went on to tell us that it was his first time there. In fact, he got an English tract a year ago. Usually he throws flyers away but he decided to keep this one. And then he pulls out his planner and behind the back cover, he pulls out the exact English tract he was given a year ago!!! Then he told us how he thought he'd come and check it out that day. It was a miracle! He set up for a time to meet with us this week!

We also went to Taibei for our Trainer/Trainee Follow-Up meeting. Everyone who is in training and who is training goes and even though we've only been in training for 3 weeks, it was a wonderful opportunity to receive more training from President and Sister Day, the Assistants and the Temple Sisters. I got many things out of the meeting. Two of which include loving the people and remembering the Atonement in missionary work. President Day always says to "Love Your Taiwanese Everyone." As we love the people and love everything they do, love their culture, love the language, and love my mission, everything will be so much easier. It all starts with loving the Savior, though. When I remember the Atonement in missionary work, it will be able to lift me and carry me through everything. There was only one perfect missionary and that is Jesus Christ. I have everything to learn from Him.

Have a beautiful week!!!

Love,

Sister Sagisi

-p.s. I promise to take more pictures this coming week!

Bring In the New Year

Happy 2015 to everyone!!!!

I have a few short words. And they're not even mine. But they're Pres. Monson's and I'd like to leave you all with his wise counsel.

President Monson said, “This is our one and only chance at mortal life—here and now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief. Opportunities come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and nonexistent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey—now.”

Have a beautiful week everyone!

Love Sister Sagisi

Love our apartment sisters. A member gave us this Costco cheesecake. This never tasted soo good.

I had lunch with Sis. Su. We went on exchanges. And we had a Thousand Year old Egg.

​Elders have really big feet...