"Be Spiritually Bold"

What did the green grape say to the purple grape?

BREATHE!!!!

(I think it's funnier when Sister Day says it.)

This week we had our Mission Tour with Elder Gong of the Seventy and his wife. He is also the Asia Area President. Fun fact: more than half the world's population lives in the Asia Area. So crazy! I learned so much from the Mission Tour and one of my take aways is that the message that we take to the world is not just about Jesus Christ and His Gospel. But it's that His gospel has been restored! Through the Prophet Joseph Smith, Christ restored His Gospel. We now have living prophets, priesthood authority, and continuing revelation. Many times, I run into people on the streets and they're like, "oh, I'm already Christian. Go talk to the Buddhists." Yes, we preach of Jesus Christ, but we teach of His Restored Gospel. I love being a missionary!

I invite everyone to think about how they are doing in member missionary work. I testify that as a missionary, we cannot do this work without members. And the members cannot teach the restored gospel without those who are called and set apart to teach the restored gospel (missionaries). Do you know your missionaries in your area? Do you know their investigators and the people they are working with? Do you pray for their investigators by name? Do you accompany the missionaries in their teaching lessons? Do you invite friends and family members over and have the missionaries over as well? Do you pray to know how to help them? Do you pray to ask Heavenly Father to know how to participate in missionary work? My mission has really helped me to know what kind of member missionary I want to be.

Love you all! Have a wonderful week!!!!

Love,

Sister Sagisi

If I weren't on a mission, I would have made a bigger sign. Hah. Congrats Fabs!

It was the baptism of our Bishop's daughter. She turned 8 this past week! Yay!!! 3 Nephi 11:38 "And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God."

President Day, Elder Gong and Sister Gong of the First Quorum of the Seventy, me and my companion, Sister Ioane. Elder and Sister Gong served in Taiwan Taipei. They are truly called of God. What a privilege we had to talk to them and just be in their presence! I learned so much from them and it was so nice to be able to just talk one on one with them after everyone left.

Sister Ioane, Sister Gong, and I. She is so cute!

Walking in Sunlight

We had an earthquake today. During companionship study this morning the other sisters in the other room start yelling "earthquake" all while I'm thinking why my companion is shaking my desk. Haha. We live on the 6th floor and it gave me a head ache. Haha. I hope that the other side of the world is okay. It lasted for about a minute.

BYU graduates this week! Yay! Fabian is gonna be a big boy now. Sad I won't be there but I still have next year! He starts his big boy job with EY in LA after this summer. Wooh!

Also, I wasn't able to congratulate my SOAR counselor/BYU friends, Marlow and Marissa for their marriage! I got their wedding invite a few months ago and it just made me soo happy! I also received a picture from Jansi and Jake Butler and their newborn baby Kaleia (I hope I spelled that right). All these exciting news!

On Tuesday we had met with a former investigator. We had found her record in a binder that I had never seen before. And just when you think that you have called all of the former investigators, the Lord opens up the way to find more investigators! Yay! So we called her last week to set up for this week. We found out that the reason why she stopped meeting with missionaries was because the missionaries lost contact with her. She was a former from about 5 years ago. We re-invited her to baptism and she accepted. The closing prayer that she said was the best part. In the middle of the prayer there was this long pause. Then she starts to sob. Then she thanks Heavenly Father for giving her a second chance to meet with the missionaries and to learn this message. After she said Amen, we all looked up and Sis. Ioane's and my faces were wet with tears.

At the sister's baptism on Saturday, I asked the new convert if he had any friends in Pingzhen. Not expecting anything in reply, he pauses for a moment and tells me, "actually my older sister lives in that area." I was like "WHAT?!" Then his sister, who is a member in Miaoli and had come just to attend his baptism gave me their sister's information. At first I was so nervous. I even asked them what I could say to the sister. She said, maybe you can say that a friend gave you her information and that you'd like to meet her and share more. The sister thanked me for being willing to contact her. When I said I was going to do it that night, she got even more excited. She explained how she hadn't talked to that sister in a long time because of an unresolved fight. I later called the sister and we set up!!!!! She was interested too! The Spirit led that phone contact because I was so nervous. Baptismal services bring miracles!!!

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/10/come-what-may-and-love-it?lang=eng

I love October conference of 2008. I feel like that conference, though I was still in high school, had impacted me so much. It was in the midst of the recession in America and I feel like a lot of the talks were about happiness and adversity. I invite everyone to watch/read this talk. Let us all laugh more and be happy!

We have a Mission Tour this week with Elder Gong of the Area Seventy (who spoke in conference last October). I'm so excited! And we may or may not be going to the temple next week, so if I don't email on Monday, I'll be emailing on Wednesday. :)

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Sagisi

ISLANDERS! Sister Akita and her baby, Sister Komatsu, and my companion, Sis. Ioane.

Don't mind our tired faces...These were from Sister Roy before she left Taiwan and became Meihua. We love her!

​Three generation picture!!!! And we're all from Hawaii. Haha. Sister Komatsu, Sister Akita, and me. BTW, I totally called that Sis. Akita would train Sis. Komatsu. Sis. Komatsu is from my old stake back home (Honolulu-West Stake). Wooh!

A Year Later

Happy day after conference P-day! Today during studies, I was reading in the Book of Mormon in Mosiah and I want to share something that stood out to me. 

1 And now, it came to pass that when king Benjamin had made an end of speaking the words which had been delivered unto him by the angel of the Lord, that he cast his eyes round about on the multitude, and behold they had fallen to the earth, for the fear of the Lord had come upon them.

2 And they had viewed themselves in their own carnalstate, even less than the dust of the earth. And they allcried aloud with one voice, saying: O have mercy, andapply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receiveforgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; forwe believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who createdheaven and earth, and all things; who shall come downamong the children of men.

3 And it came to pass that after they had spoken thesewords the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and theywere filled with joy, having received a remission of theirsins, and having peace of conscience, because of theexceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ who shouldcome, according to the words which king Benjamin hadspoken unto them.

In Mosiah 4:1-3, the people immediately repented. They didn't wait to go home and repent. But they repented right then and there in the middle of King Benjamin's speech. It's very fitting for us today. I was spiritually fed and called to repentance for the past 2 days. But am I going to be like these people and immediately change? It was such a spiritual personal study. Also, I finished Jesus the Christ before Easter, which was my goal, and now I'm reading the New Testament. I'm currently in Luke and I love being able to recall the things that I read in Jesus the Christ to help shed more light in my scripture study.

This week we had a pretty good week I would say. Yesterday after dinner we headed out to go look for an LA in a specific area. At a stop light I spoke to a brother and reached in my back to get a pamphlet. But as I did so the light turned green and seeing me reaching to grab something he told me to pull over on the side. Yes, he told me to pull over. I didn't tell him to pull over! What a miracle! That has never happened to me before. We found out that he met missionaries a long time ago. We ended up having a lesson with him about prayer and about our purpose as missionaries. He was interested in learning more and told him we'd refer him to the missionaries in his area. I love how we're all in this work together and no matter where we are, we carry the same message to the world.

One of our LA's, who we've been working with has progressed so well. He's come to general conference and has made drastic changes in his life. I know that he's one of the reasons why I'm here in Pingzhen. Seeing his progress has made me so much more humble and has made me want to have the faith that he has.

We met an LA family whom missionaries hadn't visited in a while and she was so excited when we came. She said it's been years since missionaries came and since then so many changes happened in their family. She now has a son. Her sister has stage 4 cancer. Her mother died. Her father has been so depressed. When we were trying to look for the house, we realized that we underestimated where it was in our area and found that it was further than expected. When I told Sis. Ioane that we can just change our plan and find LA's in the area that we were already in, she said that there was a reason I chose this family last week in WPS to go and visit. When she said that, I realized how right she was and decided to just go for it. We had time anyway. And the consequences of that visit was one that I'll never forget.

I hit a year in the mission this week!!! A year ago I entered the MTC. A year ago I wasn't the person who I am now. In the span of this short year, I've grown in ways I can never imagine. "Sprint to the finish line" is what our mission president tells us.

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Sagisi

Me and my squid on a stick.

Sister Xie took us to Daxi last Pday :)

One of the best English Parties that we've had. #Zhongli district

We had MEXICAN FOOD!!! I was so happy!!!!

It's Summer Time!!!

We get to watch conference next week! It takes a week for the translation so we'll watch it this week. But from what I've heard, it's a lot about the Second Coming. Here is a quote that I love from our Mission President's email. He's already watched conference but I'm just getting more excited for what awaits us this week.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf: On Being Genuine
If Jesus Christ were to sit down with us and ask for an accounting of our stewardship, the Savior would want to know the condition of our heart. He would want to know how we love and minister to those in our care, how we show our love to our spouse and family, and how we lighten their daily load. And the Savior would want to know how you and I grow closer to Him and to our Heavenly Father. Resist the temptation to draw attention to ourselves and, instead, strive for a far greater honor: to become humble, genuine disciples of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We are disciples of Jesus Christ. But I don't want to be any kind of disciple. I want to be a genuine disciple.

One of our investigators, Kathy Li, called us the other day and told us that she went chuanjiao-ing with the Tao 2 sisters! I was like, "what?! Are you serious?!" Haha. Apparently her member friend who lives in that area invited her to go out with them and work. She went and she loved it! Next time though, she coming with us! She later attended the elders' baptism that night. I am so excited for our Kathy. She is progressing so well. She wants to be baptized so badly. Another miracle happened with her though. She asked her mom if she can invite the missionaries over to meet her and she said, "OK!" The Lord has been blessing us so much and He's opening the way for her each and every week!

We went hiking last week Monday! (hope you enjoy the pictures!)

Have a wonderful week everyone! BTW, my baby (Sister Akita) is training!!!! Wooh! I'm going to be a grandma! I call that she's going to train Sister Komatsu from my stake back home. But who knows. Tell you next week! :)

Love,

Sister Sagisi

Elder Ribar, Elder Jensen, Elder Heaps, (future Sister Shen), Sister Bowman, Sister Sorensen, Sister Ioane, Elder Whitlock, and Leon!

​In our natural habitat!