Barbecue Day!

It smells like BBQ! You know that bon fire/barbecue smell? The air in Taiwan pretty much smells like that. Why? Because it's mid-autumn festival. Yay! It was actually yesterday. It's really cool because families just get together and just barbecue. It's a day of families, which is so great.

We have a lot of pineapple pastries and it's a tradition around this time. I think I've eaten at least 10. Haha. And we still have more. I love Taiwan.

There's a typhoon coming in tonight. It's supposed to be really strong.

I love Elder Richard G. Scott and I am so happy that he finally gets to be with his wife Jeanene. We weren't able to hear him speak this past conference but I looked back on his talk last October. He talked about tools that Heavenly Father has given us. We have prayer, scripture study, family home evening, and temple attendance. I love the promise blessing that he gives. He says that as we use these tools, the more Satan wants to target us but less is his ability to do so.

Have a wonderful week everyone! I am so excited for General Conference!!! ...next week. We have to wait for translations. BUT everyone else please enjoy conference and I don't want to be receiving any spoiler emails on who our apostles are or anything like that (Meihua...thanks, haha).

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Sagisi

The main point of this picture is the temple. But we were able to go with our dear Cui JM to do baptisms.

This pot is so cute.

We had this parade going on. Haha.

It's Getting Cooler

Taiwan is getting a bit cooler...just at nights though. Haha.

This week...we knocked into the door of a pastor. But to be honest, he was one of the most humblest pastors ever. But in the end, he told us that he didn't want to talk "truth" with us because he was going to start spitting out Bible scriptures. But we left on a good note and even had a lesson with him at his door. It was really cool. At first, I was terrified, but for some reason, I knew that the Holy Ghost was there helping me and we testified of baptism and priesthood authority.

On my mission I have come to love the war chapters in Alma! I love love love them. I'm sad that I'm almost through Alma. But I just want to share Alma 58:34-37.

34 Now we do not know the cause that the government does not grant us more strength; neither do those men who came up unto us know why we have not received greater strength.

35 Behold, we do not know but what ye are unsuccessful,and ye have drawn away the forces into that quarter of the land; if so, we do not desire to murmur.

36 And if it is not so, behold, we fear that there is some faction in the government, that they do not send more men to our assistance; for we know that they are more numerous than that which they have sent.

37 But, behold, it mattereth not—we trust God will deliver us, notwithstanding the weakness of our armies,yea, and deliver us out of the hands of our enemies.

I just want to say that Helaman and his army were in a life or death situation. They were struggling so badly because of their provisions. But they didn't complain. It "mattereth not" to them. Sometimes, do we complain because of the little things that happen or do we trust in the Lord and know that He will deliver us. I love what we learn from these war chapters and I've been able to study them more in depth lately.

We're starting to set baptismal dates with investigators for when I'm not going to be here! So crazy! I remember when Meihua (Sis. Roy) told me that she was setting dates for after she leaves. I was like, I wonder what that feels like, haha. Now I know.

I hope everyone has a beautiful and wonderful week! We have transfer meeting this Friday. I'm pretty sure I'll be staying. I really hope I'll be staying. Moving on your last transfer doesn't sound too appealing. But the Lord's will be done. But...I'm pretty sure I'm staying. That means my companion, Sis. Guo is most likely going to move. I love her so much! She's been like a sister to me. She is like a sister to me.

Love,
Sister Sagisi

I love traditional Taiwanese Food. It's kind of like Filipino food in a way.

Pineapple cakes!

Sis. Lita's baptism!!! Look at her. She's beautiful!

This is what I look like when I go door knocking. But I'm usually not holding this fruit. An old amah gave it to us.

I love Beitou! Look at the palm trees and the mountains in the back. This is right outside the MRT (metro station).

Exchanges with Sis. Facer! I love these cow horn things. They are like chestnuts!

A puppet show. A real traditional puppet show. I seriously love Taiwan!

Everything Looks Better from Above

I've realized that everything looks so much better from above. We were knocking and went up to the 6th floor. When we looked out the window, we just saw one of the most beautiful views of Beitou 北投. It reminds me so much of Kalihi Valley. It reminds me so much of Hawaii. We also went hiking this week. It was part of our Outdoor Zone Conference. We had training while hiking. It was one of the many many highlights of my mission! The hikes here in Taiwan are very very similar to Hawaii. :)

I know that Heavenly Father knows each one of us. He knows everything that we're going through. He knows our needs at this very moment. Last night after visiting with an less active, we had plans to go visit Sis. Lita. We originally wanted to visit her 2 hours earlier but we had to visit someone else. Well, we were getting ready on our bike and I just happened to wave at a lady and her son. When Sis. Guo saw the lady, she noticed she was a former investigator. We ended up sharing a scripture with her. That took about 10 minutes of our time but that's okay because we still ended up visiting Sis. Lita. As we were knocking on her door for about 5 minutes, no one came. But then she pulls up on her moped next to us and she's like, "no one is home!" Then she excitedly tells us, "I'm getting baptized this Saturday!" If we had visited her a little earlier or even 2 hours earlier like we had planned, we would not have been able to find her. She also told us that her phone isn't working so we definitely wouldn't have been able to get in contact with her because she works all throughout the week.

I cried. I just couldn't help but to think how the Lord's hand was in every step of the way. From the time I met her friend at the temple and told her that I was serving here in Beitou, until now. This is a story that I'll remember for the rest of my life. And I'll tell it over and over again. I hope that everyone will have the opportunity to hear the story from beginning to end sometime. :)

Have a wonderful week everyone! I know I will. I'm on the Lord's errand.

Love you all!
Sis. Sagisi
夏姐妹
taiwantaipeimission.com

Sis. Liu 劉 took us to eat! Such good food!

Our lunch today! Sis. Zhong came back after finishing her mission in May!

We went on splits with Penny and Sis. Zhong. :)

Sis. Hill and I enjoying some bean curd. 豆花 :)

the 東台北地帶! The East Taipei Zone!

Sis. Hill and Sis. Jex. We were in the MTC together!

The Beitou district. We renamed it Dantou..hahaha. Because we have the Danshui elders with us.

Sis. Huang and I came together! At the time she was born in Beitou. Now I'm in Beitou. So crazy how fast time flies.

Sis. Guo and I on a bridge :)

The bus. Probably the coolest people ever. Our zone is super talented. On the bus ride back, we were just beat boxing, singing, and telling stories the whole way through. The best part was hearing stories from Pres. and Sis. Jergensen. The simple things in life are the best things in life. It just felt like a family road trip.

It's September!!!

Happy September everyone! This week we were in a farther part of our area and we went finding. When we left an apartment building, there was this really awful smell. Guess what it was! Yep! Stinky tofu. As we walked towards it, it started to smell good. We found some really good smelling stinky tofu. Is that an oxymoron? Haha. I don't even know anymore. But I needed to buy some. It tasted so good too. The man that was selling it had been selling it from his truck for 26 years. So yes, it was legit. But because of that stinky tofu, we ran into a less active around the corner. It was a stinky tofu miracle!!!

I went to Jilong 基隆 for exchanges this week with Sis. Lindsay! Jilong is like the San Francisco of Taiwan! I absolutely fell in love with it. You get off the bus and you just smell sea water. It's a harbor and it just reminded me of home. :)

Miracle Duan DX! We had found him through door knocking and when we met with him for the first time, he told us that he considers himself an Atheist. But lately he's been feeling that there must be a higher power out there somewhere. He didn't know where and he didn't know what it was, but he wanted to know. His closing prayer just brought tears to my eyes. It was his first prayer and it was one of the most sincere prayers I had ever heard. He asked God to give him a sign, any sign to let him know that he exists. He told God how he wasn't expecting to meet us but he did and he feels like it really was His plan. It just brought tears to my eyes hearing this man's prayer and his plead to God. He committed to doing what he needed to do to receive his answer such as reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and coming to church next week. Our job as missionaries now is to help him to recognize his answer from God.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. The Lord has been so merciful and I love His work so much!!!
Love you all!
Sister Sagisi
夏姐妹
taiwantaipeimission.com

This is Bro.Yi 易天宗. We knocked on his door 2 weeks ago and he's the most golden investigator ever! We'll finish teaching him the lessons tomorrow but he'll be moving to an island off the coast of Taiwan on Thursday. Our mission president said that because it's not in our mission, we can't go see him get baptized. This island is called Jingmen (I have no idea how to spell it) and they don't even have a branch there. It's so small that members just meet in a member's home for church. But his faith is so strong! When his wife retires in 2 years, they'll be moving to California to be with his sons, so I'll see him soon!

Isn't this the cutest ground? I think if I lived on this street, I might overlook the beauty of this ground.

Made this for our Zone Meeting last week.

Jilong is like San Francisco!

We hiked up here for exercise. 

Really though, it's like San Francisco! With the Jilong Hollywood sign in the back.

Here's a panoramic of the harbor.

A super big temple.

Exchanges with Sis. Lindsey!

Hot pot with the Jilong District!

​Sis. Liu took us out to eat. She always does. We love her!

​Our crazy East Zone.

The Amah in the Tsunami

I'm alive! I made it back from the Tsunami without a scratch! Haha. But I'm so exhausted though. I feel like I just served the extra 6 months had I served 2 years like elders do.

I wish I could share all the many miracles that had happened while in Zhunan. At first I wondered why I was sent to go contacting from 11am-9pm for 3 days straight in Zhunan. I wondered why they sent an old amah missionary, but coming back, I realized why. The tsunami changed my life forever.

To start, here was what the tsunami brought for the Zhunan Zone. Just a reminder, this was 3 days.
106 New investigators.
34 of them have baptismal dates.
227 street lessons.
153 Book of Mormons placed.

The Lord's hand was there in Zhunan and I know that we missionaries didn't do anything. I can't even express all of the amazing things I had learned had I not been blessed to participate in it. Throughout the whole tsunami, my companion and I, Sis. Beeston just kept talking about all the things we were learning on/because of the tsunami. I want to share that I know the tsunami was a more a benefit to me than I was to the tsunami because of all the things that I had gained and learned.

I want to share a funny story. I hope you get a laugh out of it.
On Wednesday Sis. Beeston and I decided to go to a place that the Zhunan sisters would probably have no time to go to because of the location of it. We planned our day around that area and Sis. Beeston asked if we should come back to the city for dinner. Silly me...I told her, "oh not to worry! I'm sure we'll find a convenience store and we can just buy our dinner there." Haha. Boy was I wrong. When dinner came, we asked someone on the side of the road where we could go to get dinner. They said the nearest convenience store was 15 minutes away but there was a noodle place 3 minutes away. It looked safe, so we had dinner there. But wow, we were literally in the middle of nowhere. But we found the person the Lord needed us to find in the middle of nowhere.

The Lord's hand is everywhere. You just have to be able to recognize it. I hope everyone will have a wonderful week and be able to recognize the Lord's hand more clearly in your lives.

Love,
Sis. Sagisi
taiwantaipeimission.com

This was a miracle. Someone got of his scooter and gave us mochi.

It like rained the whole time.

Contacting in Zhunan!

We went finding along this road. Hahaha. Just kidding. We did ride along this road this.

The view of Zhunan. Whoever finds the skyscraper wins! (there are none).

This is a famous actress. She does stage performance and musical theater. From what my companion, Sis. Guo, described, her performances are more than $100 American$ per ticket. We found her in a small little vegetarian place. It was so funny because Sis. Guo was too shy to ask her. She said that actors and actresses here don't where any bright colors or makeup out in public because they need to be able to distinguish who they are on stage and off stage. We still don't know her name. Haha. Sis. Guo forgot it.