Taiwan post June 16, 2014

This week has been so amazing. My companion and I have been contacting everyone we can. It has been really hard and sometimes we don't have that much time to talk to some people. But we do our best to give them an opportunity to listen to the restored gospel. And because we are doing our best we have seen so many miracles. It has been amazing. Heaven has opened the windows and had started raining down blessings. It is unbelievable. We have been knocking on doors a lot and have only found grandmas. But they all have been supper cute and willing to listen and they have been able to speak Chinese. The older generation here is only able to speak taiyu which is like the native language. But we have found many of the grandmas are willing for us to come back and visit them again. It has been a lot of fun. And we have gotten to visit our members too. Which has been fun since I still have not met very many people.

I love seeing how the Holy Ghost guides us to find the people that we find. Sometimes I don't notice it is the Holy Ghost guiding us but after when I look back. I notice it was not us who picked where we went tracting. I love it so much. Faith is stronger than anything. You just have to believe.

Love Sister Basko

Taiwan post June 9, 2014

This week was so amazing. We got to go on exchanges with the sister training leaders, and I got to go this one of my previous companions. It was so much fun. We saw so many miracles and it was such a great experience. We went park contacting. Which I was a little nervous about since it is really hard to talk to people when they are busy doing stuff. But when you don't think about it and just go right into it, it is so much easier. And found some pretty awesome people so I hope that the missionaries will be able to get to know them and help them learn about Christ’s gospel. I love Sister Tung so much she teaches with a powerful spirit. It is so easy to feel the spirit with her I feel like I learned so much. We try to make sure that we are doing our best every day to talk to everyone and even if they will not meet with us or if they do not have interest. Just make sure that they are little happier when they leave. Patience and humility are the biggest factors in being a follower of Christ.

I love counting the miracles every week and seeing how many blessing we are every day and being so grateful for this opportunity to be able to do His work and to also learn so much about His love for His children. There are people prepared everywhere and all we have to do is talk to everyone and we will find those that are ready to hear the gospel.

Love you all!!!!! It is summer and getting hot. Stay healthy and strong! :D

Love Sister Basko

With Sister Tung - now a training leader

Taiwan post June 1, 2014

I love Gangshan, it is my new area. Move calls were a week ago and Gangshan is my new area. The members are amazing. They are really involved in the work and so it is really motivating to be here. Nanzi was very hard and I was a little worried about having a Taiwanese companion but it has been so amazing. She is super awesome and is only older than me by 1 day and we started our missions at the same time. We were without a bike for a whole week. It only arrives on Saturday about 3:00, which was fortunate that we were nearby and could get my bike. My stuff was taken to Tainan with Sister Chen’s stuff, and so I would have been here about Thursday or so, but it took 2 more day to come back. But we are super grateful to have our bikes. Our feet are very sore from walking everywhere since we are not use to it. This area is really big and we were only able to visit people who were nearby but I got to meet a recent convert that I might not have met if we would have had our bikes. We have seen so many miracles and our ward members are actively working hard to invite people to church and get their friends introduced to the church. This week was really amazing; we saw so many miracles and tons of blessings. I love you all!!!

Love Sister Basko

Taiwan Post May 26, 2014

Dear Everyone,

This week is move call. I was in Nanzi with Sister Chen, but that area was closed for sisters because there are no new sisters coming in so some areas will be closed. But I’m not moving very far, I’m just going above Nanzi to Gangshan. The two areas are touching. So I am still really close to where I came from. My companion is Sister Yeh; she is Taiwanese and has been serving in Taiwan for 1 move call more than me. So excited to be here. The area is a little bigger, but not too big.

This week was crazy, we were super busy. We had 3 people wanting to feed us dinner on Tuesday night at 6:30. We had already made plans long before with Sister Joy and Sister Zeng so we went to Joy's home to eat. But we had a little snack with our member and her little sister right before. It was really great to get to know her better and her sister. They have completely opposite personalities. They are super cute. After we headed to Joys and had dinner with a less active, it was a really good environment, it was really comfortable and we are able to get to know her better. On Wednesday we had lunch with an less active out in Dashe, her food is really good. It is all homemade and very fresh. After we helped move some stuff around in her house, then had dinner with our recent convert and her son. It was really fun, we got to see our recent convert's personality outside meeting with her. She is usually very strict, but when she meets with us she is always relaxed. It was good get to know her son better.

 On Thuusday we had a big group of us eat together, our less active told us to bring people so we invited another recent convert, and the elders brought an investigator and his girlfriend. It was a lot of fun. It was a little awkward to start with, but after it was very relaxed and got to know each other and shared about how this gospel has blessed our lives.

We exchanged with the sister training leaders on Friday and Saturday. I learned a ton from Sister Graham, about how to contact on the street. It is all about how you express it, if you are excited to talk with someone they will be interested, but if you’re not, then they will not have interest either. She is really amazing. She contacts everyone and is so energetic. It really makes a big difference. If you are excited to talk to someone they will be more willing to learn more. Always think positively because if you don't all those doubts will stop you from really progressing.

Love you all. I love going out and serving the people in Taiwan. They are very friendly and willing to listen. As we look for ways we need to change, God will help us know and developed skills to overcome our weaknesses.

Love Sister Basko

Taiwan post May 19, 2014

This week was so exciting, we had a progressing investigator!!!Her husband is Buddhist but she is really interested, and her husband asked her if she would still be able to worship. And she can even when she is baptized as long as she is praying to Heavenly Father and not the Buddha statue. She is really cute and getting very interesting in how to be healthy, we are super excited to keep sharing the gospel with her.

We were outside sharing about our English class and we looked down the street and saw it down pouring. It had not yet reached us. We ran and put on rain gear and less than a minute it started down pouring. It was incredible the streets had about 2 inches of rain on it and then it was done raining. And it was really nice since it cooled off and was no long quite as humid out.

I got the opportunity to eat pig’s blood in gelatin form and to eat small intestines. It was really interesting. It didn't taste bad but it really was not that good either. It was a good experience.

Stay strong and close to Heavenly Father.

Love Sister Basko

Taiwan post May 12, 2014

Time is so short. Nobody really realizes how short their time is here on Earth. You don't know if you will live to a very long old age, or if it will be cut short. But no matter how long your life is everyone has the ability to change what happens. You can make so many different choices, but the consequences are never our choice. As we do the best we can we will be satisfied with the outcome. Our mission president share this story with us, about a guy who said "this is just the way I Am." he is giving up his ability to change. But we must remember our future is in our hands, if we listen to Heavenly Fathers direction we will be able to find the right path, the path that will lead to the most happiness.

It is only in and through the Savior Jesus Christ's atonement that we can fix our mistakes. That we can be forgiven of the things that we regret. I love you all very much. And I hope that you will continue to follow Christ's example and serve others and love them to the best of your ability.

Happy Mother's Day!!!!

Love Sister Basko

It was wonderful to be able to skype with Rachel on Mother's day, she looks so good and she looks so happy. It is amazing that technology now allows us to be able to see her beautiful face and hear her voice half  a world away! And to be able to bring her twin sister (Alicia) into the call so that we could all see each other. Amazing!

Rachel is busy being about our Father's business in sharing the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and teaching about the restoration of that gospel. She is serving the people of Taiwan and teaching them about our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. mom

Her wornout shoes

Cotton candy from the day/night market

Taiwan post May 5, 2014

This week the work goes on. We have been working with members to help them to find opportunities to share the gospel with family and friends. A friend of a member met with one of our members this week and she told us about her life how from a young age she knew she has greater purpose in life. She had a tough childhood and through her friend she learned about Christ and then after she was married she found this church. Knew it was true from the moment she heard it, she learned everything for 6 days and read the whole book of Mormon in 6 days. And then was baptized. In every ward there are members who have amazing stories of how they learned about the gospel. Listening to others experiences we can learn so much about our lives and how we need to stay strong in the faith. Knowing that God places people in our path everyday for us to serve, or share the gospel, or be a friend. And as we look for these opportunities that he gives us we will be more prepared. I know that this gospel is true. Through the Holy Ghost testifying the truth and helping to feel and know that God loves all his children. We are all important to him. I know God calls us to a work no matter where we are or what we are doing he has a work for us to do. I love you all.

Read, pray and attend church will help you become resilient to stay strong and close to God.

Love Sister Basko