Taiwan post December 29, 2014

How was your Christmas?? Do you see miracles? We did here in Beitun we saw some amazing blessing from Heavenly Father!!! We had so much faith and prayed about ways that we could find some new investigators, and we felt like we needed to call come former investigators that had previously stopped meeting with missionaries. We had a huge miracle this week from a result of calling these people we found. We were able to meet a really amazing new investigator. She had met with missionaries 5 years ago, once. So we called her up, and set up a date. We met with her on Saturday we shared with her the plan of salvation and testified of how it can bless her family, and gave her a Book of Mormon to start reading. She was so willing and asked some really good questions. She said that she thinks she really needs this to help her find that lasting happiness. We are really excited to meet with her again. While we were teaching her we gave her a sticker that says "no success can compensate for failure in the home." and she was like. My friend just gave me this; I stuck it on my scooter. We were like what?????? So amazing, God has been preparing her, and we met her right in time. This is why member missionary work is so important because the member plants so many seeds and we sometime come across these people and help them learn more. We hope that we will see a baptism soon!!! So we are excited to see what happens with this investigator.

Huge blessing to see the Lords hand in the missionary work here. And we also were English prosyliting and a guy came out and gave us warm water to drink since it was cold outside. And because he talked to us for a little bit we were able to talk to a guy who walked by. Found out that is a member but hasn't been to church for a little bit. So we re-invited him to come and had a really good conversion with him. Then he left. God prepares in all sorts of ways, we just don’t know how until after it happens.

Love you all, have a wonderful new years!!!

Love Sister Basko


I did post pictures from last week, I hope you enjoyed them. I hope that you all had a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. Rachel will be home on February 4th - weather permitting. we will be having an open house reception the following Sunday, all are welcome. mom

 

Taiwan Post December 22, 2014

Wow Christmas will be here in 3 days!!! So fast. I hope you all have an amazing Christmas. This is the best time of year to walk on the streets and sing Christmas hymns. For our English class we split into groups and went to a nearby neighborhood. We stopped random people and sang Christmas songs and then gave them a scripture card. We stopped by some businesses and asked if we could sing to them. They all said yes. Thank goodness. It would have been so sad if they said no. we were able to bring a smile to their faces and the little kids got candy. Everyone had a really good time even though our hands were freezing by the time we headed back to the church.

Then on Saturday our ward had their ward Christmas party. Which was a lot of fun. The missionaries and sister Lu sang the noel medley. It was really pretty, considering the lack of practice time we had. After they had gift exchanges. The kids loved it. And then we had a great pot luck dinner. We had some wonderful stolen bread, noodle dishes, curry, salads and fruits. Our ward was the sweetest. They gave the missionaries a ton of gifts. They were so nice. We are excited to open them on Christmas day.

The miracles we see everyday are small, but they all add up in a good week. We had a great time this week contacting. We went to a park. I was talking to one lady and a lady was talking to my companion. She invited us over to her house. She has said a prayer to help her find someone who needed some Chinese language study books, and she saw us and felt that we were the ones the needed it. It was a huge miracle. And blessing to be there when we needed her prayer answers. She is so sweet, and has amazing English. She is not in Taiwan very often, so we don’t know if we will ever see her again. But we hope to.

Love you all!!!

Merry Christmas
Love Sister Basko

I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas too, I have pictures to post for Rachel but have not had the time to do that. That will be remedied this week. Jeri

 

Dinner at members home

 

Gifts for the missionaries from ward membrs

Christmas play at Church

Taiwan Post December 15,2014

Merry Christmas everyone!!!! This is the best time of the year to share with others your love of Christ. Since we are able to focus greater on our Savior Jesus Christ. This year a new video came out about Christ. I think it is amazing. I hope you all will have a chance to watch and think about what kind of influence Christ has on your lives. http://www.mormon.org/christmas?cid=HPFR112814529

This week we saw so many miracles. We were contacting in a park and we walked around for a little while and then we saw a guy and felt that he needed to talk to us. As we walked towards him he stood up. And we started talking to him. We have a tract here that has lot of questions on it about our purpose in life and why we are here, such as: does God hear our prayers; how can this gospel help our families...etc. it is amazing to use in contacting. We sat down and talk to the guy more about these questions and how we have found answers. It was amazing to find someone who was seeking answers.

Love you all

Sister Basko

Taiwan post December 8, 2014

Merry Christmas everyone!!! I hope you are all having a good time, and enjoying the winter Christmas season. Taiwan has finally decided to get cold. We are now wearing thicker coats and jackets. But despite of the cold weather at night the days are still pretty hot...

Have you seen this video http://www.mormon.org/christmas it is a really good video. You should check it out. It really helps remind us of who Christ is and how important he is to us. Without him we would not be able to receive the help we need to overcome our own weakness. He loves us so much and really wants us to be happy. It is only through following God commandments that we are really happy and receive that love in our lives.

We had a wonderful Christmas activity in Gaoxiong. It was so much fun. The whole mission got together and was able to sing songs, take pictures and follow up with all my old companions. It was so good to see everyone. I love the Christmas season because everyone is so much happier and they are more willing to go out and serve others. As we exactly obey God will give us so many more blessings that we will not be able to receive them. I love Christ, our Savior and Redeemer.

I love you all,

Sister Basko

Sisters Basko and Chang

Taiwan Tiachung Mission

Taiwan Post December 1, 2014

This week elder Gong from the Asia Area presidency came to visit our mission. He met with us and taught us and we were able to learn more about the Asia area and what things we need to do to become better missionaries. We learned about how in every place in the world there are so many people who are prepared to learn about Jesus Christ. We just have to know where God wants us to go to find these people. We need to have faith, energy and focus on the promptings of the Holy Ghost. This will help us hear obey and share the things that we know. As we learn and study we will be more obedient and the Holy Ghost will be stronger with us and we will be ready to go out every day to share the gospel. I really liked a quote from Elder Boyd K. Packer "a testimony can be found in the bearing of it." if we are willing to share our testimony with others we will be able to learn more from the truths that we hold sacred. And then he asked us "have you asked the Lord 'what can I do?'" we need to ask the Lord what He wants us to do. And then we go and do it. This is not our work, this is the Lord’s work. He has allowed us to take a small part in it.

Sister Wawro and I had a really amazing experience on Sunday. On Saturday night when we were preparing our plan for the next day. We prayed where we needed to go. We felt that we needed to go to the same place. We looked at the map and pointed to the same place. So we went there last night. We contacted everyone as we went on our way to the area we were prompted to go. We stopped in an area where we felt we should. We got off our bikes and started contacting everyone around us. We knocked on some doors. And everyone we talked to referred us to the same family...so we will go back another time. But we also had 2 really good lessons with people that we met there. It was really amazing to see that God is preparing people for us to find. We just have to be ready to find and teach them.

Have a great Christmas!!!

Love Sister Basko

Thanks Barb for the tree

and the goodie box is awesome!

Taiwan Post November 24, 2014

So it is the 4th day for training. And we have seen so many miracles. Sister Wawro is my new companion. She is so amazing. While she was waiting for her visa to Taiwan, she was serving in Seattle. So she was there for about 8 weeks. And then she came to Taiwan with a group of 20 other missionaries. So exciting!!! I am so excited to be serving with her and to have this opportunity to learn so much more!!! It has already been amazing. We had two new investigators set up for Saturday. One lady is already a Christian yet because of a leg problem she has not been able to go to church for a while. So we were lucky to get to know her and shared a little bit with her. She is struggling with her faith but since she has a Christian background she understands a lot of what we shared with her. Sister Wawro asked her a really simple question "why do you pray?" that is all she asked and this lady started crying and said it was because she feels peace and comfort from it. Sometimes we forget the gospel is that simple. If we are listening to the Holy Ghost a little kid would be able to understand. But we get so caught up in teaching everything that we know that we forget the very simplest principles. And that simple principle is what the Holy Ghost is able to testify of.

I know that the people that God calls, he qualifies. We have all been called to his work. To go and serve his children. To go testify of him. I know that Christ is our savior and redeemer and as Thanksgiving comes closer the more I think about the things that I am grateful for. 

Love you all

Sister Basko

 

Sister Wawro and Sister Basko

Taiwan Post November 17, 2014

After some difficulties of receiving visas we are finally receiving 21 new missionaries into the Taiwan Taichung mission. We are so excited to receive them in the mission field. We are so excited for them to be able to come to Taiwan. It is a really great place. The people are amazing and open. I will also be training a brand new missionary who is brand new to Taiwan, which is a huge responsibility, and it will be hard but it will also be a lot of fun and I will learn so much from my trainee. I trust our mission president and his decision. He knows how to direct the work here through the guidance from God.

This week we met the cutest grandma ever. She is 70+ and she travels a lot from here and Gaoxiong where her kids are living. We were tracking and found her. It was a miracle and the other huge miracle is that she is also Christian. We talked a lot about families and how Christ has blessed her life. We learned so much from her and we are so excited that we can go back and share more about Christ with her.

Miracles come through our faith.

Love Sister Basko

Sisters Basko, Chen, Anderson and Baincardi

'cutest member missionary ever' and Sister Basko

Sisters Basko and Sears

 

Taiwan post 11-10-2014

Miracles happened this week. We did a lot of tracting and knocking on doors. We found a lot of people who are really interested and really want to learn more. We were able to share a little bit with them and set up another time to meet with them. We are excited to go and find those that are ready to hear the gospel. God has prepared so many people we just need to have the faith and God can find them. They are waiting and it is our job to find. As we believe we will see the huge miracles that will come.

We had our English party which was Halloween based. It was a lot of fun. We had a lot of kids come which was good we had games and things for them to do. We had them make pumpkins out of play-dough and they also learned the vocab!

I found out a recent convert from Gangshan is now up here in Taichung and is going to the same church building I am going to!!! So excited to see her. She is so awesome. She is so strong in the gospel because she is continually reading her scriptures and praying. As she does these things she has developed a really strong faith in God.

I Love you all!!! Keep working hard. God is always behind you pushing you do you your best. It is your choice to step forward and do those things he wants you to do

Love Sister Basko

Sister Chen birthday,

They decorated around her bed

Rachel is little red riding hood, Sister Biancardi as snow white

plus it looks like Hello kitty and well I dont know but she is one litte cutey

playdough pumpkin

 

 

Taiwan post November 3, 2014

November has fallen on the world and we are slowly working our way into the winter. We are working on getting some cool activities together here for our youth of our ward. we are organizing a family home evening group so that our recent converts and our members that are not yet married can get to know each other better and so they can get together and play some games, have a spiritual message or lesson and share and eat snacks together. We are so excited to get something organized. We are hoping that it will be a success and will really motivate our members to invite their friends and family to the activity.

This week we met a really cute mom of 3 kids. We called her up a couple of weeks ago but she didn't have time to meet with us, so we called her again recently and she set up a time to meet. Huge miracle, we got to know her and shared a message about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and about how learning about hem will really bless her family. She was excited to learn more and we are so excited to share more with her.

We saw so many miracles as we went to find new people to share the gospel with. We are very blessed to be serving in this area and have the opportunity to really get to know our members better and find ways that we can serve them.

Love you all, keep working hard. The Lord is on your side!!!

Sister Basko

Taiwan post October 27, 2014

This week was amazing. The weather is still pretty hot here. It has cooled off but we still do not need to wear a jacket yet. It is amazing how humid it is still here but I am enjoying all the sun shine. It rarely rains so most days it is sunny and bright.

This week Sister Biancardi and I went to find some members. Since neither of us have been in the area for very long we went to go and find those members we still have not had an opportunity to meet. At one house the member was not there. So we tracted around her house and met a super cute family. They let us in and we got to know them better. They have been to other Christian churches before but do not have very much background knowledge. We are going back this week to share more with them. We are so excited. 

We also went on exchanges with the sister training leaders...which we live with. So that was fun. I went to the other area. To Dakeng. Which is right next to the area I serve in. we met some really interesting people. We talked to a lot of people in a small park. It was really interesting to see how many people go for walks at night.

This week I was studying about faith in Ether 12:6. It talks about how faith is the key. It is through faith that we are able to see the blessings from God, and to help us see the everyday miracles that are happening around us. God will show forth his power when his children exercise faith in him. When we have faith our lives go much smoother, and we are much happier. God will not let us fail.

Love you all!!!!

Sister Basko

Taiwan post October 20,2014

This week was so good. We had a baptism on Saturday night. Our investigator is Alexis. She is so amazing!!! She had a lot of things that she had to overcome. But because of a miraculous Bible that showed up in her kitchen one night she was converted. She did not believe in God and Jesus Christ and shortly after the she found the Bible she started meeting with the missionaries. She is so golden. She changed her life so quickly and because of the quick change she is so much happier and inviting her friends to also learn more. She was baptized by her friend Tony. She was so happy all day and then on Sunday she received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She is really amazing. Sister Biancardi and I are so lucky to be able to get to know her in such a short period of time.

This week we met so many amazing investigators but after we learned that none of them are in our area so we are praying for them and helping them to meet the missionaries in their own area. I know this work is God’s work. As we go out everyday I look for the people that God has put in my path. I pray and hope that all of you are doing well. If you ever need anything there is a loving Heavenly Father who will hear your prayers. I know that Heavenly Father loves every one of us.

Love all of you,
Sister Basko

P.S. we went to the temple today. It was so beautiful. It has been about 1 year since I have had an opportunity to go there since I have been down south for so long. It was a 2 1/2 hour ride to the temple in Taipei from Taichung. It was beautiful weather today. The grounds are so clean and peaceful even though it is in a very busy city. I felt so much peace from entering into the Lords house and some much needed direction and guidance. 

This is Sisters Anderson, Chen and Biancardi. We all live together here in Taichung but we serve in districts in the city of Taichung.

Taiwan post October 13, 2014

This week was sooo good. We went out and had a lot of success. We first went on a hike with our investigator. Who just turned 20 years old!!! Yeah congratulations. She now joins the groups of us twenty year olds!!!! We ate lunch and hung out and went shopping nearby.

Then as the week went on we met with as many members as we could to help prepare them from general conference and to remind them of it and on getting prepared and inviting family or friends to a session. A typhoon traveled past Taiwan this weekend and all we got was the wind here. It was incredibly winding as we road our bikes to our ward building to watch general conference. Hearing from the prophet and the twelve Apostles and the members of the Seventy was inspiring. All their talks flowed together and they testified of truth and reality and sustain prophets and the leaders of the church and the importance of the temples. It is incredible important to listen to the prophets words for he is the one who will prepare us for the things that will come. The prophet is Heavenly Fathers representative here on earth and we are so blessed to hear from him this weekend. And if you would like to hear their words or talks they are all available to listen or watch for free at lds.org, they were amazing.

We will also have a baptism this week on Saturday. We are so excited to help her learn more about Jesus Christ and Heavenly father. Love you all

Stay safe and healthy

Love Sister Basko

Taiwan post October 6, 2014

This week was so amazing. We were so busy there were lessons set up for everyday and so as we went about our day we would contact anyone and we also have a lot of time to contact since this area is smaller. We do not have very far to travel. It would probably take less than 2 hours to ride all the way around our area. But there are so many people here that have never seen missionaries. So we have a lot of work to do...today is our investigator’s, Alexis, birthday. She will be turning 20.!!!!! And so we are celebrating with her and then going hiking

I know this church is true and that this gospel will really bless anyone’s live if they are willing to try it out. The promise blessings that God has promised are real. If we are willing to keep his commandments and follow his council he will bless us. I know that Jesus Christ is our savior and redeemer. He has given us so much through his sacrifice. It is because of him that we are able to change and we are able to become new people. To make our weaknesses our strengths.

By the way I have been a Facebook missionary. So I will be making a new profile. If you have any friends that can speak Chinese you can send them my way. I will let you know more when I have a better idea about it.

Love Sister Basko

 

Taiwan post September 29, 2014

I have moved to a new area. I moved back up to Taichung. This is 20 minutes from the mission office. My new companion is awesome and she is from Oregon!!! This area is very pretty and much faster pace than the south of Taiwan...down there things are much slower and the population seems to be much older. I am so excited to be here but also sad to leave all those people behind. Here in Beiqun district there are four sisters living in the same apartment, the sister training leaders and we live together. This will be fun. Sister Chen, my companion from Nanzi, is one of the sister training leaders...so I get to see her again.

We had a great week in Gangshan. We ate our favorite food and we rode all over the place and found some really amazing investigators. We were blessed with a really good busy Sunday we got to visit a new family and drop by and see one of our investigators and we also got to meet her family. She has a really good family!!! They are all so welcoming and sweet. I was so glad that we got to see her before I left.

God loves his children so much that he prepares ways for everyone to hear the gospel. No matter what!!! He will always help them know that they can have even greater happiness.!!!

Love you all,

Sister Basko

Rachel on the 74th floor

Looking down from the 74th floor

the Seaport from the 74th floor

Leaving Gangshan for Taichung

Gangshan awesome Relief Society president

awesome sister

more amazing sisters

Leaving Gangshan

Taiwan post September 22, 2014

This Sunday we were suppose to have a typhoon come from the bottom of Taiwan and travel all the way up to the top. It was also suppose to be a really big storm...so because of that Church was cancelled and we had to stay inside. When we got up in the morning it was kind of windy, but not raining too hard. And that was it. Neither lightning nor thunder. I think the typhoon didn't come on land. So we spent the start of the day inside. Then headed out into the rain. Right before we went home we were able to tract for a little and found two miracles. A lady talked to us for a while outside her house and then another family let us come inside and talk to them for a little bit. So it was a good experience to testify and share a little about Christ since neither of them knew anything about Christ.

This week was good we had an opportunity to go to Monkey Mountain for p-day. It was ton of fun. Climbed to the top. Saw lots of monkey and got to talk to people we saw on the path. Then headed home.

This week was zone conference. We learned more about our purpose as missionaries, which is to "bring others unto Christ, by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end." as missionaries we are to invite everyone to come unto Christ and as member you are also to invite them to learn more about Christ by inviting them to meet with missionaries or to bring them to church yourself, or to family home evening activies.. As we focus on serving and sharing God will help us come across those that are being prepared and have interesting in learn more about Christ.

I love you all. Stay safe!!! And warm...winter is on its way!! :D

Sister Basko

a monkey on the trail

Taiwan post Sptember 15, 2014

It was an interesting week. With everyone now in school or busy with work. There is nobody home in the afternoons except the old people...who do not speak Chinese, they can only speak Taiwanese....which I cannot understand...so that time we spend calling phones or visiting members. We went tracting last night by a member’s home and met her mother-in-law (poupou) which is usually kind of scary. But she was super nice. We were talking to her for a good 20 minutes. Then kept knocking doors and our member walked outside and welcomed us in. we got to meet her son and her husband and then their friends stopped by for a second and then we also left. It was quite the night. It was fun and our member is so amazing.

We also went on exchanges with the Tainan sister training leaders. It was a really good learning experience. I went on exchanges with Sister Ting. She is from Malaysia. Super cute. She has an incredible testimony and she and her sister are the only members in their family. We saw a ton of miracles, got to visit a new convert and which time it was down pouring outside. A crazy storm came out of nowhere....so we road home in the rain.made it safely and we also got to met an amazing new investigator.

We are going to Monkey Mountain today (our p-day). Which will be a blast. We are going to be hiking up a mountain full of monkeys....so excited...but it might be a little dangerous...:D

Love you all have a good week!!!

Love Sister Basko

I hope she shares pictures this coming week of their hike up monkey mountain, looked it up on line and it will be fascinating what Rachel shares about it.

Taiwan Post September 8, 2014

This week went really smoothly considering that everyone started back in school. Heavenly Father blessed us so much this week in find new investigators and finding people that we can teach. We were still able to meet with a fair amount of our investigators. But a lot of them also said that they no longer had any time since school is starting. But that’s alright we will find new people to teach.

We had a great time today. Our member family took us to explore Tainan. We first went to a little area where they have a bunch of props from a movie and so we took a ton of pictures. There was  museum that was right next to it and it had a skeleton for a sperm whale...which is as long as 8 people together...really cool. Then we went to a salt mountain. Which we got to climb and walk around on. It was several stories high. Pretty cool experience. Then we got to see some salt sculptures which were right next to it.

The best part of doing missionary work is seeing so many miracles every day. To get to talk to our members and here how they were converted and how much happier they are now. Or to see how our investigators really become happier in such a short period of time. God does exist and He knows each of us and loves each of us. I love you all. Keep working hard!!!

 

Love Sister Basko

I wanted to share some of Rachel's photos of her P-day in Tainan with a member family. They took them to this area to show them around and explore. I am counting down the weeks until Rachel is home, this week is week 21.  mom

 

 

Sister Basko with shaved ice

Sister Sears with shaved ice

P-day inTainan

Church activity

tunnel

selfie in tunnel

scooter

salt sculpture

 

Tainwan post August 31, 2014

This week was amazing and incredibly busy. We were out everyday looking for new investigators and going to our investigators house and going to less active members houses. We were riding all over the place. We have a cute little investigator out in Mituo which is only a 30 minute bike ride if it wasn’t for the ocean winds the push against you the whole time so it turns into a 40 minute ride. But it is good we were able to meet with our investigator. We also went to find less activies out there but they were all at work. So we did not get a chance to meet them. Next time we will plan a better time. We also rode out to Luzhu for a new investigator it took an hour to get out there and then find her house. But it was a really pretty area and luckily no ocean breeze. We have seen so many miracles in this area. God has really prepared a lot of people including the people from other countries. We are meeting with 2 Vietnamese ladies. And they have a lot of interest. So we are helping them learn more about church, which they really like and they have met quite a few people. So hopefully they will feel really welcomed in the ward.

Love you all this week is really short. Talk to you next week.

Love Sister Basko

Taiwan post August 25, 2014

This week was amazing we had two activities that we were able to attend. We had a fireside where we were able to bring an investigator with us. The people in the meeting shared their testimonies and their conversion stories. It was really touching, and the spirit was very strong. These people of Taiwan are members of the restored gospel because they themselves chose; they were converted to God and had a desire to be baptized. It was a really big blessing to have such amazing members here.

Then there was musical concert. The guy was from Hawaii and he cannot see but is able to play the piano. We had many members and less active member there. They were able to feel the spirit and able to listen to amazing piano music.

This week we have been blessed with 3 amazing new investigators. Which were all gifts from God? The elders tracted into a home and a girl came out and said that she would like to learn more. So we were able to meet with her and her brother. They are both really smart and they asked a lot of really good questions and really got us thinking too. They were also able to come to church and check it out.

Love you all. Hope that you have a good week and are all safe. Sister Sears are on our way to go hiking with a member at big Gangshan. Which is a really big mountain nearby.

Love Sister Basko

Ancient instrument

Taiwan grandma

Pianist from Hawaii

Rachel at Costco in Gangshan

Sister Sears at Costco in Gangshan

Sister Sears in mask at the train station

Sister Basko at the train station on her bike