Taiwan post October 28, 2013

This week has been so busy. Wednesday was crazy. We had a training meeting at the Taichung Mission Office (chuandaobu). The trainers and the trainees from the Northern part of the mission came together. It was great to get a different perspective of see how to change something so that it works better or to make the mission work better. The training was amazing. We got to hear some wonderful stories of missionary experiences. After that we didn't have much time so we hurried to Chaoyuan University to teach our English class. Most of the students have really good English. Then we hurried down to the Wufeng Library to set up our Halloween Party. It was so good. A lot of members helped us set up and play a part in running the games. We set up a path for people to go on for our Halloween haunted tour. It turned out so good. Everyone really had a lot of fun and enjoyed it.

This week we saw so many miracles. We went to find a lady's house and we kind of knew where it should be, but we didn't know what street to turn down. So we turned down one of the streets and stopped in front of a house to call the lady again. And we just happened to stop in front of the lady's house. We were so glad; she has met a lot of missionaries but hasn't been taught anything about the gospel. So we have the opportunity to teach her about the gospel and more about what we do. She was so sweet. She has been in the English classes so she knows about missionaries, but not as much about the gospel. So it is so exciting. We were also to met with another one of our English students, Hazel, who's house is way out in Wufeng. We had a member come with us out there, and she has a daughter the same age as Hazel. Hazel's mom joined us and it was a great lesson. I really hope we can help her family to have a strong relationship with God.

Love Sister Basko

Rachel pointing at a big lizard they found while on a hike on P-day

With Sister Adams, other sisters in the mission

With Sister Adams on a hike on P-day

Taiwan post October 21, 2013 100 days mark

This week our newest convert Ling JM peika'ed for us. It was so awesome. She met Chen JM(Banana, who owns a beauty salon). It was an awesome experience, they got along and did most of the talking and it was really cool to see Ling JM going and helping us with our investigators. So awesome!!! We just had a really good time, testifying of the things we had learned at General Conference. Wednesday Sister Adams and I decided what we wanted to do for the day, but it just didn't feel right. I had been thinking about Liu JM, we had contacted her two weeks ago and didn't have a chance to visit her again. So we both felt that we needed to visit her. So we went over to her house, she was home. She invited us in and she had read the Book of Mormon and we taught the first lesson. She is really interested, and we need to help her get to know the members and come to church. So exciting, she is so awesome. She thinks that all churches are good, which is true. If the church you go to helps you have a relationship with God that is good. Our church is special because we are able to know more and continue developing our relationship with God.

It is so cool to have people serve us. It really blesses them and also helps us to learn more about them and ways that we can also help them. We have met with some really great LA's (less active members) and they have such strong testimonies we just need to help them come back to church so that they can have more friends and a better relationship with God and to learn more about how to also strength others. It was really cool on Sunday we saw so many things happen right in a roll that worked out we were able to help others. Sister Adams and I were working on some training missionary material at the church and had some studies. We were there late. We thought we were the last ones there so we made sure everything was locked up. Sister Adams found a cell phone, one of the missionary companionships forgot. So we put it somewhere safe and went out to shut the gate. But it got stuck and it wouldn't close. We couldn't figure out why, while we were trying to figure out the problem with the gate a set of elders arrived at the church. We found out the cell phone was theirs, and because they were in a different area they couldn't get into the church since they didn't have the key. We have a key since this is our area. They were able to get their phone because the gate wouldn't close (a tiny rock was in the way). So they left and we tried to close the gate but then it had trouble again. Because we had trouble with the gate and were still trying to figure it out, we found out a member was still inside the building and was just walking out. We didn't lock her in. So many things happened all at once and because of everything we were able to see how God is watching out for everyone and knows what to do to help them.

Today is our preparation day so we decided to go hiking, so fun and it was really pretty. Got to do some studies at the top and then went back down. Walked around the area for a while. Taiwan is so cool, there are so many buildings then mountains right through the middle. Amazing at night to see the mountain side with little dots of light where there are people living.

Love Sister Basko

Taiwan posting October 14, 2013

There is an order to the way things are run here in the Taiwan streets, buses come first, then cars, then small motorized vehicles, then bikes and last people. If you do not obey this, it can become very dangerous for you. The streets are crazy, it is sometimes hard to imagine there is any order, but I have found that if you stay in your respective place you are safe if not then it gets very dangerous.

We have an English student we have been meeting with that we have started sharing the gospel with. It is so cool, she told us about some miracles she has seen in her life. It is awesome that we get to share these things with her and teach in English and Chinese. She is very smart and quiet.

This week was my first exchange, we have exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. We are with them for about 24 hours. I went with Sister Mack to Chang Hua. Sister Chua stayed with Sister Adams in Wufeng/Dali. We rode the train to Chang Hua, then went and visited some less actives. It was cool to meet them, and to share a little about the gospel. We got lost a couple of times, but it was fine since I got to see the area. We ate at a restaurant that hand makes their noodles, it was so good and it had so many veggies!! The next day we met with a 10 and 11 year old. They are awesome. Their father thinks they are too young to be baptized, so every time they are taught they share it with their father. That takes a lot of courage on their part.

This week we had an exercise activity at a school in Wufeng. It was huge, all the missionaries raced in a race, it was pretty cool. We got to get to know the members and to hang out and get to know other wards in Taizhung.

Every time Shi baba gives us food we cannot possibly eat, we give it to others we know. It always happens that they really needed that food, and we had no idea. Shi baba gave us food, and we decided to give it to Cheng JM( or Banana). We found out the next day that they had been so busy that they had not eaten all day. And the food we brought was the only thing that they ate that day. It really is a miracle how much we are able to do without us really knowing it.

General Conference was amazing. I love Robert D. Hales talk about how after King Benjamin taught his people they went back to their homes to ponder. That is the same with us, we share a message with the investigators, and they return to their homes and have the opportunity to think about it and apply it to their lives. The best way to understand this gospel and to really be converted is to ponder on the things that we learn and to seek greater understanding.

Saturday was awesome, after conference we had some time to study and later met with Jeng JM (our peika, member at the lesson) and went to go see Jang JM(our investigator).  But she wasn't there. We couldn’t get a hold of the other person we were going to visit. Right before we left I had a thought that we should write a little note to remind her about General Conference. So we did that. That took just enough time that Lin Meng Jing(less active) rode by, she stopped and we talked to her. She invited us over. Her mother doesn't really like us. But she welcomed us over, our peika and the mother and Lin Meng Jing talked for a while, we didn't really say much. We shared a message but that was about it. Then we left and went home. Banana was sitting outside, so we stopped and talked to her for a little bit. Found out she forgot to pray so she said that she could come to church with us!!! So exciting, this is the first time she has come to church. It was such a good night.

This area is so blessed, and I am so lucky that this is my first area. I am grateful for everything and all the amazing church members.

Love Sister Basko

Posted by Jeri Basko (mom)

Ward parade at Stake Activity day

Missionaries in the Stake

Taiwan Post October 7,2013

We just had a baptism this week, it was so exciting. Listening to her testimony and to hear how much she has changed and continues to progress is inspiring. She didn't quite understand repentance and so we taught it again, and we came back and followed up on it, and she told us the most profound thing, she said "if I am not improving every day, then I need to repent." it is so awesome to see how people change. It makes me remember how special this gospel is and how important it is to share and really live it.
 
Shi baba bought so much food and he gave it to the missionaries. We were trying to think who we could visit and share with, and we thought of Sister Fletcher. She is an English teacher here, and she was recently in the hospital but she is fine now. We called her up to see if we could give her some food and found out she is sick and has no food. It is such a miracle how we are able to help her right when she needs it, and to visit her and be there to help her. It is so amazing how everything we do, when we are listening and prepared, we see miracles and so many blessings.

We have the most amazing peika's (members who come to lessons with investigators). All the member's here are new, they have not been members for very long. Their testimonies are so strong, and they can share their experience and their understanding of how the Book Mormon changes lives and coming to church is so important.

The food here is amazing. But there are not a lot of people that cook traditional Taiwanese food. We had the special privilege to visit the Miao jaiting(family), they do cook traditional Taiwanese food. Their daughter is on a mission right now in Taipei. They have pictures of Christ and the temple in their home, and they are not members, they are forever investigators. But they are amazing. They cook tradition Taiwanese food, it was good, had a tiny piece of 1000 year old egg, it was ok. They are so funny, they know so much and they just don't seem to want to get baptized. But they love having missionaries over. So it’s good that we can always share a message with them.

Love Sister Basko

Posted by Rachel's mom (jeri)

Taiwan week ending September 30, 2013

Subject: Inspired week

This week has been amazing. I am still getting to know the church members, less actives, recent converts and our investigators. It has been hard to learn their names, but after a while you realize they all have like the same last name. But this week we had several inspired lessons. I met yang JM (jiemei) and she was awesome. She takes care of her father, and if she goes to church she will be kicked out of her house, so right now she can't come to church, but she has such a strong testimony. This was my first time meeting her, and I planned a lesson what I was reading that morning in personal study. I was in Alma 42:4-6.

4 And thus we see, that there was a ^atime granted unto man to repent, yea, a ^bprobationary time, a time to repent and serve God.
 5 For behold, if Adam had put forth his hand immediately, and ^apartaken of the ^btree of life, he would have lived forever, according to the word of God, having no space for repentance; yea, and also the word of God would have been void, and the great plan of salvation would have been frustrated.
 6 But behold, it was appointed unto man to ^adie—therefore, as they were cut off from the tree of life they should be cut off from the face of the earth—and man became ^blost forever, yea, they became ^cfallen man.

 Those 3 verses stuck out to me, and so that is what we shared. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and why repentance is so important. Without repentance we are not able to change for the better, which is why it is so important that we have agency. This is why it is so important that we have the desire to do good. She told us she had not been able to feel the Holy Ghost as often, and she really wanted to. This lesson was perfect of her. I had never met her and I didn't know what she needed, but Heavenly Father did and He helped us share what we needed to with her to bring the spirit back into her life. Another lesson was with Ling Bai Mei, she is getting baptized Oct 5, 2013!! So soon, she is so ready, and I planned that lesson too. Cai JM (she is a recent convert, and her testimony is so strong) we taught about repentance, and we talked about why it is so important to read the scriptures every day. Cai JM has been really busy with work and had not been reading her scriptures every day. She talked about how this had affected her, and how she felt different. This lesson perfectly helped everyone, it really helps me appreciate the time I have every morning to study the scriptures.

It is really cool to be able to share my own personal experience that I had at home, and testify how they have made a difference in my life. Like reading the Book of Mormon as a family. I think it has made a difference while I was home. And to really be able to study them together bring a different spirit in your home. We were able to share this with many of our investigators that are not reading the Book of Mormon, and to testify that it makes a difference.

We get to do English proselyting every week, where we go somewhere and hand out a bunch of English class flyers. A girl came up to us and asked about the class, her English was so good!!! She was able to come to the class, and I was able to talk with her, she really wants to study abroad. I hope we can share the gospel with her, but if not we can influence her for the good. I had my first house contacting. On Thursday, we found a lady, Liao or Liu, that is interested in listening. We shared a little and prayed with her. It was awesome. I really hope we get the chance to teach her. The son of one of our investigator’s is being taught by the elders, and we are teaching her. She had started reading the Book of Mormon every day. It really makes a difference in everyone's life when they read the Book of Mormon every day. It is really interesting how much they change and start progressing when they are willing to come to church and read and pray.

The food is so good here. I had mango bin for the first time. It is mango on shaved ice with like syrup. So good. One day we had hongdong bin. Which is a disk with filling in it, we had chocolate, cream and peanut filling. This was dinner and it was so good!! I had shrimp brains this week. Yeah, it was interesting, it didn't taste like anything which I was very grateful.

Love Sister Basko

Wanted to add a short note here, Rachel is not updated her blog weekly I do it for her from her weekly emails home. Jeri (mom)

Second week in Taiwan

This week has been amazing and so interesting. It is awesome to see our investigators progressing. Ling Bai Mei is getting baptized Oct 5 and she is awesome. She is teaching her son a little bit, and so he is progressing too. Wednesday was zone conference. We learned about repentance, and how in the Holy Bible it had a good connotation before it was translated. Repentance is a good thing, but we always feel bad before we repent, but repentance takes that all away. Later we had English class at the Wufeng library. It was cool, there are different classes, for different ages. It is awesome that people are willing to come and participate.

Sister Fletcher is doing better, we visited her to see if we could help her. We visited with her for a little while. Her dog is adorable, we shared a message with her then left for the KFC, to meet our investigators Ling Mong Jin, and Zhen Jiemei. Then we headed to a kaoro (BBQ). It was a church kaoro, so we visited with the members, and I got to know some of them. This week Thursday to Sunday is the mid autumn festival or the moon festival. They have kaoro's and invite their families over and eat lots of food.

I had my first time teaching this week with Shi Jiemei. I taught her the first lesson, she is a member so she was able to understand what I was talking about. But it was still scary to teach for the first time, and to lead the lesson. But she was awesome. After we taught her, we went to a night market with our district, and we handed out a whole bunch of English class flyers. Inviting everyone, it was cool, really scary to go and talk to people, but it was awesome. I hope we see some of them at the English class!!! After that we were heading over to Chen Mei Hui's house to teach. I was following my companion pretty closely, because there was a lot of traffic. The truck in front of her stopped really quickly, and I hit my brakes really hard, with a new bike the wheel stops. So I kind of flew off my bike and both me and my bike fell over. The car behind me was able to stop and didn't hit me. It was a miracle I barely have a scrape and only a little sore and bruised. I am so gratefully the lord was watching over us and protecting us. So the bike was fine, I was fine, and we continued on our way. Chen jiemei put some stuff on the cuts, she was so sweet!! We taught her then headed home.

Saturday we did a service activity with some of the youth from the ward. We cleaned up alongside a road and then we went to visit a ward member in the hospital after we visited with Ma Jiemei. We sang a song and said a prayer. We visited Ling Mong Jin, our peika (the member at the lesson) Ke Jiemei came with us and she talked to Ling Mong Jin's mom about the church, while Sister Adam's and I visited and taught Ling Mong Jin. One of our new investigators is Yang Jiemei. She is so patient, her son is scared of us, so it took a while to convince him to come and talk to us.

Joey and his wife invited us and the elders over for dinner to teach his wife. He is a member but she is not, so we shared the first lesson with her. Sister Adam's and I had the opportunity to talk with her, and share some more about the gospel with her. It was an awesome lesson, she really opened up and is willing to listen. They have the cutest kids in the while world!!

Love Sister Basko

Just a side note, I did panic a bit when she talked about her accident. I trust in the Lord that she is ok and that it was a minor incident in comparison to how things could have happened. - mom
 

Taichung Zone Conference

Rachel being introduced at zone conference

Eating hot pot first days in Taiwan

Arrival in Taiwan and first week

The flight over to Taiwan was uneventful, and then a 3 hour drive down to Taichung. During the drive we didn't sleep. We talked and introduced ourselves and got to know each other. It was fun. Then we got to the mission presidents home, left our suitcases there, we dropped off at where we would be sleeping. Got to bed about 1am. At 6:10am we got up to go for a run, it is humid and warm, and I love it!!!! We got showered and studied and had breakfast (dragon fruit, mango, papaya, yellow/orange watermelon, fried bread, and soymilk) it was so good!! We had hot pot for lunch and there was a blood stick you ate, it didn't taste like anything, but everything else was great (there was a ton of mushrooms, cabbage, corn, fake crab, and fake fish, meat balls). all day was introductions and getting to know more about the culture here, and about how to be safe on the roads with so many people (such as; never assume you have the right of way, the only time you can go is when there is a green light, and the light are like 90 seconds long, you have time to talk to the people around you). And more studying. Dinner we went to a restaurant and had dinner on a thing that spins. Elder Liskie tried fish eggs, and fish eye ball and Elder Anderson ate duck brain. Stomachs of steel!!!! I stuck to the veggies and the things I knew I could eat. After we had a Dan Jones activity, we all sang a song, and we took turns standing on a wood cart and bore our testimonies. Later we went with one of the more experienced missionaries and street contacted. The last person my companion and I contact (we had decided we were going to give them a copy of the Book of Mormon) was perfect, she was looking for religion, and for help. And we said a prayer with her there and gave her a Book of Mormon, it was amazing!!! You could feel the spirit even though it was loud and crowded!!!

Friday we met our trainers after breakfast and we got our assignments were we are going to be living. I am going to be in Woofing, which is still in the Taichung zone. We got to our area, and planned for the day, then went out to teach some lessons. I met some members and investigators. Shi baba feeds the missionaries like crazy, he is awesome. He is great in lessons and is very outspoken member, he just puts things as they are, he is very blunt but he is great. Since I have arrived we have received 2 bags of fruit every day. The fruit is fantastic and so fresh. The roads are so busy, but it makes it easier to find people to talk to, and to share a little message with them. Saturday Sister Adam accidentally called Sister Fletcher, and we found out she is in the hospital and we got permission to visit her since the hospital was out of our area. The hospitals here family and friend really feed and help whoever is in the hospital. So on our way over we got directions, then Sister Adams go something in her eye, we had to stop and because we stopped we met one of the members from church and he helped us find our way to the hospital. And we able to bring her food and water, and just talk to her. So many miracles we saw on our way there. It was amazing. Sunday was interesting, I really couldn't understand anything, so most of the time I wrote down words I didn't know but heard so that I could learn them. Most of the members are the first ones in their families, and lots of them are recent converts but they still know so much. It is so amazing how the Lord has been preparing the people here to hear and receive His word. They are so welcoming and they are so involved in missionary work, and are friend with the investigators. The best thing is to see the members helping the investigators and getting to know them. It is awesome!!! Last night we did some planning and we went a while longer than we should have. We were still at the church and we had like 20 minutes to get to the investigators house. It would usually take 40 minutes, and we got there in 25min. we were safe and made it there. We taught an awesome lesson and she asked a ton of questions and we had experience we could share and help her apply reading the Book of Mormon to her life and help her think about how it could help her.

Love Sister Basko

wo jiemei










Loading on the bus to Taichung



President and Sister Blickenstaff - Mission president with Rachel after arrival in Taichung Taiwan

 Sister Adams training companion