Christmas at the MTC

Christmas here was fantastic!!!! One of the best yet!!

On Christmas Eve we had a devotional with the MTC presidency and their wives.  It was fun!  Sister Clegg talked about Mary and her great experiences and hardships she had.  Then Sister Brienholt had us sing a fun song. She wrote the MTC 12 Days of Christmas. And it goes like this:
On the 12th day of Christmas the MTC gave me 
12  hours of class
11 loads of laundry
10 more commandments
9 outbound calls
8 hours of rest
7 lukewarm showers
6:30 wake up
5 HOURS OF GYM!!!!!
4 chocolate milks
3 new companions
2 haircuts free
and a rock solid testimony!!!!

I was really fun! She chose a sections of missionaries to sing each part so we were constantly getting up and sitting back down again. Each verse got louder and louder and louder!  Everyone was very into it. Especially day #5...everyone here LOVES gym! There were always whistles and yahoos after that line.

We got to hear from L Tom Perry on Christmas morning. He brought most of his family and they read the story of Christ's birth from different perspectives from the scriptures. It was fun. He said "I will let you borrow my family so you can have one here with you on this Christmas day". It was very sweet! Oh and by the way our Elders got up at 6 and got in line to save us seats so we sat in the 2nd row right smack dab in the middle....they're so good to us!

Then we went back to our rooms and got our white elephant gifts we made for our Elders and headed to the classroom to open all our presents with our Elders.  Unfortunately the Elders were late because they found that a bunch of stuff had been stolen out of their room while they were at the devotional.  It was so sad. There was a total of $1200 worth of stuff stolen. Ipods, cameras, cash, speakers, and other things.  Hopefully they'll get it back. They've interviewed everyone that lives in their building.  But once the Elders finally arrived we all changed into our Christmas pajamas...Thank you MOM...... and we opened presents together around our little pink tinsel light up tree....thank you EMILY!!!!! It was fun!

Then we had a Christmas dinner/lunch which was surprisingly good and we got the rest of the day to write letters and study.  Then that night we heard another devotional form greg Olsen who is a famous artist from the church.  It was interesting to hear him talk about how hard it has been for him to depict the life of the Savior.  It was a very nice devotional and I really love his paintings!

It was so amazing and uplifting to have a whole entire week of talking about the Savior's birth. Instead of frantically running around buying Christmas presents and trying to bake everything I possibly can!  I've always known that I should be focusing on the true meaninng of Christmas but I finally comprehended and undersrtood it this year and I hope I will never look bacl from this year on! I love our Savior Jesus Christ with all of my heart! I will forever be grateful for His infinite atonement. I know that through His atonement I can do anything and  I can overcome anything.

I love you all and I am so grateful for all of the Christmas love, packages, artwork, gifts, cards, and pictures that I have received! Once again, I am the most loved missionary in the entire MTC....by far!!!

con amor

Hermana Taylor

Christmas is Coming...the Goose is Getting Fat!

I CANNOT believe that is is already the week of Christmas! I am SO SO SO excited to be spending Christmas in the MTC! We have our first of many devotionals tonight and we're all hoping it will be an apostle. Word on the street is that Donny & Marie Osmond are coming Christmas Eve....jajajja

Thank you to everyone who has sent me fun packages!!!!! The melendi bunch and those AMAZING coconut cupcake!!! The Jestice familia!!!! Katie & the boys!!!! I hung the poster up on my closet door and I'm never taking it down!!!! JJ, Boyd, Gma Penny and Gpa Laryy!!!!! And The Vegas Lythgoes!!!!! I have been the most loved missionary in the whole MTC....by far! I've pretty much been getting packages every day and I LOVE iT!!!!! Thank you so much!!!!

And mom I got your package! That was so sweet of you to think of my roommates and Elders! They already love you....Be expecting letters from them soon!

I CANT believe that I only have 2 weeks left here! Then I'll be out in the field!!! 4 new elders came into our zone this week that are all going to my mission and they're all natives so I've been talking to them a lot in spanish.

I only have like 3 minutes left so if this randomly cuts out at any random place just know that I love you all and I hope that you have the most wonderful Christmas EVER!!!!!! We have the greatest gift in the entire world that our Savior has given us and we get to celebrate His life this week!!! I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have been singing Christmas songs a lot and to hear 2500 missionaries singing so loud makes me cry. Apparently I'm related to my dad!!! I love it. The spirit is so strong when we're singing!

Here is an awesome thing that I have treasured during my time here at the MTC
The obedience is the price
Faith is the power
Love is the motive
The Spirit is the key
And Christ is the reason!!!

I love that! And Christ really is the reason that I am out here learning about the Gospel so I can share it with people who want to come unto Christ!  Through Him we can do ANYTHING!!!!

I love you all!!! FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!

con amor, 
Hermana Taylor

Another Week in the City of Enoch!

This week has been pretty exciting!!!! Not anything too big happened but I feel like I've progressed a lot. On Friday we taught in the TEC which is the Teaching Evaluation Center where we teach to teachers and they pretend to be investigators that they taught on their missions. It's great practice! SO we started teaching Marcela. She has 4 boys and no husband. We taught her about God's love for her and that she can receive answers to her prayers and help with her 4 crazy sons if she prays with a sincere heart and real intent. It was pretty cool. We taught for 30 minutes and we taaught the entire time in Spanish! It felt so good!!!!  Then she emailed our teacher that teaches our class and said "Hermanas Taylor and Ouellettte are amazing! I believe that they can single handedly destroy the forces of evil!" WOW! that was pretty cool to hear!

Then later that day we taught in the TRC which is where volunteers come in and we teach them. Most of them are students from BYU but some of them are actual real investigators.  Our teacher's friend Stacy came in for us to teach! She is amazing! She has leukemia and we taught her about the plan of salvation and that she will receive a perfect body after the resurrection! It was such a cool experience because it was a REAL experience. I twas something that she honestly needed in her life!

This week I memmmorized D&C 4 in Spanish! So Elder Walch owed me a snickers icecream bar! We had a race and I won! OF COURSE!!!!

We have an hour and a half of service every Thursday and this week we had to clean the showers! GUACALA!!!!!!

Hermana Ouellette had to go to the dentist cause she had a tooth that was bothering her. I told her that she was going to need a root canal and I was totally right!!!!! She saw a crazy dentist ant the MTC and he actually knows Craig Smith! He was so funny! He goes to the DR every year and Craig went last year and another dentist that went to School with Dad and Craig.

I only have 2 more minutes but I wanted to tell you a little about my teacherrs! They're both so amazing!  Hermano Haight served in my same mission. He's Gringo and thinks he's native. It's great! We found out that he's dating a native girl but he won't give us any details. He is SO so so sososososo Funny! Yesterday he was wearing a navy suit with one grey sock and one black sock! I love it! He's the biggest dweeb! And then we have Hermana Neeleman who served in Costa Rica and she's awesome! She love her hermanas the most!

Really fast...I made a call from the RC in Spanish yesterday and it was great I talked for 10 minutes with a guy! SO SO SO cool


-Hermana Taylor

LOVE YOU ALL

Feliz December!

Rabbitt rabbitt rabbitt!!!! I CANNOT believe it is already December!!  I had such a great Thanksgiving. Or as us Spanish speaking folk call it, Thanksgeebing!!!!! My companion and I probably said that 976 times on Thursday! Emily would have hated me! On Thanksgiving Elder Holland came and spoke to us, it was absolutely amazing! He answered some great questions that missionaries had submitted to him a week prior.  His wife spoke as well and her talk was equally as amazing. This was my favorite quote: "My husband took my breath away when I fell in love with him; And now without him, I cannot breathe.  He is my life!" WOW! It was the sweetest thing I have ever heard.  And I was pretty impressed with the food. We had a regular turkey(pavo / chompipe) dinner. Oh ya... one point that Elder Holland made about being homesick really hit home for me: he said, "it is healthy, as a missionary, to be homesick for your family. It is the same as our Father in Heaven. He has children that are not currently with Him or communicating with Him. He is missisng them like crazy.  And it is our job, as missionaries, to  bring those children back to Him.  Our homesickness can be tool to fuel our desire to bring people to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
And the best part was that they turned on all the Christmas lights here! They're so good to us!

So here is a little rundown of my week:
We have Gym 5 -6 days a week and I've been running atleast 2 miles every time! Which is great but sometimes I have the extra energy to run more and sometimes I barely have enough to run 2. There is an elyptical machine right at this huge window that looks out over the temple and 9th east. I love watching the real world operate. I always see Garrett driving in to work!

Sunday was busy! We had sacrament meeting, Music & the spoken word broadcast, Relief Society, Study time, walk to the temple where I saw Carly and Cru and Shad which was so so so fun! Then a devotional and then we got to pick a Sunday night church movie. Sundays are just fully loaded but the greatest day!

On Monday we taught the first lesson twice IN SPANISH!!!! It was so cool. I had been praying so hard for help and I spoke so many words that were not my own! It was such a great experience!  We started learning doctrine for the 2nd lesson on the plan of salvation.  And last night was really fun because both of our teachers were there at the same time cause Elder Lee is leaving for the Peru MTC and we wanted a picture of all of us together!

I love you all so so so much! I can't wait to hear about all you all are doing!!!

con amor,

Hermana Taylor

Truly 100% Happy

So this week I dont feel like has been very eventful. I'm finally getting into a set schedule which is so nice!  I saw Garrett this week. I literally just stopped by his classroom and sadi HI! I didnt want to interupt him.  And Emmily said that she saw mw on Sunday! I cant believe you didnt even say hi EMILY!!!! What the heck!?!?!? That would have made my day! I always see Terry Mel's car when I'm walking to the temple but it'a always gone when I walk back :( Que triste :( I'm always so excited that I'm going to see him!

Our teachers are just amazing! Their enthusiasm is incredible! Hermano Haight is so so so funny! He's a total nerd but he does the funniest things without thinking they're really that funny! We're always laughing at things he says. I might have already told you this but he went to my mission so I can ask him all my random questions that I've been thinking. It's really nice! He said I could go the whole 18 months without teaching a lesson in English. He only taight 1 his whole 2 years! And Hermana Neeleman is great!!! She loves me and Hermana Ouellette. We're totally the teachers pets!! It's pretty great!

So we've been working in the RC (referral center) which is answering phone calls and chatting online with people that have questions about the church. I'm there MOnday nights from 615-730 UT time and Thursday from 115-230 in the afternoon. Incase anybody that I know happens to have a question or want to chat online about a question and just happens to get online when I'm there! You can go to www.mormon.org and chat and ask whoever picks up ypur chat for Hannah Taylor and they can transfer you to me! Or not!!!! Just saying!!!

I love it here! I know that certain people are put in our paths for very specific reasons. it's truly amazing how the Lord works! Yesterday a random elder came up to me and said "Hey sis Taylor! You have red curly hair! And you're going to Salt Lake Spanish speaking!" I was so weirded out by this guy that knew all this about me! It turns out he had seen Troy and Pam at the temple that day and they told him to look for me! What is the chance that the ONE missionary they talked to, ran into me, that same day! CRAZY!

I have received so many answers to my prayers as well. I had been to the RC  twice and had not received a single call and nobody had answered my outbound calls. The 3rd time we went, Hermano Haight told us to pray to have faith and that we would act upon it. And so we did. Then someone answered all of my calls, I received 3 calls and also 2 chats. It was incredible. I know that our father in heaven answers our prayers. I see it every single day in my life. No matter what I may ask for, He will give it to me if I have faith and real intent. I love that.

Anyways, I hope everyone is doing well. I pray for you all every night to be safe and healthy. I love you and I love this work. I cannot wait to get out into the field and share this great gospel with the people that do not have it so that they can have this great happiness and joy that I have. I feel as though this is the first time I can say I am truly 100% happy. It's amazing.

con amor,

Hermana Taylor

My first official letter!

Hi everyone!!!!!

So this might be crazy and have a lot of mis spelled words. I have this huge RED clock counting down the remainder of my time. It is seriously stressful!

So to start off...my address has changed a little bit. it's 2005 N 900 E mailbox#153 Provo UT 84604. I got moved up to intermediate spanish on the first day so I had to move rooms, districts, classes, mailbox, everything.

This place is so bazaar! I have totally forgotten that the rest of the world is still out there! I feel like I'm living in a bubble! But I love this bubble!  I love my district! There are only 5 of us. So we eat together, have class together, go to devotionals together, we're pretty much together all day long. It's me and my companion Hermana Ouellette, then 3 elders....Walch, Shumway, and Lee. All of us are redheads except for my companion. Which is CRAZY!!!!! We're easy to spot in large groups. I'm use to being the minority....not anymore.

I love studying the gospel SO much! I never thought I would be able to handle sitting at a desk for 10 hours a day. But since I'm learning about something that is so near and dear to my heart, I barely even notice the time pass.  I have realized so many thing just during this week.  I've realized how much my father in Heaven loves me. And there are so many ways that He has shown me. The biggest is the answers that I receive to my prayers every single day! It's truly amazing. I can turn to Him and ask for ANYTHING! I love it. And believe me I have been using that blessing 10 times a day, every day!

I also never thought that simply sitting at a desk would be so tiring! I am so tired when I get back to my dorm.  Actually, at some times it's hard to stay awake during class...oops! I'm sure my teachers don't appreciate that! But studying for that long is tiring. My eyes are always tired.  But my scriptures must be REALLY tired. I'm just flipping those babies around like a mad woman. I have so many pages marked, and written in the margins. I love it!  I'm getting to know the scriptures very well! already...I can't wait to see what it will be like by the end of these 18 months.

Sorry this email is so all over the place...I left my notes in my classroom.  Mistake #1. Mistake #2: I don't have my tag on right now and I feel totally  NAKED!!! eeekkk...it's weird.

I have 3 other roommates besides my companion.  There is Hermana Bounds, she's from Orange and going to Louisville Kentucky and she burps like a man and I love her SO SO much!  Then there is Hermana Tittle ( I know right!?!?!??!) she is from Orem and going to LA!!! And then there is Hermana Erickson from Boise ID and going to New Jersey.  They all speak spanish and so we have a goal to try as hard as we can to only speak spanish to each other when we're together. It's amazing that Spanish has been coming so fast and quickly.  But I know that I'm not doing it on my own.  My favorite quote that I've heard here so far and that I KNOW is true is: "If you do your very best, the Lord will take care of the rest". I have already gained such a huge testimony of that. I have fully put my trust in the Lord to help me learn all the things that I need to learn before leaving the MTC! I love it here but I'm sure the end of my 9 weeks here won't come soon enough!

I love you all and miss you so so so much! I expect lots of mail...snail mail!!!! I'm not allowed to respond via email :( only to my family!!! But I love you and miss you and you're all in my prayers every day ( en español!!!!)

love, Hermana Taylor

PS: one thing I love about this place. The Elders are so nice to all the sisters!!! Whenever we sit down at the table, the entire long table stands up. EVERY TIME! Even when we get up to get a drink! Its awesome! and they ALWAYS take our trays for us! They love us!!!!!