More about Conference and Gladis!

As I said last week, Conference is my favorite time of the year and it TOTALLY lived up to it's expectations once again!  It was so amazing.  All last week I thought of questions that I needed answered.  Gospel questions, personal questions, and some certain things that I felt that I needed help with in my life.  And Friday night I prayed about it and told Heavenly Father that I needed answers to these questions and I would be looking for them in Conference.  President Monson's opening remarks alone answered many of them.  I was totally amazed because his opening remarks were all very subtle and sweet; nothing strong or profound...but exactly what I needed to hear.  Everyone asks if I have a favorite talk but I definetly cannot pick one.  There was so much that I loved.  I'm pretty sure there was at least a few things in each talk that impacted me.  I felt that every talk had been especially prepared for me.  I loved it!

But I think the most important thing that I left conference with is a much stronger testimony that Thomas S Monson is a prophet that has been called of God to lead and guide His children.  As he was talking, I had this overwhelming feeling come over me that he has the ability to communicate with God and Jesus Christ.  He sees them face to face and can testify that they live.  Just as I can testify that I know that my companion is a living human being.  He sees them, he speaks to them, he knows them better that any person here on this earth.  That feeling just hit me like a ton of bricks.  I know with all my heart that Thomas S Monson can speak with God face to face  and that he knows Him and loves Him.

There were so many new things that I learned and little parts of certain talks that I loved.  Here are just a few of them:

• The words of the living prophet are more vital to us in this day than the standard works (the scriptures)
• If we're judging someone than we don't have time to love them and that is breaking a commandment of God
• Slow down.  Sometimes we think that the faster the speed of our lives, or the longer our "to-do"list, the better.  Slow down and focus on the important things!
• about missionaries:  for anyone who holds the priesthood authority of God (Will, Sam, Brady, Taylor, Noah....) It is a priesthood duty to serve a mission. Sisters do not have the same obligations but their efforts are greatly needed and welcomed.  Anyone that is coming upon the seasoned age to be a Senior missionary (huh-hum Mom and Dad!!!!!)  WE NEED YOU!!!  We need more Senior missionary couples.  Start preparing now!

Ok enough plancha for right now!

Anyways, besides conference, not much has changed around these parts.  We're going to be having a baptism on Saturday which I am SOSOSOSOSO excited for.  Her name is Gladis, she's 66 years old, single, and SO SO sweet!  She has been wanting to be baptized and not known which church to join and then we found her!  She prayed and received SUCH a clear answer from Heavenly Father.  I thought I wasn't going to have time to write about it but I'm going to tell you about it because it's AMAZING!!!!!

So the day after Sister Solano's surgery we didn't leave the house but we gave our district leader a list of people to go visit for us. So it was Saturday afternoon and Gladis was cleaning her house.  (we had already visited her twice before but she had told us that she wasn't sure if our church was the one that God wanted her to be baptized into)  So she was vacuuming and she began to pray out loud.  She said "Heavenly Father, you know that I will do whatever it is that you tell me to.  I need to know what church to be baptized into.  Should I join the catholic church, or the Mormon church, or is there another church that is best for me?  I just need to know.  Heavenly Father it's 2:00  right now.  At 3:00 I will be done cleaning and I'm going to sit down and read the chapter that the Sister missionaries left me.  Please give me my answer at 3:00."

So she continued cleaning and she finished just as planned and sat down to read.  The second she sat down there was a knock at the door. It was the elders!!!!!  And right then she know that was the sign that Heavenly Father was sending her to tell her to be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!  Right then she knew what it was that she needed to do and she told the elders exactly what had happened.  They invited her to be baptized and now she'll be baptized on Saturday!  I am so excited for her.  She has so much faith!!!!  And she shows it by acting upon the answers that she receives because she know whatever the outcome, it's what Heavenly Father knows will make her happiest!

oh man, I love this work so so much!  I can see how it's changing me.  I see things in a completely different light.  I love the person that I am becoming.  I'm trying to become more like my Savior Jesus Christ.  I know that He lives!  I know that He is the Savior of this world!

I love you all so so so so much!   Have a wonderful week!

-- 
con mucho amor
Su misionera de Sion
Hermana Taylor

Conference Week

Oh how I love Conference week in Salt Lake City!!!!!  The air is crisp, the leaves are turning beautiful colors, there's a different feeling in the air!!!  I love it SO much!!!!!  OK that was a little cheesy but it's totally true! I love conference so much!

 

On Saturday we got the opportunity to go to the Relief Society session of conference and it was amazing!!!!  I absolutely loved President Monson's talk on Charity!  There were a couple of things that he said that I just loved:

• When you're judging someone you have no time to love them;  And that is breaking a commandment of God
• Without charity we cannot enter the celestial kingdom

 

It was a great conference and I can't wait for this weekend to hear even more spiritually uplifting talks from the other general authorities. 

 

I love this work so so much and I love what I'm doing.  I can't believe that almost 11 months have past by already.  When I think about going home and taking my tag off it kind of makes my heart hurt a little bit.  I just can't even think about that moment.  But that's enough of that!!!

 

I love you all so so much!

 

If anyone is comeing to conference you have to come find me!!!!  Any time before, after, or inbetween sessions I will be at the reflection pool on the east side of the temple  just twaiting to see your beautiful faces!!!!

 

have a great week!

 

--

con mucho amor

Su misionera de Sion

Hermana Taylor

I'm Staying in Millcreek!!

Transfers were yesterday and I stayed in the same area with Sister Solano again and we also got another companion Sister Williams!!!!!  I've always heard that it's hard to be in a trio but I'm excited about it!  Sister Will iams is SO sweet!  She's from Delaware-  she actually knew President and Sister WInn before her mission.  She's amazing! I'm really excited for this transfer!

 

Anyways, I just wanted to tell you how everything is going!  Everything went perfect with Sister Solano's surgery.  It was only about 30 minutes and we were out of the hospital at 1:30pm.  She's recovering very well but yesterday she was feeling really good and them we just did way too much!  OOPS!  I should have taken better care of her.  So last night she was in a lot of pain and today too.  We'll just be taking it easy from here on out.  But thank you for your prayers and care and the things that you sent her. 

 

We stayed in for most of this week becaue Sister Solano hasn't been feeling up to going out and working.  But that's ok becaue we really don't have many investigators anyways!

 

So I really don't have anything exciting to tell about becaue we didn't work all week.  But we're super excited about conference--we're desperatly looking for tickets but we're really excited!

 

I love you all so so so much!  I hope you all have a great week!
--
con mucho amor
Su misionera de Sion
Hermana Taylor

My new companionship

Oh, Good Old Millcreek

So once again nothing is different in our area...sad to say :(  We rode our bikes a lot this week and it helped us to be able to contact people to ask them where any spanish speaking people live. It worked cause we contacted a lot of people but never actually contacted any Hispanos.  But that's ok....we found out where they live and we'll just keep stalking them until we talk to them.  It's been really hard but I know that Heavenly Father is just testing our faith....still.  And all we have to do is prove to Him that we have the faith sufficient to find the people that He has prepared for us to teach.  SO we're just truckin' along...everyday...visiting members, riding bikes, contacting people...ya know....missionary things!

 

The other day we were on our bikes and we felt that we should stop at a certain apartment complex.  so we did and we met this lady named Xochilt.  When she opened the door she looked so sad.  We told her that we are representatives of Jesus Christ and we felt such a strong feeling to knock on her door.  She started to cry and told us that she KNEW that we are Representatives of Jesus Christ!  It was the coolest thing ever!  We walked away from her door feeling so good.  We had finally overcome the trial of our faith and we were seeing the blessings from the Lord.  It's moments like this that make all the trials so worth it.  I felt like these past 5 weeks were nothing compared to the joy that I felt to have met somebody that needed the gospel so much in their life.  We went back the next day to have the first lesson and meet her 4 kids but guess what....she's a MEMBER!!!!!!  She's been inactive for about 3 years and to make it even worse she doesn't even live in our area!  It was so disappointing.  My companion and I left the appointment practically in tears.  I know it's just another trial and that the Lord will bless us.  We just have to stay strong and faithful.

 

Other than that everything is literally still the same.  Except for the fact that I probably gained 7 ponds from all the birthday goodies that everyone sent me!  I ended up sharing with the elders because I just have so many amazing people that love me and sent me so much stuff that I couldn't eat it all myself!!!!

 

I'm sorry that this email is so short today but there's not much else to update you on.  I love you all so so much! Thank you for all of your prayers...we need all we can get!  And thank you so much for keeping my companion in your prayers as well.  She really appreciates it.

 

Have a great week!  Hopefully I'll have a real miracle story to tell you next week!
--
con mucho amor
Su misionera de Sion
Hermana Taylor

 

PS:  The picture is me and my "mom"/trainer  Hermana Hernandez!

Best Birthday of my Whole Life!

This week went by so fast I just can't even believe it! It was so stressful and we had so much stuff to do, it just flew right by me!  I guess I'll start from the beginning!  Last week after I wrote my email we went to get our hair cut and then we went to the doctor for my poor sick little companion.  The doctor told her that they're going to take out her gallbladder.  I guess a healthy gallbladder works in the 35% range and hers only works 6%  so they'll be taking it out next Friday (the 17th).  She says that she's not too worried about the surgery even thought sh'es never had any kind of surgery before because I'm so excited about it.  But to be honest, I'm not excited about it I'm just trying to keep her from being scared about it and it's totally working.  Everyone keeps telling her horror stories about when they got their gallbladders taken out but it hasn't effected her quite yet.  I know that everything will go well.  Please keep her in your prayers!!!!

 

After the dr appointment we went bowling with the whole zone.  The elders put us 4 sisters on a lane by ourselves :(  These Eles aren't quite as fun as other Elders that I've serveds around but that's ok! I'm just glad that there are other sisters and we're not the only ones.  I'll try to attach pictures but I'm not quite sure if I can on this computer....we'll see how that goes!  I just tried it and I'm pretty sure it'll work!  So anyways...bowling was really fun.  It was fun to do something different!

 

On Thursday we had to go to the dentist becaue my poor companion had more problems.  This is kind of a long story but I'll try to make it shorter:  So sister Solano got one of her wisdom teeth taken out about 5 or 6 weeks ago and now just about a week ago she told me that it started to hurt again and it was all red.  So I pretended to have some kind of knowledge of dentistry  and I stuck my finger back there and didn't feel anything.  But then about 2 days later she said that it hurt even more and there was something sharp so I put my lab coat back on and felt back there again and there really was something sharp back there.  So it turns out that a piece of her jaw bone chipped during surgery and surfaced over the past couple of weeks but the bad thing is that it was still attached so he couldn't break it off.  So they had to do surgery on her right there in the dentist office...poor thing! So now she has stitches again and she got all swollen and in pain just like when they take out a wisdom tooth.  The worst part of this whole story is Friday.  On Friday she didn't even leave the house at all :(  The pain edication that they gave her made her really sick so she started throwing up.  And while she was throwing up, her stitches started wripping out.  Then that put her in even more pain and she had a throbbing head ache but didn't want to take anything because she would just throw it up.  And on top of everything she had a cold with an extra sore throat and her gallbladder pain!  I felt so bad for her and there was nothing that I could really do.  I just tried to play the best mom role that I could cause all she wanted was her mom and I can't blame her!

 

So Friday evening I left with Sister Myers (that's who we live with) and I went out to teach some lessons with one of the sisters in our branch.  We had some great lessons but it's just not the same teaching with someone who's not a missionary.

 

Saturday  we had a zone find where all of the missionaries came and worked in our area to help us find more people to teach.  We didn't get that many referrals but we got a lot of work done that we never would have been able to get done on our own.  The hardest part was organizing it all.  The Zone Leaders wanted it to be perfectly organized so we had to do a lot of work!  But my companion was in bed a lot of the time and I had to jdo most of it on my own.  It was so stressful because I don't know the area so well but it all worked out.

 

On Sunday we ate with the cutest family ever!!!! They are in an Eglish ward.  They have 4 kids and the 14 year old has autism.  His mom said, "Hey Carson tell the Sisters what you did 2 weeks ago."  And he yells "I got baptized!!!  And now I feel SSOOOOO CLEAN!!!!!"  He had me in tears right there at the dinner table.  It was so sweet!  Then he found out it was my birthday the next day and he made his whole family sing me happy birthday!  It was so sweet!

 

Then Monday was my birthday! And probably the best birthday of my entire life!!!! When I woke up in the morning my companion jumped on my bed and turned on the CD player blasting "las mananitas"  which is a birthday song that they sing instead of happy birthday!  And the entire basement was decorated from top to bottom!  She got up after I fell asleep and decorated everything!  Then, Hermana Miller and Zazueta brought me a huge chocolate cake which they called "better than swimming" cake.  It was delicious!!!  Then Hermana Hernandez(my mission mom) and Hermana reyes came over to our area just to visit with me for my birthday....they're so fun.  And then we went to dinner with the Serranos.  We always have dinner at their house on Mondays.  And she made me pasole and a birthday cake!  THEN,  we went with the Garcia family.  They've been members for just 6 months and they are the fam ily that keeps their branch together!  They're amazing.  We had a Family home evening with them and the family of Ana Paiva who just got baptized a few weeks ago.  And at the end they brought out another birthday cake!  It was so sweet!  I was birthdaycaked out but their house was my favorite cause I felt like I was actually with my family!  And Jose (who is like my little brother gave me a little surprise at the end of singing happy birthday!

 

Then on Tuesday I had the most amazing interview with President Winn.  He is so great and he cares about me so much!  He told me that Sister Solano and I will probably be staying together next transfer which I'm really excited about!

 

Well that was pretty much the extent of my week.  SOrry I wrote so much.  There was just so much that went on...I really didn't realize!

 

Thank you everyone who sent me birthday surprises!!!!!!  It made my birthday feel like I was back at home!!! I love you all so so so much!!!!!

 

Have an awesome week!!!

--
con mucho amor
Su misionera de Sion
Hermana Taylor

Another Week on the East Side

So another week on the east side and not much has changed.  We haven't found any new people to teach :(  But the Lord is blessing us with the things that we need for the investigators that we do have.  It absolutely amazes me how he works!  We've been praying so much to find some new people to teach and we just haven't been able to find anybody new.  And the investigators that we do have just haven't wanted to progress.  That's always so hard.  Because if they're not progressing then we should stop  teaching them and look for new people to teach.  So, needless to say, we've been really worried about our current investigators because they're not progressing and if we drop them we literally won't have anyone to teach!

 

Within the last few weeks we've been trying to do everything that we possibly can to receive blessings from Heavenly Father and it has totally been working.  BUt sometimes our blessings come in unexpected ways.  Like this week for example.  We've been praying for new investigators but instead of putting new people in our path the Lord has been blessing our investigators that we are teaching that we were going to have to drop.  All of the sudden Paula (who hasn't been to church)  has the strongest desire to go to church and to bring her 2 daughters.   And the other couple that were teaching who has a family of 9 are actually considering getting married.  The Lord is blessing us in ways that I never expected.

 

I love this wirk so so much.  Even though it's REALLY hard right now, I'm learning so much.  But most importantly I'm getting to know my Heavenly Father more and more and how he works.  I love Him so much! He's keeping me on my toes!!!!

 

I love you all! Have a great week!

 

Con Amor

Hermana Taylor

Not Much New Here in Millcreek

This week went by so fast! I can't believe it's Wednesday again!  There's not much new going on around here...unfortunatly:(  We had 2 baptisms on Sunday.  They both were baptized in the same ward so we had the baptismal program together.  They were both very excited!  The baptism was right after sacrament meting on Sunday so pretty much the entire branch was there at the baptism...it was so great!  This branch LOVES missionary work.  I've never seen anything like it!  They want to help so much but there just isn't that many spanish speaking people in this area.  It's kinda hard but the members are always more than willing to go to the lessons with us when we do find someone in that area. 

 

My poor companion has been sick.  She's actually been really sick for about a month.  She can't seem to keep her food in her stomach and she's always in a lot of pain.  so the doctor thought it was her gallbladder but she had an ultrasound yesterday and they didn't find any gallstones so now on Friday they're going to do another test to see if her gallbladder is working correctly and if it's not that...well then....we just have no idea what it could be.  Poor thing....she's always in so much pain.  It's really hard for her to get upl in the m orning and there's nothing that she can so to stop the pain cause nobody knows where it's coming from. 

 

Other than that, everything else is pretty much the same!  The baikes have been really fun and interesting.  We don't ride them every day because most of our area is in the mountains and it just takes too long to get around on bikes- so were trying to do every-other day.  It's fun! I feel like a real missionary!!!!

 

Well, I'm sorry that this week's email os so short.  We just ran out of time....too many things to do and too little time!

--
con mucho amor
Su misionera de Sion
Hermana Taylor

Millcreek

I'm sure everyone at home was just as shocked as I was to find out that I was finally being transferred!!!  I'm not gonna lie...I was a little sad to be leaving Rose Park but excited at the same time to be able to get to serve in another part of the mission! So, Rose Park is on the North-West side of downtown Salt Lake and Millcreek is on the South-East side of downtown.  Everyone here knows the "east side" as the rich side of town.  SO needless to say, it's a little bit harder of an area because it's not quite as humble of a place as the west side.  But no matter where you are, the majority of the Latino people are humble, very believing, and very willing to listen to us.  We live in a member's basement again.  I'm glad that we still have a washer and dryer because in Sister Solano's last apartment they had to wash their clothes by hand!!!! Never done that before!!!!!!!  But I'm still in the Spanish program!!!  We cover 2 little branches: Forest Dale 2nd branch and Winder 18th branch!  They're pretty little considering I've only ever served in wards.  But the areas that these 2 branches cover are absolutely GINORMOUS!!!!!!  I've only ever covered 1 stake at a time and now these 2 branches cover 14 STAKES!!!!!!  It is a huge area! I have no idea how I'm ever going to find my way around here without Sister Solano's help!!!  The 2 branches are absolutely amazing...especially the Winder branch!  They are just starved for missionary work!  They are the best fellowshippers I've seen in my entire mission.  It seriously amazes me!

Other than that everything is really really good right now!  I love my companion! I love my area! I love the branches! I love the members!  I love our investigators!  What more can you ask for?!?!?!?!?!  We have 2 baptisms on Sunday in the Winder Branch which we are very excited about because most of our investigators we have right now live within the boundaries of the Forest Dale branch!  One is Ana Paiva who has been waiting to get baptized for about 5 years now but had to wait for her husband's divorce to go through so that they could get married so that she could be baptized.  Then the other one being baptized is Jesus.  He is 15 and so so prepared to accept the Gospel.  He is so awesome!  His brother and his brother's wife are less active members of the church and he just moved in with them.  It's been such an amazing process just in the last week to see how his whole family has changed and how they've been blessed for coming back to church.  The coolest part is that his brother is going to be baptizing him.  I'm so excited for this family! They are so amazing!!!!!!

So this week my companion and I got this great idea to ride bikes in our area!!!!!  Our area is HUGE as I emphasized before but we figured it would be great exercise and we would save some miles on our car.  So our first attempt was on Monday and it was really really fun!  We were so tired at the end of the day but it felt god to be that tired!!!!  A new adventure!  I felt like an actual missionary.  Hna Solano and I came to the conclusion that we gained so much more respect and love for the Elders all around the world that have to ride bikes all day everyday of their missions!  The next day we could barely walk, we were so sore!  Attempt #2 will be happening tomorrow!

This week has been long and fun and hard but it's been amazing! I've been focusing a lot on trying to change myself into a better person.  I want to be a daughter of Christ which I've been studying a lot lately.  It's not easy..it's going to be a long, hard process (I can already tell)  But I k now that it will be very well worth it at the end!   I just love my Savior Jesus Christ so much.  I want to do all that I can while I'm here on this earth to be like him.  And I figure, the best time I have is right now on my mission.  It's been probably one of the hardest weeks spiritually and emotionally but I've already seen the changes in the person that I am becoming.

I love you all so so much! I miss you tons! And I hope all is going well!!!!!  Write me!!! I want to hear all about everything everyone is doing!!! 
I attached some pictures that I haven't been able to attach the past couple weeks:

• one is of the hammock that an investigator made for me! I'm so in love with it but I haven't found a place to hang it quite yet

• second is the wedding cake that I made for Daniel and Jazmin's wedding 2 weeks ago (it's not the prettiest but it tasted good!)

• The third one is Jazmin, Daniel, and their 2 yr old girl Alessa

• The 4th one is the day of their baptism (jazmin, daniel, Norma, me and Jesus-he baptized 2 of them.  Then in the front is Eduardo, Alessa, Ana, Tania-Jesus's daughter, and Elder Orton who baptized the other 2)

• The last picture is my attempt of taking a picture of my companion and I while riding our bikes!

-- 
con mucho amor
Su misionera de Sion
Hermana Taylor

Embracing Change!!!

Sorry everyone for forgetting to reming you that I wouldn't be writing yesterday!  So yesterday we had transfers and I finally got transferred!!! Yep that's right and ACTUAL transfer!!!!!  I'm now in Millcreek which is in the South East corner of the mission boundaries!  But the best part is that I'm with Hermana Solano again!!!!!! You have no idea how excited I am!  This is going to be the best transfer everrrrrr!!!!!!!!!  We cover 11stakes and within those 11 stakes there are 2 branches.  So, needless to say there aren't a whole lot of hispanic people in the area.  I'm sure it will be hard to adjust but that's totally fine with me because I love change!!!!

 

So yesterday 15 missionaries went home and I'm pretty sure they were that best 15 missionaries in the entire mission.  I don't know what's going to happen here in the mission.  So many amazing missionaries went home.  I'm sure there are some out there that just haven't gotten their chance and now it's their time to shine!  Pretty much all of the Zone Leaders I've ever had went home yesterday.  It's kind of sad to see them go home but I'm sure they're all excited!

 

So I'm getting to know the area a little bit and meet the investigators that we have. 

 

I'm not gonna lie..it was a little bit hard to leave Sister Arce.  Even thought we didn't get along the greatest, I grew to love her so much.  A couple different people told me that when I don't get along with my companion, I need to serve her.  And that is exactly what I did and it totally worked.  I grew to love her more than I ever thought I would.  And it was especially hard to leave her because she's bee sick and I've been taking care of her and I'm scared that her new companion won't take care of her like she needs.  I feel like I'm leaving my sick daughter with a teenaged babysitter and I'm worried about her! HAHAHAH!

 

On Sunday night we had an AMAZING baptism!!!! Norma, Eduardo (8), Daniel (19), and Jazmin (18)  all were baptized.  All four of them were miracles!  I was so lucky to be able to teach them.  I love them so so so much and it was SO hard to say goodbye to them on Tuesday night.  Daniel and Jazmin also got married on Saturday night and it was so sweet.  I can't send pictures from this computer so hopefully next week I'll be able to find a place to send them from.  They were all so happy.  I just love seeing how the Gospel brings so much joy to people's lives.  And I also love seeing the blessings that our investigators receive from being baptized.  On Monday (the day after the baptism) Jazmin called us ,so excited, to tell us that she got a call from someone offering her a job.  And that is such a huge blessing for their family right now because her husband just got diagnosed with lymphoma (sp?).  It's been a  really hard few weeks for them but the Lord is blessing them so so much!

 

Well, I think that's just about all the excitement from this week.  I haven't eaten anything gross this week or had any  crazy things happen...hopefully next week I'll have some more exciting things to tell you!

 

I love you all!

 

have a great week!!!!

Con Amor

 

Hermana Taylor

Hardships and Blessings

Well, it's been another awesome week!!!! OF COURSE!!!!  We've had some difficulties (but what would this work be without hardships?!?!?) but also a lot of blessings!

 

One really hard thing was that we had to drop Eva.  She is SO amazing and has such a strong desire to learn but we prayed about it and afterwards we thought that it would be best to stop visiting her.  We don't want to cause anymore problems in her marriage than she is already dealing with.  All we can do now is pray for her well-being.  And believe me I'm praying for her as hard as my little heart can.  She's amazing and I know that the Lord is preparing her way for her!

 

We have had a lot of success finding new people this week.  We added atleast one new investigator every single day this week.  And many of them have already accepted a baptismal date!!!  The Lord is definetly preparing people and putting them in our path!  

We went to temple square last night with a family we're teaching! It was very fun!

 I also attached a picture of me eating my new favorite food!

-- 
con mucho amor
Su misionera de Sion
Hermana Taylor

The Best Week Ever!

So last week was a week of miracles and this week has been a follow up, aka: The best week ever!!!!!

It all started on Saturday when we all went to the Pioneer day Parade in downtown.  All of the missionaries were assigned a certain area where we had to walk around and talk to people.  It was really fun.  Most of the people there were members of the church and they all wanted to stop and talk to us.  We were stationed at the very beginning of the parade.  And as the end of the parade passed us, we saw a few missionaries walking behind the last band.  One of the elders ran to the crownd of people where we were standing and pulled us out onto the street and made us start walking with them.  At first I was super embarassed and I wasn't even sure if we were allowed to be walking in the parade.  But as we went along more and more missionaries joined us.  It was SO fun!  Everybody in the crowds on the streets stood up and cheered for us as we passed by!  it was like we were famous!  By the end we were almost 200 missionaries!!!!! It was quite a sight to see!  I attached some pictures, it's not quite the same but may be you can get the jist of it.  (I'm pretty sure I've never spelled the word jist before!  I'm not even sure if that's how it is!!!) Anyways...it was amazing.  As we were walking, we sang called to serve and the people loved it!  Also the people were all yelling "we love the missionaries!!!"  and then when they saw the sister missionaries they were even more excited and would scream "we love the sister missionaries!"  We were like celebrities!  We ended up walking the entire parade route and ended up at 900S and 600E  and then we had to walk all the way back to our car.  We were just having so much fun, that we didn't realize how far we had walked!!!  We walked back 45 minutes and we were only half way back to our car.  But then one of the Relief Society presidents from the stake that we cover came and picked us up and took us to our car.  It was such a fun day!!!!

 

After the parade we rushed to Soledad's baptism which started at 1.  There weren't many people there but the spirit was so strong and she was so glad to be taking this step in her life.  I attached a picture of her and me and my companion at her baptism.

 

We also had a baptism on Sunday.  Her name is Merary and her whole story is one big miracle.  She has been an investigator for about a year and a half and has had 3 different dates palanned to be baptised but something had always come up and she hasn't been baptized.  She is sick with leukemia and everytime before her baptism she's had to have a surgery of some kind and couldn't get in the water.  But we finally found her and she told us that she wants to be baptized ASAP!  So she was baptized on Sunday evening and will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost next Sunday in sacrament meeting.  I've never seen anyone quite so happy to be baptized!  She was crying so hard because she finally was able to this that she has wanted for so long.  Then the following day she called us from the doctor's office with great news!  Her test results came back and the doctors told her that her cancer is gone.  I know that is an amazing blessing from the Lord.  He knows all of our needs and our wants and as we obey His commandments He will bless us abundantly (and gett

ing baptized is a commandment!)  It was such a huge boost to my testimony that the Lord knows and loves us each individually.

Last week I also told you all about Eva!  The very first time I met her I just loved her!  She's young and energetic and super sweet and drop dead gorgeous!  But this week she wasn't home at all.  We went every day twice a day and she never opened the door.  Normally we wouldn't do that- because we don't want to be pests but my companion and I felt so strongly that something was wrong and that we needed to find her.  Yesterday she finally opened the door and as she looked at us she started to sobb.  She told us that she was having problems with her husband.  Sister Arce played with the kids to distract them as I sat down and talked to her.  She said that her husband doesn't let her leave the house, have a phone,or have contact with any body.   She sits in the house all day long with her 2 little boys and is starting to lose her mind a little bit.  She told me that when we came over last week she knew it was a sign from God that it was something that she needed to follow up with.  But when her husband found out, he beat her.  When she told me that I had no idea how to respond to her.  She is an amazing, sweet, young, very loved daughter of Heavenly Father and I wanted to help her m ore than I've ever wanted anything in my whole entire life.  Then, A thought came into my mind and I called Elder Orton to see if he could come over to give her a blessing of comfort.  He quickly responded that he would be over in 5 minutes.  He came and gave her the most amazing blessing!  He didn't know anything that had been going on with her but he said the exact words that she needed to hear!  That was proof to me that the priesthood that he holds really is the authority to act in God's name.  It was one of the most amazing experiencees of my entire mission.  She was so grateful.  She was crying so hard that she could barely thank Elder Orton.  She's so amazing and I want to do everything that I can to help her out.  She even told us that she still wants to be baptized because she knows that it's what's right for her.  She said that she now has the strength and the courage that she needs to talk to her husband about it and that she knows that God will help her out as well.
Well, those were pretty much the highlights of my week!  I told you right?!?!?.....The best week ever!  I love this work so so so so much!  I k now that it really is God's work here on the earth! 

I love you all so much! Have an amazing week!!!

Oh ya 2 more things:

• If you want to follow my mission president's wife's blog, here is the address :mamawinnsplace.blogspot.com
• Also, this Sunday was my half way point!!!! I can't believe it!  And as tradition I burned a pair of tights! I attached a picture for all of you to see!!!!!

• That's it!!! Love you all!

-- 
con mucho amor
Su misionera de Sion
Hermana Taylor

THE Week of Miracles!

So this week has been an absolutely amazing one!  Probably the best so far of my entire mission!  We have received so many blessings that I can't even believe it!  At the beginning of this week (meaning last Wednesday)  we had one person on date and she didn't even end up getting baptized on Sunday.  We were praying for a miracle and oh boy did we receive a bunch of them.  Here's a little glimpse of the amazing things that happened this week:

• First of all,  I got to see my family on Friday!  That's not really a miracle but it was a HUGE blessing that my mission president gave me permission to see them.  It was so fun to see them and I feel like it gave me more energy and even more reason to go out there and work as hard as I can!!!!

• Also on Friday we met this amazing lady from Guatemala named Eva!  She's been in the states about 6 months and has been taking English classes with the senior service missionaries.  So on Friday we participated in her English class with her and then we stayed and talked to her about the gospel.  She was so excited to talk to us because she had had contact with the missionaries in Guatemala but had never seen missionaries here before.  The spirit was SO strong while we were teaching her and we committed her to be baptized on August 8th and she almost jumped out of her chair, she was so excited! She screamed "YES!!!"  It was so amazing!
• Then on Saturday we were checking referrals that we had received from other missionaries and we found Norma and her family .  Norma has an 8 year old son and lives with her brother and her brother's girlfriend.  Her brother Daniel just found out that he has lymphoma and they all decided that this is the best time to be going to church.  So they stopped the elders on the street the other day and told them that they would liike the spanish speaking missionaries to come by their house!  So we went on Saturday to meet them and teach them just a little bit.  So we talked to them and invited them to church and committed them to be baptized and all 4 of them said yes!  It was so  amazing!!!!  They had so many questions about what they have to do before they get baptized and they were all so excited to make this big change in their l ives!  They all came to church on Sunday and little 8 yr old Eduardo is so excited to go to cubscouts tonight!
• That same day we met another family that just moved here about a week ago from Arizona!  Berta is the mom and she is literally just about ready to pop!!!!  She is SSOOO pregnant!  She has already passed her due date and is just sitting around waiting for her baby to come!  She has to  kids 9-Karen and 11-Jose.  They also came to church on Sunday and loved it!  She also brought her sister in law to church and she loved it too!  We ended up having 10 investigators to church on Sunday! That is just unheard of here!
• Also on Sunday this super cute 20 year old girl came up to us and told us that she's not a member but she wants to be baptized.  She's just waiting for her boyfriend to come back from texas to baptize her.
• On Monday, we received a text message referral for a lady named Merary Coldrines.  She has been taught before by other missionaries and is ready to be baptized.  We talked to her and she wants to be baptized this weekend.  I guess we'll see what happens.  And last night while we were visiting Merary we met her friend that lives with her and he also said that he would like to be baptized.  It was so amazing!!!! So we committed him to be baptized the 15th of August!

The Lord is blessing us so so much! And sometimes I'm not even sure why.  We're not doing anything out of the ordinary but I do know that we are representatives of Jesus Christ and He is blessngs us for that reason.  I love this work so so much! I can't wait to see what happens with all of these people who have committed to be baptized!  please pray for them so that they can be baptized on these days! I love you all so so so much! I hope that you're all doing well.

 

 

con mucho amor

Su misionera de Sion

Hermana Taylor

 

An Amazing Week!

This week was absolutely amazing!!!!  Let's just startoff in order!!!!

On Thursday my companion had a doctor's appointment downtown.  And after the appointment we walked by the Beehive house where Sister Cumins is serving right now and I stopped in and actually got to see her.  I've been a couple times in the last few weeks but she's never there when we go.  It was so awesome to get to see her and talk to her for just a little bit about the experiences she had in Washington.  She seems so happy! I just love her to pieces!

 

Then came Friday!!!!!! Which was by far the beest day of the week!!!!!  We had Zone Conference and got to really know our new Mission President and his wife.  First of all, they talked about where they are from and about their family and stuff.  Then President Winn trained us and it was absolutely amazing!  I'm not gonna lie...I never thought he would be quite as great as President Sonne.  President Sonne was a member of the 70s before he was a mission president and he knew so much and gave the best trainings.  But when President Winn was giving us his training, the spirit was just so so strong.  I got a spiritual conformation that he really has been called of God to preside over this mission.  He is absolutely amazing!  Sister Winn as well is amazing!  She is SOSOSOSO much different than Sister Sonne.  She is so lovey and huggy and wants to be our friend.  She's so cute and fun!

During President Winn's training we had to role play with our companions and pretend that they were and investigator and we were the missionary.  So, I was being the missionary and my companion had to think of a person and act just like them.  I had to hard commit her to be baptized and she had to say no and then I had to respond with a question to make her think.  But we weren't allowed to just respond with whatever question we thought of first.  We had to wait and bear the silence for a minute and waith for the spirit to tell us what se should say to them.  It was such an amazing experience!  As I stood there and waited for the spirit to tell me what to say, I could feel what it was exactly that this investigator needed to hear.  It was so cool! Most missionaries are really scared of akward silences so it was hard.  But those akward silences are crucial because that's when the spirit can work in them and in us as missionaries!  But something else really special happened as I was standing there, waiting to respond to my companion.  I know I have told you all that my companion and I aren't the best of friends but the most amazing thing happened.  As I stood there and I was just straing at her, I all of the sudden, just felt the greatest love for her.  It was an overwhelming feeling and I  loved her more than I could possibly have imagined.  It was an answer to my prayers, to be completely honest!

All in all, zone conference was absolutely amazing and I loe President and Sister Winn!!!!!

 

I went on exchanges with some other sisters on saturday and it was erally fun but nothing really exciting happened!  The sister that took my place with my companion is sup super cute and I just love her!  She was looking through all my hair stuff and decided that she wanted to ask Sister Winn if we could have a Sisters craft day and make cute things for our hair.  Sister Sonne never would have gone for that but Sister Winn said that she thought it would be a great idea but she has to run it by President first!

 

On Sunday Aranza came to church and she loved it!  Aranza is a 13 year old girl that we're teaching and she's just so cute! The very tiem we talked to her she told us that she wanted to be baptized.  Her parents said that it was ok  so she'll be having her interview tonight and she'll get baptized on sunday!  We're so excited for her! She is just the sweetest thing EVER!!!!!

 

Then nothing too exciting has happened since then.  Yesterday I went with my companion to see her mission president from Paraguay.  She served in Paraguay for 7 months while she was waiting for her visa.  And her mission president and his wife finished their mission and returned back to the states so we went and saw them at the airport!

 

Today we had Sister's Breakfast at the mission home! It's always so fun to be around all the sisters.  We just kind of chatted and ate breakfast and hung around.  It's definetly a differnent atmosphere in comparison to when Sister Sonne was here!

 

Well family and friends!  I love you al so so so much! Thank you for all of your prayers and your love and support!!!! You're the best! I could never be out here doing the Lord's work with out your love and support! Have an amazing Week!

con mucho amor
Su misionera de Sion
Hermana Taylor

Que Onda!?

que onda amigos?!?!?!?!

 

Well, I seriously cannot believe that another whole week in Rose park has come and gone!!!!  The time is going faster and faster and faster!  I only have 9 months left!!!!! What the heck!?!?!?!?  Where has the time gone?!?!?!?!?  I'm loving the new area.  There is so much work to be done here.  There are SO many hispanic people and we have so much amazing support from the ward.  It's awesome!  My companion and I aren't the best of friends but we work well together and that's all that really matters!

 

Pretty much the whole week we were running around like una pareja de loquitas  trying to contact all of the referrals we received.  Our new zone leaders call us every single night with at least 2 or 3 new referrals.  It's awesome! They are really hard workers!  This week we met a 13 year old girl and the first time that we talked to her she told us that she reads the Book of Mormon and she loves it and she wants to get baptized!  It was amazing!  The Lord is blessings us so so much!  She just fell right into our laps.  She's going to be baptized the 18th!  We're super excited for her!  She's so so sweet and willing to do anything to learn.

 

So I had to go to the Dr because I had these weird marks on my legs and they looked like bug bites.  I washed my sheets over and over and over but they kept on coming.  The Dr said that it was an infection from shaving....weird!  And it turns out that I had staff infection (I don't know if that's how it's spelled).  I've been taking an antibiotic and it's all gone now...just reddish/purple marks left.  The Dr said that it would take about 3 months for them to go away :(   But other than that all is good!

 

We got to meet President and Sister Winn this week! THEY ARE AMAZING!!!!! There are going to be a whole lot of changes in the mission.  we're not going to have zone meeting every week...only once a mo nth.  Also we're only going to have zone conference once a quarter..so like 4 times a year.  We are now allowed to grow our hair as long as we want, our skirts can be whatever length as long as they cover our knees and we only have to wear tights between october and April.  I'm super excited for those changes about the dress standards but not so much about the zone conference and zone meetings.  But these changes don't come from President Winn, they come from church headquarters and will be applied to all of the missions!

 

Well, I love this work so so much...you all now that already but seriously, everyday my love for the Lord and His work grows more and more.

 

I love you all so much!!!!!!!!!

con mucho amor
Su misionera de Sion
Hermana Taylor

A Super Hot Week in Rose Park!

So this new area is absolutely amazing!!!! There are SO many people here that speak spanish.  It's actually really frustrating because we don't even know where to start.  Yesterday we recieved 18 referrals of people who want us to come teach them.  It was super awesome!

 

The ward here is absolutely amazing! Everyone is super nice and really excited to have sister missionaries again in the ward.  We had a baptism on Sunday.  The cutest little family ever.  They have a little girl and a little boy and they just attack us every time they see us.  They love uS......and we love them!

 

I had the wierdest out of body experience the other day.  I was in the car and I looked down at my name tag and saw my name and I thought what the heck? I've never seen that word before.  Why is that on my name tag?  Is that really my name?!?!? It was the wierdest thing!  I've never had anything like that happen to me before.

 

I'm sorry that this email is so short but I don't have very much time and my time is already up for using the computer.  There is a whole oom of angry elders waiting to use it!

 

I love you all so so much! I love this work.  Thetime is going by faster than I ever imagined it would.  I want it to slow downso I can be out here even longer doing the Lord's work.

 

 --
con mucho amor
Su misionera de Sion
Hermana Taylor

Transfers

So we had transfers again yesterday!  I a m still with Hermana Arce and I finally got transfered out of the Rose Park North Stake.  I got transferred all the way across the street to the North Park Stake.  It's literraly on the other side of the street.  There is one double yellow line that seperates the 2 areas.  So I'm still in the Rose Park Zone and officially crowned and the Queen of Rose Park!  I was in my first area (my greenie area) for 4 transfers=6 months.  BUt I'm super excited about the new area that we're covering!  There is SOSOSOSO much potential here.  There are so many people just waiting to get baptized...literally!  The Elders just couldn't get to all of them because they didn't have a car so they literally just didn't have the time to get to everyome!  I'm super excited to be working here.  THe branch is called the Mount Ensign 2nd Branch!

 

We actually have a baptism this weekend!  His name is Jesus Molotla.  His wife was also listening to the lessons with him but hasn't decided that she too wants to be baptized.  SO yesterday when Jesus had his interview, his wife Nancy came with him.  She figured she would have her interview too so she would be all ready to be baptized when she felt that the time was right!  After her interview she just decided that she wanted to get baptized with her husband so she'd getting baptized too this weekend!!! I am so excited! This family is SO amazing!  It toally amazes me how the Lord puts people in certain places because He knows that they will comeinto contact with the gospel!  I know that's why there are so many hipanics here in Utah! This couple that is getting baptized this weekend has only been in the states for 5 months and they are already being baptized! It SERIOUSLY amazes me!  I love it so so much!

 

We have an amazing zone this transfer but I was super sad that my 2 amazing zone leaders  ,Elder Watt and Elder Blanco, left to serve in other areas.  It is the last transfer for both of them so they got to pick where they wand to serve.  BUt on Mondy before transfers they gave us an AMAZING training in ZOne Meeting.  It was all about families.  Because us as missionaries need to be focused on families.  President Sonne always says: "We teach to baptize and baptize to seal!"  That is really the goal that we have for every person we teach: to enter the temple and be sealed with their families.  But they also talked about our own families and that we should work hard so that our famly can recieve blessings from the Lord.  Then they shared a scripture that I absolutely loved: 

Matthew 19:  29 "And every one that hath ^aforsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my ^bname’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit ^ceverlasting life." 

So, the families that have missionaries out are forsaking something (son or daughter) for the Lord's sake and they will recieve blessings hundredfold and eternal life! That's a pretty great blessing!  I absolutely loved that!!!!!

Bueno pues, Quiero que todos sepan que les quiero muchichisimo y les extrano como loco!!!!

Well, I want you all to know that I love you so so much and I miss you like crazy!

--
con mucho amor
Su misionera de Sion
Hermana Taylor