Oh How I love This Work!!

Letter to the President:

 

The work this week has been absolutely amazing! We met a lot of new people this week that we have made appointments with to teach. We have been praying and praying to be led to the people that have been prepared to hear the Gospel. And we have found some of them! (I know there are a whole lot more!)

 

Irene Flores told us yesterday that she knows that this is the only true church! The Spirit was so strong! It was the first time that I had heard an investigator actually come out and say that. The only thing that is holding her back is that her husband doesn't have enough time off work to go down to the government building and get a marriage license. We committed her to commit him to ask for time off so that we can teach him as well and they can go get their marriage license. She is soft committed for the 20th. And her daughter is on date for the 13th!!!!

 

Alvino is on date for the 7th. We took him to Temple square on Sunday evening and it was a great experience. We watched the restoration and it really hit him what Joseph Smith did to restore the Gospel. He is very excited for his baptismal date. We have been working a lot with the members of the ward to have bee people visit him a lot so that he will feel comfortable in the ward.

 

Griselda is on date for the 13th as well. We are hoping to get a chance to teach her husband tonight. She is so great! She asked for a blessing the other day because she was sick.. Immediately after, she said that she felt something slowly fill her body, starting from her head all the way down to her toes. It was an amazing opportunity to explain to her that it is the Holy Ghost and that she can have it with her forever.

 

I love my study time in the morning. I wish I could have more. It never feels like enough. There is so much that I want to be studying, and never enough time. I have started working on the requirements for the first step of the master teacher program. Every single day I find myself using scriptures (or short lesson plans)that I have memorized. It's Great!!!

 

 

Oops! I forgot to tell the President that we also have 2 kids on date for the 7th as well.  They are kids of a less active sister, Maria Dolores Lopez. 

 

This week has been great but you've already seen the more exciting points of my week with Alvino and Griselda and Irene and the kids!  Oh ya...I'm going to try to slow it down a litlle bit.  I just get so excited about telling everyone about my week that I type just like I'm talking really really fast!  A few people have mentioned that as they read my emails they find themselves reading it faster and faster and running out of breath!  OOPS!!! Sorry! I just love this work SO much!

 

I'm just going to jot down some random thing that happened this week.  I'm still not quite sure what the best way is to write these emails....bare with me!!!

 

• Hermana Hernandez always asks me what random words mean.  The other day while we were tracting, she asked me what sassy means.  She is SO funny! I wasn't really sure how to explain it!  after 5 minutes of explaining it, I'm pretty sure she still didn't get it.  jajajaja  And the other day she wanted to go to this dirty little restaurant and I said, "I don't know it seems kind of sketchy!" and she asked me what sketchy meant and now she uses it! It's so funny! I just love her

• There is a Sister in our ward that is just amazing!  Her name is Monica Gonzalez.  We just call her Hermana Monica.  She and her husband just joined the church 3 and a half years ago.  They are both amazing!  We ate dinner with them the other night because our appointment fell through and they told us that we can come to their house any hour, any day for food!  We don't even have to call.  But of course we will!  Yesterday they brought us tamales for lunch! They are so good to us! And Hermana Monica always goes out to our appointments with us.  We try to have a member for every appointment!
• We had Zone Conference on Friday.  It was AMAZING!!!!  President Sonne and his presidency is just great!  It was exactly what I needed to hear!

Well, everything with me is great! I went and got a new camera last week, as you probably read in the email that was supposed to go out last week.  And so I attached a couple pictures.  My companion got a new pair of sunglasses and she loves them so we took a couple pictures with our glasses on.  Then there is a picture with me and Sister Cumins! I saw her Sunday at Temple Square!!!! It was so fun!  Then the other is of my and my companion and a couple that we took to temple square as well.  Edith and Arturo.  She is due in March and they already have a SUPER cute little 4  year old Esmerelda.  But she didn't want to be in the picture.  You can see my new short hair and my super ugly outfit from that day!!!!!

 

This letter isn't very long but I'm not quite sure what else to say!! I love you all and I love this work.  I know for a fact that this is our Father in Heaven's work.  Or else it wouldn't be happening as it is.  I wouldn't be able to see all these miracles that are happening around me everyday.  We would not be able to find people who are ready and waiting for us.  I also know it is His work because I would not have been able to change as much as I have in the last 14 days.  I have changed more than I ever have in my entire life.  And it is only through the atonement of Jesus Christ that I can repent of my sins and receive the help that I need to better myself.  I use it every single day.  and I k now that He is the reason that I am who I am today!!!!

 

I love you all!!! I love getting all your letters!!!!!!

 

con amor

Hermana Taylor!

One week Done and Only 77 More to GO!!

Hey everyone!!!! Rose Park is amazing!  There are SO many people in our area that speak spanish.  Pretty much like 80%. I's crazy!  It's a lot of work to do but I am up for the job.  We had our first couple days of tracting this week....it's hard. I don't really like it but I guess I better get use to it.  There are so many people that are so rude but I just have to brush it off and moveon.  My companion always says. Recuerde Hermana, el es un hijo de Dios!  And it's true I just have to remember that.  The thing that is the hardest is that I know that these people that I'm talking to NEED this Gospel.  And they just wont take the time to listen to it or let it touch their hearts.  But their time will come soon enought when they are ready to hear.  Here is what I wrote to the president this week about the people that really are ready willing and ready to hear the Gospel:

 I have only been here a week and I already love this work so so much! It is amazing to see the change in people as a result of the amazing knowledge of the Gospel.
While teaching this week I have seen the difference that it makes to constantly refer to and tesify of the restoration. THe spirit testifies even stronger when I use the Book of Mormon and testify of the restored Gospel.
One of our investigators that we are teaching is named Irene FLores. She has 4 super cute little daughters but is not legally married to her husband. She has such a strong desire to get married and baptized but her husband works days and nights. We fasted with her this week so that her husband could have some time off of his jobs to get the neccessary paperwork done and to be able to attend church on Sundays. She is SO ready!!! And it's so exciting to see. We will continue pray for her and her husband! AAAAND she came to church on Sunday with all 4 of her girls!
We also have another inversigator, Alvino that we have been teaching. He has committed to come to church on Sunday. He said he will do everything possible to come. He's planning on going into work early so that he can get off earlier to make it to church.
Another family is THe Maria Lopez family. She is a less active recent convert. She has 4 children, the oldest was baptized with her and we are working on teaching the 2 younger ones that are 8 and 9. She has committed to prepare them for baptism in the month of February!
Most of the other people we are teaching have legal problems either with needing to get married or needing to get divorced.
Everyday in my personal study I come across something that will help one of our investigators. It's amazing how the Lord works! He knows exactly what we need and when we need it!
I love this work and I love the people!!!

Ok so I'm going to try to answer all the questions that I got in emails this week, here I go:

BTW I love the questions...Keep 'em coming!

mom- I'm going to buy black boots today at Walmrt because they hav the sam exact one as target...but even cheaper!! YAHOO!

          I got my comforter and pillow last night!! Thank you so much! I dont thing I've ever slept so well in my entire life!  And yes if  you could still send those other clothes, that would be fantastic!!!  And Luna bars would be great!! I usually just eat stuff like that during the day.  We dont have time for lunch ever.

• I love that Kristen Stewart and Kuch know Rose Park! It's a pretty great place. (oh ya...our zone is leading the entire mission in number of baptisms!!! We already have 21 and we have 12 more on date for January)
• My companion Hermana Hernandez is great! I'm not gonna lie, there is definetly cultural differences between us but all is well.  she know SO much about the Gospel and is such a great teacher.  She is a convert of only a few years.  Her family are not members and she barely has any contact with them at all.  Her mom passed away a couple years ago and she said that her family was destroyed but she came to know the Gospel.  She has such power behind what she says when she teaches because she has experienced so much of it first hand!
• We visit so many people in one day...it's crazy!!! We constantly get lists of referrals from church headquarters that we have to check.  We have to contact them and report back within 24 hours. We're always crazy busy.  We're usually literally running between appointments!
• There are a lotof other languages here. There is a whole GINORMOUS Tongan ward! They are super funny! I didn't realize how many Tongan people there are here.  We have also come across a ton of peple that speak Russian, Arabic, Albanian, and other languages that I cant quite remember!  But the ward that we attend is Spanish speaking only.  But our area covers a whole stake.
• When we have time without any set appointments, we tract
• Oh my goodness the food!!!! The food that they feed us is amazing! I can tell that I'm going to have to use my 30 minutes of excercize every morning very wisely!  The Mexican food is amazing and they just want to feed us more amd more and more and more
• I've only had to drive once in the snow so far! Ans they take very good care of the roads here.  It's not bad at all.  And yes Hna Hernandez has to back me out every single time I put the car in reverse.  It's pretty awesome!!
• Oh ya....I got my hair cut this week! I actually really love it! I'll send somepictures out with my email next week. I havent taken any pictures yet because my camera broke:(  But we got special permission to go  to Best BUy today so I can buy a new one!  SO I'll take a buch of pictures and send them to you next week
• One cool thing is that on Feb 3rd we get to spend all day from 8am to 8pm in the temple!!! Because the mission made its goal of 2009 baptisms last year!!!

                       .                     

I have noticed tht I've already started that super akward way that missionaries talk/ form their sentences.  It's so wierd. I dont know how it happened.  At first I thought, I need to stop this so I dont go home talking loke this.  BUt then I realized that I love it!!! I want to keep every aspect of this missionary me with me forebber y ebber!

I love you all soo so soso much! And I love this Gospel with all of my heart! It is my whole life!

COn Amor,  Hermana Taylor

Rose Park!!!

Hola!!!!

 

I am in the field and it is absolutely amazing already! I will start from the very beginning:

 

Yesterday morning we got on a bus and arrived at our mission home at 8:30.  We were supposed to get there at 7:30 but we were late...our bus driver made a couple personal stops on the way to our mission home:)  So we got to our mission home which is attached to a church building and our mission President, President Sonne, and his wife were waiting for us.  We took our luggage insaide and ate breakfast which President Sonne made for us!  It was so nice not to be eating MTC food anymore!  After we ate, we had a meeting about our mission and talked about what exactly is expected of us.  He threw down some cool facts:  40% of the people our mission baptizes are under the age of 18! WOW! 20% of the people that live within our mission boundries are inactive members of the church, 20% are members, and 60% are non members.  Last year the mission had 2086 baptisms, and this year our goal is 2500!!! I'm stoked! They said that the 28 Spanish speaking missionaries bring in over twice as many baptisms as the the other 160 English speaking missionaries. The latinos here are so willing to come unto Christ!

 

Then we had interviews with President Sonne and Sister Sonne and wrote letters home...you'll probably get it tomorrow! Then other missionaries started coming for the transfer meeting. There were inly 2 sisters that came and only two of us greenies.  One of them was English speaking and one was Spanish speaking.  I used my smart little noggin and deducted that  Hermana Hernandez was probably going to be my companion. But it's kind of supposed to be a secret until the President announces it.  So we all sat down in the tables in the cultural hall and President announced the new companionship.  I could tell that I'm definetly my Dad's daughter because I tried with all my might to hold back tears everytime he called out the name of a trainer and then a new missionary and they ran up and hugged eachother while everyone else clapped.  It was SOSOSOSO cool! I'm tearing up just writing this...what a cry baby( no offense DAD!)  Then we all ate lunch together as companionships.  Hermana Hernandez is from Mexico City! She is sosososo sweet! I loved her instantly!  She's been here 9 months and has been in the same area the whole time. BUT, she has never been to Rose Park which is where we are serving!  We white washed this area, which means we took both the old missionaries places and are staring from scrathch! Everyone was so excited because there haven't been Sister missionaries in this area for almost 2 years!!! Were going to clean this place up!!!!

 

So last night we went back to our house (we are living with members, The Christophers) and unpacked for about 3 minutes before we had a dinner appointment. Oh ya and I forgot to say that I have drive around this crazy city where I've never been before because Hna Hernandez doesnt have an american driver's liscence.  So we had a dinner appointment with the Chompo family.  They are so sweet! They both served missions and they have a super cute little 1 year old baby!

 

Then we went to the church building to meet the bishop of the Rose Park 14th ward, Bishop Meneses, and some members because there was mutual.  The bishop is great!  He is so into this missionary work! They have a goal of 40 baptisms just in their ward this year which is GREAT!!!!! They only have a 50% retention rate so we have a lot of work to do.  Then we met Hermano Guitierrez who is the executive secratary and he had a referral for us, Maria Lopez.  So we went over to her house and met her and 3 of her kids.  She is an inactive member and her kids have not been baptized.  So we talked to her, just trying to get to know her a little.  She said that she got in a really bad accident a couple weeks a go and she was in the hospital for 2 weeks. It's been really tight. She and her husband are divorced and sh'e living with her boyfriend which is why she hasn't been coming to church.  She just flat out told us that she feels guilty and that she want to get rid of this guilt.  We shared a little bit with her about repantance and how she can releave herself from what she's feeling.  It was  so amazing.  She was so accepting!  And we asked her if she would be willing to prepare her kids to be baptized.  She said OF COURSE and now we have an apointment with them tonight to teach the kids the first lesson.  She said it would be amazing if they could be baptized and all attend church together.  I'm so excited! We're going to try to set a baptsmal date tonight! CRAZY!!!

 

All in all, I am already loving this work! The Lord works in amazing ways and has prepared so many people to receive this gospel.  It is just our job to find them and give it to them! 

 

Today is Pday (only because we had transfers yesterday). it's usually on Wednesday.  And president Sonne has asked all of us to watch "Forever Strong", so we're all going to watch it right now as a zone!

 

I love you all ! I love this work! And I can't wait to see the joy and peace that this Gospel is going to bring these people!!!

 

Con Amor

 

Herman Taylor

And so the real thing begins...

I am SOSOSOSOSO excited to get out into the field tomorrow! But I'm also a little nervous! To explain it perfectly, I feel like I'm strapped into a rollercoaster. I've waited in line for an hour and a half to ride this ride and I know it's going to be fun and a huge adrenaline rush.  But at the same time I'm a little scared of the loops and the big drop at the top.  I'm not quite sure that my seatbelt will keep me strapped in 100%  ya know?  So I'm excited but scared and the coaster is slowly trucking its was to the top of this huge drop and I'm getting more and more butterflies as the seconds pass. But all in all I know that this will be my favorite ride I have ever ridden in my entire life. And it will be all worth the long line I waited in and all the butterflies I have.

I have no idea where my first area will be but hopefully my president will let me write home or something tomorrow...I don't know....and DONT GET  YOUR HOPES UP TO HIGH! But maybe charge your cell phone and have it on you tomorrow.  ALL DAY!  They won' t let me call home from here but most people get to call home from the airport  but i'm not going to the airport so I don't get to:( But MAYBE, just maybe, some miracle will occur and my president will let us call from the mission home tomorrow.

SO I get on a bus ant 6 and I will be eating breakfast at my mission home just a few short miles later! I'm going to have all day tomorrow to tach and speak in spanish...EEEEEEEKKKKK and I'll probably even go to a member's house for dinner tomorrow night! WIERD!!! REAL FOOD!!!!

I definitely cried when my companion left this morning! I totally didn't think it would happen.  But it was just a few tears and then I was done! She is going to be AMAZING! I just know it!  I can only hope that my trainer will be even close to amazing as her!

My companion today has been Hermana Phillipy! SHE IS AMAZING! I love her sos so sososos much! She is in my zone and she is one of the sisters going to LA! So everyone keep your eyes peeled for her at the temple and give her a GIANT hug for me when you see her! She's probably the friendliest person i know! ( she is sitting next to me right now and she says she is sos sos sos so excited to meet all of you!)


I am SO  excited to get our to the field and share this amazing joy and peace and love that I have in my life.  I will work as hard as i possibly can to bring Heavenly Father's children back to Him.  I feel that it is the only way that I can pay back my Savior, Jesus Christ, for what he has suffered for me!  I will be infinitely grateful and I will work my tail off to share this gospel with EVERYONE I see!!!

I love you all! I miss you so much! I hope everyone is doing well.  I pray for you all everyday by name! Know that your Heavenly Father loves all of you more than anyone one else could possibly come close!!

Con amor

Hermana Taylor

Soon to be official missionary out in the actual mission field!!!!!

One more week until I'm in the field!!

SO to start off this week I found out that my departure date from the MTC has been wrong this whole time. So I am leaving for the mission field NEXT WEEK Jan 13th :( That's ok...another week to get my spanish even better! They're hopefully going to put us in an advanced spanish class with all native speakers! SO I'm very excited for that!

By the way..Anyone can send me emails! I can read anyone's email and then I'll respond by snail mail!  That is probably way easier for everyone! SO send me an email whenever you want!!!!!! my email address is hannah.e.taylor@Myldsmail.net

My new address as of Jan 13th is:
Hermana Hannah Taylor
3487 South 1300 East
West Enterance
Salty Lake City, UT 84106
Everyone can start sending mail there now!

So this week has been very uneventful.  Just been getting ready to leave.  We've had a lot of substitutes because our real teachers have been gone for Christmas break. But they come back tomorrow which we are SO excited about!!!!!  Also tomorrow we get to be host sisters! SO we take around the new sisters that come in tomorrow and show them they're room, help them with their luggage and their books and take them to class! I'm really excited for that!

We had Mission conference on Sunday which is 2 hours! It was great as always!  All of the MTC presidency spoke as well as 2 other people.  And we got to go to the temple  this mornign because it finally reopened! It has been close for a couple weeks.

My companion Hermana Ouellette leaves a day before me. she leaves next Tuesday whoch I am pretty sad about. I don't know what I'm going to do without her. I don't know how I'm going to deal with a new companion!  She's just so amazing!

I guess all I have left to say is how much I love this obra (work)! Going on a mission is the best decision I have EVER made in my entire life.  I have already learned so much about life and myself and how to deal with people and certain situations. It is so amazing!  I couldn't imagind doing anything else with my life right now! I am SO excited to get out there and share with people the joy and the peace and the EVERYTHING that I have in my life because of this Gospel!  I have gained such a strong testimony of the atonement of Jesus Christ! We can use it for any situation that we have in our lives. Whether we're sad or mad or son't know what to do or wif we have something to do and know that we cant do it on our own! The Lord can helop us with EVERYThing!!!!!

Love you alll
con amor

Hermana Taylor