I'm Staying in Rose Park!

So transfers are next week and we don't usually find out what's happening until the day before but the APs sent us all an email telling us where we're going.  I'm staying in the same ward but with Siter Rodriguez!!! I am more excited than I could ever express!!!!!  The very first time I met her, I knew she was going to be my companion one day...I loved her right away!!!!  So, I'm pretty psyched!  I attached a picture of her and her companion...she is the one on the left.

 

So I dont have very much time...this email is going to be very random...I pretty much only have time to write the things that I have scribbled on my 3by5 card that I keep in my planner.  So here we go...hold on tight

 

• Thursday I had a little breakdown.  The thing is that every single day I am learning more and more about the gospel and how to be a better missionary.  And I'm learning to love the people more and more but now my level of missionaryness is bypassing by level of spanish.  It's so frustrating...I want to help the people but I can't say what it is that I want to say....it's SO hard.  But I think that being with Hna Rodriguez is going to help me a ton because she doen't speak nearly as much English as Hna Hernandez so I'm going to have to speak a lot more Spanish. 
• Emily: The whoopie cushion that you sent me some how surfaces at every weekly planning session with a different set of elders. it's pretty funny!
• Hna Hernandez had a stomach ache the other day and sister sonne told her to eat oatmeal and instead she bought baby ceareal...totally fine right?  well not when you just eat it out of the box with a spoon! SICK!!! And then later that day she poured some into a cup and added some red powerade...SPEECHLESS!!!!!
• mom: Thank you so so so much for the easter package! WE got it Monday!!!!!  I wore the sweater yesterday...I love it so much!  And sister Hernandez loved hers.  She was totally shocked that you sent her something...she says thank you so so much! I ove the picture of Christ that you sent.  I cleared off my whole desk so that it can be right there when I'm studying.
• Not that much happened this week.  We put some more people on date for baptism.  It was a very productive week, just not that exciting.
•  Today we have all day PDay because we over achieved our goal of 24 baptisms for the month of March.

Well I love you al so so much! i'm sorry that this email was so short....just short on time (even though we have all day pday...go figure)

 

con muchisimo Amor

 

Hermana Taylor

Hermanas Rodriguez and Martinez

 

PS: AMY!!!! I loved the picture of your gorgeous family!!! Thank you for emailing me ! I loved it!!!!

 

EMILY: I will see you st the reflection pool between sessions...I am going to send you a little note tomorrow in the mail with the exact infor mation ofour tickets and stuff...I don't have them with me right now.  I don't need you to bring me anything(I have a great blanket for my bed)  but as for Hna Hernandez.....she loves purple....and she loves stickers....pretty much any kind of stickers that have to do with the church or really any kind of stickers.  She would love you for that!  SEE YOU SATURDAY!!!! i SERIOUSLY CAN'T WAIT

Vilma

SO last week, I said that it was a beautiful week because almost every day was 60-65 degrees.  It was a beautiful week......and now.....well, back to the cold weather.  Actually today is about 50 degrees which means we're driving with the windows down!!! i LOVE IT!!!

 

So,  Vilma (the lady from Las Vegas) did get baptized.  It was amazing!  She came out the font balling...she was SO happy.  I wasn't sure if I wrote last week or not but she decided that she's not going back to Vegas.  She decided to stay here.  She's already found a job and an apartment!  She is proof that the Lord really does bless people when they make good decisions in their lives and decide to live the commandments.  There are SO many people that live in this area that don't have a job right now and Vilma found 2 jobs in a day...definitely not a coincidence!!!! I know that much for sure!!!

 

Mario got baptized too...it was such a great day.  There were 75 people there at the baptism.  It was so cool!  The ward hasn't had attendance like this ever and everybody is very impressed.  We're trying to have a baptism every week and have that many people show up every week...we'll see!!!!!

 

So, not that much has happened this week.   The biggest news is: WE'RE HAVING ANOTHER WEDDING!!!!  YAHOO!!  The girl is an inactive member and her bf isn't a member.  he's going to get baptized the next day...we're pretty excited!  Hopefully, this one will go smoother than the last one.

 

OK...... first gross food story.....ijole!!!! (that's what the spanish sisters say all the time....it's like "ee-hoe-lay")  SO we went to mama Villareal's house Sunday for lunch.  She is AWESOME!!!  She served a mission back in the day!  Her daughter who is a return missionary goes with us to our appointments all the time.  Mama Villareal even comes with us too..she's great!  SO....back to Sunday afternoon... we got there, all ready to eat tacos!  I sat down at the table and she sat a plate of tacos down in front of me.  They smelled great.  I piled on a little bit of onion, cilantro, salsa....ya know....the goods and I went to take my first bite and while it was on its way into my mouth, one little piece of meat fell out the back of my taco and onto my plate.  I just happened to look down and to my surprise there were taste buds on the piece of meat that fell out of my taco....I almost DIED!!!!!  I had already taken a bite and I had to eat it...and I couldn't be rude and not eat the rest of the tacos.  They were actually pretty good but the pieces with tastebuds on it TOTALLY freaked me out!!!  Not kidding...I've never experienced anything like that before.....SICK!!!!!

 

On Monday we had a zone find in our area which means that all of the missionaries in our zone came to our area and tracted to help us find people.  We received SO many referrals...it's so awesome...hopefully this will help us have more investigators

 

Anyways, I love you all so so much! Thank you for your prayers!

 

con amor

su misionera de Sion

Hermana Taylor

 

Have a great week!

A Beautiful Beautiful Week in Rose Park

Hello everyone!!!!

 

I'm sorry that the pictures that I've been sending haven't been working.  What a bummer.  I'll try again.  I hope they work this time.

 

This letter is going to be pretty random so hold on tight...lets go!

 

Emily!!!!! You went home this weekend? I'm so jealous!!!  That's so fun that you got to see Sam in action...I can't wait to see him play.  And you got to see E.Nel. 

 

Mom, that's so fun that you did ward conference in the spanish branch.  I CAN"T wait to get home and go to the spanish branch and help out with whatever I can and get to know the sisters that you love so much!  oh man...seriously I can't wait! 

 

Grandma and Grandpa:  Where are you going on your trip and when do you leave?>  I hope it's wonderful!  Drive super safe!!!!

 

CIndi & Courtney:  This morning I went to the temple and I felt a strong impression to put both of your names and your family's name on the prayer roll.  I wasn't sure why but I just followed my promptings and did it.  And just right now I found out about your brother/uncle.  I am so so sorry to hear about that.  I know you both know but he is SO happy right now.  I'm sure he's learning more anout the gospel and helping teach others that are there right now with him who didn't get a chance to hear it. 

 

JJ Happy Birthday today!!!!! YAHOO!  the big 34!!!!!

 

And Grandma Penny:  Happy almost birthday(this week)!!!! I love you!!!!

 

ok, as for General conference, I talked to President Sonne and we ARE allowed to see family that comes to conference.  The whole mission meets around the reflection pool in front of the temple between sessions and we usually bring lunch and have a picnic.  I'm not sure ifwe would be able to go out to lunch but I'll investigate that one! So far, we only have tickets to the 2 morning sessions  but we're still trying to find tickets to the afternoon sessions.  I'll keep you posted!

 

ok....now this whole missionary work thing......hahah!  This week has been amazing! I love each week more and more!  But this week we have seen our real first miracle!!!!  It was so cool!!!!!  ok so there was a visitor in sacrament meeting on Sunday who we had never met before so we introduced ourselves to her and set up an appointment to meet woth her later that day because she wanted to learn about the church.  So we went to the house that she's staying at (she's staying with her aunt who is a member).  oh ya I forgot to mention that she;s just visiting for the week from Las Vegas.  So she loved everything that we taught and we made an appointment to go back on Monday.  SO we went back on Monday and she had read 3nefi 11 and prayed to find out if it is true and she knows that it is true!  So we taught her about the great apostasy and why there are so many churches today.  Then she said that she wasnts to get baptized in a church that baptizes in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost...well HELLO?!?!?!?!?  We can do that for you!!!!  But she was a little nervous to say 100% yes that she would get baptized.  So right there we knelt down with her to pray.  And she prayed and asked Heavenly Father if this is the true church and if she should get baptized.  Before she was even finished, she was balling and she said that she felt something in her heart that she has never felt before.  She received her answer.  It turns out that she is going to stay here in Utah to get baptized this Sunday and then stay for General CO nference so that she can hear the prophet of God speak in General Conference.  It was the most amazing thing I have probably ever experienced!  God really does perform miracles in His work!!!!

 

I love you all so much and I miss you a ton!!!!!!  Have a great week!

 

con amor

su misionera de Sion

 

Hermana Taylor

The Week of Miracles

So this week really has been a week of miracles....

First of all, Irene and Emilio got married and it was amazing.  There were SO many people there...over 100!  The ward has never even seen a turn out like that for a regular ward activity...it was pretty cool.  Irene was absolutely amazing.  Hna Hernandez and I spent ALL DAY LONG Saturday decorating and running all over the place to get stuff done for the wedding (which is the member's job...but that's ok, someone had to do it).  So we set up the whole reception in the gym and there was another reception scheduled for the same time on the other half of the gym...no big deal right???? WRONG!  The curtain that divides the gym in half broke a few weeks ago and nobody said anything so we had 2 receptions set up in the same gym with no divider...IT was crazy. We had no idea what we were going to do and then the stake president showed upand saved the day! Here's what happened:  We had the ceremony and all went well,  then during the baptismal service all the men moved the reception into the "social hall" (but there was an event scheduled in there too and President McConkie moved it) and the baptism went great and then we had a huge fiesta in the ocial hall and nobody even knew that something went wrong.  The pressure was really on because President and Sister Sonne (mission president) showed up...YIKES!  I was kind of freaking out inside!!!  But everything turned out amamzingly!  One thing I learned is that these Latinos love to party.  We were taking down the tables and everything and they were still going strong...dancing and everything!  We were practically vacuuming inbetween them while they were still dancing.  Oh ya! That was another thing: The guy who was supposed to dj for us called us about 2 hours before and told us that he wasn't feeling good and he wasn't going to be able to make it.  But it turns out that Hna Hernandez knows somebody from her old area that came and did the music for us.  He had the whole sound board and huge speakers and everything....it was awesome!!!!  So everything turned out really well.  I attached some pictures of course!!!!

Then Sunday we went to temple square with Irene and her whole family and guess who I saw!?!?!?!?!??! COURTNEY WRIGHT!!!!! I was so so so so shocked and surprised and happy to see her! It was the best  ever...I also attached a picture so everyone can see!!!!!!  It was so great seeing someone from home, someone that I love so so much!!!!  It was the perfect ending to my week! 

Then on Monday we had the greatest zone meeting ever.  I heard just exactly what I needed to hear!  The first traing was on receiving personal revelation (mom I totally thought of you and ward conference!)  here are a couple points that I loved:

• Revelation is more like a feather that a rock.  It will float down lightly and land on your head, it won't hit you hard like a rock.
• D&C 75:4-5  lift up your voice and proclaim the truth
• D&C 107:27, 30. 31  In our companionship we have tro counsel together and when we agree on something, we know that it is revelation we both have received.  we have to be humble and accept that sometimes we're wrong, we will be fruitful= we will know what God's will is for us
• Matthew 7:21  once you know what God's will is, you have to do it!  Or else we won't be worthy to receive more revelation
• Act upon your promptings- Sometimes we think that they're our own thoughts  but  if you're intune with the spirit, it's more..... just follow it!  That's the Lord telling you what to do.  If we don't follow it, the Lord won't trust us.

I just loved that training and thought I would add a little of it in my letter this week.  Anyways,  other that that.....oh ya!  Also on Monday, I got sick.  I don't know so algo me cayo mal or que...oops jaja that's spanish...sorry...I don't know if I got food poisoning or just a 24 hour bug but it was horrible.  I haven't thrown up since I was seven and I made up for it on Monday.  But we didn't go home for even 1 minute.  I wanted to keep working...my companion thinks I'm crazy but that's ok...the Lord's work has to go on.  

So 2 other gigantic miracles:  We've been praying for a family of 5 that we can baptize and we've been searching for them for weeks and we finally found them yesterday!!! I almost started crying right there in her house...the Mom's name is Eva, the dad is Francisco, 16 yr old Francisco, Christopher 14, and Eva Alejandra 12.  The Lord really does answer prayers!!!!!  Then also we have a list of Zion standards that we should follow as Zion missionaries and as a Zion mission and each we we are supposed to pick one to focus on.  This week we picked "A zion missionary baptizes every week"  but we didn't have a baptism scheduled for this weekend;  we knew it was going to take a miracle.  And then our zone leader, Elder Blanco, called us  and said that Alvino (our old investigator) is going to get baptized...WOW!!!!  The miracles that we see in this work just prove that this really is the Lord's work!

Not much else exciting happened....today we had lunch with all of the spanish speaking missionaries as a reward because 53% of the baptisms last month were latino baptisms!!! YAHOO!  The mission has been trying to do that for years.  I attached a picture of the 6 spanish speaking sisters that are in the mission right now.  Also we went to the 6am session and it was still very dark outside...but well worth it!

Here are 2 funny things:  you know that knocking game that I play with myself?(counting how many times my companion knock on a door)  she broke the record by a long shot yesterday:26!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT?!?!?!?!  I couldn't believe it!  I think my mouth might have actually fell open!  26 knocks right in a row! wowwy!  and one more funny thing....the lunch that we had today was a pizza party and she says pixa and I kept asking her questions so that she would say pixa...I just thought it was cute!!!

Thank you for all the packages this week!!! Mom and Dad!!!!  Dad- Hna Hernandez was SO excited about her new tooth brush, she used it right when I gave it to her hahaha,  and thank  you so much for the pictures and the goodies!  Mom-thank you so much for sending me the cake stufff, you saved me.  And the girls love the CD of primary songs.  And Emily wow! How do you know me oh so well....John Deere fruit snacks, cinnamon bears, and a whoopie cushion!!!! We must be related!!!

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

Con muchisimo amor

Hermana Taylor

Another Beautiful Week in Rose Park

The weather has been SO beautiful this week.  Every day it's been between 50 and 60 degrees!  I've just been wearing a cardigan sweater and it's been great!!!  I'm hoping that it won't snow anymore.  Some people say that they think it's going to stay like this and some say that we should have at least one more day of snow.  I guess the snow would be good for the mountains so that there will be water in the summer....I guess ;)

 

Not much exciting has happened here.  Everyday we've been making arrangements for the wedding on Saturday.  The hard thing is that this is the job of the ward and nobody is helping us so we're doing it all...so we haven't had as much time to really work and find new people to teach.  bummer but that's ok, it's all going to be worth it on Saturday! 

 

Ok so I had my first good dinner/food story experience on Friday night.  (it's more funny than gross...actually it's not gross at all)  SO, we went to this member's home that we've never met before, Hna Rodriguez.  She made Chile rellenos for us which is Hna Hernandez's favorite food of all time so she was stoked.  I on the other hand am not a huge fan because there's usually about a pound of cheese inside each one and it gives me a stomach ache every time.  She gave us each a bowl with 2 huge chiles that had been covered in more cheese and deep fried.  And they were in some kind of broth/soup.  The cheese that was inside was a little spicy, but not bad.  So I was slowly eating my chiles and getting fuller and fuller by the second and Hna Rodriguez kept making more and more and more tortillas....I was already so full.....  And THEN she brought me another bowl of soup with a big huge piece of chicken and about 7 servings of vegetables.  She told me "I made this especially for you incase the chile rellenos were too spicy for you"  So I couldn't not eat it.  She also made a special salsa for me to put in it which was little green chiles, onion, and lime juice.  So I put a little bit in my soup and started eating.  Oh man...I thought I was going to explode.  As I was eating my soup, on eof the little green chiles hopped up on my spoon and i thought, oh this little thing won't do anything to me.  Then about 2 seconds later my entire mouth was on FIRE!!!!!  Then the fire slowly moved it's way down my throat!  I thought I was going to die right there at the dinner table.  Seriously, I've never eaten anything that spicy in my entire life.  And to prove just how spicy it really was,  Hna Hernandez ate one too and her eyes started to water, she later told me that it was one of the spiciest things she had ever eaten....oh man! Seriously I don't think my tongue has recovered yet! jajaja

 

     I spoke in church on Sunday.  It went pretty well.  I didn't have as much time as I thought I would so I had to cut it short.  And what surprised me the most was that I wasn't even nervous at all. 

 

Sorry I don't have that much to write about this week.  It hasn't been too exciting  and I still have to write my letter to President Sonne and I only have 12 minutes left on my computer time.  I love you all so so so so much! Make sure that you all help the missionaries that are serving in you ward or stake or area...they need you!!!!!! 

 

Con muchisimo amor!!!!

 

Su misionera de Sion

 

Hermana Taylor