The Work is Progressing in Rose Park

This week has been another good one!

 

On Saturday, we got to do a big service project at the local community center.  It was 3 zones of missionaries and it was so fun.  Our group was painting and of course it turned into everyone painting each other and then they put us in a room and told us to paint whatever we wanted on the walls.  It was super fun! I loved it!

 

Then later on Saturday, we has Eva's baptism!!!! Oh my goodness, she's so amazing! The spirit was so strong in her baptism, everyone could feel it, even her kids.  She has 3 kids : Paco, Chris, and Alexandra.  We have been teaching Paco and Chris but Alex hasn't been willing to sit down and listen to us.  She usually just says "I'm catholic, I don't want to change.  I'm fine where I am."  And then she goes back to her room.  But after her Eva got baptized I went into the dressing room and Alex was in there waiting for her too.  I asked her, "so what do you think?" And she said, "it was really cool.  I felt something different, I don't know what but I liked it."  And I said "well, we're having another baptism on May 8th.  Will you get baptized on May 8th?"  And she said "YES!  Can Chris get baptized with me too?"  It was so cool!!!  SO now it turns out that Alex and Chris are going to get baptized together on May 8th.  And Chris has a friend from school that is on our ward that he wants to baptize him.  It was so amazing how things just worked out so well.  It's all proof that this is the Lord's work.  And that His hand is in every aspect of it.  Oh ya....and when Eva was leaving the baptism she gave me a huge hug and wouldn't let go and said "I love you!!!" (In English)  It almost made me cry.  It was probably the most sincere 'I love you' I've ever heard.  She's just the sweetest lady ever!

 

I wrote about Eva's family when we found her but I want it all to connect who she is....Hermana Hernandez and I had been praying to find a family of 5 for about 7 or 8 weeks and we hadn't found them.  Then one day, we were tracting and we talked to some members who said that their neighbors across the street had just moved in and they speak Spanish but they're catholic and they're probably not interested.  But we went anyway and we met Eva right then.  Nobody else was home but we found out that they were a family of 5.  And that day she told us that she wanted us to come again when all of her family was home so that they could learn about God's word too.  (they always say "God's word")  Anyways, it turns out that the Lord is blessing us in enormous ways because all of the family is progressing.  Even her husband who really hasn't wanted anything to do with us.  At her baptism we handed out papers for people to write something to Eva and her husband wrote the sweetest note to her.  He said that he is so grateful for this step that she has taken in her life because he knows that it is going to bring their family even closer together.  I almost cried when I was reading it....vamos Meche!!!!!

 

We've received so many blessings from the Lord in this week.  Last Monday the assistants came and we talked about the people that we are going to put on date this week to get baptized.  After we picked a few people who we thought would be ready,  we knelt down and prayed right there to promise the Lord that we're going to do it.  Then it turned out that 2 of the people that we told the Lord we were going to put on date moved out of our area.  We were so bummed.  But then the Lord put 2 other people (Bonifacio and Alex) in our path who we weren't expecting(to make up for the people that moved out of our area).  WOW!  Sometimes I feel like we don't deserve the miracles that the Lord blesses us with.

 

Also on Saturday we went to temple square with Marilu.  It was really fun.  She's told us before how much she dislikes the missionaries and she didn't even know why she let us in in the first place.  Bu

t we've been getting to k now her better and better.  It's been really fun.  And she HATES to take pictures and on Saturday we wanted to take a picture with her and she said no but then she said, "ok...fine,  I'll take one...but only one! Only because it's with you two."  I almost fell over backwards....she's super stubborn but super sweet and she's finally opening up to us more.  I attached the picture of us at temple square.  Oh ya.....and while I was there, there were about 20 couples getting married and one of them was James Sullivan and his new wife! I talked to them for just a minute and had to keep going but it was super awkward as a missionary!!! HAHA! Never thought that would happen!

 

Yesterday we went over to Eva's to learn how to make tamales!!! It was so much fun! Now I k now so when I came home we can make tamales!!!!  She is SOSOSOSO funny! Everything she says is super witty and sarcastic and she makes fun of herself all the time (Same as her kids).  Their family is really fun.  We love spending time with them.  I attached some pictures of the tamale process.  I started mixing the masa, Eva was worried that my hair was going to fall in the bowl so she tied it up with a zebra scarf.  That's why I'm wearing that in almost all the pictures.  haha...it was pretty funny.  Tamales are a lot og work but totally worth it when you're done.  They were SOOSOSOSO good!

 

Anyways, I love you all so so much! I hope all is well with all of you!!!  speaking of...CAM CONGRATULATIONS~~ England!!!!!  You're gonna come home with an accent!!!! That's so exciting!

 

Tay Tay I hope you're feeling better.  I heard you guys came down for Sam's Rugby game...That was so nice of  you!

 

con muchisimo amor

Hermana Taylor

 

 

PS: last week I got my haircut and I actually really like it.  It's a lot shorter, but I'm doing it straight now. 

An Amazing Week!!

SO all I have to say is that this week was AMAZING!!!!

I GOT TO SEE MY MOMMA AND EMILY AND KATIE!!!!!

oh my goodness it made my week!!!!  It was so much fun to see the 3 of you beautiful girls!  Now that I've said that, I can't think of what else happened this week....let's think about this for a second....

Saturday we had a baptism, but it almost didn't happen.  We went to his house 30 minutes before his baptism was supposed to start and he was still in bed and he wouldn't get up.  We ended up going up to his room and waking him up.. I practically pulled the covers off him.  And then once he woke up, he told us that he didn't want to be baptized...what the heck?!?!?!?!  SO right then and there we told him to kneel down and ask Heavenly Father if he should get baptized today.  I told him,"if you want a specific answer, you have to ask a specific question.  Ask if you should get baptized today at 10:00."  And to make a very long story short, he rececived his answer from Heavely Father and got baptized that morning.  It was so crazy, I had never been in that situation before and I had no idea what to say but I know that the Lord directed me and blessed me with the words that Sid needed to hear that morning. 

Also on Saturday we went to lunch at the William's house.  And it turns out that Brother Williams served in Moorpark and Thousand Oaks....in spanish.....what a small world!  It was fun to talk to him and we know some of the same people.  Actually, President Pace was the branch president when he served in the branch.  And at that lunch they gave us more food than we ever could have eaten and sent us home with even more.  I know there are amazing people like them taking care of me because you're taking care of the missionaries at home momma!!!!  So thank you!!!!

We had a very interesting chain of events happen on Sunday.  Sunday morning 2 of our investigators who are going to get married on May 1 came to church.  Elias went to priesthood with his fellowshipper and we took April to relief society with us.  After about 15 minutes she said that she had to go to the bathroom so she got up and went.  But she never came back.  We were so worried about her, that maybe she fainted or some thing but it turns out that she went to her house, packed up all her stuff, and left her boyfriend....what the heck!?!?!?!?!? Who does that?!?!?!?  SO bazaar....so I guess we're not having another wedding.

Well family and friends....I love you all so so much! I hope you have a great week!

Con mucho amor

Hermana Taylor

Miracles Are Happening in Rose Park

This has been a week full of all kinds of miracles!!!  First of all, my companion is absolutely AMAZING!!!  Having a companion like her makes all the difference...seriously! I never knew that the work could be like this.  It's so fun, and there is so much joy in doing the Lord's work with a good attitude.  It's honestly the purest happiness that I think a person could experience.  She makes me laugh so so much! I love her!  The days go by so much faster.  And I know that it's not a coincidence that so many miracles started happening in our area as soon as she arrived.  President Sonne has said many times that we need to enjoy this work.  And now I understand what he means.  The Lord wants us to be happy and excited to do His work. 

 

Anyways,  our zone leaders told us that we need to be focused on finding and teaching families this transfer.  And what do you know?  This week we've found 6 FAMILIES!!!!!!  Talk about miracles!!! Our area is booming!  It's so exciting! One of the couples, April and Elias, we met on Saturday and on Tuesday they went down to the marriage office with Elder Deyhle to get their marriage lisence.  Looks like we're going to have another wedding!!! YAHOO! We're getting pretty good at this whole wedding thing.  By the way, we had a wedding on Saturday and it turned out great but only 2 members from the ward showed up to help us clean up so we had to call our zone leaders to come and help us.  And we got to our house late but we didn't get in trouble because the zone leaders totally understood. 

 

Yesterday we had our zone conference and it was so so good.  I always love hearing from President Sonne.  And me and my companion and sister Martinez sang.  It actually turned out pretty good.  We sang an EFY song "Beautiful to Him".  Elder Blanco played the piano for us.  We had to practice a couple times during the week in order to get it all down.  It was pretty funny because Elder Blanco is one of our zone leaders and our other zone leader(Elder Watt) always came with us when we practiced.  Elder Watt acted as our manager.  He would always stop us and tell us what we needed to fix.  He's pretty funny!

 

Anyways, Sorry that this letter is kind of short this week.  I just don't have that much to say except that I love this work more than ANYTHING!!!!!  I've never felt this real, true, pure joy before.....it's amazing!

 

I love you all so so much!

 

con mucho amor

Hermana Taylor

 

PS:  Sorry that I didn't attach any pictures, I lost my camera battery :(  Hopefully I can send some next week!

Best Week Ever!

This week was SO great! Let's start off where we left off last week.  So last Wednesday we did email here in the stake center and then we all watched a movie together because we had ALL DAY PDAY!!!!!  We watched "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs".  The Elders thought it was pretty funny!  It was fun to just have a little time to sit back and relax.

On Friday, my distict leader went to the mission office and he took my mail for me!!! And to my surprise I had 2 packages!!! One from my mother dear and one from the young women from our ward! That was SO nice of them to send me a package...it was filled with all kinds of goodies! And I got a whole package of pictures from Lindy (don't worry, there is a reply letter in the works for you Lindy!)

Then Saturday was conference!!!! First of all the actual conference was absolutely amazing!  Every year I don't think it could get better and then every year its better and better.  But to make it even better I got to see a whole bunch of people tha

t I love so so much! I was so excited to see Emily!!!!! And then the Sorenson's came too! And Jenni!!! I loved it so much.  Don't worry, it didn't make me sad or homesick at all to see everyone.  It actually really brightened up the work for me. Emily and Amber were kind enough to drive us back to our house because Hna Hernandez forgot our afternoon tickets at the house...oops!  And then after the 2nd session, Emily came back to visit me again with Jenni and the Sorensons.  It was so so fun!  Thank you for coming to visit me.  All of you have no idea how much you brightened up my week.

And Sunday's conference was even more amazing than Saturday.  Sunday morning, Eva and her family came with us.  I was so glad that they came to that session because it was perfect for them.  There were so many things that they needed to hear.  Elder Holland's talk was so amazing!!!! I loved it...I love how he speaks!!  Then between sessions, the Sorenson's brought me lunch (thank you so so much!!) and I got to sit and socialize with them a little bit more.  I pretty much introduced them to everyone as my family.

Tuesday we had an easter egg hunt with the whole zone and it was really fun.  It was actually more like a scripture scavenger hunt.  And of course Hna Hernandez and I won!!!! OF COURSE!!!!  She wasn't very into it at all but I'm super competitive so I was running all over the place trying to find the clues...and it totally paid off.  Then, after that we went out to lunch with Elder Deyhle and his wife to this really nice restaurant that was SO good!  It was such a nice little treat.  They're so sweet and they've helped us so much.

And yesterday was TRANSFERS!!!!! I am in the same area but serving with Hna Rodriguez!!! She is amazing! I can already tell that this transfer is going to be so much fun! I'm so excited!!!! 

This morning we climbed Ensign peak with the whole zone! It was really fun too! I attached some pictures from conference and from today!!!

I love you all so so much! Sorry that this email isn't very spiritual...oops! I'm supposed to be a missionary right?!?!?!?!

Well, I love you to pieces!!!!!

Hermana Taylor