UTAH IS CRAZY!!!

 Well hello there!!!!

 

The weather here in Utah is the craziest thing I have eveer experienced in my entire life.  Last week was pretty warm, like 80 degrees and then it rained and then Monday it SNOWED!!!!!! AT THE END OF MAY!!!! Where the heck am I !?!?!?!  Now it's back to half warm/half gloomy weather.  But that's ok, this way I won't get sunburned.  Last week I mentioned how much I love Utah this time of year...oh how fast things change! 

 

Before I get started I have to tell you all the special treat that I got this morning....I got to see Uncle Gary!!!! It was so fun! And I gave him a huge hug! I don't know if that's allowed?!??! BUt I did it! TWICE!  And we took a picture, I attached it so everyone can see how happy I was to see him!!!!

 

So I've now been with Hermana Arce for a week and it's been an interesting week.  I think it's probably my attitude because I loved Hermana Solano so so much and I wanted to serve with her again...that's something I need to work on.  She is a great missionary and that's what I need to focus on.     A little bit more about her:  she didn't know any English before she got to the MTC and she served in English for 3 transfers and now she's back in the Spanish program.  SHe also speaks portuguese and Guranee (I'm not sure how to spell that) it's a language that is spoken mostly only in Paraguay.  It's a very interesting language.  I cannot understand even one word, it's very different than Spanish.  But I can understand her completely when she speaks Portuguese-it's pretty awesome! 

 

SO I had two pretty amazing experiences this week.  The first one was an increase of my faith.  On Saturday, we set the baptismal date with Griselda and we talked to her about her kids getting baptized with her.  She told us that she wasn't sure and she had to talk to them and to her husband.  So we had been praying and praying and praying for her and her kids so that the 3 of them can get baptized together.  We had an appointment with her on Monday to see what happened when she talked with them.  As we were in the car outside her apartment, we said a prayer so that we would have the spirit with us and as Hermana Arce was praying I was thinking "ah man, I bet she's going to say that her husband said no or that she hasn't talked to him yet."  BUt at the same time I felt a tiny little light of hope in the back of my head that said "whatever is God's will for this family will happen".  SO pretty much went into that lesson confused but with the mindset that she was going to tell us that only she will be baptized on Saturday.  BUt it turns out that all 3 of them are going to be baptized this Saturday!!!! YAHOO!!!!!  The Lord just keeps suprising me and proving to me that He really does hear my prayers...He amazes me every single day!

 

Then the second one was yesterday.  We had zone conference yesterday but it was a little bit different because it was President and Sister Sonne's last zone conference. :(  At the very end of the day, they both bore their testimonies and I felt the spirit stronger than I've probably ever felt it.  President Sonne was talking about when he was set apart as a 70.  Elder Perry set him apart and afterwards he told him "within the next 2 weeks you will have the most spiritual experiences of your entire life."  Then he started to cry and couldn't talk for a few minutes.  When he spoke again the spirit was so strng, I couldn't even believe it.  I could feel in that moment that he had had a personal witness the Jesus is the Christ, in all His power and Glory.  And at that same moment I felt my ypersonal relationship with Christ grow.  I've never experienced anything like that before.  He is an absolutley amazing person!

 

I know that I say this almost every week but I love this work so so much! I can't imagine doing anything else with my life right now! I love you al so much and I miss you tons!!!

 

WRITE ME!!!! I miss getting letters in the mail:(

con mucho amor
Su misionera de Sion
Hermana Taylor

TRANSFERS!!!

So transfers were yesterday, which is the reason nobody got an email from me yesterday.  I am STILL in Rose Park (which I am pretty excited about!) But I am with a new companion.  Her name in Hermana Arce, she is from Paraguay and she's amazing! She is just a tiny itty bitty ball of fire! She has SO much energy, I love it!  She was also trained my Hermana Hernandez, which in mission language means we have the same mom which makes us sisters! YAHOO! The 2 daughters of Hermana Hernandez are together! I can tell this is going to be another fun transfer.  I attached a couple of pictures of us together.  We hiked up Ensign Peak again today so they are pictures from the top of the mountain with the Valley behind us.  Oh how I love Utah this time of year!

 

There's also another picture of Hermana Reyes and her birthday cake.  We surprised her yesterday and showed up to her apartment with a cake and sang her happy birthday!  She lovs tres leches so I made her one (it was my first time but it turned out really good!)  

 

We haven't really had any great sprititual experiences this week to tell you about...well quite frankly, every day is a great spiritual experience....BUt we did have a great miracle this week.  There is a lady that we have been teaching since January who has wanted to get baptized since January but she hasn't been able to because the missionary in charge of the spanish missionary program told us that her marriage in the catholic church isn't valid in the United States.  And her husband didn't want to get married so she hasn't been able to get baptized for 4 months but then Elder Deyhle(the senior missionary) called us yesterday to tell us that it IS valid and she can be baptized without getting married here in the states! It was a huge miracle! It was so fun, we went yesterday to tell her and she was so happy.  Before we left, we asked her "is there anything we can do for y ou before we go?" and she said "no, you've already given me everything I need!"  SHe is just the sweetest lady ever!  She really has been prepared by Heavenly Father to accept the gospel.  she's amazing!!!!

 

Well, I ove you all so so much! I hope you enjoy the pictures! ohya the other picture of the poster that says rose park is how we do transfers her.  All the zone leaders stand in a line and they count to 3 and then they put up the signs and you have to find which poster has your name on it to know where you are going!  It's pretty crazy!!! And the other picture is our zone leaders and the 4 founding sisters of rose park! Taking pictures with elders is always super akward because they never want to get too close too us...hahaha...silly boys! It's better that way anyway!
--
con mucho amor
Su misionera de Sion
Hermana Taylor

Elder Blanco, Hna Hernandez, Hna Solano, Hna Martinez, Me, Elder Watt

6 Months Done and Done!!

Well, I don't feel like there was too much excitement during this weekbut we've definetly received some HUGE blessings!!!!

 

Let's just start off with the baptism this Saturday.  Alexandra (Eva's daughter) got baptized along with another guy named Bonifacio but we just call him Boni!  it was so great because right after the baptism, there was a ward party and they pretty much thought it was a celebration of their baptisms.  But it was great because the whole ward was there to congratulate them. 

 

Monday my companion was sick so she stayed with the member that we live with and I went to Zone Meeting with the other sisters.  And then afterwards we went and got medicine for her.  But during zone meeting, the main focus was the things that we are going to do this week to meet our goal of 10 baptisms as a zone this weekend.  It's something that is hard as a missionary because we set goals but we have to remember that it's not just a number, these are souls!  And they're not just any random number, we prayerfully select what we think God's will is for our area each week.  But it can be hard at times when we've set a goal and things just happen and we can't meet our goal.  This has been happening to us this week.  Our zone's goal is 10 baptisms for this week which is great but we didn't have anyinvestigators  who were ready to be baptized this weekend.  Things like this are hard for me because our zone leaders put a ton of pressure on us and I really want to help the zone meet the goal.  So, Monday night I was pretty bummed because we didn't have anybody to be baptized this weekend.  But then yesterday when we went to teach Marilu and her brother Francisco, they told us that they dedcided they are ready to be baptized this Saturday instead of waiting for next weekend....WOWOWOWOWOW!  The Lord is blessing us like crazy.  We were praying for a miracle and the Lord provided us with a huge one.  Sometimes I feel like I'm not worthy to receive the miracles that we are receiving in this work.  It seriously amazes me!

 

I love this work woth all of heart.  I never want to not be a missionary.  I only have a year left..YIKES!  I don't even want to think about that.  A third of my mission has already passed before my eyes.  And I've heard that the last year passes by even faster.

 

Here is my favorite scripture for the week: (if i had a mission plaque, this is the scripture I would put on it!).....

 

Alma 29:9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do ^anot^bglory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.

 

Con mucho amor

Su misionera de Sion

Hermana Taylor

Good Ol' Rose Park

Well I cannot believe that another week has come and gone!  I think I probably say that every week but the weeks go by superty duperty fast.  And this week went by extra fast because we have been so busy every single day.  But that's good...I like being really busy. 

Last pday after writing my email, our zone played this game called scatterball, which is dodgeball but a lot more complicated.  And I am the only sister that ever plays with the elders.  At first they were all really timid about trying to hit me with the ball but then they all found out very quickly that I'm really good and now they all try to get me out.  So, there is this one elder who is super competitive and last week while we were playing, we were the only two left in and he had the ball and was trying to get me out and he full on body slam/tackled me down to the ground.  I popped right back up like nothing happened but I've been hurting for a week.....tontos elderes!!!!

 

On Saturday we had another wedding but this  one was simple.  They just got married in the bishop's office and had a little family get together in their house.  That's my third wedding so far!  What the heck?  I thought I was co ming on a mission to baptize people, not marry them.   Then after the wedding we had to move apartments.  I can't remember if I told you last week or not but we're still working in the same area but we had to move into a different house.  Where we live now is so nice!  Before all we had was a room but now we live in a basement apartment.  We have a washer and dryer, fridge, a treadmill, and a seperate room to study in.  It's pretty sweet but honestly it was kind of a pain to have to pack everything:(

 

Sunday we had a BBQ at a member's home.   I've talked about them a few times in my emails I think but they are seriously the best!  They're like our family here on the mission.  The wife is Monica and her husband is Eladio (he calls me mija, like I'm his daughter!)  They are so so great!   They invited us to their house for a BBQ (but the call it a carne asada instead of a BBQ).  And they also invited one of our investigators(Bonifacio) that is going to be baptized next week.  It was really great for Bonifacio to socialize with some members.  They also invited a less active family that hasn't been back to church since they got baptized last year.  It was so awesome.  This couple is practically serving a mission here too.  I have to say the food was so so so so good! We ate about a million elote, which is corn on the cob.  But they just put it straight on the BBQ and then put lime and salt...yyyuuuummmmmm!!!! They were SO good!  NO wonder I'm not fitting into my skirts as comfortably anymore!!!

 

Then the last 2 days have just been jamm packed with appointments.  This has seriously been the busiest week of my mission so far.  Today, we went to the temple and almost all the sisters from the whole mission were there (just by coincidence).  IT was fun, of course we were all taking pictures afterwards. 

 

This transfer, but especially this week,  I've learned a lot about the strength of having faith.  We have been doing this thing called the 21 day promise.  It is something that Elder Perry came out with  for the Salt Lake Valley.  It is a sheet of paper and there is a spot to make a list of names of people who are not members or are less active that you want to learn about the gospel or come back to church.  SO you put their names down on this paper and you pray for them individually by name every night and every morning for 21 days.  Then there is also a scripture for each day that you have to read.  It's a very cool thing.  So Hermana Solano and I have been doing it for the past 21 days (we finished today) and we have really seen the results of it.  The people's names that we put on our list have opened up to hearing us.  We also added 5 new people to our teaching pool who we had been preying for.  And actually 2 of them moved out of our area about a half a mile but they called us and said that they don't want elders, they want sisters (we call that a sister referral) and so we still get to teach them.  The power of faith in prayer is so amazing.  Sometimes it takes longer than we expect to receive a blessing that we ask for from our Heavenly Father.   Like us, we had to pray for 21 days for the same people and all of these miracles just happened in the last 2 days.  IT's amazing being a missionary!!!!! I love it so much! The other day I was thinking about the day that they're going to take my tag off of me and I'm not going to have the authority to tell people to repent and be baptized.  At first I was scared to have that authority and didn't know what to do with it but know I don't ever want it to be taken away.  I'm really going to have to treasure every moment of the rest of my mission because I already have less that a year left :(

 

Oh wait a second....I was reading over that last part and I forgot to say that Hermana Rodriguez changed her name to Hernama Solano.  Rodriguez is her dad's name but she doesn't even know her dad so President Sonne gave her permission to change it to her mom's name which is Solano :)  And since her mom is not a member and doesn't understand what she's doing here on a mission, it will be something that her mom will love.  So ya...it's me and hermana Solano!!!!

 

Sammy boy! Good luck with your try outs this weekend...that sounds so awesome!!!!

 

ANd happy birthday to all the birthday people out there:  First and most important CURLY, Aunt Lisa, Natalie, Joel, Sissy, and Troy!!!!  Feliz cumpleanos a ustedes!!!!!!

 

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

 

Con amor ~~~~Hermana Taylor

 

FELIZ DIA DE LAS MADRES!!!!