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