Not Much New Here in Millcreek

This week went by so fast! I can't believe it's Wednesday again!  There's not much new going on around here...unfortunatly:(  We had 2 baptisms on Sunday.  They both were baptized in the same ward so we had the baptismal program together.  They were both very excited!  The baptism was right after sacrament meting on Sunday so pretty much the entire branch was there at the baptism...it was so great!  This branch LOVES missionary work.  I've never seen anything like it!  They want to help so much but there just isn't that many spanish speaking people in this area.  It's kinda hard but the members are always more than willing to go to the lessons with us when we do find someone in that area. 

 

My poor companion has been sick.  She's actually been really sick for about a month.  She can't seem to keep her food in her stomach and she's always in a lot of pain.  so the doctor thought it was her gallbladder but she had an ultrasound yesterday and they didn't find any gallstones so now on Friday they're going to do another test to see if her gallbladder is working correctly and if it's not that...well then....we just have no idea what it could be.  Poor thing....she's always in so much pain.  It's really hard for her to get upl in the m orning and there's nothing that she can so to stop the pain cause nobody knows where it's coming from. 

 

Other than that, everything else is pretty much the same!  The baikes have been really fun and interesting.  We don't ride them every day because most of our area is in the mountains and it just takes too long to get around on bikes- so were trying to do every-other day.  It's fun! I feel like a real missionary!!!!

 

Well, I'm sorry that this week's email os so short.  We just ran out of time....too many things to do and too little time!

--
con mucho amor
Su misionera de Sion
Hermana Taylor

Millcreek

I'm sure everyone at home was just as shocked as I was to find out that I was finally being transferred!!!  I'm not gonna lie...I was a little sad to be leaving Rose Park but excited at the same time to be able to get to serve in another part of the mission! So, Rose Park is on the North-West side of downtown Salt Lake and Millcreek is on the South-East side of downtown.  Everyone here knows the "east side" as the rich side of town.  SO needless to say, it's a little bit harder of an area because it's not quite as humble of a place as the west side.  But no matter where you are, the majority of the Latino people are humble, very believing, and very willing to listen to us.  We live in a member's basement again.  I'm glad that we still have a washer and dryer because in Sister Solano's last apartment they had to wash their clothes by hand!!!! Never done that before!!!!!!!  But I'm still in the Spanish program!!!  We cover 2 little branches: Forest Dale 2nd branch and Winder 18th branch!  They're pretty little considering I've only ever served in wards.  But the areas that these 2 branches cover are absolutely GINORMOUS!!!!!!  I've only ever covered 1 stake at a time and now these 2 branches cover 14 STAKES!!!!!!  It is a huge area! I have no idea how I'm ever going to find my way around here without Sister Solano's help!!!  The 2 branches are absolutely amazing...especially the Winder branch!  They are just starved for missionary work!  They are the best fellowshippers I've seen in my entire mission.  It seriously amazes me!

Other than that everything is really really good right now!  I love my companion! I love my area! I love the branches! I love the members!  I love our investigators!  What more can you ask for?!?!?!?!?!  We have 2 baptisms on Sunday in the Winder Branch which we are very excited about because most of our investigators we have right now live within the boundaries of the Forest Dale branch!  One is Ana Paiva who has been waiting to get baptized for about 5 years now but had to wait for her husband's divorce to go through so that they could get married so that she could be baptized.  Then the other one being baptized is Jesus.  He is 15 and so so prepared to accept the Gospel.  He is so awesome!  His brother and his brother's wife are less active members of the church and he just moved in with them.  It's been such an amazing process just in the last week to see how his whole family has changed and how they've been blessed for coming back to church.  The coolest part is that his brother is going to be baptizing him.  I'm so excited for this family! They are so amazing!!!!!!

So this week my companion and I got this great idea to ride bikes in our area!!!!!  Our area is HUGE as I emphasized before but we figured it would be great exercise and we would save some miles on our car.  So our first attempt was on Monday and it was really really fun!  We were so tired at the end of the day but it felt god to be that tired!!!!  A new adventure!  I felt like an actual missionary.  Hna Solano and I came to the conclusion that we gained so much more respect and love for the Elders all around the world that have to ride bikes all day everyday of their missions!  The next day we could barely walk, we were so sore!  Attempt #2 will be happening tomorrow!

This week has been long and fun and hard but it's been amazing! I've been focusing a lot on trying to change myself into a better person.  I want to be a daughter of Christ which I've been studying a lot lately.  It's not easy..it's going to be a long, hard process (I can already tell)  But I k now that it will be very well worth it at the end!   I just love my Savior Jesus Christ so much.  I want to do all that I can while I'm here on this earth to be like him.  And I figure, the best time I have is right now on my mission.  It's been probably one of the hardest weeks spiritually and emotionally but I've already seen the changes in the person that I am becoming.

I love you all so so much! I miss you tons! And I hope all is going well!!!!!  Write me!!! I want to hear all about everything everyone is doing!!! 
I attached some pictures that I haven't been able to attach the past couple weeks:

• one is of the hammock that an investigator made for me! I'm so in love with it but I haven't found a place to hang it quite yet

• second is the wedding cake that I made for Daniel and Jazmin's wedding 2 weeks ago (it's not the prettiest but it tasted good!)

• The third one is Jazmin, Daniel, and their 2 yr old girl Alessa

• The 4th one is the day of their baptism (jazmin, daniel, Norma, me and Jesus-he baptized 2 of them.  Then in the front is Eduardo, Alessa, Ana, Tania-Jesus's daughter, and Elder Orton who baptized the other 2)

• The last picture is my attempt of taking a picture of my companion and I while riding our bikes!

-- 
con mucho amor
Su misionera de Sion
Hermana Taylor

Embracing Change!!!

Sorry everyone for forgetting to reming you that I wouldn't be writing yesterday!  So yesterday we had transfers and I finally got transferred!!! Yep that's right and ACTUAL transfer!!!!!  I'm now in Millcreek which is in the South East corner of the mission boundaries!  But the best part is that I'm with Hermana Solano again!!!!!! You have no idea how excited I am!  This is going to be the best transfer everrrrrr!!!!!!!!!  We cover 11stakes and within those 11 stakes there are 2 branches.  So, needless to say there aren't a whole lot of hispanic people in the area.  I'm sure it will be hard to adjust but that's totally fine with me because I love change!!!!

 

So yesterday 15 missionaries went home and I'm pretty sure they were that best 15 missionaries in the entire mission.  I don't know what's going to happen here in the mission.  So many amazing missionaries went home.  I'm sure there are some out there that just haven't gotten their chance and now it's their time to shine!  Pretty much all of the Zone Leaders I've ever had went home yesterday.  It's kind of sad to see them go home but I'm sure they're all excited!

 

So I'm getting to know the area a little bit and meet the investigators that we have. 

 

I'm not gonna lie..it was a little bit hard to leave Sister Arce.  Even thought we didn't get along the greatest, I grew to love her so much.  A couple different people told me that when I don't get along with my companion, I need to serve her.  And that is exactly what I did and it totally worked.  I grew to love her more than I ever thought I would.  And it was especially hard to leave her because she's bee sick and I've been taking care of her and I'm scared that her new companion won't take care of her like she needs.  I feel like I'm leaving my sick daughter with a teenaged babysitter and I'm worried about her! HAHAHAH!

 

On Sunday night we had an AMAZING baptism!!!! Norma, Eduardo (8), Daniel (19), and Jazmin (18)  all were baptized.  All four of them were miracles!  I was so lucky to be able to teach them.  I love them so so so much and it was SO hard to say goodbye to them on Tuesday night.  Daniel and Jazmin also got married on Saturday night and it was so sweet.  I can't send pictures from this computer so hopefully next week I'll be able to find a place to send them from.  They were all so happy.  I just love seeing how the Gospel brings so much joy to people's lives.  And I also love seeing the blessings that our investigators receive from being baptized.  On Monday (the day after the baptism) Jazmin called us ,so excited, to tell us that she got a call from someone offering her a job.  And that is such a huge blessing for their family right now because her husband just got diagnosed with lymphoma (sp?).  It's been a  really hard few weeks for them but the Lord is blessing them so so much!

 

Well, I think that's just about all the excitement from this week.  I haven't eaten anything gross this week or had any  crazy things happen...hopefully next week I'll have some more exciting things to tell you!

 

I love you all!

 

have a great week!!!!

Con Amor

 

Hermana Taylor

Hardships and Blessings

Well, it's been another awesome week!!!! OF COURSE!!!!  We've had some difficulties (but what would this work be without hardships?!?!?) but also a lot of blessings!

 

One really hard thing was that we had to drop Eva.  She is SO amazing and has such a strong desire to learn but we prayed about it and afterwards we thought that it would be best to stop visiting her.  We don't want to cause anymore problems in her marriage than she is already dealing with.  All we can do now is pray for her well-being.  And believe me I'm praying for her as hard as my little heart can.  She's amazing and I know that the Lord is preparing her way for her!

 

We have had a lot of success finding new people this week.  We added atleast one new investigator every single day this week.  And many of them have already accepted a baptismal date!!!  The Lord is definetly preparing people and putting them in our path!  

We went to temple square last night with a family we're teaching! It was very fun!

 I also attached a picture of me eating my new favorite food!

-- 
con mucho amor
Su misionera de Sion
Hermana Taylor