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