April 27, 2015

This week was pretty a good week, but I feel like I don't have much to say! We had Zone Conference, which was really great! President and Sister Riggs are awesome. I'm going to miss them a ton when they go home in June. 

Our investigator, Krysti, came to church yesterday! Yay!!! She was restless and jumpy the whole time, because she is nervous around a lot of people, but she really liked it. It was a regional broadcast from Salt Lake City to the North-East area of North America, so it was being sent to stakes from Nova Scotia to someplace in Virginia. Elder Nelson and Elder Hales both spoke, so it was really great. Krysti told us that she has only had two cups of coffee since we taught her about the Word of Wisdom and she is down to only 5 cigarettes a day! She still has a ways to go, but we're so happy that she is working hard on it! 

We taught the Plan of Salvation to Anita and her friend who happened to be there. The friend was really interested, so we got her information and we're going to refer her to the missionaries in her area. She told us she is looking forward to meeting our "sisters." Haha. Anita is much harder to read. She reads the passages from the Book of Mormon we leave with her and reads the pamphlet, but its hard to tell if she is really feeling the Spirit. She wants to get baptized, but we don't think she really understands what that means. Its SO hard to teach her because she has three rowdy children-a 6 year old, a 5 year old, and a 1 year old. The baby is the most wild. He is always ALL OVER everything and super distracting. He's cute as can be, but he makes it so hard!! She is also on her phone a lot, which is irritating. We don't know what do do about her, but we keep praying and studying and working hard to figure it out. She told us after she read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet that it seemed like something she was remembering it, and not just learning for the first time, so that was awesome to hear. We know she has a lot of potential, but its so hard to know what to do! 

The Giordanos are still doing super well. They feed us amazing Brazilian and Italian food when we go over there, and they are an adorably family. We taught them about family history work, and they all got SO excited about it. Patricia and Antonio will probably go to do baptisms at the temple before to long. I just love them so much! 

Anyway, that's about all I've got for you. Here are some pictures: 

1) A cardinal! 

2) I got a birthday package! Thanks Steve, Leila, Luka, and Nico!!! 

3) These trees are so pretty! 

4) The blossoms close up. 

5) A Preach My Gospel truck?

PS Next week p-day is going to be on Wednesday, not Monday. We're moving it so that I can go to the DC temple! Yay!

April 23, 2015

This has been such an AWESOME week. sister Chirstiansen and I are headed to DC today to see the cherry blossoms, so in order to save time and still let you know about all the awesomeness, I'm going to just give you a lot of pictures. Okay? Okay. 

We went to the Manassas Battlefield last preparation day with the sisters from the Manassas 2nd ward (we're in Manassas 1st). It was SO gorgeous and so much fun! We just walked around and read signs and took pictures.

The trees here have EXPLODED!!! Popcorn is popping everywhere and it is so beautiful! Spring in northern Virginia is incredible. 

I'm sending a random assortment of other pictures, too. Sister Christiansen's mom sent both of us Easter candy! (I don't like Easter candy all that much, but its the thought that counts, right?) 

The Blodgetts are a couple in their late 20s who just moved back out here from BYU and who had us over for dinner on Sister Christiansen's birthday on the 2nd. We had chicken enchiladas. They're having us over for my birthday, too! Kirk and Spock are political candidates. 

We had a Sister's meeting for all the sisters in our Zone. It was wonderful. We went and saw Vivian Sims again! If some of these pictures didn't come through, I'm really sorry. I'm having wifi issues. :P

The most exciting thing this week was, of course, the baptism!!! Patricia and her husband Antonio cried pretty much the whole time. Raphaella was a combination of excited and nervous, but you could tell she was feeling the Spirit too. They are such a special family! Patricia wrote down her testimony and showed it to us in Relief Society yesterday. It nearly made me cry. I have absolutely LOVED working with these three special people. They have already made it their goal to go to the temple in a year and be sealed as a family. I'll still be on my mission, so I can get permission to go with them! It has been such a privilege and a blessing to teach this family. They are so faithful and wonderful. Any of the fears they have had in this process have been healed by their incredible faith. We have a sign-up sheet that goes around Relief Society every Sunday for women who want to come on splits with us to put their names on. Patricia turned to me when it came by and asked me if I thought she would be able to do it. She was concerned that her English isn't good enough, but I assured her it was, and that we would love to have her with us sometime. She was very excited, and added her name to the list. I am just so happy for them, I can't even contain it!!! We have discovered that there are SO MANY Portuguese speakers in our ward. Two sisters are from Brazil and one served her mission there. Antonio's home teacher served in Brazil and so did Raphaella's primary teacher. The bishop served in Portugal, so he speaks Portuguese as well. This was definitely the right time and the right place for Patricia and Raphaella to join the Church, and for Antonio to come back. It couldn't have been better. :) 

April 20, 2015

Thank you for sending pictures!!! Sam didn't send any. But she is totally GORGEOUS. Holy cow!! Jacob is a goof. These made Sister Christiansen and I laugh. Your letter from last week was HILARIOUS. I had to read half of it out loud so that Sister C. could appreciate how funny my mother is. :) 

My mission president doesn't have any problems with boyfriends joining in on Skype on Mother's Day. And I do want him to be there. He felt awkward asking you about it, but I told him to ask anyway. Be prepared. He'll probably cry. He sent me the cutest email for my birthday telling me his whole thought process when we first started hanging out and then dating. He's a really great guy. I hope you all like him, because I'm planning on keeping him. 

I can't believe Jacob is almost done with braces! I swear he gets bigger in every picture.

I love you, Mom! 

Baptism

Manassas April

April 6, 2015

  I feel like I don't have a lot to talk about this week. So forgive my short email. This week we had exchanges. I stayed here in Manassas and Sister Christiansen went with the Sister Training Leader (STL) to her area. I realized in the 24 hours that I led out the area that I'm actually really competent and also that I have no idea what I'm doing. At the same time. It was a great experience, though. In another 6 weeks Sister Christiansen will likely leave, I will be done being trained, and I will probably be leading out the area. (AHHHH!!! HELP!!!) Sister Christiansen says that she has total faith in me and that I'll be fine in another 6 weeks. Hopefully she's right! :) While we were on exchanges, Sister Harris (the STL with me) and I went to a sorta sketch neighborhood to meet with a girl Sister Chirstiansen and I had met last week. She wasn't there, but we talked to her brother and his friend. They were fascinating people. They started out by asking us questions mostly to be dorks (they are both 17 year old boys, so...), but the friend eventually started to ask legitimate questions. We gave them both copies of the Book of Mormon, Chastity pamphlets, and we also gave the friend a Plan of Salvation Pamphlet and a For the Strength of Youth pamphlet. He was SO excited about getting all of them. It was really kinda fun. The girl we were going to see had forgotten about our meeting with her, but her brother told us that she had been reading the Book of Mormon we gave her NON-STOP with her grandma. So we're pretty excited. 

     The other notable thing that happened this week was Conference weekend!!! Which was the same as Easter weekend. How cool is that?! I LOVED Conference. As always. I'm really excited to go back and read the talks. Especially Saturday and Sunday morning sessions. Those two were my favorite sessions. Our investigators who are getting baptized this coming Saturday (I'M SO EXCITED!!!) watched all of Conference at home online. We got a text from them after the first session on Saturday that was so sweet! It said, "We are watching the conference and it is simply beautiful. My husband's back is better, I think the medicine is finally doing good. ((His back has been giving him a lot of grief lately-- he has arthritis in it.)) We know that your prayers are helping too. So I want to say thanks for you and Sister Taylor because you are angels in the face of the earth. Jesus bless you forever." I just love Patricia! I'm so excited for them!! 

Anyway, I love you all!! Have a great week. The Church is true!!! 

Sister Taylor

Happy Easter to you too, Mom! 

Sister Christiansen's mom sent doubles of everything, so I have plenty of Easter candy. DON'T SEND ME CANDY. Unless its chocolate. We have SO MUCH accumulated from all the sisters of apartment #522 past. As always, I enjoy reading your email. Papa sends me a short email every week and he always says something funny. You two have similar humor in some ways. This week he told me that because of the water shortages in the West, the Mormon church would no longer be doing baptisms by immersion, and would be switching to sprinkling by holy water. He cracks me up. 

It seems like Sam is having a lot of fun with her friends these days. And she's clearly a hot commodity. TWO proms?!?! Wow. I'm not surprised though. She is sweet and gorgeous and talented and funny and wonderful.

Your stories about Jaxon crack me up! Tell him happy birthday for me. I did send him a card with $5 that actually came from you.So feel free to tell him you're welcome. I can't believe he's already 10! 

On the topic of birthdays, mine is coming up, so I probably ought to send some requests. They are going to be very demanding and expensive and hard to find. Ready? 

1. a diamond necklace 

2. the claw of a saber tooth tiger

3. the left eye of a jabberwock 

4. a Bible at least 1,000 years old 

5. a million dollars. 

You could also just send headbands in neutral-ish colors (black, white, dark grey, navy blue), erasable pens, more music (I sent Sam an email a while back with possible artists to choose from. Also, tell her thank you for the CD she sent!!), scripture covers (not like a case, but like cloth-type covers, one for each book), and....I know I had one other thing that I wanted, but I left my list at the apartment. So. I'll just get back to you on that one? Okay. I love you!!!! Have fun in St. George.  

March 30, 2015

1) Panorama of our apartment during companionship study

2) Sunset-ception 

3) This vanity plate takes second place. First place was one that said AHHHHH. But it moved to fast for me to get a picture. 

4) Dead things everywhere! Also, vultures everywhere!

March 30, 2015

Missions are a time warp. Every day feels like a hundred years and three seconds at the same time. I can't believe I've almost been a missionary for 2 months. How did that even happen?!? Craziness. 

The Giordanos are doing so well. They have come to church three times and they believe everything we teach them. They are struggling a bit with tithing. Not because they don't want to pay it, but because they don't know how they will be able to pay it and still have enough to pay the bills. We've been praying a ton for them that they will let their faith overcome their fears and that everything will work out. They are still on-track for getting baptized on April 11th!!! The ward has been so great about fellow-shipping them. They really just blend right in. We were told that in elders quorum, the father, Antonio, who has been inactive for years, kept saying that he is so glad to be back. Yay! 

We found a new investigator this week named Meisha. We were looking for her brother, who Sister Christiansen and her last companion had met weeks ago, but he wasn't there. We ended up talking to her about the Book of Mormon. I asked her if she had ever wondered about where she came from, what happens after this life, and what her purpose is here. She said, "All the time!" We told her that the Book of Mormon answers all those questions and she said, "I'm going to have to read this book!" We're going back later this week. It will be the day of exchanges, so Sister Christiansen won't be there. Just me and one of the Sister Training Leaders. I'm kind of nervous. But Meisha is a sweet girl. She told us her grandma might be interested too! 

There is a new Easter video that just came out on Saturday. Its called He Lives. GO WATCH IT. Its awesome. We've been using it in our proselyting as much as possible. 

Transfers are coming up pretty soon, but chances are that Sister Christiansen and I will stay together for at least another transfer, since she is training me. I'm happy about that, since she is so great. She is HILARIOUS. I nearly die laughing every day. Multiple times a day. 

This week I was charged by an animal. We were knocking on the door of a less active, and we heard rustling in the bushes. Suddenly, something darted out and ran straight at me. I squealed and jumped to avoid it, but it hit my shoe and rebounded onto Sister Christiansen's leg before running off past us back into the bushes. It was a mouse. But a  HUGE mouse. Not quite rat-sized, but not your average mouse size. Uhg. 

Anyway, its been a pretty great week. I love being a missionary. It makes me so happy. Some days I think my face might just freeze into a smile. Other days I feel so tired I can hardly function, but its a good tired. Its an I'm-working-hard kind of tired. I love you all! The Church is true!!! 

Sister Taylor 

March 23, 2015

This week went by super fast and super slow. At the same time. The Giordanos are progressing so well! They accept everything we teach them. Patricia also feeds us every time we visit. I've had lots of Italian and Brazilian food. Her husband, a less active named Antonio, has joined us for our lessons and he's great. It's awesome when he or Patricia ask a question, and the other answers instead of us. We love seeing them teach each other. We taught about about prophets and the Word of Wisdom this past week. Patricia asked about what they have to do to be sealed as a family in the temple, so we told her a bit about that and family history work. She and Antonio were really interested in both. This week is going to be tithing and fasting and also a review/catch up lesson so we can check for understanding and cover anything we might have missed. We also have exchanges this week, so I'll be in a different area with a sister training leader during the tithing lesson. Bummer. 

We sat down with the elders in our ward this week and went through the whole ward list. We came up with a list of 100ish people in the ward who are less active or whose names we didn't recognize to go and check on. It makes me so sad that there are so many people who have stopped coming to church. Its almost always a pride thing. They get offended or think that they can stay spiritually healthy by themselves, so they let other things take priority over coming to take the sacrament and fulfill their callings. It is incredible how huge of an impact coming to church makes. People who stop coming also stop reading their scriptures and saying their prayers. They forget the doctrine. They start to resent commandments and the organization of the Church, which is ridiculous because they can hardly remember what its really like anyway, and they don't take the time to figure it out. They doubt their faith before they doubt their doubts and end up losing their faith altogether. So. My sage missionary advice for this week is GO TO CHURCH. ALL OF IT. EVERY WEEK. UNLESS YOU'RE SICK OR DYING. SERIOUSLY. 

On the topic of people who do have a valid excuse to skip church, let me tell you about Sister Vivian Sims. Sister Sims is a 90 year old lady with a cute little southern accent that we went to visit this week.  She is adorable. She asked us if we were from the Mormon church, and when we said yes, she said, "It's the only true church in the whole world! All the others are make-believe!" We sat with her for about an hour while she talked about her kids and grandkids and great-grandkids. She told us about her husband who had been in the navy at Pearl Harbor. He was much older than her and had already passed away. She kept saying about him, "It's terrible when you miss someone so much!" We talked to her about General Conference and I pulled out my gospel library art book to show her what President Monson looks like. He and President Joseph Fielding Smith looked familiar to her. She ended up going through the ENTIRE book and talking and asking about every picture. When we told her the story of Jonah and the whale, her jaw dropped and she said, "well I'll be da-gummed!" I showed her how on the iPad we can make the font really big. I read, "Now I, Nephi..." She tried to repeat what I had read, but is hard of hearing, so instead she said, "Now I reply..." It was so funny! I started laughing, but tried to hold it in, so it came out sounding like a sort of snort. "Sorry," I said, "I sneezed." 

When we were leaving, she called out to us, "Don't wait too long before you come back!" 

No worries there, Vivian. 

Pictures: 

1. This is Vivian Sims. Sister Christiansen took creeper pictures. 

2. I ran out of contacts solution on Saturday, so I've had to wear glasses for the past couple of days.

3. A little old school house that we passed.

4. Still wearing glasses 

5. She told me not to take her picture. I did anyway

March 16, 2015

Dear People I love,

This week was awesome! And seriously exhausting. :) Between the Manassas 1 and 2 wards, we were busy all the time. We had lots of actual teaching appointments, which is always good. While we were in M2 one day, we tried to check on a potential, but she wasn't home. Sister Liu suggested that we knock on some doors while we were there, and we agreed. The first door we knocked on three times before we got an answer. Sister Liu knocks really quietly, so we weren't sure if they had heard, so Sister Christiansen knocked the third time. I didn't want to keep knocking because I figured that they were ignoring us on purpose. I was wrong. The door opened and this super tall guy answered. He told us his name was Ben. We explained who we were and he told us that he had met some missionaries before and that they had helped his wife when her car broke down. He told us that he thought what we do is great. We ended up talking to him and his wife, Julie, who eventually joined us, for about 15 minutes. They are 7th day Adventist, but they are looking for a different church. We told them a bit about the LDS church and asked them if we could visit them again. They looked at each other and Julie said, "we are searching," so they agreed to meet with us again. Yay! 

We got a call on Friday from the assistants who told us that Sister Liu would be going back to M2 and getting a new companion, so we wouldn't be a trio anymore. We went to the mission office on Saturday morning so she could meet her new companion. It was a really fun and crazy week being a trio and covering two areas. Sister Liu was a great example. She always asked people really great questions and wasn't afraid to talk to EVERYONE we came across. It was scary sometimes, but it helped me to improve. Sadly, because we aren't covering both areas anymore, Sister Christiansen and I won't be teaching Ben and Julie. We'll have to ask Sister Liu how it goes at district meetings. 

We had a great lesson with Patricia and her family this week. She fed us dinner (Brazilian food-- so good!!), and then we taught the third lesson to her and Rafaela. Her husband, Antonio, ended up joining us after he got home from work. He is a convert and an inactive member. We talked to him, and he is interested in coming back to church. He is really happy that his wife and daughter are interested in the Church. All three of them came to church on Sunday! After every meeting we would ask Patricia what she thought, and she told us, "I love it!" Even after a very confusing lesson in Gospel Principles about the final judgement! I was afraid that that lesson in Sunday school would confuse her, and I think it did, but she still felt the Spirit. The Elders sat with Antonio during elders quorum, and they told us later that he kept saying how excited he was that Patricia and Rafaela are getting baptized. They are officially on date for April 11th. :) :) :) They are such a cute family. I'm so excited for them. We have a lesson with them this Thursday, and Patricia asked us to come over for dinner again, so we have dinner with them on Saturday night this week too. 

The work is really progressing here in Manassas! The elders had a less active that they had been teaching come to church and a family that they just happened to tract into last week come to church. We had the Giordanos (Patricia's family) and two less actives that we meet with come to church. We also have a meeting with a potential investigator tonight and one with a less active. I'm not sure if I mentioned the family from Ghana that we are teaching in my letter last week, but they seem like they have a ton of potential, and I'm excited to see how things go with them. 

I love you all! The Church is true! I love being a missionary. :) 

Sister Taylor 

1. Me and Rafaela. I was showing her the iPad.

2. Sister Liu, Sister Christiansen, me

3. A snowman on a cow mailbox. We pass it every day on the way to Sister Morris's house. I took this picture and the next day they had taken the snowman down. 

4. Look how many people signed up to feed us this week! On Wednesday we have lunch with a Sister in the ward and on Saturday we have dinner with Patricia. They will send the sheet around again on Sunday, so next week will be better than it looks right now. 

March 9, 2015

February 23, 2015

Pictures from my first full day in the field. The first one is with President and Sister Riggs and all of the missionaries who just came from the MTC or CCM (mexico MTC).

Are you still online? I'm just sitting here. You know. 
- Mom

Still here! Answering my many emails. 

I bet you are popular. How are you doing? How is DC? How is your companion? Mom

I will get around to writing a long email in a few minutes after responding to individual emails, and that on will have more information in it. 

By the way. I LOVE YOU MOM!!!!!!!!!

March 9, 2015

Dearest family and friends, 

This week has been pretty crazy. On Friday we got a call from the assistants. One of the Sisters in the 2nd Ward (we're Manassas 1) would be going home for a few weeks for some kind of medical procedure, and during that time, Sister Christiansen and I would be a trio with the Sister who is staying. We would also be covering both areas. On Saturday morning, we picked up Sister Liu and brought all of her stuff over to our apartment. So, we are now a trio!

Sister Liu is from Taiwan and has been out for 6 months. She is really sweet and a great missionary. She is also totally fearless when it comes to street contacting. She walks right up to people and starts talking to them. We're excited to have her, but we're feeling kinda overwhelmed to be covering two wards now. 

Last week I mentioned Sister Morris, so I'll tell you more about her now. She is an older woman living with her adult son, Michael, who has autism. We go every day except Sunday to read the Book of Mormon with them. Sister Morris hasn't had an easy life, and she's still working through some terrible depression, and she LOVES when we come. She calls us her angels and tells us that it is because of us coming that she has been getting better. And she has made some amazing progress, in the few weeks that I've been here. She he has an amazing testimony, and she is so sincere. Visiting her is always great. 

Our progressing investigators Patricia and her daughter Rafaela have committed to baptism. They were on date for March 28, but they didn't come to church yesterday, so we'll have to push it back to after general conference. We have another lesson with them on Thursday, and Patricia (who is from Brazil), told us that she is going to make us Brazilian food and feed us dinner. She's so sweet. 

We taught two awesome lessons yesterday. One to a family from Ghana and one two a couple from India. The family from Ghana consists of the parents 

- Sylvester and Yvonne, and their son who seems like he's 17ish, named Eugene. They are a nice family and Yvonne asks tons of questions. But they recognize us as servants of the Lord, and they love Jesus Christ. They are definitely honest seekers of truth. Inder and Pushpinder are a Sikh couple from India that live in the Manassas 2 area. They have been investigating for a while now. The husband (Inder), has a ton of faith, but he says that he still has more he needs to understand before he commits to baptism. The wife says she isn't interested at all, but she is very sweet and was happy to see us when we came came over.  She sat with us while we read Alma 32 with Inder. 

Earlier this week there was a giant snow storm. We did weekly planning and stayed inside until after dinner to do it. By then the snow had stopped, so it wasn't too bad when we went out. We aren't allowed to use the car when the weather is that bad, so we hiked through the snow to go knock on doors. It was crazy! My feet were frozen and numb by the time we got home. We made some good contacts, though. We found someone to refer to the Hermanas, and we got one return appointment for ourselves,  

This week I hit my 1 month mark. Sister Christiansen stuck a candle in a Reece's peanut butter cup and lit it for me to blow out. So funny. :) 

I love you all! The Church is true. :) Have a great week! 

--Sister Taylor 

P.S. This week I fell asleep under the table after nightly planning. No pictures of it, though. 

March 2, 2015

February 21, 2015