September 28, 2015

It's been a pretty uneventful week, sadly. I feel like it's been very very busy, but I look back on the week and realize that there isn't anything terribly exciting to report on. Oh! Okay. Three things, I guess. 

1) we had another great lesson with our investigator, Paul. He seems to want to know everything about everything, but isn't exactly looking in the right places. He read about Mormonism on Wikipedia, printed out the whole article, made notes and hi lighted things, and then brought it to the lesson to ask a million questions. He's smart enough to know what anti looks like, but he did become interested in some deep doctrine type things. Such as: Do Mormons believe in a Heavenly Mother? and, Do you believe God created the universe from nothing or that He organized matter that was already there? It was an interesting discussion, and poor Sister Alcántara got a little lost (her English is seriously amazing, but if you read straight from Wikipedia, you get lots of big words that she was unfamiliar with), but it was nothing crazy. We taught about the commandments of prayer and scripture study, and Paul loved when we taught that prayer should be a two way conversation. Sister Alcántara bore her testimony of prayer, and  it really seemed to touch with him. 

2) On Thursday, Sister Alcántara woke up with a rash all over one leg. We called our missionary medical person, Sister Ito, and she told us to go to the urgent care. We got ready for the day and did studies, and by the end of all that, the rash was almost gone, so we didn't go to the urgent care. On Friday night, it returned with a vengeance, appearing on both legs, both arms, and her stomach. We called Sister Ito again, and she told us that the only urgent care open at that time of night (almost 9:30 pm) near us was in Manassas. So we left the apartment in a rush, running into our ward mission leader on the way (he was confused at why we were leaving at curfew) and drove to Manassas. The doctor gave her some anti itch cream and anti itch pills, and both of those helped her a ton. We made it home at 11. We were SO TIRED. Sister Alcántara had been thinking about what could have caused it, and she's pretty sure she is allergic to chocolate. Sad, right? 

3) Last night was something called the "why I believe fireside." Terryl and Fiona Givens (authors of The Crucible of Doubt and The God Who Weeps) were the guest speakers. It was amazing!! All the missionaries and the youth in the stake sang at the beginning in a choir, and it was really great. I loved singing in the choir. The fireside itself was just incredible. I don't even know where to start to explain it. It was just such a wonderful reminder and testimony to me that Heavenly Father knows and loves each one of us very personally and that He Is very close to us.

Anyway, that's about it for this week. I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week. The Church is true. I know it because I asked God. He knows all things and He is my Father, so He answered me, and I know this is the true Church. It is Christ's Church.

4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

 Moroni 10:4-5

Sister Taylor

September 21, 2015

The twenty first night of September? 

Happy September 21st! (Thank you, Earth, Wind, and Fire.)

I hope you are all having a great week! My week has been pretty good. Nothing over-the-top exciting, but missionary work is always good. (Even when its hard, its good.) Transfers were this week and......I'm still in Warrenton with Sister Alcántara! I kinda figured, since training is 12 weeks, and its only been six. So. 

Last preparation day we went to DC. It was fun! We decided to go to the American Indian museum. They had a whole exhibit about Peru and the Incas! It was really fascinating and obviously cool for Sister Alcántara.

We had exchanges this week with the Sister Training Leaders. It was pretty fun. I stayed in Warrenton and Sister Alcántara went to Gainsville. They have some Peruvian investigators, and so they went to talk to visit them. It turns out they are from the same city as Sister Alcántara! I guess they had a great visit, because the STLs told us that all of them came to church yesterday!

My end of the exchange was less exciting, but still good. We went to the food bank for Sister Norris, had a lesson with her, and had a lesson with another less active. It was a pretty good day. We did stay up WAY too late talking, though. I was SO tired the next day. 

On Wednesday we had a new member lesson with Connie. Sister Johnson, who took us to the New and Returning Member Fireside last Sunday hosted it at her house. She and her husband were both inactive when they got married, but decided to come back to church after several years went by. Both of them had struggles with the Word of Wisdom, and they had to work SUPER hard to prepare themselves to go to the temple, but they eventually were able to do it! They are a great family. Brother and Sister Johnson have taught temple prep classes and Brother Johnson used to be the bishop. Both Connie and Peggy (her sister) struggle with smoking, and so they loved to hear about how Sister Johnson was able to quit and go to the temple. Our lesson was on preparing for the temple, and it was amazing. The Spirit was so strong, and both Connie and Peggy told us that they really really wanted to go to the temple. We went on Saturday night to visit Peggy, because we feel that if she really commits to quit smoking, then Connie will follow her example. She was so determined and so excited. She said, "This is it! I'm going to do it this time. I'm going to quit! I want to go to the temple!" It was such a great visit. 

Thursday was "transfer meeting." I use scare quotes because it isn't really a meeting anymore, like it was with President Riggs. He wanted to change it, and President Huntsman implemented a plan to change it. It used to be a big huge meeting with everyone being transferred and all the zone leaders and sister training leaders, and it went ALL. DAY. LONG. Now, everyone finds out about transfers two days before, and then those transferring meet in a parking lot of a church and switch up. Then everyone meets with their zone for a short meeting to get to know each other, and then we go back to work. I like it SO MUCH better. There were a lot of changes this transfer, though! There used to be 6 zones, but they got split up, and now there are 9 smaller zones. Instead of being in the Centreville Zone, I'm in the Manassas Zone. Our districts also got mixed up, and now I'm in the same district as the Manassas missionaries. I'm in the same district as the missionaries who are now in my last area! So weird!!!! It makes it easier to stay in contact with the people I grew to love in that area, but it is still kinda strange that I have been in the same general area for my whole mission thus far. This transfer ends on October 29, so I'll be here for almost 10 months of my mission. Crazy! \

On Wednesday we had a church tour with our investigator Paul. He was the online referral guy. The tour went well (except the part where the key to the baptismal font didn't work, so we couldn't show it to him). We had a lesson in the chapel, and it was good. He has a lot of great questions, but he continues to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. We really stressed the importance of the Book of Mormon. If the Book of Mormon is true, then Jesus is the Christ and Joseph Smith is His prophet, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is His Church on the earth today. Paul seemed to understand, and we can see that he is starting to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. He reads it all the time, and you can just tell that he likes it already. 

Thursday night we had a really rough lesson with some of our investigators. Jordan and Mason are the sons of a less active sister in the ward. Jordan is 12 and Mason is 10. We tried to teach them the Plan of Salvation on Thursday, but they would not stay focused! They kept bugging each other and getting distracted and giggling about everything. It was so frustrating!!! They have football practice that ends at 7:30, so we can only meet with them at 8:30, and they live WAY OUT in the boonies of our area (and our whole area IS the boonies to begin with). Plus, once we get there, it takes them 45 minutes to settle down from getting home from football and sit down to listen to us. So we usually don't get home until 10 or later, which is not good. It has become a point of conflict and stress between us and our ward mission leader who likes to micromanage us and the Elders and sometimes seems to think his calling is to babysit us. It has become very frustrating. This Thursday we talked to Melissa (Jordan and Mason's mom) about trying to find another time to meet. We reported that to the ward mission leader and he has backed off a bit since then. However, he still likes to tell us how to do our job as missionaries instead of letting us act on the revelation we receive. Kinda irritating. 

Saturday, other than going to see Peggy Raymond and trying to visit a few others, we were invited to the High Priest Group Barbecue! It was fun! We had TONS of yummy food and got to mingle with the members. We were able to talk to the bishop about setting up a weekly meeting with him so that we can go over what we have been doing and our needs and he can let us know if he needs anything from us, which was a good discussion. We also talked to the daughter-in-law of a couple in the ward. She was visiting, and she is a non-member. She was super sweet and we had a great conversation. She has been meeting with the missionaries on and off in the area she lives in for a long time. I hope she gets baptized eventually. She was so cute! 

That's about it for this week. I hope you have all had a great week. I love you all! The Church is true! 

Pictures!!! 

1. This is for you, Mom. Its just a little bookmark at the library. 

2. Bearbug Lane

3. We have too much fun getting ready for bed.

4. Blue cornbread at the American Indian museum! 

5. Zone picture. On the day I was SO SICK.

6. My companion drinks a LOT of water!

7. We *tried* to make turkey burgers.....They tasted fine but they were UGLY.

8. Map of the mission and the new zones. 

9. Inca exhibit!

September 7, 2015

Hi everyone! It sounds like you've all been getting into the back to school groove. Sad that summer is ending, but I hope you all enjoy the upcoming fall season. I can't believe it is September already! Transfers are only a week and a half away! I'll probably stay here in Warrenton to finish training Sister Alcántara, though. She is awesome, by the way. Her English is SO good! I can't believe she only started learning it less than two months ago. She is such a brave and bold missionary and so fun to have around. We went grocery shopping today and spoke in Spanglish most of the time. She's trying to teach me Spanish, and I'm not doing as well as she is with English! 

We had a couple of really great lessons this week. One was with Paul, our online referral investigator. We were going to talk about obedience, praying often, scripture study, and keeping the sabbath day holy, but mostly we just answered his questions. Then he told us he wanted to know about our "prohibition thing," so we taught the Word of Wisdom instead! We weren't super prepared for it, so we'll probably go over it again sometime, but it was still a good lesson. We had a woman from the ward named Sister Budd come with us to the lesson. She has such a great testimony. Whenever we bring her to a lesson, she says, "The Church is true. Fifty five years ago I found out the Church was true," and then she talks about the blessings that knowledge has brought to her and her family. Paul said to us in our lesson this week, "What's wrong with me just sitting out in my front yard with a Bible and trying to figure out what God wants for me? Why do I need your Church or any church?" This is a question I've heard so many times before in one form or another--people always question the need for organized religion. I still have yet to discover a good way to answer. But Sister Budd knew exactly what to say. She told Paul, "because it's the Savior's church and it's where He wants you to be." Paul sat back in his chair and said, "Yes. You're right. I think you're right." It was such a amazing moment! 

Our other awesome lesson was with the Woodsens. Melissa Woodsen is a less active member who married a non-member and has 4 sons. Sisters have been teaching the older two for several months. One is 10 and the other is 12 and they are pretty goofy sometimes. They really want to get baptized, but Melissa wants to make sure they understand the gospel and what baptism means before they actually get baptized, which is fair. They have already been taught all of the lessons, but Sister Alcántara and I have decided to teach them all again to a) solidify the boys' understanding; and b) to help Melissa feel more comfortable with them getting baptized. When we went over this week to teach the Restoration, they had just gotten home from football practice and they were all hyped up and all four boys were acting crazy! Poor Melissa was trying to get them to calm down and eat their dinner and then sit down for a lesson. When they finally settled down, we started teaching. When we taught about the Atonement, and how Christ suffered everything for us, it clearly was very powerful for them. We finished by showing the 20 minute Restoration video and bearing our testimonies. The Spirit was SO strong and so we just immediately asked the younger boy to say the closing prayer so we could leave on that spiritual high as the last part of the visit. It was a great lesson. 

Last week we had a zone activity on preparation day at the mission home. It was super fun! We had a barbecue and played games. I played 4 rounds of ping pong with one of the elders. I kicked his trash three of those four times. The one time he did win, it was only by 2 points. It was kinda awesome. I wasn't going to tell too many people about it, because I was feeling generous and didn't want to destroy his pride any more than I already had, but he announced the next day at district meeting that he "got his butt handed to him three times in ping pong by Sister Taylor." So I guess everyone knows now! Haha. 

Also last week we did a "zone finding fury." We all exchanged companions and went tracting all day last Saturday. I was sent to....Manassas! Yup! Back to my birthplace. But instead of tracting, we decided to track down the Giordanos. They have practically disappeared. They don't come to church and the sisters haven't been able to meet with them for weeks. I hoped that I would be able to say or do something to help. First we went to their house. Antonio and Raphaella were there, but so were some other family members. Raphaella was excited to see me and gave me a hug, but Antonio told us it was a bad time. I was very upset and started to cry as soon as he shut the door. Sister Liddell and I then decided to go find Patricia at work. We drove all over trying to find the Panda Express where she works, and FINALLY found it. We went in and asked for her, and she came out and talked to us. She was VERY happy to see me, and that made me feel so much better. She said that she had been working a TON, which was why they hadn't been coming to church or meeting with the missionaries. When Sister Christiansen and I were teaching her family, we never had to be very bold with them. They just readily accepted whatever we taught. Now, though, I knew I had to be bold. "Patricia," I said, "your family is so special. I know you want to be sealed in the temple with them, but that won't happen unless you go to church. I know you have to work, but I promise that no sacrifice you make is too big to become an eternal family. Nothing is more important. You need to go to church." She smiled and me and thanked me and reached across the counter to squeeze my hands, and then we left so she could get back to work. 

I asked before and I'm asking again-- please please send me letters or emails with testimony and encouragement that I can forward to them. It is so so so needed right now. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week. I love you all SO much and I pray for you every day. The Church is true and I'm so grateful to be one of the Lord's missionaries. 

Sister Taylor