Sister Alcántara got to go to the temple. We can go every six months, and the temple has been closed, so she wasn't able to go when she first got here. She went with a bunch of other sisters, and I spent the day in Gainsville with Sister Chandler. It was a pretty relaxing day.
Tuesday:
We had district meeting this morning. We were ten minutes late, but we brought pumpkin bars that I made (from a bag. Shout out to Betty Crocker) as a peace offering, so we were forgiven. It was a good district meeting. We talked about the Atonement, so there was a spiritual side, and then we played hide and seek and practice-taught, so there was a fun side. We had lunch at a place in Warrenton called Tropical Smoothie Cafe (sooo good) and then went to visit Sister Norris. It was a pretty short visit, because we had a lesson right after and had to rush out. Our lesson was with a new investigator named Tiffany. She is friends with one of the bishop's sons (Jordan) who recently returned from his mission. Tiffany just had a baby and has had a super hard life. We met her and Jordan outside the library and taught the Restoration. She seemed to accept everything we taught, and thought the idea of a modern day prophet was amazing. She has a super strong faith in Jesus Christ and wants to have Him at the center of her life. We are so excited to teach her! We have another meeting with her on Thursday! After dinner we had another lesson with our investigator, Paul. We took him to the family history center and introduced him to Sister Shannon, the family history consultant for the ward. We had a rough lesson with him last week where he had a lot of questions and doubts and was clearly very skeptical, so we were really hoping this lesson would go well. It did! He was super excited about getting into family history, and then we had Sister Shannon share some of her conversion story. She converted from Judaism almost 40 years ago. Her testimony blew us all away. The Spirit was SO strong as she answered Paul's questions and bore her testimony. I actually started crying! Paul was in such a great mood when the lesson was over. The Spirit clearly touched his heart as well. He is meeting more and more members and as he does, and as they share their testimonies, his heart is softened more and more. Everyone pray extra for him! He is getting closer! We have another lesson next week with him and both Sister and Brother Shannon. It should be great!
Wednesday
Wednesday was pretty uneventful. We had a lesson with a less active named Angel Davis, but that was about it. We did have a fun impromptu photo shoot in the fall leaves!
Thursday
We were supposed to have a lesson at the first counselor in the bishopric with our recent convert, Connie. We showed up to his house and waited. And waited. And waited and waited and waited. For a WHOLE HOUR. And Connie never showed up. So we we eventually just left and went to find her. She was at her house, so we had the lesson there instead. The reason she never showed up is because her sister, who was her ride, decided that her back hurt and just went home instead of coming to take her to the lesson. We had even called her sister (Peggy) on our way to the lesson to check to see if she was coming, and she said she was. It was so frustrating! Peggy is super sweet, but she does this all the time! Connie said she just feels awkward or embarrassed to call us because she feels like she's disappointing us by bailing because of her health problems, which is probably true, but it's still irritating! Oh well.
Friday
We had a lesson in the morning with a less active named Peggy (different Peggy). She has a lot of anxiety and has had a really rough life. We felt like we should help her so that she can go to the temple. At our lesson, we helped her set some goals to make changes in her life so that she can get there. She was excited and happy that we thought she could do it. We've been meeting with her almost every week since I got here, and even though she still had a long way to go, it has been neat to watch her testimony of the Savior grow.
Saturday
We had a zone finding activity. Except it was a zone service finding activity. So instead of just regular tracting, we tracted to look for service opportunities. Everyone got assigned a different companion for the day. I went to Haymarket with Sister Palmer. We looked for service to do for FOUR hours, and we didn't find anything. No one even opened their doors to tell us no! ONE guy opened his door. We told him we were just out looking for service opportunities and he told us he was Catholic and tried to close the door. We insisted that we were just there to do service and could we do any kind of yard work or anything? He got sort of offended and said his yard was fine, he did it himself, and then closed the door. Awkward. So even though it was a total bust for us, I got to know Sister Palmer, and she is a super sweet missionary, so it was fun!
Sunday
We had church! That was about it. We had dinner with a family named the Seeleys. They have us over for dinner every Thursday, but felt bad because we didn't have a Sunday dinner, so we went last night too. They are such a great family. They live on a farm, so the food is always fresh, and Sister Seeley is a great cook. They have a daughter who is fifteen, and she is so fun to talk to. She definitely had fifteen year old disease. Everything is a HUGE deal and there's a lot of drama about boys and friends and all that. I just want to give her a hug and say, "don't even worry about any of it. It all goes away," but I remember being fifteen. She'll still feel the same anyway. But she's a cute girl and she loves to talk with us, which is totally validating.
That's about it for this week. I love you all and I hope your week was good. :) The Church is true!!!! Christ is our Savior and he loves each of us personally and perfectly. Never forget how loved you are.
Love!
Sister Taylor
On our way out to go to dinner, we ran into the Anguanio kids and this deer. It already had the bandana on when it wandered into their yard, it was pretty cute. Also, I have no idea where that face I'm making came from....
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