Tuesday: We went grocery shopping because we couldn't go on Monday because we weren't allowed to drive in the snow yet. Sister Lemmons had a doctor's appointment with her psychiatrist out here, so we drove to that. We also went to try to visit a potential investigator named Darlene. We have tried multiple times before and she was finally there! We read the intro to the Book of Mormon and talked about it and set up a return appointment for Saturday. We also went to the home of a potential investigator named Kristie. We have gone over SO many times and she is never there. We have talked to her 16 year old son, Daequan, several times, though. He is SUPER polite and very sweet. We tried to see if she was there again on Tuesday and......she still wasn't there. Daequan answered and told us that they talk about us all the time and they DO want to meet with us. He said, "we love you guys!" So pray extra for Kristie and her family! We are hoping that once we FINALLY get to see her that she and her family will be golden!
Wednesday night we had a lesson with a less active named Kimmi. She is in the Alexandria 1st ward, but they only have elders and she prefers sisters. We talked to her about feeling the Spirit and trusting the impressions we get. I've been thinking lately about how I know that the Church is true and that the Book of Mormon is true. I don't have one specific moment that I can point to where I can say I felt the Spirit super strong and I knew it was true. I've realized that my testimony has come because of many small moments when I recognized the Spirt testifying of truth. It could be while I'm reading a particular verse or while I'm praying or even while I'm just pondering something I've learned. And for a few seconds I feel something. Its hard to explain what that something is, but I know its the Holy Ghost. I have a testimony that has come piece by piece and moment by moment and that I have to keep working on every day. It is an continual learning process of how the Sprit works with me. I believe my testimony is stronger than it would have been otherwise because I've never had one defining moment, and I just have the opportunity to grow or to choose to let it regress everyday. It takes me continually striving to live the commandments to continually know they are good and from God.
Thursday: So many meetings. Well. Just two. We had a sisters meeting with the Sister Training Leaders and all of the sisters that they are over. I was asked to speak on why I'm still on a mission. It was a cool topic, because, as I'm sure most if not all missionaries realize, the reasons for coming on a mission are much different than the reasons we stay. I went on a mission because I felt like it was what Heavenly Father wanted me to do and because I wanted to set a good example to my family members, especially my younger siblings. Those are still reasons that I am on a mission, but now I'm also here for many more reasons. I'm here because of how my mission has changed me and made me better. I'm here because of the Spirit I feel when I have the opportunity to testify of what I know to be true. I'm here because I have seen firsthand how the gospel completely changes a person's life. The reasons I am here maybe change a little day to day, and on some days I think of some reasons more than others, but I know that I'm supposed to be here, and I'm grateful to be here. We also had district meeting with a new district leader. He has only been out 6 months. It seems like I've reached a point where most people here have been out for less time than me. I'm getting old!!
On Thursday night we had an FHE with Gloria and her kids at the ward mission leader's house. She has a son, Jayondré, who is 9, so we taught the Restoration for him. We are officially teaching him now too! He gave such great answers to ever question we asked and really payed attention. We gave him a Book of Mormon, and on Sunday he brought it to church. We are so excited for them! Please PLEASE pray extra for them!!!
Saturday: We cleaned the church in the morning and then headed off to our lesson with Darlene. Unfortunately, she wasn't there. I think she probably forgot about it. We had another lesson with a woman named Ellen. She was a referral from someone in the singles ward out here, and she was really cool. We had a great lesson with her. Sadly, she lives in a different ward, so we will have to pass her to different missionaries at our next lesson with her. But pray for her anyway!
Sunday: Our day got exciting before we even made it to church. I was eating my cereal, and then I looked down and saw a wiggly little bug float to the surface. We went and looked in our cupboard and discovered lots of these little bugs marching through our cereal and rice. So we halted studies to clean out EVERYTHING. We threw out everything not in an individual package-- which was basically half of our food. We discovered that most of what we had to begin with (from the missionaries past) was expired. So we threw that away too. Once we were done, our cupboards were very bare. We tried to vacuum up the remaining bugs with our pathetic excuse for a vacuum. It usually works for about two minutes and then just stops for a week before you can use it again, so I tried to move fast. It worked longer than two minutes, but after about that long, we began to realize it was spewing out more dust and dirt and crud than it was sucking up. It was ridiculous. We stuck the vacuum in a giant black bag and took it to the loading dock to get rid of it and went to ask Mona if we could borrow her vacuum. Mona lives in our building and also works in the leasing office. She told us that if we ever needed anything, we could ask her. She let us borrow her vacuum, and everything worked out just fine. Except that we were 30 minutes late to our correlation meeting with the ward mission leader. He was very understanding, though.
Sunday night we had a lesson with Gloria and Jayondré. He had us look up two scriptures that he had learned about in Primary. They were 2 Nephi 4:15 and 2 Nephi 32:3. He told us, "These are how you know the scriptures are true!" It was adorable. He is SO excited to be included in the lessons. Gloria told us that she and her kids pray together multiple times every day and they are trying to make reading together from the Book of Mormon every day into a habit too.
I just love them so much!!!! I love you all! The Church is true! The Book of Mormon is true! Heavenly Father knows and loves each and everyone of us. I know that with all my heart!
Sister Taylor
1-4: We didn't have many meals with ward members this week. So we did our own cooking. Parmesan chicken and spaghetti, Hawaiian haystacks, stuffed peppers, and french bread pizza. We are SO good. The parmesan chicken was especially fantastic.
5: Gloria's 5 year old daughter, Z'Raiyah, as Princess Ironman.
6: Just eating sandwich behind the couch. Because I'm so normal.
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