July 28, 2015

What a week! Our regular schedule has been practically non-existent this past week. It hasn't been normal at all! We've also had plenty of crazy adventures lately, too. 

Tuesday:

We had district meeting. At district meetings we generally practice teach, which we did, but first we played hide and seek. If you and your companion were hiding, you would be the "investigators" for practice teach. The last companionship to find them got to be the missionaries teaching. Sister Wright I were the missionaries twice and the investigators once. (We're not very good at hide and seek, clearly.) It was a fun way to mix up the normal district meeting routine. While Sister Wright and I were looking for a place to hide, we found a hidden ladder to the mechanical room in the attic. During our lunch our after district meeting, we went back to check it out. We couldn't really get to the ladder thing to climb it, because the door with access to the front of the ladder was locked. So I reached through the steps on the back side of it to open the door from the opposite side. (We did take pictures.) Sadly, the door to the mechanical room was locked, so we didn't get to eat lunch in the attic. We ate on ground level instead. 

Also on Tuesday we met up with a former investigator that Sister Wright and her last companion started teaching a few months ago before she randomly disappeared off the face of the earth. They found her again at Walmart right before I got here, but then went out of town, so we haven't been able to see her again until this week. Francesca is this cute girl who just graduated from high school and is starting college in a few weeks. She was friends with one of the members in the ward and started to get interested in the Church. We're going to start teaching her the lessons soon, but on Tuesday we mostly just talked about prayer and scripture study. She has had a really rough life lately (which is why she disappeared), and shared with us that wants to rebuild her foundation for her life. After she said that, a scripture, Helaman 5:12, popped into my head. I shared it with her and she LOVED it. She wrote it down and then committed to read from the Book of Mormon. I'm so grateful that I was guided to share that. We were at a busy ice cream place, but the Spirit was strong. 

Oh. Another thing that happened on Tuesday. Ha. Yeah. In the afternoon we went to visit Sister Norris (the woman in our ward who has MS and is confined to either her bed or wheelchair). We visited with her for a while and shared a spiritual thought, and then left. As we did, we happened to catch her caretaker smoking....something.....in the car of some random lady in Sister Norris's drive way. We drove away, but then felt like we needed to go back and check to see if Sister Norris was okay. We did, and as soon as we walked through the door, the caretaker (who was inside by this point) started accusing us of "video recording" him on our "kindles." We denied it, and walked back into the room where Sister Norris was to check on her and let her know what we saw. As we left, the caretaker started chewing us out again about recording him and telling us that he didn't appreciate it (clearly he was nervous because we had seen him doing something he shouldn't have been doing). As we left, I may have possibly made a snide comment, (bad idea) and he ran out after us screaming at me telling me I was a liar and a fraud and not a real missionary and we were never going to be allowed back again (as if it was his house) and that I was going to burn in hell. Luckily, he didn't chase us past the porch and we got away safely. We called Sister Norris's visiting teacher (who is a social worker) right away after we left so she could know what happened. She agreed with us that he was acting guilty. Later that night, we learned that the caretaker had also called the visiting teacher (after we did), to rat us out. She told us not to go over there again unless we were sure he wasn't going to be there. That was already the plan.

Wednesday: We took our investigator, Connie, to the temple visitor center! She absolutely LOVED it. She is SO EXCITED to get baptized. :)  She brought her two granddaughters that live with her as well. One is 2 and is just adorable, and the other is 7. She asked us a ton of questions and watched intensely during the Joseph Smith video we watched. She is SO interested in learning about the gospel. They are planning to ask her mom (who also lives with Connie) if she can take the lessons from us too. Her 8th birthday is in November, so she could get baptized in a few months if her mom gives the okay.

Thursday: We picked green beans in the morning for a woman in the ward for FOUR HOURS. We found giant beetles, too. Yuck. 

We also had two lessons on Thursday, one with a woman who can't get to church because of crippling fibromyalgia, and one in the evening with a less active who has two sons (10 and 12) who are taking the lessons and will probably get baptized in the next month or so. Her sons weren't home, but we had a really neat discussion on recognizing the Spirit with her. She's making progress. :) 

Friday: We weeded for FOUR HOURS. There is a less active man and his non-member wife that the elders have been visiting for a little while, and they needed help weeding their yard, so the elders asked us to come help, too. They fed us breakfast and lunch while we were there, and it was great. They are such a sweet couple, and they absolutely love us missionaries. I really hope he comes back to church and she starts investigating. 

Saturday: We knocked down an old wooden fence! (It only took and hour and a half.) There are some less actives that the sisters have been working with, and Sister Wright and I went over a couple of weeks ago. We talked to one of the sons, who is in his mid-twenties, and asked if there was anything we could help out with. He mentioned the fence, so we told him we would bring the elders and help out. A few days later, we met his half-sister (not a member), Cherokee. She is 17 and so awesome! She plays the trumpet too! We talked with her for about 45 minutes. She helped with the fence as well on Saturday. We invited her to come to church, and she said she would. Unfortunately, she called us right before church on Sunday and said she couldn't make it. We'll keep working on her. She and I hit it off immediately, so I think if we asked her if we could teach her, she would say yes. 

We also went back to see Sister Norris. Her caretaker only works weekdays, so he wasn't there. She was so upset about what had happened on Tuesday. She said he is always verbally abusing her, and she had just been putting up with it, but when he started screaming at us on Tuesday, she couldn't handle it. She called the company he works for and fired him. 

She already had been considering it, but was nervous about change. She had another caretaker linked up already, but hadn't actually finalized anything. She told us she hated he had yelled at "her girls," so she finally actually fired him. It was amazing how different it felt in her house with him gone. He always felt dark and unsettling, and it was so noticeably different without him in the house. The Spirit is much stronger there now.  

Another thing that we did on Saturday was visit a young adult woman named Caroline who is a less active member of the ward returning to activity. She left the Church when she was 16, and only came back last year. She texted us on Saturday and asked us to come teach her the missionary lessons as if she was a nonmember. When we asked her why, she told us that she felt like she had been slipping away from the Church and the gospel again, and didn't want that. She wanted us to help her to strengthen her testimony. We were very happy to do it. She made us lunch and we taught her the Restoration. She was so humble and asked questions, even though she had grown up in the Church, and the Spirit was so strong. It was wonderful. 

Sunday: We went to church! It was great! We also taught a very brief lesson with a new investigator. He was actually a former investigator that we are beginning to teach again. We invited him to read from the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it was true. He said he would. We're going back in two weeks. 

Monday: We had a zone service activity! We went to (wait for it) Manassas (!!!) to help out an elderly couple from my old ward. The whole zone came. We weeded and mulched and sanded off paint and raked and painted and dug and hoed and organized and played with lizards and toads and frogs and inchworms. It was so fun! We started at 9am and ended at 2:30pm, including a break for lunch. After we left, the property looked AMAZING. Its incredible what an army of 30ish missionaries can do! I caught a frog and a couple of slugs and found an inchworm on my hand. My district leader found a lizard and put it on my shoulder. His companion took a picture of me posing with my new friend. Once I get the picture from him, I'll send it. I also held a toad that he caught, but it didn't want to stay on my shoulder for the picture. Sister Orr's (remember her?) companion told me I was the bravest person she knows for letting a little lizard sit on my shoulder. ;)

So...that's my week! Its been all kinds of crazy. In between all this we visited with the Prices some more and contacted some potential investigators. It was a great week! I'm so SO tired, but its a good tired.

I hope you all had a great week too! The Church is true!

Sister Taylor

1. Temple trip!

 2-4. Tuesday stair adventure

 5.Giant flower!

 6. We seriously didn't mean to match! It just happened! 

July 20, 2015 Pictures #3

19-20. I actually made noise come out of these. 

21-22. We're just goofy :)

23.We had exchanges this week. This is Sister Savage!

24. We found this wizard in someone's yard. How could I resist taking a picture with him?

25. LHS? In Virginia? (Its actually Liberty High School, not Lehi, but...)

SO! Lots and lots of pictures! In other news this week, Brother Price was taken to the ER on Thursday to get his gallbladder removed. The elders were visiting them when it happened. He was in a ton of pain, so one of the elders made them call an ambulance. They then called us, and both sets of missionaries followed the ambulance to the hospital and sat with Sister Price while she waited to find out what would happen. She said she looked out the back window of the ambulance and saw the two missionary cars following behind and knew it would all be okay. Brother Price had a successful surgery and came home from the hospital yesterday. Sister Wright and I and the elders have been tag-teaming to help out and provide support for them for the past few days. I'm sorry for Brother Price, but I'm grateful we've had the opportunity to help the Prices feel some peace in the past few days. I love being a missionary! I love all the people I've gotten to know, both members and non-members, and I love that Heavenly Father allows me to be in a position to help them. It is so wonderful to serve!

Anyway, I love you all! The Church is true!!!  

July 20, 2015 Pictures #2

7. We were out tracting and found some wild blackberry bushes. 

 8. So we ate some! 

 9. We found a creepy semi-truck graveyard in someone's yard. One of them said, "Delivering your future." How could we resist?

10. We went to antique stores last Monday. This was just too cute not to take a picture of.

Antique Hats!

July 20, 2015 Pictures #1

So I'm super behind in sending pictures, so that will be the bulk of this email. Actually, it will probably be several emails because they won't fit in just one email. I think looking at pictures is usually more fun than reading a long email anyway, so....hopefully you agree!

1. This is Maggie. She is a great dane that belongs to a member family. Kelsey is the girl in the background. She is a member about our age and loves the sister missionaries. She comes to the church building on Tuesdays after district meetings so she can chat with us while we eat lunch and sometimes goes shopping with us on p-days. She likes coming on splits with us, too. And yes, Maggie is sitting on Sister Wright. She thinks she's a lap dog....

2.This is Mr. Tree. He is a giant paper mâché tree in the library.

3. This is Ernie, the library cat. He hangs out in the back room or wanders around in the library. He has thumbs!

4. SO MANY weird bugs in Warrenton! 

5. We had a few extra minutes before our appointment, so we had an impromptu corn field picture-session. So fun!!! 

6. Me in the corn!

July 13, 2015

Everyday is an adventure in Warrenton. Its a weird place sometimes. For example, Friday night. 

First, we got a text a few minute before 5 from a member asking if we were coming to dinner that night. We didn't know we had a dinner appointment. The woman in the ward in charge of our meal calendar forgot to tell us! Luckily the Outzens (who had texted us for dinner) only lived a few minutes away, so we ran over there. 

As we were talking, Sister Outzen started asking me questions about myself, since I'm still pretty new to the area. I somehow ended up telling her about where my parents are from. She told me that she had gone to American Fork high school, so we did some math and discovered she was there the same time Mom was. She asked me mom's maiden name, and I told her it was Lapray. She thought for a second and then yelled, "NANCY!" She knows Mom! So cool! She said, "Nancy is one of my very favorite people! I knew you reminded me of someone! And I thought I remembered hearing that she married a Taylor." It was great. When we finished dinner and we were about to leave, she gave me a hug and said, "It was so great to have you over. It was like having Nancy in my house again." Small world, right? :) :) 

After dinner we went to find someone who had been taught by missionaries before, but that they had somehow lost contact with. As we drove up the long driveway, we started to see lots and lots of creepy-looking "No Trespassing" signs. We went anyway. There were lots of old broken down cars and semi trucks sitting around in the grass by this house, and we made sure to position the car so that we could make a speedy getaway if needed when we parked. We walked up to the house through the long grass (no one seems to have walkways to their houses out here. Its just grass) and knocked on the door. After knocking a few times, someone finally came to the door. It was a lady with rainbow yarn braided into her hair and lots of piercings all over her face. I know that sounds kinda weird, but she was so colorful and harmless looking. She definitely didn't match the rest of the property. It was kinda funny. Sadly, she told us the person we were looking for had moved. 

As we were leaving, we stopped by one of the semi trucks and took some pictures. The truck said, "Delivering Your Future." How could we resist?

To preface the next part of this story, I have to explain (or attempt to explain) how many bugs there are here. SO MANY. EVERYWHERE. ALL THE TIME. I have never seen so much wildlife in my life until I came to Warrenton. There are lots of plats and lots of animals and lots and lots and lots and lots of bugs. If we open our car door or window, a dozen fly in. So, after we finished taking pictures and drove away, we discovered some bugs knocking around the dashboard. Sister Wright saw them before I did, and attempted to kill them WHILE DRIVING. I made her stop, and I tried to kill them instead. It wasn't working. I had to reach all the way across her and the steering wheel to do it, which isn't much safer than her trying to kill bugs and drive. I made her pull over so we could kill the bugs or shoo them back outside. We survived. 

As we continued down the road, we had yet another wildlife experience. There is a very large squirrel population out here, and they aren't very smart. One in particular darted out in front of our car. We still aren't sure what happened to it. It wasn't smooshed on the road behind us. It wasn't smeared all over our tires. It might be in the engine somewhere. (Apparently that's a fairly common occurrence out here). If the car starts smelling weird, we'll know what happened. 

And then, almost to our destination, we got stuck behind 6 or so emergency vehicles with flashing lights blocking the road. Nothing appeared to be going on. There were no other vehicles or dead bodies or anything. Just flashing lights and a blocked road. We had to turn around and go the very very long way. 

So. That is just an example of one day. Other days I have been pooped on by a 160 year old tortoise, killed wolf spiders and centipedes in our apartment, got a package (THANK YOU!!) and discovered that I may have had a sip of spiked lemonade.  

Okay. The lemonade story needs to be told. There is a woman in the ward, Sister Norris, who has MS and is unable to walk anymore. She is the sweetest lady ever and is so faithful despite all of her trials. Her caretakers are family members who are using her as a way to get money. She is very easily persuaded, so they have continually been convincing her to not find new people, but now the relief society first and second counselors (who happen to be social workers) are helping her out. Anyway, her family members smoke and drink and leave it around her house. It always smells kinda smokey when we come, and we have found several bottles of liquor (including a bottle of vodka hidden in a hospital sock). One day while we were over there, she told us we could get some lemonade for ourselves out of the fridge that her cousin had made. I was super thirsty, so I poured myself a cup and took a sip. It burned. Not like it was super sour, but like it was burning. I coughed and sputtered and thought I was going to die. It was disgusting. Last week it dawned on me, when we again discovered booze in that house, that it was probably spiked lemonade. So.Yeah.

On a more spiritual note, we found two new investigators this week! One is a woman named Tammi. who lives near us who grew up Methodist and then switched to Baptist when she got older. Sisters had found her before, but we hadn't really been able to get in contact with her. But this week when we knocked on the door, she answered it with a huge smile and let us in. We talked and she asked questions for an hour and a half! She said she wasn't going to change what she believed, but asked us us to come back and teach her more. We're so excited!

The other new investigator, named Cindy, has a similar situation. Sisters found her in the past, but hadn't been able to contact her. We finally did, and she let us in and we talked for about 45 minutes. Her son is atheist, but the sisters who originally found them had talked to him for 2 hours and she had been very very impressed with that. Apparently it was a great conversation that really made him think. Because of that, Cindy wanted to know more. She said she isn't really interested in converting, but she is just curious. (Really, though, that's what they all say.) We are excited to teach her too!  

Anyway, I love it here. Its really an adventure every single day. Sister Wright is an awesome companion and I love serving here with her. The Church is true. Thomas S. Monson is the prophet. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and I am so grateful for it. I love you all!!

Sister Taylor

July 6, 2015

Hello! Happy 4th of July (two days late)! 

I hope you all had a great Independence Day on Saturday. You would think mine would be exciting, because of where I am, but....you all probably did more exciting things than I did. We saw some really cool fireworks from a distance, but that was about it as far as regular 4th of July festivities go. It was still a great night, though. We didn't do any proselyting, because most people were celebrating, but instead we spent some time with a few people in the ward. One was a woman I may have already mentioned before named Sister Norris. She has MS and is confined to either her bed or a wheelchair if someone lifts her into it. We spent a few hours with her, including dinner. We taught a short lesson and talked about her Book of Mormon reading, but mostly we were just company. She doesn't have too many people who come to visit her, so she loves having us there. After that, we went to the home of a less active member named Shana. She has two sons, one who is an adult and has moved out, and another who just graduated from high school and was out with his friends. She loves to have us over to chat and keep her company, since she is all alone when her sons are gone. We spent the remainder of the evening with Brother and Sister Price. They are still a tad eccentric, but they are so good to us. They feed us while we are there and give us food to take home and just make us feel at home overall. If only Brother Price would come to church!

This week on Thursday we met the new mission president and his family. Its going to be an interesting transition going from President Riggs to him. President Riggs was so great and we all grew to love him and his wife and family so much. He taught me a ton. However, I am excited to get to know President Huntsman and to see what kinds of things he will do differently. I'm looking forward to all the things I will learn under his direction. His wife, Sister Huntsman, is absolutely adorable. She is obviously thrilled to be here, and gave me a huge hug when I walked up to her to say hello. 

We had a rather funny experience last night. We came up to two people on the street and said hi, but before we could say anything else, one of them said, "I already love Jesus!" So we gave her a Because He Lives card and said, "Great! Then you'll love this! There's a link on the back for a video about Him!" She thanked us and ran inside her building. The other person stayed outside for a few minutes and talked to us (and finished his cigarette). He said something about Mormons and "those potatoes I've heard so much about." We were so confused. I've heard some weird things about what people think about Mormons out here, like that we have super powers and worship our ancestors, but I've never heard anything about potatoes, so we asked him what in the world he was talking about. 

"You know, those cheesy potato things?"

It turns out he was talking about funeral potatoes. Apparently, that's a Mormon thing. I'm pretty sure casseroles in general are a Mormon thing, or at least a Utah thing. People in the South have their fried chicken and Kool-aide, and we have our casseroles. 

Anyway, I hope you are all having a great week! The Church is true!!!

Pictures: 

1-4 Warrenton is so pretty! 

5- Sister Wright 

6- Happy 4th of July!

7- ....the licence plate...

June 29, 2015

So! Transfers happened! I didn't go very far, and I'm still in the same stake, but I am now in the Warrenton area. It is SO DIFFERENT from Manassas. Manassas was full of suburbs. Lots and lots of townhouses or regular houses that were really close together. Some super big houses out in the woods, where the rich people lived, but mostly everyone was packed in tight. Here, I'm out in the "country." Cows and ducks and chickens and big corn fields.  Most of the houses are far away from their neighbors and there are only a few suburban-type neighborhoods. People keep to themselves a lot more here. Even the ward members. They don't seem very driven to meet new people. Its actually kinda irritating. Sister Wright (my new companion) tells me that most of the areas she has served in have been like that. I guess Manassas was just extra awesome in its level of friendliness. BUT! I'm still really excited to be here and have new experiences. 

My last week in Manassas was really great. Sister Morris finished the Book of Mormon with us, which was a HUGE accomplishment for her. We read the last verse, and we all looked up and each other and she had this big smile on her face. It was so neat. The day before I left, she said, "I'm really going to miss you, Sister Taylor. You two are such a powerful team. I've loved all the sisters who have come, but I think I'm going to miss you the most." I just love her! I had to say goodbye to the Giordanos, too and that was super sad. They were sad that both Sister Christiansen and I were both going to be gone, but I promised to write them still. They are such an amazing family! Lots of people in the ward said they were sad to see me go, and I was sad to leave them. I really loved it there. Its definitely someplace I want to go back to someday. 

I don't have a whole lot to report on yet by way of Warrenton. I met a woman in the ward who is bed-ridden and has MS named Sister Norris. We go by one or two times a week to teach her. She got baptized when she was still able to walk, and she needs some reminding of the doctrine, but mostly she just needs love. We have been encouraging her to read the Book of Mormon daily on her own. She is such a sweet lady, and I'm excited to get to know her better. 

The Price's are another family in the ward, and they are a hoot. They are an older couple and they are very eccentric. They love the missionaries and they are the friendliest people alive, but Brother Price (who introduced himself as a ward missionary) is less active, and Sister Price is a returning member. I'm sure I'll have exciting stories to tell about them as time goes by. 

Connie is our progressing investigator. We taught her about temples and family history work on Friday, and she LOVED it. She said it answered a lot of questions she has always had and helped her feel more at peace. She should be getting baptized on July 27. That is her mother's birthday, which is why she picked it. 

Other than that, we've mostly just knocked on some doors and gone to church so far. I've met a handful of ward members, and like I said earlier, they come across as sorta standoffish. I tend to have to be the one to initiate conversations if I want to get to know someone, but once I do, they seem nice. Hopefully I get more warmed up to the ward before too long. The bishop is great and listens carefully to everything we say to him. We live in the ward mission leader's family's basement, and they are SUPER sweet. They are the Anguiano's. They have a little boy who is 18 months old, a boy who is 9 and a girl who is 11. Sister Anguiano is pregnant, and we found out this morning its a girl! 

Anyway, I love you all. Have a great week! 

Sister Taylor