August 31, 2015

Today we had a zone activity at the mission home and it took up most
of our day, so we only have time for a quick email! I'm alive and well
and I still love being a missionary! We've been busy busy busy! It's
great! It sounds like you all had a fun (and tiring) weekend! I love
you and hope this week is great for all of you!

Sister Taylor

August 24, 2015

Hello!

It feels like this has been a really busy week, but I can't think of that much to say. We stopped by to visit an investigator named Tammy last night. We haven't seen her for at least a month and weren't sure if she was still interested because she texted us and told us she wanted to return the Book of Mormon we "let her borrow." When we stopped by, she was outside and was very happy to see us. She let us in and we sat and talked for at least an hour. We had a great conversation about family history. We told her about the family history center at the church building and she got really excited and said she would love to visit it. This week I've been thinking a lot about family history. I've been looking on family search and reading some of the stories of my ancestors there (as well as the grizzly bear story mom sent me). It's been really amazing. I definitely have a heritage to be proud of. 

On Tuesday we went to help a family who is moving soon. Sister Green called us last week and frantically told us she needed somebody to help her. They are having movers come in a few days, but she wanted it to be somewhat organized when they came. She has some struggles with anxiety and didn't know where to start, so she took some advice from Elder Nelson and 'asked the missionaries!' Brother Green, who has already moved out to Idaho to start his job, is the proud owner of the biggest collection of arcade games in the Eastern United States. There were at least 25 arcade games in the basement where we were helping Sister Green, and she told us there were about 20 more in a storage unit somewhere. No wonder she was overwhelmed! While we were there we mostly just filled boxes with...stuff. Computer parts, tools, wires, game consoles, arcade signs, etc., etc. Sister Green clearly had very little idea of what any of it was either. Her adult son was there helping as well. He plugged his iPod into the stereo system and we packed to the sound of Legend of Zelda music. Toooooo much video game stuff. I was very glad to help Sister Green--she is super sweet--but I felt a lot of relief when we left their house. 

On Wednesday morning we had zone conference. It was at 8 o'clock back in Manassas. On our way there we got stuck in some terrible traffic. Warrenton doesn't really have traffic, so it was surprising to me. However,  there was traffic (we later found out there was a car accident that caused it) and we moved only 2 miles in the space of 30 minutes. We ended up being 45 minutes late to zone conference. It was awkward. Other than that the conference was great.  I felt like everything that was said at zone conference was exactly what I needed to hear. 

On Wednesday evening we had a lesson with our investigator Paul. We invited Brother Morrison from the bishopric to join us. We hoped it would be good for him to be there--usually it's great for members to be at lessons. In fact, we had talked about having members at  lessons during zone conference. However, it didn't work quite as well as we had hoped. Brother Morrison, bless his heart, got WAY too excited and gave Paul WAY too much information for just our second meeting with him. Paul seemed very overwhelmed. We were trying to teach the plan of salvation (it was only our second meeting with him) but Paul ended up learning about excommunication, the Pearl of Great Price, the Church's stance on gay marriage, home and visiting teaching, the Ensign, and the Articles of Faith. All things that he should learn eventually, but not all at once at the very beginning. We learned an important lesson--always let the member know that we need to be brief, basic, and on topic. Also, it's important to lovingly remind them that we are the teachers, and they are the support. It wasn't all bad. At the end we bore our testimonies and the Spirit was very strong. Sister Alcántara invited Paul to be baptized. He said he probably would, but couldn't guarantee it yet. He wants to know for himself that what we are teaching him is true, which is exactly what we wanted to hear. 

Speaking of Sister Alcántara, she is amazing. She's been here in the States for a month now, but you would think it was longer because of how good her English is. She spoke English less than u speak Spanish before her mission. She only spent TWO WEEKS The MTC. She is doing SO well. The gift of tongues is real! It is so cool to watch her improve every single day. She is so humble and willing to ask questions and be corrected. She's good enough at English that when I'm helping her I can be nitpicky. Yesterday we spent a good 30 minutes while driving discussing the grammatical construction of asking questions. She catches on so fast!

The work here is going very well. We have seven investigators and five are progressing investigators. It is amazing to see how the Lord truly puts prepared people in our paths. I'm so grateful that we have been seeing this kind of success while Sister Alcántara is being trained. I remember the miracles we saw with the Giordanos when I was being trained, and how it helped me be to more zealous for the work. Hopefully we will start seeing baptisms in this area!

Speaking of baptisms, Connie, who just got baptized last month, could really use some prayers. She gave up smoking before she was baptized, but has since slipped back into her old addiction. We have been helping her as well as we know how as we continue to teach her, but she needs all the support she can get! 

That's about all I have for this week. I love you all! The Church is true! Living the gospel brings more happiness than anything else ever could. I know this is true. I know my Savior lives. I know he loves us. He died for each of us so that we can return live again with him and with our Father in Heaven and with our families. I love to be a missionary. Every day is so wonderful. It is such a blessing. It can be hard, but it's always worth it. 

Sister Taylor

Pictures! 

1. We saw a family of deer! Its hard to tell, but there is a mom, a dad, and a baby deer.

2-3. Look at this butterfly!!!

4. We couldn't just make dinner. We had to make it a fashion show, too.

5. But dinner was pretty darn good. 

6.This is one of my favorite vanity plates that I've seen out here. 

August 18, 2015

Hello everyone! I hope you've had a great week. Mine has been wonderful and busy!

Monday: After preparation day, we went to try to visit some people. We tried an older less active couple that the sisters used meet with on a fairly regular basis, but that I had never met. We knocked and after 2 or 3 minutes an old guy opened the door. His hair was matted into random spikes and sticking up in every direction. He looked like he had just woken up after sleeping for a hundred years, and he wasn't wearing pants. He had on a pretty long shirt, but there was still wayyy to much old man leg on display. He mumbled something like, "hang on, lemme get dressed," and disappeared. After five minutes he finally came back wearing pants that kept falling down, and let us in. He looked confused and asked us if we had an appointment. We told him no, but we just want to stop by and see how they were doing. He mumbled some more and said that his wife was asleep. I asked if it would be better if we came back next week. He said yes and showed us to the door. It was awkward. 

Next we went to go check on Britt. Britt is our investigator who is very interested in learning more about the church but whose husband isn't very supportive. We don't really set appointments with her but we come back periodically and check on her and see how things are going. When she answered the door she very excited to see us and told us that she had talked to her husband and that he was OK with her meeting with us and with her going to church. She said she still wanted him to be more supportive than that and to be a part of it, but she thought that maybe just her starting out would have to be the first step. We still didn't set up a return appointment, and told her we would just come back and check on her again in a week. We also gave her a copy of The Family: A Proclamation to the World for her to read, and she was very grateful for it. She started asking some more questions about what makes our church different from other Christian churches and so we started teaching her the Restoration. She listened intently during the entire thing and sister Alcántara did a great job teaching the first vision. We're hoping to really start teaching her soon. 

Tuesday: Tuesday was pretty uneventful. We had district meeting, which was fun, as always. We mostly just did some "get to know you" things, since half of the district was new. Everyone came up with a question and we all had to answer all the questions. The questions were things such as, "what animal would you be if you were an animal" and "what is your most awkward date story." Another question was, "what is your go-to meal as a missionary?" The question I had everyone answer was, "what was your first impression of your trainer?" This is especially great because everyone in the district is training. The responses were all pretty much the same. They all thought at first that their trainers were very serious. They had all quickly changed their minds. In missionary work you're supposed to work hard, but you need to have a little fun sometimes. (Like Sister Wright and I taking pictures in a cornfield when we had 10 extra minutes before our next lesson one day.) 

Wednesday: Wednesday was awesome. We had a lesson with Angel Davis. Angel has fibromyalgia and can't get to church, but is hoping to get a wheelchair so that she can start coming to church. We meet with her every week and talk with her about the scriptures. This week she surprised us. She had been using an old institute manual to supplement her Bible and Book of Mormon study, and had come up with a lesson to teach us. It was on the story of the rich young ruler. We talked about the phrase, "what lack I yet," and discussed how the most important thing that we can give to God is our will. We talked about how hard that can be sometimes but how it ultimately brings the greatest blessings. The spirit was so strong while we were there. 

In the evening we went by the house of an older gentleman named Paul. Sister Wright and I had gotten an online referral for Paul from his friend Mark. Mark had said that Paul would be a golden investigator, so Sister Alcántara  and I went to visit him. When he answered the door he was not wearing pants. What is it with old men not wearing pants here!?! He was wearing a button up shirt and some long, bright blue shorts that may have been underwear. He said, "Oh! Its a couple of young ladies! Give me a moment. I had better put some pants on!" After a minute or two, he returned and told us he had been expecting us since his friend Mark had told him he was going to send some missionaries. We started talking to him and he told us that he was searching for the truth. He wanted to join the church that would be most like the one Christ had established when he was on the earth and that He would be a part of if He was still on the earth. Paul told us he had said the same thing to Mark, and that Mark had said it would be the Mormon church. Paul told us, "I was hoping he would say that." 

We taught him about the Restoration and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. He had some questions about what we believed about people who never had the chance to hear this message while they were living, like his parents. We explained that everyone would have the opportunity to learn the gospel and have the chance to accept it or reject it, either in this life or the next. When we told him that, his eyes lit up and it looked like a weight had lifted from him. He asked us at the end, "what should I do now to learn more?" We invited him to read from the Book of Mormon and pray to know if the things we had taught are true, and to do like Joseph Smith had done, which was to ask God for the truth. Paul said to us, and half to himself, "you know, I haven't done that yet. I definitely should." It was really a neat experience. Midway through us teaching the Restoration, his son had pulled up on a four-wheeler for just a few minutes. Paul introduced us, and his son said, "Its great to meet you. Please help my dad. He really needs it." Clearly, Paul has been searching for a long time and his family knew about it. 

Meeting Paul was awesome. We're going back to teach the Plan of Salvation next week and bringing the bishop's first counselor. I'm super excited! 

Thursday: We went to visit Connie, who had just gotten baptized a week and a half ago. We are starting new member lessons with her, so we taught the Restoration. Connie loves the gospel and knows it's true, but clearly had some holes in her memory. I wasn't there when she was taught the Restoration the first time, but she hardly remembered any of it. It's a good thing we teach it again! I tried to let Sister Alcántara teach as much as possible, but she had a hard time. She is doing a wonderful job learning English, but she still struggles a lot. I can understand her almost all the time, but not everyone else can. She does pretty well in regular conversation, but struggles with teaching. Part of it is the language, but part of it is also the newness of learning how to teach the missionary lessons. Connie is a little hard of hearing, so that didn't help much either. Poor Sister Alcántara was so discouraged when we left that appointment.

Friday: In the morning, Sister Alcántara started to study the Restoration in English in earnest. She read to herself and wrote some things down, and then tried to teach it to me. She did fairly well, but it was still a lot like when she had taught Connie, and I pointed out some things she could improve on. She went back to reading and writing, and then taught me again. This time it was completely different. She taught so clearly and her grammar made much more sense. I'm not sure what she changed, but it was easily 10 times better that the first time. When she finished, she asked, "Can you understand me? Are you sure you can understand me?" and then burst into tears. She improves at such an amazing rate, but she still feels so frustrated. I scooted over to her and gave her a huge hug and told her she was doing an incredible job. We pray for her to have the gift of tongues all the time, and I definitely see it happening, but I don't blame her for being frustrated. I'm not sure I could do with what she is doing. She is so strong to be here! I have learned so much from being her trainer already. I pretty sure she's the one training me! 

That night we went to check on a referral from the elders. She wasn't home, but we started talking to a woman on the sidewalk who was pumping up the tires on her daughter's bike. At first when we started talking to her she had the, "who are you and why are you talking to me" look on her face, but she gradually started to warm up to us. We asked her about her faith in Christ, and she told us that it had always been on and off, but that it had just increased a lot. She told us that the week before she had passed out while driving (and later found out it was because of a potassium deficiency). Instead of veering left into oncoming traffic, the car had drifted right into a fence,  and which had totaled the car. She and her 5 year old daughter miraculously walked away without a scratch. She told us that experience had really made her think that someone had been watching out for them. We told her about who we were and what we did, and taught her the majority of the Restoration. We gave her our card and she gave us her number and told us she had been thinking it was time to start going to church again. Hopefully we can meet with her again! 

Saturday: We went to see Sister Norris again. She had an old friend named Angie visiting her. We chatted for a few minutes and then Sister Norris suddenly said, "You know, I don't think I really know the whole Joseph Smith story!" She is a convert, and must have been taught it before, but she hasn't been able to come to church in so long that it's little wonder she doesn't remember it all. So we taught the Restoration. (We taught it a lot this week.) She and her friend were both really into it, and it was a great lesson. Sister Alcántara taught more than half of it, and she did a great job. Sister Norris even complimented her at the end for teaching it so clearly. I think that really made her feel better. Angie had a couple of questions, and said she wasn't sure about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appearing to Joseph Smith, because she had always been taught that God was a spirit. We told her we believed Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ had bodies of flesh and bone, and that our Heavenly Father had created us in His image. She shrugged and told us that all that mattered to her was that we were all Christians. She was super sweet and told us she thought what we were doing as missionaries was amazing. 

Sunday: We went to church and it was great, as always. During Relief Society we had an awesome lesson about how marriage and families are part of God's plan. Sister Calderwood, who was teaching, talked about how the world today had made marriage into something that was more focused on the interest of the individual, and into something temporary and only good as long as it was still "fun." She took a lot of her lesson from an article in the August Ensign by Elder Bruce C. Hafen called, 'The Proclamation on the Family: Transcending the Cultural Confusion.' It was super good, and I highly recommend you all read it. 

Sunday night we met a woman named Joanne, who used to be Catholic, and told us she wanted to start coming to church and building her faith again, but that she hadn't found the right church to join yet. She was very interested in having us come back, but told us she had a busy upcoming schedule, so it would have to wait a week. She seems super nice, and even gave us a hug before we left. We're excited to see her again. 

So! It's been a crazy week with lots of miracles. I love LOVE to be a missionary. It's the best thing I've ever done. The Church is true, the Book of Mormon is the Word of God, and Jesus Christ is our Savior. I'm so happy to be serving Him. 

Have a great week! 

Sister Taylor 

P.S. Sorry! No pictures this week! I forgot to bring my chord to the library, so I can't send them!

August 2, 2015

Tuesday: was uneventful. It was preparation day. 

Wednesday: Sister Wright went on the departing temple trip with all the missionaries going home this transfer, so I was with Sister Wheeler from the Warrenton 1st Ward. She is an amazing missionary. When she was 28, she got a very strong prompting to go on a mission, so she put her career as a 1st grade teacher on hold and came out on a mission. She is so much older than the rest of us and has so much more life experience, but she is super humble and doesn't treat the younger missionaries like they are any less capable than she is. I thought  I would feel intimidated all day, but Sister Wheeler was awesome. I would love to actually be her companion someday. 

We went to visit Connie, our investigator. She has been super excited to get baptized. She has had to give up smoking, and was really struggling when we showed up. She said she had been irritable all day and had snapped at her granddaughters a few times. We talked with her about reading daily from the Book of Mormon. She said she had been reading a few times a week, but we promised her that if she read daily, she would feel more peace and have the strength she needed to quit smoking for good. She said she would and thanked us for coming. She told of us that having us come over helped her to feel much better.

We also went to visit a woman in the ward named Angel.. She has fibromyalgia and has a hard time getting anywhere, including church. We talked with her about 1 Nephi 3. She really loved verse 7, "...I  will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." We talked about how God not only provides a way for us to keep His commandments, He also provides a way for us to overcome our trials. We talked a lot about the Atonement and it was one of those lessons where I felt like I learned more from the person I taught than she learned from me. It was amazing. On Saturday I talked to the sister who was in Warrenton before me, and she told me that Angel had messaged her on Facebook and told her how much she loved me. I loved hearing that. 

Thursday: Also pretty uneventful. Sister Wright had her departing interview in Burke, so that took up a large chunk of our day. In the evening we went to the Woodsens. Jordan (12) and Mason (10) are the sons of a less active member. The sisters here have been teaching them for a while, and they are getting close to baptism. The mom, who is a member, is getting closer to coming back to church, and her non-member husband has started asking questions. We're excited for them! It was a fun visit. Mason wasn't there, but we showed Jordan and his mom a Mormon Message and talked about obedience to God's commandments. 

Also! On our way back from dinner, we saved a turtle that was walking across the road. It was fast! I couldn't catch it. Sister Wright had to do it. 

Friday: In the afternoon we went with the Elders to do service for Sister Norris. We pulled lawn furniture out of a sketchy garage and washed it off, raked leaves out from under her porch, and painted a little bird cage thing that she puts candles in. First of all- SO MANY SPIDERS. They were everywhere! There were all these clumps of web stuff hanging from the ceiling of the garage and from the bottoms of the lawn furniture. You could see the big spider crawling around on it, and when you looked closely, you could see hundreds of little baby spiders crawling all over the web clump. They were cute. In a disgustingly disturbing kind of way. I killed a lot of them....

Later, once we got to the painting, we learned a very important lesson--paint creates too much power for 20 and 21 year olds to handle. Even if they are missionaries. Elder Massey was holding the ruler we used as a stirring stick and that was now covered in red paint. He looked at the ruler, then at his companion, Elder Sanders, then back at the ruler, then back at Elder Sanders. Elder Sanders just shook his head and said, "don't even think about it." Elder Massey shrugged his shoulders and then looked at the ruler, looked down at his own shirt, back at the ruler, back at his shirt, and proceeded to draw an "M" on his chest. Sister Norris came over in her wheelchair and offered to decorate his back. She drew a heart with an arrow through it and wrote "MASSEY." He thanked her and then stuck his hand into the can of paint. He looked at his hand, looked at me, looked at his hand, looked at me, and asked, "how much do you care about that shirt?" I said, "More than you care about yours." Somehow, though, I ended up with paint on my shirt and my jeans. Some was self-inflicted, some was from Sister Wright, and some was from Elder Massey. Elder Sanders was just appalled that his companion would actually put paint on a sister. (I suspect Elder Massey may have a crush on me. He's always doing stuff like this to me. Thank goodness he's going home in a few days!) 

Saturday: CONNIE GOT BAPTIZED!!!! She was so so happy! Her whole face just glowed all day. About 15 of her non-member family members came to the baptism. It was so great. She said she felt all warm, but also like there was a cool breeze. She couldn't stop smiling. It was so sweet. Her sister, who introduced her to the Church, gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and Sister Wright gave a talk on Baptism. Both were wonderful. I gave the closing prayer. It was such a happy day! 

That evening, we were driving to meet someone (who ended up not being home) and a truck full of teenaged boys drove past us. They stuck their heads out the windows and waved and and cat-called and made the "call me" sign. I dug through my bag for a minute, then looked back up at them totally dead pan, and held up a picture of Jesus. It was pretty funny to see their looks of bewilderment before Sister Wright slammed on her brakes and got behind the people driving behind them. 

Later, we went to visit a less active older woman in the ward named Sister Barlow in the hospital. We sang some hymns and read some Book of Mormon to her. She told us that being in the hospital had given her new perspective. She told us she wanted to talk to the bishop and come back to church. We were so happy to hear that, even though we were sorry she was in the hospital. 

Sunday: went to church. It was good! After church and dinner, we had about an hour before we were going to visit the Prices. I started contemplating what we needed to be doing during that time, since we didn't have any set plans, and a name jumped to my mind. Cherokee is a high school girl who is the step-daughter of some less active members in the ward, but isn't a member herself. We helped her and her brother break down a fence last week. She is super sweet and also plays the trumpet. Her name popped into my head, so we went to visit her and she came out to meet us as soon as we pulled up. We had no idea what we were going to say, but we knew we needed to be there. We talked for a few minutes and suddenly she told us that she found her grandma's scriptures. Her grandma (who passed away last year) was a member, and Cherokee had found her quad (Old and New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price). She told us she had been looking through it. We asked her if she would read from the Book of Mormon, and she said she would. She told us she had thought a little about being baptized before. We asked her to read Alma 32 and set up an appointment for this Wednesday. She was very willing and excited to have us come talk to her about the Book of Mormon and the Gospel. We're super excited! 

Today: We went to DC! We went to the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Then we went to the Library of Congress and saw the Thomas Jefferson library and got official library cards. :) Super cool. Be jealous. 

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

Sister Taylor

Library of Congress:

Library Card!

1-2. Hey!

3-5. More DC!

Connie's baptism!

Two Sister Taylors!?

Connie's sister's dogs and us.

Sister Wright and the Anguiano's son, Caleb. So cute!

1. Sooo....yeah....this happened. Sister Wright and I have too much fun.

2. Just a cool picture 

3. Chasing the speedy turtle!

4-5. Paint aftermath.

Sorry for so many pictures! I'm not so good at journaling, so I take
lots and lots of pictures instead. They're more fun anyway. ;)

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!!!