2 MONTHS BABY!!!

HELLO FAMILY!!!!!!!

     How is everyone? I loved reading everyones emails - thank you so much!! Can you believe that I've been out for 2 months?? Like looking back it seems like it's gone by so fast!  I love it here more and more and I'm learning so much.

     So this last week we split our P day between Monday and Thursday.  Monday we like emailed and grocery shopped and then spent the rest of the day being missionaries and then Thursday we celebrated Sister Johnsons birthday! So anyway, on Monday we had a lesson with Robert and he called us like 5 minutes before and was like, are you guys still coming? And then when we got there, he was waiting for us at the door!! hahaha we love robert. We went over the restoration and the Book of Mormon and I think he truly does have a testimony of it.  He talked about how much of a void it is filling in his life and he had already read to chapter 19 in 1 Nephi.  
   We also had dinner at a members house that night and it was probably my favorite one so far.  Not necessarily because of the food, although it was delicious, but it felt like home! A lot of families that we have dinner with it feels like we have to entertain them while we are there and it is so awkward but the family we were with was so nice and talkative and it just felt natural and it was fun! 

     Wednesday we got a new companion, Sister Amber Wilcox, so there's three of us now! She's from Provo Utah and 20 years old.  She is very very quiet and very very shy.
 I know I will be able to learn a lot from Sister Wilcox and that she will be able to add to our little companionship.  Wednesday was her "nesting" day so the three of us just got everything that she needed and then came back and she unpacked.

     Thursday was Sister Johnsons birthday!! She is 23 years old.  I had made a little banner for her above her desk out of scrap paper we had and it actually turned out pretty cute! Then, we were supposed to have district meeting, but the Elders came at the wrong time and all of our times were mixed up and they had decided to be Amish that day and not bring their phone so district meeting didn't happen.  But then, they went back and got their phone and called us and so we just had lunch all together.  Elder Christensen and Elder Nelson had made a birthday cake for Sister Johnson. Then we went to the Art Museum!! It was so much fun and so cool.  They had really cool paintings from like monet, manet, degas, seurat, van gough, and lots of others.  Then, the office sisters invited us over for a birthday dinner!

     Haha when we were getting in the car this morning, like it's pretty nice outside today and the skies are blueish and stuff but the tornado alarm went off! We just like stood there in the parking lot and were like... uhhh what do we do? Because it wasn't even the right weather for a tornado or anything so there was another guy in the parking lot so I ran over to him and asked why the alarm was going off and he said it was just a test and that they had been broadcasting that over the news and stuff.  It really stinks that we don't get to read or hear the news sometimes...  haha.  

     OHHHH okay guess what??? You know the Wrights in our stake? Anyway, her brother is in my ward!! His wife had signed up to have us over for dinner on tuesday and we were talking to them about it at church yesterday and we made that connection!! Weird huh??

     I have learned so much about the Atonement since I have been here! Like I think, before, I just thought it was for like when you make a mistake or need to repent.  But it's not! There's so much more to it! Sister Wilcox had a talk with her from her Uncle and it's called like "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox and it's really good! It compared the atonement to playing the piano. He said, "Our works, such as repentance and keeping the commandments, do not save us, but they are requirements set by the Savior to help transform us."  Then he talked about how there should never be just two options: perfection or giving up.  Like when we learn the piano, there are more options than performing at Carnegie hall or quitting.  There's everything in between which is the learning process.  Just like learning and understanding takes time with piano, it does with making mistakes and having weaknesses as well.  It's a really good talk - you should read it!

     I think that's all!  I miss you all so much! It's so good to hear from you and I hope you all have a really great day and week!!!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Taylor