Monday, December 2, 2013

11 Months!!!

Hey Family!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks so much for your emails - it was great to hear from you!! Thanksgiving definitely wasn't the same without you but it was still good. I missed you guys! Today is 11 months!! Woohoo!!!! Also, I loved reading your little notes on Thanksgiving - it was fun to read and to still have a little piece of you guys in my Thanksgiving. Thank you!!! So today is zone pday and Sister Johnson and I planned it and we have to be there at 12:30 so I might not be able to write something to everyone. Since the Elders typically plan zone pday and it's SUPER LAME, we volunteered to do this one and we are throwing a Christmas party at the Holbrooks house!! We are having an ugly sweater contest and when everyone gets there we are going to play a get-to-know you game and then we are going to decorate sugar cookies. While everyone decorates, they will cast their votes for the ugliest sweater and then we are going to play that one game where you roll dice and have to unwrap a present with oven mits (got that one from you Mom!) and then we are going to watch 17 Miracles! The Holbrooks have done so much to help out with the party - they are so wonderful!!!! They bought a ton of cookie dough and we made sugar cookies yesterday and they made a ton of icing. They're making popcorn, hot chocolate, providing sprinkles for decorating, etc. Also, the person who wins the ugliest sweater contest is getting $20 to Walmart and they bought that too!! PLUS they are letting 32 missionaries come to their house. We hope everyone has fun!
Monday was p-day and we just emailed, grocery shopped, and then we had a lesson with Matt Westfall at the Pruetts home and it went really well. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and he seemed really accepting of it and was asking questions but he still won't set a date to get baptized. It's so frustrating!! Like he wants his daughter to get baptized but he is more hesitant and it doesn't make sense!! He knows it's true!
Tuesday we were on exchanges in Charleston with Sister Bierman and Sister Johnson. Sister Bierman was still getting over a virus she had so she has been on bed rest for about a week so I stayed in the apartment the majority of the day with her. I did some extra studying and then I made a treat for the sisters for when they got back. I made it up all on my own and they liked it! It really wasn't that cool but it was cool that it turned out I guess.
Wednesday we were on exchanges in Paris with Sister Felt and Sister Fernandez. That morning, we did service at a food pantry and we were in charge of carrying peoples baskets of food to their cars (it was FREEZING) and you can just really tell the people that appreciate it and are so grateful for what they were given and it makes it all worth it. That night we drove home and had a lesson with Alannah and just watched the Thanksgiving Mormon Message and then talked about what we are grateful for. We are thinking we are going to try and get ladies from the Relief Society to visit her and then maybe eventually she will be a little more receptive of what we have to share with her.
Thursday was Thanksgiving!!!!!! We ended up not doing the Gobble Hobble run because you had to register in advance if you wanted a t shirt and it was only 2 miles and I think it was centered more for little kids. We went to the Rose's for dinner. After that, we went to the Kraude's and ate and it was so great!!!! They are one of my favorite families here and it felt like eating at home there!! After dinner, we talked and then played Guesstures and Catch Phrase and then Sister Kraude makes each child their favorite dessert so we tried a few different desserts and then left! It was really nice spending Thanksgiving with them. Their daughter, Camie, who's 8 made me a card and I thought it was so sweet. After that, we had the rest of the day "off" and so we decided we would just make random dessert creations (since we didn't already have enough to eat). So we made the HUGE mistake of going to Walmart first. It was CRAZY!!!! Walmart starts their Black Friday stuff on Thanksgiving and there were so many people and you couldn't even go into the store unless you had a wrist band so we left. I missed our families' Thanksgiving meal and tradition so much but it was fun to see what other families do and spend it with Sister Johnson!
Friday we had the meeting with all the zone leaders and president in St. Louis and then we went to dinner with Sister Erickson and Sister Wayment. They are the older sisters that work in the mission office and when were in Frontenac, they were in our ward and we love them!! Sister Wayment is going home in about a week so we went to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen with her and it was really fun. On our way home, we visited a less active family and then that was pretty much our day!
That night, we helped prepare for our Christmas party today and went to the Holbrooks and helped clean their house and decorate and everything.
Yesterday after church, we had a lesson with Steve and he is just so amazing. I don't feel like you meet very many converts that really "get it" as soon as their baptized and he totally does! He's excited to get a calling and just help others in the ward and he's working in Oklahoma right now but comes home on the weekends just so he can attend church. We are making cupcakes with his daughter later this week and hopefully we will be able to start teaching her too!! After that, we went to the Holbrooks and baked sugar cookies for today and then we had a lesson with Deana and Aaron on the Plan of Salvation. Aaron(not a member) just kinda listens and agrees with pretty much everything we believe and Deana(less active pretty much her whole life) asks so many questions and it's really cool! She really wants to start bringing her family to church!! After that we had a lesson with the Clarks! Quinn's mom and siblings and family all said they would come to her baptism and she is really excited!! The only thing is.... we set her date for December 21st but with the holidays and everything, Suzi is thinking it might be best to wait until the beginning of the year!!! We are trying to move it up and not wait until the beginning of the year but they said they will talk about it all together. Pray that it will work out on the 21st or earlier!!!!!
That was pretty much my week!!! Our missions' goal is to get 450 baptisms by the end of the year and we are at 393 right now. All of the missionaries for the whole entire year have been praying at 10:00 pm everynight that it will happen and we really hope it does!! Anyway, I hope you all have a super fabulous week!!!!!! I miss you all SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much and I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Taylor
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

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