Book of Mormon Baseball

Hey Family!!!!!!!!!!

     Thanks so much for your emails - it was so great to hear from you!! The weather warmed up a little bit last week and it's getting cold again this week:( Anyway, I guess I will just update you about my week since Wednesday!

     So on Wednesday night, we had dinner with a recently baptized member, Linda, who is amazing and we played Book of Mormon baseball with her and it's where you ask a gospel centered question and then as you flip through the pages of the Book of Mormon, you have the person who asked the question tell you when to stop and then you ask them to say a number 1-4(columns in the Book of Mormon) and then you say the verses that are on that column and they pick one of the verses and then you read the verse and it will answer their question in one way or another.  It's pretty cool because it shows how the Book of Mormon really does answer any questions we have! Anyway, she asked the question if we will eat food in heaven and the scripture we landed on was Jacob 5 which is all about the olive tree which was pretty funny but then she was like "I have actually been meaning to ask about Jacob 5 because I don't understand it!" And so we talked about it and she brought up a good point how sometimes God answers your prayers when you are looking for answers for other things as well.  Does that make sense? Anyway, it was actually really neat.  On Wednesday, I was on exchanges with Sister Hansen - the one that the Leavitts know!! She's very sweet. 

     Thursday I was on exchanges with Sister Esterholdt in Oakville.  I love Sister Esterholdt!!! She's from the middle of no where in Oregon right over the border from Idaho. She makes all of her own clothes, she was homeschooled, she loves old westerns, and hasn't really seen any movies besides really old ones, she hasn't put any type of heat on her hair since she was 16, and she is just really sweet.  It was honestly one of my favorite exchanges!!! She was telling me a story about this boy that asked her on a date and she was like "I think the term you use is that he was hitting on me?" and she would use the term "Boy howdy!" all the time.  She is a very quiet girl but once we started talking she had lots to say and she is an amazing missionary and has a wonderful testimony.  She is the greatest!! In Oakville was where I met Sister Farmer! Haha she isn't in the ward I serve in but she is like 90 years old and when I got there she insisted that she call my Mom and it sounds like she did! She was adorable. 

     Friday I was on exchanges with Sister Herdman and we went to a trivia night with our new investigator, Krisitie and it was so much fun! There were a ton of people there and we actually knew more answers than the rest of our team and we also found a newly married couple on our team that is interested in learning more about the gospel which is so great!!

     Saturday morning we got a new investigator, Virginia! She lives a couple buildings over from us and has a 3 year old son and her husband is agnostic.  She has been to a lot of different churches but just hasn't found the right one.  She has a lot of similar views and beliefs as we do and she is looking for some wholesome activities and direction in her life for her family and actually wants to stop smoking but hasn't really had a reason to and so she has a reason now! She said she has read parts of the Book of Mormon before and that there is something different about it (maybe because it's true?).  Anyway, she's really receptive and I like her a lot!

     Yesterday we had church and no one came:(.  Mark has been at the hospital with his Mom so we weren't able to see him at all this week but we talked to his friend Sarah who is a member and she said he still wants to get baptized but I'm bummed that we haven't seen him.  Last night, we visited a new family, the Vitale's, who just moved in to our ward.  The wife is a new member but hasn't been active for a while and her husband isn't a member but she wants us to start coming over a couple times a week and to teach her how to do family home evening so we are doing that tonight! Also, Bro. Katseanas (our ward mission leader) and his Dad both served in Nagoya and I'm pretty sure his Dad is the one you know Dad!! Pretty cool right?

     Also, I got your package this week and I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!! Getting random packages are always exciting!! Muddie Buddies are AMAZING and thank you for the M&M's Erin - I'm glad you enjoyed Hawaii!!!

     Today I think we are going to go to the stake center and play games with our zone - our zone is a lot of fun!! Anyway, I think that's about it!!! I hope you all have a super fabulous week and day!!! I MISS YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Taylor

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Exchanges

Hey Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     Thanks so much for your emails - I love hearing from you!! I hope you all had a great Valentines Day! Sorry I haven't been able to email you until today - we had zone conference yesterday so we had to wait for this morning!! Guess what?? Mark is going to get baptized!!! We set March 8th as his date and he came to church and said he felt like that was where he was supposed to be - yay!!! Also guess what?? Remember Matt W? He is getting baptized also!! I guess he had a dream about it and now he feels like he needs to get baptized.  I just found that out yesterday so that was pretty great!

     Anyway, I will just tell you about my week! Alright, so last Monday, Sister Smith colored my hair for free and I love it - she is amazing at hair and so I feel super lucky that she did mine! On Tuesday, we had zone conference and it was all about raising the bar and there were a couple of quotes from it that I really liked. 

The first one is:

"If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got"

The other one is:

"If you don't raise the bar, how will you ever know your potential?"

The first one, Sister Morgan shared with us and the second one is from a story about a high jumper and his last name is like fosberry or something like that? Anyway, I really liked them because it's true! I feel like sometimes I make goals but then I don't do my part and try to change things and so my goal doesn't really go anywhere so we have to act on our goals!

     Tuesday night, we had a lesson with a referral we got from another ward named Mary and she is amazing! She is probably in her early 60's and she grew up Catholic but doesn't agree with everything and she wants a sense of belonging at a church and she asked if she could come to our church and wants to learn more - she is so great!!

     Wednesday morning we did service at a Baptist Food Pantry and the man who runs it is so sweet! He said he talked about us in his sunday school class and is just really impressed with what we do as missionaries and he is just really sweet! And he thought I was 14... It's cool.  I've gotten that more than once actually haha a lot of people think I'm like 16 or something! Anyway, we went on exchanges that afternoon and I was in Frontenac with Sister Gunter! It was so fun being back in Frontenac.  I saw some of the ward members and I honestly didn't really expect them to remember me but they did and that made me feel good.

     Thursday we went to visit all the less actives that had birthdays to give them cookies and NONE of them were really home but we decided at each house we would tract the 5 houses around their homes and it was amazing!! We found 3 people like one after another that wanted us to come back which was so great.  I think I just always expect people to say no when we ask them if they want to learn more so when they say yes it's so exciting to me!! We have appointments to go back and visit them this week! The weather was so amazing on Thursday (it is today too!!).  Thursday night we had a special district meeting where everyone in our district was asked to bring a convert to the church and then each set of missionaries were asigned to one of them and they just kinda interviewed them and asked about their conversion stories and the spirit was really strong.  Afterwards, the converts bore their testimonies and it was just a really good district meeting! We interviewed an older man and he emphasized how important being friends with your investigators is and that that is what helped him along the way. 

     Friday we had a lesson with Mark at the church and we gave him a tour of the church and it went really well! We had his friend, Sarah, who is a member come with and it just adds so much to the lesson when members come and share their testimonies during the lesson.  I love it!! We ended the tour in the chapel and talked about Sacrament meeting and Mark really opened up and we set a date for him to get baptized!! For Valentines Day, a family in the ward had us and the Elders over for dinner and we played a candy bar game with them and that was really fun.

     Saturday we had a lesson with a former investigator that the Elders told us about and long story short, his name was Jesse and we had a wonderful lesson with him and his boyfriend and probably wont be going back! That night we went around to all of our neighbors and introduced ourselves to them and gave them cookies and I'm so glad we did because a lot of them invited us to come back!!

     Sunday Mark came to church and he said it was different but that he liked it and felt like it was where he was supposed to be - yay!!

     Monday was SO MUCH FUN!!!!!! It was zone p day and we went roller skating and it was a blast!! I'm not very good haha and fell flat on my bottom once and basically ran over the same little girl twice but it was just really fun! Our zone leader, Elder Reay is like amazing and him and his family do this regularly at home and have a video on youtube of them roller skating.  It's so weird though, I'm so sore from it!!  That night, we got a new investigator!! His name is John.  We were trying to contact a less active and when we got there, they had moved but John and his wife live there and his wife was sleeping but John said he will give everything a try once! We left him with a Book of Mormon and shared our testimonies with him and set up a time to come back this week. 

     Yesterday we had another zone conference and then afterwards we found another new investigator!! Her name is Kristie and she is a young busy mom with a ton going on in her life right now and we just really focused on even though making God a priority seems like one more thing on your plate right now, it will only help put things in order and it will help her.  She's mostly looking for something for her 2 young kids and so we talked about primary and she wants to try it out. 

     Oh ya! Haha okay so we have been bringing cookies to the less active women in our ward on their birthdays and we got to this one house and no one in the ward knows who she is so before they answered the door I was like "Sister Minyard, lets just start singing Happy Birthday when she opens the door" and she was like "No! I'm not singing" And I was like "Yes, I'm singing whether or not your singing" And like right before someone answered the door Sister Minyard was like "Don't do it!" And they open the door and for some reasong I decided not to and it's a good thing I didn't because the lady doesn't even live there anymore!! How embarassing would that have been? I would have sung Happy Birthday and then she would have been like, uhhh it's not my birthday... awkward. 

     Anyway, that's pretty much my week! I hope you all have a super fabulous week and day!! I MISS YOU ALL SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Taylor

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Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Hey Family!!!

     Thank you for your emails - it was so great to hear from you!! It is still paretttyyy cold here and it snowed AGAIN yesterday.  It snowed twice this week and Missouri like doesn't plow their roads and there are a ton of hills in Fenton so we would be trying to drive up a hill and either we wouldn't make it or the car would literally crawl up the hill.  Anyway! I will tell you about my week:

     Last Monday we went to the Keetch's for dinner and Bro. Keetch has bees too!!! They are in their backyard and apparenlty he babies his just like Dad does hahaha.  He makes honey as well.  Also, Sister Keetch went to Midvale Middle School! I really like their family a lot. 

     Tuesday we had an STL training meeting at presidents house and guess what... ya... I got sick.  Kinda embarrassing... Anyway! That day it started to snow a ton and we didn't have any appointments so we went to former investigators and potential investigators homes trying to see if they were interested and none of them were but I'm pretty sure they thought we were all crazy because we were out!

     Wednesday we got a new investigator!! His name is Mark.  He is a friend of a recent convert in our ward (Sarah) and after they talked earlier in the week, Mark felt like what we had to share was what he needed in his life so that's pretty perfect! He is really receptive and feels like this really is what he wants in his life! We had another lesson with him on Saturday and that went well too.  He said a few times throughout the lesson something along the lines of "I think this is what I'm looking for" and he even said he would get baptized if he came to know it was true! Yay!

     Thursday was pretty great hahaha.  In the morning we visited a member of the ward, Sister Galloway who is 80 and has a lot of health problems but is one of the sweetest ladies EVER!! She made my day.  You can just tell she's really sensitive to the spirit and she would start crying when she would talk about the gospel.  We read a scripture with her and she is pretty much blind and she grabs her "glasses"  (you know those things that welders use to put over their faces? So her glasses pretty much looked like those-without the thing that covers your whole face) but it's a whole head peace that she slipped over her head.  It was so cute, I had to take a picture.  People like Sister Galloway give everyone else no excuses for not reading their scriptures! Later that night, we were having dinner with the Hansons and they have just been married for a year and they have Guinea Pigs and I was holding one of them while we were talking and all of a sudden I feel my leg get really warm and it went to the bathroom on me! Sister Hanson got up and told me to follow her so I go into her room and she goes in her drawer and gets some tights out and then goes into her closet and comes out with THE DEFINITION of a sister missionary skirt.  I was like "no really, I'm fine! I can just wait for it to dry!" And she was like "No, let me do this - it will make me feel better.  This was my all time favorite skirt on my mission and the best part - it has POCKETS!" (ohhh good...).  Haha so I put her skirt on and I just looked great! Haha the whole thing just makes me laugh, she was so sweet though.

     Friday we did service at a baptist food pantry and it was really fun! Everyone was probably like 70 or older but they were all really friendly. 

     Yesterday after church, we did a church service at an old folks home! A member of our ward  owns an old folks home or sSunday, we switch off with the Elders and just teach for like 10 minutes each and sing some hymns and just have like a little church service!

     That was pretty much my week! It's kinda hard finding investigators here but we are trying.  We got another member referral earlier this week and have a lesson with the referral on Tuesday so hopefully that goes well!

     Anyway, I think that's about it! I hope you all have a super fabulous day and week!  I MISS YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Taylor

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Dear Family,

     HEY!!!!! Thanks for your emails - I love hearing from you!! I'm in Fenton now and it's pretty different from Highland.  It's more in the city - I haven't really been near a city since Frontenac! Anyway, the ward is like pretty full of young families that are doing some type of medical school or are already doctors.  Like the Relief Society president is only 26! That just seems so young!!! There's a pretty big gap of age- it's like either you are in your late 20's early 30's or you are 60+ but the ward has only had sisters for 1 transfer so they are excited which is great because they want to help us!! My new companion is Sis. Minyard and she is from Las Vegas.  Anyway, we share the ward with Elder Hess and Butler.  So as of right now we have a total of 1 investigator and we found her last night!! She is the granddaughter of one of the ward members and she's looking for something.  We asked her if she had faith in Jesus Christ and she said that she has faith; that there is something but she isn't sure what.  Her name is Janeice and she is 22 and we are seeing her again next Sunday! I'm excited to go back and teach her. 

     Anyway, I guess I will tell you about my week. Monday we went to dinner with the Worthens and I started packing :(. 

 Tuesday, we went with one of the young women to visit one of her elderly neighbors who isn't a member and that was fun! We haven't done much with the young women in the past and it was fun to do that. The girl that came with us is Jaclyn and she is 16 and she and her dad drive us to church most Sundays and we like her.  She texted us Monday night and knew that I was going to be transferred and wanted to say bye to me. So when we picked her up to go see her neighbor, there was another young woman there and she came just cause she wanted to say bye to me! It made me feel so good just because I guess I didn't know she was sad to see me leave so I thought that was really sweet. 

 After that, I needed to practice a piano song that I was asked to play at transfer meeting so we just went to the EVUCC (Evangelical United Church of Christ) and asked if we could borrow their piano and it actually turned into a pretty neat thing! The youth pastor led us to one of the music classrooms and talked about a group that he started that just unites Christian faiths together.  It's so cool when you meet strong religious people like him because you really do see the light of Christ in them and they are so passionate about what they believe too and just want to share it with others just like us! While we were there, the adult pastor came in and introduced himself as well and everyone was just so kind - I love it!! Wednesday was transfers and I was super bummed to say bye to Sister Johnson but we still get to see each other at some meetings and what not.  In my new apartment we have a treadmill again which is great! It's like 100 years old but it works so that's great!!  Friday we had MLC where all the zone leaders and sister training leaders and mission president get together and discuss.  I got to see Sis. Johnson again though so that was pretty great!

     Yesterday we had church and then we had a lesson with a recent convert in the ward and then last night we had dinner at the McDermotts and they are a fun family! 

     Anyway, that's pretty much my week! My apartment is all decorated for Valentines thanks to Mom and her cute package she sent me - thank you!!!! I hope you all have a super fabulous week (Erin.... you're in MAUI??? LUCKY!!!!!)!!!  I MISS YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Taylor

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Fenton!

Dear Family,

     HEY!!!!! Thanks for your emails - I love hearing from you!! I'm in Fenton now and it's pretty different from Highland.  It's more in the city - I haven't really been near a city since Frontenac! Anyway, the ward is like pretty full of young families that are doing some type of medical schooling or are already doctors.  Like the Relief Society president is only 26! That just seems so young!!! There's a pretty big gap of age haha it's like either you are in your late 20's early 30's or you are 60+ but the ward has only had sisters for 1 transfer so they are excited which is great because they want to help us!! My new companion is Sis. Minyard and she is from Las Vegas.  She sold tickets for Cirque de Sole (sorry my spelling is probs wrong) and the show "O" seems pretty sweet! Anyway, we share the ward with Elder Hess and Butler.  So as of right now we have a total of 1 investigator and we found her last night!! She is the granddaughter of one of the ward members and she's looking for something.  We asked her if she had faith in Jesus Christ and she said that she has faith that there is something but she isn't sure what.  Her name is Janeice and she is 22 and we are seeing her again next Sunday! I'm excited to go back and teach her. 

     Anyway, I guess I will tell you about my week! So basically Monday we went to dinner with the Worthens and I started packing :(.  Tuesday, we went with one of the young women to visit one of her old elderly neighbors who isn't a member and that was fun! We haven't done much with the young women in the past and it was fun to do that. The girl that came with us is Jaclyn and she is 16 and her and her dad drive us to church most sundays and we like her.  She texted us Monday night and knew that I was going to be transferred and wanted to say bye to me and so when we picked her up to go see her neighbor, there was another young woman there and she came just cause she wanted to say bye to me! It made me feel so good just because I guess I didn't know she was sad to see me leave so I thought that was really sweet.  After that, I needed to practice a piano song that I was asked to play at transfer meeting so we just went to the EVUCC (Evangelical United Church of Christ) and asked if we could borrow their piano and it actually turned into a pretty neat thing! The youth pastor led us to one of the music classrooms and talked about a group that he started that just unites Christian faiths together.  It's so cool when you meet strong religious people like him because you really do see the light of Christ in them and they are so passionate about what they believe too and just want to share it with others just like us! While we were there, the adult pastor came in and introduced himself as well and everyone was just so kind - I love it!! Wednsday was transfers and I was super bummed to say bye to Sister Johnson but we still get to see each other at some meetings and what not.  In my new apartment we have a treadmill again which is great! It's like 100 years old but it works so that's great!! So on Friday we had MLC where all the zone leaders and sister training leaders and mission president get together and discuss haha.  I got to see Sis. Johnson again though so that was pretty great!

     Yesterday we had church and then we had a lesson with a recent convert in the ward and then last night we had dinner at the McDermotts and they are a fun family!   Anyway, after dinner we met Janeice and she became our new and pretty much only investigator!! YAY!!!

     Anyway, that's pretty much my week! My apartment is all decorated for Valentines thanks to Mom and her cute package she sent me - thank you!!!! I hope you all have a super fabulous week (Erin.... you're in MAUI??? LUCKY!!!!!)!!!  I MISS YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Taylor

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