tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73293483529528890152024-03-12T16:14:01.873-07:00Sister ZundelUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-18471945531776494892014-07-07T12:48:00.001-07:002014-07-07T13:04:38.909-07:00The last email!!<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Dear Family,</span><br />
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This is so crazy!!! This is my last email until I see you again. I feel like the transfer just started! I have heard other missionaries (and Dad) say that the last few transfers went by super fast and I was like… ya, that's just the cliche thing to say... but it's the truth!!!! I still don't really feel like I'm leaving but I know I am but it's just a really strange feeling. Jake got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so exciting!!!! We met with him a few times before <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1379162112" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Saturday</span></span> and <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1379162113" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Monday</span></span>, he had smoked again and he was like "it's just a habit when I'm in traffic on the way home from work" sooo firstly we asked if we could take his cigarettes and he willingly gave them to us and we broke them and then we knew that he loves Oreos so we bought a big pack of Oreos and put them in the back of his truck with a note so that he would eat those on the way home instead of smoke and he hasn't smoked since!!! Later in the week, the Sylvesters had him over for dinner and a lesson and we talked about the priesthood and how he can hold it shortly after he is baptized and it went really well. We told him that the more good decisions he makes, the more he might notice it is harder to make them because Satan will try to tempt him. He said he had already felt that but that he is doing his best to turn away from any temptations and praying. So. . .<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1379162114" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Saturday</span></span>, Jake got baptized!!!!!! His Mom and sister came and so did President and Sister Morgan and the whole Relief Society room was filled with ward members. Some really great talks were shared and the spirit was definitely there. After he was baptized, he gave 2 thumbs up and he looked so happy. While him and Bro. Sylvester were changing, we had made these little cards for everyone to write a note or their testimony for Jake and we are putting them in a book like you would put photos in and we are going to give it to him this week. Yesterday, he got confirmed and he just looked SOO happy! It's amazing. He even showed up with his tithing yesterday without anyone really saying anything about it. It's just so cool to see how much he has changed and how much his life he has changed to join the church. He has had a few friends ask him why he is going to church and other comments like that and he has stuck up for what he knows is true which is cool to hear from him. He is so great!!!! This week we are teaching him about the Temple so he can do baptisms for the dead in a couple weeks. Another really cool thing is that part of his family history is done back to the 1600's and so he can do all those names in the Temple. Oh! And before I forget; so he walked into the Stake Center and he was like "I have been here before... I don't remember why or when but I have been here before." Long story short.... Jake is baptized and he is amazing!!!!!</div>
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Anyway, I guess I will tell you about the rest of my week! On the 4th we had Zone service in the morning and we went to this members' house in a different ward and dug a ditch for a pipe, painted, and did some other stuff, ate lunch and had fun! We were allowed to listen to patriotic music on the 4th so that was fun too. The Elders made us a copy of a CD a member made for them and it was mostly country songs which aren't really my favorite but honestly anything is better than Mormon Tabernacle Choir at this point. We had to have our cars parked by<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1379162115" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">5:00</span></span> and the majority of our ward went out of town for the 4th soo Sister Felt and I had nothing to do really. So we parked our car at 5 and walked over an hour away to Target and bought some stuff to make cookies and Jakes' baptism and it was actually really fun! </div>
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<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1379162116" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">On Saturday</span></span> we had a lesson with Audre and guess what???? 2 things: 1. she turns 18 on <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1379162117" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">August 15th</span></span> and 2. SHE'S GETTING BAPTIZED IN AUGUST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so excited for her and she's really excited too. </div>
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It's seriously so crazy to me that I'm on my last week!!! You have no idea how glad I am that I decided to go on a mission. I for real wish I could just force everyone to go. It's amazing!!! Not only do you really gain a testimony and learn more about the Savior and what we believe but the majority of your energy is focused on other people and helping them learn the same things and you just get a ton of new best friends all over the place and see how their lives change!! The light of Christ really shines through people when they start to recognize the gospel is true. It's like a whole different kind of joy that you feel being here. I don't even know how to explain it! It's hard sometimes and can get discouraging but anything that requires work is worth more in the end and you appreciate it. I know this Church is true and that it has the same truths that Christ put on the earth originally and I am so grateful for it!! Thanks for being so supportive - you have no idea how much I appreciate your letters and the time that you put into everything. You guys are the best!!!! I can't wait to see you!!!!</div>
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Anyway, I hope you all have a super fabulous day and week!!!!!!!!!!! I MISS YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<wbr></wbr>OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
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Love,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Taylor</div>
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XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-54827095444895014692014-06-09T19:04:00.000-07:002014-07-06T19:05:30.478-07:00Mini missionary<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Hey Family!!!!!!!!!</span><br />
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Thanks so much for your emails - I love hearing from you! This last week we had our mini missionary with us until Friday (she asked if she could extend!!) and it was sooo funn!!!! We didn't realize it when she asked to extend, but it had to go through the stake president and our mission president but she got to! Like for real we were so sad for her to leave. It was like having a little sister around with us all the time that was hilarious. You wouldn't think it at first but she pretty much made us laugh all the time. She might come to a few lessons with us towards the end of the transfer again too. Anyway, I guess I will tell you about my week!</div>
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So on Monday, like I mentioned, I went to a laundry mat for the first time! Fenton Coin Laundry to be exact. It was different than what I expected. I pictured it like they are in music videos but it wasn't. They are like a genius idea though!! Like you can do allll your loads at once and it's way faster! Anyway, that night we found a new investigator that lives in the same apartment complex as Jake and then had a lesson with Josh too.</div>
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Tuesday I'm pretty sure I did something totally not socially acceptable!! So. Remember that lady, Laura Newsom from the parade magazine you told me about that lives in Fenton? Well. I looked her up in the phone book! Her name actually wasn't there but there was a Newsom so I wrote the address down and we went there and we got there and her husband answered and this is pretty much how it went. We went to her house and her husband answered and she was napping but he said we could come by in like 20 minutes and so we did and she answered and I told her how I heard about her and then she's like "How did you find my house?" and I was like "Ummm.. well... the phone book." (creepy right??). Anyway, she's Catholic and not interested and not at all what I expected but I met her! She actually lives right next door to a member that literally just moved in. </div>
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Wednesday we had a zone meeting and we were asked to give a training on prayer and Gretchen even helped us out for part of it! For part of it, we watched the mormon message "Wrong Roads" and it's so good! Here it is too:<a href="http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2714780496001" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.mormonchannel.<wbr></wbr>org/video/mormon-messages?v=<wbr></wbr>2714780496001</a> That night we had a lesson with Karen and her daughter Sam came too and she wants to learn as well! Then we had a lesson with Jake and they Sylvesters came with us and they were perfect and the lesson went well. Bro. Sylvester and his wife are literally the human version of Gaston and Belle. Both Jake and Bro. Sylvester like to hunt so they talked about that for a while. Jake wants to get baptized!! We asked him about July 5th and he said he would pray about it. He said he notices a difference in his life when he reads and prays and things like that. He also came to church yesterday and we are seeing him on Wednesday!</div>
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Friday, Gretchen left which was sad but we had a fun time with her. The three of us would play would you rather a ton and it was really entertaining. One time while we were tracting, one of them was like "would you rather have your skin be an obnoxious orange or green?" and gretchen was like "I would be green because then I could tell people I was an alien" and like literally right after that, we went up the next walking path thing to the door and the house had a statue of an alien and the timing was perfect so it was pretty funny. I will send you a picture to go along with it. That's Gretchen and I!<div>
<img height="163" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=d2315477e1&view=att&th=146a58c2609c4a7b&attid=0.1&disp=emb&realattid=ii_hwhzvai50_146a5805f786e448&zw&atsh=1" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="217" /></div>
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Saturday we were talking to this lady Tiffany, who is one of our new investigators and she goes to this really common non denomination church here called Faith and she said she didn't like the direction it was going because she said it's so "showy" when they should be focusing on the word - not the dramatic effects. It's so true!! That always bothers me so much because people want to go to church to be entertained and they mistake feeling the spirit with being excited and dramatic effects and it's not the same. Anyway, it was nice to hear that from someone else besides members of the church. We also had a lesson with Jia and she did pray! However, I don't think she did every night. She said she enjoyed praying and she felt the spirit and she understands everything but she just can't make that big of a leap of faith. She said that she has made the leap of learning about it but she doesn't have the spring board to believe it. She was really sincere and so sweet and told us how much we really did teach her and how much it means to her but she just can't do it right now. We will definitely keep her in our visits every once in a while though. I think later in life she might change. </div>
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This week I also got my flight info in the mail... that was weird. But we found 4 new investigators which was exciting! This transfer we are reading Matthew Mark Luke and John as a mission in our companionships and I'm excited cause I've never read them before! Also, these last couple days I have been reading the priesthood talks from conference and they are so good. Probably some of my favorites!!! </div>
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Anyway, I think that's about it!!! I hope you all have a super fabulous day and week!!!! Please be super safe and smart and healthy and don't do anything dumb and please drive safely wherever you go and don't text and drive or be distracted or drive when it's not safe or be distracted or anything like that and make sure no one else does either!!!!!! I MISS YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<wbr></wbr>OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
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Love,</div>
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Taylor</div>
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XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-62557734321811759502014-06-09T19:02:00.000-07:002014-07-06T19:03:07.845-07:00Hey!!!!!<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Hey Family!!!!!!!!</span><br />
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Thanks so much for your emails!! I love hearing from you. We had transfers this week so now I'm with Sister Felt and she's a great missionary. She goes home the transfer after me! She's from Lincoln,California. We also got a mini missionary on Friday night and she is so great. Like I love having her with us!! Basically, what a mini missionary is, is a priest or laurel aged member spends a week with us and lives with us and does everything we do with us to see what being a missionary is like! Her name is Gretchen, she's 16, and she's hilarious. She's supposed to go home on Tuesday but we are going to see if she can stay longer because we love having her around!! Like at first you would think she's really strange and awkward and quiet but no... she's a genius and hilarious and she isn't afraid to contribute in lessons and it's so great! A couple nights ago, Sister Felt made these amazing cookies and Gretchen was like "if these cookies were a person, they would be Jesus." We couldn't stop laughing. Anyway, I think mini missions are the best idea!! Do they even do them in Utah? </div>
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Last Monday, we went to the Holocaust museum and it was interesting and so sad but I like learning about it. Then we drove through this place called Lone Elk Park and it's like a park with supposedly a ton of animals like elk, deer, buffalo, bison, and other things but all we saw were a few bison.. </div>
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Wednesday we had transfer meeting and then that night we had a lesson with Jake and we watched the Restoration DVD and he wants to know if it's true so he said he would pray about it and he said he would like to get baptized also so we are possibly going to set a baptism date with him this wednesday! He said that he feels like he needs some religion in his life and he believes that we are helping him because the night before he wanted to drink but he decided not to. Cool huh?? </div>
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Thursday we had a lesson with Audre at the temple and it was really cool. She LOVES the temple and we challenged her to find a quiet spot on the temple grounds after we left and say a prayer and she even told us that she is going to ask her parents when they get home from vacation if she can get baptized before she's 18. HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE???? We hope they say yes. </div>
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Friday we had MLC and it was my last MLC so that was kinda weird. I gave my "departing testimony" and of course as soon as I stood up I literally forgot everything I wanted to say. It's so weird to think about though because that was the last time I will see a lot of the Elders and other missionaries! </div>
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Saturday night we had a lesson with Jia and it was amazing!! We have talked with her over and over about prayer and she still hasn't done it and after we watched this movie called Finding faith in Christ, we talked about prayer again and I told her that if she prayed every single day for a week, she would feel God's love for her and have faith in Jesus Christ. She laughed and was like "are you making a bet?" But I told her that I had faith that if she did that I know she would have faith as well and she was like "Wow, I'm really going to do that". She said she liked our confidence we had in the fact that that would happen. I have never done anything like that before and it was kinda scary! So anyway, we are going back Saturday and we will see how it goes!</div>
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Yesterday we had church and Audre came! Today I will be going to a laundry mat for the first time ever... the members house we usually do laundry at is gone for 6 weeks soooo we are going to a laundry mat! </div>
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Anyway, I think that's about it!! I hope you all have a super fabulous day and week!!!!! I MISS YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<wbr></wbr>OOOOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
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Love,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Taylor</div>
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XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-39232227737716092902014-05-12T18:58:00.000-07:002014-07-06T18:58:26.743-07:00Happy Mother's Day!<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Hey Family!!!!!!!!!</span><br />
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It was so great to be able to talk to you yesterday!!!! I love talking to you! It was soo good to hear your voices and see your faces and just talk to you!! I JUST LOVED IT!!!!!!! Anyway, I pretty much told you everything yesterday I feel like but I will just tell you about my week briefly. </div>
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Monday we had zone pday and we played games outside at Forest Park and it was really fun.</div>
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Tuesday we had zone conference and it was so good! We got to help plan it and everything and it's honestly probably one of my favorite zone conferences I have had on my mission. Zone conferences in the past have just ended up being kinda heavy and long so we decided to switch it up and make it more uplifting and interactive and it was really cool. I feel like people respond to that kind of stuff better… at least I do. </div>
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Thursday I was on exchanges with Sister Nelson! I was companions with her in Frontenac in case you don't remember. It was fun to be with her again! It's cool to see how she has changed from when she was first out until now. </div>
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We also saw some less active members and we had another lesson with Jia like I told you about. We went over the Restoration and I think she understood everything! She was really excited to learn about the Holy Ghost and so we told her to pay attention to the feelings the Holy Ghost gives us when something is true or good. </div>
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This morning we saw Virginia!!!! AND GUESS WHAT??? We set a baptism date with her for June 21st. So we will see how that goes!!</div>
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Anyway, that's pretty much my week!!!!! It was so good to see you!!!!! Happy Mothers Day again Mom - I love you!! I hope you have a super fabulous day and week!!! I MISS YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<wbr></wbr>OOOOOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Love,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Taylor</span></div>
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XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXO</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-7217157718074949102014-05-05T18:57:00.000-07:002014-07-06T18:57:55.569-07:00I love to see the temple!<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Hey Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</span><br />
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Thanks so much for your emails - I love hearing from you!! Guess what??? I got to go to the Temple this week!!! OH MY GOSH. Basically, it was amazing and it has been so long since I got to go. I will send some pictures because it was a beautiful day and it was just so great to be there!! Anyway, I will tell you about my week now!</div>
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On Tuesday we had MLC and they asked me to do a musical number but I feel like everyone is pretty tired of hearing piano solos so I pretty much forced some of the other zone leaders to sing while I played and it was so good!!! They sang Come Thou Fount while I played the piano and the spirit was so strong while they sang - I loved it!! Sister Scott thought she recorded it but she actually just took a picture but it's all good. That night, we saw Virginia and she totally gets it!!! She had so many questions and she wants to feel forgiven of mistakes and she wants to get baptized!!! We watched a mormon message with her too and she loves those. She downloaded basically ever Mormon app on her phone that you can get and has been reading the Book of Mormon every day. She said she would give church another try also! </div>
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Thursday we had a combined district meeting with our whole zone and the zone leaders challenged us all to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the transfer which means 15 pages a day. We were so excited!! So we have been trying to stay on top of that which is cool because both Sister Scott and I are pretty much studying the same things during personal study and then during companion study we talk about it. Afterwards, we went on exchanges with the Washington sisters and I went to Washington.</div>
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Friday we had lessons with Josh, Jia, and Virginia. Josh is a guy we met when he was out walking his dog. He isn't really into organized religion because of things like Jonestown and the Holocaust and things like that but he told us he is at a crossroads right now and needs some direction. So we taught him the Restoration and he prayed with us and he seems really interested! Afterwards, we saw Jia and all of our other lessons with her we have tried to explain who God is and stuff and it just wasn't going anywhere so we decided to just start with Joseph Smith. So we watched the Restoration video and I think it was what we should have done to begin with! She understood it and I think she can relate to it more. So I feel like we are finally starting to get somewhere with her now. Friday night we went to the Temple and I already told you that was AMAZING!!!!!!! I loved being there. Seriously, you guys are so lucky that you can go any day you want. </div>
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Saturday we saw Audre and she is doing great! We are going to start doing personal progress with her and just continue to meet with her regularly. I think she is going to bring something up to her parents soon as well which would be good. We also saw Teena and we were so happy. She told us a few weeks ago that the Bishop really hurt her feelings and she wasn't coming to church any more and we were sooooo bummed because we had been working with her weekly and she was starting to realize how important church was and she wanted to get her patriarchal blessing and then her feelings got hurt and she said she wasn't coming anymore. Then, we got to her house on Saturday and she told us she was coming and we were so happy!!! It's so cool when you work with less active members and you watch them change. </div>
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Sunday we had church and Joe came and TEENA CAME!!!! She even shared her testimony and thanked us for being there for her. Sister Scott and I were so happy and surprised that she even went up. </div>
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Anyway, that's pretty much my week!!! Today we have zone pday and we are going to forest park and playing games because guess what.... IT'S WARM OUTSIDE!!!!! I hope you all have a super fabulous week and day!! Please be super safe and smart and healthy and don't do anything dumb and please drive safely wherever you go and don't text and drive or be distracted or drive when it's not safe and make sure no one else does either!!!! I MISS YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<wbr></wbr>OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<wbr></wbr>OO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!</div>
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Love,</div>
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<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Taylor</span></div>
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XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO</div>
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1. The Elders singing at MLC... I'm behind the piano<div>
2. THE TEMPLE!!!!!!</div>
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3. Also the Temple</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-45059150437081043972014-04-28T18:35:00.000-07:002014-07-06T18:35:42.723-07:00Happy Birthday Tay!<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Hey Family!!!!!!!!</span><br />
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Thanks for your emails!! It was so great to hear from you and I love reading your emails. Guess what?? I'm <span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">21</span>!!!!!! I don't really feel <span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">21</span>... I didn't even feel 20... I still feel like I just graduated high school like last summer but apparently I have been out of the womb for <span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">21</span> years now so that's cool. We really didn't do much on my birthday to be honest! Sister Scott "surprised" me with a birthday cake! (haha not really... you can't really keep anything a secret from your companion since you have to be within sight and sound of each other 24/7 so I saw her buy it at the store). But it was still fun! And THEN when we got home that night I opened my AWESOME birthday package!!! I loved it!!! Thank you so much - it was so cute. Hahaha I loved all the little boxes you put in with different gifts inside and I shared my cupcakes with my district. Thank you so much!! OHH and don't let me forget ... THE CARD!!! Hahahahaha the front of it alone was hilarious - thank you so much!! I really loved my package and everything in it and I really appreciate it - you are all amazing!! Also! So you know how we were trying to see how many lessons we could get this week? Well we didn't get anywhere close to 70 or anything BUT we got 23 which is more than we have gotten before!! PLUS we found 4 new investigators this week!!! AND we got more lessons than the Elders in our ward so that's good too. We are having another competition this week and the winner gets a gallon of chocolate milk (the Elders chose the prize). Anyway, I will start telling you about my week now!!!</div>
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So on Tuesday we visited this old lady who some Elders tracted into a few years ago. Her name is Patricia - she's probably in her early 80's and lives in a beautiful home and her husband died a few years ago and you can tell it's really hard for her. Anyway, we have tried to get in her home for a few weeks now and she always has excuses for why we can't come in. Things like "Right now, I'm picking out my clothes for the week" "I just sat down to eat" (keep in mind she's pretty old and stuff). So her excuses are always funny but this time I was just like "can we come and share a short scripture with you? It will only take 5 minutes and then we will let you get back to your day." So she lets us in and she told us about her husband. They didn't have any children so you could tell they spent a lot of time together and she started crying and so we talked about the plan of salvation a little bit and left her with a pamphlet that briefly talks about it. And then... about an hour later she finally let us go. It was so good though. Before we left she was like "please come back". She is adorable. Just a really classy old woman. We also met with some less active members. We are working with a lady in the ward who had her name removed years ago but she wants to come back now so we are teaching her the lessons so she can get baptized again. We also tracted quite a bit and found some really neat people and they all had some kind of connection with Mormons which is always really cool. We have been using a different approach when we tract lately and it works pretty well!! After we like introduce ourselves and stuff we just say something like "can we share a short scripture with you?" and they pretty much always say sure and so while we are getting out a Book of Mormon, we introduce what it is and then share the scripture with them and it just opens people up to more discussions than usual and it's really cool! One lady we met made a comment on how much it applied to her at this point in her life and it's just really neat to hear things like that.</div>
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Wednesday was my birthday!! That morning we helped out at the food pantry and I was talking to the guy, Ray, who is in charge of it all and I was leaning on like one of those lever/fork lift things that grocery stores use to carry heavy stuff around and I accidentally let the lever go and it landed on his foot!!!! Luckily there wasn't anything heavy on it at the time, just a few boxes, but still I felt so bad!! We were also able to get into a less active members home that multiple ward members have been trying to get in and they told us "don't count on them letting you in". And they let us in!!!!! It's really sad, they were really active less than a year ago and then apparently they got offended some how and they don't really want anything to do with the church anymore. Just the wife was home and you could tell she didn't really want us there but we were just so happy we even got in!!!</div>
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On Friday we found 3 new investigators!!! The first one is Katelyn. She is 22 and has a 9 month old. She hasn't been very religious for years now because she was always forced into it when she was growing up. Now, she's on her own and wants something more in her life and she had a lot of questions. And she literally lives right across the street from the church which is perfect! She doesn't really know much about God or religion at all and so she wants to learn. Our next investigator we found was Beth. She is married, has 2 kids in college and doesn't go to church currently. We don't really know if she is looking for anything currently but she is interested in learning more about what we believe and I think she's someone who would be able to recognize the importance of it after we talked to her more about the Book of Mormon and stuff. Before we went in for the night, we found Amy! She was someone Elders tracted into a few years ago and she is currently Lutheran but doesn't always go. We introduced the Book of Mormon and she has had a ton of connections with Mormons in her past! Her Dad did carpentry for the St. Louis Temple and she had Mormon neighbors and doctors and she always really liked them. It makes me grateful for whoever the Mormons people met were good examples because it makes such a huge difference in the future!! </div>
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Oh ya! Hahahaha okay so Friday morning we had district meeting and all the Elders were trying to give us all their Easter candy but we didn't want it either and so we all ended up having a candy war and like throwing it in each others cars or trying to hide it in places we wouldn't see it and Sister Scott and I pretty much lost because they threw it all in our car and then drove off but THEN hahahaha they were behind us at a stop light with their windows rolled down and I gathered all the candy together and ran out of our car and threw it in their car and then the light turned green so they ended up with it. It was pretty funny. </div>
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Saturday morning we met with Audre! Throughout the week she had been texting us and she is seriously so amazing. When she gets bored or has free time during class, she watches mormon messages and the district and things like that. So we met her at the park in the morning and we brought her a personal progress book and she was so excited about that. I also gave her a ctr ring and she was so excited. I think it's just really amazing to me to see how young she is and how interested in the gospel she is. She wants to get baptized so badly but she knows her parents aren't okay with it right now. We talked to her about fasting and today she is fasting for some extra help! </div>
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Yesterday Audre came to church and went to young women and everything and she loved it!! She told us how good of a day she had and how much she loved being at church and around Mormons. We also saw Jia yesterday and for a while we were stuck as to what to teach her because she doesn't have any Christian background but we decided to just start with the Restoration and Prayer so we will see how that went next time we see her. </div>
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Ken has been super hard to meet with lately which is frustrating... but he said he could meet on Wednesday so that's good! Shannon's phone has been broken and she has had to work but she still wants to meet with us.</div>
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This morning I was reading the Joy of Womanhood by Sis. Nadauld and a couple things stood out to me that I really like!!! She talks about how we should "celebrate the fact that girls are different from boys". I just liked that a lot! I think with all the feminist women these days in the church they want to be treated like the men but they forget that we are different and there's a reason for that! Plus... have you ever noticed that feminists look like men...? Like... if you want to be treated equally than at least try to look feminine. Sorry I kinda have a rant about all those women. I just don't feel like they get it! </div>
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Anyway, that's pretty much my week! I hope you all have a super fabulous week and day!!! I MISS YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<wbr></wbr>OOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
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Love,</div>
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<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Taylor</span></div>
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XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-74616202684585896182014-04-14T18:29:00.000-07:002014-07-06T18:35:22.004-07:00Hoppy Easter!<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
You have NO idea how much <span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Taylor</span> does not like chili or anything with beans in it. She's a pretty good sport! Enjoy--</div>
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Hey Family!!!!</div>
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Thanks so much for your emails - it was so great to hear from you!! I'm glad you had fun in New York too. We got transfer calls on Saturday and I'm staying in Fenton with Sister Scott!!! YAY!!! So every day before <span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Easter</span> I was reading the little messages Mom sent me and they were so interesting!!!! HOLY COW I don't know why but I am super interested in Pilate now. Like I want to learn more about him. He totally knew Jesus was innocent and he even gave the people the opportunity to save him over Barabas which he thought would be a no brainer to choose Barabbas but they DIDN'T. Crazy! Also, the fact that he didn't change the sign over the cross is interesting to me. ALSO, okay, so in the Ensign this month there's an article about the<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Easter</span> story with the Joseph Smith Translations added in and after Jesus is resurrected and appears to Mary, in the Bible He says "touch me not" but with the Joseph Smith Translation it says "hold me not". Cool right? I think it kinda puts a different meaning to it but I guess no one really knows!</div>
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Also! Okay, so yesterday, we were talking to someones Mom in our ward, Sandy, that was visiting them for <span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Easter</span> and she lives in the Tulsa mission boundaries and their mission president there challenged all the missionaries to get 77 lessons in 1 WEEK. That included investigators, less actives, and active members. So the sisters in the Sandy's ward planned with the women in the ward and got 88 lessons in 1 week. How cool is that?? So basically that got Sister Scott and I way excited and we want to do something like that! So we are going to do a trial run this week and see how many lessons we can get on our own without asking the ward for a lot of help yet. And then, towards the end of the transfer we are going to try and basically go on splits all day every day and visit as many people as we can and get as many lessons as we can!</div>
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Anyway, I will tell you about my week now! So basically, this week, none of our investigators were really able to meet with us and that gets kinda frustrating sometimes. But on Tuesday, I was on exchanges with Sister Leavitt (she's the one I met at Brighton Beehive camp!) and we were at a members home for dinner and we were talking about the Plan of Salvation and Sister Baker said "you can live a celestial life right now by having a celestial home. Why would you expect to live there if you are only living a telestial life now?" I thought that was a really good thought!</div>
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Friday we tracted a little bit in the morning and almost every single person we talked to either grew up with Mormon neighbors, or had Mormon friends, or had some connection with Mormons but none of them really wanted to learn more about them. Sometimes it would be nice to force people to want to learn!</div>
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Saturday was pretty much full of trying to visit potential and former investigators and current investigators and no one was home or answering. We were able to meet with Virginia though!! We basically talked about church the majority of the time and talked about how it would personally benefit her. That night, our ward had a chili cook off and ping pong tournament and guess who were the chili judges? Yep that would be the missionaries! (You all know my love for chili...) It really wasn't that bad actually haha - I really like white chicken chili though!!! There's this guy in our ward who is a professional chef and he brought 2 different chilis that like are "known" for being super hot and since we were the judges... we had to try them! Holy cow they were so spicy!!!! Like my whole mouth was tingling for like 15 minutes. Not cool. </div>
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Sunday was <span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Easter</span>!!! I am the current choir pianist for the ward so we had choir practice in the morning and then guess who came to church?? Joe and Virginia!!! I think they both really liked it too!! Joe was like nodding whenever he would agree with something someone would say and I'm pretty sure Virginia started crying. We had <span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Easter</span> dinner at the Allred's and they are so cool! They are the ones that introduced us to Joe. Sister Allred's mom lives in Hurricane. Anyway, it was definitely the most interesting <span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Easter</span> dinner I have ever had haha. We had pizza casserole for dinner and lemon meringue pie with ice cream for dessert. Like it was super delicious but just not your typical <span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Easter</span> dinner haha. The Allreds are for real one of my favorite families here though - they are so cool. BUT okay, they have these brand new baby chicks in the wreath on their door! I sent you some pictures and they are the cutest things ever!!! Well actually they are ugly but I haven't ever seen baby chicks that were THAT new. At one point, all 5 of their heads were poking up with their mouths open and it was so cute. Anyway, last night we visited with a former investigator, Audre. She is 17 and knows the church is true but her parents wont let her get baptized so she is basically waiting until she goes to college in June or July to get baptized. We are just going to try and meet with her more regularly until she goes to college just so that she's all ready! She loves Mormons though and it's so cool! She was talking about general conference and how after conference was over she was looking at pinterest and was like "you just scroll through pinterest and see all the hipster general conference quotes and they are all pretty much by president uCHtdorf." It was hilarious just cause she didn't know how to say his name. She's amazing though!</div>
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Anyway, that's pretty much it! I hope you all have a super fabulous week and day!!! I MISS YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<wbr></wbr>OOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!</div>
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Love,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Taylor</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-13415030989137677962014-04-07T18:27:00.000-07:002014-07-06T18:28:20.045-07:00General Conference<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Hey Family!!!!</div>
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Thanks for your emails!! I loved reading them! Wasn't conference like AMAZING??? Ever since last conference when I learned that they aren't assigned topics and that they come up with their own topics, I think it's really interesting how there tends to be "themes" throughout conference and how they speak about similar topics. Obviously it's important! I felt like there were so many messages directed to the youth and that was so cool. There was a lot about Christ like love, obedience, and just the basic gospel truths. It was so good!!!! Oh also! There were a few talks about how important it is that we defend our beliefs. Here's some other things that stood out to me</div>
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Elder Anderson: talked about how the way you feel in the temple is a pattern of how to live your own life - so true!</div>
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President Eyring: Every day and every hour you have the opportunity to KEEP a covenant.</div>
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Robert D. Hales: Why do any of us choose to be disobedient when we know the eternal consequences? (something to think about).</div>
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W. Craig Zwick: Words that can be firm in information can be made soft. I liked that because even when you are frustrated or upset, there are ways to word things or ways to not raise your voice that can completely change the situation. </div>
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M Russell Ballard: Hahahaha his missionary/meeting his wife story was hilarious!!</div>
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Gary E. Stevenson: LOVED THIS ONE! I liked how he talked about how we have years or preparation all for a "four minute performance". And I also liked when he quoted the olympic athlete when she was like "I want my fellow competitors to do their best too!" And then he was like... This is YOUR 4 minutes. SO GOOD!</div>
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Pres. Monson: Don't have the regret of having a second chance to be kind.</div>
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Hahaha I don't know why buta when Marcos Aidukaitis was like "one should not roam through garbage" I couldn't stop laughing! I think it was just how he said it. Basically, conference was just so good!!! And guess what? We were watching it at the same time!!! Guess what else? Ken and John both came!!!! Ken is totally already Mormon, he acts like one and since his Dad was Mormon he is familiar with some of the phrases and words we use and he's just great!! He's like a hipster grandpa haha. Anyway, I guess I will tell you about my week now!</div>
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Last Monday we went roller blading and... ummm.. it's hard. I didn't fall but it's really hard to get the motions down! So we pretty much just probably looked like we were walking with roller blades on. It's a pretty good work out though! Ken texted us Monday afternoon just to tell us he had read and prayed that morning. We also had a lesson with John and like he's progressing but we just get a weird feeling around him so we are going to bring a member to lessons with us from now on. </div>
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Tuesday we had president interviews and district meeting and we played the game head bands and we used Book of Mormon characters and you can only ask yes or no characters and on Sis. Scott's forehead I put "just say no every time" and it was hilarious! Then we had a lesson with Ken and he is basically amazing!!! Like seriously. He is starting to make all of these connections with Mormons in his life over the past few years and doesn't think it's just a coincidence. He said he feels good about what he is learning so far and he is reading the Book of Mormon and like actually comprehending it and applying it to him! He's so cool. And he's really funny. </div>
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Wednesday I was on exchanges in the Oakville sisters area and it was really neat. We decided to visit a less active member who they hadn't met yet and we went there and she told us about herself and that she was addicted to drugs, alcohol, etc. And she was trying to do better but she had had a really bad week and that just minutes before we came over she was about to leave to go get high and she kept saying "So I find it really weird that you came over tonight..." It's just cool that we went there when we did! It was so sad though just to hear about her life. </div>
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Thursday morning at like <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_541162726" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">5:30</span></span> the tornado alarms start going off and there was a ton of rain, thunder, and lightning and I was still with Sister Barret on exchanges and I feel like I'm kinda desensitized to them now so I was just like ignoring them and trying to go back to sleep and Sister Barret hasn't ever been here for tornado season so the next morning I felt super bad cause I'm sure she was nervous and I was just like trying to go back to sleep! Anyway, it rained like crazy all day and then that night there were multiple tornado alarms and warnings and watches and the sirens were going off multiple times but like Sis. Scott and I still had things to do haha. So we were out driving and it was like <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_541162727" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">8:30</span></span> and the tornado sirens were going off but like it wasn't for Fenton and then we get a text that was like "take shelter - NOW!" from the local weather station but like members of our ward told us it was for a different city still (I'm telling you, like the tornado alarms hardly phase me - you would think differently right?). Anyway, the whole situation that night just made us laugh. </div>
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Friday we were FINALLY able to see Shannon again! I was nervous that she was avoiding us but she wasn't and we were able to set up a lesson with her for this week. Afterwards we were also able to finally see Virginia and I thought she was avoiding us too but we got there and she had read the introduction, the testimonies, and started Nephi and read somewhere in the introduction that there was a Joseph Smith History so we left and copied that for her and brought it over and she is really interested in reading that as well as getting her son involved in the church! That night we saw Teena LaRoue (a less active) and it made me so sad. We have been visiting her every week and she has been making so much progress and we were going over there to talk about the temple so that she could start preparing to go and we get there and she was like "I'm not going back to church anymore" and basically I guess the Bishop made her feel bad about a food order and her feelings were pretty hurt. We watched the talk "Come Join with Us" by Uchtdorf and talked about how the church is perfect but it's run by imperfect people. I hope she is able to forgive him though and come back. </div>
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Saturday we watched conference - yay!!!! Afterwards, we visited this lady the Elders tracted into and she lives in our area. Her name is Jia and she is from China and she is seriously amazing!!! Oh my gosh. She didn't grow up Christian so the idea of a God to her is new but she believes there might be a God. She was asking us how she can find out for herself and so we taught her how to pray and then she prayed right then and there and told us that was the first time she prayed ever! We asked her how she felt and she said she felt happy and cared for. You could like feel God's love for her - she was so cool!!</div>
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Anyway, that was pretty much my week! Today we have zone pday so we are going to have an Easter egg hunt and then we are watching Ephraims Rescue. Once again, conference was amazing!!! I feel like President Packer and Monsons testimonies of the Savior were so strong and powerful. Also, Packer and Hales are looking soo old!!</div>
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Anyway, I hope you all have a super fabulous day and week!!!! I MISS YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<wbr></wbr>OOOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
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Love,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Taylor</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXO</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-63350900402912474472014-03-24T18:20:00.000-07:002014-07-06T18:25:55.348-07:00Teaching Moments<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Hey Family!!!!!!!!!!</div>
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Thanks so much for your emails - I love reading them!! I think I say that every week.. but it's true!! My <span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">cut</span> is <span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">healing</span> which is great but like one of my stitches came out which kinda freaked me out but apparently it's not a big deal so that's good. Also, we met this pretty cool guy tracting this week. His name is Ken and we knocked on his door and he started talking to us and he told us how is Dad was Mormon and his Dad would always try to get him to join him and then he passed away but he had good feelings towards Mormons. So we asked him if he would want to learn more and he was like "I don't know why I'm saying this but I'm pretty opened minded and I would be interested in learning.... My Dad is totally smiling down on me right now..." He was so cool! We are seeing him again this Wednesday and so we will see how that goes! Anyway, I guess I will just start telling you about my week!</div>
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Monday was pday and we went out to lunch and then just looked around some of the stores around Fenton and then that night we had a lesson with Mark on the plan of salvation and like we felt like it went pretty well. </div>
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Tuesday we had a lesson with Shannon and we had Sister Katseanas come with us so that her kids could play with Shannon's daughter and it went really well! Shannon still like wants to get baptized and she is seriously amazing. Like she really believes the gospel is true and has noticed the difference the spirit has made in her life already - I love it!! I don't feel like a lot of people recognize that change of feeling right away like she has, so that's really neat. She is getting married in August though and her and her fiance currently live together so that's kinda an issue... and it's not like it's a small wedding, it's pretty big and she is doing a lot of planning for it so we will see how everything goes with that because she can't get baptized unless her fiance moves out or they get married!</div>
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Wednesday we were on exchanges and that night we had a lesson with John and we went over the plan of salvation and like it went pretty well but we aren't really sure what Johns motives are. </div>
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Thursday was pretty funny! Haha okay, so we went to visit a member of the ward that neither Sister Scott or I knew so like we go to the house and knock on the door (all we knew was that the people we were visiting were older) and this younger Mom opens the door and all her kids come running after her and as soon as I saw that I realized we were at the wrong house and so we just introduced ourselves like we were tracting but it totally took us off guard cause we thought we were at a members house but it was kinda funny. Later that day, we contacted a media referral and a cute little hispanic woman answered the door and we introduced ourselves and then she told us that she has been waiting for us to come because her friends' son or something is dating a girl and she doesn't want him to anymore so she wants the Mormon girls to knock at his door so that he will stop dating her and date one of us. We could not stop laughing afterwards! Good thing that's what we are on missions for... haha not. </div>
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Friday morning we had a lesson with Virginia!! It was so cool! So we watched the restoration movie and then talked about the Book of Mormon and she had a ton of questions about where it came from and what it was about and then we told her to read the introduction as soon as we left and then pray about it and text us after she did that. So like an hour later she texts us and is like "Hey... can we meet sooner than Sunday? I started reading and it all makes sense." How cool is that????? She ended up getting sick (thanks Satan) and we didn't get to meet with her but we were so excited when we read that!!</div>
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Saturday we had a dinner theater at the church where all the youth were in a play called Jet Black (instead of Snow White) and while they did the play, they fed everyone dinner and it was cute! Candice came!!! Except I think she felt super out of place:( Our ward has tons of families with kids and she is single and black and you could just tell she didn't really feel like she fit in. The ward was great at getting to know her and stuff but I don't know... she ended up not going to church yesterday either. </div>
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It's supposed to SNOW tomorrow... GROSS!!! Oh also I didn't really explain my companion very well haha so Sister Scott is my same age, she went to BYU in the summer time and so she knows a ton of people I know from BYU too. She has been out for 10 months and is from California.</div>
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Anyway, I think that's pretty much it!! Thanks again for your letters!! I MISS YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<wbr></wbr>OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!</div>
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Love,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Taylor</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XO</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-53699895278642425672014-03-17T18:13:00.000-07:002014-07-06T18:19:57.975-07:00Midnight Snack<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Hey Family!!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Thanks so much for your emails - I love reading them! I hope you had a great <span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">birthday</span> Dad!! This week has been pretty great - I got to go to Matt Westfalls baptism yesterday and it was so amazing. You could just tell he knew what he was doing was the right choice and his wife was so excited for him too. It was fun going back to the ward in Highland and seeing everyone!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Tuesday morning we had a lesson with Arlene. I think I started telling you about her? She's 85 and her 3 best friends growing up were Mormon and she isn't able to see them anymore so she thought that by learning more about Mormons, it would help her feel close to them again. We taught the Plan of Salvation and I think it went really well! It seemed to make sense to her and she said if she were to start going back to a church it would probably be the Mormon church but she feels like she needs to keep going to her Baptist church because of social reasons but she hasn't been to that one in a while either. She is so cute though and she loves talking to us. Tuesday afternoon we had a lesson with Shannon and she is seriously AMAZING!!!! After we left last time she looked up stuff about missionaries onling and read about our schedule and what we do and she told us how impressed and grateful she is for us and then she also looked up and studied the 10 commandments on her own. She was confused about the 2nd one about graven images and asked if it was okay for her daughter to have dolls and after we told her it was okay she was like "oh, good! I was about to burn all of her dolls because I didn't want to be breaking any of the commandments!" She also told us that she prayed the night before the way we taught her and she said she felt so much happier and woke up with a different kind of energy. She is awesome!! We went over the Plan of Salvation with her and she really liked it. She thanked us multiple times for teaching her. She said she has always felt like she had an old soul but she hasn't started searching until now. We just need to get her married (she lives with her boyfriend) !!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> So... EARLY tuesday morning... around 2... I woke up super hungry and I couldn't go back to sleep so I go into the kitchen and I saw a can of chicken noodle soup and decided that sounded good! So I pop the tab to open it and in the process of doing that I cut myself so I quickly run it under cold water and then I turn my hand around and I can clearly see it's WAY more than a small cut. Blood was like gushing out and it was super deep and it scared me so bad! I had no idea what to do! I kept running it under water and trying to apply pressure and stuff but it was just making it worse so I wrapped a paper towel around it and found a first aid kit and it said to raise the injury above your heart so I did that for a few minutes and it helped a little but it was still bleeding super bad and I didn't know what to do because Sister Minyard was sleeping and like who eats soup at 2 in the morning? I felt pretty dumb. Anyway, it finally slowed down a little and I went back to sleep and I wasn't planning on telling Sister Minyard just cause the next morning was transfers and I was just going to let it heal on its own but she saw my finger wrapped in a bandaid and asked what happend so I told her and she looked at it and said I should show the mission nurse so I did at transfers and she said I needed stitches! So, after transfers I got 8 stitches on my finger! I was super scared to get them actually. Moral of the story... don't eat soup at 2 in the morning? Anyway, Wednesday was transfers and we had (2) 30 year -olds come in to the mission! Crazy right? Sister Minyard is with one of them now. I'm with Sister Scott and she is great! She's from California and she went to BYU the summer before I went and so we actually know a lot of the same people. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Thursday we had a lesson with John and his wife Nicole was there this time and it was the most awkward/uncomfortable lesson of my life!!!! Usually Nicole is sleeping when we have lessons because she is kind of addicted to perscription drugs apparently but she was awake this time and she just started talking about all their marriage problems while John was sitting right there and then she went off about how rude John is to her and how he doesn't care about her and you could tell John was super annoyed but he didn't say anything. Anyway, Nicole apparently wants to learn more but I guess we will see how that goes...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Saturday morning we had another lesson with Arlene and we talked about the Restoration and I think she was a little confused but we asked her a lot of questions to help clarify things so hopefully that helped? It's always different adjusting to different missionaries teaching styles too. Yesterday was Stake Conference and the theme of it was hastening the work (surprise!) but they focused a lot on like visting and home teaching and service which was great.There was a super cool statistic that one of the speakers told us too. He said that if every single missionary in the world were placed in China right now, each companionship would have 30,000 people to teach. HOLY COW!!!! I thought that was pretty sweet! We had a lesson with Candice last night and we watched the Restoration DVD and she said she would come to church next week! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Anyway, I think that's pretty much it!! Happy St. Patricks Day!!!! I hope you all have a super fabulous day and week. I MISS YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Love,</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc; font-family: inherit;">Taylor</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XO</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-85303605298481531342014-03-03T18:44:00.000-08:002014-03-06T19:03:09.606-08:0014 months!!!!!<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Hey Family!!!!</div>
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How are you?? Thank you so much for your emails - I love to hear from you!! I hope the weather is way warmer there than it is here.. church was cancelled yesterday because there was a predicted ice storm but it wasn't even bad like at all. Anyway, I guess I will start telling you about my week! It was actually kinda a slower week in some ways. It's a little frustrating because we weren't able to meet with ONE of our investigators and trust me... we tried!! They either cancelled or weren't ever home or wont get back with us or just have a lot going on right now. President Morgan wants all the leaders to have "model areas" and it's hard when none of your investigators will even meet with you. But we will keep trying!!</div>
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So on Monday evening, we met with a less active member Ashleigh and her husband pretty much is always traveling for work and he isn't a member but she has been coming almost every week lately. Anyway, she has like a 2 year old I think? She's had a pretty rough life. She is only 19 and got married when she was 16 and doesn't have contact with her parents like AT ALL and when she got married, her husband only spoke spanish so she learned spanish and now she's a mom and looking at her you would think she was 30. It was just so crazy to me that she is younger than me and stuff but she still recognizes how important the gospel is in her life. </div>
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Tuesday I was on exchanges in Sandy Creek and those sisters wrecked their car last week so members pretty much drove us around all day but we weren't able to meet with very many people!</div>
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Wednesday we visited a couple less active members and they went pretty great! We have been trying to meet with Jen H. basically all transfer and we finally were able to catch her at home! She is so awesome. Her family was Mormon growing up but they were basically all offended a little bit so none of them are active anymore and her parents live in a nudest community (she told us alllll about it... it's interesting how much people tell missionaries sometimes). Anyway, her son is actually being taught by the Elders in our ward right now and he wants to get baptized and I think that is going to help her come back to church. She's so much fun to talk to and be around - our ward needs her!! We had dinner with Linda Cox again that night and I just really like her!! Her granddaughter lives with her and she's 6 and she likes that 'Cups' song from Pitch Perfect and she kept doing the part with the cup and I already knew it but Sister Minyard didn't so we tried teaching her but the granddaughter didn't think she was very good so she was like ... "maybe you can just be the audience". It was pretty funny!</div>
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<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1536032937" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Thursday</span></span> we had district meeting and I gave a training on extending invitations to investigators (funny that none of our investigators want to accept our invitations right now). So I hope it went alright!</div>
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<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1536032938" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span> and <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1536032939" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Saturday</span></span> we didn't have much going on. But <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1536032940" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Saturday</span></span> morning we had our Stake Women's Conference and President and Sister Morgan spoke at the beginning and Sister Morgan told a story about a woman who said she wanted to be buried with a fork because whenever you are at a dinner and they are like "keep your fork" you know something better is coming!! (dessert!) So she wanted to be buried with a fork. The whole theme was like enduring to the end and I just really liked that!! Also, this one lady that spoke used a ton of quilts that she had made as part of her object lesson and she has made a mission quilt for all of her kids that went on missions and I thought that was a good idea! Like it's super cute too not just one of those lame ones with a ton of squares sewn together. </div>
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Yesterday since church was cancelled we walked to the Matheson's for Sacrament meeting and the Elders came too and it was really good. We had the sacrament and our own testimony meeting. I've never done that before and it just was really neat to me that the priesthood can make that happen - I'm so grateful for that! Afterwards, we watched Johnny Lingo and The Phone Call. Hahahaha if you haven't seen The Phone Call... you have to!!! It's hilarious and super cheesy and old!!! So for some more of the afternoon we tried tracting some of the houses on our walk back to our apartment (it was FREEZING!!!!!) and no one was really interested they mostly thought we were crazy for being outside. But then, after lunch, we decided to go back out and the first 2 people we talked to became new investigators!! It was so amazing!!! We are supposed to find 2 new investigators each week and we hadn't found any this week PLUS we hadn't had any lessons with our investigators and I was stressing out and then the first people we talked to became investigators!! YAY!!!</div>
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Anyway, that was pretty much my week! Thanks so much again for your emails. I hope you all have a super fabulous week!!!! I MISS YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<wbr></wbr>OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
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Love,<br />
Taylor</div>
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XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXO<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-63791957091284410962014-02-24T17:55:00.000-08:002014-07-06T18:08:11.337-07:00Book of Mormon Baseball<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Hey Family!!!!!!!!!!</div>
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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!</div>
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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. </div>
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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. </div>
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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!!</div>
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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!</div>
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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?</div>
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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!!!</div>
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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 SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<wbr></wbr>OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Love,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Taylor</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-19957706054673428282014-02-17T17:54:00.000-08:002014-07-06T17:54:34.366-07:00Exchanges<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Hey Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
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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!</div>
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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. </div>
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The first one is:</div>
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"If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got"</div>
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The other one is:</div>
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"If you don't raise the bar, how will you ever know your potential?"</div>
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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!</div>
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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!!</div>
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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.</div>
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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. </div>
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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.</div>
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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!!</div>
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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!!</div>
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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. </div>
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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. </div>
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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. </div>
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Anyway, that's pretty much my week! I hope you all have a super fabulous week and day!! I MISS YOU ALL SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<wbr></wbr>OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<wbr></wbr>OOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Love,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Taylor</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXO </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-65223421503965274982014-02-10T18:43:00.000-08:002014-03-06T18:51:54.995-08:00Happy Valentine's Day!!!<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Hey Family!!!</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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:</div>
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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. </div>
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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 <span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">all</span> crazy because we were out!</div>
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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!</div>
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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 <span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">all</span> 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 <span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">all</span> 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.</div>
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Friday we did service at a baptist food pantry and it was really fun! Everyone was probably like 70 or older but they were <span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">all</span> really friendly. </div>
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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!</div>
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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!</div>
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Anyway, I think that's about it! I hope you <span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">all</span> have a super fabulous day and week! I MISS YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<wbr></wbr>OO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Love,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Taylor</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXO<br />
<br />
<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-8438025852171449682014-02-03T18:39:00.000-08:002014-03-06T18:41:38.976-08:00<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Dear Family,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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. </div>
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Anyway, I guess I will tell you about my week. Monday we went to dinner with the Worthens and I started packing :(. </div>
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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. </div>
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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!</div>
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<br /></div>
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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! </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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 SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<wbr></wbr>OOOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Love,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Taylor</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-33329075994414480082014-02-03T17:52:00.000-08:002014-07-06T17:53:11.624-07:00Fenton!<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Dear Family,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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!</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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!!!</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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 SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<wbr></wbr>OOOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Love,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Taylor</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-69487143338486523792014-01-27T17:54:00.000-08:002014-07-06T18:06:45.498-07:00Snow!!<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Hey Family!!!!</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Thank you so much for your emails - I love hearing from you!! I'm pretty sure I have said this a million times but it is SO COLD here!! The kids here have already had I believe 7 snow days THIS YEAR and like 3 of them have been because it's too cold - there hasn't even been snow. Crazy right? Yesterday it was in the 50's though and it felt so nice. Anyway, we had transfer calls on saturday night and I'm leaving to Fenton, Missouri. I kinda knew I would be leaving I just hoped I would be able to stay with Sister Johnson for her last transfer. I'm still pretty lucky though that I even got to be with her again! My new companion is Sister Minnyard (not sure how to spell it) and I will still be an stl but just over different sisters! I'm definitely going to miss Highland and the ward and members and investigators here. Thats for sure a good thing about facebook because hopefully I will be able to find them on there later and reconnect!</div>
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Welp, I guess I will tell you about my week! I already told you about last monday and I may have told you about tuesday but maybe not.. but I will tell you again! So Tuesday we were on exchanges and I was with Sister Lucero and she spent the day with me in Highland. We were visiting a less active member and I was saying the closing prayer and somewhere in my prayer I said "that we can all have a good rest of the night" and after the prayer she said that made her feel home-y because she used to say that to her kids and she hadn't heard that in a long time! It made me feel good. Then she went on to tell us that at first she wasn't going to let us come in but then she decided to and she was glad that she did. After that, we visited a referral that Debbie W. gave us and she was awesome! She was getting home the same time we got there and we introduced ourselves and were like "can we come share a quick message with your family?" and she was like "right now? come on in!" She was so nice and so funny. She is a single mom and has 2 kids and her son who is 8 was there and we asked if we could drop off a Book of Mormon in a couple days and he was really excited to get one and wanted one of his own! It was so great! That night, we were supposed to have a lesson with Dave and Sister Pruett (RS Pres) was coming with us so we met her at his home and rang the doorbell and were waiting on the porch and then at the same time, Sister Pruett and I both realized that we were at the wrong house! It was hilarious, Sister Pruett ran off the porch and that was probably the highlight of the night was seeing her run off the porch. She's like in her 60's probably and just super tiny and cute and it was so funny. </div>
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Wednesday we had a lesson with Steve at the Holbrooks and we talked about prophets. Sister Holbrook said something I hadn't thought of before and I thought it was pretty cool! She said that the prophet is the prophet over everyone in the world but not everyone has accepted him yet. I just had never thought of it that way before!</div>
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Thursday was Sister Johnsons and mine anniversary hahaha. Exactly 1 year ago from thursday we became companions! Anyway, we had a lesson with a less active member, Tiffany. She's 22 and has 2 kids and has been really sick but she wants to start coming back to church so we talked about how she would have the energy she needed for the week if she came to church on Sunday (and she came with a friend!!). After that, we had a lesson with Bro. Wood and he's still smoking... BUT he is still working on cutting it down. </div>
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Friday we had district meeting and since Sister Johnson and I won the competition, we got to throw whipped cream pies at the zone leaders! It was actually kinda satisfying. That night we had dinner at a members home and they have helped us with a lot of missionary work in the past. We got on the topic of the holy ghost because I still get confused about the difference between the power and the gift and I feel like I have heard every explanation but it just hasn't clicked and something Bro. Gualandi said made sense!! He said before we are baptized we have the power of the holy ghost but we have to seek for it (I knew that) but after we are baptized we get the gift of the holy ghost and it's our companion so it works with us and seeks out or watches out for us as well and we don't necessarily have to seek for it. Does that make sense? Idk, just the way he said it made sense to me and I really liked it.</div>
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Saturday we had a lesson with Jim T. and their family - they are probably my favorite family here! We talked about the 10 commandments and played a game where they were on teams and they had to draw from a jar one of the commandments and explain it to their team without saying any words from the commandment. Des and Suzi had bought us flowers and sugar cookies at the store that day too - it was so thoughtful! That night was transfer calls and I always get anxious about those!</div>
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Yesterday we had church and 3 of the less active families we have been visiting came to church!!! Tiffany, Sis. Worthen, and Sis. Fletcher. It was so great! After church we had a lesson with Phyllis and Conrad and we gave them a Book of Mormon and I think at this point Conrad is more open than Phyllis but they said they would start studying it. </div>
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Anyway, I think that's about it!! OH!!! Before I forget, if you haven't already, watch the Mormon Message called "leave the party". It is so good!! We watched it last week and we just really really liked it - it's great. I hope you all have a super fabulous week. I MISS YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<wbr></wbr>OOOOOOOOOOO MUCH AND I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Love,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Taylor</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-57675048298854145902014-01-07T18:31:00.000-08:002014-03-06T18:31:29.703-08:00It's Freezing!!<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Hey Family!!!!!!!!!!!</span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Okay so basically.... it is FREEZING HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy cow - not a fan. Yesterday's weather was so crazy. The wind was blowing so hard all day and it snowed all day and there were like 5 foot drifts built up and church was cancelled and we weren't allowed to drive and it is SO COLD!!!!!! The library is even closed today and so we are emailing at a members house. We shoveled her driveway and even just after like a couple minutes of being outside your nostrils freeze - literally!! Also, apparently the news says that you shouldn't be out for more than 15 minutes or you will get frostbite. Yuck!!! Anyway, I will just start telling you about my week!</div>
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Monday after p day, we had a lesson with the Downey's. Aron Downey is less active and his wife Jennifer is not a member - she's baptist. But she said she would be willing to learn more about the Book of Mormon which is great! So we will be having another lesson with her today actually! Afterwards, we had a lesson with Matt Westfall and he is still doing great but we have to wait for his mother in law to pass away before he will get baptized which is kinda a bummer. We have tried to focus on going to the temple and being sealed but he just wants to wait. </div>
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Tuesday we had a lesson with the Paolini's. The Mom is less active and the kids aren't members and so their mom wants us to teach them the lessons. They aren't that into the lessons but it went better than last time! We started talking about the plan of salvation and they wont really answer any questions or commit to much but it went better than the first time! Since it was new years we had to be in by 6 so we went and got a pizza for new years and celebrated the new year! We went to bed at the usual <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1536032934" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">10:30</span></span> haha - we are pretty out of control. </div>
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Wednesday we just visited some less active members and ward members - nothing too exciting!</div>
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Thursday - 1 YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe it?? I have been out for 1 year now. In some ways it does not seem like a whole year ago I went to the MTC. Anyway, we went on exchanges for the day and I was with Sister Webb! It was really fun to be with her again and see how much she has grown too. We had a lesson with Bro. Wood and set a baptism date for January 18th! He isn't completely committed to quit smoking but he said he is going to try. He's basically already Mormon - he just needs to quit!! </div>
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Friday we were on exchanges in Springfield and then Saturday we visited a referral and it's a husband and wife who are Catholic but not practicing and they invited us over for dinner and said they would take the lessons - so we will see! Jim and Quinn have been out of town and just got back Saturday so no updates on them but I will keep you updated! We will be seeing them this week! It was so crazy, on Saturday night, everyone was being warned about the storm and preparing for it and there were long lines at the gas station to get gas and a ton of people were at Wal Mart and the shelves were like really wiped out - it's so interesting! If everyone were just Mormon they would know about food storage haha. </div>
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We are playing this game as a zone right now where you get points for how many street lessons you do. A street lesson is sharing 1 gospel principle during an unplanned activity and giving them a commitment. So usually, it's like talking to someone at the grocery store or gas station or on the street and sharing a <a href="http://mormon.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">mormon.org</a> card with them. My competitive side is definitely coming out haha but it's good because we actually found some potential investigators by doing it!! </div>
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Anyway, this week we have President interviews and we are going on some exchanges. I know this is kinda short but we are at a members house and I don't want to take up their whole day!! OH! Okay the message by Uchtdorf in the Ensign this month is really good!!!! President Uchtdorf just says things so perfectly and makes such good points. I like how he compares repentance to a computer and how sometimes wanted and unwanted clutter gets built up and that is why we have repentance!! I hope you all have super fabulous week and stay warm!! </div>
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I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!</div>
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Love,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Taylor</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXO</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-83852399490989807802013-12-02T01:17:00.000-08:002013-12-18T01:18:07.579-08:0011 Months!!!<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Hey Family!!!!!!!!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> 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 <span><span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1736838654" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">12:30</span></span></span></span> 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! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span> Monday</span></span> 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!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> 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. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> 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. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> 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!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> 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!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> That night, we helped prepare for our Christmas party today and went to the Holbrooks and helped clean their house and decorate and everything. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> 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 <span><span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1736838655" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">December 21st</span></span></span></span> 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!!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> 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 <span><span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1736838656" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">10:00 pm</span></span></span></span> 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 SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<wbr></wbr>OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much and I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Love,</span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Taylor</span></div>
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XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-8318984585972198922013-11-25T01:08:00.000-08:002013-12-18T01:08:28.696-08:00Happy Thanksgiving!!!<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Hey Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
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Thank you so much for your emails - I love hearing from you!!!! It is seriously COLD in Illinois right now. It's not snowing (yet) or anything but it's just so freezing when you walk outside!! NOT a fan. Anyway, we were pretty busy this week with zone conferences and things like that and in just a few days it's THANKSGIVING!!!!!! Yay!!! Sister Johnson and I are going to do a 5K on Thanksgiving morning called the Gobble Hobble and then we have the rest of the day off! We are going to the Rose's and the Kraude's for Thanksgiving and then we will probably just visit other families in the ward for the rest of the day. I'm definitely going to miss our Thanksgiving food though because I personally think it's the BEST and I'm going to miss Thanksgiving leftovers:( But it's alright! I'm so grateful for the families that invited us to come to their home!!! </div>
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<span><span>Monday</span></span> was p-day so we just like emailed, grocery shopped, and looked in a few little stores we have in Highland. That night, we went to sushi with Quinn and it was so fun!!! She asked us a lot of questions about missionary life and she is really excited about getting baptized and it just went really well and I think she had fun too.</div>
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Tuesday we had O'Fallon zone conference and it was good! Sister Johnson and I did a training on baptism and confirmation and it was fun. We started out by having 3 bags out that everyone could see and 1 of them had chocolate chips in them, 1 of them had a baked cookie that was missing sugar, salt, and baking soda, and 1 of them had everything but the chocolate chips. We had 3 people take a bag and taste the cookie and then tell what it tasted like and then talked about how just like a cookie needs ALL the ingredients, our investigators need to have ALL the qualifications in order to be baptized. Then, we talked about how during the process of teaching our investigators, we need to help them become part of the church even before they are baptized because we need members that will help build up the church and people that will be contributing members and not just people who join for welfare purposes. So we talked about how each one of our investigators need a friend, service opportunities, and a "place" in the church even before they are members and then at the end, we gave them all chocolate chip cookies! There's this member in our ward, Bro. Gualandi, and he's like known in the whole ward for his amazing chocolate chip cookies and he made them for us!!! They are so yummy!!!!</div>
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Wednesday we had Champaign zone conference and Sis. Johnson and I trained on inviting investigators to church and how to do it. We talked about how we can help our investigators overcome the 3 fears they have about church: People, place, and procedure and it went really well! I actually really like planning for trainings because it's fun to think of ways to make it creative and fun for everyone else. </div>
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Thursday we had our last zone conference for the Springfield zone but it was in Decatur. The theme was miracles and Sis. Johnson and I trained on teaching investigators to pray and read the Book of Mormon. All the trainings were based on what Bro. Donaldson taught us when he came a couple weeks ago. For our training, we first went around and had everyone introduce themselves and say their favorite book. Then, we watched a bible video of Jesus performing a miracle and then each of them wrote down on a sticky note their favorite miracle from the Bible and we listed them on the board. Then, we had them list off miracles that occur today and talked about how even though we don't see water turing into wine or people being raised from the dead like in the Bible, miracles still happen and in order for them to happen - we need to have faith! In the Bible dictionary it says that "Miracles should not be regarded as deviations from the ordinary course of nature". So since our mission is trying to get 450 baptisms and we are like 70 or so behind, we need to just expect miracles to happen and do our part to make it happen. Then, we talked about how in order to build that faith, we have to pray! And that is how our investigators will build their faith as well. So then, we had cut out pictures from a mountains calendar and taped them on the board and told them they had 15 seconds to memorize the pictures and what order they are in and everything and then after 15 seconds we covered the pictures up and asked them to tell us what they remembered and obviously no one remembered. So we talked about how that is like prayer and how they were so busy trying to memorize the pictures, they didn't even pay attention to how beautiful the pictures were or how they made them feel. Then, we compared that to how investigators feel when we teach them to pray and how when we teach it like a formula, that's how it will come out when they say it so we need to help them focus on the feelings during prayer, rather than HOW you say it. Then, after we taught them how to invite investigators to pray, we went back to what everyone's favorite book was and asked them how long it took them to read and the average was about a month and we compared it to how we should invite our investigators to read the whole Book of Mormon and not just assign them chapters (unless that's what they need). Anyway, we had fun doing the trainings and coming up with them! Then, at lunch time it was so cool!!!!!! The lady that made lunch was sitting at the table that Sis. Johnson and I were eating at and we started talking to her and she asked where we were from and I told her and she was like "my brother lives in Sandy, he was a stake president there!" and so I asked who her brother was and it's President Dahl!!!!! And I was like "He was my Stake President!!!!!" Small world right??? I took a picture with her so I will send it to you!!! I believe her name was Sister Ison or something like that. </div>
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Friday we had district meeting and Sister Limas was training on patience and she had 2 of the Elders come up and she gave them 3 minutes to do a french manicure and long story short it looked terrible but it was so funny. After district meeting, we went on exchanges with Sister Limas and Sister Linton and I spent the day with Sister Linton. We had a lesson with Jim and his wife because they are going out of town and we wanted to see them before they left and he's still thinking about baptism but he's not ready yet but apparently Quinn is really excited which is so cool!!! </div>
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Saturday we went to this restaurant called Cleveland Heath and it was so good!!! The owner actually came from a restaurant in Salt Lake City which is pretty sweet. It's just a really cute place and it was fun to try something new. Anyway, afterwards we were able to contact a media referral we got last week and we set up an appointment to see him <span><span>next Sunday</span></span>! That night, we visited Alannah and she is so depressed. Like it was this time last year that her husband went into the hospital and then in January he died and she doesn't want to be around anyone but she knows she needs to and she just isn't happy. We don't really even know what to do because she's not really open to changing or joining the church right now but we feel like she still needs some kind of good influence in her life right now so we just don't know!</div>
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Yesterday, the Bishop had all of the recently baptized people share their testimonies in sacrament meeting and it was really neat! Steve shared his testimony and it was amazing. You would seriously think he had always been a member of the church!! After church, we had a lesson with Steve on service and then we visited some members and that night we had a lesson with the Worthens! Deana Worthen is a member but hasn't been for a really really long time and doesn't know very much about the church either and her husband, Aaron, was baptist and said he would be willing to take the lessons from us! They are a really fun family!!! Deana really wants to start coming back to church and talked about how she doesn't know much about it but she knows on the inside that it's true which was cool to hear and Aaron is really receptive so we will see what happens!!</div>
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So ya! That was pretty much my week!!! This week we are going on exchanges like ALL week and then Thursday of course is Thanksgiving!!!!!! Sis. Johnson and I are planning zone pday for <span><span>next monday</span></span> because the Elders plan the most boring things every time so we are going to have it at a members house and have a Christmas party and watch 17 miracles and have games and decorate cookies and stuff so hopefully it will be fun!!!</div>
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Anyway, I hope you all have a super fabulous week and a great Thanksgiving - I am going to miss all of you!!! I am so grateful for you all and that you are my family and are so supportive and you're just the best EVER!!!! Be safe and smart and healthy and don't do anything dumb and drive safely wherever you go!!!!!!! I miss you all SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH and I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
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Love,</div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Taylor</div>
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XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO</div>
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</div>
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P.S. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-2644243615584266812013-11-04T14:36:00.000-08:002013-11-19T14:36:44.893-08:00Mexico, Paris, nbd<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Hey Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Thanks so much for your emails - I loved reading them and hearing about your weeks. They mean a lot to me!! I have been out for 10 months now - crazy right?? I think I say this every time but like it feels like it's gone by quickly. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> So Monday was pday and so we just did regular pday stuff and then drove to Paris for our exchanges. Yep, I pretty much get to travel the world on my mission! Mexico, Paris, nbd. The sisters that are serving in Paris live in like the cutest house!! It just feels really home-y and I like it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Tuesday we spent the day in Paris and I was with Sister Limas and Sister Woodward was with Sister Fernandez. We helped a member paint her trailer and then like tracted and visited people. There's these weird bugs that look just like lady bugs here but they ARE NOT ladybugs! I guess they like are actually kinda pests and like eat away at things and smell super nasty when you kill them. Anyway, they were all over the trailer we were painting. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Wednesday we were in Covington, Indiana for exchanges with Sister Scott and Sister Bailey. I was with Sister Scott and I like her a lot!! We are the same age and she went to BYU the summer semester before I got there and so she knows like a ton of the same people and knows Morgan and stuff. While we were driving - Sister Scott ran over a squirrel!!! It was so sad!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Thursday was Halloween!!! We had a lesson with Alannah and watched The Testaments with her. She said she felt the spirit while we watched The Testaments and she loves the Book of Mormon and stuff but it's like she doesn't understand the importance of baptism or something and how knowing the Book of Mormon is true is kind of a direct meaning that the church is true. If you happen to know any good conference talks on that let me know!!! She connects really well with conference talks and so that might be helpful. But to be honest I think right now, she might be more committed to us then she is to the church. She always tells us how we should be up directing the meetings and teaching - not the Bishop... and she's like completely serious. She's really confusing to talk to!! Anyway... Halloween in Highland got rescheduled to the next day because of the weather. The weather wasn't even that bad - it rained a little but like I'm pretty sure I went trick or treating in the snow more than once!! Sheesh! We didn't really do anything for Halloween though. We just ate at a members house and then we had to be in by 6 and it was nice to just sit and relax. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Friday morning we visited a member of our ward and she gave us a referral of this guy who helped build one of the temples but isn't a member. Also, she got this brand new kitty and guess what it's name is?? MADELINE!! It's adorable. We contacted ANOTHER media referral we got but she wasn't interested. Her cousin had referred her I guess. She was really sweet but just wasn't interested. We were supposed to have a lesson with Matt and Annette that night, but I guess Annette was in the hospital for some pain from an accident she had a while ago and so they had to cancel. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Saturday we finished making some invitations to an open house that all the recent converts are invited to at the Bishops house. Then, we had lunch with Sister Westfall (Matt Westfalls wife) and then since Matt got off work, we went to have a lesson with him but it didn't turn out as planned. Then, we had a lesson with the Clarks!! I love teaching them!!!! It's really cool just cause their whole family sits in on the lessons and they all give their input on what we talk about. Here's their family: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mom: Suzi - member</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dad: Jim - not a member</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Quinn: 16 - not a member</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Jakob: 12 - member</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Des: 10 I think? - member</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I think it helps Quinn a lot when Jakob and Des talk about what they think about things which is really cool. Anyway, we taught about faith and repentance and for repentance we had Quinn stand up and stick her arm straight out and we put 6 Book of Mormons on her hand and she had to hold them up. Her arm got tired really fast and then we took one Book of Mormon off at a time and each one represented a step of repentance. They really liked it!! All 3 of them wanted to take a turn so they did and then they had all 6 steps down! It was fun - I like teaching them a lot. It's also really interesting to me cause Jim helps us teach every time!! Saturday night was transfer calls!!!! GUESS WHAT?????? Okay so I'm staying here in Highland and guess who my companion is???!!!!!!! SISTER JOHNSON - the one that trained me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE HER!!!!!!!!!! Sister Woodward and her are switching places. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Yesterday we had church and Steve got the priesthood!!!! We got to sit in on the blessing and it was so cool! I've never seen that before and so that was awesome. When he was walking back to his seat, he looked at Sister Woodward and I and gave us 2 thumbs up. haha! It was pretty funny. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Anyway, that was pretty much my week!!! Thanks so much again for your emails - I love them!!!!!!! I hope you all have a super fabulous week!!!!! Be safe and smart and healthy and don't do anything dumb and drive safely please!!!!!!! I miss you all like CARAZYYYYYYY and I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Love,</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Taylor</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-20926825111784117712013-10-28T12:26:00.003-07:002013-10-28T12:27:20.900-07:00HEYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[Just so you are aware of the number of exclamation points we take out to make her emails easy to read, above is how she says "hello" :) ]</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Hey Family!!!!!!!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
This week has been pretty great!! I can't believe October is almost
over. We were super busy with exchanges and meetings this week - it's
crazy how tired they make you!! I love them though. It is seriously
getting soooo freezing here!! I'm already wearing tights, boots,
scarves, my winter coat, and layering my sweaters cause I just freeze!!!
I finished the Book of Mormon this morning!!!! I'm trying to read it 3
times before I come home and I've read it twice now!</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1828128071" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">Tuesday</span></span> we
spent the day in Mahomet! I forgot how much I love it there. Like
seriously. That is probably my favorite area so far - the people are
just so amazing!!! It was nice to be able to go back and visit for a
day. I got to see Biscuit and Mama, Sis. Palumbo, Shelly Stafford, and
then we had dinner at the Springers! They were excited to see me too
which made me feel good. For about an hour, we went to a grocery store
parking lot with the Elders and sang hymns with a ukelele while it was
pouring rain and like no one listened to us but it was still kinda fun.
I spent the day with Sister Johnson and Sister Woodward spent the day
with Sister Larimer. Sister Larimer is waiting for her visa and is
seriously so awesome!!! She is adorable. She's always wanted to go on a
mission and is so excited to be here and even sleeps in her missionary
tag because she only gets to wear it for 18 months. She's so great! </span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1828128072" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">Wednesday</span></span> I
spent the day with Sister Collett and we were on the University of
Illinois campus. It was so fun to be on the campus!!!! Like I think it
would be so fun to serve there. The campus there is pretty awesome and
it made me miss BYU and like the whole college atmosphere but there are
just so many people to talk to and we were able to hand out a lot of
Book of Mormons and I just thought it was so much fun!! I can see how it
would be hard though cause like everyone is going to and from class and
so you get a lot of potential investigators from it and you stay busy
talking to people all day but at the end of the day, you don't
necesarily have a ton of new investigators or anything - does that make
sense?? Anyway, it was fun to be there!!</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1828128073" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">Thursday</span></span> we
were on exchanges in Charleston with Sister Bierman and Sister
Sheppard. I honestly think one of my favorite parts of exchanges is
that typically my first impression of people changes! In a good way!
Like some of the exchanges I haven't been super excited to go on because
of my first opinion of some of the sisters but then I spend the day
with them and almost always my opinion changes. I'm grateful for that! <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1828128074" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">Thursday</span></span> night we drove back to Highland!</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1828128075" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">Friday</span></span> we
had MLC in St. Louis and after MLC, we had our ward trunk-o -treat and
chili cook off. Steve brought 2 of his daughters who aren't members and
I talked to them for a while and they are so awesome! Hailey is 17 and
Alyssa is 18 and Hailey is like really creative and is like amazing and
decorating cupcakes and stuff and so we are going to have her teach us
and then hopefully from doing things like that with her we can start to
teach her or something!!! Idk we'll see!!!</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1828128076" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">Saturday</span></span> was
pretty much the only day we had in our area but it was sooo great!!!!!!
We were able to meet with all of our investigators and make really
great progress with them!!!!!!! Okay so first of all we met with
Alannah. The sacrament is really important to her and so we asked her
if she would like to teach Gospel Principles with us <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1828128077" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">on Sunday</span></span> and
she was more than happy to. So we went to her house and planned the
lesson while we made cookies AND discussed baptism with her because
she's like totally ready but she just wont make a commitment. But it
went so well!!! After Alannah, we had a lesson with a media referral we
got a couple weeks ago. Her name is Annette and her husband is a
member. She has been going to sacrament meeting with him and went to
stake conference and watched general conference and she has a TON of
questions. It seriously amazes me how prepared some people are!!! Like
she pretty much just asked us what she needs to do to get baptized. She
comes from a Catholic family and I guess women in the Catholic church
pray through the virgin Mary? And she was wondering if we do anything
like that and then she asked how she would be able to take the sacrament
and why we don't have confession and how she can be a good member of
the church. She just had so many questions and it was so cool!! After
Annette, we went to the Westfalls. Sister Westfall is a member and her
husband, Matt, isn't. He comes to church every week and listens to the
Book of Mormon on tape and is a scout leader and already serves a ton of
people in the ward but he is scared to get baptized because he feels
like there's a lot of responsibility that would be coming with it and
having a calling scares him. We're like.... Matt.... you're already
doing more than what you probably would as a member!! We just read an
Ensign article with him (it's a really good one from the October one
about the kings horse getting prepared for war) and he said he would
pray about a date he would feel comfortable with getting baptized!!! It
was so great!!!!! After the Westfalls, we had a lesson with the Clarks! I
think I told you about them a couple weeks ago. The wife is a member
and her 2 kids are, but her husband Jim, and her step daugher, Quinn
aren't members. We had dinner with them a couple weeks ago and they
both agreed to take the lessons! So we met with the Clarks and taught
them the restoration and it was Quinns first time hearing it all (she's
16) and she thought it was so cool!!! I feel like sometimes you don't
know how people will take the Joseph Smith story but she just thought it
was really awesome and she believes that it happened. The husband,
Jim, has taken the lessons like 4 times and he was like helping us
teach!! It's so weird like he's not a member but he was helping us
explain everything like he already believes it all. We were talking
about prophets and he was like "well it just makes sense that we have a
prophet today, why would God just stop giving us a prophet?" It was so
great!!!!! Anyway, that was our <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1828128078" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">Saturday</span></span> and our investigators are AMAZING!!!!!!</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1828128079" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">Sunday</span></span> we
had church and Alannah helped us teach about the sacrament in gospel
principles and did so well! Last night we had a lesson with Steve about
the priesthood and he is so excited to get it. It's cool because he
understand how important the preisthood is already and is so honored to
even be considered to hold it. He's for real going to be like a Bishop
someday. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> Anyway, that was pretty much my week!!! Transfer calls are <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1828128080" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">this Saturday</span></span> - weird huh? We have 2 exchanges this week and then we are done with all 11 of them!! For Halloween we have to be in at <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1828128081" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">6:00</span></span>.
We can be at a members homes if they drive us to their house but so far
we don't really have any plans yet. I think it would be fun to carve a
pumpkin but we'll see!!</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> Welp, I
think that's all!!!! I know this church is true and I know the Book of
Mormon is the word of God. If we read it and apply it to our lives we
can learn from it and become the people that the Lord wants us to
become. We have so much potential but we have to work for it!! I hope
you all have a super fabulous week!! I miss you all like CRAZY and I
LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</span><wbr></wbr><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">!!!!!!!!!!!!!</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Love,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Taylor</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO</span><wbr></wbr><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">XOXOXOXOXOXO</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-27735370023454696212013-10-21T21:57:00.000-07:002013-10-23T21:57:46.509-07:00Exchanges! (and a shout out to Sister Card!)<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Hey Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Thank you so much for your emails - I loved hearing from you!!! I seriously LOVE reading your emails and hearing your updates and what not. So thank you!!!! This week has been pretty great! Holy cow. Exchanges wear me out! Like I get so tired but I love them at the same time. It's weird not being in our own area very often though.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1246313280" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Tuesday</span></span> we were on exchanges with Sister Firestone and Sister Jardine in Litchfield and that was fun. I spent the day with Sister Firestone and we went to a lesson for one of their investigators, Paul, who got baptized <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1246313281" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Saturday</span></span> and he had a stroke a while ago so his speech is slow and kinda off sometimes but it was really cool to see how patient Sister Firestone was with him and you could just tell that she really cared about him and went out of her way to make sure he understood everything and felt comfortable. It was cool t o see! </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1246313282" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Wednesday</span></span> we were on exchanges in Jacksonville with Sister Leavitt (from the MTC!!) and Sister Willmore. I spent the day with Sister Leavitt and it was fun to just talk to her and catch up with her!! She served in Mexico for like 4 transfers so it was kinda fun to talk about Mexico. We visited a less active and a part member family in their ward and that was pretty much our day! I think it would be fun to serve with Sister Leavitt just cause she's energetic and likes working hard and is fun too and creative and I think that would be fun! That night, we drove to Lincoln for exchanges!</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1246313283" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Thursday</span></span> we were in Lincoln with Sister Duncan and Sister McCoy. I spent the day with Sister Duncan and she's great. I think that's one of my favorite parts about exchanges is that my first impressions of people usually change after spending the day with them and you find out you have more in common with people than you would think. Anyway, that night we drove home!!!! It was so nice to be back in our own apartment. </span></div>
<div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1246313284" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span> we tried visiting less actives and part members in our own area but weren't having much success so after visiting this one house, we were driving away and there was this old guy doing yard work and so we went and helped him and he actually knew someone in our ward so that was kinda cool! He's having surgery on the 29th so we are going to go visit him and maybe bring him a treat or something. He's really into Scouts so we invited him to the scouting broadcast which is on the same day but he probably wont be able to make it. Then, we had a lesson with Alannah and her friend who is TOTALLY ready for the gospel was there and the last time she was there; her name is Katie. BUT she gave us her treadmill!!!! Pretty sweet right?? So now we have a treadmill in our apartment!!!!!!</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> We had a lesson with Steve and he is seriously SO AWESOME!!!! He said he recognized the spirit in his life more all week and that he loves being Mormon. He even went to work late <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1246313285" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Sunday</span></span> so that he could come to Sacrament meeting!!! Pretty cool!!!!! He's awesome. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1246313286" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Saturday</span></span> we spent the day with the sisters in Glen Carbon. They share the ward with us so we see them a lot and they are great. It's Sister Anderson and Sister Calton and they are just really fun to be with! I spent the day with Sister Anderson and she is so sweet! She played lacrosse at Riverton. I think it would be fun to be companions with her sometime. That afternoon, Sister Woodward and I had a meeting with the AP's about our exchanges so far and how all the sisters are doing and then we just finished up the day with the Glen Carbon sisters by going to a lesson and then we came home!</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Yesterday we had church and then visited Renee and LeRoy!! Renee wants to come to church but I'm not reall sure how LeRoy feels about everything. Renee wants to start learning about our church again since it's been a while and we asked LeRoy if he would like to also and he said if he is home he will listen but that he's pretty busy. So I guess we will see. I think he could eventually be interested but it would definitely take some time. It's really cool though because Renee gets emotional every time she starts talking about the church and you can just tell she knows there's something important about it. After we visited them, the Glen Carbon sisters had a baptism at the church and I played the piano and then we had dinner at the Kraude's; our ward mission leader. Sister Kraude is so great. THEN! Hahaha k, so we were all leaving, (Sister Woodward, Sister Anderson, Sister Calton, and I) and sister Kraude had found some catepillars and kept them on her porch so we were picking them up and just playing with them and taking pictures pretending to eat them but then Sister Calton decided to actually put on on her tongue and so we all did it too!! It was pretty disgusting and they smelled weird but we were laughing so hard!!!</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> This week we have exchanges <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1246313287" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">tomorrow</span></span>, <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1246313288" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">wednesday</span></span>, and <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1246313289" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">thursday</span></span>, and then we only have 2 more after that!! So <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1246313290" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">tomorrow</span></span> we will be in Mahomet,<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1246313291" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Wednesday</span></span> we will be on the University of Illinois campus, and <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1246313292" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Thursday</span></span> we will be in Charleston. So that's pretty much our week!!!</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Oh my gosh!!!!!! Erin... you know Sister Card???? How?? She is so cute!!! She was my MTC teacher and probably my favorite one too!!!!</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Anyway, that's pretty much my week!!! I hope you have a super fabulous week!! OH, did I mention it is getting FREEZING here??? Ya... I HATE IT. Welp, that's about it! I miss you all SOOOOOOOOOO much and I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Love,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Taylor</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXOXOXO</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The pumpkin that we brought to carve.... hey... it was free</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Exchanges with Sister Firestone and Jardine</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me and Renee</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Sister Anderson and Calton</span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-1191117846669969242013-10-07T22:46:00.000-07:002013-10-22T18:51:29.917-07:00She's halfway! And loving it :)<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Hello!!!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> Thanks so much for your emails - it was so great to hear from you!! First off... I LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE. Like for real. I wish it went on for a whole week!!! The talks were all soooo good. I thought Elder Dube was adorable and I loved his talk. Of course as always I loved President Uchtdorf (he's my favorite). I think one of my favorite statements from conference was when he said "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." That was so good!!! And it doesn't just apply to like less active members - it applies to us too!! Side note: Elder Hales looked SO OLD :(. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Basically I think I will just send you my notes because I took a ton and loved like every single talk. Another one I really liked though was Elder Hamilton's talk about CONTINUALLY holding fast to the iron rod and how we shouldn't EVER make church meetings optional and how the devil uses good activities to put in the way of better or best activities. AHH I just seriously loved conference!!!!!! I feel like the biggest nerd but, it's whatever, haha. Anyway, I will tell you about my week!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> Monday was pday and so we did the regular: email, grocery shop, lunch, clean the car, and then just wrote letters and I made quotes for the walls in the apartment haha. That night, we had FHE at a members house and our investigator, Steve, came and I think he really liked it. Oh, so I tried the southwest salad at McDonalds and it's really good! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> Tuesday we had President interviews and a combined district meeting and then trainings by the AP's and other leaders and Sister Woodward and I gave a training too. The AP's had called us the night before and they had some packages for Sister Woodward that her mom dropped off at the office cause she was visiting and so I was like "Oh do you need help carrying all of my packages too?" (I didn't have any) and they said they thought they could handle it and then at interviews they had made me a package hahahaha. Basically it was some melted candy bars, expired slim jims, marshmallows, an old watch, pass along cars, and some other valuables. It was pretty funny! Anyway, we were pretty much just at interviews the majority of the day and then we tried contacting a referral and tried meeting some members of the ward.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> Wednesday was 9 MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!! That's half way!!!!!! That morning, we had this guy, Tim Riding, call us and we had no idea who he was but he isn't a member and he said he had some questions for us. So we met him at a restaurant and he's this anti mormon guy that has been trying to write a book for a long time and it was the dumbest conversation ever. He wasn't ever rude or anything but he just tried to prove that the Book of Mormon was false and it didn't even make sense. He started in 1 Nephi 13 and was like "So we agree that there is 1 church that God created right?" and we were like ya and he was like "But right here it's talking about another church - so it's false!" In chapter 13 it's just like talking about the abominable church and it's just basically people who go against the word of God but it's like that didn't even connect in his brain... it was pretty ridiculous. I think he mostly just wanted to get a rise out of us somehow but when he realized that we were just nice and didn't get upset he was disappointed? IDK. I felt like it was a waste of time! Afterwards, we helped some recent converts set up Halloween decorations and that was fun! That night we had dinner with some members and we went through the ward roster so they could tell us who is less active and active and everything. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> Thursday we visited with some less actives and then we visited the Wheelers. They are active but their daughter who served a mission in Provo isn't active anymore but she has nothing but positive things to say about the church. So towards the end of our visit, her daughter, Debbie (less active), came home and she sat down and she was so nice! She was asking us about our missions and said she has never regretted her mission and would do it again. We got to know her a little bit and she loves fishing and so we asked her if we could go with her sometime and she invited us to go the next day with her! ALSO, she's really good friends with this other less active member in the ward Aron and he goes fishing with her so that was a plus! That night we went to have a lesson with Alannah and it was kinda sad. She told us her feelings about church and pretty much it didn't go well for her. Part of it I totally agreed with her on but it got to a point where she was being overly critical. She said how irreverant people were acting in the chapel (which I agree with) and during the sacrament, and then how testimony meeting felt like an AA meeting would feel (i would also agree with that) but then she went on to talk about how the boys passing the sacrament should not be yawning and how kids should not be eating a bag of snacks in the chapel and stuff like that and so that's when we told her that the church is perfect but it's run by imperfect people so mistakes are made sometimes! She was pretty upset and disappointed about it all but she said she would try it again. Thursday night was AWESOME!!! Okay so last week we were visiting less active members and we got to the Daibers and we didn't know who they were so we went to their house and she's a member and he's catholic and so we visited with them for a little - she added us as friends on fb haha, and then invited us to come back for dinner the next week. So, we went to the Daibers for dinner and Renee was so excited to have us over! She hasn't been to church in probably 20+ years. So we had dinner and then we shared a mormon message with them and then Renee asked us to share our testimonies and she started crying and then LeRoy ASKED ABOUT THE BOOK OF MORMON!!!!!! The spirit was really strong there and I don't think Renee knows it yet but I think she wants to come back to church and I think LeRoy could become an investigator. We love them though they are hilarious!!! We have plans to visit them this week again and I'm so excited!!!! Renee is like a huge talker and is really outgoing and all over the place and then LeRoy is just like really soft spoken and really sweet. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> Friday we went fishing with Debbie and Aron!! IT WAS SO FUN! I caught like 4 pretty tiny fish AND I put a worm on a hook. It was so great though because we were able to get to know both of them in like a non-pushy way and they said we could come with them again. Arons wife isn't a member and Aron isn't really religious anymore but I think we are going to try to work with their family. Also guess what??? Remember Carolyn from Mexico?? SHE'S GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!! I hope I will be able to go, it's on <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_941034885" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">November 2nd</span></span> but we will see. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> Saturday we watched conference and Steve came and loved it and then Sunday we watched conference again and Steve came AND he had watched Priesthood on his own the night before and then for the second session on Sunday we watched it at the Bishops house. Then, we visited Alannah and she had watched some of conference on her own and really liked it and I think it changed her attitude about church in a positive way which is really good!!! So that was pretty much my week!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> We have our first exchange tomorrow and I'm excited!!! Steve's baptism is on Saturday and we got the whole thing planned out yesterday. ALSO!!!! I got an ADORABLE HALLOWEEN PACKAGE from Mom this week!!!!! Seriously you deserve like an award or something - it's so cute!!!! I love everything in it and the little notes that go along with them. You're just so creative!!!! Thank you soooo much!!!!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> Anyway, I am going to send some pictures right now! I miss you all like CRAZY and I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Love,</span></div>
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<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Taylor</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XOXOXOXOXO</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; text-align: -webkit-auto;">more cleaning the car and mine and sis. webbs matching mumus</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Sister Webb and I in what we call her "quaker outfit" at transfer meeting</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Sister Woodward and I fishing!!!</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7329348352952889015.post-61927714081326117142013-09-23T22:44:00.000-07:002013-10-22T18:48:36.046-07:00"I love you more than all the soybeans in Mexico Missouri!!!"<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Hey Family!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Thanks so much for your emails - I love hearing from you!! I still can't believe you were IN MISSOURI. Crazy!!! And guess what??? Macon is in my zone too. This week has been pretty great!!! GUESS WHAT THOUGH???? I'm getting transferred:( I'm like happy and sad haha. First of all, we knew transfer calls were coming this last week but usually you train someone for 12 weeks so we just figured we would both be staying and didn't even second guess not staying together right? Well we were wrong. I'm going to Highland Illinois and I'm going to be a sister trainer leader!!! I am SOOO excited!!!!!!!! I think that will be so cool!!!!! Except I'm really going to miss Sister Webb. I like her a lot!! We have so much fun together. I really was so sad though just cause I wasn't even thinking I would get transferred. BUT I really am so excited to be an STL - I think that is so cool and my companion is Sister Woodward - she was in my district in the MTC!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Anyway, on to my week! Monday was pretty great - I mean it's pday so ya. GUESS WHAT THOUGH??? Remember Mama from Mahomet? As in like Biscuit and Mama? She got baptized!!!!!!! How cool is that!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Tuesday was not so great. We had a lesson with Annette and her baptism is still on hold until she can find someone to live with that's a female and then we had service at the senior center. I got a card from Dad that day and it made me so happy!! It's fun getting letters that are hand written every once in a while. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Wednesday we visited some less active members and had a lesson with Sarah and Tobias. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Thursday we went and visited a media referral that was really far away but he became a new investigator!! He's an older guy named Charles and really receptive. Then we visited a referral we got from a ward member and it was so funny. It was an older couple and I think I have told you that older men say like unexpected things sometimes but they get away with it cause they're old haha. His name was John and was like "After your mission, will you be going into acting?" and I was like "no... why?" and he was like "Well, because you have a tremendous figure and I can see you doing something like that." They weren't interested but it's nice to talk to people that are pleasant and fun. That night, we had dinner with Bro. Chapman and I just love him!!! He asked if we wanted apple juice and we were like "no thank you!" so he brought us over some apple juice and was like "here, it will wash your steak down" and then he's like would you like a cookie? and we were like, "that's okay - thanks though", so he brings over a plate of cookies and is like "here it will wash your apple juice down". He's just so old and hilarious. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Friday we had a SUPER AWESOME lesson with Carolyn!!! It went so well and she is so prepared!!!! Like for real. So our lesson was on the plan of salvation and first of all her brother-in- law, Dave, who is staying with them cause he has cancer, sat in on the lesson, and then her husband came home and listened too!! So that was good. And then after the lesson, Sis. Webb was talking to Dave and I was talking to Carolyn and Carolyn started talking about how familiar and true this sounds to her and how she believes it without a doubt. So I asked her about baptism and she said she would but she just wants to learn more about what we believe and what's expected of her if she joins the church. She also said that this is something Dave really needs. Dave told Sis. Webb that he has a good feeling in him when he talks to us and that we are welcome to come back!! It was so cool!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Saturday we had a lesson with Robin on tithing and fast offerings and it went really well. I was nervous cause I thought it would be something she wouldn't like cause she's already really short on money but right away she went off on how she's really been wanting to give her tithing and help God's kingdom grow so that was good! We also visited some less actives that day and transfer calls were Saturday. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Yesterday we had church and I played the piano for primary which was fun. We just pretty much visited members and I started packing - I hate packing!!! Also, I have some stuff I need to send home. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> So ya! That was pretty much my week!! Transfer meeting is on Wednesday so don't send anything to Mexico anymore!! This last week I have been reading in Alma and it's so good. I like how there are so many stories. This morning I just read about how the Nephites and Lamanites are fighting and then at one point, one of captain moroni's soldiers scalps Zarahemna and then picks his scalp up with his sword and like shows everyone and I just can't imagine how gross that would be!!! But I really like Alma a lot. It's been so great serving in Mexico and I think out of our investigators I'm most sad to leave Carolyn just because she is so sweet and prepared. It's cool to know that I played a part in Mama's learning process too to get baptized!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Anyway, I hope you all have a really great week. I miss you all SOOOOOO much and I love you more than all the soybeans in Mexcio Missouri!!!!!!!!! (The air always smells like soybeans haha). I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<wbr></wbr>!!!!!!!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Love,</span></div>
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<span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc; font-family: inherit;">Taylor</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO<wbr></wbr>XO</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Read this --> Alma 44:12-14</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"I whip my hair back and forth I whip my hair back and forth"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This was mine and Sister Webb's companion study this morning.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0