Hello Family!!!!!!!!!
I LOVED reading your emails (as always) and it was so great to hear from you!! I miss you guys so much and whenever I hear from you it always makes my day!!! So this week was pretty great, it's FINALLY hot here and I really love it!! Like seriously though I have been waiting for it to just be hot. I don't know why but it's so motivating for me to go outside when it's hot... kinda backwards right??
So I will just start telling you about my week!! Monday we went to Arthur (I already told you about that).
Tuesday we visited Sister xxxx, her family is less active. I seriously love her. She lives in xxxxx and she is SO creative!! Like she finds all these blogs online for crafts, fixing furniture, turning junk into something pretty and she is good at it!! We had lunch with Ann who is also less active in our ward and her husband isn't a member. She is so cute and loves us haha so it makes it that much better!! Anyway her and her husband have been separated for a while and are back together now and his heart has changed a little towards the church and she said she doesn't think he is quite ready to be taught by the missionaries but the door is cracked which is great!!! That night we had a lesson with Ananyanee and we were kinda nervous on how it was going to turn out because our lesson was on the Atonement which is pretty in depth obvi but it went so well!!! We started out by watching a bible video and then we just took it part by part and explained it and then we would have her explain it back to us to make sure it made sense to her and everything. I seriously love teaching her!!!!!!! She understood that when we sin, it hurts Jesus and that he died so that we can repent and be forgiven which is definitely a start. Every lesson, we go over terms and concepts we taught the other lessons and just her whole face lights up when she remembers and it's really cool!!
Wednesday we had President interviews! I LOVE President Morgan and his wife A LOT!!!! They are so sweet. We have a mission goal of 450 baptisms this year and every night at 10 as a mission we pray for that goal. I think it's an awesome goal but at the same time, I feel like missionaries get caught up in the numbers and they just find "anyone" to baptize... does that make sense? So like ya, they might get a baptism, but frequently they may or may not stay active. So anyway, I think this is something President Morgan recognized coming into the mission also so he is focusing a lot on "real growth" which makes sense!!! So he wants us to find solid people to baptize to help grow the amount of active members instead of increase the number of less active members. ANYWAY, after interviews we tracted for like EVER and it was probably the hottest day of the week haha but like I said - I love it!!!! The whole waistband of my skirt was wet... tmi??? We found 5 new investigators though!!! We tracted into this one lady who brought us in and we sat with her and her 2 daughtes who were 12 and 14. The mom doesn't have a belief in Christ but she wanted her daughters to talk to us because she wants them to make a religious choice of their own. One of them, Markee, was 14 and when we asked her questions about like if she had ever wondered where she came from and things like that something sparked in her head and she seemed interested but her sister wasn't interested so I think that kinda made her change her mind but she said she would come to church sometime and she actually knows one of the young women in our ward so we told her to invite her to church!!! But that was really cool just because you could tell she hadn't thought of religious things before. So she didn't become and investigator but it was cool to talk to her. We also tracted into this boy named Chandler and he is a senior in high school but when he opened the door I noticed that he had a lacrosse lanyard(spelling?) so I asked if he played lacrosse and he said he did and long story short, HIS FAMILY LIVES IN DRAPER!!!!!!! Small world right???? His family lived in Sandy, moved to Mahomet, and now they are in Draper!!! He is moving back after a semester of his senior year here to either go to Alta or Corner Canyon but he knows some of the same people as me!!! It was so crazy!!!! He's not even Mormon!!! But he said he has been waiting for missionaries to come to his door because he has a lot of questions and so he became one of our investigators!!
Thursday we had district meeting and played jeopardy and this Elder in my district has only been a member for 3 years and knows EVERYTHING about the Book of Mormon and so he won... it's whatever. Then we had service at the old folks home and played bingo, no one came to Bible study, and then we served drinks!! The old ladies get so competitive at bingo it's hilarious!!! I guess this one lady was bringing her bingo cards home with her and she kept winning every week and so this other old lady told on her and said it wasn't fair and they still wont look/talk to each other!! We visited Debi at the bakery and we picked up some of the cookies we glazed and they were seriously so delicious!!!!!!! Like probs the best sugar cookies I've ever had (besides Mom's). But glazing is not hard at all!! She just mixes powdered sugar, milk, lemon juice, and I think corn syrup? and then you just paint it on the cookie with one of those rubber brushes and it smooths itself out! Thursday night we visited visited one of the Elders investigators, India, who they haven't been able to contact for over a month now and she let us in and we just got to know her and invited her to church and it went really well!! She didn't come to church but we were telling the Elders what we talked about with her and they said that is more than they have ever gotten out of her! So that was cool!!
Friday we had a lesson with xxxxx and xxxxx and they are seriously so sweet. She is blind and he treats her so well!!! They are just such a cute old couple and he just like lives to make her happy. Anyway, I think I told you but maybe not but he goes dumpster diving every day and finds things to give to people in need. He has collected over 4000 boxtops and then donates them to schools, he finds furniture and fixes it up, he finds things to feed the animals with, he finds games for children, etc. He's really awesome!! They ordered a pizza for us while we were there and taught them about the restoration and left them with a chapter to read and we are going back this week!! There is a problem though haha she HATES water on her face... so baptism could be an issue.... but ya, I love them!! That night we had dinner with the Goodriches and they are so awesome!! We played catch phrase after dinner and then we shared a thought with them. Bro. Goodrich is seriously probably one of the most spiritual people I have EVER met. He is just so in tune with the spirit and I swear he can read my mind. I'm pretty sure he will be a patriarch some day. Anyway, after that, he asked us individually what we are working on and we told him and then he said the closing prayer and asked specifically for help with those things and it just really made me realize how close to the spirit he is and it was just an answer to my prayers because I really needed that!
Saturday we had a lesson with xxxx. She has been so angry with God for a long time and she had so many questions for us. She was really open and started crying and asked a lot about repentance and forgiveness and the after life. She hasn't prayed in a long time but she said she would start reading the Book of Mormon and pray. She's really nervous to pray but she said she is going to do it. I really like her!!! She has been SO prepared and I feel like this is just what she needs!! After that visit, we visited xxxxxx (her vegetable soup was SOOO good) and she is having a lot of depression right now and just really misses her family members that have passed away. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she said she would get baptized if she knew the Mormons were right for her!
Yesterday we had a dinner and lesson with the Eastons and it went really well also!! For dinner we had these giant noodle shells stuffed with chicken and like other stuff and it had kinda a taco seasoning to it and then they were put in the oven with cheese on top and it was so good!! Anyway, we talked to them about like faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, and enduring to the end and it went so well. Their son Tim (the member) was there too and his story is awesome and you can tell his parents are so proud of him! He goes to school in Wyoming and the Eastons are planning to move to Wyoming next year - it's their favorite place haha random right?? What part of Wyoming does our family live in? So we also talked about baptism with them and what they want to do is get baptized September 28 in Wyoming... not the ideal situation but we're going to see if that works. One of their daughters, Amy, reminds me SO much of Erin!!! She isn't interested in the church or anything but not only do they have really similar faces but they have similar personailites and it is so cool!!!! Like I just want to talk to her the whole time because she reminds me so much of Erin!!!!
Sorry this email is super long, do I give you guys too many details?? Just let me know cause I feel like these are super boring to read!!! But also, so we have been looking for a large print Book of Mormon to give to Jim cause he can't read the small writing and we couldn't find one anywhere and guess what??? So the Elders were riding their bikes one day and this random guy like rolled down his window and started talking to them and he had a bag full of Book of Mormons that he didn't need and one of them was a large print one!!!!!! Isn't that cool???
Well anyway, that was pretty much my week!!! Today I think we are just going to take it easy, go grocery shopping, and then go to a park and write letters!!! I am so excited for you to have dinner with the Christensens!!!! I think you will really like them!!!! I can't think of anything specifically that I would like you to send home with them but I do love surpises:) Anyway, be safe on your trip Daddy!!!!! I hope you all have an AWESOME week and that you are safe and healthy!!! I miss you guys like CRAZY and I LOVE YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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Love,
Taylor
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
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