8 months!!!

Hey Family!!!!!!!!

     The library was closed yesterday so we didn't get to email so I am emailing you now!! Thanks for your emails - I loved reading them so much, they always make my week!!!!! This week has been pretty great.  Slow in some ways but really awesome in others!! Finding people to teach here is a little harder just cause it's been tracted soo many times, but the people we are finding to teach are mostly referrals and friends of investigators or part member families which are really awesome.  Anyway, I will just tell you about my week now!

     Tuesday we had a lesson with Annette on the law of chastity and it went really well!! We were worried cause we thought she was living with her friend John but it turns out she doesn't!!! Woohooo!! It's his ex-wife's house and he wont even go inside anymore and so Annette just lives in it and her and John are JUST friends so it works out! She said she has no problem with living the law of chastity. After Annette, we tried visiting some investigators that the sisters before us were teaching that we still hadn't met yet and we met Miriam! She is so cute. She's 25, black, married, has 2 kids with a baby on the.  At first when we got there, she DID NOT want to talk to us and she has quite the attitude haha but she totally warmed up to us and we had a great conversation! She wants to get baptized, do baptisms for the dead, go to the temple, wear garments, and everything else Mormons do, but the hard part is that she is used to her gospel choir type church and hates when church is boring.... not saying that ours is boring or anything.... BUT it's not quite as exciting if you catch my drift. Anyway, she loves the Bible and recognizes that the Book of Mormon is super similar so she wonders why we need it and she wants us to back everything from the Book of Mormon up with the Bible. She said she wanted to start the Bible from the beginning so we made a compromise and said we would start from the beginning of the Bible with her if she started from the beginning of the Book of Mormon with us and then we would meet and talk about what we read.  That night, we had dinner at a members' house and she served her mission in the Salt Lake City South mission!! Sweet huh?? 

     Wednesday was great! We had service and I love going there.  I wish we could go every day!! Then we had a lesson with Miriam and she hadn't done her reading and was upset with her husband and super moody but we read from the Book of Mormon with her in 2 Nephi 31 and she LOVED it and like wanted to mark everything and so that was good! We also had a lesson with an investigator, Patricia, who's an older black lady, but she isn't interested in switching religions.  We went through the restoration with her and talked about the Book of Mormon but she said she is going to stick with where she is at.  That night we had a lesson with a less active family, the McClures.  They asked us to start teaching them so they could get back on the right track and help their testimonies because they want to be sealed in the temple.  They had a baby a few months ago that passed away after 4 days and they had a really hard time with that.  Also, the wife's dad used to be a member and then had his name removed and he wants to be taught again as well!

     Thursday we had district meeting and I did a training on diligence and it turned out better than I thought! I talked about those 11 tips for being a successful missionary that mom sent met and then read Moroni 9:6 and then talked about Laman and Lemuel and how they really did have testimonies because there were times when they repented and decided to change for a short time but they weren't diligent in KEEPING their testimony so they lost it! And then I shared that Mormon message by Pres. Uchtdorf about the guy on the cruise ship who brought his own food and never left his room and then found out at the end that everything on the ship was included in his ticket and tied that in how if we are just diligent in doing the things we are supposed to do then we can reach our potential as missionaries and that there is a lot out there for us to have but we won't ever know if we aren't diligent.  Did that make sense??? Anyway, after district meeting we met with Carolyn (baptized into RLDS) and talked to her because she has been sick and then her husband got home from work and he talked to us too for a while and it was really good!! Carolyn told him that she wants to start coming to church!! That night, 

     Friday we had a lesson with Annette and it went so well!!!!!!!!!!! So we taught the Word of Wisdom and we were worried cause she LOVES her green tea and coffee but she was totally fine with giving it up!!! She has a really good attitude about it and was just kinda like, "well if I'm supposed to give it up, then I will"! We set up a baptism calendar with her and so if everything works out as planned she will be baptized on September 21st!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!! Then, we visited Doug and Debi because we hadn't heard from them in a few days which is really weird.  We brought them some of the food that we were going to give Annette because we knew they were short and when we got there, their water had been turned off, Debi hasn't eaten for 5 days, her phone was out of minutes, and Doug was sick.  So I pretty much forced her to sit down and made her a PB&J and made her eat it.  After we talked to her for a little, we read the family proclamation with her and talked about setting goals to go to the temple.  That night we visited some less active members (that's one of my favorite things to do). 

     Saturday we had a lesson with Robin on the law of chastity and she said that she would follow it.  She wants to be baptized!! She just won't set a date yet and it's confusing as to why she won't, but we're trying!!!! Then, we visited a less active/part member family, the Campbell's and they are so sweet!! AND Sis. Campbell came to church on Sunday after we had visited her!! That night we had dinner at a members house and the son, who doesn't come to church at all anymore, had invited his non- member friends!! I thought that was really cool for him to do that since he doesn't even come!!!! He served his mission in Italy and made really good Italian food and we made plans to go back next week and have dinner with them again and their friends are going to come again so we will see if anything comes from that!!!

     Sunday, we went to church and Annette, Robin, Angela & Bruce all came!!!! (Angela is the lady I met in the library that one day!!!!).  I LOVE when investigators come to church but I am so nervous like the whole 3 hours cause I want them to like it and for everything to go perfectly and sometimes it doesn't and it just makes me so nervous!!!  Robin is basically part of the ward already.  She has been quite a few times and has pretty much given herself a calling, haha.  She gets the hymn books out before RS and then puts them away after and I think it's cute.  Also, I'm the pianist in sacrament meeting and RS for a few weeks!!! It makes me laugh cause I remember when I was little, Mom and Dad would always be like "If you go on a mission, you will be grateful that you play the piano because sometimes the places you go, there won't be a piano player"..... WELP, YOU WERE RIGHT.  I really like doing it though. 

     Yesterday was Pday and it was fun!!! Yesterday morning, we went to an Amish town (really close to our area) with some members of our ward, the Herrings.  I for real want to live with the Amish for like a month sometime.  I just think they're really cool.  I love that they hang their laundry and it's so fun to drive by their houses and see all the colors hanging up.  We visited this one little shop and it was part of a house and the owner gave us like a little tour of his house and it was pretty sweet!!! Their houses are so simple and they just have the necessities but it still feels like a home if you know what I mean? But it was fun! That night we had dinner with the RS Pres and she is sooo cute and their house has a cool history to it so she gave us a tour of it. 

     So that was pretty much my week!!!  Sister Webb is seriously hilarious - I LOVE HER!!!!! This weeks' weather has probably been the hottest since I've been out, it's been like over 100 every day and super humid to the point where you just walk outside and your sweating from every place possible hahaha but, to be honest, I really like it and I am not excited for it to get cold!!! We didn't find any investigators this week which kinda stinks but at the same time I feel like we made a lot of really good progress with other people and the less actives in our ward.  UGH also, I have like 20+ mosquito bites on my legs - it's really attractive. 

     Anyway, that was pretty much my week!!! This morning, Sister Webb and I read the first article in the New Era for this month by Uchtdorf and if you haven't read it you should! I really like it!! 

     Wellll I think that's about it!!! This week we have zone conference, I'm going on an exchange with either Sister Patchett or Sister Johnson tomorrow, and then on Saturday we have a stake RS activity! I hope you all have a really awesome week!!!!!!!!! You are always in my prayers and I'm seriously so grateful for you all.  Be safe and healthy and don't do anything dumb!! I miss you SOOOOOOOOOO MUCH and I LOVE YOU BUNCHES AND BUNCHES AND BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Taylor

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO 

And one more thing . . . 

Okay look up D&C 60:8

cool huh?? hahaha

Pictures from the Amish town in Clark, Missouri