Sister Zundel: Exchanges! (and a shout out to Sister Card!)

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

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.

Tuesday 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 on Saturday 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!

Wednesday 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!

Thursday 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.

Friday 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!!!!!!

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 on Sunday so that he could come to Sacrament meeting!!! Pretty cool!!!!! He's awesome.

Saturday 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!

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!!!

This week we have exchanges tomorrow, wednesday, and thursday, and then we only have 2 more after that!! So tomorrow we will be in Mahomet,Wednesday we will be on the University of Illinois campus, and Thursday we will be in Charleston. So that's pretty much our week!!!

Oh my gosh!!!!!! Erin... you know Sister Card???? How?? She is so cute!!! She was my MTC teacher and probably my favorite one too!!!!

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Taylor

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The pumpkin that we brought to carve.... hey... it was free