Sister Zundel: She's halfway! And loving it :)

Hello!!!!!!

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 :(.

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!!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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 November 2nd but we will see.

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!!!!

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!!!!!!!

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

Love,

Taylor

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this is us in Mexico helping out in primary