Last week with Sister Dicou

 It was pretty great, after emails last week I got home and recieved four letters! Brad Elly Melissa and Sister Robinson. So tell them thank you and I'll try to respond to them as soon as I can.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to buy new tennis shoes because my have got dry wall and poopy water all over them. :) I love doing service!!

So now to the events of this week. It's been pretty choatic. We've been having some of the sisters stay at our apartment on and off because of service and everything. Monday was P-day and we had a rehearsal for our Christmas program so I went to that while Sister Dicou went to her departing missionary trip. After our practice we played ball at the church for a little bit. We had a couple of lessons that night. Tuesday I already told you about in the last weeks email, but that night we went and taught our new investigator Cary and we had cheesy broccoli soup and talked about the gospel. She's incredible. I didn't get pictures of her quilts because she gives them all away but she did say she was making beanie's for the young ones so I'm very excited about that. She's so awesome! Wednesday Sister Dicou had her Temple trip so we went on exchanges and Sister Swann and Roper came with me and we went out during the day until they were back. Then we had another exchange with the Paterson sisters so I went up there and stayed the night. Paterson is crazy. The sister was a spanish sister so I barely said anything all day because I couldn't speak-a da spanish. But I was really trying to focus on things that they said and picked out a few things. It was interesting and very cool. We exchanged back the next day. Friday was probably one of the craziest days I've had out on my mission. We were trying to get so many things done and so little time before Sister Dicou left. I had my interview with President Jeppson and then one with Sister Jeppson and it pumped me right up. It was so comforting talking to them. They seriously are incredible people and I love them so much! They are so much fun and so close to the spirit. I love it!

This is where is gets pretty exciting and why I love being a missionary. We got a call on Friday and our zone leaders told us we were going to be staying over night down South because we were doing service and it was about 2 hrs away from us. So they told us we'd be doing service all day Saturday and Sunday. It's not typical in the mission to be doing things like this so I can definitely say this has been my craziest transfer on the mission! So we woke up on Saturday and met the Assistants at the Chapel and we all rode down in the big 12 passenger van. It was so much fun! We became so close during this past weekend. We got down to the chapel where we were meeting and broke off into our groups to go do service. We were in East Brunswick and had an assignment to go clean a house. We got to the house and it was this old old lady that lost everything. We took our her kitchen and cleaned the garage out. She was so sweet and so hip! We all worked really hard in trying to get the place clean. As we were finishing up we sang "called to serve" and she said she got the goosebumps as we were singing it. I know that it was the spirit bearing testimony to her that we are called of God to serve. I'm so grateful for that opportunity I have everyday to put on my badge saying that I am a witness of Jesus Christ and I know he lives. It was really cool and I'm so grateful for that. We had a couple more hours before we had to head back to the chapel and so we decided to go knock on doors and see if anyone else needed help. We were walking down a street and a couple of the missionaries found a house that two old (81 and 83) were living there from the hurricane. They had orders to be exacuated from their house but they didn't. Mary and Ziggy were there names and they were so sweet. We asked if they needed any help and they said they hadn't touched their basement. So we all went down there to see that the mold on the walls was so bad and the foundation was not good at all. Their neighbors house had fallen in. I'll send pictures of it. The smell in their basement was horrible. It was not safe that they were still living there but they had no where to go. The old clothes they had were the ones on their back because all their other clothes were downstairs. They said that the water level filled up their whole basement and came up a couple inches on their main floor. Just imagine. All of our basement flooded and so much personal items down there. It's just so sad. We started cleaning up as much as we could before it got dark. We had to leave but we felt it would be good to sing to them and say a prayer with them. So we got them together and sang and prayed with them as they were crying. Ziggy was an ex-marine and told us to stop making him cry. Mary burst into tears at the end of the song. It was so spiritual and emotional because they couldn't have cleaned out the basement on their own. They were so sweet. (They had a bar downstairs to that they wouldn't let us touch, we got orders from Mary, "do not touch the liquor") It was pretty funny. They were cool old people. We got back to the chapel and ate pizza and then had a little training/fireside and then went to some elders aparments to sleep (don't worry they were not there too.) All of the sisters, 13 of us, stayed there while all the elders slept in the church.

Sunday we all woke up ready to work. We got to the church and quickly ate breakfast and had the sacrament and then went back to Ziggy and Mary's house. Mary thought we weren't going to come back but of course we were! We started cleaning everything out from their basement before the demolition. They had so many personal belongings down there, clothes, records, magazines, everything and worth so much money. We started going at it. We had 12 people in that house cleaning it all up and were making some good time. We had a quick lunch break, pizza provided by them, and then back to work. We finished lunch around 12:45 and I did not come out of that basement until it was all cleaned up. That was around 5. My back was so sore but I couldn't stop working, I needed to do that for them. It was hard hard work but President Jeppson said the closing prayer in sacrament meeting and blessed us with safety and with the power to continue working. It was an amazing prayer and I know it was answered because even though I was dead, I kept going. I learned something, when you want to stop, think about the Savior and all he did for us. He's there to lift us up and get us back on our feet. I think we can all do a better job at remembering the Savior. That's my commitment to you guys this week. Think about the Savior and all He's done for us. He's given us EVERYTHING!!! We got everything done and started cleaning up. We got Mary back out and talked to her for a little and asked her, what's one thing we need to remember for our lives. And she replied "Don't keep anything!" It was pretty funny and I might need to take that to heart. I have a lot a possessions that don't really matter. I think I have some cleaning up to do when I get home. :/ haha We sang to her again and took a couple pictures with her and were off back to our apartments.

It was such a good day and I know we're doing the Lord's work. I'm so excited to continue on and see where the mission takes me. I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to serve and become better. I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way we can return to live with God again. I'm so grateful for everything I've learned and I know God answers our prayers. I'm so grateful for this chance I have and can't wait to bless more lives in New Jersey. I'm here for a reason and I know it. I love you all and can't wait to see how you're all doing. :) Much love

Sister Christine Taylor

Service, Service, Service

I'm getting slightly scared because I keep speaking all this spanish all the time and all the spanish Hermana's have told me they're going to tell President to switch me to spanish. :/

Anyways! Hello. What a crazy, insane, amazing, difficult and happy week it has been. As I have said last week we've had amazing opportunities to serve but this week it has beeen EVEN better. (Quick side note, I write more detail in my journal because I have a little bit more time so maybe when I get home I can just read you guys my journal, Psych! but maybe I will haha)

We were supposed to do service on Wednesday of last week but our zone didn't go because it was to far away and the weather wasn't the prettiest. So we had to re-plan everything but it was good. We went to a couple of people and talked to them. It was snowing (really sticky stuff) and pretty cold. I wore my new boots! Can you believe it? Two days after I bought them I was wearing them. Things are changing, that's not normal haha. We went and taught a few people and got return appointments with them and had to be in by six because of the snow storm coming in. It snowed for a while but it was gone the next day so I haven't had much snow yet but I know I will be getting some more. There were still some missionaires that didn't have power and so another companionship came to stay with us. Sister Soto and Swann. They are spanish sisters. Maybe God is just preparing me because all the sisters that have stayed with us have been spanish sisters. They are so awesome! It's crazy, God knows who to put in your life to help you become better and teach you things. And I definitely have seen that in just these few weeks I've been here. Sister Soto is leaving in a week and I've gotten along with her so well. She's from Brooklyn, NY. Sister Swann is amazing as well.

Thursday was Jody's birthday! YAY!! Happy birthday, sorry I'm late. I wanted to take a picture of me holding up a sign that said "267 months" But I ran out of time but the thought was there. It was our walking day and planning day and it took forever because we hadn't planned for two weeks because of the storm. Sandy has been crazy so far. Stories to come shortly. We went on exchanges for the first time and it was scary, I won't lie. Sister Dicou left the area so I was in charge for the day. Sister Morrison from San Diego was my companion for the exchange and we have so much in common. She's awesome. Friday was a normal tracting day but we have a member come out with us for most of the day. We taught a few lessons and then went to dinner with a member. We had breakfast for dinner and it was delicious.

We were going to exchange back Saturday morning and that was the plan but then we got word we were going to different places to do service so we were with each other for another day. Which was great. It's nice to know more sisters because Sister Dicou is leaving in a week :( I don't want her to because she has taught me so much but she's going to be so amazing in the real world.

*This is the part that gets crazy cool!*

So we woke up on Saturday early early in the morning to go down to EATONTOWN for service. Now I have no clue where that is but mom you said you follow the places I say. It's down on the Jersey Shore. We drove down with Hermana Swann and Soto because they stayed the night again. We got there quite early so we went to McDonald's for breakfast. (By the way Dad, you owe me probably around 30 breakfast burritos. There are a LOT of deer here :) ) But on the way back we were blasting an Alex Boye song, Have I Done Any Good? with Carmen Rasmussen, if you haven't listened to it, do it. Its incredible! So we were blasting it as we drove into the parking lot of the church and who do you know, none other than Alex Boye, was standing in the middle of all these missionaries as we're blasting his song in our car singing so loud. He started laughing and it was so cool. We saw a lot of familiar missionaries and I saw the sisters that had stayed the week with us and it was SOO good to see them again. But we got our assignments for service and got in the car and pumped up the jam again and Alex Boye ran over and started recording us on his phone singing his song. So keep on the lookout, we might be on youtube or mormon.org or something haha.

We went to our service project and we were assessing the damage of all the people down on the Jersey Shore. And like many of you know me, I want to be out helping people, I want to be helping them with their houses and doing the manual labor rather than the assessing. So that was kind of tedious but it paid off. We went to some people's houses and one lady started crying when we asked if she needed any help. It's so cool to see God's hand in their life and softening their hearts. I love it. I LOVE SERVING!!!! So after all the assessing we went to Union Beach and started looking for people to help. I found a house with an old lady outside and we asked if she could use any help. They didn't really want the help at first but we kept on insisting and they said that the back room was the only thing left that needed to be cleaned out. So we did just that. Sister Swann and I went in and tackled that room. It was so sad to see everything just get thrown away. She had books, and yarn and I'm sure a lot of possessions that were dear to her heart that were ruined by water. It was crazy to see the damage. And it humbled me. The Elders started coming and so the owners said why not there. So we demolished about the whole house. Took out all the walls, kitchen cupboards, and counters and just about took the whole house apart. (Don't get me wrong, it was very humbling but very exciting at the same time. you can definitely get all your anger out by hitting a wall with an ax.) I did probably the most disgusting thing I've ever did in my life and will never forget it. I tackled the fridge. Nothing was cleaned out of the fridge since the hurricane and it had been about a week so if you can only imagine the smell. It was SOOOO rank. Stinkiest smell I've ever smelt. But I did it. We continued to take everything out and the poor old lady was just watching everything be taken out and thrown into a garbage pile. She was crying after we were all done. It was so sad but I'm glad I'm helping them put the next step into fixing the problem.

Sunday was even more exciting. Can you say STATEN ISLAND!? Yep, Sister Dicou and I went to Staten Island on Sunday to do more service. The damage was worse than Saturday. The pictures are so sad to. I'll try and send some but If I don't get to it. I'll try another time. The whole houses were just thrown. It's crazy to think wind can do something like that. We saw a church completely off its foundation. People devestated. But we were there to help. We help three families take our their walls and insulation and posssessions. They were all so humbled by our work. It makes me feel good because God knows us and knows where to put us to touch the people's lives around us to also touch our own lives. And I've been touched. I've been touched by the people I've come in contact with. With our investigators, our ward members and especially the missionaries I've come in contact with. All of them have blessed my heart and I can't wait to continue to learn and grow in the gospel. The final house we helped, one of the brothers blessed the house and the spirit in that prayer was so strong and the family that we helped were all crying after the prayer. And I know that was the spirit working. And it's amazing to see those miracles happen every day.

I gave a training in District meeting on how the Book of Mormon testifies of Jesus Christ today. It was kind of scary because it was my first training but I learned so much from it. It's crazy, and I know that whenever someone gives us a talk or a training opportunity, we will gain so much more from it than those we talk to. The Lord knows what we need and certain points and that was definitely something I needed to realize. The Book of Mormon truly testifies so much of Christ. The words in the Book are words from the ancient prophets and testify to us that Jesus Christ lives and that he will come again and that if we do the little things, have faith, repent, be baptized and endure to the end, keep the commandments we will gain and have eternal life. I'm so grateful for everything I've learned so far on my mission and can't wait to pour out my testimony to those who I come in contact with.

It was been an amazing week and I'm starting to get the hang of things. I mentioned before but Sister Dicou is leaving this next week and I'm really sad. She's been such a huge example to me and has taught me so much. This transfer flew by and I know I could have done a better job and putting my all into this work. But I'm continually striving to be more like Christ and center my life on him and I know that if you all do that you will be more happy than you can imagine. So I challenge you to become more Christlike and I know you will come closer to God. Also, mother and father, you should get a preach my gospel booklet and study it. The words and activities in there are not just for missionaries but for all members of the church. Every member a missionary. So I challenge you to get one and study the words that are in there.

As for housekeeping. The salsa has been delicious! Thank you and we did have chips on hand. I thought you made the bag and I know you'd love Cary if you met her, mom. She's so fantastic. We're actually going over there tonight to make cookies and eat soup and teach her tonight so I can't wait for that. And Thank you Jody for the pictures. I knew they were from you. :) I love that you have been serving so much mom. It makes you feel good when you do huh? Even the little things count. I'm SO EXCITED FOR SARAH JACKSON! Please tell her congrats from me. She's going to do so amazing.

Cary (the quilt lady) answered my prayer. I wrote Kimber and asked her which beanie would be good for them so I got some ideas in my mind. i can't wait to send them out to you guys.

You'll have to get me the name for Annie's in laws because I can give them a referral. I don't think I'll ever serve in Jersey City because it is a spanish area but those Hermana's would love it if I gave them a referral. So If you could get me the name I'd love that! I know Camille told me a little bit about them and maybe if I went on an exchange there I could visit them.

The church is true! God lives and Jesus atone for us. I'm so grateful for the plan of salvation and know we can return and live with them again through Christ. This work is great. I've had amazing opportunities already and can't wait to have more. I know I leave a lot out but I'm short on time. Any word on the GPS as well? Love you mucho! Take care. Miss all of you! You are amazing. Tell everyone hello.

Love,

Sister Taylor

Service Picture and More

 Debris from Hurricane Sandy

 Ye must build your foundation on the rock. Whereon, if men build they cannot fail.

 Sister Christine Taylor and Hermana Soto

 House with power lines down on the roof

 Before cleanup

During cleanup with Sister Swann

After cleanup from water damage.



Seesterly Love

SHODY!!!!!!! I luff you so much. Hope everything is going good.

On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 4:45 PM, Anne Taylor wrote:

this is Jody on moms kindle here with tacy in my arms and grant asleep in your room. we love you and are so proud of you!!! keep up your great work seester!!!
Sent from my Kindle Fire

Pictures after Hurricane

One Crazy Week

Mom and Dad, 

Thank you so much for the letters! And especially the package! I loved it and it was so good to finally hear from you guys again. I'm so grateful for you mom and for making those packages and sending SALSA! I know Sister Dicou is happy about that. One question, did you make that halloween bag?? its so cute! All the sisters loved it as well and along with all the pictures of Grant so THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I can't say it enough. Woof. Here it goes, I hope I can get everything out. Dad, yes I did get all the pictures of Tacy and those crazy people I call my siblings and Tacy looks so big, definitely grown up a lot since I've been gone. It's kinda crazy how much Grant and Tacy have changed but they're still adorable. All the pictures of Grant I love and will be showing them off to everyone. Already showed them off to the sisters that have been staying with us.

 

I can't believe Bishop Ostler is the NEW STAKE PRESIDENT! That's incredible, he's such an amazing man and so close to the spirit. He's going to do so great. I hope Camille and Sarah have put their papers in for their missions. They have to get out here and start preaching the gospel. :)

 

 We have gotten to do a little bit of service but President Jeppson wants us to still focus on proselyting. That's number one but we have got to do service around our areas. The gas crisis isn't too bad anymore which is great but there still is a lot of clean up to do that we will probably start helping with next week. I can't wait for that. Last saturday though we did get to go do some tree cutting and picking up trees from the hurricane. We were driving up this one hill to turn arond in a cul-d-sac and I saw this lady taking trees to the curb on their very steep hill. I said he needed to stop and so us 6 sisters that were there and 2 elders got out and started helping her. She was so touched we stopped and helped her. She definitely would have fallen down the hill at one point if we didn't go and help her so I was so happy we got to. After we were done she had tears rolling down her face because she was so grateful. That is what service is all about, forgetting yourself and serving your brothers and sisters. I want you guys to all find someone to serve this week and serve them. Do nice things for them. I know it will bless you and it will bless them. After we went to a part member families house and they had a lot of trees down so there were chainsaws and ax's and saws that we all helped getting this tree cleaned up. I got to chop the tree with an ax and let me tell ya, you can get a lot of anger out by doing that. I'll send pictures of the tree. It was huge. It's crazy to drive down the street and see all the destruction, it's crazy to know that just wind can do that. We've heard a little bit about the next storm coming but Sister Dicou and I have been so fortunate and have power and everything we need. The Lord has definitely been blessing us and I'm so grateful for that. Mom, we do live in the same complex as the Elders and that's why it was so easy stealing the mattresses. Our apartment is fine and everything is about back to normal. Just a lot of clean up still. They said the clean up will be going on all the way until Dec. 22 so we'll see about that. :/

Next question to answer is how big my area is...if you find on the map our area is the Parsippany area. We live in Morristown but our area covers Parsippany all the way down to Chatham. It's pretty cool, we share the ward with the Elders. Thursday is walking day. It's our car fast throughout the whole mission and it's nice to be able to get out and walk. I hope I have answered all the questions. It's been such a crazy hectic week but it's slowly getting back to normal.

The sisters stayed with us for a week and a day and left today. It's crazy how God works. He knew we all had to meet and grow so much from each other and I know that's true. My testimony was strengthened so much from those Sisters and I honestly can call them my best friends. They're absolutely amazing. I love them so much, but it'll be nice to finally get back to work. I'm really starting to get the hang of it. I'm feeling more confident in the lessons. We've really been working hard and our investigators has increased so much. We had so many new investigators and I can't wait to start teaching them so they can become closer to Christ. We have one progressing investigator but I haven't sat down and taught a lesson to her yet but we're hoping to soon. We have one man with a baptismal date but I think it's going to be pushed back because of the hurricane. We met this amazing family on Sunday and they are prepared to accept the gospel. We went and visited them in the dark because the power was out but we had such a spiritual lesson with them. They're from India. We talked about what we teach and then had some amazing Indian food. Chicken kabobs, red curry and nan. It was so INCREDIBLE! The Lord has really been blessing us with amazing people in our paths.

Yesterday was the most spiritual experience I've had on my mission thus far. We went to go out and teach and find people and knocked on a potentials door and she welcomed all of us in. It was Sister Dicou, Sister Lowry and myself. We got into her house and asked if we wanted hot chocolate and of course, since we were cold we accepted. She had us sit down on the couch and tucked us in one of her homemade quilts! Mom, you would love her. She used to quilt and now she cross-stitches the cutest things. She made such cute little beanies for babies and I want her to make some for Grant and Tacy because they are so cute. She makes the beanies look like apples, and bees, and peas and stuff. It's kind of hard to explain but they're adorable. Now, this lady, is SOO prepared to accept the gospel in her life. She's been prepared for a very long time. She has a friend that's a member that did such great fellowshipping. She's been to the open house of the Boston temple and the spirit was so strong throughout the whole lesson with her. She has a grandson thats 2 1/2 and such a cute little boy. I shared a scripture with her that I read in personal study and it immediately made me think of our family. It's Mosiah 18:21 and it says: "And he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in lvoe one towards another." I feel that family is such an important part of our lives and I've said it before but I've taken my family for granted. But I feel as we all strive to become one we will be blessed. Our hearts should all been knit together and have such a strong love for one another. As I shared that she said thank you and then went off on how she's noticed how important family is in our religion. We don't just have our immediate family but we have our community or church family. I know that we can all become closer when we all are striving to become one. That's something I've learned so far. And you better believe I will be working on that as soon as I get home. Is strengthening our family :)

A few more items of business: how is the ward doing? How is Melissa and Barry? I'd love to hear from them and Brad and Elly as well. How is family prayer going?

I hope I included everything. Yes, our toilet did get clogged but it was from the storm and they got it all figured out. We had to dump water (poopy and sewer stuff) from the tub because it was filling up quick. It was disgusting.

 

This church is true. Things are coming together here. We have a lot of potential investigators and I can't wait to see them progress. I know prayer is real. God is waiting to talk to us. The Book of Mormon is true. Our focus this month is on the Book of Mormon and I've already gained such a stronger testimony of the word in the Book. They are the words of the prophet in the olden times. I know Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. I know he translated the Book of Mormon. And I know we have apostles and our Prophet, President Monson, to teach us what we need to know in our day today. I'm grateful for you guys and the constant support you are giving me. It truly is touching and I seriously couldn't do it without your support. I love you so much! And I'll be emailing you hopefully on Monday next week. You guys are all fantastic. Remember to pray and read your scriptures. You WILL come closer to Chirst.

Love,

Sister Taylor

 

News from NJ after Hurricane Sandy

GUYS GUYS GUYS!!! I'm alive! Woo Hoo! What a few couple of days it has been. I don't even know where to begin. Crazy stories thats for sure. Cleaning poop from the tub/toilet, trying to steal a couch from the Elders, having 4 more sisters stay at our house, and cleaning up the crazy mess.

 I dont have a whole lot of time so this one might be a tad bit short but hopefully I'll be able to catch up a lot. We started hearing about it on Thursday and kinda making some preparations but not a whole lot. We didn't know exactly what was going on because....no electronics. No TV no nothin!

 Tuesday we had a district meeting and went and visited members and had dinner with them. The ward here is incredible. They are so nice and so awesome. Wednesday was so cool! We were up in Parsippany and we were walking around trying to find someone to find and so as we were walking Sister Dicou said: "Okay, pick a number?" So I said: "Okay, um 13." And then she said okay "Letter A". So we were at an apartment complex and went to go find 13A. As we found it we walked up to the door and saw a Romney Ryan sign in his door. As we knocked on this door a man came out. We started talking with him and found out he plays the organ for the Catholic church and very good at playing the piano. We continued talking and then got a return appointment with him. As we walked away we were so excited and so happy we found a new investigator. Sadly enough, we were supposed to go back on Monday but it was the middle of the storm so we couldn't go back but we're planning on it. Anyway, that was awesome. Thursday was walking day and we did our regular appointments and then found another new investigator. It was incredible. That sunday before the week we fasted to find new people to teach and we found almost one new investigator everyday. It's incredible to see that fasting really work when we fast for a purpose.

So I'm going to skip to this week because I'm almost out of time. Sunday we were teaching and got word that some Sisters in Jersey City were going to have to be exacuated and as well as some Sisters in New Brunswick. So we got 4 new sisters in our apartment. Of course we needed to get a couple more mattresses so we went and stole them from the Elders apartment because they were going to stay at the mission home. I carried a mattress up by myself which was pretty cool. I have pictures but I'll have to send them next week. After that we thought we had a great 'strategy' and go and steal the couch from the Elders because theirs was so much better than ours. So, we carried down our couch, (took a Friends shot on it) and carried it up to their apartment. Little did we know their big couch wouldn't fit outside the door. So it was stuck, it was hilarious and so much fun. Moral of that story: don't move anything until you have a "strategy". It was so great. Monday we were cooped up in the house and couldn't leave AT ALL. We got kinda crazy. But we made flautas, smoothies and then pumpkin chocolate chip cookies because we still had power. The storm started coming around 6 with strong winds and rains. It started getting dark and I introduced Grant the Game to them. THEY LOVED IT! We were playing and all of a sudden the power went out. We went into a brown out (really dim lighting) But didn't lose complete power. THANKFULLY. The storm continued all through the night and I did see a tree fall right outside our apartment that pulled down a power line. It was crazy to see the damage but it reminded me of the wind storm. We went to bed with loud winds. The next morning we woke up and were all just hanging out in the room and all of a sudden heard this HUGE BOOM! Another power line out. It was crazy. We had to stay inside Tuesday as well. We started going crazy, played more Grant the Gam and never have I ever. Wednesday we finally got to LEAVE! And we went to the mission home and showered and then went and did service. We actually didn't do any but yesterday we got to finally help move trees and rake leaves. We got awesome pictures that I will send next week.

 

I can't wait to get out and serve more people. This is what I love to do. I can't wait. The sisters that have been staying with us are incredible. Sister Lowry (from Canada :) ), Sister Santos from Florida, Sister Herrera (from Arizona) and Sister Petersen (from California) They are all spanish Hermanas and so great.

Oh yeah, and we're definitely in a state of emergency, gas lines are crazy long just to get gas because the power is out all over and people are using generators to function. We waited an hour in a half for gas today. It was madness and still is.

But I'm okay and well. I've been having a headache for quite a while now and getting sick, but i'm functioning and trying to do the best work I can. I'm grateful for your prayers and all the support.

The church is true. New Jersey is great and beautful and I love you all.

I will send pictures next week. I'm sorry I haven't gotten back. We got to come to the mission home and email so I'm grateful for the President.