Of course, another great week.

This week has been so amazing! We had so much to do. Trainings teaching laughing and so much more. Monday was the day the new missionaries got here. SO MANY NEW MISSIONARIES! 26 to be total and half of them were Sisters. It's so exciting to get so many sisters. I love it. It was a cold fear buster again but it was great. I fear busted a girl named Sister Varble from Harrisville and she did go great. It's so awesome to see these young missionaries be so prepared to share the gospel. We gave out a Book of Mormon and it was great. I love doing the fear busters. It was cold like I said and it started snowing pretty bad. We carpooled down to Newark with the Fardale sisters and went to get something to eat after. While we were eating we got a text from the Zone Leaders telling us we couldn't drive anymore so it looked like we were going to stay at the Fardale Sisters apartment. Which we did. We didn't have any clothes and no bedding but it was still great. It was fun. Those sisters are a lot of fun. The roads were pretty bad too but don't you worry. I was careful and we got back to their apartment safely. Lets just say my nights sleep wasn't the most comfy. I didn't have a pillow but it's all good.

Tuesday it was transfer conference but since sister Ward and I weren't going we were able to go and visit our investigator. We traveled back to our apartment and then went and visited Jackie. We taught her the Restoration, and I couldn't focus that great because her son was yelling but it's okay. Sister Ward extended a baptismal invitation but she interrupted her and said something about her family in Haiti. But she says she wants to get baptized so we just have to get down to business. We also got to meet a Less-Active members on Tuesday and it was really good to meet her. She was at the Relief Society dinner on Saturday night so it was great. We got to go eat dinner with Mike and Carol (the ones from the airplane) and we had a really good time. Dad, you'd enjoy Mike's company. I walked into their house and he had animals posted up on the wall. I took a picture so I'll send it. They are such a great family. They asked so many questions about the church. And we had some good italian food. Pasta and bread and oh it was yummy. Their daughter, Lucy, got home and she was really excited to meet us. She started asking so many questions and it was a really good time. She's into family history which is so rad. She's heard about the library in SLC and wants to visit there. I really hope we can continue to teach them because they'd be such strong members. I took a picture with them and I'll send that as well.

Wednesday we had a great district meeting. Our zone kinda got switched up and got more SISTERS! We're mostly in the same district but Sister Wright and Boshard are now in our district. Sister Wright is going home soon. (And Jody, she said she's going to come to your house, just so she can hold Grant.) Just saying :) We had to drop a new investigator because she was a J-Dub and was a missionary for them for a long time. She just wanted to preach to us, so I was pretty bold and told her we could get out of her house right then. I need to be more loving....But it needed to happen. I'm not here to waste the Lord's time. I need to find the elect and prepared. We met a very nice woman outside of a apartment complex and gave her a Book of Mormon and she was curious to read it. We'll see what happens. :)

Thursday we taught another one of our investigators and she's such a sweet heart. Sister Ward committed her to baptism but she doesn't understand why she needs to be re-baptized but we'll resolve that. She's so nice and read so much of the Book of Mormon already. It was supposed to be our walking day but our area is so big so after that we went to an area and checked on all the ward members. None of them were interested or home. But we did have the sweet opportunity to be right on the shore line of the Hudson river and see the Tappan Zee Bridge. It was gorgeous. Definitely going back down there! :) \

Friday and Saturday were definitely exactly what I needed right at this point in my mission. We had Leadership Training both days from 8-4 and boy were they long but fantastic! We woke up early at 5:30 both days to get down to Morristown in time. We carpooled with the Fardale Sisters again which was great. The trainings were awesome and we did a ton of role plays and gained so much revelation for the people in our area. It was long but so good. There was a lot of snacks and lunch and just being with all the new missionaries was great! I'm so impressed my the new missionaries and what they know. It was long but I'm so grateful for it. It helped me understand that just the basics are enough. We had the Relief Society dinner on Saturday night we went to and it was awesome to be there with a lot of the sisters. I love this ward so much!

Sunday was great too! I love partaking of the sacrament. The lessons were great and I felt the spirit so strongly. We went to sing with the Elderly and have the Talent Show this upcoming week. I'm so excited to participate in that and be able to sing a Easter hymn and well as some other songs with the Elderly. We went and visited a member of our ward that has been sick and had a really good lesson with her. Her daughter fed us Palau from Trinidad and Tobago. It was so delicious! We then went to a part member families home and the member wasn't there but we taught the non member the restoration. There were some distractions with her kids but we extended a baptismal invitation with her as well but she doesn't understand why she needs to be re-baptized. She's ready though.

I'm grateful for my mission. I'm grateful to be where I am and to be who I am. I'm a daughter of God. He loves me and cares about me so much! I've been reading in Mosiah this week and the scriptures are so powerful. Mosiah is probably my favorite book. I love King Benjamin. I know it's the word of God. Abinadi was the man. Being able to give up his life because he wouldn't go contrary to the commandments. What faith. I know I'm strengthening my faith being out here. As well as my testimony in general. Thanks for all the support you give me. I love you all so much! Until next week. :)

Love,
Sister Taylor

 

Elder Christofferson visits

Well what a stinkin great week it has been in the NJMM! For real though. An exchange, an all mission conference with ELDER D TODD CHRISTOFFERSON! Stake conference with him as well and great teaching experiences! I love being a missionary!
First off, on Monday we headed down to Mo-town and played some basketball with the Elders. There's a Sister here, Sister Nelson that played in high school so we played with them for probably 5 games until my team lost! But it was a lot of fun playing with the elders. I made some lucky shots that I think impressed some of the Elders. Haha but that's all I'm going to say about that. Oh yes. And I did recieve the package and I want to thank for you the salsa and also for the treats! I can't wait to color eggs. And the cadbury eggs. I had a feeling there was going to be some in there so I didn't bother buying my own! So thank you mom! But anyway we had a great week! I love how God knows who we are. He knows what we need every single day of our lives.
Tuesday we had our district meeting and it was fabulous. We were suprised when President and Sister Jeppson walked in but it's always such a treat to see them. We had an exchange with Fardale after district meeting and so I went to Fardale with Sister Nelson and Sister Ward stayed up here and manned the area! And she definitely did a great job! I love Sister Ward so much! We really have so much fun together! We're constantly laughing and I love that she's from Kaysville too! We're definitely going to be way good friends after the mission! Woo! But the exchange was so great! Sister Nelson and I went and visited a less active lady and the spirit we felt with her was so great! She started to cry and I've never had that happen before yet on my mission. I love the spirit that I felt. We invited her to the Stake Conference with Elder Christofferson and I don't know if she was there but she has such a strong desire to get back to church. Definintely knew I needed to meet her for some reason. Then we went and met an investigator Mary Ann and she's awesome! She came to the stake conference. After we went to the Relief Society President's house for dinner and she is such an incredible lady. She's way awesome. Then we went to teach a Recent Convert and taught him about the priesthood. Every single person I met I was strengthened by them. I'm so grateful for the people put into my life. The next day we went and visited another girl, Sophie, that went to audition at Ballet West in Utah. She's a recent convert and just ingulfed the gospel. I loved meeting with her. Sister Nelson is incredible too. We're like the same! Both basketball players and just have a lot in common! I love all the new sisters coming out and we get to go to the fear buster today again to welcome in the new missionaries. 5 Fear Busters in 5 transfers! Woo hoo! We're getting 12 sisters I believe today. Sister Ward and I are staying the same. We're not moving and I'm so happy. I seriously love Sister Ward. She's HILARIOUS!

I'm so happy to hear about Grant's birthday. He sounds like such a stud. And so funny. I can't wait to see all of you on Mother's day. It's going to be fantastic! Wednesday we had to drive down to Morristown to get a TIWI :( Luckily, I mean, it was too bad it didn't end up working. :) We have to get it fixed sometime. We've been driving down to Morristown a lot. That pretty much took up the rest of our Wednesday.

Thursday we did our Weekly Planning and cleaned our apartment. It's always nice to have a good clean apartment. We got a new senior couple, I don't know if I told you, The Kays from Bountiful and they are so great. We got to attend one of our investigators play she was in and so Thursday night we went with some of our ward members to go to the play. They took us out to Chinese food and then payed for our tickets for the play. The play was The WIZ and it was awesome! It was really well done, the people all had good voices. I bought a shirt for a souvenior and I'll probably send it back...Tivynna (our investigator) did so good! She didn't play a huge part but she did say something. Her face was awesome when she saw we were there to support her. We're really excited to continue to work with her. Oh and PS we already have plans for Easter. The Michel's (who took us to the play) invited us over for Easter Dinner. I'm so excited! They're great!

Friday was a good day. We got to teach quite a few people. Well more than usual. Teaching last week was slow. But we're trying. I definitely know that there's so much more we could be doing. I've been lazy a little bit and talked with Sister Ward and we're changing and going to work so much harder. But we went and taught one of our new invesitgators, Oliguina, and she's sweet. She talked most of the time but we'll get to her, hopefully. We went and practiced our song for the Talent Show and it's going to be on March 30. It's going to be so great. We have had a name of a former investigator who we've been trying to catch and Friday we finally got a hold of her. We went to her house and started talking to her. Her son came to "interrogate" us but it was just for jokes. She had just recently got into a car accident. We were talking to her as if we've been friends for quite some time. We went over and it was the house that the boys were playing basketball out in the front yard and I asked if I could shoot it. It was her kids. I challenged the one to a one-on-one and said if I win he has to start reading the Book of Mormon. I won. And so hopefully he really does start to read it. It was pretty funny. We kept insisting on helping her clean up her house and since she had just gotten into a car accident her back really wasn't good. So we helped her fold laundry dust and do the dishes. She was so grateful for us. She answered the phone and told whoever she was on the phone with that "God sent me three angels (we had a team up) to help me clean". It was so great hearing that she appreciated our help. It was fantastic getting to know her and hopefully we can really help her come closer to God.

Saturday was a pretty incredible day. We met Elder D Todd Christofferson. I shook his hand. The things he had to say were so amazing. It really helped me focus and re focus my efforts on this work. His testimony on the Savior was so simple but so profound and sincere. I loved being able to be in the room of an Apostle of the Lord. That doesn't happen everyday. But we got to hear him yesterday as well. I took some great notes that I'll share with you when I get back. Haha I'm truly blessed by being out here on my mission.

Sunday like I said we had a Stake Conference with Elder Christofferson and it was so great! He told the men. "We need to step it up." I loved that. But I don't think just the men. All of us....need to step it up. Sunday night we had a great lesson with a less active and committed him to read and pray again. It was cool to see the spirit work in him and he said "I'm going to try." I loved it and hopefully he can really see how much God loves him and help him come back to church.

As I was reading in my scriptures this past week it was been so great. I just finished 2 Nephi but this weekend I was reading all the Isaiah Chapters and those are hard for me. But I noticed that it had a particular phrase four different times in a matter of a few short verses. And it was "his hand is stretched out still." I absolutely love that. No matter what mistakes we make in life, no matter if we slack off a little bit, no matter what, God's hand is stretched out still. He cares about us and loves us so much. Individually. And I'm so grateful for my Heavenly Father's love for me. I know he loves me. I know Christ died for me. I'm so grateful for the gospel in my life. I love it so much.

I'm grateful for all of your examples to me. I truly look up to each and every one of you. Thanks for the continued support and love. I really couldn't do it with out you all! This upcoming week, we're going back to Mike and Carol's house and I can't wait to see them again. God puts people in our path. I know that! I love you all and hope you all have such a great week!

Love,
Sister C. Taylor :)

 

Well hello and thank you for all your letters! I truly appreciate them! And thank you dad for your letter! I truly appreciate hearing from all of you!

Well to let you know we're back in Morristown doing emails because we're having a basketball tourney thingy today and so I thought we'd come down a little early and do emails. Plus I can get the pictures you've sent me onto my zip disk because I can't in New City. So it's all good. Feels weird to be back and know it's not my area anymore but it's still exciting!

This week we have the amazing privilage to have Elder Christofferson and Elder Callister here to speak to us. It's going to be such an incredible experience to hear from one of our Heavenly Father's apostles. That's on Saturday! I'm super pumped! Awh so cool.

I did get word also that your package you sent mom has arrived safely. Thank you so much for that!

Alright. Now to last week. It was a lot different than usual. We had a couple days where we didn't teach any lessons, because we were at specialized training all day Wednesday and there was a snow storm on Thursday to Friday and we were a little sketched out to drive but more about that later. Last p day it was nice. Our cute little neighbor Anne took us to a couple stores to get some food. She took us to a nice produce market and we loaded up on the fruits and veggies. Holla! We visited her later in the week to see how she was doing and right before we left she said "now, stop trying to save my soul." We're working really slow with her haha. She's great. We also got permission to attend a play one of our investigators is in this week and we're very excited. We are really hoping that she sees we really care and support her and hopefully that'll encourage her to baptism!

Tuesday was zone meeting and it was fantastic. Our monthly focus as a mission is Faith and I couldn't be more happy. Sister Ward and I need A LOT of faith to find those prepared people. But we're eager and excited. Oh yeah, and since it was daylight savings time we feel a lot more safe at night so that's good. Tuesday we went to have dinner with the bishop and talk to him about his goals for the ward and also our goals. He kinda wants us tracting and knocking on doors all day but that isn't exactly what we have in mind. Missionary work truly comes from the members and their efforts and that's what we're trying to go for. We're so ready and excited to start really getting to work. Like I said on Wednesday we had specialized training and it was so good! I love hearing from President and Sister Jeppson whenever they talk. It was fun to see all the new missionaries and it's just going to get bigger than this! It's so exciting. The Lord is truly hastening his work! Wednesday night we heard of a bad snow storm coming in but it didn't start until Thursday of course....walking day.

We did our weekly planning and then went out to go check up on some people. In the snow...it wasn't too cold which was good but it was wet. And my boots aren't the best winter boots but it's a-okay! We walked quite a bit and then we went and met the new senior couple in New City. Elder and Sister Kay from Bountiful Utah! They're awesome and ready to work. (She waterproofed my boots!) We ate tacos with them for dinner and talked about the ward.

Friday it was still snowing and I couldn't believe it when I woke up. It snowed for so long but these past two days have been absolutely gorgeous! Up in the 60's. I can't wait for spring to really come. I hope that was the last snow storm. We really wanted to get a basis for the 15 page ward list we had so we took time on Friday and called every number we have...that took quite some time and lets just say...we left a lot of messages! That night we went and visited some ward members which was great. I really love this ward!

Saturday the Elders had a baptism and so we attended that. It was awesome to see two young kids enter the waters of baptism. I love seeing people being baptized into the church. It's just so great! They had a little fiesta after and we served the food to the people. The food was really good! Dominicans know how to cook. :)

Sunday we spoke in sacrament on the third article of faith. I talked about obedience to the laws and ordinances part of the article and it was good. Sister Ward did a great job as well. I really love Sister Ward so much. It's been so fun training her. She's so easy to get along with and she's hilarious! I just love her so much! We also gave the lesson in sharing time for the senior primary and that was fun. We talked about the third article of faith again. I love and can see why you love teaching the kids mom. They're great! After church we went and sang with the elderly because we're going to be in their talent show. We practiced I know that My Redeemer Lives and I'm pretty sure the spirit touched everyone in the singing group. I can't wait to record the talent show and send it so you can watch it! They are an awesome bunch! We are going to sing Jeremiah was a Bullfrog for them too but we're going to change the lyrics. :) I'm so excited!

This week I have been reading about the Tree of Life and finished 1 Nephi. I love reading the Book of Mormon everyday. It truly guides us and comforts us in our lives. I read one verse that has stuck out to me 1 Nephi 15:24. I know that if we read from the Book of Mormon every single day of our lives, we will never fall away. We will be so much more happy and want to help others. That's my little spiritual thought this week. I'm so grateful for the blessing this gospel has provided me. On Wednesday I was talking to President about having to change and go to a completely new area. And I told him, I love it. Everything we do in life prepares us for something down the road. I'm so grateful to know that my Heavenly Father loves me, he looks out for me and protects me. I know Christ lives and he died for me. I know I can turn to him in my joy and trials. What a blessing this church is. Sometimes I don't know the words to say because I've been so blessed with the gospel in my life. I love you all so much! Thanks for the support you give me! I'll talk to you next week! Peace and Blessings!

Love,

Sister Christine Taylor

My my my. Things are so crazy when you're on a mission! I fill like I have so much so say. I also feel like I say that every week! Before I forget, this past week when we were doing our mormon.org I saw an announcement that they opened up 58 missions! Holy! And some popped out to me....they are opening up a California Bakersfield mission (HOLLA!) and a mission in Idaho Nampa! That's so crazy and I'm so excited for the Lord truly hastening his work! I gave a lot of names to a lady in the ward, I think I told you last week of people in Bakersfield I knew because her son is there on his mission. It's exciting! I love missionary work! I just want to thank everyone for emailing me and recieving letters from people this week have been so great. I love all your support. I got a nice letter from Melissa and I can just see our relationship growing so much from writing! I love it!
I know I have a lot of pictures to send off this week so I hope I can get everything situated.
On Monday we had P-day of course and went to this HUGE mall. It has a Merry-go-round in it! Haha it was pretty sweet. You all might know I have a little obsession with baby clothes and seeing that Grant's birthday is coming up soon I went kinda a little crazy. But I hope you got the package and hope Grant enjoys his birthday presents! I love that little G so much! But that was fun then we went to Eli and Emanuel's house with the Elders and talked about the Holy Ghost which they got yesterday! That was cool to witness that! I will say that this week was pretty tough! We are really trying to find new investigators but they don't seem to be where we're going. We've searched a lot of places and no luck. We keep getting sketched out by the darkness outside. We actually had a pretty frightful experience I will share later on in the email. But we're alive and safe....it's crazy because "we're just two little girls [from Utah]" Hope you family members laugh at that! Hahaha but anyway. We had district meeeting on Tuesday. It was great. I love district meeetings. The spirit is always so strong there. We had an appointment soon after so we had to rush back to get there in time. We picked up Sister Sanchez! The best team up ever and she came with us. She's from Costa Rica and I'm wondering where Nick served because I'm wondering if he served where her family is....Anyway we went to this guy. Brother Peter (used to be the bat boy for the Yankee's) and it was really good. We read the Book of Mormon with him and she later told us, Thanks so much for bringing her with us because she's trying to work on her english and it's good practice for her. We're so grateful for her and love her so much! We went and dropped her off, she works at a Herbalife club thingy and we weighed ourselves and tested a lot of other things.....my results say I'm like a 28 year old! And Sister Ward is like a 12 year old. That made me feel bad so I committed myself to no more fast food! Believe it or not! I'm going to do it! I'm kinda excited about it actually! We'll see... So anyway Tuesday night...one of the scariest nights on my mission by far. We wanted to get the rest of our things organized in our apartment and we had an appointment at 7, but we decided if the appointment didn't go through (which it didn't) we'd quickly run to Walmart and get the last things we needed to get completely organized in our new place. So that was the plan. We went to the kids house and he wasn't there. So we planned to go to Walmart right, well I just wanted to check and see how close some other people lived to him and sure enough they lived right now the street. So we went to go see if they were home. My stomach was hurting me a little bit but as we pulled into the driveway I said a prayer (like we also do) before going to see if they were home. I kept asking for protection in the prayer, and I don't know why. But I ended the prayer and asked how Sister Ward was feeling and she said fine but if I feel not good then we should go. I thought it was just my stomach that was hurting and not the Holy Ghost so we went to go knock on the door. We knocked and I thought I heard someone asked who was it but nothing. So Sister Ward asked if she should knock again and I told her yes. It was kinda loud because the house was on a main road but Sister Ward said right after she knocked she felt prompted we needed to leave so I wasn't complaining. Right as soon as we got down from the stairs I felt prompted to just tell her to get into the car but I didn't want to make a big scene because there was a guy walking down the street. So I didn't tell her anything and jumped into the car and made eye contact with this guy and then all of a sudden I see Sister Ward jump into the front seat. She got the same prompting to get in the car as I did. We quickly backed up and got out of there. I was shaking and didn't feel good at all in Spring Valley. But we got out of there safe and I asked Sister Ward to say a prayer which comforted us. I'm SO grateful for the Holy Ghost in my life. For the protection and comfort it is. I don't know what would've happened if she didn't jumped into the car but I'm grateful she listened to the promptings as well. I know the Holy Ghost is a protection for us and we need to heed to all the promptings we get! I think that's why we kinda get scared at night. But all is well no worries!
Wednesday was great. We met a guy named Richard and he talked to us for 45 minutes. He is a "man of God" and kept telling us "I'mma be honest..." It was a pretty funny contact. He was interested in the Book of Mormon so we gave him one and he told us "I'll see ya, when I see ya." He was a great guy. Pretty funny. We went to a members house and had orange floats and then went to basketball that night. We only played one game because we were late but it's great playing with these young men...a lot of them are non-members and some are so it's cool to be there and be an example to them.
Thursday was walking day. It was a lot better than the last one. Didn't walk as much as last week, thank goodness. We went to the Relief Society Presidents house and she fed us a dominican dish called Mangu and boy was it delicious! Sister Ward and I devoured it. It was so yummy. Made out of plantains. MMMMM!!!! :)
Friday was another fun day. We had Sister Sanchez come out with us again. She such a great missionary and can speak spanish so she got like 3 appointment for the Elders. We went to go visit a former investigator and we got to the house and there were three boys playing basketball outside. These are the most awkward contacts but as we got to the house they were all playing basketball and I asked for the ball. (remember I'm in my skirt and church shoes) And I shot the ball and made it. They were like "who are you?" And all this stuff it was pretty funny. They kept passing the ball back and I kept shooting it. Unfortunately there mom wasn't there but they were pretty impressed I could make a shot. The youngest one was like "She's better than dad." It was funny. We went and tried back but she wasn't home again. But we'll keep trying her. We also went and sang with the Elderly to practice for the Talent Show which is going to be so AWesome! Sister Ward and I are going to sing something but we're not quite sure yet but it's going to be great. More deets later. We took Sister Sanchez home and as we were driving I saw a squirrel cross the road and so I yelled "squirrel!" Sister Sanchez said "I uh. I think somethings wrong with you..." We busted up laughing after we dropped her off. I'm kinda crazy and loud and that's just gotten worse as I've been out here. But oh well....
Saturday we were really looking for new investigators to find so Sister Ward suggested if there's a red house with a black door we're stopping. And sure enough we found a red house with a black door. We got to the door and knocked and the lady came out and said "we're Jewish....and practicing. Thanks" (Kinda rude) But it was funny that we actually found that kinda house. We went to another ladies house which we thought a member lived in and we got to the door and asked if she was Brittany and she said no and so Sister Ward asked her name and she replied "I don't need to tell you my name." Rudely again. But it was funny. We kinda just shrugged it off.
Yesterday we had our first actual dinner appointment with ward members. We went to the Rodriguez family and had ribs and potatoes and veggies. And boy was it delicious! I loved it so much! Yummy! We went and visited Anne and she's going to show us some stores we should shop at today. She's crazy but I love her so much.
I finished reading the Book of Mormon this week and you know what.....it's still TRUE! I love reading the Book of Mormon and have started reading it again. I'm focusing on gratitude and thankfulness this time as I read and I'm so excited! I love the Book of Mormon. I love praying to my Heavenly Father. The church is so true! I'm so grateful to be a missionary for my Heavenly Father here in New City, New York. It's been such a blessing and I've already grown so much.
Sister Morrison told me that yesterday Julio, Melissa and Sarah Perez all bore there testimonies and it truly made me feel so good. Julio mentioned how much he loved the sister missionaries and it's so cool to see that I truly made an impact on their lives and now they're looking towards getting to the temple now. I'm so grateful for this work. I'm changing people's lives but also my own. I love it so much! Thanks for all your support! I couldn't do it without all of you. I love you all!

Love,
Sister Taylor

First full week in New City, NY

Thank you for the wonderful letters! I appreaciate getting them every week. This week had moments of ups and downs but the end of the week turned out really great!   I forgot to mention last week I hit my 5 month mark on the day I was writing to you guys! Crazy 5 Months

Now to this week! What an amazing week it was. Before I forget after emails on Tuesday we went to go visit some members. I love them so much they are fantastic! But after that, do you remember me telling you about the couple on the plane that I gave the Book of Mormon too? Well I got there address so I could write them and see how the reading was going. When I was in Morristown I kept thinking I needed to write them a little letter but I didn't have time to, but when I got to the New City area, I thought "who knows maybe they live up here in my area" I pulled out my address book and sure enough, they live in my area!!!! I got so happy it was so cool. So we decided to go and see if they were there. As we pulled up to the house there was a light on. We went up to the door and knocked and Mike opened up the door. We both got so excited! Big huge smiles! I asked him how everything was going and everything! Ahhhhh I was so happy. I asked if he had read any more of the book but because the print was so small I gave him another one. He was so happy to see me! And I was so happy to see him. He said that just in that little 5 hour flight I made an impact on him and his wife's life. That was so cool to hear. Just my example is being seen. We continued to talk and asked if we could come back and he said most definitely he even said he'd cook Italian food for us! Holla! His wife wasn't home but we said a prayer with him and right as soon as we were going to leave she pulled up so we waited for her. He opened up the door and said "guess who it is?!" And she said "is it who I think it is" came running to the door and gave me a big hug. She proceeded to say that I impacted their lives. It melted my heart! It was so cool. So we don't have a return appointment yet but we're absoutely going to go back. I told him to start reading the Book of Mormon and he said he would! How cool would that be to have them be baptized!? Finding them on my way out here. Small world! I love it! That was the highlight of my day!

Wednesday was one of the worst days I've had on my mission. 0 lessons. We tried so many people and nobody was interested. it's interesting though to me, as I've been studying hope this month, there were little moments I got down but hope is the assurance something is going to happen, it is linked with patient perserverance. It was interesting because we went down to a ladies house we had the biggest impression to go to. She wasn't there so we left a note. We didn't understand why we had to be there at that time but we knew we did. Come to find out she doesn't live there anymore so we left a note at a random house. That's why we were there to help them see we're thinking of them. Little miracles everyday! I love it! Wednesday night we went and played basketball with the young men. They are all Haitian and it was so much fun! A lot of them were non-members so hopefully we'll be able to start teaching some of them. It was fun playing with them. I made some pretty lucky shots that they freaked out on. Haha it's funny to me sometimes. Eli and Emanuel (the ones who got baptized yesterday) were asking me if I had played before. It's so great!

Thursday was another long day. It was weekly planning and we're still trying to get used to the area so we weekly planned for quite some time and then it was walking day. We probably walked a total of 7 miles because we didn't know how close everything was! Man alive I was so tired and so sore at the end of the day. But we found a new investigator and talked to a Dominican lady that kept telling me "oh you so gorgeous mami, oh you so cute mami, oh mami you funny!" Those are recorded in my journal for sure. She was sweet and so easy to talk to. I love her already! She speaks spanish so we gave her to the Elders. Btw mom Elder Benson is sitting right next to me. All of the Kaysville people are up here in New City. If you could remember the name that'd be sweet so we can make a connection. It's pretty funny, God put all of us Kaysville people up here in New City, along with two Mexicans. So three Kaysville-ites and two Mexicans. haha I thought it was funny!

I was so sore on Friday and my ankle really hurt. I hope I find out what's wrong with it soon. Friday was fun we went out searching again for people. We stopped at an assisted living home and visited a member. As we were talking all of a sudden all these old people start walking in then a man with a guitar. He told us they do talent shows at the place and asked us if we wanted to be in it. Haha YES! SCORE! Of course I said yes and I volunteered the Elders to do it with us. So we have to plan and practice a song and we'll be performing it in from of a lot of people at the assisted living home. I'm highly excited for this! We went to go find former investigators and ran into a guy named Jean. He said he'd be at church but he wasn't but he was nice, and Haitian. That night Eli and Emanuel had their baptismal interviews and they passed. They were so ready to be baptized. I did forget to mention to you last week that we were going to have a baptism. But we came in with them already having a date so I don't take any credit for teaching them because they were pretty much prepared. But it was fun to have a baptism yesterday.

On Saturday we went over to an investigators house and helped her clean her house for 4 hours because she's having surgery tomorrow! It was much needed. She's a haitian lady and has 3 adorable boys. She asked if we wanted to take one of them and I told her I'd be more than happy to! Little 4 year old Giovanni. Cutest little boy. Huge brown eyes! We cleaned up clothes and then ate some interesting Haitian food. And Salmon I had to gag down. :( But the noodles were good. She gave us Malta Goya to try and luckily we tried it at home. If anyone ever asked you if you want Malta Goya, please say no. I'm saving you from the trouble of the nasty smell and taste. We made a video. Unfortunately I forgot my camera cord this week So next week will be a lot of pictures! I'll take pictures of the apartment too. I love our apartment and we've made it look really classy! It's great! Also, are you going to send back that usb drive rather than me buying more and more of them? Saturday we also found another new investigator and met a Less Active and his family with cute little kids. We found 4 new investigators this week, considering we had a couple bad days. Always looking towards the positive things!

Sunday was such an incredible day! We had a baptism of two young men Eli (18) and Emanuel (17) they are cousins and are so awesome! Sunday was great. We hit a record of how many non-members in the congregation yesterday who spoke english. There were 14 non members there! It was cool to hear that. We're already making changes in this area. The baptism was great, and the food after was great too. Marjorie and her sons made it to church as well. It was good to have her there. We went and visited a member who has been sick at her house yesterday and she talked to us for quite some time but she's very sweet. We ran to see Marjorie and see how she was doing and then went home and was caught by Anne. She talked our ears off for 2 hours about everything. But she was curious about Joseph Smith because we "accidently" left a Book of Mormon in her apartment. She said she was reading a little and was just wondering more about him, but that's how it starts! She told us she'd return the Book after she had read some of it and I told her she wouldn't want to do that after she read it. Haha she's a cute old little Hungarian woman and has such a huge heart. We'll see what happens with her.

This week was tough. I can understand now, how doubling in can be tough. But I love this area! I love the people here. It's so beautiful up here. I honestly can't wait for the day when I can bring all of you back here and show you all the areas I served. I love being a missionary. I love serving my God. I've really come to know him while being out here. I love the Book of Mormon, I'm starting Ether tomorrow and then when I'm done I'll start again. I love reading it and reading all of the stories. It's incredible! I love it! I love this gospel so much. I'm grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I've concecrated myself to this work this past week. I'm done being on my time. It's the Lord's errand I'm on. I can't wait to continue to teach and testify that Jesus Christ lives. I'm so happy to be out here and I thank you for all of your support. I love you so much guys! Thanks!

Love Sister Taylor