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