Best Week Ever

Sakpasa!
Well if you think my emails have been long so far I might just break the record. By FAR one of the best weeks on my mission. Miracle after miracle after miracle and blessing after blessing after blessing. Goobs it's so great!
We will begin with Monday after I got off emailing we headed down to Caldwell to spend time with Sister Wright on her last p-day. It was really fun to see a lot of the sisters. We hung out at the chapel and just spend time together. We headed back up to New City and I was able to almost completely catch up on the letters I had to write to a few people. I love writing letters. Then we decided to head out. We had an appointment with a less active member but she wasn't home so we decided to go visit a few more less active people before going to visit our recent convert Emanuel. So we headed to a house and knocked on the door. The less active wasn't there but we asked the guy if we could talk to him about the gospel. He said he had three minutes....turned into about 15 :) We taught him a quick restoration and pulled out a Book of Mormon and committed him to read it. He said he would. He said he was finishing up school and had a couple big tests and we promised him if he read it, his tests will go easier. Monday was a beautiful day! We prayed with him and started heading back to the car. Because of the beautiful weather there were so many people outside walking we got to the sidewalk and a lady practically stopped us and was asking who we were and so we began telling her. We pulled out a pass along card and gave it to her. She was wondering why we get baptized so young but it was great! We prayed with her and a got her address out of her so we can just go "say hi" haha. Sneaky sneaky. She was awesome. Two lessons in a matter of five minutes! We decided we had a little more time to go to another less-active house. We actually had an appointment with her but we doesn't speak english. We went to the front of the house and a man came from behind and started asking us who we were and all that jazz. Another man and his son came out and we asked if the lady was there but she wasn't available. So Sister Ward asked if we could share a message. They were actually very open to it. We began teaching the Restoration. We were standing and the man made his son get us chairs so we sat down and were teaching them the gospel. We pulled out a Book of Mormon (I only had one and so did Sister Ward) and gave it to the two older guys. The young 9 year old looked at Sister Ward and asked if she had another one. We both searched in her backpack and didn't find one... We told him we could bring him another one the next day. I felt impressed to tell them that they can live with their families eternally and I think that struck a cord with them. I believe the young boy, Brent, his mother passed away and so his dad was having us reassure that he will see her again. It was really cool. We committed them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and they said they would. We were there for about an hour teaching them! We went to go see Emanuel and had a great lesson with him. On a Monday, our p-day, we ended up getting four lessons! It was incredible. It's interesting to me to see that when we pray to be better and consecrate ourselves the Lord really does bless us! I love it. As we got back home Sister Ward checked in her bag and found another Book of Mormon and said, "This wasn't in here when we were there". I dunno if it was or not but I'm sure the Lord knew we needed to go back the next day and give him the Book of Mormon. Great day!

Tuesday was amazing as well! Since we consecrated ourselves to the Lord, Elder Benson, had us give a burnt offering. We were going to sacrifice something and make it better. I sacrificed not having any more excuses to not go outside and try running in the morning. I've gotten a little lazy but Sister Ward is really pushing me. I love her so much! District Meeting was really good. I love be or trying to be more consecrated. We went to pizza for Sister Wrights last time. I love the pizza here so much! So much better than in UTAH! :) haha. We got back into our area and immediately went to go see Brent to give him a Book of Mormon. We got there and he was so happy to see us. He actually began reading some of the Book of Mormon his father got. It was so great! We also gave him a picture Book of Mormon which I think will really help. He's awesome. We had made some appointments with less activees and went and visited them. I just want every one to make it back to church. We talked to them about the doctrine of Christ and tried to help them in any way we could. All we can do is support them and encourage them. I love working with the Less-actives. I found out if I don't baptize many people here, that's okay because I'm helping people strengthen their faith in Christ. That's all I can do :)

Wednesday was another great day! We had correlation with Elder Kay, our ward mission leader, and was able to clear up a few people on the ward list. We went to an apartment a couple weeks ago where a member used to live and he's now moved but we found a Jewish man. We went back there on Wednesday with the Kay's to help him clean up his house a little. He was so appreciative of us coming and just moving a few boxes. He hurt his leg so he wasn't able to do much. He used to do flee markets and gave us some jewlerly to donate to the young women for their yard sale they are going to have. It was very nice of him. He's a sweet guy and LOVES to talk. That was good to do some service...(plus we got to wear JEANS!) We went and taught another less active member and then went and was able to play volleyball with the young men. They needed to practice for their tournament this weekend which they also won! I love the young men in this ward they really are great. They're all converts and three of them are headed to BYU-I to go to school and it's going to be so good for them!

Thursday was another fantastic day! We had weekly planning and a few lessons. But they were good. We went to our investigators house and was able to really see her concern about being baptized. She said if she was younger she'd probably be baptized but she's an older woman and doesn't want to change. That's something Sister Ward and I really want to help her with because we believe she knows the church is true but is just scared to change. Next we went to Sister Kreppelts and had a singing lesson with her we taught her about music and how influential it is in our lives. We then sang songs to her. The last one we sang was "I stand all amazed" That song I'll always remember because it was the song dad made me sing when he was newly called to be the gospel doctrine teacher. His first sunday he made me sing. But I'm grateful for that opportunity. I love singing! We both felt prompted we needed to go to our other investigators house, Tivynna. If you remember she was the one we went to her play. She's 16 years old and has been investigating since she was 8. She hasn't been baptized but she's a very active member of the ward, just not baptized. She's awesome. We went over to her apartment and pretty much sat down and asked why she wasn't baptized yet. But in a nicer way. She said she's been thinking about baptism for a couple weeks now, so right then and there we asked her if she'd be baptized. We know she's ready and I think she does too. She said yes, we committed her to the 21st of April and she said YES! Sister Ward and I will have our first legit baptism this upcoming Sunday. I'm so excited for Tivynna. She's truly such a beautiful daughter of God. We're so excited. It was another successful day.

Friday was Liz Dicou's birthday. Happy birthday! And also zone conference. One of the best ones yet. It included laughs, tears and so much fun. President Jeppson talked about the Atonement and it was so powerful. Without the Atonement nothing would be possible. I'm so grateful for my Savior and all he did for me. It's crazy to think about the sacrifice he did for me. Truly grateful. We then broke out for lunch and then played a wicked sweet game. We all had bouncy balls and we put them in a bowl. President would throw them up and whoever didn't get one was out. It was manic and chaos, but SO MUCH FUN! I did pretty well. Ripped my skirt, dove on the ground to get a ball and got knocked in the head right in the temple. It didn't feel to good and I had a massive headache the rest of the day but it's fine now. The Assistants then talked about incorporating the gospel better in the Restoration and asked Sister Ward and I to role-play the Restoration through the Prophet Joseph Smith in FRONT OF EVERYONE! We were both pretty nervous. We got up there and Sister Jeppson asked us to stand up so people could hear us for the role play. I'd just got knocked in the head so I wasn't feeling well so before we started I told everything "I was sorry, I'm knocked up" Probably not the best choice of words. People started laughing, but we started the role play nonetheless. And we killed it. Sister Ward did such an amazing job. We finished the role play and Elder Ream asked who felt the spirit during it. Everyone raised their hands. It's cool to see how powerful we can be with just simple words. Even though we were nervous the spirit bore witness to everyone the truthfulness of the message of the Restoration. I'm so grateful for the Restoration in my life. It makes sense. Like I said I wasn't feeling to hot so we went home and did studies.

Saturday, another amazing day! We kinda had another scary incident but we're fine don't you worry. I'll tell you when I get back. It's too long to write out. We have been making amazing strides with the less actives in our ward. It's so incredible to see our work pay off. It's been such a good month of April so far and it's only going to get better. We went and taught Tivynna again to get her prepared for her baptism on Saturday. She's so ready. We also went to lunch with the Young Men and bishop at Five Guys after the boys won their volleyball tournament. Bishop bought our food. I'm not complaining about that! :)

Fast and testimony meeting was good. The microphone wasn't working so the people bearing their testimonies had to speak a little louder. It was great. One less active, Ricardo got up and thanked us for the visit that we went to on Saturday. Ricardo is such an incredible son of God and I'm so grateful I was able to meet him out here on my mission. Definitely one I will keep in contact with after my mission. He's a strong guy. We also went and taught Christina another one of our investigators and she has a desire to come closer to Christ. We just have to teach her more and help her keep her committments and she'll get baptized!

This week of miracles was truly amazing. And I feel it's going to be another amazing week! We have our first baptism coming up and I can't wait for that. To see Tivynna enter the waters of Baptism! I'm beginning 3 Nephi this week and I'm so excited to read about the Savior coming. We've had a lot of emphasis on Christ this month. I've become such a strong member of this church and I'm continually strengthening that faith in my Savior Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for all of you. I pray for you every night. You are all amazing! Keep being an example. People are always watching. 3 Nephi 5:13. Talk to you all next week. Love you all! Miss you! This week I'll hit my 7 month mark! Where is time going!?

Love,
Sister Taylor