Liberty Island

Why hello!? It is a good cloudy day over her' in New Jersey but so beautiful. The weather hasn't been way to hot these past couple of weeks. I thought I was really going to struggle but nope it's been so good! The week was a good one. Little slower than usual but still was able to help people come closer to Christ. I think myself especially. I'll tell you all about it.

We got to go to dinner at Chili's with a less active woman that is just beginning to come back again. She bought us dinner and it was very nice. :) We then went to another members home and had to eat again. Lets just say....I made it look like we hadn't just eaten. I tried to hurry and get it all down so I didn't ralph. It was funny. Sister Maclay couldn't really eat much more so I helped her out. :) That's what companions are for. 

Tuesday we had zone meeting. It was fabulous! I love our zone leaders. They are inspired. Our focus is the Book of Mormon and commitments. I'm very excited about this. I'm just about to finish the Book of Mormon for another time. I'm in Mormon. I love reading the Book of Mormon. It has such great power in it and when we read it every single day it's a protection. I know that's true! We were supposed to have a baptismal interview for our investigator but some things happened and we didn't end up having it. We slightly dropped him so we'll see if he comes around sometime. We went and assisted at the bishops storehouse and helped serve and stock the selves. I love doing that kind of stuff. It's great! Wednesday we went out and thought to go to Hana's house (the little girl I gave the bracelet to) and talked with her mom and she's our newest investigator! We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she was going to read the intro! We're going to see her Wednesday to teach her! More than a little seed mom, potentially a new member soon! I love it! :) 

Thursday we had the opportunity to go to Liberty Island yet again to serve! i'm so glad we get to go! I was able to go with my companion and Sister Morrison and her companion. it was so much fun to do that. The Statue of Liberty! Ahhhhh. It was an eventful day! We met some more of the members on Friday and one of the cute families, the Denninghoff's. They have three little girls and a little boy and boy are they adorable! It took them a few minutes to get warmed up but they are so excited to have sisters! We had some great lessons. Sunday was awesome! We were able to go to church and partake of the sacrament. I bore my testimony in church and it was so nice to be able to formally share it with the ward. It was incredible to bear it and KNOW the things which i was saying were too. I'm so grateful for my testimony. It's grown so much since I've been out here. I know the Church is true. I know God lives. I know My Savior died for me and went through the atonement for me. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon and restored the gospel onto the Earth. I know this is the ONLY way back to our Heavenly Father. By living the gospel...having faith in our Savior, repenting, being baptized, recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End. When we do those things we will gain eternal life. 2 Nephi 31:21 

We are excited for this upcoming week. Last night we got a great referral and was able to set one of our investigators with a baptismal date on September 8th! I love missionary work! It's so great. I'll send you pictures from this past week! Hope you all have a great week! I love you all so much! Tell Melissa and Barry congratulations and i'm so proud and happy for them! Did Tacy like her presents? haha Love you all!

Love,

Sister Taylor

Another.....Best week!!!

I honestly had the best week teaching wise on my mission this past week. We were able to find 7 new investigators teach more than 20 lessons and extend baptismal dates to people! Ahhh the work is so amazing! I love the area. I love my companion. I love New Jersey. And I love the people. I'll tell you about some of the people I've met this week and man. I love NJ. haha

 

Like I said, this week was so great. It seemed to start off a little slow but ended up being fantastic! We went and met one of our investigators. Andrew, 18 years old and friends with a member family. We went and got to know the family and then he came. We were able to finish teaching him the plan of salvation. It worked so great. He does judo so I was able to relate it to judo like I did football with Brent in Barnegat. We invited him with a soft baptismal invite and he accepted! He's a nice kid and seemed to be really happy with the gospel and feelin the spirit and such. :) Yahoo! We also met with another one of our investigators and set him with a date of this upcoming Sunday. We don't know if he'll be ready to be baptized so I'll let you know next week if it happened or not. He's a really sweet guy and hopefully with prayers he'll be ready! I'm not taking any time for granted here. The best thing about being doubled in is you can go out and be as bold as you need to and commit people to things. It's the best!

I love teaching with Sister Maclay. She's been out for just about 4 months and she's great. We had a good day of teaching on Wednesday and had a member come out with us to try people. We went and watched the Restoration with a member and boy I felt the spirit so strongly during that movie. It's incredible, everytime I watch the Joseph Smith story it's powerful. Almost brought me to tears. I know that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and his son Jesus Christ and he is the prophet of the restoration. Boy I'm so grateful for Joseph Smith. I've been reading in the Book of Mormon and I'm in 3 Nephi and I forget everytime I read it how incredible it is. I just read yesterday when Christ came and boy it is so amazing. To actually had an account from our Savior Jesus Christ. Can you tell it's been a good week!? :) We went to the Servils that night and was able to teach the family. They are members but it was a good lesson and they had an aunt there and we were able to talk about the Book of Mormon a little bit more with her. I just love the mission! It's completely changed who I am. I know who I am. And I'm comfortable with the crazy things I do. :) ha

Thursday was weekly planning. I was having a little bit of a rough time still getting used to the area. I kinda wanted to scream all day....but....I was able to get my anger out. Not on my companion either! :) haha During studies I kept seeing flies come into our study room. I was wondering why there were so many. Soo each time I saw one I'd kill it..with my notebook. Unfortunately, one fly ruined it for all of his friends...I went into our back room and pulled up the blinds and lets just say it was a bad day to be a fly. I was disgusted to see SO MANY flies. And I'm not joking there were so many. So I kinda went to town on them....and killed them all....wanna guess how many I killed. Well the first day I had a running total of 80 flies....the next day was about thirty more. So I've killed 111 flies within two days. :/ Call me crazy but I was able to get my anger out..That's my highlight story. Well one of them for the week.

Friday was AMAZING! We went to lunch with a member family at a steakhouse and was treated very nice. The members have a brother that Sister Maclay knew in Arizona and he was visiting so Sister Maclay went and saw him after 4 years and of course I tagged along and just ate the food. It was nice. Then we went and tried a couple of people and found a less active and pretty much punched her with the spirit. As we were leaving we believe we heard her crying because of our visit. It was cool. We went on an exchange and I went to Short Hills speakin da Spanish. It was fun. I was with Hermana Herrera and she was one of the ones that stayed with us during Hurricane Sandy so it was fun to be with her again. We were able to teach a few people and contact a lot of people. The exchange was really fun but Saturday night turned out to be INCREDIBLE! Sister Maclay and I were both happy to get back to our area and we immediately went out to try some people. We found 4 new investigators and taught four people! We met three cute girls and I told them when I come back I'll bring them bracelets. So I had to make four for them. Then we decided we wanted something to eat so we went to go to Subway and had to park far away so as we were walking Sister Maclay is SO good at talking to everyone we talked to a nice guy from Morristown and then we were walking to Subway and there was this cute little girl, Hana, riding a bike. We stopped to say hello and she said "watch me ride my bike!" So we did. And the conversation just went from there. She said let me teach you! So I get on this tiny bike, in my skirt. And tried to ride it but my legs were too big. I couldn't peddle. So she said, let me teach you. She was holding me up and said "man alive, you are heavy" I finally got going on it and she was SO happy she taught me how to ride a bike. It was great! haha I was so happy. She melts my heart. I told her I wanted to come back and bring her a bracelet so I got her favorite color and she wanted a violet one, not purple, violet. It was so cool. She's four years old and such a prima-donna. Her friends came out and she asked if they wanted bracelets and so I was up to making 8 bracelets in a matter of 30 minutes. But it's cool. I don't mind. I love it! So we told her we'd go back the next day at 3:30 to give her the bracelets.

Sooo...church was good. We had four less actives at church! I loved the spirit. We didn't have bread at the beginning of the meeting so we did testimony meeting first and then had the sacrament. That was a first but it was good. I love fast sundays. We had correlation and then we had to make it over to Hana's by 3:30. We got there right on time and as we were walking up she was outside and as soon as she saw me she dropped her bike and said "oh my gosh, I thought you'd forgotten about me" So CUTE! I said of course I wouldn't forget about her and then she said "you're late" but I showed her my watch and said we were right on time. So she forgave me and then said "you have my bracelet?" I pulled it out and she said "that's so beautiful!" She went and showed her mom and her mom came out and thanked me and she said "you need to make one for my mom" They're originally from Slovakia and so she has this cute little accent. We started talking to the mom and its a coincidence but we met a recent convert at church from Slovakia so we're going to bring her over and start teaching her! Boom holla! She's just the cutest girl and I love her so much! She said when are you coming back, tomorrow? I said no but we're going back sometime this week to teach her and see Hana. Love her so much already! We went and had dinner with members which was very nice then went to a less actives house and then to another investigators house.

Seriously this week has been the best! I'm so grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ. for the opportunity we have to become better every day of our lives! The church is true. I'm so grateful for the restoration and the Book of Mormon. I've written a lot today so I better get going. I love this gospel with all my heart! Thank you for all your support! I can't believe I've been out here for this long but there's no where else I'd rather be! Love you all have a great week!

 

Love,

Sister Christine Taylor

Scotch Pains, NJ 92 A 2nd Ave, Garwood NJ 07027

Holy yes! I love my mission! I'm serving in such a great new area! I'll tell you all about it really shortly. Just know that I'm doing great and loving my new companion already!

 

So last Monday we headed up to spend time with our district for the last time. I was finally able to shoot a basketball again! But I was in a skirt so I didn't get to go all out..but we played pig and that was fun. We went and said goodbye to a few peeps I wanted to which was awesome. I'm going to miss them but I'm so happy I'm here. We headed home and I was low-key stressin about packing but it wasn't a problem. It was all good. Unfortunately, because Barnegat is so far south, Liz wasn't able to come down but that's okay. Our day was busy!

 

Tuesday was transfers! And boy was it crazy. We had about 22 missionaries come out. Most of which were Elders. We had the first companionship of 18 year old Elders, that was cool! Transfers begun. Sister Waddoups got her new companion, Sister Dotson and was so happy. Then they continued and I waited anxiously for where I was going. President called my name and I've been doubled in, yet again (everytime I've been transferred, no complaints though), to Scotch Plains 2 North, with my new companion Sister Maclay from Gilbert Arizona! And boy do I LOVE HER SO MUCH ALREADY! She's hilarious and a lot like me and I'm so stoked to be companions with her here in Scotch Plains. Our new address is 92 A 2nd Ave, Garwood NJ 07027. So feel free to start sending letters my way! ;) But for real. I'm so happy to be here. I'm so happy to be here with Sister Maclay. She just got out of training and so it's all straight up missionary work now. Totes excited. We got our car, 2013 Subaru Legacy and drove to our area to find the Elders didn't do the best job of cleaning it. They left the trash, socks and other items of clothing in the drawers and it was just a mess. :/ So Thursday we took time to deep clean the apartment. Definitely needed to be done and now it looks like a nice Sisters apartment. Too bad the door frames are a little different so I can't put my pull up bar to do my pull ups :(

 

The rest of the week consisted of getting to know the area and going to meet some of the less actives and ward members the Elders set up for us. There are some really amazing people in this area and I'm so excited to work with them and help them strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ. It's going to be amazing here I know and feel it! The ward was so excited to get Sisters again. They've been begging for sisters and so here we are! Ready to work and strengthen the ward. And ITS A WARD. :) I'm just really happy to be here. We met some great families. On Thursday we went to a members home...she said she is from Colombia and moved out to Utah about 7 years ago. I asked her where and she said "Kaysville" Boom. Connection. She lived on Mutton Hollow and it was cool to talk about home for a little.

 

We went to Liberty Island on Friday to volunteer. Man what an experience that is. To be able to be on the same Island where the Statue of Liberty is is so incredible. We met a lot of people from around the world. Nepal, India, China, Japan, Italy, France, Haiti, Dominican Republic and so many others. We're going in a week in a half again to volunteer. So excited to go again! I love that!

 

Like I said, church was amazing. A lot of the members were so excited to see sisters and I know Sister Maclay and I are going to kill it here. Sisters were coming up wanting us to call them for Team ups and wanting us to come over. That's the best! After church we went to an investigators house and he's had a couple of baptismal dates and we set him with another date. August 25th. Hopefully everything will work out and he'll be baptized on that day. We headed to the bishops home for dinner and man what a great family they have! They are from the Dominican Republic and so awesome. They have two beautiful young women and just a fun family.

When I was up in New City I also met a member that used to live up there but moved to Jersey. I saw him at church and he remembered me and I remembered him. It's just fun to see familiar faces around.

 

I truly am so happy to be here in Scotch Plains. I've been in the most Northern part to the most Southern part of the mission and now I'm right in between. Sister Maclay and I already get along great and we're teaching well off of one another. It's weird not to be training but it just gives us more time to work and find people who are ready and prepared to hear the gospel. Our first day here we went to Shoprite to get some water and we were walking out and a man stopped us and asked "are you Mormon?" We said yes we are! We talked and got his phone number and hopefully we'll be able to start teaching and finding more people like him. We contacted a little 8 year old too that was really interested, not so much her dad but she was. We'll see what happens.

 

I love this gospel with all my heart. I know I'm supposed to be here. I know that God is aware of every single one of us and he loves us so much. He puts people into our life that'll bless us so much. We need not take anytime for granted we have for the people really close to us. I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon, for Joseph Smith and for the Restoration of the Gospel. It's incredible. And makes so much sense. I love you all so much! And yes mom, I did get the package. Thank you so much. I think you probs think I've gained more weight on my mission. They're a little too big so I'll have to exchange them but thank you so much! Hope you all have a fantastic week and I'll talk to you soon!

 

Love,

Sister Taylor