It has been such a great week. It's been so cool to be able to be our
Lord's 'swift messengers' and see how walking one day will truly bring miracles.
We were able to be out walking in the beautiful fall weather that has
encompassed us. Cheesy yes? But it's true. The weather here has gotten so nice
and lovely. My companion, being from Arizona, is getting cold already...she's in
for a treat. :)
It's been incredible to see the holy ghost working through us this past
week. I told you about a lady a few weeks ago, Laura Russell, who we stopped in
on because the spirit prompted us to. Well it happened again this week. We went
to her house and knocked and no answer. We probs sat at the door for 3 mintues
or so and got back in the car. Not 30 seconds later she was walking out with her
laundry. I rolled down the window and awkwardly said "hi Laura." We talked to
her for a few minutes and she told us she was being kicked out of her house and
needs to find a new place to stay. My heart ached for her. I want to help her so
bad. I was prompted to share the quick little spiritual thought we had planned
and I was grateful we did. It was a talk from conference. Hope of God's Light
and it was short but powerful. She's an incredible daughter of God and hopefully
she'll let us in a little more to truly help her testimony.
We had a good lesson with Mark as well. Satan has been working on him for
sure. He told us this week he wanted to explore other churches. This broke
Sister Maclay and I's heart. He still came to church yesterday and I asked him
why he wanted to explore other churches and he said "for less commitment." I
testified pretty boldly and said "go ask anyone here in this church if they feel
bound down by the commmandments and I promise you none of them will say they
do." I hope we can continue to encourage him and help him see that this is the
ONLY true church on the earth. Many prayers have gone out to him and many more
to come :) Wednesday and Friday were sweet days of teaching. We were out being
those 'swift messengers' We had some pretty powerful lessons and hit people with
the spirit. In a nice way of course. It's been so cool to see how much power we
have as representatives of Jesus Christ and how much boldness we can have when
we love the people we teach. We started teaching this girl from Newark, Sheena,
and boy is she a treat. Needless to say I showed her my braids that I had and
she loved them! Yeah, i'll tell you more about her, at another time. :) She
taught us a new phrase, "keepin it real" aka telling it how it is. And boy does
she "keep it real" hahah. She's great.
So Friday. We went out and decided to walk down one street. There were many
people out and we were able to teach 4 quick lessons in a matter of about an
hour. It was so cool to testify off of one another and get return appointments
with some of them. This one lady, Edith, from Peru, barely spoke Spanish but we
were able to converse in Spanglish with her. We got her number and address and
she said she didn't have any friends. Boom, hello! :) It was just great and we
were so happy that day. It's true. Teaching the gospel makes us HAPPY!
We did have a baptism yesterday in the ward. It was of an 8 year old girl
who's father is a member. Smac and I didn't know but I guess we re-activated him
and helped prepare Mary Ann for her baptism. She is a ball of.....craziness! We
went over to just make sure everything was set to go on Saturday and she gave us
a concert. Singing and dancing and then her mom showed us the electric slide.
ITS ELECTRIC! We had the Relief Society broadcast that night and boy wasn't that
GREAT! It was the strongest spirit I've felt in a while and we're going to have
that again this upcoming week! But for 8 hours! Holla! I love the talks on
covenants and remember our covenants and then President Monson, taught so simply
and plainly about prayer and scripture study. It's true. That's all it is.
Scripture and prayer and going to church, attending the temple. It's incredible.
The gospel is AMAZING!
I had probs one of the most unique testimony meetings yesterday. We had two
ladies get up there and speak for 20 minutes combined about who knows what and
then this other man get up and talk about an egg in a cup that blew up in his
face. Interesting..The baptism was crazy too. Mac and I felt we were running
around crazy getting everything figured out. But it was great. Our three set
appointments juked us but we met a really nice guy by the name of, James
Brown.....not the famous one but a sweet old man :)
Well. This church is the true church on the earth. There's no other one. I
know that's true. I've realized how amazing it is out here. To see when we truly
live the gospel of Jesus Christ. We. Are. Happy. There's many times we have
trials and upsets come upon us and maybe sometimes wonder why. But we have to
continue to endure to the end and put our faith in our Heavenly Father and he
will help us. I can't believe September is gone. I don't know where this year is
going. But I'm excited for the things to come. Transfers are coming up soon. I
love you! Thanks for all your support! Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Christine Taylor
awhh :(
Mary Ann being baptized
