Holy Week

Mammmaa jamma! It was been such a great postive amazing week. Too say the least. I love getting your emails eevery week.  Elder Smith told me we were related. Which is so gnar! He said, so in some way I'm related to the diabetes guy!??? I said really really distant, but yes some way. He is a great missionary! Oh boy, where to begin!? How about with Grant!? I'm so estatic he took steps! It's so cool! And the pictures Kimber sent of her and Sam are gorgeous! I'm so happy for you two!

As for my week, lets start off with about a week ago I failed to mention this but I did pass 'Lewis Park', you know the one by my house? I thought it was so funny and I actually laughed out loud when we passed it. Great times here.

Monday started off great. We thought we only had a half p-day because of the temple trip but come to find out no one really took that to heart. We sorta did. We went and met a former investigator and then went home and wrote letters. That night we had a dinner with a member family and it was so good! I love the members of this ward! They seriously are the greatest and I can't wait for you to meet them! We went and helped Cynthia continue to move and pack up her boxes. She's great! More about her later.

Tuesday we had our district meeting, I love the district I'm in. Like you've said Elder Smith is in my district but also the other Elder Smith, the one related to Sadie Love. It's so cool to make those connections from home. Tuesday we can say was a very good day. We met with a less active and we're going to help him get back to church. He's really great. We had another dinner with members Tuesday and I actually got flipped off there. :/ haha by a 3 year old. Story was: she had band-aid on her middle finger and was showing me her owie...and flipped me off. It was really funny because she didn't know what was going on but all the adults did. I love it. (She also commented on how much she loved my shoes, thanks Kimber! :) ) They are a younger couple that are so sweet! There are a lot of young couples with young kids and it stinks so bad because we can't hold the babies! And then I look at the pictures of Grant and Tacy and it kills me even more! Erg! But it's cool. No worries.

Wednesday was one of the best days of my life. NEW YORK CITY....hello! It was so amazing. I will never live there but it is so cool to visit. We woke up and drove to Union city to catch a bus to new york. We traveled under the Lincoln tunnel (underwater) and got to New York City. I got kinda crazy....We're not supposed to look like tourists. But it's so hard to resist. It was just like the movies! We walked right through times square and I have many pictures to send. One of the coolest things though was the billboards of the mormon.org pages. They were everywhere. I'll show you some pictures. There was a video I took of a slide show of mormon.org and it's nice to see the Church getting our name out there. It was incredible. As we kept walking... BOOM! hello Manhattan Temple. Right here. As soon as we walked in...peace and quiet. We were a little early but we went up and change and did initiatories. It's nice to be in the temple and remember the covenants you made. We had to wait a little for the session to start and so we went into the chapel to wait and none other than........Elder Stirling Ward was sitting right in the chapel! It blew my mind completely! It was insane! And I loved it so much to see someone from home. We went through the session (absolutely incredible might I add) and went into the Celestial room. As I was finishing up my prayer Elder Ward was sitting right next to me. So of course we caught up. He's actually going to be home on Wednesday and I can't believe two years went by that quick. I told him about Jody and Melissa and it blew his mind. I told him to say hello to you! It was so cool to see him. So we continued on our day and walked back through times square. The pictures will say it all. I loved it! We got back and went and helped Cynthia pack up her stuff some more.

Thursday we'll call it a less-active day. Every appointment we had was a less-active. It was good to get to know those members and try to help them get back to church. I pray to hard for everyone everyday to rekindle their flame. But patience is a virtue. Oh and ps....Sister Taylor has officially had some shrimp. Yes taht is truth. We were at a less-actives house for dinner and she's asian so we had a lot of food and she kept insisting on us having the shrimp, so I took some. And ate it. It didn't taste fishy but I'd rather not have that haha. But yes I have had it now!

Friday was another incredible day. The things I'm learning are so amazing and I can't wait to continue to grow in faith in Jesus Christ. We had lunch with a Sister senior couple and I ate a little to much. :/ It was not working well with my stomach. But its all good now. We went and visited one of our investigators and she's great. It's going to take a little more time with her but I feel like we're really helping her. This night we went with one of our members to carol to one of her friends that was 80 years old. Her name was Anne and she was so sweet. We also caroled to her neighbor, Alma and the spirit hit her. You could tell. I love when I can see the spirit begin to work in people. It's amazing.

Saturday was a long but incredible day. I made cookies in the morning because we had our Christmas party that night. I made pumpkin spice cookies from the bag. But they turned out delicious. All day we helped Cynthia move. We loaded up the U-Halh (sp?) and cleaned up her apartment and moved her to her new home. It is a nice home and we're so excited for her. She's really progressing and we're hoping to help her progress even more. Like I said we had the Christmas Party for the ward and went to that. It was great to see faces and meet more people. And Cynthia came! With her daughter Caitlyn. It was awesome having her there. As well as Anne. Sister Morales brought her and it was good to see her again. I'll send pictures of them. The food was great and the nativity was so cute. All the little kids did a great job.

Sunday was great. Cynthia was going to come but because she stayed up so late trying to unpack she didn't make it and it sounded like she got a little sick which isn't good. Sacrament was just what she needed to. It was on tithing. And yes we taught the young women about pretty much missionary work. It was fun getting to know them better. I love that ward so much! After church we went home and studied for a little and then went to a members house for dinner. We quickly went and said I to Cynthia and then went to Cary's and she had a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon that we did great answering. She's progressing too. We have some amazing people that we've found and hopefully we can commit them to baptism soon.

Missions are great. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be one out here in New Jersey. I love my Savior especially at this Christmas Season.  I'm glad you got to go see Sister Dicou. She's amazing and I glad you met her. I'm glad Jody and Erics talks went great. The spirit can do some incredible things. I'm excited for this upcoming week and looking forward to finding people who are prepared for this gospel. It is amazing! I love you all so much and I'll be sending pictures right now. You are all the Best! Remember Christ is Christmas! :)

Love,

Sister Christine Taylor

--The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a great deal longer.--