How Beautiful!

11/10/14

Mi Familia!!


So this week was good. Still trying to find our way around but it is fun! We were buying stuff today in the store and they were playing all christmas music... Let it begin!! haha. I do not have a ton of time to write but something that I was thinking about in my study this week was about the gathering of Isreal and I found that those who will be gathered will be those who hear the voice of the Lord. It is kind of humbling to think that as missionary{s we are His voice, we are His hands, we are doing His work!! How beautiful! You guys can do it too.  It is also humbling to think that we have been blessed to have the opportunity to recognize His voice since we were chicitos, and now we have the great oportunity to share it with EVERYONE!!!
I love it!! I love my companion, i love my area, i love our ward, i love this work, I LOVE THE LORD! He teaches me more everyday!! I am so grateful for the people and the family He has put into my life!!


I love you all so so much!!!
Hermana Taylor

So CRAZY...But I Love it!!!!

11/3/14

Mi Familia!!!

So this week was an interesting one finding our way around town. Needless to say that we had a few fun experiences! There are geckos here and huge toads!!! The ward here is super great. There is one sister that leaves on her mission to Chile in december and she has helped us find our way around a ton. I found out that the pacific ocean is real near by!!! I have pictures!!! It isn{t in my area, but I saw it because there is a neighborhood here that has a ton of tall buildings of apartments and we can see the ocean and it is great!!! It is so beautiful here!!! I{ll sent some photos.... This week my companions parents got married in the lima peru temple, and she was here, and alll she was was happy about, pure happy.... 

Another story, so today we were cleaning our giant house (it really is enormous) and the ground was wet from mopping and we were running around so that we could come to write and I was changing a bunch of stuff from one room to another (because we are still organizing things from last week) and I slipped with a ton of things in my hands almost right on my front and I had my mirror and it broke too but I got up with just two little scrapes... and I have a feeling that I will be sore tomorrow, pero, todo esta bien... it was funny...

Yesterday we had stake conference and some investigators that we have invited her sister and her family of her sister and her sister´s husband is deaf (did you follow that?). Anyways, the sign language alphabet in english and in espanol are almost the same and so I asked him his name and that was about all I could do.... but it was awesome!!! He also said that he knows a little bit of american sign language and his wife helped me understand that... Oh my dear guys... learning and speaking different languages is SO COOL!!! and definately a gift from the Lord. 

My companion is learning lots... and I am too!!

I am so grateful to be here and I know the Lord is helping me every step of the way!!

I love you all so much!!

Hermana Taylor

The taylors reunite!!

Fresh From the MTC

11/29/14

um... so here is my email from last week... i forgot to send it...

Mi Familia,

So this week was a bit crazy. We had changes and I did a ton of traveling. I am about the furthest away from the mission home that you can be casi. I got a new companion, Hermana Sangama, and she is from Peru! Whoo Hoo!! Fresh from the MTC, So fun!! We finally arrived in my new area this morning and we are still trying to figure out where everything it is kind of crazy but real fun! It is super hot,  but I just think of how I am getting a taste of how shae shae feels... caliente!! I don´t have a ton of time to write so I will talk about more adventures next week!!! I hope you are all found well this week! i love you all so so much!!! 

Hermana Taylor

My new companion and I found a high school friend, Sara Burns!!

Power and Authority

10/20/14


Mi Familia!!

This week was great. We had some really spiritual lessons and in every one we could testify of Christ and His gospel... How great is that??? Super great!

So yesterday we were searching for some new investigators and we found a lady that we began to teach. She asked us if our message took a lot of time and we said that we could share it in about 30 mins. So she let us in. We began teaching her and we asked her about herself. She shared some things that were quite hard in her life but it was cool to see how, despite all of her trials, she had a smile on her face. We start teaching her and it was a good lesson. We find out later that she had a dream about us the night before, about me and my companion. WOW! That has never happened before. She told us the only reason she accepted to hear us was because she had this dream and she said to herself, if they come tomorrow I will let them in. So we taught her and she accepted a baptism date and she is great! Oh how the Lord works! We weren´t even planning on going to see her but we were by her house so we decided to knock. Something that I really realized as we were teaching her is that when we teach the people it really isn´t with us that they have these experiences, it is completely and totally with the Lord. If we are doing our part as missionaries, the investigators should learn how to rely on Him to find the answers, we are just guides to help out. This is His work!

We also have another investigator and she is progressing really really well! It has amazed me how she has accepted the gospel. We started teaching her and it turns out that she had a lot of coraje for one of the members of our ward but even still she did not let that change the testimony that she had gained of our message. She really understands that it is between her and God and no one else. Things were resolved and after feeling bad for so many years, the gospel is letting ger feel the peace of Christ in her life. Oh how I love the gospel!!!

I love you all so much!!

Hermana Taylor

He gave me a makeover!!

Una Familia Dios me dio'!!!

10/13/14

Mi Familia!!!

What a week. We had interview with the president which was good. We are finding more people to teach and we are hechandole ganas to work harder and harder everyday.

One experience that I had this week was in a lesson with an investigator and his wife that we have been teaching for a while. They started asking us how we get married in the church and so we taught them about eternal families. Probably my favorite lesson of them all. I always feel the spirit so strong when we teach this lesson. I asked the investigator a question, "what are you willing to do to have an eternal family?" and they said that they would be willing to do many things and then I asked them, "are you willing to pray and to recieve an answer that Joseph Smith was a profet of God to know if the Book of Mormon is true and then follow these answers?" and they said yes. I really just learned how connected and beautiful the gospel is. If we know that Joseph Smith was a profet of God and that the Book of Mormon is true we can come to know so many more wonderful mysteries of God and His gospel. Its like Nefi when he asks to understand more about his fathers dream and Enos when he remembers the words of his father and Alma too. When we ask God simple questions and we make an effort to search and recieve the answers, literally billions of doors are opened to know much much more! Oh how I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

I love you all so so much!!

Hermana TAylor

Brilliant

10/6/14

Mi familia!!!


So I don´t have a ton of time to right but what a great weekend!!!
When we were waiting in our stake center yesterday to hear the last session we went outside and one grandpa when he walked passed said that I am bright from far away (usted brilla desde muy lejos). And in my mind I was like, "I do feel pretty briliant... It is not because I am so smart but because I just feel so good to hear the word of God through a living prophet and apostles". I really just did not want it to end... but we have to "go and do" at some point or other, verdad?
This week was great. We have some investigators that are progressing very well. I am so grateful to be hear. To know of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. To have the knowledge to "look to God and live"!!!
I love you all so much and I am so excited for the adventures that lie ahead for all of you and for me too!!!
Thanks for being my awesome family!!
Con mucho amor, Hermana Taylor

Butterflies and Grasshoppers

9/29/14

Mi familia!

So this week was great, we have some really great investigators that are progressing very well. With one of them, for some reason, and I think I know why... it has been really hard to get her to church even though she is really excited to know about the gospel. We can only teach her on sundays because she works and she doesn´t have a phone. So we have been trying to contact her through her daughter, that only comes to see her on sundays and mondays, so that she can know that we are coming to pick her up. Really it has been rough communication to get her to church and her daughter left her phone uncharged in her moms house this whole week and got sick along with her family so she didn´t come to wake up her mom for church, but this week they are super excited to go to conference. 

Gosh!!! are you guys just so excited to go to conference!!! I am!!!!!!

So there are lots of butterflies here and I feel like I see chrysalis always!!! it is so sweet!!

Funny story... So we went to the zoo today with some other hermanas and we were by the elefents and a woman comes up to me and ask"do you speak english" (in an accent like russian or french) and I say "uh huh" and she asks "do you know where the exit is" and I say "si, esta por alla" not even realizing that I am talking in spanish still and she is just sitting there confused. Then another americana misionera comes and saves me with her english. I felt a little bad after, I don´t know why I didn´t realize that she wanted me to speak in english... but it was funny.

I love you all so much!!
Hermana Taylor

woopie di doo

9/22/14

MI familia!!

So I do not have a lot of time today but so that you all know... this week was good, my companion is great... and I held a butterfuly!!! 

We have some recent converts that are really excited to make visits with us and it is super cool to see how they bear their testimonies to our ivestigator, very powerful and very real!

I love the gospel. I love that it is true. I am extremely grateful to be a part of it and to share it with others. I am so grateful for repentance and because it is real. I am grateful for the PERFECT plan of  God. I am grateful for change and to know of my Savior Jesus Christ and his perfect love for me.

I love you all so much!!

Hermana Taylor

Dreaming in Spanish

9/15/14

Mi familia!!!

So this week was super great!!! We had two baptisms muy bonitos!! It amazes me how the Lord puts his chosen people into our paths.

We also had divisions this week and so I wasn´t in my area for two days! While I was with Hermana Corbridge I found out that we might be related because she has a lot of taylor ancestors that came from canada! Who knew!!! We also taught a lady that when she prayed she prayed for how much she needed the missionaries to come and how much she needed direction in her life. So my family, there are people out there who need you, search for them!!

I got a new companion today, Her name is Hermana Youshimatz, (and so I will be in this area for another month at least) and she is from China!!... No... I am just kidding, she is from Mexico but her name is sweet though!! It pronounced like Yoshi-mots. So sweet! and she is a sweet heart! I am excited to work with her!! She has 3 months on her missions so almost a newbie!! I´ll learn a lot from her!

So, This week me and my companion were talking about how I was talking in my sleep and she would ask me questions in spanish and I would answer them in spanish!! There was a point in my mission where i never thought I would dream in spanish and lo and behold, I am talking it in my sleep!! The Lord is amazing!!

I love you soooooo much!!

Hermana Taylor

Big Feet!

9/8/14

Mi FAmilia!!!

Esta semana fue excellente!!! We had a baptism of an older lady that is just the best in the whole wide world!! Ever since we have started teaching her she has just felt that it is true and she loves it. She loves God and she loves everything she learns about the gospel. We had a small rough patch in the beginning when she told us she didn´t want to be baptized because her family didn´t like it but we perservered and the Lord changed her heart and the heart of her family so she could be baptized. When she was baptized she kept on saying how beautiful and happy she felt! It was a wonderful day!! Also, one of our recent converts baptized his friend too!! So beautiful, I love the gospel! I know it is true!

There wasn´t much else exciting that happened this week. We are working hard and we see how the Lord is helping us so much!!

I love you all more than anything!!! 

Cuidense!

Hermana Taylor 

It is a hand in the ground if you are wondering

a huge centipede

and big feet... they kinda look normal on me though.. haha

Whoop Whoop!

9/1/14

Mi Familia!

So my dear family, this week was great!!

We had a special training meeting with the president this week that was a surprise for all of us. But it was great and as missionaries we learned a lot.

We talked mostly about obedience and how, like it says in 2 nefi 32, Christ was baptized to fulfill all justicia or righteousness and how we need to follow His example in doing that and the only way we can do that is through obedience, exact obedience, there is no other way, there is no other set of steps to take to make it to the celestial kingdom, we have to obey. Needless to say that there were many misioneros arrepentidos after this meeting but it was great. I am so grateful for this commandment to obey, I am so grateful for the safety and security and happiness that it brings (mosiah 2:41). I am also grateful that we can always repent and be totally clean of all of our sins. I have really seen how this works in my mission and I know it is true!! How grateful I am for this knowledge!

Not anything really exciting happened this week, just finding more and more people who accept to hear the gospel!!! Which actually is really exciting :)

I love you all so much and hope you have an excellent week!!

Love, Hermana Taylor

Chilis!!! muy picosas!

and a coke for Jess:)

God's Grace

8/25/14

Mi familia!!

This week was magical! We had a baptism of a man who really has turned his life around and is very animated and excited to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He is amazing and will be a great example to his family!

Yesterday an investigator invited us over to eat Menudo, and guess what, I ate Cow stomach. It wasn´t as bad as I was thinking but it was a little hard to swallow in some occasions. I am hoping that no one will invite us over for menudo for a little while...

This week we taught a lesson on Matrimonio Eterno to a couple that is not yet married but will be having a baby. They are planning to be married in november. I testified to them of my eternal family and we felt the spirit really strongly. Eernal family, It is the best thing in the universe!! The sister really felt the spirit and she has the desire to keep learning about the church!

Really, the Lord is putting His chosen people in our path everyday. I am amazed by how many people I have come to know in these past couple weeks that really have the desire to follow God and His son Jesus Christ. Most of them just need a little boost in the right direction and I am so glad to be the instrument to give em that little shove :).God´s grace is real when we do our part!

This week I was reading in Alma chapters 17-19... They are amazing, read them and put them in practice!!

I love you all so much!!!

Love, Hermana Taylor

We had three baptisms in our ward this week!!

A Kiss in the Convi

8/18/14

Mi familia!!!

So this week was great!!! This week we were headed back to our house to drop off a box of book of mormons after a district meeting and we were riding in the convi and a lady enters the convi with a whole bunch of beautiful flowers!! So I told her that they were beautiful and I asked her what they were for. She tells me that she is going to give them to the church. And so I talked to her a little more (she is catholic by the way) and we are just riding along and I invite her to listen to our message and she didn't accept but it was worth a shot, no? Anyways, we were riding a long and we were talking and then she was going to get off. and when she was getting off she leaned over to me to give me a kiss on the cheek first. It was a little awkward but I let her do it, what else was I supposed to do! Thinking back on it, it must have looked a little funny!

And so, It was a great week, we are working hard and learning so much everyday!!

Today we went to a place called Quiroga and it was great!! Ill send some pics. I hope you all have a great week!

I love you!!

Hermana Taylor

Glory Glory

8/11/14

Mi familia!!!

This week was super duper awesome!!! We had another baptism and it was the sweetest thing. It was an old grandpa whose wife died a while ago and he says he feels lonley and everything but all he wants to do is do good in the eyes of God. He has told us this every time we have lessons with him and you can really see that that is all he wants to do. How great it is that he can have the gospel now in his life and have a whole family in the church, because that is what we are in the church, a family. How great. I was sitting next to him when the bishop was giving him the welcome to the ward and he started to tear up, so tender and so spiritual. How great it is to be a family!

Today my companion went to sign her visa so I am here in my area with a newish missionera of 2 months and it has been great to be with her for a few days. She is from mexico and she is awesome!!!

I love learning everday and the opportunity to change and grow! I know that if we really rely on the Savior He can change our hearts, not matter how bad we messed up or how strong our habits are in thinking or in whatever thing, He has the power to change us!

I love you all so much!!

Love, Hermana Taylor

Beautiful!

8/4/14

Mi Familia!!!!

It has been an amazing week full of working, learning, and loving!!!

This week we were getting ready to leave the house and we walked out the door after the prayer and right when it shut my companion says, "and the keys??", I had just locked the keys in our house hanging on a hook by the door and we still had one more door to unlock to escape from our apartment complex and none of our neighbors were home. We were trapped. Of course I did the first thing I thought of and prayed that we could find a way to leave our house quickly. My prayer was answered. After brainstorming varios ways to escape we caught the attention of our neighbor across the street and he gave us some tools to get the keys. So we broke our window and we got the keys like they do in rescuers down under! it was great. and we were out of the house within the half hour! (a member is going to help us fix the window today) Ill send pictures. It was a real tender mercy.

Really I cannot express how grateful I am for the things that are happening here in my area. There are miracles everyday!! This week we had a baptism of a 9 year old girl and she bore her testimony after and it was just about the most tenderest thing that I have ever seen! It is amazing to see how Christ works in the lives of these people so that they can accept the gospel and be truly happy. What a miracle!

We had a lot of investigators in church yesterday and there were two that we honestly thought would not come because the wife said she sleeps in until 12 every sunday and 10 every other day and our church starts at 8 (and all my life I thought 9 was horrible... haha) But she and her husband came and participated and it was wonderful and beautiful and  a great day!

Elder Johnson of the presidency of our area came to our church and we also had ward council with him and it was quite interesting and I learned a lot. Something that he said that I loved. We were making our plan misonal of the ward and making goals for every organization for references and when he asked for our goals he said that he likes commitments better than goals. Action people. Action. It is what we need to do. So DO IT!

I have been overwhelmingly suprised by the way that I have learned this week in the good parts and the hard parts. Especially the hard parts, I have really seen how we can turn to the Lord and He will guide us to do the right thing by the spirit. I love the Lord for this. So much!

I love you!!!

Hermana Taylor

 

Sacrifices

7/28/14

Mi Familia!!!

This week was really great! We had 2 baptisms and the chapel was full of their family and of the ward!!! It was so beautiful and I was so grateful to have helped and been a part of it! We are hoping that it will be something very significant and special for their family!

So we will have another baptism this week for another girly and she is really excited and her dad too. We are so grateful to have found her and her dad and her dad is really excited and determined to help her be active in the church and continue learning too!!!

Yesterday I taught a lesson in church about sacrifices that we make as members of the church and how in ancient times the Lord required that people gave sacrifices of their first lambs but now He asks us for a broken heart and a contrite spirit. He asks us for repentance, a willingness to change and to serve the Lord the best that we can. It is amazing to think of the sacrifices people have made to live the gospel but even more amazing to think of the grand blessings that the Lord gives us in return, even life eternal. I hope that we can all be willing to make sacrifices to follow the Lord and have the disposition to do what He asks when He asks us. Also the sacrifice that the King of the Lamanites was willing to give to know God (alma 22:14-18) read it!

Well my dear family, it has been a great week!  We are doing well and our area is definately improving and so it is great!! I love you all so so much!

Love, 
Hermana Taylor

Super Great!

7/21/14

Mi familia!!!


This week was great! Lots of investigators came to church yesterday and are still progressing!!! We have one new investigator that we went to teach this week that lives up in the hills. He doesn´t know how to read but it is so fun to teach him. He knows a lot of the letters he just doesn´t know how to put them all together yet and he has a real desire to learn to read and to learn about the gospel and to do what is right. He is awesome! We have also used the wood plan of salvation and that was sweet to use with him! Also, he lives up in the hills so when we take the bus it litterally is like a roller coaster and I absolutely love it!!
We also went even further up in the hills where there aren´t paved roads and its totally like an adventure to walk up in these neighborhoods. So great!!
We also have one investigator that has given up smoking for a week now!!! He is awesome! Pray for him and for his wife that she can accept to hear us too!!!
We had divisions this week and I had a gringa compañera for one day!!! It was great! Her name is Hermana Christen.
The baptism of Valeria will be this wednesday and I am super excited about that! Their mom is the recent convert that I have told you about!
The work is really progressing here and I am loving working and learning and growing and I am so grateful for all the experiences that I have had. The book of mormon really has the power to change lives if people read it, understand it, and live it!!
I love you guys all so much!!!


Love, 
Hermana Taylor

Oh the Joy!

7/14/14

Mi Familia!!!

So this week was super great!!! I ate fried flowers, it rained everyday which i always enjoy, we helped a lot of people, we had interviews with the President (by the way, he and his wife say "hi" to all of you) and we feel real good!!!

We had 5 investigators come to church yesterday and we found a new future investigator that already has come to church twice!!!! It was a beautiful day!! We have many investigators that really have the desire to learn and to progress and to repent and to change it is so great!!! We are seeing miracles being brought about everyday! and I am learning so much!

This week I learned more of how important it is to know the doctrine of the church. It is where we find what really is the truth and it is amazing to me how simple and wonderful it is and how fast knowing the doctrine of Jesus Christ, even just a little bit, can change someones life if they are willing to ask with a sincere heart and real intent to know if it is true. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to let this doctrine change me, to let Christ change my heart everyday so that I can be an instrument more able in His hands everyday!

I love you guys so so much!

Con mucho amor, Hermana Taylor

20 years old.... AND LOVIN IT!

7/7/14

Mi Familia!

This week went very well! We found more investigators that have a sincere interest to hear our message and TO BE BAPTIZED!! One is a little old lady that is just the sweetest thing ever. The first time we taught her she expressed her desired to become part of the church, it was amazing! One day this week we decided to eat some tacos for 2 pesos and we ate about ten and then this lady was like, "eat more!!!" and so we did and they ended up giving it all to us for free!! We don´t even know the lady that paid for us but it was a very nice day for us!
For our birthdays we made a muffin cake in the microwave with the mix that mom gave me and it was delicious!! Also a good day, I learned a lot!
It has been a pretty rainy week here but I love it! Also, Gabriel and his daughter came to church yesterday and they loved it!!!

We are doing great and working hard!! Today I learned about the gathering of israel in my studies and it is really interesting. There are so many things that we know as members of the church that if only others could hear and understand it would make a big difference. I love the knowledge that we recieve from the gospel, it is a precious treasure that is eternal. Share it!!! I am so grateful to have the gospel in my life and to learn more and more how to live it everyday! I love you all more than anything!!!!


Love, 
Hermana Taylor

Wanting to Change

6/30/14

Mi familia!!!

So I don`t have a ton of time today but i just have to say that this week was really good. We found some great new investigators and we talked to a ton of people! We had a missionary program in sacrament meeting with all the ward missionaries and it was really sweet!!!! I am excited to see how the ward with our new bishopbric will progress! 

We found a man named Enrique and he smokes but he really wants to stop and we are helping him out. We have had some really powerful lessons with him about repentance and the atonement and it is amazing to see how he is feeling the spirit and wanting to change and finding that he can really do it!!! So great!!!!

I love the gospel soooooooo much!!! I know it is true!!!!

I love you all so so much!!!!!!

Love you!!!!!

Hermana Taylor

Swallowed up in the joy of Christ!

6/7/14 mi familia!!! So this week was good. Still have lots of work to do but we are working on it! it has been a rainy week  but it usually starts to rain at night when we are in our house so that is nice :) Although, it would be fun to get completely drenched one time without standing under the gutter :) We had zone conference this week and there was one thing that our president said that has really made an impact on me. he said he had a message especially for us missionaries, that we are his invistigators and when we listen to this message it is only for us missionaries and to not think in our investigators when we listen but to think in applying it ourselves. First he talked about the gifts we recieve from the atonement, the first is the gift of immortality, the resurection, or the ability to overcome physical death, which is a free gift, everyone who has ever lived, who lives now, and will live will recieve this gift.The second gift is that of Eternal life, Becoming clean and being able to return to the presence of our Heavenly Father, or the ability to overcome spiritual death, but this gift comes with the price of living the gospel the Gospel of Jesus Christ! The only way we can gain the second gift is by overcoming the natural man (mosiah 2:19) and becoming a saint. We went on to talk about how we do this by serving others and really by obtaining the attribute of Charity in our lives. he went on to talk about how many of the missionaries have mentioned how they have had feelings of incapability, of how they can,t really improve and things like that... And then we read about a missionary account in the book of mormon in Alma 31 and how they had afflictions and trials and sufferings but in the last verse it says that all of these things were swallowed up in the JOY OF CHRIST. it was amazing to realize this, that everything that is hard in life, all those things that seem to impede us from improving or making things better can be swalled up in the joy of christ!!! Wow!!!  it really doesn,t matter what happens in this life if we know in whom we have our faith, if we know why jesus Christ died for us, Because of Him we can conquer all things, ALL THINGS, and recieve our place with Him at the side of our Father in Heaven! "oh sweet the joy this sentence gives, i know that my Redeemer lives!!!" .... oh how sweet!! And so now that  i have learned it, it is time to do it... still working on that part i think, but it is only forward and up from here!! i love you all so much!!! hope you have a fantastic week! hermana Taylor                                                                           a picture of me a bunny with a dress and sofia!!