What we really are doing is helping each other find our way back home. How sweet!!

4/6/15

Mi Familia!!!

So this week was good. I do have to say that General Conference was the highlight, What can beat listing to living prophets of God??? I brought questions that I had on a piece of paper and seriously the Lord answered all of them, All of them, in the first session. I had to come up with more after... haha. So wonderful the word of the Lord!!! Something that I loved was from one of the 70 , "Siga intentandolo". How blessed we are to just have the courage to keep trying in the Gospel of Jesus Christ!! 

We had an investigator that assisted 3 of the 4 sessions!!! Que maravilla!!!

Welp, I guess it is the final inning and we are wrapping it up. I don´t know if  I can really believe that I will see you all in a week. We are going to finish up working HARD!

Really I cannot express my gratitude for everything that I have seen and experienced this past year and a half. I am just grateful that I know where I stand, I know who my foundation is and I will never leave Him. I am not perfect, I still know very little, I am not a perfect teacher and there are still those awkward moments when I try to talk to people, but I know that I have been strengthened and made better for being a missionary, more ready to keep following the straight and narrow. And really my plan is that it won´t end really, that I can keep doing the things that I have done here but just in another place with other people. Helping and inviting them to come unto Christ. What we really are doing is helping eachother find our way back home. How sweet!!

Well, I love you my dear family!! See you pronto!!

Hermana Taylor

Glorious!

3/30/15

Mi Familia!!!

So this week was great! At the beginning of the week we found lots of people to teach and these past days we haven{t found a lot but it was still a good week! We have a lot of activites in the church that are coming up that we are excited about and we hope lots and lots of people can attend. We have general conference this weekend and next week people are coming to show Meet the Mormons in our church. We are trying to invite a ton of people and also we are inviting them to see the Easter website. We are excited to see what comes from all of these things.

This week I was thinking about the Book of Mormon, and I have a question for you all, What does the book of mormon teach us about God?? Well there is not a ton of time for me to tell you, but it's the question I want you all to meditate this week! This week I was reading in Elder Christoferson's talk from the last general conference and there is something that he said that is very important. I learned from his talk that God will not do anything to make us something that we did not choose to become, but He will help us when we choose to become like Him. Actually it is necessary that He helps us. That is why Jesus Christ came to the earth. I know that He lives! How glorious!

Well family, that is about it for today!! I love you all so much!!

Hermana Taylor

I don{t have any new photos this week but you guys will see my lovely face soon enough...:)

The Power of Prayer

Mi familia!!

So this week was a great week. We have been trying to do something newish the past couple weeks to find more investigators which is that we are teaching them right on the spot when we met them in the street or at their house  and things like that. We had been doing that before, but we are just having lots more opportunities to do that and it is really special how the Lord puts prepared people in our path.

This week we got a new bishop too!!! We are excited to work with him! We also had zone conference this week and we focused on our missionary purpose of how we are suposed to "invite" and "help" people to come unto Christ. We focused on the "help" part to help the investigators understand how to pray, why it is important and how to recognize answers. By teaching these things we should be able to help the people put into practice prayer in their lives, sincere and humble prayer with real intent! So we really have felt the power of prayer this week with our investigators and I know that the power of prayer is true. It is so amazing to help people live the gospel! The best!!

I am just so grateful for the chance that I have had to learn so much and help others. It is so hard to end, but I really just want to keep working really hard until the end!!! I know that the gospel is true and I know that the Spirit is the only thing that can help us know and understand these truths! I love you all so much!! Thank you so much for your letters, they have helped me so much, you guys have no idea!!! I love you all forever!

Hasta Luego,

Hermana Taylor

Play ground!!! Merry go round!!

I know that my Redeemer lives!!

3/16/9

Mi Familia!!!

So this week was a great one!!! We found lots of new investigators and we are working hard!! The weeks before it seemed like it has been getting HOTTER, but yesterday and saturday we had some nice rains that were nice and fresh. 

Yesterday we heard some nice testimonies from our investigators in one of our classes and one said that Jesus Christ teaches us through these people (the missionaries). Wow. That was really nice. How great it is to be able to be a portavoz for the Lord to tell His children about His love in His way. I am so grateful to be a part of it. There really is nothing better than helping others come unto Christ. But really it all depends on how we rely on the spirit, the Lord is the only one who really knows these people and their needs, we just got to be instruments to be able to reach them. It just gives me great comfort to know that He knows me and everyone of us. He is our biggest fan, our truest friend, our greatest example. If we follow Him we cannot fail. How sweet the peace and joy this sentance gives, I know that my redeemer lives!!

I hope you all had a great week. I love you!!

Love Hermana Taylor

Yacas!! yum!

Keep working hard!!

3/9/15

Mi Familia!

This week was great!! We learned a lot and have a great desire to keep working hard!! I want you guys to write my companion!! She speaks english so you can write her in english!! This week my testimony about prayer was strengthened. So we were running around trying to find someone to teach and we remembered about a guy that we have been teaching for a while, we knew that we wouldn´t be able to enter to teach him because we didn´t have someone to teach with us but we went to pass by to invite him to church, he has been sick so he has not been able to go to church and things like that, so we hiked up to the 5th floor and we invited him. He told us again of his pain and sickness and that really he will probably not be able to go. We promised him that the Lord would bless him if he went. We left kind of sad because we thought he wouldn´t go, but when we were leaving I said a prayer in my heart that the Lord would help him feel well enough to go to church. We go to church the next day without success finding someone to bring to church and shortly after we arrive we see our investigator walk into the church!!!!! I was so happy and so grateful!! The Lord answered my prayer!! The investigador had a great experience and told us that he will be there the next sunday!! So Happy!! I know  that there is a real power in prayer!! I know the Lord hears us and wants to anwer our prayers and will answer them according to our faith!!

I hope you all had a wonderful week!

I love you all so much!! 

Hermana Taylor

Yo con una hermana y grafiti!!

Live His Gospel

3/3/15

Mi familia!!!

I cannot believe that i have entered into my last transfer!!!It is sooooo crazy!!! I can tell you that there have been a ton of mixed feelings. So so fast. It is funny to be training because my companion always asks me how it feels to be almost ending and why it is that I don{t want to leave. Thinking about how I was in those first months of the mission it almost seems imposible to come to that point but lo and behold, here I am, 16 1/2months inthemission and I know I am just going to miss being a missionary so much!! And with all of that it is just a testimony of how the Lord can change us, How the gospel of Jesus Christ really fills our lives and makes us want to share it with everyone. How the Lord can help us change even our very thoughts and views of everything. He fills every corner of our lives with a loving brightness and an eternal hope, Oh how I love the redeeming and enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know it fills our lives as we Live His Gospel.

Today I focused my study on the Atonement and I will never understand completely, but I know that Jesus really died for all of us so that we can LIVE. I love Him for that.

I hope you guys have a fantastic week and in all that you do you can remember our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I love you!!

Hermana TAylor

I got packages this week!! You guys make me feel so special!! Tell everyone a humungus thanks for sending me Christmas cards and everything...

Eye balls are not squishy like I was thinking...

2/23/15

Mi familia!!!

This week was super great!! We found an awesome family that we feel will really progress well. It was awesome because it was one of those days where you are just knocking and knocking and no one is home or has time and so we had just finished nocking on a door and we find again that no one is home. We pull out the addresses that we have and we were kind of bumbed i guess you could say, but my companion said, "lets go" so we started working again, we looked for a couple more people and they weren{t there until finally we find this great family who all accepted baptism dates and are really excited to learn about the gospel!!!

We workind with an investigator that has already come to church twice and he is progressing really well!

This week I also ate a fish eye and a grass hopper with chile... Yum! Eye balls are not squishy like I was thinking...

Today I am guadalajara once again!!! Our mission president showed us the movie "meet the mormons"... It is really great and inspiring this movie... you guys can learn more about it at www.sud.org.mx.

I think I have said it about a billion times but the time is just flying by and I just feel more and more grateful to be able to be a missionary right now! There could be nothing better! I know that this gospel is the truth!! I know it can change peoples lives! It has changed my life! I know Christ lives and that He loves us!! I am so happy to be able to share and strengthen that testimony every day!!

I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!!!

Hermana Taylor

my companions, well the two that are by me... and a fruit that I do not remember what it is called but it looks cool right??

That means you guys!!!

2/16/15

Mi Familia!!!

So this week was great!!! We had a training meeting with the presidente where we learned how to do practices with the members so that they can help us find new people to teach and it was great! The members are a really important part of this work!!! That means you guys!!!

We were going to go with a member family and the dad is a counselor to the bishop and at first I was kind of scared to do a practice with him because I didn´t think he would take it seriously but we did it with himand his wife and they did an awesome job and after they were all motivated to go and share the gospelwith their friend!!... Are you guys doing your practices??? haha.... but seriously... do it!

We also found a antiguo investigador that is golden! The misionaries were teaching him before andfor some reason they stopped but we have foundhim again andhe came to church yesterdayandis super excited to be learning about the gospel!! Whoo hooo!!

"¿Habeis preguntado al Señor?" That is what Nefi says to his brothers when they don{t want to accept what their father says. If we have a question or a doubt we need to ask God, He will give us the truth!! We should always be willing to ask Him in all circumstances in all questions and allneeds, He is the only one that can lead us safely back to Him!!! and to everlasting joy too!!

My family, I just love you all so much andI hope you havea great week!!!

Hermana Taylor

Christ is the Perfect Example

2/9/15

Mi familia!

So this week was a little tough but we are looking at a new clean slate in this next week so that is great! So great how the Lord gives us time to prepare ourselves in this life, right??!! Pero hay que aprovechar el tiempo que tenemos!!! It was a great week nonetheless.
So this week I was studying and I realized how really everything that we do in the Church is in the name of Jesus Christ, He is our intersesor with the Father, we cannot return to our Heavenly Father but through Jesus Christ! And so it is very important that all we can do can be in "His name" by following His example in all things. How lucky we are to have a perfect example.
I hope you all had a super great week!!!

I love you!!!
Hermana TAylor

WEll, i DON'T have a lot to say this week.

2/2/15

Mi familia!!

So this week was great. We are working hard to find Escojidos!! I cannot believe it is February already... so so fast. Some good things happened this week but I am not remembering right now. Oh, one good thing is that our Recent Convert said that he will prepare to go on a mission!! So great!!! Thats the best, seeing people progress in the gospel!! Today I was reading in 1 nefi 10 and it talks about how nefi was wanting to know if the words of his dad were true and how he searched for the spirit to know if it was true because that is the way that God has communicated the truth with His children from the beginning of the world!!! That is what we need to search for everyday, to have the spirit with us!! WEll, i DON{T have a lot to say this week but just that the time is flying by!! My companion is still awesome and we are having a good time!! WE had zone meeting this week and we learned how to make goals better! We saw a new type of pet, a Tejon, i don{t know what it is in english... 

I love you all so so much!! 

Hermana Taylor

Nice Surprise!

1/26/15

Mi Familia!
So I had a nice surprise yesterday at church. Of all the people in the world I come to meet David and Regina Adams, Sister Fatheringham and Sister Honeycut. I pretty sure mom and dad know them!!! Dad was one of their home teachers. I never would have thought that one of the tourists here would be from Alpine. haha. It was good to see them. Sister Fatheringham helped us with the piano! She is great!
So this week was great with my new companion. We are learning a lot and finding more people to teach! Yesterday we were trying to find new people to teach, but not only people that would hear our message but that would act accordingly. I said more prayers with my companion yesterday than ever. But it was interesting though because we didn{t just say prayers to start working but my companion insisted on saying prayers many of the times after we talked to people that were "chosen ones". It was a sweet experience to learn and to put into practice gratitude with my companion. She is super! I really found that as we did that our day was lighter and happier. Thanks Sister Ontiveros!! She is great, we talk a lot in english and that is kind of fun!  It is so fun to be training again, I feel like you learn so much more when you have the oportunity to teach so that is great! We should be getting a new bishop this next week.
This week in my studies I was reading about how nefi followed the spirit to get the plates. I love how it clearly shows how the only way to really have success is not to guess or to rely on money or worldly things but on the spirit! I am  trying to recognize the spirit more in my own life and becoming a master at the language of the spirit. I hope you are all doing really well!! 

I love you all so much!!
Hermana Taylor

Good-Looking Shoes

1/20/15


Mi Familia!


Esta Semana fue muy bella!!! And I am alive do not even worry!! I am still in my same area but I had to travel to Guadalajara once again, those 10 hour bus rides are always so much fun. The Lord has given me the priveledge to train a new missionary once again and I am so excited for the opportunity to do that. My new companion is from Mexico and her name is Hermana Ontiveros and she is 19 years old. She practically is fluent in english and she has a really sweet spirit! I am so emocionada to work with her!


We also had a baptism this week!! This investigator that we have been working with has always been really quiet in the lessons and doesn´t say much but this week before his baptism he told us some great stories of how his prayers were answered when we were teaching him. He found a job.... and not only one job but  varios! He also told us how his shoes were old and he did not want to be baptized with these ugly shoes but he told us how the Lord helped him to buy some new good-looking shoes so he could be ready for his baptism with some nice looking shoes! So great!
It really has just been a week of blessings and of joy! I know that this is the work of the Lord and I am so grateful to be a part of it. I really do not think I could say it enough!!
I hope you are all doing well and enjoying your january!! 

I love you all to the sun and further!!
Hermana Taylor

This week was great!!!

1/12/14

Mi familia!!

So as we were entering the internet cafe to write you guys a man was hauling a cows head from a truck full of meet and across the street to the carniceria that is next to the cafe. His uniform WAS white but covered in red. Something I have never seen before...

Anyways, this week was great!!! We have an investigator that is preparing for baptism and he just needs a little help with reading his scriptures more. He is doing everything but that, so we were helping him out a little bit this week so he can be baptized! He has been working for a while to be baptized and he really has a desire to be baptized and be a strong member in the church so We we're teaching him about reading the scriptures and I just had my testimony confirmed of how important it is to read the scriptures to stay strong in the church. We need to know and love the word of God to be strong in the church, we need the strength that the scriptures give us to overcome temptation and do what is right, they really are a map for our lives.

Also, yesterday we were teaching a catholic lady that we have been teaching for a while and we asked her if she had asked specifically about jose smith and she said no so we taught her how important it is to know that he was a profet so that she can gain a testimony of the church. At the end of the lesson she asked in her prayer, "I ask that you can give me an answer so that I can give an answer too." .... It is so important that when we say our prayers we also have the intention to act after and "give an answer to our Heavenly Father". I really liked the way she said it. Well thats about it for this week. I hope you are  all doing great!!!

I love you!!

Hermana Taylor

Super!

1/5/15

Mi familia!!!

So this week was super! We found some new people to teach that we think are going to progress bien! We have an investigator that came to church yesterday and we went later in the day to visit her and she was asking us her questions about the testimonies and everything and she mentioned how one of the sisters was crying to have the gospel in her life that she was caught up in her emotions and our investigator was really impacted by that and she told us how her life would be different if she had accepted the gospel earlier in her life and it was all just really spiritual and powerful and this was an investiagator that was having a hard time accepting to be baptized but she finally accepted a baptism date!! wow!! Our testimonies are powerful, they can make a difference. THis week we have also been asking the Lord to put His chosen people in our path and we find that there are more and more people we talk to everyday that want to hear the gospel and they are excited about it! Even people that we have talked to before that didn{t accept the first time!!! It is so great!! I love the gospel so much!!! I love my Heavenly Father and I love to be here in His work!! I love you!!!

Hermana Taylor

 

Thats us with a sister that is a return missionary, she helps us out a lot!!

JOY

12/22/14

Mi Familia!!!

This week was great and Christmas was fun! We are finding lots of new people to teach! This week I was thinking a lot about the time that I have left in the mission and wow it has gone by so fast. I hope that I can keep improving and really serve the Lord with all my corazon, mente, alma , y fuerza! Today we were watching the restoration movie that they show in salt lake while we were eating in our house and writing and stuff and by the time it ended I could not just help but feel so much Joy. I guess you could say a fulness of joy. I am so grateful to be here as a missionary of Jesus Christ, I am so grateful to be a witness of the Restored Gospel, I am so grateful for the oportunities that my Father in Heaven has given me to share His gospel with His children and for the opportunities that He keeps giving me! I am so grateful for repentence and that we can become pure even as Christ is. I am so grateful for my eternal family! I could go on and on and on forever! I also learned today that when we feel true joy is when we feel real gratitude. I hope you all can take the time to be grateful for all your many blessings this year and then make plans, or goals, to show your gratefulness to the Lord in the year to come!

I love you guys so much!

Love, Hermana Taylor

It was a miracle!

12/15/14

Mi Familia!!

This week was stupendous!!! We found a lot of new investigators and we are working hard. On sunday me and my companion did a fast to find more people we could teach and also that could accept a baptism date... We found lots of new people and at one point we had 7 baptism dates!!! Fasting works people!! It was a miracle.

Saturday morning we were in the bus from before 12 in the morning and then we had a big conference with 2 missions. Elder Nelson came and  he shook all of our hands, it was super great. Shalie got to shake his hand at the funeral of Opas brother and I didn{t get to but now we are even... haha. He told all of us missionaries something really important. He told the sister missionaries that when a man comes to propose to us that we should say no.... unless that man loves God more than he loves you, he said about the same thing to the elders too..... 

But really, the conference was really great. I found my former comopanion hermana youshimats. remember the man that we baptized that had a lot of problems but change so much to be baptized and his wife didn,t want anything to do with us at the beginning,... Well, She got baptized and their grandughter too, and they went to the temple to do baptisms on saturtday!!!!! and they are planing to be sealed i nthe temple in a year!!!! That just about made me the happiest person on the planet!!! Oh how I love the gospel!!!

I also learned this week in a talk from elder Nelson that we should begin with the end in mind. We should start teaching and helping people by seeing their potential and helping them see it too!!! Well, that is about it for this week!!! I love you all so much!

i love you!!!

Hermana Taylor

I know my Savior lives

12/8/14

Mi Familia!

This week was great. We found a family, a mom, a dad, and two little girls and they are wonderful. We still have a bit of work to do with them but I really think they will progress. I talked to the dad and his daughter in the convi and I put a visit with them. We went to visit them with another hermana from the ward and it was a great first visit. We met the mom and she was actually going to be baptized not to long ago in another religion but, for one reason or the other it did not happen,... and then we showed up! We taught them about our Heavenly Father and about family and we put another visit with them. We came back in the next visit and the dad wasn{t there but the mom told us how she has felt peace ever since we left from the first lesson! That is what the gospel does. It brings peace!!! How grateful I am to share this message!!

I am still learning so much everyday and it just seems like it is going faster and faster. There is still a ton to improve but I find that the Lord is giving me the tools and the experiences to do it! I know my Savior lives and that He loves us and only through Him we can find true peace and joy in our lives. I know it because the Spirit told me.

I hope you all have a fantastico week!! I love you all so much!!

Hermana Taylor

Excelente!

12/1/14

Mi Familia!!

This week was excelente! We had a baptism with a woman who has been preparing for quite a while. She is amazing and was so ready to follow the example of the Savior and be baptized. When we asked her how she felt after her baptism she told us that she felt like a dove floatin around. So great! This week I have been thinking about the importance of prayer. Read 3 nefi when the Savior comes to the Americas and just count how many times they pray. Many many times. It is a commandment. And it brings muchas muchas bendiciones! Prayer brings power and strength into our lives! We are working hard and having fun her in Zihua and seeing more and more american tourists, so fun! Go to christmas.mormon.org and see the video and tell me what you think and share it with the world!!

I love you all so so much!!!

Hermana Taylor

   

1

                                                                                bird

                                                                             gecko

                                                                            squirrel

Learning lots and loving it!

11/25/14


Mi Familia!


So I was thinking that I could write you all a letter that is a little more extensive this week especially because we are traveling back to our area and it is an eight hour plus bus ride-wahoo!

This week we have found many new people to teach and they are super great, but it is a little bit hard because our area is a touristic area and many "Americanos" are coming for the holidays and so, many are going to work or are going on vacations to visit their own family and other parts.

We have an investigator who is preparing very well for her back to them this week. She had already received all the lessons when we came to this area so we just had to help her go to church a couple more times, Esta bien preparada Ella.

I love my area. We eat more fish here. It's really green. We get good exercise running up and down apartment building stairs. Our ward is great! Our house is huge. I am sweaty all the time. It rains a good amount. There are geckos and toads and beautiful plants. We can see the ocean when we are up in the tall buildings. A lady in our ward has a squirrel for a pet. My companion is great. There are almond, mango and lime trees everywhere. The food is great as always!

I love to be a missionary! The Lord gives you so many opportunities to learn and to grow. Something that I learned this week was in 4th Nephi. When people are humble they are righteous, when they start thinking that they are better than others is when the iniquity comes. It is so important that we can be humble and grateful and willing to give what we have to others. Also humble enough to admit when we make a mistake. Humble enough to be exactly honest in every situation. Humble enough to keep the commandments of the Lord. Humble enough to try something new. Humility makes us moldable so the Lord can make us into what he needs us to be.

My dear family… I am learning lots and loving it! I hope you guys are too! I love you!

Hermana Taylor

We can do amazing things!

11/17/14

Mi familia!


So this week was great! We have one investigator that is extremely golden!! and super excited! Whooo hoooo! We also had a training meeting with our President and it was super great. We learned a lot about studying and role playing and it was great. I learned the importance to work as a team as a companionship and one thing that really impacted me that was in a video that we watched that elder bednar said was that it is important what we accomplish or do in our work but it is more important the legacy we leave behind. We can do amazing things as parents, in our callings in the church in our jobs, in the world, but what is more important is what we leave behind, a good example, how the people remember us and what they learned from us and how we helped them. It is about the people!! That is something that I really want to put into practice, focus in the people and how they will be after I leave and not only how they are right now!!! The meeting was in a place two hours away from our area and it was for two days so we did divisions with some other hermanas and me and the other hermana taylor were companions for a night. It was sweet!!! It was a tremendously teriffic and tall taylor team!! (ok so that was a little cheesy)

The sunday before yesterday, canadians came to our ward from calgary in canada. it was an older couple and they have been vacationing in many parts of mexico and they did not speak very much spanish and the sister was talking to me but by the end she went to talk to the other  american elder because when she asked me questions I would reply in spanish first.. haha.. I think she even thought for a while that I can only speak spanish. haha. so funny. Well, you guys are going to have a fun time when i get back.
Well that is about it for this week,


I lvoe you all so much!!!
Hermana Taylor #1