1/20/14 God is in the details of our lives

Familia!!!! Mi querido Familia!!!

I have a cool experience that happened to me and my companion yesterday. We went to go talk with one of our investigators and......he wasn´t home. But we saw a man walking across the street, quite purposefully, and we literally ran after him and introduced ourselves as missionaries and he said to me `you speak english? and I said si. He said my woman knows english. So we followed him to his house just around the corner and met his girlfriend. Her name is Dina. She lives in Arizona and came to tuxtla to see her boyfriend and is hoping to leave next week back to Arizona. We started talking and me in English because Dina wanted to practice English with me. I had a hard time right at the beginning and was speaking spanglish. But that ended really fast and I taught Dina about the Gospel. I said what do you know about Mormons and she said You don´t drink coffee. So then I was able to explain the word of wisdom and she also asked about tithing and she thought that we gave tithing to our church leaders to pay them for their service, but I explained that this is not so. And then we talked about the Book of Mormon. 

It was so cool family!!!!!! She is very interested in knowing what God wants for her. She said she will will read the Book of Mormon and the pamphlets about the word of wisdom and tithing. She always said she prays everyday and night. We are going to visit with her again tomorrow and hopefully again before she leaves. It was just so cool. She said she would be willing to change her life if that is what God wanted her to do. I am so grateful that I was given this experience. Simply just beautiful. God is in the details of our lives. Always and forever.

Today we were able to do something fun for Pday! Well we went to a plant place. It was interesting - I didn´t really understand much because it was in Spanish - but I enjoyed just taking it slow.  I have to go! Love you sosoosososososossooooooo much!!

Hermana Taylor

Wowzers! 1/17/14

Hola Familia!! 

First, I just love you all sooooooooooo so so so so much!! 

Second, We had cambios or transfers today and Mi companion and I are staying put. And yesterday guess what! I completed 4 months in my mission! 

Third, we had stake conference yesterday and I was able to understand a lot of it.There were so many people there. They had people seated one foot away from the pulpit and more on the stand because it was so crowded. They had to add seats while the talks were going on. This stake is just so focused on missionary work. Almost everything said is reach out to those who are less active or to your other friends and call the missionaries. Truly the work of salvation is the motivation for this area - the whole theme of the conference. The General Authority presiding Elder Rafael Apino - said something that I want to share with you. 1. Never, never, never, never, never think that God does not love you. He said this I think 5 times. My family always remember that God is there. 

I love you all so much! Well gotta go! 

1/13/14 Follow the Spirit

Hola Familia! This week was good. One of our investigators named Alberto works at the lavanderia just down the street from our house and he introduced us to one of his friends. His name is Dario. So that is really exciting because Alberto I believe will be baptized, but is just nervous to make this huge change in his life -which makes sense! As missionaries we are asking people to change almost their whole lifestyle. If someone came up to me as said that I would probably say no. But we have something that helps people feel the desire to change. It is the spirit and the spirit is essential in missionary work.  Nothing progresses in missionary work without the spirit. So I have been studying a lot on how to follow the spirit and gain more of the spirit. in my life right now. An important thing I am still learning is to believe that if I am living righteously and doing what the lord wants me to do that I can have faith that I am being lead by the spirit. So have faith family that you are being lead by the spirit and go about doing good things. Well that is about all for this week. It has been pretty hot and we have been walking everywhere and it is just good.  I love you all so much!!! You mean more than you could ever know to me and I am glad we get to be together forever!!   Love,  Hermana Taylor

Hola! One whole transfer! What!: January 6, 2014

Mi Querido Familia!

It is crazy to believe I have served 6 full weeks here in Mexico. So crazy. It was a hard one for sure, but I am excited to learn more this second transfer (which by the way I am staying put) way better with a little more faith and trust in the Lord.  

Something that I loved this morning in my personal study: In 1 Nephi 15:8 it says 'have ye inquired of the Lord?' This sentence is so simple yet so profound. Jess you kinda talked about this in your email to me today. Sometimes we just forget or don´t think to ask God for some extra help or guidance or comfort or whatever we need. He is the source of all wisdom and power beyond any comprehension and knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows exactly how to comfort us and just what we need. It is so simple and I really just love it.

This week was good. We are still looking for more investigators and we have found some that are really interested. I know for certain that the Lord is in the details of everything! It is really interesting how we find people sometimes. For example, we helped this old man carry some heavy bags to his house and it was on this road we propbably would have never found and then we talked to this young man who lived on that road and he seems to be very interested in our message and we would not have found him if we did not decide to help the old man. And there were events even before that that lead us there. It really is just amazing. Well that is all I have time for this week! I love you all so much and wish everyone the best with school and work and enjoying every single day of life. 

Love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Hermana Taylor

Where did 2013 go!?: December 30, 2013

Hola Mi Querido Familia! Happy New Year! ¡Feliz Año Nuevo! Okay so remember how I told you that I had not gotten sick? Well that streak ended on Christmas Night. My companion and I both got really sick in the stomach. No throwing up, but out the other end. It is honestly ridiculous. We are doing better and have medicine. Despite the upset stomach it is actually quite hilarious both of us walking so slow in the street because our stomachs hurt so bad.   Christmas was just another normal day. In the night I taught the alphabet to Hermana Carmen and Afrain with Hermana Davidson (remember her from the MTC, she is in my district here too. it makes me really happy)   The real Christmas part of the week was on Saturday with the ward. The party each group of the ward (primary, relief society, priesthood, and then missionaries) shared a musical number. I was asked right before to play the piano for the Priesthood number. I haven´t played piano in over 2 months. Let´s just say it was hilarious.  Members in the priesthood sing their own melody so I was lost and hitting wrong notes and it was just funny. Oh! and then the missionaries and ward missionaries were supposed to sing. We did not know that before. And we only had one Children´s songbook and about 8 people. I don´t even know what the song was. And I was just squinting trying to get the words, let alone the melody. Let us just say It was pretty scary.  On a different note. We have one investigator named Alberto and he is prime. He came to church yesterday!!! We have met with him a few times and see him almost everyday because he works just down the street from our house. He knows the truth, but he is nervous to change his life. Who wouldn´t be! It is a huge change. Oh! And we found out his mom is mormon! What! But she is inactive. Crazy - I am excited to see what happens. We are going to keep working with him and it makes me so excited.   I love you all so much!!!!!!!!!!!   Hermana Taylor

Feliz Navidad!!: December 23, 2013

Hola Familia!!! Merry Christmas!!! Just so you know, you guys are the greatest and most wonderful thing in my life!!!!! I love you all soooooooooooooooo much!!  I cannot even believe it is Christmas. It does not really feel like it here because I am so HOT! I need to jump right into things.  As for this week:   We got to go through the Temple and we had a Christmas lunch with Presidente Cardenas. We all got gifts (lots of candy) from the president and his wife. There were about 100 missionaries there i think. It was a great event.   Also yesterday, our (my companion and I) area changed!! What! So we have turned over almost all our investigators over to Elders Monson and Sanchez - which is totally fine - it is kind of sad because I really like teaching some of our others ones - but they are not my investigators in the real sense, they are the investigators of the Lord and we are just the tools helping find the Lord again.  So that means we are kind of ´restarting´ and right now we have a lot of work to do in finding new people to teach and we need to get acquainted with our new area. Which I am totally excited for. I feel very strongly there are people in our new area that need our help.  I am learning the ways of mission life day by day. I just am trying to take it one day at a time and I am seeking to be humble so the Lord and His spirit may be with me because I need the spirit to help people understand my español because my español is so broken, but slowly, slowly, slowly getting better. Patience and a lot of faith.   I love you all so much! Hermana Taylor

Que Bueno!: December 16, 2013

Familia! My dear dear family! My companion is Hermana Reyes and she is so awesome and pacient. Super patient. Which is really nice because sometimes - and this is no joke - it takes me 4 minutes to figure out one sentence. We laugh a lot because when I speak Spanish it is really bad, but I try and still need to try more. She is really sweet and bold. I love her! She takes good care of me.  She is small - like you saw in the pictures. I honestly don´t feel that tall. but I guess I am.  Which reminds me and I hope it works - I have to send you a picture with a Hermana I went on exchanges with this week. It was only for 1 day and I really enjoyed it. Hermana Salazar is her name and she is super tiny! On exchanges we talked with a few of the members, inactive members, and investigators and something that really touched me was when they prayed at the end of the lesson they prayed for me to learn and understand spanish quickly and to be happy. It just warms my heart. especially since I just met them. So nice! The food is good. We eat with members everyday around 2:00. Everyday which is nice. They are great. Sometimes with investagadors also. To find people to teach we use the Area book a ton. We have also found a lot of people while we are looking for people´s houses. We always ask - do you know where this direction is? - and in the process introduce ourselves as missionaries. And we ask members for people - for example - remember Carmen who just got baptized last week? She has already given us 2 references - Griselda and Luz. They are her neighbors and Carmen is so awesome. She teaches them with us. And she is bold and powerful. And not afraid to share what she recently came to know! So awesome!  Well that is all I really have time for today!  Love you all so much!  Hermana Taylor

Second Week

Hola Familia! 

So one of the people I met this week name is Hector has been to Utah and has mormon friends in utah. He spoke English and we didn´t have a lot of time then, but he invited us to come talk to him anytime! It made me really happy. 

My companion and I end up running a lot to different places. It is kind of sketchy since the roads are not that great but I enjoy it. 

Oh! and I have 3 new families and 3 new moms here in Mexico. Members of the ward have adopted me. :) The People here are so loving and so awesome! and so willing to listen and help out. It is truly a miracle! 

This week was hard, but great! We had a baptism on Saturday. Hermana Carmen. She also got married the same day. It was a crazy and beautiful night. It was crazy because my companion and I were running around getting investigators and members to come to the baptism - literally running. 

We are still getting accustomed to the area so we spend a lot of time walking around trying to find houses. But in one day while we were looking for addresses we found 8 new people to share the Gospel with! It was really cool. Some of them spoke a little English which is always fun for me. 

I am sorry I don´t have anymore time. but know that I am doing well and I love you all so much! 

Love Hermana Taylor

Holy Moly

¡Hola Familia! 

There is so much to say, but i don´t really know how much time I have. All the plane rides went well. we really had no idea what was going on in Mexico but we made it! Presidente Cardenas and his wife and assistants all met us at the airport. okay so here is my week really fast: 

The first few nights i stayed with hermana davidson (the blond from the mtc) and her new companion with mine as well. it was nice to have h.davidson with me the first few nights. so tuesday we had kinda an orientation with the mission president and assistants and got our new companions. mine is Hermana Reyes and as you will see in the picture is tiny! she does not know english and i don´t know spanish so it is fun. we got assigned to a place called juarez it is a smaller part of the city Tuxtla Gutierrez - which is huge, by the way.  - our area for us is Juarez 2. they split the area of the elders in the picture. so i am in the city. so the first few days here were spent meeting members, inactive members, and investigators with the elders. they are practically my companions too. 

 We also had to look for a new house, which we are still buying things for. i forgot to take a picture this morning but the house just has tile floor and it is checkered blue and white. the walls are a light orange and the trimming is royal  blue. i like it. we cleaned it really well and i have only seen one big bug and a little lizard quija. it is just for me and my companion so it´s good. she is really nice and from Mexico. Elder Monson the other white person is from South Jordan and Elder Sanchez is from Guatemala. 
So yeah, that is pretty much it. the elders showed us around the area and i just follow and try to understand. here is what i learned this week:

I now know why faith is the FIRST principle of the gospel because without out it you literally have nothing. I really do not understand almost anything. i will keep trying but i just follow my companion and bear my testimony. I have faith in my companion and the elders and I have faith that the language will come. I have faith that Christ will help me understand.  

Thank you so much for all the emails!!  Love you all so so so so so much!

Love Hermana Taylor