California Bound ~ July 21, 2015

Hello All!

I cannot believe my time at the CCM here in Mexico is over! it´s crazy! Tomorrow morning at 6:00am I fly out to my mission in California! I really hope that these 6 weeks have been enough for me to be able to teach and love the people of California the way they deserve.

The teacher, Hermano Silva, that we taught the first week as Christian was playing his good friend Paula. It was very difficult to teach because he didn´t believe in God at all and had a terrible car accident happen to his family that caused him to question why God lets bad things happen to good people. On Thursday, Hermano Silva brought Paula to the CCM and we had the opportunity to teach her and hear her concerns and beliefs from her own mouth. It was an incredible experience to address her fears of believing and her painful trials with powerful scriptures and heartfelt testimonies from my companion and me. At the end of all our lessons, Paula said that she could feel the truth of our words and that her faith was growing little by little. We asked her to pray at the end and she said yes. It was the most humble and simple prayer. All I could think was: ¨How great is this work.¨

Many of you will remember the first week I related that after praying to Heavenly Father to get a Spanish speaking Companion, I was paired with a quiet girl who didn´t know what agua meant. Well, the gift of tongues is so real... My companion is incredible. She can hold a conversation and often times corrects me in lessons on my grammar and conjugations. I find myself asking her words I don´t know daily. Amazing, she is so incredible and I love her! Español is beautiful and coming along and will continue to get better and better!

I had to say goodbye to my teachers as well as my great district this weekend! It was very hard! Our teachers have been there through thick and thin, helping us, and guiding us to be the very best missionaries we can be. And my district... I don´t know where to begin, they have been truly a family these 6 weeks. We have done everything together helping and aiding each other to progress. It is very evident that we are NOT the people we were 6 weeks ago. We are stronger, happier, know a LOT more Spanish, and much more loving of the gospel and Jesus Christ. All my district left on Monday so I´ve been paired with other people the past two days until I leave as well. I miss them already but I know they´ll be amazing in Texas and California!

I cannot wait for tomorrow! To be in my beautiful mission with amazing people! :) I love this work. I love teaching people about Christ and how they can change their lives for the better.

Thank you for all your emails! Next time you hear from me I´ll be in California teaching real investigators all day! You can now send me letters! Yay! :)

Adios!

Hermana Taylor

Week 5 ~ July 14, 2015

Hola All!

One more week left here in beautiful Mexico City at the Missionary Training Center! Time has flown by!

I have the opportunity to talk to a Latino lady at church this sunday and she was the Sweetest! We talked about her kids who are all grown up and her experiences and her membership in the church. I was SO happy: I could understand 90% of what she said and the rest I could guess by context clues! Yay!

Every Sunday before church everyone writes a talk from the given topics and then when you get to church in the meeting they say, in Spanish, ¨And now we will hear from four misionaries...¨ and then they name them and you pray you don´t hear your name. Well this week my name was called and so I had the privilege to speak. For the first 3 mionutes I tried to read what I had written but then I closed my notebook and just talked. The words came and I was able to say everything that I wanted. It was an amazing feeling and testimony to me that if I open my mouth the spirit of the Lord will help me convey the messages from on high. Of course my Español is FAR from perfect, it´s pretty terrible, but the Latino lady gave me a hug when I sat down and said she could understand everything I was talking about perfectly (At least I think that´s what she said). And that really is what matters, that my message got across.

So funny story now, Every Single Week we watch a slide show of persons leaving and they always do this super comically dramatic walking picture. Like you see in the movies, walking away from an explosion but we´re just walking away from... nothing like the mountain or something. So as I do, I thought it would be so funny if someone fell in it and THAT picture was up on the screen. And so while we took our pictures yesterday when she said three I ¨fell¨ and it was super funny! We all raced over to look at the picture: perfect! All these amazingly good-looking missionaries walking and then me, on the ground.  She said she couldn´t put it up on the screen but hopefully that gem will be coming to you all by next week!

During our classes we do many practices with each other with different situation and goals in mind. Our teacher will take four of us outside and give us a profile or situation or problem we have as a certain investigator and then the other four inside try to prepare for whatever is happening outside. 

Once this week my companion, Hermana Hansen, and I were paired together and she was the investigator. Before I could even start talking she handed me the study materials in her hand and said: ¨I don´t want these lessons anymore. You worship Joseph Smith and you don´t believe in Jesus Christ.¨ I was so taken aback. I sat there for a minute and recognized that I felt so hurt hearing this about the thing I cherished most in the world and was taking 18 months of my life to teach about. I calmly took out the Book of Mormon and pointed to the cover which said, ¨Another Testament of Jesus Christ.¨ Then I pulled out the first lesson pamphlet and pointed to the cover and asked, ¨and who is this?¨  ¨Christ....¨ I then bore my testimony that this gospel is about Nothing BUT Jesus Christ and how terribly important Christ and his gospel is to me personally and how it has blessed my life. I have never felt so strongly teaching. Only when your very beliefs are challenged do you find out how much they truly mean to you. Stand up and testify and you will feel invigorated and strengthened by the powers of heaven.

I love my experiences on my mission so far! I love my district! They´re great!! We´ve all become really close friends and brothers and sisters in this great work. I cannot wait to get out in California next Wednesday and share this Beautiful message of Christ and what his life can bring into your life and the life of your family. I love these Latino people! :)

Thanks everyone! Have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Taylor

Mexico City, Mexico

Missionary Training Center

Week 4 In Mexico ~ July 7, 2015

Hello All!

This week went by crazy fast! I cannot believe it it Preparation Day already! Two weeks left until I´m back in the US teaching real people speaking fast Spanish! Eek! At that point I can also send and receive letters! Yay!

Enclosed are pictures from the temple last week with my district and then just the girls from my district! They are all so great!

Hermana Hansen and I are still teaching Miguel and Daniel (Our teachers playing the lives of these people, responding how they would respond)! And Also began teaching within our own district, a set of missionaries teaching an Elder and a Hermana taking the role of someone they know. This is a little less real but very interesting being in the spot of an investigator listening to a message about Christ instead of teaching someone. It has been very enlightening so far!

Spanish is coming along slowly but surely! It is such a beautiful language! I know I could never be as far as I am without Heavenly Father on my side there is no way! Our teacher said this, ¨You did not come here to learn Spanish, that would be impossible. You can here you receive the gift or tongues.¨ This is so true, the spirit has blessed us so much! Some days we have ¨Solo Español¨ which means you cannot speak ANY English! It´s hard but you just carry around a translation dictionary and learn a TON!

You may remember me saying that my companion did not know much Spanish. Well, now, she is pretty much right on the same level with me! She´s so smart and has picked it up really quickly! I love her! We don´t always agree on what to teach or on the same page during lessons, but with her I can feel the spirit and we help each other out a lot!

I have never prayed so much in my life. We pray when we get out of bed, when we get in bed, over all three meals, at the beginning of all our classes, before our lessons, during our lessons twice, before we start to study, and before we leave for the day. I have never been on my knees so much... and also, I have never felt the love of my Father in Heaven so much. I see His hand in my day, Every Day. It is a beautiful thing. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ!

I love this Quote: ¨In a trial never ask: ¨Where is God?¨ but, ¨How can I FIND God?¨

How can you find God this week in your life? How can you change your life to see him? How far are your knees from the ground?

Thank you all for everythig! Have a great week! :)

Hermana Taylor

Mexico City CCM

An Amazing Week 3 ~ June 30, 2015

Hello Everyone!

This has been the best week at the MTC thus far! I love it here! The environment here is indescribable. I am constantly surrounded by so many amazing people, missionaries (Elders and Sisters), natives, and teachers. I have become so much closer with my district and the Hermanas in my casa, they are all great people; I love them.

The days here are definitely picking up speed with is great! But also scary for my Spanish´s sake! Spanish is coming along though! Getting better everyday! Schedules run very tight here! Wake up at 6:30 everyday even weekends, leave our house at 7 and then get back at 9:30 at night lights out at 10:30, sleep and repeat! Hermana Hansen and I are always speed walking across the beautiful MTC campus in the MIDDLE of Mexico city to get somewhere! We study in a class or outside all day: personal study, companion study, lesson preparation, and lessons with teachers, all day. And the food is still super rough. But we are getting it!

The Hermanas in my district are Great! Last week we had a bathroom break and Hermana White was in a stall so, as the funny person I am, I thought I would try to hold her door shut while the other Hermanas watch. She tried to open it then we hear, ¨Oh my gosh you guys! I think I´m trapped in here!¨ Literally we all started dying laughing and she looked down and saw my fingers holding it. We have a good laugh occasionally :)

We visited the temple today in Mexico City. It is so beautiful. We couldn´t go inside because it is closed for cleaning but it was just amazing to see it and think about how incredible it is that through these temples Families can be together forever. I love my family and I am so grateful for being sealed to my eternal family.

During our lesson yesterday with a man named Miguel, He is divorced and feels like his life has no purpose or direction. The Spirit was incredibly strong and my companion taught and asked questions and he understood our less than par Spanish. Walking out of that lesson, we both looked at each other and said the spirit guided that whole lesson. We both talked and realized we had said things neither of us could or would have even thought of without the Spirit to help and guide our minds, hearts, and tongues. Truly an Amazing feeling.

Last week my companion Hermana Hansen and I were teaching just a mini lesson to a native LDS Member here and I´ll be honest, it was pretty bad. Her Spanish was way faster than we were used to! But she was the sweetest lady, a mom, and a diligent follower of Christ. At the end, in our broken Español, we asked if she would pray. We knelt in prayer and as she spoke her voice broke and she started to cry which, of course made me start to tear up. She asked God to bless us, our wonderful families at home and our future investigators. It was the most humble, beautiful prayer, the spirit was so strong. When she said Amen I opened my eyes and we both, with tear filled eyes, hugged. It was one of the best hugs I have ever recieved. We cried and held each other for a while and after she just kept saying, ¨Gracias, gracias.¨ Can I just say: I love these people.

Please everyone go watch this video about Jesus Christ, feel uplifted, and then have an incredibly amazing week. I am so thankful for you all! And I always love emails :)

https://youtu.be/BZqTRSVA1YA

Love,

Hermana Taylor

Mexico City, CCM

Mexico Missionary Training Center (MTC) ~ June 23, 2015

Hello All!

Wow! Has it been a crazy week!

I absolutely LOVE Mexico and all the people, teachers, and missionaries here! I have learned and grown so much in the past two weeks it´s insane!

Spanish, of course, is difficult but our teachers work really hard and we all do too. My companion and I, Hermana (Sister) Hansen, have taught 7 lessons in total all in Español. It has been very interesting! Our fist investigator, Christian, was the sweetest person, we love him. During our lessons, even though our Spanish is awful and we have to look up words you could really feel the spirit strongly and that his faith in Jesus Christ was growing as we taught. It was amazing.

Christian this second week then became our teacher!! It was a HUGE shock and really awesome to see! He said he was playing the part of his friend who really had these struggles he was portraying and he answered all our questions exactly how she does. It was so cool! He is great, his name is Hermano (Brother) Silva.

All the Latinos here think I am hilarious haha. Hermano Silva was getting to know us and asked where we were from and where we are going (for our missions) so I said: I´m from heaven and I´m going back. And he thought that was really funny :)

The food here really does a number on me and pretty much everyone else too. It is a constant struggle. We also get an hour a day for gym and we usually lift for 20 minutes then play volleyball and it is SO FUN!

My district is awesome! We have four Hermanas and four Elders (Picture enclosed). It´s the group we have all our classes with and study times so we are together around 10 hours a day. I also Love the girls in my casa! it is such a fun time :) A huge generation of missionaries left Saturday and Sunday so the CCM has been pretty quite but we are supposed to get in a huge new wave of around 80 new missionaries tomorrow so numbers will go back up!

Besides Preparation Day (P-Day) where we get to relax, no classes, email, play volleyball for hours, and take pictures, Sunday is the best day here in the CCM. We have Church all in Spanish and several devotionals which are all amazing! The Spirit is so strong here.

I feel definitely like I am in the right place doing the right thing. It is weird to think of myself being anywhere else doing anything else. I know I am meant to be here and that I am meant to speak Spanish and serve the people of California for 18 months. Nothing gives me more happiness than to know that my Father in Heaven loves me and that the glad message of Jesus Christ and His gospel is in my life and I am privileged enough to get to share that with others!

Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ

• • 
    
     Alma 26:12

Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

If any of you have questions about what´s going on, or the gospel I´m preparing to teach, or exciting news from America, feel free to email me! I love hearing about home as well as telling about here and the work! Thank you all for your love and support!

Adios!!

Hermana Taylor

     

Look! I'm wearing my missionary shoes!