August 18, 2014 - Last email from Chile

Querida familia y amigos,

How is everyone doing? I hear that Lindsey is getting big and that Ben is moving off to college. Big changes are happening in our family and it is really exciting! How is the weather in Texas? Hopefully not too scorching hot haha.

This week was fantastic and we saw a few miracles! We have a new investigator, Rosa (I sent her picture last week), that accepted to be baptized September 21st. She works and lives in a very, very nice house for some people very very well off. She basically is a butler or servant. I have never seen the movie ¨The Help¨ but they say that the rich part of our sector is like it. It is definitely very different than the rest of Santiago. Rosa is alone almost all day long in the big house and she loves it when we come. We went with one of the young women to visit her and she just shared with us how lonely she is and more of her problems. We shared about the Atonement and that as she draws nearer to the Lord, her problems will be more manageable and she will be happy. THe best way to draw closer to the Lord is to make and keep covenants with Him, so she easily accepted a baptismal date. She can only go to church every other week (for now) because of her work, so she will come to church this week.

This week we also went by a contact that we made a few weeks ago. A little old grandma was sitting outside of the house and she almost immediately let us in. We listened to her for a little bit and then her daughter came home and we shared a short message with the grandma, mom, and her two grown kids. We have another appointment this next week and they are very open. I am amazed at how easily people listen to us and want to hear more sometimes. There truly are people prepared to listen to us wherever we go.

We also starting teaching a part member family this week that we just found in the ward list. The grandma is active, but her son no, and her daughter in law is not a member. THey have a little 7 year old girl that told them that she wants to get baptized so we agreed to teach her. The mom, Quirian, basically is a member that is not baptized and does not go to church because as we watched the Restoration she explained everything to her daughter. The daughter, Cote, just absorbed it in and is such a sweet, innocent spirit. We hope to see miracles in the family and that the family can go to church, get baptized, and go to the temple (we have big goals for them and they do not even know yet haha).

Saturday night, all of our plans fell through and we were talking about where to go and my companion said, ¨hey lets go visit Luis Ponce (a recent convert and also less active).¨ I told her that he should be working Saturday night so we kept walking. We went to go for another person, but happened to pass through the very street where Luis lives and he was sitting outside of his house, sad, drinking a beer. He saw us and just started crying. He just felt so depressed and turned back to his old ways instead of turning to the Lord for help. It is amazing how instantly we only felt love for this poor man instead of judgment like I may have done before. The Lord granted us a bit of His charity and we were able to talk to him and help him out. Obviously the Lord put us in his path because taking his street was a longer route and we did not even realize it until we were already walking it. We were able to pray with him, give him homework to read and set some goals with him. Hopefully he will keep his commitments and confide in the Lord. If not, the Lord still loves him and listens to him and his time will come. That is probably one of the greatest things that the Lord has taught me in the mission, is to just love everyone. That is what the Lord wants us to do.

I still learn lots of things every day in the mission. At one point this week all of our appointments fell through, and the back up plans so we decided to pray. The answer i got was that it does not matter where we go, there are always people that are ready. I think it applies in our lives too. No matter where we are, the Lord is preparing people to listen and accept the Gospel. All we have to do is open our mouths and invite them. I know that this is true. The Lord wants everyone to return to Him so He is actively helping every child of His to accept the Gospel. He loves each and every one of us sooooooooooooo much! I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is how we can find happiness in this life and eternally. I know that Jesus Christ is our savior and that he has restored his church through a modern day prophet, Joseph Smith. I know that as we read the Book of Mormon we will come to know our Savior more, because this is exactly what has happened to me. I know that our Father in Heaven loves us and wants us to return home.

Les quiero un montón!!! i love yall a ton!!!

love

Hermana Taylor

I guess the next time that i will talk to yall will be when i go home. See yall next week!

Us outside of President Wright's house

The well-off part of our sector

P day!!

August 11, 2014

Dearest familia,

This week was packed full of surprises and miracles!!!! As always, we continue to be diligent and the Lord sent us some miracles. We taught Maria Ignacia (a grandma) this week that has been listening to us for a while and she did everything she could to come to church. When we passed by her house sunday morning to pick her up (as in take the bus with her to church) she dropped her work and left with us. Her family makes food every sunday which is their main income and she stopped everything to come to church. She is progressing!!!

We passed by to visit a less active this week but he was not there. Two of his nieces were there are we talked to them. One is about my age and started off not being too interested but her little 7 year old sister listened to us. We shared personal stories and our testimonies and we saw Javiera (the older one) put down her phone and start to actually listen. The Spirit was strong and it was amazing to see how she could feel the Spirit too. The 7 year old has gone to church before but stopped going when her uncle stopped going. She told her uncle that she wanted to go, and that she wanted us to come back. He ended up calling us and has committed to go to church with his niece this next week. We are pretty excited for him!!! This truly is a miracle!

This week, at one point i had to use the bathroom so we passed by one of our investigator´s houses that we hadnt seen in a week and a half. Ingrid told us that she was just really busy and that she has had problems with her extended family this past week. We talked to her about the Book of Mormon and how it converts people and helps us solve problems in our families, and she said that she sees it everyday and just hasnt read it yet. She promised to read it. Also, she went to a family gathering and her family started teasing her for listening to the missionaries and she defended the church. One of the people that teased her, her sister-in-law, arrived while we were there and we shared with her and now the missionaries are visiting her too. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Friday we had exchanges and I went to Ñuñoa 1 with Hermana Torres from Peru. We saw lots of miracles and went out with lots of members. It truly is different when the members go with us. There is a different spirit and it is less scary because a friend is there with them. In our sector we go out a lot with the young women and it is helping them to open up. Also they are accepting committments from us to to read the book of mormon everyday, go to seminary, pray, etc. It helps them a lot too. I recommend going out with the missionaries. It helps them and helps you too.

Oh, Thursday I also got to go to the temple with one of my converts from Trinidad, Ghislaine. This was her first time going to the temple to do baptisms and she was baptized and confirmed for her grandma. It was so exciting to watch her get baptized and see the light in her  countenance there in the temple. She said that she felt her Grandma there with her. I also went to the temple with a question for the Lord, and all I got was peace. I felt peace and felt happy. It was not the answer that I really wanted (i do like the instructions or directions), but the Lord left me to figure it out on my own. Really, the peace was just to tell me that I already knew the answer. Sometimes I want this big reassurance or guarantee from the Lord, but that is not how the Lord works. He trusts us to make our own decisions and lets us try to ride a bike without training wheels. He is there to catch us before we fall but he lefts us try to do things solo to learn so that one day we can ride a bike solo. Sometimes it scares me when He lets go, but it is part of growing up and learning how to follow Him without being told what to do all of the time. Also in the temple, I realized how much I love the Celestial Room. We only went to the baptistry and the Spirit was strong, but it was not the same as the Celestial room. I understand why they encourage people to do sessions and not just baptisms. It is worth the effort to prepare yourself to being to go through the celestial room. THe temple is worth whatever effort necessary to go there.

Sunday, we saw a few miracles and we had 3 investigators in church!!! Manu (an 8 year old that we are teaching. His mom isnt a member but his grandma yes), Maria Ignacia, and also Rosa. Rosa we met last week and when we saw her this week she said that she would give up her extra work (it pays in one day what she gets paid for the rest of the week) every other week to go to church. She said that she would come this week so we got a brother from the ward to pick her up. Sunday morning, she did not answer her phone and no one was outside of her house when the brother passed by. Right as sacrament was about to start, Rosa called us from another number and said that she was waiting. As we approached the Brother, he just said, "ya me voy (english translation: Alright I am leaving)" He went and picked her up and they got there right after the sacrament. Rosa said that she had read the pamphlet and the last page about church and did not have a dress but was going to buy one next week. She loved sacrament meeting and this brother that picked her up explained things to her and helped her the whole time. The members make a HUGE difference!!! She is progressing a lot!!! We are excited.

I am learning more and more the power of my Heavenly Father. He truly prepares people and we are there to teach them and help them feel the Spirit. I am just so amazed at how the Lord uses us, ineffective tools, to bring about His great work. He is the captain directing everything and He lets us participate. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve. Knowing that I am going home soon fills me with a lot of sadness to leave all the people here. I have fallen in love with the people of Chile and I just love them!!!!

I love yall too! Dont worry! Dont forget to read your scriptures and say your prayers!!! Les quiero un montón!

con mucho amor,
hermana Taylor

My companion and I are running every morning!

Taco fest with Hermana Fisher (one of the couple missionaries in the office)

I went to the temple with Ghislaine (she did baptisms and confirmations, we just did confirmations)

Divisions with Hermana Torres from Peru

Rosa and Manu came to church!

We went to Santa Lucia and took pictures

A weird flower thing that is all over the place here.

Look at the cool Santiago skylline!

August 4, 2014

Hola familia querida!

how are yall doing? Are yall enjoying the heat up there in the United States? Here we had a couple of days just lovely, a little taste of spring in the middle of winter. We enjoyed the break from the cold A LOT!

This week we passed by a contact we made named Soledad. She has 3 teenagers and listened to missionaries about 15 years ago when her kids were little. She is very receptive and could not come to church this week but hopefully the next.

Hermana Ekins and I are trying to invite all of the young women to go out with us for an hour every week. We go into the Young Womens room every sunday and they tell us when they can. Many times they cancel on us at the last minute, but when they do go out with us it is great! It is great seeing the progress in a couple of girls that have gone out with us two times now and how they are getting less shy every time. It is also great to bring them because the people see that the youth of our church are really great and the difference that the Gospel makes in the lives of the kids.

We have been working a lot with a teenager that got baptized a year and a half ago named Joel. He is the only member in his family and it is hard to find him or his family because they are always working in their family store. We started working with one of his aunts this week named Evelín. She is really great and is open too. We just have to be able to find her to share with her. She has a 12 year old daughter too and yesterday we gave her a book of mormon. She just said, "wow thanks! This book is really cool! I saw Joel reading it the other day." We will be working with her too so that she can help her mom progress too.

Also we are working with the older sister of another recent convert teenager. It was great because before she did not really want to listen to us, but we passed by and her brother was not home and she still let us in. We shared the book of mormon with her and she all of a sudden, was very receptive. Hopefully she will continue to lsiten to us.

Friday we visited another recent convert who is inactive. I came here to Apoquindo last year in exchanges and we met Luis and taught him a lesson. Back then he was active. The other missionaries were giving up hope on him, but I had been praying for him when i got here and found out that he is inactive now. It took us 3 weeks to find him, but we finally did. He said that he does want to return. We shared a lesson about the Atonement, that there is NOTHING that we can do that is not covered by the atonement. The atonement truly is for everyone. I also shared that i have been praying for him and that the Lord loves him. The Spirit was really strong in the lesson and he said that he would come to church.

Saturday we had a ton of appointments and ALL of them fell through. It was hard but we found some cool people too. After the last one fell through we decided to pray there int he street. We were going to visit a family up in the rich part of our sector as the last thing that night, and we just decided to contact and to walk instead of take the bus, up the big giant hill where they live. We found a couple of receptive people. We decided to knock on a few doors in the rich part of the sector (really, they are rich people, seriously). Most of them said no right away but we tried one house and the housekeeper came out. We asked if she was ok and she said no. Her name is Rosa and she said that she had always talked to the missionaries in Peru but her work never let her go to church. We taught her about prayer and then prayed with her. We also gave her a book of mormon and she hugged it tightly to her and gave us big hugs of gratitude. We will visit her again this week and she said that she wants to go to church. Almost always it is the last house or last person that is receptive. I cannot count how many times this has happened in my mission.

Sunday morning we had many people that said that they would come to church. We called about 10 people and most of them di dnot answer and the others said that they could not come. We passed by 4 people´s houses, in the rain, literally running so that we could pass by for all of them and NO ONE opened the door, or they said that they could not come. We were a little discouraged, but we got on the bus, wet and went to church. We just prayed to get there before the sacrament, and we got there right at the end of the sacrament hymn. This was a tender mercy fo the lord thats for sure. Sometimes people get to use their agency and it makes our lives as missionaries a little bit harder when they do not choose to listen to us, or to come to church. But that is ok. We fought hard in heaven before this earth for the power to choose. I am grateful to have agency but other people´s agency is harder to appreciate though haha. I cannot imagine how frustrated the Lord is with our poor choice of agency. I cannot complain.

I absolutely love being here in the mission! Even with disappointments and bumps in the road, it is so incredibly gratifying serving the Lord and the people of Chile. We are seeing little miracles everyday and learning lots. I am learning how important and wide ranging the Atonement is. We truly can use the atonement for everything in our lives, to heal us from all the heartbreak. I know that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. I am so grateful for his sacrifice. I know that Heavenly Father lives and loves us too!!! I love yall!!!! Apply the Atonement in your lives and share the great news with everyone else!!!

con mucho amor,
Hermana Taylor

July 28, 2014

Dear familia mía,

How are yall doing??? How are yall doing with the heat in the United States?

This week was fantastic as always! I absolutely love serving here in Apoquindo y we are seeing miracles even if they do not show in our numbers haha. The people here are open. Wednesday morning we had an anti-tronky meeting (trunky or tronky means that you get lazy because you just want to go home) for the people that go home in August. We talked about how we can set goals so that we do not waste our precious last few months on the mission and it helped to remember why we are here. We saw a video about an olympic sprinter who was favored to win the race but pulled his hamstring in the beginning of the race. He refused to stopped and kept on limping. His dad broke through the crowd to help him through it and at the end he hopped passed the finish line. I learned a lot from this video. Many times things do not go according to our plans, but we still need to finish and endure to the end. Don´t yall worry, i am going to finish my mission giving it everything I´ve got.

We had intercambios or exchanges this week too. I went to Ñuñoa 1 with Hermana Todesco. Hermana Todesco is basically Rapunzel from the movie Tangled, but a real person and as a missionary. We laughed a lot. We taught the grandson of a less-active member. he has LOTS of addictions but wants to change. In the middle of the lesson he broke out speaking English and we had no idea that he knew English. We taught the rest of the lesson in English (my first time teaching in English) and he really wants to change. I truly have a testimony now that anyone can change and that we should not give up on anyone.

Carlos is a new investigator that we have. He is in his 30s and lives with his extended family (we do not know how they are related exactly but there are a lot of people living there). He said that he wants to get baptized, but he has a long ways to go still. We had only taught him outside of his house until this week,a nd when we went to teach him Friday we entered and his family was there. They agreed to listen to us and we taught them about the Restoration. We have another appointment with the family on Friday. Also, Carlos read the pamphlet that we gave him. Sunday he called us because his friend had just died and he was feeling a little overwhelmed and sad. We went with a couple from the ward and had a good lesson. He said that he had actually read what we had left him and wants to read more. Unfortunately he works most sundays so he cant go to church, but we will work with him.

Also, we are visiting the Chiffelle family, less actives for about 10 years, and the son, Jean Paul is progressing a lot. He has a new light in his countenance and has been reading  the book of mormon and believes that it is true. His family went inactive when he was 12 so he does not really remember anything. He is basically an investigator and he is so excited to learn more. Great things are happening here in Apoquindo and I love serving!!!!

I am learning even more how to let go of things and leave it unto the Lord. I can try, worry, and think about the complications we have, but when I let the Lord take care of it it all works out. Also, I am learning more about the Lord´s Atonement. It truly covers everything for us. We can be healed from ALL hurt, pain, sin, heartache, etc when we draw closer to the Lord and follow his will. I know it is true and have seen the power of it in my life and in the lives of the people we visit. I am so very grateful for the Atonement.

I love yall a ton!!!! Have a great week and dont forget to study the scriptures, pray and serve others!!!

con mucho mucho amor,

Hermana Taylor

Me and Hermana Hallenberger in the anti tronky meeting

A cool view of my sector

Hermana Ekins and I have fun in the street

We go out with lots of the young women (like Sofia) to visit people

Exchanges with Hermana Todesco

Some chilean dish that is super unhealthy, but hey without gluten!!

Here is everyone’s name in order:

Back Row: Elders  Henderson, Covarrubias, Watts & Vasquez.  2nd Row: Hnas. G. Zuñiga, Hallenberber, K. Adams, Huber, Millett, McKinley, Mesa, Nuñez & Burnett. 3rd Row: Gómez, Alvarez, Allred, Urzagaste, Sharp, Woodmansee, Willard, Runnells, E. Jackson, Burr.  Front Row: Hnas. Maciel, Altamirano, Acevedo, Hna. & Pres. Wright, Hnas Sanabria, Garcia, Ekins, S. Taylor

More P day pictures:

So today we went with President Wright and his wife to Ebalso de yeso (something like that) and we took lots of pictures. It was FANTASTIC!!! Did yall know that Sheep have tails? I sure did not.

July 21, 2014

Querida familia mía,

How are yall doing? Are yall melting there in Texas? That is a bummer about Rob´s foot. I hope it gets better soon.

This week was absolutely FANTASTIC!!!!! I am kind of in heaven here in Apoquindo because we live on the side of the mountain so we climb hills at least twice a day and we get good workouts. There are lots of apartments here too so we get great workouts going up and down stairs multiple times everyday. It is fantastic!!!!

I am still getting to know everything here and everyone, but i am learning fast. The people here are really open. In my last sector, we talked to EVERYONE in the street and did not have much success. Hermana Ekins and I talk to people here AND THEY LISTEN TO US!!!!!!!!!!!!! If they are not interested, they kindly decline, but people listen to us here!!!! Really, i am a little dumbfounded here. I absolutely LOVE it!!!

Tuesday we visited a new investigator, Ingrid, with her two little girls. She asked us why there were so many churches, and we answered her with the story of Joseph Smith and shared a condensed version of the Restoration. It is quite awesome. She had plans for this weekend, but said that maybe she can come to church the next week. We are very excited and very hopeful for her. We also visited with the Grandma of a teenage investigator. Isidora (the teenager) almost got baptized a year ago but her parents last minute said that she couldnt and she got discouraged because no one else in her family supported her. We taught her Grandma, Maria Ignacia, the Restoration and she liked it. She came to church with Isidora this week!!!!! We are also teaching Isidora´s older brother, Nicolas, and he is progressing too. Isidora said that she has seen a change in him in this little time that we have taught him English and the Gospel. They are great!

We visited a less active family, the Chiffelle family (yes they are descended from French), Wednesday with our ward mission leader. The dad listened to us and his 22 year old son, Jean Paul. They told us that they would come to church this week and Jean paul really does want to know if it is true. They are progressing well. The same day we went to visit the Vargas family, the dad is not a member, and the spirit was strong in the lesson. He came to church on Sunday but he is very slow about making his decisions and a little stubborn and still has not prayed to know if it is true. I think he is just scared that the Lord might really answer him. I shared a little bit of dad´s conversion story with him and I think it helped.

Friday we did splits with a sister in the ward and with a teenager. We were able to cover a lot more ground and it really helped the teenager to get used to sharing her testimony and see how awesome the mission really is. I love doing splits!

Saturday was a crazy day. All of our plans fell through so we decided to go and contact in the rich part of our sector. Our ward has some people that are EXTREMELY rich (we went to the bishop´s house to get to know them and I easily could have gotten lost in his house.). At the bottom of the mountain are the normal middle class people, but as you climb the hill the people go from normal to super rich. We decided to go and try to contact in the rich part because missionaries hardly ever go there. It is literally climbing a mountain basically and there are not quite as many people  in the street, but the Bishop suggested that we try so we went. IT WAS AWESOME!!! The three or four people that we found in the street listened to us, and one said that we could come back another day. We also tracted (i have never tracted in my mission, but there is not other way in the rich part of town). You have to ring the doorbell speaker thing and then they talk to you. We do not ever yell ALOH in the rich part. Most of the time they said no, but we tried another tactic and spoke in English. The rich people almost always know English, and a few people left their houses to talk to us, but in the end did not want anything. We did find some great people in the rich people and i know that people there are prepared too just like the other normal part of town. We decided that we would try one more house and then we had to go back down to our last appointment of the day in the normal part of town. A little kid pressed the bottom that unlocks the gate when he saw us and opened his front door. We asked him if his mom was home (it was kind of awkward because the gate was wide open and we did not know what to do) but he got his mom and she came out to talk to us. She asked us to pray for a friend´s baby that was in the hospital so we did. She said that we could pass by any other day and she was soooo nice! It is almost always the last door, last contact that is great.

Saturday night the first counselor called me to ask me to give a talk the next day over whatever i wanted. I have gone my ENTIRE mission without giving a single talk and only sharing my testimony a handful of times in church. Of course when i only have a little over a month left they ask me haha. I shared about LOVE and the importance of just loving people instead of criticizing them. Basically, it was just an extended testimony because i just shared what i had learned from my mission. The Lord definitely helped me and i shared a talk in Spanish. It was pretty fun.  Sunday night we went out with another young woman from the ward, Tatiana, but we had to go an dpick her up in another member´s house because her mom was in a meeting. Our appointment fell through and none of our back up plans were home and we walked lots and climbed lots of stairs. We took her the other family´s house and my companion went to the bathroom. While Hermana Ekins was in the bathroom, the son of this family, Israel, started talking to us. I did not see him in church, but it was my first sunday so i do not know who are normal active members and who are less active. He started talking about his mission. He offered us juice and brownies (the brownies i turned down of course) and my companion came out. She flat out asked him why she had never seen him in church before (she has been here 6 weeks in our ward) and he said that he was inactive. She said, "what?!?!" in a shocked voice and in English because he was just talking about his mission. He just said that things happened, but he let us share a message with him. We shared about the love of God, that God loves him soooooo much. We would not have sat down and talked to him if we had not returned Tatiana 10 minutes early and if my companion had not gone to the bathroom. The Lord works in mysterious ways and we are going to try to work with him.

Also, we had a meeting with President Wright and he only talked about the Atonement. It was absolutely amazing!!!! Really we do not understand the Atonement. He talked about how the Atonement truly heals people from the scars of life. The Atonement also strengthens us (grace in the scriptures we can replace with the strengthening power of the Atonement) and much much more. I have a renewed desire to learn all i can about the atonement.

I absolutely love being a missionary and i love being here in Apoquindo with Hermana Ekins!!!! We are seeing miracles and it is awesome! I know that the Lord has people prepared if we will just be open enough to follow the impressions of the Spirit. I know that the Lord lives and loves us. I KNOW that He loves me, and every one of us! Have a great week!!! I love yall a ton!

con much amor,

Hermana Taylor

Last monday us leaving out in the rain

Hermana Ekins and I showing our byu pride

we went to a cool interactive museum this week and yep that is me on a bed of nails. Cool right?