May 20, 2013 (a little late)

Hola Familia!!!

That is incredible all those tornadoes happened so close to our home. I am truly grateful that you are all ok. What kind of relief efforts are going on? I am glad Ben was able to speed and get home fast. I know our familia has a lot to be grateful for. 

Today we had cambios, or in other words as of today i have a new companion. Her name is Hermana Cisneros and she is from Argentina. She is one of the sister trainer leader people and is muy buena!!! I am so excited to get to work because the field here is truly white and ready to harvest!!! Also, tomorrow we will receive another compañera. So will we be a trio, one senior companion who is training me (week 7 of 12) and also training a greenie who is beginning on week 1. It is a little strange, but OH MAN AM I EXCITED!!!!! I have faith that miracles are truly going to happen in these next 6 weeks!!!

I am excited for the whole family to get together and have such a great time  and getting to see the baptism of Ezra. We are teaching a boy that is 8 years old and reminds me of Ezra. His name is Jesus and is just adorable. I admire his zeal for wanting to be baptized because his parents are not members (yet but one day), only his two older sisters. He is going to do wonders for his family, just like Ezra is a great influence on our family. 

I am praying for you all and know that the Lord is answering. Something I learned is that we go through trials to make us stronger in the faith, to test us, but also so that we can stand as witnesses. I had never really thought about this last point very much, but it is true. Because I have gone through trials I can witness to the people here in Chile and later on in my life how amazing and wonderful our Savior is!!! I also realized that certain trials can also be blessings for us. En serio, having trouble learning the language has actually been a huge blessing this past 6 weeks and if the language had come fast this cambio would have been harder. I love you all MUCHISMO and pray for you all everyday!!! Never forget to count your blessings, because it truly is impossible to count them all!!

Con mucho, mucho, mucho amor

Hermana Taylor

A traditional, slightly scary, Chilean dish I tried (I don't know what it was)

 

Their first time with rice crispy treats

I lost my magnet for my name badge and carried my name the rest of the night

I made pancakes as a goodbye breakfast

My last pic with my comp

My new companion

My new companion and Hermana Jennings

May 27, 2013 - New companionship

Hola familia!

To answer some questions, No I have not used my sleeping bag yet because we have an abundance of blankets but I am thinking about pulling it out soon. Yes, I have a new companion (to complete our trio) Hermana Phelps. Hermana Phelps is straight from the Chilean CCM and studied spanish for 5 years before the mission, so basically I am the only one that doesn’t speak fluent or almost fluent spanish. Our trio, Hermana Cisneros, Phelps and I, is AMAZING!!!! The week we work more and harder than I did for the first 6! We contacted people on the street, visited a few references, and walked A LOT and are loving every minute of it!!!! We had one investigator (Carlos who I had talked to a few times in the street but could never understand what he said) attend all of Church. We only saw him in passing the night before and invited him and he came!!!! We were elated to say the least. Then he said he wanted to be baptized so now he has a baptismal date too!!! After sacrament meeting a family (references from the CVC or attendees I should say) come and stay for the rest. It is a couple with two little babies and his sister came too. We are visiting them later this week and they really liked church and are excited for us to come and teach. Sunday night we met with a family Zuniga. The boy, Jesus, wants to be baptized but we just found out that if the parents aren’t members and the kid is under 12 he has to attend church for 2 months before he can be baptized. We had talked with his mom once before and she was receptive but wanted it more for her kids. We did a recap of lesson one and invited her and her son to be baptized and after a few encouraging words she said yes!!! There is still a long road for her, but I have faith!!! The field truly is white already to harvest, and we are thrusting in our sickles with our might and are going to reap the reward!!! I am loving life right now!!! 

I don’t have much time this week because things are a little different. We now have 6 sisters in the apartment and have two trios. It was an emergency situation because Hermana Achucarro suffers from migraines and can’t work some days. This way if she can’t work one person from my trio will stay with her and we will be two duos for the day. It truly answered our prayers and put a lot of pressure off of Hna Achucarro because she felt so bad that she couldn’t work. I know the Lord answers prayers according to our faith. I read Mormon 9 this morning and it was full of faith. If we ask for something, doubting nothing, with full faith that we will receive then we will receive. But we must ask with full intention not to give in to temptation and determined to stand fast. I can’t full express what i learned but it was great!!! Also, it is through faith that the Lord works. There is a grand reason that faith is the first principle of the gospel and I am just now beginning to scratch the surface about what faith really is. 

Something cool and a little sad happened Sunday. I was out with Hermana Alvarez because our companions were sick. I had a couple of promptings but did not really pay attention to them. Later I realized that my plaqa or name badge was skewed. I had lost the inside magnet that keeps it on. We turned around and began to look for it. I figured there were people we missed and needed to find them, so I went in faith that we would find some people to teach. Well, right away we found a man that we are going to visit his casa this week and hopefully teach him. Another place we returned to (the person we were looking for was not home), and along came two boys. So we started talking to them and apparently they have been to church before and taken discussions. They didn’t say something bad about the discussions and we asked if they would like to hear more and they said sure!!! Also, we visited a menos activo that did not come to church this week and talked to him for a bit and are having a family home evening with him this week. I never did find my magnet, but for some reason I do not care or feel any stress about it. Either I am going to find it later, or I only need the other plaqa that I have. Either way, life is good and the work goes on! Hopefully I have learned my lesson about promptings haha!

Today is the first day of 3 days of straight rain. On the way here to the cyber the streets were kind of flooded and we might need to swim if it will be like this for 3 days haha. I am going to use the coat (yes in all seriousness Mom) that i brought for rain. Thanks Mom!!! I hope everyone is doing well. Love y’all lots!!!

Hermana Taylor

P.S. Never have fear to share the gospel. You are sharing salvation and it means you love them. The members here are great about inviting people to learn more! It really helps A TON!!!

May 6, 2013 - Where in the world is Carmen San Diego

So customs here in Santiago. Hmmm, in all honesty I just feel almost like i am in the United States, but speaking Spanish. One thing that is different is every house here has a gate surrounding it. So you stand at the gate and yell, Aloh, and then wait for someone to come out. People here greet by touching cheeks and making a kissing noise while also doing a kind of hug. The men we just shake hands. Everyone here drinks soda, juice, or something besides water because water is a little gross here. Also, they offer us drinks (alcohol free of course) all the time. The members here are super friendly and we have Lunch with them almost every single day. They have even brought it to us when my companion has been sick. They dish up the plates in the kitchen and then bring them out to the table. They have some sort of salad ALWAYS. Mayonnaise comes in bags, also ketchup. I don´t know much about the food here because we are fed chicken and rice almost every meal because I can´t have bread. They have little stores all over, like neighborhood corner stores that have super random stuff and some food. It is really great when you are working and you are really hungry. Sometimes we have once or dinner with investigadores if we are there at 7 or 8 and they offer.

So, since there are so many hermanas serving now, we have sister trainer leaders (or something like that) which are like zone leaders and do splits with us. My sister trainer leader is in a trio because she is training two gringas (one is my companion in the MTC, Hermana Jackson). So she came to my sector and I went to hers on Tuesday. So we had 3 gringas who had been in the country for 3 weeks, who cannot understand chileno spanish or speak it, preaching the Gospel together. To make it even funnier, We were like a dumb blonde joke. We had a brunette, blonde, and a redhead haha! It was really fun, and the Lord helped us out and it was a successful day. At one point Hermana Hallenberger and I got splash by a car ramming a puddle, and then 5 seconds later another car did the same thing! We were spotted on our backsides for a while haha.

Spiritual thought or experience for this week. This week was super hard, and at the worst points I turned to the scriptures and knew the Lord would answer my plea for direction. The past two days that has happened and the words spoke straight to my soul. I know that Heavenly Father wants to speak to us, and when we have faith and turn to the scriptures, HE DOES!!!! He has been there for me always, just sometimes I have not been looking for him. I have never realized how much patience He has for us, because in all honesty we can be pretty dumb. Even though we don´t listen, He keeps trying to teach us and does teach us!!! He has a plan for each of us, and we don´t know what that plan is. My vision right now is so limited and small, but his is so large and sees our potential!!! I started reading Jesus The Christ this past week, and one part struck me more than the others. I don´t have the exact words, but the gist was that Heavenly Father knows our futures because He knows us. He knows our faults, tendencies, weakness, strengths, EVERYTHING!!!! I know that when we trust in Him, our lives are better than we could ever imagine. Sometimes we pass through hard times, but we agreed to those hard times. 1 Peter 1 verse 7 has always helped me in hard times, and I have come to treasure those times of intense trial.

Te amo!!!!

Hermana Taylor

A walking dumb blonde joke. :)

We went to a fort from conquistador times. It is right in the middle of Santiago and yields a great view on all sides!!! Santiago is beautiful!!!!

Hermana Jackson and I