Querida familia,
HOLA!!!!!!! How are things in the states? Things here in Chile are cooling down. At night it is starting to be kind of chilly and i am thankful for the sweater i bought a couple of weeks ago. This week i think i ate my favorite chilean dish (one of them) named tomatikan. It is basically tomatoes and onions and one or two spices with a little bit of meat served aside of potatoes and or rice. I like the dishes that have vegetables here. Today was p day and we hung out with sisters from another ward. It turns out that hermana tibbits, from utah, lived in the same building as me in university villa, only a year earlier. It is a small world. We both had to go to south america in order to meet.
This week was AMAZING!!!!! Monday we had a family home evening with two families in the ward. One is active and the other is returning to activity, and also with one of our investigators, Marcelo. it was awesome because the investigators need help and support in the process of conversion. Marcelo is being invited to the YSA activities and everything. He came to church too. Also we have a new investigator named yohan that listened to the missionaries before. He said that he wants to take things slow before he decides to get baptized, and we said OK. Tuesday we went for a few hours with the mission president´s wife,Hermana Wright, to visit a few people. She is really great! Another investigator, Juan carlos, is really interested in what we share. We had a lesson with him this week and he excited asked us to pray for him. He went to an eye exam and should have his glasses this week so that he can start reading the book of mormon and gain his testimony. He is really excited and came to church this week.
We had zone conference and learned about how to better teach.It is true that people are not going to believe if they do not really understand and many times we as missionaries are so excited that we forget to check for understanding and just keep teaching. I definitely can work on teaching so that the people understand.
Sunday, we saw a ton of miracles. We worked hard all week so that we could bring four investigators to church (really for me in my mission that is a pretty decent number). When we got to church, a girl showed up named Gisley. She visited her mom in southern chile, and her mom was listening to the missionaries. She accompanied her mom to church and liked it a lot. She returned her to santiago and sunday she felt that she needed to come to church. So she woke up early and came to church (an hour early because we have the later schedule) and stayed for the whole 3 hours. We have a family home evening with her tonight and a family in the ward. Also, another family showed up that just moved from Peru. The mom and son are members but the dad no. Also, they are living with another family until they can get started and the mom of this family came to church with them. We have an appointment wednesday with them and are very excited. Also, one sister in the ward, her daughter and her family moved in with her and her son in law is not a member and he came to church. The Lord gave us new investigators and showed us miracles Sunday. We try to talk to everyone in the street, and not too many are interested, but I think the Lord sees our efforts. I think he says, "Pobrecitas, they are trying." and then sends the investigators to us. Apparently we are ineffective with our contacting that he has to send them to us haha.
This morning I was studying and reading in alma 22 with the father of King Lamoni. in verses 15 to 18 he asks and prays to the Lord. I love verse 18 when he says, "I will give up all my sins to know thee." It made me think, Am I willing to give up everything to know God and follow him? I made a list of things to give up, and it is hard. I want to change the desires of my heart so that I truly only want to follow him. I want to have the desire to give up all my sins to know him. I have many things to change, but obedience truly is how we get to know the Lord and how we show Him that we love Him.
I love yall un montón and hope that yall have a great week!!! I hope yall can change your hearts and obey all the commandments (whether they are small or big) of God. LES QUIERO!!!
con amor,
Hermana Taylor
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
March 10, 2014
Dear familia,
How are yall doing? How is spring break going? Are yall going to do anything fun or exciting? I hope that yall are all doing great!
This week here was rather long. At the beginning of the week, my companion, Hermana Escobar, got sick. She has asthma and the air here in Santiago is really really dirty. So we struggled with that. Then Friday night, I got some sort of stomach bug that kept me in bed all of Saturday and part of Sunday. Luckily, the members here are really great and we did divisions so that we could still work. Luckily my companion is pretty smart and coordinated everything while I was sleeping haha. This week we found out that yet again, we stay put. Hermana Escobar and I are going to have 7 months together at the end of this transfer. Good thing we get along great!
Tuesday (my companion was struggling with asthma, but we worked anyway) we met a guy in a park named Juan Carlos. He said that we could pass by Thursday and share some more with him. We went thursday, with our mission leader, and shared with him and his daughter and he loved it!!! He had some serious health problems recently and almost died, so his memory is not very good, but he loves everything. He also came to sacrament meeting Sunday which is awesome and he loved it too! He had to leave right after to take some medications, but we have another appointment with him this week. Hopefully his family can get as excited as he is.
Marcelo, he has a baptism date for the 30th of march, is progressing. He had some really trying times this week, but we tried to have lessons with him in the member´s houses so that he could have friends there to turn to for help. We had a family home evening with a young married couple, the husband just got baptized a little over a year ago, and it was amazing. Members can relate a lot better with the investigators than we as missionaries can. Marcelo came to church, but only the last hour and a half of it, and liked it. Hopefully he can continue to progress and be baptized. We have faith.
I learned to trust in the Lord more this week. He provided means for us to continue to work and help people. More than anything, He helped us. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve and see these people grow and learn. I love serving!!!
thanks for everything!!! I love yall a ton!!!
con amor,
hermana taylor
How are yall doing? How is spring break going? Are yall going to do anything fun or exciting? I hope that yall are all doing great!
This week here was rather long. At the beginning of the week, my companion, Hermana Escobar, got sick. She has asthma and the air here in Santiago is really really dirty. So we struggled with that. Then Friday night, I got some sort of stomach bug that kept me in bed all of Saturday and part of Sunday. Luckily, the members here are really great and we did divisions so that we could still work. Luckily my companion is pretty smart and coordinated everything while I was sleeping haha. This week we found out that yet again, we stay put. Hermana Escobar and I are going to have 7 months together at the end of this transfer. Good thing we get along great!
Tuesday (my companion was struggling with asthma, but we worked anyway) we met a guy in a park named Juan Carlos. He said that we could pass by Thursday and share some more with him. We went thursday, with our mission leader, and shared with him and his daughter and he loved it!!! He had some serious health problems recently and almost died, so his memory is not very good, but he loves everything. He also came to sacrament meeting Sunday which is awesome and he loved it too! He had to leave right after to take some medications, but we have another appointment with him this week. Hopefully his family can get as excited as he is.
Marcelo, he has a baptism date for the 30th of march, is progressing. He had some really trying times this week, but we tried to have lessons with him in the member´s houses so that he could have friends there to turn to for help. We had a family home evening with a young married couple, the husband just got baptized a little over a year ago, and it was amazing. Members can relate a lot better with the investigators than we as missionaries can. Marcelo came to church, but only the last hour and a half of it, and liked it. Hopefully he can continue to progress and be baptized. We have faith.
I learned to trust in the Lord more this week. He provided means for us to continue to work and help people. More than anything, He helped us. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve and see these people grow and learn. I love serving!!!
thanks for everything!!! I love yall a ton!!!
con amor,
hermana taylor
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
March 3, 2014
Dearest familia,
Hey yall!!! Sounds like spring is just around the corner there. Here in Chile it is starting to get a little bit colder, summer is starting to leave. I lost my two sweaters at the end of Spring, and have kind of been searching for a sweater for a few months. This week it got cold for a couple of days, and we went in the metro to take my companion to the doctors, and in the street they were selling sweaters. It was basically an answer to my prayers because I was really in need of one haha. The lord always answers prayers in different ways.
This week I got to know a little bit more of Santiago. There are four missions in Santiago, and we had a reunion with Elder Evans of the seventy (the one in charge of the missionaries basically) and it was amazing. He taught us things, and was really frank. He told us that we are called to edify the church, or build up the church. He then asked how many of yall have baptized someone only to see them become inactive within weeks? Almost everyone raised their hands (one good thing about not having lots of baptisms, is that the two that we have are active haha). He explained to us how serious that baptismal covenant is, and that in 2 nephi 31 verse 14 says that if they leave after coming to know Christ, it would have been better never to have known him. That is some pretty heavy stuff. He encouraged us to make sure that the people truly are ready to keep the covenant of baptism. He also read in 2 nephi 31 about repentance. He said that as missionaries here in Santiago at least, we do not teach well repentance. We have to repent BEFORE we are baptized, and that many of the people we baptize have not truly repented. He also encouraged us to learn about repentance because obviously we do not understand it very well because we do not teach it very well.
He also taught us about in the confirmation when we say "receive the Holy Ghost." This is an invitation or command, but it does not just automatically happen. We have to repent so that we can receive the Holy Ghost, and that many people have not truly repented so therefore they say, No , to receive the HOly Ghost. They cant receive the Holy Ghost with their sins. It is the same with us as active long time members too. we have to repent and receive the Holy Ghost every sunday with the sacrament. He was teaching us the doctrine of Christ, and he introduced it by showing that Christ introduced His doctrine by saying that He was being obedient to the Father. Obedience we do not talk about as being the doctrine of Christ, but it is. Everything is for obedience and we have to obey.
Something I love also that he said is, "Rentention and Rescue are just as important as bring someone new." In our ward we have not had many baptisms, but we have seen people return to church. He told us that we have to teach FAMILIES! That many people go inactive because they do not have the support of their families. It is a lot easier to just teach one person instead of a family, but we need to do all we can to teach the entire family. That is one thing that I am going to change about my ministry. We want to baptize converts not just baptize. He also talked about how the Lord is hastening His work. Well, what is his work? There are five parts.
1. member missionary work
2. convert retention
3. reactivation
4. temple and family history work
5. teach the gospel
all these five parts are being hastened, not just teaching the gospel. therefore everyone has to play a part in this. He is my favorite member of the seventy so it was really cool to hear him speak to almost a 1000 missionaries. We have a lot of things to change, things to repent of, but we will do it and we will see miracles.
This week, Veronica, a teenage girl from Peru, came to mutual, an activity on friday, and church. She truly felt chosen by the members and loved and that is why she continued to come this week. She returns to peru Sunday, but she says that she wants to keep learning and going to church and wants to read the book of mormon. It has been great to see her sadness from being separated from her family be lessened by the gospel. We saw the gladness takeover! She is great!
I love yall a lot! Take Care! Obey with exactness!!!
love
hermana taylor
Hey yall!!! Sounds like spring is just around the corner there. Here in Chile it is starting to get a little bit colder, summer is starting to leave. I lost my two sweaters at the end of Spring, and have kind of been searching for a sweater for a few months. This week it got cold for a couple of days, and we went in the metro to take my companion to the doctors, and in the street they were selling sweaters. It was basically an answer to my prayers because I was really in need of one haha. The lord always answers prayers in different ways.
This week I got to know a little bit more of Santiago. There are four missions in Santiago, and we had a reunion with Elder Evans of the seventy (the one in charge of the missionaries basically) and it was amazing. He taught us things, and was really frank. He told us that we are called to edify the church, or build up the church. He then asked how many of yall have baptized someone only to see them become inactive within weeks? Almost everyone raised their hands (one good thing about not having lots of baptisms, is that the two that we have are active haha). He explained to us how serious that baptismal covenant is, and that in 2 nephi 31 verse 14 says that if they leave after coming to know Christ, it would have been better never to have known him. That is some pretty heavy stuff. He encouraged us to make sure that the people truly are ready to keep the covenant of baptism. He also read in 2 nephi 31 about repentance. He said that as missionaries here in Santiago at least, we do not teach well repentance. We have to repent BEFORE we are baptized, and that many of the people we baptize have not truly repented. He also encouraged us to learn about repentance because obviously we do not understand it very well because we do not teach it very well.
He also taught us about in the confirmation when we say "receive the Holy Ghost." This is an invitation or command, but it does not just automatically happen. We have to repent so that we can receive the Holy Ghost, and that many people have not truly repented so therefore they say, No , to receive the HOly Ghost. They cant receive the Holy Ghost with their sins. It is the same with us as active long time members too. we have to repent and receive the Holy Ghost every sunday with the sacrament. He was teaching us the doctrine of Christ, and he introduced it by showing that Christ introduced His doctrine by saying that He was being obedient to the Father. Obedience we do not talk about as being the doctrine of Christ, but it is. Everything is for obedience and we have to obey.
Something I love also that he said is, "Rentention and Rescue are just as important as bring someone new." In our ward we have not had many baptisms, but we have seen people return to church. He told us that we have to teach FAMILIES! That many people go inactive because they do not have the support of their families. It is a lot easier to just teach one person instead of a family, but we need to do all we can to teach the entire family. That is one thing that I am going to change about my ministry. We want to baptize converts not just baptize. He also talked about how the Lord is hastening His work. Well, what is his work? There are five parts.
1. member missionary work
2. convert retention
3. reactivation
4. temple and family history work
5. teach the gospel
all these five parts are being hastened, not just teaching the gospel. therefore everyone has to play a part in this. He is my favorite member of the seventy so it was really cool to hear him speak to almost a 1000 missionaries. We have a lot of things to change, things to repent of, but we will do it and we will see miracles.
This week, Veronica, a teenage girl from Peru, came to mutual, an activity on friday, and church. She truly felt chosen by the members and loved and that is why she continued to come this week. She returns to peru Sunday, but she says that she wants to keep learning and going to church and wants to read the book of mormon. It has been great to see her sadness from being separated from her family be lessened by the gospel. We saw the gladness takeover! She is great!
I love yall a lot! Take Care! Obey with exactness!!!
love
hermana taylor
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