Tis The Season

So this week has been an adventure. sister Jarvis was sick most of the week so we spent a lot of time in the apartment. we had lots of opportunities this week to help members decorate their houses for Christmas. one of our investigators Tammy who is an excommunicated member has us over for a lesson we decorated then we had lunch then we put her on date for December 23rd. how exciting!!! she is great! she is so ready to be baptized. when we go over to teach her she teaches us. it will be good for her to do this. its sad though because she was waiting for her husband to get baptized as well, but this week he said, "i'm not getting baptized," so she said well then i'm not waiting for you. and so here we are preparing for a baptism! the ward is very excited for her! 

we had a dinner appointment with some members in Liverpool which is about 40 minutes away. it was so neat they have a son who is handicap and they got him a patriarchal blessing and it said that he is the way he is because he helped escort Satan out of the heaven. HOW AMAZING IS THAT!!!!! god knew that if he came to earth and was like the rest of us that Satan would torment him up the wall so he is the way he is for a reason, it just makes me wonder about all the others who are handi-cap. 

later on in the week we had another dinner appointment with some other members in Liverpool and after they took us to the towns tree lighting and festivities. they do a candle walk across this bridge and then youth from the Micmac community canoe across the river singing and chanting then they light a bonfire and they have hot chocolate and cookies and a children's choir. it was so fun we also got out picture taken with an guy who served in the civil war or something like that. it was really cool. 

on Saturday we had a church tour with our investigator Kate, she loved it and she felt the spirit really strong. she didn't come to church this Sunday though, but she said she will comenext Sunday. which will be really good for her. it will help her to progress more towards baptism on January 17th.

we also has another dinner appointment with the Frelicks and the whole time they were trying to set me up with their son who is 30......awkward. And bro frelick showed me his old fashioned car and i got to sit in it and he's going to take me and sister jarvis for a ride. 

things are going great we are getting ready for the live nativity in december and we are having a christmas concert and i'm singing in it we are doing a bunch of different pieces. we are pretty excited and we have christmas zone conference coming up this week i'm pretty excited! 

well that's all that has happened this week. i love you! 

All my love, Sister Taylor 

 Ugly Sweater making

 Liverpool Town lighting festivities

Great old car

Love St. John.

It saddens me to hear that Donna has passed away. She played a huge part in my life. Always having her there just across the street I really looked up to her and still do! That also means she won't be able to make my wedding dress when I get married. Sad. But today I told Grady that I wasn't going to get married for a long time. So maybe by then you'll know how to make a wedding dress haha, just kidding, about the dress. You bet your bottom dollar, we will paint our toes and watch Gilmore Girls and eat pizza, or winks subs :) I also am excited to go camping and Magrath days and just having fun!!!! I really don't want to work during the summer, mainly because I don't know where to work and still be able to do everything I want to. haha but it will all work out! I mainly just want to be with my family. Grady is amazing!!! he makes me want to play college ball. 

So this week was busy and long, but its a new week. Thanksgiving was great we got fed really well. the members are great here. we spent a lot of time driving this week, doing exchanges and training the sisters. we drove half way to st. stephen twice, started driving to fredericton about 45 min on the road sister burton forgot her passport haha, so we turned around drove back to saint john then drove back to fredericton then sister starkie and i drove back to saint stephen didn't get home till 11 then the next night drove back to fredericton and then home again. it was long, but fun but good because i needed the exchanges. our investigators are doing really well we have 3 Aimee, Carolyn, and Heather. they are all younger heather is a mom of 3 girls and Aimee and carolyn are both 21. Aimee is on date for november 29th. they are all progressing really well. I NEVER WANT TO LEAVE SAINT JOHN!!!! i could live here i love it that much. 2 more weeks till transfers. stake conference is coming up we go to Fredericton for that. and also we have mission leadership next week in Moncton, so there is more driving in store for me. i don't really know what else to talk about. i'm happy! i love the work. i'm grateful to be here! Christmas is in 2 1/5 months thats exciting!!! its starting to get VERY COLD HERE! i'm freezing my butt off!!!! but Saint John doesn't get snow like the rest of the east coast they get a lot of rain and ice. should be fun!!! good thing i have rubber boots now!! best purchase ever!!! well that is all! i'm going to go have a nap.

love you long time!!! XOXO

Sister Taylor  

Happy Birthday to Me

Thanks for the birthday wishes! i really appreciate the love and support that you give me! i don't feel much older but i do feel much more loved!!! haha i'm glad to hear all is going well and all is happy! 

SO i cut my hair! haha its a lot shorter. i'll send pictures. and we got a new investigator on monday last week. her name is Heather Howe she is a mother of 3 and married her husband is great and also a bit interested, but not as much as Heather. so she is going to be our main focus. she was a member referral and so prepared. she pretty much was just put into our hands. last Sunday we fasted to find new investigators and low and behold the next day one is dropped into our hands. and she lives above the woodruffs so we immediately have fellowship. they had her and her family over for dinner monday night and we talked and answered questions and it was amazing. we are teaching her again tonight. On Thursday we traveled to St. Stephen for visits with the sisters which is a border town with America so i got to go to the states. pretty cool! i love the homes here they are all victorian style homes and they are all over the Maritimes, and they are huge, its so pretty! and you'll never guess what i did. so, that night the sisters were going to give blood and sister wilkinson as well and i said that i wasn't aloud because i'm anemic. and half way through i was thinking i wonder if they can just prick my finger and check my iron levels so i asked and i had 132 level of iron WOW!!! how amazing is that! and so then i signed up to donate blood and i did and i almost passed out..... i also have pictures of that as well. can you believe my iron levels they so good!!!! and i wasn't even taking the iron supplements.... i def felt it the day after i needed iron in my body haha so i went and got a booster juice and all was good after that. it was very thrilling. and a lot of fun! when i saw how much blood they took i nearly died...haha so much blood i did not feel good! we also got a new investigator yesterday named shera. also a great and prepared person! great things are happening! thanks again for all you do for me!! i can't wait to go to the temple to do our families work! 

i found a coke bottle that had dads name on it. so great! my hair before and while getting cut.

All my love, Sister Taylor! 

Another Great Week

Its been a great week! we had the baptism for Desiree Campbell on saturday! it was a success! the spirit was so strong! So funny story our ward here does have corn boils... we have one today. its out in Hampton which is about 15 minutes away. 

DAD YOU GOT NOMINATED TO DO THE ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE????? YOU NEED TO POST THE VIDEO ON FACEBOOK SO I CAN SEE IT! i saw the one of grady! he took it like a champ. a member here nominated sister wilkinson and I and the day before we got a text from our mission president saying that no missionaries are aloud to do it. Sad. but it helps us stay dignified in our calling. Saint John is still wonderful we will be out of our area for 3 days this week we are going to Houlton and Presque isle Maine for visits with the sisters and then coming back in to canada who visits with the St. Stephen sisters. it will we a long but great week. a lot of driving is in store for me. Sister Wilkinson lost her liscence in newfoundland so she can't drive. and we have no GPS. ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE! we are excited. i'm also excited to go to the states where things are a lot cheaper. This week i went to Fredericton on exchanges with the sister there. i got to spend the day with a wonderful sister weaver she goes home in november. we had a lot of fun! Fredericton was a very cool place, not as cool as Saint John though.  :) well its been an hour sorry my email is so short it will be longer next week. i always email president first and it takes me like 30 minutes to do so. and then to go through my emails from president and so forth it takes time. i love you! and look forward to talking to you next week! love ya!

xoxo Sister Taylor! <3

Desiree's Baptism

 Sitting on a Moose

Splits with a wonderful Sister

I'm am so sorry you had to join that club. your fall seems so much worse than mine. It sounds like you have had a fun filled week and summer. 

This week we are preparing for a baptism her name is Desiree Campbell she has 2 kids and is wonderful! its amazing to see the light of christ enter into her life. we have found so many people here in saint john who are ready and prepared. its amazing! so the guy named james that we met on a park bench....we are teaching him and he is amazing, he asks really thought filled questions. he is really seeking for the truth! i'm excited to see where he ends up! On tuesday we had zone conference in Moncton NB It was very spiritual and uplifting! my favorite part about zone conference, was the comment that one the the assistants Elder Tyler Torrie From Taber. he said that "Greatness does not come from you, it comes through you." what words of wisdom! i love being a missionary! i love knowing that all the missionaries are from alberta! means we will be friends forever! my friends now are the ones i've made on my mission! Other than karalynn of course! and well a few others! i can't wait for the day that sister Jarvis and I are companions! anyways. after zone conference we had a leadership meeting, that was weird being at, but cool to! i just don't feel like i've been out long enough to be a leader. crazy stuff! I'M TURNING 20!!!!!! i'm going to buy a cheesecake! 

oh so crazy story. this week we met this guy named bryce outside of a convenience store we talked to him for maybe 2 minutes but didn't have time to get his info and moved on. the next day we decided to go knock in a random area and low and behold guess who was out side on the grass with their dog outside of his apartment building. Bryce! when we pulled up there were a bunch of cop cars outside and people, wasn't really sure what was going on until someone came over and said " SOMEONE DIED!!!!" in a freaking out voice! turns out this guy died. not sure why or how he wasn't very old, but during all this we taught Bryce on the grass and while i was teaching about apostasy they pulled the body out of the apartment building. it was so distracting i couldn't even focus and i butchered it. but hey he still understood and he is on date for baptism. but it was just a very awkward, interesting, unusual experience. 

last night we were street contacting and this random guy stopped us. he had 8 tear drop tattoos.......do you know what those mean??? each tear drop resembles each person who they have killed....so here we are talking to this guy and all the sudden i got this feeling to walk away. low and behold sister wilkinson got the same feeling we turned around at the same time and walked away while he yelled some interesting things. i'm so grateful for the spirit! and then the next person we talked to was interesting and we are meeting with them this week. 

also another day we were street contacting on the same street. and there was this lady playing guitar and harmonica and called us over to talk to her. we ended up singing i am a child of god with the tune she was playing on her guitar in up town  Saint John for the whole city to hear! and we recorded it but it won't let me send it. but we did take a picture. she was cool, but wasn't interested. Saint John is so neat! they have some amazing culture and old buildings! Lets just say i LOVE IT! and they have this square called kinds square and they always have people performing there everynight! 

Sister Wilkenson and Sister Taylor

SAINT JOHN!‏ 

Sounds like you have had a great time at the reunion! I look forward to the next one! Sister Wilkinson and I are GREAT! We have had a wonderful week and are looking forward to the rest of the transfer together. Wonderful things are happening here. we just had a baptism on the 9th and we have one planned for the 30 of August. We also got a new investigator yesterday. We were driving to make contact with a potential investigator and when I was parking Sister Wilkinson was backing me up and when she got back in to say a prayer her skirt was stuck in the door and this guy came running to tell her. When we got out to go try to meet with the potential investigator the thought came to us to go talk to this guy who had just helped us. We ended up teaching him there on the park bench. he is a very deep thinker and believes things happen for a reason. he's been having a hard time and is trying to find his purpose in life.....HOW GREAT IT THAT??? People are prepared all we have to do is listen to the spirit and open our mouths. We are seeing him again on Wednesday. This week we also met this Chinese family who just moved here 3 months ago, THE CHINESE ARE PREPARED!!! they have no belief in God, but they want one. just the language barrier is the problem. We gave them a church tour and it was so hard, but really cool at the same time. you really have to teach simply using little words, it was hard but very fun at the same time. We gave them a Chinese Book of Mormon and pamphlets and so they are going to pretty much convert on their own. they said when they learn more English they will call us. So we are going to start an English class and he said he would come and bring his other Chinese friends! Get ready for a Chinese branch here in Saint John!!!! I love it here and I love working with someone who knows why they are here! Great things are happening! i love it! 

Other than that nothing really else is happening! we had a great week! and we get fed here! we have like 3 a week!!!! its great! my district is great! Elder Tusa is in it again. and Elder Edmond!!! I LOVE IT! 

i love you all and i hope you have a great week! 

All my love Sister Taylor!

XOXOXOXXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

I'm moving to Saint Johns New Brunswick, my new companion is Sister Wilkinson and I am a Sister Training Leader. Last p-day was fabulous! We had so much fun walking on the bottom of the Bay of Fundy and watching the tide come in! it was so cool! then we ate at this diner and i had fried clams! it was pretty good. talk about not being a picky eater...lol although i still kind of am. i'm sad to be leaving Truro looking back on the last 3 months a lot of progress has been made! i feel like i have accomplished my goal, leaving the place better than i found it! you have no idea how happy it makes me to see your email every week. the one and only email :) I love you! i'm happy to hear that dad and my brothers had a blast on their trip! i'm glad they got to spend time together! so last week i told you that i wanted to share something with you. How grateful i am for my seminary scriptures I've learned so much from them already! and thank you for the package! i loved it! so i was looking through all my stick ins that Brother Blackwell gave us in seminary and i came across this one it was stuck in Alma 36 it says 

Many times the bishop will write: "i feel he has suffered enough!" But suffering is not repentance. Suffering comes from a lack of complete repentance. A Stake president will write: "i feel he has been punished enough!" But punishment is not repentance. Punishment follows disobedience and precedes repentance. A husband will write: " My wife has confessed everything!" Confession is not repentance. confession is an admission of guilt that occurs as repentance begins. A wife will write: "my husband is filled with remorse!" But remorse is not repentance. Remorse and sorrow continue because a person has not yet fully repented. But if suffering, punishment, confession, remorse and sorrow are not repentance, what is repentance? i then went on to read Alma 36 and in verses 16-20 ( i don't want to type it out so go read it) That there is what true repentance is! how grateful i am for the power of prayer and the atonement of Jesus Christ! so that i can truly repent of my sins and not feel the pain anymore. This week i also learned that upon every principle of the gospel it all comes down to obedience. and i thought of the 10 virgins and how 5 of them knew how important it was to be prepared to be obedient (tithing, temple recommend, prayer, scripture study etc.) and when the lord came they were worthy they did not procrastinate the day of their repentance, but those who did and were not worthy, the fence sitters were not accepted into the lords presence and missed their opportunity to be with him forever. it is so important that we are obedient that we do as we are commanded. its not God taking away our agency, its us choosing to follow him knowing that the commandments are given to us for our benefit so that we may have a happy life. we can't think that if we walk 2 steps behind God that we will be saved, we must walk with God. we can't think "oh i'll repent later, NO we must repent NOW! we must prepare ourselves NOW! i love this gospel and the freedom it gives me. I've never been so happy! and how happy i am to be sharing this with others!

A lot of changes have happened here in the mission we have 19 new missionaries coming and 16 going home. next transfer we have 17 new missionaries coming and a bunch more going home. even the assistants are training. its amazing to see so many great people make the sacrifices they have to be here today. they are inspiring! i'm grateful i get to be apart of it! This church is true! 

I've had a hard time in Truro, but i've loved every minute of it! i've learned so much. i'm excited to go on and to learn more and be able to share the joy and things i've learned with other missionaries! and people i love! 

All my love Sister Taylor XOXO 

 Bay of Fundy

Many are called, but few are FROZEN!!!!

MANY ARE CALLED BUT FEW ARE FROZEN!!!!!!                                                   Jan. 6th, 2014

Unfortunately I'm one of those few, what an adventure; you have not experienced winter till you've been to Newfoundland. It’s been a great and dreadful week.

So I have to combine my letter to everyone this week because of the random power outages and we never know when it’s going to go out again and for how long. There were 2 huge power plants one caught on fire and the other one blew up, more than half the island has no power, our apartment is one of them. The power will come on for about 5 min then go out for another 12-24 hours good thing we are never home. People panic! the grocery stores were packed there was not a drop of drinkable water left in any store, the gas stations were backed up miles long, we've had many candle light/ flashlight appointments. It has truly been a winter I will never forget, and it’s only the beginning!

Monday December 30th

What a great day! Boxing Day shopping I found 2 skirts for less than 12 dollars each! And no shirts that never happens! We taught one of our investigators, Chantelle, her first lesson on the restoration and she is getting baptized on February 22^nd, we are so excited and we are continuing to teach her and she is progressing so much, she has a very short attention span so we've been doing as many object lessons as possible ha-ha its not that easy, but so worth it! She has many cool experiences that bring her closer to Christ. One experience she had was just last week, she gets really bad headaches and she was having one and nothing was taking it away, so she knelt down and started praying and she said her headache went away and she was over come by the spirit and just knew that someone was there comforting her, she constantly feels the presence of god and angels in her life. She has come along way in just a few weeks. We also taught Sherry and Brian I LOVE THEM!! We also taught them the restoration, the spirit was so strong and they have 7 kids who most of them are really interested. They are definitely kingdom builders!

Tuesday.

NEW YEARS EVE!!!!  

What a complete change around from last year. Last year I was questioning everything and this year I'm serving the Lord. WAHOOO!

New investigator, his name is Paul Muyanga, he was a former investigator from a few years ago, and his nieces are members of our branch and just the greatest! We took dinner over to the Larsen’s who just had a baby on Christmas day (poor child). We then went back to the Muyangas and had dinner (you don't want to know what I ate) and that's when we taught Paul. I also had my first Skype interview with President Leavitt. What a great man! He loves the work and he puts every effort into it. He told me I'm doing really well and I'm the only positive new missionary he’s had in awhile. I feel bad for the other Sister’s I came out with like Sister Jarvis, she isn't doing to well, but she will be great and do great things. He also told me I'm very mature and I'm one of those missionaries who came out trained and ready to work. We have been having lots of success and I'm adjusting very well! Life is good! Fireworks here are nuts you can buy them any where and every where and any age can buy them. Newfoundland is crazy!

Wednesday

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Guess what my first meal of the New Year was? McDonalds!!! 2 plain cheeseburgers, fries and a hot chocolate. (Out here you seriously have to have hot chocolate at every meal or you'll freeze) and then we had dinner at the Reids a less active and active home. It’s an interesting situation I don't know a whole lot about, but it was great. We had jigs dinner which is cabbage, turnip, carrots, potatoes’ then some sort of meat. In this case we had turkey salted ribs and roast and of course gravy, it was very good... well most of it. Ha-ha we also made plans to do a 3 day exchange to C.B.S. (Conception Bay South) to see if the sisters would be more effective. It is gorgeous out there; it’s well obviously a bay, so it’s right by the ocean. So expect some pictures!! I'm excited to go to CBS I'll be doing lots of knocking, but that’s okay, it’s not as bad when it’s some what warm out.

Thursday

I SAW MY FIRST RAT! HOW NASTY!!! We went to contact a former named Paul Noftle and there was a rat running around. I didn't know what to do or how to react. so we have been having come crazy says and because there is apparently not enough power they will shut parts of the city down so we would randomly have no power so when we were teaching Chantelle we had power and before we knew it we were teaching by flashlight. All say our power was in and out and it was very cold in our apartment the windy was so cold it is so bone chilling. After we taught Chantelle we taught Brian and Sherry and their family, they are progressing so much and so fast! Sherry asked me a question at the end and she said "if I were to get baptized or come to church would I be accepted even though I've already been baptized into another church?" I turned to her and said "we are all gods children he loves us all the same, you will be accepted the same and if not more than someone being baptized at 8. God is rejoicing as we all should be" I'm going to put her on date soon. She also said she wants to know more about Joseph Smith. 

So its official Sister Turner and I are going to C.B.S. mon-wed (so today)

Last night Sister Turner and I went to see a referral and turns out she was in the "nun" hospital. So we decided to go visit her. 1st she was at Saint Claries Hospital which is run down and ran by nuns and is very old. 2nd she told us her entire life story she’s been in and out of jail her whole life and just got out 2 months ago, was homeless for 3 years and a  drug addict etc. I felt so bad for her and kind of scared. (Lot’s of people here will just up and tell you their whole life story right there on the street) none of that matters because she is here now and ready to learn and I'm excited to teach her more!

Friday.

Every one is going crazy! Grocery stores are packed full of people getting ready for the storm coming later. We had no power while weekly planning, that was an adventure, also as soon as we finished planning the Mount Pearl Elders called us and told us that we were going to C.B.S. on Monday instead of Wednesday we were quite upset because we just spent 3 hours planning out the coming week and then everything got changed on us, and of course the person I am some times things come out of my mouth before I can stop it I say, "is that true revelation, cuz its making everyone very upset", but of course we took our problem and found a way to solve it with as much charity as possible. The Mount Pearl Elders drive us nuts but we love them!! They also didn't tell C.B.S about the change so they were upset as well. So because there was a storm today we were told to stay inside, so we cleaned our apartment, its spotless, just for the C.B.S. Elders, they are clean freaks!

So lucky me, since the day I got here it hasn't stopped snowing, we've gotten another 4 feet of snow from the storm we just had. Apparently this is worse than the 2001 storm they had, and I get to be apart of it! What a promised land!

Saturday.

SOMEONE PLEASE STOP SHAKING THE SNOW GLOBE WE ARE IN!!!!! And dial down the wind. What a brutal day. We were again told not to leave our apartments, but Sister Turner and I were going stir crazy, we were so bored and had no food or power, so we didn't listen and left. We bundled up and went shoveling. We shoveled out a few of the members close by, and then went to the Reids for lunch and to warm up. My face turned into one big icicle, I had them hanging form my eyelashes and nose. It was cold, and we had no power all day, what a great day!!

Sunday.

Church was cancelled, so we set up appointments and we went out to a small town called Torbay to contact some referrals and we had a dinner appointment with one of the members out in Flat Rock. Sister Hollett and her husband, they are converts and joined the church just a few years back. They are amazing member missionaries! Then we went back to St. John’s and taught Brian and Sherry again, we watched the restoration video and then read from the Book of Mormon, and invited her to be baptized and she said she would think about it a bit more, but most likely ha-ha they are just great we love them so much. I love St.John’s, Newfieland it just keeps getting better and better!!!

It’s been a fun and interesting week! I hope ya'll are having a great winter and a happy new year!!

All my love Sister Taylor