My First Area

This week has been crazy busy but so much fun.  My companion is Sister Underly, who I adore, and I live with two members who are absolutely incredible and are so nice and loving.  Their house is beautiful.  Sister Underly and I live in the basement which is basically like our own apartment.  My bed is a day bed and is so comfy and it is so hard getting out of bed in the morning haha, 6:30 am comes so fast.  When we do our study we open up the blinds and it looks right over Lake Tahoe, it is a beautfuil view.  It is amazing here, I love it more and more each day.

 

We get to teach in Nevada and California, so we get to experience the best of both worlds.  I never want to get transferred from this area because it is absolutely amazing.  There are always new people when we go into Kings Beach which is in California.  We have 6 new investigators!  My most spiritual experience has been several different little experiences, just talking to the investigators and getting to hear their stories and sharing my testimony with them.  I feel the spirit so strongly!

We were walking on our way to our car one time and a bunch of dogs started barking and it was super dark.  We both got this weird feeling, we both looked at each other and I said, "RUN TO THE CAR!"  So we did and locked the doors, we were okay and we didn't see anything but it was still scary, haha.  The area where we serve in in California is sometimes a little sketchy and we are both super duper white so we stick out a little bit haha. But we always make sure we follow the Spirit closely and are careful.

We sometimes eat dinner with members and less actives when they sign up to feed us, and we usually have some Mexican food.  It has actually been pretty good.  One day some members made us the most delicious meal I have had in a very long time!  It was try tip, with salad, yummy wild rice, and garlic bread! It was so good. The two Elders in our same area joined us and it was a really nice time.

 

GUESS WHAT! I can almost roll my R's!  I am so close.  For language study I practice reading my Spanish scriptures (which Hannah and Adam gave me and I absolutely adore them), but when I practice I use a pen in my mouth and speak, it has been helping.  I will be able to roll my r's one of these days. Wow I love this keyboard. The one in Mexico has a Spanish keyboard so it was hard to type with. But anyways I am really liking it here. Some moments are hard but that is just life!

I miss you so much! Love always your Taylor

P.S. some weird thing I thought was cool haha

 

Hermana Friend Arrives in Reno

[This is the quick email I got from Taylor, then below is an email we received from the Reno Mission office.]

This morning Hermana Tebbs had to leave at 5:30 am so we had to wake up early to drop her off at the office.  I didn’t get too much studying done today because of everything going on and I am nervous to go off to Reno tomorrow.  We don’t have much time to email today or for this week.  I get on a plane from Mexico around 6 am so we will be leaving the CCM before 4 am. I will arrive in Phoenix, Arizona around 9 am. Then a few elders, Elder Quinton, who I flew to Mexico with, included and I have about a five hour layover in Arizona.  Then we board a plane to Reno, Nevada around 2 pm.  Tomorrow will be a crazy long day but I am praying for the best. Anyways I love you so much and miss you!  Love Always Taylor

 

Taylor with her Mission President
 and his wife

Dear parents and loved ones:

I am pleased to let you know that your missionary has arrived safely in the Nevada Reno Mission.   Sister Hermansen and I are so grateful to have them join the ranks of our committed and faithful missionaries. 

This is Taylor with her new
 companion/trainer

Please send all mail directly to your missionary.  They will let you know their physical address on Monday when they write.  Any mail sent to the Mission Office will be forwarded the next day but the US Postal Service prefers that we not forward too much mail.

The newest missionaries to the
Reno Nevada Mission

We have a wonderful Mission Blog.  You can see pictures and updates from time to time at the following website:     http://nevadarenomission.blogspot.com.

Thank you for sharing your wonderful missionary with us.  We assure you of our interest and concern for their happiness, safety, and success as they serve in this great mission.

With every best wish, President David N. Hermansen, Nevada Reno Mission

Cold Week In Mexico

Wow this week has been crazy...like them all haha, I feel like I have so much to say but never enough time to say it. 

We were so cold one morning we brought blankets to class. Who knew Mexico got cold, because I didn’t hahaha

Hermana Sanders thought it would be a good idea to get into the trash can. Haha some P-Day fun! 

I will definitly miss the CCM. The Sundays are always the best here, you can feel the spirit so strongly. I enjoy them a lot. We watched a video on Sunday called the Stone Cutter and it was about a man who worked on the Salt Lake City Temple as a stone cutter, I CANT remember his name I think it was John something but anyways the movie went into how every morning he would wake up at 2am walk almost 6 hours to arrive at the temple sight. He did that every morning for about 20 years until one day he was milking his new cow and got kicked in the leg so hard the bone was popping out, he lost his leg and made himself a peg leg...but that didn’t stop him from working on the temple. So he got up every morning and he walked miles and miles to work on the temple he sacrificed so much, it was so inspiring.

 

The President Carl B Pratt will be riding with us on the airplane on Tuesday.  His time is up for the Mission President so he is going back home the same time as us and he lives in Las Vegas so we may be traveling with him the whole time haha.  I leave here early early Tuesday morning.  Our flight is like at 7am, so we have to leave the CCM like at 2. Hermana Tebbs leaves early morning on Monday. So it will just be me and Hermana Sanders for a day. We fly to Arizona together. Then all the Reno people have a 5 hour layover then over to Reno.

 

When I get to Reno I am not sure when my P-day will be so I may not be able to email you next week, but I will as soon as I can. With all my love, Taylor 

 

Life of a Missionary

[This is the Taylor we are used to seeing, asleep in moments in a traveling vehicle, LOL, she thought it was a funny picture and sent it to me so I had to share it too.  Renae]

This last month has been one of the busiest months.  My normal day consists of waking up at 6:30 am (well, let’s be honest I kind of break that rule by 15 minutes), but I'm trying to do better.  After I wake up, the usual mission routine is breakfast, personal study, then off to three hours of language class, then more additional study time, lunch, language study, gym time, TALL (which is language study on the computer), then Dinner and more class.  That’s all we do, eat and study, but that’s the life of a missionary, busy, packed days, but I try to do my best.

 

The devotionals are my favorite part.  I can always feel the Spirit so strongly and those are what makes the days worth it.  It is just a simple reminder of why I am here.  I feel like I have been improving on the language, I don’t have to use my notes as much. 

 

Before fast Sunday I had to give a talk (side note, everyone has to prepare a talk each week then after the passing of the sacrament President Gill randomly selects about 6 speakers from the audience, and of course, I was the lucky winner).  The topic was repentance and it had to be 5 minutes in length and in Spanish, of course.  I’m not sure if what I said was grammatically correct, but I survived.  Then this past Sunday I, for some reason, thought that it would be a great idea to bare my testimony.  It was very fast and short, but I am glad that I did it.  Sundays are days filled with meetings and devotionals but they are good days filled with the Spirit.

 

One quick spiritual experience I want to share is from one of Elder David Bednar's talks.  We watched a video of him giving a talk at the Provo MTC a few years back.  He shared a story of a woman who was the Relief Society President in his ward.  She was a single mom with a daughter.  One night the Relief Society President got a call that there had been an awful accident with three of the young women from her ward. She called Elder Bednar asking for help.  As she was on her cell phone with Elder Bednar she got another call on her house phone.  Elder Bednar could hear the voices on the house phone, it was the hospital again saying that one girl died and it was her daughter.  The Relief Society President spoke to Elder Bednar and asked him to please inform the families of the other girls about the accident.  He was shocked that after what had happened she was worried about the other families.  The story went on to say that as this Relief Society President was on her way to her own daughter’s funeral she got a call from a cranky old lady in the ward that was complaining that she had a cold and non one brought her dinner like they were assigned to do.  Instead of the Relief Society President getting mad and telling the women she was on the way to her daughter's funeral, she apologized for the inconvenience and told the lady she would be over soon.  This lady was a pure example of Christ, she turned outward even though she was struggling.  She did what Christ would do and still does.  This was a powerful devotional, it makes me want to work harder.  We also watched Meet the Mormons on Christmas, it was good, you should watch it.

A few funny things happened to me, one I was coming out of the bathroom and my dress was completely tucked into my underwear, my companions got a kick out of that.  Then yesterday our District was playing catch and I went to go catch the ball just as our District Leader, Elder Brander, plowed me over into the ground, he didn’t mean to, but it was funny. 

Everything is different here at the CCM, the food, my companions, the atmosphere, the smell, but it is good.  I think I will kind of miss Mexico in two weeks.  Can you believe only two more weeks here then off to Reno?  I miss you so much but I am trying to make you proud and work hard, I love you all!

 

Hermana Friend