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

Half Way Through Training

Three more weeks at the CCM and then off to the real world. My week has been good but there have been some bumps in the road.  The day after Christmas I got really sick, I have a really bad cold.  On Friday I went to bed with a little bit of a fever, but my fever is gone now and I am just fighting a stuffy nose, but nothing major.

I have been trying to have exact obedience, but today is P-day so we all slept in a for a little bit.  But I am trying really hard to work on it because exact obedience brings miracles.  On Christmas we had a few devotionals. We talked a lot about how we had to be converted unto the Lord, just having a testimony is not enough.  We must convert ourselves first.  I am learning a lot here which is good.  
This was our service project on Christmas day. Hermana Tebbs is the one in the green sweater looking at Hermana Sanders is the one in the white shirt.  It is hard being in a trio at times, but we balance each other out.  My companions and I are getting closer, which is good because they make it easier. 

I really miss home, sometimes I ask myself why am I doing this but I know that I am here for a reason.  I hope you are doing well.  I miss you and love you!  Happy New Year!  Taylor

 

Feliz Navidad

I have been feeling your prayers. Thank you so much for all the love and support.  I am truly blessed.  I have been gaining a stronger testimony and it has been awesome. Heavenly Father has been looking out for me lately and for that I am thankful as well. We have been having some good devotionals here lately.  This last week we had to teach an investigator in Spanish...boy that was hard.  I have been struggling with the language...especially with the pronouncing of everything, but I am trying.

 

Spencer Williams, from the Buckley 1st Ward arrived on Wednesday to the CCM. It was good to see a familiar face from home even though we don’t really know each other.

Hermana Tebbs, Hermana Sanders and I are the Sister Training Leaders for our zone but we are the only sisters in our zone so we are training ourselves haha. We had to go to a leadership meeting on the 18th.  After the meeting was over I turned around to see this kid upchuck everywhere. It was totally a "Pitch Perfect" moment.  But I felt so bad for him so I helped clean it up when everyone else walked away...people these days haha.  Hermana Sanders has been kind of having a hard time, but we are all trying to lean on each other.  Hermana Tebbs folded my clothes today when I was taking a nap.  She is too sweet and she helps me a lot with Spanish. Hermana Sanders picks on me a lot but it makes me happy because I feel like I have my siblings here with me.  She poked me with a pen the other day in a devotional haha.

 

 

We have been learning a lot about exact obedience lately.  I have been trying my best to be like Christ every day.  We had a devotional last night broadcasted from the Provo MTC, I tried to find Caitlyn in the crowd of missionaries, but I couldn’t.  Anyways one of the speakers said, “do what is right, even when no one understands!”  I loved that, that’s what a mission is about, doing your best!  As long as you’re trying your best, Heavenly Father will provide the rest!
 

Moroni 7:33

Alma 26:3

Ether 12:27

 

We are doing a service project as a CCM for some homeless men and it makes my heart happy.  We are tying blankets and making them lunches then a ward will take them to the shelter.  That’s what we will be doing later tonight and tomorrow on Christmas.  I am excited to have a Christmas in Mexico, I can already tell it will be way different. 

 

Buen provecha means have a good meal and enjoy in Spanish!  Lunch in Mexico is the biggest meal here, so I’m pretty hungry when it comes to dinner time.  I have been eating a lot of sweets to be honest.

 

Oh ya, I have been losing my socks...and you thought I was the crazy sock lady who brought too many hahaha!  There is a guy in my district and he draws really bien, that’s good in Spanish haha, I thought Adam would like it. 

This is the headset we have to talk on when we are doing language study and when I call you tomorrow lol.  I can’t tell which pics I am sending so I will just send a few haha.  I’m trying to send good pics but it is being weird and won’t let me preview them before I send them so feel free to delete the ones you don’t really like.  Oops I sent two of the same ones, I will try to send more pics next week.  Taylor

 

My First Week at the MMC

This week has been super crazy!  First, I was the only sister in a group of 20 elders when we first got to Mexico.  Elder Quinton is in my district so it’s nice having a person kind of from home in the same group as me. Our district is really funny, but I can never focus in class because we are always laughing.  

I am in a trio with two companions, Hermana Tebbs and Hermana Sanders.  Hermana  Sanders is a funny, sassy country girl from Florida and Hermana Tebbs is a smart, funny person from Utah.  We hung up my lights you got me on Hermana Sanders' tree her sister cut out for her to bring.  My companions and I are pretty much the rebels of the CCM. We are always late. The only thing we are ever on time for is meals.  We get up at 6:30 am, well, I sleep in a little. Then we have to go to class for language study, then gospel study, we are in class most of the day.

We went to the temple's visitor center today.  It was awesome getting out of the CCM for a little bit.  We didn’t get to go inside the temple because the foundation is sinking into the ground, but the Visitors Center was awesome.

Mexico is pretty, unique and beautiful, but so crazy.  The first two nights everyone was shooting off fireworks and it sounded like a war zone, but they finally stopped celebrating.  It was chilly here for the first few days but it has been super nice and pretty lately.

Food is pretty good here, but I have been eating a lot so that probably isn't that good.  I love me some Mexican food, but sometimes they have some foods that just taste weird!  


Overall, besides being homesick, I am thankful for being able to be at the CCM.  It’s a really cool experience with really interesting and cool people.  You can definitely feel the Spirit here.  The teachers are good and are super nice.  Spanish is super hard for me.  We have to pray in Spanish and it is so hard.  I still can’t roll my R's.  We have been teaching an investigator in Spanish and I don’t even know what he says, but I try to be in tune with the Spirit.  That’s one thing that I have learned, no matter the language barrier, the Spirit is still strong.


We have had a lot of good talks, the other day in class we were discussing the Book of Mormon and our teacher talked about how we could have personal revelation.  First my mind was somewhere else, but then she said something that I will never forget.  She said, "God loves you and wants the best for you."  As she said it, she was looking right at me and I could feel the Spirit so strongly that tears started to fill my eyes.  I know I need to learn to trust Heavenly Father more and I know I need to be like Adam and give it all I have, no regrets, but this is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

Being out here has made me realize what is important in life and that is family.  I've had some exciting experiences and I’ve been learning so much here.  One important thing I learned is that we must convert ourselves first.  I know that I don’t want to do this just because it will be cool, I want to do this for a purpose, because I have a purpose.   I've been very homesick, but we had a devotional the other day that talked about how Moroni walked the earth alone for many days and I realized that if he can do that, I can be away from my family a little while.   I know that I am supposed to be here, I know Heavenly Father wants me to be here.  I love and miss you all!  Taylor

Leaving for Mexico!

Today I was set apart as a Full-Time Missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and got on a plane at 11:00 pm to fly to Mexico City for the missionary training center there.  This picture is of me with my family right after I was set apart.

Look at all my luggage!  I will be dragging all of this luggage around with me from place to place during the next 18 months.

At the airport I met Elder Quinton who was flying to the missionary training center in Mexico City as well and who is going to the Reno Nevada Spanish Speaking Mission just like me (check out our super cheesy grins).  It was so nice and comforting to have a traveling companion!

I will be in Mexico City for six weeks and then I will fly to Reno, Nevada where I will spend the rest of my 18 month mission!  I'm so excited and I hope you will follow my journey along with me!