Monday, November 24, 2014

{Week 50} Polanco - November 24, 2014

Dad, I'm proud of you. Keep up the missionary work!

Jordy and Carlee, I am so proud of you both! That's amazing - first zones and now provincials. You're amazing!

Mom, the next cambios should be the 23rd of December... but there is a rumor that they are going to change that cambio to the 16th of December so that people aren't in a new area 2 days before Christmas. I'm kind of torn... I REALLY want to be here for Christmas, but at the same time if I don't have cambios in December I'll be here till February - that's half of my mission in one area. But I REALLY hope I'm here for Christmas.

Today Hna Luque and I went sightseeing! We rode the metro for an hour to downtown, where all the old cathedrals and buildings are. It was pretty cool! We had a fun time wandering around downtown. We saw some cool stuff!

So! Elder Pieper of the 70 came to visit! We had a really great meeting with him, his wife and President and Hermana Stutznegger. I loved it and the spirit was super strong. We learned a ton of things - one thing that I really loved was how he taught us about the Priesthood. I feel like I understand the Priesthood now in a way that I never did before - and that will help a lot when we teach investigators about the Priesthood. And there were a ton of other things we learned that I loved, and that Hna Luque and I are trying to apply to our teaching. It was great. And I was in the choir - we sang ''Press Forward Saints''. It wasn't perfect, but the spirit was strong so that's what counts. And then they gave us mashed potatoes and ham when we finished! So good... And then when they ended, they announced the names of 10 missionaries that got to have interviews with Elder Pieper... and I was one of them! So I got to be interviewed by a 70! It was pretty cool - he gave me some good advice about forgetting myself in the work of the Lord and doing everything I can to help others come closer to Christ.
Mashed potatoes and ham!



(Thanks Hna Stutznegger for these photos!)


Then on Saturday, our ward went to the temple so we got to go too - I love going to the temple. The Visitors Center is really great - they have this video they show that teaches about the family and always makes me cry. Since Christmas is so close I've kind of been missing you all just a bit. And then seeing that video made me miss you a ton for about 5 min. But then as we were walking out of the Visitor's Center, I saw one of the members here - Hermana Maldonado. She's pretty much my mom here - always taking care of us. I love her tons and she gave me a hug and helped me feel better. I'm super excited to talk to you all for Christmas. I'm not really sure how it's going to be - if it's the 24th or the 25th and what time. But I can't wait to talk to you all!
Hna Maldonado and us outside the visitor's center
Us and Hna Maldonado's daughter - she made me the red skirt I'm wearing.

So we have tons of investigators, but I wanted to tell you about 3 of them in particular:
-Guadelupe is the lady that we were teaching when the Elder's showed up looking for their dinner appointment. She is a massage therapist and has a spa which is where we go to teach her. I honestly love her, and she adores us (lol). She always does her reading, and loves everything we teach her. She came to church this Sunday and LOVED it. She was telling all the members that she'd see them next Sunday in church. The only problem... she's not married, and her husband does NOT want to get married. They could definitely use some prayers.
-Josefina is the landlady for one of our members. Ever since I arrived here, this member has been trying to get us an appointment with Josefina - but she always came up with some excuse for why she couldn't be there. About 2 weeks ago she finally came to a FHE with us and the member - and since that moment she has loved everything we teach her. She also came to church on Sunday, and also loved it. Afterwards, we showed her the baptismal font, and she looked at it for a moment, then said ''One of these days I'll be there.'' Then she gave us huge hugs and thanked us for coming into her life and teaching her. She has a baptismal date scheduled for the 21st of December (which is another reason why I REALLY don't want cambios - so I can be here for her baptism).
-Reyna is the mom of Susana. Susana has been super busy this week and we haven't been able to get a hold of her. But we've started teaching her mom. Saturday night, she broke down and started crying, and told us the story of her life. She told us about how she used to be super Catholic, and how she grew up with an alcoholic dad who would come home always drunk and beat them. She told us that when she got married, she was the happiest she'd ever been, but how her husband started drinking and is alcoholic too, and would always come home super drunk. He didn't beat her, but it's been super hard. She's about 40, and told us that when she reached the age of 30, she came to the conclusion that God doesn't exist. She is an amazing women who tries super hard to be a good person and help everyone, but she now doesn't believe in God. She told us that in that very moment, her husband was probably out drinking, because he was already 2 hours late. She was crying, and she looked at us, and asked ''Where is God? Why does He give me so many trials when I've tried my whole life to be good? I've asked him in 2 thousand different ways to help, but things just always get worse.'' My heart broke for her when she asked that. We cried with her, and shared the story of Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail, and D&C 121. And she read the words and just cried. We pleaded with her to trust in God again, and shared our testimonies about the love God has for us. And she said she'd try. She and her family need lots of prayers too.

We're all so special to God. He honestly loves us - everyone of us. We pass through things that are really hard sometimes, but I KNOW that this is part of His plan for us, and that it's by following Him and putting our trust in Him especially in the hardest times that will help us to have peace and happiness. He really does love us. Prov 3:5 ''Put your trust in the Lord and lean not unto your own understanding.'' It's hard sometimes, but I know that it's the truth.

Sunday was the Primary Presentation. I think that's part of the reason why Guadelupe and Josefina liked it so much. It was super sweet to see all the Primary kids sharing scriptures and singing their hearts out. So cute!
Sunday lunch, with a bunch of members that I love, and the Elders.

Us with the members in the house of Hna Maldonado.
It's almost Christmas! I love Christmas :) It'll be interesting to see how they do it here. The rumour is that they eat a lot of mole.... yay... :P

But anyway it's been a fun week! Showers with hot water and not a bucket are divine. I loved meeting Elder Pieper. Downtown is pretty sweet. Investigators need prayers. Hna Luque is my favorite companion in the whole world. Mexico Rocks!

Oh and I forgot to mention - when I was in the MTC and we went to Vegas for our visas, there was a sister from Calgary that went to Vegas with me and is serving in the North mission. When I went to the temple, she was there and we saw each other again. We think the next time we see each other is when we're on the plane headed home... how crazy is that?!

But anyway, I love Mexico. I love serving the Lord. And I love all of you. Be good, say your prayers, and... and yeah! Say your prayers! And please remember my investigators in your prayers. Mosiah 27:14

Love you all!
-Hermana Taylor
Some more pictures of downtown . . .



Note:  Just after she got her call to Mexico, we saw the Mexican flag somewhere.  I wondered why there was a bird and a snake on the flag and she rattled off the bird/snake story to me.  I said, "How did you know that?" and she replied "Oh, it was just something we learned back in grade 4 or something."  And I'm thinking "Who remembers anything they learned in grade 4?" lol  I guess the Mexican story made an impression on her!  And I can't remember the story and she told it to me last year!



Note:  See these maroon and gold taxis?  Apparently all taxis have to look the same and they're all getting a new paint job soon to the new look - pink and white!

The new look for Taxi's in Mexico City.  (Photo credit to Hna Stutznegger)

Monday, November 17, 2014

{Week 49} Polanco - November 17, 2014

First of all, to answer your questions...

During changes I wasn't there. Normally only those who have changes go to the meeting... so we weren't there. We did stop by before the meeting started because Hna Luque had a package for her family that she sent with an Elder from Peru that finished his mission, so we were there for a bit but left before the meeting started. That's why I wasn't in the pictures lol. We were tempted to hang out to see what happened, but we had appointments and had to leave.
Before the meeting.  (Photo credit to Hna Stutznegger)

Janae is going to Japan! That is so cool! Hna Luque just about fell off her chair when she found out. Janae is going to be an amazing missionary!

I have not received any of the packages you mentioned... but maybe tonight I'll get them. We'll see.

Carlee, I am so proud of you! Sounds like you did a great job on the question panel. You rock kid!
And Jordy, you're amazing. You made me cry reading about your VB games - I couldn't help but remember when they cut you from the team in grades 7 and 8, and now look! You're a superstar! I'm seriously so proud of you for never giving up. You're honestly one of my heros. Love you!

So my new house is nice! We have to wash our clothes by hand up on the roof, but at least in this house we have a place to hang the clothes up to dry. In our last house we didn't have that, and had to drape our wet clothes over our bed posts and chairs and stuff like that. And we finally bought gas today. You have to buy it in a big tank, and they come and connect it. We were always too lazy, busy, or whatever to buy it before, and were content with showering from a bucket. And then in my last house it didn't help that we didn't know which of all the tanks of gas was ours, so we couldn't replace it even if we wanted to. But the other day Hna Luque and I had a nice heart-to-heart in which we decided that we're tired of showering with a bucket and we went and bought gas. They tried to rip us off by selling us a tank that was half full, but our lovely landlady came to our rescue and sent them running and called another gas company to come bring us gas. We have to be careful because people here are always trying to rip us off - especially the taxis and moto taxis.
Our front room.

Kitchen (I'm hoping that's a fridge under the counter)

Front room and kitchen.

Bathroom

Bedroom.  My bed is the blue one.

So cambios! Elder Hixen from my MTC district is now my district leader, and Elder Gerken and Martinez left... and no one came to replace them! So our ward that had 6 missionaries now only has 4, and we had to split their area so, my area just doubled in size! It's almost like I had changes because I have a new house and a whole new area to work in! And we also inherited two new investigators with the new area that are progressing nicely. We were visiting one of them (Susana - 18yr old) who lives in the same house but different apartment that Elders Gerken and Martinez lived in. We were teaching her when we saw Elder Evans and his comp Elder Choc, and Elder Hixen and his comp Elder Garret, walk in the apartment building to clean out the house of the elders that left. We all laughed at the coincidence and then just continued teaching Susana. And as we were sharing our testimonies about the Book of Mormon, we started to notice that something really stunk, but we ignored it and kept teaching. Then, just as we were about to put the baptism date with Susana, Hna Luque looked down and shouted, my backpack! We all looked down and realized that as we had been teaching, the bathroom had flooded and spilled into the living room, and the whole house was filled with stinky nasty poop water. Luckily my bag was in my lap and not on the ground lol. So we ran out, and realized that it was because the Elders who were upstairs had flushed the toilet - And Elder Gerken and Elder Martinez when they lived there had been flushing the toilet paper down the toilet (you can't flush TP here - it clogs all the drains.) So the four elders came running down and we all helped clean all the poop water out of the house of Susana and her family. Needless to say, her mom and dad weren't too impressed. And the landlady was furious, chewing out the four elders when it wasn't even their fault. It was a mess lol! But... we were able to chat a bit with the mom and dad and Susana while we were all cleaning and we were all best friends by the time we finished so... we'll see what happens lol!

And then later that same day we had contacted a lady in the street, and she let us come in her spa to teach her. So we sitting there in her empty waiting room teaching her about the restoration, when we heard a voice that sounded a lot like Elder Evans. Then we realized it was in English, so we knew it was Elder Evans. And then he and his comp walked by - and saw us through the glass door. So they knocked, and came in and sat beside us! It turns out they had written down wrong the address of the house where they were going to eat, and we just happened to be at that address. So they came in expecting to be fed, and we thought they just didn't have anything to do, and by coincidence found us and decided to teach with us. So we kept on teaching the Restoration. And as we were teaching, they realized that this was an investigator not the members house, but couldn't leave and had to wait till we taught the whole restoration. It was pretty funny when we talked about it after and realized what had happened lol!

So we had a lot of miracles this week - we found some new people to teach, had a ton of people with baptismal dates, lots of investigators progressing... and then no one came to church. So that was unfortunate, and a bit upsetting, but it just means we're going to work even harder this week to help the people progress and come to church. We did have one investigator in church... but it was crazy how it happened. The other day when we were visiting a family we talked with the nephew who was there for about 2 min and made an appointment to visit with him on Tuesday. But on Sunday morning when we went to find the family, they weren't there but he was. So Hna Luque invited him to come. He looked at his watch, shrugged, and said ''Sure, why not! I don't have anything to do right now.'' So he came to church with us! And said he liked it, and we'll be visiting with him on Tuesday! His name is David and is 18.

This Sunday was Stake Conference. It was really cool, because they did a broadcast from Salt Lake. We had 2 Seventies speak, Sister Linda S. Reeves speak, and the Apostle Elder Anderson! They all spoke in Spanish - the Seventies actually knew it, and Sister Reeves and Elder Anderson knew bits and the rest they read. It was really good and everyone loved it. I especially loved Elder Anderson's talk - he spoke about sacrifice and giving up something good for something better. Loved it!

Stake Conference with Hna Gurley (photo credit to Hna Stutznegger)
So.... yeah! It was a fun week! and Elder Peiper from the seventy is coming to visit this week - there is going to be a mission conference. I'll be in the choir.

We've been seeing a lot of miracles lately. The Lord is so good to us - His tender mercies are evident every day. I know that He loves us and that he takes care of us. The scriptures are amazing, the church is true. Joseph Smith really did see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and through him the Lord has restored his church to the earth. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God , and that the 12 truly are Apostles of God. It's all true people, He knows us and loves us and cares for us.

Be good, say your prayers, and always follow Him.
Love you all!
-Hermana Taylor :)
Three of my favorite missionaries in the world! Our areas are across the street from each other (Gurley and Mercedes are together right now). We all went out to eat together.
Gustavo's house right now - it's filled with piƱatas for Christmas!

Garbage truck in Mexico City (photo credit to Hna Stutznegger)

Monday, November 10, 2014

{Week 48} Polanco - November 10, 2014

My finger is fine mom. I don't even have to use a bandaid anymore lol.
Felicidades girls with your sporty life! you're all superstars!
And quick! I want to know where Janae is going on her mission!

Jordy, I loved your letter. It was beautiful and made me cry. You're gonna be a great Sister training leader (Note: Jordyn has this assignment for an upcoming youth conference in our stake.) - I love teaching Lesson 3. I never really understood before why it was so important, but I honestly love it. I recommend reading 2 Nefi 31, and studying PMG - that all explains it really well. The Doctrine of Christ is honestly so important. It's where the people change - when they learn that they need faith and need to build their faith, that's when they start to read and pray and come to church. And when they understand the importance of repentance, that's when they stop smoking and drinking and start keeping the commandments. That's how you can tell if the person really wants it, by the changes that they make in their life. And then baptism... well that's super important because that's when they enter the fold of God and make that covenant that is so essential for our salvation. And then we talk about how they need the Holy Ghost to help them stay true and stay on the path. And that's where we talk about endure to the end, and how the spirit will help them make it, and all they need to do is keep building their faith, keep repenting, and keep taking the sacrament to renew their baptismal covenants. And they just have to keep doing it to the end of their lives! I love how perfect the plan is that our Heavenly Father has for us!

And on Wednesday, we had a meeting for just the sisters in the mission with Hna Stutznegger. It was really great - there's only 20 of us, and we got to talk about the things that we wanted. It was great and I think it helped us become more united. And at the end we had a short testimony meeting that ended with Hna Shingleton singing her testimony with Hna Luque playing the piano. She sang ''I Know That My Redeemer Lives.'' She has a great voice, and the spirit was really strong - we were all in tears lol.
All the Hermana's in the mission and the Stutzneggers.

Pres. Stutznegger and I

All of my companions from the mission that are still here. Only missing Gutierrez and Aguilar!

 And Edgar got baptized! It was so perfect - he was super nervous and felt really awkward in the white overalls. But he was super happy afterwards. I love seeing baptisms and seeing all the changes that they people make in their lives. Hna Luque and I sang ''Mas Cerca Dios de Ti'' - Nearer My God To Thee. It was really spiritual and there were a lot of wet eyes. Then while they were changing, everybody sang ''In Our Lovely Deseret''. That's been kind of our theme song with Edgar - he really likes it for some reason, and the second verse where it talks about avoiding tea, coffee, tobacco, and alcohol was perfect for him lol. He came out just as we were singing the last chorus and everyone was grinning and we were just really happy. And Adolfo gave the talk of Baptism, and told about how he had always seen us in the street, and then one day we suddenly walked up to him and talked to him. He told about how he came to know it was true, and how happy he was that his friend Edgar was getting baptized. It was a great baptism, and the spirit was strong!

Edgar and us

Edgar, us and Elder Gerken

Edgar and Adolfo

And then on Sunday, an 8 year-old girl in my area got baptized so we went and watched. It was so sweet to see her dad baptize and confirm her. It made both Hna Luque and I think about when our dads baptized us. It actually made me cry it was so beautiful. Thanks so much for baptizing me Dad. Thanks for being a worthy priesthood holder. I love you so much Dad! In that moment I honestly missed you a ton and wanted nothing more than to give you a big hug. Love you dad!

And now to tell you all about the biggest adventure of my mission thus far. Saturday morning, at about 3:30 am, Hna Luque woke me up and told me that there were people in our apartment building robbing or kidnapping or something. We both got on our knees and instantly said a prayer. Then we just kind of sat there and listened. From what we could tell, about 2 or 3 men had entered in the apartment building and were robbing the family that lives on the top floor. We live on the main floor right in front of the front door, so as they were carrying stuff out, they all walked right by our apartment door and windows (we were so glad we had just put up curtains in the kitchen!). The Lady that lives upstairs was in front of our apartment in the stairwell crying, and we think that someone was there guarding her with a gun. She was screaming a ton, but then they told her to shut up or they'd hurt her daughters. So then she just sat there crying quietly, saying things like ''I'm so scared, please don't hurt my daughters.'' Hna Luque and I stayed on the floor in the dark the whole time doing our best to avoid the windows and not make any noise. The men took the daughters upstairs with them, and a bunch of teenagers were going past our windows carrying stuff out. So then we realized that we didn't know the phone number for the police! So we sent a text to our District leader Elder Gerken - Hna Luque sent it, and just said that there were robbers and we needed the number for the police. She forgot to mention that they were robbing our neighbour, not us, so poor Elder Gerken kind of freaked out and instantly called us - thankfully we had already put the phone on silent. We communicated through whispers that it wasn't us, it was our neighbours, but that they were right outside our door. So he went and got the Zone Leader Elder Enriquez, who just happened to be on divisions with one of the assistants! So all 3 of them were trying to call us at the same time. Finally we got the number for the police, called it, and... it didn't work! Our phone told us in that horrible robotic lady voice that ''this number doesn't work.'' So that was unfortunate. By this time it was about 4:30. The elders were sending us text messages saying all sorts of crazy stuff - ''we're coming to get you - where do you live?'' or ''we're going to leave to find a patrol car, then we'll come'' but then the robbers left. There was a bit more shouting before they left, then we could hear the mom upstairs with her daughters all crying, and the people left, a car started, and they drove away. Then the Elders decided we couldn't stay there anymore, so we had to call the Bishop and he came and got us. We got to his house around 5:15, and then slept in his kids beds for about an hour. Then all day Saturday, in the middle of preaching and all that, we had to find a new house (because we obviously can't live there anymore) and every spare moment we had we had to run back to the house to pack. We finally found a house around 5, had the baptism at 6, and then at 7 the four elders in our ward came and helped us move in. Our new house is a bit smaller but really nice - I love it! And we are now neighbours with a ton of members, and live in a apartment above a really sweet old lady (we have sneaky plans to teach her and baptize her lol). It was a crazy day, but we were honestly never really scared. After we prayed, it was like we were very calm. I felt positive that the Lord would take care of us and that whatever happened it would be all right. It was like we were on alert - being super sneaky and not making any noise so they wouldn't come after us. But everything's good, and the lady and her kids are fine. And now we have a beautiful little apartment - but I haven't had time to take pictures yet, so next week. So yeah! that was fun... :)

And now it's cambios. I don't have changes! I'm super happy I'll get another couple weeks with Hna Luque, and since we just barely changed houses I really didn't want to pack again. Elder Gerken and his companion Elder Martinez are leaving, so we'll be getting a new DL, and the other Elder Martinez also has changes, so we'll get 3 new missionaries in our ward. And one of our zl's is going home, and the other has changes, so we'll get new zone leaders too! Should be interesting!
My zone before changes - la zona Nezahuacoyotl

 But yeah! It's been a good week... the Lord is taking care of us and protects us. I know that this is His work and we are doing what he wants us to do. Tomorrow I'll have 11 months (11 months on the 11th day of the 11th month... it's like my golden birthday or something lol). My comp and I have decided that it's like dog years - every month equals 5 years. So I'm going on 55, and she's going on 65 lol.
Moto taxi

Us in the moto taxi.
I love it here. Crazy adventures and all. I love hearing about you all. You're all amazing.
Be good, say your prayers, and love everybody. Everything is better when we love everyone.

love you all!
-Hna Taylor

Monday, November 3, 2014

{Week 47} Polanco - November 3, 2014

So this has been a pretty crazy week... lots of strange stuff happened. And it all ended with a few miracles!
The craziness started Monday, when we were studying as a district - suddenly, Elders Gerken, Evans, Martinez and Martinez came in with toilet paper masks. Elder Martinez started reading in Alma, the part about Captain Moroni. When he got to the part where Captain Moroni tore his cloak, Elder Gerken ripped his shirt off! (It's ok, it was an old white one that he had put on over top of his white shirts). It was hilarious - buttons flying everywhere. Then they wrote on it, and put it on a stick, and we all signed it and wrote down what we were fighting for - why we came on a mission. We made our own title of liberty. It was pretty awesome and got us pumped to go work!
The Elders playing captain Moroni.

Then Wednesday, Hna Monarrez (the sister training leader) came on divisions with me. She and I worked in my area while Hna Luque went with Hna Shingleton to the other area. It was a good time - we found 2 new investigators, and had 10 lessons! I learned some good stuff and had some fun!

Then Thursday we had a crazy adventure. I don't know if you remember, but we used to have some big curtainless windows in our house - Hna Luque and I kind of got tired of all the people who walked past seeing us in the kitchen, so we taped up some big ugly curtains. Then Thursday, we were leaving, and when Hna Luque shut the door, the curtain got shut in the door. Then I locked the door. But then... we couldn't get the key out, and we also couldn't open the door. The doors here don't have door knobs, it's just a key slot on the outside and a little latch you can pull on the inside. But because the curtain got shut in the door, the lock got jammed and we couldn't open it or get the key out... We tried for like 10 min with all our strength to open the door. Finally, I remembered that we had forgotten to lock the outside window. So we got it open and Hna Luque climbed through. All the windows here have bars on them to prevent thieves, but she is so skinny she was able to fit through. That was pretty funny - me lifting Hna Luque up to the window and her trying to climb through - all while the usual group of teenagers are skateboarding on the street beside us and laughing at us. So she finally got in the house, and was able to open the door from the inside - but we still couldn't get the key out. The lock was jammed and we would've had to take the whole mechanism off, and we tried to do that, but our butter knives were too fat so they couldn´t get the screws off - and somewhere in us trying to do this, Hna Luque shut the door again - while we were both outside! Once again we were locked out of the house! And Hna Luque had locked the window after she climbed through it, so we were completely stuck! She went to the window and tried to force it open, and I was working on very carefully trying to pop out one of the glass panels out of the door. They were just siliconed on, so it was easy, I just didn't want it to fall and break. I ended up only getting half of it off when I accidentally cut my finger on the glass - sliced the pad off my right hand pointer finger. It was bleeding a lot, so I ran across the street to beg a napkin from the small store there. Meanwhile, Hna Luque was able to force the window open, and crawl through again. Then we just left - we were late for an appointment by that point, so we just left the key in the door and took off. Later that night, our Elder's Quorum President came and helped us get the door lock mechanism off and unjammed the lock. Luque had to climb in the window again to let us in lol. But everything's good now!

Then on Friday I lost my agenda! That was really sad - our whole lives are in those agendas :( lol. And I had some information written down that Luque didn't, like the addresses of several people we had contacted in the street, and several phone numbers of investigators, etc. So sadly we lost some potential people - we'll just have to try to find them in the street again. And I lost my watch. The clasp was broken so it fell off my hand every 10 min, but this time I didn't notice it fall. I feel lost! I don't know when our appointments are, and I don't know what time it is anymore!

El Dia de los Muertos - Day of the Dead. That was a fun time. November 1 is apparently when the spirits of dead children come to visit, so this day all the kids get dressed up and leave to trick or treat - only they go the stores, not the houses. And they all have their faces painted like skulls or zombies or dead people. And Nov 2 is apparently when the spirits of the dead adults come to visit... there were a few adults dressed up, but there wasn't really anything that happened this day. It was Nov 1st when all the weird stuff happened - lots of teenagers/young adults in the street were also dressed up, and they walked around trying to scare people - they would come running up to us saying things like ''I'm going to kill you! I'm going to suck your blood!'' Then they would try to grab us and scare us. I really didn't like it. We didn't contact many people that day because we were walking really fast through the streets trying to avoid them. Thankfully, we were in the church from about 7- 8 for a baptism and weren't in the street during all the craziness. But when we left the church, a guy dressed as the devil and holding a lantern followed us for several blocks trying to freak us out. Not a fun day... But we got to see a baptism of the elders that was really nice, so that made things better.

And Sunday! Sunday was great - Edgar and Jorge came to church. Before, Jorge didn't even want to talk to us, then out of the blue he came to church and asked us to come visit him again this week! We're hoping for the best! And Edgar came and was super excited. He's been working so hard to stop smoking - he says he know without a doubt that it's true. At one point he was sitting by himself in sacrament meeting - and then the Stake President who is in our ward walked in. And instead of going to sit on the stand or by his wife, he went and sat by Edgar! That was so great and made Hna Luque and I really happy - It was a great example that lots of members noticed, and we're hoping it will help them be more willing to go and sit by investigators.

And now for the miracles! Sunday around 4, we went to the temple visitor's center! We went with Edgar, Adolfo, and Adolfo's daughter Charo (21) and his sons Abraham (16) and Issac (6). All 7 of us fit in a taxi to get there - Hna Luque on my lap lol. It was tight but we made it! They don't really enforce seatbelts here...
All of us in the visitor's center.
And we had such a wonderful time at the temple! Adolfo loved it, and loved being there with his kids. Charo came to church once - Adolfo brought her his first Sunday. But then she never wanted to talk to us. But she also loved the temple, and the fact that families can be forever, and was fascinated when we told her we have a prophet and 12 apostles. She's our age, so we chatted and joked the whole evening, and are good friends now, and she's agreed to meet with us on her next day off - Saturday. Abraham has been worrying us lately - he wasn't there for our last 2 appointments, and didn't come to church, but he also loved the temple and agreed to meet with us again. And Issac is a cutie that had a lot of fun too. And Edgar absolutely loved it. He said that when we entered the room with the statue of Christ, he felt like Christ was beckoning him - calling him to come unto Him. And later we watched a video about families - and he doesn't have a family right now - they don't want anything to do with him. But he said the video gave him hope that one day he can regain all that he had lost. He loved it, and said in one year he's going to come back, but to enter the temple this time. If everything works out, he should be getting baptized on Sunday.
Edgar, Abraham, Adolfo, Chaco and Issac
Me, Charo, Adolfo, Abraham at the temple

Hna Luque and I at the statue of Christ.

It's been a strange week, but a really good one too. I love being here and learning so much and feeling the spirit so much. Hna Luque is amazing and I love her. Next week are cambios - I'm torn. I would love another cycle with Hna Luque, but at the same time I've been in this area for quite awhile now... but whatever the Lord wants is good with me!

I love you all tons - be good, say your prayers, and please pray for Edgar so that he doesn't fall this week before his baptism.
You're all amazing - good jobs girls with your volleyball! You make me proud!
-Hna Taylor
Some really cute puppies!