Monday, March 9, 2015

{Week 65} Oriental - February 9, 2015

I can't believe that I've almost got 15 months here! Time has gone by so fast... I feel like I have about 5 or 6 months here. Honestly it scares me to think that ''the end'' is finally here... so generally I try not to think about it! But I'm going to work as hard as I can these last 3 months.

Jordy, congrats on your grad date. Now you don't have to worry! haha It's crazy to think that when I left you were 16, and now you're 18! And Jenna, you were 12 when I left, and now you're 14! Felicidades! One day I'll sing ya'll the ''maƱanitas''.

Have you all seen ''Meet the Mormons"?  We watched it at 7:45am on Wednesday in the church before our zone conference. I loved it! I especially liked the last story about the mom who's son gets his mission call and leaves on his mission. It was a bit of a tear jerker lol.

So we go to church in the stake center, and there is one other ward that meets there. And the two wards have gotten together to do an activity! We've set up a bunch of giant posters in front of the church, and we contact people in the street and bring them in and give them a tour. We start with a Mormon Message on a screen outside the church, and then take them through the church yards where there are a bunch of youth explaining things about Family History Work. Then there are two teens dressed up as bride and groom in front of a giant poster of the temple and they talk about temple work, then we take them inside to the Family History Center, then give them a brief tour of the church ending in the Sacrament Room! That's where I wait - I welcome them and explain a bit about what we do there, then I show them the video ''Because of Him''. I share my testimony about that, and then Elder Young sings them a hymn ''I Know that my Redeemer Lives'' and then shares his testimony, then I get up again and invite them to take the missionary discussions! We've gotten several references out of doing this and the spirit is always super strong with every person that enters. Several of them have cried. We started Saturday and we're going to be doing it every Saturday and Sunday night for about a month.

And thanks for all your prayers! Michelle is doing a ton better - on Tuesday we went to visit her, and she was really confused - didn't really know what she wanted to do. But we left her a chapter in the Book of Mormon and told her to pray, and when we came back on Wednesday, she had a new light in her eyes! Through the course of the lesson, she started talking about the commandments, and how they're not actually that difficult, and that she's more than willing to keep them all, and then she was talking about how she just wants to follow Christ... So I told her to read Mosiah 18:8-10. She did, and said ''Oh yeah... I should get baptized!'' She then set her own baptism date. The Spirit was strong and it was great to see her understand and decide to live what she knew was true. But keep praying for her!

And David is also doing great. His mom took him to the baptism of a little boy in our ward all by herself (we were at a meeting) and they both loved it. At first the mom never wanted to sit down for our lessons. But now she's the first one there waiting for us, and we all read together the Book of Mormon kids version that we gave to David. It's been great!

I love seeing the hand of the Lord in the lives of the people here. Watching them slowly change and see their eyes fill with spiritual light is an amazing experience and I am so blessed to have this chance to see it.

This week we had a zone conference, and President Stutznegger shared something that President Uchtdorf had shared with all the new mission presidents. It was beautiful and I really loved it - he talked about how we are disciples of Christ (3 Nephi 5:13) and as such, we ''fear no man''. I loved the conference, and then later, Pres Stutznegger gave us all a copy of the talk by Pres Uchtdorf. So the next morning I read it in my personal study. These last few months I´ve been kind of struggling with the idea that I'm almost done my mission, and I've been thinking a lot about what I can do to make these last few months the best ever. At the beginning of my mission, I always felt the spirit super strong... but I think with time I'd kind of gotten used to it, and it didn't seem as strong anymore. I've been trying really hard these last few months to increase my spirituality - become a better person so that I can have the constant companionship of the spirit with me. And when I read that talk, it was an answer to prayer. I went to our bedroom to be alone and offered a prayer to thank my Heavenly Father. At the end of that prayer, I felt the Spirit so strongly. I felt so happy - so joyful. I was so happy I was crying from happiness. I just wanted to share with you all that this week my testimony of the love of our Heavenly Father for his children has been greatly strengthened. I know that He loves us, and His plan for all of us is much greater than what we can even imagine. And as disciples of Christ, we have been called to share the knowledge of this plan with the whole world. And we have no reason to fear, because He is with us. I know that our Savior lives and loves us. And if we put all our trust in Him, he will lift us up and support us. Alma 26:12 - we are weak, but with His strength, we can do all things.

Zone Conference photo from Hna Stutznegger

Zone Conference - the picture is of some Elders, but I like the Hermana's visiting in the background!

I love you all so much. I love it here in Mexico. I am learning tons and I feel the Spirit here so strong. Be good, say your prayers, and share what the Lord has given us with everyone you know. I love you!
-Hna Taylor


PS - She sent a little email saying:  "mom! I have to send the airplane information to the offices! I'm freakin out! I love ya'll but don't want to come home yet!" and asked which airport she should fly home to. 

No comments:

Post a Comment