Sister Savannah: April 2018

Hey hey hey!!! How's life for everyone?? Man life is so good, especially since it's finally getting warm. At the MTC there are flowers literally everywhere it is fantastic! Sister Jeffords and I like to sit on the grass and read scriptures as often as possible since we can't in Nauvoo...there are chiggers!

Well this week I did a ton of stuff! I hope I can get it all in this email, because I love telling you all what I've tone as a missionary! I love it so much I can't even express enough gratitude to Heavenly Father for this opportunity. I have been learning so much about how not only to connect with other people as a missionary, but as a person in general. It's fascinating that I can apply these skills to my everyday life even after my mission is over. This week Sis. Jeffords and I got 2 new investigators. One is a guy named Benjamin. He's from Kansas and is here living with his friend to get away from home for a little bit. He really just wants help and doesn't know where to go. This whole week we taught him how to pray and how the Holy Ghost works. He has SO many questions and I love it more than anything! You can see the light in his eyes when we teach him and the desire he has to get closer to the Savior. He was such an incredible investigator, but we taught our last lesson to him on Saturday morning. He promised he would keep reading the Book of Mormon because he's loved reading the stories we've shared with him. The Book of Mormon has an incredible power to bring us closer to Christ, I urge and plead with you to read it as often as you can! I promise it will bless your life in ways you didn't know you needed it to bless you.

Our other investigator is named Adhieu. She is from Kenya and came to Utah because her family got rescued by the US. She really has an interesting story. She is Catholic, but wants to get closer to Christ and doesn't know how. She goes to BYU and has taken lots of LDS classes to find out our history as Mormons, so she was pretty solid on that. We felt impressed to teach her as much as we could about the Book of Mormon. Again it is AMAZING! I can't even describe how wonderful this book is. For our last lesson, Sis. Jeffords and I felt that we should invite her to church. We were feeling really good about it, but on the way to the lesson I had this crazy prompting to invite her to be baptized. At first I was like no way she's not ready she's only had 3 lessons! Now's not the time. But the feeling came back, stronger this time. I knew it was the Holy Ghost. I knew I had to ask her. I told Sis. Jeffords and she said we should pray about it really quick. After we said Amen, both of us felt it. It was burning inside of me. When we walked into the room for the lesson, I've never been so excited and terrified at the same time. At the end of the lesson, Sis. Jeffords just stared at me. I knew I'd have to ask. I said, "Adhieu, will you follow Jesus Christ's example by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God?" I said that straight from memory and with the power of the Holy Ghost. I've never been on such a spiritual high it was incredible. She said no. I didn't back down, I asked her why and she said she'd already been baptized. I asked her how and she said when she was a baby her priest baptized her. I then went on and told her that we need to be baptized the way Jesus Christ was baptized. I bore my testimony about how I know the church was true and that Heavenly Father wants us to get baptized so we can return to Him. We sat in silence for a minute and then she started nodding her head and said yes! She's getting baptized !!!!! I don't get to teach her anymore, but her next missionaries get to continue helping her prepare for baptism. I learned so much from this experience. The main thing is that we don't need to be afraid to follow God's will and follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Fear is the opposite of faith. I was terrified to ask her, but why should I be? Baptism is wonderful! The Holy Ghost knew she was ready and I needed to rely on his judgement rather than my own. I'm so grateful to have him with me!

Last Wednesday my zone got to help host the new missionaries coming in. I got assigned to help the people who came in vehicles that wouldn't fit in the parking garage. Only 5 people came and there were about 8 of us there to help. I didn't get to help anyone that day, but it was so nice to sit on the grass and talk with the other missionaries there. They're all so friendly!

I got to start my visitor center training and we got to FaceTime my mission president! He's so nice I can't wait to meet him in person! He is starting a brand new idea and wants to try it on us Sisters. He wants us to memorize scripts and take on the actual characters of the women who used to live in Nauvoo! I'm so excited! I'm not very good at acting though, so I'll have to practice a lot, haha!

I have grown to love the Sisters in my room so much, I don't know how my heart can love them anymore! They are literally like family to me and I can't wait to experience Nauvoo with them!

There are so many sisters in my zone now!! It's so crazy! Most of us are all going to Nauvoo and we leave next Wednesday ahhhh I can't wait I'm so excited!
I'd like to leave some advice for you, and don't just bypass it because I'm a missionary and everyone tells you to do this. I honestly mean this! Heavenly Father loves you. He knows you. He sees you for who you can become, not for who you used to be. He loves you so much He gave His son Jesus Christ. He went through all pain and sorrows you have ever felt and ever will feel. I promise you don't have to go through your trials alone. Turn to Him in prayer. Ask Him to help you. He will! He wants to and pleads for us to come to Him. I have felt the love of my Savior so many times I can't even count.

I love you all from the bottom of my heart! I am so grateful for all the love and support you have all shown me. Thank you so much to my sweet Mom for sending me candy, and Sis. Brems and Alejandra for sending me Chip cookies. You have no idea how awesome it was to go get a package full of giant cookies! Ahh everyone was my best friend that day haha!!
Stay strong and carry on!!
PS: I get another P-day this week on Friday because I will be busy packing next Tuesday woot woot! So don't think I'm being naughty and sending emails when I shouldn't haha!!

Of course the famous BIG MAP PICTURE

Heyyyyyy everybody!!! I'm so excited that I can email people finally!! This email will be a little long but oh well I'm so excited to tell you everything that's happened since I got here!!

When I first got dropped off at the MTC, my mind was still kind of gone because I was so excited and anxious. I didn't know what to think. I walked in through the doors and a lady met me and stuck a magnet name tag on me. I officially became Sister Taylor. It was such a cool feeling!! Then I went to my room to drop off my luggage and then go to my classroom to meet my companion. I found out that my class is called my district and there are no Elders, so we are named the SISTRICT of the MTC. Pretty clever right? My companion's name is Sister Jeffords and oh my goodness I adore her!!! She's from Woodland Hills, California and is going to Nauvoo with me. She's a convert to the church and is an incredible example to me all the time. She was taught by the missionaries when she was 16, but couldn't get baptized until she was 18 because her mom wouldn't let her. Her testimony is amazing to hear. She is absolutely hilarious too! She constantly has my roommates and I rolling on the floor holding our stomachs because we are laughing so hard. She's such a good companion for me because she pushes me to be better. She gets me out of my comfort zone. I get kind of nervous to share my testimony sometimes but she reminds me to just go for it. I honestly love her to death and we've only known each other for 6 days.

Assigned to Sis. Jeffords from Woodland Hills, CA

to be my MTC companion

Well to continue on, after I met her we immediately started class. That night the whole group of new missionaries who got there the same day as me got to practice teaching an investigator. When we teach investigators, sometimes they actually are investigators and sometimes they are just members who may need a little refresher with the gospel. So this investigator asked a question and I raised my hand to answer him just because I felt like I knew what to say. When the microphone got to me, he asked another question and I had to think of another answer on the spot. I talked about the power of the Atonement. This experience was amazing because what I said I didn't plan to say beforehand. The Holy Ghost was truly putting words into my mouth. Once I sat down, I was almost in shock at what happened. I was thinking wow, I really am a missionary now!

The next day my district went to classes again and these were really hard and stressful. I kind of got overwhelmed that day and thought man I don't know if I can handle this much stress every day for 18 months! The third day was even harder and I actually broke down and cried that night because I was so overwhelmed with all the change and scariness of it all. Someone actually told me that night that I should just go home and I was taken aback at how rude it was. I prayed to Heavenly Father that I wanted to be a missionary. I wanted it so bad and I wanted to do a good job. I asked if He would help me and give me courage. I asked if He would comfort me because I was feeling so down and I didn't want to. Later that night, someone was singing "Be Still My Soul" in the hallway and when they sang "Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake", I started crying again. I knew Heavenly Father had heard me. I knew the next day would be better.

Saturday morning my district got to do service so we woke up at 6 and went to clean the bathrooms of a building until breakfast at 7:40. It felt good to finally wear jeans again haha! After breakfast, Sister Jeffords and I met our first investigator. Her name is Ava, she's going to school at UVU, she moved here from New Jersey and she wants to know more about the Mormon church. My companion and I had originally planned to just talk and get to know her and then leave her with an invitation to read 1 Nephi 1, but then we both were impressed to teach her the first lesson briefly. So we taught her about the Restoration of the Gospel. It went really, really well. I love having the Holy Ghost to tell me what to say, it's such a comfort to know he's with me.

Sunday we went to church, which is at 8:30 in the morning, and had testimony meeting. Everyone has to prepare a sacrament meeting talk and a lesson for class every week and then the Branch President will randomly pick who gets to teach so you better be prepared! So my sacrament meeting talk is ready for this next Sunday. In testimony meeting everyone has such strong messages to share about the gospel. I shared a little testimony about how Heavenly Father helped me get my diabetes under control so I could go on a mission and a lot of people started crying! It was crazy! A few came up to me and thanked me for the message I shared because they needed to hear that. I don't know what I said that touched them, but I know the Holy Ghost told them something. Later on Sunday, my district went to choir practice and man if you haven't heard a huge choir of missionaries sing you need to! It is powerful! The song we're singing is a version of "The Spirit of God" and it brought an intense spirit to the room. The Holy Ghost is honestly everywhere here, it's the coolest thing. People start crying at the most random things just because they felt the Spirit. I just love it! The last thing we do on Sundays is watch a church film or conference video. The new missionaries have to go watch a devotional by Elder Bednar called "The Character of Christ". It's not open to the public so if you served a mission recently you might have heard it. It was so good! Two big things I learned from it was that to become more like Christ, we need to turn outward rather than inward because Christ did that His whole ministry on the earth. The second thing is that you can't just only have a testimony, you need to be converted. A testimony is when you have faith and believe in Christ. Being converted is totally devoting ourselves to Him. No matter what happens in our lives we will always know with a surety that Christ is our Savior.

Loving being a missionary!!

On Monday we got to teach two people! We taught Ava again that morning, and then another investigator named Jalyn that night. Jalyn wants to know who God is to her. She comes from a background of relatives who are totally anti-Mormon so she's a tough one to crack! We had a hard time really getting through to her but we'll keep trying because she wants to see us again on Thursday. Ava's lesson went really well too! She'd like to meet every day this week except Tuesday. She's really starting to have a spark of curiosity now. We asked her to say the closing prayer after our lesson and she thanked God for us for bringing a good feeling to the lesson so she's feeling and noticing the Spirit! My companion and I were so excited after that lesson.

Today is obviously my P day so I got to wake up, go to the temple, do laundry and then write emails. That's all I've done today! It is so nice to finally have a little break to relax my brain haha!

So a few people asked what I do every day, here's a basic schedule. It varies now and then but it's a general idea:

6:30- I wake up and say personal prayers and get ready for the day

7:40- I go to get breakfast

8- Teach investigator (Ava)

8:45- Finish teaching investigator and go to first class

11:30- Do daily planning with my companion

12- Go to lunch

12:30- Do personal study

1- Do companion study

1:30- Go back to class

4:30- Go to dinner (super early right??)

5:30- Teach second investigator (Jalyn)

6:30- Exercise

7:30- Plan lessons for investigators for next day

9- Get ready for bed

10:30- Go to sleep!

My day is always really busy and is go go go most of the time. Once I got kind of used to it, then I realized it's not so bad!

The food here is not that bad, it tastes mostly like chukarama which has it's good's and bad's about it. I mostly like it, but the missionaries who've been here longer warned us newbies to not eat the eggs or drink the orange juice so I've been avoiding it at all costs.

My roommates are literally the best! I love love love them all so much! All six of us are going to Nauvoo so it's awesome we are all such good friends already. We came up with nicknames for each other and they call me Sister Straight and Narrow because they say I know all the rules. It sounds like I'm bossy or something but they say they love it. We'll see if it sticks!

I get to stay at the MTC until May 2 so every Tuesday I can email everyone! I have a phone too and I'm allowed to check it anytime so I can see your emails whenever, I just can't respond until Tuesday. On Tuesdays I can chat all day until 6.

I also got assigned to be the Technology Specialist with my companion for our zone! So we get to teach the newbies who come tomorrow how to use their technology!

I love you all!!

-Sister Taylor

Plus read 1 Nephi 1:12! Elder Holland said this verse may be the most important verse in the Book of Mormon because it tells us that if we read from it, we will be filled with the Spirit. I keep talking about the Holy Ghost but he's just so awesome! He always testifies of truth.

Hello hello hello!!!! Wow was this week crazy or what?!

I'm just going to give a rundown of what happened every day since I emailed everyone last Tuesday.

Tuesday evening: We went to a devotional by Elder Echo Hawk, he spoke in Conference a few weeks ago! It was really really good! He talked about the power of the Book of Mormon and how much we need to use it in our lessons. I loved it! That evening, a Sister in my zone was so stressed out about flying to her mission the next morning that she started throwing up. She couldn't calm down. She got a blessing and we all gathered around her to pray with her, yet nothing was helping. She had to go to the emergency room around 3 in the morning. One of the sisters in my room, Sister Cavey, went with her so she'd have a companion.

Wednesday: Sister Jeffords and I got to teach Ava again, she does what we ask of her, but doesn't seem to get anything out of it. She doesn't ever have any questions. She just sits and listens to us teach her. It is so so so hard to teach when you don't know what the investigator needs to hear! We've been getting almost frustrated with her so we want to really get out of her why she even wants to visit with us. We are there to invite her to Christ, to help her understand how much Heavenly Father loves her. We are there to help her apply the blessings of the gospel to her life. She seems to just be coming as if she was going to school. She doesn't seem interested, yet she came to us. I'm so confused with her... This afternoon, my friend/ roommate from college, Alli, came to the MTC and she's in my zone!! It was so good to see her!!

Later that night, 4 of the 6 sisters in my room got sick, including me. We all felt horrible, so we got blessings. We only have two Elders in my entire zone and over 20 Sisters, so the Elders came to help us. One of them had never given a blessing before, so it was cool to see him use his priesthood. We all went to bed, but Sister Cavey went to the emergency room because she started throwing up and her stomach was hurting her really bad. We were all scared to death.

Thursday: We woke up on time but nobody felt good so we went back to sleep. Sister Cavey and her companion Sister Hyatt came back from the hospital around 3am so they were exhausted. We found out that the one sister who was sick from the beginning had a stomach virus. She came back from the hospital that afternoon but just slept. She didn't do anything else. We all went to the health clinic to see what was wrong with us. Sister Cavey was in so much pain she could hardly walk. The hospital had no idea what was wrong with her so they gave her some pain medication and sent her back to the MTC. When I got there, my ear was hurting so bad I almost started crying, and I couldn't hear out of it. Also I was feeling achy and exhausted. I found out from the doctor that I had a cold, the flu and an ear infection. They put me on 4 different medications and told me to go sleep. My companion Sister Jeffords had a virus and the symptoms of a really bad cold. Sister Cavey had to stay at the clinic because no one knew how to help her. Sister Dee was feeling really nauseous and light headed. We all went back to the room and slept all day long. Sister Cavey came back to our room around 6 that night, but was in so much pain she kept passing out. She had to go to the ER again with Sister Hyatt. This time, she was admitted. There were times on the way there that she stopped breathing. She had to get multiple blessings. The power of the priesthood is real, I can truly testify of it.

Friday: Still sick, so we all slept in. Sister Jeffords and I felt a little better, so we went to teach our investigator. We had to cancel twice for Ava, and found out that we wouldn't be able to teach her anymore. We only have one week with each investigator. I was really sad that I couldn't figure out how to get to her. I hope other missionaries can help her! Our other investigator is Jalyn, so we got to teach her. My voice was almost totally gone and we were so tired. Yet the Spirit was so so strong. I've never felt it that intense in a lesson before it was awesome. We taught her the importance of prayer and how to pray. We shared a bunch of scriptures with her and then asked her to give the closing prayer. I can't explain or describe the look on her face after she prayed. She was excited and happy and maybe confused about what she was feeling, so we taught her about the Holy Ghost. Sister Jeffords and I were so excited to teach her again on Monday... then we found out that was our last lesson with her. I was so sad that we can't be there to watch her testimony grow more.

Saturday: We woke up and felt terrible again, so we couldn't do service or go to class. That night we felt good enough to go walk the track in the gym. The whole zone decided to fast on Sunday for Sister Cavey because she wasn't getting any better.

Sunday: We finally felt better!! We all got up on time and went to church. We have church at 8:30 in a classroom. Ok so in my last email I told you all about how they choose in the moment who will give talks in sacrament meeting. Well Sister Jeffords and I were supposed to teach a little in second hour during our district meeting. I figured I was fine. Wrong! After the sacrament, the branch president stood up and said we will now hear from Sister Taylor and two other sisters in my zone. I literally had seconds to come up with a five minute talk!! I cannot tell you how scared I was in that moment. I was literally shaking. So I walked up and gave a talk about faith and how it is like a seed. I shared the story of how Alma taught the Zoramites using this idea. My talk ended up being 6 minutes!!

After church, we found out Sister Cavey was finally being released from the hospital! She couldn't walk and hardly talked but man it was so good to see her! We got to go to a devotional that evening. The MTC President and his wife talked about how we need to be above average missionaries. We need to go above and beyond to do our best and be better. The definition for average is being the best of the worst or the worst of the best. It really motivated me to go above and beyond this next week, especially since I've been sick in bed for so long.

The sisters in my room are Sister Jeffords and I, Sister Whitmer,
Sister Dee, then Sister Hyatt, and Sister Cavey.

The other sisters in my district are Sister Lykins-North Carolina, Sister Gifford-Kansas, then Sister White-Australia, Sister Defranchi-France, and Sister Whitmer-Arizona. The rest are from Utah, besides my companion!

Beautiful Sistrict out of quarantine, and hard at work!

Later that night we went to watch one of the films they show on Sundays. It was "The Testaments" which I've seen a million times, give or take, so I knew what would happen. I love this movie so much so I was excited to see it. Near the end, it shows a scene when Christ is being crucified. They are pounding nails into his hands. I just started crying and I couldn't stop. Later in the movie, Jesus visits the people in America and finds a man who is blind. He walks up to him and says his name, then heals him. I started crying again. I knew that the Holy Ghost was teaching me. He testifies of truth. I've been teaching all this a ton, that's all I do here besides learn! It was such a good reminder that what I'm teaching is true.

Monday: We went to teach our new investigator named Ben. He's been going through a lot of trials and is worried about his family. It was really good to get to know him and find out what we can teach him. We taught him how to pray too. I love seeing their reaction after they pray.

We found out this morning that Sister Cavey has to be sent home. She's been so sick and they don't know how to help her get better. All of us in my room were crying all day. I was totally heartbroken. We all hung out that night talking and laughing.

Tuesday: We went to the temple and did initiatory. Afterwards we went outside to take a picture and Sister Cavey told us she gets to stay!! I am so so happy I could cry!! Heavenly Father truly answers our prayers, He is all knowing and so merciful. I just love Him so much.

The last piece of advice I want to leave with you is another quote I heard from the devotional. "A trial is just an opportunity to make a choice." We can choose to be down and be mad at what happens to us, or we can make the best of the situation. It's all up to us and our attitudes.

Love you all!!!

-Sister Taylor

Sorry I didn't send pictures last week, I got really busy and forgot!