Week 4, Saratoga Springs South

“I am called [Sister Taylor]..... I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.” (3 Nephi 5:12-13)

Life is pretty great here in the mission field! Missions are hard. We have doors slammed in our faces, we get jumped on by massive dogs, we’re tired, and we run into awkward situations constantly. But it is SO worth it!! We have TWO baptisms this Saturday. Annie (haven’t told you all about her yet. She’s basically a member, just has taken her time deciding to get baptized) and Brother Selds. Things got complicated with Brother Selds this week, because he lives outside the mission, but  we’ve been teaching him here because he’s dating someone in our mission. So we’re having to work with the missionaries and mission president of both missions to figure out who is doing what when. Nice and confusing. But the baptism is still happening! So that’ll be good!

One day this week we met with Brian! We sat on a bench overlooking the lake to teach him because his family doesn’t like the Church, so we can’t meet at his home, and we couldn’t find anywhere else to teach him. It was such a powerful lesson! Even though we were all freezing and our noses were running, the Spirit was so strong. It gave me a glimpse of how different his future life will be because of the Gospel. Being out in Heavenly Father’s Creation just made it better! He got his temple recommend, and we get to go to the SLC temple to do baptisms for the dead with him!! We're going to go after they turn the lights on, because neither he nor Sister Cruz has seen the lights at temple square before. (This picture is the view from our lesson.)

Awkward experience of the week:
We were talking to this nice man on his front porch, and he said he worked crazy hours at Firehouse. I said “Well, at least it smells good!”. Right as it came out of my mouth, I realized that he meant THE firehouse. He’s a firefighter! He just looked at me like I was crazy. It was nice and awkward, and Sister Cruz couldn’t stop laughing. Needless to say, we got out of there quickly.
We had a great dinner last night. The family invited a less-active brother, so we had a good gospel discussion. And the mom is a rep for a company called “LulaRoe”. She let us each pick a dress! They’re super cute and modest, so that was SO nice! Their little girl has curly hair like I do, and we looked a lot alike. 

I pray that you all are doing well, and striving to find the happiness and joy the Gospel can bring each and every day in your lives!! 

I would LOVE to hear from you and how your lives are going!! Sorry for the shorter email!

Love, Sister Rechelle Taylor