Madison in the Mission

6 weeks tooo goooo!!!

2011-02-24T21:34:00.000-08:00

Hola Mis Seres Queridos

Wow, so much has happened in a week. Here we go.

Monday (Valentine's Day): We were invited to eat dinner with two member families that night after P-Day and they were both very fun. When we walked out of the last appointment we found our car covered in red hearts and writing, thanks to our best friend Claricia. That girl just cracks me up. Her and the family she lives with wrote really cheese ball pick up lines that have to do with Mormon culture and wrote them on the hearts and stuck them to our car. For example: "I search, pondered and prayed for you", "I want to hold you like the iron rod", "Tag=Swag" (talking about our missionary tags haha) and then on the back windshield it said, "Read the Book of Mormon, homie g's" Haha. That girl, I just love her.

Saturday: Transfer calls. What a surprise that was. Hermana Wardle (my MTC companion) and I are just going to switch companions. So, Hermana Martinez is going just one area over to Bear Creek and I am getting Hermana Smart. We thought it was a joke at first, just because it is so strange, but I am glad that Hermana Martinez isn't going far because I just love her to pieces. Things will be a lot different with Hermana Smart, but I know that transfers are inspired and that Heavenly Father has a specific purpose in placing us together. I really hope that we can be a unified and obedient companionship so that we can see miracles this transfer, especially since it is my last one...weird.

Sunday: At about 7:00am we received a call from the ward secretary saying, "Oh Hermana Taets, I am just calling to REMIND you that you are speaking in church today." Well, that is strange because I thought that to be able to remind someone of something they had to have already been told about it. Haha. So, Elder Morin and I both had surprise talks to give in church and had zero time to prepare them. I spoke first and I shared my conversion story and talked about the importance of not judging who is ready to hear the gospel or not and to just share with everyone. I was so nervous to just go up there and give a talk in spanish without any preparation but as soon as I stepped up to the microphone I felt so comfortable and the words came out so easily. It is such a blessing to have the gift of the Holy Ghost! Then Elder Morin shared the story of a family he had taught early in his mission and the changes he saw in them as he taught and baptized them one by one. He ended the story saying that he had the blessing of going to the temple the day before to see them being sealed as a family for time and all eternity. It was a very powerful story and most of the women, and some of the men, in the congregation had tears streaming down their faces. It was such a powerful sacrament meeting and I think the members really felt the importance of what we have as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and are hopefully excited to share that with others.

It is always a weird feeling at the beginning of a new transfer. It is really weird not having Hermana Martinez with me but I know that Hermana Smart and I will work hard so that we can witness miracles in our area. I am in the final sprint of my mission and will not be slowing down.
Con Amor
Hermana Taets

ALL PICTURES!

2011-02-14T12:00:00.000-08:00

2 Months LEFT!!

2011-02-14T11:59:00.002-08:00

Hola Hola Hola

Has another week flown by already? wow. Can't believe it. Anyways, today I will share one funny story, of the many, and one teaching story, and I think I actually have time to do it today!

Funny Story

In order for this story to really make sense it must be understood that a missionary's planner contains his/her life. It has all of our appointments scheduled in it, names, numbers and addresses of people we are teaching, people we have contacted while knocking doors or doing whatever, and people that have been referred to us to go teach. My planner is like my first-born child. On Saturday afternoon I was making a right hand turn onto the feeder to get onto the I-10 and had my window rolled down. As I made the turn my companion made a comment, but I didn't really hear because I was focused on driving (that's right, I am a focused-on-the-road-and-not-on-distractions Driver, that might have developed on my mission) so I asked her what she had said and she responded rather calmly, "your planner just flew out the window." My response was a screaming, "WHATTTTT?!" Dummy Taets had left her planner on the dashboard and it was now sitting in the middle of the freeway feeder. You can't just leave your first-born child sitting on the freeway so we turned around, parked the car by where I had made the turn and analyzed the situation. Planner was sitting about one lane away from the sidewalk, right on the line, it's pages blowing in the wind as if saying, "Look at me, I am right here, come save me!" Luckily, we had the Elders with us, and of course they had to be the chivalrous young men that they are and decided they would face death and go run into the street and get planner. Elder Morin was the lookout, yelled, "GO!" while Elder Lang ran into the road, grabbed planner, and made it back safely. Planner is now safe and sound, never again to be placed on the dashboard. I am a little disappointed that planner didn't even have a cool tire mark across it just for looks. Oh well, can't complain.

Teaching Story

We went to contact one of our many referrals this week, named Alicia, and right when we knocked on the door she said, "It's freezing outside, come in!" That is the one perk with this cold weather, people are more likely to let us in when we knock on their door. We sat with her at her kitchen table and talked to her about her family and religious beliefs and why she requested a visit from us. I don't think she really understood why we were there so I explained to her what we do as missionaries and asked her if she would be interested in us returning and teaching her family. She seemed pretty hesitant and reverted to the "I'm Catholic" thing, even though she had already explained that she never goes to church and doesn't really know what "being Catholic" even means haha. After realizing that we probably wouldn't get the chance to come back I taught her about the Book of Mormon, my companion and I both bore testimony of it and committed her to read it in her own time and ask God if it is true. She told us that she loves to read and seemed excited to find out what the Book of Mormon is about and said she would pray to know if it is true. Before leaving I asked if we could call her two sons into the room and have a family prayer, and she went and brought them in. This was my favorite part of the whole experience. We talked to the little boys a little bit about what prayer is and taught them how to pray and then we all bowed our heads and my companion offered a prayer. The spirit was so strong and I know that the mom felt the power in family prayer. If this family learned nothing more from us than how to pray and to do it as a family then I consider it a huge success. I pray that they will start praying and reading the bible as a family so that they may grow and uplift one another.

I love being a missionary. I know that this gospel is true, that Jesus Christ came to the Earth, completed the will of His Father and was a perfect example for us. I know that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, I received that answer from God and nothing will be able to change the testimony that I have received.

Hermana Taets

Week 64

2011-02-14T11:59:00.001-08:00

Buenos Dias Mis Seres Queridos

This week was really crazy, lots of doctors involved haha I still have my cough, after 3 different kinds of prescriptions, dumb, but hopefully it will go away when the weather warms up. We had to take Elder Lang downtown for a checkup with his diabetes doctor, the trip downtown was really scary, I just cannot drive down there without having ultra anxiety. Then on Thursday Elder Morin hurt his ankle while biking and we had to take him to the emergency room because it wouldn't stop bleeding. We were at the hospital from 9:30pm-11:30pm which was really weird because I have never been out of the apartment that late during the mission. Fortunately Elder Morin did not break his ankle and did not need stitches, just has to be on crutches for awhile.
Friday I hit my 15 month mark in the mission and one of our investigators threw me a quinceanera, which is like when white people have a "sweet 16", in Hispanic culture they have a HUGE party when girls turn 15. They made me buy a dress and wear a crown, it was so fun. I did not buy a big poofy dress like what would normally be worn in a quince, but I found a cute one at ross that I can keep wearing during the mission, woo hoo. I love the people we are teaching, we are all like best friends. We are trying to establish good relationships with the members of our congregation and the youth in the ward and are seeing the fruits of our labors. The youth are bringing friends to mutual and we are getting a ton of referrals. My only complaint is that our area is so huge that we waste so much time driving around and I wish we could just work work work all day long.

You guessed it, no time. I love you all and wish I could promise a longer email next week, but I can't haha I like P-Day activities too much ;)
Con Amor
Hermana Taets

Week 63

2011-02-14T11:57:00.002-08:00

Hola Hola Hola

Guess what? No time. Bullet Points.
Car Accident. Yep, we got in a car accident on Thursday, but thankfully it was very very minor and there was no damage to our car. It was raining a little bit so the roads were slick, I was stopped at a red light and was rear ended by a car that skidded. It was a very interesting experience and I know that we were protected. As I was stopped at the red light I saw the car skidding in my rear view mirror and thought to myself, "Well, no one is in front of me, should I move up and avoid an accident?" but a soft voice in my head seemed to whisper, "don't move." So, I stood my groud and watched the car hit us. I am not 100% sure why I wasn't supposed to move, but I think that if I would have moved forward we still would have been hit and then pushed into the cars the were making left hand turns. I am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost, that He is my constant companion and is guiding me each day. My only complaint about the accident is that after we got the guy's insurance information and saw there was no damage I tried to give him one of the new mormon.org pass-a-long cards, and he said no! Can you believe that? You just rear ended me buddy, the least you can do is take the card, say thank you, and continue on your merry way. sheeeeesh. People these days.
Tovar Family. We started teaching a new family this week and they areso sweet. The 13 year old daughter has cancer, so the family is very humble and seeking to gain a stronger relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It is so sad to see so many children who are affected by cancer. I had no idea before my mission that there are so many children with cancer, but now that I have taught several families who have children with cancer I am starting to realize how far reaching the disease is. I pray that this family will be able to feel the Holy Ghost strongly testify to them of the truth as we teach them in their home and that the gospel will bring them comfort in this time and need.
A lot more things happened this week but I think my companion is going to kill me if I make her wait any longer for me to finish up. Sorry, know that I love you all and that I love this work!
Hermana Taets

Week 62

2011-02-14T11:57:00.001-08:00

Buenos Dias Mis Seres Queridos,

I don't have much time because it's actually not P-Day, the college where we e-mail was closed yesterday for the holiday, and we have an appoinment pretty soon. You know what that means. Bullet Points.

Tracting with Claricia. Claricia is 18 years old and a recent convert in the english ward that meets in our building, but she speaks spanish as well, so we bring her out with us a few times a week. Last week we went out looking for a co worker of hers who speaks spanish and who happens to be a less active member, and starting knocking on the street he supposedly live on. We couldn't find him, but we did almost die haha. The area was just a littttttle sketch and we were knocking these old apartments. We climbed up this set of rusted metal stairs and stood on a rusted metal landing while we waiting for someone to answer the door. While we were standing there we heard this loud noise and Claricia screamed and jumped which made all of us start screaming right in front of this person's door, I am sure it looked hilarious. After the screaming we asked what happened and Claricia said that the floor was moving, and when we looked where she had been standing sure enough there was a hole there. We made it back down the stairs in one piece and promised her we wouldn't climb anymore stairs with her haha. Oh the adventure in being a missionary.
Juanita. We started teaching a young woman this week named Juanita and she is amazing, I love her! She is so sweet and genuine and was really excited to read from the Book of Mormon. She has an 11 month old son named Eder who has cancer, so she is in the hospital a lot while he gets chemotherapy, but he seems to be doing really well. He has been doing chemo for about 6 months now and it sounds like it is working, hooray! Eder is just the cutest little smiley baby, you wouldn't think anything was wrong with him. Juanita is so amazing, she is going through just a huge trial but she talks about how she trusts in God and is grateful for the time the He has given her with her son, even if it will be shorter than she would like. Juanita is such an example to me of faith and I am excited to watch her grow closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as she attends church and studies the scriptures.
Well, out of time, I love you all very much and pray everyone is well.
Hermana Taets

Week 61

2011-02-14T11:56:00.001-08:00

Buenas Tardes Mis Seres Queridos

It has been such a crazy week, and went by much faster than I would have liked. So, I am going to have to do this in bullet form, like usual, if I am going to cover everything.

Exchanges: I went on an exchange with Hermana Ang on Wednesday and that was super fun, love that girl to bits. She has learned and grown so much since I was training her! She taught me a cool way to teach about the great apostasy that I am way stoked to try out. She hits her halfway mark in her mission this month...that is really weird, my daughter is growing up and is an old missionary, weird! We had a lot of fun together, didn't sleep much at night because we just laid in bed until about 1 am just talking about all of the people we taught in Fairbanks and all of the crazy experiences we had together. My three transfers in Fairbanks with Hermana Ang were probably some of my most favorite transfers in the field.

Dia de los 3 Reyes Magos (Three King's Day): January 6th was Three King's Day, which is kind of like an extension of Christmas, they celebrate the bringing of the gifts from the wise men to the baby Jesus. Us and the Elders went over to the Estrada home to eat la Rosca and drink Abuelitas hot chocolate, yum. La Rosca is a sweet bread that is kind of shaped like a wreath and has some fruit and colored sugars on top. The cool part is that inside the Rosca is a little doll, and whoever gets the little doll in their piece has to throw a party on Feb. 2nd and make either pozole or tamales. I love hispanic culture, they throw a party so that they can figure out who will throw the next party, genius. I am planning on implementing this tradition in my home because it was so much fun and I loved it! The Rosca that they bought had three dolls in it, and my companion and I each got one, haha, Hermana Martinez made the first cut and there was a little doll showing from the side, it was so funny, and I got the last doll of the three. Since we can't really throw a party the Estrada family made a deal with us that we would come over on sunday and help make dinner, which was also way fun.
Transfers. I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen next transfer, but I wasn't really nervous like I usually am because I think I have finally learned that no matter what happens it is the will of the Lord and therefore it will turn out alright. Our district all met up and read over the transfer paper, and NOTHING is changing in our district! So, I will be with Hermana Martinez for another transfer, which I am happy about because we get along really well. We have talked a lot about what things we need to improve on and are both excited to make changes and see miracles this upcoming transfer.

Pupusas. Sunday after church we went back over to the Estrada home and ate pupusas, which is a traditional meal from El Salvador, delicious. Me and two young single adult girls from the ward made the pupusas and it was so fun! I thought it was going to be really difficult but it actually wasn't that bad and I really enjoyed it! I am excited to try and make them on my own when I get home and show my family some authentic hispanic food, yum.

Well, that is about it for the week, I am excited to begin another transfer (my 10th transfer) here in the great Texas Houston Mission. Hope all is well back home!
Hermana Taets

Week 60

2011-02-14T11:55:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year!

Sorry I didn't write last week, I was lazy and had already talked to my family on the phone on Christmas, so I went shopping instead of doing a bunch of emails :) The Holidays have been so good! We have been spoiled rotten by the members of our ward. On Christmas we went over to the Acosta home and played with the kids and ate all day. Calling home was fun, kind of weird because we mainly talked about me coming home in 3 months. Talking to my family made me a little more excited to come home, but it will definitely be bittersweet. I am sure I will miss being a full-time missionary every day of my life. Anyways, New Year's Eve we had to be inside the apartment after dark so a group of us missionaries brought some food back and played apples to apples until curfew, which was alright. My favorite part was watching all of the fireworks through the porch window. You can just buy fireworks on the street here in Texas, and it's legal, so fireworks were going off alllllllllll night. Pretty neat. On New Year's Day we went to the Acosta's again because their family and the Estrada family had some carne asada and invited us over. The food was delicious and after eating they had a Foosball tournament. I played offense with Hermano Estrada (2nd counselor in the bishopric) on my team as defense and we beat everyone! We won 5 games straight and eventually just stopped playing because we were tired and there was no one left who hadn't lost, haha. It was so much fun, especially because all of the hermanos who played were pretty competitive and didn't really appreciate losing to a sister missionary. Hermano Estrada was just hilarious, he kept telling me, "Acabelos Hermana!" which means, "Finish them Hermana!" I was just cracking up the entire time.
I am super excited to begin a new year here in the mission. I have been thinking a lot about repentance and what a blessing it is to have the opportunity to change and become better each day. There are many many things that I want to improve on this year, and I am excited to see what challenges the Lord will dish out this year to help me become more like Him. I sat down the other night and wrote out some goals to accomplish this year, and it was very strange to see that they would have to be accomplished outside of the mission. Although I am nervous to go home I know it is just the next step in my life and that it will be full of new adventures and experiences. I know that in the next few months we will be witnessing miracles here in the Texas Houston Mission. It has been promised to us that as we are obedient with exactness our baptisms will double by the end of March. I know this is true, I can just feel that we are standing on the edge of something huge here. I know I have a lot to improve on, a lot of loose screws to tighten up, so that I may be worthy to witness those miracles here in West Green.
I pray all is well back home and that everyone is excited to begin a new year!
love, Hermana Taets

week 58

2011-02-14T11:54:00.001-08:00

FELIZ NAVIDAD!

Oh my crazy, can you believe Christmas is this Saturday? I can't. This week is going to be really epic because we have a lot of activities going on with the mission so that we don't get homesick haha. For example, Wednesday we have a mission wide service project in the morning then sports in the afternoon and then a conference/devotional at night. Thursday is mission wide temple day, yay! Friday is a zone meeting and then we have to be in our apartments by 5:00 pm for safety reasons. Saturday is CHRISTMAS! We are spending it with a family in our ward who spoils us rotten and I love them so much. I am super excited to call home on Saturday and get to talk to my mommy and seester, yay! So, crazy schedule this week, time is going to fly right on by as usual.

Now, I want to share a little thought on Christmas, in light of the season. Something that has really stuck with me is a scripture that is found in the Book of Mormon, in 1 Nephi 11, when the prophet Nephi is shown the birth of the Savior that would occur some 600 years later. After seeing the baby in Mary's arms, the angel asks Nephi, "Do you understand the condescension of God?" and Nephi says that although he doesn't know much, he knows that it is the love of God. I have been thinking a lot about that verse this month. The fact that the Savior would descend from His throne on high to be born as a helpless child in a stable greatly signifies the love that He has for each and every one of us. Thinking a little bit deeper I have wondered, what are the things that I need to do to come down off of my throne and be a little bit more humble? What can I be doing to show Him how much I love Him? Well that is a much longer story for another day. I have much to improve on and am grateful that the Lord has given me this time on my mission to grow and change with His guidance.

I pray everyone has a safe Christmas and that your thoughts are turned to the real meaning of Christmas.
I love you all.
Hermana Taets

Week 57

2011-02-14T11:53:00.001-08:00

Buenos Dias Mis Seres Queridos

This week was crazy. We had the ward Christmas party on Friday and 3 families that we are teaching showed up to the activity. We have so many people we are teaching that our schedule for this week is full, and I mean full. On Tuesday we won't even have time to do our morning studies because we have appointments from 9 am to 9 pm. I know that we are having success because we are striving to be obedient with exactness, I just hope that we can accommodate for the needs of all of the people we are teaching and that no one gets lost in translation. I love being so busy, but I wish we had a little bit of time to go do some finding and knock doors so that we will always be searching for those who are prepared. Oh well, I really can't complain that we have too many investigators ha ha.

I don't have a lot of time so I am going to just tell a really cool story. Once upon a time it was Monday the 6th of December, aka last Monday, and we were leaving the house after P-day around 6:00 pm when all of our appointments called and cancelled. Boo. So, we thought about stopping by Sephora, the makeup store, because I had spaced out during P-day and forgot to buy my makeup that had run out that morning. I started driving in that direction, but was thinking about what we should do and just didn't feel good about going to the store. So, I drove right past the store and went to visit a family that we are teaching who are members but don't go to church very often. We had a really great lesson with them and then we stood outside for a really long time in the cold waiting for a fire truck that was supposed to pass by with Santa on it. Apparently they do this every Christmas, and we could hear the fire truck but eventually it came time for us to head back to the apartment for curfew so we weren't able to see it. It was about 8:30 pm and we were about to pass by Sephora again and my companion suggested we just go in and grab the makeup I need really quick. I thought about it and it didn't feel wrong this time so I figured we could just stop really quick, grab what I need and go. So, we went in, got the makeup (it was on sale 2 for 1 woo hoo!) and I went to go checkout. While I was checking out, my companion was getting a perfume sample from another associate there and when I went over there I realized that they were actually talking about the church. The sales associate, Elizabeth, was asking about my companion's name tag and then started asking about church and said that she was looking for a church to attend with her boyfriend but it having a hard time being satisfied with the ones that she has already attended. We talked to her about church, invited her to the ward Christmas party and to church on Sunday, and then I gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. It was really neat because I recently started carrying a copy of the Book of Mormon in my hand at all times to give away, so when we went to the store I didn't have anything with me except the car keys, wallet and the Book of Mormon that I carry, so we were able to testify of the truthfulness of it and she said she would read it and knew that Heavenly Father would tell her if it is true, and she was actually excited about it. This week was my first week doing this, always carrying a copy of the Book of Mormon in my hand instead of in my bag, and we have given out half a box of copies of the Book of Mormon this week. Yay! I love being a missionary!

I love you all and pray everyone is feeling the spirit of Christmas and extending a hand of love and friendship at this time, especially to all those poor poor missionaries in your areas who are away from home at Christmas ;) Feliz Navidad!

Hermana Taets

Week 56

2011-02-14T11:52:00.000-08:00

Buenos Dias Mis Seres Queridos

Whoa. When I typed Transfer 9 in the subject line...that was weird. When did this happen?! I wrote a letter to my trainer, Hermana Blanco, this morning and mentioned, "Remember when I would tease you all the time because you were going home soon? Yeah...now my trainee does the same thing every time I see her. I deserve that I guess." This transfer I received my "death dot", meaning that my picture that is on President Hansen's transfer board now has an orange dot with a 3 on it, because I only have 3 transfers left. So, basically all of the missionaries in my zone have made comments about how I am not officially a "dying missionary". Boo.

Enough of that nonsense. This week was AMAZING. We received so many blessings from the Lord this week as we strive for obedience with exactness. We found and began teaching 6 new investigators this week! The mission standard is 4 a week, but we have been struggling with the goal for a while, BUT this week we found 6, and they are all so solid and just amazing. We also found several members of the church this week while knocking doors who haven't been to church in 10+ years because when they moved here from other countries they didn't speak english and couldn't find the chapel, crazy! We also tried out this idea I had heard from some Elders in another zone called "zebra tracting". On saturday we went on a mini exchange with the english sister missionaries who happen to cover part of our area and we went and knocked doors for an hour. It was really neat to do because the streets we had chosen had an equal amount of english and spanish speakers, so I would talked to all of the spanish speakers and Sister Layton, the english missionary, spoke to the english ones. It was very successful and each companion found a new investigator from it. We ended up talking to this guy and I taught him a lesson about prophets and the restoration in front of his garage and at the end he asked me why the other missionary doesn't talk and I explained that she doesn't speak spanish. His response was, "Well I speak both languages! You should have said something! Haha!" He was so nice, and happens to be our new investigator, we are going to go teach him and his family next saturday, woo hoo!

Jose and Elizabeth are doing SO good! They were really struggling to understand why it is important to keep the sabbath day holy, especially because they are struggling financially and really need to work on sunday. BUT, we went over this week and were talking about repentance and while we were teaching Jose said, "So, this week I decided that I am not going to work on sundays, is that repentance?" I couldn't even believe what he had just said, and asked him to repeat it just to make sure, and once he confirmed what he had said my companion and I were both in tears. They are SO amazing, I have never met people with such faith and trust in the Lord. Jose told us that while he was working last sunday he was just having a hard time focusing and everything seem to go wrong, and it reminded him of when we talked about the Tower of Babel and how the Lord confounded the languages there so the people would stop building the tower. He said the Lord must not want him to work on sundays because he can't work effectively those days. Wow. I love them so much! They also said they didn't want us to have to leave so early, we always teach them right before our curfew, and suggested that we just move into their son's old bedroom, haha. I love being a missionary, I really wonder if there is any joy greater than this.

Love, Hermana Taets

Week 55

2010-11-29T12:07:00.000-08:00

Hola Mis Seres Amados

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Here in the West Green ward we celebrated with tons and tons and tons and tons of food. My companion and I and the Elders that also serve in our ward went to 5 homes on thursday to eat. I know, right? Bah, I felt so sick after the second one I don't really know how I survived. This was our schedule:
9:00 am-11:00 Taxi-ed the Elders over to a nearby middle school to play football with the English congregation, Katy 1st Ward. Hermana Martinez and I just watched and were halfway entertained.

1:00 pm Dinner #1 at the Relief Society President's home. Traditional Turkey and all the sides, lots of food

3:00 pm Dinner #2 at the Acosta family's home. What a blessing that their turkey wasn't done yet! We ate some homemade fudge, which was delicious, and nachos. After eating some we played the Elders a round of foosball, they won the first match 10-9, BUT we dominated them the second round 10-5, woot woot. Girl Power.

5:00 pm Dinner #3 at the deAlmeida family home. SO CUTE. The two little girls were all dressed up and they had this long table all decorated. It was the fanciest Thanksgiving dinner I have ever seen, and probably the most delicious. We had a traditional turkey meal again, it was way good, but the mom made homemade pineapple and apple empanadas with ice cream. Oh man they were so goooooood.

7:00 pm Dinner #4 at the Flores family home. We promised them that we would just stop by on the way home to say hi but they tried REALLY hard to make us eat again. We each drank a soda and then denied food about 80 times. Eventually Hermano Flores said, "Just eat ONE green bean that is all I ask." Haha So we each ate one green bean. Rule #1 Hispanics really don't like it when you don't eat their food. We took a bunch of food to go and it made a delicious lunch on Saturday.

8:00 pm Dinner #5 at the Lopez family home. Another family whom we promised to "just stop by". They didn't force us to eat but packaged up some traditional sandwiches from El Salvador, and they were super good as well.

Friday was District meeting and after all of our meetings we had a big zone pot luck and it was super fun! Elder Lang cooked a turkey, I don't know how he did it but it was the most delicious turkey I have ever eaten, and it was made by an Elder during my mission, weird. Elder Lemley, my district leader, MADE a pinata that looked like Mater from the movie Cars, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching my companion beat the trash out of it.

Saturday, we had a soccer game that was supposed to be the West Green ward versus the Bear Creek ward, BUT only like 3 people showed up from Bear Creek so we did all the members versus all of the missionaries instead. So, it was like all these youth from my ward versus 8 missionaries, and those kids actually know how to play soccer. I am still sore all over haha. I had so much fun playing soccer, and the best part was that after we played this guy go out of his car, came over to my companion and I and tried to draft us to a women's soccer league for the city. HAHA. I could not believe it, I don't know how to play soccer! I just run around like a crazy and try and get the ball! But, apparently I have a natural skill and he said with a little trainer, "no one would be able to get past me while I am on defense!" Haha. He gave us the coach's phone number and I taped into my journal, just because it was so unbelieveable.

Well, that ladies and gentlemen, is how Thanksgiving is celebrated in the the West Green Spanish ward. I had a great time, even though I almost died from overeating, and am grateful for the kindness of all the members in taking us into their homes for the holiday. I love you all and hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Here comes Christmas! Crazy!

Con Amor y Paz
Hermana Taets

Week 54

2010-11-29T12:06:00.000-08:00

Mis Seres Queridos,

Feliz Dia de Accion de Gracias! That means "Happy Thanksgiving" for all you Bolillos ;) Haha. I am super excited to experience a Hispanic Thanksgiving, even though I have a feeling a lot of them will just make turkey like Americans do. As of now we have 4 dinner appointments scheduled for Thursday, all with families we are pretty close to, so it will be a really nice, chill day. We aren't allowed to knock doors on Thanksgiving and I don't think our investigators will be busy, so we will be spending the whole day with families in our ward. I have so much to be grateful for...I think this is a prime opportunity to start a list...

1.My amazing family. I love them so much. They have been so supportive of me during my mission and that means so much more to me than I think they understand. I know it must have been difficult to understand why I chose to serve a mission, or even what serving a mission even meant, but they have supported me while I have been here and that means the world to me. They are also ridiculously cool. One thing I am looking forward to as the end of my mission draws near is being able to just hang out with my Mom and my sister all of the time. Before my mission I definitely put too much on my plate and didn't spend much time with them, but I know that after my mission things will be different and I plan on strengthening the relationships I have, not only with Mom and Alli but with my Grandparents, uncles aunts, cousins. Something I have realized on the mission is that no matter what your family will always be there for you. I love them all so much for their love and support and hope one day I will be able to repay them for all they have done for me.
My testimony of Jesus Christ and His gospel. In the last few years I have really come to know who He is, what He did while He was in the Earth, and who He is to me personally. I cannot fully express the gratitude I have for my Savior Jesus Christ. In the Book of Mormon, in the book of Alma, Chapter 7, verses 11-12, it reads, "And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." I know without a doubt that this prophecy found in the Book of Mormon was fulfilled by the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. When my dad passed away and no one could have said a single word to bring me the comfort I need, I found peace in knowing that the Savior experienced exactly what I was going through. He did that because He loved me and wanted to know how to help me overcome that experience. The reality of my dad's death is still something I struggle with but I have found peace and comfort that could only come through the power of Christ's atonement, power to lift up my head and "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love for God and all men."
The opportunity that I have had to serve a mission. As I have said countless times before, my mission means everything to me. I have experience and learned things on my mission that could not have been learned under any other circumstance. During zone conference this last week I notice something as we listened to the testimonies of those missionaries who have recently arrived and those who will be returning home before the next zone conference in March. Those missionaries who have recently arrived seemed so excited for the journey that lies ahead of them, yet nervous and unsure, but those departing missionaries had a certain glow about then. You can see that they have experienced a mighty change during the course of their missions. I not only realized that I would be one of those missionaries giving their "dying testimony" during March zone conference, but that I have experienced that mighty change on my mission. I have thought about who I was before my mission and who the Lord has helped me to become and the difference to me is huge. No one will ever be able to fully understand or comprehend what my mission has meant to me personally. Yes, those who have served missions have had their own experience and testimony of the miracle of the mission, but no one's could possibly compare to what mine means to me. I am so grateful for the privilege I have to be a full-time servant of the Lord and dedicate my time to teaching, serving, and loving His children here in Houston/Katy Texas.
For lack of time I continue without explanation, because the other 3 missionaries are waiting on me so we can go grocery shopping and then go play Socccccccerrr woot woot.
2.Friends
3.Our investigators
4.My present, past, and future companions
5.President Hansen and his wife
6.All of the missionaries I serve with and all they have taught me
7.The car and not having to bike around like the Elders
8.Support and love of Ward members
9.Our nice apartment with a gym
10.SPANISH oh I love spanish so much!
and 100 more things that I don't have time to mention, bah
I love you all and hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Pray for Jose and Elizabeth, they are doing amazing but need help getting work off on sundays.

Hermana Taets

Week 53

2010-11-29T12:05:00.001-08:00

Mis Seres Queridos

We had an extremely busy week, met lots of great people who we will begin teaching this week, set baptismal dates with Jose and Elizabeth for the 5th of December and they are doing AMAZING.

I am not going to send my usual update today but will leave you with a scripture that really impacted me this morning during personal study that is found in the Book of Mormon in Moroni Chapter 8, last sentence in verse 16, "Perfect love casteth out all fear."

Hermana Taets

Week 52

2010-11-29T12:04:00.000-08:00

Mis Seres Queridos

I didn't write this e-mail first, again. So, I am only going to share two really sweet stories from the past week, even though this week was way epic and we were ridiculously busy.

Jose y Elizabeth
We received a referral through the phone this week for a man named Jose who had received a card from the english-speaking missionaries to receive a free copy of the Book of Mormon in spanish. He called the number and we received his information via text. We visited him and his wife on friday night and it was one of the best first lessons I have ever taught. They are just amazing! We taught them about who Heavenly Father is, the importance of ancient and modern prophets, the church that Christ established and eventually about the restoration of the church through Joseph Smith and knowing if it is true through pray and study of the Book of Mormon. My companion and I bore powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and of the story of Joseph Smith and then asked Jose and Elizabeth what they thought and how they felt. Jose said, "I don't doubt it at all, I could feel that it is true and really want to read the Book of Mormon." Then the icing on top of the cake was when he said, "Are they people that you share this with who really don't believe that it's true?" My companion and I just looked at each other and almost laughed. My reply was that I sure didn't believe it right away and took several months reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it before I received an answer from the Lord. Jose's response was, "so..we are more advanced than you were when you learned, aren't we?" Haha They are definitely more advanced than I was when I first sat down with the missionaries, I was a stubborn brat who just wanted to find a way to prove them wrong, if I remember correctly. Elizabeth said she definitely had felt something in her heart during the lesson and was really excited to read the Book of Mormon. We returned on Saturday and read the introduction with Elizabeth, Jose was working, and she was just so excited to get reading. They are so amazing and I am so excited to see them again on Tuesday night!

Liana
We visited Liana this week on Wednesday and it was probably the best lesson we have had with her so far. We brought Elders Esplin and Griffiths with us because they are really funny and we thought they would make Liana smile, but there definitely was a greater purpose in them coming that we weren't aware of. Once we got there we started with the normal routine of brushing her teeth, washing her face and then feeding her dinner and shortly after we got there two of her guy friends showed up. They were nice to us but you could tell they felt pretty awkward around a bunch of missionaries, and as they spoke with Liana they used a lot of foul language. I hadn't heard words like that in so long, well at least in english, and I was shocked at how sensitive I was to them and how they made me feel. After a few minutes, Elder Esplin (a sweet country boy from Colorado) said to the two young men, "Now there are two ladies in this room, that kind of language needs to stop." He was so bold, and the two guys stops swearing! It was so neat! I was so impressed by Elder Esplin's respect for us that he felt the need to approach the situation so boldly. What a blessing it is to serve with such gentlemen. Now, after the two guys left we taught a lesson to Liana about Lehi's vision of the tree of life and about God's love for us being manifest through the sacrifice of His Son. The Spirit in the room was SO strong, especially in contrast to the feeling that was in the room while her friends were there. At the end of the lesson she reminded us that she was an atheist not too long ago and that we would need to be patient with her because she will be slow to change. I told her that we were patient and that Heavenly Father is even "patienter", oh boy, my english is getting so bad. I just love Liana so much and have seen so much change in her that it seems anything but slow. I know she is gaining a personal relationship with Heavenly Father as she prays and knows that He loves her. There is no greater joy than the joy I feel as a missionary.

Baptism
We baptized Helen this weekend, she is the sweetest little 10 year old I have ever met. Her family had stopped going to church and hadn't been in a long time, but when Hermana Hastings and Hermana Martinez started visiting them last transfer they quickly regained a testimony of the gospel and prepared their daughter Helen to be baptized. In the pictures I sent Helen is the one who is smaller with the short, dark hair. The Elders also had a baptism at the same time of a young girl who also came from a family who had not been to church in years. What a miracle it is to see families return to the fold and become more unified in the goal of having an eternal family.

Hermana Taets

Week 51

2010-11-29T12:02:00.000-08:00

Hola Mis Seres Queridos

Today I am going to utilize this e-mail to tell you the story of a young girl that we are teaching named Liana, who I LOVE so much, I think I will be best friends with her forever.

Liana is 20 years old, way funny, and doesn't know who or what God is. She said she doesn't know if it's Jesus, Buddha, Zeus, but that she wants to find out. Liana is also paralyzed from the neck down. This past May she had an ear infection, was taking antibiotics, but one day felt really sick and then blacked out and can't remember the two weeks that followed that day. What had happened was that her infection turned into meningitis and to make a long story short she is now a 20 year girl trapped in a body that doesn't function inside a Rehab Center. Despite all of this she is still relatively positive, we laugh all throughout our visits with her. On one of our visits with her last week we talked with her about who our Heavenly Father is, and how much He loves us, and her response just broke my heart. She explained to us that before she got sick she was just a normal girl, going to school and working so that she could make a life for herself and so that she could, "earn enough money so that she could buy her mother a house," not doing anything that deserved punishment from God, and for this reason she has a hard time believing that He loves us. I didn't know what to say to her, but talked about how sometimes our trials are really the best thing for us and allow us to learn and grow. She said that made sense, especially since before she got sick she didn't even believed in a God, nor that she needed to rely on anyone besides her family to accomplish her life's dreams. What a way to learn to depend on others! When we visited her last week I brushed her teeth for her and fed her her dinner, scratched her nose for her when it itched. I think her circumstance will definitely draw her close to her Father in Heaven, we encouraged her to try praying and on Friday she said she had prayed and it made her feel really calm. I know that she will find what she is looking for and I know that Heavenly Father will reach out to her and show her that He is there and loves her more than can be described. I am learning so much from Liana and am so grateful for this opportunity to know her and feel that love that Heavenly Father has for her. Keep her in your prayers.

Now, I am out of time already. Next week I will try and write this email FIRST since this one always ends up being so short! I love you all, I love this great work I have been called to do!
Hermana Taets

P.S. I hit my year mark as a missionary last week....WEIRD I can't believe it, something must be wrong with the calendar.

Week 50

2010-10-26T12:06:00.000-07:00

Mis Seres Queridos

Katy is so much different than Houston! Wow. As usual I don't have much time so I am going to make a list of things I enjoy about Katy thus far:

1. My new apartment. We have a washer and dryer! I really despised going to the laundry place in our complex and having to pay to do laundry in my last area. The apartment is also very new and clean AND there is a gym in the complex! So, this week I was able to get up a little earlier with my companion and go to the gym. Hopefully I will be able to lose my mission weight haha.
2. My car. In Fairbanks the car stereo didn't work so it is so great to have a car stereo that works!
3. The Guerrero family lives in Katy! I started teaching them in Fairbanks because they were a referral from a members up there but we recently had found out that they lived in Katy. We went over and taught the 18 year old daughter this week and she is amazing!!! She still wants to be baptized and is so excited. We taught her the law of chastity and committed her to keep it and her reply was, "I am so excited! I can't wait to tell my boyfriend!" I have never had someone respond that way to the law of chastity and really hope her boyfriend is supportive and as enthusiastic as she is haha.
4. West Green Ward. The ward seems amazing! When we went to Ward Correlation meeting yesterday I was just so impressed by how involved the ward is in missionary work. I am really excited to get to know this ward and work with them.
5. The english-speaking Elders who live by us leave all their voicemails for us in rap form haha. I have never served around english missionaries before but the ones who live by us are really nice and hard working, so I am excited to get to know some of the english missionaries out here in Katy.
6. My companion. I love Hermana Martinez! She is so much fun and we get along so well! This is her second transfer in the mission, but she already knew spanish because her Dad is from Venezuela. So, her spanish is really good and I am excited to learn from her. I was rather surprised when I got the this area and realized that my companion didn't really know how to do things, like nightly and weekly planning, and came to find out that I had been put in Katy because her trainer was not training her and was being rather disobedient. I am excited to work with Hermana Martinez, she has a lot of potential and is a great missionary. Poor thing was really struggling last transfer with challenges with her trainer, so I am going to do my best to teach her and help her to grow and reach her potential.

Well no time, as usual, and I have a cold and need to go blow my nose, so until next week!
Hermana Taets

Week 49

2010-10-26T12:05:00.000-07:00

Hola Mis Seres Amados

The Transfer bunny came this last saturday with a big basket of change. Drumroll please.......I am getting transferred out of Fairbanks! AH I can't believe it! I half thought that I would serve my entire mission in this area, since that would only mean 4 more transfers here, but I am leaving tomorrow to go serve in the West Green Ward out in Katy, Texas. I will be serving with Hermana Martinez, which is a huge surprise because this will be her second transfer in the mission, meaning she was only with her trainer for 1 transfer. She must be way good because I was with my trainer for 3 transfers haha. I am way excited to be companions with her because she is a native spanish speaker so I know that through her guidance and correction I will be able to speak the language much much better. One thing I have not liked about this change is the whole packing situation. I haven't moved once throughout my whole mission, and I have served with two sisters who were going home, so needless to say I have aquired a lot of clothes and things from other missionaries. Packing has been a huge pain in the rear but I am still sooooo excited to go to West Green! I feel like I am about to embark on an adventure...a whole new set of streets to walk, a new area book to study, a new ward to meet, a new companion, and a whole new set of challenges and experiences that the Lord has prepared for me that I may grow.
My last sunday in Houston 10 was a day full of miracles. SO many people were at church! Almost all of my recent converts were there, the less active families I have been teaching were there, one of my recent converts passed the sacrament to me. Another interesting occurance was that Elder Porter (went home in June) was visiting with his family and I had to translate the sunday school class into english for his dad. That was an interesting experience, I have never had to translate before and was surprised that it really wasn't hard at all. I will say that the class was much more interesting in spanish than my boring english version haha. After church Elder Porter baptized a woman who he had taught in our ward during his mission, named Juana. When they first starting teaching Juana and her children, Karla, Juanito and Blanca, Elder Porter and his companion had asked me to go with them to teach them so I could share my conversion story. The children had struggled because their dad was unsupportive of their decision to be baptized, so they wanted me to talk about how I overcame a similar obstacle in being baptized alone and with little support. It was a lesson I will never forget, and although this was at the beginning of the my mission and my spanish was awful they somehow understood me and the Elders set baptismal dates with the kids after my story. It was such a miracle to me to be able to witness Juana's baptism on my last sunday and am so grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord.
I have like zero time and the Elders are complaining that they are hungry and want to go eat lunch, so I had better get going. Until next week! I love you all very very much!
Hermana Taets

Week 48

2010-10-13T23:24:00.000-07:00

Hola Mis Seres Amados

We worked so hard this week, I am feeling so exhausted. I didn't even want to write an e-mail, but I will try and throw something together. I am going to have to use bullets, sorry.

On Wednesday night we met with the family that was a referral from ward members and set a baptismal date with them for the 7th of November. They were so excited and so were we, I just love that family so much and am so excited that they will be preparing as a family to be baptized. Unfortunately, the kids don't know spanish so we are going to turn the teaching over to the english Elders and they will be attending the english ward. Although it was a sad decision to pass them to the Elders I know it is what is best for them in the long run and feel so blessed that I even had the opportunity to meet and teach this family, even for a short time, because I learned so much from them about faith and trust in Heavenly Father.
Saturday we had a tri-mission conference (my mission the Texas Houston Mission, Texas Hosuton South Mission, and Texas Houston East Mission) and Elder Claudio R.M. Costa of the Seventy spoke to us. I really enjoyed this and am grateful for the cousel we received from the mouth of an apostle. I definitely learned a few things that I want to improve on within our companionship so we may be better servants of the Lord and more powerful teachers.
We worked so hard this week, making sure we do an hour of finding everyday, talking to everyone we see, teaching less active members and recent converts, yet we are not having much success. We have a grand total of 0 people that we are teaching consistently. We are not giving up though, I know that the "field is white already to harvest" and that there are people in this area who are prepared to receive the restored gospel. I pray this week we will have more success and be guided to those who are waiting for us.
I love this work. Although I feel more drained than I thought was humanly possible, I love this work. Giving up is not an option and I will keep working my hardest until I may receive the accolade from the Lord, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord".
Hermana Taets

weeks 45-47

2010-10-13T23:20:00.000-07:00

Buenos Dias Mis Seres Queridos

This week we did a loooooot of knocking, but it was fun. A lot of Texans have dogs and Hermana Ang is terrifed of dogs. Several times this week people would open the door and a dog qould run out and Hermana Ang would just start screaming. Oh how I enjoyed that, it always made me laugh hysterically while I was trying to apologize to whoever opened the door. We also met some really cool people while knocking, such as my new favorite friend Angelica. Angelica is probably around 50, really sweet woman, when she answered the door and Hermana Ang started speaking, struggling a little bit with her spanish, Angelica said, "I speak english too! It's okay, speak english" and just started laughing. Hermana Ang, being the champ that she is, said she needed to practice her spanish and kept talking in spanish until Angelica eventually let us in. We sat and talked to her for about an hour about her upbringing in Mexico, her family, her religious beliefs, etc. Eventually she mentioned that she tries to read the Bible but gets really confused sometimes because it seems like pieces are missing. So, we explained the Great Apostasy to her, and how sacred truths were taken from the scriptures by councils of men, but that we can still learn a great deal from the Bible as we study by the guidance of the Holy Ghost. Then we introduced her to the Book of Mormon and invited her to read 3 Nephi 11 before our return appointment the next day. We came back the next day and she had read her assignment in the Book of Mormon and said she really liked it, and that she felt good as she read it. Woohoo! We had planned on teaching her the Restoration, so she could know where the Book of Mormon comes from, but I felt like we needed to teach her about the Plan of Salvation. I am really glad we followed the guidance of the spirit and taught Angelica according to her needs. She has experienced a lot of death and had many questions about what comes after this life. She really loved the Plan of Salvation and agreed with everything we taught. She is just such a sweet, genuine woman and I am really excited to continue teaching her the gospel. She will be out of town this week but said she might be back in time for church on sunday.
Hermana Ang and I are still trying to work better with the ward members and utilized almost all of our weekly planning time to study chapter 13 of Preach My Gospel, on how to work with stake and ward leaders. We studied what role we need to play as missionaries in comparison to the role and responsibilities of the ward members and came up with some ideas and questions which we brought to the bishop the next day. He is such a great bishop and was so willing to talk with us about how we can all work better together. We also taught him about the changes being made in the mission, with the "fundamentals of Preach My Gospel" or simplified curriculum, and he was really excited about the changes. He gave us some good suggestions on things we can teach or share with members as we visit them during the week to try and encourage them to participate in missionary work and I am excited to implement those suggestions this week. We also met with the Relief Society President on Sunday night (Relief Society is the women's organization in the church) and discussed the possibility of us going on a weekly split with sisters from the ward, meaning one night a week a members from the ward goes out teaching with me and another goes out with Hermana Ang, so we can get more work done, and so the members are getting the opportunity to have missionary experiences. She was really excited about it and is going to make a sign up sheet for us and let us present the idea to the Relief Society on sunday in church. I am REALLY excited to get the ball rolling on this and know that we will be blessed as we work more effectively with the ward.
The ward had "international night" on saturday, basically everyone in the ward made and brought food that is traditional in their country. It was so much fun and the food was sooooo good. Mmmm I love hispanic food. There was Pozole verde and it was delicious as usual.
Life is great here in the mission, weather is finally starting to cool down, which makes knocking doors even more enjoyable. The holidays are quickly approaching and I am super excited to see how these holidays are celebrated in the hispanic culture. I couldn't be happier than I am here doing the Lord's work full-time. What a blessing it is to be a missionary.

Hermana Taets
--------------------------------------------
Hola Mis Seres Queridos,
This week we have been so busy with conferences and meetings and blah blah blah I would rather be teaching, but I learned a lot this week so that was sweet. Now that we don't have zone conferences every transfer, President uses those 3 days to do any kind of specialized training that he thinks the missionaries need. Last week there was a Sisters Conference and it was really fun, but more spiritually uplifting, of course. So all of the sister missionaries in our mission (there are about 30 of the 160 missionaries total in my mission) met up around 10am at one of the church meetinghouses and when we first show up I was a tad overwhelmed because of all of the high pitched shrieking. It was ridiculous, that many girls should not be in a room at the same time haha. The Assistants were the only Elders there and they looked like they felt reallllly out of place and awkward haha. President first talked to us about our "Missionary journey" and what our missions have meant to us thus far. My mission means everything to me. There is no greater thing I could be doing with my life right now and nothing that could possibly bring about as much change, growth, and blessings as my mission has and will continue to bring the rest of my life. President talked a lot about how for most of us the mission has not been what we expected, it has been much harder, and then he proceeded to thoroughly embarrass me by using my mission as an example and talking about my conversion to the church and then the death of my father, and then talked about perseverance and other stuff. I just cringed my teeth the whole time because I really don't enjoy when he puts the spotlight on me like that, especially when I can think of other sister missionaries who have gone through huge trials in their missions as well. Although they may not seem as difficult as losing a father, I know there are some sisters who have struggled even more than I have during their missions, mainly because I have been abundantly blessed with comfort and an eternal perspective from the Lord. I know that the Lord blesses us with the trials and difficulties in our lives that will best help us to grow and transform into the kind of person He knows we have the potential to be. No ones trials are greater or smaller than everyone elses, they are just different, perfectly formatted to fit that persons needs.
Later in Sisters Conference we had a small meeting with President Hansen's wife and she shared with us some new dress code guidelines that have been issued from Salt Lake. No more nylons!!!!! WOOO HOOO! We now are not required to wear nylons anymore, which is probably the most fantastic news of my life haha. We also are allowed to wear shorter skirts as long as they cover our knees when we are standing and sitting, which is much easier to find than the previous requirement of mid-calf length. I wish I would have had these guidelines BEFORE I came out, then it would have been a million times easier to find clothes for teh mission haha.
Saturday was the General Relief Society Broadcast, which we went to go watch in the Stake Center. I am not quite sure what the speakers discussed, but I know what the Spirit was teaching me all throughout the conference. I LOVE General Conference time because it is the perfect time to write down questions and receive personal revelation and guidance from the Lord as you sit and listen to the prophet and apostles speak. I am so excited to see the rest of conference this weekend and to receive more guidance by the Holy Ghost. I hope everyone back home is preparing for General Conference and is excited to hear the words of the prophet! I am secretly hoping he announces that we are all going to go hide in the mountains of Utah and live off of our food storage hahahaha He won't say that, but it sure would be cool!
I pray y'all are well!
Hermana Taets
----------------------------------
Buenos Dias Mis Seres Queridos

This week was crazy. First, my birthday was a crazy day, we had a lunch and dinner appointment, then in between we had some lessons and knocked doors for a few hours. I have come to really love knocking doors, we have the coolest experiences. We had several good door knocking experiences this week but I will share my favorite one. We walked up to a door and I said to Hermana Ang, "Oh man look at all the frog decorations they are definitely Hispanic! Woo!" but when the door opened it was an older Caucasian man. the conversation went as follows:

Ang: Hi, we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and have an important message about Jesus Christ, is it okay if we just have 2 minutes of your time?

Man: I feel so sorry for you

Ang: Why? (super confused face)

Man: Because you are Latter-Day Saints

Ang: It has been a blessing for me my whole life... (Still confused)

Man: I feel so bad for you

Ang: Well...is it okay if I give you a card?

Man: I am NOT paying for that!!!! (basically shouting)

Ang: It's free...it's to receive a free movie in the mail about Jesus Christ..

Man: I don't want anything to do with it!

Ang: Ok..thank you for your time, have a great day!

Man: (creepy quite possibly drunken voice) y'all try and find some shade now...

Bahhahahaha, as soon as the door closed I was cracking up. Poor Hermana Ang didn't know what to think of it, I just enjoyed it. Oh, another choice experience, I knocked this one door and the screen door was closed and the real door was open, so I knocked on the screen door and someone yelled back, "I am half naked!!!! I don't want to put pants on!!!!!" I was going to just stick the card on her door really quick but she ended up coming over to the door in her underwear instead and I talked to her through the screen for a few short seconds and just left the card with her haha. Loooooove knocking doors.

General Conference was this weekend (two times a year the prohet and the 12 apostles speak in a conference in Utah that is broadcast all over the world by satellite) and I looooved it so much. I made a list of questions that I wanted help answering from the Lord and feel like those question were answered either directly by the talks given by church leaders or by the Holy Ghost and personal revelation. Although some of the answers I was not expected I am grateful for the opportunity I was given to learn and to hear the voice of a prophet of the Lord. My favorite talk was given during the Saturday Morning session by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf on slowing down and sticking to the simplicity of life (found here http://lds.org/conference/sessions/display/0,5239,23-1-1298,00.html). I know this is something that I will need to remember when I return home from the mission so that I don't get too caught up in the fast-paced technological world. I want to have gratitude and appreciate the world around me and take time to just marvel at all that God has given me. And I don't want to be addicted to Facebook or texting haha. I also really enjoyed the talk by Elder Neil L. Andersen during the Saturday afternoon session about not being offended or ashamed. As I have been working more with less active members of the church I have found that most of them have fallen away from the church because they were offended by another church member. I loved Elder Andersen's talk because he was just so up front about it, Don't be offended! I felt the urge to cry out, "Hallelujah!" haha. We ended up watched that talk this weekend with a less active woman we are teaching and I pray that she will humble herself and learn to forgive the imperfect humans beings who had offended her.

We taught the BEST lesson ever this last monday!!!!!! We went to a family home evening monday night with a family in our congregation and the wife invited her sister-in-law and her family. I love this family already! We taught the Plan of Salvation and by the end everyone was in teach and the Spirit was so strong you probably could have reached out and felt it. At the end of the lesson the oldest daughter who is 18 asked us how long she has to wait to be baptized, and I was just blown away. We taught them again yesterday and taught the message of the Restoration through the gospel through Joseph Smith and again they were all in tears. The mom said it made sense, and although it was really different and something new to her that it could be possible and that she wanted to know if it was true. When we asked the oldest daughter how she felt as we shared the testimony of Joseph Smith she answered with tears in her eyes that she had never felt this way before and already knew it was true and wanted to be baptized. I have never met a family so prepared to accept the restored gospel. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for blessing me with another transfer in Fairbanks and for the opportunity to get to know and teach this family who I already feel so much love for. I love this great work. There is no greater joy to be felt than that which is felt as we witness the miracle of conversion in the lives of our brothers and sisters. I feel like I could do this work forever, but unfortunately I only have another 6 months left to dedicate myself 100% to the Lord's work. I pray that I will be able to work my very hardest and give all that I have to the Lord during these last 6 months.

Hermana Taets

Week 44

2010-09-19T23:15:00.000-07:00

Hola Mis Seres Queridos

Oh my craziness. Our ward is just full of missionaries now that there are 8 of us all serving in Houston 10. I am excited to see the ward get into gear and come out teaching with us more and be more involved in the work. We are really trying to work more with the members, we are going to talk to the Relief Society President this week to see if she will help us to organize a weekly split with us and the sisters in the Relief Society. I think this would really help the members get excited to share the gospel and be more willing to help us with the work. We shall see how it turns out!

We biked this week a little bit, the weather is slightly cooling down, but we still were sweaty and gross. Hermana Ang loves biking, probably because she has really long skirts and it's pretty easy for her to ride a bike. All of my skirts ride up while I pedal so I either have to hold it down with one hand or wear leggings underneath. I really don't like either of those options. Needless to say, I am not a very graceful bicyclist and would rather walk or use the car.

A few weeks ago Hermana Ang and I got out the map of our area and said a prayer that we would be guided to the streets that we needed to visit, ones where people are prepared to hear our message. We each wrote down 15 street names after we prayed and then quite some time later we put our lists together to see which ones matched up. There were only about 4 that matched up, but we were both super excited to find some success on those streets and trusted that Heavenly Father would guide us to those who need to hear our message. On Friday we went to go knock doors on one of those streets, Colleen Rd. (which is also the name of my wonderful mother), and as soon as we got there and look around we both realized that this was a very english speaking community. But, we decided to press on and do as the Lord as guided us to do and began knocking doors. One woman answered the door and was pretty defensive, asked us some questions about what we teach. After we answered her she said, "well y'all are the first Jehovah's Witnesses I have ever met that believe that!" So, I kindly replied that we actually aren't Jehovah's Witnesses and her reply was, "Oh, so you're Mormons!" Slam. Haha We kept on knocking and eventually spoke with this one man named Gene. He was soooo nice to us! He is a 2nd Baptist and taught us a little about his beliefs, family and background and we talked a little about what we do as missionaries and about the Book of Mormon. He said several times that he just loves our church and everything that we do and wishes there were more of us in their community, but at the end said he really struggles with the Book of Mormon. So, I asked him what he knew about the Book of Mormon and he said, "Well, I don't know much, but from what I understand it is a book that Joseph Smith wrote while he was walking around South America." This answer rather surprised me, I had never heard before that Joseph somehow got down to South America, haha, so I explained a little bit about what it REALLY is and he said the english missionaries were more than welcome to come by to talk more about it, but that they had to come soon because on Tuesday he leaves for a 3 month business trip to Singapore.

Last night we were on our way to go visit the Patinos went I felt like we should go drop by Gene's and make sure the Elders had brought him a copy of the Book of Mormon. We pulled up and I looked all over our car for an english copy of the Book of Mormon and just couldn't find one. I asked Hermana Ang if maybe we should drive home and get one real quick and come back and she said she wanted to look one more time in the trunk. The whole time she looked I was praying that there would be one, and what do you know she pulled one right out of our materials crate that is back there, haha. We knocked on his door and he answered and came out to speak with us, said he was so grateful he would have the opportunity to read it while he was on his long flight to China. Then he had his wife come out to meet us and can you believe this, she is from Nicaragua and speaks spanish!!!!! They invited us in and we learned that both of the parents speak spanish but the kids don't know much of it. They were such an amazing family! They said they loved what we do and have always been impressed with our church. We talked to them for like an hour, and we all just clicked immediately. We also learned that their oldest daughter plays soccer with a member of our ward and that Gene's wife, Alba, is the manager of that team. After talking some more and making an appointment to return tonight, I asked Gene if we could all kneel and if he would offer a prayer as head of the house, that his family may be blessed as he travels. They agreed and this was the craziest part, as Gene prayed he asked that Heavenly Father would bless us in our work, that we would have success and that we would be able to find more people to join our church. That has got to be the first and probably last time that a Baptist prays for us to find more people to join the Mormon church haha, but boy was I thrilled by their acceptance and support. I am SO excited to visit with them tonight. We are going to watch the finding faith in Christ video and begin teaching them about the apostasy of Christ's church after his death. I am sooooooo excited. Even if they don't accept our message tonight, even if they were to turn on us and throw us out of their house, I know we have been guided to them by the Lord. I know as we seek to do His will that He will bless us with all that we need accomplish His purposes.

Being a missionary is the best! There is no greater calling than that of a full-time servant of the Lord
Hermana Taets

Weeks 41, 42 and 43

2010-09-19T23:12:00.000-07:00

Buenas Tardes Mis Seres Queridos

We had the baptism of Elva and Erick on Wednesday and it couldn't have gone any better. Elva had expressed to us that she was very nervous because she has a fear of having her head completely below water, so as she entered the baptismal font I was praying so hard that she would be comforted and be able to be baptized without that feeling of fear. As she was lowered into the water she was just a vision of peace and didn't struggle at all below the water. After the ordinance was performed we went into the relief society room to finish with the baptism program and hear a talk by Bishop, who is also Elva's nephew. He talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost and at one point he asked me what happened the first time Erick prayed with us and his mom. I responded that he had cried, and then Elva and Erick just held each other and cried as they remembered that sweet experience we had had months ago and the spirit that was felt so strongly. I am so happy for them! Yesterday Elva's husband was at church so hopefully we can start teaching him and preparing him for baptism as well.

This week we had Pulga duty on Saturday, which wasn't too bad. A sweet old man from one of the English wards in Melbourne bought Hermana Ang and I each a root beer because it was so hot outside. We were able to talk with a lot of people and testify boldness of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the Restoration of Christ's church once again upon the Earth. Towards the end I talked with this older man from Chile for like a half an hour. He had said they were lots of missionaries like us in Chile and lots of members of our church there. He is moving back to Chile next month so I hope he meets up with the missionaries down there. My favorite part of our conversation went like this, except it was in spanish, I will write it in english so all of you bolillos can understand :)

Chile: Where are you from?
Me: Where do you think I am from?
Chile: Hmmmm.. Argentina?
(Huge grin from me)
Me: NoOoOo
Chile: Venezuela?
Me: Nope
Chile: Uruguay! You're from Uruguay!
Me: Haha No I am from Arizona
Chile: Where is that?
Me: In the United States!
Chile: Oh! But your parents are from what country?
Me: The United States, I am an American! Haha
Chile: Well what country did you go visit or live in?
Man: I have never left the country before, I have always live in the United States.
Chile: How do you speak spanish so well?!

He was the cutest old man and it pretty made my life to hear that my spanish is sounding really good. I really try not to sound like a gringo haha. I explained to him that I started speaking/learning spanish 9 months ago when I got to Houston, and he was just floored, he couldn't believe it. He said he had live here in the States for years and worked with people who speak english and still can't figure it out. I explained to him that as missionaries we are blessed with the gift of tongues that we may speak the new language effectively so that we can teach and do the Lord's work effectively. He still couldn't grasp that I learned spanish in nine months. It was so precious and was a huge self confidence booster in the spanish department. I love spanish so much, Addie says my english is horrible now in the letters I write..oh well!

This week I have felt so exhausted. The mission is most definitely the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I just feel drained physically, emotionally and spiritually. It's hard but the reward is sweeter than I could possibly describe.We see families become strengthened and unified in the gospel, people growing closer to the Savior and they begin to study the scriptures and pray for the first time, miracles are occurring in this area. I feel as if the mission needs to be hard so that I can deserve all of the wonderful experiences I have had and all of the growth and change I have experienced personally. My mission means everything to me and I feel so blessed for this opportunity I have to give everything I have to Lord as I serve full time in this part of His vineyard.

I love you all and pray for you!
Hermana Taets
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Hola Mis Seres Queridos

This week Hermana Ang and I witnessed a miracle. This is probably the most epic story thus far of my mission (besides maybe the one week exchange in Arizona, but this is a different kind of epic!). Here goes...

This past week we were blessed by a visit from Elder Kikuchi of the Quorum of the Seventy in our mission. We had a 7 hour zone conference/training with him and it was so great! I feel like I learned so much and am so excited to implement the things that he taught us! My favorite part was when he said, "the mission is not for romance! If you get caught in romance on your mission, President Hansen, your parents, and I will all come here and kick you!" Of course he was being silly, and we all laughed hysterically, but it's true, no romance! haha. Anyways, back to the epicness.

Thursday night I received a phone call from my District Leader, Elder Inkley, saying that he had received a call that President Hansen and Elder Kikuchi had been discussing affairs of the mission and how we may have greater success and Elder Kikuchi issued a promised to everyone in the mission. He promised that if that night, Thursday night, all of the missionaries knelt and prayed to know of someone who they are teaching, who had already been going to church frequently, who could be baptized on saturday and confirmed on sunday, that 18 baptisms would come of it as we receive personal revelation from the Lord. When I first this I thought...No way..this isn't going to happen in our area, there isn't anyone who could possibly be baptized the day after tomorrow! But, we followed the counsel of an apostle of the Lord and knelt as a companionship and sought inspiration of the Lord. As we prayed with faith inspiration hit me like a brick, A name came to my mind and I knew in my heart without a doubt that this man would be baptized on saturday. Once amens were said, Hermana Ang and I both looked at each other and knew that we had both experienced the same thing, and we both knew that Hermano Arzate, whose wife and two children had been baptized a month ago, was the one who would be baptized. I was SO excited, Hermano Arzate has gone to church every sunday for months yet showed no interest in being baptized, we just didn't know what else to do other than continue teaching him and his family, hoping that one day he would decide to be baptized. This was exactly what we needed! a miracle! Before going to bed that night Hermana Ang and I began a fast, that Hermano Arzate's heart would be softened and that he would accept the challenge to be baptized on saturday.

The next day, Friday, at around 7:30 I called Hermana Arzate and told her that we needed to come over at 5 because we had received a message for her husband from the Lord and needed to tell him today, she was a little taken aback but said that was fine. We had a zone training in the morning and then as a zone we all went out to lunch, what temptation that was! Even though we all went out for wings, my favorite, Hermana Ang and I stayed strong and drew pictures in Elder Inkley's planner so we would be distracted from the food haha. After the training we went back to the apartment to prayerfully plan what in the world we were going to say to Hermano Arzate. Once we got home it came to us so easily, that we were to teach the importance of eternal families using the vision of the tree of life in 1 Nephi 8 and then challenge him to be baptized. The second we finished planning the lesson the phone rang and it was Hermana Arzate saying that her husband had to leave for a meeting for his work later and that we needed to come right now. So we pretty much ran out to the car and started driving over there, and I cannot even explain how nervous I felt! I knew what we had been asked to do by the Lord, and I knew He would prepare the way for us, but I was still nervous because I knew that once it came down to actually asking him to be baptized, that I would be the one doing, simply because Hermana Ang is still struggling with spanish. So, needless to say, I was REALLY nervous. We got to their apartment and Hermano Arzate answered the door before we had knocked, apparently his wife told him that we had a message from the Lord and was really surprised and interested to know what it could be. The younger daughter happened to be at a friend's house playing, so it was just Hermano, his wife and their 15 year old son, which made for a much for serious setting without the 10 year old girl. We started the lesson with the invitation to pay close attention to how he feels as we teach, and to listen for the promptings of the Holy Ghost, because we had a very important message that came from the Lord, not from Hermana Ang and I. We read about the tree of life and testified of the importance of eternal families, then had his wife and son talk about how they felt as they were baptized and bear their testimonies of the truthfulness of the gospel. Then we explained that his family had partaken of the fruit, just as Lehi had in the scriptures we had read, and that because they loved him so much they are calling out to him to partake as well of God's love and be baptized. We then said that his family is waiting for him to be baptized that they may prepare to enter the temple and be sealed for all eternity. During the whole lesson he seemed so deep in thought, he didn't really look at us much, but kept his gaze down as he thought. Then came my part, the part I had been soooo nervous about. I had explained to Hermano what Hermana Ang and I had experienced the night before, the phone call, the prayer, the answer we received, and told him that we knew that this message was specifically for him. Then I said to him that the Lord wanted him to be baptized tomorrow at 6:00pm and asked if he would do it. His response was a simple, "at 6? Yeah that sounds okay." I looked over at his wife and son and they both had tears in their eyes, although the son was trying to be a man and hide it, he had to wipe the tears from his face. I think I must have been a little tense from being so nervous, because when he accepted the commitment I yelled, "wooo hoooo" and about jumped out of my seat, and everyone else just smiled and laughed. I couldn't help it, I was so happy in that moment, I knew we had just witnessed a miracle from the Lord, that He was so aware of this family that he prepared a way for them to be an eternal family. We then made plans for the baptism, which required a lot of phone calls to President Hansen, Bishop and the Elders, since this weekend was stake conference we had to have the baptism in the Stake Center in between the priesthood and adult sessions, meaning a lot of running around getting things ready, finding rides to the stake center, etc.

Saturday. The baptism was perfect. It was so much more personal that usual, the Arzate family was there, President Call from the Stake Presidency, President and Sister Hansen, and around 5 members of the ward. Hermana Ang and President Hansen played the hymns together on the piano since each of them could only play with one hand, and the 10 year old daughter led the music in front, with me at her side helping her. Hermana Arzate gave the talk on baptism and did amazing! She used the gospel principles manual and the scriptures and did a beautiful job and was in tears by the end. Looking at this family after the baptism of the father, I could see such a change from when we first started teaching them in February. They are so much more unified and the love they have for each other is so obvious to those around them. I cannot describe how happy I felt after the baptism, I am so excited to watch them continue to grow and progress as they prepare to enter the temple in a year to be sealed together as a family.

I know that God is a God of miracles. That we can witness miracles like this so long as we have faith and it is the will of the Lord. This experience has changed my mission, and my life, I have gained such a stronger faith in the power of prayer and fasting and know that we can do great things with the help of the Lord. I know that God is so aware of each of His children, He knows exactly what they need to grow and progress and is right here with us, willing to help us along the way. I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. I have never felt so close to them as I have during these last few months of my mission. I hope that all who read this will know and feel the same, that they have a Heavenly Father who loves them and knows them personally and they they will seek to have a greater relationship with their Father in Heaven and His Son. I know this Church is true with all of my heart and couldn't possibly express gratitude sufficient for the guiding hand of my Father to this knowledge of the truth restored.

I love you all
Hermana Taets
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Hooooooooola

Oh my lanta I have zero time because yesterday was P-day and the library was closed, and we have an appointment soon and we have to go pick up the member that is going with us, soooo I will be utilizing bullets again, sorry.

I am not getting transferred. Oh my surprise of the century, I have been in this area since I got to Houston (8 months) and will be staying here at least until October 17th. I love the area, love the ward, love Hermana Ang, so I am excited to be able to squeeze one more transfer out of Fairbanks.
The opened a new area in my ward this transfer, took a little part of our area and half of Hammerly's area and created the Longpoint elders bike area. This means that we now have 4 companionships of missionaries serving in my ward, isn't that crazy? We are the only ward in the whole mission with 8 missionaries serving in it, one other ward has 6, but that's it, so it's kind of a big deal. 2 companionships are on bike, which means a lot of driving them all around to church and to meetings by Hermana Ang and I and the Zone leaders. I am super excited to see all the success that will come as all 8 of us work as hard as we can to find and prepare those who are ready to be baptized.
Went to Zone Leader Council, again, this last week. I never thought I would have to go to that again since they only pick one or two companionships of Sisters to go each time and Hermana Ang and I went last month, but surprise surprise we went again. It was a 6 hour meetings...bah, but we learned alot and the lunch was super good ;) I feel very blessed that we have had the opportunity to go to ZLC twice and learn about how to be an effective leader in the mission.
Hermana Ang and I made honey face masks this week to celebrate the fact that we would be together a third transfer. It was ridiculous and we took really funny pictures because our faces looked like they were melting. Will send those later.
Set a baptism date with Manuel, have been teaching him since May, for Sept. 26th. He wanted to finish the Book of Mormon before he got baptized, hence why he has waited so long. This week we asked him if he had finished and he said no because he was getting confused by all of the numbers. I was so confused about what he was talking about with numbers so I just told him to keep reading. Later in the lesson I realized he had been talking about the index in the back of the Book of Mormon, I told him he didn't have to read that, only through the last chapter, but that we would teach him how to use the index in our next appointment. He is just a precious old man. So, he actually had finished it a long time ago, already prayed and knows that it's true, now we are just planning the baptism :)
Ok that's all for today, sorry! I love you all and will be better about next week's e-mail!
Hermana Taets

Week 38 39 and 40

2010-09-19T23:09:00.000-07:00

Buenas Tardes Los Que Supuestamente Son Mis Amigos

Haha, if you understand that...HIGH FIVE. I must start this e-mail with a bit of a complaint, just to get it out of the way. This week Hermana Ang got a letter in the mail everyday, AND a big fatty package filled with love, food and a new pair of shoes on Saturday. Hermana Taets received one letter this week from her good friend Chase. And when I say my good friend Chase... I mean Chase Bank..with the current balance of my checking account. 'Cause people got me got me questionin'...where is the love? That is all.

This was my first week as senior companion and I am definitely feeling the burden of that responsibility. I am trying my best to be a good trainer for Hermana Ang, but she is already amazing so there isn't much for me to do. We work so well together! I feel like she is more like a best friend than a companion. This week we really have been trying to be purpose focused missionaries, rather than activity focused. That basically means that instead of focusing on filling up our day with activities we are focused on doing all that we can to accomplish our purpose as missionaries of "Inviting others to come unto Christ by helping them to receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, the receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end." We did some things this week that didn't count at all towards the numbers we report at the end of the week, yet we were helping people to come unto Christ, we were showing people that we love them and were demonstrating the love of the Savior. I want to be much less concerned about numbers and much more concerned about loving and helping people. For example, on Thursday we went to visit the Ulloa family and teach them a lesson but when we showed up Hermana Ulloa said she couldn't have the lesson because she just found out that her husband was bringing a bunch of old friends from Honduras over for dinner and she had a few hours to prepare food for all of them. So, instead of leaving to find someone to teach we stayed and helped her made enchiladas for few hours. It was so much fun and it really helped Hermana Ulloa to feel less stressed out. AND the best part is that once we were done she invited us to stay for dinner and we ended up teaching one of the people who came over for dinner :) Yay blessings! We also helped Juan Carlos paint his new apartment on Saturday and that was way fun. He went to his truck to go get some more brushes and while he was gone Hermana Ang and I painted faces on the wall and I wrote "Soy Mormon" which just means "I am Mormon". He though it was so funny, because it was so funny.

Now this is probably the best story I have told thus far. Get ready. We have been teaching a muchacho named Herby, from Haiti, who is also a missionary for the Seventh Day Adventist Church. On Tuesday when we went to the apartment where the 4 missionaries live, the boss lady of the missionaries happened to be there. She was way nice, cute little Filipino lady, who actually spoke some tagalog with Hermana Ang, which was neat to watch. Almost immediately she tried to convince us to sell magazines for their church so that we "can be rich." Haha. I explained to her that we aren't allowed to work while we are on our missions and also that our job as missionaries is to teach about Jesus Christ, and we don't charge for what we do. She insisted and handed me a magazine that said below the headline, "8 good reasons to become a vegetarian" and then she said, "See, GOOOD reasons, it's a good thing, buy them for your friends, because it's GOOD!" My response was that I enjoy hamburgers too much to give up meat. Then she moved on to her next sale and tried to convince us that we should marry her two sons.. She asked us if we were single, and then she said we need to marry her sons because they are smart and because there is one for each of us. I told her that we still have a lot of time left on our missions and we can't date or marry while we are missionaries, and her response was that they can wait for us and prepare to get married. I kept saying no no no no and finally she said, "It is much easier to say YES!" My response: "You know what? You're right! Why not?!" Hahaha, at this point everyone was just dying laughing, Herby, me, Ang, the member we had brought to teach with us. The only people not laughing were her sons, they hid in the back room the whole time and then at one point ran from the room to the front door and were gone for the remainder of the lesson. I had so much fun teaching Herby, even though he is pretty stubborn, he moved back to Mexico this weekend so we won't be seeing him anymore. He asked for our address and said he would write haha. I did leave with a consolation prize after our last visit: A picture I took while he was in the bathroom of a poster on the wall that says: "More soul, more sale." I am so glad that the message we have is free, and that we don't have to be motivated by money, but rather by our testimonies of the truth and by our love for the Savior.

I hope y'all have a great week and I hope that circumstances are different this week concerning our mailbox.
Hermana Taets

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mi familia y mis amigos,

It has been an interesting week here in Fairbanks. This week we have been doing a lot of service, mainly for the Elders that live across the street. They had a bed bug attack last week, poor Elder Farnsworth, it is his first week in the mission and he is literally covered in bug bites. So, this week we have been cleaning and spraying and doing all that we can to get rid of the bugs, with the help of some of the women from the church. I hope that we have gotten rid of all of the bed bugs so the poor Elders can finally get some rest, I can't imagine biking around all day and then having to come home and sleep on the floor because they had to throw their beds away. Apparently, there is an outbreak in the whole complex, so I hope it doesn't get over to us! I already dealt with bed bugs my first transfer and I don't want to deal with it again haha.

This has been a difficult week for Hermana Ang and I, it seems like all of our investigators have just dropped off the face of the earth, so we are doing a lot of walking so we can find more people to teach. We are excited to work hard and find those who have been prepared to hear our message. We may be tired and sweaty at times, but we are not discouraged. I know that there are people in our area who are waiting for us to find them, they are waiting for the blessings that the gospel brings, so I am excited to be out looking for them, and talking to every person who crosses our path.

Now here is the story of the week, almost as good as last weeks maybe. So, after we had zone spanish study on tuesday, we were driving to our areas with the Hammerly Elders. I was driving down this road that is similar to a freeway, except without the higher speed limit. The problem with that is that I felt like I was on the freeway and may or may not have been speeding juuuuust a little bit without realizing it. As I was driving these two cops walked out of the forest and into the road and pulled me over and the car that was driving next to me. The police officer was very nice and patient as I tried to explain why my home address was in Arizona and not Texas and why it isn't even the correct address anymore haha he seemed very confused but let it go thank goodness. The guy in the car next to us was not a happy camper and was making all sorts of angry faces as we both sat and waited for our tickets. He was very entertaining to watch. The officer took a really long time, but once he got back he said, "well it is just your lucky day, my printer isn't working for some reason so I am gonna have to let you off with a warning, that guy next to you is still getting a ticket though because his printed out!" WOO HOOOO I don't know if I can say that that was a blessing, because I don't think Heavenly Father would bless me for being disobedient and speeding, but I thanked Him anyways for not getting a ticket. On the drive home I couldn't help but imagine that my Dad had somehow tampered with the printer since he always got me out of my speeding tickets before the mission, haha, I am sure he was just fuming when he saw me get pulled over.

Thank you for all of your love, support, and prayers. I feel abundantly blessed and am loving being a missionary.
Hermana Taets
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Hola Mis Seres Queridos

Oh my crazy busy week! I feel like on Sunday I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off haha. Before church Elva and her son Erick had their baptism interview and so I was talking with them, getting their baptism record filled out, while making dinner appointments and planning family home evenings with the members. Sheesh, I was so exhausted by the end of the day. BUT, it is so worth it, Elva and Erick are getting baptized this wednesday! You may not remember the story of Elva and Erick because it began in January, but since then I have witnessed a miracle take place in their home and in their hearts. When I first met Elva she didn't want to listen to us because she was Catholic, but I invited her to pray to know if what we had taught was true and then we left, thinking we would never see her again. Then a few months later someone tapped on my shoulder in church and when I turned around it was Elva! She said to me, "Hermana, remember me? I did what you said, and I want you to come teach my family." Since that day we have been teaching them and working with them. They have come such a long way and climbed some mountains in the process. Elva had to quit smoking, which only took about a month! She had chain smoked basically her whole life and really struggled to quit, she was a little irritable at first and we felt the effects of that haha, but she finally did it, she said that whenever she wanted to smoke she would go out back and garden or she would start reading the scriptures. She is so amazing and her son Erick is an angel. He is thirteen and is a vision of love and obedience to his parents, he has been so great in supporting his mom and will make a great missionary one day. I am so excited for their baptism! They are so ready, they have known that the church is true since the very beginning but have been waiting to be baptized until Elva quit smoking and they could be at church consistenly. I will give all the details on the baptism next week :)

In the missionary handbook it says, "Do not keep pets of any kind," and Hermana Ang and I might be breaking this rule. His name is "Big foot" and lives in our kitchen. We bought him last week at the thrift store for $1.08 and it was definitely worth it. Still wondering what it is? Okay, when I say we have a pet...I mean we bought a chia pet. It is a dinosaur chia pet and it is sprouting like Cuhrazy! Haha, I will send pictures eventually, I lost my cord to plug the camera to the computer, but I will try and buy and new one today.

Not much else going on, went on exchanges last week with Hermana Christiensen in Bear Creek and had a lot of fun. We were walking through an apartment complex and this guy came up behind us and asked us what we were doing. I explained that we are missionaries and teach a special message about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He then told us that he is a single Dad and wants us to come over and teach him and his kids because he needs help and doesn't know how to help his kids get on the right path. The kids showed up shortly after and they are so sweet and excited to learn. I am so sad that I won't be able to teach them since the exchange was only for a day, but I will be so excited to hear from Hermana Christiensen and her companion Hermana Smart how that family is doing.

The work is great, we are doing a lot of finding, and setting a lot of appointments to begin teaching some new families. It was 115 degrees on Saturday and we walked around from 2:00p to 7:00p knocking doors and talking to people in the street. I am hoping that I sweat off a few pounds, haha, the mission is definitely not a place to lose weight. I was hot and sweaty, and I was exhausted by the end of the day, but I felt like I gave my all in doing the Lord's work. I know as we strive to do our best and forget our comfort, forget how hot it is, forget that we are rejected, and just go to work, that we will see more miracles like the ones I have witnessed with so many families already. I am willing to do whatever it is the Lord requires of me and am enjoying every moment of my mission.

I love and pray for you all :)
Hermana Taets

WeEk 38

2010-07-28T00:31:00.000-07:00

Hola Mis Seres Queridos

Transfer calls came last Saturday and I am staying in Fairbanks for my 6th transfer and I will be staying with Hermana Ang to continue training her. I am so excited to be staying here one more transfer, especially with Hermana Ang, we get along so well and have the same views and opinions about missionary work and obedience, so I feel like this transfer will be way powerful. I am a little nervous about being senior companion/trainer all by myself for the first time, but also excited to be able to take a little bit more control and start implementing the new changes in the mission.

This last week was pretty crazy. The coolest thing that happened it the story of Herby. We met Herby while tracting through the Spring Woods apartment complex. He was putting some air in his bike tire and we chatted with him a little bit about the Book of Mormon and gave him a pass a long card to call a receive one in the mail. The next day we received a media referral from Utah and the information was for Herby! We were so excited that he called the number and wanted us to come visited. So the next day, after getting our hands on the french Book of Mormon that he had requested, we visited Herby and he is SO cool. He is from Haiti and his native language is french, but he is going to college in Sonora, Mexico so he speaks spanish as well, and a little bit of english. Herby has been here in Texas over the summer as a missionary for the 7th Day Adventist church, which apparently isn't like what we do as missionary, they sell church materials in order to pay for their schooling. We taught him about who Heavenly Father is and he had never heard before that God has a body like we do, except perfect and glorified. As we taught him it looked as if a light bulb had turned on in his head. We have taught him several more times, even though he moves back to Mexico this week :(, and he is a little difficult to teach because he is just a sponge and wants to know everything all at once haha, but I have really loved the opportunity to teach Herby. He has such a hunger to learn and I hope he will continue meeting with the missionaries in Mexico.

Not much else going on, Hermana Ang and I are going to bike it up a ton this week because we don't have a lot of miles left on the car (We are given 1250 miles a month to use on the car and we only have 200 left until saturday, woops). Soccer last saturday was way fun, I scored like 3 goals because my team had me play forward this time, it was way sick. I love being a missionary and am having a blast. Every day I realize more and more how true the gospel is and feel like I am learning so much and drawing nearer unto the Savior. Everyone should serve a mission, haha. I can't believe I am halfway done! It's too soon! Ah!

Amor y Paz
Hermana Taets

WEEK 37

2010-07-28T00:29:00.000-07:00

Hey Y'all

I have like zero time again, sorrrrry. Hooray for bullet points.

1. Chchchchanges

Big changes happening in the mission and I am super excited! The brethren of the church are implementing changes in all of the missions across the world. First of all, we are only have zone conferences and interviews with President every 3 months instead of once a transfer. This will allow us to spend less time in meetings and more time outside teaching. There are also 8 focus points that we are supposed to study and..focus on, because that's what focus points are for :) I will say more about this later.

2. Arzate confirmation

Oh this was such a sweet experience for me. The 15 year old son came to church yesterday in white shirt and tie and was talking to us about being a full-time missionary one day. I can't express how happy I felt talking to one of my recent converts about the possibility of him serving a mission one day. The dad was in church as well and told us that he wants to be baptized still, but probably in like 2 weeks because he might have to work another sunday next week.

3. Robbed by a poor man

On saturday we worked the Pulga and while travelling from the car to the door of the Pulga we were stopped by a man who was "crying" and said he needed money to buy food for his son, who was also there and was cute and little. He told us a long story of how he lost his job and can't find work and blah blah sad sad story. I know I sound like a bitter angry human being, and thats only because he totally tricked me. I felt so bad for them that I gave them the only thing I had in my wallet, which happened to be a 20. I didn't feel bad giving them money, I wanted to help out and knew that I could spare it. BUT later that day I saw the same guy in the Pulga at the jewelary counter with a lady buying her some gold chain or something. He was not poor, he was a thief. I am rather cheerful about the situation though because I feel like maybe I really gave 20 bucks to Jesus since in the Bible it says inasmuch as you do it unto the least of my brethren, you have done it unto me. Let's stick with that so I don't get mad, haha.

ok, no time, time to go play soccer and score some goals, woot

Hermana Taets

Week 36

2010-07-15T15:37:00.001-07:00

Oh my crazy busy week! I only have approximately 14 minutes before our goal time to leave the library and go play soccer, sooo I will try and pack this e-mail with as much as I can by utilizing my favorite literary form: the list.

1. I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride it where I like... -Queen
Hermana Lillywhite went to serve in the Bear Creek area on Friday and Saturday so Hermana Ang and I were left in the great area of Fairbanks. We decided that we wanted to be able to contact more people, which is basically impossible when you are in a car, so we rode bikes on Friday and it was so fun! The Bear Creek Hermanas had two bikes and two helmets that they weren't using so we took them, got the tires blown up, cleaned them up a bit, destroyed the wasp nest that was under the bike seat, bought a lock, and then finally were able to bike around a bit. We didn't go very far because it was getting late, but we did it, and both of us loved it! So, we have decided that next transfer, assuming both of us are still here in this area together, we are going to bike a lot. The only downside (besides goofy helmet, drenched in sweat, almost getting hit by a car, and feeling very very uncoordinated) was that on Saturday I was ridiculously sore...let's just say that the bike seat is not comfortable. At all.

2. GOLLLLLLLLLL.
Saturday morning we had a ward activity, for members, missionaries, investigators, etc. We played a game of soccer for 2 hours and it was so much fun! None of our investigators could go because it was really short notice, but we are going to do it every saturday from now on and I think it will be a really great way for the people we are teaching to make friends in the ward. I didn't play very well, obviously, but I did score one goal and everyone was so shocked, woo hoo. I actually tried though, surprise surprise, and was running, and kicking, ya know, like actually playing. I even enjoyed playing soccer! We play a lot of soccer as missionaries, every P-day as a Zone, and every morning during exercise as a District, so I invested in some cleats so I stop slipping in the mud. They are so cute, they are silver Pumas with light blue on one side and a white cougar on the other. Besides the fact that they are ridiculously cute, they also help me to play better because I don't slip. What a choice investment.

3. Emotional Rollercoaster
Yesterday I went for a ride on an emotional rollercoaster, it was pretty intense, allow me to explain:
Sad: Yesterday was the day of the Arzate family's baptism, yet only the mom, son and daughter were at church. I went and sat with them as usual and asked where the dad was and they said he had to work today so he would not be getting baptized. I wonder if he really was working or if he just got scared, we will see this week when we go teach the family. I am not too worried about the dad because I know he will get baptized, he always tells us that he knows the Book of Mormon is true, and I know he knows that he needs to be baptized. My heart broke, however, for the rest of the family. I know what it feels like to not have your dad at your baptism, and it was one of the hardest things for me. The Arzate's are way strong though and I know they will be a great example to the dad and help him prepare for his own baptism.
Nervous: After church was over it was time for the Arzate baptism, and they had asked me to give a short talk on baptism, so I was very nervous to get up in front of everyone and give a talk in spanish again. My companions said I did well, but my face felt like it was on fire the whole time and I felt so silly.
Ridiculously Happy: I love baptisms, and seeing the three Arzates being baptized almost brought me to tears. I have been teaching this family since February and have grown so close to all of them and love them so much. I feel so blessed to have witnessed the change in each of them as they have grown closer to the Savior, and am excited to witness even more of the changes that will occur in the future as they continue to learn.

No more time, I am now 4 minutes late, eek

Love you all!
Hermana Taets

Week 34

2010-06-28T16:12:00.001-07:00

Hola Mis Seres Queridos

Today is my 8 month birthday as a missionary! Wow! Can you believe how fast time flies? I only have a little over 10 months left on my mission. That is weird. It is going by way too fast, I do not like it. I have felt so grateful for this opportunity to train Hermana Ang and am learning so much from her! She definitely has "greenie fire" and has no fear whatsoever. This weekend we went to go teach an investigator about the Plan of Salvation and we just told Hermana Ang to use a visual of the Plan and teach as much as she could and that we would help her when she got stuck. Well, basically Hermana Lillywhite and I just bore testimony as she taught and she did the whole thing by herself, in spanish! Wow, I was so proud of her! I wish I was that good when I first got out here, I was such a brat when I was a new missionary haha. We are all working really hard to find new people to teach right now because are current investigators have either lost interest or are getting baptized, so we are in a bit of a finding mode. I love doing finding because we have so many interesting experiences and meet so many people. I just love talking to people!

Yesterday the Arzate family had their baptism interview and all four of them are ready to be baptized on the 11 of July. I am SO excited! It has been such a tremendous blessing to watch this family grow together and become more unified as they began to attend church, study the scriptures, and pray as a family. They are all so amazing! The son is 15 and is definitely a future missionary. When we first started teaching his family he was very stubborn, he reminded me so much of myself when I was meeting with the missionaries, and he constantly argued that we have just been tricked to believe these things, or even have tricked ourselves. But, we continually bore testimony to him of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and that once he is willing to do the will of the Lord, whatever it may be, that he must read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is true. Over the last few months we pretty much extended this same focus and promise to the entire family over and over and over again, and now they all have received that witness that the Book of Mormon is true. Yesterday in his interview, the Father said, "I have to tell you something, I am not for sure about Joseph Smith yet, or this Monson, but I WILL know before I am baptized." What an example of faith! He continually tells us that he knows the Book of Mormon is true, and that he knows that he will receive answer to his prayers concerning Joseph Smith before the day of his baptism. He believes it is true, but he wants to KNOW it is true. This family has truly been an amazing example to me of faith and trust in the Lord, and I am SO excited to witness their baptism on July 11th.

I love you all dearly and am grateful for your prayers
Hermana Taets

Week 33!!

2010-06-28T08:52:00.000-07:00

Hola Mis Seres Queridos

Ok So I don't have much time so I will just take some time to talk about my super sweet Hija, Hermana Ang. I love her! We picked her up from the office on Thursday and did a temple session together and then came back to the area to get down to bidness. She is way cute and from Hawaii, but her family is from the Philippines, so she is going to make us some sweeeet Filippino food this week, chyeah. She is such an inspiration to me already and I am learning so much from her! We went tracting on Friday (knocking on doors) and I would just say, "Hey, go talk to that guy standing over there" and she would just go do it! Now, granted I had to take over rather quickly because she doesn't speak spanish all that well yet, but she is just so fearless! I want to be more fearless and bold, somehow I got a little more timid over the last few transfers and am hoping to stomp that out with the help of my Hija. I still can't believe I am training a brand new missionary, it is kind of scary! I got an e-mail this morning from President saying what a huge responsibility it is and I just hope my best is enough. I don't feel like an expert on missionary work yet, or spanish for that matter, but I trust that there is a reason that Hermana Ang and I needed to be placed together. I pray that the Lord will be able to use me as an instrument in molded Hermana Ang into a totally amazing, spanish-speaking sister missionary. Sorry this e-mail is so short, the Elders are complaining that they are starving and I drove the car, so I best be going. I love you all so much!
Hermana Taets

Week 32

2010-06-14T16:26:00.001-07:00

Hola Mis Seres Queridos

I AM HAVING A BABY!!!!!! Translation from missionary-speak: I AM TRAINING!!!!! I got the call Saturday morning that Hermana Lillywhite and I are going to trio-train one of the two new spanish sister missionaries. I am so excited! I am also very grateful that for my first time training I won't be alone and will have the guidance of an older, experienced missionary. We talked a lot about fun things to do to her so that she realizes that you are allowed to have fun on your mission...because some missionaries think it is a sin to enjoy your life on your mission haha. Here are some ideas that we probably will never do because we are too nice and don't want to scare her: have everyone lift her up in a chair during district meeting and do a chant and dance around, Have Elder Kerr dress up like an Indian and run screaming into our apartment, Hna. Lillywhite and I creating completely new personalities that completely hate each other and get in a screaming match...Oh yes, training will be so fun. We pick her up on Thursday and get to do a temple session with her, have lunch with other trainers and their babies, and then head back to our area to get to work.

In other news, I got in a chalkboard-eraser fight saturday night with Elder McGary and it was super intense. Two of the Hammerly Elders' investigators got married saturday night and we went to the chapel early to set up chairs and such and then got a little distracted by possibility of a chalk fight. So, Elder McGary threw the chalk dust filled eraser at Elder Inkley and hit his sleeve, and then I, being the noble person that I am, decided to defend his honor and threw it back at McGary and hit him right in the rear end. It was ridiculously funny, until he filled the eraser with more chalk dust and then chased me throughout the chapel and then pegged me square in my rear with the eraser. All of the other missionaries were very entertained to say the least, while I was left tired and sweaty from running around and covered in chalk dust. I am so grateful that I serve with such choice missionaries, and that we can work hard yet still have fun when the time is appropriate.

Not much else is going on, The Arzate family is still way legit. They asked us for another copy of the Book of Mormon because the two kids were fighting over it. That was the coolest thing I have ever heard I think. So many people take the scriptures for granted, yet this family is reading them, studying them, and FIGHTING over them! Woooo Hoooo :) They are still all squared away to be baptized on the 11 of July, which will be a glorious, glorious day, after teaching this sweet family since my first transfer in the mission. I have witnessed just a beautiful change in them as a family as the gospel and changed and blessed them and am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a full-time missionary. There is no greater calling than that of missionary.

Hermana Taets

Week 31

2010-06-07T16:18:00.001-07:00

Buenos dias mi familia and mis amigos

I would like to start this e-mail with a funny that I experienced on Saturday. My companion and I were driving home to our apartment and were passing a car on the right side and saw something that I have never seen before in my life: A man driving and eating corn on the cob simultaneously. Who knew this was even possible! I was both shocked and amazing, and proceeded to life for several minutes and almost stopped breathing. This might be one of those, "You had to have been there," experiences, but I was grateful for the friendly reminder that I am back in Texas. Another interesting thing happened Saturday. So, the Elders love soccer, or futbol as we Hispanics call it, and we have started playing soccer every morning before studies. You all probably know that I am horrible at sports, but I play along and pretty much just laugh and be silly. All morning Elder Porter was urging me to "Go chase after the ball Hermana Taets," and "Try and get the ball from Elder so-and-so Hermana Taets," and so as soon as he got the ball I decided to play a little more aggressively. I ran over to him and may or may not have given him a little shove, because apparently that is how the game of soccer is played, and then we got in a tangle of feet as we fought for the ball. I cannot be sure of what happened but something definitely happened and my ankle got really mad at me and I went to go sit out. The Elders wouldn't let me sit down, but rather made me walk around on it so it wouldn't swell, which worked to my surprise. After that I thought I was fine but later in the day it hurt like nobody's business and I was limping around all day long. Once we got to our dinner appointment with the Patino family it was pretty bad, and they all noticed, so once again I was forced to endure Mexican VooDoo healing. This time wasn't nearly as bad but it sure hurt. Hermano Patino did some massage therapy on my foot, and I definitely shouted a couple times, poor Hermana Lillywhite felt so bad for me, but it really wasn't all that bad. I was skeptical at first, and really just wanted to tell Hermano to call it quits and let me be, but the next day I walked normal! My foot is still slightly tender but overall I almost feel back to normal. I guess in some circumstances the voodoo works in your favor.
Everything else is going so well and it feels so good to be back in Texas! This first week back was slightly awkward at times, just because a lot of the other missionaries didn't know how to deal with me and just were weird, but I think that is over with because they see that I am acting rather close to my normal self. I got a lot of pity, I mean sympathy cards this week from others missionaries, which was very sweet and thoughtful. Some of them truly testified to me of the awkwardness that is Elder. One of the comments from a missionary in my zone began, "bummer about your dad." I am glad to have learned that "bummer" has become a word that holds sympathetic meaning. Truth be told, all of the missionaries have been amazing to me and really have helped me to feel at home here in Texas. I have been telling them all of the crazy/funny stories about Dad and they usually respond that they have to meet him in the next life because he is probably one of the coolest people ever. Which is definitely true, my Papa Bear is one of the coolest, male version of me and Alli put together, that I know.
The work is going well, Elva told us this week that she finally quit smoking! Woo! I was so excited I pretty much jumped off of the couch and hugged her. She is so sweet! I asked her how she did it and she said, "Everytime I felt the need to smoke I would just go read the Book of Mormon!" Can you say amazing woman? I just love her and her family to bits and pieces and cannot wait for the day they are baptized! Her and her son may just get baptized first, because the husband works on sundays and they don't want to wait much longer, so we will see what happens. the Arzates are doing really well, while I was out of the mission the dad told my companion and the temporary sisters that he received an answer through prayer that the Book of Mormon is true, which was like the best news ever! They are also the cutest family ever and are still on track to be baptized the 11th of July. I love this work so much! I have never felt to strong in my faith and trust in my Heavenly Father, and know that he will continue to bless me with trials and struggles so that I may grow and become more like the Savior. I know that He is preparing me for the great challenge that lies before me, that I may find strength in Jesus Christ and His atonement.

Con Amor y Paz,
Hermana Taets

Week 30

2010-06-01T18:18:00.001-07:00

Hola Mis Seres Queridos,
This last week I went on a rather large exchange and was serving in the Arizona Phoenix Mission and also in the Illinois Mission. I was companions with Addison Ricks and various other family members during the week and have learned much this week, as with any other exchange I have been on. I am sure most of you have already heard all of this, but yes, I was home this last week because my Father had a stroke on friday the 21st and I was flown in to make some critical medical decisions for him because he could not speak, nor was he very alert during the times that I was with him. He passed away on sunday the 23rd around 8:30 in the morning. It was something I never expected to happen, but something that has strengthened my faith. I was able to attend the 3:00 session of the Gila Valley Temple dedication in my stake center and although I cried through the entire thing I am so grateful that I was able to focus on the beauty of the temple and the reality that families are meant to last even beyond the grave and that my Father will be waiting for me on the other side of the veil.
My aunt Liz, Aunt Cherie and Uncle Mike were in Arizona with me as well throughout the week and helped me do a lot of things I surely couldn't have done alone. Monday we picked out a casket (who would have believed that the "wooden box" is the most expensive casket!) and made arrangements for a visitation in Arizona and then a visitation and funeral in Geneseo, Illinois where my dad was raised and would be buried. Tuesday we meant with a lawyer and signed the appropriate documents in order to pass the authority to deal with all the matters concerning my dad's estate from me to my uncle Mike. I cannot possibly express how grateful I am to my uncle Mike and aunt Cherie for taking this burden from me, because I sure don't know how to sell a house or deal with creditors and things like that, and it also allowed me to return to the mission. Wednesday we had the visitation in AZ and it was very nice and a lot of my dad's friends and co workers were there. Wednesday night I also had the opportunity to attend a temple session in the Mesa Arizona temple with Brother and Sister Hofeling, which was an amazing experience for me and gave me an added measure of peace. Thursday morning we flew to Illinois, Friday was the visitation, and Saturday the funeral. By the time Saturday I was pretty exhausted emotionally, it was just not an easy thing to attend three open casket events, 2 visitations and a funeral. Sunday I flew back to Houston and now am back in the mission feeling ready to work as hard as I possibly can to bring souls unto Christ and to teach others of Heavenly Father's love for them and the power of repentance and the atonement of the Savior.
Although this last week has been a challenge, I feel strengthened and have grown in my faith and trust in my Heavenly Father. I know now, more than ever, that this gospel is true. I trust in the plan that God has for me and for my family and trust that all these things shall give me experience and help me to become more like the Savior. I know that the Plan of Salvation is real, and that I will see my dad again. Although I will miss him every single day, I have faith that I will see him again and that my family will be eternal. I love my Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ, and know that they love me, and that they love my dad and that his death was just a step in his growth and learning and was the best thing for him. I am also grateful for all of the love and support I have received this week from friends, family, and the members, missionaries and investigators that I serve with here in the Texas Houston Mission.

Con Amor y Paz
Hermana Taets

PICTURES (again) :D

2010-05-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

1. Hermana Lillywhite. On this specific occasion we watched the Restoration movie outside of this guy's trailer during a wind storm on the big screen he carried outside and plugged in with an extension cord. Haha it was wayyyy sweet.
2. My District last transfer: Me and Blanco up top, then the elders on bottom, Porter, McGary, Astin, Kerr. They are all a bunch o' knuckle heads but we are all like Best friends forever haha
3. Blanco and I
4. Blanco and I doing the "I am never eating ever again" face. We tend to say this daily as missionaries, usually after the members make us eat a toooooon.
5. Blanco and I
6. Breanna and Trey's baptism. I looked and felt like a grease bucket that day. The Humidity has kicked in full force in Houston.
7. My zone leaders elders Porter and Mcgary. They conducted a conference for the spanish missionaries in the mission and told us we need to embrace the culture more. Way fun
8. Me and Elder McGary Embracing the culture

Now Mom had requested some pictures of the apt. So herrrrrre ya go!

9. Our Desks, trashed as usual from intense studying every morning ;)
10. My desk...slightly cleaner than hers, woot woot
11. living area. couch and bookshelf.
12. Bedroom, mine is the purple bed
13.Kitchen

Week 27

2010-05-23T12:06:00.002-07:00

Bueeeennnnoooooo,
I have decided that because I love spanish and want everyone to speak spanish, I am going to impose a spanish word of the week, perhaps one that sums up my week in one random word. This week I have chosen the word, Lodo. It means mud. It POURED rain on Friday and Saturday last week and I loved it, of course. I did feel a little bad for the Elder Inkley and Elder Kerr because they are on bike :( Pobrecitos. Anyways, mud, there is mud all over the places we frequent, possibly because we frequent in dirty apartment complexes haha, so my shoes are way dirty and I have been paranoid all week that I was going to slip in the mud and die.
This week my good friend Camille, aka Hermana Blanco, was back in Houston visiting, mainly because the Patino's bought her a ticket to the Mexico v. Angola game, so she was here all last week. I saw her like 3 times, mainly friday when we all went to dinner at the Patino's house. It was SO weird to see her in jeans and normal clothes and a cell phone and listening to Jack Johnson on her iPod..... No worries I am not trunky, although I will enjoy wearing jeans again and having a cell phone, I am more than content being a missionary and am having so much fun. The mission is nothing like what I would expect it to be, it's much more fun haha.
We set 4 new baptism dates this weeeeeeeek! Oh man I was so happy when we set a date with the Arzate family! I have been teaching them the last two transfers, and they are at church every week and I have loved witnessing the change in this family. The mom is the only one who feels ready to be baptized, she is just the most amazing person, so we set a date for the 10th of July so her husband and two kids can feel ready and excited to be baptized. I love this family and cannot wait to watch them all enters the waters of baptism together. I really hope I can suck a few more transfers out of this area so I don't have to worry about finding a way back here for their baptism. We shall see what happens in few weeks concerning that.
I don't have much else to say...except that I love the Book of Mormon. I am kind of addicted to it. Whenever we have a spare moment, which is like never, I pull out my Libro de Mormon and read a chapter. Man, it is SO good! Everytime I read it I learn something new as the Holy Ghost personally teaches me according to my needs and the needs of my investigators. I really wish everyone could see the Book of Mormon the way I do. So many people have such a negative aspect concerning it, such as: "There can be no new scriptures!" and my response to you would be, "Well, I sure am not going to tell God that I don't want him to give me more scripture to guide me through this crazy life!" The Bible and the Book of Mormon together work so perfectly to explain the gospel of Jesus Christ and to testify that He lives. I am really gaining a higher appreciation for the New Testament as well, and not just the four gospels, because those are obviously amazing. The Bible testifies so plainly of the falling away of Christ's church and the Restoration that would come forth in the Latter-Days, of which Restoration I boldly testify began in the year 1820 through a young farm boy in upstate New York. I cannot fully express my love and gratitude for this gospel, I know now more than ever that is is true, as I witness change lives and unify famlies.
I have the best job. ever.

Ojala que esten muy bendecidos!
Hermana Taets

Week 26

2010-05-23T12:06:00.001-07:00

Buenos Dias Mis Seres Queridos,
Oh what a crazy week it has been! I was so busy! First, on Tuesday I had to take Hermana Blanco to the mission office so she could go die (haha) and then I had to go get my new companion. It was sad saying goodbye to Blanco but at the same time I was pretty excited to meet Hermana Lillywhite. She is way cool! I really like her and we pretty much just laugh all day, except when we are teaching, then we have to be semi-serious. She is from Utah and graduated with a degree in literature before her mission. She is an author and writes stories, and as some of you may know, I LOVE to read stories! So, we are like the perfect companionship because when I am bored I just ask her to tell me a story, and she does, and then we are both super content haha. She has some really good stories and she also informed me that I am such an interesting character, with so much drama surrounding me, that she has decided to write a book after her mission after what my life will be like once I return home from my mission. Can you say, Dream come true? I am so excited to read the book about my future haha. She goes home from her mission on July 28th, and I am hoping I get to kill her off and stay in Fairbanks until then, but it is very unlikely because if I stay here until then, I will automatically stay another transfer to avoid having to be white-washed, meaning that I will have been in my first area for 6 transfers, which is not unheard of, but is rare at the same time. Hermana Lillywhite is predicting that I stay in Fairbanks, kill her off in July and then train the transfer after she leaves. I would love to train, so I hope I am ready by then, and I also would looooove to stay in this area because it is hoppin' with amazing investigators and people wanting to be baptized, woot woot.
In other news, remember when I mentioned a long time ago about a reporter for the Houston Chronicle going to our Zone Conference and asking us all manner of questions? Well, the article was published this friday and it actually turned out WAY good! She represented the church and what we do as missionaries, VERY WELL, and no false doctrine or crazy rumors were put on there. We were all so excited about the article turning out so well, but I have but one complaint: She quoted me. As previously mentioned I did NOT want to be quoted in this article and had planned on not opening my mouth during the interview with her unless prompted by the spirit to say something. Well, as you can guess, I was prompted, and I said something, and she quoted it. I don't really like how that particular part turned out, but whatevs, the rest of the article is SO good. If you would like to read it just click here http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/6993592.html but be careful and don't read all of the nasty, anti-mormon hater-ation that is displayed below the article :)
This week was Elder Kerr's birthday, and we had the pleasure of celebrating his birthday the way they do in Honduras: Throw eggs at the Birthday Boy! Oh man it was so fun! Elder Kerr stood outside while they cracked eggs over his head, but I was not about to get egg on my hands so I told him to just stand there while I chucked one right at his stomach. I didn't think I threw it THAT hard, but apparently I hurt him just an intsy winsty little bit haha. He is such a good sport and just said "ow" and laughed about it. I don't have the pictures on my camera but as soon as I do get a hold of some of them I will be sure to send them.
Another short funny story: We were teaching this young woman, Asalia, and while I was saying the opening prayer before the lesson, her 2 year old son became very intrigued with my blue tights I had on and decided to run his hands all over my legs, which sent me into a fit of laughter. I was able to finish the prayer almost without chuckling, but as soon as I finished I just started laughing sooo hard and everyone was really confused about what was wrong with me. After I explained what happened everyone laughed and Hermana Lillywhite and I decided that we should not wear colored tights to Asalia's house anymore.
I got to call home yesterday and it was so nice to talk to my parents and my sister! I love them so much and had so much fun talking to them. It is weird to think that next time I call them it will be Christmas! Time is going by SO fast and I do not like it one bit! 6 months just came and went like nobody's business! AH!
Ok, last short story: We watched the Testaments with the Arzate family last week and they LOVED it. They tried to buy it from us haha, but we said we would just get them a copy for free as a present. They all loved the end the most and when Natalia, the mother, said the prayer before we left, she thanked Heavenly Father for sending the missionaries and for the opportunity they had to watch this movie about things that truly happened. I repeat, "things that truly happened". They have been coming to church consistently but haven't felt ready yet to set a baptism date, but I feel like they are so close! They are doing so well, and are just growing and becoming more unified as a family as they attend church and study the scriptures together. The day they are baptized will be one of the best days of my mission, similar to the day the Patino's were baptized. Oh the Patino's, I love them so much. We went to their new place for dinner saturday night (the zone leaders went and took us so that it was totally legal) and I had so much fun with them. They want us to come over every other saturday and have dinner and play a game, and I definitely am not objecting :)
Well, that's enough for this week, I love being a missionary and have never been so happy! I know this church is the true church of Christ restored upon the earth and that Jesus Christ leads and guides this church through a living, modern day prophet, Thomas S. Monson. I loveeeee the Book of Mormon and know without a doubt that it contains the word of God and that the events which take place in the Book of Mormon truly took place here on the American continent. There is no greater joy than that which comes as I share this message with the people of Houston. :)

Con Amor y Paz
Hermana Taets

week 25

2010-05-23T12:05:00.002-07:00

Buenas Tardes
This last week I had 3 possible outcomes in mind for who my new companion would be, and none of them turned out to be true. I was pretty surprised in fact at who my new companion is but I have faith that she is the companion that the Lord has chosen for me and that there is a great purpose in us being placed together for this next transfer. My new companion is Hermana Lilywhite, and that is pretty much all I can tell you because I have never talked to her before and know nothing about her. She has been in my zone this whole time, just never had the opportunity to really speak with her. I asked Elder Astin where she is from and his response was "Crazy Town," so this next transfer might be very entertaining :) I am really excited to begin a new transfer with a new companion who comes from a different background and has different experiences that I may learn and grow from. I feel like every new transfer is an opportunity to bury old bad habits and become a better version of myself. This transfer I want to be better at stepping up to the plate and not just letting my senior companion do all the talking. I want to be better at talking to EVERYONE. The mission has a goal of each missionary talking to 10 people a day and inviting them to learn more about the gospel. I really want to be able to meet this goal everyday so the Lord will have confidence in me that when he places someone in my path that is prepared to hear our message that I will stop and talk to them. I want to be a bold and fearless missionary! I don't know when or why I got so shy and timid, that's definitely not who I am, but I have noticed that I have become more scared and insecure as a missioanry. I think it may come from my lack of self-confidence concerning the language, but that is no excuse. Fear is the opposite of faith, and this work cannot continue without faith. I hope this next transfer I can transform into this faithful, powerful, testifying missionary :)
We set a baptism date with the Davila family this week for the 16th of May! We had to wait so long to set a date with them because they had to quit smoking first, which was very difficult since Elva had been smoking A LOT for a very long time. Last week we asked Elva if she had cut down on smoking and she said she hadn't smoked all week! AND that she thinks this week she won't smoke at all! I was so blown away that she has been able to quit so quickly. It has been another testimony to me that the Lord is in this work and that as He has seen Elva's desire to be baptized He has given her the strength to overcome her addiction. The Davila's are so excited to be baptized and I am so excited to continue in preparing them to make these sacred covenants with Heavenly Father.
The Patino's moved out of our area this week to go live with their daughter, which was really hard for me because I just love them so much and will miss seeing them all the time. Juan Carlos bought Hermana Blanco and I some sweet Mexico Soccer jersies :) I love it so much, I am going to rock it today when we can change into our non-proselyting clothes, woot woot. Adela's surgery date was changed and she will now be having the operation this upcoming week, so please keep her and the rest of her family in your prayers.
Not much else is going on, hopefully next week I will be able to report more about what my new companion is like and that I love her to pieces. I hope all is well back home and am extremely grateful for the support I have received from my family and friends :)

Hermana Taets

Week 24

2010-05-23T12:05:00.001-07:00

Buenas Tardes Mis Seres Queridos
Yesterday was Breanna's Baptism! Yay! We have been teaching Breanna since my first transfer, so it was just a blessing to witness her baptism. She looked so beautiful in her white dress :) I ended up singing "A Child's Prayer" with her cousin Mimi at the baptismal service, only because Mimi suckered me into it by saying she wouldn't sing if someone didn't sing it with her. Before the baptism we were trying to figure out what picture to put on the front of the baptism program and I had the program from my baptism on my study binder in the car, so we photo copied the front of my baptism program and put it on hers. That was pretty neat, I showed Breanna but she is only 10 so I don't think she really thought anything of it, haha. I showed the Elders my baptism program and they thought it was really cool that I still had it. It is starting to get pretty rugged though so I think I am going to get it laminated at the mission office so it lasts foooorrreeeevvvvver :)
Nothing crazy really happened this week so I will tell you the story of our top investigators, the Davila Family. A long time ago, in an area far far away in Houston...well...actually, my first transfer, in the area I still happen to be serving in, we were teaching a less active woman named Aurelia. She was baptized a long time ago but after she married her husband, who is of another faith, he said she wasn't allowed to go to our church anymore. So, one night we went over to teach Aurelia and her sister-in-law (who lives there with her husband/Aurelia's brother), Elva, decided to listen in. We shared the message of the Restoration of the gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith and at the end of the lesson Elva said she is very very Catholic but she accepted our invitation to read the Restoration pamphlet and pray to know if the story of Joseph Smith is true. Flash forward to the almost present, guess who randomly comes to church with her husband, Juan, and son, Erik, about a month ago? The last month the Davila family has been at church almost every sunday and we have been teaching them twice a week and they want to be baptized! We don't have a date set for their baptism yet because Juan and Elva have to quit smoking first. They seem to be doing really well and are really motivated to quit, so hopefully they will get baptized next transfer. I love them to pieces! The first time Erik prayed, the whole family just sat and sobbed together because they had felt the spirit so strongly and they knew the God was listening to them. Elva recently was telling us that she had prayed and received an answer about Joseph Smith after we invited her to do so, and that's why she went to church, but she isn't ready to tell us what happened. I feel so blessed to be able to teach this amazing family and prepare them for baptism! We have to be careful though because Aurelia's husband hates the church and so we can't call or stop by whenever he is home and he has been really persecuting them. They are trying to find a new place to live, and they have a huge support system from Juan's family, who are all member of the church, Our bishop is his nephew, his brother and all of his like 7 kids and all of their kids are in our ward as well, so they are really helping Juan, Elva, and Erik to prepare for their baptism and be active members of the church.
The Patino's are moving out of the ward boundaries this week to go live with their daughter :( Boo. I am really sad to see them leave but know they will be in good hands in the Bear Creek ward. Adela has surgery this thursday, I am not sure what they are going to do because I don't understand any medical terms in spanish except for operacion. She has some more tests and things going on today and we are going over to their apartment tonight to see how things went and to help them pack up some of their things. Please keep the Patino's in your prayers as Adela begins her battle with cervical cancer. I know she is strong and will overcome this, but it wouldn't hurt to seek the help of the Lord in the process.
Transfers are next week and I am really anxious to find out what will happen! I am 99% sure I will be staying in my area, since we just white washed the area in January I highly doubt President with white wash it again, especially since we have been having a lot of success. So, the big question is...who is coming to my area to "greenie-break" me. I am really excited to get greenie-broken and hope my new companion will really help me to be a more confident and more powerful teacher. Transfer calls are on saturday, so next P-day I will fill y'all in on what will be happening.

Con Amor y Paz
Hermana Taets

Week 23

2010-05-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

Buenos Dias Mis Seres Amados

This week was pretty solid. We taught 23 lessons this week, which is pretty good when the mission goal is 20 a week, but I want to shoot for 30 :) I feel like we have been so blessed with great investigators! We are teaching so many people, consistently, and am so excited to witness some more miracles like the ones we witnessed with the Patino family. We have a baptism scheduled for this Sunday for Breanna, who is the younger sister of Alysa, the girl we baptized in February. I am really excited to see Breanna be baptized, and am praying that some of our current investigators will commit to baptism this week. On Saturday we took the Patino's to the temple and we taught them a lesson in the waiting room just off to the side of the reception desk. It was such a good lesson, and they all said they could feel something different inside the temple :) I can't wait to come back to the area in a year to witness their sealing as a family inside the temple. Speaking of temple, tomorrow is my zone's temple day and it couldn't have come at a better time. I am really in need of the peace and rejuvenation that comes from temple attendance.

On Friday we had exchanges and Hermana Wardle came to my area! It was really great to work with her again, although we have been in the same zone the last two transfers we haven't had an opportunity to really talk or teach together. It was a really good experience for me, we taught a lot of lessons on friday and I was very grateful that I was able to understand and teach in spanish without any problems. I also felt very humbled because I was able to clearly see the things I need to work on, many in my teaching skills. I feel like I have focused so much on spanish that I have almost forgotten how to teach effectively! I have been studying the teaching skills section in Preach My Gospel for over a week now, and am really excited to start implementing the things that I am learning and become a better teacher and tool in the Lord's hands.

This whole transfer all of our zone and district meetings have been conducting with the focus being on repentance, and I have learned SO much more about the repentance process and how to repent on a daily basis. In Zone meeting on Friday, one of the zone leaders had us listen to a talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland about repentance that really really spoke to me personally and helped me to realize some things I need to work on. There was one part where he was talking about leaving repented sins buried, and how some people will go over with their plastic pail and shovel, dig up there sins, wave them around and then throw them at someone. It was really funny the way he described it, but it's so true. He also said that we should stop try to re-open wounds that the Savior died to heal, and that was a pretty powerful statement for me. Since my baptism I have struggled to let certain wounds heal and I guess I just thought that would all vanish once I put my missionary name tag on, but I was wrong, and have been working with Heavenly Father to allow myself to heal and to grow from my past experiences. I would encourage everyone reading to study the topic of repentance more deeply. I have learned so much this transfer and feel like I have gained such a greater appreciation for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His willingness to help us battle our weaknesses. I know without the shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ lives, that He knows each and everyone of us personally and that He suffered each of our pains, sicknesses, temptations, and sins, that He would know how to help us to be successful and happy in this life. Words cannot describe the love and gratitude I have for the Savior and for my Heavenly Father. I have felt their love and guidance more than ever as I have strived to serve them with all of my heart, might, mind and strength.

Con Amor
Hermana Taets

Pictures :D

2010-05-23T11:54:00.000-07:00

Week 22

2010-05-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

Mis Seres Queridos

The Patinos were baptized yesterdayyyyyyyyyy!!!!! Carlos, Adela and their son Juan Carlos were all baptized and it was one of the happiest days thus far in my mission. i couldn't keep from crying just a little bit as I witnessed their baptisms, I just felt so happy and so proud of the decision they had made. We ate dinner with them before the baptism and they were all just so happy. We are still working with Juan Carlos' daughter and with Adela's brother, who also live in the house, so hopefully we will be baptizing the rest of the family soon :) I love them all so much, Adela started calling us her daughters and they just feel like family to me. I will never ever forget them, and hope that after the mission we will all be best friends forever haha.

On tuesday we were teaching a young guy named Jorge, whose mother recently was baptized. He read from the Book of Mormon but said he still doesn't feel like he has received an answer from God that it is true. Now during basically the whole lesson I didn't have a clue what was going on because Jorge speaks rather quiet and mumbles a lot, so I was clueless. At the end of the lesson I felt like I should talk about my own experience in praying to receive an answer about the Book of Mormon and said that I didn't receive an answer from God for several months because in reality, I didn't want an answer that it was true. I wasn't ready to change my life and was scared of what my family and friends would think, and because of that, God waited to tell me, knowing that I wasn't ready for an answer. But, once I came to that wall of faith, where I just had to know and was completely willing to do whatsoever the Lord required of me, I received an answer, one that I will never be able to deny. After I told this story, Jorge asked me if I was reading his mind. I think deep down he knows what we are teaching him is true, he just is scared, just like I was. I am so grateful for the experiences I have been blessed with that I have been able to use as I teach others.

Funny story. Yesterday we all ate at the Patino's after church and before their baptism; me and my companion, the zone leaders Elders Porter and McGary, and the District leader and his companion Elders Astin and Kerr. They served us all this drink called Tepache, which is made from letting the skin from a pineapple sit in this big jar full of other stuff, I think just water and sugar, and you let it sit like that for a while, and then when it's ready you drink it. Well, after we drank some we all kind of looked at each other...and then I said, "Hermano, is there alcohol in this?" and he said they didn't put any alcohol in it and that it is just pineapple juice. I would trust the Patino's with my life, and I couldn't imagine them serving us alcohol in the first place, but I was still a liiiittle concerned. We were all sitting in the living room while the Patino's prepared the meal and were all talking about how the Tepache tasted a little strange, kind of like..or maybe exactly like a wine cooler haha. We proceeded to drink the Tepache and eat our delicious meal, and I think some of the Elders might have psyched themselves out a bit because they were all being rather silly, but then again they are 19 year old boys. Later that night we talked to bishop and he said that it depends on how long the pineapple is fermented, but that he drinks Tepache all the time so it should be okay. Elder Porter, one of the zone leaders, was not satisfied, so just now he looked it up online and did a little research and learned that you only should let it sit for like 3 days, and the Patino's let it ferment for like...months. So, we may, or may not, have drank alcohol yesterday. Elder Porter said, "If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it's a duck, and Tepache tastes and smells like alcohol" and then proceeded to ask me if I was hungover, of course I am NOT hungover, I did not feel any different I don't think after drinking it. Anyways....don't drink Tepache, just to be safe :) If you have served a spanish speaking mission and have some legit info on whether or not we are allowed to drink Tepache I would greatly appreciate it.

Well, I am off to spend yet another P-day dominating all of the Elders in Poison. It's a game we all play similar to dodgeball, except a million times more fun. I love you all and ask that you keep me in your prayers, that I may be able to repent of my Tepache drinking :) Haha

Con Amor y Paz,
Hermana Taets

week 21

2010-04-05T12:58:00.001-07:00

Hola Mis Seres Queridos
I hope everyone had a delightful Pascua (Easter, for all you bolillos). I loved watching General Conference this weekend! I don't think I have every been so excited to watch it before, nor have I ever been 100% awake and functioning for all four sessions, haha. For those who don't know, General Conference occurs twice a year, in April and in October, and is when the leaders of the church, the 12 Apostles and the Prophet, prepare important messages through study and pray and those messages are delivered by satellite across the world to all of the members of the church. They also show it on some channel on cable but I am not sure which. Anyways, this conference was soooo good, except for almost every single talk was about the importance of strong families and how to raise your children, which made me a teeeny tiny itsy bitsy little bit trunky, haha, it just made me think a lot about how excited I am to one day start my own family and to rear the amazing children that will be sent to my home. Don't worry, I am not worrying about that business, 100% focused on the mission :). My favorite talk was the one by Elder D. Todd Christofferson about the scriptures. It was so powerful to me and made me realize how lucky I am to have my own personal copies of the scriptures, and in two languages no less, when there have been periods of time when people were martyred in their efforts to obtain the Bible. He mentioned the sacrifice of William Tyndale in translating the Bible to english and I just feel so grateful by the sacrifices made by so many that I may study and learn from the scriptures on a daily basis. If you haven't read from the scriptures lately I would challenge you to do so.The Bible and the Book of Mormon were important enough that many gave their lives for us to be able to have them, so don't let their sacrifice be wasted, read the words of the prophets found in the scriptures, come closer to Christ. All of the General Conference talks may be found here: http://www.lds.org/conference/sessions/display/0,5239,23-1-1207,00.html
The Patino's are getting baptized this upcoming Sunday!!!!! It will surely be one of the happiest moments for me. This last week Adela was diagnosed with cancer and requested a priesthood blessing from the Elders. They came and administered a blessing of healing and in the blessing she was told that Heavenly Father had much planned for her and that she had many years left in this life. All of the Patino's have such great faith, they knew before the blessing was even administered that everything would be okay and showed such confidence in the Lord. It is by their great faith that they will see miracles and I am confident that Adela will be able to overcome this illness and be completely healed.
On a lighter note, we went over to the Patino's for dinner, as usual, and Adela made fried fish. Most of you know that before my mission I hated fish, but I have learned to like almost everything I have eaten in the mission so I figured I would see if it could be possible for me to like fish. I sat down and Adela placed in front of me a whole fish, eyes, fins, the whole shabang. It looked as if it had been plucked from the ocean, into a frying pan, and then onto my plate. Hermana Blanco doesn't eat seafood, so she ate some beans and rice, and watched in disgust as I ate my meal. It actually was REALLY good. I put some lemon on it, and pulled the meat off with my hands and ate it with tortilla. Don't worry Dad, no one uses forks in Hispanic culture, so eating with my hands was not something impolite, everyone eats with a tortilla, I will teach you later. Hermano Patino said he was so proud of me because I ate that fish just like a Mexican :) I consider myself lucky that I haven't had to eat anything too crazy yet and am really trying to be a fearless missionary, even with what I eat. Yesterday at the Araujo's home Hermano dared all of us missionaries to eat a chipotle pepper, no one would do it because they are supposed to be really spicy, so when Hermana Araujo handed me the bowl and asked if I would do it I picked one up and put the whole thing in my bowl. It was kind of weird, like a spicy, slimy barbeque sauce flavored pepper, but wasn't bad. I didn't cry, or complain, just said it tasted like barbeque. The Araujo's were really impressed, woot woot, and the Elders were in shock that this sister missionary just one-uped them in spicy food eating :)
The work is going great, we are teaching a ton of people! We have been so blessed with wonderful people who are willing to listen to our message and who have desires to know for themselves if what we teach is true.

Hermana Taets

week 20

2010-04-04T19:55:00.001-07:00

Mis Seres Queridos
Another crazzzzy week here in H-Town. I don't think there will ever be a dull moment in the mission. Yesterday was the BEST day because the Patino family had their baptism interviews and it just made me get so excited for their baptism on the 11th, AND we had 9 investigators at church! My companion and I both feel so blessed to have found so many amazing people and families who we are teaching and who are witnessing changes in their lives as they embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ. The whole Arzate family was in church for the first time and they really liked it, so hopefully we will be able to see them enter the waters of baptism as well this transfer. I feel so much love for the people we are teaching and am so greatful for the opportunity I have here to be a servant of the Lord in this great work. There is no greater joy to be felt than that which comes when sharing the gospel.
Funny Story: Our ward's gospel principles class is the best class ever, the teacher, Papa Davila (This funny old man, about half the ward is related to him and his son is the Bishop), is an amazing teacher and is super funny, we are always cracking up in class. Last sunday he was teaching about agency and was talking about how we can choose to do what is good or we can choose to disobey God. Then for dramatic effect he said "What would you do if Christ was to come walking in this class right now" and then went over and opened the classroom door, and not 5 seconds later the Bishop comes strolling in the classroom and the whole class just erupted with laughter. For a solid 5 minutes we were all laughing soooooo hard. Oh man, it is making me laugh right now, how embarrassing haha. Church is a different atmosphere in the spanish ward but I love it. It is so much more relaxed and everyone is like a big family.
Strangest thing to happen thus far in my mission: Okay, yesterday was fast sunday and I always get headaches when I fast, I just think I am not used to fasting yet, I honestly didn't really do it for the full 24 hours before my mission. Yesterday once we broke our fast with the Patino family and the Elders in our ward, I got REALLY sick. I don't know what happened but as soon as dinner got in my stomach I went pale and felt really sick to my stomach and my head was pounding. So, Elder Porter and Elder McGary gave me a priesthood blessing of healing and then we left. On the way home we had to stop at a member's home to pick something up and they heard I was sick and ushered me inside to "cure me". Oh man, I was so scared at what they were gonna do to me because earlier that day the same old Mexican Grandma, who may or may not have a beard, worked some voo-doo magic on Elder McGary's sprained ankle. So I went inside and she had me lay on this massage table and take my shoes and my nylons off and started massaging my feet, which was great at first. She said there are certain points in the foot that if you push them it heals certain parts of the body and then told me to relax and breathe deep. Then she pushed on the part of my foot that heals the stomach and it hurt so bad! I yelled pretty loud, thank goodness the Elders were waiting outside or I would have been embarrassed. And to make the story even weirder, this whole time stinkin' Hermana Blanco is sitting in a chair next to me playing the hymns on a recorder haha. She plays the flute so I guess the recorder was the next best thing, but I can't say I really appreciated her playing that thing while the Mexican grandma was voo-dooing my feet. Next, she said she was going to massage my head. I definitely would not call it a massage. She basically just beat my head in with her hands. No joke, she held my head in her hands and shook it up and down. I had to try SO hard no to laugh. After doing various other strange things to my head, and getting massage oil all over my head and face, I was finally "healed" and allowed to leave. She also said to go home and eat a spoonful of olive oil with a drop of lemon and a pinch of baking soda: yeah right, I definitely did not eat that. Surprisingly, I did feel increasingly better, but we still called it a night and we home around 8 so I could go to sleep. I am very grateful that this member of the ward wanted to heal me and make sure I was okay, but next time I think I will just take some Advil and go to sleep.

Espero que ustedes esten muy bien y tengan salud and felicidad y les amo muchisimo,
Hermana Taets

week 19

2010-04-04T19:54:00.001-07:00

Mis Seres Queridos

Another transfer has come and gone, can you believe that? I can't! This last week was so amazing! First of all, we had transfer calls on Saturday and I was basically a nervous wreck all day because I REALLY didn't want to get transferred from my area! We are going to be baptizing 6 people in April, and possibly 4 more if this one family we have been teaching decides to take the plunge ;) On Saturday a bunch of us missionaries all met up to go over the transfer paper with the zone leaders and once we got there Elder Astin handed me the paper and said, "Better start packing your bags Hermana Taets." When he said that I just yelled, "Are you serious?!!!!!" and grabbed the paper. I should have known that Elder Astin would lie to me, he is always teasing me, but I am staying in Fairbanks with Hermana Blanco this transfer, woo hoo! This will also be Hermana Blanco's last transfer because she goes home on May 5th, so I will get to "kill her", meaning I will be her last companion in the mission. I am pretty stoked to inherit all her stuff haha.

The best thing that happened last week was all of our lessons with the Patino family. We usually teach them about 4 times a week, and each lesson was so good. On Tuesday we taught about Repentance and committed them all the be baptized on April 11th, and only Juan Carlos, the 29 year old son, said yes. I almost cried. He has come so far since we first met them! He had to stop drinking, but has been clean for like a month, and has just changed so much and is so happy. He has two little daughters, and his 9 year old daughter will be baptized as well. Adela and Carlos, Juan Carlos' parents, said they would have to talk about it. So, we went over there on Thursday, Adela made the most delicious enchiladas btw, and when we asked them about being baptized on the 11th they said they would! Woo Hoo! They were so excited to tell us haha and they have been asking us all sorts of great questions lately about baptism and they want us to take them to see the temple and to go buy scriptures and a hymn book. Man, they are such an amazing family! I have been so blessed to have been able to find and teach them and watch this miracle conversion take place in their home. When we taught them on Saturday they brought a friend over and were teaching him and were telling me that the church is true and they were going to help him find that out for himself. I felt like a proud parent to see them teaching their friend and being missionaries before they even get baptized. I am so excited for their baptisms! It will pretty much be the best day ever! I love the Patinos so much, I am pretty sure they are my "Mexican family" because Adela wants me to come back after the mission so she can teach me how to cook Mexican food, and Carlos said that I have to bring my husband over to meet him and get his approval before I get married haha. He said I can marry a Hispanic is I want, but to be careful because a lot of them are all "borachos" (drunks) hahaha.

I love the work I am doing here in this area. We are finding so many people who have been prepared to listen to our message and prepare to be baptized. We knocked into this woman in Jaunary, named Sara, and she said we could come by some other time in the future. Last week we were in her neighborhood so we stopped by and she let us in and was just the sweetest lady. She wanted us to come back and so we taught her and her husband last night. Her husband has a really hard time speaking, I think he had a stroke or something, but the lesson was so good! They both are devout Catholics, so Sara was saying it is hard to think that they could have been wrong for all this years but she feels something when we come over to teach and so she want to keep learning and wants to know if it is true. We asked Jose, the husband to say the prayer, and as he prayed he just started bawling. I have never seen a grown man cry like that. He was praying for God to keep him strength and to help him to speak and for help in this hard time in his life. After he prayed we said we would be back this week to bring them each a copy of the Book of Mormon and Jose got really excited and pulled out two english copies of the Book of Mormon from his desk. He said he has had them for years, someone left them there, but he couldn't understand them because they were in english! He was really excited to finally have a Book of Mormon in spanish. Can you believe that? Jose and Sara are so amazing, and I feel like we found them at the perfect moment in their lives for them to be able to receive us and be taught. I cannot believe how blessed my companion and I are! What a privelage it is to be able to teach and help people to know of the love that our Heavenly Father has for each of His children.

I love all of you and am grateful for all of your love and support.
Hermana Taets

Week 18

2010-04-04T19:53:00.000-07:00

Mis Seres Queridos,
The one word I would use to describe this week: rollercoaster. Thursday we had exchanges and I stayed in my area and they sent another greenie to work with me for a day. It was crazy being in charge of everything, like planning the lessons, deciding what we did when an appointment fell through and leading all of the lessons. I had a lot of fun though and gained more confidence in my ability to speak the language and in just doing the work. While we were on exchanges we taught the first lesson to a 17 year old boy named Fabian. He is a friend of one of the recent converts in the ward and came with him to church on sunday. The lesson went really well, we left him with a copy of the Book of Mormon and committed him to read from it and pray to know if it is true. We had another lesson with him on saturday, but we really wanted Emerson, his friend who referred him, to be able to come to the lesson. Since we aren't allowed to give anyone men who aren't missionaries a ride in our car, we parked the car at Emerson's apartment complex and walked the 3 miles to Fabian's house. My feet were killing me, I was so grateful that day that we are blessed to have a car! But, the lesson was completely worth the 6 miles of walking there and back! We started the lesson and asked Fabian if he had read his assignment in Moroni 10, and if he had prayed about it. He said he had. We asked how he felt when he prayed and he described it like this: "Well, when I first started praying I felt kind of warm, and thenas I kept praying the feeling got stronger, and once I finished it was a pretty strong feeling of warmth." I had the biggest smile on my face! I could barely keep from jumping out of my seat and shouting! He said he wanted to be baptized and we set a date for March 28th. Yesterday we had another lesson with him right before church, and this is where the rollercoaster takes a dive right after climbing to the top. Before we started teaching he said he wanted to tell us something. He had told his mom about his decision to be baptized and she was not happy about it. She said that he would not be allowed to meet with us anymore or go to church. Poor Fabian was on the brink of tears as he told us all of this, and I was pretty close to crying as well. It just about broke my heart to see him so happy and excited one day after receiving that divine answer from God of the need to be baptized and then to see him so depressed the next day. Please pray for Fabian to have the strength to keep studying the Book of Mormon and praying, for his Mom's heart to be softened that she may allow him to be baptized, and for my companion and I to know how to help his family. I am so grateful that my parents, although they didn't understand or agree with my decision to be baptized, they didn't try to stop me and trusted in my judgement. I am so grateful to be blessed with such amazing parents.
I don't know what Bishop Davila was thinking when he asked me to speak in church, but I agreed, and spoke in church, in spanish. I was so scared! I have only been speaking spanish for 4 months, yet I was supposed to get up in front of the congregation on sunday and give a 7 minute discourse on how missionary work helps me to love the Savior. If he had asked me to teach about the Restoration that would have been no sweat, I do that several times a day. This was a bit of a challenge, just because I had to just talk in spanish, instead of reciting the words I am familiar with in teaching the lessons from Preach My Gospel. I think I did alright, no one boo-ed me off the pulpit, no one laughed hysterically because I said something wrong, so I will consider it a success haha even though I felt like an idiot because I had to talk slow and had to stop and think at times and figure out how to conjugate something. The Elders said I did a good job, but why would I trust them? ;)
Transfer calls come this Saturday, eek! I really don't want to be transferred! I love my area and all the families we are teaching! The rest of my district says I am out though, boooo! I will update y'all on Monday on whether or not I will stay or go. I love everyone so much and an grateful for your prayers, e-mails, letters, etc. :)

Love, Hermana Taets

Week 17

2010-04-04T19:48:00.000-07:00

Querido Famila y Amigos
This week was craziness. First, I will tell of all the ridiculously funny things that happened (all the letters I get express joy in hearing about me getting pooped on by the bird, so I will continue to document these precious moments of my mission).

1. We did a lot of tracting this week, trying to find some new people to teach and while we were tracting out this trailer part we approached a door and heard a loud whistle. No big deal, we kept going towards to door to knock, when we hear behind us, "Bueeeennnoooo". I turned around and there was this parrot in a cage on the porch! Coolest bird I have ever met. I tried to teach it to say "Mormon" but it wasn't having any of that, it was content in saying "Bueno" over and over, with a perfect Hispanic accent as well. Dang bird speaks better spanish than I do. Fail.

2. Saturday we tracted an apartment complex and this really nice family let us in and even got us each a glass of water and were just so nice. We started teaching them about the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ and that is when they turned on us. I won't say what sect of christianity they belonged to, but they were "Christians", you know, the kind that use the scriptures to argue and prove their vain traditions, bah. They were really hung up on this one scriptures in Corinthians that said woman need to cover their head when they prayer. They read it to us I think 4 times? Each time informing us that it was wrong for us to preach the doctrine of Christ with our heads uncovered. They told Hermana Blanco that she was raised in her religion and therefore didn't realize it was wrong because it is all she has known, so Hermana Blanco, of course, drags me into this war in saying that I joined the church 3 years ago and am the only member in my family. Their response, to me, was that I have been deceived and am very confused. I hadn't said much up until this point because I refuse to argue, especially as a representative of the Savior, I will not argue with people, but after this comment I simply stated that I searched for truth for a long time and prayed to god to know which church was true, and I received a clear answer from God that I cannot deny and know without a doubt that I am not confused. After this they returned to the discussion on head coverings and then the man repeatedly asked my companion if she was mad.."Are you mad Blanco? Are you mad Blanco?" and I had to try really hard not to laugh haha. Anyways, we finally were able to get out, they let us say a prayer with them and then we booked it out of there. Way fun. It broke my heart a little bit though to people with such closed minds and hearts, so unwilling to do the will of the Lord because they are so devoted to their traditions.

3. Hermana Blanco and I almost got eaten by a big dog Saturday. It was definitely possessed, it was walking backwards, no joke. So, we were hiding behind this truck while waiting for it to move so we could get to our vehicle. It was pretty intense, I thought my life was over haha.

Okay now for the serious portion of my discourse.

1. Yesterday was amazing. Carlos, Adela and Juan Carlos were all at church yesterday and during the past week we had taught them about tithing and fasting, and yesterday they asked us to teach them how to pay a fast offering to the church, so we did, and each one of them paid a fast offering. I love that family so much, it has been such a miracle to me to be able to teach them and watch their lives change as they learn the gospel. They haven't set a baptism date yet, but they are close, so hopefully this week. In gospel principals class everyone always has to introduce themselves and where they are from and when I introduced myself and Carlos said I was a Chilanga (Someone from D.F., Mexico) and everyone in class laughed, but hopefully this means my spanish is getting better, the Mexicans have adopted me and now I am officially from Mexico, woot woot.

2. Last week Elders Porter and Workman asked us to accompany them to a lesson with a 17 year old girl they were teaching named Karla. She keeps all of her committments, knows the Book of Mormon is true and has almost read the whole thing, but didn't want to be baptized because her Dad was not supportive. So, the Elders thought it would be good if I went over there and talked about my own challenge in being baptized without the complete support of my parents. She speaks english so I wasn't worried, but right as we were about to start the lesson, her mom and brother came to sit in too, and the mom only speaks spanish...so surprise! I had to now tell my conversion story in spanish. I can do it, but it's just harder for me to express myself in spanish. So I told my story and then Hermana Blanco talked about her Dad joining the church in the Philippines, and then the Elders committed Karla to set a baptismal date and she said yes! It was a really neat experience and the spirit was really strong in the room. I am really glad I was able to share my conversion and testimony of the gospel with Karla and am excited for the journey she has ahead of her.

I love being a missionary! Oh I might be getting transferred soon soooooo if you have been writing me at my apartment address, start sending mail to the mission office please. Gracias!

Hermana Taets

Week 16

2010-03-01T11:43:00.001-08:00

Hola Hermanos y Hermanas
(So, everytime someone says Hermanos y Hermanas I get a flashback of the Restoration video that we watch a ton with our investigators, because it is amazing, and there's this part that says "Hermanos y Hermanas, teneis fe?" Oh man, I love quoting that movie randomly throughout the day)
Speaking of the Restoration, I realized something this week about the Restoration: Satan HATES it! Almost every single time we share the story of Joseph Smith's first vision, something happens to interrupt us, or distract them from the Spirit. Por ejemplo: one time early in my first transfer we first just about to share the first vision when the child of the man we were teaching decided to nose dive off the couch and then started screaming, Several times the phone has rang, someone rang the doorbell, kids start screaming, almost everytime, something happens right as we start to share the first vision. Last week we were watching the Restoration video with these two younger girls and right when Joseph's knees hit the ground in the sacred grove, their mom crashes through the door, laughing hysterically and is like "Oh my [Good golly gee molly] (censored for your viewing pleasure), you have GOT to see this text I just got, bahahahahahaha who wants some tamales?....Oh hi...Sorry I interrupted Hermanas." And by this time the movie is practically over, Joseph just experienced one of the greatest miracles known to man, aside from the atonement of the Savior, and our investigators missed it. Bah. Satan is so dumb.
On a much lighter note, I am filled with such gratitude this week for those we teach and interact with. We are teaching several families and it is a miracle to me as I watch their lives change as they attend church and read from the scriptures as a family. There is no greater joy to be felt, I am convinced. I am so grateful for the blessing of being able to teach and to witness lives change. Our investigators are so amazing, and they just love us so much! I feel so spoiled. Everytime we go to Jaime and Maribela's or to the Patino familia there is hot chocolate waiting for us and pan dulce. Everytime our investigators say a prayer during the lesson they thank God that we came to teach them and pray for our safety and success. It still brings tears to my eyes when I hear them prayer for us. They always walk us to our car too, since we teach in some sketchy areas and they want us to be safe. The Patinos asked if they could feed us this week, and they are so excited! Hermana Patino likes to tease me and said she was going to make me some iguana wrapped in tortilla, haha, I told her to bring it on, I will eat it all up. I love these people so much, it's like having an additional, hispanic, family.
So, I think I cursed myself by telling Adela Patino that I would eat whatever she made for us (she also joked about making tiburon y ardilla, shark and squirrel) because I think I might have eaten bugs the other day... :/ We went over to a member's house and they gave us this bowl of something and said to just peel the shell off and eat it. Hna. Blanco kept asking what it is but wasn't familiar with the word, so we just ate it because that's what you do, you eat the food they give you no matter what. As I was eating I thought to myself that what I was eating kinda looked like bug, it was crunchy, kind of a see-through yellowish color, but I ate them, because it's the rule. The next day we were talking to the Stake President before Stake Conference and he is white but speaks spanish and married a hispanic, so we asked him what we had eaten yesterday and he said, "Well that word means wasp in spanish, but maybe they were just called wasps for fun." Haha he is so funny. So, I might have eaten some chili covered wasps the other day. Bring on the iguana shark squirrel casserole. ;)
Yesterday we went to visit a less active member and afterward we were standing outside talking about what we should do (since our next 3 appointments called and flaked on us). I was feeling like we should stay in the area and so I told that to Hna. Blanco, and she said okay, let's get in the car and go up a street where there are more houses. As we were about to get in the car I just felt like that wasn't right, and looked to my left and saw a small street with a few houses. I told Hna. Blanco that I think we should go up there and knock those houses. So, we got up there, came to a fork in the road, and this whole time I was praying so hard in my head that we would be led to a family who was ready to hear our message and prepare for baptism, and I felt like we should go left. So we turned left. We knockeda few houses, no answer, but eventually we came this one house, no one answered. As we were about to leave the wind blew pretty hard and the gate to the back porch blew open. So, I went over to the gate and looked and saw that there were people back there so I knocked on the gate. Two little girls came up and we asked to speak to their parents, so they went and got them. The parents let us in and we ended up teaching this great lesson and they said they would pray to know if what we taught was true and that we could come back this week and teach them some more! I am SO excited to teach them and see what happens. Who knows if they will comtinue meeting with us or be baptized, but I am so excited to find out! I have never felt guided like that before, and was rather surprised at how gentle the promptings came. It was nothing very clear or like a voice in my head, just a very gentle feeling of what I needed to do. I learned that we need to really pay attention and seek that guidance from the Holy Ghost or else we won't be able to hear it.
Well, the work is going great, I couldn't be any happier! Love you all!
Hermana Taets

Week 15

2010-02-22T11:35:00.000-08:00

Hola Chamacos (learned that word yesterday, haha)
About a million and one things happened this week!

1. Milagro!!!! That means miracle :) So, Jaime and is baby mama, Maribela, want to get married and get baptized, but are having issues because Jaime needs to divorce his wife, and then she is waiting for her citizenship, which she has already waited 10 years for, but if she gets married she has to start the process over. Anyways, we have been praying for the Lord to provide the way for them to be baptized and this week Jaime for out looking for his wife, visiting her family and friends and trying to locate her, and while he was out searching, the wife showed up at his apartment looking for him! Maribela said his wife came over looking for Jaime because she wants a divorce! They hadn't seen or heard from his wife in years yet she randomly showed up at their door! So on Friday Jaime and his wife went to see a lawyer, who just so happens to be the temple president and speaks spanish, and he is helping them file divorce and is providing his services free of charge! The divorce is still going to be around $1000 but that's with court fees and other stuff yada yada yada. So our next miracle we are hoping to see is that Maribela gets her papers and then they can get married and baptized!! I love teaching them, they read the Book of Mormon together and pray every night and Maribela is trying to get a new job so she can be at church with Jaime on sundays. They are such a beautiful family, with their two beautiful daughters, and I hope one day I will be able to witness them be sealed together as a family inside the temple.

2. On Wednesday we had our Zone meeting with the reporter and it went really way, she was very nice andsaid she hoped her article would help us have a better face in the community and help our work. So, I went to the zone meeting with the specific game plan that I would not speak a word, unless prompted by the Spirit to do so, to prevent myself from saying something that could be distorted and give the church a bad name. Can you guess what happened? I felt very strongly to make a specific comment and so of course I followed the prompting and said it. After the meeting she came up to me and asked me how old I am and where I am from....baaahhh I hope this doesn't mean she is going to quote me in her article. She had asked about miracles we had seen in the mission or good experiences and I talked about how I saw miracles outside of the mission, concerning my family, because of my sacrifice as a missionary. I said that when I was first baptized it was without a lot of support from my family, and that when I chose to serve a mission there wasn't a lot of support in the beginning either, but that now my family fully supports what I am doing and I know that they are being greatly blessed for my sacrifices in the mission. I don't think she could turn my comment against me in anyway, so hopefully I am safe.

3. In gospel principles class on sunday, the hermano teaching the class called my companion "Hermana White". It was beyond hilarious because her name is Blanco, which does mean white in spanish, so I think they might have assumed that she translated her name on her name tag, which is not the case. At one of our dinner appointments this week she got called Hermana White again, so I think it's spreading around the ward and I love it, I laugh so hard everytime they say it.

4. Alysa was baptized yesterday!!! I loved teaching Alysa, she is 11 and the granddaughter of a couple in the ward. Her baptism was so great, the feeling in the room during the baptism was so strong you could probably reach out and grab it. I had a received a tender mercy from the Lord during the baptism. Alysa's cousin, who is also like 11 or so, had planned on singing a musical number during the baptism program and she was very nervous, so I ended up singing it with her. We sang a primary song "A Child's Prayer", which we also sang at MY baptism. The same emotions I felt at my own baptism seemed to flood back into my heart and I had to hold back tears as I sang this beautiful song at the baptism of someone I taught and prepared. I am so happy for Alysa, we took some pictures so I will send those home when I can.

5. Four of our investigators were at church on sunday! Usually only Jaime and Alysa are there but yesterday we had three new investigators at church! I think it is because we had a District fast yesterday for the people in our areas to be prepared to receive the gospel. Woot Woot.

6. Someone told me Erica got a mission call?!!!!??!?!? to the very same state that I so happen to be serving in?!!?!?!? Oh man, Erica if you are reading this you owe me a letter like yesterday. I didn't even know she was planning on serving a mission! Congratulations Erica! Texas is awesome, the spanish people are amazing, I already love the culture and the people so much, I think I will tell people I am from Mexico once I get home and continue speaking spanish and shop at food city, hahahahaha.

Well there's your novel of the happenings within my life this week. I love and miss you all. I love being a missionary! I have never felt so happy!

Hermana Taets

Week 14

2010-02-22T11:33:00.000-08:00

Hola familia y amigos
Another transfer has begun! Craziness! This week was really busy, not many weird stories to tell this week, just the usual...knocking on trailer doors in the rain, getting chased by a big dog named "Nacho", still struggling to communicate...not just spanish but english as well. I think my brain just is on overload and turns on sometimes.
Last P-day we went to Five Guys for lunch, which is claimed to be better than In-N-Out....WRONG. It was no where near as good. 1. The bun was too big, the ratio of bread to burger was too high, 2. The grilled onions were way underdone and too big, 3. the burger tasted like something I could have made on a crappy grill in my backyard, 4. way overpriced, a cheeseburger and a drink over 5 bucks, didn't even get a fry, pshhhhh, 5. No spread, spread is what makes In-N-Out beat ever other burger place out there, ketchup just doesn't cut it. In-N-Out will always reign supreme. I shared my critique with the others missionaries at lunch and they think I am a complete weirdo and very biased.
On wednesday we had a zone meeting with President Hansen and with a public relations representative from the church because a reporter from the major newspaper in Texas is writing an article on spanish speaking LDS missionaries and will be attending our next zone meeting next wednesday and will also be asking us some questions. This is really exciting because if the reporter writes an honest article about our work as missionaries it could spark interest in the community and move along the work. But, it is also very scary, because if something we say is taken out of context or distorted then the entire church could receive a bad reputation. I am planning on keeping my mouth shut unless prompted by the Holy Ghost to share some insight. The reporter came to church with us on sunday and she seems very nice, but I still have my guard up of course.
On Friday we had an appointment with Jaime, and usually we teach him at his mom's house because she is a previous investigator and sits in on the lessons and also because we were previously teaching his sister and her husband as well, but on friday he wanted us to teach him at his house. He said it was close by, so we met him in a nearby parking lot and then followed him onto the freeway. As we were driving we watched several exits pass by until eventually we had driven right outside of the mission. I felt a little panicky but we decided to keep going and teach the lesson. We got to his home and met his baby-mama, who he lives with, and she sat in on the lesson. We taught the first lesson again, on the Restoration of the church, for Maribela's sake, and it went so well! We committed her to be baptized with then and there and she said yes! She said she knew what we taught was true and wanted to be baptized with Jaime. I was so happy! As soon as Jaime finalizes his divorce and marrys Maribela, we will be able to see both of them baptized and prepare to attend the temple to be sealed as a family. There is no greater joy then to witness a family come unto a knowledge of the gospel and witness the increased measure of love and joy the family receives through the gospel. I am so excited for them! We talked to President Hansen the next day to ask for the South mission's phone number since the missionaries that cover Jaime's neighborhood would have to be the ones to continue teaching them, but President said he wanted us to keep teaching them and talk to our Bishop to see if they can continue to attend and be baptized in our ward. I am so excited!!! Now we are just praying for a miracle for Jaime and Maribela, that he can get divorced and they can be married by Bishop in the chapel.
I love being a missionary, there is no greater joy nor greater thing I could be doing with my life in this moment. I love all you back home and am grateful for your prayers and support.

Hermana Taets

Week 13

2010-02-22T11:31:00.000-08:00

Hola Amigos

Wow time just flies, I cannot believe I have already completed my first transfer in the mission field! Only like...10 more of these and I will be coming home! I cannot even imagine what that will be like! My official go home date is the 18 of May 2011, which sounds soooo far away, but when I think of it in transfers it seems like no time at all because this transfer went by so fast, and apparently they keep going faster! We really got the work going in our area and finally have some solid investigators, 3 baptismal dates for this month, woot woot, and I just love being in this area. Transfer calls came on saturday, and the whole week everyone has been trying to guess who will get transferred and where everyone is going, it was really fun to witness. I had no clue where people are going since I am still a greenie and don't know anyone or the areas or nada. Everyone in my district said that I would be getting transferred because I don't need my trainer anymore...psh who knows where they got that idea, I still have a long way to go in the language! BUT, thank goodness, I get to stay! Hermana Blanco and I both are staying in the Fairbanks area, and since she only has two transfers left in the mission, it has been speculated that we will both stay here the next two transfers and I will be her last companion (in the mission the term is that I am going to "kill" her, since I will be her last companion in the mission). There is lots of funny terminology in the mission, for example, your trainer is called your "mom", so for funsies I always call Hermana Blanco "mom", the Elders think it's pretty funny. I am really hoping that I will get to "kill" Hermana Blanco and then stay in Fairbanks and train. I am pretty sure my spanish will be good enough by then, and the other stuff is easy-peasy, so hopefully I will get an "hija" (daughter) after I "kill" Hermana Blanco, haha.

I am still adjusting to the hispanic food. This week we ate at a members house and they served us "mole" (it is pronounced mo-lay). Hermana Blanco said it is chicken covered in a spicy chocolate sauce and when I heard that I imagined eating a chicken drumstick that was dipped in chocolate, yuck. But, once they brought it out it looked like normal chicken and it actually wasn't bad at all! I won't say I would choose to eat it again but it didn't really taste chocolatey and wasn't too bad. It was much better than the pupusas we had the other week, blah. I am starting to really enjoy tamales, weird haha.

This saturday we worked the Pulga again, but this time I loved it! I got to speak so much spanish and talk to people all day long! After being there for about 4 hours, we were able to get 37 referrals! Meaning, we were able to talk to 37 people who wanted to learn more and wrote down their addresses and phone numbers so that the missionaries could come teach them. It was awesome. The first person I talked to yelled at me and said some bad stuf about Joseph Smith so I just said..."um...tenga un buen dia!" haha. Angry people don't really bother me, if there wasn't any opposition to our message I would be more concerned. In the Bible it says a lot about the members of the true church being persecuted, so when it happens to me I just smile and am grateful to be in the true church haha. I had a really great experience at the Pulga! I was at the table helping someone fill our their information when this older man came up the me and said, "hay una luz en sus ojos," there is a light in my eyes, and he said he needed to know what it is we are selling. I told him what we offer is free and explained to him about the restoration of the true church through a prophet and he got so excited! He said that sounded beautiful and then I wrote down his info so the missionaries could go teach him. He thanked me several times and said he was excited to learn more about this beautiful message. I really had to hold back the tears at this point, I felt so touched to have met someone so prepared to learn and accept the gospel! I also felt so grateful that I all the work I am putting in to be a faithful servant of the Lord is paying off. It says in the Book of Mormon that we should have the light of the Savior in our countenance, and I am so grateful that that light is shining in my eyes as I share the exciting news of the restoration of Christ's church.

Spanish is going good, most of the time. I have been analyzing lately and have come to realize that my spanish is really good when I am talking to investigators or people on the street or whatever, but when I try to speak spanish with other missionaries or the members, I sound pretty stupid and it's as if a spanish switch has been flipped and I no longer have the ability to speak. When I was set apart as a missionary I was blessed with the gift of tongues in my ability to speak and understand the spanish language. I am starting to think that the gift of tongues only applies when it is absolutely necessary that I speak, like when I am teaching. I have been frustrated with this "spanish switch" but now I realize I should be so grateful that I have been blessed so much with the ability to speak spanish when it is necessary and when it is the Lord's will. I love spanish and am pretty sure that once I am fluent I will just never speak english again haha, ingles es muy feo!

Jaime is doing really well in preparing for his baptism. We wanted to do it this upcoming sunday BUT he needs to get married first to the woman he lives with and has two children with, in order to be keeping the law of chastity. He said that they would get married, but he has to get a divorce from his previous spouse first. This is the hard part because he doesn't know where she is exactly, so we are going to try and find some help for him, the houston temple president is a lawyer so we are going to call him and see what we should do. Jaime is so excited to be baptized, he loved church yesterday and asks questions and makes comments in all of the classes. We go to his house and teach him every night at 8 and I feel like he teaches the lessons more than we do! He knows so much! He loves to read and study, so he reads a lot in the Book of Mormon everyday and then all sorts of others books. I really want to be able to give him some more materials to study, but I am poor haha. This is where y'all come in. I am requesting that all who read my e-mails, if you ever come across a Jesus the Christ, Mormon Doctrine, or Triple combination with the Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants, IN SPANISH, please send it to me and I will pay you back. I can't afford a bunch of new books so don't go to Deseret and buy new books, BUT if you are at DI or come across some used church books in spanish it would be greatly greatly appreciated! Jaime will love you forever and so will I, haha.

Well, gotta run! I love you all and am so grateful for all your love and support!

Hermana Taets

week 12

2010-02-01T14:34:00.000-08:00

Hola!

This week was absolute craziness, so much awesomeness to share with y'all!

1. We had exchanges on tuesday, which is where you trade companions for a day. I went to the Cross Timbers area with Hermana Dewey, who happens to be my "sister" because Hermana Blanco trained her as well. Man, I thought my area was on the sketchy side, but Cross Timbers was was more ghetto, it was awesome!!! The investigators there were so legit! I taught in some pretty nasty shacks, and a dog chased our car allllll the way to the freeway, intense, but I loved it! Oh man, remember how I got pooped on a few weeks ago? I am so glad that happened! I got to use it as a teaching tool haha. So, we were teaching this man who has a baptism date for the end of Febrero but he didn't go to church on sunday, so we asked what happened and he said before he left he spilled something all over his nice white shirt and figured it was a sign that he shouldn't go to church. So, I jumped right in and said, guess what happened to ME haha I told him how on our way to the car on the way to church a bird pooped on my head, and how I could have let that ruin my day and stayed home or just been mad, but instead I washed my hair and went on with the day and ended up having a GREAT day, it was seriously a great day, I felt so good. Then I told him that I was really grateful for that experience because when we receive trials we are given the opportunity to rise above them and prove that we are bigger and better than the bad experiences we have. So I asked him what was going to stop him from going to church this sunday and he said "nothing!" and then said he was going to drive there earlier in the week to make sure he knew how to get there on time on sunday, haha. Thank goodness for that stupid bird! I loved being on exchanges with Hermana Dewey, she was so much fun! There was something about her and the way we taught together that gave me so much more confidence in myself as a missionary and in spanish. Don't ask me how but I taught a recent covert how to do family history online, and then I taught someone else the story of how the Salt Lake Temple was built with elevator shafts before elevators were even invented, and I did it in spanish! Whhaaaattt? Haha so many words just came out that I didn't even know...like espacios...haha it was awesome!

2. Last week we knocked on this man's door named Jaime who said he had met with missionaries a few years ago but it would be alright if we came and taught him. So, later in the week we went to teach Jaime and wow, we shared the story with the first vision and then he taught us like the rest of the Restoration, like about Joseph receiving the priesthood from Peter, James and John, and about translating the plates into the Book of Mormon, he knew more than me I think, it was crazy! So we asked him if he knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet and if the Book of Mormon was true and he said yes! So we asked him if he would be baptized on 14 Febrero and he said he was too scared to get baptized because he didn't think he could be perfect and never break any commandment after his baptism. So we taught him about repentance through the Atonement of Christ and asked him again if he would be baptized and he said YES. WOO HOOOOOO I was so happy I almost cried! He was so excited to, he went right to the calendar and started counting how many days until his baptism. This last month was so hard because we were teaching so many lessons every single day, but none of them were interested, no one we taught went to church, then lo and behold, Heavenly Father gives us this golden investigator, and I cannot even describe how happy I felt after meeting Jaime and seeing his excitement to be baptized. This is why I came on a mission. There is no greater joy then to see the light in someone's eye as they realize that God still loves His children and has restored His church once more. I am so excited for Jaime! We have lessons scheduled with him everyday at 8 to prepare him for his baptism, and it is going to be so much fun!

3. Last night we went to this young women (girls in the church ages 12-18) activity called "Nuevos Comienzos" (new beginnings) which is apparently something they do every new year and it was nice to go and support the young women as they work on their personal progress, which is this book of things they should do to progress in certain values (Faith, Virtue, good works, divine nature, integrity, etc.). So they do these things, like study certain scriptures, write things in a journal, and its a lot of work, but once they finish they get some kind of recognition, I don't know much about it since I was too old when I was baptized to do all that stuff, but it seems really fun! Anyways, after the program, some of the women in the ward came up to me and said that they had the atuff for me to do the personal progress too! They were so excited to give me the booklet and the journal and to help me earn my young woman personal progress, it was so sweet. I am pretty excited about it, I knew I would do it one day, I figured I would have to wait until I had a daughter in the Young Women program, but I guess I will be doing it during a portion of my personal studies in the morning. I started it this morning and am going to start by working on virtue. I almost finished the first task and learned a lot about what virtue is from the scriptures. I am really excited! I am really glad I will have the opportunity to do this before I have daughters so that I can set the example for them and encourage them to do it.

Transfers are next week, we get the call on Saturday if we are getting transferred. Pray that I get to stay here! I love my ward and all the people we are teaching, and I love my companion! I will let y'all know next week if I am getting transferred to a new area and companion. I love you all so much!

Hermana Taets

Week 11

2010-01-24T20:49:00.000-08:00

Hola Y'all,

This has by far been one of the strangest weeks yet of my mission! So many random things happened! I will try and document most of the weirdness in chronological order.

Tuesday: We taught an Ateo (atheist) who is from Peru, which was interesting to teach because it is so hard to teach the gospel to someone who doesn't believe in a God! It was so hard for me to understand his point of view when I see evidence that God exists every single day! The lesson seemed to go alright, he isn't interested in learning more but he was very polite about it, which is fine. Now this is where is gets weirder. On our way out the door we were saying our goodbyes and I shook his hand and before I could even understand what was going on, he pulls me in and plants a big ol' kiss on my right cheek! This small time frame of a few seconds is a little fuzzy because I was in utter shock, but I do remember feeling like someone just burned a hole into my face, and then without saying a word, turning and walking out the door. Now this would have been much weirder if he was American, but it is just part of the hispanic culture to greet with a kiss on the cheek. The women in the ward do it alllllll the time, but the men know that as missionaries we are not to be kissed, hugged, or anything past a handshake. I haven't even hugged a man since I was set apart as a missionary, so to receive a kiss was REALLY weird and I felt really really really gross. Once Hna. Blanco and I were out of sight we both squealed and jumped around and expressed out utterly disgusted we were, haha, the Elders thought it was hilarious and said I was an apostate missionary. Rude.

Thursday: I woke up feel very sick, just was really weak and like I was going to throw up. So, we called Sister Hansen and she said I probably had the flu that was going around and that I needed to stay in bed for 3-4 days. My reaction was "Chyeah right!" I did NOT come on a mission to lay in bed for four days! Although I was polite to Sister Hansen and said I would heed her counsel. In the afternoon, after I had slept for about 14 hours, Elder Astin and Elder Morin came over to give me a Priesthood Blessing. In the blessing, Elder Astin said that according to my faith and my prayers, I would be healed and able to return to the work tomorrow. This made me so happy, I knew that I would be healed, and so I rested for the remainder of the day, and prayed that I would be able to return to work tomorrow. On friday, bada bing bada boom, HEALED. I felt better than I had felt in days. That was so great, I would have been miserable being in bed for 4 days! I am so grateful for the Priesthood, and the many opportunities I have had to receive a blessing from my Heavenly Father through the mouth of a worthy priesthood holder.

Sunday: In the mission it is a rule that if we need to put the car in reverse, one companion has to stand behind the car and guide the driver out in order to prevent any collisions. So, on Sunday I was backing Hna. Blanco out of the parking spot in our apartment complex when I felt something hit me pretty hard on the head. I looked in the reflection on the car window and a bird had pooped right on my head. So, I told Hna. Blanco and we went back in and I washed it out of my hair really quick and then we were back on track to church. Although this was very very disgusting, even more than the Ateo kiss, but I wasn't really upset. The phrase "Come What May, and Love it" seems to be resounding in my ears every day. I just laughed it off and ended up having such a great day. This sunday felt so rejuvinating. All day long I felt such a sweet feeling of peace and of the love of my Heavenly Father.

The first few weeks of my mission have not been what I thought they would be, even Hna. Blanco has had some moments where she feels discouraged. I have to wonder if my first area is this tough, what will the rest of my mission be like? Super Blessed and full of baptisms! That's what it will be! :) I feel very blessed to be going through such a trial right out the gate, I know the Heavenly Father has a lot of trust in me and knows that nothing will get me down or discourage me from doing this work. I love being on a mission and know that if I grow in faith and work as hard as I can that we will be blessed with evidence of our success. I know that no effort is wasted, and although it seems like no one cares about what we are teaching, that one day they will come to a time when they are ready to learned and will be ready to nurture the seeds which my companion and I have planted.

My spanish gets better everyday. I still feel frustrated with myself of course, I am my toughest critic. I was talking to the ward mission leader about how much I want to be a good missionary and how impossible it feels when I can't communicate and he told me that I am doing so well and learning so quickly and then shared with me a talk from the 2006 General Conference that he has saved and it was very touching for me and although it was in spanish, I learned so much about my potential and being patient from it. Here is the talk in English if you are interested, it is way good http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=be4ae2270ed6c010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

I hope everyone is well, be praying for the people of Houston, Texas to be prepared to hear and accept the message that we are proclaiming. I love you all so much!

Hermana Taets

Week 10 or 2nd week in the field

2010-01-12T14:02:00.000-08:00

Hola mi familia y mis amigos,

I cannot believe another week has flown by! Everyday is so busy so time is going by pretty fast! So, this past week was kind of difficult for me. I felt so on fire when I got to Texas, ready to teach everyone about the restored gospel and really help people, but I am not really witnessing much of that haha. Almost all of our appointments fell through last week so we only taught like...14 lessons this week, and a lot of those were to members and less actives. I also still feel frustrated with myself because of my inability to speak the language. I can usually express what I need to, but I have to speak so slow and don't really have confidence when I speak. Every always says i speak very well and that I should be fluent in a month or so, but it is hard for me to believe that. Everyone is very encouraging though and makes me speak all the time, which I am very grateful for. On Saturday we had a table set up at the Pulga (flea market) and it was pretty successful, we talked to tons of people and like 15 people write their numbers and addresses down so the missionaries in their areas could go teach them. I was feeling pretty confident in my spanish because I had just talked to a ton of people, when at the end of the day I was talking to this man and it was really loud in the Pulga, and he spoke really fast, so I told him I was having a hard time understanding because I am still learning and that he could talk to Elder Morin, then the guy told me that he didn't want to talk to us if we couldn't speak spanish. So, that sucked haha. But, I am keeping my chin up! I know if we keep working, and just keep putting one foot in front of the other, that Heavenly Father with bless us with some golden investigators who have been prepared to hear and accept our message.

Sunday was way good, I felt like I understand way more in church this week than I did last week and could actually follow along with what was being taught. Two less-active families that we taught were in church on sunday and two of our investigators were there as well so that was like the highlight of my week, to see those people we taught, attending church :). Our two investigators are "eternal investigators" meaning they have been learning about the church for years and just never commit to baptism, but I have hope that we can help them and that Heavenly Father is preparing them. We also went to a baptism on sunday night, they were taught by the Elders in the Hollister area. It was so great! The Spirit was so strong! I love being with the spanigh members, they have so much faith and so much love for the gospel. When they sing the hymns they are bearing their testimonies as they sing and it always touches me to see their amazing examples for me.

We taught some random lessons through tracting, my favorite one was this black family we knocked into who let us in to teach them. It was a good lesson and the family is really excited to meet with the English speaking Elders. But...the house was pretty nasty. During the lessons I was just watching the cockroaches crawling on the floor, on the couch, on the furniture...mmm that's Texas for ya. I have seen some of the hugest monster cockroaches here! I will try and catch one to send home for a pet ;)

Well I better get going, I hope everyone is well! I love you all so much!

Hermana Taets

P.S. I met a little kid this week in my ward named "Angel Moroni". No joke. Cutest little kid I have ever seen, but man I laughed so hard when the Elders called him over to talk to us haha. I love all the little spanish kids! they always try to help me with my spanish and they always ask me to spin them around. After I give in and spin them they yell "otra vez otra vez!" which is like again again! haha I love the ward so m

week 9 or so FIRST WEEK IN THE FIELD!

2010-01-06T13:29:00.001-08:00

BAHHH I LOVE HER and how she still has a sense of humor! Happy Reading!

Hola Y'all!
Finally out in the field, chyeah! It was kind of a culture shock after being in the MTC for 2 months, and because I don't know the area, and because I can't communicate haha. There are like no white people here, which is suhweet because i have been called to teach in spanish so we have found a lot of people to teach. My companion is Hermana Blanco and she is awesome, I love her to bits. She is from Maryland and had been on the mission for over a year, so I might be her last companion. She is waaaay legit at spanish too and is just a really good missionary. We are whitewashing in the Fairbanks area of the mission, which is a little north of Katy. Oh, white washing means that there were 2 Elders serving in our area and the President transferred both of them out and put my companion and I there, so neither of us is familiar with the area or the members, it has been quite an adventure. The Elders only had one person they were teaching (probably why they were transferred out) so on Saturday we spent the entire day tracting (knocking on doors and just talking to anyone to make appointments) and we had some awesome experiences! We tracted for a total of 8 hours and we were able to make 11 appointments to return and teach! Nevermind the fact that most of them will probably flake on us haha two flaked out yesterday. We met two really solid potential investigators, one was a family and when we knocked they opened the door and showed us the picture of Christ found in the front of the BOM was hanging on the wall, and they had the Finding Faith in Christ dvd and had been watching it. I asked him if he had read the BOM yet and he said he really liked it. Hermana Blanco asked if he had already been baptized and he said "todavia no", which is like "not yet" in spanish. So, we are super stoked to teach this family tonight. Another one was we were tracting towards the end of the night and this nice lady answered and let us in and we taught her the first lesson about the Restoration of the gospel through Joseph Smith and about the Book of Mormon. The spirit in the room was so strong during the lesson, and the woman and her daughter looked so intrigued by what we were teaching them, we left a pamphlet for them to read and are going back to teach them again this week. They are basically golden.
We also had some interesting tracting experiences...One Catholic guy cussed us out in spanish haha it didn't bother me, I thought it was funny. We knocked on one door and this really sweet white lady answered and invited us in. The second we walked in I could feel that it was going to be bad (I love having the Holy Ghost with me to give me a heads up all throughout the day.) We sat down and started with a prayer and asked what she knew about our church and then she went all kinds of crazy on us about Joseph Smith. She also turned her tv on and showed us a recording of a "prophet" who was really this Australian biker dude with a perm. She asked how we could possible believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet if he didn't "test the spirits" whatever that is and said it was very frightening to know that so many people have been fooled by Joseph Smith. I tried to find away out of the place for like 45 minutes but she just kept on going on her tirade so eventually I basically said, "We really respect what you believe and are really grateful for the concern you have shown for our salvation but as missionaries it is our job to teach people who are intestested in our message and prepare them for baptism, and it doesn't seem like you want either one of those, so we really need to go." She proceeded to say that God had led us to her home so she could save us, and we were getting up to leave and she wanted to say a closing prayer with us, which we allowed. It was very sweet, and I am sure her intentions were pure, but she sure was feisty! Poor Hermana Blanco is so sweet and just wants to help everyone and was trying so hard to help this woman open up and see that the church is true and I think the whole situation upset her, so I am glad that I was able to pull us out of there. I wasn't really upset, more entertained by the situation. We tried our best and it is our job to invite, which we did, it's not my fault if she doesn't accept the invitation.
Life in Houston is ultra-legit, the members spoil us rotten. Y'all would be so proud of me, I ate the most delicious hispanic meal last night. It was a delish homemade tortilla with some meat, beans, rice, and salsa. That's right, I ate beans and rice, AND I totally liked it! Haha. I hope everyone is doing awesome. I am enjoying life as a missionary so much and feel like I am growing and changing every single day.

Hermana Taets

Week 8

2009-12-29T17:39:00.000-08:00

So sorry this is late! Christmas has kept me busy but here is her letter! YAY she leaves tmr for the field!!! YAHOO! Ps don't send Dear Elder mail anymore!

Feliz Navidad Familia y Amigos!
This week wasn't too eventful, just trying to learn spanish and prepare to go to TEXAS! I am soooooo excited to get to Texas and get to work! I know my spanish is no where near where it needs to be but I know as I make mistakes in the language in the field I will learn quicker and more effectively. So, basically I cannot wait to fail hardcore in spanish haha. This last week our teachers have been doing the spanish joke of the day, and they make me laugh SO HARD, they are just so cheesy and I love them. This one is my favorite:
Cuál es la difrencia entre de un Argentino y una vaca?
El Argentino dice "dale che!" y la vaca da leche!
HAHAHA I know it makes zero sense to you but basically it says, what is the difference between an Argentinian and a cow? The Argentinian says "dale che" (which is just a slang phrase. Mexicans say dale pues, I am pretty sure) and the cow gives milk. It's funny because of how close the words sound, not because of the direct meaning, so sorry if it's not funny, but it makes me laugh every time.
On monday we had a teaching evaulation and once we got back to the class, all of the Elders starting yelling basically, "HERMANA TAETSSS the ceiling keeps asking for you!!!!!" There is an intercom in the building that is used to page the missionaries, and apparently it had asked several times for me and said I need to go to a room in the Admin. building as soon as possible. When I heard this my heart just dropped, because the only time Elders in my District had been paged to the office was to be notified of a death in the family, so I was so scared and I pretty much ran to the front desk. When I got there the secretary told me to go into Pres. Clegg's office (He is a couselor in the MTC presidency). I sat down and he was way nice, asked me how my day was going and about spanish and then he got right to the point and said "Well, I called you in here today because we would like for you to speak at the Christmas Eve devotional on Thursday night. You will have 5 minutes to share the story of your conversion and tie it into a principle that the missionaries can learn from." I was so shocked! I had never even met Pres. Clegg before, yet he was asking me to speak in front of 2,400 missionaries on thursday! I am sure he saw my surprise and said, "I didn't choose for you to have this assignment, I prayed about who should speak Thurs. night and the Holy Ghost gave me your name, so because you have been called by the Spirit you just need to teach by the Spirit and you will do just fine." So, tomorrow night I will be speaking to all of the missionaries here, only for 5 minutes, but I am still pretty nervous, maybe more like petrified. I feel extremely honored for the opportunity I will have to share my conversion experience and also teach the missionaries something of value for their missions...hopefully haha. Be praying that I don't make a fool of myself!
I hope everyone has a super duper awesome Christmas. Although it is difficult for me to not be with my family at this time I know they are in the Lord's hands and will be taken care of. I am also grateful for the opportunity I have to sacrifice 18 months of my life for Jesus Christ, whom this holiday is all about. 18 months is a meager sacrifice for someone who gave so much, including his life, for me, and for that I will work as hard as I can, and devote all that I am, to serving Him and representing Him as I teach the people of Texas. I hope this holiday everyone takes time to ponder what Christmas really means, that Jesus Christ would leave His throne in heaven and descend to become a baby, born in such humble circumstances. I am grateful for all of the love and support I have received here at the MTC! This is my last P-day here, I fly to Houston next wednesday morning, so I don't know when I will be able to e-mail again, since I don't know when P-day is in Texas. Also, all letters should be addressed to the mission home address (16623 Hafer Rd. Houston,TX 77090) from now on and also I will not be able to receive Dear Elders in Texas, so make sure you don't write Dear Elders after Monday. I love you all and miss you and think of you and pray for you often.

Hermana Taets

Week EHHR 7?

2009-12-17T23:53:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia y Amigos,
This week was pretty average, still lots of studying and teaching, we finish learning all the grammer principles in spanish this week so the next two weeks we will just be reviewing and teaching each other the principles. We did this really neat activity last week called the "Silla de Humildad" or "Chair or humility" where we each took turns sitting in a chair in the front of the room and then everyone else said something nice about you. I was actually really surprised by some of the things that were said about me. One Elder said he admired my courage, which is something that is never attributed to me, since I am an anti-risk, anti-danger, sissy-la-la. He said that joining the church and then serving a mission as the only member in my family must have taken guts and he admired my courage in getting here. I really appreciated that, mainly because I have never felt courageous before, so I felt like I could go do more courageous things...like go to Houston haha. Another Elder said that he appreciated my love for laughing and that I have a tendency to make everyone else in the District happy. Several elders talked about my love for laughing, so I was glad that I am known as a happy camper, and not for the times when I get grumpy haha.

Last Saturday in the TRC we taught this sweet woman from Honduras and it was...interesting. I feel like I understand a lot in spanish and can speak a lot as well, but because she spoke so softly and quickly I probably understood 36.9% of what she was saying. So, she would talk and I am sure my jaw was just hanging to the floor. I felt pretty bad, but I was able to pick our words and phrases so hopefully I taught her correctly.

Ohhhh mi lanta, I am only here for another 2 weeks!!! Craziness, no? I am really grateful that I will be here on Christmas, my district has become like a family and I am glad we will get to spend the holiday together right before we depart for our separate mission fields. I am SUPER excited to get to TEXAS and get to WORK and get chased by dogs, get doors slammed in my face, make ridiculous mistakes in the language...etc. No, that was not sarcasm, we aren't supposed to be sarcastic as missionaries, I am actually excited for this character-shaping experiences.

Well, I love you to pieces and think of y'all often!
Hermana Taets

Week 6

2009-12-09T23:24:00.001-08:00

Hola Familia y Amigos!
It has been a fun week here in the MTC, I feel like I never stop laughing. It snowed all weekend, and believe it or not, I actually really like the snow! It makes it seem warmer outside, it makes a cool crunching noise under my shoes, it makes everything look like it has a thick layer of frosting on it. My companions told me to stand under this big snow covered tree and kick it, and of course I did it, and they took a picture while I did it that turned out so awesome! (I keep trying to keep pictures printed out to mail home but the kiosk has been sucking it up lately). The MTC grounds are covered in Christmas lights, and we are celebrating in the classroom too with a baby Christmas tree that Elder Leonard's family sent us. I feel like we are singing Christmas songs allllll throughout the day, and they are soooo much more fun in spanish, BTW. :)

Speaking of spanish...I just love the language! It is so much fun! We had our first spanish lesson in the TRC on Saturday and it was alrigggghhhhttt, it was pretty random because we would just skip parts of the lesson that we couldn't teach effectively in spanish. So, the lesson was totally random and not real good. I made a big boo-boo during the lesson; The couch I was sitting on was old and squeaked really loud every time I moved and at one point and decided, without thinking, to say "esta sofa es ASCO!" (this sofa is gross!) and the investigator said, "mi sofa?....en mi casa?" in kind of a sad voice. My jaw just dropped, I felt so embarrassed, but then he laughed and then we all laughed for a good while. My roommates have also informed me that I have been speaking spanish in my sleep and waking them up, oops. I have been caught saying, "Qué Malo Elderes!" (That's evil/bad elders!), "Quiere luchar?" (Do you want to fight?), and "Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial" (God is our Heavenly Father). So, at least I did some teaching in spanish...not too proud of the stuff I say in my sleep haha. My roommates find it very entertaining so Esta todo bien! (It's alllll good).

Right now the District is semi-tripping out because we might get shipped out to our missions a week early! I guess there is a big need for spanish missionaries so they are changing the spanish program to 8 weeks. We don't know if that affects us since it changed after we got here, but we are all hoping we leave the 29 still so we can all spend Christmas together. My District is like a big family, we all love each other and take care of each other, I am so lucky to be surrounding by such good missionaries.

Well, not much else going on, I hope everyone is doing well! I love you all very very very much!

Hermana Taets

Week 5

2009-12-03T16:40:00.000-08:00

Querida Familia y Amigas
Thanksgiving was pretty great. In the morning we heard from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and that was AWESOME. I love hearing from the apostles! After that we had nice meal with turkey, taters, gravy, stuffing, pie, the works, and it was pretty good. Then we had a service project where we put together medical emergency kits that the church distributes around the world after natural disasters and the like. I felt so good knowing that I am helping someone in need. In the evening we had a devotional where there were several beautiful musical numbers and also the had mics set up for missionaries to come down and have about a minute to say what they are thankful for. I felt strongly that I needed to do this and actually was one of the first people to share. I was so nervous that I forgot to say who I was, where I am from and where I am going, but I said some like this: "I am extremely grateful for my family. Although they aren't members of the church they are great people and they raised me to be honest and to always strive to be the best I can and I know that without realizing it they prepared me to accept the gospel. Even though they don't understand why I am serving a mission they write me every week and their letters mean more to me than anything and I am going to try and be my best as a missionary for them."

Last Saturday we taught our last english lesson in the TRC, so from now on we can only teach in spanish, prettttty exciting. So after we taught, our teacher had us all write break up letters to English, it was basically hilarious. I wish I had time to tell you more, maybe next week. Hna. Wardle's letter was the most brutal: "English, you make me vomit" hahaha.

On monday I had an awesome experience in the RC. I was chatting with a catholic woman for about a half hour and then she asked if I could call her and I did and we talked about the church for an hour, and she met with the missionaries on tuesday and asked me to call her back wed. (today) to talk about it. I love being a missionary and having the opportunity to help and to teach people. After the call I just felt so happy! It was lunch time and I couldn't even eat, the food had no taste compared to what I was feeling. This is why I decided to come on a mission, because I feel more joy than I can describe when I am sharing my testimony of Jesus Christ with others and helping them come to know that they have a Savior who loves them more than they can possibly know.

I love you alll!!!!!!! Please keep writing, letters are like insta-joy for missionaries :)

Hermana Taets

p.s. I only received letters from Dad, Mom, Addie, and Tina this week. It's nice to know who my true friends are ;) tee hee

4th week

2009-11-29T14:24:00.001-08:00

SORRY ITS LATE... I was busy on Thanksgiving break, but here it is!

Querido familia y amigos,
Thank you for all of your letters and support, I love hearing from everyone so much, it just brightens my day! Things are going great here at the MTC, I still love spanish, still learning an insane amount of information each day. Yesterday Hna. Patterson went home on medical release so her companion is with me and Hna. Wardle now in a "tripanionship" as Addison calls it haha. She is really sweet, but we are having a rough time adjusting to teaching in a threesome and planning together.
RC on monday sucked. I think the whole District felt like crap afterwards ha ha. We all received a ton of chats so we didn't make many calls, and most of the chats were just people playing tricks on us, cussing us out, and saying things that are really crude. I had a really bad experienced that I won't discuss in detail, but I felt very discouraged and heart broken afterwards. I said a prayer for strength though and got right back to work. I tried to call the woman I talked to last week but she wasn't home, so I will try again today. I hope this means she found a job! I hope I can get ahold of her and see how she is doing.
Yesterday for the Tuesday Night Devotional we had the honor of hearing from Elder Dallin H. Oaks (one of the Twelve Apostles) and his sweet wife. Something that really stuck with me that he mentioned was that missionaries usually struggle with "becoming" a missionary, and said that something should change inside of us. As I pondered about how much I have changed I felt a little ashamed that I haven't changed that much since I have been set apart, or at least I don't feel like I have. After the devotionals we have a district discussion and I brought up my thoughts and the elders all said they feel like same way but that we really have changed, we just haven't noticed, so that made me feel better. We also all took a few moments to describe how it felt when an Apostle of Jesus Christ walked into the room. It was a beautiful experience and I loved watching the elders describe the feeling with tears in their eyes. I wish I had time to describe the experience but I could never do it justice, it was a true blessing and I know that he is a true Apostle of the Lord.
Happy Thanksgiving! I am super excited for tomorrow because we don't have any classes tomorrow wooooo hooooo! We have the big dinner in the morning and then we make sack meals for the rest of the day so the cafeteria workers can be with their families. Then we are doing a humanitarian aid project, I am not sure what it is, but I hope we get to color ;) After that we have study time and then at night we have a devotional, most likely another Apostle, wooooooo! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, I love you all so much!
Hermana Taets

WEEK 3 :D

2009-11-19T18:45:00.000-08:00

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!
Time is finally starting to fly by, thank goodness! I am so anxious to get to Texas and start teaching people about the restored gospel! I love speaking spanish and think I must be learning because last week I was blessing my food and I wanted to thank Him for something but I could not figure out how to say it in english or in spanish! It was a little frustrating but luckily around 10 at night I remembered, MOTIVATED! Ha ha.
I had the most awesomest, lo maximo, experience in the Referral Center this week! Ok so every monday my district goes to the RC for an hour or so and in the RC we answer phones and make calls. I guess there are comercials on tv advertising free dvds and books and such and so when people call those numbers they call the MTC and we missionaries speak with them, and then we also call them back to make sure we received their items, and people can go to mormon.org and do a live chat and they can ask us questions. So before I made my first outbound call I said a prayer to be able to reach out and help God's children today and the very first call I made a man picked up and said that the person I was calling for was not home, that he was a roommate. So I explained I was calling from the LDS church and asked if his roommate received the free Bible he ordered, he didn't know. Then I asked him if he read the Bible, and for awhile we talked about what he liked to read and then I told him about the Book of Mormon and that it helps me to learn about Christ as well and then I asked if he would read it. He said YES and he said I could have missionaries bring him the Book of Mormon! I was so excited, and I think he could tell, haha!
Next, a chat window popped up from someone named "Jesus". I said hello and asked how he was doing, and he responded, "Madison, do you believe in me?" Right away I knew this guy was messing with me, so I said I believed in Jesus Christ as my Savior and that I also believed in the person I am talking to and that's why I am here willing to help him. Then he said "Do you believe it is I talking to you now?" and I said "Jesus Christ communicates with us through the Holy Ghost, not a chat messenger" and then he said, "Your lack of faith appalls me, SUCK MY....bleep....bleep...bleep". At this point everyone was looking at me because I had kind of yelped and put my hands over the screen, ha ha. I immediately signed out of the chat, took a few minutes to compose myself, and then I received an inbound call.
The call was this sweet woman, late 30's, from California, who was calling to receive a free Bible. I asked her if she attended a church, she said she started attending a Christian church recently and I said I was so excited for her and then I talked about how much I love the Bible and reading about Christ in the New Testament. Then I asked if she knew about the Book of Mormon and she said no, so I told her it was another testament of Jesus Christ and explained a little more about it. I asked her if she wanted one and she said, "Is it free? I have been umemployed since January and can't afford anything." I could just hear the sorrow in her voice and told her it was free and told her I was sorry for her situation. Then I felt it was appropriate to ask if I could pray for her and then she started crying over the phone and said, "would you please?" I told her I would and told her God loved her and as she prayed if would help her. I asked if it would be okay to send the missionaries to her because they could introduce her to the church's unemployment program and help her find a job but she said she wasn't ready yet, which is fine, I am hoping I will be able to call back next week and see how she is doing.

Well time is up, I love you all and love hearing from all of you! I love being here in the MTC and love helping other people come unto Christ :)

Te Quiero
Hermana Taets

Letter #2

2009-11-13T09:40:00.001-08:00

Madison sounds so good! And it sounds like she still has her sense of humor! Gotta love that girl! Enjoy :D

Hola Mi Familia y Mis Amigos!
Things are going great here at the MTC, I feel like time is started to go by a bit faster (thank goodness, I am ready to get to Texas and get to work). One of the Sisters in my District got sick last week and she had all of the symptoms of swine flu so she was moved to the quarentine dorms and will be there until 5 days after she shows no symptoms. So, the health clinic put all of us in the District on a legit anti-viral called Tamiflu and I have felt no symptoms of flu, so don't worry! Because her companion is in the quarentine, My companion and I also have another sister in our companionship. Hermana Wardle says that this is all my fault because she knew I had been praying for charity and patience, and we are definitely struggling with that with our new companion. She is a smart, nice girl, I think our personalities just clash a bit. Yesterday I told her that her lunch smelled like dirty shoes and she told me that I was going to get colon cancer because I eat so much beef.....we get along just great :) I love Hermana Wardle, my real companion, we are like two peas in a pod, she seriously keeps me sane.

Last Saturday we had our first task in the Teaching Resourch Center (TRC). This is where members of the church from the Provo area come and volunteer to act like investigators and let us practice teaching them. First we had to contact two people in spanish and ask them if we can teach them more, that was fun, the first guy we didn't gage time very well so when our teacher said it was time to switch I hadn't even brought up the gospel at all, so I quickly said "Cree en Jesucristo.....Adios!" Basically I asked if he believed in Jesus and then ran to the next room haha. After contacting we were supposed to teach a 35 minutes lesson on the Restoration of the church as a companionship and me and my two companions were assigned to teach this older Japanese woman. We started the lesson by getting to know her and found out that she is very very negative, she felt like she had no hope in her life, that God didn't love her because he didn't help her, and she had no family, friends, or job. Instead of teaching about the Restoration we all taught her for 35 minutes that God loves her and will answer her prayers. As I taught her I felt such strong emotions, as if the lesson was real and this woman really felt this way, and I felt such a strong desire to help her and for her to know that God loves her. After talking to her and helping her to see all of the blessings in her life we challenged her to prayer to God and promised that she would feel His love and we promised to help her in anyway and to be her friends and not leave her alone. After this the woman buried her head in her hands and began to cry, and then we all shed some tears as well. I think the lesson was all too real for us, and not just pretend. I know the Lord is in this work, why else would I feel so much love and why would I feel so much sorrow for the pains of this stranger, who was merely pretending anyways. I know I am supposed to be on a mission and that there are people in Texas, specific people who the Lord has prepared, who need my help in coming unto Christ and finding lasting happiness.

I am so grateful for all of the letters and support I am receiving, I am truly blessed. After lunch when the District leader gets the mail it is seriously like Christmas morning and everyone is so excited. So, don't every worry that I am getting too many letters ;) I love hearing from all of you and love you all very very much!

Hermana Taets

YAY! Madison's First Letter!

2009-11-07T09:27:00.000-08:00

So it got to me today! and I am so excited for you all to read it! She sounds so happy! And if you haven't written her yet, DO IT!

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!
Today is my p-day (wednesday) so expect an e-mail from me every wednesday, and today is the only day that I am supposed to write letters home. The MTC is great! The long days were a little rough to get used to at first, we wake up at 6:30 am and have a full schedule until 9:30 pm, with 6 hours of class, 4 hours of studying, and other activities in between. My companion is Hermana Wardle from Utah and she is great, we get along perfectly and I am so grateful for her. We both are really committed to learning spanish and try and speak it as much as possible. I have a personal goal to meet 3 random people and get to know them in spanish each day and I have kept my goal thus far and feel like it has really helped me to feel comfortable speaking spanish. I also say all of my prayers in just spanish and feel it really helps my prayers to be more meaningful because I have to really think about what I am saying and then translate it.

I had a really great experience with spanish on sunday! During the week my teacher, Hermano Coles, was telling us that if we have true faith in Jesus Christ we can draw upon the powers of heaven and call down miracles. This struck me to my core and I knew that if I am a bold, courageous missionary, having faith that God will provide for me in the very hour of my need, then I can witness miracles during my mission. This sunday happened to be fast and testimony meeting and for missionaries who have just arrived they can bear their testimony in english if they want, everyone else has to do it in spanish in our branch. During church I knew it was time to exercise my faith and have courage, and I knew I needed to bear my testimony in spanish, even though I had only been learning the language for 3 days. My heart was beating so fast it felt like it was in my throat, but I approached the stand and began to bear my testimony in spanish. It was really shaky at first, probably because I was so scared, but after the first phrase I really got going and was able to speak clearly and correctly in the spanish language. Ever since that morning I feel like I have been blessed with the Gift of Tongues in learning the language and being able to understand and communicate the language. When I speak to other spanish missionaries they are always shocked that I have only been here a week! :)

I am learning so much about the Gospel as well, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ has new personal meaning to me. I have felt so strongly the love of Jesus Christ and of my Heavenly Father during my short time here. Everyday I feel their love through the Holy Ghost and I know they are pleased with the decision I have made to serve their children in Texas. I know that I will be blessed for the rest of my life for this decision and my family will be greatly blessed in my absence. I love you all so so so much and miss you! If you want to write me and don't want to use postage you can go to www.DearElder.com and type up a letter to me and the MTC prints it out that day and hands it to me in class :) So yeah....write me, I haven't gotten any mail this week and would really like to hear from you, especially Mom, Dad, and Alli, I miss you so much, please write so I don't have to wait until next Wednesday to read an e-mail.

Te Quiero Mucho!
Hermana Taets