April 25, 2011

Not a ton of time but here it is.

Please read "Help Them on Their Way Home" General Conference, May 2010 Henry B Eyring. So good, lots of thoughts with that.

On Sunday we had 3 male investigators at church, that was a little akward. You want to help them but then you are 3 Sisters. Anyway, kind of funny but some returned missionaries helped us out and did their job.

I had the chance to talk about the importance of prayer. A lot of people are really hesistant to pray when we teach them. We ask, then they always say no you can pray. But prayer is so important, it's the way for us to receive revelation. This one time with Fabiana, I don't have a picture but she is pretty cool has 3 kids and is pregnant lives with mom, and she was having a really hard time so at the end of the lesson I explained why we pray and that it's a chance to talk with our Heavenly Father. That really is where everything starts - is understanding our relationship with God. So I committted her to pray and when we went back she had!! So cool. Then her son went in the other room and we saw him praying! I thougth WOW the example of parents is so important. I can see their family changing, little by little, I love them so much and want to help them but it all starts with their desire.

Another family, Karilene and Siderlie! So neat. We taught about the law of chastity and the importance of marriage. They are amazing, love them too.

We tried to make smores, they are different but good! Always good!

I love you all. I have a testimony and knowledge of families. I love the song, "I Am A Child of God", it has new meaning for me now and I want to be better because of it. I learn from all of you, thank you for your examples. We can continue to grow together.

Love, Sister Taylor

April 18, 2011

Me and my companions.

A typical street.

My apartment building.


First off this is going to be a random letter and I hate this keyboard. :)

Fact: I miss the temple! I got so used to going every week that I miss the peace it brought into my life! I thought this morning that is the first thing I want to do when I land in Pasco, go to the temple!!!!!!

I need simple super easy recipes. I made german pancakes the other day and my comps loved them, but I can't think of anything else to make. They have different ingredients here. It's tough. They have this dessert called brigadero!! So good, we eat it with pancakes A LOT!! Look it up on allrecipes.com but it's really simple: 1 can sweetened cond. milk, 2ish tbs butter and 3ish tbs coco pówder. On the stove melt together med-high heat. Stir constantly, add the coco powder, keep stirring. It's done when you can shift the pan and it kind of moves together. Then we just put it in a tupperware and refrigerate it and then eat it on anything!! So good!!! I love it. I always want to make it, my comps laugh at me.

Tell Kevin Moss that the toilets flush counter clockwise here, he asked before I left. How is it in the US? I don't remember.

Oh and everyone here has dogs. Like at least 5. It drives me crazy.

I met a boy in our ward, I am 98.5% sure he is on the autistic scale!! As soon as I met him I kind of forgot about missionary work for a few minute, but I came back to reality and focused but I was so excited. I dont know why but my heart goes out to autistic children so quickly. I love it!!!!

Yesterday in church, we had one investigator there, it was cool. He is probably 45 and his wife died 5 months ago. He was a pastor for a church (this is all I have picked up on, my comp keeps explaining it to me). He was at church last week too, but this week he said he would go. Then Sunday he called and said that he needed to go to a sick family memeber, then he called back an hour later and said he would go! So we went and got him!! He is cool. His daughter is 7 and TOTALLY HIGH ENERGY!!! I think she has a condition of something, I don't know what. She sat with us in church, I think her dad needs break, and the whole time she moved from one thing to the next. In this ward, the kids kind of roam around, at least some of them do. It's interesting, so it's really hard to keep her in her seat. I love her but it gets hard. Good thing there are 3 of us Sisters or else I might go crazy on Sundays!

My ADDERSS! There are 2, both are good!

Sister Kat Taylor
Missao Santa Maria
Rua Alberto Pasculine 121 Sala 403 Centro
97015-970 Santa Maria-RS
Brazil

The other is:
Sister Kat Taylor
Caixa Postal 0339
Santa Maria-RS
97001-970
Brazil

I dont know why the zips are different......oh well.

I had a really cool week. We found 2 families that are really really special to me. The first was a young man and woman with a one month old baby. They invited us in quickly, which was cool for me because I did the contact and my Portuguese is really weak! :) We usually teach the first lesson about the Restoration in 2 visitis because it's kind of a lot to take in. But with them we finished the first part and he asked questions that lead to the second part so we taught it, it was cool! They are really neat. The second family has 3 daughters and in the lesson (the dad was in the lesson too - that is really special to have everyone in the lesson, usually the husband will get the wife and she listens while he leaves or watches tv or something) but he willingly sat in and I got to talk to him about the love of daughters to their fathers and how in family we have the chance to learn from each other and gain experience. This is the part I usually teach! I love it, it's so cool to see how my understanding of Heavenly Tather and his love for us and families has grown, really cool. It was cool to talk directly to him, in a room full of women about their love for him and to say that I konw it's true because it's the same in my family!! Really special for me.

The other really neat experience was while we were knocking (clapping) doors, we came to one that the mom answered (she is probbly 30) and invited us in quickly. We get in and she has all of these DVDS like 'Finding Faith In Christ' and so we asked if she was a memeber and they are!!!! :) They have been members for 2 years but inactive for 1 year. Her husband works Sundays and she doesn't know how to drive. Also their one son has muscular distrophy (I think, or somehing like it) and they live pretty far out but their home felt really good. A lot of love in that home. I shared a message about 3 Nephi 14:7-11 about ask and ye shall recieve and God's love for us. As I was talking I kept thinking about an experience that I will share in a minute. But I was talking about God's love for us and answering prayers and I strted to cry. It's the second time that in testifying I have cried. I think I am kind of a cryer, never thought that before but I think its true. I feel kind of weird saying that! Buts it's true. So this experience. Every night I pray that Heavenly Father will help my body rest and relax to have the energy that I need for the next day, and to help me sleep in whatever way he knows is best for my body so that I can do the work the next day. EVERY single night, I wake up 2 or 3 times and I check my alarm clock and there are 4 more hours to sleep. 3 more hours to sleep, and then 1 more hour and always before the alarm goes off, about 10 minutes before I start to wake up. EVERY NIGHT. It's really cool and special for me because that never happens on its own, never consistantly at least. But I know that my Heavenly Father helps me, it's so small and so simple but I know it's not me. I love it because I show my desire and ask then regardless of the outcome I say I will wake up and get ready for the day. It's a miracle for me.

For all of you, I know that Heavenly father loves you. I Know that because he loves us, we are born into families. The desire we have for a family is a blessing from heaven. The world works so very hard at hurting the family. The importance of families is far more significant than we know. Heavenly father gives us familes to help one another, to learn and grow from each other and gain experience in this life, to bless us in the next. The love we have for our family is a type of love that Heavenly Father has for us, but I cannot even imagine the extent that his love reaches. I know that if we are strong in our family and desire to follow Christ, ALL things are possible. All things, any heartache, any hurt, any trial or tempation. I know that Heavenly Father knows us all and wants to bless us, we have to turn to him because he is always ready. We have to demonstrate our faith. These words are simple, I do not know how to make them any more elegant but I feel them so deeply that I can not deny them.

I love you all! Do not forget that.

From Brazil,

Your Sister Taylor :)

April 11, 2011

Hello!!

So this week...well this morning I woke up feeling strange and threw up. Not very fun, then I had diahhria. No fun either. I think my body is just adjusting to Brazil. But no worrries I am drinking lots and resting. I am just grateful that it happened today on our preparation day and not on another busy day. I think it will pass quickly.

I am just outside of Santa Maria!! My area and where I live is called Camobi! We also cover an area close that is called Sao Jose. We cover a total of 21,000 people with just us 3 missionaries!! Lots of work to do! Look it up on google earth, see if it shows it!!

I think there are only 4 areas that the President of our mission usually puts the sister missionaries. People tell me that we have 11 total sister missionaries in the mission. Not very many in my opinion but someone said they think we have 170 missionaries total in our mission. Pretty cool.

Things I need- sticky notes and pictures of the family!!! Jake was right I really want pictures of everyone, preferably in 3 or 4 pictures together, so I can show people when I talk about you all. I was talking about the importance of families the other day and I started crying, they probably thought, oh this girl is crazy!!!! :)

I live in a little apartment. There are 6 apartments in our complex and our building is bright green! I love that Brazil has so many colors. So cool! We have a little grass and a drive way. Every single house here has a gate around it so we clap when we come to houses to enter instead of knocking. Pretty cool.

I speak better portuguese in my head then I do out loud. And also when i pray. I gave the closing prayer in sacrament meeting on Sunday and the Branch Presidency was overly nice in telling me that I speak very very well. I kept thinking oh your so nice. I know I don't speak very well because when I talk to people on the street they have a very confused look and then look at my companions. :) But it's good! Kind of funny. I have a hard time understanding when people talk. Of course they all talk different and at different speeds!

SO CONFERENCE last weekend, I don't remember if I wrote about it last week, that feels like a long time ago! But it was amazing, I think the best one that I have ever heard. It was realy nice to listen in English and understand everything with the little jokes!

So my mission!!! this is amazing! I really love it, remember how when I took the anatomy class I talked about it all the time for a few months???? :) Well this is going to last a lot lot longer :) the rest of my life, so just get ready. :)

The roads here vary from paved to cobble stone-ish to dirt with rocks. My feet hurt every night but I am blessed. Every night I pray to rejuvenate and be ready for the next day and my body always feels better! It's a big blessing. The houses vary from humble beyond belief to very nice. One street over the houses will be very different, it's interesting. Every once in a while I think: oh wow, I am in Brazil right now: it's kind of crazy.

I am doing good, slowly understanding more and more. The Lord is teaching me patience with my abilities and with myself. I had a little break down the other day but I am feeling capable again, that is what it's all about, right. It's life, we fall and feel hurt, then we turn back to Heavenly Father and start again. It's amazing that this life is all about learning and progression and that we get to have a family to do that with. It amazes me every time I think about it. I love you all. I pray for you all and wish you the best. Keep me in the loop!

Love, Sister Taylor

Funny, our ward mission leader is from Santa Maria and served in Idaho!!! The Pocatello Mission. I was looking at his pictures the other day and I didn't realize how much of a culture we have back there, but it's so different from here. As I looked at the pics I thought, wow I understand all of that, the hunting and church baseball and the little play on words. and then I realized how much I have to learn in Brazil!!!!
Anyway cool story.

April 4, 2011

BRAZIL!!!

My p-day is Mondays!!! I feel like we have a lot more time for p-days in the field than in the MTC, probably because we got to go to the temple...I wish we had a temple here. I have 2 companions. Both brazilians! Which is a blessing. They can talk to each other and they don't always have to be frustarated with me not understanding. They are good about explaining and being patient. The one thing I wish is that I really had the ability to express my emotions like I do in English. After we study individually or after we watched conferece (I got to listen in English! What a blessing, I finally understaood everything that was going on!!! and it was amazing, wow it just felt amazing.) after these things we talk and all I can say is: ya it was good, I really like it, it talked about faith and I felt really good. It's kind of annoying, they probably think I am really spiritually shallow. It's hard when people are trying to explain so they talk slower but I don't know the words anyways so I just smile and say I don't understand. Every once in a while they will talk about me and I am not sure what they are saying so I just smile. (I understand how a lot of the hispancic people feel when americans try talking to them and say the exact same thing just slower, it doesn't really help.) But it is true that I am slowly understanding more. At first I couldn't hear when one word started and one word ended. But it's getting better. When we contact people, they respond to my questions but I have no idea what they say, I can pick out words but when I just stand there my Sisters jump in and respond to what they say. So I need to work on that. It's hard to teach in portuguese, I know the doctrine in english but in portuguese I forget what I want to say. I practice teaching my copanions and today Sister Rebiero(this is her last month in the mission, crazy) got annoyed and said, k go and write down exactly what you want to say word for word, read it everyday and practice. I felt a little chastized but it's good, it is helping me grow even if it is hard to feel like your being talked down to. My other sister is Sister Pereis Santo. She is cool, really good about explaining and writing things down. I am learning that I am so visual!!

So it's HUMID!!!! My eyebrows are curling, it's that humid, and this is their fall, I can't imagine the summer and how cold the winter will be in 2 months. When I wake up it's like a clamy sweat, kind of weird, and my hair is a disaster!!!! Really I have NO idea what to do. If I put gel in it I want to leave it down, it would probably be pretty but it's way too hot for that so I put it up but no matter how tight I do it the front still curls and frizzes. Really attractive.

So I love the people here, a lot of people look at us really weird so I just say hi and smile. the Brazilian people are just beautiful! There is a lot of European influence here, so several people have told me I look brazilian. I hope one day I sound like a Brazilian. One woman keeps saying I am so beautiful every time we see her, it's nice but I don't know how to respond besides, thanks! The first time she kept talking about it I got the drift of what she was saying but I didn't understand if it was a compliment or if she was analyzing me. So ya culture!!

Everything!!! here is different, the way they talk, interact, their voice inflations, obviously the language, the way they clean and cook and everything. They are really animated. The other day I was talking to a woman and sharing my testimony about faith and she cut me off and started talking to the other sisters, I thought she was mad. When we left I asked the sisters and they said no she was agreeing with me..... I have A LOT to learn.

People here love evrything American. The music, the movies, the food. Everything. It's interetsing, I will hear these american songs and they have no idea what they say but they like them.

When they try to speak English I keep thinking, oh that is what I sound like trying to speak portuguese. :) Makes me love my companions more for being patient.
They have what is called the x burger. It's a take of the hamburger but WAY different. It has a very thin patty with a thin egg and then lettuce and ketchup in a bun but then it has this weird sauce and lots of veggies..... they love it!!!! It's ok, but a legit hamburger would be nice. some day when I understand how to speak I will pay someone to make a legit one for me...... yummm.

I like the food here, the rice and beans everyday are great, then we have a meat and a salad. Really good salad. One was a hard boiled egg and tomato cut up with fresh lime. Actually really really good!!!

I love the gospel, after listening to conference I felt like I was floating as we walked to the bus. The atonement is real, repentence and baptism is the way. It's simple and beautiful and takes faith.

I love you all. Brazil is great. I pray for you and love you!!! Write and tell me whats new.

Love always - Sister Taylor