Good Days Great Days

This week has been fantastic! So many wonderful things have happened
over the last 7 days!
Best news of the week......
WE ARE HAVING OUR FIRST BAPTISM!!!!
Yahhhhhoooooo!
For about a year Lauryn has been working with missionaries off and on.
All of her family joined the church last spring but Lauryn wanted to
wait a little longer to make sure it was right for her too.

The rest of the details of Lauryn's story are very similar to mine.
She is 15 almost 16, has been actively participating in church for a
while now and lives the gospel standards. She basically is Mormon -
just hasn't been baptized yet!
We stopped by on Thursday this week for a visit and she said she wants
to be baptized... next week! So next Sunday - December 20 the we are
having the baptism!

This week I learned some new skills during a service project. Each
week we have a compassion planet afternoon at the church. Lots of
people from the community come together for quilting, sewing and other
crafty activities. I was helping out in the pillow section, stuffing
and hand sewing pillows closed. I now know how to complete an
invisible stitch. Hopefully this week I'll perfect the art!

I'm sending out a shout out to my lovely father Dan who is having a
birthday this Sunday! I have always admired what a hard worker he is.
He works long hours outside in the freezing cold Edmonton winters and
the blazing hot summers to provide for our family. He also has amazing
mental math abilities...a skill I have always been jealous of! I don't
know of anyone else who can calculate numbers as fast and accurately
as he can.

We had our ward Christmas party on Friday! It was a Nauvoo theme so
everyone dressed up in their pioneer clothing and enjoyed some olden
time games and yummy food. It was decorated so well- you didn't even
feel like you were in a church building. So much effort went into the
party, making it a fantastic evening!! It was a great missionary
opportunity as well.

We had the chance to go to the Marston's house this week to have a
lesson with Ben and Dennae about the restoration. We showed a short 20
minute video about Joseph Smith and how he was able to restore the
gospel, as Christ taught it while He was on the earth. I know that
Heavenly Father used Jospeh Smith as an instrument in bringing back
the fullness of the gospel. I'm grateful that he gave Joseph Smith the
ability to translate the Book Of Mormon from the golden plates. I have
grown to love that book so much more in the past 2 months. I'm
grateful that Heavenly Father does guide and direct us and that we can
have the gospel now. The spirit was so strong in Ben and Dennae's
lesson! Ben said he is so glad we came around and that we have been
like angels for them as they are learning about God.

I have been so grateful for President and Sister Marston. On the
mission they become like your parents. President Marston kind of
reminds me of my dad. Every time we go to the Marston's house
President Marston sends us home with a carton of raspberries (my
favourite)!! This is something my dad does for me back home. Anytime I
come for a visit he packs me up a little treat to take home. I feel
like California is my home away from home!

This week I also earned a new nickname ....Sister Toyota. Michael (a
little boy from church) keeps calling me this. He is convinced that it
is easier than Taylor. Ha!

Another highlight from this week was the opportunity we had to go to
the Sacramento temple for the Christmas nativity. It's technically out
of our area but we got special permission from President Marston to go
because we had investigators coming along!
It was SO BEAUTIFUL!!! I have loved the Sacramento temple since I was
16 & never thought I'd see it. Opening my mission call in May was
surreal. The temple is a holy place! They put on a live nativity from
Thursday to Sunday - it was wonderful! The baby who played Jesus was
not happy. He cried the whole time! Ha! Lots of people showed up, they
even had to turn people away because it got too late and the line up
was still insanely long.

We had our Zone meeting this week as well. Once a month all the
missionaries in this part of the Roseville mission get together for
training. It's a great learning experience and a fun chance to seethe
other missionaries.

One last thing...I LOVE  PERSIMMONS!!!! They are nothing like I
remember them back home. A member gave us a bag of them that she grew.
I can't stop eating them!!! They are so great in salads, smoothies,
with cinnamon, as a bed time snack... This feels like an elf movie
moment or forest grump with all the shrimp haha! They are simply
amazing and have now become my favourite fruit. I guess they are a
different variety called fooyou or Apple persimmons... Not even mushy
and no seeds. I'm getting my fill while they are in season!!

Also I met this hilarious woman this week. Her name is Regenia but we
have to call her 'miss Regenia' because 'by all do respect she has
been around longer than us'. She is this middle aged African American
woman with a southern attitude. She started telling us her life story
and had the most outrageous mannerisms. I was dying inside!!! In the
middle of her sentence she stopped talking and asked us ' do you like
fried chicken?' And then she ran inside and came back out with 3
pieces of fried chicken. Haha!!! 11 am and we are eating fried
chicken. She said ' give me back those bones girls... If you can part
with them! Yeah that is finger lickin' chicken.' She was the best! I
hope we can teach her. I can already tell that lots of great stories
will come of visits with her.

My ponderizing scripture this week is John 1:3 'All things were made
by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.'

I wanted this to be my weekly scripture because it's one of the versus
in the living Christ that I'm trying to memorize. It's such a great
passage from the bible. Christ is the center of everything.
The mission is full of good days, great days.
I hope you have a fantastic week!!!

All the best!
-SIster Taylor