Week 12

Alright... Let's see if I can get all the highlights of this week in.

 

I forgot to mention something of major importance in my last email. I guess I just got so excited about conference. But I didn't even tell you all that MICHAEL came to stake conference on Sunday and then we took him on a tour of Kirtland. At the time, it seemed like he wasn't feelin it. He looked like he was in a lot of pain (he has lots of issues because he has a broken back that he just deals with...ouch) and even though we were pouring our hearts out (including the members that came with us) he was just like, meh. So we kinda felt blah about the whole thing but decided to text him later and set up an appointment. Remember how he dropped us? Well this was our first visit since then. So we met on Wednesday and before we saw him we practiced our lesson during studies. We knew this could be a pivotal visit so we wanted it to be perfect! And something came to both of us during our studies. We noticed all the signs we had kind of been missing somehow before then...but Michael is SUCH a romantic. He's quiet, but we can tell he really wants to get married and have a family based on the comments he had made in the past, especially during our lesson on the temple. So we decided we wanted to just ask him a lot of questions and figure out what his thoughts were about everything, and he totally opened up. We asked him if he had ever thought about what this could mean for his future family. He said he had thought about it a lot. He even said he always wanted to wear white to his wedding. And we hadn't even mentioned that part about the temple! He also said he had thought about marrying a Mormon girl because faith was something he really is looking for in a spouse. Then he said something about how in a previous lesson Sister Johnson had said something about families and had used the words "home filled with the spirit" or something like that. He said in one of his books, he used those exact same words BEFORE we had that lesson. He was like "I always look for signs, and I kind of took that as one". He basically said that our emphasis on families was what kept him investigating, even though some of our doctrines may not have made perfect sense to him. He said he had "good feelings" that were hard to explain about the tour on Sunday. He still doesn't feel like he KNOWS but he is closer now than he ever has been. We asked him again if he would be baptized and he said he would, once he found out a sure answer. So he is working for November 2 as his baptism date! He is coming to another baptism this Saturday in the other ward, and then we are having a bonfire on Saturday night with ward members and investigators so we can get some fellowship from the ward for them, and Michael is coming to that too - as well as several other investigators (the Stamms, Lisa and Jim, KATEE - who we finally got a hold of, possibly another potential investigator named Barbara, and of course Michael) We are stoked for it! The work is definitely hastening in Hiram!

 

I finally met Rafael the bread man. I've been waiting for that for a long time. He loves missionaries, and apparently they used to hang out in his store on Pdays. He's this old guy from Spain who makes the most delicious bread I've ever tasted. Every time missionaries come he sends them home with free bread. He gave us a loaf of Banana nut, and then a loaf of some Italian swirl bread with this yummy tomato and mushroom sauce in the middle. Oh my gosh. So good. I'm gaining weight and it's making me super sad. This is why. Apparently he is not interested in conversion, although if he ever did join any church it would definitely be ours because he likes Mormons so much. He just kind of doesn't believe in God. Someday that will change :)

 

Then yesterday was just awesome. So much goodness happened. First of all, they cancelled ward council, so we got to sleep in till the normal time instead of getting up extra early. Granted, the "normal time" is 6:30...but every minute counts right? Haha. Then we had church which was amazing as usual. I just love our ward. Then after that we had a dinner appointment with a member and that went great. I love member meals - another reason I am getting fat. Then we planned on stopping by to see an investigator named Ariane who is impossible to get a hold of because her phone got disconnected. She wasn't home and we were planning on stopping by a potential as backup. So we started driving and on the way sister Johnson stopped and said "I think we should tract this street". Since we aren't allowed to tract in the dark, we only had a short amount of time left of daylight to tract, so we hurried and knocked about 4 houses. The first one has some awesome potential. She's a sweet Hispanic lady named Maria. We are seeing her on Wednesday! Next house, no one was home (although they had some pretty sweet Halloween decorations in their yard so we wrote a note complimenting them and left our number on a Mormon.org card and put it in their door. haha) Then we talked to a nice guy at the next house. Not interested. THEN we talked to a girl named Jessica at the next house. She's probably around our age and is super gorgeous. The house smelled like smoke and there were some guys in the house shouting profanities at the football game they were watching. But she was super interested. We asked her if she was familiar with the Bible. She said not really. Then we asked her if she had ever wondered where she was before this life, why she was here, and where she was going. She said "I don't know...Yeah I guess I've thought about it before." And we started to talk about the comfort it was to have that knowledge and that we could come teach her more about it. She told us she had a friend who had just started going to church and wanted her to come too. So she was thinking about joining a church. She has never had religion in her life...and she's so obviously searching for it. I usually don't ever talk about tracting in my emails because there's nothing really exciting about it. But I can't stop thinking about this girl who I think Heavenly Father has prepared. She is going through some challenge in her life that has made her thirsty for the gospel. And I can't wait to teach her! We got her number and she said she would come to church this Sunday. AH! Like I said...the work is hastening in Hiram. The Lord is guiding us to where we need to be and it is such a privilege to be His instrument.

 

So today during my studies I was reading about the Gospel of Jesus Christ from Preach My Gospel, and as I got to the Atonement I felt very prompted to share some of my thoughts with you all. I actually found an article in September's Ensign about the justice and mercy of God from Elder Holland, and there was a specific part that struck me. He says "A favorite British scholar said: 'I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. A [mathematical] sum [incorrectly worked] can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and [then] working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on. Evil can be undone, but it cannot 'develop' into good. Time does not heal it. The spell must be unwound.' So God is just, 'mercy claimeth the penitent' (Alma 42:23), and evil can be undone." I guess I just wanted to share that because it illustrates the point that without repentance and forgiveness, we cannot be fully healed from wrongdoings. A desire to become righteous starts with the decision to make things right, or to be penitent so that the mercy of Jesus Christ can claim us and change us. We cannot simply decide to be good and hope that our past sins go away. They cannot and will not without full and sincere repentance. And then we can start fresh with a clean slate, and good decisions become easier to make. It is similar to an analogy I heard yesterday, that if you have a flat tire on your bike, do you keep riding it on just the rims? Of course not. Similarly, if we make a mistake, can we go on and truly become better if we continue to ride on a flat tire, so to speak? Just some food for thought.

 

I love you all and miss you bunches! Write me!

Tayler :)

Still Crazy- that Tayler!

Week 11

This was one of the best weeks ever. I am growing more and more fond of my mission every day and it's because of times like this! Thank you everyone for your letters and emails. I miss you all so much! I can honestly say this mission is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. But I have grown to see changes in myself I never thought would happen, or at least not this soon and at such a fast pace! I will be at three months on Wednesday (that is, if you consider 1 month=4 weeks. It's been 12 weeks)! Can you believe it? Mission time is so weird. But I have to tell you about the awesome things that have happened to me this week.

 

Elder Ballard came this weekend and it was SUCH an amazing experience. The spirit that was felt at every single event was tremendous. Greater than I have ever felt at any other meetings. But it was the busiest weekend of my mission. Not only was Elder Ballard coming, but it's been one of the busiest weekends at sites. And it wasn't even because of what was going on. They were all just here visiting like any other day, it just happened to be super busy when we were preparing for Elder Ballard. We had at least 5 bus tours this weekend and most weekends we might have one or two, if any at all. Usually we sit down and plan our week out on Thursdays, and it takes a few hours. But this week weekly planning has been an ongoing process for the last 4 days. When we weren't taking tours we were shoving food in our mouths really fast since we didn't really have normal meal breaks, or else we were helping set up/clean up for Elder Ballard. He came on Friday, and there was a beautiful dinner all set up in the visitor's center that we got to help with. They initially told us we couldn't have any of it, nor could we mingle with the guests. We were told we had to stay upstairs until we were called down one companionship at a time to get in line to shake his hand. But then about halfway through they told us there was plenty of food and they wanted us to come down and mingle. So it was a pretty fancy event where the mayor, city council, leaders from Community of Christ church (AKA the reorganized church who owns the temple), and lots of other official people were there. In fact, we sat down and talked with Mary Ellen Smoot (https://www.lds.org/callings/relief-society/relief-society-presidents/mary-ellen-smoot maybe you'll recognize her better than me...I was 8 when she was released) before anyone else arrived. She was there first with her family and we were setting up all around her while she sat on the couch. I had no idea who she was until someone said "isn't that a former general relief society president?" So we went over and introduced ourselves and she was so nice. We had just a quick conversation because we had a tour group who was watching the film and we were only able to talk while it was on, then we had to go get them and take them out on site.  But we also said hi to Sister Ballard and didn't realize who she was. We just saw her sitting on the couch after we shook Elder Ballard's hand and we waved to her as we walked back upstairs. Then found out later who she was and I was sad we didn't get to talk to her! But I shook Elder Ballard's hand and that was pretty cool. He just asked how I was liking my mission, and I said I was loving it! But he asked sister Johnson if she brought long underwear for winter since she's from California. Haha.

 

Then after the dinner (which was DELICIOUS by the way...words cannot describe) we went to the commemoration fireside at the stake center, and we were so special that we got reserved parking and reserved seats for missionaries. Then they asked us to stand during the program to recognize us for our service at sites. Karl Anderson (our stake patriarch AKA "Mr. Kirtland") spoke, then Elder Sorensen our sites director, then testimonies from the Columbus temple president and his wife, then President Vellinga, then Elder Ballard spoke. It was amazing! I wish I could describe in words the feelings at that meeting but I honestly can't. It was just an amazing spirit-filled day. we had some excellent tour groups that day including a bus tour of local high school students learning about the second great awakening. There were 80 of them plus a teacher, and he encouraged us to talk about our faith since that was why they were there. Usually tour groups like that request history-only tours. But this one was great! He asked us about our missions and why we serve, to which we were able to bear testimony and talk about what we were called to do. They asked such good questions and they were very respectful for the most part. There were a couple bad eggs who were giggling and what-not but who cares! 16 Books of Mormon were requested at the end of that tour! So some of them for sure were listening. Then we had Elder Ballard come and then the fireside and it was just amazing!!! Ah! I wish you all could be here with me to experience these things. It's really unfair and I feel too spoiled.

 

Then the next day we took some other great tours. So not only was this the busiest weekend at sites, but we took some of the best tours I have ever taken. Sometimes you just get a group of people who are all so prepared that you really don't have to do much as a missionary. You just ask the right questions and then THEY bring the spirit with their testimonies. So we had the pancake breakfast and temple walk on Saturday and then the adult session of conference that night. I thought it couldn't get better than the night before, but we heard some of the most inspired talks and the most powerful testimonies in that meeting that I felt I was hearing from Christ Himself. I have never received more personal revelation and more outpouring of the spirit than I have this stake conference weekend.  Sunday's session was just as powerful. Both sessions we heard from our stake presidency and from Elder Seldon and Elder Gaye (who is one of the most heartfelt speakers I have ever heard) from the 70, then Elder Ballard. Elder Ballard himself said he had never felt the spirit more strongly at any other stake conference, and he's been to a lot of 'em!

 

One talk in particular stuck out to me, and that was from one of the counselors in the stake presidency. It was about temple attendance and keeping covenants. He talked about the stripling warriors from the Book of Mormon and how their fathers had made a covenant to never take up their weapons of war. Rather than break that covenant in defense of their people, their young sons took up arms and went to battle. Because of the covenant keeping of their fathers, and the teachings of their mothers, not a single one of these young men were killed. He talked about not simply MAKING covenants, but keeping them, and the difference between being temple-sealed/temple-worthy people versus being temple-attending people. It is so important that we make it to the temple frequently, and that we make it to church every Sunday to partake of the sacrament. It made me think...are we taking our covenants seriously? We made a promise to God when we were baptized. Do we strive to keep our promise? Do we repent often? Do we attend the temple often and remember our covenants that we made there? I certainly am not perfect and I don't claim to be. Something I have a strong testimony of is that the Atonement of Jesus Christ enables us to change. So I would encourage all of you at home to strive to be covenant keepers, and if you struggle with that - repent! That's the purpose of the Atonement, and that is absolutely our purpose here on this earth. And in his talk he reminded us of the promises our stake president made to us if we made the effort to keep our covenants: Unseen angels would watch over you and your family, there will be no empty chairs in the celestial kingdom, and your children will serve missions and marry in the temple.

 

I could go on and on into much more detail, but for the sake of time I will wrap things up. I love and pray for all of you and wish you the best! Until next week... :)

 

Tayler

A family visiting Kirtland, took this and sent it to us just to be nice and let us know that Sister Coontz is doing well. They said they were doing the same thing that a sister did for them when she took pictures of their missionary son while serving in New Mexico. It's so sweet  when people reach out to each other just to be kind! They know how it is to miss your kiddos but know it's good they are serving others!

Week 10

Hi everybody!

So transfers are over and we are officially staying together for sure. Transfers are like groundhog day. If the mission president sees his shadow, then it's 6 more weeks with your companion! Haha. Ok lame joke. But we do have new schedules. Monday will be my new Pday and I will be at sites on Fridays and Saturdays now. Our district just inherited 2 new missionaries so I'm not the newest newbie anymore! :)

 

So this week seriously feels like a blur and I'm having a really hard time remembering what happened. We were at sites until Thursday night last week and then finally got to go back to our area. We've been creative in trying to soften hearts to prepare them to hear the message we have to share, like bringing dinners, doing service, etc etc. And it's working. One of our potential investigators called us later and said she was speechless at what we did for her and her husband and just thanked us over and over again. She's so sweet, and her husband just had treatment for a form of Parkinson's that he has. Apparently they give him a ton of shots of botox to help treat it, and it's been miraculous for him. So we're pretty excited to teach them.

 

Then we watched conference this weekend!! It was so weird. I forgot what it was like to just veg out on the couch for hours. That's what it felt like...almost like we were breaking rules or something :) haha. But wasn't conference SO GOOD??? I just want to share a bit about what I learned. I feel like as a missionary I have had more anti-Mormon garbage thrown in my face than ever before (especially on chat). I have seen and heard more and more stories about strong members leaving the church for one reason or another, and fewer and fewer active members, especially in this area. Our area has somewhere around 60% less active members to 40% active. And I'll be honest, it has pushed harmful doubts into my heart. So I decided that before conference I would pray that I could gain a stronger testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel, and be reminded of why I am a member of this church. And holy cow. Every single talk answered that to some extent--but there are a few in particular that stuck out to me:

 

1. Dieter F. Uchtdorf: Why would anyone want to be a member of a church that requires so much from its members? He went on to discuss the blessings of this restored gospel and said to "doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith".

 

2. Boyd K. Packer: In a world as wicked as ours, how can we have a positive outlook on the future? Definitely a question I have had. We can study our scriptures and do those daily things to strengthen our testimonies, and we can strive to keep all of our covenants. That is how we receive blessings isn't it? God sets the terms, and if we keep our end, God is bound and he has to keep His promise as well.

 

3. Richard G. Scott: Obedience allows the Atonement to protect us from our weaknesses. As a missionary this is so important to know. My weaknesses are constantly being thrown in my face, but that is to be expected. In Ether 12:27, Christ says "if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness". Well, as a missionary I think I did just that. And Has shown me my weaknesses. But He then goes on to say "behold I give unto men weakness that they may be humble, and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." Needless to say, humility is definitely an attribute I am working on...

 

4. Adrian Ochoa: Don't forget to look up! If you find anything that causes you to doubt your faith--Look up. Continually strengthen your testimony so that it stands strong and protects from doubts. (this one was the icing on the cake right at the end of conference...so good!)

 

Another huge message that was emphasized was member missionary work. I cannot stress enough how happy I was that they talked about that so much (EXCLAMATION POINT)! So my message to all of you back home is to be missionaries! That means to family, friends, active members, less active members, nonmembers, and to all who need to hear this message. And ALWAYS be praying for missionary opportunities! As was mentioned in conference by Elder Nielson, "This work will not move forward in the way the Lord has intended without member missionaries". So listen to what the prophet has asked. Share the gospel with EVERYONE. Because it truly is for everyone. Would you want to be left out? Neither do they. They just don't know it yet :)

 

Anyways, that's pretty much all for this week. We have a lot of things in the works so we're kind of in limbo right now, especially since last week and this week will be very Kirtland-focused with Elder Ballard coming this weekend. So I'm pretty dang excited for that. It's the 10th anniversary of the dedication of the sites at Kirtland. We get to help with a VIP dinner on Friday for politicians and such in the community which is invite-only, so it will be smaller. Then there's a fireside after that for everyone at the stake center down the street. Then Saturday morning there's a pancake breakfast and family walk around the temple, and then the adult session that night. Then Sunday is the general session. They also will be holding a special youth session INSIDE the Kirtland temple. How cool is that?? Except that's the only thing we don't get to help with :( But I'm suuuper excited anyways. It's gonna be a good weekend! Maybe they'll announce that Ohio Cleveland missionaries get ipads and facebook :) Or maybe we'll find out that the Kirtland temple is ours again. Haha. I have really high hopes for some big announcements. We'll see... :)

 

Love y'all!

Tayler

Pictures from Kirtland

 

                                                   Sister Coontz and Sister Johnson

 

                                 Surprised and fascinated they have caution signs for carriages!

                                                           These are the Johnson Farm

Week 9

This was such a good week. We had transfer breakfast on Friday and then afterwards we had such a busy day planned out. We went to Hiram college and just contacted people and we got two potentials in no time at all! We are hoping to set up a booth there but can't seem to get in touch with anyone who can help us. But I almost think that simply contacting people walking by is better because as a student I avoided booths like the plague. So maybe it's better this way. But we met one girl named Alyssa, she's a freshman who plays volleyball there and we caught her while she was waiting on a bench for her appointment with the doctor because she apparently has something wrong with her head that they can't figure out. She was so cute though, and she said maybe this was a message. Maybe her day would be better. So we got her number and are going to call her hopefully today. Contacting can be weird sometimes because you just walk up to random people and talk about the gospel, but if you try to get to know them then they will listen much better. It's also so important to be excited about it because it's something exciting that we take part in as members of the church, and it's something that needs to be shared! But we made it a goal that day to have at least 7 gospel conversations with people, and we reached that goal by the end of the day! It was so great! We went to see Rafael the bread man after that. I've never met him, but he owns a bread store in Nelson and apparently missionaries used to go by all the time and hang out there on P day. We don't really know his story though so we were going to go find out, but he wasn't there. Instead his 20-year-old adorable neighbor named Katee was helping out while he delivered lamb to someone (I know...???). So we talked to her and she wants to have bible study with us. We told her a little about what we do as missionaries, and she said "oh I'm so excited! We have so much to talk about." So we got her number and texted her and she didn't text back. So we were praying and praying every day that she would, and she texted us today!! We are so dang excited because both Katee and Alyssa are both people we could easily just be friends with whether we were missionaries or not :) They are going to be LDS someday.THEN we had dinner/spiritual thought with the Stamms!! Remember them? Yeah, they're back in the picture. We never felt right about pushing the lessons on them, but we know they will be interested someday. So we let them kind of get to know the members, had the game night, then when we met with them we would just share spiritual thoughts. And their hearts were softened so much since the first lesson Sister Johnson had with them! They are watching conference with us at a member's home!!! We could not be happier about that day. It was awesome.

So then Saturday we biked and it was awful. If you have ever seen the area we live in in Ohio you know how up and down the roads are. It goes like this ^^^^^^^^^^^ and we went over 20 miles UP and DOWN hill after hill after hill. My legs were SCREAMING. We were supposed to meet with this guy in Mantua and when we got there he was in his garage screaming profanities at another guy and pushing him like they were about to get in a fight. Needless to say we didn't approach that and decided it was probably best to not see him today. So we biked all the way back and talked to as many people as we could on the way so that it wouldn't be a wasted trip. I am thoroughly convinced that we talked to at least one person whose life will be different because of that biking trip. So my legs didn't turn to jello in vain :) 

We also had a pretty crazy experience Sunday night. I don't remember if I mentioned Teresa before or not, but Sister Johnson found her name written on a piece of paper in her scriptures about a month ago with a note that said "call in September". She had no memory of writing it, and she had no idea when it was written or anything, but it was her handwriting. So we called the number and said "hey it's the missionaries" and she told us sorry and thank you for being so patient with her, and that she would be able to meet in a couple weeks so to call her then. So we waited a couple weeks and called her and couldn't get a hold of her. So we stopped by the address on her teaching record which we later found, meaning she was a former investigator (or so we thought). The address was wrong, so we called her and asked if she still lived there and she said "goodness no, I've never lived there!" So then she gave us her correct address and we couldn't get a hold of her for another week or so,so we decided to stop by the new address Sunday night. We actually hadn't even planned for that, but we had some miles left to use so Sister Johnson said "I feel like we should go see Teresa. I think she's important." So we drove out to her house at 8:00 at night and she was home with her family so we were finally able to talk to her! And lo and behold...Teresa is a MEMBER who hasn't been to church in years. She was married in the temple, used to be Relief Society president, and still reads the Book of Mormon. But she said that was a "past life". However, she also said we were welcome to come by Sunday nights and teach lessons! Yeah. Whoa. We had no words when we walked out of there, considering the miracle it was that we even were lead to her! Being a missionary is SO COOL. Heavenly Father directs EVERYTHING you do.

Anyways I learned a few things this week. At our sites training meeting on Friday we had our departing sisters give their testimonies, then our sites director Elder Sorensen spoke. He talked about the word "expedient". He said it was "the short, narrow way to the Lord". And I thought about my mission, and how it truly has been expedient for me. I know sometimes we lose motivation to do the things we are supposed to, and the world seems like it would be more fun and exciting to live in, but I know with all my heart that Jesus Christ is the foundation upon which we should build our lives. And as I have done so I have realized that the wicked things of the world have no appeal to me anymore. It has brought me the most happiness I have ever felt, and I don't know if I would have been strong enough or learned what I needed to learn if I hadn't gone on a mission. And the saddest thing is that I wouldn't even know what I was missing out on. I realize that I have the rest of my mission ahead of me, but I know that the experiences I am having now and the ones that will happen to me in the future are the short and narrow way to the Lord that will bring me happiness for the rest of my life. 

I love you all and wish the best for you! Thank you for letters and emails :) 

Tayler