Fwd: Bamboo, Hospitals, and Horses

Date: Mon, Apr 28, 2014 at 12:45 PM
Subject: Bamboo, Hospitals, and Horses
To: Lindy Taylor <lindyjtaylor@gmail.com>

Hey y'all!

This week was a great one for teaching! I felt like we taught a LOT every day. Before all the good stuff, on Wednesday we had an especially lovely adventurous day. While searching for somewhere to tract, we found a big bamboo forest and pulled over for a brief impromptu photoshoot. I'll include a few next week when I remember my camera. :/

Shortly after, we were walking up a particularly long driveway when a pale yellow dog came running out to us. Our fears were quickly dismissed as it licked us, smiled, and assigned itself as our third companion. I named him Scotch. I fell in love with that dog!! He walked with us for nearly an hour. We felt extra safe and protected as he showed us around the neighborhood. When it came time to leave, he raced our car to the end of the street and tried to climb in. It was sad to leave him behind, but fun to make a new friend.

Rachel, our investigator currently hospitalized, is progressing well. We taught her every day for five days last week in the hospital. She was sometimes groggy or in pain from the meds, but she lightened up with the Spirit and was attentive and participatory by the end of each lesson. When we taught about the three degrees of heaven, she said that she'd seen the sun, moon, and stars on decorations and in stores throughout her life and she'd always felt drawn to them. They felt familiar. It was beautiful to see her eyes open to their meaning and see her fill with light. She's in a rehabilitation center this week, but depending on her health she should be able to come to church next week and get baptized the following Saturday.

Poma is also progressing. It's baby steps with her. We're pretty sure she's bipolar, which makes sense knowing her background and behavior. We had a few great high's with her. She cried and cried when we taught about baptisms for the dead and missionary work in the spirit world. Her mother committed suicide when Poma was young, and she had grown up being told her mother had gone straight to hell. She was overwhelmed with relief and joy when she learned that her mother still had a chance to learn and accept the gospel. That was a good step. She didn't come to church Sunday, even though a ride came to pick her up-- so we'll be addressing that with her on Tuesday.

We also have a promising referral appointment on Thursday. Please pray for Miracle, age nine, and Yvonne, Miracle's grandmother. They don't know much about the church yet but they want to join. They have a pretty horrific background, but have felt the Spirit the members have and want to be part of it. Hopefully we'll begin teaching them this week!

We had interviews with our mission president, President Wolfert, on Tuesday. It was brief, but in it he encouraged me to be okay with doing my best. I tend to expect perfection when I can see a better way to do things but achieve less than that. My best is good enough. When it sinks in it's very relieving to know that God doesn't expect more of us than we can give. The verses in Alma 7:11-16 really help me appreciate the Atonement and understand our role in salvation.

Tender mercy. We dropped in on Sister Lopez, a less active member who's recovering from cancer and training her (gorgeous!!) horse for the world championship this October. She was fixin to ride her horse, Howie, in the arena when we arrived, so she hollered us over and we watched her ride for a bit. Sister Alvey and I enjoyed it immensely. I loved watching and remembering all the things I learned from riding horses. She came over after her ride and bore her testimony of the Lord's blessings to her recently, especially pertaining to the horse. She'd been blessed financially, physically, and otherwise in acquiring and training the horse. It's a privilege to see how the Lord cares about we care about, and blesses us as much as we allow Him to.

Have a wonderful week!
Sister Taylor