Hello from Loganville

Hello family and friends,

Weeks go by so fast here. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting here in the tiny Loganville library writing to ya'll. Loganville is probably the same size as Eagle, but for some reason they have a really small library. But lots of laptops, so that is super fantastic. I am seriously drawing a blank as to what went on this past week. I promise the work is progressing. My brain is just fried. Maybe as I type I will remember. :/

We have been finding a lot of people through tracting and contacting. Saturday alone we got return appointments with 5 people, all while tracting. That does NOT happen. Usually we will knock about 5 doors and then find 1 person that will let us come back. I honestly hated tracting the first few times we did it, but now i'm actually quite fond of it. (when it's not raining while we do it). We don't tract very much in our mission. My companion actually thinks it will be done away with shortly. We mostly spread the word through mormon.org cards. We already have 8 appointments scheduled for this week, and there are a few people we still need to call and schedule in. It will be a very busy, but very rewarding week. Please pray for our success, and that our appointments will go through. As a mission we have a goal of baptizing one person per companionship per month. I know that this is possible, but not without the help of the Lord.

Now for a quick story and challenge for ya'll. Yesterday my companion and I were going to visit some less-active members. We decided to start at the top of the long long list of less-actives (unfortuantely more than half of the ward here is made up of less-active members) and I am so glad we did. We were definitely supposed to meet the Vaught family at that time. This is a part-member/less-active family. The husband has terminal cancer (given 2 months to live), and the wife is now off of work so she can be home with him. They have an adorable 3 year old daughter that they adopted. Seriously the sweetest family. But what I find amazing is the strength that they have. They are so friendly and welcoming. I just felt so much peace when talking to Sister Vaught. She was so happy when we came to visit her. The challenge I have for everyone is to go out and befriend the less-active members of your ward. Encourage them to come back to church. Don't let them become lost sheep. Each ward has a responsibility of caring for those who have wandered. It should not only be left upon the missionaries. Once we leave, who will go visit the Vaught family? It needs to be ward members. They will be the ones who will always be there to support and lift. It breaks my heart seeing that there are more less-active members than ones who are active. So please, please, please "feed His sheep."

Remember me telling ya'll about the Stanley's? Sister Stanley converted 2 years ago, and her husband 1 year ago. They have one daughter that is a member, (she was actually the first in the family to join the church) and two daughters who are not members. We are now teaching their oldest, Brittony. She is married, and we're hoping to be able to teach her husband as well. Funny story of how we actually got the chance to teach her. Brother Stanley kind of tricked her into it. He told her (without me knowing) that I, being a new missionary, needed someone to practice on. So she agreed to be the "test person" I guess. We taught her the first lesson last week and she actually really liked what we had to share. We gave her quite a bit of homework (reading from the Book of Mormon, praying, and reading a pamphlet we gave her), and she willingly agreed to do it. Sister Stanley told us that after we left Brittony went in and talked to her about what she learned for 45 minutes. YES!!! She learned something from us! We have another appointment with her this week. At the end of the lesson my companion asked her if when she came to know that what we have taught is true, would she get baptized. Her response was "well that's the goal, right?!" So we know that she is aware of our purpose in teaching her, and she knows that she needs to come to the knowledge of the truth on her own. I can't wait for the next lesson, and i'm hoping her sister will sit in on our next visit. At the same time we were teaching Brittony, the Stanley's other daughter (Kelly) was talking with some other missionaries she saw walking along the street. She actually pulled over to talk to them. The Stanley's have an amazing family, and I am so grateful to have been able to meet them.

Well, that's about it from this week that I can remember. The work is progressing, I am enjoying my time here in Georgia. I constantly find things I want to take pictures of, it's just a matter of actually doing it. I can't wait for spring, when the many trees here will be green. Loganville and Monroe will be so beautiful in the spring and summer.

Love you long time,
Sister Taylor (Becca)