Blessings in Abundance

Hello Everyone!

This week has been splendid! Suwanee is a wonderful area that I already love. It is about 30-40 minutes from Loganville, so not too far from where I was serving. Like I mentioned last week, my new companion is Sister Breanna Groneman. She is from Cedar Hills, Utah. She just hit her one year mark for being out on the mission, so she's pretty much expert by now. haha. I love serving with her. We get along so well. I hope we get to serve with each other for a while.
We have been pretty busy this week. We have been visiting some families in the ward, mainly less-active members. They are all so nice and welcoming. I especially love the Carlisle family. Their son is planning on going on a mission. He is now 18, so we are going to work with him to prepare him. They also have a daughter in the Young Women's. I remember seeing her at the temple open house, but she hasn't been around since I've been here.
One thing that's different about serving in this area is that we're teaching a lot of kids. In Loganville we had one investigator that was 18, and all the rest were older. I love teaching children though. They are so innocent, and not as tainted by the views of the world. We are teaching a 14 year old, Julio. He has had a rough past, but opened up to my companion and her previous companion when they contacted him on the street. We stopped by the other day to just read a chapter from the Book of Mormon with him. He is really into history, so we chose to read a war chapter in Alma. He loved it! He started asking questions, and was very interested. We then watched "The Restoration" with him. That's what really got to him. The spirit was so strong in the room, and right after the video was over he kept popping off questions. He then thanked us for coming and teaching him. He said "if it wasn't for you guys I'd still be Catholic." After hearing that, my companion invited him to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. He excitedly said yes. We have another appointment with him this week and he plans on coming to church on Sunday. He has already been a couple of times, and he likes it.
We are also teaching six amazing kids. Sister Groneman and her previous companion tracted into Marian (11) and Genesis (14) a little over a month ago. They gave them each a Book of Mormon. Marian took hers to school and was telling her friends that they should read it. How cool is that?! She's a little missionary already. When we went to visit them this past week we were introduced to their cousins, Alex (13) Jackie (10) and Enrique (8), and Marian's friend- Valerie (12). We taught them all the first lesson, and it went so well. The spirit was so strong and I can tell it touched each of those kids. They had so many wonderful questions to ask, and they were all very interested in the message. They all asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon, and were very eager to begin reading. Jackie said she was going to finish it in a week. Super cute! We then invited them to come with us to the cultural celebration for the re-opening of the Atlanta Temple. They all said they wanted to come. Marian, Jackie, and Enrique ended up coming with us. When we went to pick them up they had huge smiles on their faces and were so excited. They even went shopping earlier that day for clothes to wear. We all loved the celebration. It was broadcast to the Stake Center. 2,500 young men and young women from the temple district performed for the Prophet. It was awesome to watch. It reminded me of the dance festival we did when I was in Young Women's. Sister King (the mission President's wife) did the announcing too. She had been a news reporter in Utah for 30 years. Jackie was so excited to be at the church, she got out her phone and started taking pictures of all the pictures of Christ around the church. These kids are just too cute, and I can't wait to teach them again. We went back last night to visit them and they noticed the CTR rings my companion and I were wearing. They asked where they could get one. haha. I love it!
The Atlanta Temple was re-dedicated yesterday in two sessions. All of the missionaries were lucky enough to be able to go to both sessions. (broadcasted to the church buildings) I loved hearing President Monson speak. He is definitely a man called of God.
Here is a link to an article from the open house. When we were visiting a less-active member and showing her some church videos we found it. I'm quoted in it, so be sure to check it out! :)
http://www.atlmormontemple.org/sister-missionaries-serve-at-the-atlanta-temple-open-house
One thing that we just found out today is that we are no longer allowed to go to the temple while on the mission :( It is unfortunately out of our mission boundaries. This is a rule from the Seventy, so we must abide. All of this excitement for the temple opening back up, and now I can't go. Sad sad day! I shall make up for it by attending a session in the Salt Lake Temple after my mission. Yep, sounds like a splendid idea to me :)

Wednesday was a pretty eventful day for us.

1. We were driving from one appointment to another, when all of a sudden we see something in the middle of the road that looked like a rock from a distance. Right as we got up close we noticed it was a turtle! Luckily, my companion didn't run over it. How lucky for Squishy (that's what we named the turtle ;)) Then we decided to turn around and save the poor thing. So we did a u-turn and pulled into the median and quickly rescued the turtle before another car came. We took a few pictures and placed him on the side of the road where he would be safe. Whew! What a close call!

2. We had been hearing all day that there was a storm coming in. All throughout the day we kept hearing different times. Some said it would start at 2pm, some said 4pm, and a few said between 8pm and midnight. But one thing that was common between the stories was that it was supposed to be a huge storm with tornadoes and everything. We didn't think too much of it until we started getting texts from the Assistants. I'm going to write out the texts and hopefully you'll get some kind of idea as to how we started to feel about the whole thing.
(texts started coming in at 9:32pm) "Urgent!!!!!!! There is a tornado warning right now in the mission; Cannon and Woodstock area, and a tornado watch throughout the rest of the mission. If you hear the tornado sirens, get in the bathtub with a mattress over your head. Notify all the missionaries immediately. Make sure the missionaries park their cars somewhere safe if possible. There will be severe thunderstorms with possible golf ball sized hail. Stay awake and alert!"
(a little while later) "You don't have to be awake, but be alert. President wants all phones in the mission off vibrate and turned on loud. Make sure all the missionaries know. 128 tornadoes spotted throughout the mission." (end of texts for the night)
As you can imagine, my companion and I were a bit frightened. We were expecting to be up all night, and that the next day we would be doing a lot of service clean-up. But after all of the worry that took place....NOTHING HAPPENED!!! I am grateful that everyone was safe, and the tornado didn't hit us. However, I must admit that we were a bit disappointed that we didn't even hear the major booming of the thunder that we usually hear when there is a storm. Oh well, I am just glad that we're all safe.

Well, the time is coming quickly. Mothers Day is Sunday!!! That means I get to call home. We had lunch with the Bishop's wife today and she graciously offered to let us make the calls at her home. Even better than that...we get to skype! Yay! So, Mother Dear...be expecting a skype call between 6 and 8pm. That's my time though, so your time would be between 4 and 6pm. I will have the Bishop or his wife call with the exact time when it gets closer. As for doing the three way with Hermana Taylor...hopefully it will work out. Crossing my fingers.
I love you all, and hope you have an enjoyable week.
Love,
Sister Taylor