Lessons learned in Lawrenceville

Hello family and friends,

I'm not sure what the weather is like over in Idaho, but I sure hope it's not as bad as here. It has warmed up a great deal and has not been the most pleasant for tracting this week. Nevertheless, the work must go on. We met some cool people while tracting this week. One guy, Max, is from Ukraine. His accent was awesome! It's crazy how many different cultures there are represented here in Lawrenceville. We actually have a lot of fun guessing where people are from before they answer the door. We look at clues on their porches. Example: Whenever we would walk up to a door that had shoes on the porch my companion would say to me "Indians." At first I would get a little irritated with her because I didn't think that was an accurate assumption. I would tell her that tons of people back home would have shoes on their porch and they're all Caucasian. But after her being right multiple times, I bought into that sterotype. The things missionaries do to entertain themselves while going door to door...

One big thing I learned this week was that "you don't have to serve in a particular calling to love others." We had a change in the Branch Presidency this weekend and Brother Loo (former first counselor) bore his testimony to the branch. He was telling everyone that just because he's getting released, that doesn't mean that he doesn't care anymore. They can still call on him for anything. Then he was explaining that we don't have to have a particular calling to serve and love someone. We can reach out to those around us and love them no matter what their calling is or what our calling is. The commandment we've been given is to love everyone. I have developed a greater love for all people as I have been out here. I now see people as children of God.

I had an experience this week that really touched me. About a month ago we met this guy who lives down the street. Jules told us then about how he takes care of his wife who had some medical condition where she had to rely completely on her husband. I think she had similar symptoms to those who have MS. But they don't know what was wrong with her. Anyway, we decided that sometime we should stop by and see if they needed any service or if we could sing to him and his wife. This week we decided to go and visit. Right after I knocked on the door I saw a cement stone with a poem on it that let me know that Jules' wife passed away. When he answered the door I could see that he had been crying. His wife died a month ago and he had just been watching some Evangalist program on tv and was crying. He let us in and we got to talk to him for quite a while. I could see how lonely he was. It just broke my heart. We shared with him a little about forever families and baptisms for the dead. But mostly we were there to listen. That's what he needed the most. I was so grateful that the Spirit prompted us to go see him that day and at that time. Blessings come when you follow the Spirit.

We are still looking forward to future investigators. We have a lot of good potentials, but we are waiting for them to make time to meet with us. Work causes a lot of problems in single adult areas :/ But we have three appointments set with potentials this week, and I am greatly looking forward to them. I love to teach, it is something that brings me great joy and satisfaction!

Have a wonderful week and don't forget to read the Book of Mormon!

with much love, Sister Taylor