Hello family and friends,

This week has been amazingly wonderful! Sister Williams and I stayed in Lilburn Tuesday night with Sister Thomas and Sister Waterworth. We had to go there to pick up our new companion, fresh out of the MTC. We got to go see a few people there, which was great for Sister Williams because Lilburn was her greenie (first) area. We also got to meet our new companion, Sister Young, early.

Whenever a new missionary comes in everyone tries to guess where they are from. I was really hoping she would be from north Idaho, so then we would have one from west Idaho one from east Idaho and one from north Idaho, and it would just be cool. Well, she is not from north Idaho. But that is okay because she's from an even better part of Idaho...Meridian! I really wasn't expecting that one, but we've been having fun making connections (we both know Preston and Dalton Purnell) and realizing that we have done things "together." Such as the big dance festival at the Taco Bell Arena, multi-Stake ice skating activities, and New Years dances. We both graduated the same year too. She is such an amazing missionary already. She came out so ready to work, and I am super excited for this transfer. Sister Williams, Sister Young, and I have a lot in common...we are all from Idaho, we all have brothers that are either on a mission or are going on a mission to a foreign country (Czech Rep, Honduras, and Scotland/Ireland), and we are all in Georgia :) Super cool!

We have had some pretty cool experiences this week. While contacting on campus we ran into a girl named Marissa. We gave her a mormon.org card with our number on the back. We told her a little about what we believed, and told her to check out the website and if she had any questions to call us. Basically what we say to everyone we contact. We have never had anyone call us with questions until Marissa did. That night she called and talked to Sister Williams on the phone for 45-50 minutes. She asked a bunch of awesome questions and said she wanted to meet with us to learn more. We now have an appointment set up with her for Wednesday, and I am really excited to get to know her and teach her.

My studies this week have been absolutely fantastic! I am loving what I'm learning. I started studying Preach My Gospel from the beginning again, this time doing all of the little personal and companion activities. I thought I learned a lot my last time through but boy oh boy am I getting a lot from it this time around. Through my study of Preach My Gospel I found an awesome scripture that has become my scripture to live by this transfer. It is Helaman 10:4-5 "Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments. And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will." I just LOVE this! I looked at the footnote to see what it said about unwearyingness and the words it gave to replace it are dedication, dependability, magnifying callings within, and steadfastness. That really stuck out to me because every missionary wants to do the best they can, they want to be successful. And in this scripture it is kind of giving encouragement to be dedicated, dependable, and steadfast in declaring the word. Now I just want to strive to do that, to really give my all to the work of the Lord.

Updates on our investigators...we met with Brielle again, and she has decided to take a break from meeting with us. She wants to study and pray and figure things out on her own for a little while before trying to gain more information. I think it is great that she wants to really take the time to figure out what she believes and to think about everything we have taught her so far. We are keeping in touch with her, but still giving her a little time before teaching again. We were also able to meet with Kristine-a girl that the last Sisters and some other Elders had been teaching. She is so amazing and so elect! She wants to be baptized, it is just a matter of when at this point. She is from Salt Lake City and her best friend and boyfriend are members, so she has grown up around the church. Her only hold up is lack of support from her mom. She is doing the right thing in honoring and obeying her parents. She doesn't want to get baptized with her mom being against it. She is really open to learning though and our lesson with her went super well. For the first time I was able to see a miracle come from my personal study. During the lesson she brought up a scripture, but couldn't remember the whole thing and she couldn't remember the reference. But when she said a few words from it I knew immediately which scripture it was because I had just read it that morning during my study. It was awesome to see how the Lord worked through that. Study helps in so many ways. It was a simple, and to some, insignificant experience, but I thought it was awesome.

Well, I think that about sums up my week. It really was an amazing week. I have learned a lot, I have had some fun while doing the work, and we have met some awesome people. I look forward to this week ahead. We have three appointments already set up, which is a step up from what we've had the past transfer. With five UGA missionaries the work is going to really take off. We should be seeing a lot of miracles and a lot of answered prayers. I hope that y'all are taking time to read and really study the Book of Mormon, and also don't forget to make your mormon.org profile. I am still waiting on you Dad, Jordan, Josh, and Cassidy ;) I look every so often to see if they're up. I'll be checking again next week :)

Have a marvelous week! with much love, Sister Taylor

P.S. Pictures are of me and my companions across the street from the institute. 1st: Me 2nd: Sister Young 3rd: Sister Williams