Miracles Happen!

This week has been a long one! We didn't teach many lessons all week, but we were determined to get to our goal of 20 lesson a week. On Saturday I was counting up our lessons and found out we had only taught 2 member present lessons all week. That is just awful. I felt dumb for not being able to teach more people, but a miracle happened! We were able to teach 4 member present lessons in one day. I have never been so happy. It was a miracle. I thanked the Lord for answering our prayers and helping us have members teach with us. Not only did we hit our goal of 20 lessons. We exceeded it by five! Sunday was just the best day of the week because we had so much to do. We didn't even have time to eat lunch! I better start using names when I teach about people; someone gave me some grief! This week we had zone conference and Sister Wilson spent the night with us. It was great! She was able to help me through some things that I didn't really want to talk about. It is like having a mom again with Sister Blume leaving. President taught us about life visions and that it is okay to plan your life out for when you go home. Some missionaries hadn't thought about what they wanted at all. Funny thing for me is that I figured out pretty much everything I wanted by my second transfer out here. Now I just have to work on becoming that person so my life vision works out the way I want it to. I think my favorite part of the week was going to Jenna's basketball game! I have never been so excited to watch someone play in my life. I didn't realize how much I missed playing and watching basketball. Jenna is a young woman in the ward and tells me about her games every time she sees me. I love it because I don't get to hear all the details about the games going on at home. Brother Larsen sat by us and we talked the whole time. The game had no structure and her coach sat on the bench the whole time. She didn't even use whiteboard for plays for Pete sake! I was dying! Brother Larsen said he almost feels bad that they invited us to watch because the coaching was just awful. I wanted to throw my backpack down and go coach for her. Jenna's team lost, but it was fun to go support her. Tuesday was pretty busy as well. We were able to go visit Sister Gilmartin in our ward with Sister Rager from our relief society presidency. Sister Gilmartin's son was in the hospital again and we wanted to help support her and check up on them. It was a great lesson. After that we had a quiet lunch before family history. It was raining pretty hard all day and members were calling us to make sure we were okay. We were able to go do some service for the Stortz family and stay out of the rain. We are really working with them to get to the temple. I can see a change in their whole family and it is just awesome! We had dinner with Sister Anderson who is just as awesome as ever. She fed us my favorite meal I have had in Texas so far. Chicken bowls like they have at Chiptole. She came out with us for the evening before we had to teach at mission prep. We went to see some less actives in the ward. It was a long night to say the least. Not one person wanted to talk to us. Most said they weren't members anymore so it was rough. Mission prep was awesome though. The Westwoods are amazing teachers and truly teach by the spirit. We taught about the Book of Mormon and we taught really well considering we didn't really know what the Westwoods wanted us to do. We stopped by to see our investigator Jim. He didn't seem too happy that we just dropped by. He doesn't want anymore lessons right now, but he said he will continue reading the Book of Mormon and let us know if he has any questions. It was heart breaking because he was doing so well! Friday was oh so fun. I just love Valentine's Day so much! Stupidest holiday ever. We did get to have breakfast with the district at Bishop Brower's house. That was quite enjoyable. Then we taught Melody. She loves when we visit and believes everything that we have taught her so far. She told us that she isn't comfortable with coming to church yet though. It is understandable though because her 12 year old son is autistic and she doesn't want rush him into a new situation. We had dinner with our ward. That was really fun. We ate with the Taylors and the Andersons and they are just a hoot! It was fun to see a different side of them. I ended the day with getting two packages from home. It was awesome! My mom sure does know how to make my day. Sending boxes of food! I loved it! Best packages ever. We were able to do some service on Saturday! We went to help the Jacklin's paint their house. We didn't have a dinner appointment and they told us that we were staying for dinner too. Miracle! We also went out to celebrate on Saturday. Thursday was Sister Petersen's year mark. All the sisters got together and went to the Cheesecake Factory. She says she feels old, but she doesn't have a gray hair to prove it! Sister Stortz gives me crap all the time for being old! She gives me more grief about going to the nursing homes to find someone to date. She just thinks she is so funny. This week was pick on Sister Taylor week. Don't worry I survived without too much of my pride being taken away. All in all this week went pretty well. We taught more than we thought we did. We had a power lesson in mission prep. I am thankful that we had members willing to come out with us even if we didn't have much success. I love being out here. Especially now that it is warming up. I am sure in a few months though I will be complaining about how hot is it oh well. I like it for now! I hope you all have a great week. Keep looking for those missionary opportunities around you. I love you all! Love, Sister Marie Taylor