March 31, 2014

I love you guys! I want to tell you so much! There is never enough time! It was a rough week this week but I pushed through! We walked about 25 miles yesterday!!! I did 54 contacts and we received a week of excellence!! I don’t know if you know what that is! Maybe the boys know! I will explain next email if you don’t! It’s something’s you only receive through lots and lots of work! And I got one! Yay! Ha-ha you need to meet a certain number of requirements! We worked really hard this week! When you get 3 weeks of excellence then you receive a certificate and when you get 3 certificates then you get a cute little barouche! It’s only my second weekend I have one! I am so excited! Yay! My companions keep joking that I will be sister training leader my next transfer! lol they are funny! I don’t know Portuguese well enough for that! But I am really excited! We have 4 girls living in an apartment the size of your room mom! lol it wasn’t so bad with 3 but I have no idea how 4 will work out! Anyways! I have sooo many blisters lol my new shoes are perfect but no pair of shoes will stop the amount of blisters you get from walking 20 miles a day! It’s just bound to happen! I am taking care of them and making sure they don’t get infected! I love you!

These are pictures from the Provo MTC I will send pictures from Brazil next week!

 

Letter from Sister Taylor 3/18/2014

03/05/2014

Today's email from Sister Taylor:

Hi! SO, I want to tell you about my week starting with Friday! After I emailed, we went into the city and did some shopping for this week! I went to Mr. Cheney’s and they had the PIZZA PARTY that you sent me mom! I loved it! There are only 5 people in my district so we had a feast!! Thank you so much mom! I know you didn’t have to do that! So thank you! And my whole district says thank you also! lol So My new companion is so great! We have the exact same personality and we both have sass so sometimes they clash but it totally works out. She is from Oklahoma and she is brand new! She studies Portuguese though so we are about at the same level language wise. She is super independent and DOES NOT like being told what to do or how to do something. HMMM who does that sound like...lol But nonetheless she is great! We get along just fine! Okay so Saturday was normal and super busy. But, Sunday was soo great! We had fast Sunday obviously and it was great I fasted for Adam mostly that he would have health and remember how much I love him, but I also fasted for an elders friend names Marcus who was serving a mission when he found out he has a tumor in his back and needs to go through surgery. Please keep him in your prayers. I also bore my testimony Sunday! I did most of it in Portuguese but I wanted to tell my conversion story so I did that in English! It was hard to switch back and forth! But it was good! Our sacrament meeting only had about 20 people in it so everyone got to bare their testimonies. It was super amazing to just watch the gift of tongues work. Crazy! And then at lunch on Sunday I was told to come to the leadership meeting and guess what! I got called to be the Sister District Training Leader for my district and for the entire CTM...so I am an assistant to the Mission Presidents wife! Thanks for jinxing me mom! lol it’s not assistant to the president but it’s the next best thing! And yes they are Mission President Swensen and Sen Comp The Fergusons. They are so sweet and so helpful! I love them! Then during the Sunday night devotional I was listening to sister Swensen talk about us being missionary examples in everything we do. I keep seeing modesty issues everywhere. Like Slits in the skirts and floor length skirts and tight stuff and blah blah blah so I thought about us doing something fun that will get the sisters involved. I thought of doing a modesty fashion show! I know right! Such a great idea! So, I talked to her about it and she wants me to plan the whole thing by THIS SUNDAY! I have to make an entire fashion show and translate it in Portuguese and Spanish! AHHH! Ha-ha so, I did! I finished everything yesterday and met with all of the sisters last night! Hopefully they come up with their part by 2morrow night! I was kind of slacking recently but you guys know that I work my best under pressure and that is exactly what this calling is doing. Now I never have free time because I’m filling it with stuff I know needs to get done! I love it! Then, on top of everything I am singing a duet this Sunday with an elder! I know that they can’t record this one so I’m sorry! But we are singing come thou fount! It’s going to be great! I am just adding to the list aren’t I! lol then Monday was super normal! On Tuesday we had a devotional and the President of the Temple came and spoke to us! It was ALL in Portuguese and I didn’t use a head set! I understood most of what he said! I took a whole page of notes! When it was over, I was like oh my goodness that was in Portuguese! That’s crazy! Ha-ha it was really cool. Then at the end of the devotional a group of Brazilians sang. Let me first explain that piano is not a common instrument in Brazil. So, wards don’t ever have a pianist. A lot of the times they sing off key because they don’t know what the key is. They just go by what they heard their parents sing. So, the singing itself was not...let’s just say it wasn’t MoTown... However, when they sang Joseph Smiths first prayer I almost cried. Yup I just said that! I almost cried. I didn’t pay attention to the music but I felt their spirit. I felt their testimony of the gospel. I felt that expression through their faces and through their words. They recited the First vision it was sooo moving. My companion later told me that she felt the same way. And she said “you know what, it doesn’t matter if we speak the language perfectly because when you have the spirit, they will feel our testimony”. I loved that she said that! It was just what everyone needed. It was so humbling. I probably felt the spirit more in that performance than I have any other time. Then last night a new sister arrived! She wasn’t supposed to be here until this morning but she came! I was told to not leave her but also that 2day is not her pday so she cannot come with us. So, this morning we missed the temple because I did not want to leave her. But, it’s the Olsen’s last Pday and we are all going to a Brazilian steakhouse! Yum! I will tell you more next week! I love everyone so much! Please send my love! I miss you Adam and Aizy! I miss you Grant and Congrats with you and Britt! I miss you Crissy and tell Jodee I miss her too. I miss you Daddy, everyday! I miss you Mommy so much! I love you all and I hope I have a good experience in the streets today! Love always, Sister Taylor!!!

                                      Kari's Pizza Party from Mr Cheney's across from the CTM!

February 28, 2014

Hi Everyone,

I can’t believe our ward is splitting! That is soo crazy! I am happy and sad.

But this week has been kind of weird and crazy! So I got a new companion. Sister Neal! She is soo sweet and soo smiley! She’s a chicken in a barrel ha-ha I’m just kidding with the country saying. LOL Everyone says I have a country accent and I don’t. They are just weird. Anyway, Sister Neal was in Provo for 5 days. So she was like how I was with the other sisters. It is now my 4th week and she is on her first. LOL So I get to help her out because I know exactly how she feels. Our lessons are a little well umm iffy. Lol because I do all the talking in chopped up Portuguese. But it’s something to work on and definitely something I needed. We are now moved to another district. My old district leaves this Tuesday. I leave to Porto Alegre on March 18th! I can’t believe this went by so fast. Well my new district has PDAY ON WEDNESDAYS. Which means I am going to the temple this Wednesday and I get to email again on Wednesday? I am now used to the climate! Finally! But I still get hot super easily. They said if you want to send a package to my mission home then that is fine but I won’t be at my mission home until March 18th... Letters only take 8 days to get here so you can send those! But packages just take forever and I don’t know why. For anyone who wants to send me letters please do! Mail is the one thing that EVERYONE looks forward too. It takes about 8 days and I am here for another 3 weeks... So SEND, SEND, SEND! Lol I definitely picked up the gist of Portuguese. The hard part is the conjugation! But I will get it! Today we are all going out for cookie milkshakes at Mr. Cheney’s! It’s going to be soo good! Lol I can’t wait!

I miss you guys bunches and Please send my love to everyone!

Sister Taylor

2/21/2014 email from Sister Taylor

 

Well, It is Pday again!

I went to the temple again today and it was soo much better for some reason. I still couldn’t get a picture but google a picture of this temple and you will see what I am talking about. Seriously I LOVE this temple. I didn’t plan this, but I ended up saying prayers for everyone individually, and it may have taken up an hour in the celestial room. I went through for a Person named Alice Maud and I have no idea who she is, but the weirdest thing happened and she was there. Don’t think I am crazy but I felt like she was. We may have stayed up a little late last night and all of the girls were falling asleep. I seriously could not fall asleep. I felt like I should treat this like it was my first time. I kept thinking that if I fell asleep then she would miss something. And you know what I am so glad I didn’t. I realized some special things that I never noticed before. And that occurred to me like every other minute. lol it was crazy. So my temple experience was let’s just said amazing!

Okay so my CTM experience. It is super hard to get used to. And the only time I can EVER not wear shoes is when I am changing at the temple so I look forward to that every week ha-ha but I sleep with no covers because it’s so hot. It is started to be their winter so last night I had to use a small sheet but that’s it. Hopefully it gets colder because all of my pjs are sweat pants... yay. Let’s start back at last pday it was amazing. We went into the city a little bit they have everything for sooo cheap. We met so many new ppl. But we get pday for like 4 hours and then it’s back to a regular day lol so we had to hurry. They have this cookie place called Mr. Cheney’s I think. It’s literally right across the street from the CTM and YOU meaning mom and dad ha-ha can call and have a certificate given to me for a free cookie or they even do pizza. It was started by missionary that served here and now it’s super popular. It’s so cool! One of our missionaries Elder Sargeant got a gift certificate from his mom for a pizza and soda and cookies from there and we all really enjoyed that lol. My whole district leaves next week and I still don’t have a companion so idk what they are going to do with me. So yes that means I have been in an advanced class once again...I thought that stuff was over with lol. Anyways they are all soo great. It’s been hard to work in a three some but I think we got the hang of it. Then on Sunday we had a great day and watched 17 miracles for the first time for me. SERIOUSLY GO WATCH THAT MOVIE. lol it was great. then the gospel doctrine class was about the plan of salvation. on Tuesday we sang at the devotional and then on Thursday, last night, we got to eat Japanese food. um what. lol yes Japanese. apparently a lot of brazil has Japanese heritage and yesterday was the independence day for Japan. Seriously they celebrate japans I-day and not The U.S. lol but that okay. ha-ha the food was sooo good. They NEVER have noodles or SUSHI and they had some. It actually tasted good. well I don’t really remember what good tastes like lol it was just good compared to normal. we just eat what they give us. I got sick Sunday again...It was terrible. but don’t worry and I completely fine now. I have been blessed to only be sick twice and both times it only lasted a few hours out of one day. So it was a good experience. and I hope I never have to go through that again. they said it was called some traverls sickness idk. But then today was soo great. You guys already know that. I just hope everyone knows how much I love them. I pray for you guys all the time.

LOVE always, Sister Taylor

Email from Kari 02/14/2014

Hi Everyone,

I haven’t been able to email anyone yet because I was in the Provo, Utah Missionary Training Center (MTC) and my Preparation Day or Pday, which is the only day we get to email, wasn’t until Tuesday. Well it turns out that on Monday at 4 o’clock in the afternoon I was told that I was leaving to go to the Sao Paulo MTC. I was to leave at 4 am the next morning. I was not able to have a P-Day until today. I was able to go to the temple in Brazil for the first time and it was amazing. It was so gorgeous. I LOVED it. Well, the day I got here, I was put in a class with people that have been here for 4 weeks. I have only been here for a little bit over a week so I was so confused. Ha-ha they are giving me a companion on Tuesday. She will come from the Provo MTC. I am so excited. Hopefully we will be put in a class that’s at our level. lol Brazil is gorgeous. the plane ride made my feet swell. apparently that is common. lol I didn’t know because I don’t fly in planes on a regular basis... but my companions are great. They are so nice and so helpful. They even had to move all of their stuff into another room just for a week because of me... I felt so bad, but Brazilian life is so laid back and relaxing. Pday is the busiest day of the week. There are only about 20 computers and about 100 people that have to use them so I only get about 30 minutes to email everyone. so my mom decided to take over and just forward my one email a week to everyone on the email list. I want everyone to know how much fun this is! I thought it would be so boring. It is very difficult but that’s what makes it so fun. I like a little challenge. I am learning Portuguese little by little. I have to get off soon but I wanted to bare my testimony in Portuguese.  Eu sei que o evangelho de Jesus Cristo e verdadeira. Eu sei que Joseph Smith e o profeta. Eu sei que eu soa aqui estar a missionaria por a igreja de Jesus Cristo dos santos dos ultimos dias. Eu sao animados ser aqui. Eu amora meu pai celestial e eu sei que Ele amor meu. Em nome de Jesus Cristo amem.

I love all of you guys so much and I hope I can write more next week. I cannot wait to be able to speak Portuguese fluently. I will write you guys soon! Hopefully!

Love Sister Taylor.