General Email:
Hey everyone! Sorry for having such a rushed week last week and not
getting to wright much. This will be a very long email to make up for
last weeks. :) Yes, I have been transferred. Before getting
transferred, I wanted to share some stories, so I'll share them now.
In my last ares, my apartment was located in the City of Zion. Let me
tell you, it is far from the Zion we read about in the scriptures, ha!
Oh goodness. We found out that Zion was nick named murder-ville. Fun,
eh? Oh, and the street we had just visited twice they day before, come
to find out, had a drive by shooting. We weren't there though. God
really does keep us away from danger. We are so protected! I'm very
grateful for that. Whenever we find out something big happened, we
find it happens when we are far away from it. :) Even though the city
we lived in was a strange place, I loved my area and all the people
there, even though we ran into a crazy guy I mentioned previously (the
drunk guy). Living there was a HUGE blessing for me. In my first area,
I was still shy and struggled to talk to people; they looked scary! A
majority of people look like they will hurt you if you dare look at
them. In my last area (2nd area), when I struggled to speak during
lessons, I made my companion unhappy. It got to a point where I had to
decide, I am more afraid of the people or my companion who I spend
24/7 with? I was more afraid of disappointing my companion. This
pushed me to speak up, even when I felt like I was making a fool of
myself. What I learned was it was all in my head. I could contribute
by speaking, and I wasn't an awful teacher after all. Woo! Even
speaking to strangers was much easier. Thanks to my last area and all
the people there, I'm overcoming my fear of speaking up. Coming to my
new area is now a test for me to hold onto what I learned and apply it
without having my last companion there to push me to speak up. It's
amazing how The Lord works and knows what we need to move forward.
about an experience I had there while tracting. It helped restore my
confidence in tracting. Sister Lepule and I were driving and I think
at that point our plans fell through. While looking through the papers
of ward members, the name of a lady popped out. It had been mentioned
many times by many people throughout the last couple of days, so we
felt the a Spirit was telling us to go there. After knocking and
having no one answer the door, we figured we had been led there for
someone in the neighbor hood. It turns out, we were there for the
second house was tracked at across the street from the ward member.
Her name is Noelia. She met with the missionaries a little over 20
years ago. She lost contact with them when she had moved and didn't
think the church or the missionaries were around where she was living
now. For a few years she has been having a hard time and family
members were telling her she should start going to church again, but
she didn't know which one to go to. The night we came, she said she
prayed for a sign to know where to go, to have direction in knowing
which church was the true church. Less than an hour later, we knocked
on the door. How amazing is that! It goes to show how amazing God is
and when we just listen and involve Him, we will guide us. We're never
alone! She invited her mom over to a lesson with us and both were so
excited, and they came and watched general conference. They were so
excited when we invite them to come attended a baptism. The Lord has
really prepared them and they are so ready to learn! So exciting!!!!
A couple of weeks ago I received an e-mail from a ward member in my
first area. She wanted to tell me a little bit of what took place
after I left the area. A brother in the ward had died, and to help his
wife feel better, I drew a portrait of her husband from a picture that
we had taken together a week before he fell ill. I guess she really
likes it and it brings here comfort. She framed it and has it up on
her wall. I'm so happy it helped. :') I didn't know how I could use
art to help anyone, but an opportunity occurred! you never know when
something will come in handy. I wasn't alone in drawing that. I felt
the Spirit so strongly while working on it.
Oh!!! Guess what. It snowed again las Monday! And it's crazy to think
I got a sunburn a few days before that. What?!
So, about my new area. I'm in Indiana (I have lived in 3 states now).
It's the furthest down you can go in the mission, which is funny
considering my last area was the furthest up you could go. I have now
been on both ends and in the middle (middle-ish). We have a washer and
drier in the apartment! Woo!!! So exciting. Laundry takes so much more
effort when you have to travel and carry it around. My new companion
is Sister North. She's from the Salt Lake area. In mission lingo,
she's my niece. Her trainer was trained by my trainer.
There are good people here. Since last night though, I have felt alittle troubled. We met a girl who just turned 20. She is very kind,
but completely anti religion. She grew up in an LDS home belt felt
like she was being forced to go to church, so she stopped going as
soon as she turned 18. :( What troubles me is how people can grow up
around the true church, who are exposed to this wonderful gospel their
whole lives, yet, their desire to rebel takes over and they listen to
the wrong voices and go down dangerous paths. Stop it! Just stop
letting Satan trick you! Bah. This hurts to see. How can anyone deny
Christ? :'( I have seen this so many times, but as of late, it just
gets to me. I know this is Gods true church, Christ is our redeemer
and savior, the Spirit testifies of this, and we just need to listen.
How on earth can people allow them selves to become so hardened that
they can completely reject the witness of the Holy Ghost? Pride. I
have found so much of it has to do with pride. It's everywhere in the
scriptures.
Lastly, since this letter is already very long, I'll wrap up with the
letter the First Presidency sent out to all the wards. I'm assuming
you all heard about it yesterday at church. They were following up on
the challenge to all of us to invite someone to learn more about the
gospel or to simply come to church. They raised the bar to invite
someone every three months. People aren't taking this seriously. My
challenge to all who are reading my letter is to GET TO WORK. The Lord
is relying on us. Are we really so busy that we can't help our
Heavenly Father? Doesn't The Lord mean more to us than the fear of
inviting others to come closer to Christ? Fear is a choice which has
been a huge and hard lesson for me to learn, but I'm learning it, and
finally came to this realization with the help of Christina who was
just baptized. She has such amazing faith! Choose God over fear.
Review the challenges extended during conference, and do it. I love
you all. This church is true. If you don't know that, remember to
doubt your doubts before you doubt you faith, as President Uchtdorf
has told us. Never give up, and never let go of the iron rod. Hop to
it.
~Sister Tayla Wells
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