Week 46

Hi Family!

I have to first apologize because I have exactly one hour to email you
and the mission president because we are going out to Mali and
Daniel's house again to eat Norwegian food and to knit. :) So our bus
leaves in 58 minutes and I just barely got onto the computer. I just
printed out all of your emails so that I can read them on the bus
ride, but that means I have 0 time to reply individually. I am
SOOOOOOO sorry! :(

Well, this week has been 100 times better than last week, so that is
good :) Sister Butterfield and I are getting along really well and we
are working really hard! We are both really surprised at how happy we
are all of the time... Randomly during the day we will just look and
each other and say how happy we are. It is really weird! I guess we
both have just been under so much pressure for the whole first half of
our missions that we are finally sinking into the groove of how we do
missionary work and it feels really nice. :)

We have had a lot of luck this week- we were able to get a baptismal
date with a guy named Hessam. I believe I have told you guys about him
before. He is from Iran and has a Muslim background, but he feels so
much peace when he reads the Book of Mormon and his biggest desire in
life is to feel God's love all of the time. So the last time we met
with him, we talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ (Article of faith
#4 faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost.) We
explained that when we follow these steps, it allows us to feel His
love so much! So we set a goal for the 14th of April. Hopefully he
makes it... :) Also, there was a girl named Annetta who had a
baptismal date when I first got here, but she fell off the face of the
planet and I never met with her. I have called her at least once a
week since I got here. Well, three months later, I called to invite
her to institute and she said that she would come. I feel bad, but I
didn't really believe her because she has told me many times before
that she would come, but never followed through. Guess what... I was
wrong this time! She showed up at the church and we were able to talk
to her about what had happened. She said that she understands how
important baptism is to God and she wants to make sure that her heart
is in the right place before she jumps into it. She also told us that
she has been reading the Book of Mormon for the last 3 months too. :)
Oh man, we are going to get this girl baptized! She is wonderful and
we have another appointment with her tomorrow. Nothing like
persistence! :)

Here is a little miracle for you all- Sister Butterfield and I were
out on the street contacting, and we were having no luck. Every single
person said no and if they said yes to hear more, it was because they
were crazy or drunk or something. (I am not kidding!) Well, we decided
to sit down on a bench, take a little break and say a prayer. Almost
immediately after the prayer, (first of all, I got the hiccups. ha
ha!) I looked up and saw a girl walking down the road across from us
and I knew I needed to talk to her. So i got up, hiccups and all, and
went to talk to her. She was really sweet and we had a nice chat about
finding a belief in God. I had to hiccup every now and then and we
would just laugh! (Mom would've killed me! Ha ha! Just kidding...) But
I ended up getting an appointment to meet with her tomorrow! So, yes
it was small, but in Alma 37:6-7 it says, "Now ye may suppose that
this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small
and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in
many instances doth confound the wise. And the Lord God doth work by
means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small
means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation
of many souls." So, yes, it was just a little miracle, but that is how
the Lord works! It's fun to see it!! :)

Well family, I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love and miss you
all so very much. You are always in my thoughts and prayers!
Vi Sees om 6 uker! (We'll be seeing each other in 6 weeks... On SKYPE!
Yahoo!!!)

 Love you!

Søster Jessica Taylor