Week 69

Hello Family!

I hope you all have had a good week! It is always great to hear from you. :)

My week has been really good! No migraines, thankfully!! Ha ha! We feel so blessed right now- things are going so well! We have a lot of member referrals, a lot of progressing investigators, and a lot of miracles taking place. It's wonderful! :) 

Bob is doing well. He is getting nervous for baptism because it is coming up really fast! But he has the desire and we haven't felt inspired to set his date back yet, so we will see. Apparently his family (who lives in Eastern Norway) is going through a hard time and it's really sad. He is still making good progress though. As we were planning last night, we felt like we needed to kneel down and ask if we should push his date back at all, but when we were done praying, the 8th still felt right and everything thing else felt wrong. He is such a good person! We ate waffles with him yesterday after church and we had a really good time. He is going to be a great member! :) Please keep him in your prayers!

That girl I mentioned last week- Adele- we were able to meet with her quite a bit and get a baptismal date with her! She has a goal set to be baptized on the 22 of September. She fits in great with the YSA, just like Bob! :) The last time we met with her, we had a really good chat and we got to know her really well. :) Her birthday is the 16 of September, so we decided to talk to one of the members here who bakes to invite the three of us over to make a birthday cake together! We thought it would be so fun! :) 

We had the opportunity to go visit a member family this week- the Andersens. It was the coolest dinner ever. It wasn't the food or anything like that that made it great- they had their less active son, their non-member son and their non-member and very interested neighbor there! It was incredible! We had a teach with their neighbor, Kari, and it was so good! The less active son, Trond, even helped by explaining the Book of Mormon promise to her. It was such a powerful teach! Kari began to cry and was very excited to read in the Book of Mormon. We look forward to working with ther in the near future! :)

Another miracle we experienced this week took place as we were out contacting. We didn't have a lot of time and we weren't feeling a lot of inspiration as to where we needed to go, but we headed back towards the main part of town and their we found a girl named Victoria. She actually came to us and asked what we were doing. She told us that she had once been Christian, had lost her faith, but wanted to find it again. GOLDEN! :) So we sat down on a bench and taught her the message of the Restoration- it was incredible and she was in agreement with everything we said. She was very interested in meeting with us again and we have an appointment for this evening! We are so excited! :)

As for our newspaper interview- it went really well! We had a really nice conversation with the reporter and it was cool. He took some dreamy pictures of us... it was kind of awkward... Ha ha! Hopefully the article turns out well! We'll keep you posted! :)

Well, that's about all that is happening here, fam... It's great! :)

I hope all is well there- you are always in my prayers! I love and miss you all! Have a great week! :)

♥- Søster Jessica Taylor

Week 68

Hey Fam!

 

It's so great to hear from you all! It has been an amazing week! It went by so fast. It feels like just yesterday I was sitting here emailing you.

 

First of all, I'll tell you about Bob. He is a champion! We are so happy about him. He is still progressing nicely towards his baptismal goal for the 8th of September. He has been really good about coming to church and activities. On Thursday, a family invited us and Bob out to their home for dinner and to teach him and we did just that. It was awesome! The Antonesen family took such good care of him and bore such powerful testimony about the Book of Mormon. So that was great. Earlier this week, we had taught him the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity and he readily accepted them. Then on Friday, we made dinner for the 3 of us and one of the YSA so that we could start a fast together. After we ate, Bob helped us clean up the kitchen and I got to have a really good chat with him. He told me that he had really decided to live the Word of Wisdom the day before. He hadn't really lived it after we taught him, but the day before, he had had some coffee and felt so bad about it after. It was because of those bad feelings that he decided to really live the Word of Wisdom. Yesterday in church, he asked me if we could teach him more about the priesthood- he wanted to know more about it. He asks such good questions and is doing so well! We are so happy about him and the ward is too! (That's the most important!) Please keep him in your prayers! :)

 

As for some other the other people we are working with- we have this girl named Siri who has been taught by elders but then came to us and wanted us to teach her. She is a free spirit and it has been really hard trying to get her a structured, organized faith. Ha ha! But she is super cool. We really like her becasue she is just so happy all of the time- she doesn't have a care in the world! :) We have another girl named Adel who lives a ways outside of town, but she comes to the city very often. She has had a hard life- we don't know what she has gone through, but it is obvious it has been a lot. When we first met with her, we taught her God's plan because she needed it so bad- it went so well! She even accepted a soft baptismal invitation. (Soft means not a date). We are going to be teaching her again tonight before FHE with the YSAs. It should be great! :)

 

On Friday, the 4 of us sisters went to an elderly couples home for lunch. They are 81 and 84 years old and He was a chef. He made us lots of fish and guess what... I loved it! :) The only sad part was that a migraine had started just before we caught the bus to their house, so I couldn't enjoy it to the fullest because I felt like I was going to throw up. No fun. I don't know why I am getting migraines... That's 2 in less than a month. I have never had them so close together. Oh well...

 

Saturday was,by far, one of my favorite days contacting on the street! The YSAs in Bergen planned an activity with the missionaries and we all met together in a big group in the middle of town to draw God's plan with sidewalk chalk and teach people about it. In about 3 hours we all had taught so many people and it was such a positive experience! We all loved every minute of it so much that I think we are doing it again next weekend! :) Coolest part is that there was no need for clean up- it started raining and washed it all away. Ha ha!

 

This work is just so amazing! I can't even begin to express how much love I feel all of the time! I love this work. I love my companion. I love our investigators. I love the members. I love this country. I even love the people who yell at me on the street! (That doesn't happen very often... Ha ha!) But most of all, I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

 

And lets not forget... I LOVE YOU! :) You are all wonderful! I hope you have a great week.

 

Vi Snakkes!

♥- Søster Jessica Taylor

 

P.S. On Wednesday, Sister Pace and I will be meeting with a reporter for a local Christian newspaper for an article that they are doing. President Evans called us a couple of weeks ago and gave us the assignment. It should be super exciting- I'll let you know how it goes! :)
 

Week 67

Hi family!!

 

How are you all doing? I hope you all have had a great week! As always, thanks for the great emails. I love hearing from you! :)

 

This has been quite the week. Bob was out of town so it was kind of crazy because we realized we had a ton of finding to do. Also, the Relief Society President gave us an assignment to call all of the less active sisters in the ward and see if they want visiting teachers. So each day, we spent a little bit of time calling and then the rest was spent on the streets. Between Wednesday and Saturday we were stood up for 12 appointments. That was so frusturating! We were trying so hard to get lots and lots of sit-down teaches where we could start and end with a prayer, but it didn't ever work out... Miracle from it all: we ended up having 3 people in church on Sunday and one of those people was a referral. That to me was a huge testimony builder of how hard work leads to blessings. There were many days that we went home disappointed because it felt like none of our efforts were paying off, but because we just kept going, regardless of the results, and things paid off. There is a phrase I read in the Book of Mormon that illustrates this perfectly: "...for according to his works shall his wages be..." and also, "He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." We are not sure, but maybe if we had not pushed so hard to keep going, we may not have seen the blessing of having people in church. We have to work according to the results that we want to see, and that is applicable to everything in life... not just missionary work. :)

 

Bob came back into town on Friday and was able to come to church yesterday. He is so great! His testimony is just growing and growing. He is beginning to feel more and more comfortable with the members... That is the most important thing! :)  Sister Pace, Bob and I were invited to a members house for dinner on Thursday and he was able to come to a dinner with us last night. It has been so great to see how the ward has just taken him in and helped him in this journey. Watching the members take care of him has made me want to be a better member missionary when my full-time missionary service is complete. I really want to be a ward missionary- that would be so cool! Dream Calling!!! :) Anyways, Bob's baptismal date is still set for the 8th of September, but we are still planning to bump it up... Hopefully to the 25th of this month! Pray for him! :)

 

Sorry- this email is really short and pretty lame. Ha ha! I love and miss you all very much! I hope you have a fantastic week! Vi Snakkes! :)

 

♥- Søster Jessica Taylor

Week 66

Hello, Hello!

How are you all doing? I hope everyone is doing so very well this week. :) 

Sister Pace and I have had an amazing week! It all started out with Bob. We felt like we needed to take a step backwards a little bit and emphasize the Atonement a little bit more. We were able to create such and intense spiritual environment in that teach that we were able to help him realize what the Spirit feels like. It was GREAT! :) As we were teaching, Sister Pace and I both had the opportunity to bear testimony about the Atonement and after that, it was just silent... The first person to talk was Bob and he told us that he felt his faith in Jesus Christ growing. It was so funny because we asked him what that made him want to do. He paused for a minute. (See, we had mentioned earlier in the teach that the way that we accept the atonement is through baptism.) And the he said, "Keep the 10 commandments..." And we just kept sitting there quietly... Then he added, "And be baptized." BINGO! :) He was feeling the Holy Ghost in all kinds of ways and it was so great! :) So right after that, we had him pick a day to be baptized. He chose the 8th of September. (Happy Birthday to Kelsie! Ha ha!) I know it's kind of far out, but we have a solid plan to get that moved up sooner. Just gotta give it a little bit of time. It worked with Agnes, Brit, and Marita in Trondheim, so I know it will work for Bob too. :) He is out of town right now, but he will be back on Friday and we will get back to teaching him. :)

We have seen some amazing miracles as far as finding people goes. We have been given several referrals. President and Sister Evans were in town and they found this girl at the restaurant they were eating at and gave her info to us. Daniel is a young adult who has been taught before, but got dropped because he wasn't progressing, but he is still coming to all of the activities even though he is an atheist. He wanted to come out and see what it was like to be a missionary so he came with us on Friday and we were able to talk to him about his faith and what he wants. He said that sharing the Book of Mormon with people really made him want to really read it and find out. He is super cool and we want to start teaching him. Saturday, we had 2 first teaches- one woman named Geralyn from the Philippines and an African man named Dennis- and both went absolutely amazing. We were able to help them recognize the Spirit, have the desire to read the Book of Mormon, and we committed them both to baptism. It was so amazing to watch how we taught them the exact same lesson, but we were able to tailor it to their specific needs. That is how both teaches were so successful! :) Then, yesterday, there was this girl in church and she randomly asked us to start teaching her and so we are! Wow! We have people popping out everywhere! I feel so blessed!  This city is amazing!

On Thursday, we had the opportunity to fly to Oslo for a training meeting with all of the trainers and new missionaries. It was really fun! I love flying and I love being in Oslo and I love being with President and Sister Evans. They are such amazing people! :) Yeah... That's about all I have to say about that. Ha ha! I turned in my paperwork about flight information. I'm coming home to SLC. I hope that's ok... You guys better tell me quick if it's not! Ha ha! :)

Well, thanks for the great emails- I loved everyone! :) Well, one of the computers in broken, so I can't take anymore time. Sorry- no personal emails! :( Just know that I love and miss all of you very much! :) Have a great week!

♥- Søster Jessica Taylor

Week 65

Hi Family!

Well, it has been quite a week. I don't even have words to describe it... Ha ha! I will just tell you what happened....

It started with the migraine. I have not been sick so far on my mission, but the other day, we were starting our language study with a prayer and when I stood up, I had this crazy dizzy feeling come over me and then there were spots in my vision. I told Sister Pace that I thought I was getting a migraine and she told me to go sleep for and hour, but I wanted to be tough. So I continued with my studies... It didn't go very far. I couldn't see anything! So I decided to take her advice and sleep for an hour. Well, while I was napping, I felt the headache hit. Oh man! It was the worst migraine I have ever had! We had the elders bring some migraine medicine and then I slept for 3 hours. It took up our whole day, sadly. However, I was better in time for us to teach this really cool new investigator later in the evening. I'll tell you more about him later. :) But don't worry, I am healed now. Ha ha! :)

Anyways... So we are living in Sister Pace's great aunt's house who is not a member. She found out that Sister Pace was here and invited us to dinner. She told us that she was making us shrimp... Great... Ha ha! So we went to visit her. Let me just tell you, we walked into her house and she had a HUGE platter of raw shrimp complete with heads and tentacle/feeler things and eggs. She taught how to behead, de-tentacle, de-egg, and then eat these nasty creatures. Yes, I ate shrimp that I had to disembody. It was torture. But I did it with a smile and no one knew how bad I was dying inside. Ha ha! These nasties are caller rekker in Norwegian. It was fun and all worth it because she gave us delicious chocolate afterwards! :)

The other night, we were just getting done with a very awkward contacting session where we met a lot of random people when we saw 3 or 4 people huddled over a man who was laying on the ground. As we got closer, we saw that they were trying to wake him up... and find a pulse. and they couldn't. As we got even closer we saw that the man's eyes were OPEN! Then an ambulance pulled up and the emt's walked out, tried to find a pulse, couldn't find one, and slowly walked back to the car, got out the gurney and then they heaved that man onto it. Big problem- the man was not limp like he should have been... His body was stiff! There was the weirdest feeling around- as if he was there watching his body. It was so crazy! Sister Pace and I may have freaked out a little bit! 

Well, even though it probably sounds like we had a rough week, it actually was quite an amazing one! Last Saturday, we found this guy named Bob. He is basically Norwegian. He was born in Denmark, but moved to Norway when he was 6. He came with us to FHE with the YSA's and we have taught him 3 or 4 times. He is progressing so fast! He is about 21 years old and just gets along so well with the people in the ward. He came to church with us and stayed for 3 hours after church, talking to members, eating waffles with us, and watching a video about the restoration. It was so cool! He is definitely on the baptism radar! He hasn't been willing to set a date for baptism, but he knows that is the goal and he is working towards finding an answer if the Book of Mormon is true. We love BOB! :)  

We had a miracle 45 minutes yesterday where we got 6 teaches, 1 new investigator and 2 phone numbers to people who would like to meet. It was incredible! :) We are just tearing up Bergen and loving every minute of it! We are getting along so well. We laugh all of the time... even when times are a little off... Ha ha! She is a great missionary! There are 5 new missionaries in Bergen and only 1 who has been here. So all of the new missionaries got to speak in Sacrament Meeting yesterday. It was really cool and the Spirit was really strong. The members are really nice here. :) I am excited to grow to love them as much as the ones in Trondheim! :)

Well, I hope all is well with everyone at home. I love you all very much! Have a fantastic week! Vi snakkes!

♥- Søster Jessica Taylor

Week 64

Hi family!

Thanks for the great emails- it's always great hearing from you! I love you guys so very much! :) 

This week has been rather crazy with my move and everything. Oh my goodness- my last 3 days in Trondheim were NUTS! Everyone wanted time to say goodbye and we were running around all over the city. It was so hard to say goodbye to the people I had grown to love so much, especially my new converts. Mariell, Marita, Agnes and Brit- all so amazing. Oh man... I'm tearing up just thinking about it! I miss them all so much! On Wednesday afternoon, Agnes had offered to drive me to the airport and wait with the Butter (Sister B) until her new companion came. She had made us delicious sandwiches and took us the long way to the airport so that we could see the fjord. When we got to the airport, they both went with me to the terminal and waited with me until I got onto the plane. It was so nice of them to be with me! When I got on the plane, I sat down and got settled and then pulled out my book of memories that everyone had written little notes to me in. I just started bawling. I was so grateful that the engine was so loud because I was literally sobbing! As we flew over the city, I felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. Oh my goodness- I love Trondheim, Norway with all of my heart. I never thought I could ever love others so deeply as I love the people there. I feel like I left a part of myself there and it hurts a lot... but it's a good hurt. :) No one will ever be able to fill the gap that those people have made in my heart. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to be among those Trønders! :) 

Sorry... That was probably really depressing. 

Then I got to Bergen and I was all alone for a few hours, waiting for my ride to come and for my new companion to arrive. Well, I can't remember if I told you, but my companion's name is Sister Pace. When she got off the airplane, right off the bat, she told me that she was so excited to serve with me and that she had been following my blog since March! Ha ha! Right after she got her call, she google searched the Norway Oslo mission and the only thing that popped up was my blog. She basically decided that we were going to serve together and sadly for her, from it she got the impression that I am a way better missionary than I really am... oops! But way to make me look good! Ha ha! :) She started off by asking me questions about stories that I had told you guys and stuff- It was way funny! :) She is super cool though. She is from Holiday and her parents are serving as mission president in Spain. She is a killer missionary already. I have absolutely nothing to offer her- she is too incredible! I love it! :) Her family is from Bergen and we are going to find and baptize them! So Bergen is absolutley BEAUTIFUL! Our first 2 days here were sunny and warm... That was weird because it rains a lot here. Ha ha! But it was good because we were able to figure out the city and what not. The members here are really nice. I have a feeling that I am going to really like it here, but for now, my heart is still yearning for Trondheim... Sister Pace and I are already having good success. Because our knowledge of the city is very limited, we have really been relying on the Spirit to direct us where to go. We know it is the Spirit because 1) we always feel to go to the same place with one another and 2) we always find people to teach when we follow the promptings. It has been a really cool experience! We had 2 people in church yesterday and we have set really high goals for this week that I know we are going to reach! (Only in the strength of the Lord, of course!) We are going to rock it! It definitely helps that we get a long so well. :) I am grateful that we can build up the kingdom here in Bergen! 

Well, that's about all I've got for this week. Could you please post this next comment on the blog with everything else you usually do (it's for Sister Pace's sister who is still following my blog... ha ha! I feel so popular!):

Hi Michelle! Your sister is awesome- I love her! I promise to take really good care of her here in Bergen! You and your family are in my prayers! :)

Anyways, I hope everything is going well for you all. I love you all tons and tons! Have a great week! :)

♥- Søster Jessica Taylor

Week 63

Hello, Hello!

How are you all doing? Did you all have a good week? I hope so!

This was another slow week here in Trondheim. We were trying so hard to be diligent and think of new ways to find people and be effective, but it wasn't working. We kind of bombed last week. It was sad. We had some good experiences though. Remember that girl who yelled at me then came back and apologized? Yeah, we finally were able to meet with her. she met us at a cafe in town and then bought us drinks. It was really nice of her. She is a really cool girl and has had a lot of amazing experiences with her faith, but our meeting wasn't what I hoped it would be. She was basically just trying to convert us to the bible... which we already are, but yeah... It ended up not being very cool. I was disappointed about that. BUT, we gave her the Book of Mormon and I feel good about that! :)

On Friday, we flew to Oslo for the training meeting for new trainers. Sister Grass and I will both be training in Bergen and I am very excited about that. I love Sister Grass so much! She is one of my best friends. It will be a little scary because neither of us have been to Bergen before so we don't know where anything is! It is the second largest city in Norway and it is supposed to be very beautiful! :) They speak really funny though... I am kind of nervous for that. My new companion's name is Sister Pace and she is related to President Johansen. It's going to be great! I am really excited to train again. We'll be white-washing! It will be a new adventure. :) But back to the meeting- it was really good! I feel really honored to be able to serve in this position. I don't really feel worthy of it. President Evans was so passionate and positive about the revelation he had received on who would train that he got emotional as he talked about it. He is an amazing leader! I am excited for another opportunity to train. :)

Funny experience- So, I'm pretty sure I told you about how Agnes has this feeling that I will be a psychologist in New York... Yeah, well, I have actually been considering it lately. Here is the funny part- from the time that I began considering it, I have had a few experiences that have shown me that I do NOT want to be a counselor or psychologist or anything like that. One of these experiences I wouldn't trade for the world. There is this new convert who, on the outside looks like a happy, normal young woman. However, we met with her this week and she is actually having a really hard time and has been for quite a while. She is depressed and has anxiety and has had a problem with cutting herself for a really long time. Well, her family and friends are all away on vacation and she has been alone which has left her with a lot of time to think... and that's no good. I told her that before she began to cut herself, she needed to call me- not matter what time of day or night. Well, at about 3 am Sunday morning I got a call from her. Oh, I was so tired and speaking Norwegian was the hardest thing! But, I talked to her for an hour. I read to her from the Book of Mormon, told her stories and we had a good time talking. After an hour, she told me that she felt lots better and was going to go to sleep. It was really cool to be able to help her. I felt honored that she trusted me enough to tell me this secret. It was a testimony builder for sure. At the end of our conversation, she told me to never stop being a missionary and I told her I don't plan on it. :) I don't know if I can explain in words how good it feels to be able to lift someone out of a hole like this girl is in. I know I can't help her permanently, but I can do a little bit. I think that's how it is with everything. We may not be super heroes that can make any bad situation better, but we can do little things to brighten the lives of those around us. That's where I have found true joy! :)

Well fam, that's about all I've got. I hope it wasn't too depressing. I love and miss you guys tons! Have a great week!

♥- Søster Jessica Taylor