Pictures

The pictures of from Saying good bye to Hermana Lema! Im going to miss my mission mom so much!

October 22,2012

¿Que tal Familia y Amigos?

Family this week was AWESOME! Seriously AWESOME! Santa Isabel is really turning around the members are wonderful! We have been working with a lot of the members. We have learned that it's easier to get them involved in the mission work if we bring the investigators to the houses of the members. It's been really effective and the members are super excited. We have three baptisms this Friday (what a great way to celebrate my year mark) the members are so excited because they know these people, they have taught them, they have come over to their houses, they are their friends. I'm just so happy to see this ward reaching the potential that I always knew that it had.

The best experience of the week was teaching Arturo about the importance of the Sabbath day. He didn't come to church last Sunday because he was too tired. And the Sunday before he come to conference but he told us flat out, I'm not coming in a suit and tie. So this week we visited him and we talked about the Atonement, we talked about all that Christ has done for us and then we talked about when we told go to church and when we don't honor the Sabbath day we are basically tell Christ "Thanks for suffering for my sins, but I really don't care." Then I looked at him and asked him Arturo could you look Christ in the eyes and tell him that all he has done for you doesn't matter." Oh if you could have seen the look in his eyes. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he understood what Sundays really are all about. Then when we went to picked him up Sunday he was taking forever to come out and I was thinking "After that amazing spirit filled lesson did he serious sleep in." but then he come to the window dressed in a Suit and holding out his tie says "Hermanas can you help me, I don't remember how to tie my tie." AAAAHHHHH!!!!!! He really is coming such a long way! I love it! I love my life right now!

This next week will be a week of land marks, on the 24th it will be 6 years since my Dad passed away and on the 26th I will have been on my mission for 1 year. Well the Elders say it's time to go!

I love you all! Till Next week!
Hermana Sadie Jean Taggart

Pictures

This bull is the reason I did not sleep Saturday night. They shot fire works out of it's mouth and a lot of people ran around making a lot of noise. Some kind of celebration. Can't say that I get it. 

October 15, 2012

Hola Familia y Amigos!

 

All is well here in Santa Isabel. I get one more cambio here with Hermana Venegas. I'm really excited. We get along great. She works hard and we are seeing a lot of progress here in Santa Isabel. I really believe the end of this month we could have more baptisms in one month then Santa Isabel has had in a VERY long time. Which makes me excited. I'm just happy and working hard. Sunday I was a little frustrated because Arturo y Sheyla didn't come to church. You just have to accept that as a missionary you can only do so much but at the end of the day Salvation is personal. It's like that saying that says you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. . . well you can lead a person to the waters of baptism, but you can't make them swim ha-ha.

 

Really keeping the Sabbath Day Holy is a commandment that people REALLY struggle with here. Even down to our MOST active families buy things on Sundays. . . I'm not sure what we can do as missionaries to help them.

 

So my mom says that my letters finally got to you all. I hope you all know I love you dearly and I'm sorry that you are just getting the letters I wrote for you in June ha-ha.

 

We are getting new gringos in the zone. I'm pretty excited. Seeing the new missionaries makes me smile because you can see how far you have come.

 

This week I did something I have never done before I fasted out of thankfulness. Never in my life have I done that before. I have always fasted because I needed something. Help from the lord, strength to live with the trails I was passing through or to help someone else, but NEVER in my life have I fasted to tell the Lord that I was thankful for all I have been given. Honestly I had never even thought to do it till the other day when my companion wanted to fast. I was worried because for me fasting means that something is wrong so I asked her why and she said she wanted to fast to show that she was thankful for all the blessings she has been given. . . Wow. . . so I decided that I would do that this week but then things got hard, our contacts fell through and I thought "no this week I need to fast for this and that I will have to fast to show thankfulness another week." but then I thought maybe that's the problem, maybe I am too busy being focused on all that is going wrong that I'm missing out on all the blessings that the lord has been giving me. So I fasted with the only purpose to say thank you for everything that I have. Every time I felt hungry ( I did what my mom always taught me to do) I thought about why I was fasting and instead of thinking about the problems in our area that I was worried about I thought about the good things in life and all the blessings I have. Long story short, fasting to show the Lord how thankful you are is a GREAT idea. I can't believe that I have never done this before. If anyone reading this is passing through problems or trials I would invite you to fast and fast with the purpose to give thanks to the Lord for all you have!

 

Well know that you all finally got my letters I will expect to hear from you all soon!

Love Always,

Hermana Sadie Jean Taggart

October 8, 2012

Hola Familia y Amigos, ¿Como la va?

 

Things in Peru are going good. Conference was AWESOME! Can you believe they changed the age requirements for the sister missionaries (the change for the Elders didn't really surprise be because it's been 18 in Latin America for years.) but the girls! 19 Years old. They lowered the age by TWO YEARS! Wow I can only imagine what this will mean for the obra! Seriously! I think about my group of friends, had the age limit been 19 when we were 19. . . . I really think a good amount more would have gone. I'm excited. I know the Lord needs more missionaries and this will open up a lot of new areas. All I can say is that the lord is putting a lot of trust in his "children" really 18 year old boys and 19 year old girls. . . I'm sure it will be fine as long as everyone remembers that this is the mission field and not freshmen year at Dixie state ha-ha. I'm excited I hope more girls serve missions. My mission is the best choice I have ever made. I feel like it is preparing me in so many ways for my future. I'm excited that more girls will have the opportunity because they won't be afraid of coming home an old maid at the age of 23 like I will be ha-ha. Jk. But seriously . . . Do we all think people in Utah will start getting married even younger ha-ha. I guess we will see.

 

They are also building a new temple in Peru! Whoot! Have you ever noticed how much they talk about Peru in General Conference. Every six months there is at least one talk about Peru.

Last Pday was really fun and stupid haha. We did a fast food eating contest, but the elders bought a ridiculious amount of food. Not only was it impossible to eat, but even more impossible to eat fast, by the end of the day 4 elders and 1 hermana threw up haha. But it was hilarious.

 

Right now we are teaching a brother and a sister Arturo and Shelya. They are preparing for baptism this 20th of October. Sheyla is 17 so she has to get permission first, but it's been really fun teaching them. Arturo likes to pretend he is too cool for our lessons, but he loves them and keeps all of his commitments. It's funny we will ask him if he read and he will respond like "uhh... yeah not really, but yeah," but then when we ask him what he remembers or understands it's obvious that he read everything, he is just 19 and likes to think he is super cool ha-ha. But it's been a blast teaching them and I have faith that Sheyla will be able to get permission from her Dad. (she has been trying for months) but Arturo has only recently been listening to us and I think when he sees that both his children are preparing for baptism his heart will soften.

 

Basically all is well in life. I'm hoping to get one more transfer here in Santa Isabel. We have lots to do and we are really trying to get the ward involved in the mission work and I feel like with one more transfer we could make a big difference. I know the work will progress here weather I am here or not, I just want to be here to see it.

 

So I sent home letters with a private sender, I don't know when they will all get to you but thanks to everyone who has been SO loyal in writing me. I have the best friends ever because I know a lot of you haven't heard from my since June thanks to this stupid post office strike but I have been writing I do love you all and my letters should get to you all soon.

Love you all!

Hermana Sadie Jean Taggart

New Pictures

Last Monday I learned an important lesson, milkshakes in Peru are not the same as they are in the states :( sad day

The second pictures is me eating Food from the Selva

The pictures from Denisse's baptism

October 1, 2012

Hola Familia y Amigios, Saludos desde Peru.

This week I have some stories for you all. Let's start with last Monday night on  the bus.
We were coming from the offices on a very crowded bus. My companion was sitting a few rows in front of me. The Girl that was sitting next to me left open up a spot to my left. I slid over so that Hermana Venegas could come sit by me, but before she could get to me a HUGE, SMELLY Peruvian man took her seat. So I'm sitting there and I can just feel him staring at me so I figure If I was going to be in this uncomfortable situation I might as well contact him ha-ha. So I start talking to him and it was very obvious he didn't have the Lord on his mind . . . Ugh . . . he kept winking at me. So I just decided to look out the window and hope that his stop came up soon. After several minutes of awkwardness the stop finally came, as he went to get off he tried to give me a kiss on the check to say goodbye. (which is normal for Latinos it happens all the time) so I put my hand in front of him and explained that as a missionary I can old shake his hand. So he takes my hand to shake it AND THEN with his other hand Reaches out grabs me by the back of my head and tries to pull me in to kiss me! AAAAHHHHH!!!! So I screamed and threw my head into my lap! And he kissed me like three times on the top of my head! YUCK!! All the people on the bus watched and laughed! YUCK!! Yeah yeah its funny, let's all laugh at the Gringo getting attacked by some huge smelly guy. Basically long story short more men have tried to kiss me in my 11 months on my mission then in the 11 months before my mission.

Other exciting story from this week is that Denisse got baptized. It was a really spiritual experience for her, honestly even before she got baptized she told me she still wasn't sure if the church was true but she wanted to get baptized. Then on Sunday it was fast and testimony meeting. During what seemed to be the last of the testimonies she looked at me and told me she wanted to share her testimony. She walked up there and told us all about how she had prayed and prayed to know if this was the true church and hadn't been able to receive an answer, but when she got baptized she came out of the water with such a strong feeling of joy. She said she could finally feel that Joy that the missionaries had been explaining and now she knows that the church is true.
I love baptisms because you get to see people the way the Lord sees them, not just for who they are, but for who they can be, the potential that they have if they follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and work to always follow the impressions of the Holy Ghost!

Basically things are going good here in Santa Isabel. I worry a little about things next month. We don't have a whole lot of investigators. We are teaching an 19 year old boy that makes me think of Austen my nephew. I accidently called him Austen in one of our last lessons ha-ha. I hope that we can help him. He seems pretty lost to me, and I know he has a lot of desire to do what's right, he just doesn't like to show it ha-ha. But I really enjoy teaching him. Oh we are also teaching a family of Israelites which is an adventure. I'm not sure if this religion exists in the United States, but it's a mix of Judaism and Christianity. It's really interesting. They believe in Christ and his teachings but they also follow the Law of Moses. I'm excited they are going to come to conference with us next week pretty sure when they walk in, in their robes, with their long hair and beards and all we are going to go down in Santa Isabel History.

Well that's about it family. I sent letters home, they should get to you soon. Hopefully within this next week or two. Thanks for writing me even when you all didn't hear from me for a while thanks to the post office strike.
I love you all! Have a great general conference!
I have been gone for 11 months! Do you miss me yet ha-ha!
I love you all!
Hermana Sadie Jean Taggart