Happy Father's Day

June 21, 2015

I hope that all the fathers who read this have had a great Father's Day!  Especially my dad, Grandpa Foote and Grandpa Freestone and all my uncles.  You guys are all pretty cool.  I've gained a huge appreciation for fathers in general on my mission (strong father figures are few and far between here).

Last night, for Father's Day, one of the families in our ward invited us over for dinner.  If this had happened 9 months ago I would have starved.  Why?  It was all seafood.  Prawns, crab, tilapia, mussels, seaweed.  Everything. But you guys I ate it and actually kinda liked it.  Well the tilapia and mussels and seaweed with mango salsa stuff.  I still don't like crab or prawn but that's ok.  If you know me, then you know that this is a straight up mission miracle. #PicturesOrItDidn'tHappen

"My tongue has changed and this is the evidence.  Dad, this was on Father's Day.  I thought of you.  If nothing else makes you proud, I hope this does :)  Hahaha"

I love the mission.  It's going fast.  But I still love it.  Transfer week is next week so we will see what happens.  I think I'm staying in Camarin though…I hope I am.

What's Your Miracle Today?

May & June 2015

My new companion is Sister Papaliitele.  She's a Samoan Australian.  She was my Sister Training Leader back in Malalos and my exchanges with her changed my mission.  So it's kinda surreal that we are companions.  We've spent the last 5 days talking about what we wanted to accomplish.  We wanted 40 lessons this week.  We were gonna end Sunday with 39 and she was like, "Sister Foote, I can't come this close and not get it done.  Let's finish this."  I said I couldn't either.  So we racked our brains, said some prayers and were able to teach a less active in our area that we haven't been able to teach in a long time. MIRACLE

Words can't even describe the miracles I've seen this week.  We were able to help a less active paint her house yellow.  I was happy as a clam. MIRACLE

Sister Papaliitele and I ask each other every night "What was your miracle?" and then we share what our miracle for the day was.  Some nights have more obvious answers then others, but every night has an answer.  I challenge you all to look for the miracles or tender mercies of the Lord in your daily lives.  I promise you that there is one.  Don't get me wrong, some days are really hard.  But there's always something to be happy about.  That's what's gotten me this far in my mission.

On a more fun note, people here love eating with their hands and think it's the greatest when foreigners do it.  It saves doing the dishes!  So we ate  at a members house last night and Sister Papaliitele and I ate with our hands.  It really is an art…there's a technique.  They were impressed that we both knew how.  I love it.  They love it.  We all win.

In the Sun we Melted, Melted, Melted

May 2015

I just checked the weather for my area this week--maybe a bad idea.  Highs of 103 almost everyday and lows of 80.  It just confirms that i am, indeed, serving in the hottest country in the world.  You just accept it and move on. It's a normal thing to have sweat in your eyes and dripping from your forehead to your scriptures in the middle of a lesson.  But I seriously love it.  Its sounds crazy…but its not.  Im just glad that I only have one summer in the mission.  It's the way to go!

Life is pretty good here.  Sister Foote called to serve as a Sister Trainer Leader.  

I have officially been thrown into the deep end of missionary leadership and I'll admit, I'm barely keeping my head above water right now.  But, this week was an amazing week nonetheless.  I love the gospel and I love the atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Mother's Day Skype Session

May 10, 2015

We were able to Skype with Sister Foote for Mothers Day.  It was wonderful except the audio and video quality weren't very good.  Still, we loved talking with her in real time.  She was so happy and smiling the entire time!  Her brother, Blake,  asked Taylor "On a scale from 1-10 how glad are you that you are serving a mission?  Her answer: 10.  Then he asked her "On a scale from 1-10 how much do you miss me?  Her answer:  11!  So grateful to be able to talk to her and to see her face to face!