Week 13

Hellooo friends & family! It was another great week to be a missionary :) well, to be honest, it was one of my hardest weeks so far with the worst things that have happened, but I still just am so happy & grateful to be a missionary. 

At times it was really hard to stay positive this week. Dealing with being sick the first half of this week (with the worst allergies ive ever had, i literally slept with tissue shoved up my nose because it was just drippingggg), being extremely frustrated with other people's disobedient choices that negatively affected several companionships including mine (I was literally left at another missionary's apartment to sleep because our companions didn't come back from a non approved exchange until after 11 pm, and the whole day our lessons and appointments were thrown off and superrrr late because of a car situation and miscommunication between some of our leaders ... several people received some scary phone calls from my mission president yesterday morning, and should consider themselves very lucky they didnt get sent home), really painful cramps all afternoon Sunday (with no chance to rest because we had meetings and lessons to get to), exhaustion from a lack of sleep this weekend during the crazy disobedient situation and not being in my own house or bed or clothes or area.... it was ROUGH. And it felt like bad thing after bad thing. 

Butttt I realized if I sat there thinking of only the things that went wrong, I would completely forget about some of the super awesome things that happened! Here's some of the fun/great/awesome/positive experiences I had this week :))))

☆BAKING!!☆

I did keep up with my goal to bake/cook each week. I baked Caramel Brownies, Halloween sugar cookies, Brownie Tarts, and chocolate chip cookies (all my mom's recipes except the sugar cookies) to give to our friends. there were a fewwwww fails haha and I'll include those pictures for you all to see and judge. but my Brownies turned out super good and all the missionaries have been spreading the word about "Sister Traylor's bomb Brownies". So if my dashing good looks don't find me a husband, my Brownies might.

☆Baptisms!☆ 

In the (almost) 3 months I've been serving a mission, I've attended 3 baptisms, NONE English haha. I've been asked to sing at 2 Spanish baptisms (one of them this week which was a super super sweet baptism) and play the piano for a Tongan one (also this week) And me and my companion have our own baptism this Thursday!! I am SO excited for our friend's special day and my first baptism on the mission and in this area.

☆ the JOY of this Gospel☆ 

I have seen the lives of SO many people be changed for the better through this gospel in my short time here. One of the family's we've been working with has just grown so much closer, been so much happier, and have learned so much more about Jesus Christ! You can feel a brighter happier spirit in their house now compared to when we first started meeting with them. Another one of our friends has grown SO much in the short couple of weeks we've known her. Her family even reached out (who aren't members or very religious at all) to thank us for saving her and changing her life. She's overcome some TOUGH challenges these last few years of her life and her family said they've never seen her have so much joy and light and purpose in her personality and they've watched her attend church on Sundays and teach her kids about God and they've just seen such a huge positive change in her life. We have too and we are working with her towards baptism!!!! She wants it so bad and has loved her journey growing closer to Jesus Christ. We just are having to work out some past issues to be able to get her baptized but she is AMAZING and I love her!! Its been so awesome seeing the Joy that this true gospel gives people. And I've learned something SO important from her. Be Bold!!! She asked us for a Book of Mormon before we even offered. She talked to us about Temple Marriage before we even discussed it. She told our Bishop she wants to be baptized before we even officially invited her. Do not be scared to share the gospel or invite people to come closer to Jesus Christ!!! So many of them already want to! They're just waiting for the opportunity that YOU can give them!

I hope you all had a great week, and were able to find joy even in the difficult circumstances. God is good ALL THE TIME:) 

enjoy the pictures!!