Pickett, Taylor PT

TENDER WEEK!!!! A lot of happiness, baller studies, and insane miracles. https://photos.app.goo.gl/21EyypbnKgAqaHje7 Our new friend Monica asked us a very good question yesterday:  "How can I maintain my faith in the hardest of situations?"  Immediately a well known verse in the Book of Mormon came to my head, Helaman 5:12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall. Depending on Christ to find happiness, hope, confidence, and peace is how we can stand strong in any situation. He needs to be our foundation.  Our p...

This week I have been reminding myself that it is IMPOSSIBLE to be perfect!!! It's good to have high expectations and standards for ourselves as long as it does not get in the way of God's will. He created a perfect plan, putting Christ at the center, knowing beforehand his children would sin and struggle. That is the whole point of life, to learn and grow. It's so easy to testify that Christ is the Savior of the world in our lessons because I know it is true. I have seen the change He has made in my life and in the lives around me. The fact we have a Savior brings people so much hope and light.  HOWEVER, sometimes it's so hard for me to truly accept Christ as MY OWN personal Savior, not just the Savior of everyone else.  I have been reevaluating my expectations and standards for myself, from trying to be perfect (through my own efforts) to being perfected THROUGH Christ.  I read Alma 7 (Book of Mormon) again a couple of days ago, and verse 23 really stood out to me. Al...

Hermana Herrera and I have been working with our friends to understand what faith is. In my old area, basically, everyone believed in God and had at one point been to a church; however, it is much different here. I have been able to focus more on the basics (God, Christ, scriptures, prayer), and it has been cool to teach and study!!  We have been reading Alma 32 (Book of Mormon) with a ton of our friends recently. In this chapter, Alma teaches humility and faith in such a beautiful way relating faith to a seed.  In the following chapter, the people he is teaching (the Zoramites) ask him how to plant the seed or, in other words, start the process of having faith. To explain this, Alma reminds the people of the story of Moses and the fiery serpents and how those with faith in a simple action of looking toward Moses' brass staff were saved.  Alma 33 19 Behold, he [ Christ ] was spoken of by Moses; yea, and behold a type was raised up in the wilderness, that whosoever would l...

This week I have felt extra blessed to be a missionary. I just moved to La Florida and I LOVE IT!!!! The area I am in right now is gigantic with a lot of neighborhoods in one section and the other part is more city with a lot of buildings and people.      My new companion, Hermana Herrera, is from Perú and is a MACHINE. She loves to work so hard and has such a special spirit. Her sacrifice to be a missionary has inspired me SO MUCH. I also love Peruvian accents and food so wujuuu      I was a tiny nervous the first day I got here when I saw that there wasn't any progress happening. I tend to rely on myself without even realizing so naturally I started to write down plans of how we are going to find 6 people a day, get triple the amount of people to church, and get people on the path towards the beautiful gift of baptism.      As missionaries, we have an hour of personal study everyday to read the scriptures and study how to become better disc...

AN INCREDIBLE WEEK!!!      https://photos.app.goo.gl/21EyypbnKgAqaHje7     Due to the holidays, so many of our friends left to travel to the South of Chile. This was my last week in this area (served in this area for over 6 months) and I REALLY wanted to leave it with a lot of momentum and progression. We prayed and fasted and have seen SO many miracles starting with Juan Carlos, the dad of our recent convert Natalia, deciding he wants to be baptized at the end of the month.      He has been shocked at the upclose change he has seen in his daughter after baptism. She has chosen better friends, initiates family prayer, has more drive and direction, and overall has a glow in her countenance. SHE EVEN teaches him about the importance of the commandments!! He has seen the effects of the gift of the spirit and the power of being cleansed and reborn through baptism.      After that, it was miracle after miracle. I have put my heart and so...