Small set back

Just a quick update.  Morg had a small set back last night.  They will wait until tomorrow to start decreasing her medicine.  We will arrive in Tahiti tomorrow at 6:00 am Tahitian time which is 9:00 am here in Utah.  On a side note for those who don't know me, I am a positive, the cup is half full type a person.  I just had to vent a little on the last post and I feel better now:) but not apologizing for it.  Morg was telling us when she was struggling a couple months ago people need to speak about the good and the bad of serving a mission so that we can learn and grow from all experiences.  last week in sacrament I gave a talk on honesty and spoke about being honest with ourselfs.  And speaking honestly now, I know there is a plan and miracles happen and have happened.  And I will be updating the good and the bad. But always, always looking at the good.  Until tomorrow...

A moment on my soapbox

Okay, I am going there....if you are looking for a uplifting nice post this will not be it.  You might want to stop reading now. But, I am mad!  I am so angry!  I know I said in the last update that I would not "go there" but I am.  I can not believe my beautiful, creative, smart, loving, civic minded, helpful, non judgemental daughter is laying in a  bed in intesive care because of a drunk driver. Are you kidding me? Someone has to be kidding me!  Her whole life is changing because of you? Someone who decided to drink alcohol and then drive?  Your making her nine year old sister ask me, her mother, about every two hours if we know what parts of her brain won't work yet.  If we know what she won't remember, if she will remember us, her family who would do anything for her, who love her more than anything.  Someone has to be kidding me....but they are not.  Because of you we will pick ourselves up and pick up the pieces and help our sweet Morgan through this horrific trial. We will do it because we love her and know that the girl who could concour the world will still concour the world. We will forgive because living a bitter, mean, angry life is not how i choose to live.  My family does not want to live everyday with hatred.  But, any of you who do drink please please please do not drive.  It is not worth it. It's simply not worth it.  My daughter or anyone does not deserve to suffer the consequences of your actions.

Update #2

Last night I was speaking with Morgan's mission president.  He is a great man.  He was telling us that he and his wife were praying at Morgans side and Morgans heart rate went up.  When they went to leave and got to the door her heart rate went back down.  He said "she knows we are there" He also was commenting on Morgan and her "great character" and how great of a missionary she is because of it.  I was telling him how Morgan is going to be so upset when she has to leave and he immediately said "yes she will!" I can't say enough about all the love, prayers, texts and visits.  It is truly amazing and there is no way to explain the feeling.  We were able to speak with Sister Moli family.  They are awesome.  We didn't know any details of the accident and they were able to explain it to us.  They were at the church and were leaving to go home to get ready for the ward Christmas party.  That is when they were hit from behind from a drunk driver.  It would be so easy to be angry right now but I refuse to go there.  That won't help anyone, especially Morgan.   Sister Moli was hit first.  She landed on her neck.  She had her hair in a low bun and thinks that helped cushion her fall.  Morgan was hit next.  The ward members witnessed the accident and helped them immediately.  They moved quickly and we know Morgan will benefit from that.  We are anxious to get to Morgan. Troy and I fly out tomorrow.  Grams is coming to hold down the fort and many other family members, neighbors and friends to help.  Thank you all again for your prayers and kind words.  We are so grateful!!

Update on Morgan

As many of you know our sweet Morgan and her companion were hit while riding there bikes yesterday.  It has been a crazy and unbelievable night and day.  I feel a need to post an update.  She has , and our a family has,  amazingly wonderful friends and family who are concerned about her.  We so appreciate all of the calls, visits and prayers.  Please keep praying for her.  We were relieved to hear that her sweet companion was released from the hospital.  We pray for her and her recovery.  Morgan loves her.  She has been an amazing companion and a great friend.  We are so grateful!  Morgan had emergency surgery to relieve pressure on her brain early this morning.  We just spoke with a Doctor in Salt Lake who is working with the Doctor in Tahiti.  He feels she is getting great care and is getting the same kind of treatment she would here in the states.  We are so glad to hear that.  They plan on tapering off her medically induced coma on Monday.  We are praying for more miracles in addition to the ones she has received.  They do not plan to try and transport her back to the states for 10 days. It would be to dangerous for her at this time.  We will be updated again with the Doctor Monday night or Tuesday morning. Until then please continue to pray for her.  She has a long road ahead for her.  We do want to express our thanks to her mission president and his wife.  They are watching over her.  We are again grateful.  The things that make me so sad right now is how Morgan is going to feel when she realizes she has to leave her mission and the great people of Tahiti. She has many friends and loves them so much.  She will not be happy with this goodbye.  So, we will get her healthy and will return with her to thank these good people and to see the sealing of the couples that are being baptized next week.  I can't wait to hug my beautiful daughter.  She is truly amazing and will overcome the trials ahead.  I have no question.  Thank you all again!  I will update when more information is given to us.

When You Wake Up and Find Someone In Bed With You....

The rain was pounding on the roof. I was sleeping away, dreaming in french, and enjoying the precious hours of sleep I have. That when I heard it. I, groggily, woke up wondering what the sound could be. As I turned my head to the left, nothing. As I turned my head to the right. BAM!

Mouth full of fur.

Cat fur.

Pananche, our favorite feline friend, was purring away, feeling pretty sneaky for jumping through my window and sleeping on my pillow all night long.

*sigh* This cat. I found it sleeping on our table. Our washing machine. In our Attic. And basically everywhere. It's the most annoying animal in the world.

Other than that our nights have been pretty uneventful. Thankfully. We live in a very safe, very quiet neighborhood. Right next door to the Protestant Church. I'll probably only be staying here for another 3 weeks. Which, as happy as I am to get out of here, is slightly depressing. 6 months is a long time. You get really close to families and investigators in that amount of time, but we move on. And I'll be coming back.

Why will I be coming back? Well. We have three INCREDIBLE couples we're teaching. 2 of which will be baptized Christmas day. The only is still working on the Word of Wisdom. And... Sœur Moli and I promised them this week we'll be at their temple sealing. So. TAHITI HERE I COME! Again. Later on. For a wedding. And to tear up those waves.

Speaking of waves. Sœur Moli and I hit up the end of Tahiti for our last p-day. We were able to see a nice bit of Papeari and went down to the beach where they have the national surfing compétitions. Unfortunately those are in July... But it was still pretty cool. The black sand, and McDonalds run made it even better. ;)

I got mail this week! I'd love to know why I can get mail from Japan, before America. (Elder Rogers is the best! Japanese mail!)

AND!! WE GOT REESES PEANUT BUTTER CUPS! I can't explain how long it's been since i've eaten one of those little babies. :)  Yes, I know I looke really tired. Let me explain myself. We had a 6 hour long weekly planning session last night. It was fantastic. I loved it. Sœur Moli and I are going to be friends for a very long time. And yes, my eye looks a tad swollen. I almost poked it out with a metal pole. But there's no damage to the eye, just the eye lid. And yes. That is a helmet tan line for my hair. And Yes. I love Utah State. And yes. I've gained weight. But guess what? I LOVE MY MISSION! And that's all that matters!

V and J. Are our best friends. We're with them everyday, and they are so READY to get married and baptized. Want to know a secret? The gospel changes families. It changes couples. The 2nd lesson with V was terrible. Why? Well we got there and she was crying. J had left the house after an argument with their baby and wouldn't answer his phone. She was worried sick. We talked to her a little bit and then we asked her if she had prayed for him to come back. She hadn't. She asked me to say the pray for us. Right as we finished the pray his car pulled up. The next day, he finally accepted the lessons. And now, I've never seen a more unified couple here in Tahiti. They read the Book of Mormon everyday. They pray everyday. And they are incredible. I am going to miss them. 

We had another miracle this week. We're teaching another couple. T and L. T is a member inactive, and L is SUPER catholic. We started heading over to teach T and see if he needed anything. Each time we'd come over he would have to BEG L to come listen to us. She was not interested at all. We invited them to come to the temple with us.

The lesson after.

She's getting baptized. December 25. She never listened to our lessons. But she wants to go to the temple.

Moral of these stories? The spirit changes hearts. Prayer changed J.  And the incredible feeling in the garden of the temple changed L immediately. It's nothing we did. We're here to help them understand what they feel, but we ABSOLUTELY can not change a person. We can't make them have the desire to pray or to read or to get baptized. BUT. The spirit can, if they're open enough to listen. That is what is incredible about this work. It's not our work. It is really, truly, the Lord's work.

I love it.

XXo,

Sœur Taylor

p.s.

GOODBYE BIKES! WE HAVE A CAR

p.s.s. the internet is slow... and I don't have time to upload more pictures. :) NEEEXT week!

ZIKA....Our Best Friend

Hello 7 month mark!

 

 

Okay, who believes I've been out for 7 months? Not me! Time is going very, very quickly.

 

This week Sœur Moli caught the lovely mosquito disease that's going around ZIKA, so we've been locked in the house. It was a nice adventure, I spent a lot of time on the telephone talking to our investigators. We were doing phone lessons. That's solid missionary work right there...

 

We fixed 2 baptisms by phone. Really. No joke. There's a couple here named Josue and Vaihere. WE ADORE them. Josue is 21 and Vaihere is 25, and we just feel like a huge group of friends. This last week, after one of our lessons, he went and got us pizza. We ran and Grabbed ice cream, and we had our Tuesday night party with them. It was pretty fun.

 

They have 2 kids and are going to get married, wait for it, the 21st December. We have 3 weeks to plan a wedding, and we're all kind of stressing, but it's going to go well. :) They're going to be baptised Christmas morning. Sœur Moli and I are extremely excited.

 

We also had Thanksgiving at home. We treated ourselves to hamburgers. And then I made baby caramelized pear tarts. They were delicious. That was our Thanksgiving...

 

WE HAD BAPTISMS this week! We had 4.

 

 

Ryan and his little brother Mattias.

 

 

Tuterai

 

 

and Christian

 

Those kids, we love them to death. They are so solid and fun to be around. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, they're my favorite people to teach. They are so smart and it just helps them for the rest of their lives.

 

Yep. That's been our week, it wasn't too exciting. :)

 

 

We have Advent Calenders.

 

Love,

Morgan

--

 

 

 

Tahiti Papeete Mission

Soeur Taylor, Morgan

 

B.P. 93

Papeete, Tahiti

98713

French Polynesia.

 

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