Where to Begin!

My Dearest family! 

It was a CRAZY amazing week! Again. For starters, we went to follow up with some of the people that we tracted into last week. A lady's husband was home this time, and let me tell you what - WE got taught the lesson! He was a born again from Nigeria. Let's just say he had his pointer finger 2 inches from my face shouting, "Do you understand that your body is a TEMPLE of the HOLY SPIRIT?!?!" Yes sir, yes I do. It was interesting. He also mentioned something about God sprinkling the blood of Christ over all the world? I'm not quite sure. 

Then, we had the amazing honor of being in a trio for a day! A sister from a neighboring ward was coming home but wasn't getting set apart until the next day, so she spent that day with us! She was a well of knowledge! I learned SO much from her in the short amount of time that we spent with her. 

Then on Friday we had the annual Stroudsburg ward chili cook-off and Trunk-or-treat! You know how much I love dressing up, so this was very hard for me haha. BUT, I just had to do my cat-eye make up for the night. I couldn't resist. and I got a picture with little Isabella Naomi whose Snow White Halloween costume was inspired by yours truly. :D 

On Saturday we had the AMAZING opportunity to go up to Susquehanna for a Mormon Helping Hands service project! Folks, this was a life long dream come true! I got a yellow vest and everything! We practically cleared a forest on a mountain side. Okay, 20 Elders cleared a forest on a mountainside and we carried away the trees haha. We were the only Sisters there! 

Then Bishop and Sister Woolley (who we drove up with) took us to the Aaronic Priesthood restoration site AND the site where 75% of the Book of Mormon was translated!!!!! It was amazing. They are building a giant visitor's center etc...we will HAVE to come back when it is done! 

On Sunday our investigator Sara got baptized! It was an amazing thing to be a part of, the Spirit was so strong. I am so grateful to be a part of this work in bringing others closer to their Savior. She is an amazing girl and has so much potential! The Gospel is SUCH a blessing. Please, never take it for granted. 

I love you all so much and I am so grateful for your support! 

Love, 

Sister Kadee Taylor 

Christmas Packages

Dear Families of Missionaries,

Christmas is fast approaching.  We will be delivering our missionaries Christmas packages the 12th, 13th, and 14th of December.

All Christmas packages are to be mailed to the office and must arrive at the Mission Office by Friday, December 6. 2013. Meeting that deadline will assure that your missionary receives your packages at the time their zone packages are delivered.

Please mark 'Christmas' on the Christmas packages. If we don't know the packages are for Christmas they may get sent out to training meetings, visits by the Assistants, Interviews, etc. before the Christmas package delivery dates.  We don't want your missionary opening Christmas presents before Christmas.

We ask that all packages come in to the office for two reasons:  1)  We log every package that comes in.  Doing so helps us determine if there are any missionaries not getting Christmas presents (it happens).  If packages go to apartments we don't know who has received Christmas presents.  2) Sending all packages to the office does away with any confusion about transfers - whether your missionary might be transferred and gone from the apartment you usually send their mail to.  Transfers will occur on the 10th of December 2013.

Our office address is:

Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission 721 

Paxon Hollow Road Ste B 

Broomall, PA 19008

May your Christmas be extra special because you have a loved one serving the Savior as a missionary.

Thanks for your help and attention.

 Mission Secretary

A week of Miracles in Stroudsburg

Hola friends and family! 

We are going to take this day by day, so bare with me! 

Monday: We stopped by a very old referral from Church Headquarters with sister Stacey Beebe in our ward. My experience with media referrals has never been very fruitful. You could say that the theme of this week to Kadee was, "Oh ye of little faith". We went to this referral's home, his name is Rick, and he welcomed us with open arms! He told us that he did indeed want to  learn more and that we could come by this week for a lesson. I'm convinced that we see miracles when we work with members. MIRACLE!

Tuesday: The Elders had been teaching a girl named Sara, but she wasn't progressing very well, and then we found out she was in our area, so this week we began teaching We helped Sara to recognize answers to her prayers and accept her baptismal date for this coming Sunday the 27th. I have never felt peace be tangible thing, but our Heavenly Father's Spirit was so present in that lesson it was unbelievable. I have never felt anything like it in my life. MIRACLE!

Wednesday: We committed an eternal investigator to finally act on our message when he accepted the invitation to live the Word of Wisdom! He has seen miracles in his life already, and it has only been just a few days since he made that commitment. MIRACLE! 

Thursday: I am slightly anti-tracting. Okay, I'm just plain anti-tracting.  It is our last resort, as we have been told many times how ineffective it is. Well,  on Thursday I guess you could say that we reached desperation. We had been given a referral by a member but did not get an exact address, just a street name. So...we started knocking doors at about 7:45 at night. I kid you not we knocked on 5 doors and every single person welcomed us into their home as if we were old friends! Every person that opened their door to us instantly recognized us as representatives of Jesus Christ without us even saying a word. I was so humbled. We got SEVEN new investigators that night. MIRACLE! 

Friday: We had several stop-by's planned in the upper part of our area. We wanted to make sure that some less-actives we have been working with were invited to the ward trunk-or-treat this weekend! We had about seven or eight names down and in two hours we saw every single one of the families that we intended to! AND found out that one of the families was a part member family! MIRACLE! 

Saturday: I've never been to Sunday night adult session of Stake Conference before, so this was my first time going. It was in Scranton and we got a ride from some gracious members. I don't think I've felt the Spirit that strong in a meeting since I've been on my mission! I could have sworn that everybody was staring at me because I surely must have been beaming with light because I felt the Spirit SO strongly! For the closing hymn the congregation stood and sang The Spirit of God and I thought I was floating! I swear it was a slices of the Celestial kingdom right there in the Scranton Stake Center. MIRACLE! 

Sunday:  We ended the week with a bang. Last night we went to dinner at an investigator's home with the Beebes who are fellowshipping them! We met Miguel and Maritza in May/June and have had a hard time getting into their home because Maritza had a little baby girl in July. We took Sister Beebe to stop by their house a few weeks ago and it turns out that she was the room mother for Maritza's daughter! Maritza and sister Beebe are friends now!  We had an amazing lesson and they are so excited to learn more about the Gospel, I feel so blessed to know them. They have such a desire to learn, it's amazing. People that actually want to be taught by the Mormon missionaries, amazing! MIRACLE! 

I don't even know what more to say. Thank you so much for your prayers, they are being felt. I love you all more than you know. Thank you for your love and support. I could not do this without you! 

Love, 

Sista Kadee Taylor

P.S.- Another miracle is that a ladybug somehow made her way into our apartment and survived for over a week. We named her Rajah. 

Commitment!

Sorry, I don't have a lot of time this week, It's zone unity day again (: 

I'm learning that my success as a missionary is based on my commitment. I succeed when I invite. This is hard for me, but I learn to rely on the Savior and His Atonement more and more every single day. I truly feel as though I am being refined in every sense of the word. I have so much to be grateful for, and my trials are but a small moment. They will all be fore my good, if I learn to trust my Heavenly Father. I am humbled by my nothingness every single day. I've learned that I don't need to be strong, I need to be weak. I need to be weak so that through my Savior I may be strong. this is all a lot for me to take in right now, but I am so grateful for the love and support I have both on earth and from beyond the veil. 

Love, 

Sista Kadee Taylor 

Conference Weekend!

Conference was amazing, as usual. I know that every single person that watches can receive personal revelation on where they can improve. I honestly don't know where to begin my thoughts. I know that God loves us. That His sole purpose is to bring about our success. He can only do that when we are obedient. When we fail to endure in righteousness we distance ourselves from God, it's as simple as that. We should be the happiest people on the face of the earth, because we know the way back home to our Heavenly Father!!! 

"The quality of our eternal future is proportional to our ability to endure in righteousness."- Richard J. Maynes probably my FAVORITE quote from conference! 

Study the oath and covenant of the priesthood! We have a divine purpose on this earth! If we could only imagine the happiness that will come if we are able to return home and inherit all that our Father has, we would rise up and never be the same again. But we have the atonement. Allow it to heal you. Become better every single day. Now is the time you have to prepare for your personal interview with the Savior! You have an infinite number of opportunities to prepare and start over, because He loves you THAT much! 

Love Always!

Sista Kadee Taylor

Again, I learned a lot this week (no surprise!)

I've learned A LOT this week. No surprise there, I learn a lot every week. This week I learned: 

1. God requires our faith, diligence and patience. We always need to do our best, try our hardest and trust Him. Even after we do all that we can, all that He has asked, He is still the one who makes the calls. He is still the one who does it all. That is why we need to have patience! I know, I know- coming from me that probably doesn't mean a whole lot. But it's SO true! When we are diligent in all things, He can direct our paths for good.  
2. The Lord wants missionary work to happen with members. We see miracles every time we work with them. It's hard to gain their trust, and to get them to come out with us, but when we do amazing things happen. Doors are opened to us, hearts are softened and minds are changed. Less-actives that we find have a desire to come back into the fold when they feel loved by ward members, and not missionaries alone. WORK WITH THE MISSIONARIES! The work will hasten so much more when you do. This is how God is asking us to do missionary work now, and this is how He will hasten His work. When God asks something of  us, He will provide a way. Work with the missionaries. 
3. When you give your heart, might and mind to God, He will take care of the rest. Trust Him in ALL things. Do His will. Further His work. Keep your baptismal covenants by lifting the hands that hang down. We have the key to happiness in this life and the next! BE HAPPY! Our reward for living righteously is righteous living! It's the best and happiest way to live.  SHARE this amazing blessing that you have with everyone that you know. Watch General Conference and pray for inspiration. Ask God a specific question, and you'll get a specific answer. D&C 6:36.
4. Don't settle for "good". Satan LOVES it when we are content with doing good things. He does cartwheels of joy when we are busy doing good things. Do the BEST things. Always ask yourself, "Is this good, better or best?"  Don't settle for anything less than the best. God wants us doing the best things in life. 

I love you all so much, and I am so blessed to have each of you in my life. I don't know where I would be without my amazing support system. Thank you for all that you do! And...don't forget to write.... ;) 

Love, 

Sista Kadee Taylor

A less active sister in the ward who I LOVE, just moved to Virginia with her new little family. Jennifer and I once bonded over a giant princess coloring book. She put this picture on facebook with the caption, "We picked this costume because of you sister Taylor!" I almost cried because I was so happy. 

Oh, the places you go!

Things have been going crazy here in Stroudsburg! I love it so much! I cannot believe that I have been here for FOUR months, where has the time gone?! 

We have so many investigators right now that we don't even know what to do with ourselves! It's quite the problem to have, that's for sure. We recently got a referral from someone who lives in Maryland this last week. He has a friend named Chris that just moved to our area with his wife and 6.5 kids. They moved from England a little less than a year ago. His family is amazing and we can't wait to begin teaching them about the Restored Gospel. 

We are so well taken care of here, I am truly blessed. We have an investigator named MariBeth, and we have become very close with her and her son JonPaul. I love them SO much, you have no idea. MariBeth is always taking care of us and making sure that we have food, clothes and people to talk to. It is a tender mercy when you realize you've met someone who's path you were meant to cross. There are many people like that in my mission. The Bogart family for example. Brother Bogart is our Ward Mission Leader, and last night at dinner Sister Bogart said, "Listen girls, I am your mom, he is your dad. If you want something- go and get it, I'm not going to get up and get it for you, this is your house." Haha it was the BEST! I love them so much. We were able to teach an investigator at their house and then watch the CES fireside with them last night. I know my Heavenly Father loves me because of all of the amazing people He surrounds me with here on this earth. Not only has he done this on my mission, but for all of my life. It is a blessing I will never take for granted. 

I have considered a question that I think we all should ponder. What are we willing to leave behind in order to serve the Lord? In 1 Nephi 2:4 Lehi was willing to leave behind all that his family had in order to do what the Lord has specifically asked him, Lehi, to do.

What will we leave behind in order to do what the Lord has asked of each of us individually in this life? We need to put Him first in all that we do, and then all of our needs will be met. We need to ask ourselves if we are really doing all that is asked of us, with full purpose of heart, nothing wavering. 

I love you all so much and I am so grateful for this time I have to serve the Lord. He really is so mindful of each and every one of us. Pray to have the faith to trust in Him enough to leave everything behind. Serve Him with full purpose of heart. The early saints were asked to die for the gospel, we are asked to live for it. I pray that our Heavenly Father pours out His choicest blessings upon you. 

Love, 

Sista Kadee Taylor