MARCH VISITORS 2014

 The end of February and start of March has brought some sweet friends and family our way!

First we met with our dear friends, the Ellsworths, who were Mission President and Wife over in Mesa until last July 1.  They have been the best examples of Christlike service that we know.  And nothing has changed!  Their hearts desire to follow Jesus Christ in every way, so they are very happy!

 We had a wonderful surprise visit from Elder Harrison Beck...newly departing the Tempe Mission in tow by his father!  Elder Beck began and spent much of his mission here with us in Phoenix until the mission realignment last July 1.  How wonderful to get to celebrate his successful mission with him and to know the difference he made over in Tempe!  What a great person!  And we always love to meet parents!  Delightful, dedicated family!

 We had family as visitors this month as well.
On the left is President Taylor's younger brother Mitch.  He had business in the area that allowed him to stop over for a day with us.  He got to see us in action a bit and just went with the flow!

And, as you can see from the last couple photos, we had our oldest daughter Jenna out visiting with her two little boys for about 10 days.  I would want to leave New Jersey if it was 19 degrees!!!
They joined our youngest daughter Breanna, who lives with us here in Phoenix, in many adventures!

One was to the Phoenix Zoo...a pretty nice zoo!  And this time of year is the best to go out and about!



We have had a few more visitors to the Mission this week!

First, Travis Mendenhall showed up at Transfers, which was really cool!  I saw him down there singing the 3rd verse of Called to Serve and thought..."Once and APMer, always an APMer!"
It was great to catch up with him and see how great he is doing!

Then later this week we had several visitors.
Today we had a visit from the ANDRUS FAMILY down for Spring Training games...no photo of them, sorry.  We love meeting the families of our current missionaries!  It helps us understand them better and hopefully, reassures those families how much we love their children!
And we had DEREK and KAYLA WOOD and Elder Wood's Mom come see us today as well!  How great to bring your Mom and wife back to the mission!  Two greatest women in his life!
We took them to see the progress of our temple!

Elder Kurtus Beck dropped in with his family to visit and he had to drop to the floor to find his name on our newly completed quilt...(a post about that one of theses days)
He was one of the first missionaries we met when we came summer of 2011!  And, he looks just as great as when we met him...well, even more handsome!

President Taylor still had a hat that "Elder Beck" gave him, so that was fun to pull out!











And, of course, it was delightful to meet his folks!  It is so wonderful to meet the families of those who have served here!  It is a great thing to share with them and we just love meeting them too!










The Wrigley family did not come to see us...but they sent this sweet picture of them all wearing their APM TEE SHIRTS!
What a fun thing to see them supporting Elder Wrigley!

 We had one of our returned missionaries who had been home a while stop by and it was so good to see Aaron Jones!
He was as kind and thoughtful as always, it made our day that he took time for us!

 Jeff Griffin had been gone longer than seemed possible,  time is rather flying by at this point, so it was about time we got to meet his great family!  We could have talked a long, long time, it was like meeting old friends!  Well...that's exactly what it was!
We know our paths will cross again many times we hope!

 The Parry family came for their second visit to see us while their son is currently serving!  We love that Spring Training games bring families of our missionaries to visit US!!

 And, it is always fun to have Sisters come back.  And so weird to call them by first names...even more strange than for elders for some reason.
We took Allisa Baumgartner and Arianna Holmes hiking over at White Tank and talked and talked!

There's nothing like coming home from a long day at interviews and teaching appointments to find two RM Sisters in your house with your daughter eating Chino Bandido's food and watching movies!!!  BEST TIMES EVER!
WE LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!



We love our family and friends and pray for their health and happiness as they follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

THANK YOU FOR THE VISITS!!

Interviews Glendale Zone April 2014

 PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINE FOR ALL PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT!


INTERVIEWS...what are interviews in a mission?  Well, the purpose of "Interviews" is actually for each missionary to have the opportunity for a personal interview with their mission president.  Anything else we do is secondary.

 Yet, we are able to do a lot of those SECONDARY things as we choose to make each Interview day into a SPECIALIZED TRAINING with that zone.

For one, Elder Rodgers comes to inspect all the vehicles in the mission, including bicycles.  Each companionship cleans their cars and reports to Elder Rodgers.
They earn CLEAN CAR AWARDS which makes it a lot of fun.  THANKS ELDER RODGERS FOR ALL YOU DO!

  Our theme for the day was ORDER IN ALL THINGS.
 My first training of the day was to discuss an article by called "The Unwritten Order of Things" by Boyd J Packer from a devotional (Look it up!)
We talked about amazing things that are WRITTEN ORDER and amazing things that we pick up on just by observing our leaders, or the UNWRITTEN ORDER like what we wear to sacrament meetings, where authorities sit, and for us, things that are culture in the mission that we have learned from our leaders.  Great discussion!

 Our great zone leaders, Elders Bryson and Wardle led a wonderful discussion on how to conduct EXCHANGE WRAP-UPS.  What is that you say?  This is when missionaries trade companions for 24 hours to learn from each other.  What they do before they return to their areas is a "wrap up."  If they really use that time, really talk and share and set goals, it can be very productive!


They led a great discussion and then sent out their missionaries in companionships on a walk to hold an actual "wrap up."  Brilliant!










We next had a discussion on the ORDER of our apartments regarding cleaning and organization with lots of fun ideas and sharing...well, as fun as cleaning and organization can get :)

But for some REAL FUN, we played for the third year in a row, the CLEANING RELAY RACE!


I create a course of cleaning games that Junior and Senior companions compete against each other to see which team can complete the course first.


Put on the yellow gloves







Sweep up the Cheerios into the box










Spray down Mr Clean

Toss the scrubbie with a plunger into a bucket

Golf the 3 scrubbies into a basket with a toilet brush

 Wash the plate


Toss 4 rolls of toilet paper into the toilet seat hoop

and finish by pushing a bar of soap with a mop back to the finish line.

 In the afternoon, we talked about the ORDER OF A MISSIONARY DAY.
Each companionship taught how to plan with purpose that part of the day. It led to some good discussion!



And every once in a while I would pop up front and become someone who the missionaries could interact with as they went about their day.

It was a lot of fun!  I am sure I terrified them, but THEY ALL DID GREAT!

My last activity was to discuss TALKING WITH EVERYONE which I had already been demonstrating for them throughout the last presentation.

Here is my advice to all of you this week..."If you want to baptize a few people, talk with a few people...if you want to baptize a lot of people, talk with a lot of people...if you want to baptize everyone, talk with everyone!"
May we ALL talk with more people about what is really important to us!  Family, our Savior and his Gospel!  Have a great week!  Sister Taylor

Interviews in Flagstaff/Cottonwood April 2014

PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINE FOR ALL PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT!

INTERVIEWS...what are interviews in a mission?  Well, the purpose of "Interviews" is actually for each missionary to have the opportunity for a personal interview with their mission president.  Anything else we do is secondary.

 Yet, we are able to do a lot of those SECONDARY things as we choose to make each Interview day into a SPECIALIZED TRAINING with that zone.

For one, Elder Rodgers comes to inspect all the vehicles in the mission, including bicycles.  Each companionship cleans their cars and reports to Elder Rodgers.
They earn CLEAN CAR AWARDS which makes it a lot of fun.  THANKS ELDER RODGERS FOR ALL YOU DO!

We love it when his daughter Raelynn comes along!

 Elder Rodgers had a fun car-theme tie for each day of the week this week!  He really takes his responsibility seriously and has SO MUCH FUN WITH IT!









Our theme for the day was ORDER IN ALL THINGS.
 My first training of the day was to discuss an article by called "The Unwritten Order of Things" by Boyd J Packer from a devotional (Look it up!)

We talked about amazing things that are WRITTEN ORDER and amazing things that we pick up on just by observing our leaders, or the UNWRITTEN ORDER like what we wear to sacrament meetings, where authorities sit, and for us, things that are culture in the mission that we have learned from our leaders.  Great discussion!


Our great Cottonwood Zone leaders, Elders Barlow and Barley led a wonderful discussion on how to conduct EXCHANGE WRAP-UPS.  What is that you say?  This is when missionaries trade companions for 24 hours to learn from each other.  What they do before they return to their areas is a "wrap up."  If they really use that time, really talk and share and set goals, it can be very productive!

 They led a great discussion and then sent out their missionaries in companionships on a walk to hold an actual "wrap up."

We next had a discussion on the ORDER of our apartments regarding cleaning and organization with lots of fun ideas and sharing...well, as fun as cleaning and organization can get :)

But for some REAL FUN, we played for the third year in a row, the CLEANING RELAY RACE!

I create a course of cleaning games that Junior and Senior companions compete against each other to see which team can complete the course first.


Put on the yellow gloves





Sweep up the Cheerios into the box

















Spray down Mr Clean

Toss the scrubbie with a plunger into a bucket














Golf the 3 scrubbies into a basket with a toilet brush

Wash the plate

Toss 4 rolls of toilet paper into the toilet seat hoop

and finish by pushing a bar of soap with a mop back to the finish line.







THE FLAGSTAFF AND COTTONWOOD ZONES AT THEIR FINEST!!

In the afternoon, we talked about the ORDER OF A MISSIONARY DAY led by the Flagstaff Zone Leaders Elders Bryant and Arave.
Each companionship taught about how to plan for that part of the day as a  missionary.  It led to some good discussion!

 And every once in a while I would pop up front and become someone who the missionaries could interact with as they went about their day.

It was a lot of fun!  I am sure I terrified them, but THEY ALL DID GREAT!

My last activity was to discuss TALKING WITH EVERYONE which I had already been demonstrating for them throughout the last presentation.

We finished with some "Speed Contacting" in several different circumstances.


Here is my advice to all of you this week..."If you want to baptize a few people, talk with a few people...if you want to baptize a lot of people, talk with a lot of people...if you want to baptize everyone, talk with everyone!"
May we ALL talk with more people about what is really important to us!  Family, our Savior and his Gospel!  Have a great week!  Sister Taylor

Flagstaff Zone Photo for the upcoming Mission Reunion in Utah for Returned APM Missionaries.

INTERVIEWS IN WEST MARICOPA ZONE 4/14

 PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINE FOR ALL PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT!

INTERVIEWS...what are interviews in a mission?  Well, the purpose of "Interviews" is actually for each missionary to have the opportunity for a personal interview with their mission president.  Anything else we do is secondary.

 Yet, we are able to do a lot of those SECONDARY things as we choose to make each Interview day into a SPECIALIZED TRAINING with that zone.


For one, Elder Rodgers comes to inspect all the vehicles in the mission, including bicycles.  Each companionship cleans their cars and reports to Elder Rodgers.
They earn CLEAN CAR AWARDS which makes it a lot of fun.  THANKS ELDER RODGERS FOR ALL YOU DO!

Our theme for the day was ORDER IN ALL THINGS.
 My first training of the day was to discuss an article by called "The Unwritten Order of Things" by Boyd J Packer from a devotional (Look it up!)
We talked about amazing things that are WRITTEN ORDER and amazing things that we pick up on just by observing our leaders, or the UNWRITTEN ORDER like what we wear to sacrament meetings, where authorities sit, and for us, things that are culture in the mission that we have learned from our leaders.  Great discussion!

 Our great zone leaders, Elders Andrus and Dart led a wonderful discussion on how to conduct EXCHANGE WRAP-UPS.  What is that you say?  This is when missionaries trade companions for 24 hours to learn from each other.  What they do before they return to their areas is a "wrap up."  If they really use that time, really talk and share and set goals, it can be very productive!

They led a great discussion and then sent out their missionaries in companionships on a walk to hold an actual "wrap up."  Brilliant!


We next had a discussion on the ORDER of our apartments regarding cleaning and organization with lots of fun ideas and sharing...well, as fun as cleaning and organization can get :)

 But for some REAL FUN, we played for the third year in a row, the CLEANING RELAY RACE!



I create a course of cleaning games that Junior and Senior companions compete against each other to see which team can complete the course first.


Put on the yellow gloves


Sweep up the Cheerios into the box

 Spray down Mr Clean

 Toss the scrubbie with a plunger into a bucket

Golf the 3 scrubbies into a basket with a toilet brush

Wash the plate

Toss 4 rolls of toilet paper into the toilet seat hoop





and finish by pushing a bar of soap with a mop back to the finish line.



THE WEST MARICOPA ZONE IN THEIR VICTORY AND GLORY!!!

In the afternoon, we talked about the ORDER OF A MISSIONARY DAY.



Each companionship acted as if they were teaching about that part of the day with a new missionary.  It led to some good discussion!

And every once in a while I would pop up front and become someone who the missionaries could interact with as they went about their day.

It was a lot of fun!  I am sure I terrified them, but THEY ALL DID GREAT!

My last activity was to discuss TALKING WITH EVERYONE which I had already been demonstrating for them throughout the last presentation.

Here is my advice to all of you this week..."If you want to baptize a few people, talk with a few people...if you want to baptize a lot of people, talk with a lot of people...if you want to baptize everyone, talk with everyone!"
May we ALL talk with more people about what is really important to us!  Family, our Savior and his Gospel!  Have a great week!  Sister Taylor