The Call to Serve

April 21,2015

Dear Sister Andrus:

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the South Dakota Rapid City Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.

You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, June 10, 2015. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the English language.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Elder Renlund in Bismarck



Hey Family and Friends:) 

This has been an awesome week!!! We had a Tri-Zone Conference in Bismarck with Elder Renlund of the Seventy. We received amazing trainings. He taught us on a number of different things. Something that stood out to me as a whole though was just how well he knows Jesus Christ. At the beginning of the conference he told us that one of the purposes and responsibilities of a Seventy is to be a Special Witness of Jesus Christ. I noticed throughout the entire conference just that. He is a witness, and He knows Christ so well. Just being able to see that in him was such a blessing to my own testimony. It helped me to understand that Christ is Our Friend. He has a body and He is literally there. I love that He is in our lives everyday and in everything that we do, we just need to recognize that He really is there! All I can really say is that Jesus Christ Lives and that He is very much interested in our lives. 

We have also had an amazing week with our investigators. Mackenzie called us last saturday night and asked if she could come to church...so we said yes!!!! We gave her one of our skirts and next thing we knew we were all three sitting in sacrament meeting:) She is so cool!! I Love her and her faith that she is willing to exercise! During Sacrament Meeting though, she asked me
"Is this not an important part of church?"
"no, this is important, why?"
"Why is everyone on their phones?" 
What a disappointing moment. I don't think I have ever been more disappointed in the example that the members set. We are examples and how can we ever teach someone else the importance of our baptismal covenants if we ourselves don't even care enough to put our silly phones away for one hour at church to renew them? People are watching all of the time, and we just be examples of Christ's People not only at church, but always. Thankfully Mackenzie asked and we were able to help her understand that Sacrament is important. 



Another thing that we learned with Elder Renlund was that we must strive to have the gospel written on our hearts. We learn in Elder Bednars Talk "Converted unto the Lord" that having a testimony is not enough to protect us from the devil anymore. We must become Converted. I know that this is true! I can only hope that we will listen to our Prophet and Apostles and know that we need to continue to grow, Satan is getting stronger, But He Cannot be stronger than God.The time for sitting on the fence is over and sooner or later we will be knocked off onto one side or another, so instead we need to choose a side. I would hope that we each choose God's side. Because He has already won the fight. 

We have seen so many blessings recently from striving to be obedient! It is super hard sometimes to do what we are asked to do, but I know that there are reasons for all the things that God asks of us and I am super grateful that He watches out for each of us! I hope you all have a wonderful week, and look out for those around you who might be in need of the Gospel:) Then don't hesitate to invite them to the "Greatest party that is going on, and its the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!" "No one goes to a party without and invitation, so invite them and let them know that the Party is still going on." - Sister Renlund 

Love you all:) Keep up the Good work and Testify of what you love about the Gospel of Jesus Christ:) 

Love, Sister A ( Tay ) 
--
Sister Taylor Andrus




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