Letter from Brother and Sister Maw

 To the wonderful missionaries of the Philippines Angeles Mission, 

Thank you so much for loving our daughter, for being such great companions, friends, missionaries, and especially brothers and sisters in Christ. We also want to thank you for letting us and our family be a part of the memorial service yesterday. It was both comforting and beautiful and the Spirit was present. 

We have had such an outpouring of love and support during this time. We know many of you have reached out to us and we really appreciate it. If we haven’t responded, our apologies, we have been so overwhelmed, many times waking up to 30 + Facetime messages and 10+ emails. This is just from those in the Philippines!  Thank You. 

We want you to know that although we too don’t know why this happened, we have faith knowing Heaving Father has a plan, for each and every one of us. A heavenly plan, and that plan is definitely greater than the earthly plan we have here.  We know Taylor had completed all that Heavenly Father had required of her to do in this life and has a work for her to do on the other side of the veil. We know we will see Taylor again, without a doubt! 

We had the chance to speak briefly with Elder Renlund this past week and we wanted to share something with you that really brought us tremendous joy and comfort and hope they will bring you comfort too. 

The call started with Elder Renlund stating something to the effect of “On behalf of the Savior, and His Church, Thank you for…” I know he said something after that but had lost it be then. As I took a step back and thought about those words, “On behalf of the Savior….” How many people on this earth can speak or pass along words from the Savior? The apostles are truly especial witnesses of Jesus Christ with a charge to represent Him and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. In that instance I began to insert potential thank you’s…like I said, I didn’t exactly hear what Elder Renlund said afterward. Thus, below are a few of mine.  Thank you for raising such a wonderful daughter, Thank you for giving her back to me, Thank you for taking this burden upon you until you meet again, Thank you for your faith in my plan.  Now I would say the Thank you is not limited to just us. Insert your own thank you… Thank you for being such a great companion or friend, Thank you for helping her become such an effective missionary, Thank you for loving her, and Thank you for continuing on, in faith, to share the Plan of Salvation to those you come in contact with…. 

We have been going back and reading some of Taylor letters and we want to share with you a few things that brought us happiness. Also wanted to give Sister Maw (Taylor) the last word and hoping that if she was to speak to you, she might say something like this. 

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8/22/22 – I’ve been thinking a lot about this quote from my favorite psychologist Adam Grant this week, 

"Feeling unsteady is not a sign of instability, it is often the path to progress. Standing still feels secure but gaining momentum to move forward requires tilt or sway. Being in equilibrium breeds comfort. Feeling off balance leads to growth" 

 

I’ve been thinking about how this relates to the refiners fire we learn about in Alma. We may question why we are asked to endure difficult things that are uncomfortable and test every sense of our being. But it is only when we are under the heat that our Heavenly Father, with His divine foresight, can mold us into people we never thought were capable of becoming. This mindset has helped me look at each challenge not as setbacks, but as pushes forward. I may stumble as the pressure hits my back but when I gain control of my surroundings again I realize that I have fallen a few steps ahead of where I was. And I know that my Savior is right by my side every single step of the way with his arms outstretched to help steady me or pick me up when I fall on my face. I love my Savior with all my heart! He has promised that he will never abandon us, and he wants us to lean on him and with his assistance we can march over any obstacle that seems impossible. 

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8/29/22 - It rained SO HARD this week. More than once we got caught in the rain as we were biking to our appointments and we got so soaked haha. It also made teaching a bit of a challenge. A lot of the homes here in the Philippines have tin roofs, so when it rains its LOUD. Each of us is practically screaming at each other as we share our lesson and if you weren’t listening intently or carefully, you would completely miss what other person was saying. These situations reminded me of how the spirit communicates with us. Sometimes its difficult to hear the promptings of the spirit when there’s so much noise or chaos around us. The noise could be due to our own choices or sometimes circumstances that are out of our control. But regardless of the noise, the spirit is always there trying to comfort and guide us, and it is our responsibility to listen intently. Its described as a still small voice diba, and even if it were shouting at us it still wouldn’t be louder than the noise around us, so we MUST listen carefully! So this week, what can you do to reduce the noise in your life that it drowning out the voice of the spirit? How can you listen more intently? 

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1/30/23 - I'm grateful for the good, and the bad, the easy and harder days. The days with tears of joy and the days with tears of heartache, the days of coming home exhausted but energized and the days of feeling just plain exhausted. Its is truly better this way. It is better to know and experience the pains and challenges, in order to greater appreciate and savor the incredible joys that this life has to offer. Its easy and even natural to ask why we may be forced to endure hard things, thinking that we did nothing to deserve that challenge. But I know that every experience, whether good or bad, has its purpose, and it is exactly what we need, and that our needs and our wants may not always align. 

This quote from a talk by Elder Holland has come into my mind frequently this week and I thought I'd share it , 

"With time and perspective we recognize that such problems in life do come for a purpose, if only to allow the one who faces such despair to be convinced that he really does need divine strength beyond himself, that she really does need the offer of heaven’s hand. 

Surely it is better to find the goodness of God and the grace of Christ, even at the price of despair, than to risk living our lives in a moral or material complacency that has never felt any need for faith or forgiveness, any need for redemption or relief". 

 

In john 14:18 the Lord promises that He will never leave us comfortless, and that He will come to us. This doesn't mean that we will be rescued from our challenges and that those difficulties will magically be corrected or removed. But with Him, and through Him, we have the strength to get ourselves over those harder moments, the strength to find moments of peace and rest as we endure. As we rely on His grace our eyes will be opened to see how truly merciful he has been to us, and we can develop a greater sense of gratitude for both the good and the bad. This is His way, which is truly the better way.  

I love my Savior! I know He loves me. I'm so incredibly grateful for this life, these precious moments, this opportunity that I've been given to represent Him. I've seen so many miracles this week, He has not left me comfortless, I know that His way is the better way, and that He keeps each and every one of His promises.  

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You have our love, thank you again for all you did for our daughter, and all you will continue to do to bring the gospel to the wonderful people of the Philippines. 

Love Brother and Sister Maw