The fearful mom and the faithful four: Driving Miss Rachel

Rachel and her former Mission President and wife.

I have not posted for awhile, and I do apologize! I am ashamed to admit that I could not even get into my own blog because I forgot the password!! I never write anything down, and I have different passwords for everything. I think I can rely on my aging memory to file it all away, and alas, it has failed me miserably as of late.

So....updates on those missionaries! MARK--says that the Oklahoma Mission is the best mission in all of the world and he doesn't know why his mother said that a mission would be hard..... He is helping translate in the ward primary for one of his nine year old investigators. Does this mean he is learning to speak and understand Spanish? He has finished the clean up from the tornadoes and is back to proselyting. MATTHEW--says that the work is progressing, that he is getting very buff by biking hours every day. He does not sound as enthusiastic about his mission, but this is Matthew. We did hear all about his bike accident with a parked car. Aside from some bruises and scratches , he is okay. As babies, Mark would smile, and Matthew would frown. I can tell who is who in all of their baby pictures by Matthew's furrowed brow, and Mark's delighted smile. RACHEL-- Ahh, now here is a girl who is including all the details. We get all her feelings, emotions and the desires of her heart--written as if she were here in person. But, then she is a girl:D She is now in Dearborn where they have opened up a new district. She and her companion are traversing the streets and meeting new people every day even though they are both inexperienced missionaries. She said they are both ditzy, but get along great. Rachel is meeting all kinds of different people and loving the work. Now for the part where we all gasped out loud!! She is the designated driver!!

For those of you who know Rachel, she did not get a driver's license until the age of 18. She was afraid, and so were we as we witnessed her capabilities on the streets of Ogden. We despaired that she would ever be able to drive, and finally paid a lot of money to A-1 driving school to take her driving. We were too terrified to drive with her, and A-1 at least gets paid for being frightened. At last she received her license after failing the test not once but twice, and she even bought a car last year. Still, we cautioned her not to go on any "big roads" like highways? In Dearborn she has to cross four lanes of highways and make Michigan lefts. Apparently, these are left turns where you go through the intersection, make a u-turn and go back to the original intersection and make a right turn. This is too complicated for Rachel, but she says she has been praying about it, and wants us to do the same. I do not know why Sister Orr does not drive, we can only surmise that she is even worse than Rachel.

Last year, Rachel had a incident where she was pulled over by the Police. She had been out late to her friend Kylie's apartment to make brownies and watch a movie. It was raining hard when she left to come home, and she made a right turn instead of left and made for Layton. She called in a panic, and we directed her to turn around. We offered to come and get her, but she insisted she was all grown up and could surely make it home. Somehow she got on the freeway, got off in Riverdale and crept past the Pep Boys going super slow and weaving just a bit. Being emotional and being Rachel, she appeared to be under the "influence" when she was suddenly pulled over by the police. She insisted that she had never drank or taken drugs, but took the breathalyzer test and tried to walk a straight line. (She has never been able to walk a straight line) The officers then looked into the trunk of her car and back seat, finding the brownies she had made with Kylie. "What are the ingredients in these brownies?" they asked her..... She answered truthfully, "uh, cocoa, sugar, flour , eggs".... Jerry and I were called, and they released Rachel into our custody. We had to drive her car back as they would not permit her to drive. The one officer said to Jerry "the test does not show she has been drinking, but we still suspect she is under the influence of something"! Poor Rachel, and although she cried at the time, we have since laughed about the experience. Rachel has shared this with all her friends, and it has become a funny "Taylor" story, so I am sharing it here. Perhaps driving on her mission, buoyed up by the desire to do well will be another one of the many blessings Rachel will receive. We are so proud of our missionaries and their righteous desires. Bethany will hopefully receive her call this Wednesday, and we could not be more excited!!