Dear Fam and friends,
I can´t believe another week has gone by already. I´m almost done with
my first change in the field-that is so weird. But this week really has
felt like it has flown by. I´m not sure why, exactly, but it does.
All is well here in beautiful Artigas. It´s overcast today, as it was
yesterday, so that is super nice- we´re not dying from heat. It sprinkled
off and on yesterday, too, so that was cool. I love the rain! It´s prolly
the best thing ever. Haha
Well, to get on with things...Jose Luiz came to church again yesterday!
It was fantastic. And he even stayed for all of the meetings. After
priesthood, which we have last, he asked Elder Stoddard and I if we could
give him a blessing of counsel. Of course we said yes. I gave the blessing,
and at some point in the blessing I said something about the desires to
read the scriptures and ponder over the things that he learns. After the
blessing, he mentioned that it was "justo" that I mentioned that. I think
the word in English for that is just, but I´m not sure. Haha. He said he
has been having a hard time getting up the desires to read the Book of
Mormon, so we gave him a couple of suggestions. For example, he loves the
Book of Mosiah, not sure exactly why, but he does. So we told him instead
of going from beginning to end, to just study the chapters in Mosiah until
he just starts to form the habit again. He said he would. Also, Presidente
Lorenzo (our branch president) had an interview with him last week in which
Jose Luiz said he wanted to come back to the church, and come back for
good! Presidente said he gave him a blessing at the end of the interview as
well. It is so exciting to see the changes that Jose Luiz is experiencing
as he starts to return to the church.
So I think I told you a little bit about the young family we found a
couple of weeks ago- Richard and Yessi. (The "Y" is pronouned like a soft
"sh") They are doing so well! We had a little bit of a scare with them
yesterday, though. Saturday night we passed by to make sure they were still
going to come with us to church. They said yes, so all was well. Sunday
morning we went by to pick them up, and they were still sleeping. They were
really embarrassed and said they weren´t going to come. So we went to
church pretty bummed, hoping that we hadn´t lost them. We spoke in
sacrament, which I´ll talk about in a minute, and right at the end of the
meeting, Elder Stoddard leaned over to me and said, "Did you see who just
walked in?" I looked up, and Yessi was sitting down with her baby girl! I
almost jumped out of my seat. Richard had been called in to work, so he
couldn´t come. But Yessi came for the end of sacrament and stayed for the
rest of the meetings, which she said she really enjoyed. We had another
great lesson with them last night. Yessi is just super excited about the
gospel and is just eager to do everything we ask. Richard seems a little
more hesitant, but he has a ton of questions, which is fantastic! He gave
the prayer with us for the first time last night, and it was amazing. He
truly was talking with our Heavenly Father. What an amazing blessing we
have to communicate with our Father in Heaven. Also, we had invited them
the last time to start having family prayers every night before going to
bed. We asked them about it, and they had done it! Yessi offered the prayer
Saturday night, so last night was going to be Richard´s turn-we are
anxious to see how it went. Ok, I think that´s all the scoop on them for
now.
Porfilio is still doing amazing. Haha. I wish he would just change his
mind and get baptized this week, but oh well. He already has an assignment
in the branch, and he is so excited to come and help set up chairs for
conference this weeked! Haha. His wife and his daughter (who is like 30,
has 1 kid and another on the way) are starting to come around and ask more
questions. They´ve only sat in on a couple of lessons, but they have been
great lessons. Porfilio is such an amazing example for them, I hope they
can feed off of his bonfire!
Speaking of bonfires, we´re having a ward activity this week for La Obra
Misional. We´re going to this little park, having hot dogs (we´re going
to show them how good they are when they´re grilled as opposed to boiled),
a spiritual thought, and a testimony type thing. I brought up the idea to
Elder Stoddard, he liked it, and then we talked to our Ward Mission Leader,
who loved the idea. So this Thursday we´re going to do it. It´s going to
be a great opportunity for the branch and the investigators to get closer
together and enjoy the Spirit of missionary work.
Hmmm, what else? Oh, we had interviews with President Bankhead last week.
That was fun. In our interview, we had to start teaching the first lesson
as a companionship, w/ Pres. acting as an investigator, and then he gave us
suggestions and tips. It was a great learning opportunity. Then I had my
interview with him. Very short. How ya doin? How´s the Spanish? Is Elder
Stoddard taking care of you? Good. Any questions? (And this is the best
part) "Well, Elder Taylor, you have a great smile and we´re excited to
have you in the mission." It was all I could do to not laugh. Haha. I
didn´t know how to take it. Later on, I found out he told Elder Stoddard
that he has a twinkle in his eye! Wow, I don´t know about you, but I think
that with a great smile and a twinkle in the eye, we should be baptizing
about 100 people a week! What are we doing wrong? Any suggestions? Haha. I
love President Bankhead. Every time he opens his mouth, and even when he
doesn´t, I learn so much from him!
Oh yeah, my talk. I was pretty nervous, not gonna lie. Presidente Lorenzo
wanted us each to take 20 minutes and talk about the importance of
missionary work. My topic was the purpose of missionary work, or something
along those lines. I did pretty well, I think. I spoke for about 15
minutes, which must be a record for me. (Well, in Spanish!) Nobody raised
their hands and asked me to explain what in the world I was trying to say,
so it must have been ok. Haha. No, really though, the Lord has really
blessed me with the ability to express myself. I have come to appreciate
the promises of D&C 84:85 and D&C 11:21 more and more every day. If I just
do my part to be obedient, to study the scriptures, Preach My Gospel, and
the language, the Lord will definitely bless me with the ability to speak.
At times it can be frustrating when I don´t understand others, but I know
that patience is an attribute of Christ for a reason.
Dad, how was the basketball game?! I am SO jealous. Ah. I had a great
dream a couple of nights ago, though. I came home, (after my two years) I
finally saw Skyler, and I played basketball with the likes of John
Stockton, David Robinson, Charles Barkley (Where did those two come from?!)
Magic Johnson and others. It was fantastic. I didn´t want to wake up.
Haha.
Mom, you said Melanie wrote me an email, but I didn´t get it! I was so
excited to get it, but then it wasn´t there. See if you can help them
figure it out. Unless she sent it to the mission address, then I´ll get it
on Thursday and all will be well!
I am super excited for Conference this weekend. We go to the church with
all the rest of the members here in Artigas, but they have a room of
English for us missionares- thank heavens! I am still trying to figure out
how I´m going to do waffles, but it´ll happen. It might have to be
pancakes, but that´s close enough. Yes, Dad, they have ice cream here and
it is AMAZING. If they had ice cream like this in the States, I would eat
it everyday.
JEREMY GOT HIS CALL?!!! FINALLY! Oh, I was SO excited when I read that.
"Jeremy got his call to California. No details yet." Even though that was
the shortest announcement of my life, I was stoked! Send Jer my congrats
and let him know he is in my prayers! And find out when and where he is
going-details are important!
Bro. Montoya emailed me this last week. Mel, make sure you tell him
thanks for me, and that a letter will be on the way shortly! Tell them
(Bro. Montoya and Bro. Christensen) that they can email me anytime they
like! It was so nice to hear from him. And tell him he better keep in shape
so I don´t work him on the court, like usual!
Attended my first baptism on the mission last week. It wasn´t one of my
investigators, but it was cool nonetheless! It was the baptism for the
Sister missionaries. They had two ladies get baptized, who are awesome.
Elder Stoddard, Hma. Aranda, and I sang "Divina Luz"/"Lead Kindly Light"
for the musical number while Hma. Carter played. It was really cool.
Someone tell Mary-Anne that it´s NOT the sister missionaries who do our
laundry! Haha. It´s one of the sisters in our branch. So no worries! I
laughed so hard when I read that.
Oh, and there´s someone else I want you to send these emails to- Ammie
Fackrell. I couldn´t remember her email, but I got a letter from her this
week that had it in there. amme "at" infowest.com I don´t know how to
write the "at" symbol on this keyboard, so I hope you can figure it out.
To my friends-I´m sorry I haven´t written any "real" letters yet, but I
promise they are coming. I´ve still got to figure out how to get stamps
down here and send them out. Please forgive me, and keep the letters coming
nonetheless! I love hearing from you, it makes me feel like I still exist.
Haha. You can all write to the mission email address, which then prints off
the emails and sends them to me. If you have any questions, ask my parents.
Haha. I love you all, and you are in my prayers!
Mom, Dad, Mary-Anne, Nathanael, Melanie, and Megan- I love you all and
think about you all the time! You are constantly in my prayers. Know that I
am LOVING this opportunity. The church is SO true and we are so blessed to
be a part of it! I love you SOOO much!
Elder Taylor
Monday, March 26, 2007
Well hey there!
Monday, March 19, 2007
l vino a la iglesia!
Hey fam!
So I´ll start my letter out this week with the exciting news from
yesterday...Jose Luiz came to church! (Subject line=He came to church) I
was so excited! We walked in right before the meeting started so I
couldn´t talk to him before, but I was stoked.
We walked in right before because we went and picked up an investigator
and walked with her to church. She lives in the complete opposite direction
of the church, but that´s not a problem at all. Elder Stoddard found this
family on Tuesday while we were on divisions. The dad, Richard, is 24 and
the mom, Jessi, is 18! They have a baby girl who is 1 and a half. I know
what you´re thinking- ridiculously young! That´s what I thought too.
There are a lot of young mothers here. But then once I stopped and thought
about it after our lesson with them-my birth mom would have been even
younger than her when I was that age. Kinda gives an interesting
perspective, huh? I certainly thought so. But at any rate, she seems to
have a lot of interest in the gospel. Richard is a little more hesitant,
but he has a lot of questions, which is great. We´re about 99% sure that
they´re not married, so that will be a fun obstacle, but it won´t be bad.
Also, Elaine came to church yesterday. She is another one of our
investigators who is just awesome. We found her just by talking to her
outside of her house, and we set up an appointment with her to come by
later. We had two lessons with her last week and invited her to go to
church with us, but she said she needed to talk to her husband first, who
works out in the country. I´ll talk about that in a minute. But anyways,
she talked to him to make sure it was ok that we were teaching her and
whatnot and he said it was fine if it´s what she wanted to do! She´s a
little on the quiet side, but she is starting to open up more, and the
lessons with her are awesome. We took the Relief Society President with us
to the last lesson, and that helped a ton. We invited her to church again,
and Hma Duarte (Pres.) told her she would come by and pick her up and that
Elaine could go with her family. It was awesome! Commitments always go so
much smoother with a member there to bear testimony and offer support.
Porfilio is our golden investigator. He´s like 55 and they had already
been teaching him when I got here, but he is awesome. He´s been to church
like 7 weeks in a row, he´s had all the lessons, and he´s almost done
with Alma in the Book of Mormon. I know what you´re thinking...why hasn´t
he been baptized? We think the same thing. Haha. He just wants to wait for
his birthday, which is April 19. We wish we could just trip him into the
font, because he is SO ready, but the important thing is that he gets
baptized, not when. Every time we talk with him he has read like 3 more
chapters and is so excited to tell us what happened and ask his questions.
He bears his testimony about the Book of Mormon and the Spirit all the
time. We had a Family Home Evening with him over at the Branch President´s
house, and after we finished our message about the Spirit, bore his
testimony about how he knew this was the true church because of the witness
of the Spirit. He´s awesome.
I already told you about Ricardo, the little stud. Haha. He went to his
grandparents house this weekend, so he didn´t come to church with us, but
we have a lesson set up with him tomorrow. So all is well.
There, the watered-down version of the situation at the moment! Feel a
little more involved? Hope so.
When I first walked in to our apartment, I was like, "No way, are you
serious?" But I totally love it. At first it seemed small, but it´s not at
all. Pictures are coming, I promise. I have to talk to Hma Carter to find
out where I can burn my pictures onto a CD for cheap and where she sent
them home from, because they got there, safe, in like a week.
I haven´t had any crazy food yet, unfortunately. When we went to the
buffet in Brazil I ate chicken hearts, but that´s it. They weren´t too
bad, actually. A little salty. Elder Stoddard says he has eaten armadillo a
few times-I want to SO bad. I´ve still got time. Haha.
We buy bottled water every week. Two six-packs of 2 liter bottles. The
mission reimburses it, so all is well. I´m being wise mom, I promise. I
only drink out of the toilet twice a day....! (Dad, calm her down now and
make sure she knows I´m kidding! haha)
I´ve used the umbrella a bunch. All the missionaries are jealous and
want to steal it. It´s a very sturdy and effective little piece of work.
Thanks for letting me take it. I use the rain jacket thing too. Not the big
one, cuz it´s still hot, but the little slick one from good ol´Mac. We
put our scriptures in plastic bags and such to make sure they don´t get
wet. It works pretty well.
Oh, I found out how many blocks my house is. Ok, right by the bridge
there is a little fountain thing in the middle of an intersection, right?
Right. Not counting that one, go S/SW 7 intersections and over 1 (I think
east-ish). My house is in between that 7th and 8th intersection. There is
gas station on the block next to us. I don´t know if that helps, but yeah.
Hopefully it gives you an idea.
How is/was Nathanael´s trip to Oklahoma? How many schools are there on
the thinking pad? Where are they? Close enough that I can drive to them
when I get home? Haha. I´m so excited for these road trips in my Toyota
Tacoma that dad´s working on for me! Haha. Aren´t ya dad? You know I´m
you´re favorite...
Whatever happened with Melanie and track? I really hope she did it. She
would be SOOOO good! You told me she´s doing the stage manager thing-does
that mean she´s not doing track? I´ll keep my fingers crossed.
What´s going on with Megan? How´s my goose doin? Are the girls staying
on top of school? And staying away from boys? They better be!
Dad told me about your trip to the drive-in and how everyone was looking
at you. I know exactly how you feel! Every single person here just stares
at us! It´s so funny. But just like dad said, you have to make the best
out of it. We take the people that stare and just start up a conversation
with them that eventually leads to why in the world we are here, and the
message that we share. There are so many opportunities to share the gospel
if you´re just not afraid to talk to people. It´s especially intimidating
for me, because I don´t speak Spanish bien de dien, but it´s coming. As I
speak with people, the Lord definitely blesses me to know what to say. Even
if they don´t accept the message, or don´t want us to go by their house,
it´s a great chance to plant a seed. To let them become familiar with the
message. And it´s a great opportunity to make friends. So Mel and Meg,
people might stare, but you can always have a fun time with it!
What rules did the Pres. Bankhead remind you about in his letter? Haha.
That´s funny. I love Pres. and Hma Bankhead.
What is the time difference? Are you three hours ahead, or three hours
behind?
I wish I could tell you exactly when I write on Mondays, but it´s always
different. Sometimes we have an activity with the zone in the morning, so
it´s in the afternoon, but today we didn´t, so we´re doing all of our
"have-to´s" in the morning.
Oh, Mary-Anne, I got one of your letters on Thursday. It was the one you
wrote after I talked to you in the airport or something. On the cool, girly
paper. Haha. Did you send all of them just straight here, or did you send
them through the pouch? Maybe try and send one through the pouch to see if
it´s faster.
Mom, I want to be in a Theory class SOOO bad when I get home. Please
please please do all that time permits to look in to that. I just feel like
I could do so much more with music if I knew more of the Theory. If it´s
supposed to be, it will happen, if not, that´s ok too.
Ya´ll are already talking about coming to get me? Haha. I´ve still got
21 months! Mary-Anne does have a point, it may be the only time you would
ever come down. I prolly won´t be able to come down for a while and the
next time I could be bringing a wife...woah. Anyway, so she´s got a point
there. But I´ll let you guys worry about it, I´ll just focus on the work!
Deal? Deal.
The river has gone down, so all is well. I want it to flood more, though.
What an awesome service opportunity it would be! Haha. Last night, while we
were talking to someone on their porch, all the lights in the whole city
went out, and everyone just started screaming. It was hilarious. I guess
they do it every time the lights go out, just for fun. It was the first
time since I´ve been here, but I hope it happens again. Haha. It made me
think of what it must have been like when Christ was killed, and the crazy
darkness they were in. Because it got SOOO dark last night. It only lasted
about a minute, but yeah. Cool little idea.
Anyway, tell everyone I say hello, especially Bishop Christiansen. That
man is awesome, and he is such a great example and friend! Tell Alison I
got her tape. It was SO nice! I´ll write her a letter about that later.
Haha. Tell Bro. Christensen and Bro. Montoya hi for me. They´re my
seminary teachers, remember? Haha. They helped me prepare for this SO much!
I´ve never been so grateful for seminary.
Oh, I think Hallie´s email is hmbroadway at hotmail.com; send these to
her too, since I haven´t been able to write her yet.
I love you all, and I think about you everyday! Remember that the church
is true and that each one of you can do SO much to help this work go move
forward! Open your mouth and share the wonderful truth we have. Help the
missionaries. Read your scriptures, say your prayers. Haha. Ok, I´m done.
Love you all!
Elder Taylor
So I´ll start my letter out this week with the exciting news from
yesterday...Jose Luiz came to church! (Subject line=He came to church) I
was so excited! We walked in right before the meeting started so I
couldn´t talk to him before, but I was stoked.
We walked in right before because we went and picked up an investigator
and walked with her to church. She lives in the complete opposite direction
of the church, but that´s not a problem at all. Elder Stoddard found this
family on Tuesday while we were on divisions. The dad, Richard, is 24 and
the mom, Jessi, is 18! They have a baby girl who is 1 and a half. I know
what you´re thinking- ridiculously young! That´s what I thought too.
There are a lot of young mothers here. But then once I stopped and thought
about it after our lesson with them-my birth mom would have been even
younger than her when I was that age. Kinda gives an interesting
perspective, huh? I certainly thought so. But at any rate, she seems to
have a lot of interest in the gospel. Richard is a little more hesitant,
but he has a lot of questions, which is great. We´re about 99% sure that
they´re not married, so that will be a fun obstacle, but it won´t be bad.
Also, Elaine came to church yesterday. She is another one of our
investigators who is just awesome. We found her just by talking to her
outside of her house, and we set up an appointment with her to come by
later. We had two lessons with her last week and invited her to go to
church with us, but she said she needed to talk to her husband first, who
works out in the country. I´ll talk about that in a minute. But anyways,
she talked to him to make sure it was ok that we were teaching her and
whatnot and he said it was fine if it´s what she wanted to do! She´s a
little on the quiet side, but she is starting to open up more, and the
lessons with her are awesome. We took the Relief Society President with us
to the last lesson, and that helped a ton. We invited her to church again,
and Hma Duarte (Pres.) told her she would come by and pick her up and that
Elaine could go with her family. It was awesome! Commitments always go so
much smoother with a member there to bear testimony and offer support.
Porfilio is our golden investigator. He´s like 55 and they had already
been teaching him when I got here, but he is awesome. He´s been to church
like 7 weeks in a row, he´s had all the lessons, and he´s almost done
with Alma in the Book of Mormon. I know what you´re thinking...why hasn´t
he been baptized? We think the same thing. Haha. He just wants to wait for
his birthday, which is April 19. We wish we could just trip him into the
font, because he is SO ready, but the important thing is that he gets
baptized, not when. Every time we talk with him he has read like 3 more
chapters and is so excited to tell us what happened and ask his questions.
He bears his testimony about the Book of Mormon and the Spirit all the
time. We had a Family Home Evening with him over at the Branch President´s
house, and after we finished our message about the Spirit, bore his
testimony about how he knew this was the true church because of the witness
of the Spirit. He´s awesome.
I already told you about Ricardo, the little stud. Haha. He went to his
grandparents house this weekend, so he didn´t come to church with us, but
we have a lesson set up with him tomorrow. So all is well.
There, the watered-down version of the situation at the moment! Feel a
little more involved? Hope so.
When I first walked in to our apartment, I was like, "No way, are you
serious?" But I totally love it. At first it seemed small, but it´s not at
all. Pictures are coming, I promise. I have to talk to Hma Carter to find
out where I can burn my pictures onto a CD for cheap and where she sent
them home from, because they got there, safe, in like a week.
I haven´t had any crazy food yet, unfortunately. When we went to the
buffet in Brazil I ate chicken hearts, but that´s it. They weren´t too
bad, actually. A little salty. Elder Stoddard says he has eaten armadillo a
few times-I want to SO bad. I´ve still got time. Haha.
We buy bottled water every week. Two six-packs of 2 liter bottles. The
mission reimburses it, so all is well. I´m being wise mom, I promise. I
only drink out of the toilet twice a day....! (Dad, calm her down now and
make sure she knows I´m kidding! haha)
I´ve used the umbrella a bunch. All the missionaries are jealous and
want to steal it. It´s a very sturdy and effective little piece of work.
Thanks for letting me take it. I use the rain jacket thing too. Not the big
one, cuz it´s still hot, but the little slick one from good ol´Mac. We
put our scriptures in plastic bags and such to make sure they don´t get
wet. It works pretty well.
Oh, I found out how many blocks my house is. Ok, right by the bridge
there is a little fountain thing in the middle of an intersection, right?
Right. Not counting that one, go S/SW 7 intersections and over 1 (I think
east-ish). My house is in between that 7th and 8th intersection. There is
gas station on the block next to us. I don´t know if that helps, but yeah.
Hopefully it gives you an idea.
How is/was Nathanael´s trip to Oklahoma? How many schools are there on
the thinking pad? Where are they? Close enough that I can drive to them
when I get home? Haha. I´m so excited for these road trips in my Toyota
Tacoma that dad´s working on for me! Haha. Aren´t ya dad? You know I´m
you´re favorite...
Whatever happened with Melanie and track? I really hope she did it. She
would be SOOOO good! You told me she´s doing the stage manager thing-does
that mean she´s not doing track? I´ll keep my fingers crossed.
What´s going on with Megan? How´s my goose doin? Are the girls staying
on top of school? And staying away from boys? They better be!
Dad told me about your trip to the drive-in and how everyone was looking
at you. I know exactly how you feel! Every single person here just stares
at us! It´s so funny. But just like dad said, you have to make the best
out of it. We take the people that stare and just start up a conversation
with them that eventually leads to why in the world we are here, and the
message that we share. There are so many opportunities to share the gospel
if you´re just not afraid to talk to people. It´s especially intimidating
for me, because I don´t speak Spanish bien de dien, but it´s coming. As I
speak with people, the Lord definitely blesses me to know what to say. Even
if they don´t accept the message, or don´t want us to go by their house,
it´s a great chance to plant a seed. To let them become familiar with the
message. And it´s a great opportunity to make friends. So Mel and Meg,
people might stare, but you can always have a fun time with it!
What rules did the Pres. Bankhead remind you about in his letter? Haha.
That´s funny. I love Pres. and Hma Bankhead.
What is the time difference? Are you three hours ahead, or three hours
behind?
I wish I could tell you exactly when I write on Mondays, but it´s always
different. Sometimes we have an activity with the zone in the morning, so
it´s in the afternoon, but today we didn´t, so we´re doing all of our
"have-to´s" in the morning.
Oh, Mary-Anne, I got one of your letters on Thursday. It was the one you
wrote after I talked to you in the airport or something. On the cool, girly
paper. Haha. Did you send all of them just straight here, or did you send
them through the pouch? Maybe try and send one through the pouch to see if
it´s faster.
Mom, I want to be in a Theory class SOOO bad when I get home. Please
please please do all that time permits to look in to that. I just feel like
I could do so much more with music if I knew more of the Theory. If it´s
supposed to be, it will happen, if not, that´s ok too.
Ya´ll are already talking about coming to get me? Haha. I´ve still got
21 months! Mary-Anne does have a point, it may be the only time you would
ever come down. I prolly won´t be able to come down for a while and the
next time I could be bringing a wife...woah. Anyway, so she´s got a point
there. But I´ll let you guys worry about it, I´ll just focus on the work!
Deal? Deal.
The river has gone down, so all is well. I want it to flood more, though.
What an awesome service opportunity it would be! Haha. Last night, while we
were talking to someone on their porch, all the lights in the whole city
went out, and everyone just started screaming. It was hilarious. I guess
they do it every time the lights go out, just for fun. It was the first
time since I´ve been here, but I hope it happens again. Haha. It made me
think of what it must have been like when Christ was killed, and the crazy
darkness they were in. Because it got SOOO dark last night. It only lasted
about a minute, but yeah. Cool little idea.
Anyway, tell everyone I say hello, especially Bishop Christiansen. That
man is awesome, and he is such a great example and friend! Tell Alison I
got her tape. It was SO nice! I´ll write her a letter about that later.
Haha. Tell Bro. Christensen and Bro. Montoya hi for me. They´re my
seminary teachers, remember? Haha. They helped me prepare for this SO much!
I´ve never been so grateful for seminary.
Oh, I think Hallie´s email is hmbroadway at hotmail.com; send these to
her too, since I haven´t been able to write her yet.
I love you all, and I think about you everyday! Remember that the church
is true and that each one of you can do SO much to help this work go move
forward! Open your mouth and share the wonderful truth we have. Help the
missionaries. Read your scriptures, say your prayers. Haha. Ok, I´m done.
Love you all!
Elder Taylor
Monday, March 12, 2007
Another week...?!
From: "Aaron Taylor"
> >To: taylor0638@msn.com
> >Subject: Another week...?! Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:25:45 +0000
Dear Fam and Friends,
Well there it goes, another week gone by. It´s so hard to know how to
start these things. There´s so many different directions I could
go...hmmm. First of all, you STILL didn´t say anything about my song in
any of your letters-what´s that all about? Is it really just that bad? Talk
about not answering questions...you´re all worried about me answering that
you forget to answer my questions! Sheesh. Haha
Ok, I´ll begin my list of answers now: We have an address directly for
our apartment, but you can´t send letters there. You can send them in the
"pouch" or just through the regular mail. If you email to the mission
address, and put my name in the subject line, they will print off the
letter and I´ll get it on Thursdays (ANYONE can write to that address)
I´ll look in to getting stamps and writing letters, but understand that we
don´t have a ton of time on Preparation Days and we have a lot to do most
of the time, so don´t expect anything grand. As far as packages go, most
Elders say they have never had a problem. If you send a package, don´t do
it through like FedEx or anything special or something because then the
Mafia (seriously) will think you put something EXTRA special in it and
they´ll for sure open it up. One Elder says he just finds out what
missionaries parents are coming to pick up their elders and has his family
send packages down with their families. Like his family sends the package
to those coming down, and then they´re usually willing to just bring it
down. I´ll keep my ears open. Ok, that will be the longest answer,
hopefully.
I am speaking Spanish. I have learned a few Portuguese words here and
there, but they speak Spanish here. Some are bilingual, but yeah. Spanish.
In my apartment it is just Elder Stoddard and I. The other Elders and the
two Hermanas aren´t very far away, but I only know exactly where two
companionships live because I´ve been to the Zone Leaders house for
activities and I went on divisions with another.
You guys really want to know where I live that badly? Haha. I haven´t
counted the blocks from the bridge, but it´s probably 8-10 streets away from
the bridge and 2 streets over. Maybe I´ll count one of these days. I saw
your house on a computer yesterday. One of the members pulled up Google
Earth and asked us where we lived, so we showed him. It was weird to see
the house. I didn´t even know that Google Earth existed, it was cool.
Sunday meetings are in the Chapel. haha. Probably two streets up from the
bridge and one street the opposite direction of our house. It´s big, you
can see it on Google Earth.
I took pictures of our trip to Brazil. I´ve taken a lot of our area, our
apartment, the other Elders on P-Day and what not. I´m doing my best to
keep the camera rolling. The river has kind of flooded, so I´ve taken a
bunch of pictures of that. One of the streets in our area is covered, so
that´s cool. One of the VERY less actives in our ward got water in their
yard/house. I took a picture. Our area is very diverse. Some houses are
quite nice, and others are wood and tin, maybe as big as my room at home.
Maybe. It´s crazy how the perception of "nice" changes so drastically so
quickly.
I have a couple of things to tell you, so I´ll try and rush them in.
First, I had a really cool experience on Saturday. One of our
appointments fell through, so Elder Stoddard asked me what I thought we
should do for the next little bit. We have been working with a less-active
lady in our Branch, so I said we should go visit her and make sure she knew
about Stake Conference yesterday. We went down there, but she wasn´t
there. Her son, who´s like 35, is also a member, but VERY inactive. He has
been there for a couple of lessons with his mom, but hasn´t really said
anything. We started talking to him Saturday, and asked if we could just
have a quick lesson. At first he was really hesitant and said no, but then
he was like, "Well, why not? " So we sat down with him, sang a hymn, said a
prayer and opened up to Alma 32. Elder Stoddard said he didn´t know where
we were going to start...then Jose Luiz (the guy) pointed out a scripture.
Alma 32:13, I believe. It talks about those who are compelled to be humble.
It hit him really hard, and he started to get a little emotional. It was
exactly what he needed. We continued to look in Alma 32, where it talks
about planting the seed of faith. Jose Luiz works with plants, so it was
perfect, and he really understood. He was still being a little resistant to
what was going on, so I decided to just bear my testimony. It was amazing
the change that happened in the room. I bore my testimony about how I knew
that sometimes life can be hard, and we get discouraged, but that Christ
has felt all of that for us already. That it is only through Him and the
Church that we can get through those hard times. It was awesome, because it
was the first time my testimony hasn´t been interrupted, or that I felt
like I couldn´t express what I wanted to. The words just came. It might
not have been perfect Spanish, but it was what I needed to say, and we were
all able to feel the Spirit together. Afterwards, Jose Luiz said that he
knew the things that he needed to do to get through the hard times he was
having: prayer and really studying the scriptures. That´s the key. So that
was a great experience. I didn´t know why we needed to go down there at
first, especially since his mom wasn´t there, but it turned out to be a
great learning and growing experience for all of us.
Melanie and Megan, we are teaching a boy right now who is 11 years old.
His name is Ricardo, and his dad passed away about 5 months ago. The second
lesson we had with him, we gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him to read
3 Nephi 11. We went backed and asked him if he had. He said yes, but that
he couldn´t remember much about it, and that answer usually means they
didn´t read. So we asked him a couple of questions, and he basically
proceeded to tell us EXACTLY what happened in that chapter. It was awesome.
Girls, I cannot even begin to tell you how important the scriptures are.
It´s great to read them everyday, but we need to pay attention to and
understand it as well, or it doesn´t do any good. That is one way that we
can strengthen our testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ. Please, read with
mom and dad, pay attention, and ask questions! The scriptures are so true
and there´s so much we can learn from them!
Everyone, I love you and am so grateful for this opportunity. Know that I
am well and loving every minute! Mom... Tu hijo le ama muchisimo! Your son
loves you VERY MUCH! Substitute "mom" in for son and you´ll have it. Love
you!
Elder Taylor
P.S. Send Carson my love. I won´t get a letter off to him before he
leaves, most likely. Let him know he is in my prayers!
> >To: taylor0638@msn.com
> >Subject: Another week...?! Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:25:45 +0000
Dear Fam and Friends,
Well there it goes, another week gone by. It´s so hard to know how to
start these things. There´s so many different directions I could
go...hmmm. First of all, you STILL didn´t say anything about my song in
any of your letters-what´s that all about? Is it really just that bad? Talk
about not answering questions...you´re all worried about me answering that
you forget to answer my questions! Sheesh. Haha
Ok, I´ll begin my list of answers now: We have an address directly for
our apartment, but you can´t send letters there. You can send them in the
"pouch" or just through the regular mail. If you email to the mission
address, and put my name in the subject line, they will print off the
letter and I´ll get it on Thursdays (ANYONE can write to that address)
I´ll look in to getting stamps and writing letters, but understand that we
don´t have a ton of time on Preparation Days and we have a lot to do most
of the time, so don´t expect anything grand. As far as packages go, most
Elders say they have never had a problem. If you send a package, don´t do
it through like FedEx or anything special or something because then the
Mafia (seriously) will think you put something EXTRA special in it and
they´ll for sure open it up. One Elder says he just finds out what
missionaries parents are coming to pick up their elders and has his family
send packages down with their families. Like his family sends the package
to those coming down, and then they´re usually willing to just bring it
down. I´ll keep my ears open. Ok, that will be the longest answer,
hopefully.
I am speaking Spanish. I have learned a few Portuguese words here and
there, but they speak Spanish here. Some are bilingual, but yeah. Spanish.
In my apartment it is just Elder Stoddard and I. The other Elders and the
two Hermanas aren´t very far away, but I only know exactly where two
companionships live because I´ve been to the Zone Leaders house for
activities and I went on divisions with another.
You guys really want to know where I live that badly? Haha. I haven´t
counted the blocks from the bridge, but it´s probably 8-10 streets away from
the bridge and 2 streets over. Maybe I´ll count one of these days. I saw
your house on a computer yesterday. One of the members pulled up Google
Earth and asked us where we lived, so we showed him. It was weird to see
the house. I didn´t even know that Google Earth existed, it was cool.
Sunday meetings are in the Chapel. haha. Probably two streets up from the
bridge and one street the opposite direction of our house. It´s big, you
can see it on Google Earth.
I took pictures of our trip to Brazil. I´ve taken a lot of our area, our
apartment, the other Elders on P-Day and what not. I´m doing my best to
keep the camera rolling. The river has kind of flooded, so I´ve taken a
bunch of pictures of that. One of the streets in our area is covered, so
that´s cool. One of the VERY less actives in our ward got water in their
yard/house. I took a picture. Our area is very diverse. Some houses are
quite nice, and others are wood and tin, maybe as big as my room at home.
Maybe. It´s crazy how the perception of "nice" changes so drastically so
quickly.
I have a couple of things to tell you, so I´ll try and rush them in.
First, I had a really cool experience on Saturday. One of our
appointments fell through, so Elder Stoddard asked me what I thought we
should do for the next little bit. We have been working with a less-active
lady in our Branch, so I said we should go visit her and make sure she knew
about Stake Conference yesterday. We went down there, but she wasn´t
there. Her son, who´s like 35, is also a member, but VERY inactive. He has
been there for a couple of lessons with his mom, but hasn´t really said
anything. We started talking to him Saturday, and asked if we could just
have a quick lesson. At first he was really hesitant and said no, but then
he was like, "Well, why not? " So we sat down with him, sang a hymn, said a
prayer and opened up to Alma 32. Elder Stoddard said he didn´t know where
we were going to start...then Jose Luiz (the guy) pointed out a scripture.
Alma 32:13, I believe. It talks about those who are compelled to be humble.
It hit him really hard, and he started to get a little emotional. It was
exactly what he needed. We continued to look in Alma 32, where it talks
about planting the seed of faith. Jose Luiz works with plants, so it was
perfect, and he really understood. He was still being a little resistant to
what was going on, so I decided to just bear my testimony. It was amazing
the change that happened in the room. I bore my testimony about how I knew
that sometimes life can be hard, and we get discouraged, but that Christ
has felt all of that for us already. That it is only through Him and the
Church that we can get through those hard times. It was awesome, because it
was the first time my testimony hasn´t been interrupted, or that I felt
like I couldn´t express what I wanted to. The words just came. It might
not have been perfect Spanish, but it was what I needed to say, and we were
all able to feel the Spirit together. Afterwards, Jose Luiz said that he
knew the things that he needed to do to get through the hard times he was
having: prayer and really studying the scriptures. That´s the key. So that
was a great experience. I didn´t know why we needed to go down there at
first, especially since his mom wasn´t there, but it turned out to be a
great learning and growing experience for all of us.
Melanie and Megan, we are teaching a boy right now who is 11 years old.
His name is Ricardo, and his dad passed away about 5 months ago. The second
lesson we had with him, we gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him to read
3 Nephi 11. We went backed and asked him if he had. He said yes, but that
he couldn´t remember much about it, and that answer usually means they
didn´t read. So we asked him a couple of questions, and he basically
proceeded to tell us EXACTLY what happened in that chapter. It was awesome.
Girls, I cannot even begin to tell you how important the scriptures are.
It´s great to read them everyday, but we need to pay attention to and
understand it as well, or it doesn´t do any good. That is one way that we
can strengthen our testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ. Please, read with
mom and dad, pay attention, and ask questions! The scriptures are so true
and there´s so much we can learn from them!
Everyone, I love you and am so grateful for this opportunity. Know that I
am well and loving every minute! Mom... Tu hijo le ama muchisimo! Your son
loves you VERY MUCH! Substitute "mom" in for son and you´ll have it. Love
you!
Elder Taylor
P.S. Send Carson my love. I won´t get a letter off to him before he
leaves, most likely. Let him know he is in my prayers!
Monday, March 5, 2007
A hello from ridiculously hot, and ridiculously wet Uruguay!
Dear Family (and friends)
I don´t even know where to start! Here it is, already my second preparation day. Where does the time go? Some days it feels like I´ve been here for 6 months and others it feels like I got here yesterday. I am loving being here in Artigas. It´s SO different from the MTC. They both have their pros and cons. One of the pros in the MTC was that I could understand everybody! Haha. Here, it seems like I can only understand the Americans trying to speak Spanish. No, it´s coming along. Very slowly, but surely. I just have to be patient, trust in the Lord, and work like crazy!
This week has been some crazy weather. I´ve decided there´s only two choices in Artigas- ridiculously hot with a ridiculous amount of humidity, or RAIN! Not kidding. Yesterday it was SO hot before, during, and after church. But then after our study time, and we were out walking, clouds and RAIN came out of nowhere. So again, we were soaked. I love it. Most of the time.
Our eating arrangement here is really nice. Elder Stoddard says I got lucky with my first area. We have had lunch with the members everyday. We don´t really eat breakfast most of the time, because we aren´t hungry or we just want to study; and dinner is basically non-existent here. Lunch is the big meal everyday. Sometimes we´ll cook some rice or something after planning when we get home, but not too often. The food has been good, so far. Not too different. Lots of pasta, potatoes, and bread.
One of the Hermanas in our branch does our laundry for us. It is SO nice not to have to worry about it. She´s a gem. We just drop it off on our preparation day (monday) and then go and pick it up on like Wednesday or Thursday-already neatly folded and such. Pretty nifty. I haven´t had someone fold my laundry for me since I was like 12! (Mom!)
The bus ride up to Artigas wasn´t in some shabby piece of metal. Haha. It was like a tour bus. Really nice. There are taxis all over the place here, but usually we just walk everywhere. No bikes, no cars, no rollerblades, no skateboards...just our feet.
Mom, you asked if I knew which way the mission home was from the airport, I think....I have NO idea! I miss the mountains. Haha.
The name of the street I live on is Berreta. That´s about all I know. Haha. It´s by a gas station, a school (I think). Classes for the kids start either today or tomorrow, so I don´t really know where the schools are yet.
Yeah, We can walk to Brazil in about 15 minutes. Actually, we are going over there in about 20 minutes! I guess there´s this awesome buffet over there, so the Zone Leaders, one other companionship and the two of us are gonna go eat. Yes mom, it´s legal, I promise. Haha. We just walk across a bridge and we´re there.
You asked about the water...we drink bottled water in our apartment. Brush our teeth with the tap-no big deal. As for lunch at members homes, usually we have like juice or pop or something. (Carbonation-grrr) A couple of times, though, people have offered us water and we are so thirsty that we don´t really care. Hopefully we are doing our job, so the Lord will bless us!
Oh, by the way, you said you got my package, but you didn´t say anything about my song-what´s up with that?! Haha. I´m just curious as to what you all though? Not too shabby for 10 minutes after meals, I thought. Oh yeah, I played prelude in sacrament meeting yesterday. I think everyone was amazed that this gringo elder could play the piano. It was funny.
I can´t write "real" letters right now, because I don´t have any stamps. I didn´t even think about it before I left the States. If you could find it in your hearts, do you think you could buy some stamps and send them on down this way? I haven´t been able to write...anyone...yet because I don´t have any stamps. So if you could pass that message along to...anyone...I´d apopreciate it. Haha. Oh, and I received a letter from Daniel Hansen this week, so if you could send these to him too, that be great! Yes Dan, I got your letter, but, if you read above, I don´t have any stamps to write you back. Dan´s email is danhan55@hotmail.com ; I can´t remember what Alison´s is, so you´ll have to call and ask. I can remember her number, though- (801)558-3349. And no, that´s not because I texted a lot. Haha.
This letter might be kind of short, but I read all of yours before, so time is running out. Lorie, thank you for your letter-good luck with the training and what not! I look forward to hearing more!
I love you all, more than I can even say. I know that the Lord has sent me here for a reason, and I just hope that I can accomplish all I have been sent here to do! But first, I need to understand what the heck these people are saying! I´ve heard that this is one of the most difficult areas to understand, though. So I´ll just keep plugging along. The Lord lives, He loves us, He knows us each individually, and He wants us to come closer to Him! This church is SO true! You better not forget that. The scriptures are amazing, I wish I could read them all day. I just finished the story of Ammon and the sons of Mosiah in Alma-that was pretty encouraging. Again, I love you! Take care
Love,
Elder Taylor
I don´t even know where to start! Here it is, already my second preparation day. Where does the time go? Some days it feels like I´ve been here for 6 months and others it feels like I got here yesterday. I am loving being here in Artigas. It´s SO different from the MTC. They both have their pros and cons. One of the pros in the MTC was that I could understand everybody! Haha. Here, it seems like I can only understand the Americans trying to speak Spanish. No, it´s coming along. Very slowly, but surely. I just have to be patient, trust in the Lord, and work like crazy!
This week has been some crazy weather. I´ve decided there´s only two choices in Artigas- ridiculously hot with a ridiculous amount of humidity, or RAIN! Not kidding. Yesterday it was SO hot before, during, and after church. But then after our study time, and we were out walking, clouds and RAIN came out of nowhere. So again, we were soaked. I love it. Most of the time.
Our eating arrangement here is really nice. Elder Stoddard says I got lucky with my first area. We have had lunch with the members everyday. We don´t really eat breakfast most of the time, because we aren´t hungry or we just want to study; and dinner is basically non-existent here. Lunch is the big meal everyday. Sometimes we´ll cook some rice or something after planning when we get home, but not too often. The food has been good, so far. Not too different. Lots of pasta, potatoes, and bread.
One of the Hermanas in our branch does our laundry for us. It is SO nice not to have to worry about it. She´s a gem. We just drop it off on our preparation day (monday) and then go and pick it up on like Wednesday or Thursday-already neatly folded and such. Pretty nifty. I haven´t had someone fold my laundry for me since I was like 12! (Mom!)
The bus ride up to Artigas wasn´t in some shabby piece of metal. Haha. It was like a tour bus. Really nice. There are taxis all over the place here, but usually we just walk everywhere. No bikes, no cars, no rollerblades, no skateboards...just our feet.
Mom, you asked if I knew which way the mission home was from the airport, I think....I have NO idea! I miss the mountains. Haha.
The name of the street I live on is Berreta. That´s about all I know. Haha. It´s by a gas station, a school (I think). Classes for the kids start either today or tomorrow, so I don´t really know where the schools are yet.
Yeah, We can walk to Brazil in about 15 minutes. Actually, we are going over there in about 20 minutes! I guess there´s this awesome buffet over there, so the Zone Leaders, one other companionship and the two of us are gonna go eat. Yes mom, it´s legal, I promise. Haha. We just walk across a bridge and we´re there.
You asked about the water...we drink bottled water in our apartment. Brush our teeth with the tap-no big deal. As for lunch at members homes, usually we have like juice or pop or something. (Carbonation-grrr) A couple of times, though, people have offered us water and we are so thirsty that we don´t really care. Hopefully we are doing our job, so the Lord will bless us!
Oh, by the way, you said you got my package, but you didn´t say anything about my song-what´s up with that?! Haha. I´m just curious as to what you all though? Not too shabby for 10 minutes after meals, I thought. Oh yeah, I played prelude in sacrament meeting yesterday. I think everyone was amazed that this gringo elder could play the piano. It was funny.
I can´t write "real" letters right now, because I don´t have any stamps. I didn´t even think about it before I left the States. If you could find it in your hearts, do you think you could buy some stamps and send them on down this way? I haven´t been able to write...anyone...yet because I don´t have any stamps. So if you could pass that message along to...anyone...I´d apopreciate it. Haha. Oh, and I received a letter from Daniel Hansen this week, so if you could send these to him too, that be great! Yes Dan, I got your letter, but, if you read above, I don´t have any stamps to write you back. Dan´s email is danhan55@hotmail.com ; I can´t remember what Alison´s is, so you´ll have to call and ask. I can remember her number, though- (801)558-3349. And no, that´s not because I texted a lot. Haha.
This letter might be kind of short, but I read all of yours before, so time is running out. Lorie, thank you for your letter-good luck with the training and what not! I look forward to hearing more!
I love you all, more than I can even say. I know that the Lord has sent me here for a reason, and I just hope that I can accomplish all I have been sent here to do! But first, I need to understand what the heck these people are saying! I´ve heard that this is one of the most difficult areas to understand, though. So I´ll just keep plugging along. The Lord lives, He loves us, He knows us each individually, and He wants us to come closer to Him! This church is SO true! You better not forget that. The scriptures are amazing, I wish I could read them all day. I just finished the story of Ammon and the sons of Mosiah in Alma-that was pretty encouraging. Again, I love you! Take care
Love,
Elder Taylor
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