Well hey there!

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