A Beautiful Day...!

Family and Friends,
 Today is a beautiful day here in Artigas. Might only need a long-sleeve
shirt today! Haha. We´re gettin ready to head over to Quarai, Brazil in a
couple minutes. Elder Holmes has only been once, so we´re gonna goi play
over there.
 Must have been a busy week on the home-front this week-I only heard from
Mary-Anne! I hope all is well at home and that ya´ll are taking care of
yourselves. :o)
 This is going to be a shorter letter, ´cause I wrote Mary-Anne for a
while, but that´s ok-she deserves a long letter every once in a while!
 Good week, pretty routine up until yesterday. Eduardo passed the
sacrament for the first time yesterday. That was really cool! Also, he cut
his hair after church! That was AWESOME! He looks SO good! He got a job
offer (after 5 months of looking) to drive taxi´s and the owner asked him
to cut his hair. We were so stoked. Haha. His mom and all of us have been
trying to convince him forever. He promised me before I left that he would
cut it, and yesterday he did! I took lots of pictures, no worries.
 I had a good scare yesterday-I almost lost my mother here in the ´Guay.
Hma. Martinez had a heart-attack yesterday morning. We didn´t find out
until about 5 o´clock, so we went over about 8 o´clock last night to see
how she was doing. She is doing a lot better, but both her and her husband
thought she was gone for a while there. But the Lord decided that she
hasn´t finished what she needs to do here yet, so He sent her back. She
said she asked politely. :o) Good thing too, because I´ve still got a week
and a half left here in Artigas, I can´t be left without careful motherly
supervision. Haha.
 Changes are next week-that´s crazy. This change FLEW by. Oh, that means
that P-Day is Wednesday next week, just for the heads up. We still don´t
know changes yet, but it´s about a 99% probability that I´m going to be
leaving my first area-after 6 months. Haha. It´s kind of a bitter-sweet
thought, so we´ll talk about that when the time comes.
 The work is going well. We are knocking and walking a lot in the nice,
freezing cold weather. The Lord is just in the process of finishing up the
preparations for all the people we are going to find this week!
 Well, like I said, this letter is short. I know, I´m sorry. Don´t be
mad. I´ll write more next week. But I´m under obligation to my companion.
Haha. Good excuse, uh? Love you all!
 You are all in my prayers daily! Take care and break down that postal
barrier! :o)
 Love,
Elder Taylor

¡Montevideo...!‏

Fam and Friends,
 So I´ll just apologize real quick to start off this letter. I forgot to
mention last week that we were going to the temple this week, which means
we had to change our P-Day. So I´m writing you from Montevideo. We were
going to leave at 12:00 last night, but the bus we rented was still on
it´s way home from Buenos Aires, so we didn´t leave until like 6 this
morning. We got here at about 1:30, our temple session is at like 5, and
then we´ll leave here for Artigas at about 10:00 tonight. That´s a LONG
day. It´s about a 7 hour trip back up to Artigas. Haha.
 This is the second time our zone has gone to the temple for reaching our
baptism goal. Pretty sweet, uh? This is the "reward" for LAST change, so
it´s a little late, but it´s all good. I don´t know what all we´re
going to do until our temple session, but ´Deo is big-we´ll find
something to do. Haha.
 Elder Holmes and I are doing really well. Working hard, and getting along
great. No Mary-Anne, when I say he´s interesting, I just mean we´re
different personalities. He´s always asking me if I´ve seen that movie or
played that video/computer game, and I only say yes about 2% of the time.
It´s pretty funny. Elder Holmes turned 20 in March. I haven´t had a
companion younger than me yet, even my Corto Plazo. Elder Holmes had a
mullet for a while before the mission-that´s a pretty interesting fact.
Haha. He´s a really funny kid. He´s doing better with the language. He
still looks at me as soon as somebody responds to him when we´re knocking
doors, but that´s part of the fun of training! Haha. At least now he
understands when people are asking him if he understands a word they´re
saying and he can say No. Nah, it´s not that bad. Well, not quite! :o)
 So quick Eduardo update-HE GOT THE PRIESTHOOD ON SUNDAY! Yes! I´m so
stoked. He´s doing really well. He´s still got his long hair, but he made
a promise to me last night that he´s gonna cut it in two weeks. We are all
pretty sure I´m leaving this change, so that means I have 3 weeks left in
the Rama. So he said he´d cut it before I leave. I´m excited; it´ll be
cool to see him with short hair!
 We are teaching a guy named Jose Enrique. We found him last week and he
came to church with us on Sunday. We gave him a baptismal date before he´d
even gone to church. He´s older: probly about 35-40 with 5 kids. He´s
separated from his "wife" or the mother of his kids. His house isn´t as
big as our kitchen (meaning my family´s at home) and it´s all out of
boxes and tin sheets. It is a very humbling sight. He had talked with the
missionaries before, but for some reason, they dropped him. We don´t know
details as to why. So we just keep praying that he progresses and
everything works out! We invited him, now we are just putting it in the
Lord´s hands to make sure he has a testimony of the truth. As long as he
reads the Book of Mormon, there is no doubt in my mind that he will.
 Speaking of the Book of Mormon, Pablo, (the lawyer) is now in Helaman
chapter 12. He´s reading like crazy, considering his ridiculous schedule.
It´s hard to find him at home in order to have lessons, but every one we
have is fantastic. We invited him to go to church with us again, but he
said he doesn´t feel ready yet. He said that the day he shows up at church
is the day he knows it true and he wants to get baptized. So now we´re
anxiously waiting for the Lord to answer his prayer! By the way, I don´t
know if I ever told you this-but Pablo is a Mason. Meaning like, the
Masonery. I haven´t dared to ask him straight up and forward, but yeah. Do
you know any interesting facts or any anything about the Masonery? I know a
little bit, but not a lot. So yeah, that´s the update on him.
 Dad, thanks for telling me about Jonathan Shelton and his stories-that
was really fun to read. He was such an amazing person. An awesome example
for all of us!
 Mom, you got a new principal? What´s Dr. Burnside gonna do? Anything? Or
just play? That´s cool. And you took the sister missionaries out! That´s
awesome! When you took them out were they able to talk to anybody? That was
a surprise to read, but I was really glad to hear that. My talk a week ago
Sunday was all about how important it was to work with/through the
members-way to be an example! What did Megan think of the whole thing?
 Speaking of my sisters, tell each one of them I love them and give them a
big hug for me. And Nathanael, give Mary-Anne one for me. I have thought a
lot about those three in this last week. I´ve got a pretty sweet family,
huh? Lucky kid. Just know that I love each one of ya! And I can´t wait to
hear from EACH one of you... :o)
 Mary-Anne, I can´t remember if I said it last week, but HAPPY
ANNIVERSARY! I hope you guys enjoyed it! The water looked freezing. And-did
you dye your hair or is it just light from the sun? Looks good! :o)
 Well, we´re gonna go play a little bit here in ´Deo! The Church is
true! I love all of you! Take care of yourselves!
 Love,
Elder Taylor

CONGRATS MOM! Another fun-filled week...‏

Taylor Clan y Amigazos,
 Mom is done with her Master´s! Holy cow! I thought this day would never
arrive-I can only imagine how Mom fills! That´s so cool. Now, Mom, take
some time to learn how to breathe and relax again-YOU DESERVE IT! But
that´s awesome. What an awesome example you are for the rest of us.
 So both Mom and Mary-Anne said I didn´t comment a lot on Eduardo´s
baptism-I´ll try and recap. Eduardo got baptized. Pretty cool, uh? Haha.
No, we had a combined baptism with Barrio 1, Elder Sacco and Elder
Richards. They had two jovenes get baptized: William, 20, and Gabriel, 11.
They´re brothers. Good kids. I had met them a couple times before at
church and while on divisions. Good, short service. We had asked Hmo.
Martinez to speak, but a job opportunity came up that made it so he had to
travel, so his wife (my Uruguayan mother) spoke in his place. So Elder
Scco baptized Gabriel first, then Elder Richards and William, and then me
and Eduardo. Out of the three of us, only Richards and William had to do it
twice. Haha. It was good. Eduardo has some problems with his legs, so we
were a little worried about keeping everything under, but we did fine.
Elder Holmes said I put him down slower than anyone he´s ever seen. But
hey, I figure slow and right instead of fast and wrong-right? One of the
best parts about it was that Eduardo´s mother, sister, niece, and nephew
all came to support him.
 Just this last week Eduardo´s two daughters, that live in Montevideo
with their mother, came to visit him. THEY ARE SOOOO CUTE! Marcia Veronica
and Maria Belen. Marcia is 6 years old and Belen is 4. They are darling. We
had a FHE with the three of them as well as Hmo/Hma Martinez in the
Martinez home. It was great. At the end of the night, there weren´t many
dry eyes. Eduardo brought his two beautiful daughters to sacrament with him
yesterday. Even though they had to get on a bus at 12 noon, he wanted to
make sure they knew what it was like. They loved it. Marcia even waved to
me with a big smile while I was giving my talk. It was a great experience.
And, even more, Eduardo was sustained to be able to receive the Aaronic
Priesthood. He will be receiving it next week!!
 Mom, I´ve already told you about my food arrangement here, but I´ll
tell you again...I eat with members EVERY day. Except P-Days and Thursdays,
which is when we have our weekly planning. P-Days we eat where we want and
Thursdays we all eat together in the Coca´s house. I don´t ever cook. If
we´re hungry at night and we don´t have leftovers-we live a block away
from El Rey de Las Empanadas! 6 pesos a piece-it´s a beautiful thing!
Haha.
 We had interviews with President Peterson on Saturday morning. We
weren´t expecting them, because they usually take place in the 4th week of
the change, but it´s all good. He wanted to get to know his missionaries
sooner. Yes, mom, we have individual interviews with him. My very first
interview with President Bankhead was the only one where we had a
companionship interview and an individual one. President Peterson is
awesome! I was kind of apprehensive at first, like with any big change, but
the next year and a half are going to be sweet! No worries, Montevideo
Oeste is in good hands!
 Mom, to answer your question, I receive a few random letters here and
there, but not too many. Oh, but I got hit by a ton of bricks this last
week...I found out Shayla Troff and JoHanna Veater are both engaged! Wow.
That was weird. The last letter I got from Shay she said she "was seeing"
an RM, but it was anything crazy. And I hadn´t even heard from JoHanna
yet! Now she´s gettin´ hitched in August and Shay in October. Weird. Send
them both my love and my best. If I don´t get announcements...oh boy...we
don´t wanna know what Elder Taylor will do...! :o)
 It sounds like Mary-Anne and Nathanael got settled in ok, that´s good!
And they´ve already got my room on hold for me! We might have to look into
the University´s up in Oregon. Haha. Yeah right. Just the vacations! I´m
glad everything worked out so well. Mary-Anne-find yourself a GOOD job! And
I mean GOOD. None of this, "Oh, this one was easy to find and it´s easy to
do." You´re SO good at SO many things-put it to work! It´ll help you with
the change if you keep yourself busy with something that you enjoy doing
and something that CHALLENGES you! You know I love ya! :o) And Swift-I hope
you´re ready to hit the books, bro! I´m not gonna lie, I don´t envy you.
I miss school, but not that much. Haha.
 Well I was hoping to get an email from Melanie telling me about her EFY
experience, but I guess I´ll be waiting another week. Dad said something
about a duet?! What´s that? I can´t wait!
 So Megan´s gonna buy a $40,000 truck, uh? Well, I´ll be home in time to
drive it, so I´m ok with that! Make sure it´s a Tacoma, Goose!
 So the coat is working out great, thanks a lot. It´s perfect. I finally
finished the tape that came with it-it was a TON of fun to hear the
different people talking. All the members from the ward and what not. Make
sure you send my thanks and my love to each one of them. And Mom and
Mary-Anne sent me a "special" musical number-HAHA! I was laughing SO hard!
Thanks for that! For more details, talk to Momma T and/or my big sis.
 Skyler, I think I´ve only got one letter from you since you´ve been
home. Just talking on the tapes from my family doesn´t count, bro! You can
send emails through the mission-something I couldn´t do. C´mon, slacker!
Haha. I love you man. I hope all is well.
 The work is going well. Sorry I didn´t take much to talk about it today.
Elder Holmes is doing well. Starting to try and talk more. Gave his
testimony in church yesterday-it was good. I gave a talk about the
importance of members. Only got a LITTLE emotional at the end-that will
probably be my last time talking in the Rama. But who knows? Haha. Elder
Holmes is way funny. Like I said, he´s a little different, but we get a
long really well.
 I hope ya´ll know that I love you! Thanks for all you love and support.
I look forward to hearing from all of you. Take care of yourselves and
don´t forget to read your scriptures. :o)
 Con Cariño,
Elder Taylor

President Peterson and My Sister is in OREGON!‏

Family and Friends,
 Wow, those were some loaded emails that I received this morning. Oh,
P.S., your sister is now living in Oregon! WHAT?! That´s awesome! I was
looking forward to the hot weather in Tulsa, but now I´ve got the cold
beach in Oregon! Wow, I think I´m still just trying to soak it in-I can´t
even imagine how Mary-Anne and Nathanael are feeling. I guess you could
kind of say that´s how changes feel! That´s a good example. Haha.
 Oh, and then I find out that my sister has some crazy deal with her eyes
that makes it so she can´t get LASIK? Man, you leave for 7 months and the
whole world changes. Haha.
 Anyways, this last week was a great one. As I had said in some of my
previous emails, the area where I´m at (still my first area) is kind of in
a stand still. We´re working, but just not seeing the greatest results.
Well, Elder Holmes gets here and things are starting to change. This last
week we found 6 people, 3 of whom are males. Who knows if they´ll progress
or not, but it was a great way to start off this change! Elder Holmes is
from Mesa. He has two older brothers who served in Mexico and Honduras and
an older sister who served in Canada. He is a little different, but he
makes me laugh. We are having a really good time together. It´s really
funny to see his face when people just rattle off in Spanish to him, and
even more so when it´s in Portuguese! (I don´t know how to spell that-my
bad!) I wonder if I pulled those same kind of faces? Hey, for all I know, I
still do! No, but he has desires to learn and work, so he will pick up
quick. He reads in Spanish really well already, so that will help him a
lot.
 And then to finish the week, we met President Peterson for the first
time! On Saturday we took a little bus for three hours to go and have a
combined Zone Conference w/ Tacuaremba. President Peterson is awesome. And
he speaks Spanish REALLY well. He served in Mexico, lived there for 6, and
lived in Chile for 3-so he better speak well. Haha. He is tall, as is his
wife. They brought their two youngest kids (sons) with them. Jamison, 16,
and Michael, 12. They are going to keep the mission entertained! The Zone
Conference was just a simple one in order to get to know the Petersons, and
for them to be able to meet us. I am really excited-they´re exactly what
we need and- more importantly- what the Lord wants!
 I got an email from Sandy Aurich this week-that was really nice. It´s
weird to think that Jason is already home with them. And now Andy Sellers
is home, too. Crazy. Does Andy talk with a crazy accent? I sure hope so.
Haha.
 Elder Holmes and I had a lesson in English last Friday-with two
Americans! Haha. We had lunch with our Ward Mission Leader, whose daughter,
Andrea, is studying English in Salto. Andrea{s birthday was last Friday, so
she invited two of her friends from school to come to Artigas to celebrate
with her. One is a ´Guyean from Rio Negro and the other was an American
from Oregon. And the American´s sister is here visiting her. We all
started talking over lunch and they asked what a missionary does in
Uruguay. I was more than happy to reply! Haha. They had never had much
contact with the Church, and so they had some random questions. I basically
ended up giving them a lesson about what a great blessing the Gospel is,
especially concerning the family. Elder Holmes had a few words to say, but
I think he was still in shock that he was hearing English again. Haha. It
was a really different and cool opportunity. It amazed me how much they
didn´t know about the Church. It really opened my eyes to how easy it is
to talk about the Church with our friends and acquaintances-even in
English! I had never had an opportunity LIKE THAT to share the Gospel in
English, so it was a really fun experience. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!
 I hope you are enjoying the hot weather. We are now in the middle of
winter. Last week we had a couple of days of short sleeves, and now we´re
in thermals. Haha. Seems like crazy Utah weather. I love it.
 The Lord lives and loves us! He is just waiting to bless us with
everything He has, we just need to invite Him into our lives by doing the
things He asks of us. I hope and pray that we will be able to recognize the
whisperings of the Spirit and have the courage to follow them! Share this
amazing knowledge that we have! I love you all. I cannot wait to hear from
you. :o)
 Love Always,
 Elder Taylor

Beautiful Artigas w/ a new companion...!‏

Well hey there everybody,
 This last weekend was one of the craziest, best weekends so far! We left
for Montevideo last Wednesday Night/Thursday morning at 12:30. The trip
down was pretty fine. We got to the offices about 7:30/8ish. I walked in
and Elder Walker (one of the assistants) says, "Hey...what are you doing
here?" Thinking he´s just playing, I say, "I´m training, remember?!" And
he says, "No you´re not...not today." I think my heart stopped for like 5
minutes.
 What happened is that the new Elders that came from the USA got delayed
in Dallas because of flooding. They were supposed to getto ´Deo on
Tuesday, but they didn´t arrive until Thursday afternoon. Elder Stutz, the
other assistant, was supposed to call my Zone Leaders and have them tell me
to wait to come down to ´Deo, but he never got to it in the confusion of
trying to figure out what to do. Haha. So Thursday, I went and did
divisions in one of the wards down in Montevideo that´s called Flores 9.
It was fun. I was with Elder Evans who played for West Jordan´s basketball
team. We both recognized each other. This is only his second change in the
mission, so that´s cool.
 Thursday night I slept on the couch in the offices-it was SO fun to sleep
on a couch again. Haha. That sounds retarded, but for those of you who know
my sleeping schedule from before the mission will understand! :o) Friday I
just kinda hung around the offices and helped them do some of the work they
needed to take care of there. Then I went to the airport with Elder Hoffman
(ex-assistant) to pick up his dad! That was really fun. And no-I´M NOT
TRUNKY. We just had some good conversation while we were waiting for his
dad. Elder Hoffman and I get along really well. Friday night I went to an
activity in ´Deo with Elder Hansen in their ward. We had scripture study
and played UNO. Good times.
 Then, Friday night at about 10:30, I finally met my new companion. His
name is Elder Holmes and he´s from Mesa, Arizona...Mary-Anne totally
guessed it! Haha. We met at about 10:30 and then we left that night at
about 12:45. None of the other new Elders met their trainers because they
were all going to do the traditional meeting on Saturday morning, but if we
would have stayed, we would have missed our baptism. The Assistants and I
decided it would be cooler to have a baptism you first day than to
participate in the "traditional" meeting. So yeah.
 We got back to Artigas at about 8 on Saturday morning. Worked all
morning, ate lunch, studied, and then started the preps for our baptism! We
had a combined baptism with Barrio 1. It went REALLY well! EDUARDO IS
OFFICIALLY A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH! YES! His mom, sister, and two nephews
all came to support him. I was so excited and he still hasn´t stopped
smiling! We have pictures. :o) Presidente Lorenzo confirmed him Sunday
morning as Hermano Rosconi and also participated. Afterwards, Eduardo bore
his testimony for the first time in sacrament meeting! Man, I have never
been more stoked in my entire life. Ok, well maybe I´ve been stoked like
this, but it´s a different stoked. Haha.
 Mom and Dad, I got the coat! Thank you SO much. It´s perfect. And thanks
for all the goodies, too. Because of my delay in ´Deo I actually got to
talk to the Daimaru´s. I gave Elder Daimaru a CD of pictures to bring
home, so yeah. Mary-Anne, you have GOT to buy that t-shirt you saw for me!
Even if you don´t send it to me, it sounds SO cool! Haha. Oh, and M-A, I
got your other packages with the pictures in it. Thank you so much. A
random set of pictures, but that´s cool!
 So Mary-Anne just informed me that I have now been out over 200 days.
That´s kinda weird to think about. How many days are in a mission? Like
730? Wow. That´s not very much.
 MARY-ANNE´S GETTING LASIK?! Holy cow, that´s so cool! Isn´t that like
ridiculously expensive?! I´m so excited for you! You´ll have to let me
know how it goes. Oh, by the way, Mary-Anne, who is Sugarland? The name
sounds familiar, but I can´t remember any songs or anything. So how the
Kenny Chesney concert? Everything you hoped and dreamed it would be? Haha.
I´m glad you took Mel and Meg, that´s a fun memory!
 MELANIE, I AM SO GLAD YOU HAD A GREAT TIME ON TREK! I got your letter in
my coat! Thank you SO much for telling me all about your experience. I´ve
got to tell you, I started crying when I read you letter. I am so glad that
you went and stuck it out. You will be able to look back on that experience
and learn for the rest of your life. You sounded so grown-up in your
letter-I think that´s why I cried. My little sister is getting so big! But
hey, you leave those boys alone. :o)
 Well, make sure you all have some fun with fireworks this week for me.
Nathanael and Skyler, don´t let me down. Haha.
 I hope you all know how much I love you. I am so grateful for the example
that every one of you have given to me. Because of all of you, I am who I
am today. Thank you. You are in my prayers always! Take care of yourselves!
 Love,
Elder Taylor