Howdy!

Taylor Family and Friends,
Buenos días! How ya´ll doin? Hope everything is going just dandy up there! Things are going well here. The weather has gotten a little chilly again-this weekend we actually had to put on our jackets in the streets and sweats in the house. They said it was supposed to rain this weekend, but it never did. Not complaining by any means, don´t worry!
Last Tuesday we went down to ´Deo for ZLC, with the District Leaders as "special guests." Haha. It was a lot of fun to get together with some of the Elders of the mission, as always. It was a great learning experience, we talked a lot about the importance of goals and what we can do as individuals, as companionships, and as a mission to reach them. After the conference, we had lunch at the mission home, and I got the chance to just sit around and chat with the Hermana Peterson and President with some of the Elders for a little bit. It was a fun, casual chance to just get to know them a little better and ask them questions. I am so grateful for them and their counsel to us as missionaries. I have no doubt they have been divinely called to preside over this mission for a reason!
We had a nice little surprise this weekend. On Saturday night, we were planning for Sunday and, all of a sudden, we hear the apartment door open. Elder Shupe went around the corner to find Elder Hansen and Elder Centurión (the assistants to Pres.) in our door! President and the Hermana are on a trip to visit each house in the mission to make sure it is in suitable conditions, and at the same time, President is conducting interviews; they told us our interviews are tomorrow morning, but they just came to stay the night at our place for a couple of days. The President and the Hermana are staying in a hotel. We´re basically the launch pad-yesterday after church they drove up to Bella Unión and came back, and this morning they went to Salto and this evening they´ll be back.
Yesterday, President and the Hermana came to our sacrament meeting before leaving for Bella Unión. Just to make sure I was awake, or for some other reason, the bishop asked me to give a talk about 5 minutes before sacrament meeting started....! Thanks a lot, Bishop. Haha. I was up on the stand already, because I play the piano for the ward, so when the Bishop announced that I was the closing speaker, Pres. just looked over at me and smiled a "tough-luck" kind of smile. It was pretty funny. It was just a quick, simple talk about scripture study and why it is so important for us. Simple and sweet. :o)
Things are going really well for us work-wise. We´re still going out to Casa Blanca once a week and visiting the three or four families that we are teaching out there. Rosa wasn´t able to be there on Thursday, because she had a meeting for work, but we had a good lesson with her mom, Elsa, and her daughter, Viviana. They are doing really well, and our goal is to get them to church this week-we´ll see how it all goes! We also found a really neat lady named Patricia out there on Thursday. She is a widowed mother with 5 kids under the age of 17, and she´s probly about 35 years old herself; her husband died of cancer at a VERY young age. But she is an amazing woman with unshakable faith in her heavenly Father. She is Adventista (I believe it´s 7th Day Adventist in English) but she says that sometimes she just gets confused because of all the different religions that exist today. We had a very nice introductory lesson and we´re excited to go back on Thursday and continue!
So yeah, everything is going well! Melanie and Megan, I don´t know if you´ve already left or not for EFY, but if not, HAVE A GREAT TIME! I had SUCH a good time up at EFY. Just get involved and don´t be scared!
Mary-Anne and Nathanael-HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! I can´t beleive it´s been three years since you guys got married. That´s so crazy. I hope you had a great weekend and are enjoying the time together. What are you doing to stay busy, Mary-Anne? Swift, what do you do in your new job? If you give a good enough description, maybe I´ll come join you up in Oregon. Haha. Yeah right!
Mom, enjoy your break! Any big plans for the next few weeks? Matt is headed up to USU? That´s awesome! Do you know where he is going to live? That´ll be cool to have him up there. How´s the rest of the gang doing?
Well, I think that´ll just about do it for me this week. We have interviews tomorrow, so that´ll be fun. Other than that, just finding more people to teach and helping them make the necessary changes in their lives to come closer to their Father! I hope you all have a FANTASTIC week, and I´m looking forward to hearing from all of you!
Elder Taylor