Are you all amazed like Dad to know that internet exists here in this little town? Not gonna lie, I had my doubts. Haha. So it´s been about 5 days since I arrived here in Tranqueras, and I´m in love! It´s so much fun. There´s about 8,000 people that live here in the city, so it´s pretty small. If you count everyone that lives out on their ranch, it gets up to about 10,000. Pretty small, but it´s awesome!
I´m here with Elder Mitchell Davidson from Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. He goes home in 6 weeks, but we don´t talk about those sort of things. Haha. His mom is actually coming down and they´re gonna go around the country for about a week. He´s actually doing really well, hasn´t gotten too trunky yet. But we´ve got a lot of work to do, so I´m not too worried.
Elder Davidson has been out here for the last six weeks with Elder Lewis, who just went home to Oregon. They were working really well, and we had a baptism last week as a result. So a little about Tranqueras...it´s a tiny branch. We live in a house that doubles as the chapel. We have sacrament meeting/relief society in our garage, primary in the "family room," and priesthood/gospel principles upstairs in the room next to our bedroom. It´s so crazy, but I really enjoyed it. I was going to take a video this morning and send it, but it was all foggy when we left, so it wouldn´t have been as cool. Be anxiously waiting for next week! :o) Our branch president, Pres. Díaz, and his wife are from Rivera; they drive out here every Sunday for the meetings. They´ve actually been called as service missionaries for this time, their calling ends at the end of the year. The branch is super small. Yesterday there was probably 30 people in church, ten of which were investigators and two recent converts.
We are teaching like crazy. At times it seems like there´s not enough hours in the day to teach all of our investigators and find new people to teach. People here are really receptive to the message. Just in these five days, we have found 12 new investigators, including 2 complete families. The Lord has prepared and is preparing this city to hear His message. We have a couple of couples who we are helping get the papers ready for weddings and then their baptism.
Every week Elder Davidson and I head in to Rivera for District Meeting. We´ll probly go in a couple of preparation days, too, for some kind of zone activity. After nine months, I´m back in a two-Elder house. I like it. Nice and peaceful, easy to keep clean, etc.
On Thursday morning, Elder Davidson and I went to look for a reference that he and Elder Lewis had received, but had never been able to find at home. We knocked (clapped) and out came Jose, who stood on the other side of the gate/fence to talk to us. He told us that he and his wife were believers, but they didn´t like to participate in any religion. He was pretty frank and adamant, but we kept talking to him and he then asked us, "Well, what is it exactly that you teach, I MIGHT like to hear it. No promises." We told him we shared a message that blesses the family, that helps it become stronger and more unified. He said, "Okay, come on in. But without any commitment." No problem. We waited outside the door as he and his wife set up the chairs and loveseat. We went in and sat down in front of Jose, his wife, and three kids. We started to talk about the family, and they then told us that they were going through a pretty tough moment in their marriage, and that they needed help. "However," said Jose, "we don´t believe that going to a church will help us. We believe in God, but we don´t like going to any church." Bueno. We kept talking about the family, based on faith, repentance, and forgiveness. After about 5 minutes, Jose told us that if this message helps his family, that he WILL be in church, with all of his family. In 15 minutes, the Lord softened a man´s heart who did not want to hear ANYTHING, to helping him see that going to church will bless his family. Amazing. I´m so grateful for being able to participate in the Father´s miracles.
So that´s what´s going on on this side of the world. I can´t believe that the next time I wrote you all it will be September! Incredible. Elder Shupe and I were talking about it, and it´s so frustrating that when you feel that you finally understand what missionary work is all about and how to do it, the mission is coming to an end. I´ve still got time, but it´s coming too quickly. Definitely a bittersweet feeling. Ok, enough of that talk! :o)
Well, now everyone is back in school. I hope that the year started well for all of you! Work hard, and stay focused, because the time goes by too quickly!
Okay, that´ll be it. I hope you can all find a bit of time to send me a line! Take care of yourselves!
Elder Taylor
Here´s a couple of pictures from our morning adventure! Happy Birthday shoutout to Mary-Anne and Skyler! Have a great day tomorrow!
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