#24 Feliz Navidad y prospero Ano Nevo!

well, first off merry christmas to everyone and happy new years! hope all of your guyses christmas went amazing and that youll have wonderful new years!

well my week went well! being ble to skype my family was so amazing! and that i was able to talk to my sister also whos in Jersey on her mish made it that much sweeter! to be honest it didnt really feel a lot like christmas. first off with the blazing hot weather, but more than that just not being with the family and everything was just different. it definetly made me appreciate even more my wonderful family, and think about how blessed i really have been in my life; and now i have the great opportunity to share these blessings that i have had with all the people in Ecuador who are willing to let us in and talk with us. 

  the highlight of this week though was actually the baptisms we had this past saturday! Hermana Mariana, who i have been working with almost my whole time here in Ecuador, was baptized and comfirmed a member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints this week! and i had the blessing to be the one to baptize her! it was such a wonderful experience and i am so happy for her! Also, we baptized this week Daniel, who is awesome. his wife is a recent convert, and due to some things that went down in his life, he really came to know for himself that God lives and that the church is true. he has such a strong testimony. he is awesome! so it was great to baptize him and to help them get closer to their goal they have as a family to be sealed in the temple! it is such a blessing to be able to be part of these peoples lives and helping them take the steps to become closer to Christ and achieve so much happiness and joy in this crazy world.

  well i love you all and hope you all are doing great! ill attach some pictures from the baptism here:

#23 Una Semana Loca

well, this week was definetly crazy! so with us being so close to Christmas, we had all sorts of meetings this week. we had a whole mission conference which was way awesome!! i got to see so many of my friends that had been transfered and it was just so cool to see everyone again! and then of course its always a pleasure and a blessing to hear President Dennis and his wife talk to us! i love them. so that was wednesday. but first let me backtrack to tuesday night: so tuesday night, we start getting calls, that there are trasnfers the next day! so 3 people in our zone got transfered! one of them my district leader. so now im like hmm i wonder who will be my new district leader? and then i get a call from the Zone leaders. and they are like we have news. so i think im also getting transfered. but no, apperently i got chosen to be the new district leader. so that was quite the shock!! to say the least.

and then thursday morning we had a capacitacion for the 12 weeks of Elder Ureta. and that went well. and then friday mornig we went to the temple, which was awesome! i think saturday was normal. and then sunday night we had another meeting with one of the district 70s. so that was way awesome. and then monday (today) we had another meeting in the morning with President again!! so many meetings!! but they were all way awesome and uplifting! and then after we had a soccer tournament our zone vs another zone. that was way fun! we did work. well sorry this email was a little speratic and un detailed but thats all i have time for. love you all!

Elder Taylor

#22 ECUADORRRRR

so we have Mission Conference this week, so this p day is a short one, so i really dont have much time. but this week we had an awesome lesson with Javier and Silvia. it basically ended up just being a testimony meeting, where they told us about how much they have seen their lives change and improve since we first started talking to them. it was so awesome to hear them tell us about it. and then me and my comp shared  a few scriptures andwhile i was listening to my companion i was really trying to think what i should share, and i had nothing, but i just started tlking and right as i opnened my mounth a scripture came into my mind that i had read earlier that day, and i flipped to it and read it with them, and it was awesome. it was such a good lesson. well thats all i have for this week. i love you all!

Elder Taylor

#21 Thanksgiving doesn't exist here

so first off, thanksgiving is just not the same away from the States. as in it doesnt exist here. but we had a little dinner in our house thursday night, so it was still good.alright so first for the exciting things that happen in Ecuador, this week i had an older lady yell at me, accusing me of being an american spy, and all sorts of stuff i cant repeat, mainly because i didnt understand all of her ranting, and what i did understand, wasnt to nice. but that was exciting. also, i got offered some drugs from a guy sitting on the side of the street, right after i saw him snort something. apperently thats not a big deal here to do drugs on the side of the street. so that was interesting.

and now for something sad: one of our investigators, Maria, told us this week we couldnt visit her anymore :'( her husband is super staunch catholic, and decided he doesnt want her listening to us anymore, and wouldnt ever let her attend church. it was so sad, becasue she loves the church, and want her children to be raised in the church becasue she sees how much the church helps kids stay good and not do drugs on the side of the street and such. so that was super sad. hopefully one day her husbands heart will be softened and they can all go to church together.

also, we had a really good spiritual lesson with a less active, Jessica. we were just talking with her, and she opened up to us, and told us about her family situation and how much she misses her kids. and then we were able to relate that to how God feels about us, as his children, and he misses us and wants us to come back, and like her, is just waiting for us to come knock on his door, and he'll be there to answer with open arms. it was a really good lesson, and i think helped her a lot.

well thats what i have for this week. i hope you all had a great thanksgiving, and remember to always be grateful for the many blessings we have! i love you all,

Elder Taylor

#20 Happy Thanksgiving everyone

wow, i dont have much time, and not a whole lot to say. this week has been kind of a blur, and its hard to remember all that happened. but this week was good. we are still teaching Raquel, and she i doing awesome! we teach her almost everyday and she is always so fun to teach. and its fun to see all the christmas stuff she is selling! we also are starting to teach a new investigator named Mari, who has 2 sons. she is super awesome! most of her family are members actually, so she has some basic knowledge, but shes super interested and is keeping all our commitments which is aesome and so im excited to keep working with her! we have quite a few less active members we are working with, and were able to get to church this week! one in particular is Jimmy, who is doing really well, and is always so excited about attending church! and we've talked with his neighbor, whos not a member, and are teaching her and he wants to help us with her, which is awesome! not a better way to help build your testimony then to share it and teach others!

also, happy thanksgiving everybody!!!! its going to be interesting haveing my first thanksgiving here in ecuador, so we'll see how that goes! well i love you all! thanks for all the emails and support! the church is true!

Love,

Elder Taylor

#19 Will I Stay Or Will I Go?

so, this week was transfers. so i was really curious to see if i would be staying here in Alegria and finish training Elder Ureta, or if i would be leaving, or what. so the way it works is sunday night the Zone Leaders get a call from the AP's who gets transfered, and then the ZL's tell us. so last night, the phone rings. and me and elder Ureta both look at it. this is the moment. But it was just a txt, saying that only one missionary got transfered, and it was neitehr of us. so we are safe! atleast for another 6 weeks.

this week was solid. we have been teaching Raquel and Alison everyday. they are so awesome, and so fun to teach, i look forward to their lesson everyday. they are both progressing well, and even reading the Book of Mormon, and agreeing with all of the commitments and its great! so this week we had them commited to coming to church, and had a plan and everything laid out and ready... and then sunday morning we get a txt from Raquel saying she isnt at home and wont be able to attend. i wanted to cry. i was so sad. but we ended up passing by later that day and talked with her. apperently she was at the hospital watching someone, and didnt get back till 12:00 in the afternoon then went straight to sleep. i was still sad she couldnt attend, but im glad it was a legit reason, but we will really have to work to get her and alison to church this sunday!

Hna Silvia was able to attend again though! her and her son. her husband couldnt because he had to work, but i was so glad that she still came with her son. we are working a lot with them too, and working towards getting them married, which sometimes can be quite the hassle here in Ecuador. but we're working on it, and they do want to get married, which is halfe the battle!

Sunday also we had a Stake Counsel meeting thing with the Area 70 about ward council. it was way good and i learned a ton. one of the things i really liked that they talked about is how the church is run on counsels. there are ward counsils and stake counsils and all sorts of counsils. and how we really cant do this alone, that we have to really on the support of others, and most of all the support of the Lord. and when we counsel we can recieve revelation and know what we need to do! well thats all i got for this week. i hope all is well and you guys in northern utah arent freezing too much! but enjoy the snow!

love,

Elder Taylor

#18 Soccer Tournament "I played well"

First, I'll talk about last p day because I forgot last time. Monday morning we had a huge soccer tournament with a bunch of members. It was so fun!! We made a missionary team, and played against the other people. We did work. Us missionarys won 5 in a row. Dont mess. And then at the end when we were all leaving one of the other players came up to me and told me I played well. This is coming from a full blooded latino to a ''gringo'. So ya I guess I felt kind of cool.. haha

This week I went on another interchangem this time in Fortin. Fortin is also a huge sector. and its kind of cool becasue its right next to Monte Sinai, so it has both city but then also pueblo. So it's fun to work in both all in the same sector. We had a pretty solid day and only got lost once!  But this time it was during the day, which made it a little easier.

Sunday we were able to bring Silvia and Xavier to church! They really enjoyed it, and even their 4 year old son said he loved it and wants to go back. So the trick is make the kids want to come, and the parents will follow, right? But it was so awesome having them at church this week.  Then later on sunday, I got a call from the ofice, and the told us they had a refferal for us, that we needed to go contact immediately. so we left in search of this house, and found it luckily where members where waiting for us and we taught their brother. It was a super good lesson! Those lessons are always fun where you really have no idea who you are teaching until the moment you walk in the door. but the lesson went really well and hes really interested and wants to keep learning more which is awesome!

Well this week has been super good and has gone by super fast! I cant believe this is the last week of this transfer! crazy! Time flies. Well I love you all and thankyou for all your emails and support!

Love,

Elder Taylor

#17 Getting lost

Alright so first i guess ill talk about halloween. so they dont really celebrate it here. but they do know about it. and there were a few random kids dressed up. but its not the same. but so halloween i was actually not in my sector, i was in Monte Sinai on interchanges. and this sector is so different then mine. its about 30 minutes away by bus, and its all dirt and bamboo houses and its awesome. its a super fun sector. and its huge!!! 

So i was companions with another gringo that has the same time here in Ecuador as me, but one less transfer in his mission. so two basically new gringo walking through the dusty roads of Ecuador. we did work. well, that is until it got dark... and then we got lost. so we were looking for the house and my comp couldnt remember where it was, so we were walking around for a while, in the dark, because they arent very many street lights. so we´re walking and then he says Hey i think we need to be on that other side of the river.. soo we start walking along this river bank infested with frogs and tall grass, looking for a place to cross. and finally we find this little ´´bridge´´ of small tree branches laid accross the water. we both stopped and looked at eachother. my comp asked ´´you down?´´ and i looked back at the bridge ´´...vamos!´´ so luckily i had a little flashlight with me, so we precariously make our way across this super sketchy bridge. and we both made it without falling in, so id say it was a success! and after that we talked with a member and got really good ecuatorian chocolate so it was a prettyu solid day!

we are teaching some really awesome people. we are still teaching Raquel and now her niece too and they are super interested. mariana is still super interested, and just wants her son Fabrizio to accept the gospel too and then they both will be baptized. we found a part member family we are working with and they are progressing really well! i love the people here in alegria. they are so nice. well im literally out of time. i hope you all had a good halloween! love you all

Elder Taylor

#16 Comida de Ecuador (Food of Ecuador)

alright so this week i got to try some more exciting foods. i ate sugar cane! ya like straight up this cane that you cut up and chew/suck out the juice. its way good! and doesnt really taste like sugar... kind of makes you wonder... but thats a new fun treat i like. one of our investigators asked us if we had ever tried it, and we were like nope, so she went into her kitchen and brought out this whole cane of it and just gave it to us. it was great.  Then, we also had a real coco bean from another member from Union Civica. its legit. so we decided to try that too. so we cut off little pieces and ate it....and ya it doesnt taste anything like chocolate. it tastes more like chalk. so basically coco doesnt taste like coco and sugar doesnt taste like sugar. my whole life has been a lie.  but then we made some coco pouder from the bean, and made our own hot chocolate with it. and now that was good!! 

also, talking about food. so remember how i was in a trio? so we alñmost covered 2 sectors? well ya so the other companion forgot to cancel his lunch appt, and here going to your lunch appt is a big feat. they get legitimately mad if you don't come or cancel right before. so we had to go. so we went to his and ate this huge lunch. then we had to go to mine. so we walk to mine, doing a few jumps a long the way to try and push the food down to make space.. well that didnt really work.. so we got to our lunch and had another huge lunch.. and we couldnt do it. but again its offensive not to eat. soo Elder Ureta was prepared and had his water bottle. so when she wasnt looking he started stuffing rice into his bottle!! and then i started stuffing my rice onto his plate. it was quite the ordeal. but it worked and we all survived. barely.

so as for my trio, he got his new companion so now we are back in two. we contacted a new investigator named Raquel this week. she is super awesome! she is super interested and asks tons of questions and its great. I'm excited to see where things go with her and her family! We were able to get Jimmy Crocker to church this sunday, which was way awesome. he said he really enjoyed it and it felt good to be back in church and thanked us for helping him. it was awesome too.

well thats all i have time for this week. i love you all and hope all is well!

love,

Elder Taylor

#15 Dogs & Iguanas

I'm an iguana whisperer...

I got attacked by a dog this week. but dont worry; all those soccer practices paid off. So what happened is we were walking down this road early sunday morning going by some people to bring them to church. and we see this dog. A big dog. A really big dog. Actually now that i think about it im pretty sure it was a lion.. they have those in Ecuador right? But anyway, so we are walking up to this lion-dog, and of course I'm on the end closest to the beast. so we keep walking hoping this is going to be one of those ''and the lion lays next to the lamb'' type situations, and nothing will happen. But not quite. As we get close it just stares at us with demon eyes, bares its teeth, and as we pass it it growls and jumps out at me! Luckily to my quick foot skills I jump out of its path, take a few steps back, and quickly reach down as if to grab a rock from the ground. As I reach down the dog realizes I'm kind of a big deal (well I'm pretty sure that went through his head) and runs off. But it got my heart pounding pretty good. But also helped wake me up more which was nice.

This week we have really been focusing on Hna Mariana. She is getting so close to baptism! She is so awesome and so sweet and really loves to talk which makes our lessons a little longer; but its all good because she's awesome. We are still working on her son though.. he's a little tougher. 18 year olds, I tell you, they're the worst.... hahah We also contacted into a less active that hasnt been going to church for like 30 years. It was crazy we even found him. But we did, and his mom had just passed away 6 months ago, and he was really struggling, and thinking about church. It's amazing how the Lord uses us and puts us in the path of the people we need to talk with. We are also working with Jimmy Crocker. He's another less active that really wants to start going back to church. He also loves soccer, and has a brother that is living in Venezuela right now, so we get along well.

Well ya this week has been great. Oh also im in a trio again. Another missionary went home after just one week here for some problems he was having. I dont know all the details; I think health problems though? Which is super sad. But ya so now I'm in a trio with his companion. So that is fun. We have no idea how long we are going to be in trio though. 

Well thankyou for everyone for writing me! I love to hear from you guys! I hope all is well with everyone!

love,

Elder Taylor

PS also, I'm an iguana whisperer 

#14 Gift of Tongues

New Companion

Alright, so this last week was quite the whirlwind. My trainer left monday morning, i got a new temporary comp until wednesday, and then on wednesday i got a kid! jaja or in other words i got a trainee. His name is Elder Ureta. hes from Chile. which is ironic since my trainer is from Chile. so i went from one Chilean to another. so me and Elder Ureta got back to Alegria around noon, had lunch at 1:00 and then emedietley got to work! and wow, i really should have paid more attention to where we were going when i was with Elder Rios!! i remember how all the houses look, but for some reason i cant remember which street theyre on! haha so we´ve spent quite a few times walking up and down streets waiting to pass a house i recognize and then know wehre we are at! jaja luckily Alegria isnt that big. 

Also, wow has my testimony of the gift of tongues grown. tuesday night i went to sleep still feeling like i couldnt understand all that much spanish. Wednesday i woke up and was almost fluent. Prayers really do get answered. And the Lord really does qualify you for what he needs you to do. and i really needed to be able to talk and understand Spanish in order to train. i still dont consider my self fluent. but i can now go up and start talking to just about anyone and now what they are saying and respond. its pretty awesome! i love spanish.

so this week, the weirdest thing happened.... i contacted someone in English! Elder Ureta and i were walking down this street, when all of a sudden to my right i see this white blonde guy talking english to his two white sons. i litterally just stopped. i was so confused for a second. then i went up to him, but didnt know what to say! so what ended up coming out of my mouth was ``youre talking English´´ yes very smooth. but it worked. he kind of laughed and said yes. so we talked a little and ends up hes from Kentucky, and his wife is from Ecuador, so he was visiting her family here. it was cool talking to him in English, but i was surprised at how hard it was! it was stuttering a few times hard core. i had to like translate a few things back from spanish into english. it was interesting. but he is very staunch Catholic and doesnt want to change. he did want me to change though. haha but i still left a pamphlet with him, so hopefully that can plant a seed that will be harvested in the future.

We also are back to 4 elders in my house! one is from Mexico, Elder Pat. the other is from St. George Utah, Elder Adams. the spanish people here have the hardest time saying his name. he´s also a brand new missionary, so Elder Pat is his trainer. its fun having 4 people in the house, and being able to talk english with him and help translate every once in a while.

well this week has been crazy busy and overwhelming at times but its been great! im gratful for this oportunity the Lord has given me to grow and become a better missionary. yo se´que la iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias es la iglesia verdadera en la tiera. Que la plenitud del evangelio, cual tenemos, es la fuente de mucho gozo y paz y tranquilidad en esta vida. yo testifico a cerca de este cada dia.

i love you all and hope all is going well,

Love

Elder Taylor

Old District

#13 4,3,2,1 SHOCK

wow these week has been absolutely crazy! well, mainly the end of this week. but first, this week we met a guy that trains chickens for fights. so thats pretty legit. we contacted him while he was outside his house with his chickens, and i played the ´´im an american who doesnt speak spanish'' card, and first asked him how do you say that (pointing to chicken) in spanish. him: gallo.  Oh cool, do you eat them or...?  No i train them to fight. so we talked to him for a while about chickens. he's not interested at all in the gospel, but we still left a book of mormon with him and made a new friend.

conference was absolutely amazing!!!! being able to hear the words of our modern day prophets and apostles is such a tremendous blessing! The truly are called of God and inspired on how to help and guide us. This was also the very first time ive listened to a Conference in Spanish. it was a little different. But it was super cool when they spoke in Spanish as their native tongue and they didnt have to translate it.

after conference on sunday night, we had a lesson with Mariana. she attended  2 sessions of General Conference! we talked to her a lot, about our prophet and how she felt and her reading of the book of mormon and her praying and everything. then, we commited her to baptism!! she was still a little hesitant, even though she believes the church is true because of how shes felt, but she wants to have a solid knowledge and understanding of everything before she commits. but she did agree that if she feels ready she will be baptized on the 25 of October!! so that is way awesome!! she definetly is ready. We just need to keep helping her realize how much she knows.

now for my title. so if you remember like two weeks ago we had four people living in our house.  4.  then he left, so i was in a trio.  3.  then this week elder Chas left and is working in the office now.  2. and this morning, Elder Rios was transfered. so i am the only one left out of us four.  1.   and now, for the last part.  I have been called to be a trainer. in two days i will be receiving my new companion, who is a brand new missionary from the mtc, and i will be training him in Alegria. SHOCK!!!   if youre shocked, then ya that makes all of us. i was litterally IN shock when i found out yesterday. I dont know if i have ever been so scared and nervous and felt so inadequate and unprepared for such a calling before in my life. I guess all i can ask is that you all keep me and my new companion in your prayers, because with the Lord is the only way i am going to be able to do this.

I know this church is true and i know that through it we can achieve true happiness. I know that the Lord doesn't require more of us than we can handle, and that through him all things are possible. I love you all and hope all is well.

love,

Elder Taylor

#12... 3 IS BETTER THAN 2

SEPTEMBER 29, 2014

alright so first off my companion is blind!! haha  no jk. kinda. so this week though my companion found that he actually doesnt have perfect eyesight like he has thought his whole life. which was quite the shock for him! he litteraly walked around our room in circles saying no no no estoy ciego!! he´s also quite dramatic. but it was super funny how he freaked out.

new fruit for this week: papaya and mago verde! papaya is delicious and super juicy! idk maybe youve eaten papaya fruit plain before, but i dont think i had. and it is goood! also, mago verde. which is just mango that isnt all the way ripe so its still green. hence the name. haha but they eat it that way here! they take the mango verde and put some salt and lemon on it. its good. its a little sour. but its tasty.

also, sooo remember how we had 2 new elders move in with us? ya so one of them... isnt here anymore. so the other elder is now in a trio with me and Elder Rios! his name is Elder Chas, from the Dominican Republic. he is hilarious! but also, along with being in a trio, we kind of adopted another sector too, Union Civica. so that is funning working a little over there too!

well we have a new investigator we are working with, named Jesus. he is really awesome and interested and things are going well! we also contacted some super chevere families, so hopefully they will work out for this next week!

well i love you all and hope all is well!

love

Elder Taylor

#11 CAMIONETA

SEPTEMBER 22, 2014

okay i really have like no time so this will be short. seriously i like never have time. but anyways heres what happened this week:

we met a woman who doesnt believe in the Devil or in sin. i dont understand how that even makes a little sense. she believes in God. but doesnt think theres a Satan, and doesnt think theres sin! so i guess murder or stealing is cool then? idk i dont get it. we tried to talk to her and explain that yes statan is very real and so is sin. but she wouldnt hear it. so we just said have a good day and went and talked to new people. i just hope that maybe one day she will understand the truth. sometimes i just wish people would just listen to us with their hearts, because i know it will make them happier, and make their lives better.

oh so Ecuador style, we got two new elders in our appt this week, and we had to help them move, and their stuff was in Monte Sinai, which is about an half hour away. So to get us back to Alegria with there stuff, we took a truck. but the truck only sat 3 people. and there were 4 missionaries. and the driver. so me and Elder Rojas (new roomie) were sitting in the bed of the truck the whole trip back to alegria! on ecuadorian busy roads. Sketch! but it was fun! and a lot cooler with the breeze. but i was glad when we made it to our house safely! haha

we had Zone Conference this week. it was amazing!! the preidents and his wife spoke and they are so smart and inspired and it was just amazing. i wish i could just upload the whole meeting to you guys so you could understand what im talking about! 

we had more lessons with mariana this week. she is progressing really well! she has real intent to know which is the true church, but she is Evangelica and has a little trouble with praying and asking specific questions. but we are working on it!

this week has been great, but thats all i have time for today. thankyou for all of the emails! they really help and make y day! i seriously love you all and hope you all are doing great!

love elder taylor

#10 BACANSISIMO

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

wow, okay so i go so much in a hurry last week i forgot to explain my title! ´´yo veo venezolano´´ or i look venezuelan. so first off, here i am like considered a straight up gringo. from the US and doesnt speak spanish. even if im tan. im gringo. and before i never really considered myself a full on ´´gringo´´. so that was kinda of a rude shock to me when i got here. but anyway, so in one of our lessons, one of the ladies there asked my where i was from. so i told her US. then she was like and your parents? and i was like US also. But then i added that my grandma is from Venezuela. and she was like ´´oohh okay yes you have the face of a venezuelan. and you talk really good spanish.´´  at that piont is when i wanted to have my own littl bubble, like in Get Smart (if you remember that part) and yell and do a happy dance. but of course i didnt. i just said gracias. but seriously what great compliments! they made me so happy. and reaffirmed my inner thinkings that im really not gringo. of course the very next day someone else called me gringo on a bus... but no importa. haha

also, fun fact real quick, Elder Rios, my companion, was apperently in a rap group in his town in chile. he even performed at a festival they have there. so thats pretty cool. and so we freestyle back and forth. the only problem is he goes in spanish and me in english, so neither of us really knows exactly what the otehr one is saying.. but its still fun. Another thing, there are some HUGE ants here. like as long as a cap of chapstick. they are ginormious. Oh and i saw some iguana this week! they were just chillin up in this tree at a park. they were pretty big. apperently they eat iguana some parts in ecu. not here in alegria. but i want to try it sometime. E Rios says its good. but i have my doubts.

before i forget again, ´´bacansisimo´´ is another word here they say thats like chevere. so cool. or awesome. por ejemplo if you wanted to say i had cool shoes, you could say they are bacansisimo!

this week while we were actually looking for a referal we go, but the houses arent really labbled so its super hard to find, but we knocked on this one hous, and a woman answered from outside and said ´´Estoy muriendo!´´ which means im dying! so me and E Rios were like uhhh thats awkward.. so can we still talk with you?¿ so she let us in and we talked with her. luckily she wasnt actually dying! but she was sick. so we talked a little with her, and scheduled to come back again and teach. her name is mariana. later that week we came back and taught a really good lesson about the restoration and book of mormon! it was awesome. and then on sunday, her and her son, fabrisio attended church with us! so all around just super awesome! and shes not dead or dying so thats a plus too.

also, side note, dont judge my spelling too hard. i dont know if its even off, maybe im spelling everything perfect. but i doubt it. but this computer only knows spanish so it out corrects only to spanish and deems every english word incorrect. so for me this whoole email is underlined in red squiqly lines. and plus i think my spelling is just getting worse in general.

well, i love you all. the church is true. joseph smith really was a prophet and restored the true church; the church that Christ established when he came to the earth. i hope allis well with you guys.

love Elder Taylor

#9 VO VEO VENEZUELANO

Ecuador Temple

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

alright so this week has been awesome. here are the highlights: 

we met a detective! a legit ecuadorian detective. he´s awesome. and swoll. his two sons are members, but him and his wife are not. and they have one more son who just turned 8 that wants to get babtized! so we have his babtism schedualled for this month! also, the sister of the mom, or the aunt to the kids that are members, is named Michele. she said she was intersting in the church so we taught her this last week too! we taught her and she accepted everything really well and we committed her to come to church this sunday... and she did!! that was her first time coming to church! we havent extended a babtism date yet, but we are going to try and shoot for the last saturday of this month. hopefully everything continues to progress something! she is awesome. and super nice. we are also working with the detective and his wife, but they are a little harder. but we´ll get there!

we also met a woman named Mercedez this week. she is older, and super nice and sweet, but doesnt really understand or comprehend what we are teaching her very well.. she lets us in to teach her (and by in i mean sitting outside her house but within a fence) and she said she´d come to church with us. but then on sunday she said she couldnt. so that was sad. we´ll keep trying to teach her and hopefully get her to understand that we are really just trying to help her.

we have another investigator named Javier Rios. he got sopme of the lessons already from some of the other elders, but he actually lives in alegria. so we are going to finish the lessons, but he also wants to get babtized! not his family though, which is too bad. but maybe he can be the influence needed to convert his family too!

so we were fasting this week to find a family that was ready to hear the gospel. we got nothing all week, untill sunday night. we were walking somewhere, i dont even remember where, and as we passed this small group of people walking, they called us over. there were 4 woman, 3 older, and one younger. like 9 i think. but the young girl named grace lives in alegria. the other woman were her aunts and friends of aunts, and they dont live here. they older women are all members. but grace isnt. she lives with her grandma who also isnt a member. but the 3 members told us to come with them and we visited with grace and her grandma, Digna. so now we have 2 new investigators, a family, which is just what we needed!! abd its crazy that we ere walking down that street just as they were, and they had only just gotten to alegria about 5 minutes before! it was awesome! 

well thats all i have time for today. love you all and hope all is well!

love Elder Taylor

#8 ECUADOR IS CHEVREISIMO

SEPTEMBER 1, 2014

 First off, i love Ecuador. this place is crazy and dirty and completely different. but i love it. i dont have a ton of time, so i will just try and focus on some of the more important things.

  i got here monday night about 8 ish with 4 other elders from the provo MTC. we all made it through customs fine and met up with our mission president and his wife and the ap´s and 2 other assistants. our president is awesome. he is so funny. from mexico. his wife is from utah. we packed all our stuff in a truck then got in a van to drive to the temple were we would be staying. the streets are ridiculous here!! there are no lanes. and a TON of honking. they honk for everything. its actually kind of effectively once you get to know it. but litterally everythine i step into a car i feel like my life is on the line. its crazy. we did make i to the temple safely though and got our things into te building we were sleepng at and got to sleep late.

  tuesday morning had yogurt and bread for breakfast. you can buy yogurt here in big cartons. like bigger then milk cartoons. its really good. then went ack to the airport to pick up 15 more missionaries that were geting here. from mexico and columbia. then we had lunch and a breifing at pressidents house. then got to go to the Guayaquil temple! its beautiful! i was so glad we got to go to it. because it is in the north mission so we only go 2 times a year.

  wednesday morning was my last hot water shower.. and i met my new companion! his name is Elder Rios. he´s from Chile. and he speaks no english! jaja but he´s chevre. btw chevre means cool. people say that a lot here. ive gotten really good at using sign language and acting to help get my piont accross when we are talking. its fun.and i teach him some english. people love english here. they love it. but so he´ll sometimes say ¨whats up man!¨ but with a chilean accent. or ¨put your hands up!¨ or just differernt prases in english. its hilarious.

  Im defiently in latin america. walking down the street you can almost always hear music playing. and one day they were doing Bailo Tirapia, which is kind of like zumba, at the park. a whole bunch of people. apprently they do that like 3 times a week. also there are Cancha´s (little soccer courts) everywhere! its awesome. youll see kids playing there everyday. they call soccer Pelota here. so instead of vamos a jugar futbol, they´ll say vamos a jugar pelota. es chevre.

  the food. they eat soo muchh rice here! bastante arroz!! everymeal is a big plate of rice with either meat or fish or something. its super good. but that rice man... it just feels you up and stays there! they also eat a lot of bannanas here. they have a ton! they call them guineo. and also a lot of plantains. or verde and maduro. verde is when is young and green. and maduro is when its more mature. they make masa out of the maduro. and kind if make dumpling soup i guess is how i would describe it. but its way good. oh and the juice!!! ricisimo! delicious! they love juice here. so far my favorite is guanabana juice and maracuya juice. they are soo good. one prroblem here though is because they eat so much rice, and the feed you a ton, you can get fat. i dont want to get fat. i like dont even eat dinner most the time. because we lunch at 1 with a member, and then that rice just stays there. im not even hungry at night.

  also i found out the speak castellano here. well spanish, but castellano is a certain accent of spanish. so im learning castellano! sometimes its harder to understand though. they drop the ´s´at the end of words a lot. but its cool. i cant wait till im actually fluent! there are times here were i like understand almost everything and its awesome. but then other times where i am just comlpletely lost.

   crossing the street here is an adventure in itself. they dont have crosswalks. well ive seen one, in front of this huge mall. besides that, people just cross wherever whenever. its crazy. even on the busier roads. my sector is called Alegria. its actually really small. one of the smallest sectors in the whole mission! its in guayaquil. its one of the nicer areas. well its not nice, but its definetly not the super ghetto super poor area. the streets are actually paved.  but the only prolem with that is taht the people here are a little.. harder. they arent as open to here about the gospel. ive gotten yelled out twice. well really yelled out just once. the other time was just a telling off. but those times arent verry fun. but luckily sometimes always happens after to bring your spirits back up! another thing they say here is ´´aver´´. you yell that when your outside their house to let them know youre there and then they come out and you talk.

  we had 6 baptisms this saturday!! one family of 5 and then 1 other person. i got to babtize one of the dautghers of the family. Jamileth Dayris Rodriguez Parrales. it was so cool! i was so nervous i was going to mess up her name or the prayer. but nope everything went smooth! it was such a great experience!

  in front of the church theres a cancha. thats were we get to play pelota on mondays. i havent gotten to play yet, but im super excited for the opportunity to play! its going to be so fun! The people are usually super nice here. they will almost always listen to you, even if theyre not interested at all. which is nice. but at the same time can give you a feeling of false hope when they say yes you can come back to teach the next day, but then the next day say theyre too busy to talk. but its still good to have that inicial contact.

  well, i also learned how to break into houses... haha well atleast my house. elder rios and i left one day and forgot the key! so we had to break into our house. it was actually not that hard. all the doors here are metal. its way different. but its way cool. the temperature is HOTTT. and apperently this is the cold season. the only thing here thats cold is the showers! the showers are freazing! everytime i take a shower i have to like psych my self up just to actually get in the water. atleast i take really quick showers here!

  well im out of time. i love you all and hope everything is going well with everyone. hope things will go well for those of ou starting school. the church is true. God loves us all.

love,

Elder Taylor

#7 UNA SEMANA LOCA

AUGUST 19, 2014

 wow, what a crazy week this has been! i dont even know where to start. we met with Domingo Avila again. he is doing great! its been over a week since he's taken drugs or alcohol! super happy for him. he is such a great man, and he even said he is getting one of his friends to go to the addiction recovery class with him, and is going to try and bring him to our next lesson, so we can teach him! his friend isnt a member. we'll see him again wednesday, so super excited for that!

   last monday, the 11th, which was our p-day, me and preciado got to go out with one of our less actives, in his truck on some of the dirt roads around here. it was intense! at one point, we were going up this super steep hill, with a cliff on our side, and not great traction since its super rocky dirt. it was super sketchy! especially since i absolutely HATE heights! i almost had a panick attack. but luckily we survived.

   Thursday, we had Zone Conference. it was awesome! best zone conference ever! okay true, first zone conf ever.. but it was pretty great! i learned so much and felt so uplifted and motivated to just be better! one thing just cool i learned, is that, Barabbas, the theif that Pilote let go instead of the Savior. well so Barabbas was not only a thief, but also like a freedom fighter. so he fought against the government. so anyways, after he was released, he went and gather together a small army, and came back AGAIN against the government, and actually killed Pilote. how crazy is that? i think thats pretty interesting. and all verifiable in history. oh, also, apperently there has been a big bed bug problem in the mission. so they talked about that and how to detect and to beware of the bed bug.

   Friday was packed. in the morning we helped the sisters move. but thursday night, preciado found a little bug or something in his bed, and so after that whole breifing on bed bugs we had, he was convinced we had bed bugs. so friday morning before helping the sisters we actually took all our stuff out of the appartment into the hot vegas sun to hopefully kill and bugs that might be residing there. so then we helped the sisters. then one of the couple missionaries were here, so we had them come over and tell us if in fact we did have bed bugs. so they came over and.... we are bug free! what a relief. so anyways, now all our stuff was just chilling outside for no good reason. so we decided to make a good reason. so we took this opportunity to do a good cleaning on our whole appt. and wow, ive never been so excited to clean before in my life! we vacuumed everything and rearranged out furniture and it was just awesome. then we pul all our sun treated stuff back in our clean house. and it looks good. so then later that day, we went over to the Navarros. and i cant remember if i said this already, but abuelita, hermana navarros mother, was terminally ill with cancer. and we knew she didnt have long to live. but ofcourse no one knows exactly. but it was apparent it would be very soon. so as we pull up to her house, we see some cars their, and something just feels a little different. so when we go in, we dont see abuelita laying on her bed, like she usualy is. in fact, the bed isnt even there anymore. so we ask sister navarro about it. donde esta abuelita? and she responds that she died. but she said it in such a happy way! it was almost a little weird. but she explained how in abuelitas last moments here on earth, she saw the spirit world, and how there was no sickness there and everyone was young and happy. and how bad she wanted to be there. and so it really was almost a happy moment when she did cross the veil fully. also, that evening while we were visiting, president called. he asked for me. and he told me that me Visa was here!! so i will be leaving to Ecuador this coming monday! i was super happy and excited to hear that news! but also a strange tinge of sadness was present also. i sadness to be leaving all the wonderfull people i have met here. but im excited for all the new wonderfull people ill meet in ecuador!

   Sunday i had to give a talk. it was just a short 5 minute one. but it went really well i think.

   Monday, was abuelitas funneral. it was a wonderful service.  it was super cool, because there were tons of spanish there. and so the whole service, all the talks and prayers and everything, were actually done in spanish... and english! it was crazy. everyone who talked was bilingual, so the would say it in spanish, then right then translate to english, then back to spanish, and so forth, so everyone could understand. so i got to hear every ones talk like twice! it was pretty cool.

   Im gratefull for this opportunity ive had to serve here in Nevada and for all the wonderfull people ive met here aswell. its been a blessing in my life.

i love you all

Elder Taylor

#6 HOW TO "SKINNAFY" A TIE

AUGUST 11, 2014

 Friday, me and Preciado had to go to Vegas for a Train the Trainers Meeting. after the hour drive, we finally get there. alive (so preciado is kind of an awful driver. so being alive after him driving to vegas is almost a miracle in itself!) But we got there and had a meeting and talked about how to improve companionship and by improving that improving our teaching. it was solid. then after we went to eat with two other spanish elders and some sisters. it was cool hanging out with some other spanish elders.

   So i learned how to "skinnafy" a tie. ya i dont know if thats how youd spell that. but seems legit to me. but anyways, thats where you take a super fat tie, and undo it, cut it, then re sow it so now its a skinny tie. hence the name. but its pretty cool. ive gotten some ties for free some of the other elders that are super big and honestly quite ugly. so then i skinnafy it, and now they are actually pretty cool looking! so thats how us missionaries save money on ties.

  The highlight of this week was definitely Wednesday. We stopped by Domingo Avila's again and he was finally there!! But thats not even the best part... he had been sober for 3 days now!! and i know 3 days doesnt sound like a lot... but when youre dealing with drugs and alcohol and some stuff, three days was awesome!!! and he just looked so much better!! like his face seemed brighter and he looked happier and healthier and just better! and he knew it. and he was so happy to see us again! and he told us how thankfull he was we finally got a hold of him, and helped him get that desire and strength to change again! it was amazing. i love Domingo. i just wanted to go up and hug him so bad! but i didnt.. but we are going to be seeing him again next Wednesday. and he told us he is going to start attending the 12 Step Program, which is an addiction recovery program from the church. and he was even like excited to go to that! and he said he wants to start attending church again. and all this stuff. it was just so awesome. please if you can pray for him to continue to have the strength to remain sober and to do those things he needs to do to increase his faith and thereby increase his aptitude to resist the drugs and alcohol!

   Yesterday, we heard Hank Smith give a talk. he is awesome.he is kind of like a john bytheway. super funny and entertaining and uplifting. like the best combo! One analogy he gave was about "water off a ducks back", in relation to families and relationships. so basically dont take offense, just let the insults or whatever (water) roll off you, like how water rolls off a ducks back. so that is good to remember in any relationships we have.

  Well i love you all! hope this finds you well.

Love,

Elder Taylor

#5 BLESSINGS

AUGUST 5, 2014

First off, sorry for the late email. they were cleaning the carpets of the building alll day yesterday so we couldnt email. i dont have as much time, so ill have to keep this short and sweet.

   One thing ive noticed about this area, is how like all the streets are named after people in this town. Like the Marshall's live on Marshall Street. and theres a Frehner St and we live with the Frehners. and so forth. i just find it kind of funny. Also, i ate elk meet for the first time! it was way good. some of the other missionaries got some froma member, and neither of us had dinner appointments, so we got together and fried them up. it was a solid meal. especially considering elders made it!

   Part of our area includes a reservation. its pretty cool. but kind of sketch. you get on the Res and its so quite. there are NO children outside playing and laughing. well theres no one outside in general. all the houses are very small and many of them look run down. many buildings are tagged with spray paint. so while we were there the other day, i asked why dont we try tracting here, since there arent as many members!? but apperently thats like really dangerous to go start knocking on random doors.. so we havent done that yet.

   One thing that has surprised me is how many blessings you give as a missionary. ive been out about 5 weeks, and ive already taken part in 5 different blessings, both in spanish and english. its crazy. its cool though!

   Another thing ive been doing for a while is keeping a seperate study journal. i always have it with me, and keep it open whenever im studying to write down thoughts and impressions i have. And now, looking back through my notes, i still learn so much! its amazing! ive learned so much more by actively studying. i would implore all of you to also get a study journal, and anytime you are reading the scriptures, or at a church meeting, to take it, and write down a few insights or things you just think are cool. it will become an invaluable benefit to you if you do this. as it has to me.

   One thing i was reading was in Moroni 8. he says (paraphrasing) that he can speak boldly, because God has commanded it. I know that God has commanded missionary work, and therefore we should preach and spread the Gospel boldly! that is one thing im continually trying to do and improve on. and i know everyone has that same authority to share the gospel boldly! as moroni said "speak with boldness"!!

   I love you all and hope everything is going well. Dont ever be afraid to open your mouths. be bold! for the Lord has commanded it.

Love always,

Elder Taylor

#4 I'M A REAL MISSIONARY NOW!

JULY 28, 2014

So this week, i think Ive officially become a missionary. Why?  

   First, because this week, as me and Preciado went and knocked on this one house, there were these too super small dogs. like maybe chihuahuas. and they just started barcking at us but we didnt really pay any attention to them because thats just what dogs do. so we knocked but they werent home, so we start walking back to the cars, then these little dogs start darting towards are ankles! they start attacking us! so we start running back to the car away from these little dogs that are chasing us trying to tear our ankles. it was intense. little dogs can be viscous!

   And second, because yesterday as i was teaching a lesson to Sister Keller, a recent convert, she has two little kittens. and so im sitting on her couch teaching, and one of those little kittens climbs up on the arm rest next to me, then suddenly, leaps through the air, claws out, teeth bared, right at my face! luckily it was only the side of my face, and didnt really get me that bad. just two little claw marks around my ear. but it did draw blood! it was kinda scary. and ive never liked cats... but so after that we ended the lesson real quick then went to another members house and i cleaned it. so i dont die. So, if there is some sort of hazing that comes with being a missionary, i think this last week was it. so now im official! hopefully i wont have to go through another one once i get to Ecuador... but honestly who knows what ill be facing once i get there. small dogs might be the least of my worries!

   Last night, the missionaries in my Zone all taught a PMG class. there is one guy here who leaves tomorrow to the MTC and is going to Argentina. so when we split off into groups we made an all spanish group with him and then there was one other RM that spoke spanish. it was pretty fun. we just pretty much role played the whole time. This thursday, me and Preciado are teaching an English class to some of the spanish people here. so that should be fun! ive never taught english before. it will be interesting. but hopefully a good way to meet even more spanish and get then into the church and provide opportunities for teaching.

   We met this man, Domingo, who lives in Moapa. He is a less active thats going through some hard times. apparently the missionaries have been trying to get in touch with him for a while, but he was avoiding him. but we stopped by and caught him while he was outside. so he couldnt get out of this one! but it was really good. we talked with him for a while, and he really opened up to us. and said he was glad we finally caught him. we taught him from the BOM, then scheduled to come back again. so we'll be meeting with him this week, and teach him more, and hopefully get him to start coming back to church!

   We met with the Villezcas, which is another inactive family. We read together 1 Nefi 8, which is about Lehi's visions of the tree of life. and talked about it. it was a really good lesson, and the spirit was super strong. then at the end we asked them if they would start coming back to church, and they said they would! they seriously have such strong testimonies. its crazy that they are even inactive. but they are. but so they totally said they start coming again!... but then they werent there yesterday at church. it makes no sense. i know they know the church is true. so why arent they just coming to church!?

   We met another new family, the Rabines'. they are super nice. theyre from Peru. the dad raises horses. there are a lot of horses heres. and flies. but anyways, they are a super good family. all catolica. but we made contact with them and are going to come back and teach them. its just hard since they have a super busy schedule to find a time when they are all there so we can teach the whole family. but hopefully it will work out sometime this week!

   Yesterday, there was this guy from Columbia visiting one of the spanish families here. Henry. but he lives in utah now. but he is a super cool guy! he's older, but he is super friendly and funny and super good at missionary work and meeting new people. we went on a few visits with him after church before he had to head back to Utah. it was super good. by the end of our visits, i swear he was like best friends with the people we met. he's definetly a guy with some qualities to emulate.

   Well, a random fact about Nevada: the water is never cold. nope. ill fill up my water in the tap, then have to put it in the fridge to cool it down enough to even drink. then ill take it with me in the car. and after one visit. its just about boiling! its ridiculous. luckily many of the people here offer you water when you come into their house. so thats nice. and also, on the bright side, i never have to worry about cold showers!

   Well, i love you all! hope everything is going well!

Love,

Elder Taylor

#3 NEVADA

JULY 21, 2014

So one week ago i arrived here in the Nevada Las Vegas West Mission! i got off the plane and the first thing i saw..... Slot machines! i just had to laugh when i saw them. welcome to Vegas! there were 18 people that came to Vegas with me, and 3 others are Visa waiters. One is going to Australia, one to New Zealand, and one to Samoa. so anyway us group of 16 elders and 2 sisters head through the airport to the exit and the mission pres. as we walk, we are virtually bombarded with advertisements and posters and theres music playing and it was crazy. SOOO much different then the MTC! it was kind of weird, not gonna lie.

  Well we found our mission pres, drove to his house, which is a really nice place in Vegas with palm trees and looks like a resort home. how deceiving, because thats not the accommodations us missionaries get! haha but we ate lunch there, then headed to a church for an orientation and then we got our companions! my companion is named Elder Preciado. He's originally from Columbia, but moved to the states when he was young. so he speaks both spanish and english fluently. after i met my new companion i loaded my things into a car and we began our hour drive out of the city to the small town of Logandale!

  Logandale is a small town only a few hours away from the utah border. i also cover two other small towns, Overton and Moapa. its fun here. its way hot tho! well because of the long drive, we didnt get to our apparment till late, so we didnt do any teaching that night. but come tuesday after our studies we hit it hard! now you may not think theres much to do in a small town (or 3 small towns). but youd be surprised. this week we've stayed really busy, with hardly any down time between lessons and visits. which is good, because honestly, down time isnt very fun. being busy feels much better. we teach in both spanish and english. its nice because i think im getting a better grasp of the lessons by teaching them in both languages.

  We teach a lot of less actives here. and a lot of part member families. i love visiting the spanish families. there is this one family, the Navarros. they're also from columbia. they are super sweet! and super strong in the church. We teach this boy, Scott Hill, whos 8 years old, in English. but he's a super sweet kid. his parents are members, but less active. so we try and include his parents in our lessons even tho we are technically teaching Scott. Us missionaries are sneaky. We have a recent convert, Myrtle Keller, who just got babtized after investigating the church for like 30 years or something like that. so thats way cool! but me and preciado are giving here the new member lessons. but the thing is, he's only been out for 4 months. so neither of us have ever given the new member lessons before! and they are basically the same as regular lessons, but with a few more things. so we just kind of wing it and rely on the spirit and on the members we bring with us.

  Pues, yo se que esto iglesia es verdadero. yo se que esto evangelio puede bendecir nuestras vidas. yo se que Joseph Smith fue un profeta llamado de dios, y estoy muy agredicido que yo tengo el evangelio en my vida y que yo tengo la oportunidad a compartirlo. yo se que dios nos ama mucho, y El quiere todo para nosotros, sus hijos.

  Well, im still working on my spanish, but its coming along. i actually find it easier to pray and bear my testimony in spanish though.

I love you all so much! remember that God is always there and willing to help us, all we have to do is ask in faith, and then remember to act. i hope everyone is doing well!

Love,

Elder Taylor

#2 WEEK TWO

JULY 13, 2014

Well, I've officially been here for over a week. and though those first few days dragged on, the 2 weeks have flown by! i leave the MTC tomorrow morning at 4:30. However, since my Visa isn't done yet, I will temporarily be serving in the Nevada, Las Vegas West mission! So that's pretty cool! I'm glad i wont be having to just wait here at the MTC until my Visa gets through. It will be nice actually getting out into the field. It's a little scary too though, to think my next lesson is going to be real. The pressure is on.

   This last week, we finished teaching our 3 investigators: Mateas, Jhonatan, and Hely. Mateas has been our easiest investigator, because he already had a solid religious background and good faith. He has agreed to get baptized! And even though it's fake, it's still pretty cool. We finally got Jhonatan to open up to us, and share why he was struggling so much with accepting the gospel. He just said he had never felt God or his love in his life. As he explained this, we testified of Gods love for us, his children, and how he all wants us to return to live with him. After that, he also agreed to get baptized!

   But the very best was teaching Hely. First off, Hely is a real investigator! So we were teaching real lessons to a real investigator. Intense. But as we taught our last lesson, we were just asking questions and seeing how she was feeling. She told us how she had felt the spirit before when she was way younger, but hadn't felt it again since. She was sad because she wanted to feel the spirit, but felt she must not be worthy to feel it again because of things shes done. As we continued talking, she told us this story: "Many years ago, while she was living in California, she was involved in a car accident. Her family was sitting their mini-van, stopped at a light. Her husband was driving, she was sitting in the passenger seat, and her children were in the back seats. Suddenly, a car rammed into the back corner of their van, where her 3 year old son was sitting. The whole van crumpled from the impact, folding around the child. As she looked back to her son, she saw her baby boy unconscious, with blood trickling from his mouth, nose, his ears, and his eyes. She cried out in anguish. Fervently she began praying, pleading for her son. As she prayed, she said a feeling of peace and comfort came over her; and she knew her son would be okay." As she told this story, the spirit was palpable in that room. We testified to her that that feeling she had was from God. That it was the Holy Ghost. And that God loved her, that He loved her so much to answer her prayer, and preserve her son. And i just felt so much love for her. It's hard to explain, but i really just felt pure love for Hely. It was a great feeling. I wish i could of had a little more time to work with her, and i sincerely hope she does decide to get baptized; because she said she would, if she felt all these things were true. And i think she will. I'm so grateful I got the opportunity to teach her. And in reality, for her to teach me.

   Friday, we had In-Field Orientation at Main Campus. It was a 9 hour ordeal. It was way long. I learned some really good things tho. Also, i saw those English Elders again: one of them called me "mate". So I'm pretty sure that makes us best friends. One of speakers at the Orientation was Elder Christensen, from The District. So that was pretty cool to see him in real life and hear him talk. Yesterday i got my hair cut. I asked for a trim. Apparently "trim" at the MTC means chop off an inch! Some people... But its alright, I still look good (obviously). haha Well thanks everyone so much for all the emails and letters! it means a lot.

Love,

Elder Taylor

#1 I FOUND MY ETERNAL COMPANION

JULY 8, 2014

Ya totally kidding. i just thought that would be a cliche way to start my first email as a missionary, in the MTC. But dont worry that didnt happen. no la e buscado.

  Anyways, wow this week has been crazy. what they tell you about how crazy the first few days in the mtc are is totally true. so much going on that you just kind of walk around in a daze following the crowd and staying by your companion. I'm on the west campus, which is smaller then the Main Campus, and only spanish speaking missions. so thats cool. Though it is always fun when we get to go to Main Campus and see all the other languages there. like today, i went there and talked to some Sisters going to France we just exchanged some pleasantries in french. im pretty sure they think im fluent. im kind of a big deal. haha no but it was cool. i also met some elders that just got here from England; they had such cool accents! one was from Leeds and the other around Manchester. We talked a little about futbol and which clubs we supported.

  Wednesday after i got dropped off i had my first class and met my companion and my district. they dont mess around here. My companion is Elder Luque. His family is from mexico, but he was born in california and then moved to utah when he was 8. there are eight elders in my district, counting me. all of them are 100% fluent in spanish. and i think all of them had spanish as their first language too. luckily we all speak english also, which is nice. its cool though talking to them in spanish and learning new words and how to say things. there is still so much i need to learn. the gift of tongues is definitely true, because there has been times i have understood people talking super fast when i know i usually dont. i cant wait till im fluent.

  Thursday was mainly just filled with classes. Friday was the Fourth of July, and so they gave us a special broadcast that night, where we listened to a speaker then watched the movie 17 Miracles. after, we got to go outside and watch the fireworks from the Stadium of Fire! that was super cool to be able to still celebrate the fourth.

  On sunday, we had a broadcast in the evening where we all went to the Main Campus. it was super cool, but the best part was that i saw Elder David Russell! one of my best friends from florida!! he's been here 3 weeks already, and i was hoping i would run into him! it was so good to see him. and really helped me. crazy how the Lord knows what we need and exactly when we need it.

  Monday was a great day. i just felt happy all day. we gave 3 mock lessons all in spanish to 3 different investigators. the best part is the happiness you feel after you get done teaching the lesson. again, just another testament to me from Heavenly Father about how important and good this work is. i cant wait to find out the feeling i will get after i teach a real investigator! i bet im going to be scared out of my mind, but its going to be the best! im so excited to get to Ecuador! Also, i gave my first blessing today. a blessing of comfort to Elder Luque. It was a great experience! the spirit i felt was amazing! i was so nervous for it, but it went well. im glad i had the opportunity to give it.

  Probably my favorite part of everyday thoughj is gym time. we've played soccer once and volleyball a couple times. volleyball is fun... but it can get frustrating when some of the other players arent that good.. i keep telling myself its just for fun, and to have Christ Like love. but sometimes its difficult. its definetly not the same as those beach volleyball games we used to play..

  Well, sorry if this email was a little sporadic. I love and miss you all.

Love,

Elder Taylor