#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