#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