#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