The Lord Remembers It No More

4/18/11


Familia!

I have gained a new name for myself, Juan, El Bautista. Not really, but I did baptize personally Jesus Adrian Reyes Ordoñez on Saturday. Not quite the same as the Messiah but still important. Cleansed by water and by fire of all his nine year old iniquities, including drinking tea which almost made him uneligible to be baptized, luckily the Lord remembers it no more. but it was close. I´ll send pictures next week cuz this week the computer is dumb and won´t let me. You´ll be able to see them. (him and the niñas)

It was a cool experience to be the baptizer. I was able to completely forget all my headaches(which were not common for me before), hotness (not appearance), and pain (going for a third generation blister, like a bulls eye on my foot.) and focus entirely on him. Though I had to say the prayer twice in front of a lot of people, (it was a noche blanca where we as a zone had like 8 people baptized, supposed to be 15 but you know how it is.) but it was done and the child is pure. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the best.

The people here are the best. It is an international thing I found, ´´¿cómo está la temperatura arriba?´´ How´s the weather up there? and all the middle aged ladies come and measure themselves to see how they compare. And one night I had 15 niños following me and others yelling el gigante! My compañero just laughed and continued contacting. One group of people even took a picture with me like I was a zoo animal. I provide much entertainment. The problem is that the doors here are always like 3 inches lower so I duck normally and nail my head.

I´d just like a summary on people, how they are doing, in their missions, lives and what not. Like 2 sentences if you could do that.

¿GIRLS? heck ya , like mom like hija, way to go. They´ll be fun to turn into tomboys, rappelling before they can wipe themselves. like me.

I love you all, my investigators are great, just hard to get them to DO anything, maybe we need to teach with more purpose. probably that. Next weeks email wont be so general so get excited.

I love you so much,

love Elder Taylor


Patrick has been ill this week, please keep him in your prayers.

On the Path to Become a Missionary

4/11/11


Famalia!

I feel so good being here, Barranquilla is the best. Let me tell you a few reasons.

One if i forget to do my hair, I just do it ten minutes later with my own sweat.

Two, everybody is fun to talk to, and they are all strange. My kind of people.

Three, i live with 3 Latinos who speak very little English, honestly i need to try and participate more in their conversations. Today we went to the zoo and i filmed howler monkeys, those things are nuts.

But most importantly the people, we have three families we are really trying to focus on, Escobar, Payares and Wilches, all have potential but we got work to do with them. Let me tell you about Dario, this hombre is golden. We taught him the law of chastity and of course he is not married, has a daughter almost 24 years old, but hasn´t married his wife. Does that make sense? Let me answer for you. no, it does not. Anyway, he set a goal to get married, and went to his novia, wife, partner, whatever and said, I need to get baptized, I can not do that if we are not married or unless we are separated. Really it is your choice.

He´s getting married soon. Not sure of the date.

This same man said, when he saw the libro de mormón said, ´´I have been waiting for this book for a very long time.´´ Furthermore he told us an experience that i understood none of but my compañero explain to me later. Apparently he had some crazy out of body experience where Christ told him to read the bible and in the bible it talked of a restoration and then he found a book by Gordon B Hinckley, the glorious restoration or something and has been waiting to find out more for 20 years. Also something about him being scared because he had plastic on his bed and it stuck to him in a different and he couldn´t get rid of it. I´m not sure, I do not understand Spanish very well yet.

I live in a three room apartment of a white house totally new, and last week i even got a bed. My comp is from Argentina he is the youngest of three and totally stalwart, really teaching me how to work and focus on the investigators.

I´m definitely learning about the process here. It is slow. Sometimes it is hard for me even to get up the gumption to open my mouth at all, and i was beating myself up pretty bad but then i realized i have to start with who i am. So that´s my goal, be my self. Cuz when i´m myself i follow the spirit and open my mouth. It is when i´m trying to be something else i struggle. i forget i love these people. Grandpa is a prophet cuz that is what he told me to do right before i left. Just be yourself, i didn´t understand then but now i feel like I´m beginning to really find myself, and it is hard and AWESOME. so here we go, on the path to become a missionary.

We have another baptism of Jesus this Saturday, he´s 8. Basically walked into it. I love this work.

love you all have fun in Mexico,

Elder Taylor

Missions are the Best

4/4/11


hola familia,

can you believe it has been dos weeks since i got here? i cannot. it is crazy. if it continues to fly i do not know what i will do. let me tell you something, i watched conference in spanish and really i´ll be honest i understood very very little. so send me your highlights. it´ll be the best.

missions are the best thing in the entire world. it is hard, it is hot, and it is incomprehensible. devoting all your time to finding people.

our p-day was messed up today so i have one minute left but the baptisms went through, their uncle baptized them and we have a lot of prospective baptisms, the future is bright.

thanks so much i love you all. i´m doing just fine. my companion is the best for real and i´m learning a ton.

love you tons. have fun stay in school.

elder taylor

Barranquilla

3/28/11


Dear family,

I´ve been here for almost a week, feels like 5 minutes! The first day I arrived in Barranquilla we met with the President and he had us bear testimony about how we felt about our call and everything.

My comp is awesome. He doesn´t speak English so a lot of the time I just nod and smile and do what he does. It´s worked so far. He teaches really simply cuz a lot of these people are very uneducated. I usually teach like 2 or three principals and then testify to the best of my ability. I can tell what he says most of the time. He works hard which is the best because as soon as we are working it is way easier to focus.

My area is called Costa Hermosa in the zone Hipódromo. As of yet we haven´t had to knock on very many doors before someone lets us in to teach the lesson. They are all just chillin, watching tv or something and basically are kind of looking for an alternate form of entertainment sometimes, glad we could provide it.

The mail system here is fine. You can send me things and letters. Just send them to the mission office.

Our investigators are awesome. Though I can´t speak I feel a connection with the 12 to 17 old kids. They are fun to be around . Carlos is a new investigator and he came to church and so did a family of 3 the Escobars. Both look promising. Me or my comp will be in the water this Saturday getting the hell out of 2 cute little niñas. The people here are awesome and the food has been too. The obispo´s wife and daughter cook for us and everything is so good. We don´t eat dinner, so we have extra time to work! It is the best. I love it here.

Dad you know those little three wheeled cars in India that you brought me a toy of? They are everywhere here and we ride in them all the time, and we walk a lot. It is the best. I´ve decided that no matter what I will not complain, hopefully ever in my life. If my feet hurt it means I´ve been doing the work of the Lord and if I´m sweating the same, hungry the same. I really changed my perspective on uncomfortableness here, but I want to be like Nefi in the wilderness, and in all my hardship, however big or small I will not complain.

The biggest thing is the language, not being able to communicate is the worst thing. (not a complaint a fact) There is nothing more I want than to be fluent in Spanish right now, but other than that I´m totally stoked to be here. I know that that will come with time. This is the best.

I love you guys. outta time take care, don´t buy the pig heads from off the street and filter your water, you´ll be ok.

Love you tons, love it here tons,

Elder Taylor