Mission Life

9/19/11


Hola Familia!

And here we go -- this last Sunday I gave a talk on the 11th and I talked about the Atonement - I talked about how we are bought with a price, how everyone is but don’t know it. How we have to share it, that is the price we have to pay. It was really cool because when I started talking, en espanol, there was noise and stuff and shuffling there arrived a point in my talk that was just intense. The atmosphere was just thick as heck and nobody - not even the little kids were making noise. I had successfully captured everyone’s devout attention. And I told of when I watched the Elder do pushups for me - it was intense - and whether they were so attentive for their desperate lack of understanding or overwhelming inspiration from the Spirit I have no idea, but it was awesome.

We had cambios this week...I’m staying here with Elder Jorge but did move from the cool house to a more ugly house farther away from our area - not awesome and somehow they made me Lider de Distrito which is surprising on several counts. But hey! Obviously God expects more of me and knows I can do more so he called. But I’m looking at this like a “Step it up Elder,” and not a Congratulations.

Let me explain my companion to you. He is from Argentina, can speak english (almost really perfectly) is super funny - he’s only got til January - he’s exactly one year ahead of me and he’s made an awesome and useful friend named Richard. They are like best friends 4EVER. Richard says I’m the only Gringo que le cae bien - which means I fall well with him.

We are working more and more with the members, which is awesome. This mission as a whole has struggled with that. It was the foundation of our Zone Conference. There are some really powerful members here and the bishop is awesome, though a little strange. Also we’ve had a failed English class every Saturday for the last 4 - number of students I have -- 0 - that, my family is a big Goose Egg. Mi Distrito es pequero - Elder Taylor, Elder Jorge, Elder Frenchy y Elder Ellis - Solo 4 and they are cool - but I try not to get Frenchy speaking english because he only knows bad things. And yes, I’m the only gringo pero no impenta porque soy costeno mas nada.

The people here are great, they really are. My comp and I went to dinner with an investigadora - her two member friends and Richard were so awesome! It was like dang! Wish I had a testimony like that!

Let me tell you about the mission life here.

• I have a fan blowing on me from 9 PM until 11 AM the next morning almost all the days. Air conditioning does not, or at least efficient house cooling air conditioning, does not exist.
• (I recently received a new Black fan that is mega awesome.)
• Letters come like every 3 to 6 weeks. (I did receive your two giant packages - Gracias - I’m trying to decide whether I want to wait until my birthday to open them or not)
• It costs $10 dollars or almost $10 - Quince mil pesos to send a letter to the states and even then it has got to go through the office so it takes even longer.
• There are ants everywhere - in everything - they are like boogers for me now - I just pick em, roll em, and flick em when they are crawling on me. Or just chew em if they are on my food.
• The rule changed and now we can eat fish and seeing as we live in the coast - they give us a lot of fish - but it is not normal fish - its the body entire - O joy -
• We have contracts with the members to wash our clothes - but we can’t include our garments - so sometimes in the night or like once a week or when I feel like it I wash my garments by hand! so fun
• We lack a lot of things that just make life nicer - like a microwave - a warm shower (not necessary now that I think about it) carpet and stuff but we are never in the house so it doesn’t matter.
• All missionaries did receive a DVD player to improve teaching so that’s cool.
• The members feed us every day - rice - rice - rice - rice - so much rice - and gaseosa - or juice from the fruits here that are so amazingly delicious - You’d be surprised at what I eat now.

Investigators -

• Pedro Ruiz y Ana Iris - they are the next for baptism - He struggles to understand pretty much everything and can’t read well - But his daughter Ana Iris is So dang cute. She has 12 years and reads with her dad and they read though they may not understand.
• Francisco y Jusney are cool - he is a less active member and they need to get married - she’s not a member - He’s building desire and we went on splits yesterday and El. Jorge and I and with Joned who is awesome and another member whose awesomeness we discovered so Joned were with Francisco and it was one of those sweet moments and Francisco said - I feel more of the desire to progress - or a literal translater - There’s a little seed I feel. It was cool.
• Luz Belky, Carina y Haner are cool but I have no idea what their desired are - they have 18 years.
• I’m bowling with they assistentes as I write this - cool. And I’m doing really well - wonderfully even.

Love you all tons y espero que esta carta salga bien!

Love Elder Taylor