Another week in the good 'Ole south

So this week was very eventful and kind of productive! Troy, our miracle, has set a bapism day! but i think now that it is set, people are working against him! it really stinks!! No joke. Any RM's have advice on that one?? I need all the help I can get! Also, one day we were tracting all day with basically no results and then that night we get a call from other missionaries about a family that just moved in with a baptiasm set up! Wow, the Lord blesses you when you are doing the stuff that you are supposed to!

On friday we got to walk 3 whole miles in the pouring rain! And Florida rain is crazy! we got soaked to the bone but Elder Clifford made it fun and we had a nice laugh out in the rain! Oh, its funny what makes me laugh now, missionary jokes are so lame but they make me laugh!

 Last night we went out to Bishop Sim's house and it was way sweet he lives on a 500 acre farm so its just a little place! He made us burgers from his backyard! And that is no understatement!  He said he knew the cow personally! He also added on his food storage joke about squirrels from last week, he said "I only say squirrels, but I would much rather eat my dogs first cause there are easier to catch, but people dont really like that!" Haha Bishop Sims is so stinking funny!  He is what you think a big southern guy would be like! 

We also went to a praise and worship service with a band and everything! It was so crazy! Me and Elder Clifford walked in and we were the only white people in there, but they were super nice! They welcomed us in and were dancing and singing.  I would never fall asleep in that church! 

We also got to go to Zone confernece this week and it was awesome what was taught, it was good to learn so much again! One of the Zone leaders said something that touched me, he said, "A mission is Heavenly Fathers way of saying come spend time with me so I can get to know you better" It's true, I have come so much closer to Christ! I also loved the songs we sang this Sunday at church! We sang battle Hymn of the Republic, which had a few great lines. "Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer him; be jubilant my feet!....As he died to make men holy, let us live to make men free". Those lines touched me. I have to be swift to answer him and Christ did die to make us all free! Also, i need thee every hour was sung. That song is true we need Him every hour we are nothing without him! It is the truth!

So this week i was reading in the April Ensign and something stuck out im not sure who said it but the quote was "A prophet with keys, is flinging the door open and says 'there you go". that is exactly whats happening! I have so many friends that are out there doing great stuff and doing work! Ilove it!! It is so awesome! also in D&C 88:73 "Behold, I will^ahasten my work in its time.". that is so now! its the truth! 65,000 missionaries out by the end of summer! that is so crazy! We are doing so much and all over the world!!! In mark it talks about the harvest being great but the laborors being few, that is how it was but more and more people are hearing the call! the field is going to be packed soon enough! We will have 100 sister missionaries in this mission by the end of the summer, and a pair in our area by the end of this transfer! The Lord must be preparing people because we have alot of good missionaries coming out! 

Love you all and i am so grateful for all the prayers! Pray for me Elder Clifford and Troy! Pray for Brady Jestice, who is my cousin in the MTC right now! Sorry if my letters are scattered i just have so much to say! good luck y'all God Bless

Elder Sam Taylor

Food Storage in the South

SO this week was pretty good but crazy. I'll try to hit on all the big stuff that happened, so sorry if i ramble alot!! So being in the south... this town isn't like the Florida that you would think of. haha no beaches or palm trees this is the south! I am right next to the Alabama border and my zone goes up there so we have to drive up to 'bama at least once a week, sometimes more often since Elder Clifford is the district leader!  Elder Clifford and I are getting along great, i was worried since he was a hardcore marine and everyone made him sound like a hardy but he isnt at all!!! He is just a goofy 20 year old, its odd having a companion that is 2 years older than me, but i still like it. He is training me pretty good. We are working  on tracting skills so im slowly getting better at my people skills! Ether 12:27 right?? i just have to put my weakness out there and see what happenens!! so wish me luck with that one! 

So the quote of the week is from Bishop Sims, the bishop of the Marianna ward, he is stinking funny! He is as southern as you can get! so the other day we were talkinmg about southern food! and he said " Y'all in the west got food storage all wrong, God gave you food storage in your back yard with all these squirrls" haha. I thought that, that one was pretty darn funny! But i think that since i laughed at it, he is making me squirrel for dinner when i go over there on sunday!!! uh oh!  But apparently it is really really good! ill let y'all know how it is once i know for myself.

Another thing that i get alot is the "oh your from California". Haha. They think i am so strange being from California! wierd right? But ya, everytime i say ya I'm from Califronia they say oh from " the land of fruits and nuts" so they like making fun of me but in good spirits! At least i hope so! but ya in the south i am the wierd one!! Never saw that one coming!! 

Okay so now my jeffery R Holland spiel,I know you arent suppose to have a favorite apostle but i think i have one! Elder Holland is a stud!!! His talk sunday afternoon was so good! He talks about the father of the child who has deamons and casts himself in the fire. The man comes to him and Christ asks if the father has faith and  the father responds "Ye i believe, help my unbelief"! That is something great to have. You know its hard to always have strong faith but you can rely on the Lord and he will strengthen you. SO look that talk up if you haven't seen that one!! It's a good one! Also there is one by him, I think it is called A Special Witness of the Book of Mormon. That one is so so good! He says in it that "No wicked man could write such a thing and no good man would" that just testifies of the devinity of the Book of Mormon!

OKay so last but not least! our one and only investigator is straight from God himself! He was sitting in his little house one day praying to know what  to do with his life and to know where to go. He had a little voice in his head say stand up and look out the window! So he stands and looks and guess what he sees?? Two kids walking around in white shirts and ties! yup the missionaries! He ran out and stopped us and said who are you? That's awesome, especially in the south! so we have been teaching him fro alittle bit! he litterally reads everything so we dont even have to teach him that much! He does the work and we answer questions! He came to church yesterday to fast and testimony meeting and started to cry he felt the spirit so strong!! He thought it was so cool to hear everyones testimony! he also thought it was amazing how nice everyone was! He Said he had been to a few churches but none were as nice and friendly as our church! He wants to be baptized! but he just has to quit coffe and cigarettes, and then he will be! So pray for Troy HInd! that he can slowly stop smoking and be baptized! 

But he is the only person that is even slightly interested  so besides that the work here is super slow!! but im tring to be positive!

Oh we found a snake in our aparment and its been raining like crazy! It is 5 minute weather cause it will pour like crazy and i'll stand up to go outside and it will stop! got to love that! love you all! Pray for me! I pray for y'all!

  

Elder Taylor

Elder you ain't in California anymore

OH goodness! FLORIDIA IS  not what i expected. I am in Marianna which is not a beach city! farthest thing from it! Marianna is the deep south so it's crazy diffrent being here!!! Anyways im going to talk about the MTC for a second. It was great! I loved it so much it was such a great place to learn and grow in the gospel! I gained some very good friends there, and i miss the dearly. But they are now  serving the Lord in New York City!!! So that is awesome!! We had some cool elders... ill try to send some pictures. Elder Bay is the tall guy that's tan. He was recruited for the olympics but said "nope, I have to go on a mission first"! He gave up my dream of being an olympic rugby player so that he could sereve! Wow i wish I was able to be that strong! but i loved him!! In the MTC i grew so much! i loved it but its great being out here in the field!

So the airplane ride over here wasnt too bad. I had a pretty awesome sister missionary who sat next to me and we talked pretty much the whole time. We met the Jensens at the Tallahassee airport, which is the smallest thing i have ever seen! tiny! its probably just becuase i had been in Atlanta for a few hours before that!! But the Jensens are so nice and cool, I love them!. They gave us the greenie spiel and told us.. okay tomorrow morning you go to work. SO thats what happened! I got on the bus and they sent me 50 miles west to Marianna, Florida! All the older missionaries on the bus were telling me how great this was going to be so i got really excited. They asked who my trainer was, i said Elder Clifford. One guy said good luck! haha Elder Clifford is 20, almost 21 he is on sabbatical from the marine corps! So he is pretty darn tough. He took me for a run today and killed me! but i love him. Once we got to know each other it started to go a lot better! He raised the money himself to come and serve and is taking time off from his job, a Marine mechanic, so that he can serve. He said he did a 3 month tour in Afghanistan.  He doesnt like talking about it at all so i dont pry very much. 

But so far the work here is SLOW and that is not an understatement!! we have one investigator, so our job right now is to find a few more, and to bring in a few less actives. It's pretty tough finding people in the south to teach. I have to do alot of explaining that us mormons aint crazy! We usually get someone that say, "nah im good but thanks", so for the most part they are all polite    but i have placed a few Book of mormon s I dont know how to say that... oh well! oh and we tracted the first day! it rained all day! i was soaked but i loved it!!!

So studying through the scriputes, im trying to read the whole New Testiment, im already done with Matthew!! and Jesus the Christ ! Wish me luck!!!   But anyways, I ran across Matthew 6:34 "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take ^athought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." This is a principle that really comforted me. It's hard not to think about what will happen down the road, but you know just think about the Lord and everything that will happen on the marrow will happen with his help! Relying on the Lord is sometyhing that i am working very hard on!!! Also in Matthew 13 it talkes about the parable of the sower! I am a sower right now! I am throwing seeds all over the place and hopefully one or two will fall on the good ground! Thats all i can hope for right now!

How good was conference ? I loved it so much, i think you get way more out of it as a missionary, sorry everyone else! My favorite was Elder Tad R Callister, He talked about a young boy having to give his mom a priesthood blessing! its a tought thing to do! Well he did it after asking the Lord what to do. The moral of this story was "the priesthood in the boy is just as powerful as the priesthood in the man if exercised rightously"! I am a boy but i have this increadable gift which i get to use! I got to give a blessing to a sister in my zone at the MTC, i swear i did not say one word, but both me and her were crying! The spirit guides you when you are rightously living!!! love my mission! i love the small town of Marianna! And I am so excited to see the change in others and myself over the next two years! 

I love you all! pray for me!! and for Marianna!

Elder Taylor

ps only seen 5 people here with no teeth, ive been here for 4 days.... got to love it

I love the MTC!

Hey Everyone!

I just wanted to quickly tell you all how awesome the MTC is and how grateful i am to have the opportunities i have here. I'll give you a quick run down about what has happened my first full week as a missionary! i got here and met my companion and he eneded up being so awesome and so cool! I totally Love him. He is Elder Beazer from Kaysville, Utah and has known Amy Doxy since they were little. He is so awesome and it was amazing how quickly we were able to bond. 

The first thing we did was go to a big room with 100s of brand new missionaries and we sang Called to Serve! It was so awesome loved every second of that! And then it hit me that i am a missionary!!!!! The first thing Sister Nally told us was how important it is to call missionaries Elders and Sisters and not  guys  because "guys" are the ones at home dating your girlfriends! Some guys thought it was supper funny othere thought it was a low blow but i loved it so much! After, the President of the MTC spoke and told us that because of all of the missionary applications coming in, every apostle who is in town and able to help has been working to assign calls.

Am I in heaven??? Cause that's honestly how I feel!! It is so great being surrounded by almost 3,000 missionaries, and by June they will have 5,000 at 2 campuses here in Provo, and another 2,100 in Mexico by July!! Crazy! Even crazier is that now 42% of the missionaries here now are sisters. Can you believe that? By June it should be 50%! Sister missionaries are such a great thing! We have 4 awesome sisters in my district! they are sooo cool! I love them and the 8 elders that are in my district! 

One thing that is super crazy is how much the Lord cares about simple roleplays that we do in class and with some teachers! It is crazy to be bearing testimony of a principle of the gospel to someone who knows it and lives it and have the spirit with you helping you sooo much! it is so awesome! i wouldn't want to be any other place!!! 

Sorry that this couldnt be too long but we dont have too much time on the computer! goodness i could write for hours with what i have learned that last few days! but i still love every second of being here! Just wanted to end by say that the God loves everyone no matter their circumstance and i am so greatful to be a representative of Jesus Christ! i have to smile every time i run by a mirror and see my name badge there.. so bright and so awesome! I love this Gospel The Church is true! so grateful to be here! 

On Tuesday ill have to leave Elder Beazer and go to Flordia. goodess time flies by sooo fast but you have to enjoy every moment of it! i have a few people out there who have mission calls... let me know!!! I love you all the Church is true! Pray for Me i have a big week coming up!!!

Love, Elder Taylor