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