The gospel is the best thing since sliced bread!

This week was a great one! Things have been changing slowly but surely.. we have a few people to teach, but still looking for more and more cause it is hard to fill our days!!! but that is alright! ! do have a full top ten!!!

1. So one of the moments that supplied the best laughs for the week was when Elder Bochenk was trying to fix something on his bike at a memeber's house and ended up ripping a huge hole in his pants. It was priceless. Then he had to get on his bike with the big hole and ride home with it!!! He was embarrassed!

2. President Smith spoke at our church on Sunday! He is such a great speaker; one of the things that he was taught in the MTC was to not prepare anything but to just go out and listen to the spirit, so he did an amazing job! He was so good and did it all without a single note! He talked all about John the Baptist and how the scriptures talk about there needing to be a restoration of all things, and how john would prepare the restoration of all things! Just interesting stuff.

3. Sister Smith spoke also, she talked all about how when they where mission president and wife the first time in the Marshall islands that one of their daughters got in a horrible accident with her daughter. The Smith's daughter was given 1 day to live and it was a three day journey from the Marshall islands! But Sister Smith made it and her daughter ended up after almost 3 years making a full recovery from the accident. Don't worry, the baby didn't have a scratch on her! Which was a miracle.

4. we went out and did service at a farm in our ward it was great. The Dudleys are about in their 60's and are converts of three years! They are so great! They really love the gospel and each other, it is so great to see! Brother Dudley wishes more than anything that he would have been baptized sooner so he could have done more service in the church but he is a great man always offering to feed us or pay for groceries.

5. Banana spiders! These things are huge... I will send a picture of a spider compared to Elder Vawdrey's face. they are usually the size of a FIST! Man they are crazy big and usually super bright colors!

6. Christine is an awesome lady we met during service! We do service like twice a week. She is the manager of the habitat for humanity restore that we serve at! She is solid but  funny thing... she has no idea she is taking the lessons! We just talk to her about religious stuff and what we believe. We have taught her all the restoration and plan of salvation and she loves it so we will see what happens in the coming weeks!

7. Belinda is a nice black women that we are teaching! We talked with her about the church and it would have been a great lesson but she did have a drunk girl friend over so that was a little distracting cause that lady was out of it but it was a good laugh! Belinda told us to come back when she doesn't have Allie, her drunk friend over but she had been reading the Book of Mormon and loved what she had read! 

8. sham wow theory is something we talked about in companion study! It was pretty great! It was all about the attitude of sham-wow spokes men! In reality they are selling a rag that is a sponge and they make it sound like it is the coolest thing since sliced bread. But it really is not, and we need to have the same attitude about the gospel because it really is the best thing ever!!! it is so great it will change peoples lives, so be excited about it!!!

9. My interview with president was really great! It was a highlight of the week! I love that guy he, is so great. One thing we talked about was me being a little shy! Me, shy? Ya right. I know that's an odd concept but it is true. I also told him about feeling inadequate at times and he said join the club, that's how I feel every morning! He went on to give me some scripture when the Lord calls specific people to the work like Moses Enoch and Jeremiah! My favorite is Enoch cause his response to being called is, "I'm just a lad!!!" Then the lord promises that as Enoch opens his mouth it will be filled and later on in moses it talks about the power in Enoch's voice it says in Moses 7:13 " And so great was the a faith of Enoch that he led the people of God, and their enemies came to battle against them; and he spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command; and the drivers of water were turned out of their course; and the roar of the lions was heard out of the wilderness; and all nations feared greatly, so powerful was the word of Enoch, and so great was the power of the language which God had given him." so as we do what the lord wants he will provide a way!

10. I'll end with some Bishop sim-isms cause he is so great! haha he was telling a story about how big these guys where and said they where so big "they could hunt a bear with a switch" its way better if you read these in a southern accent by the way! he then said "cut up" which means when a kid acts out. It was just really funny!

Love you all and am so grateful for you in my life and the influence you are in my life!

Elder Taylor

And the Banana Spider: 

Top 9

Im not sure if i have a top ten this week. It was a fast week and a tough week. We are struggling finding people to teach so its been really hard. So we would really appreciate it if y'all prayed for us to have some opportunities to teach!

But besides that it was still a really good week, I have nothing to complain about. I love Florida (minus humidity and gnats), I love my companions, and love my mission, just wish we could have a little more teaching.

1. So today we went to the store and this might not be big news to you but Hostess is back!!! Man that is awesome. I got so excited I think I embarrassed my comps a little bit cause of how excited i was over a box of Twinkies... but they didn't have any ding dongs so that was a total bummer but now all y'all can see why my pants don't fit! I got a fat heart and a skinny body.

2. Elder Bochenek got a little excited last night during planning and kicked a hole through one of our walls!!! haha that was pretty funny experience! He has to call the housing coordinator later and explain that. He was playing with a Bongo with a shirt over his head.. hard to explain to the mission president!

3. We caught a snake! I guess not we, but elder Bochenek! It was pretty awesome it was only a foot and a half and not poisonous! But we have seen a few of those!! Which is super scary!

4. I have a new best friend in the ward! Her name is Carolyn Sims and she is 4! I gave her a CTR ring a few weeks ago and now i am her favorite person in the world! She ran full speed to me to give me a hung last Sunday! she is the cutest thing! A four year old with a southern accent! 

5. We talked with a great guy last night his name is brother Van Willis. He is so awesome and I learn so much from him. When we talks he likes having meaningful conversations since he is a psychologist. He talked about Mormon culture which was super interesting.  It was a great talk we had!

6. Matthew 10:16 is a great missionary scripture. It is when Christ talks about commising the 12 to go serve missions he tells them to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. It is strange to think about but I'm in a big game! You have to spark interest and you need to personalize the message so it applies to every person. So thus  you need to be wise but also harmless! It is really important and gets you thinking!

7. Pioneer day was great! We had it on Saturday had some good activities. It would have been even better but it rained so no slip and slides. i think my companions and I where the saddest of all the kids!

8 the rain this week has been crazy! Florida weather is like a 16 year old girl! It is so bi-polar! you have no idea! 1 minute it is sunny and nice and you can see the storm come down one side of the street and leave the other and its a perfectly sun sinning day! it is crazy!

So i only have 8 highlights this week. My brain is fried, so next week ill try to make up for  the last two but i love you all and hope all y'all are having a great week!

Elder Taylor

9. I got a sweet WASHABLE R2D2 tattoo i think it is pretty legit!

1 Button down, 2 to go!

This was a busy week, it went by so fast!!! It was kind of awesome but i feel like we don't get too much done so it is discouraging a lot of the time! But here are the highlights from my week.

1. June Laramore is an awesome lady that we tracted in to! We had knocked her house a few times always getting the come back later. So our last attempt we said okay if she says come back later then we aren't coming back, cause people do that to dodge us all the time, which is super annoying. But anyways, she opened up and invited us in and was awesome. She had family in the ward allot of family. she was just great! She has already read the book of Mormon she just never really had the thought to be baptized, so we will see what happens with her in the coming future!!! I am super excited to see what will come of it and what will happen but i will keep y'all updated

2. I learned to tie a tie.... this sounds totally horrible coming from a missionary that has been out for almost 4 months.. but i told my companions my tie was always flipping and looking bad, they then taught me how to make a nice good looking knot that was easy. I showed them how i did it and they thought it was so silly that i did it that way. So i blame Garrett Jestice for teaching me how to tie a tie weird when i was 10! just kidding I still love you Garrett!!

3. I got to meet President Smith! And boy is that man awesome. He is going to be a great mission president and he is so excited for what he gets to do!! He talked with us for a few hours on Friday and I'm so excited to see the changes and enthusiasm that he brings to the mission field! It will be great! He also just had a huge mission president conference where they are making huge changes to doing this work that we will see applied in the US by the end of the year! I'll let y'all know about that a little later. I am excited cause we get our first 1 on 1 time with president this Friday!!

4. We got to meet sister Smith! She is a sweetheart! She just seems so wonderful I am excited to see how much effect the mission mother has on this mission cause sister Jensen was big so Sister Smith has some pretty big shoes to fill but i am sure she will be able to do that!!!  She will be great!

5. Seth Carson is a guy we ran in to on the roster who we didn't recognize so we just happened to stop by on 1 of his days off, which is rare since he works 80 hour weeks. And happened to catch him outside, so that is a miracle. We learned that he is a RM from Las vegas! So he has super good experience about being a missionary and we talked to him about teaching his non member wife the lesson! So we will see how that goes!! But it was just crazy how a random pick off the roster ended  up being so awesome, ps i made the pick.

6. Wilmer Strickland. He is 96 and is an awesome guy. He is just so humble with his circumstances, it was sad seeing how he could see his own health slowly disintegrate. But he still has a solid testimony he still reading with his super large print Book of Mormon and prays every night and he does as much as he can by him self. he was just a really good example of enduring to the end!

7. ipods and ipads. This is one of the big announcements that is coming out. President Smith said that the Bretheren want us missionaries to work smarter. not harder. This means that morning hours we will be working a lot on computer and Facebook to try and contact people that way! So by December every missionary in the US will have access to i phones and i pads. 

8. This i might have said already but if not, it's a good one. So my pants have three buttons that keep them strapped up. but anyways my third button on all my pants have popped off! So it is kind of embarrassing! i have put on a little weight i guess! 1 button down 2 to go!

9. Snake attack! so the other day we were trying to see a few people in the an area with the sisters. We were around the corner and heard a loud scream. It was the sisters and they saw a snake in the road which scared them. When we got to them we found out it was a copperhead, just really dangerous but no big deal! They where both fine so don't worry too much!

10. so this is a little inappropriate but it was one of those experiences that you just have to write home about. so this random guy pulled over to talk to us and wanted to talk a bit. I thought he might be a less active member but no he wasn't. But anyways he randomly told us that his wife was having a rectal prolapse... my farmer companion explained that to us.. if you don't know what that is its probably for the best... but anyways he told us that and took off.. so it was quite odd.

But anyways i am out here loving Marianna and loving my new companions they are so great. Missionary work is the best! Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers. It is a missionary legend when your name tag comes off a little and is pulled up thats because someone is thinking of you so i can tell all y'all have been thinking about me plenty! 

love you all!

Elder Taylor

pictures are of some of the wildlife around Marianna

Raining Cats and Dogs

This week has been a strange one. I am still getting used to the fact that I have 2 companions and all, and it has been raining a crazy amount! They said we got about 10 inches in 2 days so it is a little different that California!! And it's really tough because we go through five minute storms. So it will rain super hard pound on you, you get you soaked, then 5 minutes later it's nice and sunny. Then in 5 more minutes it is raining like crazy again! It is a really big problem sometimes, but we only got caught out in one flash flood this week! 

Also I decided to change the format to my letters. I hope you don't mind but this way i can tell you a little bit more about my week!!!!

top ten!

1. I finished the New Testament! It took me a little longer than i though but i tried to read the Book of Mormon half the time and the New Testament half! It was an awesome experience to be able to read the new testament all the way through and see how amazing Christ's life was and how great all his teachings were. That, with the book, Jesus the Christ, has opened my eyes to how in depth you can get into the scripture and how much information is there and ready for you; you just need to get to the good stuff. I have gained a stronger testimony of Jesus Christ and it really is true about milk and meat in the scriptures.

2. President Jensen left to little old Bluffdale Utah. It was really sad to see him go. He was a great guy and even in the short three months that I got to know him I have learned so much from him! He is a great man! He taught me that I should be striving to live a celestial life and that as we do this, because of our free will, life/ mission is way easier and a lot more rewarding, which is so true.

3. With President Jensen gone we have President Smith, who i am super excited to meet! He landed here on Tuesday and now he is the head hauncho and in charge of everything. I get to meet him for the first time on Friday but I am super excited to meet him cause I already know that he will be a huge influence the next few years and in my life. 

4. Fourth of July we ate at Bishop Sims' and had the best ribs and BBQ sauce ever. It was so good. We asked him about the sauce and he said i could tell you but then i got to kill you, so i did not try to hard to find out how to make the homemade sauce. And he had a bunch of baby puppies, they are cute little fur balls.

5. Wayne is a new investigator that we met the other day and he is just an amazing guy. He is the most humble man that I have ever met. He has had a tough life but he does everything in his ability to provide for his children. He says he prays every night to make it to age 46 so that he see that all his kids make it through High school, have an education and have a car and house to start their live's in. That is what he lives for; his kids and providing for them. He also goes around and mows all the elderly people's grass, just to be nice. They try to pay him but money doesn't mean much to him, so they usually cook for him cause food in the belly is a lot better then money in your pocket. He is a tough guy to explain, i wish you could all meet humble Wayne some day.

6. So we made fun of Elder Vawdrey (the one with the big blonde hair) about being a square. He was just so stiff around everyone so we loosened him up a lot and he is a big goof ball now. It was funny to see his change, but dont worry we are still alll good obedient missionaries!

7. I BOUGHT A TYPEWRITER! Ya we did alot a service at a habitat for humanity restore. It's like a big thrift store and there was a type writer there for 7 dollars and i had to. It was just so cool! So i ap[olgize if you dont get a hand written letter it will most likely be typed on my typewriter. (don't worry mom it was only 7$)

8. I ate yellow watermelon! I had no idea such a thing exsisted!!! It was cool but honestly if my eyes where closed you couldn't tell a difference, but it was an experience!

9. We taught an awesome lesson in priesthood about the Book Of Mormon we talked about its importance and how we have such a gift and how we can share it. It was way awesome! I loved it and some people got enthusistic about sharing, but some of the older guys didn't! But don't worry, i made fun of the old guys! I was drawing on a white board and told them all i would draw bigger since most of them cant see! But they thought it was way funny (i hope so at least)!!!

10. It wasnt the most effective week but we did our best and we tried to work as hard as possible. It was tough with monsoon after monsoon coming through, but we had fun in the rain! One day we got caught in the flash flood and got soaked. When that happens all you can really do is sit there and laugh so we had fun and maybe sang a few non- Mormon Tabernacle Choir songs about rain! But it was a good day none the less!

I love you all and enjoy hearing from you all tha k you so much for the love, support and prayers! 

Elder Taylor

PHOTOS:  

1. With the puppy at Bishop Sims' house

2. The yellow watermelon!

3. Elder Taylor's new companions

3 Heads are Better than 1

I had a super solid email for this week but i just deleted it some =how and only have about 5 more minutes on the computer. So i will do my best to go as fast as possible to tell you all that was going on.

So here is my top 10:

1. I had some solid biscuits and gravy it was so good!!!!! I loved it so much that is my favorite southern meal right there it was so great!

2. Elder Bochenk is my new Comp and is super solid. He is great from Rexburg, Idaho and offered to let me stay at his place when i get home so i am excited for that!

3. Elder Vawdrey. He is a stud and is the definition of a preach my gospel missionary. I learn so much from him every day. He is a visa waiter and waiting to go to Brazil, so he will be out that way in a few weeks but im looking forward to my time with him to learn from him. 

4. the work is going so much better now that we all have solid attitudes and are ready to do work and commit. to The work is going to be awesome. I am super excited for it and to see what will happen in the comming months with these two. they are so awesome.

5. I have two new cute girl friends! That isn't what you might think! All the younger girls in the ward love me now since i give them little CTR rings! One of them ran up to me at church and gave me a hug and told me what a good job i did on my talk!

6. I gave a talk on sunday on member missionary work and how important it is and how important the members are in this work!!! It is awesome when the members step up and start doing work! 

7. Troy set a solid reasonable baptism date. He will be baptized on august the 4th and is super excited and ready to be baptized. He just wants to quit smoking and that is his huge problem, but he has the desire to change and is willing so i see really good things happening with him in the future. But can ya;ll pray for him this coming week?! that would be great.

8. It's the three muskuteers now! We all get along great which is awesome cause sometimes you don't have the best comp and it makes work super hard. But i love both of these guys and am so excited to serve with them in the coming months!

9. One night we got 5 new investigators! Which is crazy! We are on fire right now! I have seen the blessings of being obedient and hardworking!!! It is awesome and I love it! 

10. Keith and Stephanie. We were going through super old missionary contacts and seeing what names never got followed up on, and ran into Stephanie. We stoped by and they were home and invited us in, and we gave them an awesome first lesson. It was the strongest I had ever had rthe spirit in a lesson!!! Oh gosh it was awesome!!

I am sorry this is not very informative. I just deleted my message and it messed up but it will be a great email next week. 

Love you all!

Elder Taylor

I attached some birthday pictures. I'ts great being a big boy now: