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