New Adventures Are Out There!

First I would like to say I love you all! And ask for you all to pray for a dear friend of mine! Ginger Menin is a sweet lady from my homeward who recently joined our church.  I ask you all to pray for her that she will feel the love of us all at this time! We love you Ginger!

1. Last Monday we went to the bishop's house and talked to two couples one married one almost married! One has a recent convert husband, the other the guy has a recent convert fiancee. We had to give a lesson on temple blessings so I read a talk by Elder Quentin L Cook about peace. We related that to the temple and how peaceful they are and how much peace we obtain from temples! It was just so awesome the spirit that was felt as we talked about the temple and what we can get from them!  

2. We have been doing service at a local habitat for humanity thrift store for the last few months and we have had a really good time working with them! The manager was always so nice. She told me as i said it would be our last time there that she was very impressed how I represented my church! She was a good friend me and her would always joke with each other and tease each other in a loving and friendly way though! So she always made morning service fun! Doing this service hasn't opened teaching opportunities yet but i think it will eventually. The whole community knows that those mormon boys help out and they love us for it!

3. Emmanuel is an investigator that we have been teaching and we taught him an awesome lesson the other day it was so good! We talked about the restoration and how important it was, and I thought he was kind of zoned out but when we finished he gave the most sincere prayer blessing us on our journey and praying to know if these things were true so that was really great! I think it went over really well!

4. Casey is another guy we taught a lesson to. We were looking for his wife and he answered the door and let us in. We talked about the plan of salvation! He being a new father it was great! He really liked what we said and we really got him to really think about things. He was pretty sure that he would read the Book Of Mormon and that we could come back and teach him and his wife so we are excited!

5. We had an awesome missionary fireside Saturday night! It was great, we had musical numbers by Sister Nelson and Elder Farris! Picture should be on this email! It was so great and spiritual! Then we had a little talk about Peter which was good! We had a huge dinner! BBQ homemade root beer and ice cream! It was really good stuff! Some of the best BBQ i have had! Man i loved it! 

6. The missionary fireside went great there were two super interested couples there and it was good to see them have a little fun! They seemed super receptive and we gave them a Book Of Mormon and i think they will read it! It is good to see fruits from our hard work!

7. Training has been the biggest blessing of my mission! I am so grateful for it and I have learned so much about myself, missionary work, and dealing with others. President Smith told me the other day that I was doing the best marriage prep! ha but that is nothing I need to worry about yet! I have grown so much as i have been pushed out of my comfort zone and I am so grateful for that I can only imagine the missionary and person I would be if i did not get the chance to train! It has been tough but we learn the most when we go through trials and hard times! So i think in self-examination I have grown a lot but i still have quiet a way to go! Always room to grow!

8. It was really hard to know that I was leaving and go to church on Sunday, especially in a ward that I had been serving in for so long! It was bitter sweet. It was good saying bye to so many people that I loved! I really have enjoyed my time here. I did not bring the most success or anything but I hope I helped some people come closer to Christ, which is my job. Member, non-member, and in active members, it does not matter.

9. The Bishop of Marianna is Bishop Sims and man will he miss me! Not to sound prideful but he was so sad when I told him I was leaving. He actually announced it from the pulpit on sunday that i would be leaving and how great it was for me to be in this ward. He then said it was like a son of his was leaving and he was sad to see me go! After church he made a comment that ill have to bring my wife through Marianna when i take her on a honey moon to Disney world! He also gave me his cell phone so i could "surprise him and give him a call". He is a great man and a good friend and it was hard saying bye to him but I'm grateful I got to know a man as great as him!

10. Last, it looks like i will be a crimson tide fan the next few months! I am being shipped off to Mobile, Alabama! It will be a big and new adventure that I am really excited for. It is sad to leave all these people. but i know the lord needs me in Mobile right now! So it is time to put my shoulder to the wheel and get to work! I'll be opening a new area in a ward with 2 sets of missionaries already but I'm excited to see what will happen! And from what i understand my new comp has been out for 6 weeks so I have quiet a bit of responsibility now! But i am very excited to see what will happen over the next few months! The Lord has work for us to do!!! 

 1. Me and Christine, the manager at a thrift store we did a lot of service at

2. Marianna sign with a couple bullet holes

3. Relaxing, taking a glamour shot after a long day of walking

4. Sister Nelson, Sister King, Elder Farris and me on our last sunday

5. Me, bishop and his wife! He is a great man

6. Me and bishop at church

Families Bring Joy!

Oh man was it a great week in Mariana! One of those weeks that makes you realize why you are a missionary and do what you do! So i was very blessed this week, most likely from all the prayers I receive from you at home so thank you so much!

1. Randy Whitman is our Scientology friend and we had a super good lesson with him! We talked a lot about the atonement, something that he doesn't really believe in. We talked about how through the atonement Christ picks us up dusts us off and sends us back on our way, but we will keep falling and he will keep picking us up! Randy said he could believe that and that he feels that a lot in his life, he just doesn't know who that would be that is picking him up, that it could very well be Jesus Christ and that he thinks that it is Jesus Christ who provides that for him! That was just a huge break through with him! So he is progressing but baby steps, but that is alright!

2. Mark and Brenda Clements came to church! It was so great. They have been hesitant in deciding to go or not but they finally decided it was something that they thought they had to do! A little back story before i get too deep, Mark's mom is super active, Karen Clements,her husband hasn't been active for about 30 years and her son Mark hasn't been active for about 20! They all decided to come to church together! I have never seen a woman so happy as her walking into the chapel giving us a big thumbs up with a smile on her face and two grandchildren in her arms! That was such a great experience. They loved church and luckily most of the talks were on temple and how they bless families! They loved church! So that is just so great. I heard a guy ask Mark if he was a visitor he said no but I think we will be here full time now! It was just such an awesome experience! Families bring joy! Ask Karen Clements about that one! she beamed all day!

3. I got to have interviews with President Smith which was so great! I really love that man and his wife so much, they are blessings to me and all other missionaries. Ae talked a while about my mission and my companionship. He told me that i was the perfect companion for Elder Farris. That he knows I grew so much from this experience, which I really think I did! I told him that training was such a blessing and that I learned so much from it and i grew so much from it! He said that from our last interview I was a changed person. Ihat i was now humbly confident with myself, I really liked the way he worded it. I used to think people calling me humble was a cop out since they had nothing better but as I study the humility i realized how great it is to be called humble, so i am grateful for that amazing compliment from President Smith! 

4. A few days after the interview I was talking with the sisters and they said that President Smith was talking me up in their interviews! They both told me that he said that he was so proud of me and the great missionary I have become and that i would do great things! I thought it was totally random but great to think that he thinks so highly of me! 

5. President Smith told me some really sad news though. He told me after my now 7 months in Marianna I will be transferred... I told him that it would be like leaving home and he said that the Lord has many things out there to help me to learn and grow!  That the next thing would be another great adventure and that I would grow even more! He then told me he would look up where I was going but it would "ruin the excitement!" Oh man he likes to be a tease!! He really does! But i am excited for the next big challenge ahead of me! New people, place, and ward to love!

6. We taught Rachelle a great lesson this week. She is an investigator that we have been working a lot with lately. We taught her about Joseph Smith and it was a super spiritual lesson! But for some reason during the lesson I had the feeling to ask her to be baptized the whole time! I knew she was no where close to baptism and she had said no before so I was super hesitant. But as I did it the spirit filled the room, she said she is still not ready but she said it was because her own fault that she had not been reading the Book of Mormon like she should be! That she needed to do that and then she would know what to do. So it was great she re-committed herself to reading the Book of Mormon so she can know if this is what she is supposed to do! 

7. I got to go on a tradeoff to Bainbrige, Georgia! That is a cool little town there! (don't judge me for the next comment) It reminded me of Gilmore Girls-- the town they lived in had a city square park with a big gazebo, the only thing missing was Luke's diner! And the only reason i know all this is Hannah, my sister, always watched it and i would happen to be in the room but it was a great little town what you think a country southern town would look like. A lot of brick buildings and trees overhanging the streets. The only down side is I was with Elder Kapp who is the craziest driver ever! I am grateful for the spirit of protection because he almost killed me in that car 8 times! Oh man, prayer works! I am alive and in one piece!

8.  Cameron is a  guy we meet, man does this kid have an interesting story. He has been through a tough life, drugged parents, friends die, being homeless. But through these trials he has come full round and to Christ. As we talked with him i read him 1 Ne20:10 "For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." He said that it was so true that after all his trials his one thing he had left was his relationship with God that he rediscovered I just thought it was such of a great example of learning from trials! 

9. We talked about our spiritual backpack in church and it got me thinking. We talked about how we put all our responsibility and work into this backpack and sometimes it is too heavy even for the best of us! Sometimes it can pull us over backward! We then talked about how we rely on Christ AFTER all we can do! We have to look at it differently, we need to work with Christ every step, not just the end! We need to realize we are yoked with Christ the whole journey, not just at the end when we need him! But home much further can we go if we have his help the whole way! We then went back to the backpack! We should have one arm in it and christ should have his arm in the other side and as we do this we will be so much stronger and it will be so much easier.  

10. One of the other highlights of my week was we got to teach the few young men in the ward about mission prep! More temporal stuff like tying a tie and stuff but it was great. We then talked about how essential the Book of Mormon is in missionary work! But the best part is I got to break out my rugby ball and show them how to play! And man did it feel good breaking that ball out and throwing it around! I had to explain the game to a young men's president and the bishop! They thought it was strange. oh Americans...

Love you all and hope you had a week as great as mine! 

Praying always for you,

Elder Taylor

Sacrament sounds better in southern

1. One of the highlights of the week for me was when an investigator, Rachelle, came to conference and then again to church. She was super busy that week so we didn't get to have  a lesson with her but at church she told us how much she had loved conference and that a speaker spoke on baptism and she just started to cry and felt good. So we are really excited to get back with her and teach her, and hopefully ill thing will work out!

2. Mary Johnson is a very nice black lady that we met the other day. She is a single mother and we talked about Jesus Christ and she invited us back! We taught her the restoration and then gave her a Book of Moron and you would have thought we gave her a million dollars. Turns out that she had a Book of Mormon years ago and loved it and lost it one day! She was so sad but so happy to get it back finally after all these years! She then invited us back for weekly visits! So we are very excited to see where this all goes!

3. We had a challenge from our district leader, Elder Cooper, to Open our Mouth to 30 people with our whole district combined! So Elder Farris and I wanted to 1 up it so we wanted to have 20 OYM's as we call them by the end of the week! We talked to everyone and ended up with 25! We almost made the goal for the whole district! So that was awesome and we realized how easy it is to talk to people in the Bible belt about Jesus Christ! 

4. We worked hard as I said before and were able to double our investigators! So that was way cool. We went from about 4 investigators to 9! So it was a week of a lot of hard work but it was so worth it! The Lord knows when you work hard and he has been helping us out a lot! The mission is not about numbers at all! But it was good to meet all our goals this week! The first time that has happened for me! 

5. There is a quote by L. Tom Perry that I totally loved! He was in an elevator with a mission president and some strangers and said " We are members of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints and we are the happiest people around!" I loved this! Cause we should be the happiest people around! We have such an awesome church and gospel and leaders! We need to take a page out of Elder Perry's book and just be happy no matter where we go!!!  

6. I got to go on a trade-off with Elder Cooper, our district leader, this week and man was that great! First off he is just an awesome kid so we had a blast we spent a day together and are already talking about rooming together at college! He also taught me how simple sharing this gospel is! How you can walk down a street and talk to everyone about the church, man it was just so easy! So that really helped with Elder Farris and I in learning how to work smarter, not harder!

7. Brother McDaniels who i have mentioned a few times spoke at church! He gave a beautiful talk he with no notes at all! He was doing it as a challenge from the stake president who told him to just speak on what the spirit wanted him to speak on. So he did it, being a military man he told us about the "last Role Call" they do for MIA or KIA soldiers. That there is a tribute and a sergeant major yells off all the names of the people in his group they all respond but one. He then repeats it and then he realizes that person is MIA. Brother McDaniels related this to the gospel by saying one day the Lord will do this he will call everyones name but it will be our responsibility as members of this church to make sure that they will be at the role call ready to shout back "here Sir". 

8. President Bess who is the stake president spoke to us after and just talked about loving people to the gospel. He told us and then challenged the members to each week invite 1 person to church each week and to see what happens. Just imagine if we invited 1 person to church and 25% accepted that invitation! Each week we would have hundreds of people coming to each ward! Sometimes all we have to do is reach out and ask but we are too afraid to do that! No one will stop being our friends because we invite them to church but they might not be happy when we run into them after this life and they say "why didn't you share this thing you knew so well with me"! I don't want to have anyone come up to me and say why didn't you tell me all this! 

9. There was a great talk I read this week that i challenge all you who are about to go on a mission or who have been home for a while or for a little longer than a while! (I'm not calling anyone old here) http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/the-opportunity-of-a-lifetime I read this talk this week and it really talked to me how great a mission is and how i will be able to apply it after these two years! I am just so very grateful for this opportunity of a lifetime to do this great work that I love so much! 

10. Last off, Elder Farris got bored the other day and remixed Ice Ice baby to missionary references! I do not have a copy of the words yet but i told him he has to write it down and give it to me and i also have to record him doing it! It was so funny and awesome! He is a very funny kid!

 I love you all and am so grateful for you! 

Elder Taylor

PICTURES

1. me on friend street with out any friends... 

2. me and my zone leaders elder olsen and call doing the 1st presidency pose ( thats how they sit in all their pictures)

I am one of 80,333 strong

Oh man what a great week, I hope you all had a fantastic time over the last 7 days! T hope you all had the chance to to watch general conference and were able to get something great out of it cause i know that I sure was able to get an lot out of those 10 hours! But i will try not to talk about it too much.. I will tell you a little about this week! Oh and a disclaimer: Missionaries weeks are usually so awesome you cant rate one above another, so my top ten is not always in order!

1. Brother Rooks, the Marianna wards young men president was talking to the youth in a lesson I was helping out with and he said the gospel is like shaving!  No matter how good you do you have to get up and shave again the next day! The gospel is not a one day a week thing, we have to do it everyday! He then told all the kids how missions help you grow and pointed to me and told me that I had grown so much and am so much more confident now. I really liked tha,t it is nice hearing from outsiders that you have grown and that means you are changing and becoming better! The whole point of the gospel!!!! 

2. This week we had an awesome district meeting and read the talk "missionary work and the atonement", by Jeffery R Holland. He talks about trials missionaries face and why missionaries face trials in the first place! He said Christ's mission was not easy why should ours be? In revelation received by  the  prophet Jospeh F. Smith, which is now d&c 138 says "25 I marveled, for I understood that the Savior spent about three years in his ministry among the Jews and those of the house of Israel, endeavoring to teach them the everlasting gospel and call them unto repentance; 26 And yet, notwithstanding his mighty works, and miracles, and proclamation of the truth, in great power and authority, there were but few who hearkened to his voice, and rejoiced in his presence, and received salvation at his hands." Not even the son of God converted thousands so why should we? The talk goes on to say missions are hard because "SALVATION IS NOT CHEAP" Salvation comes through our own personal walks through Gethsemane, we do not save ourself but we must know how Christ felt to appreciate that gift he has given us! Man i really loved it and realized that I sometimes get angry when the work doesn't go how I want, but it is not my work but His!

3. We had another great lesson with Mark and Brenda! It was great, I sat next to the 4 year old who ended up being super distracting as we taught the plan of salvation. Elder Farris had never taught it before so he was super nervous and Even the 4 year old was going crazy next to me but it just showed how the spirit works! I was trying my best to say what needed to be said and I would only hear about half of the question and then start talking and the spirit would guide me to the answer. It was a true testimony of opening my mouth and it being filled!

4. We talked about disobedience this week as a missionary and one of the quotes of the last assistant to the president came up. He was older and much wiser so everyone referred to him as Father Norton. He said that "disobedience is spitting in the face of the Son of God". This sounds very harsh, but sadly it is true. When missionaries that have been called by a prophet that represents Christ willing disobey their calling just so they can have "a little fun" they are walking on this gift that Christ has sent them. It is a sad thing to see but i am grateful I understand my calling as a missionary!

5. Conference was so great! I really loved it! And i hope we all took Robert D. Hales' advice and not just listen to the talks but hear the spirit in them and apply them to our life! I only took about 21 pages of notes for help!  The first song right after Thomas S. Monson opened the conference was Isreal Israel God is Calling! I thought it was very interesting that some of the lines in that first song were " Israel Israel God is speaking!" I know that is a true statement and that all of those messages were inspired from God! So it really was him speaking!

Here are some of my talk highlights: 

6. Edward Dube gave a talk on unity in the church, about how we should not look back and boast in our accomplishments but look forward to how else we can serve. I liked his analogy of the Ox, although they are not the biggest animals or strongest they move the most because they work together!!! We as a church have to apply that all of us missionaries, members, youth, leaders all need to work hard to keep this world wide organization moving forward.

7. Jeffery R. Holland gave his talk on emotional health! a suprising topic but an amazing talk! he talked about how he had strggled through depression and countless latter day saints struggle through it. that it is so dangourous. he said we all are leaving by choice in this fallen world and sometimes it gets the best of us but we should not be discouraged. i think all can relate to this talk in aspect of trials that we all have bitter cups and sometimes they do not pass but we have to drink it and move on stronger than before. Hold fast to faith and Hope.

8. I though it was interesting in the Priesthood session of conference that closing remarks were given on home teaching!!! The prophet took his time to speak on this important task that we all have! I guess it really is important right? I loved how he told how we are all given a portion of the Lord's vineyard to labor in and we are expected to report to the Lord about it. Home teaching is essential in this church for our salvation and others. I promised a man in the Marianna ward a few months ago that I would be the best home teacher i could be once I get home to those that i am assigned because he was brought back to the church because of a home teacher  

9. President Uchtdorf gave a great talk on joining the church, or rejoining the church which was just so great. His message was that all are invited to come and join. That this church although its founder, Jesus Christ, is led by imperfect, that although we try our best we are far from Christ. He said that "this church only be perfect if led by perfect people but God uses imperfect people; yet god is perfect and the doctrine is pure". We do the best we can to do great things although imperfect through our perfect God.

10. I do not want to bore you all with my conference summaries about talks most of you have heard but I could just talk for days and days about what i have heard and how I was able to listen! I loved the main themes I got out of conference of womanhood being so important in this church and also members and missionaries working together!

I love you all and wish for a good week ahead of you.

PHOTOS: 

1 Me and a spider last p day. I like bugs

2 Me, Elder Bochenek, and Elder Mafi (in the back, from belmont shores rugby)

3 Me and cats some member had