Happy Birthday Mom!!

Merry Christmas to y'all! I hope you had a good Christ and family filled week! I love all y'all and you mean so much to me! And if you see my mom tell her happy birthday number 25!!! I love her and am so grateful for her! I am like Nephi and have been raised by goodly parents! And I am like the sons of Heleman and do good just cause I have been taught in my youth by my mother! I love you mom! 

1. The highlight was the opportunity to talk with my family on Christmas! It was such an awesome time especially since i got the chance to Skype! I love my family and I love the support they give me on my mission! 

2. I got to have an interesting experience this week. There is a missionary that I was not a big fan of and I was praying that I would have the chance to grow in my ability to like him. So I got a chance. On the 23rd I got the worst feeling; a feeling that he had not received anything from his family for Christmas and I thought how bad that would be if that happened to me. His family supports him and all but they are just in a tough time with 3 kids on missions and 1 sister getting married. But i had the opportunity to call up the mission president's wife and tell her and she was so happy I did. She then called a senior couple who went out and got a few things for him. A few days later I was talking to his companion and he was telling me how much he loved and cherished those gifts that he had received. He told me about him ripping them open with joy on Christmas and I was so happy to be able to help him have a good Christmas. It was such a blessing to help someone out and not asking for any credit in return. Service is just so great! 

3. On christmas we spent a good part of the day with the Johnson family who opened their home to us so that we could skype our families! It was great! they are such a great family. Last night we had the chance to have dinner with them again and we got to talk a little. We talked about their conversion and how Jason, the dad, had been totally in active for 23 years. He had then decided to come back to church at the call of his uncle that told him "you need to help this branch and you need to lead your family back" so he did and there have been about 10 baptisms in his family since he has returned including his wife, Dale (who is the sweetest lady with a southern accent ask my family). Looking at the family today you could never tell they were inactive and Jason is probably one of the strongest members of the branch. ( i think i have told this story before but y'all are lucky to hear it again!)

 

4. Chance is Jason's step grandson. He is an awesome kid and we got to spend a good amount of time with him. He is one of the nicest and most friendly kids you will ever meet in your life. He has deshanes which is a type of muscular dystrophy. He also is a little slower mentally but he one of the sweetest kids you will ever meet. We became good buddies with him this week, it is just amazing how much love this guy has even though he was dealt such hard cards. But he plays them and he plays them with a smile. 

5. On christmas I decided to study both of the Christmas stories in the Book of Mormon and in the Bible. I came across something very interesting. The angels in Luke 2 tell the shepherds "PEACE on earth good will to men" Then i looked at the Book of Mormon account and it talks about the Nephite believers that are being threatened to death if the sign of Christ's birth does not appear. The sign appears and and the believers were not killed. Many of the wicked repented and were baptized then it says in 3 Nephi 1:23 "The people began again to have PEACE in the land." We then looked at the titles of Christ one of them being the prince of peace! Peace was truly on earth and in the land again! That is because the son of God the man who would bring peace to every soul was born and laying in a manger in Bethlehem! I hope you all can find peace in Christ this Christmas season! 

6. We had the opportunity to go to the Rogers who are a family in the branch, and spend christmas eve with them. They were so nice to us it was amazing! They went out and bought all four of the missionaries stockings and presents and they just did so much for us! They truly love the missionaries and they said they wanted it to be easy because being away from home in the holidays is not fun. it was just very kind of them. 

7. We had the opportunity to go out Saturday and it was drizzling so I gave Elder Milne my umbrella and I put on my rain coat and we went out to work. It rained on us sooooo much it was crazy! My legs and backpack were soaked to the bone! But we had the chance to give someone a Book of Mormon! So it was a successful day! The whole time we walked I was humming and singing, not even the weather can damper my spirits! I wish i was like that every day! I just have to say that "today is the best day of my life"

8. I have a new favorite scripture in the book of Joshua 3:5 " And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the Lord will do wonders among you." and 15-17 "And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,)16That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho. 17And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan. 

I just love these scriptures and talking about faith and that as we get our feet a little wet and as we show the Lord that we are willing to do a little work and get dirty he will do miracles and mighty works among us if we just simply obey him! 

9. Me and Elder Milne and I got to teach sunday school and it was a really good lesson! We talked about building Zion up! It was amazing, we got the silent sunday school class to speak up and it was such a blessing! We only had about 10 minutes to prepare and only got through about a paragraph in the book. What a blessing and what a good thing it was ! 

10. Brother John Booker is a less active that we ran into on Saturday night, a random name we picked because he lived close. When we knocked he let us in, gave us dinner and talked to us for an hour. He then came to church the next day and was a totally active member. He just jumped right in and he is even helping out in the upcoming New Year's day breakfast! It was just cool to see a member just jump back in after being gone for 4 years and how well he worked with us, we just happened to catch him at home and talk with him!  Blessings!!! 

Hope you all have a great New Year, may we start this new year of 2014 with greater love for Christ and our fellowmen! 

Elder Taylor

Merry Christmas!

So i forgot my list so i will try my best to remember the blessings of this week. Sorry if it is a little less informative

1. Half mission conference was great! it was so awesome! i guess i should explain! Our mission is so darn spread out that we couldn't get together as a whole mission for Christmas, but instead we got to see this half of the mission, but thats alright. Plenty of friends were there! It is always so cool getting to see friends and missionaries i love so much! it is a true blessing! we had some great musical numbers and then we all brought stockings for a specific missionary and got to exchange them! it was a cool and fun experience! It was also good to be back in Florida for a few hours!! 

2. President Smith gave a beautiful talk on obedience. He talked about so much great stuff! I wish all y'all could have been there and felt of his love for the missionaries and the Lord! He is just a man i look up too so much! he talked about trials! he talked about when he brought his sweetheart of a wife to meet his parents when they were first engaged that his mother turned around and stormed off because she didn't like her. He then related that to missionary work. that people we work so hard and love so much will just turn and walk away from something else we love so much. we cant force them. we can't make them, it will hurt but we will do out best. 

3. Our mission has been putting a video together for a few months now! This is the kind of final product. If you ever wondered what the day in the life of a missionary is like, here it is! I just love seeing this and watching this!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TeauEyd6ek 

4. We got to go cut a tree down! the age old question of if a tree falls and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound has been answered! YES it sounds like a bomb blowing up.. it is darn crazy!! We chopped some wood for brother Joe Gregson who got in an accident a few weeks ago and is recovering, just very very slowly! 

5. Mrs. White is a nice elderly lady we ran into the other day! it was so cool experience, she was just so impressed about what we go out doing! She was just so proud that in a day when the world has low to none morals that we would sacrifice so much time to go preach about Christ! It gave here hope in this world. Then she told us how much she loved "that old Mormon boy Romney". It was pretty funny! She said he stood up for Christ when others didn't! She said he won in the eyes of God which was a cool thing to think about. She also said something to us about the work we were doing and Romney did! "you'll get your pay just on a later day"! love it! eternal life is the pay we should all be shooting for! 

 

6. We had an interesting talk in priesthood that I thought could go for a lot of ward and branches out there. We talked about missionary work, they said why would the Lord give us new members when we can't even go see our home teaching families! They talked about the potential this area has but how nothing really happens and they blamed it on home teaching, which makes sense. They all rededicated to working hard to do home teaching next month and year! I think if we can strengthen this branch many converts will come and stay and then it will be a ward! 

7. There is a quote i loved by Gordon B. Hinckley this week! It talks about what really makes a successful missionary. It says "do your best, your very best. say your prayers and work hard and leave the harvest to the Lord"  I just love that!

8. I have been working on that quote above this week and I think I'm getting the hang of it. I think I can see myself slowly losing myself and turning my heart to the Lird. As I do this it is amazing to see the change that is taking place. I love it, i love seeing me become the person that i have the potential to be! It is a blessing and I hope to be as great of a missionary that God gave me the potential to be. I think I still have lots and lots of room for improvement! 

9. It is kind of weird how a mission changes you, I have noticed this week. We had a lesson on building zion in sunday school and its odd how my desires for my life have changed. We had to make a top five for our bucket list and i thought how different that list was from 9 months ago!  There wasn't much about rugby or doing crazy stuff with friends. It was about the important things God gave us. The important things like family , missionary work and fulfilling callings. It is amazing how I have focused on things that I thought were way too far off to even consider but now i can see them clearly in the not so far distant but that are more important than some temporal things i used to focus on!

10. Baptist churches out here have the best marquee signs in front of their buildings. My favorite of the week made me laugh! It said, "Remember stop, drop and roll don't work in hell!" I hope none of you need that advice but it made me laugh a little bit! 

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! And remember Christ's atoning sacrifice in this Christmas season! Love all y'all!

Elder Taylor

PHOTOS: 

1. This is Elder Preston Davis! He is the first missionary I met in the field! he sat next to me on the transfer van from tally to marianna! He is a stud and a great friend now! He took care of me when i was a shellshocked newbie! He still laughs at me for that

2. Our car

3. Merry christmas to yall! Here is my virtual christmas card! im in the court house they filmed to kill a mocking bird! but i love you all and hope you are having a christ-centered christmas! i also hope you are having a southern Alabama christmas! fattening and full of family!

with love

elder taylor!!!

ftm, Follow Thou Me

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

1. We had a sad start of the week. A good pioneer of the Monroe branch, Alfred McKinley, passed away so we went to his service this Saturday. we were blessed with the chance to give him the sacrament just a few days before he passed and he could tell his time was getting close but he was still being the goofy guy that everyone remembered. It was a beautiful service and the church had the wonderful opportunity to testify of the gospel and the plan of salvation to plenty of non-members and less-actives. I'm so grateful of the knowledge the gospel has given me about what happens after this life!

2. On a brighter and more happy note, one of the other missionaries serving in the area got transferred so we decided to have a good send off for him. Elder Milne and I purchased some shaving cream and then walked into his apartment and ambushed him! it was great and a lot of fun! We got picture of the aftermath. 2 sets of elders across the street from each other is great! So if any of you have some good pranks don't be afraid to share them!

3. We got a car!!! WHAT A BLESSING THAT IS A NEW '14 CAROLLA!! Oh man it has been so great especially with these freezing temperatures, the new rule of no riding bikes after dark, also with limited miles we save a lot more driving only one car to a meeting we both go to! What a blessing! I do love the new heater also!  blessings for working hard i guess!!!

4. So I had a really big reading week! I finished the book Jesus the Christ, I read it from cover to cover. I have been reading for a few months but it is such a good book and explains it so well! James E Talmage, the author, knew his stuff. I just had to read it with a dictionary cause i think he makes up a few words in there cause they are pretty big! But i made it through and man did that enlighten me so much on the life of Christ and his mission and I am grateful for that book! I am also half done with the book our heritage, talking about the trials that the early saints went through! Man did the Lord sure send them through a refiners fire! I also have started the old testament and have read Genesis and half of Exodus and all i can say is, man there are some weird stories in the Old Testament. Good but super weird, I can see why some aren't taught in primary! My favorite verse of the old testament has been in genesis talking about how Jacob worked for his wife Rachel! it says " And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her." I know I'm a missionary but all i can saw is aww that is darn cute! I also finished my first journal and am getting really good at writing nightly!

5. We we able to go to mutual this week and had a party for a youth in the ward who is the nicest kid you ever will meet. He has deshanees disease which is a very aggressive form of muscular dystrophy, but he is still one of the most smiling kids you have ever meet! We played white elephant with all the youth and me and Elder Milne scored a sweet mini fooseball table! We totally got the best present out of them all!

6. We went to see our good friend Brother Siezmore in the nursing home and had a good talk with him. He was so bored he was wheeling himself in circles. He was happy to see us and we gave him a "ride" he was so happy to be out and about! IT just brightened his day when we were able to bring him out and show him around for a bit. he was very grateful and wanted to make sure we would be back soon enough to give him another ride!

7. We had another slow week till Saturday! We had some awesome success! We walked around and in an hour gave out 5 Book of Mormons and taught a bunch of lessons! It was so cool! and such a blessing to see all these people and as we talked to them they grew in interest! The Lord has seen us working hard and is slowly giving us more work to do!

8. After that successful walk in the park we went to an investigator, Peaches ( Lorea is her real name) ,and her husband Arthur who are an older black couple. Peaches just had a surgery so we just wanted to stop by and it turned in to a 45 minute discussion on trials but i was guided in the conversation as i turned to 1 peter 4: 12-13 a new favorite of mine it reads "12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery atrial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: 13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." I love what peter says here. He is saying that we should be happy with the fact we have trials becasue we get to partake of the suffering that Christ went through and as we do this we feel as he did and we become closer to him! trials are blessings! Something i have learned so much on my mission!

9. We were able to go and talk with the young men about missions which is always a blessing! It really opened my eyes and I told them that our job was to save lives and do this wonderful work! WE ARE DOING THE MOST IMPORTANT WORK THAT THERE IS, PERIOD!  We are in the business of saving souls! I know that God loves all his children and wants us to go find them! He helps us and guides us to these loved ones that means oh so much to him! it is such a blessing to be a part of this work!

10. Sunday a brother told us of a story.. He watched on tv about a football player that gave up a lot and ended up in jail after a lot of bad choices. The boy who recently changed and saved his own life said something that I love. He said " show me your friends and I will show you your future!" It is amazing how much of an influence that friends have on us. So I am so grateful for all of my friends! I have been blessed to have so many great friends who I love so much! it is such a blessing!

I am eternally grateful for all those who even had the slightest influence on me over the years. I love you all

Elder Taylor

T

Squirrel is the best tasting rat I ever done eat

1. So the other day I was a little discouraged, I received a letter from my last area saying they have 2 baptisms coming up and they are both people that Elder Farris and I met and taught but they weren't there yet. But now they are ready and primed fro baptism so it was a little bit of a bummer to do all the work but get no result. But President Smith made me feel better about all this, he told me to read D&C 18:15 "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" He then told me that nowhere does it say we must baptize these people, but as long as we help their conversion we did our job! So that made me feel a lot better about that!

2. The weather has been crazy bi polar! It was in the 80s then it rained for a bit, then it was super humid, then it got to freezing! Oh man it was so darn crazy! The weather can't make up its own mind! One day we were out biking and we were triyng to find some people but then it started to sprinkle. It was hot so we were in short sleeves, it started to pour and pour so we decided to bike home. It turned out it was a flash flood and just starting as we got back on our bikes! It poured and poured and we were soaked to the bone by the time we got home, but it was a fun adventure!

3. We had a tough week and all our appointments feel through, it was a really big bummer! But as we were riding one day I was a little sad but then people started to ask us what we do! So we got three new investigators and they all came up to us!

4. We had a morning surprise this week! We woke up and went out side and there was a big parade coming by right outside! It was a little funny good morning thing! No one told us Monroe has a Christmas parade but we got front row seats!

5. I got to eat squirrel! A member decided to fry us some squirrel, which ended up being really good! It tasted almost exactly like chicken but a little tough. I encourage you all to go out in your backyard with your 22 and get a squirrel then fry it up! It's a tasty little snack!

6. I heard a great analogy about hogs! So people are like hogs, they will eat acorns all day long but they will never look up to see where these acorns came from. Just some words of wisdom from a ward member! I really like that because we need to be grateful and we aren't very grateful very often. We need to look up to our source of acorns more and more often!

7. I loved the Christmas devotional on BYU TV last night! It was the first presidency of the church talking about the true meaning of Christmas. The best part was when Elder Nelson talked about the little children and they all sat around him and sang "I'm trying to be like Jesus!" If you watch closely there is one little boy who winks at a girl during a closeup of that song, I almost died! It was so darn funny! But kids really do capture the essence of Christmas! So y'all should to!

8. So we have some celebrated celebrities from this small town of Monroeville who include Harper Lee and Truman Capote, both are from here but we got one more awesome famous celebrity person to add to that list! The fruitcake lady from Jay Leno!  A random guy decided to show us some videos of that, that was a fun awkward experience!

9. So i will be staying in Monroeville for the next six weeks! I will be great, I am very excited to see what will happen and where things will go! I also get to spend Christmas here! So I'm excited for a blue and orange Christmas! go Auburn!

-------10. This is the negative ten of the week! So to start off the week we were walking home last Monday and I saw a kitty in this big abandoned field so I ran after it cause it kept meowing. After a while it wouldn't come to us but it would follow us. So Elder Milne named him after Troy Bolton from High School Musical and he kept following us onto the street, so I tried to scare him back into the bushes and he ran all the way around and back into the middle of the street and missed a car then got nailed by the second car. Our kitty was murdered right in front of us! It was on a road that we walk on daily so we have to walk by his body every day! Ann if that wasn't bad enough, three days later we were riding bikes and Elder Milne named a cat Troy Bolton Jr. and it too got nailed by a car right in front of us! Elder Milne agreed to not name any more cats and I think that is a very good thing!

Pictures!

Riding in the rain

Robert E Lee Street

I cook! Our apartment used to be a sisters apartment so it has all this cooking stuff here

War Eagles

We had a great week this week! and we learned a lot. I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving and you all remembered what you are grateful for and what God has blessed you with! I know there is a lot that he did bless all y'all with! 

1. We had a zone training where we got to spend time as a zone and with the stake president. The stake president is an awesome guy! He is just different and he told us to be different! That is how you get people interested .He said that when he would go tracting or knocking on doors in his mission he had a different approach than any other elder in the mission. He said he would knock and ask " do you know me?" They would respond "NO!" they had never seen him before he would then quickly reply " well do you know Jesus Christ" they would say "yes!" and his final reply would be " well Christ sent me as a representative to your home today and he wants you to get to know me!" He said people would be shocked when he would do that but because he was different people liked him! He was still himself when he was in missionary mode, so I am trying to apply that to myself even more!

2. He then told us a story about prayer! As a kid he was very poor and had no money. One winter they had no food to eat so his dad, a city slicker, decided he would go hunting! So he buys a gun and a license and says a prayer with faith that God would provide meat for him and his family to eat, and off into the woods he heads! After hours he sees something moving along a ridge above his head which he climbs up to! There was just a few torn up trees nothing else but then he heard a roar and looked up and about 50 yards away was a bear and he was in between the bear and his honey tree! So he gets his gun as the bear stares him down and decides to charge! He fires and hits it while falling back on his butt in the mud! The bear fell down the hill, he thought he had just scared it off but as he reached the base he saw the bear sitting straight up against a tree stump the bullet which he thought had missed went down the bear's throat and down his spine and out his belly button; a perfect shot! The moral of this story is have a specific prayer because God answers specific prayers and non specific prayers! He said his dad after that experience never prayed for just meat but a dear! So be careful when praying you will get your answer, just not in a way you expect it!

3. The zone leaders then talked about finding people to teach and they talked about pools where we can "fish"; there are ways to find that are more effective and less effective. Less effective would be tracting, more effective would be member referrals and part-member families! But he then said there is one pool that is locked from us right now. That pool is the spirit world! They then said that the church has sent 12 missionaries to go work in that field this year alone, which is a sad but humbling fact. It is our job on this side to find those who need to accept the gospel so that their deceased families can have their ordinances done for them! It was such an interesting concept that as we work through family history we will have the spirit on helping us and encouragement given to our investigators from the other side of the veil by deceased family that is eagerly waiting to accept this gospel! Family history is real and does work!

4. There was a quote by David A. Bednar that helped me this week and I hope will help you! He is talking about revelation and when we do receive a prompting and how we can discern that from our own thoughts! His answer to this was "everything that invites and entices us to do good and be good is from God" I really like that we don't know when our thoughts persuade us to do something but if it is good and is moral, then it is from God!

5. Oh man, Iron Bowl! I envy all you who got to watch that! But boy was that a weird thing! The city was a ghost town during that game! You could see tumble weeds brushing through town! It was crazy! We had to come back home 'cause no one wanted to talk and there was no one to even talk to! But it was a good game! The second counselor in our branch presidency is the only Auburn fan in the Branch and boy I had never see that guy smile so much in his life! People in Alabama love their football! War eagle!  ( that means go auburn! mom) The quote of the day came from Bro Fralick, the guy I was just talking about. He said "God must be an Auburn fan cause he made the sun orange and the sky blue!"

6. Thanksgiving was a crazy day! We had 3 dinners! The first was at Kenny Roy Johnson's at noon and consisted of boiled peanut (YUM), coon and sweet tators (gross) deep fried turkey (yum) and the best Pecan pie you ever did have! I was missing something great when I didn't eat pecan pie at home it is so good! It is also awesome, pecan trees are everywhere they fall and you just grab a few and crack them and man those are the sweetest snack you can get! Dinner two was at the Cosper's (a family in the ward) we had turkey and dumpling which was so good and chocolate pie! Then we had a huge feast at Marion Johnson's and by the end of the night you couldn't pay me to take another spoon full of anything! I have never been so full in my life, it was great!

7. We did a service project for a member of the ward , Joe Gregson, who hurt himself a few weeks ago. We helped pull all his corn! It was a good little job, the weeds were as high as the corn stalks so we were all scratched up when we were climbing through the weeds to get that corn! It was good hard work! I'm grateful for machines who do that work now and weed killers! That was some good work but so much fun! It was great service, I have truly learned that when you are in the service of your fellow man you are also in the service of your God! Joe was so grateful but on Sunday he said he could tell some city slickers were helping because there were a few pieces of corn stock in the big bin of corn!

8. We got to spend Sunday with some members, one was buck lane! He is the funniest guy you will ever meet. We sad around with some of his family for a hour or so and he was laughing telling us stories and having a good time! He is so positive and always looks at the bright side. It is great to see this positive recent convert that wants to do anything he can to help this church! He also has the cutest 8 month old ever! babies are the best!

9. Things missionaries are grateful for! Mail, members who feed us! Members who drive us, members at all, referrals, food, tracting, jackets, bug spray, ties, friends, sweedish fish, did i say mail yet ;) awesome families, teaching, the opportunity to serve, the gospel, The Book of Mormon, Most importantly Christ!  Without him we would have nothing! Just a few things I was grateful for this Thanksgiving season.

10. This is my challenge to you all in this busy time of the year! Take time to watch this video and remember the true reason of Christmas! It might not be the day Christ was actually born but we celebrate the fact he was born! Remember Christ as you get busy! And give a gift to someone this season like these kids, a gift without a price tag! I promise you will have a happier and more joyful season! 

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2874125972001

I love you all and grateful for you!

Elder Taylor