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!
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
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