To Be Worn Out in Service

1. It is a new year! How great is that! New years are always great for new goals! I'm not going to call them resolutions because if i did i would break them in 5 minutes! That is just how it always happens! But we had a great day taught a few people but we had to be in by 5:37, President is good at coming up with random things but it ended up being alright. I tried my hand at crockpot cooking and made some green chicken verde? I think thats what it was called! A recipe that Sister Smith gave us and I was impressed with myself! I am becoming quite the cook! 

2. The next day I got to go with a trade-off for the day with a zone leader, it was pretty fun!  I learned a lot! He is a great guy, he told me that he would love to serve with me because I have a good balance between doing work and not being so serious that i never say a joke. That was a good thing to hear because it was something I have been working very hard on that lately! It is a balance that i wanted so I wouldn't be too goofy or too serious! I have a lot of respect for those zone leaders now and i have realized that they are just human like us, so i know I' not totally hopeless over here!

3. So with Elder Hadden we got to go to the big city of Mobile! It was odd! I didn't know what to do with so many people! haha it was pretty funny! I barely see about 7 people walking the street daily and there were people walking all over the place! It was an interesting day and we talked to a lot of nice people.

4. We taught a Pentecostal preacher down in Mobile and that was an interesting day. We taught the restoration in a unique way with red solo cups each cup was something different and we built the church of Christ! It was way cool but the lesson felt like 20 minutes and ended up doing 2 hours of just answering questions. It was one the best lessons I have taught in a long while and it was to a preacher! Preachers are tough people to talk to but he was very open it was amazing! He was super nice and friendly also which was a plus you don't see that too much among the clergy in the bible belt. It was a good lesson the spirit was strong and he felt it. Now comes if he will act on it! 

5. We had a branch breakfast new years morning and boy do people in the south know how to make breakfast food! We had two tables filled with food! And it was good! Plates were loaded with biscuits gravy, eggs, 5 types of sausage! Ot was a good but the only problem was I wanted to go to sleep after I was done with it! Just another reason I need to find a southern wife who can make me biscuits and gravy! ( Don't worry mom thats a few years away)

6.The other elders had a baptism this week and it was great! It was an older black man who had ben taking the lessons for about 2 months it was awesome! We had a good service. I spoke on the holy ghost and then he got baptized by another older guy in the branch. It was a close one, they almost both got baptized! But they made it up barely! Calvin came out of the changing room a few minutes later with his whitey tighties in hand and exclaimed " i am a new man!" It was a great spirit filled service! 

7. The next day after Calvin's baptism he came to get confirmed it was so good! he grew up in a holiness church and was saying his amens and hallelujahs during the prayer, it was great! A little comical and a little different but it was great! It was also fast and testimony so a lot of people stood up and greeted him into the branch! He then bore his testimony and it was great! He was just so happy to be baptized and to be so welcomed, it was great and a major step in getting much of his family into the church! 

8. We had an awesome district meeting about the atonement and grace. Elder Kopske of the seventy gave an awesome chart to the zone leaders on 5 ways we apply the atonement! This might be confusing but i hope you can understand it! 

Ways to apply the atonement	Conditions on which we can apply
Resurrection	We all get this because we kept our 1stestate
Forgiveness of our sins	Repentance of our sins
We are the victims of someone else	We must forgive
Sickness and the blows of life	We must accept them and grow
Strength and be enabled or changed	We must have a persona walk with the savior

9. We met another guy out walking and were talking for a while and he was a welder so I brought up a member of the branch and asked if they knew each other. He said yes and got mad he said that guy would be sweet as sugar to your face and go and back bite you and just cause of that he would never join a church someone like that was let into to! It hit me and I thought of that I'm a little bit of a gossiper, not too bad but sometimes i say stuff that i should just forgive and forget! And how much that effected that man. I realized I needed to stop that! So i promised myself that i wouldn't be two faced or a back biter, not that i am very bad at that! It also taught me a lesson on how we are examples for the church, either bad or good! It made me want to always be a good example in all that i do! 

10. This is a quote I just love! It is from President Spencer W. Kimball who was a president of our church. He had a worn out pair of shoes that he would never replace! People would hide them from him and buy him new pairs but he would always find them and put them back on. Someone asked why once and he said "they are a reminder that my life is like my shoes- to be worn out in service" hHw profound is that! Something i am working hard on this transfer is diligence and that was just a perfect story! 

I love you all!  

Elder Taylor

me and elder milne took some selfies please enjoy!