Élder Taylor

Hola!
What a crazy week.
Sunday, we went to church, then got everything ready to head south. We rode down with President and Sister Chase just in case anything crazy happened, and spent the evening preparing a few things for the zone conference. 
Monday, we got up bright and early and set up everything for the conference super fast. It was insane… we usually have 2-3 hours to get the chapel into shape for the conference, but this time we had 20 minutes with twice as many missionaries. The conference went well, then I went on my last divisions with Elder Carrillo and Elder Klomp. They are great missionaries. We found a few new really positive people to teach.
Tuesday, we came back from Choluteca in the morning with minimal interaction with protests. Then, we went to our area and taught several of our investigators. We visited some young people who seem really interested in the church, though they have had minimal religious experience in their lives. It’s always interesting starting from zero with people. It’s cool to see them progress.
Wednesday, we had a big full work day, and at night, we visited Isaac and his niece and nephew who are starting to become interested in the church. It’s always fun when people are reactivated and bring their family along with them.
Thursday, we had district council, then we went to the area. They invited us to mutual at night, and we did an activity with the priests to help them share Books of Mormon with their friends.
Friday, we did divisions with some members at night. I went with Hermano Figueroa at night, and he started talking about his experience with other churches. It totally changed the heart of the sister we were visiting for one reason or another… one of those things that makes me remember God works in mysterious ways.
Today, I bought some foodstuffs to take home.  I’m just wrapping things up, packing, and trying to get my life sort of in order today. Tuesday is temple day… I get to go to the temple at 6am, then pick up new missionaries at the airport, then do the newbie meeting, then set things up and there’s the last dinner that night.
Sé que la iglesia es verdadera y que Dios ama a Sus hijos. Esta obra es la de Él, y tenemos el gran privelegio de ayudar a otros a conocer el evangelio.
Os amo, os extraño, y nos vemos en 4 días!
Love, Elder Taylor

Hola! What a crazy crazy week.
So we didn’t go to the south because of political things. So Monday, we just had to invent lots of things to fill our whole week with. We visited a couple of people at night, who ended up being pretty positive.
Tuesday, we went to visit lots of people, including Marvin and his family. They are doing super well. They have been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy. It’s fun to visit them, because it’s like starting from a blank slate. They have really limited experience with religion, and much less with the scriptures and things like that, so we are enjoying starting from the very basics (who is God, what are commandments, etc.)
Wednesday, we found Carlos and his family. They had listened to missionaries before, but didn’t really give it too much importance. They say they are more interested now, and want to go to church in the near future.
Thursday, we visited Marvin’s family again at night. I am so happy I found them before I finished my mission… they just love the Gospel and I honestly am learning so much from them about how simple it really is.
Yesterday, we did some transfer planning with President and at night, we did divisions with some missionaries who were here in the city for health concerns. We had a good night. We taught Kewin, who has basically become atheist recently. It’s pretty sad, but we’re trying to help him out.
Sé que la iglesia es verdadera y que Dios nos ama. El Libro de Mormón es verdadero y José Smith fue un profeta.
Os amo y os veré pronto!
Love,Elder Taylor

Elder Taylor will be speaking June 23rd at 10:30 am at the Pocatello Highland Stake Center located on Satterfield drive. There will be a light lunch after at his home located at 1992 Satterfield drive.

Hola! What a crazy week…
Sunday, we had to get things ready for zone conference, so we weren’t able to be in our area for a little while in the afternoon. We have 2 new secretaries in the office, though! Elder Jones (from Pocatello) and Elder Wolff (from Sandpoint). Now there are 3 Idahoans and 3 Mexicans in the office. It’s a fun adventure.
Monday, we had leadership council, then appointments. It went well; we were able to visit a reference from a member with the Bishop, who seems to be pretty interested in the Church. Hope everything works out and she can progress! 
Tuesday, we got things ready for zone conference in the morning, and in the afternoon we had lots of appointments. We visited someone named Kewin, who is really trying to start to believe in God and in the Gospel. He is a less-active recent convert and his family isn’t members, so we are starting to work pretty hard with them. We also had a family home evening with a part-member family named the Estradas. They gave us SO MANY referrals, it was great!
Wednesday, we had zone conference, which went well, then we went with Junior at night (he’s planning on getting married to get baptized). The papers seem to all be on-track, so all is well there. 
Thursday, we had a great appointment with Luis and his daughter Nicol. He’s really excited to go to church and start learning more. He has already seen a big difference in his life by reading the Book of Mormon!
Friday, we visited the non-member family of a missionary who is currently serving in Guatemala. It was a good appointment. They are starting to get more interested in the Gospel having their son in the mission. At night, we visited Marvin and his family. Marvin and his wife have a few issues to be able to get married, but they want us to baptize their son, Yosabet. He has a baptismal date for the 27th of July now! And the bishop is super excited because a priest was with us when we put the date and he’s more excited to go on the mission now.
Today, we are avoiding protests (I imagine you’ve seen the news), but everything is decently calm around here.
Sé que la iglesia es verdadera y que Dios nos ama más de lo que podemos imaginar. El Libro de Mormón es verdadero y bendice a las personas.
Os amo y os extraño!LoveElder Taylor

Hola! What a crazy week! We finally had a whole week to be in the area and work! 
Sunday, we visited with some members and found a couple of new people to teach. I played piano in church, and it seems like it helped get more confidence from the bishop, so that was good. 
Monday, we went to the office to prepare things for leadership council this Monday, then we went to the area. We found most of the recent converts and quite a few less active members.
Tuesday, we were in the area all day. At night, we did divisions with members, and I found a really positive older man named Luis. He said he is really interested in the church and that he wanted to listen to us, so we’ll see how that turns out.
Wednesday, we did divisions. It was a really weird day, because we had to start things in the office in the morning, and in the afternoon we helped the Estrada family move. We then went to a couple of appointments with the bishop, and then it started pouring rain. We got soaking wet finishing divisions, but it was fun.
Thursday, we had district council, then visited Marvin and his family. The parents are not married because of a legal issue, but they want us to baptize their two sons and say they are really interested in going to church. It’s honestly crazy how many people miraculously appear out of nowhere and say they want to be baptized.
Friday, we found several less-active members and their families, and Kewin and his family are really interested in the church and are very open to the Gospel! We also visited Luis, who said he really wants to go to church because he wants to lose some bad habits he has and escape from the wickedness of the world.
Sé que la iglesia es verdadera y que al compartir el Evangelio sentimos bastante gozo.
Os amo y os extraño!LoveElder Taylor

Hola! I have no idea how every week gets crazier and crazier. 
Sunday, we realized we had planned almost nothing for the zone conference, so we went to church and got our appointments done kind of fast, then went to the church to finish preparing our class.
Monday was the first zone conference. Normally, it’s in the south with just 20-30 missionaries, but this time, we started with the biggest conference (40 missionaries). It was a bit of a disaster because we had spent a ton of time working on opening our area and less time working on the conference, but everything was fine after all. 
Tuesday was another zone conference. It went much better. At night, we had a bunch of appointments with pretty great people. Magically, loads of people have appeared who are really interested in the church!
Wednesday, I went with Elder Souza (from Brazil) to Hibueras – right above our area. It was a good day; we were in the middle of a strange mountainous village right in the middle of the country’s capital, which was interesting. But the day went really well. Elder Vela and Elder Harris stayed in our area and found a bunch of new people to teach!
Thursday, we had El Reparto in our area for divisions. It went really well; I went with Elder Chapilliquen, a missionary who barely came to our mission (he was serving in Argentina before). He is just super excited to be a missionary. We found lots of good people to teach, including a less active couple’s daughter, Genesis, who is really interested in the church and has gone before but never met with the missionaries.
Friday, I went with Elder Paiz in our area. He’s still happy. At night, we went looking for someone on the roster and found out that she passed away a year ago… Honduran records :/. But it was a huge miracle because we found the mom of a member who was recently killed. She mentioned she was interested in learning about the church, but hasn’t had the chance to talk with missionaries and didn’t want to touch the Book of Mormon in her house because it was her son’s. She seems very sincere and interested in going to church, so we’ll see what happens.
Today, we went to the zoo. 
Sé que esta iglesia es verdadera y que Dios obra milagros si ponemos de nuestra parte.
Os amo y os extraño!
LoveElder Taylor

Hola! What a crazy crazy crazy week.
First, transfers: We are staying together and I’m still assistant, but we have an area now! We’re opening an area called La Reforma. It’s right next to Tegucigalpa where I was about a year ago. We do zone conferences Monday and Tuesday, then we work in our area Wednesday through Friday. Missionaries come to our area now for divisions with us.
Sunday, we said bye to the old ward, then helped the missionaries who were going home to get to their final interviews. Then, we finished up a bit of office work we still had to do.
Monday, we worked on transfers and zone conference planning. We also put together a bit of a plan to open our area.
Tuesday, we had transfers. The new missionaries’ flight was delayed, but the airline said it was cancelled over the phone, delayed in the airport, and en-route on the website. We were super confused, so we just waited a few hours in the airport. But they eventually arrived (about 3.5 hours late). It was a fun adventure getting them with their companions and sending them to their areas before night came, but everything worked out.
Wednesday, we finished up some office work in the morning, then headed to the area to meet the mission leader. His name is Hno Robleto. He’s super excited to work with us, and he wants to have us do divisions with the elders quorum several times a week, which will be really good. I haven’t really had that much support in any of my previous areas.
Thursday, we opened the area all afternoon. It was wonderful. I had forgotten how much I like working in my own area and just doing missionary work all day. It was great. We met Jaimy and Junior, who are the 2 progressing investigators in the area now, and we met lots of local leaders. It was so great. 
Yesterday, we planned zone conferences with President all morning, worked on our class in the afternoon, and went to the area around 6. We had a couple of good appointments and met our elders president, who is 20 and got back from his mission 5 months ago. He also wants to work lots with us and do lots of divisions, so we’re super excited.
Today, we went and cleaned the Reforma house for when we do divisions (we’ll stay there overnight on divisions instead of the office house). Then we went to Burger King, and now we are writing.
Sé que la iglesia es verdadera y que tendremos bastante gozo al compartir el Evangelio con todos.
Os amo y os extraño!LoveElder Taylor

Hola!
What a crazy week! 
Monday, we prepared everything for leadership council, which ended up being quite a project. We got lots of statistical reports made, and had to find a way to cram hundreds of numbers into 3 PowerPoint slides. Adventures of a mission office.
Tuesday, we had leadership council, which went really well, then worked in the office. We were going to do divisions, but because of possible civil unrest between the area and our house, we decided not to. Nothing ended up happening, just in the center. There were lots of rumors, but nothing really ended up happening.
Wednesday, we helped plan transfers with President, then went with La Reforma (Elder Harris and Elder Hernandez). I went with Elder Hernandez. He goes home in a few days, but you wouldn’t be able to tell by how hard he works.
Thursday, we went to Valle! It was great! I got to see a bunch of people I knew, and this time I was able to say hi to Eleonora. She’s a bit inactive because the members there are still treating her a bit poorly (so sad), but she’s very firm in the gospel. She was reading the Book of Mormon on the bus one day, and long story short, the person who was sitting next to her is going to get baptized this month!
Friday, we went to El Sitio. I walked through the most dangerous colony in the whole mission, but nothing happened. It’s crazy how much respect people have for missionaries here. As we were walking through, a sister stopped us and asked if we knew how to cut hearts out of construction paper because she had to decorate for her daughter’s birthday party or something like that. We helped her with that, and it turns out she’d met with the missionaries before. She, her son, and her daughter-in-law all were going to get baptized 2 years ago, but they took out the missionaries and lost communication with the church.
Today, I’ve been doing office work (we are way behind for transfers because of so many divisions), and we announce transfers tonight. We’ll see if I stay or go…
Sé que la iglesia es verdadera y que tendremos un gozo inmenso al compartirlo con los demás.
Os amo y os extraño!LoveElder Taylor