August 14, 2012

Hammonasset Beach, CT

An obedient missionary

Reid suctioned a medicine dropper bulb on his nose and was balancing a drop of water in the indent  while he read the Book of Mormon.



We are so proud of Reid and how he gave his all to the Lord during his mission. He was obedient in serving and obedient to the mission rules. He spent many cold and hot days biking hundreds of miles to serve the people of
Colorado and Wyoming. He has touched the lives of countless people with his quiet testimony and his love of the Lord. He is an incredible young man and we are blessed to be his parents. 

New and used

Before his mission

After his mission

Well used in service.

Home at last!

August 13, 2012

4:20 pm

Laguardia Airport

He came home wearing the same tie he wore when he entered the MTC but this time he added a cowboy hat!

The girls took turns wearing it on the ride home.

This was one of the happiest days of my life.

Our last email

We didn't get an update from the Reidster this week. He just let us know that Mike Crawford is still set to be baptized this Saturday.  He says he is looking forward to catching up on all of the hugs and laughs he has missed out on with his sisters. We are really excited to have him home. 

2 weeks left!

We got a package from Reid today and found a packet of pictures that someone else gave him. As we know, he is terrible about remembering to take pictures...

Well, this week was frustrating because no one was home except Mike Crawford. The great news is that he has set a baptismal date for August 11! He is doing great and we are sure that he is going to make it.

I got to go on an exchange with Elder Brown this week. His companion, Elder Davidson, is a very picky individual and reminds the whole district of a nervous accountant. Now that you have the proper mental image, add the fact that he is an engineer who over analyzes things. He and his companion have a hard time getting along. Elder Brown is a super nice guy, kind of nerdy and easy to talk to. He needed a break and I needed to exchange with him anyway. We talked for a long time and actually managed to figure some things out that would help Elder Davidson. It was interesting, because normally I have a hard time figuring out Elder Davidson, but I had some moments of clarity that contributed to some of the solutions. We decided that Davidson has too much built up stress and that he needs a positive outlet. A way to unwind. Now the problem is all he likes to do is nothing. Well, nothing but  "occasionally a video game".

I am going on an exchange with Davidson this week and hope to find something that he likes. 

Reid misses his dirtbike. We hope he just sat on this one...

Telling people what they don't want to hear.

So this week I got a call from a member housing one of the companionships in my district. The lady said that the elders were having a really hard time keeping to the schedule and that she had confiscated a game that they had been wasting time on. She said she had taken it, mailed it to the elder's home and given him the bill for shipping and now she wanted me to deal with it. 

Now, I have met this lady before and I know these missionaries well. They are good guys but they do get distracted easily. This lady thinks eating ramen noodles is breaking the Word of Wisdom and other crazy stuff like that. I wasn't opposed to the game being gone but I didn't like the method of which it was taken. So I prayed about it and came t the conclusion that I needed to go and sit down with both the lady and the elders to try to clear things up.

The member was delighted with the meeting. I felt impressed that I needed to talk about how the elders to needed to be more obedient, but that the problems should always be run through me. I figured it would be fairly easy point that the choices are theirs to make and that I am the one in authority to correct them. A "you don't have to be the bad guy" offer if you will to the member.

So I get to the meeting and I start praying. I explain how the missionaries are supposed to be obedient and that they should be better around the house. (They had already committed to me that they would be more obedient.) I said that I was glad that the distraction was gone and told her that it would have been more appropriate for me to handle it rather than her. At this point she said, "We are not going to talk about what is already done. We are going to  talk about how these guys need to follow all the rules." She was shutting down but the spirit whispered, "stand your ground". So I did the only thing I could do, I defended the point I was sent to make. She got more and more angry and said that I was not supposed to lecture her. I eventually said, "Ma'am, quite frankly, you are not their mother. You are their land lord. Your rights when it comes to them are you can live in my house or you can leave. If I was your land lord I couldn't come and take your dog just because I have a no dog policy. It just doesn't work like that." I was a bit shocked and so was she. At this point the other missionaries who had not said anything started looking at me in terror. She looked at me and said, "Get out of my house. Elder____ we will talk about this later when he is not here. I'm calling the mission president." and stormed off. 

So, we got out of there and I called the mission president. No answer. I was thinking to myself, "why did you tell me to stand my ground? Did I do the right thing? Am I crazy?" I prayed and was told that everything was going to be fine and that I delivered the message I needed to. Later I got a call from president and he asked me, "So, how did it go?" "Oh, she spoke to you. Not good frankly. Realllly not good." I talked it out with him and we both came to the conclusion I was not wrong in what I said, but the missionaries were going to have to work hard to mend their fences.

I told the other missionary to thrown me under the bus. When she talks to you about this, just slander my name if you think it will help you build some bond with her and be obedient from now on.

Apparently it worked.

All in all, I know that I will have to tell many more people things they don't want to hear in the future. I am just glad it sort of worked out this time around.

Love you guys,

The crazy Reid Taylor