Actually Pine Bluffs, WY

Reid is not very good at giving me all the details I want... He is actually in Pine Bluffs Wyoming.

Things here in Cheyenne are definitely different than down in Arvada. For one, we cover a small section of the city (a neighborhood to be specific) and then a whole swath of the countryside. We go all the way to the Nebraska border. It is so strange to go from a biking area to a huge car area, but the people are awesome and the bishop says that he want to get things moving here in the ward. He has had reports that we are the missionaries to help him do just that. 

Pine Bluffs is stuck in the 50's and it is a strange town to say the least. Lots of old people, tiny homes with lots of space in between them, a main street with half the buildings empty, a rodeo ground, grain silos in the middle of town and a gigantic Catholic shrine to Mary.

Elder Dobronsky is a great companion. He comes from Reading PA, has a degree in mechanical engineering from U Penn and he and I get along great! He understands what I mean when I say things like, pressure differential, and has an attitude and personality that I am all too familiar with. I love being with an east coaster. It is refreshing to have someone that gets to the point.
Cool story for the week. After dinner with a family on a ranch we got to help them herd the cattle back across a broken fence. Then we watched Brother Risdorfer look at a dead tree in his yard and proclaim, "Well, I guess that now's as good a time as any to get this thing out of the yard." Then this 6'5" monster of a man grips this 17 ft. tree with his dinner plate hands and proceeds to rip it out of the ground with nothing but muscle. Dobronsky and I could do nothing but stand there and stare as the spectacle unfolded. I guess they make them different around here.

Sunrise, Wyoming!

Sunrise is just north of Cheyenne

I am in the Cheyenne stake serving in the Sunrise ward. It is apparently huge! It goes from Cheyenne to the Nebraska border which is where we live. I am serving as the junior companion to Elder Dobransky who has been serving for about 20 months. He says that we have one investigator and a whole lot of ranch land. I have some plans to try and get the members more engaged and the work rolling. My companion has a degree in mechanical engineering and seems very nice, which is exciting. This is going to be interesting. 

Well, it was a bit sad to leave so many people that I love, but change can bring needed refreshment and I am happy to get the opportunity to serve in Cheyenne. This is going to be a good place and I know it. All I can say for first impressions is that Wyoming is just as cowboy as I have heard. So many statues of bronco riding cattlemen I about laughed! That said, I think that I am going to enjoy my time up here.

June 14, 2011

I received this picture of Reid via text Saturday. It made me laugh. :) It said, "We love Elder Taylor"

Alright, here's the story. We have a less active lady in the ward that we had set up to help with service. We were going to sand a desk in prep for staining it and I found the hat in the garage. Of course, I could not resist putting it on and it got a good laugh out of everyone. It seems that even all my service as a missionary has not quelled my compulsions for silliness.

Lancaster and I are hanging out with our zone leader for this week as his companion has been called away to be trained as an AP. It is going to be fun to have a bunch of appointments and he is a super nice guy. I hope to learn a lot. The work is a bit slow but Aryah is progressing and spirits are high so I'm not worried. Transfers are stressing me out a bit but that's nothing new. The Calley's basement is much bigger and nicer and we have loved being there. It is right in the work area, has a pool table, trompoline and the Calley's are great. Not much else to report now. 

June 7, 2011

Today is Reid's 300th day on his mission!  Reid looked forward to the release of the new Portal 2 game. When he realized that he would be on his mission when it came out, he was really bummed. We got it and Haley, Jim and Russ have had a grand time playing. In Jim's weekly letter he was telling Reid about it. This is what Reid had to say, "I have seen it briefly once at a member's house. I saw them playing something and then heard the Portal gun shooting noise and just HAD to look! They said they had not played the first one and I told them they had too, watched for a minute and then wrenched myself away. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be,which is good because that means I may actually be learning to focus. Imagine that!"

The rest of the week was an odd set of dinner appointments not remembering that they were signed up to feed us and us going out to eat (not a bad thing all the time), no one we were planning on visiting was home and tracting just seemed to get lost in the day and therefore not done. We generated some dismal key indicator numbers but after all was said and done, we had a great time this week and tried hard so we were happy.

We got to go to the temple on Friday. It was a great experience and I feel recharged. I got a lot of answers and direction, which was very nice. I hope that you get to go at least on occasion. The Spirit is so strong there it is ridiculous.