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

Down to the last column!

This week was interesting.

Mike Crawford was on a trip to Ontario Canada all week.

The Shumann's had a death in the family and were in North Dakota most of the week as well. It is sad that his grandfather died, but the plan of salvation will really help them and this is an opportunity to gain a testimony of it.

We had a chance to see some other less active families in the ward and at one of them we were fairly surprised. We talked to them a bit and found out that he is a returned missionary and that while they aren't married in the temple, they would really like to be and soon! We are planning to go back and help them get all the way active and accomplish their goal. Super awesome!

There was a lot of trackting, but it wasn't a bad thing. Lot's of good experiences.

That is about it for this week. Getting close to just telling you in person. :)

A little sad

I got my flight plan today... I am going to fly into Laguardia at 4:09 pm August 13. That is what you can plan on. 

In other news, the Shumann family came to church this week and felt the Spirit once again. It was awesome. We are looking forward to teaching them more and baptizing them.

Mike Crawford is also here to stay in the Ashcroft ward and will be a member soon as far as we can tell.

I short, things are happening. It feels wonderful to help these people.

I am looking forward to seeing you all, but wish I didn't have to give all this up at the same time.

I will get over it, but I'm a little sad about it right now.

Last Transfer

The heat has been manageable. I remember how grateful I was to enter the field when the weather was cooling off. Now I realize the irony of that thought.

It is getting super weird to answer the question of, "How long have you been out?", that and thinking about being back in school and all that mess that goes along with it.

Something strange occurred to me the other day. I run into a lot of medical professionals and don't ask them what sort of problems they would like engineered. A member who had us over for dinner gave me some really simple problems that I could solve in a second if I had the right computer. Things like a forceps/flesh hook combination to help really get a hold of skin and such for stitches. I am going to start asking that question more often. Can anyone say "easy design projects for school"?

Elder Van Ausdal and I have come to the determination that since we are both staying her in the Ashcroft ward that we are going to have to redouble our efforts to find so that we can really get things moving rather than spinning our tires much more. We are still really feel that things can go super well here and we need to do everything we can do the job our Heavenly Father needs us to.

Here's hoping we get some traction.

June 25, 2012

This week we practiced a lot for the Spanish musical devotional that all of the missionaries in Greeley and Loveland are participating in. It has been odd to be back in a choir, but my musical training has come in handy as I have had to read another language and sight read the music for some 10 songs. It is all stuff by Janice Kapp Perry, which makes me a bit ill, but the Spanish missionaries need help. Hopefully, a lot of people show up because this has taken quite a bit of time. The performances are Friday and Saturday.

We had a non-member show up to church last week named Mike Crawford. He is the high school buddy of a member of the ward and we had a chance to meet with him this week. He is the assistant coach for every sport at the local high school and has been impressed by all the LDS kids there. He was receptive to the message of the restoration and accepted our challenge to be baptized. He is going to make it and loves what he sees already in church. The tough part is, he lives in one of the other wards. Not a huge deal but I won't get to teach him for much longer, which is a bummer.

Aaron  Spalding's parents were in town this week. We went over and had dinner with the whole gang and everything was normal until we got to talking about the gospel. We all had fun razzing Aaron for not having the stuff to marry Gina already but when we started answering questions about the gospel I realized why Aaron is so inactive. His parents would give the most screwy and incorrect answers  to even the most simple questions. When the hard questions rolled around I wasn't sure if I should laugh, cry or punch them in the face to get them to shut up. Wow. We would interrupt the parents a lot needless to say. All I know is I don't blame Aaron all the way anymore and that we have a lot of work to do. On the plus side, it is firmly established that they are weird and we are cool and that the gospel is not as odd as they may have first suspected! Using a family history explanation to try and explain how angels move from place to place. Really? Trying to explain that at all is what gets me. Give me a break.

The Lord is blessing  us in strange ways. We seem to be helping a lot of part member families get closer and closer to receiving the gospel and being ready to live it, but the process is slow. It feels a lot like farming. We have planted a bunch of seeds and have been caring for the ones that were already planted. We have seen them sprout and grow and now we are looking for the fruit of the labor. I know that I am doing much good here. It is just difficult to measure.

I hope you guys know that I am happy. My life is awesome and I love working for these people.

Begging For Soap

Well, this week was a bit on the slow side. (Poor kid, seems like he says that a lot.) Lots of cancelled appointments and people being out of town.

We did beg for soap and take money from a homeless guy.

So the story is that we were asked to collect donations for hygiene kits to help the fire victims and that became our tracting approach. (Colorado has the largest wildfire in history right now. Fortunately, nowhere near Reid.) A guy sitting on a bench asked us what we were doing in one neighborhood and then gave us some cash. After talking a bit more, we found out he was homeless, but he wouldn't take back the cash. So we summarized one day with that last statement.

I did have a cool experience on exchanges. So I was with a missionary that hasn't been out for very long and we had been going around with little success. Elder Greer was getting frustrated that  no one was home, but I promised that we would have success that day if he followed the Spirit. He prayed and said, well the only thing that comes to mind is to go see a lady we dropped yesterday. So we went. We found Karmen on her porch and we got to talking and after a bit we shared the 1st lesson with her and committed her to be baptized! A day of nothing turned into something awesome and Greer was overjoyed.

That always happens to me on exchanges, awesome stuff happens for them and their faith increases.

That is really all that happened this week. Lots of biking. Lots of sweating.

June 11, 2012

First off, I am feeling fine now. My immune system kicked in and all is well. It took a few days, but it was kind of nice to have to stop and just recuperate. Van Ausdal was bored staying home Tuesday and we finally got the release to go out Friday. It was a bit of a slow week because of being sick, but now I appreciate health and an awesome ping-pong paddle. :)

The package you sent made me laugh and that paddle is sweet! Thanks for thinking of it. Of course, you must enjoy the fact that you finally found something that I would want... :) (I did. That kid never wants anything. So I surprised him with a paddle.)

Wow, I don't have anything to talk about. I didn't do anything. Well, I learned that feeling lazy makes me ill and that I enjoy getting out and working. I didn't realize that until this week.

June 4, 2012

This week has been a bit odd. I have been coughing up green slime for the whole week, but I have been feeling good until yesterday. That is when I got tired. I was sitting in ward council and after a bit of coughing, I got up more gunk and the bishop looks at me and says, "Elder, after this go home and shut down for today and possibly tomorrow. Just don't make yourself worse." That is the first time I have been ordered to bed rest by my bishop and it was odd. We obeyed, and it felt weird to go home and stay home all day. Though I am feeling a bit better.

(The momma called the mission office to check on him and to make sure he saw a doctor...)

Besides that things sort of moved forward this week. Lots of cancelled appointments.

We had a great visit with the Spalding family. It was mostly great because they actually had read and had good questions. We found out that he is going to be working weekends for the foreseeable future, which is not cool, but she might make it to church which is nice. I really hope things work out for them. They are super nice and they deserve the gospel in their lives.

We got to meet with the Shumann family this week as well. They seem to have things mostly together and they definitely understand and recognize the Spirit. They have some relationship issues that they are going to work out with the bishop, so that is worrying. 

All in all, things are actually happening, just in ways I didn't expect.

Oh, the fun things you learn

I planted a garden this week. We asked an older couple in the ward if they needed any help and he said he needed to get the garden in. So we came over and did just that. We raked rocks out of the sand they call soil and planted like 20 tomato plants, peppers of all kinds, 5 squash and zucchini plants and a few other things I can't remember. We made an irrigation system for the whole thing and called it good. Then a few days later in an unrelated event, we sodded a lawn with complete strangers! We saw them preparing to do the job one day and asked if they needed any help. They said they were done until the next day. So we said we would come back. They looked at us like "sure you will". You should have seen their faces when we showed up ready to work! We helped them get the job done really fast and we did a great job, if I do say so myself. I can now add those things to my list of skills.

 Oh the fun things you learn.

Well, my first week as the district leader here was better than I expected. The new district is super awesome and all of the guys seem really hard working. This is going to be a good experience, though conducting and planning meetings is still a pain.

This Monday we had a Nerf battle in the stake center again and it was awesome. We all had PVC blowguns and a bunch of sore legs to show for it. We came up with all kinds of games, my personal favorite being team elimination. It was great to have all the guys together and to all laugh and just have a good time. It was a great stress reliever as well. You should have seen the place, all the tables turned on their sides for cover and guys running through the gym in the dark. Super funny to watch.

This week we were able to find more people and even contact some of the ones we found already. Lots of appointments and more on the way. In short, things are picking up.

May 21, 2012

It is official. I am staying in Greeley and so is Elder Van Ausdal. We are both really happy. I got a "promotion" to be the district leader, which I am not so thrilled with, but I can deal with it so it's not that big of an issue.

We have a lot of appointments and a huge number of potential investigators that seem really interested. Hopefully that translates into more teaching and helping people progress.

It has been interesting to see that as we have consistently put in hard work that the Lord just keeps upping the success rate. It has started to feel like a train ride and we are building momentum. All we have to do is keep stoking the fire and adding fuel.

I am looking forward to this transfer is about all I have to say. Biking here is easy and things are looking up. I will probably be here until I come home.

I said it before, but talking to you guys was such a breath of fresh air. I am looking forward to doing that more often.

Mother's Day 2011 & 2012

Mother's Day 2012

Mother's Day 2011

Mother's Day

We got to talk to Reid for nearly 3 hours on Mother's Day. The next time we talk to him will be at the airport when he comes home! It was so good to hear from him and he sounded happy and strong. He loves Greeley and his companion and is hoping that he and Elder Van Ausdal stay. He was able to send us some pictures of himself, Elder Van Ausdal and the place he lives. He lives in the Jacob's basement and is really happy there. It is so much better than most of the places he has been. 

May 7, 2012

A huge Blue Heron outside our window during study time. 

Well, this week has been interesting. We have been busting our butts trying to find people to teach and haven't been met with actual results. We have tried about all the part-member families, former investigators, tracting and everything else we could think of and have just felt our wheels spinning. 

Zone Conference rolled around this week and the topic of our discussion was finding yet again. Basically the message delivered over an 8 hour period was, be obedient, have faith and work hard and you will find. That depressed me because we had been incorporating all of those elements into our efforts and that promise had yet to be fulfilled. So I went home in a terrible mood. I took some time to think about what I needed to do and decided that at this point it was up to the Lord to bless us with people to teach because we had done all that was in our power. So I called on the Lord to increase my faith in his promises and felt reassured that we would find. 

I had prayed before this several times to know if He would help us find and He had promised me a few weeks ago that we would be successful.  So we went out and biked to dinner. After dinner we had planned to tract because there was nothing left to do, when I felt a strong impression to go to a part-member family's house in the area. They were not usually home, but I trusted that that was what He wanted us to do and we went with it. We not only found them at home, but they welcomed us in! We talked for a bit and finally she said that she was interested in learning more and wanted us to come back for dinner! We set it up for a few days later and had a great experience. It was a bit interesting as far as teaching was concerned based on some off topic questions and our teaching was a bit rusty, but the Spirit was there and I felt the assurance that the Spalding family is one of the reasons I am here. They are a young couple with a 2 1/2 yr old boy. He was raised LDS and she was brought up Baptist. They aren't married, but we can fix that and it is very clear to me that they are on Heavenly Father's short order list.

But it gets better...

So the night we set things up with the Spaldings, we got a call from another set of missionaries. They said that a family that is super ready was moving into our ward the next day and that the family needed help moving. We go the info and were ready to help the next morning. The member that was working with them from the other ward filled us in on the details. He said that he has been working to help them come to the gospel for a long time now, but that things had gotten interesting in the past few weeks. She was diagnosed with cancer 3 weeks ago and got an infection from a dog bite too boot. So the friend offered to give her a blessing and she accepted. So after the blessing was administered, she went into surgery. Not only was the infection gone but also the cancer and the symptoms Silica's disease. A miracle. Needless to say they are interested in knowing more. Oh, and the move went well.

100 Days left!

Our sign says 100!

Reid has 100 days left to serve today. I have been counting down the days. We are so very proud of how he has worked so hard and done his best to be obedient and faithful. The Lord couldn't ask for a better missionary.

I love to see the seconds count down on his clock. 

The chart I keep is almost full!

April 30, 2012

One ridiculous truck!

Well this week has come and past and I can say that I a stronger than before. There was a lot of biking this week and this is the first time in a long time I can remember being sore from riding. We tried hunting down all of the former investigators this week and it seemed like nobody was home. We would bike to one house, knock and wait for a few minutes, figure they were not home and bike to the next place. There were a couple of days where that was how it was all day with no answers. Frustrating, but we got the impression that this was what we were supposed to do and still feel it was the right call. Plus we were blessed with at least one or two interested people.

The most interesting prospect is a guy from Saudi Arabia. We tracked into him and he said, "Oh, sorry guys, I am Muslim." And we said, "That is really super cool. Where are you from?" and then he just invited us in. He explained that most people religiously don't want anything to do with the fact that he is Muslim and was impressed that we were not put off by it at all. He explained that he tries not to close his mind like some people do to his faith and wanted to hear what we had to say so he can expand his knowledge and strengthen his beliefs. He freely accepted a Book of Mormon and wants one in Arabic so he can properly study it. We don't know that he is interested in conversion, but I have faith in the scripture's converting power, especially the Book of Mormon.

I am getting really good at ping pong. We have a table in the basement and it has been nice to release stress playing a game most days. I can really put a spin on the ball. Yes, that is a challenge Dad. :) One of the missionaries in the zone spent $50 on a paddle. It seemed a little excessive, but I felt the grip on it, nice, but it is still just a ping pong paddle. Oh the funny things we do.  

The Book of Mormon in Arabic

April 23, 2012

"My district acting like dorks..."

Simply put, ward trust is through the roof. Most people at this point comment that the last guys sucked and that we are awesome, which feels good. We have been working hard and trying to be visible with our efforts. Things are still slowly getting put back together, but the ward trust thing is over with and that is a huge relief. 

There are so many part many families in this war that it is a little ridiculous. Add to that the fact that this ward has been softening the hearts of all the less active members and this is going to be great. There is a lot of potential that could easily pan out and if feels like it is only a matter of time. We are hopefully are going to get teaching this week which will be refreshing and once that starts happening the war is going to get excited. 

It feels funny having to use such nondescript terms for what is happening here but there are too many names that could dry up or go golden to really say much of anything. Mostly I don't feel like typing the massive list. 

The results that we have been reporting  to the ward council always cause a big discussion. "Have you ever gotten in with them?" No. Have you?" "No. Wait, what did you find out and how did you do that Elders?" It is rather entertaining. :)

Funny story. We got a referral this week fro a homeless man that lives behind Walmart. All the missionaries that gave it to us could tell us was, "A member of our ward has been talking to this guy and they say he lived in the trees behind Walmart. That is all we know" So we found the grove of trees and looked and to our amazement  we saw a tent!  Wow. It wasn't even a joke! What is better is that it is totally in our area. Now we just have to find a way to catch him at "home". I don't know what we will do if we start teaching him, but its just cool that we found him.

I am just glad to be here at this point. Biking feels great and the work is satisfying. I love Greeley and hope it stays that way.

April 15, 2012

"This should be a great trackting street!"

Greeley is flat and full of wonderful people. It is a college town with lots of apartments but still has a mature and stable population with related housing It is like a city that essentially stops and becomes rolling pasture land. There is a lot of farming and beef is king. There is a huge slaughter house in the south of our area and it gives Greeley it's infamous smell. The smell isn't that bad and when the wind is blowing out of the north you can't smell anything, but smell it does. It feels like a mix of Wy and Co. In short,  this is going to be a nice place to serve. The area is a family ward and mostly south of the 34 bypass. The bishop is a bit odd and is something like if "House" was nicer, a business man and a bishop. He'll say something like, "Now don't be offended but..." and then say something a bit abrasive and usually directed at you. After about 5 minutes the thought stops and things go on like nothing happened. It made for an interesting ward council meeting and since we were prepared, it didn't bother me when our mistakes were made the subject. I wasn't offended and then when he was finished I made a simple counter point, to which he responded that I should have stopped him. I just laughed and was very comfortably delivered  the rest of our report. I was told that I did very well by other members of the council afterwards and I considered it an achievement to be able to walk into a situation like that and play the part of one experienced in social interaction. :) 

We live with the Jacob's and have a sweet set-up. We live in the basement and have a pool table, a ping pong table, a little kitchen and a great bathroom.

Release Date!

We got an official release date for our boy!

August 13, 2012

He will have to hit the ground running! 

We are supposed to be in Indianapolis for my mother's 80th birthday and family reunion August 15 and then BYU starts August 27th! 

I hope Reid doesn't mind his momma going to college with him...  I am not joking!

Greeley Colorado

Sad news. I am currently emailing your from the Highplains library in Greeley Colorado... Not that Greeley is a bad place that I won't love but I am no longer in Arvada with Elder Jones. President Toombs and I got to talk and he decided that it was Elder Jones's time to give being the senior companion thing a shot. Apparently, President was going to leave me one more transfer, but with such a good report, he did some transfer revisions and made Jones the senior companion with an awesome new missionary. I am really proud of Jones and the solid effort that put in to becoming more confident and making more decisions. I know that he is going to do a great job and with a ward like the 1st war our investigators are in good hands.

I am back on a bike and that is probably a good thing. I was starting to get soft. :) The ward is biggish for a bike area but manageable and the members seem to be on top of missionary work. They just had a part member family reactivated and baptized which is great and I plan to take advantage of the momentum. The last elders were punks and I am surprised the Lord blessed them so much.

I am with Elder Van Ausdal. He is really nerdy but in a weird way. He is like me only more extreme in about every way. I like video games. He played them constantly. I am into fencing. He did a form of regulation backyard sword fighting involving padded PVC weapons his family would make. He designs things on the computer like what Eric Armstrong does. This one is odd. He was engaged before coming out but broke things off to come out. (She is not waiting)

And I am out of time but I love you guys and will continue this next week.

April 2, 2012

Have you taken any pictures? I don't know why I stink at taking pictures but it is probably that it never comes to mind. I think "oh that's cool' with my camera in my backpack and never think to take it out.

Things seem to have  plateaued here in the Arvada 1st ward. It was strange but we were not able to meet with hardly any of our investigators this week. They were out of town, having to find a lawyer, working last minute jobs, sick, you name it. It all came down to "not this week guys". Hopefully we can get things rolling again this week.

Elder Jones was my senior companion this whole week and did a great job. He is still visibly uncomfortable with the idea, but is filling his role quite nicely. I was proud of him and only had to step in one or two times. It was nice to see the progress that he has made and see him really working towards this goal. He did a better job than I did my first week as senior companion and that is cool. If I can build him up just a little more, I think that I am out of here.

March 26, 2012

Things here in the Arvada 1st ward are still rolling along. We have had a few interesting setbacks with our investigators but by in large things are grand. Tina Acosta accepted our invitation to be baptized, but is in Kansas all this week. She was not comfortable setting a date for baptism, but it was an awesome step for her to say that it is what she wanted. Carmen was finally able to meet with us after about a month of conflicts.We had a good lesson and I think that things will get back on track from here but it is clear that the adversary is working over time on her. Things are becoming more complicated with Juanita as her husband is more and more interested and we thing he is going to be the one to lead them into the gospel. The trouble with them is the language gap and deciding who is going to teach them and which ward they will go to. I would rather have this problem over them not being interested at all. Aside from that, we are still  finding and getting things to a completely healthy level and the ward leadership being supportive is really helpful.

Elder Jones is almost functioning as my senior companion. He is planning  all the lessons we teach, taking the lead in finding and he has been the driving force behind our plans and activities. He is getting very capable with his leading and while it is clear that he still needs more practice at of the some skills I am asking him to use I am sure they will come as he goes along. When he speaks in a lesson it is with power and authority and it is wonderful to see I just need to help him be more confident in his finding and things will go well for him from here on out. I don't know if he realizes it yet, but he is all around happier and confident as well which I am thrilled about. Ultimately I am not the one who makes that kind of call, but I would say that he is darn close to achieving  his goal of being senior companion.

March 19, 2012

Things are going great here in the 1st ward! We got 4 new investigators this week and we have a lot of teaching appointments in this coming week. Carmen is still a bit in a funk but she is pulling out of it. Juanita has been keeping her commitment to read the BoM and her husband seems to be very much more interested than I thought at first. We are trying to decide where this mixed up language family needs to go, but I am happy they are progressing on way or another. A lot of our new investigators are still on the fence and we have to decide if they are really going to progress or not but that is ok by me. We're keeping up the finding efforts so I am not worried that things will dry up, but it is nice to be teaching again.

A Tender Mercy From Sister Garfield

Last night I received a text with a picture of Reid, his companion and the district leader, Elder Mena. They were out to eat at a Chinese restaurant. It was a lovely surprise! 

I asked who sent it and the reply was President and Sister Garfield. (Not the mission pres.) I thanked her for the picture because Reid is such a terrible picture taker. I have wanted a pic of Elder Jones for several weeks now.

Elder Jones, Elder Mena and Elder Taylor

Sister Garfield sent me another text with this picture and said, "Remember this from almost exactly a year ago?? Same restaurant, same table, same corner table, same overhanging tree! ...same us...same cute Elder...(different companions)."  Of course I remembered it! I can't believe she still had it on her phone.

About a 1/2 hour after the first exchange I received another text and picture from Sister Garfield.

"Elder Taylor just shared a powerful and tender testimony with us from Helaman 10:4-5. He has continued to mature spiritually in the year since we last visited. You can be even more proud of him. It was too sacred a moment to snap the picture I wanted you to see him teaching from his open scriptures. Here he is just after the closing prayer. We sure do love him and are grateful you've shared him with us."

I have been so touched by Sister Garfield's love for my boy and will be forever grateful for her pictures and texts. 

March 12, 2012

Success! Elder Jones and the area are improving!

Elder Jones decided that he was on board with the whole "Become a Senior Companion" challenge that the president has for him. We are working on helping him build his self-esteem, confidence and changing his habits of not saying anything and not making any decisions. He has set a goal to make more decisions each day, have an opinion when I ask for it and to change his expectations about himself and the way he works. I have him doing the positive self-image trick that I used to help myself build confidence and hope it does the same thing for him. 

As far as the work in the area is concerned, things are picking up. We continue to find more and more people who are interested in the gospel and that is great. Add to that, the fact that Brother Bird, the new WML, is on fire and intent on setting the ward on the same course and we are in good shape.

Got a chance to talk to a preacher in training and it was interesting to see how close he was to right just by studying the Bible. He wasn't interested but we did commit this open minded man to read the Book of Mormon when he had some time. I would like to see him have the realization.

Got to teach a new investigator named Juanita Rodriguez. She speaks about as much Spanish as I do and has a husband that speaks only a little English. It was funny to learn that and I laughed at the fact that his name is Eric! It is all a little mixed up, but they are interested in learning more and the whole BOM being from the Americas was cool for them. Now we just have to hope that a testimony will get her over years of agoraphobia.

March 5,2012

How has it been in your new digs? Nice actually, Almost like Laramie. They gave us a heater so the temp is good and I don't mind basements in the first place.

How is your companion? Quiet. But I am getting to know him and he seems to trust me which is good. I have been working on building his confidence and making him talk in lessons and such. It is actually going pretty well.

Have you taken a picture of him? Don't be silly Mom, you know I forgot that. :)

This has been a good week. We have been getting more and more referrals from the Spanish missionaries and finding on our own. We just got a new ward mission leader and he seems to be solid. Brother Bird is going to be a real asset as he knows how to work with and motivate organizations from his job and that is what the membership needs.

I have also seen some progress making Elder Jones feel more confident. (Thanks Dad for the suggestions.) I will apply them and am happy to say that I already was doing a lot of that. It is interesting for me to work with Elder Jones as I feel like he is just experiencing exaggerated forms of the the problems that I have already overcome personally. This has helped me to get into his head a little bit and be able to say the right things and connect with him. He trusts me and that is a boon. I think that this is going to be good for me and him and I am grateful for this chance. 

February 27, 2012

Well, transfers have rolled around and I am staying for round 2 here in the 1st ward. Elder Russell got moved to Thorton and I now have Elder Jones to be my buddy. He is quiet. Really quiet. Like he even talks quietly. But he seems like he is willing to work and do a good job, so I am ok with this. I have been asked by president to break him out of his shell and make him "senior companion material". I feel like I will relate to him well, so I am not worried about a disconnect and since I came out of my shell not long ago, I think I am up for the challenge. Pray for him and I am sure that things will go just great. The work is still picking up but we still have a ways to go before I will be happy with where we are. We are moving to another house int he ward but this one has a walk-in basement and promises more privacy. Hopefully the Sumners will be cool to be with.

Not much besides that. I love, love you all. Thanks for being so great!

February 20, 2012

Well this week has been a bit upside down. Not sure that I could label it any one thing. I enjoyed myself, but it felt like things were stalled out. The majority of this week was spent trying to see potential investigators that never seemed to be home and making calls that were never returned. From the standpoint of work, nothing really got done which would have torn me up earlier in my experience, but as Ammon of old said, all things are swallowed up in the joy of Christ. It is interesting to me that I have reached a place where things don't really bother me, especially when it comes to the people, but I am not apathetic. I care about them without letting them get to me.

It helps that I am finding a happy balance between being serious and taking some time for fun. I remember so many times when I would be stressing out about homework and Mom would pull me form it and tell me to go run or do anything else to de-stress.I also remember when she would have to pull me away from a game and get me back to work. I have ended up doing that a few times with Elder Russell in both ways. 

It is starting to dawn on me  how much time I have left and I really want to make sure that I take advantage of it. I'll keep pushing, but you guys keep praying because I feel them.

February 13, 2012

Reid is happy and says things are going well. He doesn't want to think about what classes he will take in August or who his roommate will be because he is too immersed in the work. The roommate issue can wait and I guess he will have to be happy with the classes his dad chooses for him! Reid figures his release date will be August 13.  He is loving his mission so much he can't bear to think it will end.

February 6, 2011

Elder Russell

How did you survive the blizzard? We had a mission wide no drive policy in effect for Friday and Saturday. We may have conveniently forgotten about that detail when the occasion needed us too. :) But we were mostly inside. It was a storm like the ones that we deal with all the time back east so I was un-phased, but I have seen some of the other missionaries drive and I can see why President asked us as a collective not to venture out. The Mitchells were cruising the Caribbean all week, those lucky dogs.

Elder Russell is a good follower. If I am obedient, he is. He is still pretty new in the field and is at a point where he is transitioning out of being a college kid into becoming a man who's got to make big decisions. He knows what is right and wants to do it, but still feels the temptation to take the easy way out. 

Things were a bit odd this week with the winter storm shut down. Our ward is not walkable and with the surrounding area already tracked for the most part it was kind of a day off. If it was any indication of what it will be like to transition back to the real world, this is going to be as uncomfortable as they say.

Luckily, Saturday, the 3rd ward had a member that needed help fixing up their house and they live close to where we do. We had a good time doing random things that needed doing and after completely painting the basement I now see the beauties of a spray gun.

I can also say after this strange time off that I NEVER want to play another game of Risk. Ever...despite my strange aptitude for rolling the dice.

What is better is that the days leading up to the shut down were spent setting up appointments for the days that ended up being cancelled. How strange. At least we found more people to teach.

January 30, 2012

As far as the work goes, I am glad to be here in the 1st ward. Bishop Bashford is on fire for missionary work and that is really helpful. We have been getting a lot of referrals recently and that is pretty exciting. We have not been able to get a hold of them but that is not too surprising considering how busy people are. We are working wit this couple, Robert and Carmen. Carmen feels the Spirit super easily and recognizes it. Her testimony is solid and she wants to get baptized more than anything. All she has to do is to get off of parole which is in about 40 days. Robert, on the other hand, is someone I resonate more with as he wants to taste the fruit before planting the seed. He is a bit unsettled but the fact that his girlfriend has wonderful spiritual experiences and he has not yet recognized an answer. I love that family because I feel the Lord working so hard to help both of them. I promised him some impressive blessings if he would read and pray better. Now it becomes a matter of letting him make the choice...

We have another lady that we are working with that just got baptized before I got here. Debbie is a nice lady that has a rock solid testimony but has one little issue. She hallucinates that her house is full of biting mites... She does not make that much money and what little she has goes towards pesticides and she has arranged to move into a new apartment in  the 6th ward. The bishop and us have agreed that is is a problem that just needs to be waited out as she is convinced the new house is bug free. She just has to make it a few more days. It is interesting to see a bit of what it is like to be in the bishop's shoes working so closely with him. Those do not look like comfortable shoes. 

January 23, 2012

I asked Reid some questions and this is the whole letter he sent this week! I have been waiting to see if he will write more...

First, it is impossible to get a computer here and I am out of time already so I will be back to clean this up later, but emails are Monday now. 

Where are you living? With our RSP and her husband. They are called the Mitchells. (funny way of putting that...)

Do you have a car? Yes, but it is a Corolla so I don't know if I can call it a car.

(Better than a bike!)

Are you a  DL or ZL? No, just a regular.

How are you feeling? Great!

Are you being fed? Of course

January 17, 2012

I am back in Arvada! I have been assigned to work in the 1st ward. Arvada has been seeing the work really move in the last little bit as I have looked at reports of progress with my time in Wyoming.

First ward has had a few baptism in the last little bit and I am hoping that I can keep things up. We need to find more people to teach at this point is what I have been told, but that 's not exactly a new story for me. What's better is I'm already familiar with a lot of what is going on and how to get around. My new companion, Elder Russell, seems super coo and that is going to be helpful. He's that mix of hard working, but not uptight and that is just the sort of thing I need.

The bottom line is that I am excited to get the chance to work here again, maybe clean up some of my unfinished business, and just enjoy serving the Lord. There is a reason I am back and I plan on making good on this opportunity.

Thanks for all the support and love!

January 9, 2012

This week seemed to drag on and on. The people of Laramie are all either sick or just getting back from the holidays and we are glad that the semester started today. Hopefully things will get back to a normal operational level soon.

That said, we have had some interesting things happen to us this week and that means it is story time.

We have been working on reactivating Jeff Dohopolski since I got here and things have been going well the past few weeks. He has been coming to church very consistently for the last little while, which has been wonderful. But that is not the exciting story that it needs to be so naturally, this is where it gets weird. As we volunteered at a food bank this last Tuesday (and by volunteer, I mean ran) Jeff walked in and counted himself lucky because he had been meaning to talk to us. He announced  that since his girls had moved with their mother away from Laramie, he had nothing left to keep him here. He decided that morning that he was going to move and wanted to do it as soon as possible. I thought he meant in like a week or two, but of course that is not odd enough. He said that he was going to be leaving Thursday. So we went over that afternoon and proceeded to go through his whole apartment helping him pick out what he was going to keep and what he was going to abandon. He was only going to take what would fit in his mini-van and it was an interesting experience. He left all kinds of furniture and different random things and all I could think was how odd it would be to place yourself in that kind of position. But hey, it is his life and we got rubber band guns, a stack of generic board games ans some pots and pans from the deal, so we won't complain much. All I know is that I am probably an accessory to some crime at this point so if you don't hear from me I've been transferred to the Rawlins State Penitentury... :P

Something else odd for me personally is the fact that I have now at this point interviewed 3 different individuals for baptism. It is weird because I have always been on the other side of the desk and they don't give you much training on ow to do a proper interview. I guess what is more surprising to me is that it has been fairly natural to do it. It is initially a bit odd, but after a little "get to know you", things are vastly more comfortable. For me another odd thing is the fact that the Spirit comes flying in to give me insight into what they need me to say and what they are thinking. I have never really experienced the gift of discernment  before and it has been something of a revelatory experience to see just how much insight the Spirit is willing to give you. I can only imagine what a patriarch or bishop is really privy to without you having to tell him.

That is my report for this week. I love you guys.