May 24, 2010

Hey everyone!

How is everybody doing? I know if the answer is not good then there is always a way to fix it and it's by being obedient to the Lord. I know that because my last email contained some trials in the mission. That week has probably been the worst week of my whole entire mission. We were continually obedient and strived to find people to teach but we just couldn't. However, we were blessed this week. It was the best week of my entire mission. We had a couple of miracles and we also taught a lot of lessons to people who really wanted us there, which is a great feeling.

The miracles this week were: a lady that called us over and asked us some really good questions. She wanted to know why there were so many churches and if there was a right one. Sounds familiar right? Joseph Smith had the exact same questions as she did. We were able to answer a couple of them there and to set up a appointment for the next day. That appointment went really well and she said we explained things in a way that it actually made sense to her, which she said was hard to do most of the time. I know that it wasn't us teaching it was the Spirit teaching. She felt the Spirit and accepted the commitment to pray about the Book of Mormon and the things we taught. Our next appointment is tomorrow.

Our other miracle was just on Saturday night. We had a person who had investigated a couple of years ago but has fallen off. He called and left a message saying: Hi this is Richie and I think the Lord just told me I need to join the Mormon church. It was great and we have an appointment with him on Wednesday. We have a member ride up there because it is pretty far away.

Another miracle is that we stopped by a former investigator's house. And he said that he wanted us to come over on Saturday and to have a BBQ cook out with him and his sons. He also said that he would love to hear our message that we have to bring him. He was so nice and we stayed and talked with him for a long time. He has a great understanding about Jesus Christ and he is practically already Mormon. I hope and feel like things will go well with him.

We also got our inactive apartment manager to come to church again last Sunday and she seemed so happy. She also brought her non-member grandkids. They love us and they are so cute. One is 4 and the other is 2. I feel like their old brother and love to be around them. They have a great testimony about Jesus already as kids. They always talk about Jesus and how much he loves them.

Well our week went GREAT and I hope it continues. I am doing all that I can to make it continue. I love you all and love being out on my mission. I encourage everybody to serve a full time mission. It is the best choice I have ever made and I know that as I am out here I will be able to find more joy than I ever have before.

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Sincerely,
Elder Zachary Taylor

May 17, 2010

Hey everybody!

So this week Elder Lesuma and I felt like it went pretty crappy. We worked our hardest but in the end we weren't as productive as we were before. We lost an investigator because she ran away from the cops. We also lost a less active person with the same thing. So all week we were pretty down. We taught a lot less lessons than we were use to. We did go tracking in the rain and that was really fun but not as productive as we would've hoped. We had Zone conference and that was great as always! We got new phones at this zone conference so they are all nice looking.

Well the end of the week got a ton better. We got our apartment manager to come to church. She has been inactive for a year or more so it was great to see her there. We also got her to come to dinner with us last night at a member's house. She says she isn't going to miss another Sunday. We also got that investigator back that was running from the cops. She isn't charged with anything she just got tired of the cops always knocking on her door so she stayed with a friend nearby. She said that she is ready to commit to the church. She has a date to be baptized but with this stuff that has been going on she had to have it moved back. We are so happy to see her safe and to have her son safe too! I love them and really hope she is serious. I can't wait till tonight because we get to go over and teach them.

We got to go back to my old area on Saturday night to see some people I was teaching be baptized before I left! It was great! I felt so happy to see both of them being baptized. I love them and know that they made the right decision and that it will help them throughout their life. I also loved seeing some of my recent converts and the old ward members. I love them all and kinda miss that area, except eating all the time. They all said it looks like I have lost weight, which is a bad thing to them.

Anyway I love being out here and wouldn't trade it for anything! I love you all as well!

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Sincerely,
Elder Zachary Taylor

May 10, 2010

Hello everybody!

Hey how is everybody doing!? I am doing amazing! I got to talk to my family yesterday and it was great! I loved every moment of it. Well I can't really remember what happened this last week. I know that we had some really cool things happen. We had a really spiritual moment on this guy's doorstep. We taught him a lesson through his screen door and then he took a Book of Mormon and said he would pray about it. So we are going back this next week. I really am sorry I don't know what else to write. I am all talked out. Just to let everybody know I really am loving it out here. I know that my family heard me say it way too much yesterday but I don't know how else to describe it. Everybody should serve a mission. It's not going to be the best 2 years of my life but the best 2 years for my life.

Love you all!

--
Sincerely,
Elder Zachary Taylor

May 3, 2010

Hello everybody out there!

Hope everyone is doing well because I am doing GREAT! Well I also hope that everyone knows I love them. Oh about transfers I am staying in Kearney 3rd/2nd with Elder Lesuma. They put sisters into the Kearney 1st Ward. So our work load got a little bit easier but we also lost some really cool people and a great ward. Thats ok though because its selfish to want to stay there and that ward deserves their own set of missionaries. The sisters will do a great job!

Well last week for p-day we tried going to a member's house to do our laundry and their washer took an hour and a half for each load! So we were late to meet the other elders for sports. It took like 4 hours to do our laundry. So today we decided to pay for it so we would have time to do other stuff. This week we had to walk to the laundry mat though beacause the sisters have the car. We looked pretty funny walking in our shirt and ties with our laundry bags over our sholders.

Last Monday I went on exchanges with one of our Zone Leaders and it was really cool! He taught me a lot about how to find people and how to use our time more effectively. He said I was good luck because we got 2 new investigators that night but it was all him. The next day our appointments kept falling through, some good luck I am. We tracted around the areas and we almost got arrested. As we walked up to give these two big african american ladys a card one of them started yelling. "Aw you two again. You came here last saturday and broke the window on my car!" She kept on insisting it was us and called the cops.... they never came cause she couldn't prove it. Oh well it was quite entertaining because we stayed in the area to tract the apartments next to her so she followed us so we wouldn't run away.

We exchanged back later that night and it was pretty cool. That night for planning we planned to go to a city about 6 miles north of us called Holt. We wanted to visit everybody in that town and to tract it out. One of our members from Holt called us and asked us if we could come up there to give her daughter a blessing with her father. We said yes. It was really cool to see that it worked with our plans because things like that usually don't. As we finished we went and visited the less actives there. We went to one house and nobody was home so we saw their neighbor our across the street so we walked over there to talk to him. We got his attention and when he turned around he said "What do you want? I've got a hangover." I had to hold in the laughter because he was this old guy and he was super hick. So we said who we were and asked it he was interested his response was, "You two shouldn't do this at dark because you're in the country now." So we just said ok and asked if there was anything we could help him with anything and his response was, "No I don't need any help, I gotta gun." It was really hard not to laugh at that point. After that we found some less actives and cut their lawn with a weed wacker because it was CRAZY tall. We got our transfer calls later that night and we were happy to be staying together in the same area.

The next day I locked the car key in the trunk.... great. We lucky didn't need the car that day but we would need it later. We called a locksmith over and he was really cool. We talked to him after and he has read the Bible 23 times and is on his 24th but he is reading it in chronological order. He was awesome. Later we taught an investigator and committed her to stop smoking and to go to the Independence Visitor's Center this sunday.

Sunday we had to go to church super early because our ride needed to be there. It was cool though. When we got back we went to go pick up our investigators for the Visitor's Center and they said they couldn't go but thats ok because we were able to visit a lady that has been really less active and she opened up a lot to us. We feel so loved in this ward and feel like we will stay here for a while. Our dinner the other night said they respect us a lot more than any missionaries they've had for a long time. They said they like us so much that they might adopt us. They are really cool. They also want us to come over to dress a chicken.

Well I am doing GREAT! and am loving it, even the sad moments because I am becoming such different person. I look at my desires now and before I left and they are so much different. I love it!!!!!!!!
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Sincerely,
Elder Zachary Taylor