September 20, 2010

Hello everybody! How are you doing?

I am doing very well! This last week was pretty good. Not the best week that I have ever had but it was still good. I know that it was good though because I was able to recognize the Lord's hand in my life. I feel like  that is a good way to measure a successful week. If we were able to notice the small miracles that the Lord blesses us with. We are blessed every day but sometimes, most of the time, we are too "busy" (a.k.a. selfish) to see them. With my district I have been trying to emphasize this idea. It has helped them find more joy in their missionary work. If it can help missionaries find more joy in their work, which is hard and taxing, then it can help all of you that are at home. In your lives you get blessed daily which are these small miracles I am talking about. As you learn to recognize those miracles and then begin to be thankful for them, your life will begin to become a rich and enlightening experience. You will be able to find true joy, which is what our goal was to do when we came to earth.

Anyway I had to focus on that this week because it was a pretty slow week. We did however find 2 new investigators. One is a former investigator and the wife of a less-active member. They are both in the Air Force and so they are pretty busy. We went over there and they were very nice and she seems like she wants to know the truth so that is good. We have a appointment with them this next week. The next new investigator came from a potential investigator. We went to visit this couple that had told past missionaries to come back. We found out that they moved and now there is another lady living there. She was heading out to her grandson's football game but she said we could come back this Tuesday. I am so excited for that!!!! So this week was slow as far as teaching but we were able to find more people to teach. I hope that this last week sets us up for the rest of the transfer as far as investigators go. We also have an appointment with another investigator tonight. So we are getting blessed -- we have just had to be patient with our blessings.

That is one more thing that I have learned on my mission -- that if we want blessings we have to first be willing to acknowledge prior blessings and then be willing to wait for blessings. When we do the first we usually find it easier to do the second. As we recognize we have been blessed, we should know that blessings will come -- we just need to be patient.

So for some more exciting news. We were almost right in the middle of a tornado!!!!! It was way crazy! We went to dinner in the outskirts of this city called Mulvane. After dinner was over the members we were with started getting phone calls warning them of tornados in the area. So my companion, Elder Aydelotte, and I went for our cameras in our bags and ran outside. We got some cool pictures of the clouds outside and video. The clouds right above the house were swirling but they weren't forming a funnel cloud yet. Then the phone calls became more urgent so we went to their basement for a short time. The radio gave us the all clear and we went right back outside. I guess in some parts of Wichita they had HUGE hail. There were 9 tornados that touched down and some of them were in the city of Mulvane. Nobody from the ward was hurt so that is good. I thought I wanted to steer clear of tornados but now I really really want to see one in person. Maybe another time I still have one more tornado season.

Well that is it. I love you all and remember to count your blessings! 
--
Sincerely,
Elder Zachary Taylor

Picture of the clouds during the storm.

Pictures of after the storm.

Pic of me by a cool sign in a Lutheran church parking lot

September 13, 2010

Hello everyone!

So last week I had a surprise baptism and this week we had a surprise baptism too! We were going to just baptize Bonnie Bushey but Billy Bushey was approved by the Stake President to be baptized the same Saturday! It was so cool!

I'll tell more about that later. As for the week it was one of the slowest if not the slowest week I have ever had on my mission. That is ok though because that is just the way things go sometimes. I know that the Lord was pleased especially with the Bushey's baptisms. The rest of Tuesday was cool. Nothing super exciting happened but it was still cool.

Wednesday I had my first district meeting of this transfer and it was really good! We had a good discussion on prayer and why it is so important to our investigators and to us as missionaries. The Zone Leaders also had been asked to practice teaching the first lesson as a example. With this new curriculum Pres. Van Komen was nervous that some personal beliefs and not pure doctrine would be thrown into the teaching appointments. The practice was so so so good. They practiced with a sister from the district and when it started out she was pretending to be someone else and it turned into her at the end. She said Satan had been working on her very hard and that this practice helped her become even more converted. I was so happy that me and the Zone Leaders decided she would be the best one to practice with! We found out from the Zone Leaders that the Stake Pres felt like Billy should be baptized on the same day as his wife, so we were way excited! I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders afterwards. I went with E. Riley to his area. It was really cool and he filled me in on everybody and the situations in the district.

Thursday was pretty cool we switched back and then me and E. Aydelotte worked in our area. We got to see Billy and Bonnie and that was cool. We showed them the Between Heaven and Earth DVD, it is about temples. They are so excited to be able to go be sealed in the temple! I am so happy for them. We then tried to visit a lot of people that day but without any luck. That night we had to spend at another set of elders apartments because I had a leadership counsel the next morning and I was to ride with one of those elders.

The leadership counsel was so amazing. It was just like the one in Olathe Kansas that I just went to last month. They are going to be holding one each month so we can get accustomed to the new curriculum as a mission. I received a lot of revelation on how to improve the work here in the area and how to keep me and E. Aydelotte getting along. It was so cool! I also got to meet a lot of people I didn't know because I have been in Missouri for me entire mission before this transfer. I am so greatful to be blessed enough to partake in amazing trainings like that.

On Saturday was the big day of the baptisms. We went over the church first thing in the morning because Billy and Bonnie were getting interviewed. They passed of course! Then we went and mowed a lady's lawn for her and had to come back to fill the font for them. It took over 2 hours to fill it! When you fill the font you have to be in the building the whole time so we did that until the baptism. The baptism was so cool. E. Aydelotte got to baptize both of them but I got to be in the font for Bonnie's because she is usually in the wheelchair and she has a hard time walking so she needed extra help. She was so brave because she had to take her glasses off and then rely completely on us. She did great. We were just nervous because we wanted to get her done the first time. We did and then E. Aydelotte baptized Billy and that went very smoothly. After the baptism the last person in that family who isn't baptized is Billy Jr. and he said he wants to be baptized so that should be coming up soon!

As you can see I am being very blessed on my mission. I am seeing miracles like I was told I would and I am so very thankful for them. Thank you all for the support you are giving me and will give me. I love you!

--
Sincerely,
Elder Zachary Taylor

  

This is Billy and Bonnie and their family. The girl has been baptized but the boy in the yellow shirt is the one who wants to be baptized.

Us and the Busheys

September 7, 2010

Hello everybody!

So this last week was quite an exciting one! It was the week of transfers, which is always exciting. As we were waiting for our calls on Tuesday I got a call from another missionary who found out where I was going because I was getting transfered with him. So I got to find out who and where much earlier than most people. Elder Gustafson had to wait until 9:30 P.M. because nobody knew who his companion was.

We were getting ice cream with the Lawters when we got the transfer calls. Elder Gustafson's new companion was somebody he really knew well and was very excited to have gotten transfered with him. He was yelling in the car, it was pretty funny. I was very very sad that I had to leave Kearney 3rd ward. I hope to serve there again someday. I am now out in Derby Kansas in the Park Hill ward with Elder Guy Aydelotte. He is from Boise and has been out for about 21 months. He is really funny and cool. I am excited to be able to serve with him. I am still the district leader.

Derby seems to be a cool place and the work here has picked up in the last couple months so I got to come in at a good time. We are having a baptism this Saturday at 5 and her husband will be getting baptized the week after. He has some stuff he had to work through but he is doing it. I missed a baptism in Kearney. It happened the Saturday after I left. I cannot believe how well things are going right now I am being so blessed and sometimes I feel like I don't deserve it but never-the-less I am thankful for it.

I cannot wait to be able to see that lady and her husband get baptized. She asked me and E. Aydelotte to baptize her. She has some medical conditions that require a little bit more attention so that is why we are both doing it. I'm not sure who is going to baptize her husband but it will be so exciting. The story of this family is really cool. It all started with their friends being reactivated and then the investigating family's daughter got baptized and now her parents are getting baptized and then we are teaching her little brother who is 13. See what an example you are to all of your friends! It is amazing! Have you ever considered that each friendship you have could have eternal consequences? Sweet huh?

I am just so blessed to be out on a mission and to see miracles everyday. I cannot express the love that I have for the Lord and for his work. I love you all!
--
Sincerely,
Elder Zachary Taylor

Elder Gustafson's and my last moments together

Elder Aydelotte and I

Elder Gustafson, Alberto Kang, and I

Alberto and his fiancee, Meagan

Elders Lesuma, Gustafson, Chance Rogers(in white), Bro. and Sis. Rogers, and I 

August 30, 2010

Hello everyone!

 

So this week must have been the best week of my entire mission! We have been preparing for Alberto to be baptized on my birthday for a very long time and it went very smoothly. While I was on exchanges is when the most surprising news came. I got a call from Elder Gustafson and he said that Chance was going to get baptized in a week from this Sunday. I was so excited and nervous at the same time because transfers were coming up and I wanted to be there. Then he called back and said that they changed it to this Sunday! Yes a day after my birthday! I couldn't believe how lucky and blessed I was. Now here is the reason that it is so amazing. Chance was adopted into the Rogers family about a month or two ago and when an adoption takes place you usually have to wait until the adoption is final to have them baptized. That usually takes 4 to 6 months. So we were teaching him so he would be prepared when that time came. Then we talked about it a week ago and now he got baptized yesterday! The best birthday I have ever had!

 

Now I will back track a little, on Saturday night Patti had a birthday dinner for me. She invited all her family and the bishop. It was great! She cooked roast beef and I love that stuff. It was so cool to be able to see all the people around me and the weren't even members of the church. They didn't just like me because I was a missionary but because I am me, yay! Sometimes that is confusing. Anyway. Thank you all for the cards. Thank you mom and dad for the present I love it!

 

I love my mission and transfer calls are coming tomorrow.... scary. I will be a year out at the end of this next transfer.... scary again! Well I love you all!

--
Sincerely,
Elder Zachary Taylor