October 25, 2010

Hello everybody!

 

So this last week was pretty cool. It is really hot for how late in the year it is. It is still reaching high 70s or mid to low 80s. I can't believe it! We were told that it would be significantly cooler by this time of year. Weird this thought just popped into my head.... I have less than a year left not much less but less. That is so crazy that this time actually is here now. It has always been so far ahead in the future so I have always looked forward to it now.... I guess I got to start to look forward to each month and maybe that will slow time down. I wish I could control time it would be really cool. Anyway, this week was a cool week.

 

Monday we got to finally play some b-ball!!!!! I was so happy but then the sisters came and wanted to play volleyball which I stink/am horrible at so I got slightly frustrated because of my lack of skill in that particular area. Well we did get to play sports though so that was the best thing. We then went to dinner that night with a member of our bishopric and that was really cool. It was the first time I had been over to their house and they have the cutest little boy. After that we went over to the family's house that we always have Family Home Evening at and that was pretty fun. Crazy as always but fun. They told us that next time we come over we will be carving pumpkins so that will be tonight and I am pretty excited.

 

Tuesday was fun we tried to walk and visit lots of people. We didn't get into any houses but we still had a good day. We went to lunch with the other elders. We went to the great B-Dubs (Buffalo Wild Wings) it is the best on Tuesdays because of their wing deal. We then had a good lesson with our investigators Jessica and Mary. We watched the Restoration video with them they liked it and I felt the Spirit prompt me to bear my testimony about why we were there. It was really cool and I am glad that I acted on the Spirit that time. We then had an amazing dinner with the Logues. They are a recent convert/investigating family. The mom, and two of the three daughters has been baptized, we are working on the youngest who is 11. They are SO cool and were very prepared by the Lord. They are way entertaining to talk to and they want to take us to the Zoo in about 2 weeks so that should be really fun. We also got to get into a less active family's house that is hard to catch. So we were blessed on Tuesday.

 

Wednesday was district meeting and it went pretty smoothly. It is really cool to see how people's feelings against each other can really affect the Spirit, even if they are not acting on their distaste for a person at that moment or even in the whole meeting. I really now understand why good feelings must be present for the Spirit to exist. We then went on exchanges after the meeting. It was weird because both of the elders that were newer to their areas stayed there and the people that kinda had an idea of the area left. I went to the Harrison Park ward with Elder Fisher. It was really fun he is a way cool missionary. I am glad that we got a good Zone Leader in place of E. Riley. We had dinner at the Corcoran's house because it was sister Corcoran's birthday. She is the "mother" of all the missionaries in the area. She is in a different ward but is way cool and loves to have the missionaries over at her house. She has this really cool castle in her back yard which was way cool. We all climbed on it and took pictures but I didn't get any because I didn't have my camera. The rest of the exchange was good and nothing too exciting happened. Except I did take this color code test. It tells you what color your personality is and each color represents something. Me and E. Fisher both got white as our primary and blue as our secondary. White is a passive more laid back color and blue is kinda funny because it is a romantic color. I don't know it was weird but fun to take.

 

Thursday we switched back it was all good. I got my year mark package. That was way funny! I loved it! Thank you family you are the best ever! Oh and p.s. Brittany looked very pretty in her pictures. We had dinner at the bishop's house that night but nothing really went on that day.

 

Friday was interesting. I got to give a baptismal interview which was pretty cool. She was so ready to be baptized and it was way fun to interview her. She was really nervous about it. I hate it when people are nervous to get interviewed by me so I usually just say something really dumb/dorky and then they loosen up. It took a couple of really dumb jokes but then she loosened up and it was awesome! We then got to talk to Jessica outside for a while and we got dinner dropped off so all in all a good day.

 

Saturday was pretty cool because I actually got to have a meeting with my ward mission leader. He has just been really busy lately so things haven't worked out. It was cool because he got to update me on the ward mission plan and tell me we were going to have to make a new one for the new year. We also got to help Bro. Laudemann with his house for a little bit and then we got to mow this lady's lawn whose husband is deployed. I loved it because Saturday was basically all service and then we got to go to my recent convert's house and give a new member lesson and eat dinner. He made his lasagna and it was GOOD!

 

Sunday was good. Church was fun and we found out we are speaking on hope next week. So any thoughts would be helpful. We had a nice day. We ran into some people that an elder from Vegas had taught 2 years ago so that was way cool and we got invited back next Sunday. YAY!

 

So I am see miracles and loving it out here!

--
Sincerely,
Elder Zachary Taylor

October 18, 2010

Hello everybody!!!

I hope that everyone is doing well and paying attention to those small miracles you can and will see if you just look for them. So this last week was pretty cool. Monday we did frisbee golf... again. It was alright but I would have rather played something that was an actually workout like basketball. It is all good though because this Monday we are going to be playing basketball. Monday was cool -- we were supposes to have F.H.E. with this less active family but he called and said that we would have to wait for next week because kids and he got sick. We then were able to go see Jessica and Mary so that was really cool.

Tuesday was the day.... the day we found out about this next transfer. My companion E. Aydelotte kept telling me pres. was going to call because I was going to be called to be a Zone Leader. I wasn't sure about that at all. I actually thought that me and him would be staying together. Well during the day we did get a call from pres. but it wasn't because I was going ZL but because I was called to be a TRAINER!!!!!! Yay!!!! I have wanted to train a missionary for so long and now I have the opportunity too! His name is Elder Decker and he is from.... yes Utah. He is from North Ogden Utah so ya! He is really cool. He was a runner and was big into ultimate frisbee before he came out. So E. Aydelotte was transferred up to Platte City, Missouri. It is right close to where I served in Kearney. He is going to love it up there. He will probably die there (end mission there) because he only has 2 transfers left. He was excited and disappointed to leave.

Wednesday was a lot of packing and saying goodbye to people for E. Aydelotte. It was a pretty cool and chill day. We did however share a message with people when we went to say goodbye so it wasn't a complete waist of our time. That day we went to dinner at Pizza Hut because some recent converts, Kayla and Frannie, work there. It was really fun to talk to Kayla as she was our waitress. We wanted to play a joke on the new elder but one that wouldn't be too mean. So Kayla suggested that we come in for dinner on Thursday and she would pretend like she didn't know us and I would act like I didn't know her. We would then leave a pass along card with our tip at the table. She would call us the next day and say that she wants to meet with us. It was a great idea and I told her we should do it. So we finished up saying goodbye to her and that ended our night for Wednesday.

Thursday was transfer day. We had to go up to Wichita so I thought I would take advantage of it and go to a sports store so I could buy a Camelbak. I found one but they are more expensive than I thought. I am very thankful for it though -- it has already saved my life. Anyway, I also bought a sweet frisbee. So we went to the church and shortly thereafter the sisters showed up. We were all throwing the frisbee around for a while. The sisters decided that I have a Brad Pitt smile.... I hope that is a good thing. While we were throwing the frisbee around this guy came walking through our parking lot. I waited until he had walked past me and threw the frisbee. He then yelled at me "Why don't you wait until I get past you, you little ______" So I just smiled at him and turned back to our game. He then continued to yell at me about how much he despises Mormons. He kept yelling so I told him to chill out and he kept going for a little while but he realized I wasn't responding besides telling him to chill so he just left. I think it was the worst cussing out I have ever been through. It made me extremely mad and I really wanted to punch him in the mouth but I didn't. I told one of the other elders about it and I guess he just cusses any missionary out that he sees. Oh well let him be unhappy and unpleasent. So I met my greenie, a.k.a. my boy, that day. I also got to see a bunch of elders I haven't seen in a while so it was sweet! We did go to dinner at Pizza Hut and everything went as planned. We left a card with Kayla and so now the plan had been put in action.

Friday was a good day we had to run to the store to get a couple of things and while we were there. Kayla called and said she wanted to meet with us. She talked to E. Decker and he handled it very well. I was surprised at how calmly he handled it. So we taught her and she did a great job but acting like she didn't know anything. It was really hard for me to keep a straight face but I was kinda able to do it. It is a good thing that I smile a lot or else I bet he wouldn've caught on that something wasn't right. He did such a good job!!! I couldn't believe how well he did! It was great! Later that day we just tried to visit some people but no luck that I can remember. We visited all of the referrals we had recieved and not much came from those.

Saturday was cool though. We went the whole day trying to find new people to teach by street contacting because there is a new focus this month on finding people to teach. We were able to find this new family. The missionaries had tracted into them before and they said we could come back. So we went there and talked to the wife for a little bit at the door but she was about to sit down and feed her little boy. Right as we were about to walk away her husband came around the corner and said hello. We let her go and then her husband knew some LDS people so he wanted to talk to us. We went and talked to him and he had some GREAT questions. We are going to go back and teach him later this week! We have been really blessed this week! Sunday was good as always so that was fun.

So the mission is going great! I hit my yearmark this Thursday! CRAZY!!!!!! I am pretty much halfway done and I still feel like a greenie. Well I guess that is good because if I felt like I knew everything I would be proud and we learned in conference that pride is the foundation of all sin. I love you all and please stay humble!

--
Sincerely,
Elder Zachary Taylor

October 4, 2010

Hey everyone! How is it going? I am doing great, which seems to be a recurring theme throughout my entire mission. I am really being blessed with an increased positive outlook on things. Well how about General Conference!!!!!!! It was way good wasn't it! I couldn't believe the things I was able to learn.

 

So this last week was pretty good! It was our week with the car so that is always nice. Except the first part of this week we couldn't drive the car because we had no miles so there it sat so lonely in our driveway. But with the new month we now have a new set of miles so it should be good for a while. We went on exchanges with the elders out in Haysville and it was pretty cool. I went with Elder Ashcraft and he is from the LA area. I am not sure exactly where but I know it is LA proper. That was pretty cool because I have felt like I don't really know those elders and know I feel more unified with them. I now know why they do exchanges! We are supposed to be one unified force and how can we be unified if we don't know the other elders? It is kinda like how we can't trust the Lord until we know him, right? Well need-less-to say it was really cool and I now will gain a lot more from exchanges.

 

We didn't have much going on until Thursday night. We had 2 SWEET appointments set up! One of them was a church tour with Mary and Jessica. While we were setting up for that we got a call from our next appointment. It was the member husband calling and he said "It is nothing against you or the church but me and my wife have been talking and thinking a lot and we feel that Mormon isn't right for us. We just feel it wouldn't be fair with me being Mormon and her being Baptist. We are going to a non-denominational church." I was crushed! We felt like our last lesson went so well and I couldn't understand what had happened. I do understand where that thinking came from but at the same time if one's eternal life is at stake you would think that "being fair" wouldn't play such a large factor in their decision. Don't worry Mom I didn't say anything to them that was sarcastic or out of impulse, I wanted to but I held back... you would be proud. . . ha ha. I am glad though that they still want to attend any church for the time being. Well I hope that the missionaries in the future look them up because they were golden. The church tour went GREAT though! We had our bishop there with us and he is the best! It worked just as the church tours are designed to work out. We had a great spiritual feast and then we got to the baptismal font, where we sat and talked about baptism. I got a really quiet thought in my head to invite them for baptism. And from past experience I am not ever going to ignore a prompting from the Holy Ghost again. So I invited them both to be baptized. Mary, the Grandmother, said "I have already been baptized." I didn't address that issue right there because Jessica had not yet answered. She said "I am scared". I was relieved to hear that answer opposed to no. She went on to tell her grandma that she had already told her she wants to be baptized. So it is SWEET!!!!!!! We are now going to teach them over at our bishop's house because Jessica and bishop's daughter know each other. I am so excited for them and I love being able to bring youth into the church because I know that if a certain youth hadn't been baptized, I probably wouldn't be on my mission, (cough cough Raul). Thanks Raul for having such an impact on me!

 

Well this weekend with conference was GREAT! We got a call Saturday morning from an inactive member and he needed our help with some cleaning. We told him we could help him but General Conference was going to be playing and we want to watch it. He said we could watch it there! He had such a great spiritual experience and he found that the spirit touched him and moved him to improve. He was so happy throughout the entire thing and was sad when it was over. He thanked us so much for getting him to watch it and he told us that it was the first time in over 20 years that he had watched it! I was so happy to see him wanting to make changes!

 

Well as you can see I am being blessed beyond belief out here in Kansas! I love you all and keep your eyes open for those who just need a kind word!

--
Sincerely,
Elder Zachary Taylor

September 27, 2010

Greetings from Kansas (the flattest state in the union)!

So this last week was pretty good. Last Monday we had a great lesson with this 16 year old girl, Jessica, and her Grandmother, Mary. It was so cool to see how much the Spirit does really help in letting you know that it is ok to open up to this person. We heard that Jessica was usually shy and didn't like to talk too much but while we were there I would've never guessed. My companion and I both made a fool of ourselves at the time but that is ok because it helped lighten up the mood. I could really feel the Spirit there and I felt a great concern for those two people. I just want them to be able to see the joy that comes from membership in Christ's church. I think that our appointment today will go very well and that we will see some progress.

Tuesday we had interviews with our president. It felt like we haven't talked to him in a long time, probably because we haven't. It has been weird because we have Zone Conference and then Interviews every other transfer. So it has been close to 3 months since our last interviews. I really was excited to talk with Pres. and Sis Van Komen but they were in a hurry because they had to do Wichita Zone's interviews that day too. It is a good 3 to 4 hour drive to get out here so President tries to do all the interviews for this area in one or 2 days and there is 3 Zones so it would take a long time.

Wednesday was the down day of our week. We had everything fall through and I mean everything. We had 3 appointments set up for the evening. They all cancelled 30 mins before our ride got there. Our dinner also cancelled and we had walked around all day long so we weren't feeling as clean as we could either. It was a challenge but then at the end of the day we were able to see a family that is struggling so that was really good. Who knows -- maybe that family needed to know that somebody was thinking of them. The Lord truly does work in mysterious ways.

Thursday was pretty cool because I got to really get to know these really cool recent converts. They were all baptized after the 19 year old girl, Kayla, got baptized and now they rock! They were both preparing for a talk so that was really cool. Unfortunately the mother, Frannie, wasn't able to give it on account of one of her daughters being sick. Kayla gave her talk and it was AWESOME!!! Good job Elder Fullmer! So meeting them was great! Also on Thursday we got to meet with a part member family. The husband has been inactive his entire life and the wife has investigated for a long time. She has a few hangups that were able to come out this last meeting. We also had the best team up ever! That member's name is Bro. Rodriguez and he is a pilot in the Air Force which works out perfectly because both of them are in the Air Force too. I just felt really good when we left that lesson and know that the Lord was with us while we were there.

Friday was pretty cool. I don't remember much of anything exciting happening. Lots of the days just melt together out here. Saturday was cool though because we got to go to the airshow. We were supposed to meet our recent converts there, Busheys, but they had something come up and called to tell us that they couldn't go as we were already parking there. So we decided to go with the members that brought us there. It was way cool and jets are very amazing. We had to leave early which was a bummer because that meant we were going to miss the Thunderbirds, the highlight of the whole show. As we were in the parking lot we found out that a storm was headed our way and the Thunderbirds weren't flying that day because of it. So we got lucky and got to our car before everyone else. Which it still took us over an hour to get out of the parking lot so that wasn't cool.

All in all a good week. I love it and love the work! Everybody keep the faith!
--
Sincerely,
Elder Zachary Taylor