February 28, 2011

Hello everyone how is it going? I ask that every week but I really mean it! I am doing great, still. I love being out here on the mission. It is really weird though because all of the missionaries that I have come to know and grown to love are going home. I wish that we all could just stay together.

So I emailed last Tuesday because of President's Day last Monday. Later Tuesday we went and taught our investigator named Cedric. He is a very spiritual guy. He knows a lot about Jesus Christ and teaches us a lot. He has such great faith it is hard for me to see him struggling with smoking. He doesn't see how it is hurting him yet. I need some help in getting him to recognize that smoking isn't good for you. We had a sweet dinner that night too so it was all good. We met a really cool person on the bus. Her name is Tamika and she told us about her friend that just recently got back from her mission. Tamika went to Temple Square with her and said she was very impressed and she invited us to come to her house! I was so excited about meeting her!

Wednesday we got to meet some other really cool people. We had to take the buses all the way out to this outdoor mall called Legends. We were meeting some elders from Olathe, KS for lunch so they could introduce a person to us. Her name is Kayla and she has been learning sign language in Olathe. She wanted those elders to come up here and teach her but they introduced us instead. She is really cool and very nice. She may be one of the most positive people I have ever met. She would be such a great member of the church I really hope she listens to us. The lunch was good; Kayla brought her grandmother along and it was a great time. We then were able to teach our Burmese investigator and it went well. We talked about how it feels when the Spirit answers our prayers.

Thursday was interesting. My companion and I both had to stay in for half of the day. We both got sick but it went away later in the day. So it snowed again Thursday. I hate the snow. It had just all melted and then it brought it back. We had eaten dinner at the other elders' place and we had to stay there because of the snow. None of us wanted to drive in it and risk a wreck. It was the longest night I had ever had. We slept on the floor so ya not good. We were suppose to meet with one of our investigators but that got cancelled because of the snow so we rescheduled for Wednesday.

Friday was cool. District meeting was cancelled because of the how bad the roads were. We took some time and deep cleaned our apartment, as we were instructed by Sister Van Komen. It felt good to have a clean place. We got to teach Cedric again and that was cool. One of his friends joined us for a short time but that was good she came. We then had dinner with Sis. Whitlow and she is amazing! She has such Christ-like love for us that it amazes me. I love her and she loves us. She is going to cook us some "soul food" then next time we go over there for dinner.

Saturday was pretty busy. We went and saw a part-member family and got to meet one of their sons. He was really cool and helped us get home. We got picked up by this crazy guy on the way there. He was very passionate about Christ which is good but he was crazy about it. We then got a message saying that one of my recent converts from Kearney is going to the temple to get sealed to his family! I was so happy he was the boy that is legally blind and got baptized the day after my birthday. He is a really special kid, his name is Chance. I got permission from Pres. Van Komen to go to the Nauvoo temple with them! I am so excited!

Sunday was a good day. We didn't have too much going on. There was a baptism after church, which is when they like to do it in this ward. We had our dinner at the church because the bishop had to go out of town so his wife brought us stuff. It was really fun to eat with just the elders together. It was raining super bad as soon as church ended. It was good because it helped the snow melt.

Well that was my week. I love you all and hope you all are relying on God for all things you feel you fall short in.

--
Sincerely,
Elder Zachary Taylor

February 22, 2011

Hello everyone! How are you? I am doing really good out here.

So last Monday was pretty fun. We did the normal thing and went to the church to play basketball. When we got to the chuch we got a call from the Zone Leaders and they told us we were getting our car back that day! It is so sweet! I was very happy. It was so nice to be able to drive that car home instead of taking a bus all the way home. It also let us stay at the church to play ball a lot longer.

On Tuesday we got our transfer calls. Elder Davis got transferred to Iola, Kansas. I got a new companion named Elder Mena. He came from the city of Topeka and he was trained by Elder Adair, who is our current district leader. I heard he was really cool and that is right. He is very different from Elder Davis in every way. It is really relieving to have a companion that I feel like I can get along with. He is from a lot of different places but most recently from the Twin Falls, Idaho area. He has also lived in Tri Cities, Washington area. He is really chill and very quiet which is good because it is nice to have some quiet sometimes.

So Wednesday we spent most of the day getting him ready to leave. He needed some stuff and to get suits dry cleaned. We had some appointments that day but they fell through. He was able to get everything ready in time so that was good. We did a lot of running around in the car. I am grateful because we had a full month of miles to use this week so it made things really easy.

Thursday was weird because I had to be in Independence all day long. It was cool though because I got to see a lot of my friends who I haven't seen in a long time. I got to see elder Lesuma and that was really cool. I also got to see a couple of others which was good. Friday we had to go food shopping with the other elders. It was really fun! We went to the Legends to eat afterwards and we ate where we get food for free since we are missionaries. It was good. We had to go and get my package from the FedEx place which was ok because we had a bunch of miles. I love the calender I got in the package. I was really jealous when I saw that my family got to meet Shaq. We got to meet a less active family in our ward that is really cool. They are young and have two adorable children.  We also went to an appointment with a part-member family. It was going really good until the lady's mom came down and tried to bash with us. It was a little hard not to argue back but I feel like we did a pretty good job.

Saturday was cool. We got to teach Cedric and he is still working towards baptism. We taught him about agency and he seemed to understand. We then had some other appointments but they fell through. We had a dinner with some recent converts in our ward and that was fun. They are a fun family that loves the missionaries. We get to sign their wall in sharpie. We then went to see that young less active family I had mentioned earlier.

Sunday was good. We had a part-member family come to church! It was great to see them there but the senior couple in our ward is trying to steal them from us. We have been to their house and offered help and now the senior couple is trying to steal them. It is a little frustrating when that happens but we are just going to keep teaching them. We had a fun dinner where my companion, sister glade, and I were the only ones in the whole house that didn't speak Spanish. It was fun though. We then got to see and investigator and get him to commit to come to p-day with us and play ball.

Monday was cool because we had to go to independence with the other elders because some of us had appointments there. So we got to hangout there and to play ball there. I got to see lots of the Polynesian people that I knew when I first started my mission. It was really fun.

Well I love you all! Hope you recognize the blessings in your lives.

--
Sincerely,
Elder Zachary Taylor

 Elder Mena and I

 Pic of me and a cool wall

February 14, 2011

Hello! How is everything going? I am doing really well out here in Kansas.

Last Monday was really fun. Some other elders brought some investigators to the church to play ball and it was really fun. We got some good competitive games in. It was always me and elder chidester on a team and the two investigators on a team.

Tuesday was cool. We actually got out and were able to work. We were supposed to get a new car that day but we didn't. I was really excited for the car and was a little frustrated we didn't get it. We were told we would get it on Friday. We were able to see some people. We were able to teach our investigator from Burma. His name is Sang, pronounced Song. His only hold up is he has already been baptized and he believes in only being baptized once. He is praying about being baptized again so he will be baptized when the Lord wants him to be. Our lessons with him are pretty challenging because of the language barrier. It takes about an hour for us to figure out 2 of his questions and then to answer them. He has strong faith in God so he is great!

Wednesday we got to teach our investigator Cedric. It was really good except Rock 3 was on in the background. It was really distracting because I love those types of movies. We were in a big gathering room in his apartment complex so when we tried to turn it off we got yelled at.... oh well. We were still able to teach him and it was good. This week we are suppose to have a team up coming with us. Our team up had to stop smoking so he could get baptized recently.

Thursday was weekly planning and then we just went out to visit people. It went pretty well but nothing miraculous. Friday was district meeting. It was our last district meeting of the transfer. It was really good. We got a referral from the Zone Leaders of a less active guy whose fiancee wants to start learning about God. They are getting married today! Our appointment with them is this Wednesday. We didn't get the car on Friday either. They said Saturday. We found some good potential investigators so it was all in all a good day.

Saturday was really cool. We had to come to the library to do a survey and then the Lawters came and took us out to eat. They are from one of my old areas, Kearney 3rd ward. They are really cool and are the ones who took me to see Brittany when she came to Independence. They took us to one of their favorite BBQ places. It is pretty famous because it has had lots of presidents eat there and celebrities. It was really good! Its called Arthur Bryants. They take all your meat, bread, sandwich toppings, and fries and throw them all together on a piece of butcher paper and then roll it up. It gets the sauce on everything and is really good. It was very fun! They are coming down to Las Vegas soon for some family stuff so you all should meet up!

Sunday was.... different. It was one of my more rough Sundays on the mission. It was rough for all of us missionaries. We walked up to the sisters house after church to give them a blessing. We also gave a member a blessing who lives next door. He is a musician and wasn't able to make it to church so my comp had to play the piano. Well that brings us to today. We are planning on playing ball so it should be good. LOVE YOU ALL!

--
Sincerely,
Elder Zachary Taylor

 Our district!

At Arthur Bryants

 Elder Davis and I

February 7, 2011

Hello everybody! So this week was a week that was a little bit crazy. Monday was fun... I guess. We got to go to this huge outdoor mall called Legends. It is cool because it has a Nike outlet factory and a bunch of other stores. We had to ride the buses all P-day though so that slowed things down. We got to the church with about an hour to play and nobody brought a ball. It was just our district there so it was my companion and I, the other set of elders, and the set of sisters. We played ultimate frisbee so that was pretty fun. It actually worked out that we didn't have very many people because the court that we play on is really small. We had a sweet dinner and they offered to feed us again today and they said they wanted to cook us shrimp because we got on the subject of how amazing it is.

Tuesday was a crazy day. We had taco Tuesday and I met a lady there that had seen missionaries around a lot in Oregon. She was very nice. We had the best tacos I have ever eaten and then went on exchanges. We got back to our place and it was really bad outside. There was a blizzard all Tuesday. We tried to get to a place to teach someone but the bus we were on got stuck in the snow so we walked home in the blizzard. The people that we live with drove by us and picked us up. The blizzard dropped more than a foot of snow with 30 to 40 mph winds! It was really crazy.

Wednesday we shoveled snow and couldn't really do too much else. The buses were running really late and some were not running. So we had to walk everywhere. We helped this guy get his truck out of the snow. His truck was rear wheel drive with nothing in the bed so it had NO traction. We got to see a newborn baby from a recent convert in our ward. I was really cool.

Thursday I woke up feeling like I got ran over by every bus there is here in Kansas City. I just felt like crap. We did our weekly planning and then I napped until we had to catch a bus to go teach this investigator from burma. It was a guessing game the whole time at what he was saying. I wish I could just understand him. He seems so sincere but we just have a hard time understanding each other. We went to a dinner and I found out that the elder I was on exchanges with was feeling crappy like I was. We had a sweet team up that night and got to see this less active lady.

Friday we had a training with president. It was good as it always is. He talked about how important it is for us to plan out our days with the Spirit. I liked it and learned a lot of new things. We gave a blessing to a kid preparing for his mission. We also found this less active guy that has wanted us to stop by but we just haven't been able to. It was really cool. He said that we could come by any time.

Saturday my companion woke up and was over the toilet all night long. I found out that everyone in our district was sick. We had a church tour set up for that day so I went on exchanges with the other more healthy elder. We have been on exchanges since. At dinner I couldn't even eat half of my plate because I felt like I would vomit. So they were understanding.

Sunday was good. The sisters recovered and came to church but the other elders didn't. President Van Komen came to our ward so that was nice to see him. We had dinner with the Stevens, who we live with. It was good homemade pizza. All in all a good day. Now we have some fun stuff planned for today because the other elders feel good. Well I will talk to you later! I love you all!

--
Sincerely,
Elder Zachary Taylor