Monday, April 18, 2011

April 18, 2011

Hello everyone! Another wonderful week in Topeka, Kansas!
 
We will start with Tuesday. We did service at the zoo. I guess we go every Tuesday from 9 to 12. It was pretty fun! We cleaned up the giraffe cages and we were right by the elephants. I got to pet the elephants so that was cool. We got to see a couple of investigators. The miracle was our appointment with the part-member family. We challenged the 10 year old for baptism and she accepted but they are going to be telling us a date tomorrow.
 
Wednesday was cool we had a good district meeting. We had a very tired day. We did weekly planning because we were exhausted and we had stuff going on when we usually do it. We got to see another part-member family named the Dawsons. It went very good. Sis. Dawson, nonmenber, cooks us dinner every Wednesday. She is really cool and is the one who said she wants to be baptized but is afraid of water.
 
Thursday we got to help someone level their yard. It was really fun. We also got to visit someone in the hospital. He is a long time member and had a son go on a mission. He was very happy we came. We then had a good dinner but the day went very downhill from there. We just got bad news upon bad news. It is all good though because we are very blessed.
 
Friday was a good day we had district meeting down in Lawrence and it went very well. We then went on exchanges with the Wakarusa Valley elders. I went with elder Taufa. He served in Blue Mills not too long ago so I got to get some info on my greenie ward. He is a very good missionary and I love him. 
 
Saturday we switched back. We had a good day. We got to contact a less active member and now we are going to be teaching his friend and sister. All that from one visit! When we follow the spirit we are blessed! We then had a great lesson after dinner! We committed two more people for baptism and they accepted. They are being so prepared so it was easy. We then went to visit some recent converts and that was good. We then went and helped this less active guy move. He was in a band and took us to his basement where he had a stage and everything. It was a horrible feeling down there. I hated it and just wanted to leave. I wondered how anyone could live with a place like that in their house. I am glad our home was a refuge from the world.
 
Sunday was good I gave a talk and it went well. We then had a meeting with bishop and that was good because he had some good insights. We then had lunch with a family and it went well. We are going to stay at their house easter weekend because the Elliots are having family over. We then went to visit a member referral. It was this lady's nephews. They are twins and seniors. They were really cool and just invited us in and listened to us. They asked when we finished if there was more so we are going to be teaching them Friday night.
 
So ask you can see we are being so blessed. I believe I have had hard times in my mission to make me really appreciate the good. I love  you all and be grateful!

Sincerely,
Elder Zachary Taylor

Monday, April 11, 2011

April 11, 2011

Hello everybody! How is it going? I am doing excellent! We had such a great week! I love it!

So Monday we played soccer and football. Soccer was really fun, to our surprise. I guess it is because we have a bunch of soccer players in our zone. We went out to Lawrence to meet those missionaries out there so we could get together as a zone. We then drove back home and had dinner with our ward mission leader. It was really good. We then had a coordination meeting with him. I think that it is cool that we meet with him before every Sunday to go over our week. We then had to drive a hour and a half to go to Independence, Missouri because we had to go to Zone Leader council on Tuesday.

Tuesday was really good! We got to hear how all the other zones were doing and what their goals were for this coming transfer. We also got to get some good direction from the assistants and from president. We have set some good goals for this next transfer after that. We got home and we were very tired and hungry but we had 2 hours until dinner. We went and tried to contact some people. While we were doing that we ran into this crazy guy, I think he was drunk on top of that too. He halfway talked and halfway yelled at us for 20 mins about Jesus Christ. We just smiled and bore our testimonies and then went on our way. We had a really good dinner that night. It was great because they were on some sort of diet so they wanted us to clean them out so we got lots of ice cream! We then were able to meet with a less active couple and they love us. They offered to take us to each of our favorite restaurants.

Wednesday was cool because we got to go to one of the district meetings. It was cool to see some of the people there. We then tried to contact some people but nothing too amazing happened until dinner. A part member family was feeding us, the wife isn't a member. Sister Dawson is her name. She loves to cook for us and has invited us over for 3 Wednesdays in a row. We had some really good but very spicy buffalo wings. She had been taught by missionaries before and she got pushed too hard so she lost trust in them. We have been working to gain her trust again and it seemed to work. We had a lesson after and she asked if she could read from the Book of Mormon and find out for herself if it was true. Turns out that is what we ask everyone to do! YAY!!!!! Miracles. We had a good rest of the evening but that was the highlight.

Thursday was really good. We went on exchanges but we were just doing a day exchange. I went to the other elders area. It was raining all day so we didn't do much street contacting. We tried to see less actives all day and got in with some of them but didn't teach them a lesson. We then went to Cici's pizza for lunch. We worked the rest of the day and just got yelled at and stuff. We decided to try one last less active member. It turns out that she had prayed to God for an answer and we showed up that day! We were so happy that made every disappointment go away and made the whole day worth it. I learned that if we can push through our tuff times that there really are rewards waiting at the end. We then had a member take us to Cici's Pizza for dinner. We were so sick of Cici's when the day was over. We then had a church tour and it went well.

Friday we had district meeting down in Lawrence and that went really well. We then went on exchanges again and I stayed in our area with E. Allan. We did a lot of tracting. We knocked on one door and talked with a man for over an hour. He was very intelligent and had lots of knowledge. I think he in fact had so much knowledge that it clouded his ability to have faith. He was so wrapped up in the details that he forgot about how simple the Gospel of Jesus Christ really is. Very nice man though. We then found another new investigator and that went very well. He said we could come back this week so we will see. We then took our dinner hour at 8 o'clock P.M. and went home to eat. It was fun to get to know E. Allan.

Saturday we saw a less active elderly couple and that was ok. They seem to have the same problem every time and cannot see that if they would come to church that it would be solved. We then exchanged back which took a long time because we had to drive quite a ways. We then had some appointments but the all fell through. We then went to dinner and that was really fun. It was with the Barnes family and he likes to golf a lot. They have a son in southern Cali somewhere right now. We had a good dinner with them at a Mexican restaurant. We then had a sweet lesson with Melissa and Dave. He is a member but she isn't and he is the son of someone in our ward so we teach them at their house. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes we just need to set a date now. She also works on Sundays. We had a interesting experience with this lady. We were talking on the phone and she yelled at us that we shouldn't stand in the street so we went and talked with her. We had a good lesson with her on trials and on judging. She was very thankful we stopped by and we will visit her this week.

Sunday was really good. I was excited because last Sunday I didn't get to go to church so that means now I could meet the ward. We had planned for a lot of people to be there but only 2 showed up. On less active and one investigator, Sis. Dawson. After sacrament meeting Sister Dawson said that she wants to be baptized but she is just afraid of water. We told her we wouldn't let anything happen to her. We then found a new investigator and that went well and we were able to see a less active lady. We explained how Satan was working in her life to keep her from church. We had a great day! We had a team up in the evening and we took him to a less active member's house. He took control which was PERFECT for the family! We were so happy!

This morning I did accountabilities with E. Lesuma. It was really fun! Well I love you all!!!!

Sincerely,
Elder Zachary Taylor

Monday, April 4, 2011

April 4, 2011

So I hope everyone thoroughly enjoyed this weekend! I really did! Anytime you can hear from one prophet of God you should get excited but when you get to hear from the prophet and his called apostles it is even more amazing! I love conference!

So last Monday was a long day of basketball. It was great! We all got to play so that was fun. We also played ultimate frisbee afterwards and that was a bad idea because I was exhausted after that. None of us had a dinner so we decieded to go out to eat. We all paid for Elder Adair's food because he was going home. It was really good. We went to Arthur Bryant's BBQ.

Tuesday was a crazy day. We were in our studies when we got a call from president. He wanted to talk to me. He asked me to be one of his Zone Leaders. I was shocked and felt honored that the Lord had chosen me as a zone leader. I was pretty nervous when he told me. I got transferred to the Colly Creek ward in Topeka, Kansas. I live with the Stake President. Elder Anderson, who came out with me, replaced me in Kaw River. I was given permission to go back to Kaw River for the baptisms on April 23rd. I was really happy about that.

Wednesday we had an appointment in the morning with Rensi and Zenas. Rensi is the one without any background in religion. It was a really good lesson on the Plan of Salvation. I felt the Spirit very strongly and she understood very well, but who wouldn't when the Spirit is the one really teaching. I loved teaching about the Plan because I gained a stronger testimony of the plan. I love that we have a plan laid out for us. In every aspect of the plan is God's love. I cannot fathom how much he loves us.

Thursday was transfer day. It was crazy but I got to see a lot of old missionary friends. Elder Lesuma was riding the bus so I sat next to him, Edler Stapley and Sister Glade. It was really fun and we all talked the whole way up. When we got to Topeka I met Elder Harmon. He is really cool! We had to hang around all day because we were waiting for the bus to come back from Wichita with some of our zone members. We then had a team up that night so we didn't get home until 9 30ish because we live 7 miles out of town.

Friday was good. We went and taught a less-active member we had met in Walmart the day before. It went really well and he wants to come back to church. We had lunch and then saw some people. We were focusing on getting people to come to General Conference. We invited everyone we knew. It went really well. We went to dinner with a recently reactivated member, Cliff. He goes bowling every friday night but he bought us dinner at the bowling alley and we were there with him for a little while. It was really fun and we got all sorts of crazy looks because of our suits.

Saturday was amazing! I loved conference so much. Inbetween sessions we had a baptism and it went very smoothly. We had to run to get food right before it though. That next session was good. We then had dinner with a family whose son married a non-member. We are teaching her now and the son said that he wants her to listen to us so she will be baptized. When the subject of baptism is brought up by family it makes it easier to talk about it. Our lesson went very well. We then went to the priesthood session and that was AMAZING as always. I feel I can do more to fulfill the priesthood calling.

Sunday was great! We had a potato bar inbetween sessions. It was cool because I was able to meet a lot of the ward members there. We then went home and collected numbers which took forever because we are both fairly new to being zone leaders and we don't know how to set up spread sheets. We then created a zone calander and that was good. We then had a huge storm and had to park our car under a tree so we just stayed inside with the Elliots. We got to hear William's speech that he prepared for school so that was cool.


Sincerely,
Elder Zachary Taylor

 E. Taylor & E. Harmon


 The Molinar’s baptism

 Us on the last Sunday of the transfer




 Service project at the Molinars (recent converts)



 This is our old car after that accident back in Jan.





 Taco Tuesday!
 
Dinner at the Gaona’s!

Iris’ birthday!