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