July 25, 2011

Hello everybody! How are you all doing? I am doing very good and having a blast out here. We have seen many miracles and know that the Lord is the reason for any measure of success we are having.

  

So on Monday we were able to have dinner with a less active family. It was really cool to be able to eat with them. I think the husband is a convert. We had never met them before so we were surprised that they invited us over to their house for dinner. On Tuesday we were able to have a really good day. We taught a couple of people including the family that was to get baptized on Saturday. It went very good, we just went over the baptismal interview questions. We then went to teach Lloyd and Kim. We just met them on the street and they were very nice and invited us to come over and teach them. They gave us water and opened up our house to them.

On Wednesday we went on exchanges and switched cars with Emporia. They are getting a new car and we are closer to Independence so when it come there will be less miles driven. I went down to Emporia with Elder Meisenheimer. It was really fun we got to see a couple of people. One was named James and he was really funny. We then went to dinner and taught their recent convert. Thursday we switched back and then we were able to see the family that was to be baptized on Saturday. We also were able to go to our recent convert's house and help them. I love it when what you study comes up in  your discussions with people. We also had a member referral and we went to see him and when we got there it was really cool. We were able to invite him to be baptized and he accepted. We found out that he isn't in our area though so we contacted the missionaries that are suppose to be teaching him and we told them about him. They are going to start teaching him now.

Friday was good. We had district meeting in Lawrence and it was really fun. We had an appointment with someone at 9 in the morning but she wasn't there. We went on exchanges with Hiawatha and I was here in Colly Creek with elder Stevens. It was really hot that day! We had lots of fun though. We were able to see Cliff and it was good that we were able to see him because he was down a little bit. Saturday we went to a couple of the wards parties here in Topeka. It was really fun. We then switched back and had 3 appointments then we had to go fill up the font for the baptism. We did the baptisms and everyone's went good. Elder Harmon's person he was baptizing wasn't too keen on going under water so she resisted a little bit and he forced her under because she said she wanted to be baptized so it went well. The person I baptized had 5 names so I was worried about forgetting that stuff.

Sunday was really good! We had 3 investigators at church and then we were able to go and teach the investigator that was going to the other elders. They called us over so we went and he believe Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God! We were so excited! We then were able to teach our retired baptist minister investigator with his son and daughter in law. It went well and he is praying about Joseph Smith. We then had dinner at the Jones' house and that was a blast! We had a ping pong tournament afterwards and we, the elders, were victorious a couple of times.

So we are just being blessed as missionaries here in the Independence Missouri Mission. Many miracles are coming to pass. I love you all and hope to hear from you!

Your Friend,
Elder Zachary Taylor

  

Shawnnicka, ShawnTavia, and Ja-amavian at their baptism
 

Ja-amavian and I

 

Jones family