August 28, 2011

Hello everybody! How are you doing? I am doing very, very well. We had an amazing week and we saw the Lord's hand in everything. So last Monday was really good and we got to play some very good b-ball. I bought a KU jersey because it was on sale for $30 dollars – every other one I have seen has been $50-$75 so it was a good deal. There are 3 of us here with jerseys now and it is E. Harmon, E. Kamalu, and me. We all really like b-ball so we wanted to be on the same team and we played really well. We had dinner that night with someone from our bishopric and it was really cool.

Tuesday was pretty good. It started off with some zoo service and that was very fun. We planted and did mulch. It was fun because the other elder I was planting with and I made it a competition to with another set to see who could get the 6 plants planted first.... we won of course, just messing but it was fun. We went on exchanges with the Sherwood elders and I went with E. Powell. He is a really good elder and I was excited to be able to work with him again. We then had an appointment with the girl we met here last Monday and it went so good. She wants to get baptized! She also had her brother and his fiancé come and sit in the lesson with us. It was a miracle to be able to see her and see her wanting to bring her family in with her. She is married and her husband didn't come up so we are not sure if he likes us or not. We then went to see our RLDS investigator and she is doing well. This time we tried to keep the appointment very short and just taught from the Bible. It went very good! The spirit was there and there wasn't time for the spirit of contention to come into the meeting. We then had dinner with a lady from our ward. She made it a surprise birthday party for me! It was really cool. She is a vegetarian so we had burritos without any meat. She also got a cake for me and that was very good. She had 2 of her non-member friends over so that was the best birthday present she could have given me. We were then able to see our recent convert and teach one of the girls that live with her. She relapsed on smoking again so that wasn't good. We talked with her about setting a serious date and sticking with it. She is committed this time we believe because she picked her own day.

Wednesday we had a district meeting. The A/C at the church still wasn't working on both one side and in the chapel. We went to the where it "was working" but it was still blazing hot. We had a good meeting though. We then went on exchanges with the elders down in Emporia. I got to go down there with E. Steinekert. He is really chill and loves to snowboard. While down there we rode bikes a lot and it was pretty fun. Except the bike I rode wouldn't catch the gears sometimes so it made it hard to go up an incline. We went to this one house and it was funny cause as soon as we walked in we could smell weed. It was so ridiculously strong! It was kind of funny cause I would assume that we couldn't smell it. I also saw a swisher wrapper on the floor so it was defiantly weed. We taught them and it was good they want to know the truth and have been looking for a church. Rode to a couple of other houses but no luck. We then went to dinner and it was a b-day dinner for E. Steinekert, his b-day is one day before mine. It was bomb – we had ribs. So they celebrated my birthday too. We then went on team-ups with the brother and went to another house and they were smoking weed cause as soon as she came out that sent came with her. We then talked to these drunk African-American guys for a long time. They were super funny. One really liked my tie and he asked if he could have it. I told him no. He then asked if he gave me $50 if I would give it to him and I said yes very quickly. He was just joking at that point or he didn't know what he was saying. Either way it was fun talking to them.

Thursday we exchanged back. We then went to our appointment but only the girlfriend was there. She was really cool though. We taught her by just reading scripture with her. It was good. She wants to find truth but she is nervous about betraying her church. We then saw Joyce but it was hard to teach because her granddaughter was in a talkative mood. We had dinner at Cici's and that was fun. There were TONS of high school runners there so it was weird because we got some weird looks. I kind of liked it though cause they were hatin’ so let them hate – haha. Then we went to teach our recent converts, the Davis', and they have their nephew living with them. He wants to learn from us and said everything his uncle has explained to him has just made sense. He wants to be baptized and go on a mission! We also contacted a referral and it was good except our team-up started an argument and that turned the ref off to us. We really wanted to teach him because he seemed prepared. I hope that isn't our last chance.

Friday we had district meeting in Lawrence. It was fun and I learned a lot about becoming a missionary opposed to just serving a mission. It is pivotal we become converted out here so we don't just come back and do the exact same thing – we are meant to change for the better. We came home from Lawrence and had a BALLA lesson with Joyce. She finally came to church a week ago and now she seems much happier. We also brought a team-up/fellowship and they hit it off! It was so exciting! She also wants to be baptized and feels love from us! I am so happy for her. We then had dinner and that was very fun. This couple has 4 kids younger than 8 and they are all crazy so it was entertaining. We went to Walmart after to get some milk but we didn't get any because we ran into that investigator we met at the library, Kelly. She had missed the last couple of our appointments at the church but she asked us to come over tomorrow.

Saturday was... well, we are still alive is one positive from it. Our day looked so promising but we went to teach Kelly and her husband answered the door and said they talked about it and they are no longer interested. We were super confused because we had just talked to her the night before. We then got calls from our next two appointments and they cancelled too. UGH!!!!!!!! So frustrating! We got to help with a move in place so that was good. We then had E. Kamalu come with us because his comp was going back to another area to witness a baptism. It was fun but that day just wasn't our day. Our dinner called and said that our investigator was not going to be at dinner. We went and it was fun. We also got to see a less active lady and her daughter so that was really good. We then taught the Davis' nephew and it went really good. He will be baptized on Sep 10th! So a good ending to a rough day.

Sunday we went to church and it was good. Our gospel principle class was full again. We then taught the Davis' nephew after church again with Bro. Hirschi and it went so good. We had our appointment with the retired Baptist minister. We taught about baptisms for the dead again. We had a really quick dinner and then went to watch the Joseph Smith movie with our recent converts. All in all a good day.

Your Friend,
Elder Zachary Taylor

So I forgot to say a miracle. You all remember Kelly the girl we saw here last Monday and they got dropped by her husband. Well she was here again today! She came up to my companion and I and apologized for what had happened. She said she was a little embarrassed and she is still interested. She couldn't believe that he would say that. So we set up an appointment with her at our church building. We told her we didn't want to teach her if her husband wasn't ok with it. She said she was going to talk to him about just her learning so that is cool. While we were talking to her this guy sitting next to us started talking to her very loudly. Telling her not to listen to us because we didn't have beards. He said it was a sin to shave because it is something natural but if that is the case then cutting your fingernails is a sin, brushing your teeth is a sin, and cutting your hair anywhere on your body is a sin. He was just a little off his rocker. It was funny though. She laughed at him. But that was it! Love you all!

August 22, 2011

So I just deleted the whole message but I will just tell you that the week went well before Thursday. So the reason I deleted it was because this girl who we have been trying to see and her mom just walked in the Library. So I got excited that we are going to get the chance to talk to them. I meant to click the "save now" button but I hit the "discard" button. But that was a miracle that she would come in the one day that we came to the library and that we got here when we did. We were going to try to come early but we didn't because we had to take care of some things. I know that the Lord told us to do those things because we were going to see this Kelly girl here. She is looking for truth and we are here to offer it. I love my mission! I love the Lord! I love being able to be an instrument in the Lord's hands and I pray that I will always be able to be worthy. I pray that each one of you will feel the Lord in your life and the blessings that come from faithful service.

Thursday was a good day – we had exchanges with the assistants. I went with E. Lesuma. We went to this ref's house and taught his brother on his porch. It was good! We then went inside and there was no spirit in that house. It was a black hole. The ref wasn't interested and he was miserable. He didn't know where to find happiness. He had tried by knowing everything about cars but that didn't help. He surrounded himself with inappropriate materials and that is not helping him be happier. I wish people could see themselves from our point of view and see the happiness that awaits them in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Saturday was a good day. We saw our recent converts in a little town called Auburn. That pic of "G" with a bunch of ketchup on his plate is on Saturday night. We were then late to give our other investigator a blessing so we ran, literally, to her house. We got there before 9 and we were sweaty and tired. I got the privilege to giving the blessing and I loved it. It is something I can't say much about but I love feeling the spirit. This was a lady we had been teaching for a long time and she never has come to church. She wants to get baptized but she is really sick. We gave her a blessing so she and her family could come to church tomorrow.

Sunday was a busy day. So we were in sacrament sitting next to some investigators. During the sacrament portion we see a head poke through the door. It’s the lady who we gave a blessing, her daughter in law!!!! True miracle right there! The priesthood is truly God's authority here on this earth. I love him and again am grateful to serve him. I love you all!

Your Friend,
Elder Zachary Taylor

 

 "G" and he plate full of ketsup

 After exchanges with the assistants

August 15, 2011

So this week was really busy. We went on 3 exchanges and elder Harmon wasn't in our area for 2.5 days. It was strange. We had a really successful week and we were happy. We taught a lot of lessons we just felt disappointed because we only found 2 new investigators.

Monday was fun. We played lots and lots of basketball. For the last play of the last game elder Kamalu and I trapped elder Harmon in the corner. Elder harmon always tries to throw the ball at your legs when he is in that situation and we remembered that. When he tried to throw it at my legs I moved my leg at the right time and so it just stopped it. I got the ball and made a rather acrobatic shot. 360 lay up around someone. I was happy I hit it or I would've looked like a retard. We then had dinner with the Jones family. It was really good! Their daughter who is going BYU-I is home for the summer so she cooked dinner and dessert. She did a very good job!

Tuesday we did service at the zoo and we carried lots of dirt in wheel barrows and in buckets into the gorilla cages. It was very very stinky and we had to wear those doctors masks. We had fun though. Afterwards we got to go to one of the elders' member's houses and eat a ton of food cause they wanted to get rid of it and who better to do it than a bunch of poor hungry missionaries, right? We went on exchanges and I was with E. Combs, from Henderson, NV, so it was cool. We saw a sweet miracle. This guy was sitting outside and he is engaged to a LDS lady who is just getting active again. She has told him she was going to send us but she hadn't told us. So for us to run into him I thought it was a miracle.

Wednesday we had a funeral to go to of a 2 year old that passed away. It was sad but a very good funeral. We then had district meeting and that was fun. We didn't have much time before our next appointment so we ate Mickey D's.... not my favorite but its all good. We were able to see a couple of people and then we had to go home and have a conference call with the mission leaders. It is always good to hear how other zones are doing. The Topeka zone is doing very good! We are so happy so see them progressing and being consistant.

Thursday we went on exchanges with Wakarusa Valley. I finally went on exchanges with E. Chidester. I served around him in Kearney and never went on exchanges with him in 4.5 months. This was our first time and he is going home very soon. We saw this car in somebody's driveway and the engine had caught on fire and exploded! It was crazy looking. We were then able to see a miracle. We went to this lady's house, Patricia, and she wasn't there but she pulled up as we were knocking. She invited us in and we were very surprised. We talked for a little bit and then all I could think about was Alma 32 so we shared with her the seed/faith anology and it went over with her very well. She told us she had been praying for God's help to "get right" again. She said she had been a church going girl her whole life she just fell out of the habit and she needs help getting back into it. She was very excited to have us over. MIRACLE!!!!

Friday we had a good day. We had to go to district meeting down in Lawrence. It was fun but got started late. I then went on exchanges with E. Lyon. They went well. We got to eat with a cool new family and to see a investigator that we haven't seen in a long time. We exchanged back on Saturday. We taught lots of lessons that day. We also committed 2 girls to be baptized.

Sunday was good. We had 2 of our 3 with a baptismal date at church and 3 other investigators there. The ward is really supportive of us. We also conferred our recent convert with the preisthood. It was really cool. We had a stake preisthood meeting to go to and that was fun. I got to see a member I knew down in Derby there. He moved to Lawrence because he is going to school I was happy to see him.

Well all in all a great week! I love it out here and I really don't want to come home.... sorry mom.

Your Friend,
Elder Zachary Taylor

August 8, 2011

Hello everybody! How are you doing? I am doing really well.

 

So I didn't bring my planner that says what I did last week. I will try to remember as much as I can. On Monday we had lots of people at the stake center to play basketball. It was way fun! We had some young men there that play on the high school basketball team and they were good so it made things interesting. I am proud to report that I was able to block the tallest one! That was my goal the who time so I was happy when it happened. We then went to a BBQ at Rick's. He is the guy who we help at the zoo every Tuesday. It was really cool. He bought all the stuff so we were very thankful. We had hot dogs and roasted them over an open fire and we had chips and beans. For dessert we had smores. It was lots of fun!

 

Tuesday we had zone leader council in Independence. I got my temple recommend renewed by Pres. Keyes. Also we found out that a man in our zone can now be baptized. He was waiting on First Presidency permission. We were happy and his elders were VERY happy! While I was in president's office for the temple recommend interview he had his transfer board open. The transfer board shows were everyone is going for transfers. Transfer calls were suppose to go out that night so I took a peak. All I could see through the crack was our zone! It was nice. Speaking of transfers Elder Harmon and I are staying together for a fourth transfer! I am super excited! That will make it 6 months together. That never has happened that I know of so it is really cool.

 

Wednesday I cannot remember what happened. Thursday was transfer day. We went and picked up Elder Manoa because he was getting transferred. It was sad to see him go he is such a funny guy. I will miss him. We had Elder Powell with us until the bus came back up from Wichita. It was fun with 3 people. We were able to teach a couple of lessons. We went back to the church at 3 to teach one of our member's grandchildren and that went way good! The oldest one, the leader, told us that she has a hard time believe people about religious things but she likes us and believes us and the other one wants to be baptized for sure! We are so lucky to have people like this to teach. We had a dinner that night that had their nonmember nephew over that we had taught before so that was cool. We also had a sweet team up and went to teach a lady named Lisa and her family. It went so good and she is looking for truth but she doesn't know where to find it. She is ready to accept the gospel.

 

Friday was rough. We had 1 appointment besides dinner and that fell through. We tried a lot of people but they weren't home. We then taught our RLDS investigator and that was... good. She is really stubborn and now I understand when they say hard heartedness and stiff necked. She refuses to believe anything we teach even when we teach it out of the Bible. We had dinner with the Davis family and it was BOMB! She made homemade fried chicken. We also had a wonderful lesson with them about the temple. Their goal is to be sealed in a year! After that we went to one of our part-member family's daughter's birthday party. It was cool that she invited us and she was happy when we came. I love that family.

 

Saturday we had a.... crazy appointment. So we met this guy Homer earlier on in the week and taught him and his friend Gary; we taught them in Gary's house. We had a return appointment with them and when we got there Homer was heading out to the mailbox. He told us Gary wasn't home so we could come to his house. We went in and the first thing we see on the wall is a picture of this girl. She was covered up but it defiantly wasn't kosher. He then spent 10 mins showing us pictures of his family so that was cool. He was acting really weird and fidgety the whole time. We sat down and we were going to try to teach him to pray. So we asked him if he had ever written a letter before and he springs up and says yes do you want to read them. We told him no but he put his composition book into our hands and said read them. So E. Harmon was reading them and then he brought me his will to read so I skimmed that. Afterwards he took the composition book back and then said he was going to read one to us. He read it and it started out "Dear so and so, My name is Homer and I am a substance abuser and addict....." We asked him if that was true and he said yes then we asked what and he said marajuana and crack. We then said alright can we help? He then said wanna see my food? So he proceeded to show us all his food in the house. We sat down and then said we wanted to teach him something so he tried to find his book. He moved some stuff on the table and one was a DVD it was a not so wholesome DVD and E. Harmon saw it so he said alright can we say a prayer because we are leaving so we left. He was trippin on something that whole time and I don't think it was marajuana. We are not ever going back to that house. We also don't know if he was fully accountable so we will just wait on him. It was a fun experience though. We then were able to teach 2 new investigators that had lived with members. We also were able to teach our recent converts.

 

Sunday was good. We had a good fast and testimony meeting. We had our recent converts tell us their sister is struggling so we will be going over there and checking on her. We then were able to go to lunch. It was bomb and it was fun. The Lawtons are sweet! We taught our baptist minister investigator and that was fun. We then were able to see an investigator that we haven't seen in a long time. We helped her resolve some problems. She has been wronged by "church people" in the past. They judged her and condemmed her. We explained that Christ, who is the one who will judge us, didn't condem others while he was here on earth ie the woman taken in adultry. We also got to see another recent convert and she and her family are doing well.

 

So as you can see a fun and spiritual week. I love it! ONe thing I have learned is to appreciate the Holy Ghost. It makes missionary work possible. I love you all!

Your Friend,
Elder Zachary Taylor

 E. Harmon and I on a hot day in a team up's car. The thermometer said 119 for a while.

August 1, 2011

Hello everybody! This week was AMAZING not just for us but for our entire zone.

Monday was good we played lots of basketball and the team I was on was able to win. We then went out to dinner with a single sister in our ward and her 17 year old son. He is going to start coming to play ball with us on p-day. We then went and visited our recent converts the Davis family. They are doing SO good but they just had some questions. Like when can we go to the temple to get sealed! I am so happy they are seeing the eternal view of things.

Tuesday we went to the zoo and tore apart the otter exhibit. It was.... hot and messy but fun. We got to throw lots of rocks around and hit things with sledge hammers so what else could we ask for. We work there with Rick and we are having a BBQ at his house Monday so we are very, very excited. We were able to tract into someone and teach them. We also invited him to be baptized and he accepted! We had some of our other appointments fall through on us but we still had a great day in which we were able to bring others to Christ.

Wednesday we didn't have much going on. We had a district BBQ after our district meeting with Topeka District. It was really good! We had fried fish, peaches, brawts, and twinkies. Not healthy but very very good. We then went and taught a Jehovah Witness man and he is going to get us one of their bibles. We had dinner and then went to a meeting with the stake president and our mission president in which we reported on the last 2 months. It went very well.

Thursday was really good. We were able to fine 1 new investigator and able to teach 5 different investigators! We have been very blessed this week in being able to see everyone we needed to. Friday I was on exchanges down in Lawrence and we moved someone again. Every time I have gone down there we have moved someone and I love it. I like moving people. These people thought they were going to get more time before they had to leave but so it was an emergency. I almost got a huge picture of Michael Jordan out of it.

Saturday was good we were able to see a miracle. We were going to visit this guy who told us to come by. When we got to where his house should have been we realized it was a bad address, we had visited his wife before so we did know where he meant. There was a guy across the street who called us over and said "I have a couple of minutes if you want to talk". We were shocked and said yes. We taught him of Joseph Smith and prayer and it helped him out. He asked us to come back. We then tried the house we had thought the first man lived at and he wasn't home. We walked down the driveway and turned the corner and there he was, with his wife. He said he was happy he saw us because he got called into work. He invited us in and we taught them of the Book of Mormon. We are going back next week.

Sunday was good. We had solid meetings and an investigator came that has never come before! I was so happy. We were on cloud 9 for the rest of the day. We were able to do numbers for the zone and they were astronomical! We as a zone average around 160-180 lessons in a week, which is really good but this week we got 200 and more than 50 percent of them were to investigators! It was a miracle to see that happen. We then taught our Baptist minister investigator about temples. We also visited this girl who has come to church 4 times now and set her to be baptized on Aug. 20th!

As you can see we are being blessed and we love that we are able to help the Lord with his work.

Your Friend,

Elder Zachary Taylor 

Topeka District

Wakarusa District (Lawrence)

 

 

"G" and I, his hair is sweet