22 diciemvre 2014

Well sorry for the spelling errors and everything that might happen in this letter, the shift and space keys are not functioning too well.

well, there's not a whole lot to tell you all because i'm going to talk you guys this week. 4 oclock coahuila time, 3 oclock in idaho, i think. but anyway, 4 oclcok coahuila for sure.

We're still going with an investigator named juan ramon who is AWESOME. he's a profesor of investigation i think or something like that and he loves to read. we haven't even made it through lesson 1 completely yet because he has tons of questions. he wants to do an intellectual approach to the gospel but does not at all diminish the importance of faith in the process. when we asked him to take the book of mormon, he said no. then he proceded to explain that he already had one and had already read it, but doesn{t remember much. but then when he went to find it he couldn{t find it so we gave him a new one. then i thought to ask him his favorite author and you'll never guess who it was. dostoevsky. well, i got excited and started ranting about the hermanos caramasov and aliocha and everything and he got kinda excited too and i think a little weirded out that this kid from the united states who barely speaks his language and comes to talk about god and stuff actually gets excited about things like alyosha's character development and the comparison between the brothers.

and we found a family this week1 they're decidedly catholic but feel abandoned by all the family and all the churches because they have to take care of the 90 year old uncle who can't see anything, can't hear anything, barely can stand, needs diapers but he sure can shout to get attention. anyway, she says she's been to other christian churches and feltso pretty inside (that's the actual spanish way ofexpressing it) and all that but they told her that to continue going she would have to come every day of the week practically and abandon the uncle at home. she says they told her choose between god and the uncle. well, she chose the uncle. Yeah, we ask sacrifice in this church. but we will never ever demand that you sacrifice the wellbeing of your lovedones to come to church activities between the week.

we're also teaching a great guy who looks a lot likeFernando from pacific pools andis also from Guerrero, except this guy is skinnier and also actually speaks english. which makes it interesting to teach him. it's an advantage because some things make more sense in english (like the word dispensation, dispensación doesn't ring many bells to spanish speakers and neither does the word dispersar, but we can say god is dispensing or dispersing truth in the world and this makes more sense in english) and some things make more sense in spanish (such as the difference between the bautismo and the bautizo: bautismo is what teaches the bible, by immersion, bautizo is never mentioned not even in the catholic bibles that i've seen and it's by sprinkling). but yeah. he's super interesting, his name is carlos, carlitos or carlitros. the Mera family is paying him to build more on their house and they're also bringing him to church. the bad thing is that he's leaving in february for the united states and so if we're going to baptize him it needs to be rather soon but then say good bye. oh well.

I'm sending pictures this week again as well.

pues, les hablo el jueves! feliz navidad y un nuevo año de felicidad!

elder Taylor

P.S. never mind about the fotos. the thing doesn't wanna work. la cosita ni quiere jalar.

elder taylor

15 12 2014

I just attached fotos to this email. But i couldn't see beforehand what they were, so I hope they're right. Actually, I hope they're mine...

This week has been insane.

Did I already tell you all about Martha Golondrina and how I had to baptize her Gitmo style? It's a fun story. And I think I forgot to tell you. I was reviewing my journal last night and ran into it.

I found a scripture that says we shouldn't sleep in church! In Corinthians 11:20. Pablo's giving directions on what NOT to do in church and by the quantity of things that they needed to be directed in, sounds like church services in the early church were quite lively. So lively that people even fell asleep.

I received both packages this week. THANK YOU SO MUCH! my companion and I made the pavos this morning and he thought they were chido. so there. I also left a package to be sent to you all with my previous companion. a ver si se lo manda. It includes cookies and two rosaries (one for me, one for mom: mom you can pick which). And stickers for nicole and her class. Not that they can't be bought up there but I thought of her when I saw them.

Holy cow! Like I said, this week was insane! We did about 4 hours of service helping an investigator move gravel. We had two christmas parties, one that took ALL DAY LONG (almost) and one that took up about 3 hours of our night. And in spite of it all, our numbers climbed. And not just our numbers, but the quality of the lessons climbed. We're having experiences that I'd always heard of other missionaries having. In one day, one guy asked us out of the blue in a lesson if there were a heaven and we told him that yes, there is. The next lesson the guy started talking about how the church of christ isn't over the face of the earth anymore and that he's kinda been looking for it. Just out of the blue. Then another guy the day before told us he already has a book of mormon and wants to know more about our religion. We gave a blessing to an investigator with chicken pox that's expected to last a while, the next day he's fine. This priesthood thing gives me the heebie jeebies still. Seriously, as we try to do our best to fill up our time with teaching and finding and we don't delay for nothing, God puts the people in the right spot at the right time.

Last night was a futbol game between the Águilas de las Américas and someone. We could hear every time they metieron gol because the whole colonia cheered. and then they won. Holy smokes, the town went crazy. Oh, also this week was the Day of the Virgin, Queen of Mexico. We saw a little party with their danza. Nada que ver con el ruido del día del partido. Futbol is a more important goddess even than the Virgencita. And that's saying something.

Well, I guess that's it. Oh, and I got my first flu shot ever. I feel fine but my companion se enfermó bien feo.

Cuidaos!

Elder Taylor

The Alvarez Lopez Family. Not smiling because these dang mexicans don't know how to smile. 

Hermana Martha Golondrina. The abuela of the family Alvarez who was baptized two weeks after. She asked that I baptize her but she sure put up a fight when she was about to go under but we kinda got to the point where it'd be bad to abort the operation, so I had to do it Gitmo style. My companion thought it was super funny.

And my best friend in Mexico and his mom. Seriously, he was the only person that I could understand 100% of the time, partially because he doesn't speak. He's two and barely learning to walk. his name is Nicolas.

my companion and I made the pavos this morning and he thought they were chido.

I just attached fotos to this email. But i couldn't see beforehand what they were, so I hope they're right. Actually, I hope they're mine...

8 Diciemvre 2014

What a week.

We found 3 families this week. Los Saldaña Ybarra, Los Sumaya Aguaya (or something like that), and Los De León. The familia Saldaña is super awesome. We found them in the Street and they said we could pass by some day. And so we went and met them and showed them the El es la Dadiva. Afterward we were talking a Little bit and she mentioned that her family is LDS and oh by the way so is she and then she kept talking. But her records aren't in the Ward and nobody knows her, so I think she just stopped going one day for some reason and then we happened to find her. But they're an awesome family. Right from the start we have a good friendship with them.

Los Sumaya or the family of Hermana Galleta. So called because her nickname is Cuqui (apparently all the María de SPLAT all have different certain nicknames. every single one has a different one and it varies depending on the región as well. ugh. just when I thought i was getting caught up.) We found them knocking doors. She said come in and then she sat down and then "vénganse, hijos, para que eschuchen. no, quítate el celular, siéntate, escucha. no, cállate, porque tu necesitas un mensaje de dios ahorita." She says she's very catholic but she loves learning about other religions and she wants her sons to hear more about God. She also said that her son had asked her what she would do if he joined a different religión and she siad that as long as he felt good about it, adelante. She also said that she wants to come to church and that perhaps one time will turn into two and then three. And she says that we always catch them at exactly the right time when they're ready to listen which hardly ever happens.

And funny experience with them: We invited her son Alexander to say the prayer (he's about 18 i think) and he said he didn't know how. So she said, "Sí, tu la vas a hacer. Yo la empiezo y después tu." So she started the prayer just like any other prayer and then said "Y Señor, mi hijo Alexander tiene algunas cosas que decirte. Alexander...." And so he finished. I almost laughed out loud.

And the De León family...they're great but we've got a lot to work with them.

And we also found a lady that had been meeting with the missionaries before but moved and lost contact. named Patricia.

And Fabiola went to church! she's a student at the university and just like the Hermana Cuqui wants to learn more about other religions. So right now it's not a commitment really, but it's something that can definitely develop. The bad thing is that she and her sister are both leaving until Christmas....but they said they'd take the book of mormon with them to read.

This Ward is quite strange. Hardly anybody shows up, but those who do, are firm. I think we had 80 in the sacrament meeting. It's basically one family, the Mera clan headed by Mama Mera who is hilarious, The Sisters Ramos and then various other members. Also, remember those stories of Mexican saints having to save up for a long time, going without equis commodity or whatever to be able to go to the Temple in Mesa and then stay there all day long doing temple work and then return? That's these people. During the Ward Council they had a nostalgia sesión. Including a joke about Hermano Julio who showed up to the temple wet (all the "old timers" laughed. I didn't get the joke until somebody explained that "wet" means "ilegal").

Wow, this Spanish autocorrect is annoying.

I made tamales! well, I helped fill them.

And we have a rat. My companion saw him this morning. Which would explain a few things, such as why the hole in the bread was getting bigger.

Couple things: when do you guys want to talk on Christmas? I don't think it's too soon to be thinking about it. It's an hour and a half for us. And can somebody send me the emails of the missionaries from Greenhill Ward? Thank you! And Feliz Cumpleaños a todos que cumplan esta semana. Sé que hay varios...I would sing the song that they sing here about King David and the Little Birds that's super long, but I don't know it. Sorry.

That's all.

Bye!

Elder Taylor

1 Diciemvre 2014

Well, another week, another companion, another area, another house, another just about everything.

I am now in Aeropuerto 1 in Monclova Este. It's BEAUTIFUL. The streets are super clean compared to the streets in Loma Linda in Saltillo, for the most part the houses are just about the cleanest houses I've ever seen, the people is much more open (to talk, to the gospel not so much) than in Saltillo, the weather is GORGEOUSLY dry and warm as compared to Saltillo wet and cold, and the city is much prettier than Saltillo (except the view of the factories...just don't look there).

And Elder Muñoz...mi nuevo compañero. Poor guy.

We're really both greenies out here. I'm the senior companion (they told me I was finishing training him, but they lied, which is great because I didn't want to do it) and you know what THAT means. It means we have no idea what we're doing. But obviously God trusts us both enough to put us together. We'll figure something out. He's actually where I was one transfer ago: 2 transfers under the belt and no baptisms. Here's the difference: it's not looking like we're going to have a baptism this transfer. We have a few investigators that are progressing, but we've already passed one Sunday with nobody in the church and 5 are required to baptize in our mission. So......yeah. But there we go working. Hm...that makes more sense in Spanish. Dejen lo intento. Ahí vamos trabajando. Ándale.

Poor guy, though. He's from Veracruz and speaks SUPER DUPER MEGA RAPIDO. And uses different lingo. I don't understand half of what he says. I think he's getting frustrated. I felt sorry for not understanding him until the Relief Society President told him to slow down because she couldn't understand him. Then I was like, Oh, okay. It's not just me.

But I swear, I dropped like 50% in comprehension of the language when I moved para acá. The accent's a lot stronger here, and HOLY COW this people can talk without shutting up like no other. We had a lesson where the guy talked for an hour straight about how he was going to follow this road until he died without super committing himself really. Yep, he took an hour to say that. It's almost not worth it to ask questions when you know you're getting yourself in for another 20 minutes of how the neighbor's mom has cancer when the question is something about "What is the Law of Chastity to you?"

Oh well.

Interesting Taxista: He swore the Mormons were super duper powerful in the United States which kinda made me laugh. Then he told us the Mormons founded the country and that it's kinda been a regime since then. He didn't believe me when I told him we're less than 10% of the population and that most mormons live outside the states. Like in Mexico for example. Oh well. By the way, we're less than 10% of the population, right?

We had our zone conference this week. I came from the Zone with the best obedience of the mission. Every single person there was awesome and super. I come here and some of the missionaries will tell you that they don't really care. The spirit just wasn't in the zone conference. It just turned into a comedy show. I stood up to introduce myself and everybody went quiet to listen which felt nice. But then Elder Montero stood up and the room changed. That guy is going to be an apostle some day. Suddenly it felt like a Zone conference again.

Have you guys heard about the He is the Gift Initiative of the church? (Well, it's El es la Dadiva in Spanish. I suppose it's He is the Gift in English.) Basically, you watch the video (el cual está bien bonito y cortito) on Christmas.mormon.org or on youtube or wherever and then you share it with someone. PLEASE do it and afterward give referrals to the missionaries. Please please PLEASE do it. Right now we need people to teach and I know the missionaries in Utah and Idaho would LOVE to receive more referrals.

In my scripture study this day, I read 2 Nefi 3. Every time I read that chapter I'm stumped. There are profesies in there that I don't think have come to pass yet, things dealing with the descendants of Lehi. It's SUPER interesting and mind-boggling to read carefully, paying particular attention to who's talking and to whom.

And one final request for whomever: could you please send me the emails of Elder Hurtado, Elder Lewis, Elder Henrie and Sister Mecham porfis? Muchísimas Gracias!

OOOOOO i'm so ready for christmas. Y voy cumpliendo 6 meses entre 2 semanas....me queda un año y medio.

Elder Taylor