9 Noviembre 2015

9 Noviembre 2015

One year ago was my first baptism in the mission. And we just baptized again!

Maria Esther was baptized on Saturday (twice, her hair came up out of the water the first time) and confirmed on Sunday. It was super special. Alejandra Castro (who just came back from the mision in Tabasco) organized the baptismal service and decorated and everything and it was beautiful. And Esther's Brother, his wife and their daughter came and apparently they liked the service and felt the spirit, so we're going to have to hunt them down to start teaching them as well. Mayte as well came to the service and Jocelin, so we had a full house.

We don't know exactly what's going on with Jocelin, but she says she knows it's all true and wants to be baptized, but something is holding her back. We had a lesson with her where she just started crying and cried for 20 minutes without looking at us and didn't tell us anything. It was highly uncomfortable. We know she has a boyfriend, so we think he might be influencing her, but I hope not. She also just got a new job, but it sounds like she'll be able to keep coming to church.

Gilberto is SO ready to be baptized. He's just about ready to cannonball into the font, he just needs a little more teaching and the interview with the president. Great quote from him this week: "I need to get baptized so I can seal myself with my family in the temple and get to the Celestial Kingdom with them." We hadn't even taught him that part yet. He's awesome :) In Gospel Principles, he mentioned that he had dropped his cigarette usage down to 3 a day (he had been smoking up to 30 daily two weeks ago) and a less-active member struggling with smoking pretty much attacked him (something about Coahuilenses: everything is taken personally. EVERTHING is misinterpreted to be a personal attack. "We testify that the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored." Response: "Get out of my house because you're saying I'm going to hell." So "I dropped to 3 cigarettes a day; In Christ, everything is possible!" Response: "You're lying and you think I'm stupid.") But Gilberto apologized to the man and afterward said he wanted to find out where he lived to go and visit him to help him get off his addiction as well. (But the other hermano had already left angrily, partially for that and partially because the subject of the class was Family roles and he got offended because he's separated from his wife and thought the teacher was attacking him personally.)

Leopoldo as well has a baptismal date for the 21 of November, but we've gotta make sure he actually understands the doctrine. We found out this week that he's been praying still to Joseph Smith to heal him from his blindness. Good grief. But he keeps coming to church.

We found identical twins this week, Jesus and Jose. They're 19 years old and Jesus is Christian and Jose is Catholic. They seem really interested in learning more. We'll see what happens.

We also found a kid named Brandon and his sister Luz. Brandon is 12 and Luz is 8 and they're both pretty pumped to come to church. We also started teaching their mom, Beatriz, and she accepted everything we said, but we've gotta get her coming as well.

We've actually found quite a few people this week more that are pretty interested, but I'll let you all know what happens once we start teaching them.

This week we went to the Consejo de Liderazgo de la Mision. It was fun to see Elder Flores and Elder Briggs again. Elder Flores is in Monclova now and I asked him how it was going and he told me that everything that I told him was right and he was pretty "desesperado." (I don't know how to say that in English.) People don't believe me when I tell them about Monclovenses: THEY NEVER STOP TALKING. It is seriously actually hard to get a word in edge-wise there. You need different teaching techniques and need to know how to rudely interrupt someone without offending them. Elder Flores laughed when I first told him that. He's not laughing now.

Well, I think that's it. It has started to be really cold recently and has been raining off and on, so while I'm now good in the belly, I've got pretty darn sick of the cold. Oh well.

Se me cuidan mucho!

Elder Taylor

3 Noviembre 2015

3 Noviembre 2015

News from this week:

Yesterday was Day of the Dead. In Saltillo, I didn't see ANYTHING for Day of the Dead but here was a little more exciting. The graveyard is in our area, so some of the streets were blocked off for street vendors and pedestrians going there to visit. In the streets we also heard drums and saw people dressed up in traditional dress with headdresses and skirts and everything doing their danzas to the muertitos. I'm sure there's probably a difference between these danzas and the danzas they dance to the Virgen on the 12 of Diciembre, but I sure can't tell the difference. I haven't exactly sat down to analyze though.

More news: Elder Flores left. We went and ate with Ester and her daughters on Monday and he didn't want to tell them and didn't want me to tell them either. So we taught them the lesson and somehow the subject magically came up and then they magically asked him when he was going. It was really weird how that happened. So then he told them, bore his testimony and cried. And Mayte BAWLED. That part was weird to me. I thought Ester for sure was going to cry but not one tear from her. She did manage to wrap him up in a big hug before he could protest though and got make-up smeared on his shirt, so that was fun.

I got sick. I got SUPER DUPER sick this week. After the transfers we had to go to the hospital because I was throwing up bright green stomach acid and running back and forth from the bathroom every 10 minutes. Turns out I have a stomach infection that has probably been stewing for a few days back. But we're back to working as normal, even though I'm still not eating the same as before. Puros calditos y verduras por algunos dias y ahora pura comida ligera. (Just soup and veggies for a few days and now just really light food.) I lost a lot of weight in these last 6 days that I was sick.

Gilberto: we went and visited him on Halloween a little before 6 and he had only smoked 4 cigarettes the whole day! YAY! And then we had him explain the Restoration of the Gospel to us and he NAILED it, including dates. And then when we read Alma 32 and Santiago 1:5 with him he said: "That's what I did last night. I kneeled down and asked God and felt something moving inside my chest telling me that it was true." AAAAAHH! It was so cool! and so we gave him the date of the 5 of December to be baptized. Hopefully it can happen before.

The husband of a member came to church this week and was in the class of Principios del Evangelio and the class was about Eternal Family. When the teacher asked him to share something he said that he wanted to have an eternal family and that's why he came to church this Sunday because eventually he wants to go to the temple with his wife and kids and be sealed to them. Let's just say, hearing that inciting the same reaction within us as the emotions felt by a shopaholic when given an unlimited credit card.

We also found a complete family this week by a reference. The familia Magallan Castillo. We've got an appointment with them on Tuesday, so we'll have to see what happens!

Elder Hernandez seems really happy in this area. We keep running into such awesome people. He's just barely turned 19 and from Puebla, which means he's pretty city-slicker--or "hipster." I just don't know if that word is still used anymore--and his Spanish is really smooth and fast. We're working really hard and seeing a ton of awesome things. And we are VERY excited for this Saturday when Ester and Jocelin get baptized! Ester was so excited she stood up in Gospel Principles and invited the whole class. Which reminds me: we have to find white clothes......hm.......

Okay, well I think that's it for this week.

Que tengan una muy buena semana!

Elder Taylor

26 Octubre 2015

26 Octubre 2015

Hijole...ya vamos acabando el cambio y el mes....

We got the transfers this morning. My companion is going to Monclova! And I'm staying here! I'm going to be training a new Zone Leader whose name is Elder Hernandez about whom I know absolutely nothing except that he's supposedly from Mexico City and a good missionary. Other than that, I have no idea.

But Elder Flores is really sad he's leaving because he's leaving a TON of work behind. This week we saw a TON of miracles and it's super exciting to look ahead to this next transfer. We're looking at a transfer FULL of baptisms.

Ester and Jocelin: Jocelin quit her job to be able to come to church! WOOO! And we started teaching Mayté, her other daughter. We felt like we should call her and go and visit her in her own house because it obviously wasn't working to set appointments and have her come to her mom's house. So we set the appointment, went to her house and turned out the whole family was there, her mom, her sister, her brother (who is a recent convert). And it turns out she'd been reading all the pamphlets and living by them, already stopped drinking, doesn't like going to clubs anymore or anything like that. So then the next day we had an appointment with her mom but then Mayté showed up there as well.

We walked into the house and saw the four women (Ester, Jocelin, Mayté and Eliza) had already set up the chairs, books and pamphlets at the table, just waiting for us. THAT was exciting. And then we taught lesson 3 and I felt like it was the BEST lesson I'd ever taught in the mission. Scriptures came out, they asked questions, we asked questions, Mayté told us she was already thinking about being baptized (without us asking her about that) and that she would think about a date to be baptized, and then, right at the climax moment of the lesson, her two-year-old son peed his pants on her leg. She got mad and took him out to change him while her mom, Ester, just laughed and laughed. It was fun.

We're looking at the 7 of November to baptize Ester and probably Jocelin. Mayté, unfortunately, didn't come to church so she's going to have to wait a little longer, but she'll get there. I've seen so very few people so open to receiving the gospel.

Gilberto: Dropped from 20 cigarrettes a day to 10 in ONE WEEK! This guy has been smoking for over 50 years, but now he's determined to stop to be able to be baptized. He asked to see the baptismal font in the chapel and told us that now he's ready to be baptized and that he'll tell us this week a date. And the ward is in LOVE with him. And he cooks really well and has been giving us a ton of tamales and pastel de carne and stuff like that.

Leopoldo: well, he still loves coming to church. He even started making jokes with the members this week in church and turns out he knows one of the families. It's a struggle to teach him because he can't read and we can't leave things for him to study, but we'll find a way. He understands everything we teach surprisingly fast (you wouldn't BELIEVE how hard it is to teach a Mexican that Jehovah is the premortal name of Jesus Christ but he just picked it up and accepted it without any problem.) He still struggles to pray, but that's fine. He almost tried praying to Joseph Smith the other day but we caught him before he started. He's learning.

The ward went to the temple in Monterrey this last Saturday and the Hermano Rosas went to rent the bus and explained what was going on to the owner of the bus company and his wife and the lady got really interested and wanted us to visit her. So we went and visited her family and she and her daughter came to church. Anamaria is her name, but I don't even know what the daughter's name is. They escaped before I could corner them, but our new Ward Mission Leader Limhi sat with them and said that they really liked it.

Last night we found a lady and her daughters from a reference that the lady just started bawling in the first prayer and it turns out that she doesn't know if she believes in God anymore and we asked if she would be willing to test out our message to see if he does exist and she said sure, but her daughter said she wanted to start coming to church again to make her mom happy again. We're not entirely sure everything that is going on in their family, we know that they have a ton of family problems, but we do know that if they just try the message, they will be happier. She actually reminded me a lot of the Hermana Alvarez from Saltillo. And look how that turned out, the whole family got baptized. Speaking of which, I might be getting a call any day now telling me that they're going to the temple and inviting me to go with them.

We also just found out this week about a less active lady who wants her son to be baptized and who wants to be baptized himself (that's the hard part: a lot of kids want to be baptized but their parents don't want, or a lot of parents want their kids to be baptized but the kids don't want.) He will be turning nine in a couple weeks and so it will be our duty to teach him.

Last week we started with Miguel Angel who we barely sat down and said that he wanted to be baptized. So we took out the calender and set a date and he very happily accepted. The only thing is he's super busy with his work so hasn't been able to come to church.

We also started teaching Jose Luis this week who is the guy who came to general conference. He HAPPENED to rest one day and we HAPPENED to be out where he lives and HAPPENED to think to visit him. He's a high school English teacher and had earlier studied Theology, so it was a very interesting lesson. He accepted everything very well and said he's going to study and pray about it. We're going to visit with him in the church this week. We'll see how it goes!

We ALSO started teaching a man this week who has been going to church for 5 years, pays tithing, obeys the Word of Wisdom, his wife is in the Relief Society Presidency of the stake, goes with the ward to the temple but for some reason has never been baptized. He lives in a different ward where there aren't missionaries, so we got permission and went and taught him. He's interested in learning more and willing to put it to the test. We'll see what happens.

Basically we have a TON of people just ready to be baptized. It's SUPER exciting and that's why Elder Flores is sad to be going.

Hurricane Patricia passed by this week. We just got the tail little end of her and nothing happened, it just rained a little, got really winding and stinking cold. But the sun came out today and it's already really warm, so it'll pass.

Yep. That was my week. I have the packet for Christmas all ready. I'll send it soon so i don't have it in the house anymore taking up space, but as it contains cookies, i suggest you open it right away so they don't go stale or something. We all know how dad gripes about even slightly stale things.

I love using these three scriptures together. We used them with Jose Luis and he was very impressed by the doctrine and by the spirit, so yeah, it's very nice to use especially in a world of philosophies of "relative truth."

I start with the question: What is a definition of truth? Then we go to Doctrine and Covenants 93:23-24. Then 1 John 5:6 and then Moroni 10:4-5. It creates a response that nobody can deny, in that truth is absolute and that God has one version of the truth, not many. If God has one truth, loves us and knows what's best for us, he therefore will want us to know the one truth. Therefore, if you just ask God the truth, He will make it manifest to you. There are people that even then argue, but that's when as a missionary you know that they're just flat out not open to listening, as happened with a taxi driver last night. (Already read the book of mormon, already had been going to church, already claimed that Joseph Smith was a prophet but that he wouldn't be baptized because he was Catholic, even though he doesn't like the Catholic Church.) When we said "We only invite you to ask God if it's true," he said, "Well, you lot are all just religious fanatics." That's where you know the Holy Ghost tried but just didn't touch him.

Well, I'm going to try another time to send pictures. If I send some that I already sent, I apologize.

Que tengan una semana maravillosa!

Elder Taylor

19 Octubre 2015

19 Octubre 2015

We'll call this week "disobedience week." Now let me explain that.

Sometimes things happen in the mission and even when you don't want to, it's impossible to follow certain rules in certain circumstances, especially when it comes to things about the schedule, largely due to the Mexican concept of time. I know this probably sounds like rationalization, but even the President has mentioned this several times that sometimes there's just nothing to be done so we do the best with what we have and move on and hope to do better the next time.

That being said, keep in mind that none of the following was with the intent of doing it and we will do everything within our power to avoid it in the future.

One night we had an appointment with a few investigators at 8:30 which happened to be right next door. The bad thing: it's a house of nursing students, all female, between the ages of 19 and 23. What we also weren't planning on was them already having made dinner for us. And then the hermana that was going to come with us couldn't. So we did what we could, we brought chairs outside and sat on the patio to avoid "any appearance of evil." We taught a quick lesson and wrapped it up right before 9. Then they said that they'd made dinner for us. "Okay," we thought. "It's fine, we'll just sit out here" They also mentioned they already had the food made waiting for us. NEVER BELIEVE THAT! That's the lesson learned here. We ended up starting eating at 9:25 and finishing at around 9:40 even thought we ate as fast as we could without being rude. THIS WAS EVEN AFTER WE'D EXPLAINED TO THEM THAT WE HAD TO BE IN HOUSE BEFORE 9:30! 

Then the food made me kind of sick. (I was already kind of delicate of the stomach from some other food we'd eaten earlier.) So then for the next morning I turned off my alarm that I normally have set for 6:15 to do exercise, knowing that I would likely not be feeling up to form for that. My companion's alarm went off at 6:25 and like what normally happens we both lay a second longer on the pillow, but unlike anything that had ever happened in our time together, we both didn't hardly blink before we were dead out again. We ended up getting up at 7:00. Repentence measures were taken.

Then this morning we went outside of the mission! AAAHH! Actually, what happened was we went to the bridge between the States and Mexico and so while we did technically cross into the States side of the border, we didn't get off the bridge which would have required papers. The Rio Bravo is really skinny! I thought it was a big river, but I'd say it's smaller than the Snake and obviously shallow enough at parts to wade across. I took pictures and I'll try to send them as soon as I'm done here.

So those were my big sins this week.

We had a bad scare last night when two missionaries went missing because their phone was dead and we asked an hermano to go and check on them at 10:15 ish at night and he said that the lights were out, the neighbor hadn't seen them and the lock was locked from the outside. So we mobilized the whole ward and everyone started calling around to see where they'd been, we told President Rodriguez about it and the assistants, we called the local hospitals and got ready to go out there to hunt them down when we got a phone call from the branch president telling us they'd found them. Turns out they'd been in their house asleep, they'd just gone to bed early and the hermano was wrong about the lock being locked from the outside. That was about 11:40 when we got that all figured out. Good grief. But now we know the lesson: please, PLEASE call your district leader using someone else's phone when your phone dies. Scares like that here in Piedras Negras are pretty scary because of drug traffickers and gangs. So yeah.

Investigators: Ester de la Rosa told us when she wants to be baptized! First she told us the first saturday in December. Then for the next appointment she changed her mind to her birthday, the 4 of February. Then we told the resident recently returned missionary about that and she got mad and decided to come with us to the next visit. She basically said: "God has these blessings for you. Why wait till February?" Ester: "Oh...." Me: "What do you feel about that?" "I feel really happy right now." "When do you think you should be baptized?" ".....How about two weeks. Is that alright?" But it turns out 2 weeks is Halloween, so she decided on November 7. Bad thing: Jocelin started working Sundays, so we'll have to see if she can get baptized the same day. But Jocelin started reading the book of Mormon by herself and already got through Jarom.

Limhi (pronounced lee-mee) Yañez got home from his mission and this Sunday was sustained as the new Ward Mission Leader, so that's good! He's not studying yet, not even working, he knows the scriptures well, he's still on fire from his mission experiences and super excited to get to work with us. And he's really cool, so I think it'll be fun to work with him.

Gilberto: he's the old man I told you guys about last week that called out to us on the street and all his kids and grandkids are baptized. He's a character. He's about 75, gay, and super enthused about the gospel, but doesn't want to put a baptismal date yet. He also has to stop smoking. But he came to church and is determined to keep coming.

Leopoldo: another old man we met this week and brought to church. He and Gilberto struck it off really well. Leopoldo is Catholic and blind and really, super open.

Fidencio, the convert of my companion, came to church this week too! He's about 75 as well and can't walk by himself and unfortunately incontinent, so we have to keep going back and forth to the bathroom. But he's got a lot of faith and is super excited to be coming to church. He even put on his nice baseball cap and a shirt to come to the chapel. Gotta look nice for the Lord.

My comment to my companion looking at the three men we brought to church this week: "Puros rucos." That means "Just old farts." But it sounds cooler in Spanish.

Reyna Betancourt: we finally pinned her down for a lesson but she told us that basically, in her own words and in typical Mexican fashion: "I wish I would have been baptized in the Mormon Church 20 years ago when I should have, but now I'm baptized in the Christian Church and I shouldn't jump into the Mormon Church for now. I want to, but I just don't want to." But she came to church and even participated in the class of Gospel Principles. Unfortunately, she's getting ready to move to Tampico in a week.

This week I had a couple super spiritual experiences in the personal study. First, I made three lists: what life was like in Eden (pure, immortal, etc.), effects of the Fall (spiritual death, mortality, agency and conscience, etc.) and effects of the Atonement (reconciliation, resurrection, purity, etc.) and found the scriptures to back it up. Then on Sunday, I made a simple question: "What is Truth?" and started with the Topical Guide in English and came up with a basic definition of Truth. Let me tell you, I feel like I went all the way into metaphysical doctrines. There are some COOL things about Truth in Doctrine and Covenants. It blew my mind. Scriptures that I'd always read and heard suddenly took on new meaning. It was pretty sweet.

Well, I should go so I can try to send these pictures as well.

Que tengan una buena semana!

Elder Taylor

a catholic church

the rio bravo

my companion and i 

a huge flag in the plaza. this flag can be seen from the united states. i'd just like to say, i didn't see one american flag

la virgen de guadalupe

12 Octubre 2015

12 Octubre 2015

I'm at the point in the mission where I hate it when members ask me how long I've been in the mission because I tell them 16 months and then they say "Ya mero." Which basically means "you're further out than in." I still feel like a new missionary, it feels ugly to think about how little I have left and to think about how the new missionaries are probably looking at me the way I looked at the old missionaries a year ago. Dang it's weird.

Ester and her daughter Jocelin surprised us this week. They'd said they were only going to go to one session on Saturday. But then when we went to teach them and SURPRISE! "We went on Sunday and sneaked in the back and we loved it as well!" That means that with this last week that just passed, Ester already has the required 5 attendances to be able to be baptized and Joselin has 3 out of the five. So at this point, it just is a question of them telling us a date. And teaching enough for them to pass the baptismal interview...we just barely finished teaching about Joseph Smith this week.

This week it rained SUPER hard. For us it was fine, we just got soaking wet and the street outside our house turned into a lake for the next 2 days. But when we went out to work the next morning, we went to an appointment and the lady's house had flooded. The whole colonia looked like something out of post-hurricane footage. Walls were knocked over, people's houses were full of mud and everything. There were people who had taken all their belongings and set them in the street to dry, there were people that had lost a lot in the flood, there were cars that were moved and fields and vacant lots were just destroyed and full of trash. But then you go two streets higher up and no damage is done. It was really weird to be there and see the destruction, and it was a good object lesson about building on higher ground and preparing for the storms that are coming.

Reyna Betancourt came to church again! We couldn't see her this week because she wasn't feeling good, but she came!

Diamantina: she's a really awesome lady and eternal investigator who is just waiting for a paper to get signed so she can get divorced to be able to marry her present husband to be able to be baptized. And she came to church! It was awesome to see her there. She lives in a cinderblock hut and makes tamales for a living.

Ironically, we also started teaching a family affairs lawyer this week whose name is Adriana Rocha. Her son died a few years ago in a car accident and she really wants to know what church is the true church. We taught her about how baptism is a covenant that we make with God and that caught her interest and then we talked about the blessings that we're promised if we make and keep the covenants that God gives us. She got pretty excited and accepted the baptismal invitation really well, but she's been busy with her work, so we haven't seen a whole lot of her. Hopefully I have more to report this next week.

A man caught us on the street this yesterday and told us that he sent his kids to the mormon church and they all got baptized and that he hasn't been baptized yet because he hasn't been able to stop smoking and that he just moved into our area. And said that he'd like us to visit him. I LOVE it when things like that happen.

Una escritura que me gustó esta semana: Alma 38:5:

Y ahora bien, hijo mío, Shiblón, quisiera que recordaras que en proporción a tu confianza en Dios, serás librado de tus tribulaciones, y tus dificultades, y tus aflicciones, y serás enaltecido en el postrer día.

Me gusta que sea tan claro: netamente, al grado que confiemos en Dios, seremos librados de las aflicciones que traigamos. Si confías en dios un poco, serás librado un poco. Si confías mucho, serás librado mucho. Si confías totalmente, serás librado totalmente, siempre haciéndose la voluntad del Señor a su tiempo y a su manera. Así que si deseamos librarnos de nuestras aflicciones, confiemos en el Señor con todo lo que somos.

Hope you all have a nice week!

Elder Taylor

5 octubre 2015

5 octubre 2015

It was a fun week this week, but we hardly worked at all.

Monday was fun working for the 3 hours that we worked, then Tuesday was normal (just a little short because of the district meeting), and then to Saltillo on Wednesday, then the counsel of leadership on Thursday and then we came back. On Thursday, for some odd reason that I still don't understand, they bought us tickets to send us back at 10:10 at night. We went to Mirasierra to see the Alvarez familiy, but it looks like they just barely moved, so that was a bummer. Then we went and saw a convert of Elder Flores in Valle de las Flores. And then we went to go buy me a white tie (for a really long and complicated story, the white tie I have is not mine and very ugly). And then we bumped into an hermano from Aeropuerto, so that was fun.

And then we went to the Central de Autobuses to wait by 10:00. And then the bus never showed up. We never found out why, but apparently it just disappeared. So the company paid for us to go on the 12:15 to Piedras Negras. The driver drove SUPER FAST (we passed Monclova after 2 hours of leaving Saltillo, normally that's a 3.5 or 4 hour trip), but we still got to Piedras at around 7:00, super tired. We slept a little bit and then got up to study and work again and were out the door by 11:00. And then we had a good day of work and then General Conference on Saturday and Sunday.

A few new investigators this week: A woman named Marta Castillo. The Spirit was SUPER strong in that lesson and she accepted the baptismal invitation without any questions, even though she goes to a Pentecostal Church. She's a single mom with one kid named Denzell (named after Denzel Washington, just like the other Denzel from Frontera a few months ago) and she's still struggling with the divorce.

We also have another one named Jose Luis who just showed up to General Conference and sat down. Someone introduced us and he sat down next to us. It was kinda funny how he kept falling asleep during the conference, but then he told us that he only sleeps about 4 hours every night because he has three jobs and works from 7 in the morning to 11 at night. It's going to be hard to teach him, but he says he's really interested. He studied Theology in college and is reading the Book of Mormon.

Reyna Betancourt, the lady whose name I forgot last week, didn't seem as interested the second time around, but she said she'd keep receiving us. I'm assuming they watched Conference in their house because they didn't come to the church.

Esther De la Rosa and her daughter Joselyn came to church again! And they gave us food! Como dijo mi compañero, ESO es demostrar que verdaderamente han recibido el Espiritu de Cristo: dar de comer a los misioneros. :)

Conference for us is a little different here. In Monclova and Saltillo we had it available in English, but here no. So I saw it all in Spanish for the first time. But that's okay. And HOLY COW! Elder Christoferson translated his own talk and SHEESH he speaks good! MUCH better than Elder Holland.

I was going to send pictures this time, but it turns out that the computers here don't have the right kind of port.

I'm going to try to send a package somewhat soon, now that I'm here in Piedras Negras and the people here often cross the border to do their grocery shopping and are more than willing to send a package for a poor, American elder.

Well, thanks for everything!

Elder Taylor

28 Octubre 2015

28 Octubre 2015

Okay, let's see how this goes.

Investigators:

We have a lot, but here are the ones that have progressed the most.

1. Esther De la Rosa-- Mother of a guy who was baptized 3 weeks ago in another ward. She's coming to church and loving it, but she's reticent to put a baptismal date. We're also teaching her daughter Joselyn and her aunt (88 years old and deaf) but they haven't come to church yet. She also just happened to bump into one of her best friends in the church this last Sunday. So there's a built-in hermanadora. (friendshipper).

2. Nayeli, Juan Valentin, Patlan-- a group of friends that are listening to us. They haven't been able to come to church yet, but they're all very interested and have  TON of hard questions for us. They are all reading the Book of Mormon. We have a Noche de Hogar with some active members and them tonight, so I hope it goes well!

3. I don't remember her name-- we just met her on Sunday. We went to eat at her son's house. Her son, by the way, is the first counselor of the stake presidency. We're eating and talking and it turns out that she's not baptized. So then we share a message and she says that she's never been convinced enough to be baptized, even though she's been to church with them a lot. All four her children were baptized about 15 years ago. She says that that same Sunday morning (as in this last Sunday) she just happened to grab her granddaughter's Book of Mormon and opened it up and saw the scripture in Alma that says ''this is the day given for man to prepare to meet god'' or something like that. I don't even remember and I don't have my scriptures handy right now and they'd be in Spanish anyway. At this point in the narration during the lesson, she just busts up crying incontrolably for about 5 minutes. The spirit just soaked that room. And then she says. ''I think it's time for me to be baptized. I think God is telling me that.'' So yep. I hope it all turns out well. She just happens to be in Piedras Negras for a month before going back up to Houston. And we just happened to go and eat with her son that same Sunday.

We've been taking Alejandra Castro out to preach with us. She just got back from her mission in Tabasco about 4 months ago and it's really nice to be teaching with a member that can just take out the scriptures and knows exactly how the lessons are supposed to go. She's determined that we're teaching wrong, though. She told us a whole long list of things that she would have done differently (basically a whole bunch of object lessons) and that she's going to make us a box of visual aids to take around preaching with us. So then I told her: "Wow, look at you, caring about the investigator. I'm just thinking about the lesson with a member present." (Translation: I'm just glad our numbers are going to look really good this week.) That made her mad, but then I told her I was just kidding and that we would consider using any visual aids she made for us. So then she forgave us. And then came to another lesson the next day. So that's good. :)

We made enchiladas and horchata today for lunch. Well, I made the horchata, my companion the enchiladas, which, by the way, are NOTHING like what we call enchiladas.

Horchata:

1. about a handful of rice sitting in water for about a day. Works better with warm water, but obviously when it's sitting around for about a day, it's not going to be warm the whole time. Also maybe oats.

2. about half a can of canned milk.

3. cinnamon and lots of sugar.

After blending the rice (and oats) and water to the point of being a little bit of sludge at the bottom of the blender and lots of milky looking water, you pour in a lot of water and lots of sugar and some cinnamon. And some canned milk. And that's it. I know some people also throw in vanilla and maybe peanuts and even coconut, but those are just variations. An hermana from Guatamala told me basically: If it don't got peanut, it ain't horchata.

This week is going to be crazy. On Wednesday in the morning we're leaving to Saltillo. We're not coming back until Friday very early in the morning, like around 5 or 6. Then we're going to have General Conference on Saturday and Sunday. So basically, we're going to be working Tuesday and Friday, and that's it. But good news is: GENERAL CONFERENCE! And I might get a chance to see the Familia Alvarez in Saltillo because we're going to be stuck around there for a whole afternoon waiting for the bus to Piedras Negras.

Miss you all! Los extraño!

Elder Taylor

21 Septiembre 2015

21 Septiembre 2015

This week was very tiresome, but we're getting over it.

I'm here in Piedras Negras now and I feel like I'm in a different mission. In Monclova, it's SO HARD to get a direct response from anyone and almost nobody lets you in the door, but here, people open the door and tell you a direct yes or no after listening, so it's super easy to find new investigators and even easier to decide who to continue visiting and who no. So basically, I arrived into this area and there was already a lot of investigators in various stages of progress. Which was nice. Sad to say I sure didn't leave this much behind in Frontera.

And besides the people that were already here, we've found a TON of people in the past few days, and some of them seem SUPER ready to receive the gospel. One lady is the mom of a recent convert and she went to his baptism and ''felt so good'' and couldn't explain why. She came to church this week and we haven't gone back to see how it went yet. Another new investigator is the girlfriend of the son of a lady that got baptized last week in our area. Apparently she's always been around the house whenever the missionaries were there but they never thought to invite her to listen. And another guy, we got turned around and went in a wrong street and then realized it and turned around and he was coming up the street to us and turns out he's the husband of a recent convert and wants to come to church. They just moved here from Veracruz. So yeah. We're pretty excited and my companion is pretty dumbfounded because this sort of thing just wasn't happening before. I think God is recompensing me for a hard last transfer.

We have an odd dude in the ward. He wants to get the whole ward involved on his business plan to make a company for dog houses and bicycles. He started passing out business cards in sacrament meeting.

There are some things that are just too weird about this place. It's not even nearly the same as Monclova or Saltillo. It's just across the river from Eagle Pass Texas and everything is really almost more American than Mexican. A lot of houses have front yards instead of patios and garages instead of the half-garage-half-patio thing they usually have. The people dress and act more American and the streets seem more organized in an American manner. Everyone here has a car, which is hugely different, and even the church building looks more like an American Chapel instead of the normal cookie-cutter mexican style. Also, most of the music people listen to is American Music instead of banda or norteña or cumbia and a lot of people speak English and actually really well. And there are TREES! I haven't seen so many trees since I left the states!

Speaking of that, my companion is helping me a TON with my spanish. He's from Chihuahua, Ciudad Juarez area, and speaks both languages fluently. I don't know if it's a Chihuahua thing or if it's just him, but he speaks in almost just idioms and so I'm learning a TON of things that are REALLY useful and don't make any sense if nobody explains it to you.

Here are a few I learned this week: Rifársela (me la rifo) and it means do something and do it in a really cool way. (Te la rifas? means Will you do this for me?)

Te mueve el tapete: he pulls the mat out from under you. It means like catches you off guard or throws you off.

Valió barriga: it was worth a belly. It means a whole lot of effort was spent and at the end didn't end up mattering.

Those are the ones I remember right now. But it's going to be fun learning them.

So to throw him for a loop, last night leaving from Ward Counsel I told him Let's make like a bread truck. That got him pretty confused. It was fun.

There's a really cool graveyard here on the way to the church that looks like something right out of a movie with voodoo, like Princess and the Frog. I'll get a picture of it and send it next week if I remember.

Whoops! I didn't finish the last email before sending it.

My companion and I while eating lunch right now watched the movie of the Restoration. Whenever I see these movies or even just think hard about Joseph Smith and what he did and what he saw, I'm always just so amazed. He saw God and Jesus! Who doesn't want to hear about this?! This has got to be the coolest thing that has ever happened besides Jesus himself and maybe the creation!

I know this church is all that we profess to be. It just has to be. And even if it weren't, it wouldn't matter to me. It makes me happy knowing that God cares about us and is willing to restore His religion by means of a simple farm boy. It makes me know that he doesn't care who we are or what we've done or not done in this world. He knows what we are capable of and will help us get there if we're just willing to get there. I run into SO MANY PEOPLE every day that want nothing to do with this, and I sometimes feel like grabbing them and shaking them and telling them: YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSING! And then there are people that try and prove it false with scriptures or scientific or historic data and we can be arguing for hours upon hours about these things that are truly superficial. It all comes down to three simple facts:

God loves us and sent His Son to do all He did. Joseph saw them. We can come to know it and it will make us happy if we just put it to the test and are willing to receive the answer.

Well, that's the spiel this week.

Hasta la proxima semana!

Elder Taylor

14 Septiembre 2015

14 Septiembre 2015

This week was a week of surprises.

1. We found a few new people, and one of them whose name is Jose Luis at first was a super Christian guy. Just so everybody knows, Catholics here tend to be hard to teach because they either don't care about anything religious or are super Catholic and are determined to not change, even if they know and admit that they know that their religion is wrong about many things (that sounds ugly but that's how they themselves say it.) Jehovahs Witnesses are hard even to get in the door because they try preaching to you and don't listen to anything you say. Atheists don't want to listen. Gnostics think they know everything and don't want to listen. But Christians might be the worst in that they know all these scriptures about the Restoration, they know about the Spiritual Gifts and they know about just about everything that is the True Church of Jesus Christ but have different interpretations of it all and generally come back to the line "well, I have crazy spiritual experiences in my church, so that means that my church is of God." There's also a general belief here that there is no·True Church of Christ and that it doesn't matter what church you belong to, you're going to be saved. I've even heard Jehovah's Witnesses say that.

Anyway, this Jose Luis we weren't too sure about him because he seemed pretty sold on his current church which is governed by a pastor and then by an apostle at a regional level. He talked about how they laid their hands on him and gave him the Gift of the Holy Ghost and how then he talked in tongues. And then he demonstrated how to talk in tongues. But then when we came back he told us about how he's just never run into the church that has "the greenest pastures" for him and that he's looking for the true church. So then when we talked about the Book of Mormon he wanted it and so we gave it to him and he got really excited. So that was kind of a surprise. We weren't sure he was interested at all.

2. We've been trying to get with this lady named Carla Rios for a few weeks, but something has always just been coming up and so we haven't been able to line up our schedules with her until finally we went to knock her door again and she wasn't busy. At first she had expressed doubts about Joseph Smith and had seemed pretty adamant about that. But then when we were sitting there her doubts just kind of went out the window. She even mentioned she had looked online to find stuff to bring up in the lesson, but we answered her questions really well. So that was cool. Another surprise. Also, she has a German Shepherd named Hitler.

3. We had the Temple Rededication of the Temple of Mexico City this Sunday. Turns out President Eyring REALLY struggles with Spanish pronunciation. At one point he didn't even try to pronounce the name of someone and just waited for the translator to say it. But it was really awesome. But that's where the surprise comes in. I recognized the translator! I don't remember his name, but he was in the MTC with me in the other district. His Spanish was TERRIBLE when we were there (which is only to be expected) and you couldn't understand a word he said! But when he was translating for President Eyring, he sounded native. His accent switched in and out of Argentine and Mexican, so I´m thinking he probably has had an Argentine companion or something like that, but it was definitely not an American accent. So that was cool to see.

All our converts went to the dedication as well! It's nice to have been here long enough to actually be able to see these people progress in the church, not just as investigators but also as members. And it's REALLY cool to see that they're still active. I don't have a lot of baptisms and a lot of converts, but from what I know, most are still active in the church. And that makes me feel like I've done a good thing. (Apparently something happened with the Familia Alvarez and it sounds like the husband is mad about it and so he hasn't gone to church, but I hope they can get it worked out because they've got less than 2 months left before they can go to the temple to be sealed.)

4. We felt like we should call Martha Sanchez to get an appointment with her this next week because it's been just about 3 months since we've been able to sit down with her to talk. So we called and she answered super excitedly. "Elders! I'm no longer working on Sundays! When is church so I can come this Sunday?!" So then we had to explain to her about the rededication and how only active members can enter. So that was disappointing, but she was already talking about getting with Sister Coty to take her to church or maybe even just grabbing a taxi if Coty couldn't take her. So that was another surprise.

We went with her on Sunday to say hi (and teach a lesson of course) and I asked her how to make horchata. So then she explained it to me and it's super easy. I'm making it today and then I'll tell you all how it goes.

5. And the last surprise of this week. Actually, many surprises. The transfers.

I am leaving to Piedras Negras tomorrow. That means I'm going to be on the Texas border. My companion is named Elder Flores and he's from Chihuahua and got here to the mission the same day I did. And being from the Mormon colonies, he speaks both English and Spanish fluently. This is going to help a lot.

But that wasn't too much of a surprise. The real surprises were these: Elder Briggs is ALSO getting transferred and is going to Nueva Rosita. The new Zone Leaders are going to be in a different area and Elder Johnson and Elder Cerron are coming here. There were basically a TON of changes in these transfers. A lot of people are staying here in Monclova but are going to different areas. Also, a lot of areas are being whitewashed which is where both missionaries are getting taken out. I was sad to learn that Aeropuerto 1 is getting shut down because the missionaries were doing dumb things and lost all confidence of the members. But oh well. One of our best missionaries from this zone is going to Aurora, so he'll be there taking care of my converts. I'm glad for that.

Well, that's basically all that's happened in the past week. I'm pretty excited to get to Piedras and see what it's all about. We're going to have a small zone with looks like all obedient missionaries. I've heard this ward Barrio 4 is one of the best of the mission, I've heard the food is awesome, and I've heard just about half the people speak English. We'll see.

Que les vaya super mucho mega muy bien!

Elder Taylor

7 Septiembre 2015

7 Septiembre 2015

Hola todos!

This week was fairly uneventful. We went to Leadership council which took two days out of work, so we didn't exactly have as much time to work as normal.

But some pretty awesome things did happen.

A few months ago, we had a lesson with a less active lady who was living in a different ward but was in her mom's house to visit. We shared her a lesson about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. Just about every Sunday she's been coming to church since then. This last Saturday, she was endowed. So that was pretty cool.

Also, MAYELA WENT TO THE TEMPLE! WOOO! She later told us about how when she was waiting for her turn to be baptized, she felt two strange sensations: first, that she felt like she was surrounded by a lot of people waiting their turn for something but she didn't feel rushed or frustrated as if she were in a crowded space. Second, that she just felt a ton of sadness and she couldn't explain why. But she said that as she was baptized for these names, every time the sadness got less. So then I mentioned what I'd heard a temple president (or was it a general authority?) say about once in the baptistry he saw a line of spirits waiting their turn by the font and then as someone else was baptized for them, they left and the next one would step up. She said that she had that same sensation as if something like that were happening, except she couldn't see it, she just felt it. This lady is SO awesome.

And then she got up to share her testimony. The Bishop said "the time is yours" and she just bolted right up out of her seat and got up the microphone and went off, starting back to when she was an atheist student, to having family and health problems to then searching for the truth in just about every religion there is, listening to the Jehovahs Witnesses and Christians, going to Mass, reading about Buddhism and Hinduism, just trying to find out the nature of God. She said basically she was confused for many years, but she just figured that God existed and that was it. Until, her words, "two young missionaries knocked on my door." At that point she started bawling and I have to admit, my throat got lumpy. And then her baby on her hip threw up the cookie he was eating onto the pulpit. But then she continued about how she came to church the second week we were with her and told about the dream she had about the church the night before she came and how that dream was fulfilled and how she saw people that she saw in her dream, then how she saw angels standing behind the people giving testimonies and behind the bishopric. And how just since then she's been happy and hasn't looked back. She's just got the coolest conversion story I've ever heard, and it's just so cool that I got to be there for it.

And then afterward we went to her house and ate cake.

Bad news: we are back up to 40 degrees this week. And that's 40 degrees celsius. It sounds like we might even hit 45. Good news: this will likely be my last week in Monclova. I've been here longer than any other missionary here. I'm going to miss it. But I'm feeling like a change is coming. I just hope I like it.

Unfortunately, I'm not leaving much for the next missionary. We've worked harder and smarter than I have ever in my mission, but we just haven't found people. The assistants asked us about why we didn't have any lessons with a member present this week. The truth: generally you need an investigator to stick around longer than one lesson to be able to get a member in with them. We haven't had that recently. The only two who have are Ericka, and she's disappeared from off the face of the earth and Perla, but she told us basically she can't be looking at the idea of joining a church. Oh well. We still have one more week and this is generally the week where the miracles happen.

The missionaries found and taught Maribel! She was the investigator who was SO ready to be baptized and then disappeared out of nowhere. We FINALLY got the other missionaries over to her house on the other side of Monclova and she has a baptismal date for October! WHOOO! Too bad I probably won't be around for it. But Elder Briggs says he'll send me pictures.

Funny story: this actually happened about a month ago but I don't think I shared it. We have a friend whose name is Chento. He's a drug addict. We tried teaching him once and he says he wants to be baptized but he doesn't want to come to church. Anyway, he keeps finding us in the street and saying hi to us. A few weeks ago he comes tearing around the corner on his bike and doesn't even say hi. "Where are you guys coming from?" From that direction. "You haven't seen the police, have you?" No, we haven't. "Okay, thanks, bye!" and he tears off in the direction we had just come from.

Other funny story. We're walking along and this guy calls out to us in English: "Where are you going?" We stop to tell him in English. He shakes his head and says that's the only phrase he knows because that's what they said to him when they caught him at the border.

I've been studying about conversion and what that means. Among many other things on the subject, I found one thing that I really loved. Actually, President Rodriguez said it: "Si quieres ver que nivel de conversion tienes, mira que tanto predicas el evangelio." If you want to know what level of conversion you have, look at how much you preach the gospel.

Well, let's hope this week we find some awesome investigators for my companion's next companion!

Con much amor,

Elder Taylor

Continuation

One thing I forgot: Elder Briggs and I went to downtown Monclova today to buy soccer jerseys from the Mexican National team. There was a cool black one and a green one I wanted, but apparently nobody buys those old ones anymore so the vendors don't sell them. So I got the cool new white one from this season. But it was weird being back in Monclova's downtown. It had been six months since I'd been. They'd painted a few things different colors and they’d put a bigger flag in the plaza, actually I think for the independence. (Independence Day is the 16th.) But it was just kind of strange to be back, almost as though I'd never left. We went back to Irma's flower shop to say hi, but she wasn't there. We said Hi to her husband and left her a photo of me and Elder Vasquez, but that was it. But oh well. It was cool to go back. Elder Briggs was disappointed when he went to smell a flower and realized it was fake.

31 Agosto 2015

31 Agosto 2015

Querida familia y amigos!

Okay, so in this letter I'm going to tell some things that I forgot to in the last one.

From last week, we ran into a Zeta in the street who was drunk. For those of you who don't know, Los Zetas are one of the more powerful cartels here in Mexico and they're dominant here in Coahuila. Anyway he called out to us and we started talking to him, and while he wasn't making a whole lot of sense, he started talking about how he believed in the Aztec gods and while he didn't appreciate Christian missionaries forcing their religion upon his people, he wasn't going to kill us. At least that's what I got out of it. Then he started talking about how he hated Americans and just killed whatever "Bolillo" (that's one of the many words for "white american" here) he saw without asking questions, he wasn't going to kill us because we were preachers. Then I saw him make a motion of pulling out a knife from his shorts, but I didn't see the knife. All this while he's still talking about how he would otherwise kill us if we weren't missionaries and then to demonstrate, he swiped his hand past my face and that's when I saw the knife. The good thing was that it wasn't open. So we said it was nice to meet him and then said good bye.

Erica is SO COOL! She got a new job so she said she'd be able to come to church this week, but she didn't and we're not sure why not yet. So we'll see what's going on.

Emiliano, Mayela's baby son, took his first steps this week! And Mayela taught her first lesson in primary this week! We asked her on Saturday if she was already prepared and everything, and she said that yes, she just had one question. What is the Article of Faith Number 9? What is that? So we explained it to her. "You remember that little card we gave to you our second time here that you just loved so much and went off on an hour-long rant about with the 13 points? yeah, that one." Okay, we didn't tell it to her like that.

The Canicula is OVER! It actually wasn't too hot. It only got up to about 47 degrees, or about 115 Fahrenheit. The worst part of the Canicula is the wind because it's hot and dry. But now the nights are cool and the wind is moist and cool, even though it's still hot. So we hardly sweat at all.

Another drunk man run-in this week. We went back with a new investigator we had who was always drunk and at his house, we found a less-active member from another ward that we happen to know who also happened to be drunk. This man is a nice man and gets his living begging on a corner in the plaza in our area because he can't walk. So he got excited when he saw us and then handed us what he swore was enough money for a big coke and chips to share ("Not for me," he said, "for Jesus") and then sent us on a wild goose chase for a store he swore was just around the corner. We finally find a store and check how much he gave us, and it's barely enough for a little coke and the smallest bag of chips there is. So we bought it and then took it back to him and he just started bawling about how he wants to change his life around and then tore off his rosary and chucked it ("This doesn't do anything!") all the while telling his other drunk buddy to shut up ("You don't know what I'm feeling!" "Let me tell you something: I'm not going to tell you anything!") and then promised to come to church with us on Sunday.

Earlier this week we felt like we should go back with Antonio, the one whose baby daughter had died about 5 months ago. We ended up not having time until Saturday, and so right at 8:30 pm we headed over to his house and found him there. He let us in and sat us down and asked him how he'd been. That's when he told us. His wife just died about a week and a half ago and he just got back in town. This guy is 30 something, his baby daughter dies, 5 months later his wife dies leaving him with a pre-teen daughter and a 6-year old son. He brought his son down with him to Frontera, but his daughter sounds like is going to be living up in Piedras Negras with his mom indefinitely. He told us what we'd told him about the Plan of Salvation is really making him feel better during this time, but that he's not willing to come to church. He says he believes it's true, but for the same reason as before he doesn't want to come. Right now he'd be too distraught seeing a church full of intact families. I don't know what I'd do in that situation, but I imagine I'd feel pretty similar.

We found a new investigator who is really interesting. Her name is Perla. She's a Gnostic, which means basically she studies a TON and believes is some ODD things. She and her family live at the Mason Temple where they take care of the grounds and interior. We didn't have enough time to explain a whole lot so we left her with a pamphlet of the Restoration and left. We went back and found her husband. He explained some of their beliefs to us. Some of them are just off-the-wall odd (well, I guess you could say the same about us, right?) but most of them were really just what we believe, just with longer, fancier words. Then we left them with two more pamphlets, The Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ and left. Then something crazy happened: SHE CALLED TRYING TO SET UP A SECOND VISIT! This is the FIRST time I have even HEARD of this happening! We hand out our number on cards and on pamphlets all day long, but NEVER has it happened where something actually CALLED that number after receiving it. We went back and again, a whole bunch of beliefs that we have in common, just with fancier words. It was fun being able to use Moses 6:57-59 (i think those are the verses) in a lesson about baptism. It's going to be an interesting run, but she might be ready to receive this gospel.

Well, that's really what I've got for this week.

Les quiero bastante!

Elder Taylor