27 Julio 2015

Well I'm writing you all pretty early today. I'm in Saltillo in the offices of the mission because I had to come to get my visa stuff signed. And they told me this is the hour that I could write so this is when I'm writing. A few of you may have noticed that I've been writing this over a span of a few hours. I'm not just stuck on the computer. I'm writing you all between things that they have me doing here.

This week was pretty great as well. I've just really loved this transfer and I'm scared to see what changes are coming this next week.

Maribel FINALLY came to church again. HOLY COW she was getting us worried. But now she's decided to wait five times in church to kind of prove to herself her own diligence. So that's cool. We never even mentioned to her that that is a normal rule. Which will be cool, because that puts her baptismal date squarely on her birthday. She's still determined to be baptized, finish her schooling (one year and a half left) and go on a mission. She even asked us to fast with her this week so it can happen. She's just so COOL!

In church someone handed her a tablet to read the scriptures and manual of Gospel Principles from. Bad idea. Turns out she's just as bad as I am with technology and somehow ended up in the app to be taking pictures. I recognized that look of panic on her face, that deer in the headlights look of a new missionary who doesn't speak the language or of a new drum major asked to touch the ipod for the first time. Que terror. But it was fine, we just asked the hermana to help us and we got it all fixed up.

Mayela and her twins didn't come this week! But it was because her husband came in town and apparently didn't feel like going to church with her. So they decided to stay home. This week we were teaching them lesson 3, El Evangelio de Jesucristo and we got to the point of baptism. The only questions they had: "So, I'm guessing we should probably bring extra clothes to change into afterward, right? And maybe sandals? And Angela (the little girl) can't be baptized right? We'll have to program that one a little later on. Like in 4 more years. And can the clothes be whatever white clothes we have?" That sort of thing. They are so excited for their baptism. Let's just hope the President gives us permission! I don't think he won't, he always gets excited when we baptize families.

Maricela also said she was going to come and was going to talk to her neighbor so that she would pass by for her, but her neighbor showed up to church without her and told us that she never talked to her about it. I get the feeling Maricela tends to forget things, so I hope that's what's going on.

We saw Antonio this week as well, and he is SUPER STOKED about this whole mormon thing. But he had to work on Sunday again! So we'll see what happens. We've got an appointment with him tonight.

We also started teaching a woman without legs this week that lives right by the church, and right from the start she said that she felt different with us and that she wanted for us to keep coming. We couldn't invite her to be baptized (one point of opposition in this area, nobody can ever just say "to make a long story short" and everybody talks a TON) because she told us the story of how she lost her legs with every single little detail and then we had to get to our next appointment, but she seems to be feeling it. The good thing is she lives about a block and a half away from the church, so it won't be any problem and all for us to just stop on by.

And we started teaching Ericka, who was a contact my companion made while I was in divisiones in San Buena (a GORGEOUS little mexican town outside of Monclova). On Saturday we just passed by right before going home and started talking with her. Turns out she's looking for a church to raise her kids in and that she thinks our church is the one for her. Who told her that, who knows. She doesn't know any mormons, she'd never met with missionaries before. We told her about baptism, basically just that it's a covenant we make with God that means that we'll be clean of our sins and will be able to live with him again as long as we keep the commandments. We didn't even have to invite her, she just said "Si, me hace falta." Which roughly translated means, "Yeah, I should do that." Easiest baptismal invitation I've ever made. Or not made. So then we invited her to church, but she said she works on Sundays, but that for a while she's felt like she shouldn't and should be looking for a new job so she can rest on Sundays. So we'll see what happens. She's also just a really cool person.

I DON'T WANNA LEAVE THIS AREA! But i'll accept the Lord's will in this. I read Elder Christofferson's talk "Yo reprendo a todos los que amo" (quien sabe como se llamará en inglés) which is the one where he talks about the other apostle that as a young man was denied a generalship in the army because he was mormon, the one that says basically "I'm the gardener here and I know what I want you to be" or something like that. Anyway, it's about accepting God's will in unexpected or even disappointing changes in our life. When I read that, I felt a peace come over me that I felt telling me that whether I go or stay, I'll be where the Lord needs me to help others and to become what He expects of me.

So that was my week. Also, struggling with some struggling missionaries. Anyone remember Elder Kinnegar from God's Army? (Why do I remember his name?!) Yeah...we've got a missionary that's been downloading anti-LDS videos and publications and reading them and has convinced himself, even to the point of saying he's received an answer from God, that says that the Book of Mormon is true, just not completely. Good grief.

Well, That's all I have to say this week. Nos estamos viendo, ¿está bueno?

(that last bit is technically bad spanish, but that's how they talk here. my companion has been making fun of me because it's his first time in Monclova and so his spanish is a nice, pretty Saltillo spanish. Mine is not.)

Elder Taylor

20 Julio 2015

This week was pretty hard. Elder Pieper from the Seventy came to the mission and so between the Zone Conference, District Meeting, the Leadership Conference, cleaning the church for the 
Zone Conference, baptismal interviews and weekly planning, we only had one full day of work and that day, all the appointments fell and we ended up just knocking on a bunch of doors and for some odd reason, nobody was home all day. But whatever. We did what we could and went home very tired but happy for having worked.

Maribel didn't come to church again! We even asked permission to the president AGAIN to be able to baptize her this next week, but we went to go check on her Saturday at night after getting back from Saltillo and Hermano Martinez told us she had gone to La Madrid because the Martinez family had family over on Saturday night. I swear this family that she's living with has been half of the opposicion, and they should be helping her! But oh well. Nayté, the friend that she lives with, is just about fully active now and working on going to the temple this next temple trip.

Maricela has disappeared from off the face of the earth. Better said, she left to San Buena this week and so it's really been two weeks since we've seen her. But we saw her son last night and got an appointment for tonight at 6. I sure hope it goes well!

We haven't been able to coincide with Antonio this week and had to cancel a couple of appointments that we had with him, but we dropped him off a Book of Mormon to read and he loves reading, lives alone, the only problem should be his work, but he says he'll be able to work extra hours before or after Sunday to be able to attend church for at least an hour.

Speaking of which, Lucy came to church this Sunday and I asked her if she was going to be able to stay for the three hours and she looked up at me kind of sheepishly and said "The lady to cover me never came, I just sort of left without permission from work." Which made me feel awesome that she's just sacrificing her work like that to come to church. It's just awesome to see how she's so concerned about doing what's right. She may not understand everything perfectly, but she sure gets putting God first in her life.

Mayela and her children came again! And they say that they want to be baptized on August 1 because that's when her husband's going to be in town! WOOO!

The Conferences with Elder Pieper were really cool. I'm not gonna lie, he's a bit of a rambler and I saw a few missionaries fall asleep. But he gave us some awesome stuff to be able to put in practice. Afterward he personally interviewed me as part of a random-selection, "let's see how the missionaries feel in this mission" survey-kinda thing. He asked me about how I felt, about how my family was, about what I'd learned and just things like that. He told me to tell you all hi and thanks for helping me be ready to come out on the mission.

Afterward I told the Zone Leaders from Monclova Este that he was interviewing possible missionaries to be sent to open Cuba. They believed it. That's one thing I've been working on and been progressing in: convincingly lying.

That's about it this time. I'll try sending a few pictures this time.

Con amor,

Elder Taylor

Yo con unos girasoles y mi sombrero.
Me with sunflowers and my hat.

Comida tipica de aqui, gorditas de picadillo y soda fanta
Typical food of here: gorditas of picadillo and Fanta soda.

la family haro acosta, una familia que ayudamos a reactivar. ya llevan 4 semanas seguidas viniendo a la iglesia, la hermana hasta hizo la oracion en la sacramental.

The Haro Acosta family that we are helping reactivate. They've already come to church four weeks in a row and the sister has given the prayer in sacrament meeting.

13 Julio 2015

MORE MIRACLES!

This week we started teaching the neighbor of a member that NEVER gave us references before, so then when he finally did give us a reference, boy was it a DOOZEE. His name is Antonio and lives alone here in Monclova (about 30 seconds from our house if we walk slowly, which is handy) and his family lives in Piedras Negras while he's working down here. We tried teaching him that first night and it didn't go so well. He couldn't understand anything I said, he just wanted to talk to his buddy (the member who brought us), the member kept trying to pull the lesson down the direction that he wanted to (which is frustrating, it's hard to teach Atonement and Baptism when the member takes 5 minutes in the middle to explain Sunday Meetings and the schedule), but we left thinking that he might progress, it would just be hard. During that first lesson he told us his baby had just died a few months before, so we gave him the pamphlet of Lesson 2, which is the Plan of Salvation. When we came back, he barely paused to ask us how we were and didn't give us the chance to ask him before he just launched into how interesting it all was and basically explained us the whole lesson, with a lot of details that most people don't catch up on. Then said he just had two questions. "Explain to me better the 3 degrees of glory." okay, here you go. "Now, I see references to this other book, the Book of Mormon that I suppose you guys have beside the Bible. My other question: how can I get one?" Uh...we'll give you one. (Unfortunately, we don't have any right now. That's part of the hard thing of being in this mission but outside of Saltillo, supplies are always running short.) "Okay, that's awesome. By the way, I really want to come to church with you guys. It just feels like a good idea." Then after he said the prayer: "......Wow. I just feel so in peace right now. I don't want this feeling to ever leave." But then he had to go to Piedras to see his family this weekend. Next Sunday, then.

AAAAAH! SO MANY PEOPLE!

Then Maribel...we asked for permission to baptize her this Saturday, but the President told us to wait a week, that if she came this Sunday she could be baptized this next Saturday. The sad part: she didn't come to church this Sunday. That means we're probably going to have to wait the 5-times in church rule, which means I probably won't be there. But it doesn't matter. What matters is that she's going to be baptized, she's determined to serve a mission and be a faithful member all the rest of her life. Let's just get her to church, though......But she asked us for a copy of Preach My Gospel. That'll be good.

Mayela and her twins came again! This time they stayed for the full 3 hours, and Mayela was really super gung-ho in the Gospel Principles class. The topic was service and we got on how we have to give a good example to our kids. She's a child psychologist. She just jumped on that. And she's giving us references of her family members and friends (her children's god-mother for example) which, unfortunately, all of them live outside of our area. But they read the pamphlets and book of mormon as a family and are very, super stoked about this whole thing.

Maricela didn't come this week because she had a party to go to, but she said she'd come next week. Some things came up in a lesson we had with her this week that make it sound like she's going to take a while to get baptized, but she's as well just in love with the church and so is her son, Denzel (named after Denzel Washington).

Then as well Rebeca's husband Luis came to church and we had an intense lesson about eternal marriage in Priesthood and he seemed to be really touched, so we'll see if we can't get him down one of these nights to actually teach him a lesson. The problem there is he works in insurance and he has to go whenever there's a car accident, which apparently is just about all day, every day.

Also, Sister Barranco (we call her La Barranquito) brought a neighbor to church, a young woman whose name is Evangelica. Apparently the whole family was invited but only she came. But we have an appointment to go with them this week with La Barranquito.

And Javier, Blanca's husband came. But he's just the same, doesn't want to be baptized.

I've never seen this level of investigator before, this amount or people that have just been SO DANG-WELL prepared to receive the gospel. Yes, they have struggles, such as sleeping in and not making it to church or whatever. But it's fun to watch the spirit work on them, how they change their mind in middle of a lesson about whatever point of doctrine or their interest just explodes in everything that is the church and gospel.

This next week we're going to have zone conferences, and Elder Pieper from the Area Seventy is coming. Normally this would be a super stressful event for us zone-leaders, but luckily for us, it´s going to happen in Monclova Este, the other zone. So we just have to make sure everybody shows up on time while the other zone leaders worry about the rest.

I just feel super blessed right now. That must mean the trial is right around the corner. That's gonna suck.

Recently I've been studying a lot about what it takes to become perfected. The scriptures say that only one perfect person has existed, that was Jesus Christ. However, they also name other "perfect people," such as Adam and Seth. I look at it this way: even if the two words "perfect" and "perfected" are sometimes used interchangeably in the scriptures, it's important to note the difference. Perfect would mean having never had a defect, sin or weakness. Perfected would mean having overcome them. I really love the verses in Moroni 10:32-33, where we are exhorted to become perfected:

"Si, venid a Cristo, y perfeccionaos en el, y absteneos de toda impiedad, y si os absteneis de toda impiedad, y amais a Dios con toda vuestra alma, mente y fuerza, entonces su gracia os es suficiente, para que por su gracia seais PERFECTOS en Cristo...Y ademas, si por la gracia de Dios sois perfectos en Cristo...entonces sois santificados en Cristo por la gracia de Dios, mediante el derramiento de la sangre de Cristo, que está en el convenio del Padre para la remision de vuestros pecados, a fin de que LLEGUÉIS A SER SANTOS, SIN MANCHA." It's impossible for someone in this life to become Perfect as we have all sinned and we all have weaknesses. I've personally become painfully aware of some of my own in these past couple weeks. But not only is it possible to become Perfected in this life, it is a commandment. "Be ye perfect, even as my Father in Heaven is Perfect." (paraphrased because I don't actually know exactly what it says in english.) I sure am glad to be here learning all these things. I plan on progressing every day for the rest of my life, and I fully intend on becoming Perfected before I die.

Bueno, que les vaya bien! Andale pues!

Elder Taylor

6 Julio 2015

Happy Independence Day!

For those of you who asked, nothing was done to celebrate. We even mentioned it to a couple people and nobody said anything, just a couple sympathetic smiles. Oh well. I'll have to wait till September for a REAL Independence celebration then. At least I think that's when the Mexican Independence is....

That's weird thinking about Elder Lewis being home. Tell him HI for me and that I'm sorry for stopping writing him. I was writing him for a few weeks....and then that died out.

This week has been the BEST of the mission so far! My companion and I are doing SUPER well. We had SEVEN investigators in church. We asked God to surprise us again and BOY did he surprise us!

First, Javier, Blanca's husband. He still doesn't want to get baptized, but at least he's coming. We'll see what happens later on down the road.

Second, Maribel came for the second time! And afterward she said she wants to get baptized on Saturday. She just kind of nonchalantly came up and said, "Yeah, I really liked Relief Society. And I just wanted to tell you that I'm getting baptized on Saturday." Awkward silence. "Oh really?" So we're going to need special permission to baptize her, but according to a talk that the President gave us to read a few months ago by President Dyer, the time to baptize an investigator is as soon as the investigator is ready and wants to. The lessons can be taught in 10 minutes after that and you can go right to the water. So I'm guessing the President Rodriguez will give us permission. AHHAH! she's so awesome!

Third, Maricela came for the second time as well, and she LOVED it for a second time! She's the one that just showed up to church last week out of the blue. We had a lesson with her this week where she just poured out everything that's ever been hard for her ever, and she has been SO prepared to receive this gospel.

Fourth, Mayela and her kids came to church for the first time. At first we were kind of nervous because the service started off kind of rough when the Bishopric asked if there were any babys to be blessed in the congregation (these things apparently don't necessarily get informed about beforehand, they just get asked for impromptu like that and SOMETIMES it's the baby's own family members that bless). But then the testimonies started and it was all fine. Afterward she decided to go home early because her two little kids were getting antsy and so she left and told us that next week she'd plan better to be able to stay all three hours. We thought she didn't looked to enthused, but then afterward we went to her house to give her back her son's shoe that he dropped and she threw open the door and got us past it and sat us down with cool water before we could explain we were just there to give her her son's shoe. Then she started telling us about what happened in the church. SHE SAW LIGHTS AND ANGELS! She said she saw silhouettes of tall, shiny white people standing behind and beside some of the people giving testimonies and that she wouldn't have told us if we hadn't passed by to drop off the shoe, something about how she would have thought she had just imagined it if she couldn't tell us about it that same day. AAAAAAHHHHHHH! She's so AWESOME!

Fifth, we had a new investigator in church. She went to Bellavista ward last week, also without an invitation. We went and visited her and her husband (a less-active member) last week. They have some serious problems. I know exactly how the gospel will bless their life, but they've got a rough road of change ahead of them.

We haven't seen Luis all week and he didn't come to church this week, so we don't know what's going on with that. Same with Martha. And unfortunately we lost our phone in a taxi this week and so we don't have anybody's numbers.

God has just been "laying it on thick" as my companion said. I don't know what the heck I might have done to deserve these blessings, but He's sure been doing His part. I just REALLY REALLY hope he's not building us up just to bring us down again. So we're praying really hard for these people.

Also, we made an AWESOME contact yesterday that turns out it's a middle-aged couple. We helped them bring in their groceries and the hermana turns and looks at us and says, "Wow, how very handsome. Are you two married?" "Uh....no." "Good. Come in and sit down, let me get you a coke." So then she sits us down with her husband on the porch with a couple glasses of coke, goes back in and comes back out with a slice of cake for each of us. We say: "Oh, thanks hermana, we really weren't expecting this." "Don't mention it honey. Coke alone just doesn't do." Then begins to throw every question about what it takes and means to be a Mormon as far as rules go. We had to get back to the house to ask for the dats (I'm sorry, I have no idea how to say that in normal-person english) from the district leaders, so we set an appointment for later on in the week, gave her a folletto and left. She and her husband seem really interested. She also presented us with her daughters, two of them. But she said that we're too old for them (and we explained why it wouldn't be possible), but that she'd like her daughters to marry two, young, handsome, pale-skinned boys like us. I really liked her. We'll see what happens this friday when we go.

So that's about it for this last week. We've just got a baptism for Maribel to look forward to this week! She's told us she's determined to be a missionary. It's pretty cool looking at her story and how she just HAPPENED to be living in that house with the less-active family under circumstances that normally wouldn't have happened. She'll be the first member of her town, La Madrid, Coahuila. In forty years, people will call her a pioneer of the church in that area.

I love being a missionary.

That's all for this week! I hope all is well over there por aquel lado!

Los quiero bastante!

Elder Taylor

29 Junio 2015

This week was AWESOME! SO many miracles. Too bad Elder Stensrud wasn't here to see them, but it's great for Elder Briggs, coming into this area from one of the hardest areas of the mission.

Elder Briggs, from South Jordan Utah but came out from San Diego California because his family moved there after he graduated from High School. He's also 21. And about 7 feet tall. Just kidding, but he's super tall and skinny, even taller than Elder Stensrud. And he also started in the same area of the mission with the same trainer as me, so we've had a few really long discussions about people we knew and miss. And maybe some griping about our "dad" in the mission....But we both know now he's an awesome missionary.

Elder Velasco, I haven't heard anything more of him. He got sent home this last week (I don't remember if I said that last monday) and I heard a rumor that he already got released as a missionary. But I don't know.

Maribel is still progressing quite nicely, except she didn't come to church for the second week in a row. But this week she told us about how she really likes smoking but fell sick from it last weekend, which is why she couldn't come to church last week. So she's decided to stop. She also told us about how she's already told her friends she wants to become Mormon. This is after one time in a sacrament meeting, and one ward activity. She's pretty darn awesome. We also gave her a pretty powerful blessing, making her some pretty awesome promises if she continues strong in the gospel. Let's just see that she comes to church on Sunday....

Martha, we're not sure what's going on there. We called her Sunday morning and she said she was already getting ready to go to church, but then never showed up. Dora has been going to Aeropuerto recently, so we're thinking maybe Martha decided last minute to go with her over there, but we haven't confirmed that. One way or another, Rodolfo and Martha passed us on the street today and honked and waved at us. So that was nice to see that she was still alive.

Luis also came to church again! We hadn't seen him for a week and a half and just decided to call him before heading out to church. I think we woke him up, but he said he'd get there, and HE DID! But he left before we could get an appointment with him. So we still don't know his work schedule...we'll see how we can do this.

And NEW PEOPLE: one day Elder Briggs decided to pray for us to find a family of four to teach and baptize. That day or the next (I don't remember which) he decided to knock a door that I didn't even realize was a house, it just looked like a big stone wall with doors (which here generally means a workshop or an abandoned warehouse). A girl came to the door and then said for us to wait for a little. Out comes a lady named Mayela and she asks us to come in because we look hot and tired. She sits us down on her sofa and hands us water. Turns out she's a psychologist and family therapist. (Her living room is immaculate and her kids are all super well-behaved except the 9-month-old baby.) She says she always receives every preacher but that she's returned to being Catholic after a long time of being Atheist. We're about to start a lesson when her next client comes in and we set an appointment for the next day and give her the pamphlet of the Restoration.

The next day we come back with high hopes, again she gets us past the door, sits us down with water and sits down herself and starts to talk about how she 1) read the pamphlet, something that never happens, 2) was impacted how our church would invite people to investigate and ask God if it's true, something that no other church here does according to her, 3) knelt down and prayed to know if it was true and 4) received a spiritual confirmation that it was true. She told us (before we even start the lesson) that she believes that God might just want her to join this church and that she's willing to follow it and check it out. We just left her a quick message about recognizing spiritual responses and invited her to be baptized and she said yes then gave us cookies and doled out chocolate milk to her three children old enough to drink it, each in their own favorite cup and then her son Pedro said the last prayer and we left. As soon as we're out of hearing range, my companion and I just exploded cheering and laughing. She's so AWESOME!

But she didn't come to church. She told us she's waiting for money from her husband who works out of state, but that if she couldn't come this week, definitely this next week. We have high hopes.

Also this week, we were passing a house and we both felt prompted to knock it. Out comes a pretty tired looking woman. Turns out she's LDS and inactive for years, but her son was never baptized. So we started teaching them and they say they're going to come to church this next week. She doesn't work on Sundays, he doesn't have soccer games and they don't have family commitments until the evening. There should be nothing to stop them from coming.

Then on Sunday morning, we decided to pray for God to surprise us in church. Out of the blue, right before sacrament meeting started, a woman we'd met in the street a few weeks earlier just walks in with her member neighbor and sits down. AAAHH! Elder Stensrud and I had both felt like she would accept our message if she just listened to it, but she'd always been busy whenever we passed by, so eventually we just stopped going. She's active in her Christian church, but something she said to my companion as she was leaving really got us excited: "I really liked this church. So did my son (he's only 7 years old, what a bummer...just kidding). We'll see what God wants to do with my life." Yeah. We're pretty stoked.

Some other things from this week, it was our first time eating with Hermana Blanca, our convert. In our ward, the four missionaries always eat together and the hermanas take turns cooking lunch for us. So when all four of us came, she was expecting all four but apparently that wasn't communicated to her granddaughter Sofia who started shouting in a terrified voice "Why are there so many hermanos?!" and just refused to be consoled. This is the girl who normally has no problem crawling up on someone and then throwing herself backwards off of them, just knowing that they'll catch her and then giggling. One of her many nicknames is Tarzancita.

Yep, that's what's been going on in Frontera. I really like my new companion. I think he's been the easiest to get along with so far. He's a little in culture shock from coming from Saltillo where everybody's mean to Monclova where everybody seems super nice.

I read two talks this week that I really loved, and I'm not sure what they're called in English. "Hacia donde miramos?" by Elder Lynn B. Robbins and "Yo reprendo a todos los que amo" by Elder Christofferson. Both very awesome talks and helped me a lot, especially being in leadership here.

Que les vaya bien en todo lo que hagan!

Elder Taylor

[The two talks Elder Taylor mentioned are "Which Way Do You Face?" by Elder Lynn G. Robbins from the October 2014 General Conference and "As Many As I Love, I Rebuke and Chasten" by Elder D. Todd Christofferson speaking in the April 2014 General Conference.]

22 Junio 2015

Okay, what all happened this week.

Elder Velasco's mom came up the day it happened to be my turn to be in the hospital with him, so I got to talk to her and his dad (he had been up here since Sunday). They're both really interesting people, and rather desillusioned with religions in general but were really well impressed with how well everyone treated each other in the church and particularly with how we've been taking care of their son. His mom was saying something about how she always sees the missionaries down there in Mexico (supposedly it's like the "utah of Mexico") and now she will always try and help them however she can, she'll listen to them, she'll give them water and food if they need it...etc. I was talking with Elder Velasco after they left for the night and he said he thinks all this happened to him so that they would come up here and see how the church is and get interested. We'll see what happens.

But he's already been sent down to Mexico. (By the way, when you're in Mexico and people way "Mexico," they're talking about the state or the city.) There wasn't a specialist here in Monclova to be able to operate on his hip.

Luis has disappeared. Remember what I said about why it's hard here? You find awesome, super duper people and then they disappear. People don't bother checking planners or agendas here, so they'll tell you come at 6 on Tuesday or whatever, we show up and turns out that they're working or went out of town or shopping. We've had to drop way too many investigators just because we set appointments and then they disappear and then we never manage to localize them. That's what's happened to Luis. I hope we can find him.

Maribel! She didn't come to church this week because she went to La Madrid, a teeny tiny town about an hour away, for fathers' day. By the way, HAPPY FATHERS' DAY! But she told us about her experience last week in the church. She says she's never felt as good as she did in the church. She says she just felt like "this is the right place for me," her words. Best quote from her this week (and she has a ton of these quotes): "So, um, I heard a word in the church and I didn't really understand it but it really called my attention. What was it...member....something member." "Active member?" "Yeah! Let's say, if I get baptized, could I become an active member some day?" Awkward silence. "Well, yes. That's kind of the point." "Oh, okay. I want to do that." She also says she's already received a response from God that this is what she should do with her life. She was even already asking us about what it's like to be a missionary and if she could do it someday and was talking about getting her parents (one Catholic, one Christian) to come to church. She's so AWESOME! It's so cool when you get to the point with an investigator when it's "I already know it's true and I want to go through with it, what can I do to prepare myself?" From this point out, it's easy and fun to teach. Well, more than normal. We just hope she'll be ready for the opposition that's bound to come.

We also started in earnest with a Leticia and Luis, a young Catholic couple. It's so much fun to teach them. They just heap questions on us. They read EVERYTHING, which is amazing because nobody here really reads. I know a lady that left the church because they asked her to read in Sunday School. It's kinda weird because we gave them a pamphlet of the Restoration and they liked it and didn't have any problem. So we gave them the pamphlet of Plan of Salvation and THAT'S where the doubts came out, all about Adam and Eve. Normally IF a Catholic has a problem with the doctrine, it comes out the Restoration. It's the Jehovah's Witnesses that get worked up about Adam and Eve. But whatever. We gave them a Book of Mormon and assigned them to read Alma 32 (Luis says he has a hard time believing in something he can't touch or see), 2 Nephi 2 (For their doubts about Adam and Eve) and 3 Nephi 11 (which Leticia said she read that one first because she like the sound of Jesus coming to the Americas). They haven't been able to come to church because they're always busy in their business, a cake bakery (or whatever a Pasteleria is called in English), but she says she's determined to come this Sunday.

We have CAMBIOS tomorrow! I'm staying here in Frontera (which means I'm going to be here for the whole darn Canicula just about) and Elder Stensrud is going off to Saltillo (the lucky duck). My new companion is coming from Elder Stensrud's new area in Saltillo, so they're just switching places. Cool thing about my new companion: his name is Elder Briggs, his trainer was Elder Alcala and started in Aurora 2. Sound familiar? We both started in the same area with the same trainer. Cool thing about our "dad" (trainer): he is the new assistant.

I'm excited to have him coming. I've heard a bit about him before and all great things, and I also know him a little bit from leadership conferences, and he's really calm and pretty cool. Let's see how this transfer goes.

Looking at the rest of the elders that are going to be in our Zone, I think it's going to be a fun transfer. We're getting a few really good, obedient and focused elders and a few of our troublemakers are leaving to other zones, so it's going to be a lot more tranquilo around here. Also, let's hope nobody goes bullfighting cars in the highway again. Good grief.

In church a returned missionary who had served in this ward came back and visited. Several of his converts were still active and all the members remembered him. One sister came up and told me to come back so that I get received the same way. I think I would like that, to come back and visit. The problem is that to bring family with me there should be somewhere to enjoy ourselves too, and there's nothing here in Monclova or Saltillo. And least not to spend an extended holiday.

Oh well.

Well, that's all I have this week. Hasta luego! Los quiero mucho muy bastante!

Elder Taylor