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