Author: Elder Taylor

I have officially decided, though I haven’t technically been acting as a missionary, I’m still set apart, and therefore I will write one last article on this site before I change to another, yet-to-be-made site, which will mostly deal with non-mission related things, including (but most certainly not limited to) badgers, schooling, spoons, dollar bills, and spatulas.

What this means for all of you is that if you want to keep yourselves updated on basically what’s going on in my life, you will have an easy place to do so. The nice thing about it is that then you don’t have to feel bad if you act disinterested, since you’ll be able to update yourself. Or something like that.

This week has been pretty cool. On Monday night I took the short trip to the mission office in Scottsdale, where we had a lovely dinner followed by an almost EFY-style testimony meeting. I must say, however, that it did greatly surpass EFY testimony meetings in quality. The following morning we work up at 3:45 and had breakfast. Shortly thereafter, all the missionaries that were flying home departed for the airport, leaving me to fend for myself for a couple of hours until my family arrived at the office.

The rest of the week was spent driving back and forth between a cabin 20 miles east of Payson and a lovely place called the Valley of the Sun, otherwise known as the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. It was pretty amazing. We visited many of the people that I had been able to get to know during my time there, and we ate some awesome meals, including incredible carne asadas.

As of yesterday, we attended church and departed for the lovely Grand Canyon. All in all, it took quite a while, but it turned out to be pretty awesome. For those of you who haven’t seen the Grand Canyon, it’s pretty cool. I mean, it definitely qualifies as being cooler than boring old sagebrush on hills. For those of you that have been to the Grand Canyon, I reckon that you know what I mean.

We stayed in the grand town of Kanab last night, and at the current time (when I’m writing this, not when I’m posting it), we are driving toward Salt Lake City, which just happens to be where our home is. Of course, I do believe that you already knew that.

And there you have it. Thus ends my mission.

Wow-ee… I don’t even know what to say. Well, ok, I do… It’s been great fun. Yeah, it’s been the experience of a lifetime. And, weirdly enough, it’s just about over! Yeah, it’s crazy.

Anyway, this week has been great fun, I can’t lie. We worked hard, and though there were no baptisms, people came much closer to it. It’s been really a rather weird feeling.

As you may be able to tell, my thoughts are somewhat jumbled right now. This morning we had an awesome breakfast at our house with all the missionaries from our Zone, and that was glorious fun. We made aebleskivers, which qualified as amazing.

But yeah, it’s been a really busy week. And as of last night, I taught my last lesson and street-contacted my last person as a full-time missionary. Weird, eh?

Anyway, the news is that for all of you that want to know, my cell phone number (as of tomorrow) is (801) 243-9449 (yeah, the same as before my mission).

My homecoming in church will be on the 13th of July, and therefore all of you are invited to go. Due to a lapse in memory, I don’t remember what time my church meets now, because I’m too lazy to go through and calculate the hour at which we have church. But, you’re invited anyway. So, call me or watch your email for when I actually do know.

But yeah. I’ll probably write some more on here later to wrap it all up, but for now, I need to go work on packing and whatnot. So, yeah. Have an incredible week!

Oh, yeah…. By the way, I will be here in Arizona until next Sunday, late at night. So, yeah. Don’t try visiting me at home. It won’t work. I mean… You’re welcome to try, but it’s very unlikely that I’ll be there.

Darn. Approximately 30 seconds ago, this box where I am now typing was full of witty, enjoyable comments written by yours truly. Sadly, I made a riciculous error while attempting to simultaneously write yet another email, and… Ouch… There goes all my thoughtful, interesting commentary about the week.

But alas, now I have started again, and have no choice but to continue. ‘Tis a sad thing.

Anyway, in the other email, I was saying (in a much more entertaining way) that this week has been rather fun. It’s crazy-go-weird to think that In a week’s time I’ll be finishing my mission. (Yes, it’s true.)

This week we’ve been trying to get a baptism ready for before I depart, but it appears that such will not be possible. That’s got me a bit sad. There are so many people here who are ready but just haven’t taken the actual steps necessary to be baptized. So, I’ll be finishing my mission while they stay un-baptized. But hey, what can you do?

Anyway, it’s been a good week, though I think that I’m just realizing now that my time is incredibly limited. There’s so much to do and so very little time. It’s crazy-go-nuts.

I guess the point is that I don’t know what else to say. I had the long update written out, but I really don’t feel like trying to remember everything that I said, so I’m going to go ahead and finish up this one. Expect one next week on Monday, and then after that, I’ll be here on vacation with my family for a week before I actually end up at home. But yeah. I’ll probably call some of you to talk.

Have an incredible week!

I almost went swimming today. But don’t worry! I promise that it was totally Kosher. Yes, totally Kosher. Today we played Kickball… But with a twist. All the bases were kiddie pools – with the exception of home base. Going in to home base there was the ultimate slip-n’-slide… A large sheet of plastic (the type used in construction) covered with water and dish soap. Anyway, it was just about the most exciting Zone Activity ever. I mean… I enjoyed the lazer-tagging from last transfer, but this didn’t cost us any money.

But yeah, it was great fun. No… It was glorious fun. I could go even further with that, but I’ll leave that there.

In other news, we’re no longer going to be having Litzy’s baptism on July 5th. It’s rather sad. But, her best friends (who are the ones who got her started on going to church and whatnot) are traveling to Mexico for the summer, beginning this week. So, since they won’t be there, she’s decided to wait for her baptism. Anyway, it’s pretty sad… But that’s ok. All is well.

In other news, we’re extremely happy that we just found one of our old investigators again. We had set a baptismal date with him when he rather suddenly disappeared. The other day he saw us walking, stopped his car, and set up another appointment with us. It’s exciting.

The weather is, as you might imagine, rather hot. Just barely, we had a carne asada (Mexican BBQ) in the park, where the temperature was a lovely 108 degrees. Imagine that… And I thought it was hot in Utah. Anyway, as long as you stay out of the sun and aren’t running around (and are wearing shorts and a T-shirt), it’s not so bad, really. I know, none of you think so… But it’s true! Oh, and I believe that I got a sunburn.

But yeah, I think that’s the most exciting news. Since we had so much to do this morning, we’re doing email rather late, and we don’t have much time… So, I’ma go now.

Everybody enjoy!

Due to a comment by one of my good friends, I have decided to entitle this email ‘The Work’, and talk about how the work is going. Apparently I don’t do that enough, or something.

This week, lots of exciting stuff happened. We were able to set several baptismal dates, a few of which are with the Espinoza Family. They are a family of five that we have been working with for quite some time. They keep delaying baptism because they don’t feel that they have yet received a solid answer to the prayers to know that the Book of Mormon is true. Anyway, it’s been difficult, but we’ve managed to get them to agree to a date of June 28th, provided they receive the answer that they’re expecting prior to that date.

Also, we were able to set a date with an awesome 9 year-old girl, Litzy Diaz. She’s been going to church for quite awhile in another branch. The only problem is that her mom is less-active, so it’s been kind of difficult to get support from her, because she often has to work on Sundays. But, on the plus side, Litzy is so excited about the church, and when we extended the date of July 5th, she was incredibly happy about it. The best part is that though I will officially have finished my mission by that point, I’ll be here with my family, so I’ll be able to go to the baptism with my family. It’s pretty awesome.

Other than that, we’re still struggling with the other people who are ready but don’t think they are. That’s been tricky, but we’ve been doing what we can. Hopefully they’ll notice it soon.

But yeah… That’s just about all the interesting news. Oh, yeah… I guess that there is some decent news. Though that Sister went home last week, she was replaced by one of the most awesome English Sister Missionaries in the mission. She speaks decent Spanish already, and she’ll now be speaking Spanish for the rest of her mission. Anyway, it’s pretty cool. But yeah, that’s just about it.

Life is great, the church is true, and sleep is good.

Many of you may be wondering, “Why in the world did I just get Elder Taylor’s update on Wednesday?”

If I were not me, I would likely be wondering the same thing. But since I am me, I happen to know why I am sending emails on P-day. Therefore, I will now explain that to those of you who remain in the dark over said subject. And the reason is this: This week we participated in two separate ‘Training Blitz’es, which took up a lovely 4 days of our time, including Monday and Tuesday of this week. Therefore, we were not able to have our P-day on Monday, so we’re having it on Wednesday.

Anyway, participating in those has been fun, and we’ll be having another one coming up next Tuesday and Wednesday, which should be pretty interesting.

As part of those, I got to spend the last two days in one of my old areas, though in English, and covering a part of my area where we rarely ventured, due to a complete lack of people who speak Spanish. So, it was kind of weird, knowing that I had previously served in that area, but knowing nothing about it. But it was good fun, and I got to spend two enjoyable days with some cool Elders.

Apart from that, we’ve just been keeping plenty busy, finding awesomely incredible new investigators, and having good amounts of success. The other Elders and Sisters in our Ward also had a joint baptism on Saturday, which was rather fun. I somehow wound up directing the music, and one of the sisters was playing the piano, and her book kept closing on her, so I had to try to hold my hymnbook, direct the music, and keep her book open, all at the same time. It was a rather exciting experience.

Sadly, on Sunday, a Sister missionary was very sick and ended up spending many hours in the hospital. A day and a half later, she was there again, and she is going to be taking a plane ride home at 4:00 this afternoon…. So, that is pretty sad.

But yeah, I’m sure that other exciting things have happened since the last time that I wrote, but I can’t think of any other details right now, so I’m just going to go ahead and finish up right now.

Wait… One more thing… I also turned 21 this week, which was good fun.. One of the sisters pointed out that I can now buy alcohol. Fun, eh? I just wish that I got some cool benefit at the age of 21… Something that I could actually use… Like, being able to fly or something.

Anyway, I’ma finish up now. Have an awesome week!

This week was, with no other possible way to describe it, absolutely crazy. Round about a week ago, the temperature was at approx. 110 degrees, which is rather hot. It was very undesirable and caused much sweat. Within two days, however, the temperature had dropped to an incredible 65 degrees, which is just about 30 degrees below average for this time of year. Anyway, it stayed near there for a couple of days, mixed with some rain, and it’s been gradually heating up again. Anyway, it was a pretty awesome experience. Yeah. Definately.

In other news, this week hasn’t been incredibly exciting. Well, ok… On Friday morning, while I was in the shower, I got a bit of water in my left ear, which decided to lodge itself deep in there for the next 36 hours.. My ears are still recovering from the shock. I had to purchase equipment from Walgreens in order to completely remove it, but my ear is still being weird about it. Maybe I shouldn’t have tried putting lots of random chemicals in there. Anyway, it’s out now, and thankfully I am now able to hear sounds coming from the leftish side of my body.

The work still continues to go well, and we’ve found just about some of the most amazing investigators ever. Hopefully we’ll be able to get them baptized within the next 5 weeks, as that would make me rather happy. We still continue working with the bunch of people who are ready (though they don’t believe us when we point it out), and hopefully they’ll realize it soon.

But yeah, that’s what’s going on. I can’t really think of any other incredibly exciting things that happened this week, and suffice it to say that the work is going well. So, yeah. Everybody enjoy your week!

Well, hopefully it won’t last forever. But as of 2 days from now, my current companion will have been my companion for the longest period of time. We got transfer news, and he and I will be staying together for my last transfer. It’s crazy to think that I’ve only got one more transfer left, as a transfer seems like quite a short amount of time. There’s quite a bit of change going on in the zone, but I’ll still be here for my last stretch.

Anyway, this week wasn’t the most exciting, to tell the truth. We got some pretty promising new investigators, had a decent amount of lessons, and went on exchanges with some other Elders, all of which was pretty interesting, but there wasn’t really anything spectacular, apart from a mission president’s fireside that we went to last night, which was quite a bit of fun, and a farewell dinner for the Sister Lopez that is going home to her beloved Chile. So, that was fun. But yeah, there wasn’t that much else that went on.

So, pretty much, what I think I’m trying to say, is that I really don’t know much else that I can say about this week. It’s been good, don’t get me wrong, but there just wasn’t anything really spectacular. So, yeah… I think that I’m going to close up now by saying that… Well… Darn. I can’t think up anything really witty to say right now. Well, hey. Have an incredibly fabulous week. No, really. Do.

We recently finished one of the most awesome Zone Activities ever. Yup, that’s right, ever. No ifs, ands, or buts. We went to play some awesome lazertag, and I must admit that it was spectacular. Of course, you probably already got that impression from what I’ve already written, but such was the case. Plus, it was relatively cheap, because all of us went, so we got the group discount. Anyway, it was great stuff.

Also, as all of you know, yesterday was Mothers’ Day, on which missionaries are able to call home. So, that was cool, too. After church I called them up, and it was a glorious experience.

In other news, we had a decent week as far as missionary work goes. We managed to finally set a baptismal date with an investigator that has been involved in that for quite a long time. We had a lesson with him on Friday night and set the date for the 31st of May, which will be awesome (provided that I stay in this area 1 more transfer).

Other than that, there really hasn’t been that much going on… We’ve got a quite a few investigators that are completely ready and prepared for baptism, it’s just that they seem to be afraid of actually doing it. So, we’re working on that. They really need to just do it, but it’s hard to help them understand that. But hey, we’ll keep working on it.

But yeah, that’s really the news. It’s been a glorious week, but I’m tired from lazer-tagging, and I already talked to my family for quite awhile yesterday, so I’ma go ahead and finish this up. Have an awesome week! And always remember, the Gospel is True!

So, guess what? This lovely week, plenty of exciting stuff has been going on. First thing first, we had a lovely temple trip and breakfast this morning, with all but one of the companionships in our zone participating. So, that was great fun. We’ve been plenty busy with tons of lessons, and last night we had a rather interesting experience with a new investigator who is going through an incredibly difficult time in his life.

But, thankfully, he knew where to turn. We met with him for the first time and had a great lesson last night. He had gone to the Visitors’ Center before and the sister missionaries had (supposedly) sent the referral, which we never received. Then, last night, just as one of our appointments cancelled on us, we got a call from a sister at the Visitors’ Center who wanted to know if we could go teach him that moment. So, we went on over to the Visitors’ Center and taught him a great lesson. Anyway, it’s pretty cool.

In other news, we were robbed of our nice car this week. We had our interviews and car inspections on Wednesday, and when we got there with our incredibly clean car, (armor-alled and all) the vehicle coordinator said, “Wow… Awesome work, Elders. But we’re switching it out today…” So, he stole our 2007 Malibu and gave us a 2005 Corolla, which was depressingly filthy. Anyway, I was kind of distraught about it for a few days, but I think I’ve recovered now. But ’twas a sad thing.

But yeah, everything else is going pretty much amazingly well. Oh, yeah, BYU offered me a full tuition scholarship, apparently, so I can’t complain there, either. I was having trouble deciding where to go, but that seems to make the decision quite a bit easier. I still think I’d have more fun at BYU-Idaho, but I believe that good ‘ole BYU is the right choice for now.

But yeah, that’s the news. It’s been a pretty exciting week, I must admit. But yeah, no complaints from this end.

Anyway, everybody have an awesome week!