Subject: So that happend

Hey,

So everyone calm down - I’m not dead. I still love you, even though I haven’t seen cookies in a while, all is well. Our P-day got moved just for this week. The reason for this one week change was a very special one and I will talk more about that in a minute or just a few lines down. This week has been a good one. We had a lot of missionary meetings and the last four days have been crazy.

I guess I will start with Friday: Elder Dixon is the district leader and there was a big leadership training, so he had to go to that. So, I went on splits with some other missionaries so that was fine. That took most of the day, and so there wasn’t much time to do anything else in our area that day. Then on Saturday President Andrus was still in Reno and so he had his companion call us (Sister Andrus) and ask if he could come to District Tract. Quick side note: District Tract is when a whole district gets together in one companionship's area and go tract part of it out. Back to the story, so he came out with our district and that was really cool. Now when I say cool I mean, I am glad he didn’t go tracting with me. The one cool thing to see is that he not only talks the talk, but walks the walk, literally. He tells us to do something and he does it to. He loves to go tracting from what I hear, and he even goes out and talks to 10 people every day also. That is something that he has been telling missionaries to do since he came out. Then he took us out to lunch and did like a mini zone conference with us, so that was really cool to have him go out with us, and hey free lunch right??????

Then comes Sunday. As I have said before, Sunday is a long day, but this one was just a little bit longer then normal. We, (and by me I mean Elder Dixon and myself) were asked to speak on missionary work in a Sacrament meeting. It went well and we talked about how to be better member missionaries. Then President Andrus was asked to speak in the third hour of that ward. I sure do love 5th Sundays. So we went and listened to that. Now let me run back just a second. He invited Mr. Richard Heaton to come to the ward meetings that day. President couldn’t be there so Mr. Heaton came. Now the only reason I even bring up his name is because he is the Director of the MTC. Yeah - and he is really big in the Missionary department of the Church. So let’s just say that when someone comes to your sacrament meeting like that and you’re speaking on Missionary work, you get a little scared. And by a little I mean a lot. The talks went well and he told us later we did a good jerb, so that’s always nice to hear you know a little about what you’re talking about. Then later that night we went to a training on phase two of the media program. Brother Heaton did that, and let me tell you what, the LDS church is really trying something very new here. It is really an honor to be a part of this pilot for the program. They really are trying to make people think about what they believe. We got to see a sneak peak at the new commercials that start today; they are amazing, and really powerful.

So now to why P-day was moved. Yesterday we had another special training by Brother Heaton, It was so cool. He trained us on how to be better missionaries and how to allow the Spirit guide us in our missionary work. That may not seem like an amazing reason to move p-day, but it was so worth it. It made me look at the way I do things and as a companionship, we do things. Do really allow the Spirit to direct us all the time? I pose that question to all of those who read it. I know it is often hard to know what the Spirit is saying and what is wants you to do. Sometimes we feel like we need to talk to people, but what do we say to them? Well has members we have the gift of the Holy Ghost to prompt us on what to say, we just need to ask for it. Now read back and see how easy that last statement really is. All we have to do is ask Heavenly Father what our friends or neighbors or the guy in line at Haggen (I know I’m shameless)need to hear and then we just need to show our willingness to serve and we will be blessed to help others receive the blessing we have and love. We have a gift that we need to share with people as much as possible and most of the time we don’t realize the missionary opportunities we pass up everyday. We just need to pray and ask for the guidance to do what is needed of us. I love you all very much, my time is running out, I’m so glad that all is well. Have fun in Boise this week and say hi for me. Also glad to hear the wedding went well. Dad, stay out of Victoria's Secret, and don’t give mom ideas any more. I love you guys and will talk to you next week, normal day, normal time.

Love,
Elder Taylor

A mission is hard?

After quite a long time, we got some more pictures from our Elder Taylor - clearly having a good time!

Elder Filter and Elder Taylor get ready to make their famous cigarette milkshake

Elder Taylor enjoying a snack - while Elder Filter watches...

Elder Smith and Elder Taylor - are they havin' a laugh?!

Elder Taylor after he tries to rescue a quarter from under a tower of flour
Or - he's doing his Tyrone Biggums impersonation...

Elder Filter and Elder Taylor, being very good sports when it comes to lipstick on the face

Deal me in guysh! Elder Taylor is in it to win it!

Elder Taylor considers his post mission options...

Elders Taylor and Sanderson give the "Servant of the Lord Stink Eye"

Winnemucca District picture...back row: (l-r) Elder Filter, two new guys, Elder Body, Elder and Sister Crookston. front row: (l-r) Elder Taylor, Elder Smith

Subject: This week in top stories...how small the world is...

Hello to one and all,
The "all" being whoever will read this. Anyway this week has been one that has been kinda crazy. We had transfers this past week and my new companion’s name is Elder Dixon, he is a really cool guy. He is black and from North Carolina. But don’t worry is not a Duke fan, he is a Tar Heel through and through. I had to ask him which team he liked when we met, and I told him his answer could end our companionship. He answered correctly and things have been going great ever since. You see: a love for the Tar Heels really can bring people together.

Anyway Elder Dixon is a way cool guy, he has been out about 18 months and has less time to serve than I’ve been out, and he takes every opportunity to let me know that. It has been kinda weird though. The reason I say that is because I get to drive the car around and I know the area and the investigators, so this week has kinda been like my senior week and until he gets to know people, I kinda plan everything. I will always get to drive though, because he doesn’t have driving privileges and I really didn’t think about it this week but they said I get to drive anyway, so that makes it nice. Anywho, this week has been really busy.

As you already know I saw Dain Craig this past Tuesday. He was at his wife’s parents house and we were there teaching a lesson. He sat in and is was really crazy, I was sitting there the whole time teaching and thinking “I know this guy, where do I know him from?” then he said he had family in Vegas. I was like "oh, who??" And he said "Oh just, you know that one Ken Craig guy." AND I WAS LIKE "I SO KNOW THAT GUY!!!" And then it all fell into place. He remembered me as the kid who lost his Coldplay ticket and then got it back at the lost and found. It was really cool to see him and it just shows how small a world it really is. Also to prove how small a world it is: I was talking to Elder Sanderson before he left about Bill Boland, He was like "Wait, I know a guy name Bill Boland, didn’t his mom get an a car accident?" I was like "Yeah a few months ago", he said that Bill had made him and his companion dinner and that they were teaching his mom. I was like "HOLY COW!" Small world I know. He knew his brother Dave, I think that’s his name. Wow small world I know.

Other than those crazy days nothing too exciting to report. My new Companion in really cool, I’m running low on time today so I will make the rest of this brief. I love you all so much. Good luck to everyone who has craziness this week, and to Ashley and Zack congrats on getting married! Holy cow that sounds weird to say, very weird. I hope that everyone keeps on keeping on.

Love,
Elder Taylor

Letter on July 16, 2007

Subject: this week in local news

Hey Everyone,

Well, for those of you that were worried about transfers, I’ll be here another 6 weeks. Elder Sanderson, my companion, is being transferred to Las Vegas. I don’t feel to bad for him though. He will have a car and a cell phone - I know, crazy missionaries with cell phones???? He has been a great companion to have, we have had a lot of fun and we worked even harder. I will say that I’m glad to still be in the area. We have a lot of really cool people that we are teaching right now. These wards are really starting to pick up the idea of missionary work, it is so cool. My new companion's name is Elder Dixon. I don’t know too much about him, but don’t worry I will have the full scoop for you all next week.

As for other news this week, not that much really. We went to the temple this week, which is always really fun. We have the Temple president in one of our wards so he knew us and talked to us, which made me feel special. Also, the secretary to the president is in another of our wards and she had us do some names for her while we were there. We also did splits twice this week which made this week go by really fast. And with this being a transfer call week it always seems to go by fast. Well, heck, the whole thing seems to go by fast! I’ll be out 5 months by the end of this week and my birthday is coming right up too. This week really was kind of slow for us. We have a very busy week this week and with transfers on top of that, oh man.

This week made me reflect on a lot of really interesting things. One of which was the temple. Let me tell you how grateful I am to be able to see the temple everyday. It really makes my day when we drive right past it. It lifts your spirits to keep on knocking or talking to people, because you know the blessings that come from the gospel and the temple. I’m so grateful to have the chance to go the temple every six weeks; it just doesn’t seem like enough though. I wish that I could go more but there is a more important work for me to do. Speaking of the work, it truly is a pleasure to be a missionary. The Spirit that we feel everyday is like none other. I have never felt so guided and in tune in my whole life. When you are guided by the Spirit you know that you will be doing the right thing always and that you will be making a difference in someone’s life. Also in my life, we are guided everyday to talk to people or to say something in a lesson that not only helps the people we teach, but it helps me to understand the gospel even more. Last evening we were visiting some members and we were talking with the father of the family and he gave us some very inspired words, mostly for Elder Sanderson, but I also felt that some of the things he said apply to all of us and just me as well. Like in Dad’s email when he talked about prayer, it truly is a conversation with our Heavenly Father, and if we treat is as such then the vain and repetitiousness of the prayers will leave and we will feel the spirit guide us. Also as we teach people we tell them that you can ask direct questions and you will get direct answers to those questions. It my not be what you WANT to hear, but it truly is what you NEED to hear. I know that if we continue to live worthy lives that the spirit can guide and direct us all that, we can know all things that our Heavenly Father wants us to do. I love you all and hope that you weekend at the beach is fun, you lucky people. I love you very much.

Love
Elder Taylor

Picture of the Reno Nevada Temple courtesy of LDSChurchTemples.com

Subject: It's getting HOT HOT HOT!!!!!!!

Hey there,

Man has this been one crazy week! Its has been like at least 100 degrees each day this week. Plus we had a lot to do and not as much time as we would like to get it done in. I guess that there have been a lot of fires down here - we don’t really know to much about them. All we know is where there is smoke, there is FIRE!!!!! When we left for church yesterday there was a thick layer of smoke in the air. We didn’t know where it came from. Last night I called Elder Filter to check up on how things have been going and he said that there was around 10,000 acres of land on fire in that area. They did get evacuated from their apartment for a few hours but were allowed back in. I guess most of Northern Nevada has like 12 fires going right now. So that’s pretty crazy.

Lots of other cool things have happened this week as well. We had a Baptism on Saturday! The young man's name is Conan; I believe I talked about him last week. He is amazing. He asked me to talk on the Holy Ghost at the baptism. It went well and the Baptism was fun to be a part of. One thing I have noticed about going to baptisms is that you wonder how strong the convert's testimony is. I guess that thought just sits in the back of my head, but then they always get up and bear a very powerful testimony. It’s kind of cool to think that you were apart of that. Yesterday Conan gave us a giant watermelon in thanks for helping him along the way. It was a really big watermelon, let me tell you, and I don’t really know where were going to put it. It’s way to big for the fridge.


Well Chanel had some questions and so did Dad so I will try and answer them:

What did you have for dinner last night
and where did you have it?

We had Ravioli, which was given to us by a member and we ate in the apartment.

What was the funniest thing that happened this week?

Well we went to dinner with some members and they were telling us embarrassing stories about their 17 year old daughter. That was really funny.

What tie do you wear most often?

All of them. They are in a rotation and I wear one and pick up the next one the next day.

What's the one thing that has surprised you the most about Reno?

Nothing really, it is a nice place and the work is the same as anywhere. Maybe the Fires though now that I think about it.

Dad asked what we do for P-days. Well, in the morning we shop and lay around. Then we email, and then we get together with the rest of the Zone and play sports of something. Next week will be a combined Zone p-day and we will be playing some softball and having a BBQ. So it is fun.

Well back to our busy week. We had 4th of July on Wednesday, which meant "in" by 6pm, so we just played Monopoly all night. It isn’t as much fun with two people but it is fun, I will say that. We tried to watch fireworks, but of all the nice things our apartment has, a good view isn’t one of them. So we just hung out and played around all night. It was like we were almost normal again, but not.

Yesterday was busy as always. Then to add on to the day we had to do a Fireside last minute, so that was fun. As missionaries we have a lot of things pop up last minute. Like Friday night the young men’s president called and asked us to do it. The nice thing was: it went amazing. We received 8 referrals! Let me tell you what, that’s a lot of referrals! It was fun though - we got to roll-play with the youth and show them how they can use the media program with their friends. One funny story really quick, well Taylor Family quick. The bishop in that ward has like 4 young men and women of his own. We were doing the roll playing and they volunteered, Elder Sanderson gave them to situation of being on a Date. Now remember they are Brother and Sister. Now that’s just weird on its own, plus you have to talk about the church and then you have to pretend to be on a date. It was quite funny I must say. At first they didn’t know what to do or say, so I decided they needed a little help and if you eating dinner in a restaurant, who would be the one to help you? That's right - the waiter would help you out!! So I pretended to be a waiter and get them water, and then had to help make conversation. So I asked about there religious beliefs and it was still going slow, so I then I turned in the Holy Ghost and gave them promptings on what to say. To make this very long story short, it was really funny and they ended up having a great time doing role plays from then on and the whole night was really fun and even more successful.

This week has really been fun and very fruitful. We have been finding new people to teach and that makes me really happy and excited. The only problem is Saturday will bring transfer calls. I may be staying, I may be going. It is crazy how time flies when you are having fun. I do hope I stay here though. I love the area and we have a lot of work we are doing. We have just as of late gotten 2 of 3 bishops on fire with missionary work and the media program, it is amazing to see their fire. I love this work so much. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of home and what else I could be doing, but then I think of how much more I would miss this amazing work. We had two missionaries come home to 2 of our wards this week, and that was crazy to see, but they both said how much they miss the work and how much they envy us. I would too, this work is amazing. I love to see the happiness on people’s faces when they know this gospel is true. My testimony grows each day, I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is on the Earth today, I know that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ and that they called him to be the Prophet of the Restoration. These things I know are true, I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love,
Elder Taylor

Letter on July 2, 2007

Subject: The Week that was "The Rollercoaster"

Hey Everyone,

It sounds like all have had a good week. This week is what I would like to call a “Rollercoaster” week. It all started last Monday. We had an Amazing appointment with this investigator named Bruce. (no he isn’t Bruce Wayne, but he does own a sweet car). He owns a ’67 Shelby Cobra. Yeah it is amazing. He said one day he will take us for a ride in it and I will have to take a video of the ride. Anyway back to the spiritual part of the lesson. He is an amazing guy: his mom was raised in Idaho Falls and he lived there from about 1976 to 1980. He also hung out with some LDS kids back then too. So you guys may have seen him before. His full name is Bruce Tanaka, and is a short little Japanese man and he is also really cool. So we had a great lesson with him to start us on our way up the “Rollercoaster.”

Then on Tuesday we had another good day. We had lesson with two of our investigators, One with Devi, a lady who is converting from Hinduism, which went well. Then we met with another whose name is Conan, he is 17 and he a really smart kid. We were talking with him about some of his hang ups with the church and we had a really good lesson with him. He has been investigating the Church for about 6 months now and he had a good number of questions and concerns, but the lesson went well and we got him to agree to come to an investigator fireside that President Andrus puts on for investigators after our Zone Conferences; I will get to more on both in just a minute. So we are still doing good on our “Rollercoaster” of a week.

Then Wednesday hits and we start the down hill. I awoke at about 3 in the morning and didn’t really feel so good. Within a few more minutes I was in the bathroom. Well, we will just say I was taking care of some personal business, and from then of I was sick with the 24 hour flu...it sucked. Nothing sucks more then being sick as a missionary. Oh, I forgot there is something worse: being sick on a splits day. Oh, and I wasn’t my apartment, which made it all worse. I was in someone’s bed and not mine and I had like none of the medicine I bought over the weeks and I was just no fun. We stayed in all day, because you know all the Diarrhea and Vomiting which is always fun. I was really glad to be home that night in my bed.

So then Thursday hit and I was feeling better and we were back on the up swing of our week. Friday was Zone Conference, which as a missionary we love, you get super pumped up by your mission president and you then work really hard for then next couple of weeks. One funny thing we found out was that President Andrus goes out tracting and he even gets doors slammed in his face. That was cool to hear, really motivating to try our best. Then we had the Investigator Fireside - this was my first one. We took Conan and he had a great time. He even committed to get baptized on July 7th. That’s this Saturday, so we are really pumped for that. What President Andrus does is he teaches a first lesson using PowerPoint and he just does a really good job. He commits all investigators with a date right there. So it is really powerful - the spirit is just so strong.

So, we were back on our high, then we lost the car keys and spent all Saturday morning looking for those. That would have sucked to lose them, but we didn’t, so it's all good. Then last night we were talking to Devi our “golden investigator” and she dropped us. Which as missionaries we are usually the ones who drop investigators. So that was hard. But the one thing that I have learned through it all is that we need to keep our heads up high and keep working hard. I hope you all have a great 4th of July. We have to be in our apartment by 6pm so that isn’t too fun but we will have a fun week anyway. I love you all and hope you the best.

Love,
Elder Taylor

Fireworks over Reno, Nevada