A letter from March 26

Subject: Casting out the Bad, Make 'em feel the Good

Dear Family,

So this week has been crazy. Since I last e-mailed we cast out a spirit, that was very interesting, it really only works if the person has faith it will. So far we think she does but she is still scared that the demon will come back. Well anyway, we have been very busy with some very nice people. We have Shawn’s Baptism in two weeks and then we set a Mom and Son to be baptized on the 21st of April, it’s a really cool story actually. The mom has been working with the missionaries for like 2 years and now she knows it's true and wants to quit smoking. So we will be working with them to be baptized on the 21st. Smoking and chewing seem to be the hardest things for people to quit out here. Most people work for the mining companies, so the all just smoke and chew together. On the bad news front, Winnemucca got hit with a lot of anti-Mormon stuff yesterday. It had a DVD and some other stuff about Joseph Smith. It was CRAZY, they were everywhere we went yesterday. But other than that it is still going good.

Now the questions I don’t know if they [the elders who missed the plane to Vegas] came clean about the phone calls, I hope they did though. I just had no information when asked about it, because once we were on the plane we couldn’t see what they were doing. So to get to the north part of the mission we had a Charter bus, which was nice. We rode to Fallon and stayed the night with our Zone Leaders, then we had to drive another 2 1/2 hours to Winnemucca, we got a ride with The Crookstons, they are a way sweet senior couple who a mission as well. So it took like 2 Days, but we finally made it. Elder Filter met me in Fallon and we rode to Winnemucca together. There are 3 sets of missionaries in Winnemucca, the senior couple, and another set, they have cars, and we have bikes. Thanks Dad for all the stuff in the bike box. We eat a lot of food, our calendar is totally full for meals. The members in our ward so cool, and very nice. I have been writing in my journal every night so Chanel will be very happy.

People really like to Bash in Winnemucca, and I really don’t know the bible that well, but I’m learning a lot really fast, “so I got the going for me, which is nice.” Also there are a lot of Spanish people here as well, I can’t remember if I told you that we cover the Spanish group with our ward, so anyone who speaks Spanish we teach. Yeah that a lot of fun, NOT. I can't understand what they say, and Elder Filter doesn’t speak Spanish either, so we have to take a translator with us to each lesson. It keeps things interesting to say the least, but I still love waking up each day to do this work.

I’m very upset at all of you by the way. I have not been kept up to date any sports information, other then Tyler Hansbourgh’s broken nose. No golf stats, no March Madness info, nothing. That the one thing I asked for. MORE SPORTS INFO. Other then that everything is going well with the letters. I hope things are going well, Please write everyone, not just Chanel. Not that I don’t love hearing from Chanel, but other points of view help as well.

I want you all to know that I love you and miss you very much. I’m sorry mom can’t watch golf, but she will get over it. The time flies, I’ve been out a month and week and feels like 3 days. I hope that you are all doing well and keeping good health. This work is one of a kind and I can’t thing of anything I would rather be doing right now. Well that all for now, from the land of a thousand smiles and tumble weeds.

Love,
Elder Taylor