Letter on June 18, 2007

Subject: Just another week in Paradise...I guess...

Well Hello,

Man it sounds like everyone had a pretty crazy week. With the Party, the Graduation and all the other goings on. My week seemed to just drag on and on, but it still amazes me how fast the time goes. Coming up this week I will have been out for 4 months and it only feels like a couple of weeks. I’m really enjoying my time here in Reno and the more I get to learn about this place the more I get to love the people and the town. The best part about the whole thing is that we get to ride around in the Freaking Green Hornet all day. That’s our cars name. Also it is really nice to be around other missionaries and see how they work. As you may know Winnemucca is all alone in the middle of nowhere, so when we saw other missionaries it was every couple of weeks. So it is nice to see how they work, and play at the same time.

A prime example of that was this past Friday. Being companions with a District Leader we get to go on splits with the Zone Leaders, so that was kind of scary. I was on splits with Elder Metge (it sounds like sledge just with and m instead of a sl). He has been out like 20 months and is just a really cool guy. We went tracting and it was really cool to see his teaching style. He really just tries to teach with the spirit and it really works. That was a fun day. We only did half day splits so we weren’t together long, but it was still really cool to see how other people teach and use the spirit as an effective teaching tool.

Other than that this week has been “Normal,” if you can even say that as a missionary, but it has been good. We are working with some people to help them get ready for baptism, so that’s cool - we should have a least one in the next couple of weeks. There really is a lot of work here and I’m enjoying every second of it.

Something that I have noticed a lot more is that everywhere you go there are always people who are against the church. Here we have a church that is just very against the church, which seems funny to me. We always hear stories about how some of the pastors just spend time bashing us, instead of talking about the reason they are all there - which is to show our love for the Savior. That should be the only reason we go to church - to talk about God and the Savior. If you go for other reasons, such as to bash and try and prove them wrong, well, that’s not what Church is meant for. I’m glad to be apart of a church that talks about Christ. In my study time I came across this scripture and it really helped me put it all together: it's 2 Nephi 25:26, it talks about the Book of Mormon and the church and the purpose for them. As I read each day and talk with people about the Savior it really makes me happy to know that He lives and that He loves each of us. I want of you to know that I love you all. I hope that all the fathers had a great Father's day and most importantly that My Dad had a great one too. I love you and hope that all is going well.

Love,
Elder Taylor