Monday Monday....so good to ME...just like this last week was...

Hey There,
This week has been a great week. As you all know we had transfers on Tuesday and that went really well. We all met together at one of the stake centers here and got to meet the greenies! Oh, to be a greenie again. Anyway…the trainers got to guess who their greenie was….most were way off but a few toward the end got it right! We also got a chance to hear from President McCracken, and that is always good…..oh and we got to hear the testimonies of the outgoing missionaries…that was kinda sad to know that some good friends were going home. But their time was up and now they are going back to the farm…sadly. But transfers really did go smooth…..I got to see some elders I hadn’t seen in forever and some I hadn't ever seen. No check that - most I had never seen before. There are so many new missionaries that I don’t know and it is really weird….oh and so are they…but that’s cool most of them are greenies and they will grow out of it! But anyway I still haven’t gotten to my new companion….as you all know he is also an Elder Taylor, he is from Ohio, a small farm town that I can't remember right now….but he as been out 6 weeks less then me and we have had a great time so far. We’ve been working hard and seeing success come our way…I will get more into that later. This week has been pretty busy and it doesn’t look like it will slow down any time soon.

So kind of an interesting situation has been brewing here in my area…..we have a part-member family in our area….and if you don’t know what that is just look at my family and if you didn’t know my dad isn’t a member - don’t feel left out - most new people don’t. (Oh and you can join the club of bugging him until he becomes one….love you Dad!) Anyway a "part-member family" is when there is a non-member of our church in the family….and so we have quite a few of those as most areas do. There is this lovely sister who joined the church 13 years ago and wanted her husband to join. Well, that didn’t work out as he was a truck driver and even worse…he had a huge smoking problem. So that stopped the idea of baptism for a while…he has tried to stop before but just can't do it at all…he had really struggled with it. So anyway…flash forward to a week ago Friday, we got a message from this lovely sister stating that her husband now had a desire to be baptized….small problem…he is dying of cancer. So that kinda throws a wrench into the whole thing. I really had no idea what to do…so who ya gonna call????? No, not Ghostbusters this time….President McCraken!! Well, I chatted with him and we came to the conclusion that we needed to go and visit with the man. His name is C.W. Wyatt by the by. Well President McCracken came and picked Elder Russell and me up last Sunday….we went to the Wyatt’s home and talked with them….now again he is dying from cancer, ironically not lung cancer but stomach cancer and it is spreading everywhere. He only has about five weeks or so left…..and let me tell you watching someone lay in bed in more pain then I have felt anytime recently was really quite humbling. It made me really grateful for my health and my family's health. We got to talk with him and then President talked with him alone….and they had a great talk. Unfortunately Mr. Wyatt said he couldn’t quit smoking. President talked with him about that and got him to agree to try for this last week and if he was able to quit for that week he could then get baptized….well you would think that if someone gave you the option of quiting smoking for a week and then you would get your sins washed away and be able to go into the next life clean….you would do it right? Well he tried - he really did….he only smoked 4 cigarettes last week….which is a huge improvement…but still 4 too many. It was the hardest thing to tell his wife he couldn’t get baptized last Saturday…but she is such an awesome lady and she totally understood the rules and regulations the whole way…so she wasn’t too surprised. Now we are just hoping that he can go a whole week without smoking and then boom…or should I say "splash"…he could get baptized…so please keep him in your prayers…please.

On a happier note we were visiting a less-active lady and turns out that she has a daughter who is 9 and wants to get baptized….the rule for baptism’s in the church is….if you are over 9 and you are a convert baptism and the missionaries teach and baptize you…if you are 8 and your parent(s) are members then you are under the bishop….well she is 9 so we get to baptize her… so that is really cool! We talked with her and she wants to get baptized on Saturday the 12th of April….and the cool thing is we already have someone who is getting baptized that day….and then yesterday we found out that two sisters we have been working with want to get baptized that day and well…so 4 baptisms that day!! Holy cow will we be busy…but we now have a car so it really makes it a lot easier…and less sweaty!

Another cool thing we did this week was while tracting we stopped and offered help to these guys putting in turf grass….they let us help and that was a lot of fun…..never knew how to do that but now I do…Well, I hope that you all have a great week and that everyone stays safe….it was cool to get a message from President McCracken yesterday saying he had talked to Grandma and Grandpa Siple! Happy belated 85th birthday to you Grandpa and everyone else who had birthdays this past week. I just want you all to know that I love you and I hope that you continue to do those things which are right….I know it is hard to do all the time…trust me…but in the end it is always worth it….I love you all.

Love,
Elder Taylor