Friday, January 18, 2013

January 14, 2013

Hey family!! So much has happened this week; it’s been way.... exciting to say the least! But that is way cool to hear about Annie, I am excited for her. Alaska will be awesome. Also tell Christopher that I wish him good luck! Tell the Andersons I say HI back!
I would like to ask for forgiveness from Ashlyn, I didn't forget her birthday... I just forgot to write it in the letter that I wrote two weeks ago and last week. HAPPY late BIRTHDAY! My mind has just really been preoccupied with the work here that I tend to forget what day it is back home and then before I realize it, its a week and a half past my sisters birthday. So I will wish Porter a happy birthday now so I don't forget next week.... HAPPY BIRHTDAY porter.


So this last week, as I stated earlier was crazy!. On Tuesday we were able to go into Louisville and have a Zone Leader Council conference, which was long and very much like a meeting. The highlight of the trip however was on Tuesday morning all 14 of us zone leaders got together and played some basketball and also a trash can game. It’s a mix of ultimate Frisbee and lacrosse that's played with a soccer ball. It was very fun. Then after that trip we were stuck for like 3 days in a row in the apartment planning for a training that we had to give to our zone. It was one of those, these are Presidents initiatives, how are we going to get them across and get the missionaries excited about them. So that was fun and we gave the training on Friday. Then on Saturday we were actually able to get out and proselyte some. So I have been a little jumpy and upset about the lack of proselyting time that we have, but I have faith that the Lord will provide people for us to teach and baptize.
On Saturday night however was probably one to never forget. We saw a Less-actives name on the roster and his wife is a non-member so we went over there. His wife let us right in and she was way nice and friendly towards us. She started talking to us and then the husband came in and sat down. Right as soon as the husband came in, the wife stopped talking and left promptly. The husband sat there for about like 2 minutes and we tried to break the ice with him, but he wasn't having it. He wasn't answering any of our questions. Then all of a sudden he asked us the question. "Who sent you here?" and it just blew up from there. So to make a long story short, we sat there for about an hour and a half getting railed into by this old has-been Colonel who was in the army. He wouldn't even let us talk and he would only let us answer the questions that he would ask us in a yes-no answer. The funny thing is, they weren't even questions that dealt with the church, because what I got from his rambling was he had a "testimony" (more like a quarter of a testimony), he had just been offended and hasn't come back since. Most of the questions that he asked had to do with our personal life. I felt so disrespected and my tailbone still hurts from him chewing us out so much. I didn't just want to get up and leave and be rude, but finally that’s what we ended up doing. We kept our cool and peace the entire time, but the man was just so unhappy and angry that he was taking his anger out on us I guess. So that was a fun growing experience

So to tell you a little bit about my companion, is his name is Elder Wood and he is from Orem, Utah (all of my companions except for one have been from Utah- Elder Manzano). He enjoys sports, so that’s pretty cool. This is something that I found out that is way cool is that both of his brothers and his dad are Green Berets. That is way neat. He enjoys standup comedy and really likes to impersonate people. He really does a good one of President Woodbury. It’s the best one that I have seen yet.

To close I just wanted to say a few things to Gentry, Ashlyn, and Porter. You were talking about how going through high school there is a lot of peer- pressure and there is. I was just thinking about the new Youth Theme and motto for 2013 and the theme is "Stand Ye in Holy Places, and be not moved." I have thought a lot about that and what it means to stand ye in holy places. When we think of Holy Places we often think of places such as: Church, Temples, Dedicated sites, the home, seminary, Etc; and you could interpret the motto to mean that we need to go to these holy places as often as possible and spend as much time as we can there. For it is in these Holy Places that the Spirit of the Lord is and it is in these places that we can receive revelation, seek shelter from the world, and gain a stronger testimony. Yes that is the case, but I think that the motto can be interpreted this way, and I hope that this can come across as a humble interpretation and not prideful. We are children of God, we have a divine Potential to become like him and as such everywhere we go should be a Holy place. We need to live our lives in such a way that it is proper to call every step that we take a holy step. We need to live our lives in such a way so that we do not diminish the sacredness and the potential that Heavenly Father sees in us. We need to purify ourselves so that we can say that we are always standing is holy places because the person standing in the place is holy. Be not moved :)

Love you all!

Elder Taylor

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