February 25th

Hi family!

So a little update on me, this last week went by fairly well. The thing that stood out to me the most was I was finally able to put my studies to the test the day that I decided to study it. Lately I have been studying Power and Authority (because that is what we are going to train our district on this upcoming week and I want to be prepared) and so on Saturday in the morning I was studying it and what really stood out to me was that as a missionary it is a commandment to teach and preach with power and authority. It hit me pretty hard because I had been thinking that power and authority was something that is achieved over a long period of time and it takes a lot of effort to acquire. Which is true, but its a commandment that the Lord wants us to have right now, so I was able to quickly fix that misconception.

 Then that day we went out tracting and we tracted right into a Jehovah's witness (I have had many bashes and some good, and some bad, but this one was a little different). As soon as we knocked on the door, he comes out with his bible. Before we even introduce ourselves he just starts quoting all of these random scriptures from the bible to try to prove us wrong. Some of the scriptures he used sounded good in theory, and some of them sounded like he needed to be locked up in a looney house, but needless to say he was just rambling off trying to confound us. He wasn't really making sense, but the first little bit we tried to let him see what the truth was through the bible but that got us no where because he wasn't listening. What was weird, however, was that as soon as he started to quote scriptures to us he started to shake a little bit. I didn't think anything of it until about halfway through when I thought to myself, "Why is he shaking so bad?" then the answer came to me. The reason why he is shaking so bad is because its three of us against one of him and he knows that he is getting no where. Right at that moment I remembered what I had been studying and I remembered what I was and who I was called by and I put down the bible and just called him out for being hard-hearted and basically said that the spirit of the Lord has no place in him. Basically I threw down, and I did it in such a way that it even astonished me. I felt like the spirit was there so strong and we were backed up because we had a pure intent, not to disprove his religion like he tried to do us, but to let him see that this truly is the truth in a non prideful way.  It  was a testimony building experience that helped me to see and remind me that I really was called of the Lord.

This upcoming week is going to be a week full of being spiritually jacked. First of Wednesday, we get to go to Louisville for zone conference where we get to hear from President Woodbury as well that is where we have to put on our training. Then on Saturday we will be privileged to go to Louisville again to hear from 3 G.A.S! Its another mission wide conference and we get to meet and listen to Elder Cook, Elder Perry, and Elder Clayton. Elder Clayton is in the presidency of the 70 and Elder Cook and Perry are apostles. I'm so excited. Then on Sunday we are having another opportunity to go to Louisville for a special stake conference where we will get to hear from Elder Cook again. So I'm super excited for this week.

Love ya family!!

Elder Taylor