Bienvenidos from an Internet Cafe in San Jose (8/27/2012)

Hey everyone!

So to answer your questions Mom...

1)      I played the piano a lot in the MTC... but there is no piano in Guacimo. Someone broke into the chapel and stole it! So fun thing is, Latinos aren’t the best singers, but they think they are haha, so it’s really loud off-pitch singing during sacrament and sometimes I can’t keep but smiling super big in sacrament.

2)      NOPE! Only the mission office... sorry mom.

This week we had Enrique’s baptism!!! WOOH WOOT! We had really been praying and fasting all week. Enrique has a girlfriend that lives in San Jose, so we were afraid that he would break the Law of Chastity after his baptism, so we had the APs interview him and they said he was okay. But we still felt kind of off... so we fasted and prayed, and we received confirmation by the Holy Ghost that he was prepared for his baptism. It was really cool. I’m really proud of him. I directed the baptism haha in Spanish, and we had our Branch President Baptize him. I’ll send pictures next week because right now I’m in San Jose and don’t have my camera.

Also this week I was on splits with our District Leader, Elder Mejia, here in Guacimo, and we talked with Jeustin, and Jeremy and their mom. They dropped us. Yesenis, the mom, has problems with Elder Nape. She feels like we are their only to teach the boys (We are) and that we don’t feel like she can be baptized. (She can’t. She is living with her boyfriend and won’t marry him) So it was a pretty sad week. They were so close, and so ready for baptism, and then Satan comes in and acts a fool and wrecks a chance at coming closer to Christ. I’m not discouraged though, I know that we did all we could, and that eventually they will come back to the gospel, but as of now, no.

Ooooh cool story, so we are teaching a sweet family, Hugo and Yamilet and their 3 kids and they are set for baptism the 15th!!!! They gave us their coffee and they are super willing to do anything that the Lord commands! Crazy thing is before I came Hugo didn’t want anything to do with the gospel! Then one day we started talking and their hearts totally changed. It’s just like in Ether, when the Lord touched the stones and completely changed them, when the Lord touches a heart, he completely changes it. And Hugo is rad because he likes talking with me. We are also teaching a family, Natasha, Edihth, and Florisbeth. They are super rad and should be baptized this month. They have two autistic boys Andres who is 10 and Daniel, who is 5 so it is hard for them to all come to church together. They are super great and they really really like Elder Nape and I, but we want to make sure they are converted to the Gospel and not to us, so we will have to see.

Spanish is coming along great. I can understand a lot better and I am learning a lot of new words.It’s going to take some time but I know I’ll be fluent within the next couple of months. Oh funny story that happened this week, so we have a dumb person in Guacimo. He is a mute and he can’t talk, but he always screams and makes these happy dog noises haha. He is all over the place, and somehow we see him every day. Well I guess he likes to touch gringos, because every time he sees me he chases me... CHASES me and touches my arms and my back. Creepy! But he’s harmless. The missionary that was here before me, the Mute touched his face all creepy like once and he almost punched him.... haha, so that’s my funny story of the week.

Also I have seen 5 sloths here, and I was going to touch one but all the locals started yelling at me and telling me it was dangerous. So I guess I will never touch one.

Well family and friends, I know that this church is true. I know that I am needed here and Guacimo. I know that through hard work you can change an area that is considered tough into a fountain of baptisms. Guacimo has not had more than 2 baptisms in the past year and we should be having at least 5 this month. We can decide to have faith and to act on that faith and make our situations better. Life is difficult, but through faith in the Lord we can overcome all challenges and eventually receive eternal life in the mansions of our Father. I know this with all my heart. I know that this church is true; I know we have a living prophet who is the voice of God on this earth. I know the Book of Mormon is true with all my soul and that we can grow closer to our Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ through its teachings. This is my testimony, and I know that it is true.I love all of you, and sorry if I am not answering emails, i really don’t have much time for emailing here,! so don’t be offended. I also don’t get mail until every 6 weeks so I’ll try and respond. Love y’all and love the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Con amor,

Elder Taylor

G-A-U-C-I-M-O (8/20/2012)

Hola familia y amigos!

Hey, so Mom i have the answers to your questions...

1)      When we flew down, we stayed the night with the Assistants to the President in their house. If Jessica Babcock is reading this, I talked to Elder Thorsen about you haha, and Hermana Wilkinson´s cooks fed us.

2)      Our branch is tiny haha, maybe 50 members on a good day. The people are super nice, and this big black lady, Marcia is so sweet and loves to talk to me about California because she has family there. (P.S. lots of blacks here in Costa Rica, because a lot of Jamaicans immigrated over to build railroads...) Our branch is super nice, but there hasn´t been a baptism in Guacimo for 4 almost 5 months... so our Branch President doesn´t believe we are working very hard. It´s sad because we are working our bottoms off and we should be having a lot of baptisms this next month...

3)      I´ll give Elder Nape a pat on the back haha

4)      I can open up attachments!!!!!

Okay...so this Saturday we´ll be having our first baptism! A middle aged fellow named Enrique. He´s a real good man who wants to change his life, only thing is he got shot in the face when he was younger so his brain works a little slower. So, we had to have him go through a ton of interviews to make sure he understands what he is doing.

Because of this, the assistants came to Gaucimo, and I went on splits with a Zone Leader, Elder Statham. He´s got 3 weeks left on the mission and he is a great missionary, so I was really grateful for the opportunity to learn from him. He taught me a lot about what we need to do as missionaries and about our purpose, so it was rad.

Oh this week we also brought 8 investigators to Sacrament! BOOM! Thats a bunch for our zone. Oh P.S. so our zone is Zona Atlantica, and it’s basically the North-East coast of Costa Rica, and it is the hottest zone in Costa Rica... Anyways so we had a family of 5 come to church with us! They committed to baptism the 8th of September, and they really enjoy the church. We also brought Enrique, his son Manuel ( Manuel has a date for the 1st of September) and Edit. Edit is an 18 year old investigator who is really interested in the church, and really wants to be baptized.

Okay so interesting story pops (Dad) I was reading a lot about Alma 40-42 last night haha. And I never really understood it until last night. He really simply lays out the plan of salvation and what happens after we die. It really makes us want to live obediently to the laws and commandments of God so that we can have a place in the mansions of our Father. I love the Book of Mormon!!!!

Oh, another sweet story, so we have this family, Christian and Yoanna, and they are a little different, pretty much like every family here in Costa Rica. But anyways they have a problem with smoking, and drinking so Elder Nape and I wanted to teach the Word of Wisdom. Anyway, we would go over and something would happen so we couldn´t teach them that night, and this happened for 2 weeks. Well, a couple nights ago we were in their house, and what do we see? Drugs haha, turns out Christian has been dealing drugs. This is because he has no job and they have 7 kids they have to provide for. I know it’s not right but he has to provide for them. Anyway, we talked with the assistants and we feel that it’s a blessing that we haven’t been able to teach them the Word of Wisdom. This is, because for some reason if we had taught them without the knowledge of their situation, something bad may have happened. God works in mysterious ways, and this is one of them. He have faith that their lives can be better through the gospel, now they just need the same faith. It was just cool to know that we are being guided by the Spirit in every step of our mission. As long as we are living worthy, and keeping our covenants the Spirit is with us and guiding us.

So some funny things happened this week. I was contacting this lady and I forget to ask her name at the start so I said "¿Con quien tengo le gusto?"... In English that means, "¿With whom do I pleasure you?"... and Elder Nape starting dying and me too, I felt bad but I´m a gringo and I don´t know Spanish yet haha. I meant to say "?Con quien tengo el gusto?" Which is, "With whom do I have the pleasure" haha Spanish is a silly language.

Oh also I want to send a picture of a fruit I ate. Manzana de Agua, totally gross tasting, but it looks like a certain fruit from a video. Email me what you think it is haha, because it looks exactly like this kind of fruit.

Well I hope Deanna is doing well, and the same with Aunt Suzanne. Let them know they are always in my prayers, and that I know these trials will only strengthen them. Ether 12:27 " We are given weaknesses to become strong" This is never more applicable than in my mission. I am humbled every day, from learning this language, to being turned away and told that my beliefs are of the devil, but I know that this is where I am supposed to be. I know that there is at least one person here in Costa Rica that needs me, and I want to be able to find them and change their life. This church is true. The gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect and is the only way to find everlasting happiness and rest. Les amo mucho familia y amigos. You are all in my prayers, and I just want you to know how much this gospel means to me. Jesus Christ lives, he is my Savior, my Redeemer, and everything in this life. Only through him can we live with our Father in Heaven once again. Love you all! Until next time!

Love,

Elder Taylor

Photos:

The fruit haha

 Hermana Mayella our cook, it was mothers day here in Costa Rica. ( I dont know why in august... Costa rica does things a little different.)

This is a picture from the MTC. This is Bryan Wood, he was my friend in Granite Bay. I don´t know if you know the woods or remeber them or not, but hes headed to Chile, Concepcion. 

Okay bye, love you all!

August 13, 2012

Hola Familia!

Okay first to answer your questions mom...

Yes we have a lady that cooks for us, but only lunch, and we have to trek over to her house for lunch. We pay her like 70 bucks, (35,000 Colones) a month for it. We have a lady that does our laundry also, and we pay her to do it also. We do not have a housekeeper, so we have to clean the house and everything, and they give us fans here to sleep with haha, so life is good! And they don´t have mailing addresses here in Costa Rica, so just mail to the mission office address I think. Also they are having a lot of problems with drug cartels... so if you send me food for the time being, it probably won´t get through so I’ll let you know when you can, sorry!

Well this week was cool! We have one investigator, Enrique a middle aged man who is now ready for baptism! He’s going to baptized the 25th! We´re stoked for him! He is super hard to understand because he got shot in the face when he was younger but he really wants to change his life. Jeustin and Jeremy the two jovenes that were supposed to be baptized this week fell through. They don´t feel prepared... but Elder Nape and I have prayed a lot and we feel that they will be ready by the 1st of September.

We did a lot of knocking on doors this week also and we have a ton of new investigating families! Oh and I also contacted two people in English haha, and let me just say, English missionaries got it set! It was the easiest thing I have ever done haha. One of the guys was this bum/wilderness man who was wandering the earth... like Esau... and he used to be Mormon but now he is atheist. I felt bad because he was just saying all this false stuff about the church, and all I could do was invite him to pray about it.

Oh and guess who got a picture of another sloth... ME! SO I’ll send that. Oh I also caught a Gecko this week, and it kept suction cupping to me hahaha.

Well my trainer, Elder Nape is the man, and I love the little Aztec- He´s from Mexico, and he speaks no English so were teaching each other. He is a great missionary and knows the bible like the back of his hand. So he´s teaching me a lot of the bible, and I´ve been teaching him a lot about the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants. He´s so rad though, our personalities match really well.

Yes, it has continued to be extremely hot here. I am always sweating and drenched. I have little baby acne on my hands from all the sweat haha, but it´s been starting to go away. The food is a good, but beans and rice are already starting to get old! The best things are the FRUIT! It’s so ridiculously good here! It’s amazing! I had the best apples of my life here! But they also have plantains... yuck! So nasty and the people here love it!

Oh funny story, so in Costa Rica our mission here is to create eternal families, so we are really focused on teaching and baptizing families. And we have a ton of new families here, the moms are so stoked and ready for baptism... but the husbands aren´t! It’s so difficult when the wife knows better hahaha, but we have faith that these men can have their souls touched and have a change of heart.

So I hope Dad feels better! And I hope everything is going good back in the states... How are Katie, Cam, and Joshua? and How’s Jase doing in Vasser? Let me know! I love and miss all of you so much, and I really am grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord. ¡Les Amo!

con amor,

 Elder Taylor

P.S. MOM: They have giant grasshoppers here... literally the size of my middle finger... Elder Nape always makes fun of me because I jump when I see them and when they jump towards me... Okay bye, Love yáll!

Elder Nape, Ryan's Companion and Trainer:

Elder Ryan Taylor, in standard missionary pose!

Sloth sighting:

Elder Taylor with puppy (or dinner?)

 Elder Taylor, interacting with the locals.

Week one in Guacimo! (8/6/2012)

Hola Familia!

So I have to make this fast because I don´t really have that much time for emailing, but I am here in Costa Rica! And sorry if my typing is bad, Spanish keyboards stink! So I’m in a town a couple hours north east of San Jose called Guacimo!  It is supposed to be one of the hottest places in Costa Rica, and yes it is extremely hot. I am the sweating Gringo that all ticos see and try and speak English with. The people here aren’t very well educated so it’s kind of hard to understand their Spanish. They can understand me, but it’s difficult for me to understand them.

So we should be having 2 or 3 baptisms this weekend! 2 for these two brothers, Justin y Jeremy. Justin is 12 and Jeremy is 15. They are super awesome and Justin just has this thirst for the gospel. Oh yeah I forgot to mention, all the stories we heard about Costa Rica are wrong. There isn´t rainforest and machetes. Sad I know.

But I am in the campo, or rural jungle part so that’s pretty cool. Oh yeah my trainer is Elder Nape, a native of Veracruz Mexico! He doesn’t speak a lick of English hahahah. So I’m using the little Spanish I know 24/7! Which is really cool anyway! He’s a great trainer and an amazing teacher! I am really learning a lot from him.

About the food, the food here is really good... most of the time. I hated rice and beans before but our lunch lady is super super good! But yes, since were in the campo we have a ton of bugs in our apartment. And a gecko who eats all the bugs haha. Oh and bats in our ceiling, which is kind of freaky to hear early in the morning and late at night. The only bad things about Guacimo are: no warm water anywhere, and its hot as heck! But I love it here.

Our investigators here are super awesome and we should have a bunch of baptisms this month. We found two super interested families last night, but one is a pareja. Costa Rica is famous for their parejas: when a man and woman live together for life and don’t get married. And it’s really hard to get them to get married, so there aren’t that many baptisms in Costa Rica as you would think.

I’m going to try and attach pictures in this message too, because it really is beautiful here. I have felt the Spirit so strongly in our lessons and I am super excited for this weekend with our baptisms. Oh and they also play basketball here. I actually broke the rim at the church dunking this past Friday haha,  all the little tican kids loved it. Oh and I have seen some funny things here. First , Costa Rican women love to breastfeed in public in front of everyone. And Costa Rican dogs like to try and mate with cats. It’s very different here.

Its super humbling to see how much I have, and how little these people living in little cement huts have. But like dad said, they may be poor, but they all have cable and TVs. Latinos love TV here haha. I love my mission and I miss all of you. Sorry that this is so short, but I have a lot of stuff to do! I love all of you and I want you to know this church is so true! Love you, bye!

Adios,

Elder Taylor



P.S.

Oh I ran out of time, and I forgot to mention this. I saw my first sloth the other day! He was huge! Everyone here calls them oso perisosos, which means lazy bear! I didn’t have my camera sadly, but I will touch one!

Everyone here is afraid of them because they hurt a lot of people I guess, but it is still my goal to touch one! So tell Eric and Shelby this, cuz it was super cool! okay bye! Love you all!

Estoy in Costa Rica! (7/31/2012)

Hola Familia!

We made it into Costa Rica yesterday. I'm just emailing to tell you that I made it in safe. I love it here and its super beautiful! I'll email you more on my next p-day. just letting you know that I made it in safe, and I'll meet my trainer tonight and head out to my first area. love all of you!

Love

Elder Taylor

Off to La Patria Noble (7/29/2012)

Hola Mis Amigos y mi Familia!!!

Today is my last full day in the MTC, sorry this letter is going to be very short. I head out to the field tomorrow (Sunday) at 8:30 p.m. We fly to Atlanta then we fly straight from there to Costa Rica! I am so stoked to bring the gospel to the beautiful people of Costa Rica. I'll fill you in more next week when I start to get settled into my area! Pray for me! Also thank you mom and dad for my iPod and all of the great uplifting music! I love and appreciate you! Let Aunt Deanna know she's in my prayers every day! Love all of you!

Con amor de Costa Rica!

Elder Taylor

Ryan's district in the MTC:

Ryan, just before leaving for Costa Rica: