Bautismos up in Guacimo!

Hola familia y amigos!

So  first to answer moms questions...

1)      Yes I´ve had diahrea for the last two months hahaha

2)      No we throw toilet paper in the toilet

3)      No bidets hahaha

4)      Costa Ricans are tiny! Probably 5 foot 8 haha

5)      Hmmm... no not really, I hate platano! And all the oranges here are green not orange, but they have super good apples here!

6)      Yes! I played the piano during our changes meeting in front of the whole mission haha, it was rad. I´m not very good anymore haha just really rusty from not playing for the last 2 months

Okay...

So we had 4 baptisms this week!!!!! We baptized Hugo and Yamileth and their two daughters Yanysell and Yanicxia. Once again I forgot my cable to send pictures but I´ll send them next week! Haha we took a picture with them and no one is smiling becuase latinos are weird, it kinda looks like a prison picture! Okay well the baptismal service was super good, but we had two brothers from the ward do the actual baptisms and they took like 2 tries with each person, which scared some of our investigators that were at the service, but oh well we need to integrate the ward! So that was the sweet part of the week!

And yes Mom and Dad, this week was hard. I´ve really noticed that in the mission, Satan is trying as hard as he can to fill us with negative thoughts, and just plain gross negative feelings, and that is what happened this week with Elder Nape and I. Satan is real, and he is powerful, but the good will always triumph. Through prayers, and through Jesus Christ and the Priesthood we can triumph any power that Satan throws at us, and it is the truth! So thank you for your prayers and thoughts about me.

Well we are teaching another family, Diego and Tatiana. They´re probably like 20 years old and they have 3 kids! That’s normal here in Costa Rica. Well they want to be baptized the 20th!!! Woot woot! So two families!!!! And Tatiana seriously loves the Book of Mormon and asks us a ton of questions about everything she reads, which is super awesome! It´s so rad to have investigators that ask good questions because you know that they are growing and beginning to internalize the gospel! And we also have the baptism of Natasha ( a 40 year old) and her 18 year old daughter Edith probably the 13th of October! So I´m pretty stoked right now. Well Spanish is coming good, it´s still difficult to understand some people but I can get the gist of what they are saying most of the time, so I should get it down relatively soon.

Well I´m excited to hear about the wedding! Wish Eric and Shelby my best, and let them know I´m praying for them every day! Send me pictures please.

Oh and also my birthday is in like two weeks! What the heck, time flies! You can send me starburst, skittles and other candy. Hopefully it gets through the mail service! Oh and you also can´t send packages to me through UPS, FedEx and something else, only through the post office I think! Sorry!

Well I´m glad to hear that Dad is overcoming his fears of singing, and that he´s gonna be a stud actor! And I hope Jase is doing well, let me know what he is up to! And sorry to hear about Richard Mom, I know that he was very helpful to you.

Well sorry this letter isn´t the best, I can´t really remember much that happened this week, only the baptism! Oh and I have seen14 sloths since being in Guacimo, they are so rad. Some of them are super ugly though, they have like pig snouts haha but they are so rad to see climbing the telephone cables. Oh and something I learned this week... so we have been doing all our work in the projects of Costa Rica haha, it´s weird to think that 2 months ago I would have been super scared to walk into the projects, but now armed with the armor of God ( scrips, gospel, the truth) I’m not even afraid to walk in the projects at 8 o´clock at night.

Well I wish all of you the best, and I’m sorry that this letter stinks but the computers here in the internet cafe are terrible and I have no time! I love all of you. I know this is the work of God, and that God loves his missionaries and the families of missionaries. You are all blessed to have a knowledge of this gospel, and it is your responsibility to share it with everyone you can. Help the missionaries, love them and treat them with respect. Especially the members in our branch, they don´t treat us with respect or help us, and it is really hard to continue the work of the Lord with a lazy ward that does not want to help the work of the Lord. I love you all, and miss you dearly!!!!!

Love,

Elder Taylor

Way Rad Week!

Queridos Amigos y Familia,

First to answer questions haha

1)      Yeah I can ask our lunch lady, the thing is some meat is way expensive here ( I ate a 16 dollar steak today... way good!) So we´ll see what happpens! It´s like a mountain of white rice every day haha, I love/hate it

2)      Yes, I´m still with Elder Nape in Guacimo. Nowadays, training lasts for two transfers (3 months) so I´m only halfway through.

3)      No new ones haha

4)      Yes, I´m sleeping good haha buit it´s just ridiculously hot here during the night

5)      No, I don´t exercise, there really isn´t time and I´m always walking so it´s all good

Okay, so my week...Was RAD!

We are baptizing a family this weekend!!!! Hugo, Yamileth and their two daughters Yanysell and Yanicxia. They are so rad! But Hugo is a bum head sometimes and just asks questions to see how we respond. This week we were fasting for one of our investigators and he was like, "You broke your fast when you took the sacrament" and we were like whatever Hugo, come on! Haha but I love him and have a sweet relationship with them. I´m super stoked to see them in the temple in a year, and I have faith that they can make it! So yeah way stoked about that because during a lesson with them I asked if they were willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ and boom I just felt the Holy Ghost so incredibly much it was amazing, and they are so willing!

Another sweet thing, so we are teaching this family, Natasha and her two daughters Edihth and Floribeth. They were super iffy about baptism and wanted to be super sure but something amazing happened. So we were teaching them and all of a sudden Edihth (she´s 18) stopped us and said that in a past lesson she had felt this unexplainable feeling in her chest of pure joy and she just wanted to cry but didn’t because of shame! And we were like yes!!!! She is feeling the Holy Ghost!!! And so it was sweet because I opened up to Doctrine and Covenants 9:8 i think and read to her where it reads, " and if it be right, you shall feel a burning in your bosom." And she just started bawling and it was just amazingly sweet! And then we challenged them to baptism and they were stoked and we were stoked and it was just spiritually edifying! Also Natasha was saying that she needs to be totally prepared and doesn´t know if she is and Edihth said, "You don´t need to be totally prepared, the Lord will prepare us!!" And we were just on top of the world because she will be such a strong and awesome member! SO we had 2 sweet sweet sweet lessons that just made my whole week!

Also we have two more families that really want to be baptized. Freddie and Monica, and Diego and Tatiana. And what was super sweet was that Diego really didn´t want to marry Tatiana ( lots of problems with the law of chastity here) and then we were teaching him like a couple days later and he was like, " Elderes... I got an answer. I want to marry Tatiana" So again we were just like YES YES YES!!!! So stoked! So this week was super sweet!

Oh also, another funny story...So I was on splits with one of our Zone Leaders in Guapiles for a day this week. Guapiles is this super awesome city maybe 30 mins away from Guacimo. Well the night I was there they had Carnival!! And so we were walking and seriously we saw the parade, drinking, marijuana (huge problem down here) and all the just disgusting filth and instantly I thought, "Great and Spacious Building" The spirit was not there and I was super afraid because we had to walk through it and I just felt icky! So yeah, it´s interesting to see the personal change within  myself, to recognize that I have no desire to do the things of the world. It´s also kind of sad to see how inicuo (wicked) the world is becoming. Oh well, that’s why we’re here as missionaries, to change that!

Well I want to know how everyone is doing! And I would like pictures from the wedding, but you can mail those because I can´t print stuff out! Let everyone know that I love them! Oh and there is a new hermana in our district from Argentina and her accent stinks hahaha, just kidding! Okay well love all of you, and want to hear how everyone is doing!

Les amo muchisimo. Con Amor,

Elder Taylor

Earthquakes, and Talking with Apostles...

Hola familia!

So... first off to answer your questions.

1 and 2) Send mail and packages to the mission office I think. Sorry if that doesn´t help. But I´m pretty sure you send it to the mission office.

We don´t get mail unless we come to San Jose so I usually don´t get stuff for like 6 weeks!

3) I have lost a ton of weight! Our cook never has meet so I´m only eating rice, beans, and disgusting platano every day, so I´m probalby at like 155 right now!!!! NUTS!

4) No, I´m pretty good on stuff right now, but I´ll let you know if I need you to send me anything!

Okay so this week was nuts!!!! The last monday, (not yesterday but the last) we had a mission conference from Elder Duncan, a general 70, the day of the earthquake. But only half the mission was there, Zona Atlantica ( my zone, the Caribbean cities) and Zona Guanacaste (the epicenter of the earthquake). So what a miracle that the day that a 7.9 earthquake wrecks Guanacaste, the Elders are safe in San Jose, 4 hours away. God loves his missionaries and is always looking out for them, it is the truth! So yeah, we felt it super super strong in the stake center in San Jose, it went on for like 45 seconds and the ground was rolling it was nuts. But no one really got hurt in Guanacaste! It was a 7.9 and only 3 people died, two from heart attacks, so it was a miracle. I guess a lot of crazy earthquake stuff is going on, I heard there was one in Nicaragua too and one in Sacramento?? And a couple volcanos went off to haha, end of the world!!!

Just kidding!

And you know what was even cooler than the Earthquake? Yesterday! We had our changes meeting (finished my first transfer woot woot!) and then President Wilkinson was like, ¨We have a special surprise for you... and guess who spoke to us???...

President Eyring, Elder Ballard, and Elder Cristofferson (sp?). How crazy is that!!! Three apostles in one devotional to only the missionaries of Costa Rica! It was so incredibly cool! And President Eyring is huge in person, he´s about my size! They talked to us about missionary work, and I especially loved President Eyring´s talk. He talked about being happy because we have the thing that brings all happiness, the Atonement. He also told us sweet stories from his mission. And the best part was that afterwards we got to shake their hands and talk to them. President WIlkinson told me that the apostles said that they weren´t going to shake our hands, and that the whole time President WIlkinson was praying for them to give us the opportunity and they did! I shook President Eyring´s hand and I was like, " Thank you so much President" and he said, " No thank you Elder Taylor, where are you from?" haha so rad! I love President Eyring, and he is seriously hilarious and you could see such a light about him and Elder Ballard and Christopherson (sp? again haha) So yeah that was so rad, and that’s the reason I didn’t email yesterday! But so worth it!

Okay so picture time!

1) Enrique! Boom he got baptized and he is a stud even though I can´t understand his accent hahaha. He´s also way tiny!

 

2)We took the coffee from some of our investigators. It was seriously like 2 lbs. worth! It´s so rad to see when people recognize a commandment is of God and they decide to live it!

 

3 and 4) This sweet beach in Puerto Viejo by the border of Panama! So sick, and I´m def coming back after my mission to swim.

 

 

5) My nombre. We saw a ton of monkeys on the beach too, and a sloth fighting a monkey. Pretty rad sight haha

 

Well I love and miss all of you so much! Take care, and I wish Eric and Shelby the best in their marriage! I love em! Love you all, the church is true and God loves all of us so much! haha love love love it!

Love,

Elder Taylor

Crazy Costa Ricans

Dear Family,

Missionary work is crazy tough haha, but I love it! I don´t have much time but I´ll try and write as much as possible.

Answers:

1)      I usually eat eggs or cold cereal for breakfast... I need to eat better, but we don´t have any time to buy food!!!!

2)      We don´t have dinners in this mission. You can take an hour off during the night but no one does because it is prime teaching and proselyting time, so usually I don´t have dinner. In Costa Rica they have huge lunches so most of the people only eat breakfast in Lunch, and a tiny little dinner

3)      Yes I received Eric´s e-mail, and Katie´s and Allison´s. I just seriously don´t have time to write everybody. Sorry!!!

Well since I don´t have that much time I´ll just tell a story of what happened this week...So today we went to Limon (The Beach) with our zone for P-day. It´s about 3-4 hours away but the beach (Puerto Viejo) is the most beautiful place I have ever seen! Well no one ever told me that I need my passport with me to go to Limon. There is a security check-point and anyone that doesn´t have their passport can be detained and deported to Nicaragua. It actually happened to an Elder not too long ago. Well I didn´t have my passport, only my driver´s license and I was praying like crazy that they wouldn´t stop our bus, and in the way into Puerto Viejo, they didn´t. But they way out they did. I was praying like crazy, and I knew that God can do anything. He is all-powerful, and he will answer our prayers according to our faith. Remember every time Jesus healed someone, what question did he ask? Do you have the faith to be healed? Entonces, I was praying with Faith because I did not want to get deported to Nicaragua haha. I felt strongly that everything was going to be okay though. So the Costa Rican police officer asks for my passport at the check point, and what do I show him? My California driver´s license haha, and he totally let me go. I know that prayers of faith are answered. I know that when we are completely obedient to the Lord, and we completely accept his will over ours we will be blessed in the long term. I didn´t know what was going to happen to me, but I had faith that the Lord was going to help me according to my faithfulness and diligence in this work.

Sorry this letter is so short, just not much time. I´m actually in Limon right now haha. Well I love all of you very much, and I know the Lord is blessing our family according to your faith. Keep me in your prayers and keep on following Christ with faith and repentance. Our Father in Heaven knows best always, and we cannot do anything without his help. I’ll send pictures next week when I have more time, I saw a couple sloths this week (I have seen 7) and monkeys today! (They dropped fruit on our heads haha) and always the beaches here are ridiculously gorgeous! Okay well this is all for this week! Love you all, and I know that the Lord will bless you according to your faith in his will, and Christ!

Love,

Elder Taylor