Monday, November 26, 2012

Good Week in Guacimo!!!

Buenas Familia!

1)      No I haven´t driven a car since being on the mission haha, everyone down here drives crazy so I would probably crash!

2)      No, we didn´t do anything for thanksgiving. I didn´t even know it was thanksgiving until we had district meeting and all of the Americans were like, "Happy Thanksgiving Elder Taylor!"

3)      My boxes? I received the two packages from you guys like a month ago!

4)     Last Monday we played ping pong because it was raining like crazy here. It´s basically rained all day, every day here in Límon for the last month. Needless to say I got the scrathies in between my toes haha

Well,
Happy Thanksgiving everybody! So this week was good! Why you may ask?

Because we went to the Temple!!!!! The temple here in San Jose reminds me a lot of Newport Beach, but it was beautiful and I loved it! So that was a super awesome experience! Also a couple weeks back, President Wilkinson gave all the missionaries the "Standards of Excellence" for the mission.
These are the numbers that we should all strive for in the mission, like number of Lessons with Members present, Lessons taught, stuff like that, and guess who achieved the standards of Excellence this week???? Elder Cruz and Elder Taylor! We worked super hard this week and it really showed in that. And the last good thing that happened this week... I finished the Book of Mormon! I love the book of Mormon so much.

So yeah Dad, I was thinking a lot about Mormon and Moroni this week, and how much society had degraded for the Nephites. In the epistles the Mormon writes to Moroni, its super sad to see how nasty, and barbarous the Nephites had become, and it made me think a lot about how society is today.
How some people think it is so much easier to follow Satan because the gospel is so hard to live. It´s so sad, but we can learn so much from the Nephites. I also read Pearl of Great Price this week. It was the first time I had done that. I love it too! I just thought it was interesting to see how much that through Jesus Christ, God has created. Countless numbers of worlds, and countless numbers of people, but through an act so simple as prayer we can communicate with him! It blows my mind. He is God, he has done so much, yet he is willing to listen to us, and answer all of our silly little requests, and why? Because he absolutely loves us, with a perfect love! It´s so amazing! We do have a Father in Heaven, and he wants us to choose the right so badly, but due to his love for us, he respects our ability to choose, albeit for Good or for Bad. I love him.

Well I´m glad you had a busy holiday, but sorry you guys were a little sick and miserable! Mom, decorate!!! You love it and it will make the house more happy and festive! And since when did Grandpa have a huge, big screen T.V!?!?! Oh also changes are this Monday, so I will know if I am leaving Guacimo or staying for another change. I love it here, and I love the people here in Guacimo, even when they yell at us and call us false prophets and things like that!
Well love all you guys, and wish you the absolute best this week. Remember that we have a God that loves us, and wants the best for us!

Love, Elder Taylor

Monday, November 19, 2012

Estoy Hablando en la Idioma de los Cielos

Buenas Familia,

a)      So breakfast is usually orange juice, and bread, or eggs just depends on how much time we have

b)      Lunch is always rice and beans. And then we´ll have a little side thing of meat and maybe platano, something like that. I don´t like rice and beans haha!

c)       Little kids here are sweet, and yeah I guess they like me. They are just super irreverent, because that’s how the culture here in Costa Rica is.

d)      Our apartment has a bedroom, bathroom (without a light) a kitchen (without a light) and a big open room that we use to study. We also have a room for all our clothes. Our house is pretty big, but it´s really old, dusty and creepy at night.

e)      We have a lady in the ward that does our laundry. Here name is Petronila, haha she´s a little different but super cool.

f)       Haha so long story. But one of President Wilkinson’s daughters was dating this guy from California. So we were going to take a picture of all of us with a thumbs down or a mean face and send it to this guy, because President Wilkinson, like any other Dad, is super protective of his daughters.

g)      The picture is of our entire Zone. Our zone is all of the province of Limon, so basically the eastern half of the country. And yeah the mission here is basically half gringo, half Latino.

Okay,

So this week was sweet! We had 4 baptisms!!!! We baptized a family (Diego and Tatiana) and two little kids (Rigoberto and Reina). So that’s always good when we have baptisms! Well we have really been working super hard here, because our branch has a yearly goal of 20 baptisms. When Elder Nape and I arrived here in August, Guacimo had only 3 baptisms. So we have been working super hard to try and reach this goal, and I think we only need like 5 baptisms more! Well it´s been super cold here lately, and everybody is sick because it´s been raining like crazy. But no worries, I´ve been lucky and I haven’t gotten sick.

Well this week, as you already know we had a super sweet Zone Conference.

In this mission, we are really focusing on retention. In Guacimo alone, we have weekly church attendance of about 60 people. But on our records, we have about 600 members in Guacimo. And that is the problem everywhere in this country, retention. And how can we retain better? Through the members!!! So we are really focusing on member missionary work, because that is the key to all missionary work, retention through the members. We talked a lot about that and we also learned a lot about the atonement, and how really we cannot fully benefit from the atonement, without the blessings of the temple. President Wilkinson is a genius, and he really has  so much scriptural knowledge. He´s like a computer when it comes to the scriptures. But the conference was really amazing, and I felt the Holy Ghost very strongly. So what I learned from it, MEMBERS HELP OUT THE MISSIONARIES! I really can´t wait till I get home to really help out the missionaries. I also think about before my mission, and how I would just ignore the missionaries or take them for granted. I´m stoked to get back and go out to lessons every night with them!

Well I hope all is well at home. I´m always praying for you, and thanking my Father in Heaven for such great parents, and family, and friends. Let me know how everyone is doing, and how everything is going in the states with King Obama, and the hurricane. Love you all, and I wish you the best! I know this church is true! Oh and P.S., I read 3rd Nephi 17 this past week, Best Chapter in the Book of Mormon!!!!! Okay love you all!

Love, Elder Taylor

P.S. Piano music...

Haha yes piano music, so I don´t know, I´m not in Guacimo right now, so I need to check and think about it during the week. Don´t worry about it, and you can probably email me the music anyway. Thanks mom, Love you! But yes, I´ll send you the music I want when I have more time to think about it and then you can just email it to me. Thank you!

Picture from Zone Conference:

Monday, November 12, 2012

Attack of the Sloths

Buenas Familia!!!!

1)      Daily routine... Well we wake up at 6:30, I sit at my desk for a little bit and try to wake up and then after I shower, eat something and get dressed. We have personal study at 8 (the best time of the day!!!) and then companionship study at 9, language study at 10 and then we´re out the door by 11. We tract a little but really the work is dead at 11 because we can find anyone because they are all working. Then we eat at 12 with our cook, Hermana Mayella. At around 1 we are back out and then we get back home at like 9. Then we plan and shower and eat a little and we´re in bed by 10:30! That’s our whole schedule haha.

2)      No I didn´t get a bruise from the helmets haha.

3)      Yeah, I´m taller than everybody here. One time we were getting on a bus, and this niño saw me and said, "Que Grande..." in astonishment.

4)      No the water in Central America is safe. Only dirty in Mexico. At meals however, we always have a different type of Fresco. So here, Tang (the orange drink) rules the world so we always have a different flavor of tang. It´s super bad though because it dehydrates you! So at times it´s annoying but it´s the culture here, Tang, Coca-Cola, and Canada Dry Ginger Ale during every meal!

5)      No here we´re just called Gringos or Norte Americanos.

6)      Elder Cruz is rad. So he is the middle child, and his Older Sister is preparing to serve a mission, he has a little sister too but she´s like 11. His whole family are members and he´s been a member his whole life. His girlfriend is also just about to serve her mission also.

Okay! So this week was tough!! We had 4 baptisms scheduled for this Saturday and all of them fell-through because the chapel didn´t have any water. So that was super tough and stressful and a little disheartening, but there is reason for everything so maybe this can turn out to be a blessing in disguise. I´ve also been sick this week so that is never fun!

But it´s all good! This week we have been knocking a ton of doors, and meeting a ton of interesting people. I really love knocking doors for that, because you never know who will answer and how crazy they will be. The only problem here is that everyone is super nice but because of this they´ll lie to us about a day when we can come back because they are too nice to say no. So we´ve been having a problem with that. So that´s been tough also, but really it´s true that only after the trial of our faith are we blessed. This week has just been a huge trial of our faith and patience.

But guess who finally touched a sloth???!!! This guy! When we were trying to figure out the water problem in the chapel on Saturday, we found a huge sloth behind the church. I started to tickle it´s back and then it got super mad and started hissing at us. SLOTHS HISS! It was a two-toed sloth too, so it was ugly! But then it started trying to bite us and it was the scariest thing I have ever seen in my life. Sloths have only 4 nasty yellow, sharp, knife-teeth, so when it was trying to bite us it looked like the clover-field monster. Needless to say, I will never touch a sloth again let alone tickle one, because this sloth was nuts! And then afterwards it got super tired and fell asleep because it is so lazy. It was a fun time though.

To end, I´m also reading in the Book of Helaman right now, in the Book of Mormon. I couldn´t help but think about the relationship of the Wicked Nephites during this time, and the wickedness we are seeing right now in the United States. It seems like all the same secret-combinations, murders, fornications, and adulteries are happening. So in Helaman, Nephi the prophet, prophesies that the chief judge is going to be murdered, and he is murdered and the Nephites are too hard-hearted to recognize that Nephi is a Prophet. It just makes me so thankful to have a true Prophet of God in our lives today, who we can follow and who will always lead us closer to Christ. I think before my mission, I thought of the commandments of God as restrictions, but really they are here to protect us. Protect us from the consequences and sadness of the world. The Nephites during this time we´re too hard-hearted to recognize that Nephi was just trying to help them, and we all know what happens to them in 3rd Nephi... all the wicked are destroyed. I love the Book of Mormon so much, and I know that we can learn so much from its pages.

I love all of you, and I hope all is well. I don´t know of what you could send me Mom, but just surprise me! I like surprises! I´m always praying for you, and I know that this work I am doing in Costa Rica is the work of the Lord. I cannot wait to get back home and help out the missionaries in Anaheim, because I really regret not doing that before my mission. Every Member A MISSIONARY!! Love you all! The church is TRUE!

Love,

Elder Taylor

P.S. Sorry if you can´t understand this letter. My English is super bad now, and it´s super awkward to speak in English haha, que malo.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Bautizando!

Buenas, Familia!

1)      Yes, I received my package! And the pillowcase! Thank you very much Mom and Dad! I was afraid that I would have to go to San Jose to get it, but we got it yesterday at stake conference! Love you guys!

2)      No I have never heard a piano playing while tracting. I don´t even know how a person could steal the piano, because all the churches here are like prisons and it´s super hard to get in!

3)      On p-days sometimes we go travel to different parts of our zone. We´re in Limon, which is all of the east side of the country. Actually our zone went to Puerto Viejo today, it´s this super beautiful beach that’s right next to panama. And if we don´t travel anywhere, we usually just rest, because everyday day we are walking and walking and walking so we need to rest haha

Well, this week was good! So we will be having 4 baptisms this week!

Whoooooh!!! Diego and Tatiana are getting baptized. They´re a super young family but are super awesome. Diego is 20 and Tatiana turned 20 the same day as I! Isn´t that nuts! But they already have 3 kids. It´s super rad to see how much their relationship has changed through the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we first found them they were always fighting and there was no trust. But through their marriage (which we planned and was super stressful) and the gospel, their home is totally different, I love it! And we are also baptizing 2 niños haha. Rigoberto is 12 and his sister Reina is 8. Rigo is a super awesome kid, and he will be a rad missionary in 6 years. I´m just super stoked for this weekend.

Elder Cruz and I have been doing a lot of contacting and knocking doors because really we will be baptizing all of our investigators after this weekend. I love contacting because it´s really easy to get in the door here and you can really meet the most interesting and different people. But i don´t like contacting because a lot of people here will lie to you, or because they are so nice they will let you teach them, but they really want nothing to do with our message. But I love it anyway!

Well I had a fun experience this week! Elder Cruz and I were walking in the "Centro" its like where all the stores in Guacimo are, and I was crossing the street, and on my Right side a huge bus was coming, but a parked car was blocking my view on the left side so I decided to cross the street really quick. But on my left side two people on a motorcycle came out of nowhere and almost ran into me! I got hit in the face by their helmets haha, it was ridiculous. It was my fault but thank goodness I didn´t get hurt at all, it only felt like getting punched in the face haha. But I´m all good, and I can officially say that I got hit by a motorcycle in Costa Rica!

Well, this week was very good and I love the people here in Guacimo. Sometimes it´s hard to love them, but I really feel like I do. I love this gospel. It has brought so much happiness and especially peace to my life. I love the atonement. I love how it can change our hearts and our desires. I love that we are supported in every righteous thing by our Father in Heaven. I love his Plan of Salvation for each and every one of us, and I know he have purpose in this life. I love the Book of Mormon. I love the revelation we receive in it. I love the prophets who guide and have guided our church. I love my Father in Heaven. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love all of you! Have beautiful week!

Tuanis,

Elder Taylor