10/28/13 E-Mail

Buenas Familia!!!!

First off to answer Mom´s questions...

1. Hmm, they have a ton of fruits that I have never seen in the United States, but my favorite is this fruit called Cas!!! It is amazing, they make it into fresco (juice) and it is a little sour but the best tasting thing ever!
2. Sometimes we walk to church, it´s super close to where we live, but sometimes if we have to pick up investigators we take the bus there.
3. No the guy who walked with a limp bought us like a snack and it was like 5 o´clock in the afternoon so we had already eaten lunch.
4. No! There are no sloths in my area. For about the last year I have been in the city so I haven't been able to see any cool bugs or creatures...
5. Haha, that picture I took in front of all the missionaries was a multi-zone conference. I think there were 4 zones there. We were waiting to take a picture with Elder Amado of the Seventy, so I decided it would be cool and take a picture in front of everyone when they were waiting so that's what happened!
6. Those Elders were moving the chairs in the photo haha.
7. Latin Costco rocks! We just bought peanut butter (super expensive in Costa Rica) and sandwich materials and stuff for breakfast.
8. Yeah it was air conditioned! Costa Rica is pretty far advanced, especially in a city like Tres Rios. Imagine Los Angeles but a little lower class and without sky-scrapers, and that is San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica.
9. There are bats all over the country, but there aren't any in my house here in Tres Rios. Here we just have a bunch of ants, Cockroaches, and Rats! Yeah!

Okay, so this week was a little frustrating but I loved it! Jorge, the super cool investigator that we was going to get baptized this weekend fell... It was hard, but it is part of God's plan. I know that he will get baptized one day, but it's just not his time right now. He completely disappeared and he won't answer our phone calls or anything. But I still love him!

Well super sweet thing that happened this week, I had awesome studies! I absolutely love the Scriptures! This week I have really been trying to focus my studies on the Book of Mormon. When I started the mission, I knew absolutely nothing about the Bible becuae I had only studied the Book of Mormon my whole life. Then about half-way through my mission I started reading the Bible a ton because I love it's symbolism and everything and it was so knew to me, but then I noticed that I started teaching like a Christian preacher, and needed to start back at the basics, and I love the Book of Mormon! It is an amazing book, and I know that it is true. It changes lives, and it has changed mine. 

But this week was really fun. I did get really sick Saturday night/ Sunday morning (vomiting and all that good stuff) but I rested at a members house all sunday and I feel awesome now. We have some super good investigators and we should have a ton of baptisms this upcoming month. We are teaching a super sweet lady named Alicia and her husband, Ricardo. They are ex Jehovah's Witnesses so its been a little difficult helping them to understand the truth, but slowly and surely they are gaining their testimonies of the church.

We also are teaching a whole street of investigators basically. They literally all live on the same street, so hopefully they will be getting baptized on the 23rd! That would be awesome. Also we have changes this upcoming week, so most likely I will be leaving after 6 months here in Tres Rios. I hope not though, because I love this ward, it is super strong and fun ( we had an attendance of 211 people on Sunday, that is the most in the whole country!!!!)

Well, I just want to congratulate you guys on all the fellowshipping/missionary work that you are doing! Congrats Mom on inviting Laura to the activity, and Dad you are the man for having that barbecue with the Jensen's! Missionary work is super easy, because all it is is to be the investigators friends, and then the Spirit will touch them!

Love you guys so much, I would send pictures today, but I am in a nasty internet cafe in San Jose (its expensive too...) so maybe next week! Hope all is well at home.

Love you guys!

Pura vida,

Elder Taylor el macho guapo (good-looking white guy!)

10/21/13 E-Mail (with Pics!)

Buenas Familia!

1. Haha you have seen pictures of my comp. He is tall, white, (he looks American) he speaks perfect English (he doesn't have an accent at all, and he speaks slang words) and he is from Guatemala!!!
2. No, I don´t have foot rot, but its just like a little bump on my big toe.
3. Today for P-day, we went to the grand opening of the "PriceSmart" right behind our house! PriceSmart is the central american Costco, and it is awesome! There are like 5 in the country so we are really lucky to have one within walking distance of the house.
4. We live in the garage of members in our ward, so we don't have neighbors, but everyone that lives around us is really rich!
5. In our area (we live 10 mins away in Bus...) is really poor and sketchy haha, so there are a ton of beggars there. Tons of people come up to us and ask us for money all the time.
6. Everybody here says Gringo haha it gets annoying sometimes
7. No I have enough gel to last me until the end of my misison, but thank you!
8. My garments are holding up well, if I need more, I'll buy them at the temple here. P.S. Thank you so much for the shirts mom! Only thing is, my neck is 15.5 not 16.5 haha, thats my fault. And you don't need to buy me size tall shirts because those are for "bigger" (chubbier) people. I'm skinny so the smaller the shirt, the better it will fit me. Just so you know haha, thank you so much for the clothes though.

Okay well this week was awesome! This weekend we will be blessed with the baptism of Jorge! This guy is so awesome and he has made so many changes in his life!!! He stopped smoking, started living the law of chastity, (all of his friends called him gay for doing it...) and he has overcome so many obstacles to get to this point! I love him, and the gospel has really changed him and brought him so much more happiness! I really love the changing power of the atonement, and how through our faith and repentance,we literally are born again in Christ!

I am so thankful for the misison, and for all the opportunities that I have had here to change and grow and to understand more about the atonement. This past week we had a conference with Elder Carlos H. Amado of the Presidency of the Seventy. He is HILARIOUS! I love that guy, and he talked to us for literally 8 hours about marriage, how to keep our thoughts clean and the law of chastity! He is super old-fashioned so everything he said was directed to us Elders, and not the sister missionaries, so I think they felt a little uncomfortable there. It was awesome though, and you know that he was being led by the Spirit as he taught us. I really love this gospel. I know that this church is true, and I know that choosing to serve the mission was the best decision I have ever made in my life. I love my Saviour, and I know that he lives, and guides our righteous decisions. I love you all, and I hope all is well at home. Take care!!!!

Pura Vida,
Elder Taylor

P.S. I attached some photos.
We took a picture with a tiny sister missionary that was in our zone. She was just serving a temporary mini mission for 2 weeks.

We have one from the baptism of Aaron a couple of weeks ago.

And the picture we took with Elder Amado when I was  in front of everybody haha.

This is a picture I took with Elder Nape my Trainer!!! He goes home in 2 weeks! We saw each other for the last time at the Zone leaders meeting this past month! I love this guy!

October 14, 2013 E-mail

Answers to last week's questions:

1. They put me on this anti-biotic called Ciproflaxacina 500 mg. I guess it kills bacterias or parasites... I don't know haha
2. Haha oh my gosh, the sassy red-headed sister is my favorite in the zone. Her name is Hermana Bohr and she is from Idaho, she's awesome haha
3. They do celebrate Halloween here, but it isn't with costumes and stuff like that. It's more so just big parties where everybody drinks a ton. Last year for Halloween they didn't let us go out and work, so we will have to see what the area presidency says about that this year.
4. I have a new little buddy on my foot. I think it's like a corn or something like that, it's pretty big haha
5. My last box was the best because of the memory card, and the picture book and the candy! It was awesome!!!
6. We are starting to exercise again now. Elder Schweinfurth usually goes and jump ropes in the morning while I play basketball and shoot around. I hate exercising (running, lifting weights etc. but I like playing sports)
7. I guess people think I am a good basketball player, we don't really play that much here becuase all they do is play soccer (girls sport... just kidding! I love it!)
8. I always play the piano, but the last time in church was a couple months ago haha, but yeah we have this investigator named Jorge and I'm teaching him how to play right now.

Okay, well this past week we were blessed with the baptism of Aaron Isaac Zarate Silva!!! I love this little kid! He is 12 years old, and he is so smart! He will be a great missionary someday, and he will help to contribute so much to the growth of this church. It was an awesome baptism because he was a reference form the 1st counselor in the Stake Presidency (he's the 1st counselor's nephew). The Silva family is the strongest family in our ward, and one of the strongest in the country and so at the baptism we had like 60 members of that family! And a ton of food! So it was awesome, and one of the most fun baptisms ever. I would send you a picture right now, but I am writing from San Jose, and these computers are the nastiest things ever, so I am afraid to hook up my camera haha.

Well, we are seeing a lot of great things in our area. We will have a baptism on the 26th, this super awesome guy named Jorge. He is a reference from a less active member named Sirleni. She met him while they were both in a psychiatric hospital and they are the perfect match!!! Jorge is a stud though. This last sunday we talked to him about word of wisdom, and the law of chastity, (two things that they both needed to hear.) He took it like a champ and told us that he was quitting smoking dry turkey, and that nothing was stopping him from getting baptized the 26th. He always goes off on monologues during the lessons, but they are so inspiring! During that lesson he said, "Come at me challenges, I have had so many in my life, I want a bunch just so I can overcome them! I have never overcome any trial in my life, and now I am ready to overcome all that Satan throws at me!!!!" He is so rad, and I am stoked for all the changes he is making in his life!

We are also teaching the coolest guy ever, named Armando. So a couple of weeks ago, Elder Schweinfurth and I were chilling waiting for a bus, and this guy with a weird limp stops us and he is like, "Hey, you guys want something to eat? There's a bakery down there, and I want to get you guys some food." So he bought us food and we wrote down his number. Well fast forward a couple weeks and he came to church yesterday, so we taught him about prophets after church. It was so funny because he is attending another church and after the lesson he told us, "Oh Dude! This means that your church is the true church!!! I don't have to go to my old church anymore!!!" And we were like, "Hey, just pray and ask God because we don't want you to believe us..." and he was like, "No, I don't want to ask God because I already know the answer!!!" He is a little afraid to drop his old church, but with time and prayers he will do it! He's got a baptismal date for the 23rd of November.

Well everything is going good here on the mission. I love it so much, and I love all the experience that I am having here. I hope all of the Young Men in our ward can enjoy the mission and live worthily to have this experience. I love you all! Take care, and I hope all is well back home!

Pura Vida,
Elder Taylor

10/7/2013 E-mail

Buenas Familia,

Thanks so much for the birthday wishes!!! So this last week was great! And I absolutely loved General Conference! Best Birthday Present ever!

So for General Conference, usually we just go to the chapel and they have one room showing it English for all the missionaries and people that speak English, and then one room for everyone else in Spanish. This year we couldn't watch it in English, so we had to watch it all in Spanish. I don't really like it because it doesn't feel the same in Spanish, and the translators voices are super funny, but I still loved it. (P.S. Elder Richard G. Scott did his own translation... Imagine his deep voice but in Spanish... it sounded so awesome haha) Well personally, I loved the talk by Edward Dube (don't look back, faith only looks forward...) and the talk by Elder Bednar (If you are not paying your tithing... I invite you to REPENT!) It was awesome!

Also in our area we have a baptism this upcoming weekend. It's a little kid named Aaron, he is a reference from the 1st counselor in the stake presidency, and then we will have one the 19th, and another one the 26th, and we just put one for the 2th! So hopefully we can keep it up and baptize every week from now until the end of my mission haha.

Well, I hope everything is going good at home. I am loving the misison, and I am so happy here. I love the changes that the gospel makes in people, and I love hearing from my converts! It always makes me think of this verse in 3rd John 1:1 "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." That is so true. Martin and Veronica, my converts from Aserri are preparing already to enter the temple and get sealed in February!!!!! I am stoked. However, its sad when you find out that your converts have fallen a little out of the light. My two families from Guacimo, Hugo and Yamileth and Diego and Tatiana are now inactive... It's sad, but as missionaries we do our part preparing these people, but it is up to the ward to keep and help them endure to the end! So help out our Recent Converts in the big YL!!!!

Okay love you all, take care! I am always thinking of you all! P.s follow the Prophet and do your Home Teaching!!!!! Love you!

Pura Vida,
Elder Taylor

So I just got your email haha, so I will answer your questions...

1. Today for p-day we are going to play paintball haha, with all the sisters in our zone! It should be fun shooting the sisters... what?!?!
2. In our zone there are more sisters than elders, (13 sisters, 6 elders...) and in our mission there are like 80 sisters and 170 elders...
3. I had a bacteria that was giving me really bad stomach problems, but right now I am taking an anti-biotic to fix everyhting up, no worries I'm fine now!
4. I haven't lost my retainer!!!!!
5. I weigh 170 lbs now. When I got here I weighed 175, I lost about 15 lbs the last couple of months (bacteria baby!) and on my antibiotic I have gained back 10 lbs! I want to get fat, but I can't do it!
6. I am proudly wearing my Perkis Power t-shirt right now as I write you haha.

P.S. Katie's new baby will be named Ryan Taylor Jones. Tell her she needs to do it. If she does, that baby will become President of the United States.

Love you!