It is Hot in this Internet Café

Buena Familia!

Okay, well first off to answer Mom´s questions...

1. No, I didn´t get in trouble for talking to you guys a little bit longer than normal haha, my companion talked to his family for like 3 hours so don´t worry!
2. I totally forgot to talk with President Wilkinson about looking up BYU stuff!!! I have to do that as soon as possible haha

Okay, well this was a good week in Ojo de Agua. We are finally getting a feel of the area, and things are looking good. This weekend we will be blessed with 2 baptisms! Arturo and his little brother Araisel. They are two young men that are sons of a member family. However, when their family got baptized, they were living in Nicaragua, but now they are here and they want to get baptized! So that will happen this upcoming Sunday! It should be awesome.

But other than that we have really been trying to get our missionaries to have more urgency. This is the work of the Lord and it is not some laid-back thing, we can´t waste time here on our missions because they are so short and we need to make the most of every minute. So right now we are really trying to help our missionaries have this urgency to do this work. So that basically has been the whole week, just trying to get the zone better, and really trying to get our area a little better. To do that we have been contacting all of the old investigators that we find in our Area Book, and we have actually had some decent success doing that.

Funny experience though, so we showed up at some old investigators house yesterday. Their names are Fermin and Carina, but there is this old man living there named Virgilio. Virgilio is 76 years old, and he has Parkinson´s disease I think because he shakes a lot. Well we were in the middle of a lesson with Carina and Fermin when Virgilio walks into the room, and he screams, "I want you to baptize me right now!!!!" So we were like, "Okay... how about you sit down and listen to us..." So we kept teaching the lesson (we were teaching about Faith, Repentance, and Baptism) and so I asked them if they had ever seen Christ face to face before, and Virgilio belts out, "Yes, I have seen the face of Jesus Christ!" (By the way, he talks exactly like the guy who does the voice in the haunted mansion, just more monotonous and he doesn´t stop looking at you in the eyes.) So then he went on to tell us of how one night in his room, the room became illuminated and Jesus Christ appeared and told him it still was not his time to die. He kept going on and talking about his experiences with angels, and he even told us that he was the apostle Paul, and that he prayed for him. Eventually he got tired and just fell asleep, so we kept teaching  Carina and Fermin, but then like 5 minutes later, he woke up abruptly and shouted, "I haven´t touched a woman in 20 years..." Needless to say it was an awesome experience, and he kept falling asleep and waking up and yelling things like that. He was awesome, and Carina and Fermin have a baptismal date for the 19th, so we will have to see how they progress.

But all in all, I really do love the mission. I love this chance and opportunity to receive revelation, and to experience and feel things that I have never felt before. I especially love giving blessings, because the Holy Ghost really does work through us. I have had many experiences and I have a very strong testimony of the power of Priesthood Blessings, and that through our faith we really can be healed. I love this work, and I love the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I love you all, and I hope that you all have a safe New Year´s tomorrow. I am always praying for all of you. Keep us in your prayers! Love you!

Pura Vida,
Elder Taylor

Buenas from Belen! (Hi from Bethlehem!)

Buenas Familia!

First off to answer questions from Mom...

1. Yes I am getting along really well with Elder Baxin, he is finishing the mission right now so we really want him to finish off strong!
2. He does speak a little bit of english, but he is just a little nervous and timid about speaking with english speakers, but with time he will gain confidence.
3. My area is called Ojo de Agua, its in a city called San Rafael. It is huge! It is in the middle of nowhere though, and it is all flat-lands and country. Heredia, the zone I am in though is really cool! It is huge! And it is really rich haha, the temple is in our zone, and it is like a 15 minute bus ride from our area, so I love it!
4. The new apartment is atleast bigger than the cave in Tres Rios, but it is smelly and HOT! San Rafael is ridiculously hot and sunny.
5. In our zone there are 10 elders and 12 sisters haha, President just keeps sending me to zones of sisters!!!
6. The members are super great in our area, and they have been giving us a ton of references!!! So work is going good.

Okay, well this week was hard!!! Monday we had the mission Christmas party, and that was awesome. We went Christmas caroling at an senior citizen facility, and it was an awesome experience to be there with these great people, and hear their stories, and basically just listen to them. I love them. After that, I woke up in the night throwing up, and that kept on going for the next 2 days. I got food poisoning or something, but I am all better now! This week was a little struggle. We are opening up a new area here in Ojo de Agua, and being zone leaders so it is a little difficult trying to get to know members/ guide a zone/ get to know misisonaries/ deal with their problems/ have success when you are completely starting from scratch. Haha, but we'll figure it out haha. We have been really blessed with miracles here though. We just passed by the house of a member family the other day, and we found out that 2 of their kids haven't been batpized, so we will be blessed with two baptisms the first week of January.

Okay time for a funny story. So sunday, I was on divisions with Elder Sharp (just starting the mission, and he doesn't know any spanish at all.) So we were walking down the street, and this really old, and really white guy calls us from his door. SO we walked over to see what was up, and he was like, ''Elders, come in my house....'' So we walked in and turns out he has this ''plant'' that magically cures cancer, and he was trying to get us to take it, or tell people about it, I really didnt understand. (He was old, and mumbled a lot) So he was talking to us for like an hour about this magic plant, and finally we asked if he wanted to hear us and he quickly said, ''Hasta luego!!!'' and he quicked us out of his house! It was awesome, becuase we found the cure for cancer! And it's in this old guy's house in Costa Rica!

Okay, so about skype, uhm we are going to skype from the bishops house Christmas Night at 6 p.m Costa Rican time! I hope that is alright!!! Let me know if it doesn't work for you guys! I am super stoked to skype, and you will see how skinny I am now! (I am super skinny now, I have lost all my muscle, and it has turned into fat or left haha). Rice and Beans! Okay but yeah, just let me know if you need anything!

I love all of you, take care! I know this is the true church, and that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real!

Pura Vida,
Elder Taylor

P.S. What is Eric's email? Because I have emailed him but I haven't gotten an answer from him...

Photos...

Here are some photos. Today for p-day we went bowling. 

In the other one we are eating Tamales, that is what they eat here for Christmas. Party Time!

These are all pictures that we took after the Christmas activity. We were in Central Park, and it was cool to see it all lit up with Christmas lights.

Where in the World is Elder Taylor...

Buenas Familia!!!

First off thank you so much for the package of candies haha, I will for sure eat all of those in the upcoming months!

And second off... Congratulations Katie and Cameron for your beautiful baby boy! He's going to be a stud, just wait till I get back!

Third off... I got changed! After 8 beautiful months in Tres Rios, I have been changed to... Ojo de Agua in Alajuela! I am one of the Zone Leaders in the Heredia Zone, and my new companion is Elder Baxin from Mexico, who is finishing his mission this change! We have a lot of work to do, and I am really excited to be in this ward. It's a little different here in Ojo de Agua though, the attendance in Tres Rios was 180 or 190 people a week, here it is about 90 to 100. There was Costa Rican Costco, a mall and a ton of places to eat in Tres Rios, and here there is absolutely nothing and we are out in the boonies haha, but the ward is great, it is a very humble area, and I am stoked for all the people that the Lord is preparing to hear the gospel here.

Well, I will be calling you guys on Christmas, there are a lot of members that have webcams so I will be able to Skype you guys. I don't know what time though, so I will let you know next Monday!

Oh and this letter is going to be really short because I have a ton of photos to send! Ush! Love you all!

Pura Vida,

Elder Taylor

P.S. I'm not sad that Katie and Cam didn't name the baby Ryan Christian Taylor Jones. The next one can be named that! Haha love you guys!

Merry Christmas!!!

Photos...

One of my zone in Los Yoses!!!

One of the Costa Rican Police

One of my shoes. Destroyed from working so effectively haha

Baptism of Joel and Yosmaris!!!!

Marriage of Joel and Yosmaris!!!!

Coolest marriage cake ever...

This was a stuatue called Cristo Resucitado (Ressurected Christ). They made me take this picture haha

This a picture with Tallmadge Richmond. I love this guy, he was my best DL ever. I also lived right next to him at BYU.

When you have Giardia... you got to take some tests... haha

Christmas in Costa Rica (Almost...)

Buenas Familia!!!

Okay first to answer questions...

1. So I got a letter from Eric on November 13th and a letter from Shelby just a little bit after, so I will write back! Sorry I am really bad at writing letters haha

Okay well this week was a very difficult week! All of our lessons were falling, we found out that Jimmy and Irania, two of our investigators can´t get married and baptized because Irania doesn´t have all the legal documents she needs, and there was a lot of opposition in everything we did... but it all went away on Saturday when we went to the TEMPLE! I love the temple! And the most special thing is... I was able to do the work for Allen Martin Hackett!!! It was super awesome. I did his baptism and confirmation, and the next time we go I will be able to do his initiatories and his endowment, so I am very excited for that! I love the temple so much, and I love the peace and reverence that you can feel there, it really his the house of the Lord.

I had a very funny experience when I was there though. So all throughout my mission I have used my temple clothes to baptize, and throughout the mission they have gotten a little dirty. Right on my bottom there is a huge black mark (I have no idea how I got that haha) but when I was helping out with baptisms, President Craig, the temple Pressident, stopped me and told me that when we finish he was going to help me get the big black spot out of my pants. So afterwards we went into a back room in the temple and he was trying as hard as he could to get out the huge black mark and eventually he couldn´t. So he stopped and he told me, "Elder Taylor, at the end of your mission when your Mission President asks you if you have clean hands and a pure heart, tell him yes, but that you have a giant black spot on your rear end!" It was so hilarious! Haha, but I really do love the temple, and I love all the temple workers. They are seriously the nicest people, and I love working with them.

So the temple was the highlight of my week. This upcoming week we have changes, and most likely I will be leaving (Elder Schweinfurth and I already have 6 months together and he is finishing the mission this next change) so we will see where I am going! I love you all, and I really hope everything goes well with Katie and her pregnancy. I am super stoked to see little Ryan Christian Taylor Jones Jr when I get back from my mission. I really know this is where the Lord wants me to be, and I have a strong testimony of the power of the Atonement in our lives. Christ died to allow us to change, and we just need to be willing to take those important steps to allow the Atonement of Christ to take affect in our lives.I love you all! Take care, and keep on working the vineyard of the Lord!!!!

Pura Vida,

Elder Taylor

P.S. I am trying to send photos but... there is a problem with my memory card. It is not being recognized on the computer so it says that I need to reformat my card, and I am not willing to delete all my pictures to do that, so I will try and send some pictures when I get that all fixed up.. sorry! Love you!

Bautizáte Huevon!!!!!

Buenas Familia!!!!

So good news, this week I took my Giardia tests, and I don't have Giardia!!!! So in order to take these tests, I had to take some stool samples and they checked them to see if there was Giardia in them. Turns out I don't have Giardia, but I have to take a few more stool samples to see if I have a parasite. If not they say I have Irritable Bowl Syndrome. How embarassing is that haha, I just have to watch what I eat for the next few months and I should feel fine in no time! So no worries, I don't have Giardia haha. And thank you so much for the Olive Tree sheet music, I got it and I love playing it!

And don't get mad at me... I have a lot of new pictures to send you, but I am in a nasty internet cafe and I am afraid to use my camera here haha, don't get mad but we will have to wait one more week haha. 

Well some bad news... Jimmy and Irania, a family that we had that were going to get baptized on the 7th, aren't going to get baptized. They need to be married, but Irannia is from Nicaragua, and here very irresponsible parents did not get her a passport or any paperwork here in Costa Rica. SO basically she doesn't exist here, and that means that she cannot get married and be baptized... It's frustrating because a couple of weeks ago we talked with her and told her that she needed to start doing her paperwork so that she could get baptized on the 7th, but she procrastinated a little bit. So we will have to see if they can still get baptized and married in the next couple of weeks, keep on praying for them!

 

Well other than that, this was a good week. I love the mission, and I love this ward! Tres Rios is the strongest ward in this country, (attendance of 185, and we have like 30 returned missionaries and I think 6 or 7 ex-Assitants to the President, which is ridiculous in a country as small as Costa Rica.) so we have a lot of help from the members. The only thing is we need to find the way to get them excited about missionary work again. When I first got her, there were a lot of problems between the missionaries and the members, and there was no unity at all. It was very difficult because I had come from Aserri, a ward that we really got to be united in missionary work. So we had to basically start all over again when we got here, but finally we are seeing the fruits of our labor. There is no chance of having success in missionary work if we do not work with members. I repeat there is no success in missionary work if the members are not actively invovlved in the whole process of conversion. I love this chance that I have had to be in Tres Rios, because I have learned a ton about leadership and how to work in a good functioning ward. It will be interesting to go back to Yorba Linda and see how the ward functions with the missionaries and with everything that is going on.

Well just to finish up, something I have learned to love here on the mission are the scriptures. I love reading the scriptures!!!! They really are our guides to everyday life, and if we apply their teachings in our lives we really can find happiness and peace. I love studying every morning because it is our opportunity to increase our knowledge and our love for the Saviour! I love it! Always study the scriptures! Always!

I love you all and I hope all is going well at home. I am so stoked for Katie's new baby, and I want her to name it Ryan Christian Taylor Jones. But really, I am so stoked for everything that is happening at home and all the blessings that you are receiving. I love you all, and I am always praying for your well-being. Take care, and remember the importance of this gospel in your lives.

Pura Vida,
Elder Taylor

P.S. Are you still thinking about coming to Costa Rica to pick me up?