I Know The Church is True!

Buenas Familia,

I am glad to hear that everything is going good back home! Sorry Dad that you have to keep pulling all-nighters, but hopefully everything can get better at work.

Well this week was awesome and extremely hard! We had some really sad news on saturday... We have been teaching an investigator named Carmen. She is awesome and when we taught her the first lesson, she told us that we were an answer to her prayers, and she also told us that she had seen a Column of Light when we recited the first vision to her. Well Saturday we passed by her house and she told us that she doesn't want to listen to us anymore, and that her husband fought with her about the church! How sad is that! So that was the bad news this week. It has been happening a lot in this area, our investigators are super good and stoked to get baptized, but then they hear something bad about the church and freak out! But now it is just time to keep looking for the chosen people that the Lord is preparing here in San Rafael.

But other than that, I love this area. The members are great, my comp is awesome, and we should be having lots of success very soon here. With all the trials that we have had here, it really strengthens my testimony to know that this church is true.With every trial that I have had here, it has just strengthened that testimony. I am so glad that the Lord allowed me to serve a mission. I love my Saviour. The Atonement is real. He cleanses us. I love you all! I hope everything is going well, and let me know everything that is going on in the family!

Pura Vida,

Elder Taylor

P.S. I forgot my camera again haha, I will have to send photos this upcoming week!!!!

I love being a missionary!

Buenas Familia!

I hope everything is going good! This week was a very stressful, but awesome week! On tuesday we had a special meeting in the morning for all District and Zone Leaders, tuesday night we had a special Zone Leader meeting with President WIlkinson and the Heredia Stake Presidency, on Thursday we had our Zone Conference and interviews with President! It was a week filled with meetings, and meetings are very tiring, but it all turned out really well! Our missionaries are happy, and are working harder than ever, and we are trying really hard to strengthen the zone! The month before I got here, the Heredia Zone reached only 3 baptisms in one month, and now we have the goal of 20 in March, so that will be cool if we can reach that!

Things are going well in Ojo de Agua. We are really looking for new investigators, and we have been focusing on finding new investigators everyday. It has been a little rough because the members here are a little cold, but we are doing everything we can, and we are putting our faith in the prophetic promise that we will have more success if we work through members. So remember to help out the missionaries because they can´t do it on their own!

Thats so awesome the Josh came home though! Tell him that I say hi, and that I am stoked to see him after the mission!

Well this week we had a very neat experience. Sunday morning we passed by the houses of all our investigators that were going to come to church and all of them told us no, or they weren´t there. So I was really ticked and we got to church, and it started without any investigaotrs in the chapel. But halfway through we saw 2 of our investigators entering the chapel! It was awesome! Their names are Maria and Carmen. Carmen has a weird tumor in her back so she walks with a lot of pain, and it turns out that she wasn´t home inthe morning when we passed by, becuase she was in the hospital getting an injection for her tumor (in Latin countries, everyone gets injections instead of taking pills when they are sick...) so she came straight from the hospital, walking in pain! I love her! She is getting baptized on March 2nd! It really was a huge lesson in Humility. As a representative of Jesus Christ, I need to be a lot more humble, and I need to rely more on the spirit than in my own abilities.

I love the mission, and all that I am learning her. I love you all, and I hope all is well at home. Tell Josh I say hi, and let everyone know that I love them!

Love you all!

Pura Vida,

Elder Taylor

Fun times in Ojo de Agua!

Buenas Familia!

Okay well this week has been pretty awesome! First off we were blessed with the baptism of Nicole! I think I talked about how it was a miracle that she got baptized in my last letter? But it was awesome that she could finally get baptized, and she cried as she bore her testimony during the baptismal service. She will be an awesome missionary, I am so stoked for her. 

Well we are still having problems bringing people to church here in Ojo de Agua. This has seriously been my hardest area ever! Haha, but I am learning a ton, and I know that if we are patient and obedient the Lord will bless us accoriding to our faith and diligence.

Oh but a funny story. So Elder Ballard once siad in one of his talks that if the missionaries talk with 10 extra people (unplanned oppurtunities to share the gospel: in the bus, in the store, things like that...) everyday, we will always have lots of people to teach, and we will baptize more! So President WIlkinson has us do 10 of these contacts everyday, and yesterday we had a really fun experience. It was like 8:30 and Elder Velazquez and I were heading home and we passed by a bar. Sometimes in the mission you have to liven things up, and contact all the people that you normally wouldnt talk to in life, so I decided to start talking to two people that were outside the bar. It was this like 30 year old lady, and this 50 year old man. So we started talking to them and obviously they had been drinking but they were so stoked to hear about the gospel. And when we left we heard the lady talking and she said," I am so glad that God sent us this message right now... I am so glad!" Haha hopefully they remember that message in the morning, but I love contacting people! You get to know many different varieties of people and you really feel more charity for these people when you talk with them and get to know them! I love the mission!!!!

Okay well, I hope everything is going well at home. I am really trying to finish my mission off strong and giving all that I have to the Lord. I remember that when I started the mission, everything was new and I was so excited to preach the gospel, but with time you can lose that feeling, and it just feels like work. When I feel like that, I know that I need to kneel down, and give thanks to our Father in Heaven for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, because that is what this gospel and this life is all about. I know that He lives. I know that this is the truth. I love you all! I hope that everything goes well this week. Oh and also, Dad in your letter I got really sad when you said that the baptismal goal of the ward was 8 baptisms! (Don't show this part to the missionaries in the ward, but I have baptized more than that in one month!!! Missionary work is very different in Central America, and I know why the Lord sent me here. He knows that I would be too wimpy to serve in the United States haha). 

Do all that you can to help in missionary work. Something I have finally learned here in the mission. As members we don't give references because we are afraid they are going to reject the gospel. Who cares! As long as our friends have the opportunity to change their lives through the Atonement, we are helping others. Who cares if they reject us, as long as we are helping them to come closer to Christ! Referrals!

I love you guys! Take care!

Pura Vida,

Elder Taylor

2/3/2014 E-mail

Buenas Familia!

First off to answer Mom's question... My return date will be May 29th! Or at least I think so, they haven't told us anything but that will be the date. Also quick news, I was talking with Hermana Wilkinson a couple weeks ago, and I told her that you guys wanted to pick me up, but it would be hard to get released here on the mission. But she told me that usually Stake Presidents do that and they don't have a problem with it. So if you guys still want to come down to pick me up I think that would be cool, but just let me know what you think, and then afterwards you can talk with President Flake!

Well this week was awesome! We had a sweet miracle! SO when I first opened this area with Elder Baxin, we had one investigator that had been going to church forever, her name is Nicole and she is 12 years old. Well she had been wanting to get baptized for a long time, but her mom never gave her permission. Well Tuesday night we got a phone call at 9:45 and it was Nicole. She called us crying and she just said, "I'm getting baptized... I'm getting baptized...." It was so awesome! God really does see our hard work, and he blesses us according to our obedience. I love missionary work! Nicole will be getting baptized this weekend!

 
Other than that, we have been working like crazy in our area and in the zone trying to help our missionaries understand the importance of their calling! Pray a lot for the Zona Heredia, because we need all the prayers that we can get! I really love the mission and I am so stoked for the next 4 months, because I know that this is the time to work harder than I have ever worked before and finish strong!

I just want to finish this little letter with my testimony. I know that this is the true church. I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, and through him the true church of Jesus Christ has been restored. I know that Jesus Christ is our Saviour. I have experienced the peace of the Atonement so much in my life, and that is why I am here on this mission, because the Atonement has changed my life, and I want to change the lives of other people. I love you Mom and Dad for allowing me to grow up in this gospel, and for teaching me correct principles, so that I can also do that with my children also. I love you all! Pura Vida, y Les Amo un monton!

 

Pura Vida,

Elder Taylor