May 16, 2011

Taylor just sent a very quick note as he was off to the mall in Maipu to get winter clothes.  It seems a little strange to have it colder in Chile as it warms up (sort of) here in Utah.


Dear Friends and Family -
.
 We have been doing a lot of contacting here too, and this week we found the most new investigators I have ever found on my mission in one week. Complete miracle. It is cool to see the hand of the Lord in our work. One cool experience from this week was with one of the jovenes who was going with us on visits. For some reason, all the citas would always fall when he left with us. This last week he left with us again and the cita fell through. However, we immediately turned to do milagritos (contacting the first people we see if a cita falls through). The joven told us after that he was feeling really down because the citas always fell through when he was with us. But as we did milagritos together, we found 3 new people and were able to do a bendición de hogar (house blessing--what we do everytime we enter a house). The joven really felt the spirit and he told us that it helped him have much more animo for missionary work.


Elder Taylor Thomas

P.S. - The picture are from a zone meal!!

Baptism!!

Editors Note!!!  We had a great time talking to Taylor yesterday and he shared many great stories and experiences from his mission.  He loves the area that he is in and loves his new companion.  He also said that the ward was amazing and the members are extremely supportive of missionary work.  He also wanted me to pass along thanks to everyone who has written him; he hasn't had time to respond to all of the letters but I know that they strengthen him and help him along the way.  Thanks for all that everyone does to help him.  As his parents, we appreciate it more than we could ever say.

Hey friends-

So this email will be short. My parents will probably share details about the call we had and I will share a few details in this email.

Baptism!

So, Gabriel got baptized yesterday! I have attached 3 fotos of before the baptism. The person baptizing is Angelo, who will be getting his mission call this week. He always goes out on visits with us and is really funny. Gabriel is the shorter one with dark skin and the other one is Joshua, the younger brother of Angelo. He is the one who did a lot of the work of getting Gabriel involved in the church. We did not have a font explosion this week and everything went well.

Run out of ideas

Well, I forgot to write down funny experiences and cool stories this week. However, there was one cool story. We found an older couple out in the more campo part of our sector. It turns out that the husband first had contact with missionaries in 1962 and had a really good experience with them. Now, almost 50 years later he still remembers the good experience he had and is really open to listen to us. Talk about how planting seeds helps. You never know how much further in the future they might get harvested.

I love you all and I hope everyone is well.

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

News from Chile!

Hey everybody-

So I don`t have too much time, but I have some good things to share.

Investigators

Brandon was confirmed this Sunday and will get the priesthood next week. He is doing well and will probably go to the temple to do baptisms with the ward towards the end of May. This also means that we will probably get to go with him and it will be the first time that I have gone inside of the temple here in Chile. The other good news is that Gabriel passed his baptismal interview and we should have his baptism this Sunday.

Contacts, contacts, contacts

I have learned the past 2 weeks that the number of people you contact is not at anyway related to how many new investigators you find. The Lord always puts people in the right place at the right time according to His schedule. We had a cool one the other day. We had contacted in one passageway and had found several people who had some grudge against the Church and many uninterested people. We went the next passageway over hoping for more success. We knocked the first house and a woman came out. She was leaving and demostrated no interest in us; however, her son (about 20 years old) came out during the conversation and said that he was interested. We ended up teaching about the Restoration and he committed to read the BOM. 

Changes

So, my new compation is Elder Adam Lewis from good old Orem, UT. Yep, he went to Mountain View and graduated the same year as me. He played basketball and is really tall. Needless to say, we attract even more attention now. I love working with him and it should be a great change.

Well, that is all for now. Write you all next week!

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

P.S. Fotos are of some of the sights of Chile while on the way to Changes in a street called Camino a Melipilla, my new comp, and a slightly funny picture of me.

Baptism and Another New Companion!

Hola todos-

Yay for news and events. Here`s what you`ll find in this issue: Cambios, Baptism!, Investigators, and much much more!

Baptism

Sorry for the punch drunk beginning. However, I have some really good news. We had the baptism of Brandon Perez yesterday! I have attached pictures. Sebastian Bascur, one of the Priests in the ward, baptized him. In the pictures, I am to the side of Sebastian, the other in white is obviously Brandon. It went really well and we had about half of the ward there. The funny story from this week comes from after the baptism. The stake leaders there were rushing everyone out of the church after the baptism. We had pressed the magic button that drains the font after the actual baptism because we couldn`t close the faucet (it was loose). I had the thought to go check the font (how Dr. Seuss I feel) and asked for the keys from the Stake leaders. Then, everyone left us botado (roughly translated: alone) in the church. When we went to check the font, the drain thingy wasn`t working and we couldn`t close the faucet. As we tried to close it, it broke and water started gushing everywhere. My companion and I were taking of our suit coats and other precious items, and my comp eventually took off his shoes and socks and went directly to battle to try and stop the flow. Meanwhile, I was running around the church, alone, trying to find the key to open the place where we could cut the water to the entire building. We finally got ahold of our Bishop (who was at his home sick) who got ahold of someone else in our ward who knows how to fix it. I could never find the keys and so the Hermano who came to help just hit it until it came off. After that, he had control of the situation and my comp was soaked from the knees down. Pretty much crazy. Now it is really funny to us.

Investigator Update

Liliana and Valentina are still progressing. The only problem that we have is that we need a car (or at least bikes) to get out to their house, which we don`t have. Plus they sometimes have a tight schedule. However, they are progressing well and we should have a baptismal date with them this week. Gabriel stopped smoking Saturday and is doing well. We are praying a lot for him so that he can make his goal of getting baptized on May 8.

Cambios

Well, I know you are all probably tired of hearing this but yet again I am going to have a new companion! Yep, that`s right. Elder Rios has changes and I will be going into my 7th change with my 7th companion. Basically by the time I complete a year in the mission, I am going to have almost the same amount of companions that people have in their entire mission. I think I am cursed...Well, actually I know it is the Lord`s will, perhaps to get me used to changing all of the time. I am excited still and wondering if I will have a Gringo (Gabacho for my Mexican missionary friends) or a Latino.

Well, that is all for now folks. I hope you enjoy your week!

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

Progress!!!!

 Hey friends-

So I am doing well here in Chile and have lots of good news.

Investigators!

So this week was good. In few words, Brandon passed his baptismal interview and his baptism will be this coming Sunday! One of the priests in our ward who is really cool (Sebastian) will be baptizing him and is going to be awesome. As for Gabriel, we had a really cool experience with him. He is 18 and doesn`t need his parents´ permission to get baptized but he still lives with them. So we asked him out of curiosity what his parents thought. He responded with a really cool testimony. He said that his parents were not too thrilled with it but that it didn´t matter to him. He said, "I am above age and if I feel that this the true church than I am going to join it." He said it with a lot of conviction and I realized how privilaged I am to be teaching him and the other investigators I am teaching as well. They are chosen sons and daughters of God with an eternal destiny. I am blessed to play a role in helping them choose the path that will allow them to complete that destiny. It really got me thinking about how tiny we are and how much we have to rely on God in all things.

Oops, short time

Well, I realized that I have another email to write and I need time to write it. So you all know, the pictures are of my birthday asado and cleaning day today (complete with pictures of the Elders in my pensiòn). Have a great week!

Love-
Elder Taylor Thomas

Letter from April 11th, 2011

Hey friends-

There isn´t much to report on funny stories and/or interesting events, but I will try.

Investigator report

Brandon continues progressing well. This week will involve a lot of preparation. The other person who I mentioned last week is Gabriel. He is a friend of one of the youth in the ward. Well, this week we set a baptismal date with him for the 24th of April as well! He has been making changes to his life and it has been cool to see. We will also have to do a lot of preparation and we might change the date to give him a bit more time.

New Missionary meeting

So this week I went to New Missionary meeting, which is all missionaries in their second change. The thing is that the group of Elder Rios is all hermanas, except for him. So the only men in the meeting were the APs, us, and President King. Pretty funny experience that rarely happens on the mission. I also talked with the Hermanas from Llo Lleo and found out that Isabel had not been baptized. However, they have reset the baptismal date for her and all looks well. I also heard that Carolina is doing really well and has a calling in the Young Women Presidency as the secretary.

Meat Anyone?

Last week we had an asado as a district. This week, for our Zone activity, we had yet another asado. Needless to say, my meat loving side is quite satisfied. I have attached pictures of today´s asado. I forgot to transfer the pictures of last week, but I should be able to send them next week.

Well, that is about all. I hope everyone is well and make sure to study the Conference Addresses that just came out!

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

Letter from April 4th, 2011

Hey friends

This will be short, but cool.

Conference Mania!

Yesterday concluded the thing that gives missionaries the closest sensation to a rock concert (a.k.a. General Conference. I am happy to report that we had 4 investigators in attendance, as well as several less-actives). As for talks I liked, I really liked Elder Oaks, both the talks from President Uchtdorf, President Monson`s Priesthood session talk (nice and direct), Elder Scott`s talk about how to respect spouses, Elder Bednar`s about revelation, and several others.

Investigators

Yay for progress! So this week we had some cool things. First off, we reset a baptismal date with Brandon (a 14 year old) who had stopped progressing but then had a complete change after completing his commitment to read the BOM. Once again, the BOM was the key to his change. His baptismal date will be the 24th of April. Also cool is we got a reference (supposedly from the U.S. of A.) of a lady who had lost a son 6 months ago. Her name is Liliana and she has a 14-year-old daughter named Valentina. They were living in the states and Valentina is basically Gringa. She speaks better English than spanish. Even better, they are from the Los Angeles, California area (if I remember correctly Lindora--but my memory of the LA area has faded while I have been in Chile). Anyway, they are really cool too. There is one more awesome thing that I will have to share next week due to time.

Random notes

There is a really cool completo place in our sector that has Jumbo completos that are a little over a foot long. Also, we found a random monkey zoo in the corner of our sector that will deserve further investigation. As for today, we will be having an asado with lots of meat and chorizo (a type of sausage) with bread. Yep, that is about all for today.

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas