June 20, 2011

Taylor's post is especially short this week since he was working on something else for Mom!!!  Sorry.

Hey everybody-

I have very short time this week but here it goes.

Investigators

Very quickly is about Carlos and Sussy. They are still progressing, but want to read the whole BOM before asking if it is true. We are trying to help them understand that this is not the case and that they just need to ask with a sincere heart.

Rain, rain, come again

So we have had a shortage of rain here in Chile that finally ended this weekend with a lot of rain. Funny story is that we were out in the hardest part of it contacting as a Zone. Pretty crazy, and we got soaked. Hopefully it will go on, because rain is cooler here in Chile than in Utah.

Well that is it for now. Sorry for the shortness thereof, but I have something else really important to write.

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

June 13, 2011

Yay for news from Chile!

Investigators

So we are teaching a complete family who had investigated the church before, but went cold and got scared when the other missionaries asked them to get baptized. We found them again and they are doing really well. They have interest in the church and are reading the Book of Mormon. Hopefully they will get a response soon.

Satan and his false doctrine

One of my friends (Elder Tyler Christensen to be exact) wrote several weeks back about a popular false doctrine that he runs into--moral relativism. Well, here in Chile that isn´t so popular yet; however, there is something else that we deal with a lot as missionaries. This is something I am sharing because it has helped me to realize how important the gospel is. The thing here in Chile is what I call the "All paths lead to God" idea. This is something really big in Chile. As we talk to and teach people, this comes up a lot. For some reason, this very unlogical idea that "as long as you have a church, you will be fine" has a lot of hold here. The thing is that it is talked about in the scriptures (basically all of 2 Nephi 28, especially verses 7-9). This is the truth and the beauty of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is only one way to get to God and it is only found is HIS true church. Sometimes we have fear of saying this, but it is truth. Always remember that this is why we need a testimony of the Restoration that we strengthen each day by reading the Book of Mormon.

Well, that is about all for this week. I don´t have any new pictures. I hope everyone is doing really well.

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

June 6, 2011

Hey everybody-

This email should be at least somewhat interesting.

Changes, changes, we already have a change and we need no more changes!

Maybe some of you caught what scripture I twisted in the section heading, but even if you didn´t, I have good news. For the first time my entire mission, including the MTC, I DO NOT have changes. Elder Lewis and I are staying together for at least 1 more change! Before this change, the longest time I ever had a comp was 8 weeks (in the MTC), but even in that time we we put together in a trio. So that is my happy news for today.

Investigators

I just want to mention 2 investigators. Their names are Carlos and Sussy. They are a couple that we found after one of our citas fell through. They are really awesome and completely understand that the most important thing they can get in this life is the gift of the Holy Ghost. We are working with them a lot and we might be able to set a baptismal date with them.

Death by meat

Dear follower of my letters home (as few as they may be)- If you haven´t been able to tell, I like meat and grilling. Problem is that Chilean meat cooking is (generally speaking) not that good. So I obviously jump at the opportunity to grill. One of those opportunities was today. We had a HUGE asado with some ward members and it was awesome. Elder Lewis also had Montreal Steak Seasoning from the states, which was literally too good for our bland Chilean meat fans to handle. I also made my own invention of a dry rub, which didn´t turn out too bad. I have attached pictures of the event as well as the aftermath (everyone lying down on the floor).

Random interjection

So all of my missionary friends from whom I receive letters or copies of letters all are serving in the northern hemisphere. I keep seeing letters about how hot it is, and I think about how it is getting cold. I also realized that I am quite alone down here in the Southern hemisphere.

Interesting foto experience

This week I have attached (and if I have time I will send more) rare pictures of a district meeting in action. We decided with the hermanas in our district that we were going to have a mate party during the meeting (see attached foto). Also, our district leader made brownies and the hermanas brought cookies. It was awesome! There are also fotos of Elder Lewis and I talking about our sector and Elder Sanchez (our district leader) giving a class. There is also a foto of our entire Zone.

Yep, that is about all I have. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Love-

Elder Thomas

May 30, 2011

It has been a hard week for the missionaries in Taylor's zone with the passing of Elder Jennings and then a young man in a neighboring ward was killed in a car accident.  He wanted to thank everyone for their prayers.  It has certainly been a week that has been focused on the plan of salvation.  He loved the opportunity to go inside the temple this week.

Elder Thomas and Elder Lewis 

District Activity 

The Santiago Temple

Hey everyone-

This is going to be short because I have very little time.

Temple Trip

I finally went inside the Temple here in Chile on Saturday. Gabriel went to do baptisms for the dead and we got to go along with him. It was awesome and I have attached pictures as proof. Elder Lewis and I went to Pizza Hut (the best pizza available in Chile) afterwards and ordered a medium pizza a piece.

Other news

We have a few more progressing investigators this week and we also had a really cool returned missionary activity yesterday where President King came to give a fireside. Anyway, I have got to finish things up.

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

P.S. Other fotos this week are of our trip up a hill close to us. I have a picture of my district and other things.

May 23, 2011

Hey everybody-

So I find myself with little time to write again. However, I will try to update you on some of the investigators and tell one funny story.

Investigator roulette

So, because of the fact that we are doing lots and lots of contacting, we find and drop lots of people fast now. Thus, it is hard to keep track of them all. Sad story from this week is that basically because of laziness, we are going to have to drop the older couple we were teaching. The husband just basically doesn´t want to do anything or commit and so the wife wants to respect her husband. Luckily, we had the Bishop with us when they told us this and so he offered service from the ward, which they accepted and we are helping to organize. The good story is Reinaldo and Marisel. They are Evangelico. He is a bit more hard, but Marisel loved the story of the Restoration of the Gospel and really wants to believe it. We have a cita with them today and we will see what happens.

Gnomes and a funeral

So, Elder Lewis and I were in the chapel on Saturday doing our English class. Afterwards, as we were leaving, we found 3 small plastic gnomes. Elder Lewis, being tall, decided that he would put them up on top of the fans in the cultural hall as a funny Sunday joke. Little did we know that the cultural hall would be used for a viewing for an old person who had died the next day. When we went to give our respects to the family, we saw the Gnomes still on top of the fans and nobody had noticed them. We quickly left the room so we would not burst out laughing. I know, it sounds terrible, but it was actually quite funny (it was even funnier when our Bishop saw them).

Anyway, that is all!

Love-
Elder Taylor Thomas
P.S. The attached fotos are of the mall trip. I will be sending another email with the fotos from our trip as a Zone today to a small pottery town called Pomaire. 

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