July 25, 2011

Taylor has a big task ahead of him in his new area.  One of his priorities is to rally the ward members to help with the missionary efforts and another is to make new contacts.  Luckily, Taylor always likes a challenge.  Thanks for all of your prayers on his behalf.

Hey everybody-

Changes!

So, I am sure all of you people who actually still read and/or follow my letters are wondering where I am. I am in the city again in Zone San Miguel in barrio Departamental. This sector is directly north of my first sector, Lo Ovalle. Yep, my new sector borders my first one, and I can see down into it when we walk on the south side of our Sector. As for my companion, his name is Elder Barrett. I do not have pictures yet, but I am sure that we will have some next week. Elder Barrett is from Hyrum, Utah which is close to Brigham City. He is the same height as Elder Lewis at 6 feet, 5 inches. My second giant in a row! Here is a link in Google Maps for you curious people of the general area in which I work: http://maps.google.com/?ll=-33.507407,-70.650115&spn=0.020218,0.027595&z=15.  I also live with 2 other missionaries (the Zone Leaders to be exact) in our pension who´s names are Elder Call and Elder Tialavea (who played Nose Guard on the BYU football team before the mission).

So, that is all for today. I have attached pictures of my despedidos in Villa La Foresta. There are fotos of some of the jovenes, ward members, Carlos and Sussy, and the Bishop and his family.

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

                                                    Goodbye Penaflor!

                                              The bishop in Penaflor and his family

                                               Elder Lewis -- Taylor will miss him!

                                                                 Elder Sanchez

July 18, 2011

Queridos amigos-

So I only have 2 topics today....:( However, they are a change.

Changes!

Yep, some of you may have heard that I would probably have changes and that President King basically told me that I did. So I found out last night that I do have changes. I will be leaving Peñaflor to parts unknown that I will find out about tomorrow. Other than that, I don`t have many details. All I know is that from what President King told us in interviews this week is that the Lord wants me somewhere specific. Also of note is that Elder Sanchez is going home today. He completed his two years and is going back to Honduras. I have fotos, but the computer has problems so I hopefully will send them next week.

Investigators

Once again, the only thing of news is about Carlos and Sussy. Sussy is softening, bit by tiny little bit. We had a family home evening with the Relief Society President and her husband (who are good friends of the missionaries). It went really well and Sussy started thinking more. Anyway, that is about it. All of you will have to wait until next week to find out where I am.

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

July 11, 2011

Hey friends-

This week´s email should be fun, and I will address one of the commonly asked misionary questions.

Investigators

Yay for progress. So, the only big thing of note this week is with Carlos and Sussy. Sussy is really closed off and has all of the classic problems with the doctrine ("you can´t add to the bible", "we don´t need to go to church because we are temples", etc.). We have been trying really hard to help her, but she still isn´t opening up. However, her husband Carlos came to church for the 3rd time straight this week and has said that he has felt different as he has read the Book of Mormon and gone to church. We told him that he is already getting his response from the Lord. After that, the Spirit took over and he taught his wife for 40 minutes about how she needs to open up and let God help her. IT. WAS. COOL. Yay for the Spirit!

Pig heads, rabbits, oh frabjous day!

Points for who can name where the last line of my heading came from. I have chosen today to address a very common question asked to missionaries..........what is the weirdest/grossest thing you have eaten on your mission? I will now very happily answer this question. First off is something somewhat normal, that I had never tried before. Rabbit! Yep, I ate rabbit for the first time in the mission. Fresh out of the oven cooked with onions. I actually liked it, and (although it sounds cliché) it tasted kind of like chicken. Ok, now on to the gross section. The second grossest thing I have eaten is pig head sandwich. What happens here in Chile is that when people buy a whole pig, they then grind up all of the meat of the head (supposedly with eyeballs, ears, and everything) and make something called queso cabeza (head cheese--nothing to do with what it actually is). I ate this with bread and hot sauce....mmmmmmm, yummy. Now, to the grossest thing I have EVER eaten, which almost made me throw up, is Cow stomach. Gross, gross, gross, repulsive, devilish, (insert gross adjective here). It is like eating steak fat, but with less flavor, more chewy, and incredibly disgusting. Yep.

So that is all for today. Hope you are all doing great!

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

June 27, 2011

Hey friends-

So I have at least a little bit to share today.

An Address change

So, our mission address has changed. It is still one email address for all of us. Basically there is only one change:

Elder Taylor Thomas

Misión Chile Santiago Oeste (you can also put in English: Santiago West Mission)

Correos Casilla 149

Avenida Pajaritos 1229 (this is the change)

Maipú, Chile

Letters that you have already sent will still get to me, but from now on, this is the new address.

The Book of Mormon

As usual, every few weeks I always say something about the Book of Mormon. This week has been interesting because we have had two Book of Mormon "shootouts" (this is NOT Bible bashing, but rather people who just love the Bible too much and don`t want to accept another book of scripture). Needless to say, it has been interesting to see the prophecies that are in the BOM come to pass right before my eyes. We were teaching a new investigator and when we got to the BOM she had a problem with it. She then said almost EXACTLY (and I am not even kidding) what is found at the end of 2 Nephi 28 (verse 29 to be exact) and in 2 Nephi 29. We also had a lesson with Carlos and Sussy and we found out that both of them (but especially Sussy) have a problem with the Book of Mormon. We answered their questions with both the Bible and the BOM and they still had problems. So now it is up to them to ask God if it is true. But it was really interesting how they are able to take one verse of the Bible and hold to it so much to not accept more scripture--yet another thing that was prophecied by ancient prophets.

So, that is about all this week, sorry for the lack of funny stories.

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

P.S. The foto is of our Bishop and his 16 year old son. They showed up one night and said "We are here to do service and shine your shoes." It was really awesome and really funny too.

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