Letter from November 28th, 2011

Hey Everybody-

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. It doesn`t exist here in Chile and I almost forgot about it when we got to the day. Oh well.

Why the Lord works in councils

So, we had an awesome experience in Zone Leader Council this last week. We all were counciling (key word) with President King about how we feel that the mission in general is only getting mediocre results and we are not reaching our full potencial. As we talked we really felt that we could overcome the limit we have placed on ourselves of baptisms. We kept talking and decided that we were going to fast as a mission this Thursday to Friday, culminating in a Zone Council in every zone in the mission to decide how many baptisms we really can get. The Spirit was really strong and we all felt it confirmed to us that this is the course we should take. It was a big testimony for me of why the Lord has us work in councils.

Changes :)

So, my new companion is Elder Shaum from Rexburg, Idaho. He has about 8 months in the mission and is sooooo cool. He is a really hard working Elder and is really smart. Should be a fun change :) I am still living with Elder Barrett and Elder Tialavea. The picture attached is of all 4 of us in our Lavalavas (from Elder Tialavea`s family).

Investigators

We are having problems finding our investigators in their houses, so nothing happened with them this week. We have found some good people to teach, but we will find out how that goes.

Well, that is about it. Sorry for the slow news week. Hopefully there will be more to report next week.

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

Letter from November 14th, 2011

Dear friendly email/blog/other media or writing format follower-

This email should be pretty good...maybe....we´ll see.

Contacting miracle

We had cool contacting miracles this week. Our favorite was from yesterday when a cita fell through at an apartment building. For some reason we decided to wait to see if the hermano would show up. As we were waiting, my companion starting talking to a young couple sitting next to us. It turned out that it was a reference that a member had given us that we never had been able to find. The husband is a member and his wife is not. It was really interesting to see how the spirit guided us to them.

Investigators

Patricio couldn´t come to church because he was sick, but when we stopped by to see him, we met the family he lives with. They were really receptive as well. As for Patricio, we will be trying to help him get a testimony of the Book of Mormon in the next couple of weeks. As for Felix, we haven´t been able to teach him for about 2 weeks and he hasn´t been able to come to church. Luckily, the ward is really concerned about him as well and is helping us out. Hopefully we will get in this week. We have several other complete families we are teaching (which is a miracle in and of itself) but they haven´t started progressing yet. One is a family who we are also helping with English. They have a 12 year old who is really tall and looks like he is almost 16 and a 9 (I think) year old daughter. I am hoping to have good news next week about them

The smell of change is in the air

It is highly probable that either me or my companion has changes. We will find out on Saturday night, but we have been together for 3 months. The big question is who....The bishop here in the ward thinks it is me. I guess you will all know by next week.

Well, that is all for now. I hope everyone is doing well back home!

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

Letter from November 7, 2011

Hey everybody-

This week has been a long one, this could up being a long email, or it could be normal. Guess we will find out.

Investigators

So, to tell the truth, I don´t know what happened with Felix. We called him 30 minutes before church to confirm and then he didn´t show up. The other baptismal date we set with Patricio (the 60 year old who looks really young) fell through because he left on vacation and didn´t come back until Sunday. However, he still looks like he will get baptized, we will just have to change his date.

Meetings, meetings, and just in case, a few more meetings

So, I had a lot of meetings this week. I was sooooooo tired. Thursday we had to go to the center of Santiago, Friday I had to go to the Northeast side of Santiago, and Saturday we had to go to the West-Center side of Santiago. Really busy. On Saturday we had Elder Snow of the Presidency of the 70 come and speak to our mission. We also found out that Elder Cook and also Bishop McMullin are also here in Chile. Elder Snow talked about the Holy Ghost and how we feel it. He also talked about the role it has in conversion.

Well, I ran out of good ideas. Guess I´ll see if I have more funny stories next week.

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

Letter from October 31st, 2011

Dear amigos-

Yay for news from Chile

General Authorities with a little bit of General Authorities on top

So this week we had a conference with a member of the Area Presidency--Elder Zeballos of the 70. He was soooooooo cool. He talked to us about diligence and what it really means and it helped a lot to change my perspective on things. I really liked his talk because he was a mission president not to long ago and he really related to us as missionaries. The examples he gave were perfect. We also found out that we are having another General Authority come from Salt Lake this Saturday to have a devotional with us. We don´t know who it is, but President King made it sound like more than 1 was coming. I guess we´ll see. That also makes this week to be a busy week. Starting on Wednesday, I have 4 straight meetings or, in other words, 1 a day.

A baptism?

Felix is still progressing, but we have not put a new fecha yet. However, we did find a cool little miracle. We found a man named Patricio who has been investigating the church for years. He recently moved and we found him knocking doors--talk about the Lord guiding us without knowing. He was the only person in the passageway who was there or opened up. He now has a baptismal date for the 26th of November and it should go well.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great week and I will tell you who visited us next week.

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

Letter from October 24th, 2011

UPS AND DOWNS

Hey everybody-

So, the missionary life can easily be compared to a roller coaster, our days have so many good and bad things that can happen on any given day. With that cryptic statement, I begin this email.

Investigators

So this week is what made me think about the whole roller coaster thing. We taught Félix on Friday night and re-set his baptismal date for the 12 of November. This is 3 weeks more, which is definately a lot of time for someone who has now been to church almost for a month straight and is reading the Book of Mormon and praying. It was a really spiritual lesson and we felt good about it. We ran into Félix the next night and he said that his mom wanted to talk to us. It turned out that (in my opinion) had convinced him that he was not 100% sure or ready for baptism and that she did not want him to get baptized on that date. Luckily, it could be for our good because we basically told her (don´t worry, being guided by the spirit) that she can`t really say much because she still hasn`t even tried the Book of Mormon for herself (I know that sounds really harsh but it wasn´t in the way we said it). Also, Félix still came to church the next day and is enjoying it. So hopefully we can see some progress.

Miracles!

So, I only have time to share one for today. Yesterday, we were knocking doors trying to find a few more new investigators. We saw an open door and started talking to some jovenes. Their dad came home (which is always a tense moment as a missionary, because you never know what they are going to say) and said, "Keep on talking!" He came back about 3 minutes later as we were still talking and said to the kids, "Why haven´t you invited them in yet?" So we got in and as we talked we learned that this dad`s brother had died 3 months ago and that 2 of the kids were his nephew and niece (the children of the brother who had died). We were able to do a prayer with them and they really did feel the spirit. We testified that we have the ability to know where those who have passed on are at. It was a very cool experience to give us animo for the day.

Well, I hope everyone is well this week. Have a great day!

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

50 Years of Missionary Work in Chile

Taylor did not write much for this week but the missionaries were able to participate in a cultural celebration at a local stadium.  Missionaries from five missions sang "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go" and since they were sending a live webstream, we were able to see Taylor twice as they sang.  It was a great experience.  He did send some photos which I have included below.  In the first picture Taylor is between the heads of the missionaries that are standing up in the middle of the picture.

                         Taylor and Elder Mace, a friend from high school and BYU

            Taylor and Elder Hudkins with some people from his previous areas

Letter from October 10th, 2011

Dear Friends-

There isn´t much to report this week, but here I go anyway.

Changes

So, changes came and nothing happened to me or to my comp. We are staying put. So are the other Elders who live with us. Among which is Elder Barrett.

Progression

For the first time in this sector, we had investigators at church! This miracle is a miracle in its entirety. We had Felix and Carla (a brother and sister), the people we have a baptismal date with, come to church. They came themselves. We showed up one day at their house to see how they were doing and Felix just said, "My sister and I will be going to church this Sunday." I am so glad we have the Spirit to help us.

Little Miracles

Yesterday we saw how the Lord put in our path tons of people who we needed to talk to. We just seemed to be in the right place at every time. Now, I won´t say that it happens often, but it does happen. It is a testimony that the Lord is guiding us always.

Well, that is all for now folks, see you next week.

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas