July 27, 2009

You said whew, I said eww... it rhymes and it fits my current position. We had our weekly Monday routine of getting up at 5:30 to catch a bus on time for Manzanillo, but we got here in Cihuatlán at 11 today! It´s a record!!!!!! We celebrated by buying a $12 pizza. I could only eat 3 pieces but it was quite delightful, and I had some Jamaica water that came in a cup.... basically a beerstein, a giant glass mug that was amazing, I have a picture but no camera cord still ... lol, oh well. NI MODO! This week was interesting, Elder Harding and I continue working, we´re having success and punching it out. We get along good too, I´m not going to say he´s not a total pain in the butt sometimes though. Most days are cool, the thing is we think about the same random stuff alot. There´s several examples of that, but I´m not going to get into it. I´m looking at the screen saver next to me. It´s that old fish tank screen saver that computers have, that really looks like real fish. It´s so beautiful, I can´t believe I took this thing for granted .... i just like staring at it. Coral ... three little fish just ... swimming around... Man it´s tough right now. This week I got to the point where I couldn't´t even pray. I did, but it felt just like I was talking to myself, I´m so grateful that God´s helping me out of that one right now. It´s hell, hell hell... I can´t express in any degree how awkward ad painful it is. I´m so insignificant, honestly. I´m not useless, but my abilities are so petite. The greatness of God is superb, but I feel so distanced from Him right now. I fasted, I pray, I try to follow the rules, but i feel so empty. I'm not going to say the Holy Ghost is´t with my right now, because I still feel it is watching over us, but in terms of guiding me, I feel stale and empty. Elder Harding's an absolute stud, he gets along with everybody, certain people. Lol. But he´s a good guy, he can teach good, he studies well...I know he has his trials, but he gets through them, he has faith and testimony. I don´t know what I did to mess up so bad, I don´t know. I don´t imagine what I´m going through is even bad, even hard, but for me it´s very challenging. It challenges everything. I don´t know more to say.I do have some questions and comments though to see if you can help me. I was wondering if you could send some pictures of the office like from outside and the courtyard, to show people (and bring back good memories = D ). Some of you guys too! I have plenty here for ya´ll I just need that cord and we´re set! Here´s an interesting question. We have an investigator who´s getting baptized on Friday, she was going to get baptized this last Saturday but was ... believe it or not... on her period, so we postponed it, now, we went up to visit her and her ex boyfriend came up to say hi, guy lived outside of LA for his whole life then got deported here so talks to us in English, but said that she´s pregnant with his kid. Now I don´t know ´Female Anatomy like I do a missionary discussion, but is that possible period and pregnant? Just curious, cause I think this guys out of his mind... well he is, but about that point too. Next off, i have something you might want to try out... I´m assuming that I¨m going to be here for awhile...so, if you´d like here´s our address Sixto Ruelas #192Cihuatlán 48970Cihuatlán, Jalisco C.R. 48971MexicoI´m not sure what everything there means and what´s not necessary, we just got a letter by mistake but that was our address on there, just a different name. A few interesting things that happened this week, a crazy Catholic guy driving an 18 wheeler beer truck gave us a ride, we were hitchhiking, we hitchhike everywhere. Buses are so expensive for us. This is proving quit effective! That and we were knocking and found a guy from St. George Utah, Mexican, only speaks Spanish, but he´s from St. George and knows the Mormons, he doesn´t seem to interested tough, loves the church ... just ... not interested. He did however give us coconuts, walked over to his tree with a giant stick and a claw on top, took´em down and chopped´em open with a machete and we had coconuts. All good. Super cool guy.We´re working with the branch here, it´s interesting. It´s getting better and better all the time, I know they´ll have a chapel here soon also. I love the house of prayer here now too. It´s great, lol. Just a few families, but we´re going to get that up. Reactivation is a toughy here, everybody says yes, yeah I´ll be there, yeah´ll I´ll be there. Oh next week, yeah next week. Oh yeah something came up but I´m there this Sunday, oh yeah this Sunday for sure. They never show. Lol. We had 9 people that said they´d try and go this last Sunday, all investigators, and no new people showed. Our investigators with Baptismal dates did, that´s good! 3 1/2 people. (One´s 8 yrs. old) Well that´s the jist of it, give a shout out to all the guys, I don´t know if you´ve seen´em lately. David´s written me a few times, I love David, he´s such a good guy! Ben too i think once. Anyway, give´em a call or something! Catch ya´ later!-E. Jake D. Taylor

July 20, 2009

Yeah, I don´t know how well that 30 minutes is going to go, I´m at 25 1/2 right now! I don't even know what to write. Last Monday was running and running and running my brain so when we got back to our area at 5 o'clock and then started working I had no break. We've been overly blessed with success and personal development in this last week, and I do have one cool story that happened last Sunday through yesterday. It has to do with listening to the Spirit. I didn´t sleep last Sunday night and then Monday didn´t sleep well, woke up Wednesday morning with a strange emergency fire siren case of diarrhea that´s lasted until the standing day. The positive side... well... it´s positive with a few effects. Remember those Vans shorts we bought in Oregon at Ross? They completely do not fit me. Not even in the slightest! So I´ve lost weight, to the extent that I don´t have fitting clothes anymore. I´m sitting here now in my Mario Team shirt you got me and those shorts. Elder Harding's in missionary clothes though, which makes me feel like a bum, we shouldn't´t dress down, but every Monday our district leader dresses down and I got out of the groove. But what´s right is right. I somehow managed to get sunburned or something on my shoulders, cause they were peeling, even though I haven´t got with out a shirt except in the shower... so i´m a little confused on that one. I didn´t sleep very well in this week until last night, which was exceptionally well received. We picked our mattresses up and threw em outside, we sleep outside now and then we have extension cords for the fans, every day the clouds go away, and it´s 35 degrees (celcius, not sure what that is in Farenheit) and humid all day, and then right at 10 between nine and ten the clouds come rolling in, it doesn´t rain, oh no, it just holds all the heat in, then at X o´clock in the morning they go. It´s so weird too cause we both wake up in the morning and I´m not hot...I´m really not, but if... IF.... I put on a blanket, I feel exactly the same.. with the exception that I can now sleep. Weird. Anyway, it´s story time children, sit down. Remember last week when i told you that we had to drop an investigator? We left and I saw this guy sitting there, jut looking at us like he had a longing face to know our message...or something? I was so grieved by that moment, it was such a direct ´talk to that guy´ feeling, and i didn´t. Later that night we were walking to the bus station, days over already, but i saw this family of four... all four of´em sitting on their door step, and a few 15 paces off, i felt again, that´s somebody I need to talk too, that´s somebody I need to talk too. So i went and contacted them. Hi we´re missionaries we share a message about Christ. What day would you like us to come by? Set up a cita (appointment) for Tuesday night and left. We went Tuesday night and for the first time forever they were promptly there. The full family came over and listened to us. We taught lesson 1, The Restoration, and then afterwards, Elder Harding asked ¨If you come to know that this message is true, will you be baptized in the church...?¨They said, Jorge first ´I will´ then his wife Maricsa ´Me, yes´We visited them again on Thursday and taught the Book of Mormon, and read 3rd Nefi 11 with them right there. Then invited them to read and pray. One of our appointments on Sat. night fell through and we had two places we could have potentially gone, them and another call named Noeli. I wanted to do both, Elder Harding wanted the other. We had an hour. Why not both? I convinced him about both and we went with Jorge and Maricsa and just invited them to church and they both promptly said yes. Then we went with the other. Noeli´s friend has just died the day before and we´re going there tonight to talk about the Plan of Salvation. We invited her to pray and read, we´ll see if she did it. Well, at 8:20 we headed over to Jorge and Maricsa´s house get there at 8:30 make sure they´re ready and then head to church by 9. We got one block from the house and their there were... walking around looking for us. They had somehow found themselves one block from our house without any feasible clue of where we lived... incredible. We went and they enjoyed it. We went again in the evening just to kind of visit them and they had read 3rd Nefi. He read it I don´t know how many, maybe one, not sure. But she read it 3 or 4 times just to get in her head. He got home from work one day and walked up to her and asked ¨would you get baptized?¨ She thought about it for a second and then replied ¨Yeah I would¨ Then he responded ¨Yeah I would too¨. This story just makes me reflect on how it all came down. Well that´s my story I should go, but I really love you.This is bad, but I just read my comps screen and he wrote to his parents ¨my comp and I really work well together¨ which makes me feel a lot better. Anyway. Thank you for your everything. I´m really looking forward to helping out dad on all... ALL of his little projects and especially the business. Elder Harding works for his dad in a restoration company up in Utah. Swan´s restoration. Reminds me of a few o the moments I had with Dad before the mission, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Especially in that Awatukee school that flooded when the giant ac unit smashed through the roof. Good stuff. I love the picture that Josh gave me, of him and I before I left again. Tell him I genuinely love him and hope he´s willing to hang out with me when I get back! T-shirt company! A few bits of business. If you put Zippy in the pond, I´ll give him 2 days before he´s gone. His one purpose in this life is to escape.The cords, I haven´t the foggiest. We´ll find out if it´s either. I think it´s black though. I do have the money, but speaking of the matter. I have 20 to last me on food and transportation til the first of August so I think I´m going to pull out a little stock hold today, sorry = ( ...And ... where are my pictures?? You said you were going to send me pictures???Lastly...dad... here´s a gentle friendly reminder to get your toosh into gear on that armored car and call trick my truck. get some good pictures, take out the insides and show em what they get to work with! Anyway. That´s it.If anything new or cool happens be sure to tell me!-Elder Jake Taylor-----Original Message-----

July 13, 2009

Well hey! Sounds like everythings going good over there right now! I´m so excited to see that pool, man I can´t wait to get in it! Lol. I printed off the letters everyone sent me a couple hours ago and here I am to reply. Jeff´s getting married eh...that´s good, he´s always been a good guy. Yeah send me pictures of the pool when you can! Speaking of pictures, I got the packages, but my camera cords weren´t in there. So I still have no way of uploading photos for you overthere! I have a decent chunk, but.... ni modo. ´,= /Joel´s a goofy goober as the Spongebob Squarepants movie goes. Lol, but i like him like that. Yeah, he told me about that apartment, but he didn´t know about the aquatic pets rule apparently. Bummer, but that´s all good, now YOU get to clean the tank! WOO HOO!! Or you can have dad build an awesome fountain out by the pool, fresh water, and stick the turtle in that, and it could lead out into the pool or something. How´s that sound? Lol I am exhausted right now. We were called yesterday around 4 right in the middle of a lesson and when I called them back at 5 our district leader, former assistant elder Pierce, informed us we had a surprise zone conference in Manzanillo at 8 am. So, we hopped up went and visited two people really quick, which was a bitter sweet pair of visits. The first is a recent convert who hasn´t accepted new elders yet, but yesterday we gained a little ground. The other was an investigator who we had taught a really good lesson 1 to and then 3 times in a row it was ´Oh I´m busy, oh I´m sick, oh she just left, and can´t come to the door for 15 seconds to say she´s busy so she sends her 5 year old daughter to lie for her´ so we dropped her. It sucks. It was bad too, on the way out, she lives in a little apartment complex (emphasis on little) and one of her neighbors was sitting on a plastic chair on the sand right int he middle of the overhand of this complex, he just watched us with interest and questions as we left and I felt absurdly prompted to talk with him, and yet I didn´t do it. I remorsed over that the remainder of the trip back, we hitchhiked and got two cool Mexicans who lived in the states for a while. Well one 17 years and came back to say hi to his mom, and the other was just vacationing, heads back o the states in a few weeks here. Gave us a ride from Melaque to Cihuatlan which saved us 30 minutes and 10 pesos. Got to Cihuatlan (where we live) and headed up to get ready, I said a prayer and showered, packed the books for the next day and we left to hop a charter bus to Manzanillo. got there at 8:30 and took the wrong bus, 9:00, got on another bus...another wrong bus 9:40. Took a 55 peso cab ride to the house and arrived at 10 something. Lied down at 11:30 and laid on a foam sheet on the tile floor using my backpack, shirt and pants as a pillow. Not complaining, just establishing the explanation for the following statement. I´m really tired today. Got up at 6 and got ready, headed for the zone conference. This conference was from 7:30, when we got there, til 1:30 when we left. That´s 6 hours. 1:30, got to Dairy Queen (Yes I said Dairy Queen) (again) almost 2 or already 2. Went on a fantastic 30 minute journey looking for a bank and got back. Ate ate KFC went to a ciber 3 something. And then to the bus station. 4:15. Arrived Cihuatlan 5:30. Here I am 6. I´m exhausted. We have an appointment, a lazy appointment, but an appointment nonetheless at 6 but we´ll go soon, an then at 7 the Monroy clan. A family whose niece is here on visit, and is interested in the gospel. I want to baptize her, but even if we got her interested in that I don´t know if she could, but it´s definitely worth the try. She´s actually from Oregon, over on the East side, I didn´t recognize the town, and is down here til the end of July, 15 and speaks English. Names Noeli. Like, Noel... with an i at the end. I haven´t told you about alot of things that have happened here, not even in the last few weeks but period, like getting hit by hard stale pizza in the groin. This Sunday a 3 year conked my right nut, no conk like in an accident, I was talking with someone and he just walks up and punches me in the ballsack. I almost stepped on him. I got stung by a bee last Monday morning. Received 1300 pesos on the 1st of the month and now I have 50. The Mario and Luigi shirts were amazing. The letters, well emails, i´ve gotten from the guys and you and Dad´s cards are really relieving and enjoyable, thank you so much! Thanks to Rena also, for the Tuxedo shirt, I´m, not going to lie, it´s really weird. But the brand of shirt, Island Bay is who makes it, is REALLY comfortable so I wear which will be here regularly. I only have 5 more minutes to be on here, the new rule is actually 30 and that´s it. So, I´m going to wrap it up! We´re teaching all new people right now. A few people, and kids the other elders left us but they all have problems we have to work out. We´re focusing on finding new people. That and reactivation. Dad, never give up on reactivating, never put it lower on the priority list, or brush it off. It is one of the most important responsibilities we have. Who's saved? Someone who is baptized or someone who is reactivated? Both. I love you dad, your example is impeccable and work profound. Your faith and devotion are inspiring and even though you´re a goofy goober to.... to the 10 power, we all love and thank you! Including me. Just buy me ice cream when i get home and I´ll love you even more. Lol, just a joke. Mom I love you too, keep up the emails and keep me informed, I need to get my mind off things when I read these letters. Elder Harding and I are doing good. We´re working as a team on almost everything, I´m just trying to keep it that way. Anyway. Thanks for the fruit of ... is ... thing I liked that alot! Well, cuidense, and I ´ll catch you later!Love,Jake