Mission Miracles

Bom dia!                       September 16, 2013

What a crazy week! I can’t believe that Scott is now in the MTC. He's going to love it. I never went to the Provo MTC but I hear that its great and really spiritual. If you can forward me Scott's emails that would be great. I don’t know what day he has p-day but I would love to see how he's doing. Oh and tell Annie that I love her and that she's still my best friend. I love you Annie!

This week was crazy. First, the missionary work is going really well. We had 30 baptisms in the mission just this week. It was the best week that we have had since President Monteiro got here. We did exchanges with 3 different areas this week to help them with their investigators. I love being an assistant. I get to go all over the mission and help everyone baptize. It’s the best. But the craziest day of the week was Saturday. We woke up really early and went to Ponta Grossa with President and his family. We got there and gave a really good training. The missionaries left and we went with President and his wife to eat lunch. While we were eating lunch we got a call from one of the sisters. She was crying and just pleading for us to come and help her. Her companion had passed out in the bus station and wasn’t breathing. So we got in the car and drove there as fast as we could. When we got there, the sister was sitting on the ground crying and having a really hard time breathing. Sister Monteiro almost went into shock and started yelling for help. That’s when I had a really strong feeling to give the sister a blessing. My companion was on the phone with the mission doctor and President was still in the car so I just knelt down alone and gave her a blessing. I started in portuguese but I had the strongest feeling to just do it in english. So I did and the words just flowed out of my mouth. The minute that I finished the blessing, Sister Monteiro got really calm and remembered that she had some medicine in her purse. She grabbed it and gave it to the sister and it saved her life. We picked her up and ran her to the car and flew to the hospital. By the time we got to the hospital, she was breathing and talking again. We took her in to the room and the doctor talked to her for a while. She is an american and hasn’t been on the mission for very long so I had to go in with them to translate. The doctor gave her an IV and then some other shots. But she got a lot better and she is with Sister Monteiro now. They said that she had a food allergy but they will do some tests this week to make sure that everything is ok.

It was a crazy day and we didn’t get home till really late. But one thing the really hit me was after all of this had happened. When we were driving home, I was sitting next to the sister and Sister Monteiro asked why I gave the blessing in english in the bus station. I said that I didn’t know and then the sister said this, "I know why he said it in english. I was praying that someone would say something to calm me down so that I would be able to breathe. If he would have said it in Portuguese I wouldn’t have understood anything and I would have gotten even more nervous. The Lord inspired him to say it in english." I hadn’t thought much about that until that moment. But it really was a miracle. I havent given a blessing in english since the MTC. But the words just came out of my mouth like normal. I know that the Lord helped me to do that. My testimony of the Priesthood has grown so much this week.

So, that was the miracle that I saw this week. I know that this work is a work of miracles and that there are miracles all around us. I know that I am here for a reason and that this is the work of the Lord. 

About my hip, I was going to do an exam this week but it didn’t work out. Twice. Both times we got there and they would accept my health card. I don’t know why this isn’t working out but i will go back tomorrow morning to do the exam and tomorrow afternoon I will go back to the hospital to find out what is wrong. Please keep me in your prayers so that this can all work out and I can get this out of my head.

I love you all and I am so grateful for your support and love. Tell Scotty that I love him and that he is going to be one heck of a missionary. I love you!

Good luck to Scott

Bom dia!      Sept. 9, 2013

Scotts gonna join me in the army!!!! I cant believe that this day has already come. It goes by way too fast. Scott, youre going to be an amazing missionary. You have been well prepared and I know that there are people here waiting for you. I know that you think that something went wrong with your visa but this is all part of the Lords plan. Maybe he has people waiting for you in 2 different countries. Just go out and work your hardest. This last week I gave a training to the whole mission about studying in the morning. Scott, study like youve never studied before. Get to know and love the scriptures. The word of God is more powerful than the sword and there are people that need to hear this word. I know you are going to be awesome and i cant wait to hear about your experiences. I love you Scotty. Be the missionary that everyone thinks you will be and you will have a lot of success. I love you.

These last two weeks were crazy! We had transfers and Elder Schmidt went home. My new companion is Elder Azevedo. He is from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. He has never even been a zone leader yet on the mission so I really am training him on a lot of things but he is really good and we are going to have a lot of success together. I got to do my favorite thing again this last week and that is to get the noobies at the airport. Its so fun to see their eyes get huge and they are all so nervous. Scotts going to feel the same way but then it will pass. We have some really good missionaries that just got here and the mission is doing really well.

Mom, I talked to Sister Monteiro about my hip and I went to the hospital last week. They did x-rays and they told me that I have to do another exam today. They think that my femer is out of place and I still dont know what I have to do. My whole right leg hurts and the right side of my back. I cant sit or lay down or walk or do anything without it hurting. So I will do this exam either today or tomorrow and then I will go back to the hospital on Wednesday or Thursday. I am still really nervous about all of this so please remember me in your prayers.

I just want you all to know that I love this work. Scott is going to love it too. There is nothing better than seeing people change through the gospel. Scott, youre the man. I love you so much. Go out there and do your best. You have 2 years to do this. I wish I still had 2 years left. But now its your turn. The Lord is counting on you. He has prepared His children to hear the gospel through you. Remember that at every moment there is someone in the world praying for the missionaries. I love you man.

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Back to Boa Vista!

Bom dia!                                   August 26, 2013

Wow. This last week was incredible. I really love Boa Vista. It was just a week of miracles. I was able to work the whole week with Elder Ladereche  again and that was awesome. We worked so hard and had a really good baptism last night. When I was in Boa Vista, we got a referal from the temple of a family that was really interested. We tried so many times to contact them but it never worked out. Well, my very last day there, we called the family again and I was able to talk to the mom. We marked a day to go there and then I was transferred. Well, the other missionaries worked a lot with this family they are really progressing. I was able to visit them and teach them this week. The mom and the dad need to stop smoking and they have a 15 year old son. We were teaching them about baptism this week and I just got the strongest feeling that I needed to invite (Renan)  the 15 year old to be baptized that Sunday. So i did and he said, "I was thinking about that this week and I was praying to have to courage to talk to you guys about it. I really want to be baptized on Sunday." It was one of the best lessons of my mission so far. So I interviewed him and he passed. His baptism was one of the best baptisms that I have ever seen. There were so many members and everyone cried. After he was baptized and changed clothes, he asked to bear his testimony. This kid will be an amazing missionary.

The members in Boa Vista are really excited to meet mom and dad. They keep asking about you guys and they cant wait to give you huge hugs. I had three families tell me that we have to eat lunch with them the Sunday that you guys are here so we are going to have to do some choosing haha. I made a lot of good friends in Boa Vista and they are people that I really want all of you to meet. Tadeu is the ward mission leader in Boa Vista and he is one of the best men that I know. He kept telling me that he cant wait to give "Daddy Taylor" a huge hug haha. They love you all without even knowing you!

So.....I decided that I am going to talk to Sister Monteiro about my leg. I have been really nervous about this for a long time but it has been hurting a lot and when I decided to talk to her I got a really calm feeling. So i think everything will be ok. I will probably talk to her about it next week because this week is going to be crazy. Its the last week of the transfer and my companion is going home so I need to get everything perfect so that this mission can still run smoothly haha. I will be the only one on the mission with experience as an assistant so I am a little nervous but its going to be great. I probably wont be able to send email to you next week because we will be taking the missionaries to the airport. But maybe there will be a little time. We'll see.

I am really excited for you to come down here to get me but we need to get this thing planned. I really want to go to Iguaçu Falls with you but I dont know what you are all planning and how much time you are thinking about staying down here. It will be Thanksgiving week so dad wont have to work so we will be able to stay for a long time right? ;) Dont worry. Im not trunky. I just really need to plan this with you. 

I want you all to know that I love being a missionary. Its hard and things dont ever go the way you want or plan. But they always work out if you work your hardest and trust in the Lord. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. He loves each one of us so much. I am so grateful for the family that I have. A lady in Boa Vista spoke about Family Home Evening and all of the great times that she had. I thought about all of the great times that we had in Family Home Evening. Most of the best memories that I have werent expensive or big things. I remember playing hide and seek and duck duck goose. I love those things. Mom and Dad, thank you so much for teaching us that Family Home Evening is important and that we need to do it every week. That is something that I will never forget. I love you all so much and I know that we are blessed for being obedient.

Mission address:

Av. Iguaçu 1460

Agua Verde 80250-190

Curitiba, PR

Brasil

I love you!

Craziest week of my mission!

Bom dia!                                               August 19, 2013

This was probably the crasiest week of my mission. I was able to go to Ponta Grossa and stay with the zone leaders there for the whole week. Ponta Grossa is a city at the very end of our mission and everyone wants to serve there because they always baptize. Well, the last few months they havent been baptizing so me and Elder Schmidt went there for a week and left with 18 baptisms on Sunday! It was so good and there were so many miracles. They didnt have very many people ready to be baptized but we got there and worked a lot with them and they ended up having a lot of baptisms that they werent expecting. It was really good and I learned a lot about miracles and fasting. It was good to be a zone leader again and I had a lot of fun. Tonight I will be going back to......Boa Vista!! I will go there and spend a week with the zone leaders there to help them have the same success as Ponta Grossa. 

When I got to Ponta Grossa i went straight to their area book and saw that they didnt have any investigators. So I told them that the whole week we were just going to work our hardest to find new people and that the Lord would help us to baptize someone on Sunday. So we went to work. We knocked doors almost all day everyday and we were able to find 18 new people to teach. We even found a family of 9. That was incredible and 6 of them are old enough to be baptized. Well, Saturday night came around and I was really sad that we still didnt have anyone to baptize when we were walking home and we got a call from the sisters in our zone. They said that they were teaching a young man that was ready to be baptized but he lived in our area! So we called him and he said that he would come to our church the next day. He came and I interviewed him after Sacrament Meeting and he was baptized! It was such a testimony builder for me. Oh and I forgot to tell you that we started a fast just for this after lunch on Saturday. It was amazing. The Lord really does answer our prayers. But we have to get up and work to deserve the blessings that we ask for. My testimony of this grew a lot this week

I also just wanted to thank mom and dad for always complimenting us on the things that we do well. There are a lot of people in this world that would do anything just to get a compliment from their parents once in a while. We taught a girl this week that got pregnant really young and still lives with her mom and her mom doesnt ever compliment her. She just tells her all the things that she does wrong. She just cried the whole time we were there and I got home and just thanked our Heavenly Father for the parents that I have. I love you mom and dad. I am so grateful for who you are and the things that you have taught me. I love you!

Tell Grandpa that he is in my prayers and that I love him. 

Iguaçu Falls hasnt been in our mission for the last 10 years. The picture that they sent in my call package was wrong. We dont even come close haha.

How is Scott coming along with the mission prep? I cant believe that in just 3 weeks he will be leaving for the MTC. That makes me crazy. Scott, prepare yourself. There are a lot of missionaries out here that dont even know why they are here. Its really hard for me to see that. Please prepare yourself. Its going to be the best two years of your life so far. But only if you want it to be and only if you want that. I love my mission. But it has not been easy. Get ready to work hard and here a lot of "no's". Youre going to love it and I cant wait to get your emails. I love you bro!

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Training again

Bom dia!!                      August 12, 2013

Its good to hear that you are all doing well! I heard that Rileys talk was really good. He is a great kid and I am sure that he was a powerful missionary. I talked to Syd a little and thats so cool that she got a job at the MTC!! I would love to teach Portuguese there. 

This week was really good. I was able to spend the whole week training a new missionary from Argentina. It was really weird to be training again but really good. I was able to see how much I have changed since the last time that I trained. I have grown so much and I have really become a better missionary. We were able to find a few good people to teach and things are going really well. We will leave today for the other side of the mission to help the missionaries there. We will stay a week with the district leaders and help them to work with all that they have. One thing that our mission is lacking is faith. So our goal is to go there and show them how to do the work so that they can have enough faith to keep going after we leave. I love this responsibility and the mission is really improving. 

Tell Grandpa J that I am praying for him everyday and I know that things will work out. He is a strong man and I look up to him so much. Tell him that he needs to get better in the next 3 months because I need to be able to sit and talk with him about life when I get home. I really look forward to that. 

Scott will probably need a converter. I havent used mine yet but thats because Curitiba is a really advanced city. But I am not so sure about where he will be serving. 

I have no idea what I am going to do about school. I know that I will have to go straight to the doctor about my knee and my hip when I get home and I dont know how that will effect everything. I dont even know where I would like to go to school yet. I havent thought about that too much haha I have been having a lot of problems in my hip this last month and I am really starting to get worried that I will be able to walk by the end of my mission. I know that the Lord will help me but I am a little nervous for what will happen after the mission. So, that will play a big role is when and where I will go to school.

I hope you all know that I love you so much. I cant believe that Scott will join me in the mission field in less that one month. I know that he will be a great missionary and that the Lord is preparing people for him. Dont forget to pray everyday so that he can get his visa. The Lord will help.

I love you!

Helping Others

August 5, 2013

Bom dia!

This week was really good. We hardly had any time to work in our area but we were able to find some people that will be baptized. We dont have a lot of time to serve in our area so this week we will officially become traveling assistants. its going to be really good and we will be able to focus on the areas that are struggling. I still feel a little strange being assistant because I always looked at the assistants like they were perfect. But now I know that the key is to be obedient and just work your tail off. We were able to go to Ponta Grossa this week with Pres. Monteiro and his family to give a training to the missionaries there. Ponta Grossa is a city about 2 hours outside of Curitiba. It was my first time leaving Curitiba and it went really well. We gave a really good training. But I learned one thing while I was there. One of the new sisters that got here on the mission 2 weeks ago is an american that was serving in the USA for 5 months before getting her visa. She got here and didnt remember a word of Portuguese and we knew that things would be a little rough in the beginging. Well, her companion turns out to be one of the proudest and most impatient people on the mission and things were not going well. They both talked with Pres. Monteiro and the Brazillian sister said that she would do better. Well, this morning Pres. Monteiro asked me to call them and see how things were going. I spent 40 minutes on the phone with the American sister while she cried and told me that she was almost ready to go home. She was trying her best to work and give ideas but her companion would just get mad and tell her that she knows what she is doing. It was really sad listening to this sister cry and say that she was just about ready to give up. I helped her to realize that the Lord could help her and that things would be ok. What I learned from this is that we really need to look at people from their point of view. We need to step in their shoes and see how they are feeling. The Brazillian sister didnt even try and she was ruining the other sister. We ended up doing an emergency transfer and they will be a lot better off. But in marriage and in other things in life we cant just do an emergency transfer. We need to be humble and just try to help other people. I hope that that is one thing that I have learned on my mission.

I just want all of you to know how much I love you all. I am so grateful for the family that I have. Everyone says that I must have been a really good kid in the pre-existence to have this family but I think I was just a huge rebel and i needed a good family to whip me into shape :) I love you so much and I know that this is the work of the Lord. I love being a missionary and I love this gospel.

Nada muda se você não mudar. Isso é verdade. Arrependimento não só significa que paramos de pecar. É uma mudança de atitude e pensamento.

Translation: Nothing changes if you dont change. This is true. Repentance doesnt mean that we just stop sinning. Its a change of attitude and thoughts.

I love you!

New Assignment

Bom dia!

Wow. Sorry it has taken me so long to write but you guys will never believe what happened!  Last Monday was transfers and I thought that I was going to stay in Boa Vista.  Well, I got a call and I was transferred!  It was so hard to leave Boa Vista and there were a lot of sad members there.  There was a line at church to take a picture with me before I left!  Well, Monday I went to the transfer meeting and I found out that I was called as the new assistant to Pres. Monteiro!  Yes, you are now talking to the newest assistant in the Brazil Curitiba Mission.  I was shocked but no one else was.  haha.  Everyone else told me that they knew that I would be the next assistant.  I didn't send an email to you last week because we spent the whole day at the airport sending off the missionaries that were finishing their missions.  It was really cool but the best thing that happened was on Tuesday when we got to go back to the airport and get the noobies from the MTC.  It was so fun to see how nervous/excited they were.

I am now in Barigui but this will only last for one more week.  We will now be traveling assistants and we won't have a specific area.  We will be going around the whole mission to help the missionaries that are having problems.  My companions name is Elder Schmidt.  He is from Germany and is in his last transfer on the mission.  Hes awesome and really rich!!  haha!  I have to learn all this new stuff really fast because I will be the one at the head of the mission in 5 weeks.  I love my new calling.  Its hard and we dont have time to do anything but it is really cool to spend so much time with Pres. Monteiro and his family.  They are amazing people and I love them.

I love you all so much and I hope you don't get mad that I didn't write very much !  I don't have time!