Arrival in Curitiba, Brazil

   Feb. 20, 2012     Bom Dia from beautiful and hot Curitiba Brazil!!!

Today is not my p-day but Sister Cordon said i could take 20 minutes to email you and tell you that I made it here safely. My first area is right in the middle of the city of Curitiba and it is called Ahú. My companion is Elder Clift from Sacramento, California. He will have been here for one year tomorrow! He is really nice and very very good with the people. And he speaks really good Portuguese. He mostly only speaks Portuguese with me which is hard but its also a blessing. I will learn the language a lot faster this way.

I dont have time to read your emails but i hope sydnee got to Denmark safely and i hope she is doing well. She will be awesome.

My p-day is always on mondays but just not this week because we are going to the temple on wednesday so that will be our p-day. So i will read your emails then and i will get to send a longer email with more information. Its really hot here and its good because i am already losing more weight. I have lost over 5 lbs in just under a week. its pretty much the best.

I live in a small house with my companion and two other american missionaries. Four americans living in one small house in Brazil haha its pretty funny. I love it here and the ward we are in is very kind and welcoming. And a lot of the members speak english!

President and Sister Cordon are awesome and i love them. They are very very kind and are like second parents.

The language is hard but i can tell that it is coming along. President Cordon told me to give myself 6 weeks and i will be just fine. Its hard but i am trying to be as patient with myself as i possibly can.

I hope Hailey had an awesome 10th birthday!!! Happy Birthday Hay-bear!!!!! Sorry this is so late. I sent you a letter though. I love you!

I just have some questions that i need answered.
1. Did you send my glasses? If yes, when?
2. Can i wash my ties in a washing machine?
3. Can i wash my suit pants in a washing machine or do they need to be dry-cleaned?
If you can just answer these before wednesday that would be awesome.

Well, I love you. I hope you are doing well. The work is going great. I love you all so much!

Love,
Elder Taylor

Short email!

Bom Dia!!   Feb. 27, 2012

I am sorry about wednesday. All of the internet places were closed so we didnt get a chance to email. But i get to today!!

 I hope Grandma is doing ok. Tell her and Grandpa that i love them. And i will continue to pray for them and Grandma T.

Mom, can you continue to send syds emails through missionties? I think it will be a lot faster and i will actually get to read them. We only have 45 minutes to email here. And can you send me some pictures of Haileys baptism? I would really love to have some of those. I cant believe that was two years ago! Crazy.

My companion is awesome. He has taught me so much and he really knows what he is doing out here. He has a very strong testimony and i look up to him so much.We have baptismal dates for our investigators for the 11th and 18th of March. I really hope they will follow through with their commitments. I love the people here.

It rains here just about every day so I am racking up the wife points....yeah :)

Well i better go. Thank you for answering my questions and PLEASE send my glasses soon. My eyes are getting worse. I love being in Brazil. The people are awesome, the food is good, i am still losing weight, and I am here serving the Lord. What more could i want?

Scott, Abbey, Hailey, and Annie. I love you all so much. You four mean the world to me and i hope you are having fun in Kaysville :) Ps I am so glad that annie hasnt forgotten about me. 

I know this church is true and i love being a missionary. Its the hardest thing that i have ever done but 1 Nephi 3:7 keeps me going. It is my favorite scripture right now.

I love you all!

Love, Elder Taylor

Last email from the CTM

Well, happy last email from the CTM!!! One week from right now i will be in the beautiful city of Curitiba. I am so excited. this last P-day was really good but it has been cut short because of the devotional tonight. But thats ok. The area 70 is coming to speak to us.

Thank you to Dad, the Holts, the Calls, Hailey/Mom/Annie, Syd, and Grandma and Grandpa J for your letters this week. I really love getting letters from everyone. Thank you so much. I love you all!

Dad thank you so much for sending me your Christmas talk. I have read it multiple times. I love you dad. Even though youre selling my house. haha :) but really. Thank you for your example and everything you do for me. I love you.

Tuesday night we had a devotional and we watched a video from Elder Holland. It was really good but he kinda tore into the missionaries. He said that the three things we are worst at is 1. Companionship study 2. Planning 3. Teaching with power and authority. So pretty much the things that we need to be best at. Elder De La Cruz and I focused this week on those things and we taught some of our best lessons yet. It was really cool.

Last Tuesday 80 missionaries left the CTM and only 4 came. Its pretty empty here. But one of those four was Elder Kamalu!! It was so good to see a face from Kaysville again. I love having him here. He is a great kid and will be a great missionary.

On friday night our teacher was in a play so we didnt have a teacher with us. She told us before to study part of preach my gospel and teach what we learned to the class. As we were doing this we started sharing examples from our lives about when we had felt the spirit. It was absolutely incredible. The spirit was so strong and i am pretty sure that everyone was crying. It was easily the best class yet. We may not be able to speak perfect portuguese but i know that we have the spirit with us and that we can bring that to the homes of the people of Brazil. I love my district. They really are my brothers.

Yesterday we got to go out for 3 hours and try to place copies of the Book of Mormon in the city. It was really scary at first but after a few people we got a little more used to it. We didnt hand out a single Book in 3 hours and we went back to the cookie store to meet our teacher and when we left i accidentally left one of mine on the table. When i went back to get it there was a lady sitting there but she hadnt touched to book. So i slid it closer to her and told her that it was for her and she got really excited and thanked me and immedidatley started flipping through the pages! it was so cool! I placed my first Book of Mormon! :)

I was told to tell you my new address. Its the same as on the cards that syd made but i will write it here too. Please send letters here for now and when i get my address in the field i will let you know.

Elder Trevor Taylor

Brazil Curitiba Mission

Praça Joseph Smith

15 Portão

80613-991 Curitiba-PR

Brazil

Well i hope you are having a wonderful time in Kaysville. I dont know if i will be able to email next week so i love you! (2 weeks worth) I love you all. The Church is true. The Book is blue. And God loves you :)

Love,

Elder Taylor

The end of January

Bom dia!!             January 31, 2012

Tell Grandpa that i love him and that i hope he is feeling better now. I am so glad that the surgery went well. He is a strong man so i know that he can handle this.

Thank you for you letters this week. Mom, Nat (2), Abbey, Scott, and the package from the Wisers. Your letters mean a lot to me and they always keep me going. Wisers-the portuguese is going great and i loved hearing about your Christmas. I love you! Scott-your letter made me bawl. I couldnt hold any of it in. I cried like a little baby. Youre the best. I love you bud and i am so glad to hear that your one act went well. Youre a stud.

Tell Jake congrats on his mission call! i didnt even know he put his papers in. When does he leave? He is going to love speaking French. Its actually pretty close to portuguese the pronunciations are just different. He is going to have a great time.

Thank you for praying for Elder Petersen. His back seems to be doing a lot better.

Thank you for syds emails. I wish i could express my feelings the way she does. Her emails make me want to be better each week. Syd-tell Elder Jensen that i love him!

Well this week was really cool. On wednesday Elder Andersen and Elder Ballard came to the CTM and spoke to us. It was incredible when they walked into the room. They had us all come and shake their hands before it started and it was amazing. They really are men of God. I always turn the pages for Elder Petersen in the devotionals while he plays the piano so for most of the devotional i was the closest missionary to the apostles. It was so cool! The one main thing that they focused on was that if we work hard, stay clean, and prepare ourselves than the Lord will be with us and we will be the best missionaries that we can be. Elder Andersen said, We cant be instruments in the Lords hands unless we are pure instruments. That has been my main focus this week. To be as pure as i possibly can. And to tell you the truth i probably felt the spirit more in this one week than i have my whole life. It was incredible.

Our bedroom is on the very top floor of the CTM and this week it rained a lot. So we got a huge crack in our ceiling and it started raining in our room! we are still on the top floor but on the other side of the building. It was pretty crazy. I got some pretty good pictures of it though!

I finished reading Our Search for Happiness this week. Its written by Elder Ballard and its really good. Here is a quote from it, We may not have much money or other things that some people think are so important. But we are the richest people i know. We have blessings that money simply cannot buy. And I have the satisfaction of knowing that the things that are most important to me-my family and my love of God-can endure forever.

                When i read this i started crying. I feel the exact same way that Elder Ballard does. I love you all so much and i feel so blessed to be able to spend forever with you. On page 105 it is talking about the callings of the church and it says that a man can be released from bishop and two weeks later be called as a sunday school teacher. Dad thats you!! It was so funny when i read that!

We also focused this week a lot on teaching people, not just lessons. Here is a quote from Elder Holland, Every quarterback and pointguard must read the other team and run the play that will best take advantage of them. This is what we must do but this is much more important than a football or basketball game.

              This quote hit pretty close to home. I have really learned how to read another team through playing quarterback. Before i read this i had never even thought about how that would help me on a mission. But now i know and i can use that skill of reading people to know what to teach and to help the people learn what they need to come closer to God. It was a really cool experience to learn that this week.

On sunday Me and two other Elders were asked to sing in sacrament meeting. We sang Nearer My God to Thee and it went really well. I dont think i have ever been asked to sing this much in my life. One elder that sang with us left this morning and last night i was talking to him and taking pictures and he told me that i have a really good voice and i need to keep singing. I never realized how singing can touch peoples hearts so much. It really is an amazing thing and i love the feeling of singing spiritual songs.

Well my time is almost up. I love you all so much. I know that this church is true. I know that the apostles are called of God and they are incredible men. I love the Book of Mormon.

Eu amo voces!!             Love, Elder Taylor