9 days till Elder Taylor ARRIVES HOME!!!

I’m feeling way better this week!

So this last transfer of my mission has been a crazy one. We had some

unusual circumstances arise and my companion and I were split up and

out on a week-long exchange with some other Elders. After a week of

exchange and an "emergency transfer" (that’s what they call a transfer

that happens outside of the regular transfer schedule) happened.  I

was then officially separated from my companion and transferred out of my

area into a new area.... the Elder we were working with have since

been relocated. and my  "Old companion" and I are now both working

with Branch missionaries as our companions. we had to wait one week

before they arrived though, and That’s the week I happened to fall sick,

(nothing bad, president says most of his missionaries fall sick 10-14

days before finishing) my new companion arrived today.    I have one

week to show the branch missionary the area I learned in one week,  so

that he can show a new missionary the area when I go home.   Also my

old companion and I are still responsible for the zone.

It has been a very active last few weeks.

I’m healthy I’m happy

Love Elder Taylor

More Photos

06/12/2012

This week was way good.

On Sunday I came to church and I saw one of my recent converts from

Grafton (my last area) she is now worshiping with the other branch

that worships in our building, it was so good to see her because she

had disappeared while in Grafton, her family had moved up-line (to the

interior) and no one knew where she went; it’s been about 3-4months.

It was her first day at the new branch and she didn't know anybody.

she came because she heard that is where the "latter days" worship, and

she knows that’s her church so she went, How happy I was to see her!

She said she was happy to see me because it felt weird not knowing

anybody.   I was able to show her to some of the young single adults

in her branch and was able to help her feel comfortable small.  It was

so good to see that sister again I’ve been worried since she dissapeared,

but all is well.

Also Today my companion and I hiked one of the many mountains in our

area, see bush, Part of the time we were wondering if we were on a man

made trail or a game trail.  The whole way was jungle except for a few

openings till we reached the top.  We passed one or two small homes on

the way.  On the way up the mountain we ran into some "Munku Pekin"

which translates into village children.  they were way cool and hiked

with us the rest of the way up the mountain. they said their uncle was

at the top working, making charcoal.  so we kept climbing.  this is a

jungle mountain. I pray that someday my future job will require me to

clime up cool jungle mountains.   after hiking forever (it was a big

mountain) we got to the top and met the uncle, who turns out to be a

less active member of the church, Our church!   What!  we chose some

random mountain to climb and we ran into a less active member and his

whole family at the top of this mountain,  needless to say Elder

Allred put our missionary game faces on and scheduled a appointment

with him, his wife, their children, and possibly the aunty and her

family.    We set the appointment to met them at their house at the

base of the mountain not the top haha.     Way good people a hard hard

working family, The work this family was doing is basically being

lumber jacks with machetes instead of saws and children instead of

employees,  But they seemed to be a happy family and a hard working one

too.       OH and also after on the way down the mountain we ran into

a Black Cobra!!!  yeah a KING COBRA in the wild.... no San Diego Zoo

glass wall separating us and it was not a supper small one probably an

inch and a half around and as a yard stick.     Don't worry I’ve

developed a little common sense on my mission, I didn’t try stoning it,

haha we just let it slither away into the bush, before continuing our

journey down.   All is well and today was a good day!!!

Elder Taylor

April 23, 2012

In my personal study I’ve been reading 3 Nephi,

A scripture that stood out to me was 3nephi 13: 25-26,28-29, & 3nephi 14:11

    ....Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what

ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what yet

ye shall put on. Is the life not more than meat, and the body more

than raiment?

    Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they

reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedth them. Are

ye not much better then they?

    ... why take ye thought for raiment? consider not the lilies of

the field how they grow... I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all

his glory, was not arrayed like one of these.

    If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your

children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good

things to him that ask him?

it just helped me understand how much God really dose care and how much

he is willing to give, if we ask in faith.

that’s all I have for this week, something that really moved me that I

thought I would share/

Elder Taylor

April 16, 2012

so this week was awesome full of miracles, I’m really enjoying my

mission, um... unfortunately the internet is giving me a crazy hard

time... this is the 3rd place I’ve tried emailing at.   so all I have

time to tell is what happened today, so net time.

So crazy story, two nights ago in the middle of the night I heard aloud

bang, it woke both me and my companion, when we tried to see what was

happing there was this big black thing hanging on our windows screen

(from inside our room in between our beds)  My first thought was it

was a monkey... but I was like what’s a monkey doing in my room, but

then my companion said no it’s a cat, I doubted in my mind what ever

this thing was in our room I thought it was defiantly too big to be a

cat.   So I told my companion it’s a good thing we sleep in nets I made

sure my net was tucked in and went back to bed. (This thing was less

then a foot away from my bed... I didn’t even care.... I’ve been here

way to long haha.)

When morning time came we just shrugged off the last nights

experience, we figured whatever it was got out the way it came in....

but little did we know (foreshadowing just so you know) that night

when we came home all was calm nothing out of the ordinary, the

kitchen smelt worse than usual but whatever... that night we went to

bed no disturbances.   when we woke up this morning we walked into the

parlor and WOW a huge wave of nasty poo smell punched us in the face.

all of us were like what happened? Then we saw a huge pile of crazy

animal kaka (poo) on my half backs (flip flops). he vandalized my half

backs toileted right on them...  a huge pile! huge and then we saw

another right by the door, and another in the kitchen.  huge I’m not

exaggerating it looked like a Great Dane had ate a bottle of Exlax in

our house...

Crazy any way it got cleaned up,   later in the morning after studies

I was in the kitchen pumping some water into my bottle for our hike to

the "Rasta temple" on the top of Black stone a mountain in our area,

when I saw a huge hairy object under our cabinet... I called my

companion and we saw it, it was the Crazy animal,   and so what did we do?

 we did what any sensible 20 year old would do, we got some sticks and

a camera.  When this thing came out of the cabinet I saw it, and was

the biggest Cat I’ve ever seen! huge like a bear cub... we chased it,

it ran into the bathroom.  Once in the bathroom I poked it with a

stick to remand him it was my half backs he toileted on.   we

eventually got bored and left for our hike and let the other elders

finish chasing him out, after the hike we brought some people who

wanted to cat to cook, but the elders had already got rid of him by

that time.

All is well im happy love Elder Taylor

April 2, 2012

So I this week there was a relief society program at the district

center,  Elder Allred and I had no intention of going, we had a lot of

people we needed to see in our area, so as we were confirming the

plans for the day we received a text message from one of the elders

saying

“Remember we already told you we have baptismal interviews for you,

the people will be at the church at 11:30 waiting for you”

We got this message at 9:30 and we had a baptism scheduled for 11:00.

(let it be known just because someone typed Remember we already told

you, doesn’t mean they already told you)   anyway told them we would

have to push the interviews to 1 O clock, same time as the program.

We got to the baptism it was probably one of the smoothest ran baptisms

I’ve seen on mission, the man baptized is named Abu Bukar and has been

very prepared for the gospel.  The man has been investigating the

church for a few years, he has just changed from Muslim to Christian

with his baptism.

After the baptism we got transport to the district center to do

interviews, the relief society program was just starting.  As we were

standing there waiting for the missionaries to bring those getting

interviewed a few small boys ran up to me, and greeted me.  But one of

them a 2-3 year old called my name. I just kept looking at him the

little boy looked so familiar, and then I realized who he was. He was the

son of a family had had baptized earlier in my mission.  In fact the

son of the first baptism I had in Sierra Leone!  So I asked him if his

Momma was there and he led me to his family.

  How happy it is when you get see those you have come to love

progressing in the gospel, It was so good to see them to see them

happy and to see them fellowshipping with fellow saints.

The Mom told me that they were there for the program. Also that the

small boy had seen me when I walked up and said” That’s Taylor” he

mom didn’t believe him because last they herd I was transferred to a

different side. But the boy persisted and went off on his own to find

greet me ha-ha.    The Crazy thing is when I first met this kid he

couldn’t talk, but know he is older and not only could talk but

remembered my name.  Long story short it was defiantly a memorable

experience.

March 12, 2012

this week went well; I went on an Exchange with Elder Wuthrich this

week in my area, like I said I'm still new to my area and don't know

it as well as I should, so we ended up lost, haha there are 4

mountains in our area that we can teach on and we climbed every inch

of those mountains and found everything but the homes of the people we

wanted to see, haha but it was still an awesome experience I was able to

learn a lot form that Elder, He has been out just over 6 months and is

very prepared and very qualified to preach the Gospel. we had a lot of

walking time, so it was good time to talk about amazing of an

experience mission is and how much we have been able to take out of so

little time.

   So quick story from the exchange, were in the market, (Off

the mountains) looking for a compound with some recent coverts and

investigators, they knew we were coming and had planned for us, but

like I said we were lost, I know the general area but that market is a

maze of roads and people, not to mention the home we are looking for

is in a compound, so we are not even looking for a home, we are

looking for a wall, and trust me most of the walls here look the same,

    well... one of the recent converts in the compound we were looking

for felt prompted to go talk a walk (remember they are waiting for us)

so she did, she left to compound and walked around the market a bit

and on her way to turn back we ran into her!  happy day, she was

surprised to see us, we told her we were looking for her home, so she

took us to the compound, were we had a wonderful lesson we taught our

investigator and a Muslim man who joined us for the first time the

plan of salvation and at the end of the lesson the recent convert bore

her testimony, and how she has been blessed since she joined the

church, she even told them how the holy ghost told her to take a walk,

and how she found to lost Elders,   haha

 I was lost but then I was found, by a recent convert who was able to

listing to the quite promptings of the spirit

love Elder Taylor