Wow, What a crazy Week!

E-mail from Elder Taylor Dated 9/20/2010

Man this week has been crazy!

So Much amazing stuff has shown its self to me this week, but for every good thing God helps you discover,  Satan is always sure to find a way to stick his ugly nose in it, ugh

On the first day out this week there was a dead body just laying in the middle of the road, I don’t know how long he had been there, all I know is that they found him in dead in the market and no one claimed him so they dragged the body into the street to be out of the way. Just another way that Africa is so different than good old America.  I’m still having a hard time with the language but that’s ok I’m to the point to where I can understand half of what is being said to me, and they can understand most of what I’m saying to them, they like making fun of my “Siris”  that’s what they call the English accent, I’ll pick it up sooner or Latter.  Its been such a great experience so far, we have a few lizards that live in our house so I have to check my shoes every morning, the last thing I need is a freaked out lizard running up my leg. Haha It was very unfortunate but we had to drop one of our investigators this week, he is a pasture of a Pentecostal church, and we shared the message with him he loved it, it was so amazing to see two young men both under the age twenty teaching a very educated pastor, he knows its true I could see it in his eyes, but he cant accept it, he cant believe it takes more than just the grace of god, and he stated a phrase that goes completely against the Bible and every thing it teaches, “I Can not believe there is only one True church”  What! Wow…. When he said that we could not believe it after spending hours talking about the parables of Christ, the lessons on the Authority and priest hood Christ gave his apostles, It shattered my heart. So we shared article of faith 11 with him and let him know he was entitled to his own belief,  and to worship as he wishes and if he every decides to act on what was taught to him by two American kids to give us a call. And we departed.  I know he felt the Spirit I could see it in his Eyes I could here the change in his voice.  Maybe some day he will pick up his phone and Call I can only Pray.

Don’t worry here comes not just the good but the AMAZING part of the week! My first baptism is Saturday I’m so nervous but this man is rock solid, he… I cant even begin to describe him. But every time we go to teach him we have to ether take canoes to the island he lives on or wade through the swamp, we get to his house his million granddaughters just run out and tackle us, his hole family is embracing Christ slowly but surly, we have never just taught him, its always Him his Brothers his children and his grandchildren, imagine the most warm and loving grandfather, that is this man He shines the light of Christ, he always has even before we met him.  And Saturday is going to be his day, the day he will follow Christ example and be baptized, and stand as a witness of Christ till the very end. I am so proud of this Man he has such righteous desires, one being he wants his family, he wants that eternal family.   This is truly such an amazing mission, right now we have 663 investigators with baptismal dates, and there are only 60 missionaries in this mission.  Its difficult to see why it is so important to be a worthy priest hood holder in a place like Star Valley Wyoming when there’s so many around you. It’s truly our responsibility to guide and direct the church, and it’s a little rare to find a good, worthy priesthood holder to do that here. It’s difficult to find people who take their priesthood responsibilities seriously. The more I study my calling, the more important I find out it really is. There are about eight million people in this mission and only us few missionaries to get the gospel to them all. It’s our responsibility to represent the church, and maintain our worthiness so that when there is a call for help we can respond with faith that God will help us fulfill our duties. How great is our calling! I’ve never been given this much responsibility, and I’m so glad that I don’t have to bear it alone. With the help of an awesome companion and the Holy Ghost I know that God has prepared a way for the few missionaries that are here to reach out and touch the lives of every soul in this mission (1 Ne. 3:7). I know that God does love all His children; I see it every day. 

     Now the highlight of the week: I have a new best friend. His name is Jake and he’s a baby Chimpanzee! Yesterday while we were at an investigator’s house, his pet chimp was running around and they let me hold him. During the lesson I had to really focus because he was climbing all over me and was being awesome. When I wasn’t paying full attention to him he would turn into a toddler fighting for attention. He’s definitely as needy as any two-year-old, because if you even put him down he freaks out, runs to you, and latches onto your leg and won’t let go. He’s pretty strong for such a small monkey. He’s about the size of a nine-month old baby, and just as loud.

Love,

Elder Taylor