Guatemala MTC Week 3

Hola everyone!

Halfway done with the MTC and I finally have some pictures that I can send you! They emailed these to me so that we could send them to our families. One is of Rama B (Branch B) and they told us to take off glasses so I look a little different, and the other is of my district, Malaquias (Malachi). I can honestly say that I'm starting to get a little sick of being at the CCM. I am getting very anxious to get out into the mission field. Spanish is better than ever and I cannot believe the growth that everyone is experiencing here. We do lots of practices where we pretend to be investigators and missionaries and switch off. I did one with a missionary from Honduras yesterday and right now I can't recall his name. He is a really nice kid. When I taught him, the lesson went so smoothly and now I can't even remember what I taught. I know that it was the Spirit guiding me. We had a member of the first quorum of the seventy speak to us yesterday (Elder Falabella). It was an open discussion between the missionaries and him and it was so spiritual. I am amazed at how many missionaries out here are recent converts to the church!!! A lot of them have been members for a little as 1.5 years and they are already out here to save people's lives. 

We have seen a few car accidents from the windows of the CCM. People drive so crazily out here that its no wonder why everyone's car has a dent in it. The one we heard on Monday night was really loud too. We were doing personal study in our Aula (Classroom) and all the sudden we heard loud honking, tires screeching, and a huge crash! We all ran to the window and saw like three cars that had just nailed each other. It's probably the most action we ever will get to see here at the CCM.

Yesterday we had a district meeting where we took time to sing everyone's favorite hymns. It's been a little hard for me to have to adjust to not having music but my district is really good at singing hymns. This might sound weird but all the Elders here whistle hymns together in the showers. It is so awesome! Everything here is so focused on the Spirit.

Every Saturday, we do something called CRE where we teach real less-active members. We spoke with a kid named Marcos who was baptized 9 years ago who loves the gospel but has been a little discouraged since his family doesn't support it at all. From what he said, it sounds like they enjoy pieces of the doctrine, but they have never taken the time to try reading the Book of Mormon, pondering it, and praying to know if it is true. This has really discouraged him and he went inactive for a long time. Another missionary here said that he has met with him before and that he was actually working on his mission papers. I really hope that it works out for him. 

The ultimate teacher is the Holy Ghost, and I will always remember that from seminary. As missionaries, we are just the vessels. Sure, we can go to an investigators home and teach them all the lessons, and they can like what we say. However, if the investigator is unwilling to have faith in Jesus Christ and pray to Heavenly Father to know for himself/herself, they will never truly know it in their heart. That is something that has become very apparent to me as I've been here at the CCM. Faith is the most important thing. We are practicing ways to try to get investigators to be comfortable with missionaries and be open to softening their hearts and having Faith.

It's a little weird talking about the gospel in English, believe it or not! Every once in a while the teachers will ask us to practice teaching our companions in English and I will have no idea what to say!! It was the weirdest thing! I have become so used to teaching in Spanish that I forget how to say the stuff in English. It's the craziest thing ever. 

Anyways, hope everyone has a great week and remembers to pray every day. It is one of the simplest, yet most important ways to keep your faith strengthened. Love you all!

Elder Taylor

Guatemala Week 2

Hola Everyone!

Luckily, my Enter Key works on this computer! This week went by so fast. We are all learning Spanish at a remarkable pace and the teachers are helping us prepare to be awesome missionaries. I don't really know what to talk about. We have been practicing teaching people by having mock investigators. On Saturday we even got to talk with a real less-active member. His name was Oscar and he was really cool. He was baptized 4 years ago if I remember correctly. He doesn't doubt anything about the church but his job is the reason why he misses church a lot. 

This week the weather has pretty nice. It has been raining a lot! The humidity is so bad that when we were working out in the gym yesterday, the moisture in the air was condensing on our skin and we all came out soaking wet. On Monday, I saw a cockroach and it was huge! I'm not even exaggerating. All the bugs here are bigger. They tell us not to eat food in our rooms because then the bugs will come upstairs and try to look for stuff to eat. 

I don't want to alarm anyone, but we have heard probably three gunshots while we've been here. Luckily there are always security guards/police officers outside that are carrying rifles. Speaking of security, the MTC [CCM] has its own staff of security guards. They are awesome.The MTC is actually located in one of the nicer areas of Guatemala City. It's beautiful here. The people drive dangerously. They don't wait for us to cross the streets when we walk to the temple, they drive with their doors open and they definitely don't drive defensively. 

Now that we have been here two weeks, we have old missionaries leaving, and new missionaries coming. Tomorrow, we will officially not be the newest missionaries at the CCM! It is so crazy how fast these past two weeks have flown by. We've decided as a district that we are going to fast from speaking English three times a week, all day till dinner time [Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Excluding any Preparation Days].

Sundays and P Days are everyone's favorite days here. On Sunday, we had devotionals all day and we got to watch the restoration. They even had a devotional for us to keep our health up while we are out in the mission field. All the water here at the CCM is filtered clean. So basically, we are in a sterile building and don't have to worry about any of the outside germs. However, they do tell us to wash and sanitize our hands all the time because once your companion gets sick, odds are you will get sick as well. They also told us about what to do with food and water. They gave each of us a water bottle with a filter and an extra filter that will last for the whole mission in case we need water from a tap, stream, or other impure water source. They say it will even turn Coca Cola into water!

We went to the temple again today and it was amazing. I love the inside of the Guatemala City temple.  The maids have been cleaning our quarters all day so we've had to kinda stay out of the way. P Days definitely go by the quickest out of any day. I really wish they would let us have our cameras because there are so many pictures I want to send everyone! All the Elders and Hermanas here are just the coolest people you'll ever meet. They are so full of spirt and The Spirit. It's refreshing to see the enthusiasm everyone has all the time. 

So far I haven't been missing my old life too much. Everyone once in a while I'll reach for my phone and it won't be there, or i'll feel like wanting to take a nap, but I can't. I'm doing fine though. My body is slowly adjusting to going to bed at 10 and waking up at 6:30 which I can honestly say I didn't really prepare for that well [I'm pointing at you Matt and Lauren ;)]. Regardless, the Spirit is so strong and the drive to be a missionary is growing. I know that a lot of you back at home are missing me but I just want you all to know that I'm fine down here and that you all will see me in approximately 100 weeks. Give or take.

Anyways, i'm about out of computer time so i'll leave it at that. If there is anyone else you know that wants to receive my emails feel free to send me their email address. 

I love you back, and have a great semana [week]!

Elder Taylor

Guatemala MTC

Hello everyone! Sorry about the late email. They changed our P Day

from Tuesday to Wednesday this week. Hopefully nobody was worried

about my life. From now on i'd advise you all to anticipate an email

at any time in the week because our schedule here at the Guatemala MTC

is crazy. Please also excuse any bad grammar or word formatting

because they have spanish keyboards here that are really hard to use

and the enter key doesn't work. So anyway, the plane rides were fine.

The hardest one was the flight from St. George to Salt Lake City. It

was a little bumpy but it wasn't bad. After that the flights to and

from L.A. and Guatemala City were smooth. Most of the missionaries

that were going to the Guatemala MTC met up in the Salt Lake airport.

Half of us were on one flight and the other half of us were on a later

flight. We arrived in Guatemala last Wednesday morning and were all

dead tired. They picked us up from the airport here and some really

ghetto yellow buses. On the inside of one of the buses there was a

rainbow sign above the drivers mirror that said "Jesus te Ama" (Jesus

loves you). The city is beautiful. They took away our digital cameras

for while we are at the MTC so I won't be able to send any pictures

for another 5 weeks. There are so many trees and plants everywhere.

I'm sitting in the computer lab at the MTC where there are windows

with an awesome view of the mountain and the temple just a block away.

I want to live here. The weather is mostly overcast right now.

Yesterday, during our physical activity time we were playing

volleyball with some other Elders and Hermanas and a huge rainstorm

hit. I stuck it out for a bit but it started raining so hard that It

was hard to see outside, so we just went into the gym and did some

p90x yoga with the other missionaries. They have been feeding us a lot

of food here! And they really stress to us about how we aren't

supposed to waste food so we have to eat all of it. Some of it is

really good and some of it is not that great. Anyways this week went

pretty quick. We have already been here one out of our six weeks.

Luckily, I havent been missing family too much. Today we went to the

temple and it is awesome. I definitely got a lot out of it this time.

Anyway, ill also share something spiritual since you all are waiting

for it. The teachers here are amazing. Most of them are from Guatemala

and they have all served missions. The teachers i have had are Hermana

Cuhce (pronounced almost like cookie), Hermano Morales, and Hermano

Romero. I just want to share an experience we had in class with

Hermano Romero. He taught us in the morning a couple of days last week

and was helping us with spanish grammar. After our lesson he bore his

testimony completely in spanish saying how he knew we would understand

it. It was so cool because he was talking normal spanish and EVERYONE

could understand everything he said. The spirit was very strong. I've

never felt so close to the gospel and the Savior as I have in this

past week in the MTC (CCM in Guatemala). I'm in a companionship trio

with Elder Wright and Elder Smith and they are both great guys. All

the Elders and Hermanas in my district have amazing spirits. On

sunday, we had a mock investigator lesson where two companionships

from our district were assigned to teach a lesson to our

investigators. The spirit was so strong in there when the Elders and

Hermanas taught. It will probably be my turn next Sunday. We also got

to see the broadcast of Boyd K. Packer's funeral and it was really

nice. Anyways, i'm watching a timer run down in the top corner of the

screen counting down and i don't have much time left. I'll just end by

saying thanks for all the support and emails from everyone. I

appreciate it a lot. The next 5 weeks are going to fly by and I cant

wait to send some pictures of the stuff i'm doing down here. Have a

great week everyone! Love, Elder Taylor (p.s. please remember to send

your emails by Sunday night so I can read them on P Day, thanks!)

Elder Taylor is in Guatemala

Hola Mom, 

Guatemala is awesome. The city is very beautiful. They are

giving us a chance to write and let you guys know that we made it here

safely. They also wanted me to let you guys know to email me on Sunday

nights because I get to read and reply on Monday. Love you guys.

-Elder Taylor

Adieu

...and here I am writing to you. I am extremely grateful that I was blessed to be born into a loving family that honors the gospel and taught me values that have kept me successful thus far in my life. As I am preparing to take this next step into foreign territories and the lands of the Book of Mormon, I am becoming more anxious to serve the wonderful people of Guatemala.

Am I ready? Well, maybe. I don't really know the answer to that question. Who knows if it's even possible to be fully ready for an adventure like this one. Regardless, I will try my hardest because, for the next two years, it is my duty to put my whole heart into the mission. I know there will be rough times ahead, and I may even subject myself to questioning whether I made the right choice. I find many helpful answers in the preparation tools that the church has created for new missionaries. Specifically the resource booklet "Adjusting to Missionary Life." A great excerpt from this booklet says:

"Develop an attitude of gratitude. Focus for a few minutes every day on what is right, good, and positive about yourself and the calling you’ve received."

On the days where I get doors slammed in my face and I start to miss my family and friends, it will be important to keep in mind the things that I should be grateful for. This even works outside the mission field. Counting our blessings may make the difference between having a horrible day or a great day. While I do have my little fears here and there, I am trusting in myself and trusting in the Lord to lead and guide me every day. In the end, the service and life-changing experiences will all be worth the time.

I'll finish here and say thank you to everyone who has gotten me to this point; including family, friends, teachers, leaders, and everyone else. Missions change people, and I am looking forward to the new adventures I'll have outside of my comfort zone in Southern Utah. As C.S. Lewis said:

"There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind."

Adios for dos!

-Elder John Michael Taylor Jr.