Mission Life

Buenas Tardes!

Hope everyone is doing great. Me and my companion are brillando (shining) here in Pueblo Nuevo. This week we have the baptism of our second familia de oro scheduled. I am so amazed by the miracles we are seeing here in Pueblo Nuevo. Presidente Ruiz has told us before that Pueblo Nuevo is ¨tierra de fe¨ (land of faith). Both me and my companion have put all of our trust in the Lord here. Honestly we were a little discouraged and worried when we had almost two months without a single baptism here. It has really tested our faith. The mission is teaching me so much about faith, obedience, and patience. 

On Thursday, we had interviews with Presidente Ruiz and that went really well. Every time Presidente talks with us, I get rejuvinated and want to work extra hard. He is a really good mission president. 

On Saturday, we were super busy. The familia de oro that we are going to baptized this Saturday got married this weekend. Me and my companion and the Zone Leaders were all working really hard to get everything done for the wedding, especially since it was kind of last minute. In the end we were able to decorate the primary room in the church and hold the wedding there. My district leader, Elder Heyrend, presented the wedding and it went really well. I think the family felt good about it. Now they are one step closer to baptism, and one step closer to an eternal family. We have actually struggled a bit with this family because in the beginning, the husband didn´t want to get married. He wanted lots of time to think about it. With the help of our leaders, the branch president, and the Lord of course, they finally made the decision to get married and get baptized the following week. 

Today it has rained a lot. We were in San Felipe earlier today and it started to rain really hard. When it rains here, the roads flood a lot and you get wet. Its not easily avoided. As I type this right now, the rain is continuing to pour. Hopefully it will lighten up a bit. I´ll attach of video of the rain in San Felipe.

Anyway, thats basically all for this week. Hope everyone has another awesome week. 

Elder Taylor

Baptism

Hola everyone!

This week was super special. To start off, we just visited with our familias de oro every day. Consecutive visits seem to help gain confidence with the investigators. We went contacting a few times, but not much success in that this week. We need to contact more because we need new people to teach. 

The big news of this week is that we had a baptismal service on Saturday, the 17th of October. On Friday night, we went to the chapel and put together the pila bautismal (baptismal font). The font here in the chapel is made of blocks and a big piece of plastic that looks like a backyard swimming pool. We pieced that together and filled it up with water with a hose. The water here is cold. Pueblo Nuevo is a little bit higher on the mountain so the climate is a bit cooler. We originally planned to baptize with our zone in San Felipe as a mega baptism, but our investigators made the request to do it in the morning here in Pueblo Nuevo. 

I had the opportunity to perform the ordinance for the mother and her daughter. The father didnt end up getting baptized on Saturday, but we are going to work extra hard with him this week. The important thing is that two souls have opened the gate to heaven. I cant even begin to explain how much joy I felt during the ordinance. The water was pretty cold but it didnt bother me. Im just super greatful that Heavenly Father blessed me with the opportunity to have my first baptisms, and also, two baptisms in Pueblo Nuevo.

Today for P Day we got together as a zone and had a color fight. I attached a picture of me with Elder Petersen from Delta and Elder Sherwood from Nephi. 

Anyway, that was my week. Lots of miracles and blessings being received. Thank you all so much for praying for us. I have a testimony that praying and fasting bring us so many blessings. Ive witnessed plenty of miracles here and its because of the faith of all of you that pray for us every day. 

Elder Taylor

Hola

¡Hola!

This week was a little stressful, but still awesome! To start off, the week was just as usual. We visit our investigators every day and teach them a little something about the gospel, and then we do it again the next day. This week was a little different. My district leader, Elder Heyrend, decided it was time to interview one of our families for baptism (a really positive family). In order to do it we had to do divisions. I ended up staying in Calahuache on divisions with his companion, Elder Zapata. 

While with Elder Zapata, we went to a place called Santa Maria de Jesus, which is close to the border of their area and the mission itself! Its so beautiful there. The sad part is that I can´t send any pictures to you guys because it´s illegal to take pictures of the dam that we were near. It´s the same dam that we went to a few weeks ago for P day, but this time we were doing missionary work there. For dinner we ate empanadas. Really great stuff. 

When we got back to the house, the district leader called to take our dats for day and he told me he was gonna have to stay another day in Pueblo Nuevo because they had passed by the house of the family four times that day and they were never home. At that moment, I was a little worried. When you have a progressing family in the mission, you have to be constantly visiting them, like daily, to make sure that they are doing alright. At this point, I was praying that the Elders would be able to find them the next day and interview them. 

So I was going on my second day of divisions in Calahuache. I dont mind divisions, but it is a little rough to be out of your own house for two days straight. On the inside I was just hoping and praying that an interview would happen that day and that the family would accept the fecha bautismal (baptismal date). That night I wanted to wait for the phone call, but Elder Zapata was tired and just texted our dats to the district leader, and then we went to bed. In the morning Elder Heyrend notified us that he had finished the interview the day before, but he never mentioned the results of the interview. My patience was just being tested over and over.

Finally I got back to my house with my companion and we sat down to study for a little bit...

...and then out of the blue he told me,¨The family made their choice on who they want to baptize them.¨ At that moment I was so full of happiness. I´m going to baptize this Saturday!!! It´s been months since a family was baptized here in Pueblo Nuevo. As President has told us before, Pueblo Nuevo is an area of faith. Our faith has definitely brought us to this point. Not only do we have a baptism, but a familia de oro! My companion is going to baptize the mother, and i´m going to baptize the father and the daughter. Heavenly Father is always listening to our prayers, and I testify of it. 

Sorry that I don´t have any pictures this week, There wasn´t really much to shoot pictures of. But next Monday, I´ll have some really special ones for everyone to see! For now, I´d just like to wish everyone a great week! Keep us in your prayers! We´re receiving the blessings! 

Elder Taylor

Pueblo Nuevo, Zona San Felipe

Hola Everyone!

I´m going on my second transfer here in Pueblo Nuevo, Zona San Felipe, with my same companion, Elder Tumbaco. We had a few changes in our zone, including a new Zone Leader from Delta, Elder Peterson. He´s a stud. I think we`re gonna have lots of fun with this new zone. 

This week was a week of exito (success)! We brought two of our three families to General Conference in San Felipe! I feel so blessed and that my prayers have been answered. We are preparing these families for baptism the 17th of October. Please keep them in your prayers! They are progressing and we love them a lot. 

Speaking of General Conference, the whole thing was amazing, as always. Unfortunately, I wasn´t able to watch the first two sessions because we were visiting all of our families and investigators so that they would go to the broadcast of conference in San Felipe. Fortunately, it paid off because we had 9 investigators there with 2 families. I have to say that I felt the spirit especially strong when we brought the father of one of our families to the Priesthood session. I know that Heavenly Father has been looking out for us and for these families. To me, it seemed like most of the talks were centered on faith and obeying the commandments. I am positive that all of our investigators had at least one of their questions answered. I also really enjoyed the music that we heard at conference. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir definitely can bring the spirit so quickly. Heavenly Father loves us so much. I have such a strong testimony of that. If anyone every feels like they have a lack of knowledge of the scriptures, or obeying the commandments, they can always remember that they have a Father in Heaven that is always listening to them and will always love them no matter what. 

Today, for P Day we went to a toy museum where they had lots of cool toys and figures of Marvel/DC comics, Video games, movies, and books. It was really cool. After that we did a short paintball fight. And by short, i mean really short. It was still fun though! After that we travelled to Mazatenango, which is out of our Zone. We got permission to go because we had lots of success with bringing  investigators to conference. I got to eat Taco Bell! I cannot even begin to describe how great it was to eat Taco Bell for the first time in months. All in all, today was a great Prep day. 

Anyways, Sorry for the late email today! We got back a little late. Hope you all have a great week!