ROMPIMOS el RECORD! (We broke the record!)

Hola Everyone, 

First of all, Happy Memorial Day! Thank you to all the people who serve the United States daily whether it be in the country or abroad. GodBless America.

Happy Memorial Day from Reu Office!

My apologies for not writing last week. I have a bad habit of forgetting to write. Hopefully I can get better at that. 

This past week has been crazy. We had our big furniture delivery, so I was able to visit lots of places in the mission to help out with that process.

Elder Elggren (left, UT) and Elder Cancino (right, Mex.) helping me load beds and a fridge to take to some areas in zona Reu.

This week I had the opportunity to baptize a little girl whose name is Arelys. She´s 9 years old and is the investigator of the sister missionaries that we share our area with. She had previously been an investigator of the Office Elders a long time ago, but the mom (who is a less-active member) wouldn´t give her permission to get baptized. It was just recently that the mom had a change of heart and that she decided that Arelys needed to be baptized. She even brought her white dress and everything. On Sunday, they both came to church, and Arelys´ mom was teary eyed during her confirmation. The love she has for her daughter was very visible. It´s amazing when we get to see experiences like this. Heavenly Father never leaves his children behind.

Arelys´ baptism (Hermana Lopez, Peru and Hermana Gusmão, Brazil)

Some more awesome news of this week is that we broke the mission record of baptisms in a month. The record before was set in August of 2014 and it was a record of 212 baptisms/confirmations with 22 families. This month, May of 2016, we broke that record with a new record of 253 baptisms with 23 families. The Lord has definitely been blessing us. Your prayers are cherished and appreciated as always. Now, we are setting our standard higher. We´re a mission that finds 20 new investigators every week. We´re a mission with the capability of baptizing 300+++ in a month. The vision has definitely changed in this mission. The missionaries are as animated as ever, and we are seeing miracles without end.

¨Welcome to the most Powerful Office in the world¨, Mision Retalhuleu 253 souls/23 families

This week is special because tomorrow I have CAMBIOS, and i´ll be leaving the office (after almost 6 months). I´m excited to see my new area and meet new people. The office has definitely been a learning experience. It´s not something that many missionaries can say they experienced. Although difficult at times, I learned a lot of things that will help me in the future.

 Here are some pictures of the adventures:

This is the new poster that Presidente Ruiz asked me to make.

The Office Gang minus the APs and the language program. Me, My office kid Elder Rock (front, UT), Elder Gutierrez (behind, CA), Hermana Romero (Nicaragua) and the Nurse Hermana Dzul (Mexico)

An awesome Retalhuleu Sunset

The APs hooked us up with these sweet shirts.

2 weeks left?

Hi! 

So things are going great here in Retalhuleu. Sonni was confirmed yesterday in church, so that was a huge blessing. 

As far as work in our area, we haven´t been able to do much lately. Since the new mission president will be coming soon, we have been preparing everything for his arrival. This has put a lot of pressure on my new job as the mission secretario comissario. Right now, I have to prepare a way to get new beds, refrigerators, dressers, etc. to all of the areas of the mission. This will probably be the last major task I´ll have in the office. We are going to have changes again on May 30th, and I think i´ll be out in that change. 

I´m really excited about the future of this mission. Things will be very interesting with the change of a new mission president, and a new area in the mission field again. We still have high hopes of baptizing 300+++ in a month. I know we can do it. It will just require lots of faith and dedication to the Lord´s work. 

That´s all I can really say for this week. I´ll attach a picture of my son (Elder Rock, South Ogden) in the office at his new postition (executive secretary). 

Have an amazing week, everyone!

Baptism and Temple!

Hola Everyone!

Sorry for not emailing last week! As always, there are things that come up in the office that make it difficult to write. 

This past week has been a week of milagros (miracles)! First off, Sonni was baptized on Tuesday, and it all came out really well. We had originally planned his baptism for Monday, but it turns out that his mom took him to visit family in Champerico. Sonni is almost 13 years old, which means he will be able to have the priesthood and pass the sacrament in church. He is most excited to be able to enter the temple. The temple has always been something that he has asked us questions about.

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We also had the opportunity to go to the temple in Quetzaltenango. Presidente Ruiz invited us to go with him since the new mission president will be coming to the mission soon. We were able to do a session and it was all in Spanish, unlike the times before that I had gone. Everything went really well and all of the missionaries came out really refreshed after the sessions. 

These past few weeks have been really busy, but also really good because I´ve been able to get to know more of the mission. Out of the 10 zones we have, I have visited 9 now. It´s been a great experience being in the office and having the opportunity to get to know all of your mission. Lots of missionaries leave the mission without having been to all of the zones of that mission. 

I also attached a photo of the office pickup truck. His name is Jaime. Supposedly he was named after an Elder that used to be in the office who hated his name; so they decided to name the truck after the Elder. 

Anyways, Hope you all enjoyed your week and have another great week!

Elder Taylor