Elder Taylor en casa de la Familia Miranda en Chamac

Elder Taylor with Elder Hernadez

With brother Boris Ariel Miranda behind Elder Taylor and Boris Jared behind Elder Hernandez

Wise Men Still Seek Him

Hola Everyone and Feliz Navidad! 

It's so weird that I've already passed 2 Christmases in the mission. Time passes so quickly, it's crazy! 

Last Monday we did our big service project in the park. The relief society of one of the wards made a hot drink to share with the people of the park and we got to work contacting strangers. We had speakers and a screen and showed the Christmas videos of #lluminaElMundo and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It was super successful. We found so many people! We pray we will see lots of fruits in January from this activity. 

This week was great because Julio got baptized. He is the first convert-baptism that Chamac has had in like 2 years. Curse broken! A lot of people showed up for the baptism and right after we had a Christmas Devotional with the ward. 

Double Rainbow in Chamac! 

                                                            Our Kiosk in the park

Ilumina el Mundo

Julio's baptism. + 8 Elders. (In order: Elder Alfaro, Mex; Elder Preciado, Mex; Elder Smith, UT; Hermano Rene; Hermano Julio; Elder Cancino, Mex; Elder Adams, AZ; Elder Hernández, Mex; and Me. Below: Elder Sanchez, Nicaragua)

A Guatemalan Tamale. 

This CHRISTmas season has truly been one of reflection and meditation. It is so easy to get distracted fromt the true meaning of the season; Even for us missionaries. I pondered this a lot when one day in our old house in San Pedro, the Jehovah's Witnesses left invitations at the doors of everyone's house in the neighborhood to a conference that they were going to have, and on the front of the invitation was a picture of Jesus. I found it very interesting when we got to our house in Chamac that almost DAILY, someone would leave pure advertisments and magazines from local electronics stores under our door. It made me reflect a lot. How quickly the world tries to change the meaning of Christmas, from a season of Christ-like love and service to a season of total commercialism. Even though the JW's don't celebrate Christmas, I appreciate their invitation to remember Jesus Christ in this season. The same invitation I extend to each of you, although the season comes to an end. We should always remember our savior Jesus Christ and the everlasting love of our Heavenly Father for sending him to this world. He is the reason for the season, and 'Wise Men Still Seek Him.'

Hope your Christmas was as wonderful as mine, and may the tender mercies of the Lord be with you all in this special season!

Elder Taylor

Christmas is coming

Hola Everyone!

Well, this week has been a new adventure here in Chamac. We are getting to know the members and the majority of them are super mature in their knowledge of the gospel. A lot of them are returned-missionaries, which is a good advantage. The hardest part of the area is that the people are very traditional, as in, they stick with the traditions of their past until death. The people here are VERY Catholic or Evangelical. The good thing is that we already have a baptismal date for this week that the Elders from before left, and that's going to break the no-baptism curse in Chamac that has lasted for about a year. We also are teaching a family that has recently become very interested in the church. Wish us blessings!

This week we also moved into our house here in Chamac and did a SUPER DEEP CLEAN. The house was so dirty! It had tons of old food, dust, and fleas. We took a whole afternoon just scrubbing the floor and with bleach, floor cleaner, and a broom. This is the finished product:

The first morning we woke up to a little suprise also. In the house, the toilet doesn't have a floater, so we have to shut off the valve of the toilet after every use. Since the city water shuts off in the late afternoon, my companion decided that he wouldn't need to turn it off. Well, when the water came back in the early morning, it overflowed the tank and started pouring into the bedroom. I was pretty shocked when I woke up in the morning and put my feet down into my sandals covered in super cold water:

On Friday, we also had our Christmas Multizone Conference with President Goodman. It was super spiritual and we got a lot out of it. We presented a skit as a zone, that was modeled after the song: The 12 Days of Christmas. On our way back, our bus broke down on the highway and we had to get out to push it to start it up again: 

Me and my skinny arm. (I think it's even skinnier than when I came to the mission #LAMAQUINA)

Anyways, Wishing you all the warmest of holidays and the merriest of Christmases! Enjoy your turkey and ham, and we'll be enjoying our tamales and beans. 

Elder Taylor

P.S. As I was writing this we felt a mini-earthquake. Spooky stuff!