Hey everybody!!
It's so amazing to have so many emails waiting for me in my inbox, i'm so blessed to be surrounded by so many amazing and loving people! Well, I know you all have questions about where I am, and how i'm doing, and all that jazz. I'm going to skip over my last few days of the MTC because I know nobody really cares about that! Hahah, all you want to know about is Canada!
Well Canada is far better than I ever could have imagined! We woke up bright and early Monday morning where we got on a bus that went to the airport! We flew out and about half of our travel group got first class, what the heck? Of course I didn't so I got shoved in the back of the plane. It actually turned out to be one of the biggest blessings though, and let me tell you why. There was a little bit of turbulence, and there was a lady in the back that was getting super super motion sick, her husband came up to me and asked me to help him give her a blessing! It was the coolest experience! It was a bit crazy though, because the plane was rocking around and she was leaning over, and we didn't have much room, but the spirit was so strong! She ended up being able to fall asleep later and got off looking a lot better than she did, it really shows the the power Priesthood Blessings can have!
After landing in Toronto I realized that everybody around me was speaking a different language, and when I say speaking a different language I mean everybody is speaking all sorts of weird languages from Tagalog to Cantonese! There is a ward in Downtown Toronto that has 50 different languages and nationalities in it! After fighting our way through customs and everything we met President and Sister Clayton! They are amazing, and you can tell just by talking to President Clayton that he is inspired! We all went to the mission home for dinner and a testimony meeting! After that we were taken to the hotel where we got a few hours of sleep and then we were up and at it again! I've never been so tired in my life!
I was assigned to serve in the Burlington Area! It's about an hour or so West of Toronto, and it's right on the water of Lake Ontario! Elder Mckinnon is my Trainer and I couldn't be more blessed! He is from some small town in Idaho, and is the typical potato farmer ya'll are thinking of ;) He legit worked on a potato farm though! He is so kind and shows so much Charity, and boy does he work hard! It's awesome! Burlington is mostly a bunch of White people, and when I say mostly it's like 50% white people! I've met people here from Serbia, Jamaica, Poland, Germany, Uganda, El Salvador, Guatemala, and so many other places! We have a car here, but Elder Mckinnon and Elder Bennett bought bikes here from a garage sale, so those are our primary modes of transportation! It's a lot more effective because we can talk to people as we travel! And I don't think that Burlington Coat Factory is here or has anything to do with this town?
We got to our Area and immediately went out street contacting and tracting! We gave out a bunch of pass along cards and a couple pamphlets, Elder Mckinnon gave an old lady that was smoking a Word of Wisdom pamphlet.. oh boy. But as we were tracting we ran into a lady who was sitting in her garage with a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other! We started talking and we sat down with her and really got to know her! Her name is Robin, she has a lot of health and family troubles, and I can already see how the gospel will help her so so much! We taught her the Restoration and she accepted a Book of Mormon! I than invited her to be baptized.. Like, what was I thinking!? But guess what, SHE ACCEPTED!! Haha, inviting someone to be baptized in the first lesson seems crazy, but it really helps investigators, and brings the spirit in really strong! We swing by Robin every day and we haven't gotten to teach her the Plan of Salvation yet because she got sick and had stuff going, but we're going back on Thursday to teach her that! I'm so excited I can hardly wait!
Two of our Progressing Investigators are Alanso and Mercedes. Alanso is from El Salvador and Mercedes is from Guatemala! They are both catholic, but are really excited about the gospel! Alanso is ready for Baptism but wants to wait to be Baptised with Mercedes, so we're working really hard to get Mercedes ready! Mercedes is amazing, and she says that she wants to be 100% sure before committing to baptism! Like we say here in the Mission, "In the Lords time".
Every Thursday for lunch we go over to Greta Zedalski's house. She is a recent convert from Slovenia, and she is an amazing cook! She cooks so much food and says "I know what it's like to have nothing, so we don't waste anything in this house". It's like Thanksgiving on Thursdays at Greta's! It's hard to get to work after eating such a huge delicious meal!
It's really been great here and I've never been better! They call the Canada Toronto Mission the mission where the whole world comes to you, and that's the truth! We are about to start teaching a man named Rocky! He is from the Philippians and only speaks Tagalog, so we are going to have to teach with a translator, but also be super focused on using the pamphlets! Such a cool experience to meet so many people from all over the world! Brother Acorda, from the Phillipeans told me he is having us over for Baloot, which is basically a developed hard boiled egg, woof. We'll see how that goes, but im really excited to eat it!
The weather here is hot and humid! I got here on the hottest day of the year and it's finally starting to cool down because it rained! When it rains here it doesn't sprinkle either! It poors!! We were out on our bikes when it started coming down on Saturday and we were soaked from head to toe!
For Lunch today I experience Poutine for the first time, which is basically the best thing i've ever had, ever. It's a bunch of fries smothered in cheese curds and gravy. It could definatlely kill you with all the grease in it!
My favorite Scripture of the week is in Alma 32 and it starts in verse 26! It talks about how faith is like a seed, and how if we take care of it, it will grow, and if it's a good thing it will grow! It's really a cool passage!
Well, I think that's all for today, it's hard to remember everything that happened last week! I hope everything is going good for everybody! I love you all! God Speed the Right!
-Elder Taylor
PS the money here really does smell like maple syrup
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