Good Evening Trailblazzers

We are having Dinner tonight with the Aitchison's and this is an awesome text we got from him last night!

Still Kicking it in Burlington 11/30/2015

Tis the Season! Man,i am so excited for this upcoming Christmas season! The Church launched a Christmas website yesterday called Christmas.mormon.org! It is AMAZING! They released two new videos on it an they are incredible. There is a huge push for us to use them, so we have special pass along cards and other things! It's going to be way cool to use it. They also have a special video they will release for the 12 days of Christmas. It's spectacular! 

Well, transfers came and went and Elder Jones and I are safe! Looks like we will be kicking it here in Burlington for at least another Transfer! Which means 6 months in my first area! Man, I'm super excited to be here for Christmas, we have some super solid investigators that we are working with right now! Alanso and Mercedes are still looking good for Their Baptism on December 19th! 3 weeks away and we are pumped! We also have a lesson with a member referral tonight who sounds super solid! Her mother passed away a few months ago, and she wants to know where she is, so we are going to talk about God's plan for all of us tonight! We are super excited :) Member referrals are the best because they are always way more solid than people we meet on the street!

For Thanksgiving we got to go to one of the places that I am most thankful for! THE TEMPLE!! It was incredible. At the end of a new missionaries first transfer, they get to go to the temple, and because I am with Elder Jones, we got to go. It was such a good time, I was able to learn so much and the spirit was so incredibly strong! 

This week was absolutely nuts, it started off with Elder Jones getting very sick. He has been having Migraines since he got here, after going to 2 doctors that didn't do anything we ended up in the Emergency Room because it got so bad on Monday! Man, I've never seen a busier Emergency Room. We got there about 3pm and didn't get home until 11:30pm.. I've never been that tired in my life! He had all sorts of tests done on him with no diagnosis, which was frustrating so we ended up at a doctor 2 days ago in Brantford, who put him on some Medication to help and it has been making him feel a lot better. So hopefully it can keep his Migraines in check. Anyways, President and Sister Clayton came down to the Hospital with us, and so Sister Clayton became my companion for about an hour and a half. We started talking to this super nice girl and her father from South America. Sister Clayton and I even ended up teaching the First Vision to them in the Hospital Waiting Room at 11:00pm. I never ever ever thought I would be teaching with The Mission President's wife in a hospital, let alone at 11pm on my mission, but the Lord puts people in our path! It's amazing :) 

While walking around the apartment a few minutes before curfew one night we met a man who asked us about why Satan could betray God. We talked for a little about how the Book of Mormon helps to answer that and he had to go but he gave us his number and said he wanted to understand more! It goes to show how important it is that we use every last bit of time we get, even if it is knocking one more door, or talking to one more person! It seems like those are the situations that we find the most in! 

I'm reading the Gospels right now in the New Testament, I decided I wanted to read through them the month of December so that I could understand Christ's life more fully. It's been amazing how I've been able to understand more about who he is. I know he lives, I've felt him in my life so much, and I'm so grateful for him. His spirit is strong this Christmas season, and I'm grateful to stand as a representative of him at this time and place. 

Love You all so very much

Elder Taylor

Thankful for Birthday Wishes

"The Catholic Church down the street has me booked for Heaven and hell and all that stuff." (Most interesting quote of the week.)

Thank you all for the Birthday wishes!  Man, the weather has cooled down so much! We had our first snow storm yesterday, and let me tell ya, the humidity makes the weather sooooo much colder! Wowza! Hahaha! I love the snow however, it makes me happy!  

:) Man, this week was pretty good!! Elder Perkins of the Seventy came and spoke to us on Wednesday and we learned some AWESOME stuff! One really cool thing we talked about was always going to meetings with questions in our mind, and as we do so we will receive those answers! I've done it twice since and It is so true! It's amazing how the Spirit teaches us such wonderful things when we are searching for answers! We also had some time to ask him questions and one Elder asked how we address the concern about evolution. We talked about it for quite sometime, and then got into other stuff and Elder Perkins said, "I don't know about Dinosaurs but everything happens for a reason and I believe Dinosaurs lived so that they could die, be buried for thousands of years, become fossil fuel, and then we would suck it up and use it for fuel so we can fly missionaries all over the world" Hahaha, oh man, I never thought of it that way but hey, makes sense to me!

Yesterday we had the Montreal Temple dedication, it was absolutely amazing, and the spirit in the meeting was so strong! We all gathered at the church and watched it over broadcast. They cancelled church for it which was a bit hard because all the people we are working with couldn't come to church or anything, so that was the only downfall. 

Alanso and Mercedes are still on the Path to Baptism and have been super good! They are on vacation this week in the States for Thanksgiving so when they get back we are going to hammer and get everything done! 

One really cool miracle we saw this week however was that we went by a Less-Active this week to meet at 8pm and when we got there they weren't home. So we set out pounding the streets looking for somebody to to talk to and knocking the doors in the area. It seemed like nobody was home but as we kept going we ran into a man who just got here from India and was super interested in the Book of Mormon. It's amazing how the Lord Places us in those places where his children are prepared!

Yesterday for dinner we got to go eat at the Acorda's! Luckily they forgot to get Balute! :) But we had this fantastic meal called a Hot Pot, which is Beef, Chicken, Squid Balls, chinese spinach, and lettuce all cooked together in a broth! It was delicious! They also had a really good dessert that is called Toupig, and another called Bibanca. They are made of Rice and coconut milk and cooked in Banana Leaves! It was the most unique dessert I have ever had! 

That's really all for this week! I love you all

Love, Elder Taylor

AZYK

Bulk Barn & Easterbrooks

Good morning everybody! It's a beautiful day here in Burlington! Can't believe I've already been out for 4 months, where has the time gone? We had a blessed week here full of excitement! First things first, I keep forgetting to write about it, but remember in the Saratov Approach the tattoo of the guy that the missionaries see on his hand? Well we were out walking along the park on Lake Ontario and met this Russian guy, we shook his hand and he had the exact same Tattoo! Oh man, it was crazy, it was a flashback to that movie! 

Elder Jones and I discovered our new favorite store this last week, it's called Bulk Barn. Basically imagine a huge store full of barrels of random food. Yep, and you walk around and fill bags with however much stuff you want. It's incredible! We bought a bunch of different kinds of granola that we have been eating for breakfast, we also bought some dried mango that was delicious! Yum!

 So, we met with Alanso and Mercedes this week and guess what, set up a solid Baptismal date! YYYYYAAAHHHHOOOOOOO!!!!! Man, I so pumped for them! They are getting baptized on Dec. 19th! Now I just gotta keep praying I don't get transferred, I shouldn't because they don't usually split up a trainer and trainee until after the 2 transfers, so I have high hopes!

Brother Aitchison, one of the Member's in the ward took us out to eat at this hotdog shop called Easterbrooks! Basically it's this rundown hotdog joint that was opened in the 1930's, but boy do they make good Hot dogs. I have a 12 inch Chili Dog called the Bellie Blaster, yeah, it sounds scary, but It was so good! 

We also found this super good restaurant called Babaz, that sells Egyptian food. That's where I learned how to say Azyk. ;) But Egyptian food is super good, basically it's just meat and rice with some vegetables with Tiziki Sauce, but let me tell you, we WILL be going back to that place!

This week we get to go to a special Conference in Kitchener where Elder Perkins will be speaking! We are so excited to get to go to hear him speak! It's supposibly all day, and those days are awesome because it's like recharging the battery and just makes all of us even more pumped about missionary work! This last week I also realized how much I love to promise people blessings! The times that I have promised Blessings by the spirit, I have felt the spirit so strong. Whenever it happens It just shows me that the promise is not from me, but from the Lord Himself!

We have been working with an Older Gentleman named John Smith, just the most typical name of all times. He has said almost every time we met with him so far that there is no way that he will be Baptized, so before we went to meet with him we where praying so hard that his heart would be softened! At the end we asked him why he wouldn't join the church and he said because he is content with what he knows, BUT he said that he wasn't completely closed to it and would Join if he found out it was all true! He is going to spend a week with his daughter who is a member and he wants to talk with them about what he has learned in the Book of Mormon so far, so hopefully after that, He will be even more receptive to the spirit!

2 Nights ago we were walking back from stopping by a Less-Active family when we met a lady named Pam! (Not the Pam we are already working with that told us she wants to be baptized) but we started talking and were able to share a super powerful message about Joseph Smith with her! You could just see the spirit working with her and she was very very interested to learn more! We are going back this week to meet with her again!

It's been getting quite a bit cooler here, today it warmed up a bit, but It's been cold enough that I've even been wearing a scarf, you know it has to be cold to get me to wear a scarf ;) Elder Jones doesn't feel the cold however, so I'll be bundled up and he will be in a short sleeve shirt, it's ridiculous! 

Well, that's it for this week! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Taylor

NASTY TIES

Ce Faci (Love ya Wil!)

How are you all doing? Ce Faci is Romanian for How are you doing?... that one goes out to Wil Cowser since that's where he got his call too! 

This last week was full of wonders and amazement! We started off the Week by stopping by a Less-Active who the Bishop asked us to stop by and we ended up having an awesome conversation with her and she wants to start coming back to church! She just worries about what everybody will think of her. Surprisingly that is one of the biggest concerns keeping people from going to church, whether it is a member or one of our investigators!!

Guess what, We be having a BAPTISM!! AHHHHHH!! Alanso and Mercedes are getting Baptized in December! We had the coolest lesson with them. We watched a Mormon Message called "You know Enough", and then we went on to talk about Faith and taking that leap. We talked about the Jaredites and how they had to exercise their faith to leave what they knew to board a ship, and then we invited them to Baptism! Mercedes sat for like 30 seconds staring at me, and then she was just like "yes, I'd like to do it around Christmas" Man, Christmas miracles are already happening and we are only the first week of November!!! 

We meet with some of our Returning Members on Friday nights and we arrived 5 minutes early this week so we ran down the street to knock a few doors before our appointment! We knocked on Roz's door, and she literally sounds just like Roz off of Monster's Inc! She went on to tell us that we were totally Cooky, we helped answer some of her typical questions like Polygamy and such and gave her a Book of Mormon. She invited us to come back this next Sunday, she wanted to read some of the Book of Mormon before we meet! So sweet!! 

I went on Exchanges with Elder Vang again this last week but I spent the Day in Oakville! It was a total Blast! We were all over the place! We did some service by raking leaves for one of the members of their ward and he fed us lunch and gave us some Combusha, which is fermented Herbal Tea, it was quite interesting. Don't worry it was Herbal tea so I wasn't breaking the Word of Wisdom :)

On Saturday we got to go to the temple with Paul Vila, one of our New Converts. We have a mission sponsored Proxy Baptism every month and it was awesome! It ended up taking 3 hours though and I was a witness the entire time.  We were all pretty tired by the end of it! I never thought I would get tired from just being a Witness in the temple for Baptisms, but I was tired. Man, it was an incredible experience to see 22 new converts go to the temple for their first time. The temple is an amazing place! 

All week long I have been praying that we could find a family this week to teach, lone behold, last night as we stopped by a lady that was in the area book, we met her husband, who we talked about the Plan of Salvation with and Eternal marriage.  He was interested and invited us back next week. Man, my prayer was answered, that's for sure! It's amazing how by just asking in Prayer we are blessed.  I can't even express the importance of prayer and how much it means to me now. 

Elder Jones has these Nasty Ties that he made me wear so we could take a picture.  I think he gave me the uglier tie. I'll send a picture of them!

Love you all,

Elder Taylor

Spencer Smith Park, Burlington

Happy November!

Can't believe that it is November Already!! Man, where has the time gone? The leaves are falling off the trees now and people are starting to complain that winter is coming. On the Bright side, people keep telling us it will be a mild winter, but who really knows, we can all hope right?

Elder Jones and I are having so much fun together! It's funny how sometimes we don't understand each other just because us Americans have changed the English Language so much.  For example, the phrase "see you soon" in England basically means goodbye, not literally see you soon. It's weird, I still like American English better, it makes more sense! We also have a new obsession, Tim Horton's White Hot Chocolate, man, it is so stinking delicious! We are going to try to see if we can buy the powder so I can send some home! :)

The Strange food of the week was a pickled vegetable called Picaya. Apparently it is a delicacy in South America. We had it with Alanso and Mercedes. It's alright, it's just super BITTER. 

We had one of the members we are working with tell us something that made us worry a bit. We meet with him every week and we were talking about how important the Sabbath day is. He went on to tell us about how whenever he misses church he pours himself a glass of juice and gets a slice of bread and prays over it.... ahhh... 1st off he doesn't have the Priesthood and 2nd he can't because it isn't under the Bishop's supervision. I hope I was able to handle the situation okay.  We are meeting with him again tonight and we are going to discuss the Sacrament more. 

We have a HUGE teaching Pool here, and when I say huge I mean we are working with 20+ investigators! It's so much fun! We saw 4 huge miracles this week that all came from inspiration and dedicated work! 

First, we finally met with Pamela! She is a single Mom and her son's name is Noah. She is so so solid and we have been trying to meet for 6 weeks and we're finally able to meet! She is a referall from a man named Brother Chamberlain in Utah. She works international real estate, and travels a ton but she is already reading the Book of Mormon, and loves the standards of the Church! We meet with her tomorrow to teach her the Restoration and invite her to Baptism! I'm so excited for that Lesson!

Second, We were out working an area around a former investigator knocking doors in the pouring rain. I was just thinking in my Head, "Please, please, please, let us find somebody to teach!" Then, the door next to the one we were knocking on opened... and then it closed. We were wondering what on earth happened so we knocked and the door flew open! We met Jan, who is studying Life Science and wants to be a teacher! He is super super humble and he invited us to come back! We taught him the restoration and he is super excited about the Book of Mormon! We meet with him again tomorrow! Miracles, Miracles I tell you!

Third, We were eating breakfast one morning and a Less-Active lady just came to my mind, and I was like, we have to go by her! So we made plans to go by and when we knocked on her door she invited us right in! Turns out she was talking to her Daughter about Proxy Baptisms the day before! She invited us to come over again for Dinner on Thursday, so that will be really good! We also found 2 solid Potential Investigators right on her street! 

Fourth, Last night it was dark out and we were contacting near our Apartment when we ran into a guy named Mat. Just with one T, because Matt with two T's is from the Bible and his family is atheist. We talked to him on the street for 45 minutes about Prayer and invited him to Pray, he was super pumped about us and said we were out of our minds for giving up 2 years of our lives for this, but those are the moments that make it all worth while! :) Mat is a tattoo artist down the street from our Apartment and turns out he lives right around the corner! We are meeting with him tonight at Tim Horton's!

Miracle after Miracle this week, boy do I love Missionary Work! My Ponderize Scripture for the Week is D&C 6:2-3 

I know that Jesus Christ Lives, and because he lives, so can we. I know that this Gospel has been restored through a Prophet of God! And I know that President Monson, is a Prophet, called of God, and holds the Authority to Preside over the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!I Hope all is going well and here is a picture of me rocking out on the dock at Spencer Smith Park

Love, Elder Taylor