'Twas The Night Before Christmas...and all that was stirring was a Big Fat Squirrel

A Wolf, Too Much Food & An Amazing Christmas 12/29..

Hope you all had an incredible Christmas Day! It was awesome to be able to see you on Christmas, Really was such a blessing!

Alanso and Mercedes are doing super well! We still don't have a date set for them yet for Baptism, but hopefully in the next few days we will! Richard, the single Dad we met with last week is doing great as well, we stopped by yesterday and were able to talk about Prayer with him and 2 of his sons! We are still pushing forward with everybody else.  Christmas week is hard because nobody wants to meet because they have family and such, so this week should be lots better for that. :)

We started off our Christmas Week at Niagara Falls with the Aitchisons! It was so much fun! We started off by checking out the Beautiful falls, we then traveled up into the City of Niagara which reminds me of a mixture of DisneyLand and Las Vegas. We had dinner up there and then we went on this huge Ferris Wheel that overlooks Niagara, it was phenomenal! While we were walking down the sidewalk there was this HUGE squirrel, and by huge I mean morbidly obese. You could tell that people feed this thing sugared nuts and popcorn all day long. It ran right up too us and jumped on my knee as I took a picture of it, that things was heavy, luckily it jumped off my leg after a few seconds.

Our Christmas Week had us all over, and everybody wanted to feed us! 

We had Dinner with the Bootland Family Last week and had an incredible dinner, turns out they have a pet wolf! Well, it's like 3/4 wolf and 1/4 Husky to make it legal, but still, it's a flippen wolf. How sweet is that! I forgot to take a picture of it, so I have no proof, but it was absolutely beautiful!

Christmas Eve rolled around and we found ourselves at Lunch with Greta Zelanko. She had us over and invited her two friends over as well! Her friends were from Germany and Slovenia. It was what Elder Jones called my "First European Dinner". It was the loudest dinner I've ever had! I often find myself sitting at dinner tables being the only non-european there! We had a Christmas Rooster for dinner, I didn't even know people at roosters, but it was very enjoyable, and tasted pretty much the exact same as any chicken you buy in the store besides it was a bit less sweet. 

For Dinner the Aitchisons took us to Mandarin, which is very different from the Mandarin in Utah. Here, it is a HUGE buffet. Let me tell ya, missionaries in buffet's are like Kids in candy stores. I had soooo much food. They seriously had more food than I have ever seen. They had everything from General Sou's Chicken to Crab Legs to creme brulee. 

Christmas Morning we woke up and had our typical morning! During studies we were able to read out of Luke 2 and watched the MoTab "Joy to the World"! We weren't able to proselyte on Christmas so we stopped by members and Investigators! We then met up with Jira, who is from Thailand and headed to Skype from there! After Skype we went to Alanso and Mercedes where they fed us Pan con Chipe, which Is a latino turkey sandwich! It was delicious, along with the sandwiches we had rice pudding, horchata, and cheese!

We then had the typical Turkey Dinner with the Bonus', watched some of the MoTab Concert from last year, and then headed back home for the end to a wonderful Christmas Day. In Canada however they have Boxing day, which is the day after Christmas! We love it because everybody is home so we were able to talk with a lot of people! 

Sunday night in Planning we decided we were going to do a Car fast for Monday, so we planned it all out and began to pray for miracles (A car fast is exactly what it sounds like, we don't drive for the day as a sacrifice and pray that we will have miracles). As Monday came around we found ourselves in a In the first snow storm of the year, figures we pick the first snow storm of the year to do a car fast in, but it ended up super well! We ended up walking about 12 Kilometers total for the day! We weren't able to find anybody new to teach the whole Day, but right as we got back to our Apartment last night we got a text, and it was our first media referral throughout the Christmas season! Such a  blessing, we are giving her a call today to get things arranged to meet!

I've been really bad about Ponderize scriptures the last few weeks, but I decided that this week mine is Mathew 25:34-36

"Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me."

It stands as a perfect example of what we should all do day to day to follow the example of the One who gave all for us. I'm grateful for that example to me! 

I love you all so much! 

Love, Elder Taylor

Sermon In The Flat 12/21/15

The Picture here is from our "Sermon in the Flat" video we made cause we had some time before bed last night.... haha :) Someday you'll get to see the video. But the scripture we used was from D&C 4

It's Going To Be A Sunny Canada Christmas 12/21/15

Merry Christmas, can't believe it is Christmas this week, where has the time gone! Dang! Well, It finally snowed last week! Like, it snowed maybe like an inch, but it at least snowed here. But, this morning it is raining and like 7 degrees (Celcius), so who knows what is up with Canada!? I never thought in Canada we would have a sunny Christmas, but that's what it looks like is going to happen. Anyways, we are headed to Niagara Falls today with the Aitchision's, Elder Jone's barely slept last night because he was so excited for Niagara Falls! 

On Monday night we left behind Preparation day to stop by a potential and work around him, it was amazing! We ended up finding a lady who was interested in the Christmas video and ended up inviting us back on in the week. When we went by again later in the week she wasn't home but we were able to teach her husband who was home about the restoration and he invited us to come back again! It was amazing! But, on Monday after talking with her we knocked on a door and nobody came to the door, and just before we stepped off the porch a huge rainstorm came down. We stopped for just long enough to look at our plans because our next plan was to be out Contacting some people on the street and the man who hadn't answered his door came outside.His name is Richard and we ended up teaching him the restoration on his porch and we have been able to meet again with him since! When we went by again, he invited us in and he was doing a Christmas Craft with his 6 year old Daughter, she told her Dad when we knocked on the door "There are 2 very nice men at the door for you?" He said he knew exactly who it was :)  He is a single dad with 5 kids and we are hoping to get his kids involved next time we go.

Church Yesterday was incredible!! Man, we had 7 investigators there with us, and 11 Less- Active members! It was amazing to see how the Christmas spirit reaches out to everybody. We don't have any scheduled Baptisms right now at the moment, but we are going to try to get Alanso and Mercedes set with a new Baptismal Date so that they can work towards that. We found out basically what the concern was and next time we meet we are going to try to help him see how the Gospel with Bury the concern.

Starting in March the MTC stay for all English missionaries is going to change back to 3 weeks, not sure exactly why, it's probably for the best, I'm just glad I got to be the lucky 12 day MTC stay group! I loved the MTC, but man, It was nice to get out of there. Can't believe it's been like 5 months since there. I'm almost at 6 months so I can't use the excuse of "I'm new" kinda stinks, but It's also good because I know what is going on now

I learned this week the Jehovah's Witnesses really know the Bible, we had a Jehovah's Witness invite us into his home and he thrashed us with the bible. They interpret the bible really weird however, and use a New World Translation which pretty much gets rid of all credibility. It makes sense however what their religion is based on because they HATE blind faith, they think there needs to be physical evidence for all things. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I love you all and am super excited to talk on Christmas!

Love Elder Taylor

Yep....He's still a nut. Thank goodness.

A Little Mandarin & A Little Cantonese 12/14/15

Good Morning Everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful week last week! Ours was pretty good. Full of some really awesome lessons, and a few disappointments. But that is just the usual missionary week! I know you are all wondering about Alanso and Mercedes, but unfortunately they needed to postpone their Baptism until the End of January. They have some personal things they are working out that we don't even really know about. So keep them in your prayers please. I think that was some of the hardest news because I most likely won't be here when they are Baptized now, I'll have been here 6 months by the next transfer. I could stay, but I have a feeling that I'm leaving after this transfer! But, I'm super excited for them, and they will be baptized when the time is right for them and when they are ready! I'm super excited to know that I was able to be a part of teaching them. 

We had dinner with Alanso and Mercedes last week also and Mercedes taught us how to make papoussas. They are so good! When I get home I'm opening a Papoussaria and a poutineria! Two amazing foods that you don't really get in Utah!  Papoussa is a dish from El Salvador that is a corn tortilla with frijoles, peppers, and cheese inside. They are phenomenal! 

On Monday we met with Sandy again, she is awesome! We taught the most powerful first vision I have taught since I have been out! The spirit was so thick you could have cut it with a knife as we told the first vision. It really was a powerful moment for all of us, and not only did it help Sandy to begin to recieve a spiritual witness, it strengthened everybody that was there! 

I got to go on Exchanges with Elder Lau on Friday and Saturday! It was a total blast! Elder Lau is from Hong Kong, NOT China. He made that very clear, haha! He is a Chinese missionary, he speaks both Mandarin and Cantonese. The difference between the two is huge, I had no Idea! They aren't similar at all, but Mandarin is spoken in Taiwan and China. Cantonese is what is spoken in Hong Kong, basically when Hong Kong split from China they created Cantonese cause of their dislike for China. We had a wonderful time on exchanges however, we got to go to downtown Hamilton and contact on the street! There people downtown are super humble and so nice, this man even stopped us to tell us some poems he wrote about Christ. We ended up meeting a young Chinese kid named Charles, and I pretty much stood there and said nothing while Elder Lau taught him in Chinese for 10 minutes. I told Elder Lau that the next time he started speaking to someone in Chinese I was going to talk to someone else around us that spoke English, cause I felt so awkward. We also taught one of their Investigators in an English/Mandarin lesson. I would teach in English, and then Elder Lau would teach in English and Mandarin! Over all the exchange was a blast, and I learned how to write my name in Chinese, so plus!

We have also started meeting with a lady named Jira, she speaks very little English, just Thai. So we are helping her to learn English, it will be tough teaching her, but she is awesome, and she want to cook us dinner! Thai food is some of the best! :)

We are still working with Rocky, MJ, and Setti. They are the Philipino family if you don't remember, but they are doing good! We met with MJ and Setti last night and they are starting to feel more comfortable with the idea of Baptism! Hopefully next week we will be able to set a date with them!

Well, have a wonderful week and a Merry Christmas! I'm excited to talk to you on Christmas!

🉐㊙🈚🈹🈵🈴🈂

Love, Elder Taylor

Missionary Modeling 😳???

No More Mincement pleeeeease 12/07/15

Boy are we excited for Christmas here in Burlington! Everything here has been super good, I have learned however that I HATE mincemeat. People here love it, and I just can't figure it out. We have dinner with a member family every week and it's always mincemeat tarts for dessert. When I get home I an never eating Mincemeat again :) I don't even know what the stuff is, cause i'm pretty sure it ain't meat. 

Last week we started meeting with Sandy, she is one of the Member's friends here that wants to start coming out to church! She is super awesome, one of the kindest most down to earth ladies I have ever met! She is coming to church next sunday, and we are sooooo excited! We are going to try to set her with a Baptism Date tonight :)

We got a text last week from a guy we met on the street at the beginning of Last transfer! His name is Matt and we ended up sitting down with him and talking about the Restoration! He was baptized as a Catholic not too long ago and he says he thinks that Rehearsed prayers are dumb, so we discussed the Apostasy and he even came to Church on Sunday! He moved here from Russia about 9 years ago and we found out he is only 25, he looks older than that, so we are going to have to pass him to the YSA Elders, Sad day, but he is super solid and wears a super cool bracelet made of pictures of Jesus. He also has the most firm handshake I've ever felt, I feel like the life is getting squeezed out of my hand every time I shake his hand!

Yesterday was Stake Conference here and the focus for the meeting was on Sabbath Day Observance! The First Presidency has been really focused on that recently, which obviously means we aren't doing good enough. I guess we should all focus on making the Sabbath a more meaningful day. In Mark 2:27 it says the "Sabbath is made for Man, not man for the Sabbath" and I love that, it is so true!

Alanso and Mercedes are doing FANTASTIC! They are looking super solid for their Baptismal Date of December 19th, and they have their Interview this week! We are super excited for them, and Alanso asked me to Baptize him, and Elder Jones to Baptize Mercedes! While we had a lesson with them last week we had a cool experience. We found out that Alanso was confused on the whole "Hot Drinks" thing, when he was taught the Word of Wisdom he thought it meant temperature wise, and was confused on why he couldn't drink tea. So he asked for scriptural proof on the tea thing. As I opened to Doctrine and Covenants 89 I was praying that Alanso's heart would be softened and we could say what he needed to hear! After a brief discussion it all made sense to him and we could tell that the Spirit had taught him and softened his heart! It was amazing! Alanso and Mercedes also gave us some Chicherones. If you don't know what they are it's what Nic had on his mission, which is deep friend pig fat. They are super good! Basically like deep friend bacon. 

The First Presidency Christmas Devotional last night was phenomenal! I loved hearing the wonderful messages about Christmas, and I felt like it was the perfect way to start off the Holiday season. If you weren't able to see it, you can watch it online! 

Well, I love you all!

Elder Taylor