Meet Chippy 04/25/16

Baptisms & Dish Duty 04/25/16

Terra was Baptized on Saturday! Wahoooo! So excited for her and her decision to be Baptized!

Along with Kerra, Mannie is getting Baptized tomorrow! We are so excited for her! 

Anyways, this week here in Barrie was an absolute blast, full of so many miracles! We met with James, the 16 year old kid we are teaching, this last week twice and set him with a Baptismal Date, and he told us he would do whatever it took to reach that goal! :) 

Had my first Zone Council this week as well, it was a bit hectic getting it all put together, but it turned out super well. Here in our mission we have what are called Mission culture which consists of 3 points:

1) We Teach Repentence and Baptize Converts

2) Preach My Gospel Mission

3)Consecrated Disciples of Jesus Christ

We did our Zone council on that, and it went super well. As the meeting was going on, President and Sister Clayton were there doing Interviews, so we got to have interviews with them, which is sad because that was my last one with President Clayton, it's hard to believe in a few short months he will no longer be here! In our instruction to the Zone we shared a talk called "Feed my Sheep" with everybody. It was an MTC devotional by Elder Holland, if you get the chance, LISTEN TO IT!

We saw a multitude of miracles this week, one amazing one last night was that we had only found one new investigator this last week so last night we were out working so hard to find some new people to work with! We were talking to everybody but nobody seemed to listen. The time came to 8:45 so we started to head for the car, as we crossed the road we talked to one last person, who was super interested! She asked to meet with us again! It showed me how we always have to put our trust in the Lord, I know that it was no coincidence that she was there! 

We had a lot of awesome Service opportunities this week. One of our Members, the Dadd-Dowlat's own an amazing restaurant called Cravin-The-Flavin which is to die for good! We stop by to help them close down their restaurant sometimes and we helped them wash dishes, in return we got some delicious pork and rice! Yummm....

I had exchanges with Elder Lemon last week, he is serving in Owen Sound! We had an amazing time! Got a ton of things done with him, and we were able to commit our investigator Michael to baptism!

Elder Erickson has this horrible game called Bean Boozled which is where you have a bunch of Jelly Beans, with 2 flavors to each bean. One good flavor, for example Pear, and one nasty flavor, for example Booger. It's as gross as it sounds! We played it the other night and I still have those nasty tastes in my mouth! It's hilarious to play and watch your companion's face when they get a nasty one!

Yesterday was a really long day, we started off by traveling up to Orillia, which is a branch in the stake, because we were asked to speak with the High Counselors. I spoke on Elder Arnold's talk from conference "To the Rescue". I was a bit nervous right before I spoke, but as soon as I got up there to speak, I was filled with Energy and all the nervousness left. So grateful for the spirit in times like those! 

I'm so grateful to be a missionary at this time in my life, it is an incredible opportunity! I love this Gospel, and I know it is true! It brings true joy and happiness, and I couldn't imagine living the rest of my life without this opportunity!

The Land of Milk & Honey

To say that Barrie is the Land of Milk and Honey is an understatement! It is such a wonderful blessed land here in Barrie! I have loved my first week here and I hope to be here for a long while! Elder Erickson is my companion, and we have been having such a wonderful and miraculous time together, and boy have we seen miracles and the Lord's hand here.

So the Sunday before we got here, Randy got Baptized, so we get to work with him as a New Convert, which is super fun! He had to work on Sunday so he has his Confirmation scheduled for this next Sunday. He referred his friend Mannie who is getting Baptized on the 26th! Mannie is awesome, we have met with her quite a few times, and she has such a strong testimony already! Coolest part, Randy might be able to get the Priesthood before Mannie's Baptism on the 23rd, so if he does, he is going to Baptize her! WAHOOOO!

Our very first day here we met with Michael, who requested a bible online, we met with him and he has read the entire bible in a month and now is in the 2nd Nephi in the Book of Mormon (Maybe surpassed that now). He is awesome, and he is trying to find a path for himself in this life. We are excited to really help him see how the Gospel can bless his life!

When we haven't had appointments we have been meeting with all the Members and trying to find out who the Elder's have been meeting with!

Here are the Crazy miracles this week that we had!

1) We received 3 phone calls one morning about the same person, so here's the story. A Less-Active member who hasn't had contact with anybody for around 2 years called the Bishop, Church Headquarters and another member. Turns out he has a friend, James (16), living with him. The member has been watching after James for quite sometime because of Jame's living conditions as a kid. Well, James is looking for some spiritual knowledge at this time in his life due to his situation, and we got to meet with him and he came out to church on sunday! He loved church as well, and was talking about how he wants to be a part of the church and be Baptized!

2) We have this thing called Kijiji which is like KSL that we use to put ads on, we put an add on about the Holy Ghost, and got an email about it asking how much it costs to be Baptized? So we told them it was free and we would love to meet with them. They emailed back saying they want to be Baptized into our Church, so now we are setting up a time to meet with them! Miracles eh?

3)We went by a member who wasn't home and while we were there, the neighbors were staring us down, so what do we do. You know it, we went to talk to them! We met Alana and Christopher, who are super curious about the Book of Mormon and have tons of questions for us, so we gave them a copy, invited them to read it, and set up a time that we could come back. It's going to be a blast!

We went to Wasaga Beach for a district meeting this week, fun fact, it is the longest fresh water beach in World! We could barely see it so we didn't get a picture, but it's super cool! The Chapel there is in an old Bank, weirdest looking Chapel I've ever seen!

Tonight we have something called "Initiation", where brother Dadd-Dawlet gives us his famous hot sauce which is 6 million on the scofield scale. If you don't know what it means, basically it's so hot I may die. ;)

That's it for this week!

Love you all!

Elder Taylor

Goodbye Chatham...Hello Barrie 4/11/16

Well today is my last time in the blessed land of Chatham. We got the call last night from President right before we went into our apartment last night. (It's always a scary sign when President calls and not one of the Assistants). We answered and he told Elder Certonio he was going to be staying as the District Leader! Then he went on to tell me I would be headed to Barrie West, and I would be the Zone Leader in Barrie Zone! What a surprise, I couldn't even believe what I heard? I'm excited to get to serve in Barrie! I'm super sad to be leaving Chatham however, especially with Kerra quickly coming up on her Baptism on the 23rd. It's like leaving a piece of your heart when you get transferred, but it's exciting to move on and continue to help more people! 

The temperature here dropped a lot this week, back down to freezing, and some snow up north, which means I'm headed up to snow possibly. 

Update on Kerra, she is doing awesome! She is getting baptized on April 23rd, and she is the most prepared person I have ever met on my mission! She told us this week too that she was talking with the Stake President and he got her an assignment for the summer at the Thomas S. Monson camp! It's an amazing opportunity for her!

I had an exchange with Elder Mak from Hong Kong this week and learned all sorts of random phrases in Mandarin! It was fun! As well, we had an awesome mission wide call where President Clayton told us all about being called as a General Seventy. Nic, you were wondering which quorum, and President Clayton told us they don't really specify, the only reason there is more than one quorum is because there can only be 70 in a quorum.

We are teaching a guy named John here now, and he keeps giving us referrals around Chatham for all his friends. We've been doing a lot of time trying to contact all of them. He just spews off names and addresses of people to go by, one of the friends we got a return appointment with! 

Not too much excitement happened this week, it wasn't too exciting! Glad you all got to eat sushi, which I love. 

Love you all!

Elder Taylor

The picture with the family is the Hunter Family, Brother Hunter is with us all the time! The Picture on the street is with a Guy named Police Dan and Riley. They are some friends we have made while contacting, super funny guys!

7th Week & A New Seventy 04/04/16

Well, If you haven't heard, which I'm sure you have, President Clayton was called as a Seventy in the Saturday Afternoon Session of General Conference! When they called his name I asked Elder Certonio if he was just called and he didn't hear, then we got a text from the Zone Leader's asking if we just heard it! Eventually it was confirmed and we learned this morning that President Will be with us until the 1st of July 2016, and then our new mission president, President Shields and Sister Shields will be coming as the new mission president! We are all sad to be losing him, but we are really excited for him and the opportunities that his new calling will bring!

General Conference was soooo amazing Eh! I loved it so much, such a powerful message that everybody had to share. I loved so many of the Talks, President Nelson's in Priesthood Session was awesome, President Uchtdorf's was incredible, President Monson's were oh so powerful, and what a better way to end than with Elder Holland's talk on "Tomorrow"! It was a good day for conference to be on as well because the temperature dropped to below freezing and started snowing Saturday morning! 

"May we always Choose the harder right, than the easier wrong"

-President Thomas S. Monson

Well, we are starting off week 7 of the transfer, which is weird! I feel like it'll make next transfer go that much faster! This last week was a great week indeed! Not a ton has happened since we last emailed! I went on an exchange with Elder Morby who is serving in Windsor. It was a blast, we had a real good time and we were able to teach a few Less-Active members! 

Kerra is doing super well, we have been teaching her a couple times a week and she is super receptive to the spirit! She loved General Conference, and is super excited for her Baptism! We are meeting with her a few times this week as well. We have gone over almost everything we need to before she is Baptized.

Bruce is doing super well, we are still meeting with him and helping him to work towards his Baptism! He couldn't come to conference because of some family things, but he should be back to church next week! 

That really is about it! Here are some pictures of "The Brotherhood" which is my district! It's wonderful having all Elders :)

Love you, Elder Taylor