Me & McKinnon Again 5/21/16

Good morning, I feel like I don't have a ton to write about, It was just a couple days since I last wrote!

We got the call last night for Transfers! Elder Erickson is headed out to London and Elder McKinnon is coming to Barrie! This will be my 3rd transfer with Elder McKinnon! He was my trainer when i came out, so I'm pumped to be back with him! We drive to Brampton on Tuesday for transfers! 

This last week has been great, we got the bikes from the Sisters who share the ward with us so we have been on bikes a lot this week, which I love! It's beautiful weather, and there are so many people outside to talk to and it was the best thing ever!

This week we had a lot of meetings and we have been trying really hard to find new people to teach! Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday we had meetings which ate up part of the day. 

I really don't have a whole lot to say this week at all! Sorry!

I do love you all so much, and I'm so grateful to be able to be a missionary! I love it so much, it's a beautiful work!

Love you all

Elder Taylor

The Speed of Light 3/16/16

This week flew by at the speed of light, we had so much going on, running around all over the place! 

We went hiking by lake Simcoe last Monday after emailing and found some very cool places, I'll send you some pictures of our adventures! 

Tuesday started off with District meeting for one of the Districts in our Zone, and after that I had exchanges with Elder Fjeldsted. He is the hardest working missionaries I've ever met! I learned so much from him! He is headed home next week, but has left a huge impact on the mission! I learned a lot about Charity from him and how that should be the driving force behind everything we do! On exchanges we taught James, who is getting baptized this week, I'll explain more about that situation in a bit. And we met with Mannie and Randy who are New Converts, it was a super good day overall!

Wednesday was a busy day with meetings and we had lunch with Brother Thompson, who took us to this awesome place called Avoco Bar, Mom, this is your kind of place! It's a fast food Salad bar, sounds wierd but it is super good! You get a salad and then they wrap it in a tortilla and it is so good! It sounds like a boring place, but it's pumping, and super busy. 

Thursday we did some Yard work for our Ward Mission Leader and had lunch with him and his wife, and then we met with James and Justin again! Went over the Baptismal Interview Questions and helped him prepare for that! Looking forward to his Baptism! Had a very interesting experience with a lady downtown while contacting. We were talking with this guy when this lady come up, who had a few too many drinks, and decided that she was going to give me a hug. Now, as a missionary I felt so uncomfortable because I couldn't get away, after that there were some very inappropriate remarks made to us, and as she went for Elder Erickson, he made a spin dive out of the way of her and said "No way!" It was all really awkward and I felt super weird the rest of the night!

Friday, we went to Wasaga Beach for District Meeting, and had lunch at a really good chinese place called 98 Super Panda! It was delicious, and the rest of the day we had to do some planning and had a meeting we had to go to!

Saturday the temperatures went from 27 to 3, and it was freezing. We didn't have a lot planned, but luckily had some service opportunities come up that kept us inside and not in the cold weather! We also met with Carrie, who is a friend of Sister Jaime in the Ward. We helped Carrie move 2 weeks ago and we talked about the Restoration with her! She doesn't believe in God, YET, and we are super excited to continue to teach her! She is super up front and honest which makes teaching really awesome! Love working with her, she also has 2 kids, Liam and Maddox! We gave both a copy of the Book of Mormon too!

Sunday was very very stressful... It all started at 7am when Justin called us telling us that James was sick and not sure if he was going to make it to church, which he has to come one more week before he can be baptized, but his baptism is on Saturday. Then in Ward Council the Bishop told us that we needed to integrate them into the other ward because they are outside of the boundary, which was confusing because our bishop already told us they are staying in our ward, because Justin was Baptized here. It's hard to explain all the details, but basically yesterday we had to make all the arrangements to get James passed to Cookstown Elders for his Baptism next sunday. Justin called us and told us James was up and ready so we got them a ride, but the ride couldn't find them so they didn't make it to church! At the end of all of this I learned a lot about humility and how it is the Lord's work, not mine! James will be baptized on Sunday now in the Cookstown Ward, but we will be there since we have worked with him since day 1!

Crazy week, and a crazy one coming up!

That's all I have, but I love you all so much, and I love this Gospel, grateful to be a Missionary. It's not always easy, but the best days here, make the hard days seem like nothing! 

Love, Elder Taylor

Smiling Faces for Mother's Day

Well, it was so amazing to be able to see smiling faces on Mother's day, I'm grateful for that opportunity! I'll give a quick rundown of my week, because I'm sure you still want to hear about my week a bit more!

Our week started off busier than I every thought it would. We had a few appointments on Tuesday and have to spend some time getting ready for our Zone Council on Thursday because we had MLC in Brampton on Wednesday. We had dinner with a New Convert at the fanciest resturaunt I've been too in a really long time! For dinner I had Lamb and a to die for piece of white cheese cake! Oh boy, it was heavenly!

MLC was great, we drove to Brampton and stayed in the Assistants house with all the Zone Leaders the night before, and had a great time. It's hard not to when you get 23 Elder's together. MLC was awesome, we talked a lot about the Atonement, and helping the missionaries in our Zone. I learned a very unique thing, that the greater knowledge we have of the Atonement, the greater our desire to share the gospel becomes! I've seen that a lot throughout my mission, the more I grow to understand the Atonement, the more I feel I need to share it! It's a wonderful message we have, I'm grateful to be an emissary of the Truth!

After MLC we had to run around Brampton to get some Posters for one of the companionships in our Zone, and by the time we got home the day was basically over!

Thursday we had Zone Council and then we had exchanges with the Orillia Elders, so I spent Thursday and Friday in Orillia! It was tons of Fun. I was with Elder Bliss, who is from Florida! We met some super awesome people down there, and we had a very powerful lesson with one of the Members of their Branch. He was expressing the concerns he had that he wasn't good enough to come forth in the first resurrection. So we talked about the Atonement, and what it says in Isaiah chapter 1 about becoming clean through it! He asked me to give him a blessing, which I was able to do. It had the most powerful feeling of love come over me, but not for me, it was for him. For a brief moment I felt the love that Christ had for him. It was an out of this world experience. 

That's really it for this week, but I love this Gospel, it is Christ Church. God lives, and loves us, and knows us perfectly! I testify!

Love you all!

Elder Taylor

Mannie's Baptism

Wow, just wow. Such a phenomenal week we had up here in Barrie! Obviously I have to first talk about Mannie's Baptism! It was such an amazing day! Crazy busy but it was a beautiful day! Brother Dadd-Dowlat Baptized her and her confirmation on sunday was so powerful! I got to stand in the circle, and it was such a powerful experience! She bore her testimony right after too and it was awesome! She is the next relief society president, I'm calling it now. ;)

We had Exchanges with the Assistants last week as well, so we went to Brampton for the day. It was great, the way exchanges work is that two companionships of Zone Leaders go to Brampton and Blitz their area for the day. It was awesome because that night it was Me, Elder McKinnon (My Trainer), Elder Erickson (My first District Leader), and Elder Turner and Forsyth (My first Zone Leaders) It was weird, it seems like just yesterday we were all together, but it was 10 months ago! crazy how time flies! On exchanges it was my first time in Toronto! It was so cool, and we talked with so many people! It was a blast! I loved how many people there were to talk too! It's a cool city!

We helped a lady move last week who is a member's friend. While trying to get a couch through her front door we started to teach the Restoration, which was a funny situation to teach the Restoration. But she asked us if we would give her a Book of Mormon so we are going back this week to give her a copy and hopefully try to teach her! It's cool how the spirit works though, because she hates organized religion, but you could see the spirit working on her! 

We stopped by a Less-Active member last week that hasn't had much contact in a while and sat down with him out in his Garden! We had a great talk with him about the Temple and he said he would love to get back to the temple! We prayed with him as well and he was crying afterwards, he said he NEEDS to come back to church and we are going to begin working with him and help him get back to the temple!

I Love the temple, we are so blessed in Utah to have so many temples! I hope you all get the opportunity to go as much as you can. Around the world, there are so many who only get to go to the temple once in their life, in some places once a year. In Utah we can go daily, I hope you all use that opportunity in your lives, those in Utah at least! :)