God Bless America! 03/29/16

Well, it's Tuesday, and our P-day is today because Canada loves long weekends. They celebrate Good Friday, Easter, and Easter Monday here. Whatever is up with that, not to sure about it. It's nice, on Friday though, everybody is at Mass! It was so hard to find people to talk too because everybody was in the churches! It was a good week overall.

We went to Windsor last Monday and saw Detroit, it was good to see some American Flags. It was fun but the museum we were going to go to ended up being closed so we weren't able to do that which was a bit of a Bummer. We have to head to Windsor again tonight for a Baptismal Interview. We drive around so much, it's crazy! Our monthly Kilometers are growing higher and higher.

Everybody we are working with is doing super super well! We're still meeting with Kerra, and she is so pumped for her Baptism! It's so cool to see how much she has learned over the last few weeks! Bruce is doing super well as well, we meet with him a couple times a week and he has been coming out to church for a couple weeks now! We helped him set a Baptismal Date last week as well! 

Our Investigator Erika, well use to be investigator. We were teaching her last week and she mentioned how she was Baptized in "This Church". It all connected and we realized she is a member! She was Baptized in Mexico when she was a kid and we tracted into her. Trust in the Lord, and he will guide you. She came out to church on Sunday as well and really enjoyed it! 

We had a crazy rainstorm this week. The River that runs through Chatham is completely flooded over, it must have raised 4 feet, maybe even more! It was spilled over all covering the walkway along it's bank and is still flooded today. It's beginning to feel like spring now, March is coming to an end and leaving like a lamb. 

District Meeting this week was down in Leamington, "The Tomato Capital of Canada". The place is packed with greenhouses! For Lunch afterwards we went to a Pho shop, which is a Vietnamese Soup where they cook the meat in the broth in the bowl. It's delicious! I had one with Beef and Tripe, I know you're probably saying yuck, but it's really not that bad! In Fact I quite enjoy it! 

On Friday we were up on Walpole Island teaching some of the Members up there and trying to get into some doors. It's hit or miss up there. Sometimes you can get in, other times it is like everybody is gone! But after leaving we went by Brother Howe who told us he wanted to take us to a Chinese Buffet. I was stuffed by the end of it and we had a Dinner appointment in not too long, so we went to the dinner appointment and guess what we had.... Chinese Food. I have never eaten so much Chinese food in my life. I don't want to see another Kung Pao Chicken for a month. :) 

Easter was an awesome day! We went to church, which was crazy. Running around getting members to pick up some our investigators. The Spirit was so strong in Sacrament, and it was fast and testimony meeting as well because we have General Conference and then Stake Conference! I was able to study the last 3 chapters of Luke over Easter Weekend, and it helped me understand so much more about our Saviour Jesus Christ! We got to use the new Easter video in procelyting, and It's such a powerful video, it was amazing to see the reactions it brought to people!

I know he lives, and I am so grateful for the knowledge I hold. It means so much to me. I know as well that our Father in Heaven's plan is perfect, that he knows all things and that he loves us so much, more than we could ever comprehend. I Love missionary work, I know this is where I am suppose to be, and I'm grateful to be here serving the Lord with all my Heart. 

I hope you all take some time to think of questions for this upcoming conference. There are going to be some amazing talks given, what a blessed weekend where we are able to hear from living prophet's and apostles! 

Love you all so much! Make sure to always study your scriptures!

Love, Elder Taylor

Elder Certonio doesn't like sitting by me in the car

The Fish is Done! 3/21/16

Answered Prayers & A Tank 3/21/16

This week was a wonderful one! Things have been on the uprise here in Chatham, we are now teaching so many people and our time is so packed! We saw some amazing Miracles this week on top of everything!

We met with Kerra like 5 times this week which was awesome! On Tuesday we invited her to be Baptized on April 23rd and she gasped and started going off on how the night before she had a dream that something big was going to happen on that Day but she didn't know what it was going to be! She accepted with a ton of excitement and she hasn't stopped talking about her Baptism since then! She came to a Easter Breakfast at the church on Saturday with us and really loved it, she couldn't come out to church last week, but this week she committed and she will be there Sunday! Such wonderful Miracles are happening with her. She told us yesterday that she has never been this happy in her entire life before, it's amazing how much joy the Gospel can really bring into other's lives!

Bruce is doing well also, he come out to church and said he was only going to stay for sacrament but ended up staying the entire time because he really enjoyed it! We showed him the Font on Saturday and he was stoked about Baptism! He has a date as well that he his working towards so high hopes that he continues to progress as fast as he has been! 

All week I had been praying that we could have 2 investigators at church on Sunday, when Kerra said she wouldn't make it we kept praying. I was asked to Bless the Sacrament Sunday, usually happens, but I was sitting up there and we only had 1 person there and I started to think..."Next week for sure" all of the sudden, this random guy walks in who nobody knows! After the Sacrament I went and sat next to him and turns out he is a former investigator from a while back! He wanted to meet this week and so now we are going to start teaching him again! It strengthened my testimony of prayer so so much! Heavenly Father hears and answers every prayer, I love how in the Book of Enos in the Book of Mormon Enos "Wrestles with God" his sincerity in prayer is enormous, and it taught me a lot about the power of Prayer. I encourage everybody to read it and think of how they can apply it to their prayers! 

There is an old military tank on display in the middle of one of the town in our area, This tank is a Howitzer M109A4, and is a monument to the Canadian Legion. We saw it and knew we had to take a picture with it!

We taught a Baptist Jamaican family yesterday which was awesome as well, we asked what the spirit felt like to them, and Maxine the wife went off on how when she feels the spirit she speaks the gift of tongues! We tried to correct that bit of doctrine, but easier said than done. We are going to see them again next week! 

That's about it for this week! Love you all

Elder Taylor

Finished my carved fish as well, this is Brother Smith with me. I'll send the fish home sometime in the near future!

28 Lessons & A Giant Panzaratti 3/14/16

My Goodness, we had an absolutely crazy week! It was super fun and full of so many blessings! We taught 28 lessons this week, which is a ton! That was the most lesson's I've every taught in a week!

Here in Chatham we don't get the most unique or unusual food, but this week we had these HUGE panzaratti's, I couldn't believe how big this thing actually is! I only got 3/4 of the way done with it..

On exchanges in London last week we got a phone call where we were asked to go by the hospital and give a blessing to a lady who was in the ICU. We arrived at the hospital and had to gown up and glove up in order to go in to give her the blessing. 

Yesterday was such a cool day, I have a bunch of experiences I want to share with you a few of those experiences from yesterday! It started off in Church, when one of the members was giving a talk. He had been sick for a few days up to that point, and you could see the longer he talked, the whiter he got, and he began to stutter. His brother took him a glass of water, which he drank, but he continued to get worse and worse. I said a small prayer in my heart for him, and his brother walked up on the stand and told the Branch President that he needed to sit down, so the Branch President walked over to him and had him sit down. Immediately the speakers brother walked up to the stand and continued to read his brother's talk! It was super powerful to see the love that this man had for his brother, to step up and continue his talk. The original speaker recovered and was able to finish his talk. 

Our Investigator Kerra told us that she wouldn't be able to meet at her home so we frantically started calling members that lived near her and we called the member that had taken over speaking for his brother that day. They invited us over for the lesson there and also for dinner with our Investigator!

A couple weeks ago we were asked to give a blessing to an elderly gentleman, and the member who asked us to give the blessing, asked us if we would go back again and visit the couple. When we got there the Gentleman was in his room in his wheelchair struggling to get in his bed, so we helped him into his bed and talked a bit about Christ. Before leaving the man took my hand and expressed the greatest expression of gratitude I had every had. I could feel the love that Heavenly Father had for this man, and I'm so grateful that I could be used as a tool for Heavenly Father to show his love to his Children!

Our Investigators are doing really well, we are teaching quite a few people, we started teaching a Lady named Erika last week, she is from Mexico City and committed to Baptism after the first lesson!

We are also still teaching Bruce, he is doing well. We are working with him to come to church! He has a Date for Baptism, which is really excited! He's a great guy, and we are so excited to continue to work with him! 

This week I've really been able to see how Heavenly Father uses his children to show love for his other Children! I'm so grateful for this opportunity I've had over the last 8 months to be a tool in the Lord's hand as a full time missionary! It's the greatest blessing and opportunity I've ever been given! 

I love you all so much, Have a great week!

March Came In Like A Lion 3/7/16

March definitely came in hard, we had a horrible freezing rain storm, if you've never been in one, pray you never will!

This last week was a super good one, we were able to meet and teach the Restoration to Kerra, who is so solid and has such a great desire to learn about the Gospel! We found her a while back and were finally able to meet with her and teach her the full restoration. She LOVES the Book of Mormon already and she told us after we left that she felt so good while we were there and she was emotional after we left and she had no idea why. It goes to show that the spirit is truly the teacher in all situations. Without the spirit, we would never be able to help people come unto Christ. She told us she would be baptized if it feels right to her, so this week we are going to work on helping her set a Date as a goal for her to work towards!

Last Monday we headed up to the Island to work on our fish, but Brother Smith ended up not being there so we decided to stop at the Uncle Tom's Cabin Site on our way back to Chatham. (Pardon the Clothing, we were suppose to be painting so we didn't wear our normal clothing.) If you remember Harriott Beecher Stowells book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" The place we went has the actual home of Josiah Henson, who the book is written after. At the site, there was also the grave of Josiah Henson! The history there was really cool, he did a lot of good for Civil Rights and Freedom!

We got a call last week from a member of our ward asking if we would be able to go give a blessing to an elderly couple in a retirement home. They also want us to come do a "Church Service" so their friend, who is a member talked to the Branch President, and they are going to start a small Sunday School class there. The same member who gave us that referral has 2 more friends that want to learn about the Gospel. 

Last week we met a lady from Ethiopia who spoke Arabic so we gave her an Arabic Book of Mormon, and we met a Lady from Bangladesh, so we are in the process of finding a Bangali Book of Mormon. It was nice to see some culture changes, That's what makes Chatham so different from the GTA, is there aren't as many different cultures and ethnicity here. 

I don't have a whole lot more to say this week other Than I Love you all!

Headed to London for Exchanges and Zone Conference today. 

Love, Elder Taylor

Puppies & Chickens with Elder Certonio 2/29/16