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

Introducing.....Elder Jones