Tuesday, February 18, 2014

I now like soccer....uh oh!

February 17, 2014

Hello!!!!!!!!!

So y'all saw my confession.  I like soccer.  Sorry I'm emailing alittle later today.  We went to a soccer game at 10:00!  So, it turns out, there's a place called Grande Sports World out here - where a ton of socer teams train.  And RSL is one of them!  They also have Academy teams.  Well, there is a kid form Lehi who is active in Church and his parents are from Brazil.  And he plays!  So, I went wither another companionship (Elder Andra is sick and stayed with the other companionship) and we watched them play.  Just sat on the sidelines in lawn chairs with the bishop and his family.  Oh boy, yep.  That's my future.  I just pray that I'm not the crazy dad that gets kicked out!

This week has been fantastic.  Honestly.  WE HAVE A BAPTISM ON THURSDAY!  Due to the Gilbert temple cultural celebration and other things, it can't be done Saturday or Friday.  But finally!  Her name is Toni.  I've told you about her.  She's the one that had the dream.  She was cleared through probation by an interview with President Toone.  I'm sooo excited!

This week has just been pretty good.  I get along pretty well with Elder Andra.  There are rocky points, but for the most part it has been really good.  And, living with six Elders has been good.  Most of us get along really well.  They were worried because the house had six sisters before.  2 sisters is too many hormones!  Now  imagine six!  YEP.  But with six Elders it's been awesome!

I'm glad to see you all are alive and well!  Eu amo todos voces!

Mom - Tell the Band of Brothers thing about the dream of our investigator.  It was awesome.  In fact it still is.  I'll sen you some stuff.  When do you nee it by?

Well family!  I love you all!

Oh yea!  We got to go to the temple twice this week!!We went on Wednesday to the Mesa Temple for our regular session each transfer.  It was awesome.  I love the Temple so much!  And then we got to go to the Open House of the Gilbert Temple on thursday!  It was so cool.  One again, I love the temple.

You all rock and I love you all.

As my BFF for life Elder John Garrett says,

"que la fuerza te acompane"
(with a little squiggly accent over the n.  It's in Spanish)

I love you!

Love, Elder Scott Jackson Taylor




The party crew at the Gilbert Temple Open House.



We FINALLY caught a scorpion!


Soccer game!


The soccer crew!  
Elder Taylor, Elder Babcock, Elder Storrs, Cluff family!


Five months. WHAT!

February 10, 2014

Hey yo.  Tomorrow is Five Months since I left.  I was set apart Five months ago tonight.  WHAT!!  Time flies when you're serving.  It's CRAZY!

Sounds like life in Kaysville is treatin you fools pretty well!  Dad, I'm jealous.  What is it with you and all these Apostles lately?

That's actually really cool that you got to go to that.  I love the temple.  We're going Wednesday - And Thursday!  Woot. woot!  Wednesday is our day to go to the Mesa Temple as a zone.  Then we're going to the Gilbert Open House on Thursday!!  I'm so excited.  We are going with an investigator and her fellowship family!  I'll let you know hot it goes.

Yes.  President Walton is still that Stake President.  We're actually going to his house today!! Zone activity.  They have a volleyball net, basketball court, and a batting cage.  So, it should be quite fun.  haven't gotten to swing a bat in awhile.  He was at our ward on Sunday and he came up to me and said, "I know someone you know."  He told me it was a Lifferth.  I knew that I know that name!!!  I could not remember who was a Lifferth, but I knew I recognized that name.  That's cool!

Sounds like a party.  I am sending a birthday present today!  You'll like it.  It's actually for Mom, Abbey, Hailey and Annie.  you'll each get one.  Be excited.

This week has been pretty cool.  I think I told you about Sister Burton last week.  Anyway, we taught her twice this last week, and she is very receptive.  She is on date for march 8th!  She came to Church again Sunday.  So on Friday, we taught her about the book of Mormon and gave her a  new copy.  She came Sunday and said that she was already on chapter 4!  legit!

Another cool one this week.  So, one of our investigators really wants to get baptized, but she's on probation.  She we've taught her for awhile.  She's been coming to Church for probably about 7 months.  Since before I got here  anyway.  This past week, she caught her fiance' who is LDS, cheating on her.  I thought that would immediately turn her away from the Church.  But, she had a dream this past week about baptism.  She talked to Heavenly Father in the dream and he told her that she couldn't wait for someone to help her out.  She would have to do the work alone or it wouldn't get done.  So, she turned even more to the Church!  It was awesome!  She has an interview with President this week to see if we can baptize her while still on probation, due to the circumstances.

Well, I hope all is well there in Kaysville, Provo, Orem!  It's so weird that Trevor is at college!  I still see him a Senior in high School.

Love, Elder Scott Jackson Taylor

P.S.  My Valentine is the Book of Mormon.  Yeah.  That's right!



This dog is named Brooklyn.  After the Brooklyn Dodgers!
She didn't want a picture with me!



PARTY!!





It's about dang time!

February 3, 2014

Oi minha familia!

It's only been what?  5 years?  about dang time someone popped the question!

Haha.  I'm so happy for you two.  I would put Natalie on the family email, but not until June 14th!  Haha - just kidding.  I'll put her on here anyway.

Things are going well here in good old Casa Grande.  The work is picking up!  And it seems that we are finally starting and continuing to gain support and love from ward members and ward and stake leaders!  We had some great meetings with some Stake leaders on Sunday to discuss our ward and branch.  It was nice to finally see the trainings that are going on.  They are really emphasizing the teachings of the Prophets and Apostles and using the handbook.  There's been a lot of "traditions of fathers" when it comes to missionary work and that will change as the work continues to hasten.  I love this area!  The ward members are incredible!  They are so kind, and I'm so excited for them to participate in the work of salvation.

I don't get to go to the open house this week. :(  Next week!  We are going on the 13th.  I'm so excited!  Such a cool opportunity to go to this.  When they announced it to us and told us all the details clear back in November, I was like, "please, I'll be in Brazil and fluent by then."   apparently not!  Patience is a virtue.  I love the people here, though and I'm fine being here.

Trev and Nat are getting hitched!!! Did everything go smooth?  It better have, I prayed that it would It's crazy that it's actually happening.  5 years in the making.  I'm sad I can't be there.  So you better have cardboard cutouts of me!

So guess what??  I rode a pig on Saturday.  That was fun!  We were doing service as a zone for a lady in the Spanish Branch.  She lives on a farm and the own these MASSIVE pigs.  So of course me and my companion rode them.  And, of course, we have it on video. Haha!

So something really cool this week.  We've been really working and praying to find people who are ready.  We have people to teach, but it's been difficult to commit them to anything.  so, we fasted that the Lord would lead us to those who are ready. Well, after church, in comes one of our ward missionaries with a friend.  She told us she wants to turn her life around and knows that there is a higher power.  We bore testimony that God is our Heavenly Father and the Gospel will bless her life.  She was nearly in tears from simple testimony.  The spirit was super strong.  We have a lesson with her tonight.  I am so excited and thankful that Heavenly Father answers prayers.

Well, I hope all is well in Zion!  Ha!  So may Utah haters here.  So I always say I'm from 1 of 2 places.  The Promised Land. Or Zion.  They always just roll their eyes!

Eu amo voces!

Parabens irmao e irma futura!

Love, Elder Scott Jackson Taylor



The MASSIVE pigs!



Doin' some service!  We tore that trailer apart!



Probably my favorite picture. EVER.  
Little kids outside playing Pokemon - so I joined them!



Hola Chanchitas!!

Minha Familia.  Eu amo todos voces.

January 27, 2014

That's Spanish.  Look it up!

This week has been good!  Nothing too out of the ordinary for me either!  Except....we get to go to the open house!!  This past week we were informed of a rule change and we only get to go once with an investigator that we have already been working with and we have to have their fellowship there and a member has to give the ride.  But, we get to go!  We are actually going to be going with Breanna, her fellowship, and possibly Breanna's family!  Cool, huh?  We are either going the 5th or the 12th.  Cool.  I'm so excited.  But no, we don't do anything with it.  There is VERY little missionary involvement.

Mom, I promise I won't go swimming and do dumb things.  Sometimes I get crazy on my bike, but after crashing 3 times this week, I've calmed down a little.

And, yes.  I really did crash 3 times.

So, here's my story on my pants.  Background:  For some reason lately, I just feel like I don't really fit in there and I'm just "another missionary" to these people.  But it was cool to see otherwise.  So, I was having problems with my bike, and I crashed on Friday and my chain fell off.  That time I wasn't being crazy.  it was just dumb.  Well, when I crashed, I was wearing my tan pants.  I had to put the chain back on and I got a huge grease stain on my pants.  I had no idea how to get it out.  Well, we went to the church for a coordination meeting, and in the parking lot were the scout leaders and...one of our investigators!!  He lives right by the Church and he saw the gathering so he went and was talking to a couple of the members.  It was legit.  Anyway, one ward member noticed the stain and pointed it out.  And the investigator looked at me and says, "Hey, if you can't get the stain out, come to my house.  I wanna give you $40 dollars to get a new pair of pants.  When someone like you blesses your life, you just wanna be able to give back."  Now, we can't take money, but it was just so cool to have someone say that to me.  It was awesome!  The ward member then told me that he had some stuff that would get the stain out, and he told us to come by the house the next day.  So, we went by and he got to work and scrubbed hard and got the stain out.  Now, I know this was nothing bit, but it was just really cool to see people show care.  It made me feel good.  So that was cool.

Anyway, the work continues!  I love seeing the miracles out here every day.   Trev once told me to notice miracles every day.  So I do.  I actually write down 5 miracles every day.  Sometimes it seems like a stretch, but that's when I really see what the Lord is doing for us.

Love,  Elder Scott Jackson Taylor



YEP!



Girl Scout Cookies!



Hipster Missionary on a long board!



Hey there, it's getting chilly! I don't mean the weather, I mean your attitude, silly!

January 20, 2014

Ola Minha familia! Como voces estao?

It's really not getting chilly.  Except in the mornings.  Then it's cold.  But other than that, it's the exact opposite.  It feels so hot.

I'm still here in Casa Grande!  We had transfers on Wednesday and I got my novo companheiro.  It is Elder Andra.  He is from the one and only Rexburg, Idaho.  Weird to not be with someone from Oregon.  He's been out just over a year.  Elder Fenton went to Awhatukee.  It's right below Phoenix.

Well, things here are going well.  This week was tough but good.  We did some cleaning up of the area book.  And it's been really slow.  Since I'm the one who knows the area, I had to plan out where to go and who to visit and all that good stuff.  It's safe to say I had no idea what I was doing.  But it went well anyway.  Things with Joann are in a rough spot right now.  But they'll pick upl  We were able to get in contact with and teach a few investigators this weekend that we haven't gotten to in awhile.  It was nice to sit down with them and really get what's going on.  Elder Andra is really good at establishing why we're there and we're not just at someone's house for a fun time or a simple talk.  We're there to leave commitments to help them grow in their faith.

Well, tell Elder Ballard that it is warm here.  I can't believe it.  Middle of January and we hit 77 degrees yesterday.  I should have taken a picture.  That sounds like it was an incredible conference.  It's not every day you get to shake hands with or even see an apostle!!

So, yesterday was awesome.  The work has been really slow, and it's been really tough.  So, we fasted yesterday, specifically for one of our investigators, but also for our are.  Yesterday we had 5 non-members at our family ward.  A part-member family that has been saying they're coming for the past 8 weeks finally came!  We have a lesson with them tomorrow.  And an investigator and her 9-year old son.  And another investigator!  It was so awesome.  The 5th was an eternigator who is there every week, but he will get baptized soon.

Then there was the YSA branch.  A less active girl who runs cross country for CAC came.  And she brought a non-member friend!  She was in the cafeteria Sunday morning, and found Alex.  Alex is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  He came to the US as a refugee 3 years ago and a coach at CAC found him and recruited him.  The coaches were showing him around Sunday and they took him to the cafeteria for him to start going on his own.  Maris, the girl, found him and said he looked so lost.  she was with her parents and they helped him around and invited him to church!  They said the whole ride to church he was just saying, "thank you, thank you!  I was so scared I was going to be with the people that drink and party.  Thank you!"  So, President Hancock talked to him about the Church and gave him a Book of Mormon and invited them all to FHE tonight.  It was so cool.

Well peeps, that's my week.

Love you all!

Love, Elder Scott Jackson Taylor



Arizona Sunsets - legit!



Leanin' on a cactus!



This is Wayne.  I love him!  He wrote us a message.  It says:
"We love the missionaries!"
I picked him up by his ears once and now every time he sees me he asks me to do it again!



Quatro Mesas!

January 13, 2014

Holy Cow!  This past Saturday marked exactly four months since I left home.  I can't believe it's really been four months.  I know that isn't long, but it still seems so crazy.  Cause it really is long!

So yesterday we got our transfer doctrine for this Wednesday...I am staying here!  I am staying here in Casa Grande, BUT  Elder Fenton has received a special assignment and will not be staying here, so I will be getting a new companion.  I'm already done training!  Crazy huh?  The even crazier thing is that I will have to do it all over again in a whole other language.  It's insane!  I can't believe this visa thing.  Of the 5 visa waiters in our mission, 3 of them got their visas this past transfer.  2 to Brazil, and they left this morning, and 1 to New Zealand, and he leaves in a couple of weeks.  I'm excited to continue on here in Casa Grande.  I like it here, reminds me a lot of home.  It's like a mix between Kaysville and Layton. exccept everything is brown and there's a lot more Spanish!

This past week was CRAZY with meetings.  Wednesday, we had zone meeting.  Thursday, weekly planning(usually on Friday).  Friday, Zone Conference with the Maricopa zone, and Saturday, not with Elder Holland.  So, Elder Holland was suppose to speak at ASU Friday night, and was suppose to speak with us Saturday morning.  Well, guess what.  On Friday morning he got an urgent assignment from the First Presidency and had to cancel with us and ASU.  We still had the meeting, and it was incredible.  Elder Wright, of the Seventy spoke to us instead.  The Mission Presidents of the Tuscon, Phoenix, and Tempe missions and their wives all spoke as well.  It was awesome!!

Zone meeting and Zone Conference were incredible.  A lot was talked about.  In zone meeting, our zone leaders asked what the culture of our zone is toward obedience.  Someone responded, "striving for obedience".  So the Zone leaders said "Exactly.  And that's not going to cut it."  They talked about how we are not being obedient.  We are doing the big things, but not the little ones.  they had us do an anonymous survey of 7 things.  Waking up on time, exercising 30 minutes, studies on time, home at the right time, effective daily planning, going to be on time, and not going over time on Facebook.  there was not a single 100% in the zone.  I am sorry to say.  My biggest weakness....exercising.  I just have no desire in the mornings, so I exercise for like 15 minutes.  But we talked about the miracles of exact obedience.  Well, I will be exactly obedient form now on.  "Obedience brings blessings, but exact obedience brings miracles."

Did I tell you about Joann?  Well, we put her on date for baptism on Friday for February 15.  It was awesome.  it was the first time this transfer that we have even gotten someone on date.  I just had the feelling to look at the upcoming Saturdays before the lesson.  She is a really heavy smoker and hasn't yet been to church, but her husband is a smoking less active, and has come the last few weeks.  I knew that if we gave her a date she would really work to stop smoking for it and after.

Well familia, no crazy adventures this week.  We continue to work with Sherman.  We are trying to sit down and read the book of Mormon with him and as we do that we feel a lot of opposition.

I love you all!!!!  Thank you for your wonderful examples  Eu te amo voces muito!!

Con amor, Elder Scott Jackson Taylor

Hey!  Also, my address is going to change this week.  We are moving to a house.  There are currently sisters in that house and they are switching.  We may also be splitting an area, so there will probably be 6 Elders in that house - Crazy!  So I will have a new address, so don't send any more letters until I can get you the address.

Love you!

I forgot to tell you about our new Facebook stuff.  We had to unfollow everyone not in our area.  It is now specifically for the work and people in our area.  So fi someone is disappointed that I didn't see their thing about me on Facebook, tell them that is why.




I got crazy and bought Mexican candies.  SO GOOD!



I set off the smoke alarms...again!
(It really was the 2nd time!)



I made our whole apartment WAFFLES, ICE CREAM and BACON on Christmas!
I LOVE BACON!



Greetings from good ole Casa Grande!

January 6, 2014

Sounds like all you kids have had a fun December!  Mine has been pretty crazy as well.  This last week went by really slow it seems.  A lot of crazy things have happened.

So remember how we hiked Picacho Peak last week?  Yeah.  Haha.  Well, missionaries aren't allowed to do that any more.  Oops!  Our Stake President took our zone to hike, and it was awesome!  Picacho Peak has a lot of crazy steep areas where you have to use steel cables to get up.  It was pretty cool.  It's a constant climb.  You go up and down and up and down and it's really steep.  My legs are still feeling it.  Anyway, at the end of the hike, I stayed back with the last group that was really slow. It was me and one of our zone leaders, and one of the missionaries I live with.  I have grown really close to them and we were just talking and with the Stake President, who was helping some of the sisters who were struggling.  We were the last group to return...so we thought.  We got back and had 3 sisters missing.  They were the first ones to leave the peak so we would have had to have passed them.  And the mountain is steep, so instantly every one was pretty worried.  They organized a couple groups all with phones and flashlights (at this point it was about 5:30, which is really dark in Casa Grande)and they took off up the mountain.  I was part of the big group that stayed behind.  But right before everyone left to go looking, I stopped everyone and said, "let's have a prayer first." So we all kneeled down right in the middle of the little street there and said a prayer.  Well, it didn't take long to find them.  turns out, there's a spot on the back of the mountain that splits into 3 trails.  One to go to the peak, one to quickly go to the bottom of the mountain, and one to return to the trailhead.  All really steep.  You're suppose to go with the trailhead, but the 3 sisters took the one to the bottom of the mountain.  After a while they felt like they were going the wrong way, so they said a prayer, and turned around and came back.  We found them pretty quickly.  Anyway, 2 sister didn't come on the hike. The sisters that weren't lost called them right as we started looking, so they called Presiden Toone to see what to do.  turns out we have an awesome President.  He wasn't mad, he was only concerned for safety.  The Zone Leaders talked to him later that night and he still wasn't mad, he was still just happy that everyone was ok.  But needless to say, missionaries are not to hike Picacho Peak for a while.

That was our crazy adventure.  Speaking of hiking, we are going to Casa Grande Mountain with Sherman Bishop today.  He wants to go pray away from the city, just like the Apostles did in the Bible.  so he suggested that we all fast and do that.  I'm really excited/nervous.  I have no idea what will happen.

Things are pretty strange here in Casa Grande, but we continue on.  Our area is really slow right now, and we got dropped by two investigators yesterday.  But, I know that getting discouraged won't help.  We have a work to do and I know that it is God's work.

I hope school goes well for all of you!  Trev, it's like getting to love new companheiros.  Just love them and serve them.  And Mom ir right, you'll be with Nat 99.57% of the time so don't even worry!

I love you all!!!  Good luck in all your many talents!!

Love, Elder Scott Jackson Taylor

P.S.  it's 2014, My only full year of missionary service.  Cool.  I'm excited!



More Picacho Peak.  See how it goes straight down?  It was so cool!




Picacho Peak 
That goes straight up.  You climb up using steel cables!



Tebowing on Picacho Peak!



Most of the Casa Grande Zone!
(The one with the beard is not a missionary! haha)

January 6, 2014

Dear all my friends, Ones from home and all my new mission friends. I just wanted to say how thankful I am for all of you. I love you all and am so grateful for all of your examples. I just wanted to leave you with my testimony to start this New Year. I know that as we start it right, with our Savior, we will see things happen in our lives that we never thought possible, and we will see happiness never before attained. 

I know that this is the work of God. I know that this church is not just a church, it is the way to live with our families and our Heavenly Father forever. This isn't just a religion, it's not just a church to follow, it is the kingdom of God, the one and only way to eternal happiness. I know that everything that our Lord has given us is to help us attain happiness and eternal life. I am so thankful to know that I can be with my family forever. I love my family so much. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

If you haven't had the chance yet, please watch the Mormon Message called "New Years: Look Not Behind Thee." It talks about how we can start this year right, and begin to really live the rest of our lives. I love you all.

Love, Elder Scott Jackson Taylor.




On top of Picacho Peak!



Turn this photo upside down.....YEP!



Dia 111

December 30, 2013

Oi minha familia! Espero que voces ainda estao bom.

It was so good to see your ugly faces and hear your annoying voices again!! You all look so different. Not really. Only Annie. Which is weird. It hasn't even been 4 months but she looks so much bigger. And, no, YOU all look great. Especially Syd with her towel hair. #rockinit

That's right. I just put a hashtag in the email. What's up.

My Christmas with Sherman and the baptists was great!! We went to his family's house in Coolidge and they had good food!!



Woot!  Woot!  Christmas Eve set up.  Santa was good to me!



My Christmas loot!



I LOVE LEGOS!!



 My cute Christmas tree!


Sherman wanted to take a walk out into the desert so it was him, his wife, Elder Fenton, me and one Sister Bishop's sons. We walked out and were talking about the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We stayed away from the super big doctrinal differences and just talked about our Savior. It was awesome. We have a lunch with him tomorrow. A member from the Second ward wants to come. He's black and crazy. And awesome. And he took work off to be with Sherman tomorrow. I'm excited.

I'm so excited for Kenzie. But totally not fair. She's already in South America? What a ripoff. Actually, it's been good here in Arizona. I have learned a lot about myself and who I want to be. Not just as a missionary but as a person after. I have learned and seen a lot. It's crazy the things you learn on a mission. And It's incredible that I know I would not have learned these exact things in Brazil. I have things to learn in Brazil, but I guess not yet.

I'm glad y'all got some down time during the holidays. It's always nice to relax. Missionaries don't get that. We're hiking a mountain today. It's another small one. It's called Picacho Peak. The locals all talk about how big it is and I just laugh. HA. Hills.

It is ALWAYS a good time to be a fan of missionaries. Duh.

I don't even care about BYU right now. They're starting to disappoint me too much. But I still wear my BYU shirts with pride.

We don't really have any plans for New Year's eve! We have to be in an hour early and don't get to stay up! We have a few lessons Tuesday night so it's really just a normal day. Haha but I think we have been able to inspire people with New Year's even more than Christmas. We have used the Mormon Message, "New Year's: Look Not Behind Thee." It's about Lot's wife and not looking back. It has really helped people and we stress the moving forward with the Savior. It's great.

New Year's day we have a barbecue with one of our members and a couple other families. That will be fun.

I'm excited for my full year of service!! 2014!! 

I love you all!

Love, Elder Scott Jackson Taylor




Zone activity - bonfire on Christmas!





The house had a pink roping cow!  Nuff said!



Thursday, February 6, 2014

Feliz Natal!

Feliz Natal!!!   December 23, 2013

Ha. That looked like I was about to type "Happy Natalie." Awkward.

I am so excited to see and talk to all of you fools on Wednesday! I will actually be calling around noon. I am singing at a baptism for one of the wards in our stake. His name is James and we helped teach him the commandments lesson right before his baptismal interview. I am singing my song with Hermana Harr again. Which I have on my hastening device, But I don't know how to send it or anything. I am so excited to go to a baptism and talk to family on Christmas. How often does that happen?

This week. It has been quite interesting. And really hard. It just seems like things like to get harder and harder the harder you try to make them good. Then, right when you want to give up, the Lord tells you not to. He lets you know that it's all gonna be ok. You get on your knees and he lifts you up. I've spent a lot of time in prayer this week. A lot. and I will tell you more of this later.

So, on Thursday, I literally put blood and sweat into this work. And into my shirt. We were helping someone move, and I went to pull this long, skinny, water container out of the truck. It was full and really heavy, and it started to slip through my hands. I tried to hold it against my body to slow it down. It didn't work. Instead, the lid caught my ear and took a nice little chunk off. I thought it just scratched my ear, but about 10 seconds later, I reached up and felt some warm liquid coming out. And it was red. It was awesome. Ears bleed like crazy. It  dripped on my shirt and I was having to wipe off my ear constantly. It looks so gross. Pictures don't do it justice. 

So, at Stake Conference a few weeks ago, we had Elder Kapishke, who resides in Farmington, Utah, and is a member of the seventy, speak to us. He gave us a cool challenge. He told us to ask members if we could set a specific day and time to have a lesson in their home, then pray and search for one of us to find an investigator to fill that slot. We did that and set a time for Saturday night with the Carlson's. Well, Friday night came around, and neither of us had found anything. And I was getting worried. But, Saturday morning, we had the feeling to invite Sherman Bishop. Our Pentecostal minister. Brad Carlson, the dad, really likes to talk, and knows a ton about the gospel. So we knew this would be a long and intense lesson. Little did we know.

But first, back story. Sherman just recently married a woman in our ward, Dawn, who has a very strong testimony. They kind of get into some debates about the evidence of the Book of Mormon. She told us that they were getting into it Saturday morning, and she just had the feeling of "stop. Someone else will teach him of the evidence." So she stopped. And not very long after, we called, inviting them to our lesson that night.

Well, Saturday was a rough day. We were supposed to have 2 lessons in the morning that fell through. So we made some visits, and went and ate lunch. After, We did our online proselyting.  Later that day, we got dropped by a pretty solid investigator. And then our dinner forgot they had signed up. Then we had a ward christmas party. The whole time I could not focus. And I just kept saying small prayers to help me. Well, right after the Christmas party was our lesson with Sherman. It was the last place I wanted to be. I knew it was going to be intense and very taxing on the mind. And I just didn't want to do that. But Of course I just went anyway. Well, the lesson started at about 7:30. And here's to give you an idea of how intense it is with Sherman. It ended at 9:45. Yeah. Brother Carlson and him talked A LOT. And so did Elder Fenton, but I still could not focus. So I talked very little. And just couldn't focus. I felt like I had nothing to contribute to the lesson. But towards the end, I just had a strong feeling to tell him about our day . And I was just like no way. That's dumb. But it would not go away. So as we were about to end, I said, "before we end, I want to bear my testimony." I don't know why. But I told him about how I had had a really rough day. I told him that As we were at the Christmas Party, we sang Silent Night. And the words, "all is calm, all is bright" just went straight to me. I told him that all is calm in the Kingdom of God. And I told him that I know that God answers our prayers. That if he would truly pray about this and ask God about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, He would answer him. I looked him straight in the eyes and bore my testimony that this church is the Kingdom of God on Earth. It was the strongest testimony I've ever born. It was the quietest the room had been all night. And in a little  room in Casa Grande, Arizona, the spirit resided at full strength. 

I don't know what will happen with Sherman. He is in a VERY hard situation. But I do know this: This Church is the Kingdom of God on Earth. And it is growing. And he now knows that too. He cannot deny the true spirit that was there. It was not the Spirit of speaking in tongues. It was not an earth shaking. It was the Spirit of God, speaking truth to a Child of God. I pray that Sherman will get baptized. That he will be able to follow the truth he now knows.

Well family, the Church is true. The Gospel is true. All of it.

Merry Christmas. I love you all.

There will be some Christmas fun and letters coming your way soon. I have not had time to do any of it yet. So it'll be more like New Years fun.

Eu sei que Deus ama Nos.

That is my simple testimony.

Love, Elder Scott Jackson Taylor.



No good deed goes unpunished!  
My missing ear!


Nosso Pesquisador Toni!
We gave her a picture for Christmas!


I'm getting so good!
#Professional








Hello My Family!!

December 18, 2013

It's in English now. Boring right? I've been in America too long. Haha just kidding. I should be saying Hola. I have actually picked up on quite a bit of Spanish. I'm not good at it, but the words are so similar to Portuguese that I am usually able to get it. And I can understand a lot of it. It's cool.

Mom, you don't bore me to death with your emails. They are the best. I love hearing about all the excitement and hastening of the work in Kaysville. Don't EVER let people tell you there is no work to be done there. I know plenty who need it. There's a reason that the Utah missions are often the highest baptizing in the world. It's because people forget. It's not that they're bad people. But sometimes Satan makes us forget that we are children of Heavenly Father. They forget that the true message of his gospel is not cursing people to Hell and saying they are sinners. It is that He loves us! What better message is there? HE LOVES US!

And yes mom, I did remember it was your birthday. You need to check facebook more often apparently. Because the Branch President of the YSA even commented on it. I am glad to hear that you are doing well with your surgery. I pray that you continue to recover and are well. 

It's so nice to hear that Trev is doing everything he can to help out. He's an awesome kid. Now I'm just wondering where this was a couple years ago...Ha. You all probably think the same about me though so it's all good. Missions change lives. Thousands. We may not even realize that we changed a life and boom. Changed. It happens everyday. For example, we just talked to a guy outside the library. We actually talked to him on the street a couple days ago. He's probably about 23. And he's an awesome guy. The first time we talked to him he was way cool but was making fun of us cause we were bad with names. So I promised him that I would remember his name and the next time we saw him I would know it. Lo and behold, I remembered it. The spirit helped me. And he was really happy. It was cool.

ABBEY!!!!!!!!!! That's so awesome!! Keep working hard. That is so incredible that you made it. Guess how many sports your brother and I played for KJH. That's right. None. Granted they didn't have football or baseball. BUT. That's awesome. Even though you had to sacrifice other things, it just shows that sacrifice has rewards. I love you kid. Keep working hard so you can be the next (female) Jimmer. And you can play at BYU and not lose by 20 points against Utah.

Well y'all. Here's my week. 

We had a Mission Wide Christmas conference from Sunday night to Tuesday morning. It was awesome. We started with our monthly Mission President Fireside where missionaries bring investigators, and recent converts give testimonies and then a talk by President Toone. It was amazing. Breanna Port was there, and we talked to her after. We told her that we had felt the next needed step with her. We need to get her parents to the MPF in January. Yep. That'd be cool. We then had a conference of just missionaries all Monday. We focused on the different aspects of missionary work, and how Jesus Christ is in all of them. The temple President and his wife talked to us. And a stake President from Chandler I think. We then had a huge testimony meeting of miracles we have seen and learned. So I ended up not singing on Sunday. Turns out the sisters had a mix up and we sang on Monday night at our Mission Family Home Evening. It went really well. The conference was incredible. We stayed at an apartment in Mesa with the missionaries in the Mesa zone. 

Well minha familia, Eu amo voces muito. Espero quo todo esta bom com voces.

Love, Elder Scott Jackson Taylor

Oh yeah! so, Skype on Christmas. My companion is doing his at 10:30. Would we be able to do it at 11:30. We can't facebook about this. President said to do it over email. Or if that doesn't work, I have all day on Christmas. So send me a letter with the time you want to do it. I love you!


Selfie with Santa!!


Arizona Tempe Mission "Taylor" Gang!
Hermana, Sister and Elder Taylor!



Happy Birthdays!

Minha Familia!              December 9, 2013

I am so glad you google Earth stalked me and found where I live. We all did the same thing in the MTC to our own homes! HA. The whole of Casa Grande is a lot like the Kaysville/Layton area. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!! I am sorry that I am currently unable to send anything for your birthdays. We have been very busy and honestly I have no idea what to send for Birthdays and Christmas. Maybe I'll send you a dollar from the country I am serving in. HA. I am so funny. I think I'll do that. But Abbey should get a letter today! and Mom will get one soon! 

Ooh. Abbey. Jonah. Nice.

Thanks for telling me about surgery the day of! I could have been praying for you this whole time! I hope all goes well. You can't do that to me. I saw "I have a little surgery today" and about peed my pants. Don't do that.

Things are going pretty well here. We have had quite a few members bring friends to church and other functions. One lady in our ward actually got married, and most people in the ward don't know. They just thought engaged. But now it's married! anyway, her husband is a minister at a Pentecostal church. His name is Sherman.  I love him. When they first started dating, Sherman told her not to read the Book of Mormon anymore and was against the church. But, she has kids and they would have family scripture study and the kids got to choose what book to read from each day. So they chose the Book of Mormon, and wisely, she chose to read Helaman  ch. 8. where it talks about the Bible prophets, and he was like "oh, I guess it's not so bad." He has been to church the last two weeks and LOVES it. He "amens" EVERYTHING. Not just amen. It's like "amen amen amen amen." It is hilarious. We have a lesson with him on Wednesday and I'm excited.

Well, I just wanted you all to know that my companion is awesome. 

We had Stake Conference this past weekend and it was about missionary work! Elder Kapishka, who is from Germany, and is a member of the Seventy, and also lives in Farmington, was there. And it was awesome, and he gave an incredible talk about the Atonement, and Sherman was there. So that's good.

I also had the chance to give a blessing on Saturday night. After the Adult session of Conference, A couple of the new sisters weren't feeling well. Emotionally. They aren't new, they just got transferred in, so they are new to me. Anyway, one has had heart problems, and asked for a blessing. Elder Fenton gave it, but after, one of the other sisters asked for a blessing and asked that I give it. I tell you what, there is a very special spirit in giving a blessing. In having words  come to you that  you would have never known to say without the spirit. It is awesome.

So that was my week! I love you all and hope you are having a grand ole time in Kaysville! I am glad that dad's non member friend commented! I hear the Gilbert temple is beautiful. I've only seen pictures. And if I get my visa before the dedication, that will be one of my first trips when I get home. It's the largest temple since which one? that's right. Bountiful. Awesome.

Eu amo voces!

Love, Elder Scott Jackson Taylor


Never mind the shadows!! My pen got all festive!


Real rattle snake head that was in our freezer!  Cool!



Party on in Casa Grande!

December 2, 2013

All is just dandy here in Casa Grande! We got transfer calls because it's already been 6 weeks here! Crazy. Well, nothing new. I am staying here in Casa Grande with Elder Fenton. And the 2 Elders we live with are staying. BUT, Almost all of the sisters in our district are getting transferred, and BOTH of our zone leaders. Crazy. One died (went home) and the other is getting transferred. Which stinks, cause I really liked our zone leaders. Anyway, PARTY ON IN CASA GRANDE.

We had our baptism!!!!!!! DJ is now a full on member of the church with the priesthood and everything!! It was awesome. Saturday was kind of crazy, but it was good. So the baptism was at 4, so we got there at 3 to fill up the font, and we told DJ and Colt, the one baptizing him, to be there at 3:30. Well, Colt got off work late and they didn't get there til 4:15. And President Toone came! We invited him since DJ is Samoan, and President served in Samoa. He was the only one in the room bigger and taller than DJ. Anyway, DJ and Colt are both big and tall. And the largest jumpsuits we had were XL. Colt fit in, but we could not get DJ to fit. Finally, we squeezed him in. By this time it was about 4:30 and I was just like what is goin on. But, I said a prayer, calmed down, and watched an awesome baptism. Colt leaves on his mission to Michigan next month, so we are now going to recruit DJ as a missionary buddy for us.

YOU WERE IN ARIZONA!? You can't do that to me. You can go through Arizona once I get my visa. Until then, sorry. Ha. My Thanksgiving was pretty good. We ended P-day early Monday and continued it Thursday. We could only go out if we had a dinner appointment. We had 2. And they were both really good food. One was really awkward because all of the extended family that was supposed to come was about an hour and a half late. So we just sat there waiting, then were like, "um yeah. We have another dinner we have to go to, so......." It was awkward. Then we had a zone activity. We party hard. We just played volleyball and things like that at the Stake Center. It was fun.

I am back on facebook and doing well. The homesickness creeps in every once in awhile, but as letters from my brother and sister have said this week, STOP IT. I need to focus on why I'm here, not just what I need to do. Thanks fools. BTW, Syd's letters are and always will be the best.

YES. (in reference to BYU beating USU.)

Hey Dad, maybe you should slow down. HA. Or just be cool like me and get pulled over on a closed road where the ticket is $750 but the cop lets you go with a warning. That was awesome. But scary.

This week has been a good'n. We have focused a lot on making sure we get the 20 OYM's (Open Your Mouth; Street contacts) every day. We didn't quite get it, but we had a lot of cool discussions with people. And we for some reason we keep running into preachers and ministers. Baptist, Methodist, Jehovah's Witness (that one was INTENSE. Not one actually. It's happened twice.) But it's fun. I wish people would just chill out and realize that if our message is true (which it is) this is the most important moment of their life.

We had 4 investigators at church. Members have been so good. Most of them that is. They are inviting friends. We had a lady invite her fiance. Sherman. He is a pentecostal minister. And He LOVED our church. He was "amen" ing EVERYTHING in Gospel Principles. And the other one that was invited was Tashika. And yes. I love it. She came up after with the member that invited her and wanted a Book of Mormon. We gave it to her and our number and invited her to read 2 Nephi 31. Woot. Woot.

So that's how things are here in House Big. Ha. Get it. Casa Grande. I'm funny.

I love you all and hope you have an awesome week.
Love, Elder Scott Jackson Taylor




Elder Taylor, DJ, Elder Fenton
DJ's baptism day!