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