Christmas

im doing good, the baptism went well. On Christmas we just spent mostly the whole day at the bishops house hanging out. probably invite the missionaries over only if they want them to, we want them to learn but it has to be their decision.
thanks for the gps, it will help me learn the area alot faster having the name of the street that we're on and the surrounding roads. sorry this is so short this week.
love
elder taylor call

First Week in Huntington

mom
i am doing good, this week was pretty good, tuesday night our bishop called and told us that a guy that is like 80 wants to be baptized, his wife is a member and they have been married for like 40 years and this is the first time he's letting missionaries teach him. we have the same responsibilites just alot more to be responsible for. huntington is pretty good, it's pretty hood, a lot of graffitti, drugs, and shootings.
sister curry is nuts, she called us at 10:30 friday night, i gotta get running but you can ask me questions on friday.
love you
elder taylor call

Last day in Martin

i hope you weren't still awake at 5 in the morning...anna's parents are both members but they are working their way back to being reactive. we committed doug stevens to be baptized yesterday. we talked about baptisms for the dead with him and a whole bunch of stuff, it was pretty good.
love elder taylor call

Regarding Packages

either way, i think it might be better to send it to the office so then if it came while we were gone it wouldn't be stolen. we live on a college campus, rent the movie We Are Marshall, i think me and you watched that one time, we live on the marshall campus, the past week was alright not our best, elder durling is staying.
love you too
elder taylor call

Huntington WV

i got transfered to huntington, wv, i'm a zone leader now. my address is 1528 6th ave apt. #7
huntington, wv 25727

The Funeral

alright well if anyone would like to read this at the funeral then you are allowed to:
this past week as i always do i include all the family in my nightly prayer, on about wednesday or thursday night as i was praying for Heavenly Father to watch over grandpa vern i felt a little uneasy and that something might be wrong. on friday we started teaching a man named doug stevens, doug experienced something really interesting. about 3 years ago he had a heart attack in the which he died for a period of time then went into a coma, during the time in which he was dead he told us about an experience he had, he told us that he saw both of his parents, he also said that he was in a place where for the first time in his life he was free from all his pains and things that burdened him in his life (much of the same feelings that are described in alma 40:11-12). as i read him those versus he got really big goosbumps and he said that that is the same thing he experienced. yesterday at church president robbins called and told me what had happened, when we went back into the church a little girl was playing on the piano, "families can be together forever" i thought that was really interesting and maybe meant to be. i know that it is only through the ordinances performed in the Holy Temples that families can be together forever. i love you all and i continue to pray for you.
love
elder taylor call

ps- make sure to add that doug stevens said that if he ever goes there again he said he would never come back...

Skiff of Snow

we didn't have any investigators come, saturday they were talking about cancelling church because they got a skiff of snow.
our investigators are doing pretty good, we are still teaching the spanish family but only once a week which makes it a little difficult for them to progress and to learn. the 8 year old anna we set a date with her yesterday for january 2 so hopefully that will happen. im not sure what will happen for transfers, i have a feeling i might leave but im not sure.
the best thing that happened this past week was that...i interviewed a guy in hazard that got baptized on saturday. he's pretty much 100% blind, he walks around his house with the lights off and he has a seeing dog that came in the interview with us.
the upcoming week- to make it better than last week.
love
elder taylor call

Thanksgiving Was Good

thanksgiving was good, the football game wasn't very good, we got killed. we played mostly with members but with some investigators as well. where was richard and chelsea? at her families? yes my box arrived, thanks for the picture book.
i would preferably hand write my testimony but however you want me to get it to you let me know. let clifford know that i am doing good and whatever other information you would like to disclose.
you should ask elder best's mom about the ties that she sends to missionaries. elder durling goes home in probably april and i think he gets more and more trunky as the days go by. he likes the city better i think. hope all is going well, don't let merideth spoil owen too much, you too.
love
elder taylor call

This Week's Thanksgiving

i am doing good, how are you? i will be sure to look for the package...
on thursday we are going to a members home to play football at noon and that is about all that is set in stone for right now. their name is the mckinneys, they have a son that lives up in the neighborhood by brighton pointe that lives by where meryl took guitar lessons.
marc hasn't changed since i was little, except for the dark rimmed glasses he wore.
i spoke in the ward here last transfer, it was probably my 2nd or 3rd week here, i talked about the conversion story of the parvinos and probably of the importance of member help.
you should have told the lady at the post office that she was dumb for thinking that way and she's going to miss out on alot in life for having an opinion from one person.
we have not had snow in martin and heaven forbid that changes. it snowed in georgetown but im not sure if it stuck on the ground.
georgetown is in the cincinnati east stake and martin is in the hunnington stake. i wrote the parvinos a while back but haven't heard anything from them.
elder james is not in hebron anymore.
it is because there was a change in the bishopric so president robbins would like their contact information.
thanks for molly's address, that sounds like the right one, the road sounds familiar. look in the back of the ensign in the relief socitey talks and she is there standing up singing with other girls that i know that went to skyline.
phone calls are only supposed to be to family members so that way if the girls come i can talk to them too.
the post office in cincinnati sent mail back to people becasue they are dumb so that is why they aren't forwarding it anymore.
for service we help a community center do yard work and other stuff like that.
i've gotta get going but if you have more questions then ask next week
love
elder taylor call

Doing Good

i am doing good, how is my mom? i did meet the urbach's, will you ask her if she knows or is related to the little's in the georgetown ward? i think i saw their daughter talking to her. elder robinson is one of my zone leaders, i'm going on exchanges with them this weekend and elder dastrup went to bigham i believe....
this past weekend 2 investigators i taught in hebron got baptized so that's pretty good.
yea i got that email about meryl, thats good that she is fine. the lights on my bike are good. will you email president robbins the new stuff about our bishopric and the phone numbers that you use?
can you get me molly's address? i have a story for you after i get that...
can girls come over to the house to talk to me on christmas?
love
elder taylor call

SSister Call, Robinson & Dastrup,
Sisters I was able to make contact with each of your sons today, and even got
them to let me take some quick snap shots of them. I will e-mail them to each of
you privately. Your young men are doing great and look awesome. They truly seem
to love what they are doing and the people. I am sure they felt as awkward as I
did going up to them, but I told them it was for their mom's and that we need to
know from other mom's that they truly are being taken care of. Again, what
wonderful young men you have and what an awesome opportunity it was for me to be
able to met them and to serve you by doing this. Thank you all so much for
letting the saints of the Cinn. Ohio Mission have your sons for such a short
period of time. They have touched so many already. You should all be very proud
of each of them.

Hello

things are going well, we were able to have a good last few days of week this week. we got a referral from a member, the ladys name is sophia and we taught her 3 times in 3 days this weekend. she has a lot of questions and reminds me a lot of the parvinos.
right now we are just driving the truck, we try to ride our bikes to service to save on miles but thats about it. riding a bike with a suit coat on is not my cup of tea. Elder Durling has been out almost 19 months. the best thing this week has probably been finding sophia, she seems like she has a desire to know which is probably the most important thing.
thats cool that you talked with cliffs mom yesterday, everyone here is nice to us but they don't really want to listen about the gospel. they'll sit and talk to us but no talking about the church. i'll email the picture of cliff and i next week, i wasn't planning on sending any pictures today. i will send you the card today in the mail.
does owen have a big head? in those pictures mer sent his head looks a little big. how come he's not wearing any pants? you guys would get mad at me when i would take his clothes off and now you're doing it...
is the guy from england the one that has a daughter named river? umm welp, i guess i'll talk to you later. i hear your having a girl in 9 months? are you gonna name her after an actress?
love elder taylor call

Transfer Week

things are going well, we got a phone call sunday night and elder johnson got transfered. my new companion is elder durling, he went to jordan and is from sandy. martin is starting to pick up and we had 1 investigator at church.
thanks for the pachage, i got it monday morning and put it in the fridge, i have only eaten some of the banana bread thus far. the exchange in hazard went well, we had a productive time and were able to accomplish much. i go on exchanges with the senior companion in each area then i go on exchanges with the zone leaders. in martin i know my way around pretty well. i am in charge of district meeting, we mostly just train each other how to be better missionaries and refine the things we are doing to accomplish our purpose.
the other two elders were elder smith and elder bentley. i took gloves with me but i want some that are warmer. im not sure about snow but i will keep you posted.
i was able to go to the dentist, he said that i had a filling on the tooth but it broke down and so a cavity had formed under neath the filling so right then he drilled and filled so i am much better now.
you can write whatever you would like on the blog, i won't be reading it so i don't really care. thats good that you were in control of the situation with the j dub, usually they like to take control and then change what you have said to contradict your beliefs. i haven't gotten my shot yet but i probably should soon.
hope all is going well.
love elder taylor call

Going By Pretty Fast

time is going by pretty fast, thats pretty funny for meryl that she has to be on a bike, actually thats pretty crappy. the leaves were really pretty in pikeville this past weekend when i was on exchanges but they aren't that great here in martin. i'll have to see how they are down in hazard on tuesday for exchanges.
i'll see what i can do for pictures of me and elder johnson. week 6 district meeting is when we take pictures of all of the elders in the district.
it was very chilly in georgetown but they say its not that bad here becuase of the hills so we'll see what happens. i should be fine as far as clothing goes but if it starts to get cold i'll just go to the tractor supply store and buy some stuff. stuff for christmas, ties from missionary mall probably would be fine. my suit cases are pretty full right now so please no big things that i would have to carry around, maybe music cds would be good.
the package arrived fine so that was all good with that. why would they take grandpa home? the house and stairs would be downgrading. i can't wait to talk to him about horses and rodeos again.
i have done one baptismal interview thus far and i'll be doing another one hopefully soon for hazard. we have district meeting every tuesday from 11 to 12:30. this past week the assistants came and did a training but usually it is just us.
im not sure what will happen sunday night, im not planning on anyone being transfered but we will see what happens.
love
elder taylor call

It's Getting Cold

things are going well, its starting to get cold here, the high this past week was probably mid 50's. im gonna start looking for some sheepskin gloves/ mittens to keep my hands warm.
most of the lessons we taught were to the same investigators, i wish we taught 20 lessons to 20 different people, probably 13 of them were to non members then the other ones were to less active members.
i haven't had my flu shot yet but we probably will soon, alot of our investigators are sick so it would probably be a good idea. i haven't cooked the steaks that you sent me but i have cooked some that were in the freezer in our apartment, maybe i'll cook one of them today. how many of the pass along cards with the family on it do you want?
thanks for sending the books, i'll be keeping my out for it. thats pretty cool that you got to watch that broadcast. i remember meeting the temple president and how he talked about president monson, i made a promise with him after he walked us to the room where the session is held. how was the bridal shwer? welll i hope that everything is going well, grandma told me how you took grandpa peach cobbler and max was there? do you know how chance is doing?
love
elder taylor call

The Fair

saturday night we had a booth at a fair and this girl walked up to us and is like "do you have any rosaries" and we said no, but "we have lots of free videos". then she looks at me and smiles and says "does your religion let you have girlfriends?" me "yes..." her "do you have one?" me" no..." her "are you looking for one?" me "no...." then she walked away. it was probably the funniest thing ever...too bad she wasn't fly

A Very Busy and Productive Week

we had a very busy and productive week this week, we were able to teach 20 lessons for the first time this transfer, one of the apostles promised that if we teach 20 lessons each week of the transfer we will have a baptism each transfer.
things with freddie are going well, he came to church yesterday and stayed for the first 2 hours, he excommunictaed himself after he and his wife got divorced but he came yesterday, we've talked alot with him about doing whats right and let the consequence follow. his wife is active so hopefully he won't fall away becuase she is there.
thats good that nothing too bad happened to the boat, if the hub cap wouldn't have came off you wouldn't have known anything was wrong so sometimes we're shown what needs to be fixed.
thanks for getting me those addresses.
thats good that dad got to take chairs down after conference, i hated doing that. how far of a drive is it from brigham to ogden? do they know where the temple is going to be? west side of I-80? thats dumb that the bograffs might be moving (make sure to tell jeff i said that) i don't remember who the oh do the highlands live on sugarloaf? thats good that sister olsen is doing better.
i hope everything is going well, thanks for the letter.
love elder taylor call

General Conference

president robbins said that we should look for new housing but there was alot of drama that went on this week with it so we will probably be staying in the same place.
we watched conference at the church, we had an investigator come who is an excommunicated member that has the desire to be at church but doesn't have someone to push him to be there. did dad watch priesthood session? marci would change the channel on the remote when things are getting intense...she always does that. thats pretty weird there are going to put a temple in brigham city, im just very puzzled with that location. did you watch elder hollands talk? the book of mormon that he was holding looked really cool, with the black cover and gold lettering. all the talks saturday morning about the spirit i thought were really good. then preisthood was reallly good as well. im not sure about elder dastrup, i've heard of him but im not sure if i have met him yet.
thats good that byu is winning, however i really could care less at this point, i have more important things i need to be filling my mind with. i do like the ananlogy.
i hope everything is going well, when are the bosgraffs having their kid? what else has been gonig on in the ward?
hope everything is going well
love elder taylor call

New Responsibilities

yea that was interesting to get that letter from him in the mail, i didn't know that he did that but it was cool to get. I have a lot of responsibilites, on sunday nights i call the areas in my district (paintsville, pikesville, and hazard) and get their weekly indicators or numbers and then i call the zone leaders and report them to them then they call the assistants who then report to president robbins. we have district meeting in martin, it is kind of the central location in the district and works out best for everyone. senior companion is good, i was just really stressed out last week because i had all of these new responsibilites put on me all at the same time but its getting better as i adjust to it. i enjoy driving especially because we have a truck its a chevy colorado. im grateful for whoever created 4 wheel drive because we get stuck in the mud among other places this week as we were driving on back country roads. i think we cover all of floyd county and a little bit of knott county.
thats pretty lucky you went down to st george, i really liked going to that play at tuachan with grandma and grandpa. yea i remember going to that lake thing, wasn't there animals that were down the road from there or something? i've met elder sudweeks once.
he's into trains now? merideth sent me a letter saying that they went to toys r us and she wouldn't buy him a toy and he bit her shoulder, i laughed prettty good about that one.
my clothes are doing good, i'll probably send some of the pants home in a few weeks because suit coat season may start this weekend.
hope everything is going well
love elder taylor call

Changes

yes elder smith got transfered, my new companion is elder johnson, he's from jeroime idaho. hes been out for almost a year, i am now senior companion, district leader over 4 areas and driver of our truck.
things on my birthday went pretty good, thanks for the steak, ice cream, cards, packages, etc... i was pretty surprised when i got all those letters from people in the ward, it was good to hear from everyone. the schwan man was really nice and i asked him if he was going to sing for me and he said he wouldn't and he was only doing that because it was his birthday last week or something.
i haven't been in a ward with a primary program yet or maybe i was in georgetown, i don't think so though. thats cool that you saw the tschaggeny's, i have a lot of stuff i need to do for district meeting so sorry this is a shorter letter but i hope everything is going well
love
elder taylor call

It's Not My Birthday Yet

yea i got the first package on thursday i believe, thanks for the shirts and the general conference talks, im not allowed to listen to talks not by general authorities so im gonna have to send the other one home, that is the same for books we're not supposed to have any books but we can have talks by general authorites.
the assistants were supposed to pick me up around 8 but they were like an hour late. martin is pretty good, i would compare it to summitt county. its pretty country and a little in the mountains, i like it pretty good.
1 my companion is elder t. smith, he is from lehi, i have been learing the area from him because he'll probably get transfered next week. he has been out for a year.
2. he has been here for 6 months, there are some investigators but not a whole lot of really solid ones.
3. i know of at least 3 missionaries that got transfered, im included in that 3
4. martin is a ward but not a whole lot of people come, the stake presidency came yesterday and talked alot about getting the less actives involved in the ward and back to church. its a pretty big area, we have a truck but the miles go by really fast so we bike 15+ miles a day. i would say it is a lot more country than georgetown, everything is a lot more spread out.
i don't think we're supposed to read newspapers but will you cut out all of the byu football ones and put them in a pile or somewhere in my room so i can see them when i get back? i especially want the ones from sunday morning that talk about the games the night before.
thats neat about john parberry being bishop, hopefully he will get a thing going where ward members write to the missionaries(thats what i would do if i was a bishop)
for stuff on the temple im mostly just looking for stuff by brigham young or the older prophets who say things about the temple that general authorites don't say anymore(elder Bendares talk "honorably holding a name and a standing or something like that) he quotes brigham young toward the end of the talk. that was a general confernce talk so hopefully you will be able to find that.
i want to watch bull riding....

i hope everything is going well
love elder taylor call

Last Day in Hebron

mom, president robbins emails us once a transfer so every 6 weeks. the office should be trying to sell my bike but i haven't heard much from them about it. thats fun that you went to the lake with the bullocks on saturday. the next few days should be interesting because im not sure if the office had forwarded any of my mail to hebron when i won't be there.
yes i did hear about byu beating OU, the last team that was in the top 10 they beat was miami (fl) the year after they won the national championship. im going to really miss going to the game in 2 weeks against florida state, they were one of my favorite teams growing up. i didn't find any articles about temples that interested me very much, will you go to lds.org and search for articles about temples from apostles?
how is grandpa vern doing? i hope everything is going well, sorry this letter is so short. my mind is just going really fast thinking of all the stuff i need to get done before the assistants pick me up tomorrow morning. hope everything is going well
love elder taylor call

Emergency Transfer

im getting emergency transfered so hopefully you didn't send that package yet...
my new address is
1004 Hite Rd
Martin, Ky 41649

The Interview

alright so on wednesday elder packer from the quorum of the seventy (elder packer from the 12's son) and his wife came to our zone conference. Before the meeting started Elder allred one of the assistants told me to come out in to the hall, myself along with some other missionaries. we were told that we get to be interviewed by elder packer, President Robbins said that he had prayerfully selected some missionaries to be interviewed. while i was waiting i talked with sister packer, they live down off highland drive near willowcreek i think. she went to skyline and he went to hillcrest. when it was my turn to be interviewed he asked me what things i would change in the mission and things like that then he asked me if i had any questions for him. it was pretty cool being able to do that but i wish i could have talked with him for longer, i was probably only with him for 5 minutes. anyway, the talk he gave about football in conference was a game he played against skyline his junior year( hillcrest won).
i'm glad that grandpa is doing better, im looking forward to the byu game this weekend but i was a little upset to hear that byu is playing florida state in provo...i liked watching them play when i was younger, they have an indian ride out on the field on a horse before the games with a spear that's on fire...its pretty legit. anyway, i expect a full report on how the game went with OU.
hope everything is going well
love elder taylor call

Baptism!

Questions

mom
i just resent my email i sent last week so hopefully you got it. what does the (SP) mean that you wrote when you were talking about the temple? what else has been going on with grandpa? was he in the icu because of his back or his lungs? who all was at the hospital when you were there?
why is nin going to be in slc next week? which hospital is he at? well i guess this is going to be a short one since you didn't have any questions for me. hope everything is going well
love elder call

A Pretty Good Week

hi everyone
this past week was pretty good, on friday or saturday night we went over to this part members home to ask them about their neighbor who is a member, the member wasn't home but we talked to the husband who is really cool and he told us about them then we helped him put together this dog blower thing, his wife is a dog groomer then he was like just stay around for a while and he made us grilled terayaki steak and pineapple on the grill and we talked for a long time about the church and porter rockwell. on saturday night we had to goto the store to buy papertowells before we went in and in the parking lot this guy was staring at us and elder james asked him if we could help him with anything and we told him we were mormons then he said he was too and they just moved here from pennslyvaina and he was baptized about a year ago and his wife was taking the lessons before they moved so they live in our ward but we're not sure where. then last night we went over to some members homes to ask them where their neighbor lived that they had talked about the gospel with and when we were there they had some other non member friends there so we were able to teach them and they were really interested. so it has been a pretty good last couple of days.
also on friday when the member got home she was showing us pictures then elder james showed her his sisters blog then i was like i think my sister has a blog so we went on that and she thinks the main picture of owen was really cute and we watched the video of him on the boats at lagoon then i went on "my" blog which was pretty much a blank page with something talking about a black hole? that picture of owen with the kitty was cute too, we'll have to teach him what we do to full size cats when he gets older.
hope everything is going well
love
elder taylor call

Resent on 8/24

mommm
i do not know elder bready, i haven't heard of him either....
i have met matt a few times when i was over in adams county. he would always go to district meeting with us and things like that. he's a pretty good kid.
what are the kids in our ward up to? when i got to transfer meeting last week i got a package from the young women in the ward with a bunch of stuff in it and on like friday or saturday i got a letter from casey lawrence with the ward newsletters in it. can you get me the drapers address so i can write and thank them for the package. did doug lose his job? why is he starting a new one?
things in hebron are pretty good, it is a pretty diverse area, some places its pretty country and in others are verryyyy nice houses with community pools and things like that.
thanks for everything
love elder taylor call

Kentucky

hi everyone hope everything is going well, i was just writing to let you know that i got transfered to a place called hebron kentucky, it is pretty much a whole new world than georgetown. it seems to have a lot of city but im not sure cause i've only been here for about an hour, the library here is probably bigger than the court house in georgetown. well anyway my new address is
1736 tanglewood ct. #2
burlington, ky 41005
also tell the young women thank you for the package, im not sure how long it had been sitting at the mission office but i got it this morning. the parvinos baptism went really well, president robbins was there, he brought elder lundstrom with him which was very unexpected since elder lundstrom and myself had both called president robbins asking him if elder lundstrom could come and he said no both times but there he was when we pulled up. everything thing else is going pretty good, my companion, elder james is from logan and went to mountain crest but yea thats about all for today, hope everything is going well.
love yous
elder taylor call

Transfer Time

im getting transfered so i'll email you tomorrow or wednesday

Answers to Prayers

dear family-
alright well like much of you know, we have been working with the parvino family since march 11. this past thursday night i recieved a phone call from g. parvino, the following is a true account as told in her words," Last night (wednesday) d. and i had been reading from the scriptures and i was looking over the 21 points of the true church paper that you had given me, well it was getting time to goto bed so i went into the bed room and sat on the bed and i was thinking to myself when will i know when the time is right for me to be baptized, as soon as i had thought this a voice came into my head using words that i would never say "tarry not." it kind of scared me a little because these are words i would never say and it is about only the 4th time in my life something like this has happened." that is the main jist of the conversation we had so i asked her when she wanted to be baptized and she said, "as soon as possible" so g. and d. are being baptized on friday night. i am so grateful for answers to prayers and knowing that if we pray in faith, we will recieve an answer.
hope everything is going well, thanks for praying for my/ our investigators.
love elder taylor call

News from Georgetown

dear mom,
yes i do remember trek, i mainly just remember going into the outhouses to sweat alot so i could wipe the dirt off my arms. we watched a couple movies off of the church history dvds. on saturday we had a hog roast and did pioneer activites and things like that. friday morning i was having a hard time focusing on my studies because all i was thinking about was the parade that morning and things like that.
having my line of authority would be nice, especially since i have never seen it before...
at the activety zone conference we mainly just played sports, (football, volleyball, basketball, google cornhole)
if i get some time i'll probably write jaes a letter today.
shari's confirmation was yesterday, it went well...hopefully that is always the answer when you ask about something like that.
how is grandpa vern doing? thanks for the card from the cabin party
hope everything is going well
love
elder taylor call

We Had a Baptism

i am doing good, i don't feel much like emailing but i will do my best.
Bishop little baptized her and brother neitzel will be confirming her next sunday. brother schenk and sister coleman spoke. ben came. the parvinos are the only investigators that stayed for the baptism but we had 7 investigators at sacrament meeting.
i think the parvinos are getting close to baptism, we will probably committ them in the upcoming week. zone conference was 2 weeks ago and we are going on exchanges tomorrow.
what did jaes speak on? im glad i wasn't in the mtc for more than 3 weeks, i would rather be out serving people than sitting in a class room. i have no idea about scott.
i always email meryl so im not sure what she's talking about, i email her every week...
im pretty sure the clothes are on their way to idaho falls, i put marci's address and phone number on the box so hopefully they will contact her about that in the next few days.
hope everything is going well.
love elder taylor call

Upcoming Baptism

hi everyone,
nothing too exciting has happened this past week, mostly just getting everything finished for sheri's baptism this weekend. everything else beside that is going well. how is/ was washington? how was the tetons? marci i might have some people visiting our ward from idaho falls bring some stuff back with them so you might need to go to their house or something. it'll be a box with clothes and other things that i don't really need so i'll hopefully be able to get that sent back with them. marc- how is the tour going? how is lance doing?
well i hope everything is going well and owen is staying out of trouble, you'll have to send me some pictures next week of the trip and i will send you pictures from the baptism.
love
elder taylor call

4th of July

hi mommm
thats funny that you saw those people at the fireworks that i would have called white trash. we didn't really do anything fun for the 4th. just tracted alot but just in the afternoon, we avoided doing it at night time when people would be doing family stuff.
thats fun that you are going to washington, that was pretty fun last year, ( i just looked over as i was typing this and saw a twilight poster.)
i called president robbins last monday and asked him if it would be alright if we emailed monday because our library is closed on tuesday and he said that would be fine and so we did our email on monday.
sheri's baptism is july 19th, her baptismal interview is tonight. we haven't seen the fusons in a few months. they were too lazy but they know its true so thats too bad for them.
i got the talk last monday, right after i had sent the email. i have gotten quite a few ties from the salvation army and goodwill, the salvation army has ties for 50 cents but they dont always have good polyester ones. i have traded some with elder yates and elder steimenger.
hope everything is going well and that you have fun in washington
love
elder taylor call

A Really Good Week

This has been a really good week, especially with it all ending yesterday with having 5 investigators at sacrament meeting. What made it even better is that some investigators came which we weren’t really expecting to be there and if them coming wasn’t enough they also paid tithing! Also yesterday seeing another investigator of ours looking at the baptismal clothing for her baptism in 3 weeks. I feel safe to say that since we have started to pray for miracles they have been happening. We are teaching almost zero people that smoke or drink and all they need to do is accept the gospel and they can be members of the church. We are also finding many people who are prepared and have already started living lives before we ask them to change. It is so amazing what the Lord can do as we ask for help and are obedient.

Georgetown is Great

hi mom,
everything in georgetown is going great, i will be here for atleast another 6 weeks. our investigators are doing good, we had 5 of them at sacrament yesterday so things are going very well. we haven't been able to teach rob, he didn't keep the appointment we set up with them so we'll try to get in touch with him sometime this week hopefully. i'm not sure how ben is, he doesn't want to meet with us, i think i told you that but sheri is doing great.
the parvinos weren't able to make it to motab but the bishops mother in law is a nonmember from california so we used her as our investigator. the tie i was wearing i got at the goodwill down in maysville, i got 4 or 5 ties that day, they cost 1.50 or something so i bought a couple. i have like 35 ties now, i think i had 13 when i left. we go on exchanges probably once a transfer.
that's interesting that you saw and talked to mrs. marchant, that was a looooonggggg time ago. what temple open house did you goto? oquhir hills?
will you send me a copy of that cd by elder holland? meryl had asked someone to a few months ago and i never got it so if you could do that i would really appreciate it.
hope everything is going well.
love elder taylor call

The Package

thanks for the package. im not sure why you sent me proclamations to the world, we give those out for free...and each companionship has a picture book as well. thanks for the tie and a polyester one. polys are best, i'll go into further detail about that later but thanks for the package and the nana bread

Motab

the lang family is doing well, they were going to come to motab but decided to go to myrtlye beach instead...her date is still on but we haven't seen them since last sunday..
the choir was amazinggg, it was nice seeing sister curry. it didn't rain but it was very muddy, i guess there was a dave matthews concert there a few days before and everyone at the concert pulled up all the grass and was throwing it around so it was pretty muddy where we were at.
the exchange was alot of fun, i really like elder yatez, he played basketball at utah state before his mission but we had a really fun time. is grandpa's cousin norma peterson? an elder serving in cincinnati told me that my cousin was in his area and i had no idea who she is. is she a member? i don't think i'll be transfered because president said he was going to try to keep missionaries in an area for atleast 6 months but i am not sure.
we don't have a song
i didn't hear from chris, i wrote him on monday though. hopefully i've been writing to the right address.
we eat at members homes maybe twice a week. we sometimes eat at our apartments. i don't need money.
thanks for the letter
love
elder taylor call

My Weekly Report

Dear President Robbins, This past week we had two really neat experiences, the first was with a man named rob, we had been trying to see him and set up appointments with him for a while and the appointments we had set up he didn’t keep. So Saturday night we went over to his house and taught him, his wife, and his daughter. We taught them a first lesson and when we were talking about the Book of Mormon he said, “I’ve never read the Bible, but I will read this (Book of Mormon.) It was pretty cool to see the sincerity he has and the wanting to know attitude. The second experience was when we were teaching a family and the wife has a baptismal date but the husband is struggling with word of wisdom issues and other things. I kind of want to liken it to the story of amalickah and lehonti. Over the past few weeks when we ask him to do things he says he’ll think about it, he’ll think about it then this past week he said that he would pray about it. So not so much in a bad was as was Lehonti and amalickah but being persistent it helping.

It's Going Well

everything is going well, our sunday was good, we were able to finish out the week strong and we were able to teach 20 lessons this week (its kind of a goal every missionary tries to achieve each week, its kinda difficult to reach.) Shari was able to come to church but her husband wasn't able to make it, i think he was doing yard work or something like that. we set a baptismal date with her of july 19th. they need to be able to come to chuch atleast 7 weeks and not have any word of wisdom issues so that is when that would be.
you sent an email to president robbins? that is interesting. we are not allowed to go on any websites other than myldsmail.net
1. i do know elder grange, he is in my distict, i will be seeing him tomorrow, we're going on exchanges so i'll be in maysville for tuesday and wednesday.
2. i've heard of elder sudweeks but i din't think i know him.
3. i saw sister bledsoe for like 30 seconds when we got to transfer meeting she was getting on the transfer van so i didn't talk to her.
4. i don't know elder robinson either.
5. try and see if hermana hunt's partents are on there, she lives in pepperwood and her family sat in front of us when we were at the mtc and her and meryl are pals.

the adams elders are in our district as well, one of the elders, elder mortenson is from seattle.
will you try and find out where eric greene served? or get me his address so i can write him.
hopefully we will be able to go to motab, we can only go if our investigators go so we were planning on going but then last night ben and sherri told us they would rather go to mertyle beach so hopefully the parvinos will be able to go so we can go.
where in cincinnati does his cousin live?
i have not heard from chris, i will probably write him today, i wrote him a while back but haven't heard from him.
hope everything is going well, thanks for the letters and the news articles.
love
elder taylor call

hii

hi everyone
hope everything is going well, thanks for the letters and the post cards. this past week has gone pretty well, on wednesday night we went over to teach ben and sheri. towards the end of the lesson i invited her to be baptized, she accepted then she started crying because every time she thinks about being baptized she starts to cry. also this past week they made the rule that investigators have to come to church atleast 7 times and be free from any word of wisdom related issues for 28 days so the soonest she can be baptized is in 4 weeks i think. her husband smokes and he's not quite ready yet so we are still working on him. everything else has been going pretty well, president robbins used part of my weekly report last week in the sharing email this week, "As you talked about in Zone conference about receiving personal revelation I can already seeing it help our work. It has been really cool to see the thoughts enter our minds of questions we can ask people and investigators family members that we should teach. We have seen lots of success as we try to involve the members more, last night we taught a lesson at a members home and that helped a lot because not only was the spirit present in the home but the members were able to teach by the spirit as well." everything else is going pretty good, this morning there was probably a million missionaries on myldsmail so it was taking forever so that is why you aren't getting my email unitl now.
love elder taylor call

Pictures from the Storm

It Was Intense

well remember when we lived in texas and the tornado sirens would go off once a month for testing? well saturday night we were walking back to our car from talking with an investigator, the investigators friend said that thunderstorms were coming and there would be golf ball size hail. as we were walking the sirens went off, we looked at each other and started running back to the car. when we got back to the apartment we were taking pictures of the clouds bcause they looked really cool, at this point lightening storms were going on as well. we walked over to the other side of our apartments and lightening struck about 100 yards from where we were standing, it was soooo intense, it was bright red where it struck the ground. about 10 minutes later we could see funnels starting to come out of the clouds, at one point there were "sisters" two coming out. tornadoes touched down in 2 different places in our area. it was soo intense. i ended up having to call president robbins and asking him if we should go to a members home for the night but we didn't have to. when i told him all the had happened he started laughing and was like this is a journal entry day isn't it. but everything turned out alright, it was pretty intense when the sirens were all going off and the lightening struck.
hope everything is going well
love elder taylor call

Hi from Georgetown

hi mom,
yes we are still working with a few investigators that elder lunstrom and i have been teaching. my talk went well, i used a story in an ensign about a less active man and how a man in his ward was able to re activate him. my original bike has not been able to sell yet but i have 20 months for that to happen so im not too worried about it. my new bike is working pretty good, we're trying to ride our bikes more often to save on miles so it is working out pretty good.

the picture that i sent you with the missionaries on the table was at the last district meeting of the transfer, we take pictures at that district meeting. elder janeic and elder tingey are the other ones beside elder lundstrom and myself. elder janeic goes home in 3 weeks, he's from alpine.

mer sent me some articles online about syracuse winning, it sounded like it was an amazing game with cuse winning in overtime, i'll have to go wash that gross taste out of my mouth from hearing them win.

1. yes that is the case that i wanted
2.food is going well.
3. we have a washer and dryer at our apartment
4. she wrote me
5. i should be good on music and talks
6. no we haven't tracted all of it

currently in the book of mormon i think i am in alma 37, last night i finished the book of matthew in the new testament and started on mark.

hope everything is going well
love
elder call

Hi Everyone

hi everyone
merideth, thanks for the package and pictures. you really don't need to send me things that are going to be expensive for you. this past week has been a little rough. last friday we went over to an investigators house to try to set up a date that we could come and see them. she was getting things ready for a party she was having for one of the stylists that she works with at great clips. she was doing yard work and this brick wall thing that is in her yard fell over so we "pieced" it back together. then we asked her if she needed help with anything else and we ended up power washing her patio furniture and her garage. it was alot better than going tracting that is for sure. on saturday morning we played softball at the church but there was only 5 of us so it was a little hard playing with only 2 outfielders.
my companion served in georgetown a year and a half ago so the past week or so we have been tracking down people that he use to teach. one family, ben and sherri seem pretty good. we have taught them twice so far. they have a little boy named hayden that is 2, he's wayy cool and really funny. anyway we have been doing a lot of finding the past few days and trying to stay busy. my companion is a little bit of a number muncher so i have to break him of that.
nothing too exciting going on right now, our investigators are lazy and won't come to church which is pretty frustrating because you can't get baptized until you come to church so we'll see what happens with that. will someone send me some articles either online or from yesterdays USA Today so i can find out who won the national championship.
anyway i hope all is going well
love
elder call

Transfer Three Begins

hi, sorry if im a little cranky in the email, i've been stressed the past few days trying to make it so i can be effective in georgetown with my new companion. his name is elder steminger, he's from ventura california. he goes home in october and georgetown is the first place where he served. i didn't know that i had a small doctrine and covenants. i'll be fine without it, investigators don't need to know about that....im not sure what the black box is so im not sure what to tell you about that. sure i'll take some pictures of the apartment. our investigators are doing well, a little up and down but they're good for the most part. josh and vanessa still have a baptismal date but they are yet to stop smoking so they won't be baptized on june 6th. they need to be smoke and alchol free for 28 days.
hope everything is going well
love
elder call

District Meeting - Elders Janeic, Call, Lundstrom, Tingey

The Day After (Mother's Day)

dear mom, also when you send me those scriptures will you purchase for me a case that has snaps and not a zipper? i think that the zipper weares down the covers of the scriptures. also there is a mini book of mormon in my cuppord thingy in my room on the top shelp i believe. it was good talking to you as well, does dad wear my clothes? i sure hope not...there are some clothes in there that were farely expensive and i don't want them to smell like b.o.how was going to clints house last night? what time did meryl end up calling? i figured out how to send some pictures so i will try now at this time to do so.elder call

Doing Good

hi
i am doing good, yesterday was stake conference at church. we had a broadcast from salt lake. President Monson, L. Tom Perry, Elder Jay E jenson of the seventy, and elder beck of the young men all spoke. it was cool, it was kind of like having another general conference but just for the eastern united states. The p. family came also, we tried setting a baptismal date with them last week but they didn't really accept or reject it but that was good that they came even after our lesson with them on friday night. we also set a date with josh and vanessa. we set the date of like june 6th but for that to happen they have to be word of wisdom free for 28 days and come to church 3 times but they didn't come to church this week because he said that he didn't have any good pants to wear.
this is week 5 of the transfer.
i think we will be calling around 4-6 pm your time, we will probably be calling from our bishops house since they invited us to do that when we had dinner over there this past week. try and find the phone card, it should be in the area around my dresser....
i haven't had to speak at church but i did give the opening prayer yesterday if that counts...just have dad tell stories of how he had a bunch of motorcycles when he wasn't supposed to, he could speak on being obedient? also if you have those scriputes that you bought for me for christmas last year i would like them, the ones i am using are the ones i got when i was baptized and the covers are starting to wear our and come apart so that would be nice if you could do that...
well i hope everything is going well and owen is keeping his fingers out of his nose.
love,
elder taylor call

I was wearing those black new balance shoes when i stepped on the nail. it got me on the bottom of my foot and not my toe. i got another tetnus shot last monday.

Too Many Questions

dear mom
you are asking wayyyyy to many questions. i am doing well, i stepped on a nail on saturday when i was tearing down a shed so sister robbins wants me to go get a tetnus shot today but im not sure if i will since i got on in the past 10 years.
did nin goto moab with you? did you ask her about that bike brand?
The p. family came to church yesterday, they were getting their air conditioning fixed in the morning so they weren't able to make it to sacrament meeting but they came for the other 2 hours. ask grandma elaine about the missionary from mexico, she knew about it before i did. we are probably going to drop the s. family since they won't stop smoking or drinking and won't realize the big picture.
where is marci moving to? why is she moving?
i only get half an hour for the call on mothers day i think, also will you try and find that calling card that the walters sent me? i it should be on my dresser somewhere. i don't know what time it will be at i'll probably know more about that next week so i will let you know then. i should be buying the new bike today, that is why i wanted you to ask nin about that brand so she could find stuff out about it. anyway...hope everything is going well
love
elder taylor call

Quite a Surprise

hiii mom,

yes i did have quite a surprise at church yesterday, that was a little different having someone tell me that met my mom and they brought me something. the banana bread is very good and i ate some last night and this morning. i haven't had the skyline chili yet but i did have some gold star chili. eric greene loves the stuff i hear, that is what the kid that trained him told him.
i am not sure how long we will be able to talk for i think we get like 40 minutes or something so i am not sure. i am not sure what time i will be calling either.
we don't really know about the situation of the missionary from mexico. president robbins says he will let us know about his situation.
what are you going to do in moab? ask nin what she knows about Fuji bikes and if she can get in touch with someone that knows alot about the quality of their products (2008 Fuji Nevada 3.0)we don't really have a mission motto, if we had one it would be OCM (ohio cincinatti mission) the Only Celestial Mission.
the p. are doing good, on friday night she said that if she recieves an answer to her prayers then she would "jump at the oppurtunity to be baptized." the visit with the s. last night went better than we expected, they are progressing, slowing but surely.
if your going to mail me things just know i'll only respond to the questions you email me...i don't like taking all the letters to the library to respond back to.

love
elder taylor call

Taylor and Dadio Talk

Hello Elder Taylor - Well Sister Meryl headed out this morning. She is on her way to a warm/toasty/humid neighborhood. (Unlike the cool rainy day your having)! I used several coupons that were in your bedroom.....A free cookie at GreatHarvest and a free donut at Dan's!! I have no idea how old these coupons are...But they took them....from Eastwood maybe? I get a free loaf of breadfrom Great Harvest tonight.Well, I hope that you are staying dry and warm...We're thinking about you and praying for you more often than when you were playing LAX. Chance leaves on Thursday. Love you Elder Taylor. DADio

hi marc,
the bike that i purchased is a 19/20 size frame and it feels a little small. i am looking to buy a 2008 fuji nevada 3.0, it has disk brakes and all the components seem to be really good. it looks like a really good bike and the quality seems pretty good. i would also be buying roadtires for it so it doesn't wear out the mountain tires. let me know what you think about it. the frame that i would be getting is a 22 and i think my bike in the garage is a 21. also can you hang that bike up or put in the house or something? possibly deflate the tires a little and that stuff so it keeps that stuff in good condition. you can go to fujibikes.com and/or ask jay what he knows about that brand of bike. email me by monday so i can buy it next monday. i would also sell the bike i bought. let me know what you think, the other bike that i bought the derailers are in bad shape so i might put new ones on and sell it for more and make more of a profitt? my moral compass doesn't think i should sell it back the way it is so let me know what your thoughts are. thanks so much.
love
elder taylor call

Hello Elder Taylor - Good to hear from you. Are you eating some Banana bread right now? I will watch for your purchases and then get the account back up to the standing dollar amount you need. Iwould fix the original bike up and try to get more $ out of it (make sure you make the new derailer $'s back). I would also not worry about changing to road tires. Who cares if you wear out the mountain tires? Just my thinking. The bike dealer is probably lowering the bike price because it is such a big frame and a 2008. I am relying on you about the brand. I started my new church job yesterday. It will be lighter duty than being with the brain damage (at times) scouts. Just image....two weeks today you will be out 3 months! I can't believe how time is blowing by. I hope that you feel the same!! Mom and I walked twice this weekend. I do my first lawn mowing today. No snow this week, which will be good. James J. gets back in June. His Dad was called to be a mission president in Norway. He will have 50 missionaries. He and his wife leave on July 1st! Mom and I are trying to keep the house clean. We are getting close to adjusting to having no call kids around. We need to get back to reading our scriptures. I am anxious to hear how often you see your mission president. I only saw my second one 3 times in a year my second year. Sister Meryl sees hers every other week. Christian C. is playing Lacrosse. He and Connor were walking down our street last night throwing a ball back and forth. I better get back to work. I am looking forward to talking to you on Mothers day! God Lives. I know that the gospel is true. I know that you hold the Priesthood of our Heavenly Father. We pray for you multiple times a day and for your companion and those that you work with. I am anxious to hear your goals on how many people you are contacting? Elder Taylor, I love you. Be careful on the bikes and keep it locked up! Love DADio

Happy Easter

hiii,
my easter was well, in the morning we just went to church then after church we took sacrament to a member in a nursing home since he is not able to make it on his own. President Robbins had asked us to fast on sunday since one of the elders from mexico that finished his mission on wednesday was picked up at the airport by border patrol and is in prison so we were asked to fast for him so he could return home to his family. we were invited to go over to a members home and eat but we just went over and talked with them and they gave us food to eat for later. after we left their home we went to the p. family (the people with food storage) and we ended our fast and ate dinner with them. things with them are going really well, the wife has read the book of mormon, doctrine and covenants and has read parts of the pearl of great price. last night she also brought up the journal of discourses which is something that probably many members of the church don't even know what that is. they accept everything we teach them but they just need time to digest it since they have been taught one way for their whole lives and we are teaching them very new so it will take a little time. things with the s. family are coming along. they know they shouldn't be smoking but they don't really have a desire to quit, they barely make ends meet each month and have to borrow money for gas but they don't fully comprehend how much more money they would have if they quit smoking and drinking.
1. we drive an 07 or 08 chevy malibu
2. we get about an hour on the computer each week
3. we played bingo but the residents we usually play with were either asleep or in the hospital
4. this week we are having zone conference on thursday and elder watson from the proselyting division (he may have spoken in conference) is coming and talking with us. im looking forward to seeing the other missionaries i was with at the mtc as well.
5. i write in my journal evvverrryyy night.
i got the package on saturday, thanks so much for the small preach my gospel, it really helps having 2 of those as well. also you don't really need to send me packages very often unless i need something. right now i have probably the amount of candy i would consume in a year in the apartment so feel free to just send me letters if you would like, meryl also said something about the cost of letters going up? well i hope i was able to answer all your questions and everything is going well.
love elder taylor call

It's Transfer Week

hiii, the work is progressing, sorry i wasn't able to email you on monday. the week of transfers preperation day is on tuesday and our library is closed on tuesdays so that is why i am emailing you on wednesday. we didn't get a call so we will be here another 6 weeks. transfers will always be on tuesdays. im pretty sure we always get new missionaries since some missionaries go home every transfer so it would make sense.
im pretty sure i got the package, the one with oatmeal and the cookies? that came just in time because i running out of milk, i would have to pour the milk i just used back into the carton after i ate the cereal so it was turning a brownish color...anyway
i really enjoyed conference, i liked elder scott's? talk about providently living the most because i think it can really apply to everyone everyday. we watched it at the church, not very many members came to ones on saturday but we did get an investigator to come to priesthood and one of the members brought a nonmember friend so it turned out well.
the baptism a few weeks ago was just a member turning 8 so it was nothing too exciting but alot of the extended family came and they were nonmembers so that's always good for that stuff to happen. we met with the s. family yesterday, the wife was at work so we just talked with the husband and the son giving the dad a really big talk on the word of wisdom because he says he knows he shouldn't be smoking but he's not ready to give it up yet which is a little difficult right now.
thats pretty dope that jaes is going to finland, scott t. is going there, i think scott is in the mtc right now, he's going to helsinki.
1. i don't consider myself green anymore since there are missionaries younger than me now.
2.yes we email from the library.
3.i might need some ideas for food but i will let you know, i cooked a lot of spagetti yesterday.
4.elder lundstrom has been out 20 months
5.do as you wish.
hope everything is going well
love
elder taylor call

What's Going On

hiiii
well dad didn't tell me he was getting released but grandma did, dad never emails me or writes me so i don't really know what is going on with him...
i find out if i get transfered on sunday night. i find out where i get transfered to on wednesday at transfer meeting up at the cherry grove ward or the hunington west virginia building, just where ever they tell us to meet at. we will watch general conference at the church in georgetown unless someone in the ward invites us to watch it at their house, a few of the members have byu tv.
1. for breakfast i buy this cereal that costs a dollar. its pretty much sugar cereal but its inexpensive.
2. i don't remember cooking anything new this week, i think mainly just the quesadillas
3. if we come back to the apartment it is ususally just to eat lunch or stuff like that.
4. we play uno every week but this week some of the residents of the vetrans home birthdays so they had cake and ice cream then we played some uno after that.
5.yesterday we went and visited some people that we have been teaching, their last name is p. i don't remember if i told them about you or not, they have like 300 pounds of wheat and all this food storage and he goes up to columbus to get water barrels from the bishop storehouse, so we went over to their house yesterday with the bishop and we were there for almost 3 hours, (after being at the church for 8 hours (normal church, potluck, baptism) it went really well because the bishop and danny, the father really have a lot of things in common and it was a really good lesson and the bishop taught them a lot of stuff and it was cool...
6. we didn't get a chance to see the s. family this week because she works alot and so our schedules didn't really work out. but we are seeing them tomorrow.
7. p day is pretty much just write letters and sleep, sorry im getting sick of typing...
8. yes we have a cd player in the apartment.
i hope everything is going well
elder call

Another Week

time goes by pretty fast, the days go by kinda slow but the weeks go by fast, i can't believe it is already week 5 of the transfer. Georgetown is pretty good, as the weather is warmer more people are outside in the evening. the other night we got like 5 contacts in 10 minutes. we are going to try some of those people back in the next week. thats really cool that you were able to go to the openhouse for the temple. do you know where my hankee is that i had from the nauvoo temple? it should be in one of my top droors? or in one of those rubber made tubs under my bed. the s. family were not able to make it to church this week. the wife works at taco bell and the husband doesn't work. they only have one car and the husbands license is suspended so they can only really make it to church when she isnt working.
1. every week we go to a vetrans home and we play uno with them from 1-4. this week they had a bingo thing going on so we did that then played uno.
2.this past week i mostly ate hamburgers (a lady in the ward gave us some ground beef from the cows they raise so i made some pattys from that) i also cooked some pinto beens and rice a roni and combined those and i put it on a tortilla with melted cheese.
3. i am eating fruit but not so many veggies.
4. the husband has a daughter that is 20 but we've never met her, supposedly she has a boyfriend that is 37 and her dad is 40. the son is the wife's child.
5.i don't iron my shirts, i just do wrinkle free in the dryer.
6.we are teaching a few people but currently the s. family are the people we teach the most often and most consistently and they are keeping the committments we ask of them.
7.we have taught them lesson 1 (the restortation) and are doing bits of lesson 2 (the plan of salvation) also.
8. i think there are around 5 lessons
9. we don't eat at members home very often because we only eat at their home if an investigator is present or things like that, however they did give us a bunch of leftovers yesterday (chicken alfredo, meatballs, cake, cupcakes, a bunch of good stuff)

Hi from Ohio

hiiii
yes i got the package. thanks for sending all the candy and what not. i need stuff like that to stay awake during personal study. meryl, get use to being tired every morning, its super fun...not. im glad i will have something green to wear tomorrow so someone without teethout doesn't come up and pinch me. im glad chancey gave a good farewell talk, it must run in the family. so he leaves utah in april? i wrote him a few weeks ago and he hasn't written me back yet so he better write me before he leaves.
yes we are still teaching the s. family. the mother and son who is 13 came to church yesterday. the husband is still enjoying the "party supplies" so he wasn't able to make it to church if you know what i mean. on saturday we went over to a family in the wards house and cut down trees. these trees are probably about 50+ feet high and alot of them came down in the ice storm. we filled up more than 10 trucks and trailers worth of wood. yesterday my hamstring and my right cheek were pretty sore from lifting the rounds after they cut them with a "power saw" or chain saw.
the people out here and in kentucky call their grandparents mamaw and papaw.. its a little strange. yesterday we also found out that you must live in ohio if your truck is bigger than your trailer.what am i supposed to do with the tapes that you send me? do you want me to send them back? if so on the same tape or on a new one? what do you want me to say on them if you want me to send them to you?
well im not sure what else you would like me to say soo i am going to go but i hope everyone is going good and all of that
love
elder call

Twenty Questions

1. president robbins is a nice guy, i don't really know him that well since we live about 45 minutes from the mission office.
2/3. sister robbins cooked us mexicano/ there was tortilla chips and other stuff to put on them i don't really remember now
4. we buy whatever we want at the store (milk, bread, frozen pizza, all that good stuff) we try to limit our spending to about 20 dollars per week so we wont have to use our own money at the end of the month if we run out.
5. we cook seperate and buy all of our food seperate. we just do our own thing when we eat.
6. our apartment is good, some sisters had it before us so it was in really good shape when we got there, i guess when elders live there it doesn't survive as much.
7. right now we are only in the car. pretty soon we will start to use our bikes a little so we can save our miles so they won't go by as fast.
8. the bike looks like it has been through a few missionaries, the tires are really worn down but i haven't had a chance to ride it yet since its been so chilly.
9. yes we have a few common friends, not anyone my age but he hung out with a few skyline kids when he was in school.
10. transfers are every 6 weeks (month and a half) i'll probably be here for atleast another transfer with elder lundstrom, it would make sense to be with him for 2 transfers so he can train me more.
11. the georgetown church is about 10 minutes from where we live. the ward boundaries are pretty big. i think the farthest people travel to come to church is about half an hourish.
12. its a ward
13. in the mornings we wake up 630, exercise till 7, shower and eat breakfast till 8, 8-9 personal study, 9-10 companion study, 10-12 (tracting or doing other things such as service, etc.) 12-1 lunch, 1-8 (tract, visit members, less actives, referrals, that kinda thing) 8-9 dinner, 9-930 planning. 930-1030 get ready for bed, journal, brush teeth
14. we tract almost everyday, saturday we tracted allll dayyy and it was not fun, the day goes by really slow and almost no one is home on saturdays so it is pretty draining.
15. we have had dinner at a members home and we are going to a few days this week
16. church yesterday was good, it was fast sunday so we bore our testimonies and then we talked to the bishop about the ward and the area and that kind of thing.
17. we set goals every night for what we want to accomplish for the next day (contacts, refferals, recent conver/ less active lessons)
18. the bishop in the ward is having the ward do the 90 day challenge and so right now i am in 2 nephi
19. i bought a blanket from a discount store then when i move closer to the city i'll probably but a bengals or reds or u cincinatti blanket
20. yes i am staying warm. 60 degrees seems like 90 degrees some days because it was so cold for the first few weeks.

how is tammy o. doing?

love elder taylor call

Hello

hi everyone how are you doing? i have been in georgetown for almost a week now. we have been doing a lot of tracting since the sisters that were here previously only focused on working with less active members. we have been tracting almost everyday so far, it isn't my favorite thing because being out in the cold takes a lot out of you and it makes you really tired in the morning...especially during personal study. on wednesday we went tracting and we met a family whose last name is the s. so on wednesday we talked to them and they invited us in and they reaaaalllllyyyy like their cigs. they smoked probably 10 during the time we were there. we just shared a short message with them and then we went back to their house/trailer yesterday and gave them lesson one/ the restoration (god is our loving heavenly father, the gospel blesses families, prophets, the saviors earthly ministry, the apostasy, the restoration through joseph smith, the book of mormon, and pray to know) while we were teaching them we could tell that the spirit was telling them what were teaching them was true because they only smoked probably 2 cigs in an hour and 15 minutes. i think they have a lot of potential and i hope we will be able to share with them more. Yesterday we had ward conference then after that there was a pot luck dinner which was really nice because we got to eat real food and store up on food so we won't have to spend as much each day. at the pot luck they had a lot of normal food but one family raises rabbits and brought some rabbit stew. so obviously i tried some, it didn't really have much of a taste to it and while i was eating it i could only picture a little white rabbit in my mind and its long hairs getting stuck on my tongue or in my teeth. then one of the young men came up to me and asked me how i liked it, i said it was alright then one of the men in the stake presidency asked him how old it was and what its name was and all that. they said it was born in september then they killed it in december but it didnt have a name.

Marci- will you send me some church music on cds? send me my efy cds and other stuff like that...also get merideth to send me pictures of owen...cause she hasn't and i asked her to when i was at the mtc. i hope everything is going well and look forward to talking to you soon.

Leaving the MTC

hiiii everyone i just got back from the temple. the food there is delicous especially the omlets. they contain lots of ham and cheese. most of this email is for merideth so please send it to her asap. 1. i would like a list of everyone's phone numbers and emails. me and cliff snyder go to the airport at the same time on monday. mer we need to coordinate a time so i can "give" you that small piece of luggage that is broken and that im not taking. When is my backpack coming? yesterday i thought it came but my branch leaders parents sent me 2 boxes of krispy kreme doughnuts which i thought was kind of weird...also thanks soooo much for sending me my medical info, i thought i was going to have to get shots but then as the lady was filling the papers out yesterday she kept filling in dates and i was really glad i wasn't going to have to pay 80 dollars for some shots. Tell grandmother elaine thanks for the stamps that i got today and they will come in handy so i'll be able to write you more than once a week. Was anyone able to go to Tribal West to get my last paycheck? We fly on delta on monday, my flight is at 8...i hate flying on delta because they charge you money for your bags which is redicuolssss (i don't know how to spell it) tell cindy thanks for the lettter. i hope owen is doing well, mer told me that he got a new molar? mer will you send me a current like within the past 2 weeks picture of him please? just him like his face and all is body. when is my pday in cinci? marci i know you graduated from college so when you write me please make it so you have paragraphs and not just one big blob of words, its alot easier to read that way. i will send you guys (its weird saying that word becuase they want us to either say elders or sisters) some pictures next week hopefully. it takes a few days to develop them here and i have some that i still need to take that i want to send you. please let me know if you are going to reply to me via email or dearelder.com. thanks.
Love Elder Call

also today at the temple when i went to go get the blue paper before i got the name i said howdy to the guy and he thought that was funny, he musta been a good ol boy

Howdy

dear everyone,
Today is my pday. this morning we went to the temple and then ate breakfast afterwards. the mtc is really great. never in my life have a felt the spirit so much at one time. my companion is elder soto, he is from whittier, california and is 25. the other elders in my room is elder shawcroft and he is from arizona and elder harvey and he is from mapleton or something like that (he doesn't talk a whole lot). thanks for sending me my immuniztions, hopefully i won't have to get any shots or stuff like that. how is my backpack situation coming along? let me know so i won't have to keep carrying everything around. also send me my toothbrush and toothpaste that i left at the house the day we left. i see meryl everyday during times we eat cause she eates at meals a half an hour later than i do. we have class everyday for very long periods of time. since sunday that days have flown by. we also go to this place called the RC and it is the place where when people call about commercials they see on tv we send them books of mormons or other things they want. when our classes go by slow i enjoy watching the other elders and sisters sleep and watching the weird things they do. when is my pday when i get to cinci? my small luggage/ suitcase/thing the little button that is supposed to pop into place does not. i am going to try to get everything into 2 suitcases when i leave so i won't have to have another one and pay for an additional one. also i need someone to go to tribal west and pick up my last check and deposit it into my checking account. i saw cliff the first few days but i haven't seen him since. also i would like the bullocks address for other purposes...i hope everyone is doing well and owen isn't picking his nose too much. marci enjoys sending me long letters that i kind of lose my intrest in them half way through. merideth said that she saw owens butt crack and it reminded her of me, im not sure why....

please continue to write me because it makes my day better....adios