May 28, 2012

Dear Mom. . 

So it has been a good and hard week.  This week we didn’t find any new investigators.  We had some good lessons and stuff but, it was hard.  I have really been trying to focus more on being a missionary and not think about the things that i want or want to do.  There is a talk that is called the 4th Missionary, it talks about 4 types of missionaries and how they are changed on their missions.  One of the things that the 4th or the best missionary does is gives not only his time and talents or might and strength but also his heart and his mind.  Like in Helaman 3:35  This was a tough week for me with this. 

So Elder Stevenson is in my district.  He is the other red head from Nampa.  Last Tuesday we were on divisions for like 2 hours while we waited to do the interview for Rut.  I can’t wait to hang out with him when I get home too . . . me him and Elder Heiner will all be living together at school ha-ha.  So we did the baptism interview for Rut and we gave our branch president one little homework to call the judge so that we could do the baptism and the wedding on Saturday.  We should have known, he didn’t do it like always.  So they are going to be married and Rut will be baptized on this coming Saturday!!!!!!!  It’s about time, they want to do it so bad!

Yesterday was Stake conference, our branch president didn’t go.  But I did see Elder Hardy ha-ha...he has a good companion...he lucked out.  He smelled fresh!!! HAHA.

Sad that you sold the house ha-ha, maybe that will be a good thing.  HAHA that’s fine, as long as when i get home, my room has all my stuff on the walls!!!

When Elder Holland gave that talk, he dropped the cane and ripped everyone a new one....did you do the same ha-ha, I hope!!! (This is in response to me telling him that I spoke in church yesterday using Elder Holland’s talk entitled “We are All Enlisted”)

So this week I am really trying to focus on not getting in the way of the Lord, and to just let his magic work through me.


Ok mom, I’m going to go get some food, I haven’t eaten anything today or last week, my pants barely fit me...we have been penny pinching to save money for the wedding...so I will write you next week mom...love you

Love ya tons mom

Taylor

May 21, 2012

Hey mom, we had a good week....we finally reached our goal of 20 lessons with members - - well we had 21.  It sounds like the family is all good, and that Spencer is so excited to be done with school and that Grant is 16 ha-ha.  We had changes, Elder Keller & I are still here.  I’m glad, I haven’t stayed with a comp for more than one change except when I was trained and when I trained elder Segovia...but we are good together.  SO Rut is going to have her baptism interview tomorrow.  She can be baptized this Saturday but this weekend is stake conference so she will have to wait a week to get confirmed. Last time that happened here, the guy never came back to church or got confirmed, we don’t doubt that Ruth has problems with that but we are just going to wait until next week to do it.  Also we had 3 people in church yesterday, one of them was another part member family.  SO that makes it way easier for them to accept the gospel.  He really wants to be able to baptize his little girl, so when he heard that he could get the priesthood it made him excited.  We don’t know if they are married or not though...we are already pinching pennies now for the wedding next week...hope that these people are married!!!

Now on to the parties, guess you have a lot to do...hope lots of people come, then Spencer can get lots of money like Ii did and it will be less hassle for his mission.  So Mitch and Hunter are in the MTC right???

Oh yeah almost forgot, we saw a dead guy tossed out in this field on the side of the road this week.  Some people we were visiting told us about it.  Just a dead person wrapped in a sheet, shoved into a bag and tossed onto the side of the road out in the middle of who knows where.  We don’t know what is going to happen with it......

The teacher didn’t show up yesterday for gospel principles so I had to teach that class...it was good, it was about prayer and how to  do it and why and to who.  I managed to take up the whole 50 min...Kind of strange, I taught that class and I’m the one trying to have better prayers.  I don’t feel that my prayers are really doing anything for me, I have been trying to be the best I can and do my prayers but I just don’t know.....I’ll just keep trying. . . . 

That’s about it for this week mom...love ya

May 14, 2012

Hey mom how’s it going.....hope you had a great mother’s day!!!  This week we had was good but not numbers wise...they took away our best day to do zone conference, we still had ok numbers but we should have done better.  We are teaching Ruth right now, she has a baptism date for the 26th still, she came to church yesterday and just loved it.  Today we are going to have a FHE with Andres our convert and with Ruth.  We are going to watch the restoration with them and then we only have 2 commandments left to teach her.  This one is like a sure fire baptism!!!!!

It was so great to talk to you all Saturday....I can’t wait for Christmas ha-ha!!!  I bet you can’t wait either, then you’ll get 2 big Christmas presents!

Well hope grandma can get over the last few days or weeks ok, and I’m sure she is just wanting to see grandpa great so much.  It will be good for her...she has done what she came here for.  But it’s sad that she is leaving us for a small time.  

So grandpa is going all out on his calf ranch that means that they got the permit I guess....10,000 more cows?  Well that’s what Darin told me in a letter ha-ha. Yeah so talking of getting home, I don’t know what I am going to do....I don’t want to get home and then a month later have to start school.    But I would like you to send me info on some schools.  Send me stuff from BYU and BYUI and ISU and BOISE STATE....well BSU can be the last resort!!!

I have talked to President Callan a little about what I need for dental school, not much just some basic things.  But look up stuff on pre dental at those 3 schools....to be a dentist I have to graduate from a good school(4 years) then dental school(another 4 years).

So since you didn’t really understand what I said in my testimony in Spanish, I said that I know that we have eternal families and that even though the boys and McCall don’t know as much about the plan of Heavenly Father, I said that I know that one day I will be with him and I will do what He does.  That’s what I want mom, to have my own network of eternal families, I want to create worlds.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that it has changed my life...I can see where I was a while ago and what I wanted or thought but now I can say that I am a different person.  The gospel is true mom....sure do love you and am grateful having it in my life!

Love

Elder Salinas 

Getting to Skype with Elder Salinas for Mother's Day!

May 7, 2012

This week was so great....we had tons of miracles.  SO I went on divisions with Elder Griffin on Tuesday so we could do the baptism interview.  He passed easily....he isn’t just answering questions he uses scriptures to back up his testimony.  Also he is studying the Book of Mormon and the Bible....also the gospel principles book and the ones about the priesthood.  HE is a baller...so on Saturday we had the wedding and the baptism of Andres.  Now he can help his wife get back into the church and be baptized someday!!!!  We also almost reached most of our goals this week.  We had 19 with member and a bunch of other stuff....that’s almost the mission goal, the one that everyone thought was impossible.  We are almost getting it.  We also got some new investigators from the ward mission leader and his girlfriend....this one is progressing a lot and came to church on Sunday.

SO exciting for Spencer to get his mission call....Jacksonville Florida....that will be fun.  He won’t really have much of a winter ha-ha. 

Man i don’t really know what else to write....the week went by fast, we had a baptism and Spencer got his mission call. 

Still am trying to get my camera to connect to a computer here, but they all are just so cruddy that I don’t know when I will be able to send a picture or two.

SO the shells and cheese saved me last night when I had no food....they were delish.  The jerky is gone, the Easter candy is gone, the seeds are almost gone, and the rubix cube has been solved tons of times.  I haven’t used my shoe inserts yet, I’m waiting for mine to blow out....not gonna be too long.  The inside is going to be gone in like 2 weeks, they are already destroyed.  Tell Spencer to get some good shoes cuz he will need them, fetch, I bet he has car in his mission :)

Love you mom

April 30, 2012

Dear Mom. . .

This week was another good one and we accomplished many of our weekly goals.  We have the baptism set for this Saturday at 5.  They are going to get married and then Andres will get baptized...and his wife has started the repentance process that will take some time.  We have his interview tomorrow night when I will be on divisions with the DL.  So Elder Keller and I  are pretty stoked on that.  We can say that we fulfilled with our missionary purpose with him....he is so ready, when we went over the baptism questions with him. . . he used scriptures to back up his testimony and it was ballin....that doesn’t happen much.  We have lots of investigators that are just kind of hard to find or just are lazy Paraguayans!!!   You give them one little homework to do like read a chapter or even a page and pray and they can’t do it in like 3 days...Spencer will find out soon enough that it’s not what it seems....did bishop give him the district or the district 2....he will watch both of those in the MTC and when he gets to the mission...during his first 2 months when he is getting trained. 

Sad that Spencer only could land his back flip once or twice and has to pack it up for 2 years....oh well we can go when he gets back...I’ll have to practice a bunch and then I’ll be better than him by the time he gets back ha-ha.

Pretty cool that Mitch is getting excited to leave on the mish. . . he will have a good time.  At first it is really hard and and there are days when you just get shunned like it’s the end of the world...but you wouldn’t change it for anything else....you want to go home at the start of your mission but then you just understand things more fully and then you want to stay you can tell that to Spencer.

And Grant, M’Kay and McCall all seem busy too with sports and activities to keep them busy all summer.  I’m sure that you dad and grandma netters are running them all over the place.  How is netters....is she reading the BOM with M’Kay or was she joking about that....I’m almost done with that in Spanish again so that will be the 3rd time reading it...and I’m reading it in Portuguese still....so many people here speak it....so Elder Keller & I try to learn.. . But it is a task!!!

We met some more people this week who have seen Jesus or God. . . you are not a Paraguayan until you have seen Jesus....it’s so true.  Then you just don’t know what to tell them ha-ha.  Also it has been raining so much this week....my shoes and pants and everything, just covered in mud.  My shoes are already trashed, the ones that you sent me for my b-day....well the inside are, and hopefully I can use the shoe inserts that you are sending me.  I should get my package today...because I paid for it last Monday it got to the office on the 18 of April...fast!!!

That is about it for this week, it’s getting colder so we are just in heaven, all of the people here are freezing, but for us from Idaho and Utah it is great!!!!

Love you mom. . . 

Taylor

April 23, 2012

Well this was a good week.  We almost met all of our goals.  We had 14 with a member present and 12 others and 9 less actives and 15 new people again.  So it was a good week.  This morning we had interviews with President Callan.  It was good....we talked a lot about goals and building up confidence with your testimony.  The mail still hasn’t got here...we are hoping that it gets here at about 3.  

This week we went to that family just about every night....the one who has a baptism date for Saturday.  Well we found out that his wife wants to come back and wants to fix her life.  She has a long road ahead to get back into the church so what we want to do is get them married this week and then he can get baptized and get the priesthood.  Then he can give his wife blessings and help her get back into the church.  So he is really progressing.  Most of the other people are just one timers or they just reject us.  IDK  why they do it....Spencer will see on his mission....when does that get here...wed or next wed?????

Last night we did have a good lesson with a guy who has gone to church 5 times...he was worried about being baptized 2 times so we explained that with the scriptures and showed him that you can get baptized again and that a real baptism has significance to stuff....so he was more open after we got that doubt out of his mind.

So it’s rained all week and I don’t know how I get so much mud on my pants....My pants are muddy from my ankles up to my knees.  Elder Keller is never muddy....idk what to do about it...today sis Callan just laughed at me for it.  But today it was nice and cool...hope the winter is coming fast!!!  This area is so big...we don’t even know what is in some of the areas.  We have already condemned many of them because they are a waste of time!!!  Also in our district we have the Itapúa dam...it’s the biggest dam in the world., we might go to it next week or during this change.  That would be cool you should go look it up on the internet...it powers all of Brazil Paraguay and Argentina!!!

Also I think that Emilio and Margarita got baptized...I’m not sure yet I’m trying to find the numbers from last week!!!  Hope they did and President Callan said that I could write them because they are my converts....I might do that today if I have time!

Also it sounds like the fun has already started for the family back home....Ii only have to miss this summer. I mean it won’t be that hard...I’ll get home just in time to start having fun!!! I do wish I could go boating with all the heat we have here though.  

Love you mom....

Elder Salinas

April 16, 2012

About time for that one year mark to pass.....but it was fast and it was enjoyable.  I didn't do anything ´´fun´´ on that day but it did rain a ton and it was really muddy.  But the week was good.  Last week the branch president told everyone in ward council that they were going to shut down the branch if they didn't get 16 guys with the priesthood who pay their tithing.   They started to help us right away so we had a bunch of member help this week.  Also we finally had a miracle....yesterday this lady showed up to church with her family, she is a less active member that wants to come back to church....her husband is getting baptized the 28th this month....pretty cool.  

Sweet that Spencer sent his papers in.  I’ll say that he is going to the Eugene Oregon mission or the Montevideo Oeste mission in Uruguay.  So idk if he will get them next wed or the next one but can’t wait to find out where he is going.  This Christmas will be really different with two of the boys gone.  We are going to have 4 missionaries and maybe 5 if Michael goes in the family all out at the same time. 

So some of the hard things that we have to do here is talk in Portuguese....like a fifth of the people here are Brazilian.  So it’s not too hard to understand when I read the Book of Mormon in Portuguese but to try and understand the people that speak is hard. We only speak a little bit, and Guaraní just screws it all up....4 languages in your head are not fun!!!  

Last week we had cucumbers in vinegar with onions and it tasted like summer....it was great!!!! Can’t wait to eat that when I get home in less than a year.  HAHA Oh and on Easter this lady who feeds us lunch who only speaks Portuguese wanted a big ole kiss from me because it was Easter and then she gave us cake with alcohol in it!   So when I got to this area and now that I have a year in the mission, I just want to get rid of all my junk.  I am tired of hauling it around, my bags were so heavy to get here....one of them, the biggest, is all broken, the wheels are trashed....I’ve just decided that I want to come home with just my carry on if I can, and maybe the smaller suitcase in other words I don’t want to buy anything else while I am here...I have some cool stuff but there is nothing to bring home to yall.  When Spencer gets his call I will make a list of things to take and things not to take....like about suits, pants, shoes, luggage and other stuff...I have a little list for him. 

Well that’s about it for this week I will try to send a pic, no promise because this place is old.

Love you mom

Taylor