Heyo Family and Friends!!!
This is your favorite missionary, Elder Taylor!! I have successfully made it to my very first Preparation Day!! This is the day that I can send out my weekly updates about what I have been up to while serving as a missionary! For the next couple of weeks (while I'm in training), Preparation Day will be on Saturday for me, but I have no idea what day of the week it will be when I get out to New York! For those of you who don't know yet, I am currently training to be a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at my home. All of my classes are over Zoom right now, but on Wednesday I actually get to fly out to Provo Utah and go to the Missionary Training Center (or MTC) up there for about two weeks! I am so excited because due to Covid, there hasn't been any missionaries at that training center for 15 months! I will be one of the first ones back! I can't wait!
Anyway, I'll give you all a rundown of what the past week has been like for me!
On Sunday, I gave my farewell speech at church, and I would say it went rather well! I then got to spend some time at my house with some old friends during an open house we held and it's crazy to think I won't see any of those people that I love so much for two whole years! I know it'll be worth it though! After the open house My Stake President (local leader) came over to lay his hands on my head to set me apart and officially make me a missionary! It was a super powerful and amazing experience! But unfortunately that means I have to follow a missionary sleep schedule hahah! But that was chill!
Then there was Monday! The first day of missionary training! I got to meet up with my AWESOME companion Elder Hofhiens, and we got to know each other a little before class! I was on Zoom for a total of around 9 hours that day. It was rough. But thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes that day! (yep, I started the MTC on my birthday. You decide if that's cool or not) I also got to meet the group of missionaries that I will be hanging out with during my training! This group is called a district, and they are all the most wonderful people I have ever met! They have such a wonderfully loving spirit about them, and I cannot WAIT to meet them all in person on Wednesday!
Tuesday Grandma and Grandpa Taylor left Tucson, so I had to say goodbye. I will miss them! We had fewer Zoom classes which was very nice, and so I went out bowling with my family! I bowled a total of five strikes and several spares, missing only five pins the ENTIRE GAME! Who knew missionaries were good bowlers huh? In the evening we had a devotional which is like a special meeting that has about one keynote speaker from the church that teaches us something specific. It was a wonderful devotional, and afterwards, we met as a district to talk about it and hang out online! They are pretty cool people, and we learned that apparently if you eat a grape and a baby carrot, it will taste like a mango. I'm not so sure though, so please let me know if that food combo works for you!
Wednesday we had more classes on Zoom, and I got to learn a lot of Hymns on my guitar! I should be posting a video of one of them soon, so keep an eye out for that! I really love the Hymns, so this might be something I continue to do for quite awhile!
Thursday I had a dentist appointment and oh my goodness my face was so numb when I came home! Elder Hofhiens can attest to the fact that half of my face was drooping off to the side hahah! Someone described a super strong spiritual impression and one of the Sisters in my district said "oh yeah, that feels like Jesus is sitting on your head!" It was HILARIOUS! Then, later that day, one of my teachers said that the spirit makes her feel like a CareBear or as she said "makes me feel like rainbows are shooting out of my chest". So the lesson here kids is that the spirit feels like Jesus sitting on our head, or rainbows shooting from our chest. No inbetween. #sorrynotsorry
Then there was yesterday and I had.... drum roll please!!....... MORE ONLINE CLASSES! I think with Covid, online college, and now Online Missionary Training, I must have somewhere around two thousand hours on Zoom. And I'm being completely serious when I say that. No joke. But anyway we had another really good day and I managed to finally get a picture over Zoom of my awesome district! I am learning SO much! And in fact, we found out yesterday that our district will be the very very first group checking in to the Provo MTC on Wednesday! How incredible is that?!?
Well that's about all I have for you all today! Please write me an email (but don't reply to this one because that would be a mess for me to sort through) and tell me how you guys are doing! I would love to hear from you!! I just want to share this scripture really fast, which can be found in the Book of Mormon! It is in the book of Alma, chapter 5 verse 40. It says, "For I say unto you that whatsoever is good cometh from God." I just want to share that I know this is true, and I would invite you all to look for the goodness in your life and recognize that it comes from God!
I love you all!!
Elder Taylor!
The district!
Elder Hofhiens and I
My study space!
My most serious pic
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