Back in Arizona! Home from Nauvoo...

A really cool picture of Joseph and I reading from the book of Ether in the Book of Mormon before the martyrdom.

Oh my goodness friends!! Sad to say it, but my time in Nauvoo is done for this year...

It has been SO long since I wrote up a weekly email and I will be honest with you, it has been really hard to start one. You see, on July 31st, it was time to finally fly home from Nauvoo. I had spent so long living and working there that writing the "goodbye to Nauvoo" email was really difficult. Hence it has been about three weeks since the last time I wrote one of these. Due to that fact, this will mostly be a recap of the last few weeks, plus a few new adventures as well!

The last performances of the Nauvoo and British Pageants went SO well! I didn't get injured again, but I did get really sick at one point. I only missed one rehearsal all summer, and it was on the day my sickness was the worst. During that last week of shows, my parents actually flew out to see me and spend a few days in Nauvoo! It was really awesome to have them there!

One cool story from while they were there actually happened by a kind of miracle! So in Nauvoo there is a building that you can go to where they will tell you where your ancestors lived or owned land while they lived here in Nauvoo! It's actually really cool because they will give you maps so you can go and find the exact properties your ancestors owned nearly 200 years ago! Well, my ancestor Stephen Markham lived in Nauvoo, and I had spent the summer really wanting to know where he lived. It wasn't until my parents arrived that we were able to go down to the land and records office (which is what this mystical place is called) to look it up! This could happen because I wasn't teaching the shows to any new casts anymore, so I had free time during the day! I know. Free time? How foreign! Anyway, we were walking around Nauvoo, on our way to the lands and records office, when my dad said something like, "here, let's cut across this field". I was a tad bit nervous about that because there was a blue placard a few yards away, so I knew that the field was some kind of historical site, but as I looked at the sign I read that it said "Oh My Father" across the top! Now, the Latter-day Saint Hymn titled Oh My Father has a very special relationship with my family that I guess I only knew about! You see, that Hymn was written by Eliza R Snow in my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather's house! That's right, Stephen Markham's house! So I cried out for my parents to wait, and I ran to read the placard. Sure enough, the field my dad just started to walk through was actually the land where our grandfather lived!!! What a cool miracle, right?!? So of course we took a picture, and headed off to the land and records office anyway to prove that we were smart and already knew where grandpa lived! It felt super awesome to realize that I had spent the whole summer working literally down the street from where my ancestors lived! Not only that, but we also sing the Hymn Oh My Father in the Nauvoo Pageant! So that's like a double connection! It was really special! I felt like I had a LOT of connections in that city, both past and present.

That last day I was in Nauvoo, I stayed up SUPER late to get my hair cut and pack! I think I went to bed at like, five in the morning because we also had to turn in all our costumes and such! It was a long day, and a sad one! But the weather was just perfect for a final night performance! In the morning, lots of us loaded up on a bus and drove out to Saint Louis to fly home! I had a super long time just to myself in the airport as everyone else left before me. It was something like six hours alone. So I watched a lot of Church movies on my laptop! That was a huge blessing to have I must say! That first flight was honestly the MOST comfortable I have ever been on a plane! I slept the whole three and a half hours! After I got home all I wanted was to sleep some more though!

The first week I was home I was still recovering from the sickness I had, but I went right to work on Tuesday! I went to check out a food bank, and it was really cool! I worked there officially this week and it was SO fun! I'll have to send more details about that place later! I got to get back to the temple, and I didn't realize just how much I missed it!

My first few days back working in the temple I realized just how much my temple work prepared me for Nauvoo. There is a lot of doctrine taught there, and it's very sacred material that I have to memorize. Being a temple worker prepared me to play a sacred role like Hyrum Smith in ways I never could have foreseen!

This week on Wednesday I got to tour the Gospel Rescue Mission homeless shelter, because I might start serving there! It is AMAZING! I mean, it is basically a giant hotel! It was amazing to see that there are communities that really care about those in need, and it was comforting to know that Tucson is such a giving city! I am looking forward to working there during my mission! Currently, I am looking for other forms of service around the community, so if you have any good ideas, please let me know!!

I know this isn't the usual detailed report you get from Elder Taylor, but I PROMISE that next week I will be better at it! I had a lot to catch up on, and I will continue to do my best as a missionary!

Of course though, it wouldn't be an Elder Taylor email without a scripture verse at the end! This one has been on my mind a lot recently, and I think it has a special significance to missionaries, and just believers of Christ in general! It is found in the book of fourth Nephi in the Book of Mormon, verse 5, and it says, "there were great and marvelous works wrought by the disciples of Jesus, insomuch that they did heal the sick, and raise the dead, and cause the lame to walk, and the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear; and all manner of miracles did they work among the children of men; and in nothing did they work miracles save it were in the name of Jesus."

I have seen with my own eyes the miracles that can be wrought in the name of Jesus. I have seen the blind receive sight. I have seen the lame walk, for I was one of them. I have seen the deaf hear. I have seen the sick healed through faith in Jesus. I have even seen people so exhausted they should have been dead, yet they rose up each morning to serve! I know that the power of God is again on the Earth, and that when we access that power through promises we make to God, and through faith in Jesus Christ, we can see miracles! Of all kinds! I bear my solemn witness of this in all soberness of spirit, and speak with no fear for I know that I speak the truth, in the most holy name of Jesus Christ, Amen.