July 30, 2012

This week things are great. It’s been two whole days. So far so good. Last week was alright. We set two baptism dates, which is also awesome. Good times. Elder Smith and I are still doing good. Preaching the gospel, but not by tracting. Tracting is boring and doesn't get us anything so we've only tracted once this past week.

Speaking of sleeping I've been talking in my sleep, like I normally do. Last night I was quoting scripture, Elder Smith said. I guess I really am a missionary. Ha-ha. I also keep having dreams where I'm home for a little while, and I don't know why, and that I have to come back on my mission in "ten minutes." Weird stuff.

I don't have any time left right now to write a weekly summary. I used up a bunch of time writing to all the 16 people that emailed me today. Maybe I should write my summary at the beginning of my emailing session instead of at the end. I will do that next week so that it gets done.

Just let people know that I set two dates and that a less-active member in the ward came to fix our water heater and in the process burnt off part of his beard. And that I'm staying in Phelan for this next transfer. That's the important stuff that has happened this week!

I love you Mom. Thanks for being awesome!

Elder Taylor, RS

I'm Phelan Alright

This is going to be a short email this week, just because not that much has
happened since last week. All of the investigators I'm teaching are doing
fine, none of them have changed that much since the last week or two and
we're still teaching all of them. Elder Smith and I haven't really had any
crazy, fun, or awesome contacts. For the most part I can't even remember
what has happened since the last time I wrote all ya'll.

The only really awesome that happened is that we had a ward Pioneer Day
party. Lillian, one of the investigators I'm teaching, brought a dunk tank,
which was a huge hit. Elder Smith and I ran the Race Station, which was
Gunny Sack and Three-Legged races. There was a children's archery station
and a horse racing station too. Not real horses, but those ones that are a
pole with a horse head sticking out the top. The dinner was absolutely
phenomenal. There was this family there that played old-timey music, like
Sweet Betsy from Pike , and She'll be Coming Round the Mountain. The
violinist was a 12-year-old girl who was absolutely amazing. We had quite a
few non-members there, which is always fun to see.

I just looked over my planner, and really not much has happened. We went
down the hill to Rancho Cucamonga so Elder Smith could be interviewed by
the Mission Prez, which took all day, and not much else. We did get some
pretty awesome Zone T-Shirts that Elder Smith drew. I should send you a
picture some time.

Everyone who reads this should email me! I love getting emails!

This picture is something funny I saw on a road out here.

These are of different parts of my house. Its pretty nice

Our Truck

Phelan on fire! OOOOh, scary!

These first two are of Joshua trees, one minute after another, one facing west

and the other east

The next three are of a cool tower Elder Smith and I made of nails and pass-along cards

The next two are me and Elder Smith and me and

Elder Mitchel on a hike two weeks ago

This one is an awesome place called Inspiration Point. It is pretty cool

I'm supposed to be the fourth palm tree, or something,
Brother Chaffee had me take that one.

The couple in the picture with us are the Chaffees.

Absolutely awesome family. They've got 3 kids, who are all superb.
They drove us to the temple and then took us to Cafe Rio afterward.

r.sage.taylor@myldsmail.net

Now go, and be golden,
Elder Sage Taylor

Phelan Blues

Oh man. I'm not even sure what to write to you guys about this week. I guess first off I want to let you know that I'm sending this email on a Wednesday instead of a Monday because I got a chance to go to the Redlands Temple today. Whenever we have a temple trip our P-day gets switched to the day that we are going to the temple. Also, one of the coolest families, the Chaffees, took us to the temple and then we went to Cafe Rio afterward. What a glorious day!

So let me think about some cool events that happened this week. I had an opportunity to go down the hill to Rancho Cucamonga for a greenie meeting. It wasn't that great, but it was cool to see all those missionaries that I came out here with. I won a box of super knock-off brand Froot Loops. They were pretty nasty.  I also played basketball with the ward that night. I really need to get better at that game. I am so un-athletic it’s not funny.

On Friday I had a few really strange tracting experiences. One house we went to had this guy named Tom, when he opened the door it smelled a lot like urine. Ugh. When he came out and started talking to us he started talking about how he is bipolar and just sometimes flips out. We left pretty soon after that. The next door or two was a woman who had had the missionaries over before and just invited us right in. That was odd, but she thought somebody sent us, so she was being polite. The next door after that was literally the strangest person I have met out here. His name is Robert, and when we were walking back to our truck he was poking his head out of his house and was waving us over. We walked toward him and he kept saying something to us, but he was almost whispering so I really couldn't understand him. We asked a few times to repeat what he said, and when we got close he said that he thought we were Jehovah's and was sorry for calling us over. I could just tell something was weird with this guy; he was shirtless and was wearing some sleeping pants. This was at like 3 in the afternoon. He started asking us, who we were, and Elder Smith and I just wanted to leave, but he invited us in to talk for a little bit. That dude had the most tobacco I have ever seen at one time in his house. He had tons of boxes full of the stuff. He invited us to sit on his couch, so we did. Right after that he lit up a cigarette then immediately put it out. He started asking about our religion and he was almost whispering the entire time. After we gave him a Book of Mormon and a pass-along card he was saying that he wanted to make a $40 billion donation to the Mormon Church. This guy was just nuts. We told him a little bit about prophets and then bounced. And as I was writing this we got a text from the MTC Referrals saying that he wants more information and is now a referral. I really don't want to go back to his house.

So, my investigators are all still holding strong, which I am excited for. Lillian and her son have accepted to be baptized, but won't commit to a date right now. I don't mind. We've still got tons to teach them. Jenny is still just waiting for a letter from the President of the Church. I found out that her and her parents are huge comic book nerds and just own tons of comic books and want to give some to me. It’s tough being a missionary because everybody want to give stuff to you and do stuff for you, but won't let you pay them or do anything in return. Speaking of which Elder Smith and I got facials from a recent convert! I've got pictures I want to show you, but I don't have a cord for it, so too bad I guess. I actually got a back facial. That was odd but my back look pretty now!

Other than that the only significant thing I've done this past week and a half is go on exchanges again. Elder Browning flipped out during district meeting and sat outside in the church foyer until it was all done. That was weird. I was also companions with a two-week missionary with Elder Browning while I was on exchanges. Has anybody ever heard of these? I hadn't until I came out here.

Not much else to report. I'm still loving it out here. The people are all top notch and the work is hard. Secretly, you are my heroes.

Now go, and be golden,

Elder R. Sage Taylor

A Very Quick Week

I'm really not sure what to say about this week. Elder Smith and I did a lot of just trying to contact as many people as possible, and for some reason people in Phelan are never home. We've spent a lot of time trying to visit the less-active members in the ward, but they just are never home. Ever. Except one guy who was nearly blind, so he can't make it to church. There was this other guy who hadn't been to church for about three years and we asked if we could come talk to him some other time, he said sure but then his wife yelled, "Not for me! I'm Catholic!" Then the dude said never mind. It’s weird to me how many members out here are married to people of a different faith. I really don't understand it.

In the investigator department we’ve got a couple that are awesome and some we really haven't even met with yet. 

Jenny is still awesome and is just waiting for a letter from the First Presidency. Who knows how long that will take?

Carla came to church yesterday and freaking loved it. It was cool to see the way everyone in the ward helped fellowship her in. We will start to actually teach her this week.

There were a couple of people that just walked in to the ward last week. We're not sure if they are members or not, but they certainly haven't been active in the church forever. I don't know how that's going to go.

There are a couple of other people that Elder Smith and I tracted into that sound like they might sincerely be interested, we have appointments with them for this upcoming week, so we'll see how they go.

Nothing has changed with my companion. I'm living on a dirt road in a double wide mobile home. It’s got 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a main room, and we have our own washer and dryer. I constantly get reminded that I live in the best apartment in the mission. What more could I ask for?

I've eaten pretty much every food you can think of. Not really, but the cooking here hasn't been weird. One day I did eat a breakfast casserole, which was 90% egg, 10% sausage. I honestly had to choke it down. As you know I can't stand eggs. Over at the Best's house (we eat over there once or twice a week) they always have something like meat and potatoes. Sometimes we even just eat Little Caesar’s. Yummy.

 

On a different note, you guys need to try Cucumber Lime Gatorade; it is freaking amazing. It sounds really weird, but this one member told us about it so we tried it and I have some every day of my life. Good stuff.

I went on exchanges for the first time. I went into the mountains to an area called Wrightwood. Pretty cool place. I've never seen a town actually built into a forest.

The Fourth of July was lame. Nobody was home at all, so we went to barbeque some burgers with some other Elders. I didn't even see a single firework that day. Ah well. Why didn't you guys go up to Evanston? I was so bummed that whole day because I was imagining all the fun you guys were having while I was just chilling in Wrightwood with some other Elders barbequing some burgers.

Anything else you want to know you need to ask me specifically. I want to write more but the computer is about to kick me off. Dang public computers. You all are my heroes! Keep up the good work with whatever you are doing. Please email me! r.sage.taylor@myldsmail.net I can't wait to hear from all of you guys!

Don't stop believin',

Elder R. Sage Taylor

My Second Week of Phelan

This week wasn't nearly as eventful as last week was, so I'm not going to do it as specific like I did last week, just because after last week a lot of it has been the same.

So some updates on our investigators:

Our most legit investigator, Jenny, is in the process of finding out if she can be baptized. Like I said last week she is on parole so we just need to wait now to see. We've taught her all of the missionary lessons, and we are going to continue to see her weekly just so that we can help he to stay on the path.

Another of ours, Carla, is pretty cool. She told us a lot about a pretty strange life that she's had. We'd invited her to come to church and she said that she would, so we got a member in the ward to go pick her up on Sunday. BUT a couple of days before church she gave us a call and said that she was in the hospital because she had a mild heart attack. That was a downer for multiple reasons, but we are going to try to see her sometime this week and see if there is anything we can do for her.

Our only other investigator, who is doing anything, Lillian, is having a hard time. She has had such a messed up life that she is in a huge mess right now. Even with all her trouble she still comes to church and loves it. We haven't actually had a chance to teach her yet, just because her life is so screwy.

We've had some other people that we tracted in to that said we could come by, but when we come at the time they said we could they mysteriously weren't home. On a good note we had a couple of people just walk in to church yesterday, just because they felt like it was something that they should do. So we are going to stop by their house some time and start teaching them!

Now for stuff that actually happened to me:

Elder Smith and I are trying to see as many less-active families as we can. That isn't going so well because no one is ever home.

There was one day where we had to go get our truck's oil changed so we drove to Victorville and it took like three hours to get done, so we walked around town, picked up some pens and a tie or two.

On Friday we taught a little lesson on faith to the ward as part of a little ward activity.

Saturday was a total service day. We started by moving a family into a house, they were pretty cool. They are members and they've already signed up to have us over for dinner some night. After we moved them in we went home to study and we saw a big ol' fire burning down the west side of Phelan! We drove to a little spot and watched it burn for just a little bit until we got a call from a member to go help them build a garden. It was a way good time. After that we helped a less-active family move a bed out of their house then we played pool with them. Saturday was a pretty good day.

Not many other amazing and important things happened. Just a lot of planning and then those plans falling through because people never answer their doors in Phelan. We did, however, find that tracting at night was way better because everyone is home and they have their gates open. We haven't found anybody because of that, though.

There is so much stuff that everybody has written to me that I'm not sure what to write. All of that stuff about the ward is crazy. It seems to be changing as much as ever.

Tell Caleb Demke that I've already had dinner over at his cousins' house. They are way funny people.

I don't have an address that you can send stuff to. Just send it to the mission home, which the address is:

Elder Sage Taylor

6541 Woodruff Place

Rancho Cucamonga CA 91701

We had a PO Box for our place, but for some reason it died and now we have all of our stuff forwarded from the mission office to some elders in an adjoining area.

My companion, Elder Smith, lives in Salt Lake. He went to Olympus High School. I don't know what else to tell you about him.

Oh yeah, and anyone can email me. That's why I put it at the end of my last email! I have 3 hours in which I can spend on the computer each week, so don't feel shy about giving it to people.

r.sage.taylor@myldsmail.net

Now go, and be golden,

Elder Sage Taylor