I'm Phelan Tired This Week

You have no idea how busy this past week has been! I'm so glad that it is finally P-Day so I can take a break from it all.

So, I may or may not have said in my last email that the Phelan Ward has started a 40 day fast. This is only the second week of it, but some cool stuff has already happened. So, Roland, my newest investigator, is a pretty cool guy. He is married to Carla, who we've already taught a little bit. We went over to their house this past Tuesday and answered some questions for him. He is super interested and really wants to go to the temple. Its a little difficult telling him that he can't go unless he's a member. Hmm. He's been to church twice now and we've already taught him twice. We've also got two more lessons set up with him and Carla this upcoming week. Its cool seeing him slowly gain a testimony of this gospel and wanting to follow Christ.

We told Jenny that she can get baptized this past Wednesday. She and her mom both started crying when we told he that. I am so excited that she will finally be able to get baptized. It feels like we have been waiting forever for this. We've set her date for the 22 of September so that her dad will be able to baptize her. Transfers is on the 11th, so either Elder Smith or I will not be here for that, but we will still be able to go to the baptism.

Chris, our 9-year-old investigator, will be baptized on the 7th, and all we've got left to do is teach him one more lesson. Teaching him is probably the easiest thing in the world because no matter what I tell him, he just believes me. Wahoo!

Blanca and Ilich got married on Saturday! That was a totally cool time. Elder Smith and I helped set up the wedding Friday night for quite some time. It really looked nice. I even took some pictures of the thing. Earlier this week we got a call from Blanca saying that the wedding was cancelled, though. There was a pretty big misunderstanding between the two of them. We were kind of freaking out. We told pretty much the whole ward that the wedding was off, so everything was cancelled. The next day, however, we went to go talk to Blanca and found out that it really was just a misunderstanding at that the wedding was back on. That was a huge fiasco. It is weird being in the center of all the wedding plans. I never knew that part of being a missionary was being a wedding planner. I was just glad that it all worked out and now they are all married and stuff so that Blanca can get baptized. It was planned for the 1st, but I think it is being moved to the 7th.

I had my first Zone Conference this past week as well. I really didn't find it that enjoyable. I was sitting in the same seat for like 5 hours listening to my mission president say the same thing over and over, which was, find more investigators, give them a baptismal date, then they will get baptized! I understand what he's saying, but it really isn't that easy. I was kind of bored from the whole thing. We did watch a super awesome talk from Elder Holland, which I thought was totally worthwhile. We also ate sandwiches. Yummy sandwiches. I like sandwiches.

Yesterday, Sunday, I felt so super busy, There were 4 investigators at church and I need to set things up, and talk to, and do things for all of them, plus there was Ward Council and a nonmember who just showed up. I was stretched thin yesterday. I would rather have it that way, though, than I would just doing nothing. Doing nothing as a missionary is the worst.

This upcoming week will probably be even busier. We've already got 5 scheduled appointments and we need to schedule a couple more. I really am loving it here in Phelan.

Now go, and be golden,

Elder RST

This is a picture of a blanket fort that Elder Smith and I made and slept in for three nights

This is Elder Smith and me with Ilich, He's the groom. I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of/with Blanca.

This one with me wearing a drape? Is of me wearing a drape

Me with Carla and Roland

Soap Smells Terrible

Man, oh man. This week has been an odd one. I don't even know what events to tell ya'll about. Because not many happened and the ones that did really were not that interesting and uneventful. Let me see...

We had plenty of lessons set up, Elder Smith and I did, but all of them fell through! We had two set up with Jenny, who, by the way, is now cleared to be baptized! That is going to be awesome! But, the lessons with her were both cancelled because of something or other. We had one set up with Ilich and Blanca, but they had to go Down the Hill (the California term for down to San Bernardino and such) so we couldn't meet with them. They still are getting married, which is going to happen on Saturday! That will be sweet.

I have to tell all of you something very important. It is about this drink called Californias Dreamin'. It is absolutely amazing. It is a delicious beverage concocted by the company known as Shasta. It is Orange Cremecicle flavored. I can't get enough of it. Do they have it in Utah and elsewhere? If they do you should pick some up at the local grocery store. It is some of the best stuff you'll have.

Let's see, what else happened? I met this woman who doesn't make it to much of church, and then the next day I cleaned out pine needles for her. That was alright. Yesterday, being Sunday the 19th of August, our ward mission leader, Brother LaFever (people in this ward have the best names) put on a fireside to start a 40 day fast! It started today and I am so excited to see what will become of it. Another missionary told me about the cool stuff that happened in their ward because they did one of them, and this one will be good too, I hope.

One investigator's husband showed up to church yesterday and he seems really excited about learning more about the church, which means I am excited to teach him! I can't wait. Oh yeah, one of the weirdest things happened this week. So our 9-year-old investigator who was scheduled to be baptized on the 9th of September. That date is Stake Conference here, and our bishop was really worried about having it on that date because "nobody would want to attend after Stake Conference." We told the kid's mom that and she cancelled his baptism. UGH! We kept trying to call her and meet them at home, and all that other good stuff, but she would always mysteriously not be there, or miss our call. Thankfully we have an awesome Relief Society President who was in contact with her and she talked her in to getting him baptized! So now the baptism is back on. That was a nerve-wracking ordeal.

I feel like I should at least have something more to write to you all about, but I really don't have anything else to talk about. Maybe something about how I am reading the New Testament right now, and I am kind of bored by it. It sure ain't no Book of Mormon. I'm almost done with it, only like 80 pages left, and I can't wait to finish it. It will probably be finished this week.

Also, being a missionary is weird. I am having dreams about doing missionary work. I have dreams where I am in a meeting with the Twelve Apostles. My brain only thinks about being a missionary, and the idea of being alone kind of freaks me out. When people start talking about adventures they had and I am imagining myself doing these things I always think about how hard it would be to do things in a shirt and tie. But I really do like being a missionary. It was totally way cool and all that stuff.

Now I really don't know what else to talk about. So I am going to stop.

Hot Girl Naps and Belly Fire,

Elder RST

I Was Phelan Kinda Nervous

'Sup my peeps!? Is it alright for me to call you my peeps?

This week has been an interesting one. On Tuesday we taught a lesson with Jenny, whose letter we should hopefully be receiving this week to see if she is eligible to be baptized. I can only hope for the best! We also went to see a couple of people that our Relief Society President asked us to. So when we hopped over to this one house we had a prayer with a Catholic woman and her Jewish sister while we were holding hands in a circle. That's the first time I've ever done that. They also gave us Plums and Pluots to eat. Pluots are a plum and apricot hybrid. Pretty good stuff. Oh yeah, we had dinner at the Slapper's house. Man, people out here have great last names.

On Wednesday we started teaching this 9-year-old kid. His family is already members, but since he's 9 we have to teach him the missionary lessons. Those are probably the easiest lessons I've gotten to teach yet.

Not much happened on Thursday, too bad. We talked about people in our ward with Bishop Best and ate dinner at his son's house. We also taught Ilich and Blanca that day. I'm not sure if I told you guys, but they are getting married so that Blanca can be baptized! That is super exciting stuff. Blanca is totally a missionary miracle. She is so prepared to be a part of this gospel.

For the life of me I can't remember what happened on Friday. I know I got a haircut from Josh Best, who is a mechanic. My hair looks rather interesting. I will send a picture next week, because you have to see the guy that gave me a haircut. You wouldn't believe it was him. For dinner we went over to one of the hundreds of Anderson's in our ward. These Anderson's are a part member family, and the one member doesn't come to church. They are super awesome people, who just are awesome. I absolutely loved being over there, it also helped that they gave us steak and some awesome stuff to go along with it.

On Saturday we spent most of the day preparing for talks that we gave on Sunday. I really miss using a computer in order to help me write the talk. It was way harder to do it all handwritten. We helped "move" a family that is moving in to the Phelan ward from the Oak Hills ward, which is the ward that is literally right next door to the Phelan one. I say "move" because we were told to show up to their house at 1 o'clock, and when we got there they were all done moving. So we just helped them set up beds, and move grills and other stuff. We had dinner over at Ilich and Blanca's house. We had a very interesting discussion with them about the God Head and other stuff. We were there for quite some time, and at the end I felt more drained than anything. I don't think that discussion really helped any of us out. All I wanted to do afterward was sleep. So I did. But before we at dinner there we took Elder Smith's electric ukulele and jammed out on it with some amps. That was way fun.

So Sunday was the day we gave talks in the Phelan ward. It was a pretty good time. I really do enjoy giving talks. I stood up and gave an "introduction" of myself. I said I was originally from Sussex, England. I came from a very big family... 9 parents. And every Saturday at Sunup I would perform comedy at the Giggle Pit. I got a handful of laugh. I quickly told them that that was all a joke. The rest of my talk was about the Doctrine of Christ, and telling everyone that they need to have people for us to teach, because tracting is terrible and yields very little results.

There you have it. That is my week. My investigator, Carla, has mostly fallen off the radar. We finally talked to her a couple of days ago and her husband is moving back to Phelan, so we get to meet him soon. Lillian is a really tough nut to crack. His life is a terrible mess so we can never had a time to teach her, and she is so busy that she can't make it to church.

Thanks for being my peeps!

Now go, and be golden,

Elder R Sage Taylor

I've Got a Phelan

Dang, it sounds like a ton of stuff is going on in the real world. I am so jealous! But not really, because I love it here! I'll make sure to write to Isaac, especially since he wrote me this week! Yay! That sounds so much fun, I love having my fronectemy. Not really, but I'm being positive!

I wish I could not interact with the stupid people here, but I'm a missionary so I get to deal with people all day long. There are a couple of people in the ward that try to tell me and my companion exactly what we need to do, which is weird because they aren't the bishop or my mission president, so we just take it into consideration and do it when we have time.

That would have been awesome to be there for Seeley's blessing. Tell them congrats and stuff, and they should stop slacking and be my friends again. I'm talking about Kristen and Rey, obviously Seeley can't write me, I'm sure he doesn't even have an email address yet.

Happy Anniversary! Almost. I wrote in my planner to celebrate it and stuff, but you reminded me before I could remind myself. It seems like only yesterday it was 18 years. My how time flies. I really am jealous that you guys are going to Angels games. Everybody down here is an Angels fan and they talk about it a lot.

Elder Smith and I talked about how if we were to drive to Utah on a Wednesday, spend Thursday there and then come back on Friday nobody in our mission would have any clue about it. We decided that we probably shouldn't do that and that we would be breaking the rules, but it could be a possibility nonetheless.

Thanks for being such a stupendous mother!

Elder Taylor