I'm Tired of Tracting so Much!

So this week was better than last week.

Tuesday was pretty good. We had a Zone Meeting, where we went to Victorville. Afterward we went to a new Super Wal-Mart! I bought myself some Oatmeal Squares. Yumm-o. Then we went to In-n-Out. Even better! It’s always nice to get to leave your area for a little bit. A change of scenery always helps. That night we started doing an A-Z teaching of members. It’s cool to get to know everyone that we can while we're here. It is also better than trying to find people to teach through tracting.

For the most part, whenever we haven't been teaching we have been tracting. We have found quite a few people, and have been let in a couple of houses when we knocked on the door. This upcoming week looks good, just because we have lots of return appointments, so we won't have to try so hard to fill up our schedule.

Friday was also good. We went to a dry lake bed, called El Mirage, to do some service. That was an enjoyable time. We just moved huge cabinets from one mobile home to a giant shed. They cabinets almost squished a couple of missionaries.

Saturday was probably the best day yet. One of my favorite people out here, Jenny, was baptized! The very first lesson I taught was with her and I finally got to see her get baptized! Out of the three baptisms so far, this was probably the best and the easiest. No weird mishaps like having to move to a new house or anything to get away from a drug addict. It was great to see someone progress over a few months and then get baptized. That's what being a missionary is about. See those you love make covenants. I love it!

We've just been staying busy trying to find people. Now that we've found some people I hope that we can finally have some more investigators to teach.

Thank you all for being such great friends and family. I love you all so much!

Now go, and be Golden,

Elder R. Sage Taylor

This is one of Jenny and her dad, Dennis, Elder Smith and me. Obviously a baptism

One is of a bat that I hit while driving. Yucky.

Me and my mini Preach My Gospel. I love that thing!

 

And the New Companion is...

…..Elder Pettegrew.

Now that that is out of the way, this past week has been something else. Last Monday was a good day. After emailing ya'll and getting kicked off, then trying again but having the library's power go out, we went and saw all the families that Elder Smith wanted pictures with before he took off. It was pretty nice to see all the cool people in the ward all at once.

The next was transfers. So how transfers work around here: on the Saturday before transfers, we get a call from our District Leader, who gets a call from the Zone Leaders, etc. That night they tell us if we are getting transferred. That's it. Just if we are leaving or not. So we were up in Wrightwood with our District Leader when he got the call. They said Smith was leaving, which was no surprise. Then on Sunday we get a call or text telling us which transfer meeting to go to, there are two, one for the desert and one for the valley. This time there was just one, down in the valley. When we get there on at 9 o'clock in the morning we have a little talk by our mission president. Then after that's done he, his wife and the assistants to the president take turns reading off a list telling everyone where they go and who their companion is. That's when I got my new companion, Elder Pettegrew. He's only been out 3 months longer than me and we are almost as opposite as can be. It is really hard for me, but I guess it will make me a better person/missionary when it's done, right?

The rest of the day was mostly spent at home in Phelan while he unpacked all of his stuff.

The rest of the week has been spent mostly tracting. Man that is the pits.

We have found one person that might actually seem interested. We just knocked on her door, talked to her at the door for a couple of minutes, then we ended up going in her house and teaching for about 1 hour and 40 minutes. It was a pretty cool experience. We are meeting with her again later this week. I hope she becomes an official investigator. And a pretty funny thing happened after that, too. This woman's son was outside when we were going back to our truck. Pettegrew went to shake his hand, and when he put his hand out this guy got in to a fighting stance and said that he doesn't shake hand with people. He also told us that every Mormon he's ever met has had a similar facial structure. Whatever that means.

This upcoming Saturday Jenny will be baptized! I am so excited for that. It will be awesome. We've been waiting for a few months to be able to get her baptized, and finally it is coming up. That whole is a rad.

  

As an Angel From on High,

Elder R. Sage Taylor

Pettegrew and me

This one with the chicken, is a GIANT CHICKEN. It was like 7 feet tall. Nuts!

I love this Sage Rd picture

This one is of me and some mirrors. It looked cool so I took a picture of it

These are of a mine shaft that I hiked to on Labor Day

It was super cool

Burning Rubber Smells Terrible

What a crazy couple of weeks this has been! I'm not even sure if I will be able to tell you all of the crazy stuff that has been happening. So I'm gonna start with the big stuff and see if I remember all of the other stuff that has been going on since I wrote you two weeks ago.

1. Blanca's Baptism

So Blanca finished the Book of Mormon in like 2 weeks, which was super cool. She texted us and let us know she finished it, then we went over to her house and congratulated her and got her to sign her baptismal record. She started to tell us some stuff that her crazy husband, Ilich, and his mother were doing. It didn't sound too good. The next day I was on exchanges in Phelan with Elder Browning. We were at home when I got a call from a number that I didn't know; I answered it and it was Blanca, crying and telling us that she needed to get out of her house and she wanted us to get her. I called up a few people and got Sister Turner, the Relief Society President, to go there with us, because I didn't know what was going to be going on over there.

We showed up at their house and Blanca came to open the gate and she was crying, and thank goodness Sister Turner was there because Blanca cried on her shoulder for a few minutes. THEN we went inside to grab all of Blanca's stuff, which was super awkward. Ilich was there, and he was super angry. Ilich's mother was there and she was being creepy and watching us take Blanca's stuff to our truck to move it. I was glad to get out of there.

We took Blanca and all of her stuff to the Turner's house, where she has been staying that past few days. The good news is that Blanca got baptized on Friday! Elder Smith did the baptism and I confirmed her. That was super nerve-wracking. Thank goodness for the Spirit. Ether 12:27 was a big help, too. 

Blanca will be moving to another area probably today. So I won't be able to see her that often, but when I am on exchanges I will.

2. Chris's Baptism

This was a lot less of a hassle to put on. Chris got baptized by Brother Turner and confirmed by Elder Smith. This was a cool experience to be apart of.

3. Transfers

Elder Smith will be leaving Phelan soon. Like tomorrow soon. He will also become a Zone Leader. I am sad that he is leaving, because he was such an awesome trainer and is really a good friend of mine. I can't wait to see who my new companion will be. I'll let you know in a week from now.

I really really really want to write more to ya'll, I can't though because I've only got a minute left until I get kicked off because some dude reserved a computer and mine is it. Ah well.

Now Go, and be Golden,

Elder R. Sage Taylor