And ye shall go forth in the power of my Spirit, preaching my gospel, two by two, in my name, lifting up your voices as with the sound of a trump, declaring my word like unto angels of God. Doctrine & Covenants 42:6

Monday, October 28, 2013

The Conclusion of Yet Another Transfer

This has certainly been one of the more interesting weeks since I have been on my mission.

Firstly, William R. Walker from the Seventy came to our mission and spoke to us. That was spectacular. It was really neat having a General Authority come speak to us about how to be better missionaries. He just talked about things that will help us improve and do better work in our areas. 

There was a day this week, Wednesday, actually, that was totally legiticus. It was very much unlike most any day on my mission. Before Wednesday Elder Barker and I set up four lessons. What was cool about that day is that we actually taught all four lessons! None of them fell through. Miracle? 100%! We taught a recent convert family, found a new investigator, got Donnie, who got baptized a couple months ago, to go to a lesson with us and taught a returning-to-activity member. It was a pretty above average day to say the least.

There were a couple of days this week that were totally slow. Man, that was brutal. Going from and absolutely awesome day, then having nothing really bites. I mean, that's the times where "you grow the most," right? Elder Barker and I really had good times just walking around and talking with each other. We weren't able to get a lot done,  but we sure became better friends.

Saturday was kind of a silly day. Starting at 7 AM we did some service in an affluent part of Redlands. We helped set up some over-the-top Halloween decorations for three houses on Cajon Street. One house is a "Pirate Ship." One is a maze/ gallows kinds of thing. The last is just a fun house with giant spiders and Jack Skellington. It was way fun, too. This guy with the "fun" house called himself Papa Baer and was super cool. It was a great way to start a day.

That night we had Stake Conference. Normally missionaries don't go to the Adult Session of Stake Conference, but this time we were invited to for a special occasion. The occasion? We were a missionary choir! But it was totally different than a regular choir. We started singing Called to Serve and we purposely did it very terribly. The stake president stopped us and asked the Bishops and Ward Mission Leaders to join us. Still, it was pretty dismal. They stopped us again and had the whole congregation stand and sing it with us. Then it was freaking awesome! It was a pretty cool visual to show how members can't do missionary work alone. We need the support of all the members. That session of conference was also way better than the general session, so I was glad to go.

And here's some pretty big news, at least for me, anyway. Elder Barker is getting transferred. That stinks. But the cool part is that I'm getting Elder Bushman as my companion! Yup, the same guy I was companions with in the MTC. What's even better is that we are going to be Zone Leaders together. And even better than that is that we get a truck! No more biking here for me. I'm pretty much super excited. These next six weeks are going a pretty good six weeks.


-- 
Now go, and be Golden,
Elder R. Sage Taylor



 My awesome district from last transfer

Goofy District

Good ol' Jack Skellington

I'm getting eaten by a giant spider!

Seeing the Tuckers in Redlands!

Monday, October 21, 2013

Photography

Ducks at the Newtons

My Hand Painting a wall

Me Being all Swirly and stuff

The 4 Pioneer Elders

Word.

Now go, and be Golden,
Elder R. Sage Taylor

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

A Miraculous Week

Man, sorry for being such a bum the past couple of weeks. Time just escapes me when I'm emailing. I would feel bad if I didn't tell you about this pretty good week.

The first thing I want to mention is how awesome prayer is. The first 3 weeks of this transfer Elder Barker and I were working out butts off and not seeing any new investigators or the likes from it. Kind of disheartening. I was talking to another district leader and one of my zone leaders and they asked if the two of us were praying specifically for new investigators. I hadn't been, which I feel kind of silly admitting. So Elder Barker and I started praying for new investigators in every prayer we prayed.

This week we managed to find four new investigators. 3 of them were former investigators. There's Debra and Violet, a  couple of sisters who were taught before. Then there is Ryan, who was taught a few months ago, and he realizes he need to change his life. And there is Joanna, who I haven't met yet, who was found by Elder Barker and Elder Summerhays on exchanges. That is pretty awesome, isn't it?

So moral of the story is, ask in mighty prayer for the things that God has commanded you to pray for. When you ask you will receive. You can believe it.

The rest of the week was certainly pretty darn strange. There was one day where it rained so much that Church Street here in Redlands was super flooded!  

Church Street is Flooded!
That day we ended up meeting a member of the ward who is a cop, and stopping by somebody's home to wish them a happy birthday. The man whose birthday it was ended up having emergency gall-bladder surgery the night before, and the family didn't have any number from the ward so they couldn't get somebody to give him a blessing. It just so happened that we stopped by. Coincidence? I think not!

I went on exchanges into the other area in the ward on Friday. It's pretty strange being in my ward, but not knowing where anything is. The one thing I wish I had on my side of the area was active members. They are all in the other area. I think we've got less than 10 on our half of the ward. It's totally different.  But fun!

Wanna know about a miracle that happened for Elder Barker and me? Yes? Here it goes. The day after we started focusing on "mighty prayer" we were walking down the street to visit a potential investigator. This guy in a car stopped us as we were about to walk across a cul-de-sac and asked us if we were Mormons. Of course we were. He told us that he really wanted to meet with us. I'm pretty stoked. He comes back in town on Thursday, so hopefully soon we will meet with him this week.

Yay for missionary work! It is the best stuff ever.

--
Now go, and be Golden,
Elder R. Sage Taylor




Revelation Way. Nuff said

Phelan Ave. Totally cool to see here in Redlands.
Eyepads that Elder Barker and I were considering purchasing. We didn't, but thought it would be a good joke

Monday, October 7, 2013

My Accident!

Conference was awesome! 

I absolutely loved it. Tons of good talks and just general funness. I really loved conference. I took tons of good notes this time around. How weird is it that I only have 1 conference left? It seems like yesterday I was in Rancho watching conference at the Hudrlik's with Elder Pyne. Man, time flies. I'm sure I'm going to blink and it will be April. That's gonna be pretty weird.

I fell off my bike into the dirt this past week. It was gnarly. I'm okay. I just hurt for a couple of days. No big deal

It isn't bad. I've just been telling everybody that I got in a fight with a bear. You should see the bear. I feel totally good, though. So here are a couple of pictures right after my glorious crash into the dirt.




 Here's one of my knee bruise that looks a lot like Stitch from Lilo and Stitch.
This last one is of today, because I wanted to show you that I was looking peachy now!

-- 
Now go, and be Golden,
Elder R. Sage Taylor