A Missionary​'s Last Email Home

Does it feel like two years to you? This time has gone by incredibly quickly. It feels like just a few weeks ago I met Elder Smith and was heading to Phelan. But now I'm leaving Elder Hevner and about to board a plane to Salt Lake. Man, how time flies.

I still have a whole week left, but seeing as next Monday is Memorial Day, I won't get an opportunity to email home. I'll give you a week in review and a week in preview.

Tuesday was almost the lamest day ever. The first part, Zone Meeting was great. Elder Hevner and I got to train the zone about the things we learned from the head of the proselyting department taught us all. But instead of doing that we just had everybody there just teach everybody, so it was pretty easy on our part. It was great.

The reason Tuesday was so lame is because we had to take our Corolla in for an oil change. We thought that should take too long. We went to the Pep Boys we were told to go to at 2 O'clock. We didn't leave until 7. That is WAY too long. We asked our dinner appointment to come pick us up so that we could actually have some food that day. I can tell you, spending time at Pep Boys and the surrounding area is not fun.

Thursday was a pretty decent day, though. We managed to teach two lessons, and do our weekly planning. We taught a 70-year-old woman the Law of Chastity. Her home teacher almost fell out of his chair with laughter that we were going over that. But, it was the last of the missionary lessons we needed to teach her, so I'm glad we did it. The other "lesson" was we watched the movie Mountain of the Lord with a family. They need to get to the temple and so we watched that with them. It was great, actually!

I was on exchanges with Elder Reber in the Lugonia Spanish Branch on Friday. I never really get anything out of Spanish exchanges. Do you know why? Because I don't speak Spanish. I just sit there and make sure Elder Reber isn't alone. Totally awesome. The cool thing about that day is that the Redlands airport was having an airshow that day and an awesome jet was flying around the city for a good amount of time and we got to see him do awesome tricks. How lucky are we?

I became more tan on Saturday. In the morning we and the sisters did service at the less-active lady's house. In the sun. It was warm. No big deal though, because I look fabulous now. Haha. We also saw a couple of other people like good ol' Clarence who is one of the funniest people ever. We also talked with man who's going into surgery on Tuesday and is kinda nervous. I don't blame him.

Yesterday was interesting. I thought church was great. All three hours were awesome. After church a family wanted us over for gumbo. I've never had gumbo before. I realize that I don't like gumbo. I thought it kinda looked like what would come out of a garbage disposal. We then had a second dinner with fettucine. That was better. I ate a lot of that. And cheesecake. Then we got to spend time with an awesome family, the Childs. It was fun there.

Here's this week for you, just in case you're curious:

Monday - P-Day and Red Robin with the Williams for dinner
Tuesday - My last District Meeting and last BoM Study
Wednesday - Departing Temple Trip
Thursday - Weekly Planning for a week I will not participate in
Friday - Nothing...
Saturday - Redlands Zone Conference
Sunday - BBQ with the Bairds, Reichmanns and McDonalds. And Departing Devotional where people I invited from all of my areas can come and say bye to me.
Monday - Get picked up and spend the day with departing missionaries and such.
Tuesday - Utah!

Well, my friends and family, I can't wait to see all of you! In just a week I have the opportunity to see and smell all of you! Enjoy your week, because you know I will!

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

Lots and Lots of Corn

Good news everyone! Lots of good things have happened this past week. Kind of unusual, right? Not really, but I like good things.

Let's take a look at last Tuesday, shall we? To start off, last Saturday we had an elder go home and then two of our distict leaders were put together as companions. So on Tuesday Elder Hevner and I split up so that Elder Robison could teach his district full of sisters. Sister Shin, my friend from Jordan High School is in that district and it was super cool to see her. It's not often you get to see people you knew back home in California.

That day we also met with this really nice guy named Aron who just wanted to talk about Christ. It wasn't that he wanted to teach us or he wanted us to teach him, he just wanted to talk. Not bad, but kinda frustrating. That night we also had our weekly Book or Mormon study class. It was a member of our ward's birthday so we had ice cream cake while we were there. It was very good times.

Wednesday was a pretty cool day. Elder Hevner got to to go San Bernardino 4th ward on exchanges and I got to be with Elder Langi for the day. The head of the proselyting department for the church was in our mission for a few days and he spent time in the San B 4th ward with those elders there for a day. Then the next day was exchanges so I got to hear what that man had to say about missionary work from Elder Langi. It was a good day and I got to learn some stuff.

The next day was MLC, but it was a massive MLC. Since Brother Hemingway, the head of the proselyting department, was down here he wanted to instruct us missionaries. Normally the zone leaders and the sister training leaders are those who attend, but this time district leaders and other missionaries with "leadership potential" were invited as well. So I got to see almost all the elders I've been roommates with in the past 9 months. All of them were doing great. It was kinda sad thinking about how that was the last time I'll see some of them, at least for a while.

The trainings from Brother Hemingway were great. Mostly they focused on planning effectively and teaching simply. I learned a ton from it. The only hard part about it was knowing that I don't have all that much time to effectively put it into practice. I'm sure that other missionaries will be able to use the things they learned a lot in the future.

I also went on exchanges on Saturday. The plan was for me to go with the two district leaders and their companion would go with Elder Hevner in our ward. So I was with Elder Bush and Elder Robison. We planned for the next day, slept, woke up and studied. During our study time Elder Robison got a call that he was being transferred to Yucaipa at 12:30! It was weird that during exchanges he left. Then it was just me and Elder Bush. That elder is such a fun loving guy that we just had fun the rest of the day. We taught lessons, but for the ward that Elder Robison left from, and tried talking to people in Elder Bush's ward, but not a lot went on. I just really enjoyed myself that day.

Mother's Day was awesome. I got to talk to my family and most importantly my mother! I think yesterday was my favorite phone call of my mission. It wasn't quite as serious as the other and it was cool to think that I'd actually be seeing them all in just a couple of weeks. Not bad, I say. Not bad.

Well, friends, family, and others who happen to read this, Just a couple of short week-a-roonies until I set foot in the land of mountains. What will we do? Who will I see? What kind of adventures can I expect? Who knows? Have a great week!


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

Photographs! About time, huh?

I actually remembered my usb stick thing. So here you go!

Lucia's Baptism 

A Rainbow Rose

A little birdy Elder Hevner Caught

 

Elder Hevner with a dog

Mormon Salt

Windy Day

This last one is a drawing of me and Deadpool being companions. Mwahaha! Brother Reichmann drew it for me. I thought it was pretty darn awesome.

The Numbers are Getting Smaller

Super fast weekly recap go!                                                                          

Monday: Birthday. Dinner at a Mexican Restaurant. Super delicious chicken enchiladas,

Tuesday: District meeting. New DL. Super awkward scripture study class with the ward.

Wednesday: Awesome lesson with investigator John. He's so golden! Just needs to be married. Dinner at Gourmet Pizza. Malibu Magic Pizza is great. Lesson with recent convert Nacho. Also wonderful.

Thursday: Weekly planning. Members from Salt Lake took us to Chipotle. Ward council visits. Took Bishop and RS president to meet John. Absolutely great.

Friday: I honestly don't know. In my planner it looks like we just knocked on a bunch of doors, but not a lot happened from it.

Saturday: Mormon Helping Hands! It was tons of fun. John came to that, too, and was super involved. Delivered tons of birthday cards that day. I guess a lot of people are born on the 26th of April.

Sunday: Good church meeting. Taught a recent convert named Jesse. Taught the Kapadias, an active family. Super cool people. Weirdly enough that was the first time I've been over there.

There you go. The watered down version of my week. Not too shabby, eh? Have a good week, mi amigos.

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

Easter and Stuff

Man, thanks to all of you who wished me a happy birthday! It's been awesome to be able to read all the great things from you. But, because of that I just don't have all that much time left. I guess that's an alright problem to have.

First off, two great things happened this week! Both of them were baptisms! The first one, on Wednesday, was for a girl named Lucia that Elder Hevner and I started teaching a few months ago. When the sister missionaries got here we handed her off to them. And then she got baptized this week, so that's always a good thing. The other baptism was for a girl named Emily. Her baptism was also spectacular.

Another great thing, brought upon by a not so good thing, is that we got a car again! This is because Elder Hevner hurt his leg two weeks ago, and after hours of doctor's visits the mission nurse said that my companion shouldn't be riding a bike, so President Van Cott gave us a car. Oh yeah! It's been awesome.

We've been having a pretty decent week in terms of teaching. We taught our investigator, John, twice this week. He totally believes that Joseph Smith is a prophet. We taught him about the Word of Wisdom and when we were going through it he said something to the effect of, "If Joseph Smith said this in 1833 he had to have been a prophet." It's really cool to have a solid investigator.

Well, that's that. Elder Hevner and I just keep trekking. It's been really cool to be able to have him be my companion for a third transfer. That's the only time I get this opportunity.

Have a great week!

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

The Beginning of the End

As of today I have started my last transfer. Is it weird? Yes. Am I excited? Yes. Am I staying in Redlands? Yes, so that means I will be here for 10 months. Is Elder Hevner getting transferred? No. What's my favorite soda? Dr. Pepper. Do I like pinatas? It depends on what's inside. 

I failed to email last week. I was feeling kinda lazy. If I wrote that email I would have told you that on Thursday of that week that Elder Hevner got himself into a bike accident. He was turning a corner without his handlebars and his pedal caught on the ground. It made him go over the handlebars, and somewhere along the way he smacked his thigh on the bike. 

Because of that the mission nurse told him to not be moving around all that much. So we didn't. There were better days where we had a lot of appointments and we had members take us to them and teach with us, so they all worked out.

Here's the downside of stuff. It's been two weeks since we've taught an investigator. John has been in Arizona, Lucas has been busy, and I just don't know about the other. The upside, though, is that we've been teaching all the recent converts! Man, teaching them is way better than teaching investigators. It's awesome being able to see new members make connections in new ways. We've just got some great new people in this ward.

I am super stoked to be able to spend the rest of my mission in Redlands. I love this place. It's a strange thought that after this next six weeks I won't be here anymore. It's going to be great!

Now go, and be Golden,

Elder R. Sage Taylor


Also, you should check out this video:

This video is great for the Easter season! I actually like this video a lot. Make sure you share it with your friend on Facebook and Twitter!

When it Comes Down to It

You want to know what's awesome? Redlands is awesome!

Let's start off with some good news. Our investigator named John, who Elder Summerhays and Elder Treanor were originally working with, came to church yesterday, on his own accord! We forgot to invite him and he brought himself to church. It was great! John also told us that he does want to be baptized, but first he needs to make some changes.

Here's some bummer news. Another investigator, Rudy, who we had high hopes for, dropped us a couple of days ago. He talked to his pastor from The Door and he more or less guilt tripped him in to going back to that church. Which is kinda weird because Rudy doesn't like that church. But, oh well, if that's what he feels like he need to do, who am I to stop him? We'll see him in a couple of weeks and see how he is.

The work is always progressing. I love love love serving in this ward. It's really cool to be able to go to nearly any house in the ward and actually have an already built relationship with the people. It makes everything so much nicer. I love not having to learn new people all the time.

Here's something wacky. On Saturday night we were near the church and we needed to stop to use its facilities, and as we were parking our bikes a familiar face walked out of the building. It was Brother Mills from the Phelan ward! It was super strange seeing someone from Phelan in Redlands. Needless to say, it was good to see him.

Enjoy Taco Tuesday this week, okay?

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

Apostles are Cool

The highlight of this past week was most indubitably having Elder Neil L. Andersen come to speak to our and the Rancho Cucamonga mission. I got to drive us and our room mates to Rancho on Saturday so that we could have the mission conference. 

First of all, driving through my old areas in Rancho was pretty awesome. It's been quite some time since I've had the chance to go there. Second, it was really great being able to listen to an Apostle speak to us missionaries. Before he addressed us he asked all of us to come shake his hand. Definitely a privilege you don't get too frequently. He mostly talked about the Atonement and how it can help us. It was great. And third, since we were meeting with the Rancho Cucamonga mission I got to see Elder Grill for a little bit! He was one of the few missionaries I even knew from that mission. Totally an exceptional experience all the way around.

Then an added bonus is that Elder Andersen also came to have a stake conference in the Redlands stake. He also gave a great talk there.

Another thing of note from this past week is that it's definitely not winter. At all. And I'm on bike. Like, it's hot here. And I'm on bike. Elder Hevner and I bike to about the farthest part of our area and the people we wanted to see weren't home. Bummer. Since Elder Hevner was pretty tired we just sat on their front porch for a while while he rested. Yup. California gets hot.

Yesterday I really got to see how phenomenal it is to have a member go with you to lessons with investigators. There's this investigator named Lucas that I've been meeting with for a while and normally when we talk with him the conversation doesn't go too much into the spiritual side because Lucas has knack of getting off topic super easy. We set something up with him for yesterday and since it was right after a meeting with the ward, we asked one of the ward missionaries to go with us.

The lesson was completely different than any other meeting with Lucas. He was so happy to have someone there and actually asked us why we hadn't brought him along sooner. It was great to stay mostly on topic as well. Proof that missionary work is better when members and missionaries work together. 

This has been brought to you in part by:

Now go, and be Golden,

Elder R. Sage Taylor

A Shift in the Force

Let me apologize now for the shortness of this email. It will be mildly lame because of that.

So this past week was quite the change for me. When Elder Summerhays and Elder Treanor moved out, Elder Vanmeeteran and Elder Reber moved in. They are the Spanish elders covering pretty much our ward and a little more. They both are some great elders. No complaints yet.

Like I said last week, we were getting sisters in the ward, and now we do. Sister Lee and Sister Jones are both really good missionaries. I was expecting some stuck up missionaries with no senses of humor, but I was wrong. They are like the least-lame sisters I know. They also seem to be making a positive influence in the ward already. I think this is going to be a good transfers.

Being on bike is also not bad. Our ward really isn't that big, so it's really not too bad to bike. Also, Elder Hevner is noticeably happier now that we're biking around, so there really isn't anything bad about this transfer.

Well, my friends, have a good week. Maybe read some Where's Waldo? books while you're at it. Man, I love those books.

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

Let Me Spin You a Yarn

First and foremost I desire to tell all of you that I am staying in Redlands for 6 (hopefully 12) more weeks. I'm still going to be companions with Elder Hevner. The curveball is that Elder Summerhays and Elder Treanor are both getting transferred and being replaced by Sisters. That's going to be different for sure. You will most definitely be updated in a week's time.

Second and next most Elder Neil L. Andersen is going to be visiting the Redlands and Rancho Cucamonga missions on the 15th of this month. That means that the Redlands mission gets to go to the Rancho mission office and be blessed to hear from an Apostle. I'm excited. And to top it off Elder Andersen is going to visit the Redlands stake on the 16th, so I get to hear from him two days in a row! It will be great!

It was raining like goats and chickens this past week. It was super fun to drive around in. Remember how I sent you a picture of Elder Barker in the rain? This time it was worse! But it was so much fun. The down-side though, was that I was sick this week as well, which really wasn't fun. Members were telling me to go get some rest and so I did. It wasn't the best, but after I slept I felt so much better.

Now I'll tell you something weird about me. This past week I've been talking and moving a lot in my sleep. One night I threw my pillow at my companions and woke him up, but I don't remember it. Another night I yelled a short yell and woke up Elder Hevner. Last night I was talking in my sleep and I was doing missionary work and asking how somebody who hadn't been to church in a long time enjoyed it. There's a little insight into the strange world of Elder Taylor.

We were supposed to have a couple of investigators come to church yesterday, but they didn't. Bummer, right? But we did have two member present lessons this past week, which is kind of a lot for us. We doubled our usual amount. We still be teaching folks and enjoying missionary work. It's the best!

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Now go, and be Golden,

Elder R. Sage Taylor

Elder Hevner, Brother Schmeidel, the guy from Yucaipa we had with us for a day, and me!

A pretty cool Rubik's cube pattern, I guess.

Pretty clouds!

Thought You Ought to Know

So there were a couple of cool things that were going on here in Redlands the past week. Let me tell you about them!

This past Wednesday I got to be on exchanges with Elder Redford in my ward. It was a pretty good day considering that we got to teach 5 lessons. Kind of a lot for one day in this area. We even taught our investigator Sebastian, who is awesome. We set a baptism date with him for the 19th of April. Hopefully we'll get to move that sooner. 

So on Saturday morning Elder Hevner and I were in our bedroom just singing songs pretty loudly when one of the other elders opened our door and said that we had people here. There were a couple of young men inside our house. I was pretty confused, and the reason was that we were told that we were going to have young men from Yucaipa come and spend the day with us, but my companion and I both forgot to write it down. We had Brother Schmeidel go around and do missionary work with us for a few hours. It ended up being pretty nice.

We also had a great zone conference on Friday! We had a ton of opportunities to learn more about how to be a great missionary. Elder Hevner and I, being zone leaders, had the opportunity to give a training during it as well. We tied our legs together like a three-legged race and showed the importance of Weekly Planning and Daily Planning working together. Totally above average. Everybody laughed, too, so all is well.

Hopefully next week I'll have the news that I'm staying in Redlands for another six weeks. That would be great, wouldn't it?

--

Now go, and be Golden,

Elder R. Sage Taylo

What more can I say?

Birds, Temple, Bowling and Sandy. 

--

Now go, and be Golden,

Elder R. Sage Taylor

Elder Hevner

At the Redlands Temple

If I Was a Young Warthog

Things are going well in the Lands of Red. If I had to compare how this past week went, to a candy bar then I would say that it was a Reese's Peanut Butter cup. The bold taste of chocolate with the subtle flavor of peanut butter.

Well, the good news for this week is that we found yet another new investigator. Her name is Lucia and she's pretty cool. Lucia is being adopted by a family in the ward. The hang-up that she has is that she wants to stay "Catholic" but she has no idea what that means. She has never really been taught about Christ or his gospel or anything, so we are starting at the very foundation. It's going to be great to teach her.

We had MLC this past Thursday. I enjoy going to those meetings. The other side of having those meetings is that we then have to train on the stuff we learned and the notes we took. So yesterday we had a great Zone Meeting. That was kinda funny at first because we went to the Center St. Building in Redlands, but the carpets were being cleaned, so all us missionaries got to go to the Pioneer Building instead.

After the meeting Elder Hevner and I were eating lunch and talking about our zone and we have come to the conclusion that our zone rocks. We have a bunch of great missionaries that are all cool and stuff. Hard workers, super funny, and just good folks.

The other day we were walking about and I actually talked to a couple of members in the ward that I haven't met yet! Weird, right? One was active and the other was not. Both were super nice people. I love that even though I've been here 6 months that there's still just a ton of missionary work to do.

Have a good week, my everybody! It's always good to know that people read my emails.


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

Here's a photo from Missionary Leadership Council. It's the meeting we as Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders go to once a month

Since I've Got the Resources

This will be another quick update. 

The first and best news is that we had a baptism on Saturday. I kinda forgot to tell all of you about it because it wasn't somebody that I was working with. Before we rearranged our area boundaries in the ward I was teaching Bobby, the one who got baptized. He's married to a member and had been coming to church for years. The missionaries had been teaching him for quite some time. After we rearranged the boundaries Elder Summerhays and Elder Weaver started teaching Bobby. And soon after that he came to realize that he needed to be baptized, it also helped that President Van Cott went with the missionaries to teach him a couple of times. It was all jim-dandy in the Pioneer ward. That was one of the biggest turnouts I've ever seen at a baptism. 

We found a new investigator this past week named Sebastian. Sebastian is awesome. He's 17 and has a bunch of friends at school who are LDS and he really just wants to be happier and come to know his Savior. He's a great kid. We will be teaching him again this week. I'm pretty stoked about that.

For those of you who will serve missions, being friends with your companion makes all the difference in the world. It's awesome that Elder Hevner and I knew each other before we were companions, because now all we do is work. We don't have to figure each other out and we don't fight and stuff either. We just get out and we work. It also helps that Elder Hevner is a boss, so no complaints there.

Next week we get to go to the temple. It's been 6 months or so since I've gotten to go, so I'm super excited! 

Have a good week, all!

--

Now go, and be Golden,

Elder R. Sage Taylor

There was a baptism in the ward for Bobby, someone who has been investigating for many moons. Elder Summerhays and Elder Treanor were the ones teaching him, but I taught him back in the day when I was covering that little part of the ward. His step-son is the one who baptized him.

Elder Hevner really wanted to look classy, and yet comfortable. So he had shorts on with a suit. Styling!

These two pictures show how easy it is to make two guitars float.

 We're pretty good at it

A Few Short Words

Car.

By.

Bird.

Is.

Get it? A few short words? Haha... Anyway.

Not a whole lot of things happened this past week, unfortunately. Obviously, and most importantly, Elder Bushman left Redlands on Wednesday and I got Elder Hevner as my companion. Yup, that makes four companions in one area. Pretty much unheard of. I just love the Pioneer ward so much that I don't care how many companions I have here.

We did find a new investigator this week! Her name is Natie and she's pretty cool. She's somebody who is honestly looking to grow closer to Jesus Christ. One of our recent converts, Elizabeth, is on fire when it comes to missionary work. She's always trying to find more people to bring in to the gospel, and that's how we were introduced to Natie. Hopefully she will be progressing soon!

Other than that, it's just been great staying here. I'm actually pretty used to showing a new companion around the area now that it just seems natural to do. I really like Redlands.

Well, loyal fan club, (is it okay that I call you that? It's been a while) enjoy this upcoming week. Because you can bet that I will! 

-- 

Now go, and be Golden,

Elder R. Sage Taylor

The last few photos with Elder Bushman.

A freaking HUGE pizza. Really delicious too

To Some it Might be Strange

It's not often I have quite a bit of time to write a big ol' email to all of you! It's kind of nice, actually. So I'll take this opportunity right now.

This Tuesday, like every Tuesday after the first Thursday of the month, was zone meeting! Being a zone leader is way better than a district leader, if not for any reason but you have to train during a meeting only once a month, compared to once a week. Party bonus! Elder Bushman and I trained on Companion Study, which took a lot longer than we were anticipating. Then we had the two Sister Training Leaders in the zone give a training on asking inspired questions. It went pretty well.

That day we also had our weekly Book of Mormon study. The only person that has been consistent in attending that is Donnie, a recent convert in the ward. That class is great, we hold it at a member's house and then we read from the Book of Mormon. It's super cool being able to talk about it and learn from each other. It, so far, has been one of the best ways to read the Book. I think tomorrow we are going to finish 1 Nephi. Good stuff!

There was a part of the day on Wednesday that was kind of a joke. When my companion and I got the Cruze we have it was jim dandy. After a week or something like that we had to fill the front left tire with air. Then a few weeks later we had to do it again. This last time instead of just filling it with air we were told to take it to the Chevy dealership. We waited in some seats in the sun for about 2.5 hours while we were waiting for them to patch up a hole that a nail had made in the tire. That was kinda silly. But now our car is all fixed, so it's wonderful. And they gave us a free car wash, so what am I complaining about?

There was one day this week that was such a bummer! Elder Bushman and I had a handful of lessons lined up. We were excited to have a good day. As the day went on we had appointment after appointment cancel on us. That was pretty hard, because even the people we had chosen to visit as back-ups weren't home. So by the time dinner rolled around we weren't really sure what to do with ourselves. But we kept on trucking. After dinner, though, we did have a lesson with a less-active woman happen. So it was a good thing to end on a good note.

Trying to meet with investigators is always a hassle. There are a few of them that we set up tons of appointments, but they always cancel them. We did have one lesson with an investigator name Lucas. He only had 30 minutes and actually timed it, so we only taught about the Pre-Earth Life and mostly just talked the rest of it. Lucas is really cool. Definitely one of the coolest people I've taught.

If you have any questions or comments or words of encouragement and advice, feel free to email me! I would most indubitably enjoy that. Or write me. Both my email and mission office addresses are on my blog. Pleas take advantage of that!

Enjoy your week, ya'll!

-- 

Now go, and be Golden,

Elder R. Sage Taylor

Elder Browning and Me. Elder Browning goes home next week. ): He was in my first district, my district leader at one point, and served as the Zone Leader of the other Redlands zone.

Elder Summerhays holding all of the plastic bottles that we recycled today! We $28 for it.

Redlands: The Best

A couple of really good things happened this week. While I was on exchanges with Elder Maynes we were able to teach one investigator who is super hard to meet with. Her name is Jeannie. She's was a former who in all honesty is ready to be baptized if she just comes to church. We committed her to come this upcoming Sunday. She doesn't have an excuse yet, so I'm sure hoping she comes.

Another thing I think is amazing is that our investigator, Lucas, who has a hard time believing in Christ, is asking us to come meet with him and he wants us to give him commitments. Especially ones that involve writing. He's a writer and prefers to write things. He says that will help him out better than other ways. So I think that's a pretty cool way to leave commitments.

New Year's Eve was pretty sweet. The Rich family had us over and we did some fondue. That was some good stuff. Tons of fun. It was also really nice going to bed at 10:30. Kind of weird that I've done that now for 2 New Years in a row.

Missionary life is as good as usual. I hope your regular life is as sweet as my missionary life. Honestly, missionary life is hard to beat. Good luck with that!

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Now go, and be Golden,

Elder R. Sage Taylor