Two More Baptisms

Last Saturday, on the 10^th, we had another baptism. It was Jose Montoya’s two sons' baptisms.  Alex is 10 and Jerry is 9, and they are totally awesome.  Jose was baptized almost a year ago and is COMPLETLY converted to the Gospel.  He's changed so much and is extremely humble and a dear friend of mine. Well, his boys temporarily are living at his sister's house in Dallas until the CPS tell him that they can fully live with him again... which hopefully will be soon . Anyways, he had the sister missionaries go by his sister's house to teach his boys and so they accepted baptism.  Then they came here for summer vacation so we’ve been teaching them and preparing them for baptism for a few weeks. The Spirit was SO strong at the baptism ...  to see Jose baptize his two sons and give them the blessings that he has already received was just incredible. There were wonderful talks given and great hymns sung.  They are so amazing and everyone knows it.  Even Sister Snyder, the primary president,  told them that she’s going to "slash their tires so they cant leave back to Dallas.” haha  It was so awesome, and I completely agree ... I wish they could stay here. I had another amazing opportunity to give the gift of the Holy Ghost to the oldest son Alejandro Montoya (Alex) . My testimony has grown leaps and bounds this past weekend seeing the true importance of having the Gospel in our families and the joy that it brings.

Many of you know that this past Friday was the 9^th and it has been 11 months since my mom passed. I had her in my thoughts and prayers all day, but it was a great day.   I had support from those who remembered and it meant a lot to me. On Sunday in priesthood they spoke about Relief Society and the importance of mothers in the world these days and some of the men spoke of the influence their mothers had on them.  I just wanted to jump up and say you have NO idea how much mothers influence their kids !  haha   But I decided I didn’t want to go on a 30 minute rant about how much better my mom is than everyone else’s!!  If it weren’t for my mom I wouldn’t even be here, or the person I am. Truly I give all of the credit to my mother for making me the man I am today. In letters I often get “ remember who you are there for” and every time I think of my mother . I’m here for, of course  my Savior first,  but also my mom. I know this is the only path she would want me on at this time and that it’s the only way I can grow closer to her and to understand why it's been such a tough year.

I threw down on Friday night to some people about the importance of eternal families and I explained why I'm grateful for them and how I rely on that promise EVERYDAY. I testify that if you want to share with those around you about eternal families you WILL pierce their heart every time, and will plant a seed that should be planted in all hearts.

EVERYONE treat your mothers like a princess sometime this week and tell them they are important in your life.  Mothers are everything to me. 

Miracle this last week... met a lady named Celia. She's an older Hispanic lady who we ran into like 3 months ago and haven’t seen her since. Well, we were visiting someone close by but then I felt inspired to walk to the other street to see the Moralis family but by their house Celia was outside of her house. So we went over to talk and she was so kind to us. She asked for another pamphlet to read but they basically bore testimony of Jesus Christ to us. She totally remembered me from last time and keep looking at me and smiling saying that she's so grateful  for what I'm doing, and that she truly loves me and prays every day for our welfare . Honestly I can’t explain how wonderful it was to hear this sweet older lady almost in tears tell us how amazing we are to do this and to spread the word of the Lord and to bless people’s lives. Also she told us that were going to have the most beautiful wives because the Lords going to bless us!   haha I was laughing so hard!

The Lord ALWAYS puts us in people’s paths at the right time; never forget that.  That’s when the miracles happen ... when you listen.

Thanks for all the support and for reading the Blog!

Yours truly,

Elder Taylor

BAPTISMS!!

Jose Montoya and his 2 sons

Making my companion do the navigation!  haha