Elder Justin Taylor: Striving to illuminate Christ's qualities will enrich our lives

The seasons are changing... it has been getting colder and colder up here. This morning there was ice on our truck, and on October 25th there was a big hailstorm here ... it almost looked like snow.

This past week I have seen great miracles, prayers answered and the fruits of my labors begin to come forth.

We had a BAPTISM of Sydney Apachito on Saturday. It was wonderful. Her dad will be baptized in a week or so. We currently have SIX people on a date to be baptized this month! We are planning on getting maybe 3 or 4 more. It has been amazing to see the Lord's hand in all things.

We have told and been told this past week that God had sent us at this time. As I've pondered my calling, and who I represent I feel I need to become more like Christ. There has been countless people in my life that I've felt the love of the Savior just from their presence and attributes. In Preach my Gospel it teaches that Faith, Hope, Charity, Love, Virtue, Knowledge, Patience, Humility, Diligence and Obedience are all great attributes of Christ. I add to that Positivity (like my email from last week) as well as Focused. We all can work on each one of these. For me, as I've purified myself and become a more consecrated missionary I've seen my heart and nature change. Now I'm working to shift my sails into the direction of changing my attributes to be in-line with the "Lighthouse of the Lord." If we focus on one attribute at a time and learn from it we will see that change in our lives. Serve, love and strip yourself of all pride; humble yourself, recognize you are not perfect and change your behavior. My thought is this... that God created us to have these Christ-like attributes listed above; that is the kind of intelligences we were made to be but because life on earth is a test we must work on those qualities. You will see that once you work on Charity and Love or whatever it may be that it will almost feel natural; this is how you have always been... we are reminding ourselves of who we are destined to be. I gave a training on this a few days ago for a district meeting (a meeting with other missionaries) and the assistants to the Mission President surprised us and showed up. It was awesome to have them there and be part of it all. I taught of Charity, Love, Virtue and Positivity. I left them with this statement and I'll leave the same one with you all... If we continue to seek for help to become more like Christ we will receive aid from heaven, and increased amount of courage and determination. Then your confidence will increase in your pursuit to be who you are destined to be,,, like our Loving Savior.

Miracle story: so Charlotte and Billy Joe Guerro are two recent converts to the Church. They got baptized like 2 or 3 months ago. Billy Joe baptized Sydney last Saturday because he is her grandpa so we thought it would be perfect for him to do it and he accepted. Afterwards they went to the Albuquerque temple to do baptisms. Charlotte said she saw angels in the baptismal water and all around it jumping up and down, almost like dancing, because of the excitement of the ordinances being done for them. She said she's never seen anything like it and told Billy Joe. He said he saw the exact same thing too. They said they will forever cherish that experience and she said she didnt want to leave... she wanted to live in the temple ! We were taken aback hearing that. We were hoping they would have a great time at the temple for their first time but we didn't expect that they would see something that spiritual. Temples are so truly amazing and those who are worthy do receive miracles.

We played basketball at the Wellness Center here on the Res and I taught my companion on Pday how to really shoot a basketball and do layups and stuff. There is this Navajo guy who we know from playing ball with. His family is basically the toughest family on the Res and I think are a "gang". They all wear blue bandannas and stuff. He asked if we could split his wood because he broke his rib. So we did but there were a ton of other people who could of done it at the house, and he never came out to say hi to us. So, he played me in basketball and I will nicely say that I dominated him then and he was humbled by that. I called him out and asked, "Are you going to thank us for chopping your wood?! " He was caught off guard and said, "Oh, yeah... thanks." I said, "Yeah, you never came and talked to us. Now we are coming over to your house to talk to you about something that will change your life." He said, "Uh, I'm might not be home." Then I said, "It's fine we will stop by until we catch you." ;) haha He was stuck and had no excuse so he said ok. My companion was tripping out because he couldn't believe I would call out this tattooed big gangster guy like that, and to get him to listen to us. For me I see EVERYONE as my brother and sister. So if I gotta call out my brother, teach him a lesson and humble him because it will help then I will do it. I fear no one. Now all of the scary wanna-be gangster kids here on the Res come up to me and want me to be on their team next time I play basketball or they tell me they have got my back if anyone trys to mess with me. It is cool because now the people who thought we were the weird white church men now think we are like the coolest guys on the Res. People's hearts will change IF you are level with them, think as they think, abd put yourself in their shoes; you will help mold them into who they ought to be
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Thank you so much for all the support! I couldn't do it without all of the prayers and love.

Elder Taylor

My companion filmed me being funny and dumb in the church wearing my beanie like this! ha