Elder Justin Taylor: Adventure, Adversity, Acknowledgment, Accomplishment

This week has been CRAZY in every way possible. I will be following the order of this post title to structure this email.

ADVENTURE: The adventure happened on Sunday night. We were driving in what we call Ghost-town and on the right hand side saw smoke. Well EVERYONE here burns trash so that was our first impression. All of a sudden I felt impressed to hurry and turn in. We were past the house and went through the neighbors property and might have "jumped" the truck hurrying to see what it is. I could barely see while driving because of all the smoke. When we got closer we saw flames in a little house. We jumped out. A recent convert lived nearby and we saw them grabbing water so we joined them and were the first ones on site. I ran in to get water and told my companion to put our jackets in the truck. As we threw the water onto the burning house TONS of smoke blew into our mouths and eyes but, of course, that is not going to stop us so we continued to do that for about 15 minutes running back and forth until the fire grew too strong. The firetruck and ambulance finally came. The ambulance lady came up to us because she could hear us coughing and said we could have carbon monoxide poisoning and the effects of it and that we could have tar in our lungs from breathing in a lot of smoke and getting it into our eyes. Well, we said we have never fought a fire before so we didn't know what we were doing! haha Right afterwards we got our jackets back on and went and taught someone before the end of our night. They thought we were crazy! At the end of the evening I thought we should give each other blessings to help and so we don't have to go to the emergency room. The spirit of the Lord was in our humble trailer that night. I also felt my mother's presence and it was said in my blessing that she was there when we were fighting the fire. Towards bedtime we began feeling more and more sick but woke up okay!

ADVERSITY: On Saturday night I began to feel sick. I woke up feeling worse on Sunday morning and thought about sleeping while my companion was in the shower but had too much stuff to get done. So in my morning prayer I pleaded that I'd have health and strength sufficient enough to go about this day. Well, the Lord answered me and I did, but after the fire my throat began to hurt a lot more and it still is a little off but I'm totally fine! As I've been obedient and pushing through physical adversities I've been sustained in my tasks and the Lord's angels have been pushing along by my side. We had an investigator that had a baptismal date but he stabbed a guy out of revenge in Albuquerque and is going to prison for a few years so looks like we can't teach him for a while. Many other solid people we had have fallen through the cracks or have had a tragedy happen recently but we never lose faith. As weird as it is, whenever I see adversity I have joy; that's because I'm on the right path because obviously Satan is attacking me in all aspects and attacking those we teach. We grow so much through our trials, and I'm a living testimony of that!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: This last Saturday we were privileged to have a member of the 2nd quorum of the 70 visit our mission. His name is Elder Foster! He is the first person I've ever really met from church leadership. It was so cool. He was saying that our mission has one of the best mission presidents he has seen and a really good mission as a whole. Also we have the largest amount of cars in the whole world, more than any other mission, we have 112. During the lunch we happened to sit by two stake presidents. I was with my companion, my trainer Elder Schneider, and my best bud Elder Magalei! Well, the Los Lunas stake president said a lot of humbling things at the table to me and for my trainer to hear it was really cool. My trainer was super proud of me and they said that even though Alamo is out in the middle of nowhere our work isn't unnoticed! It was humbling for both of us to hear. I love the mission I serve in so much!

ACCOMPLISHMENT: Ever since Elder Ahloy has gotten here we have had a lot to do and meetings and stuff so the work hasn't progressed as much as we want. But we have seen great things recently. As we continue to press forward with faith and diligence the Lord has us blessing others. Yesterday I just walked up to two boys playing basketball outside and started shooting with them. One is in 6th grade and the other is in 4th. After the 2-on-2 game we invited them to family home evening that night but to ask their parents and they can maybe come next week. Well, by the time we got into the truck they came out running saying they can go and they did go! We are hoping to teach the family later this week :) Then, when we were talking to the boys someone yelled and said to come here. We went inside to this guy's house and talked to him and his wife. He said he wanted to know the difference between Mormons and Christians .... haha I gladly explained ! We taught the Restoration and the Spirit of the Lord definitely was working on them. You could see one of them didn't want to open their heart but still felt the Spirit. We got a return appointment. A family we got a baptism date with is progressing more and more. They need to get married soon but they have been working together and not hurting each other physically and emotionally anymore!

I love how the Lord blesses those who endure and who continue to be obedient in all things and in all places.

Never lose faith. Never give up. There's great things to come. Just as a car cannot function and operate without GAS, neither will we if we do not FUEL ourselves with faith. Sometimes we run low... so don't sit and pout and ask someone for gas money. They can't give you faith - you yourself have to FUEL yourself by reading, praying and loving Christ.

Thanks for everything everyone! I'll be emailing on Christmas Eve :)

Elder Taylor

Here's my tow buds going home in two weeks ... had to say goodbye to them! One is the A.P. right now and the other was my Zone Leader a few transfers ago. Going to miss them!