Elder Jaussi In Mexico: Training and Being Trained

To say the least, this week has been pretty hectic. First off, before I forget, here is a tiny description of what the pictures are.

1- Elder V and I with the S. family. Every male member of that family has been the bishop/is the bishop/or is a counselor in the bishopric. Besides that point, they are one of my favorite families here in Valladolid. The bishop is the bomb. He's seated to the right, sitting next to his wifey.

2-The baptism of Hna A.!!!!! We told her this Monday that it was Saturday or bust for her baptism (well kinda like that) and she said, "well let's get a move on then!" The baptism was so powerful. She said she felt so good and you could really tell that whole day that she was so excited. She's the one that I started saying "somos amigos" to (We are friends) whenever she had a doubt or something like that, so she always says that to me now. She's so great.

3- You'll have to tell G and G Jaussi that they basically made the missionary's version of Sport's Illustrated because they have front page on my agenda along with Nefi and Lehi. I don't know why, but I've been thinking about them a lot lately. Can you send me their email? I want to send them a short email this next week to let them know I'm thinking about them, and just because I get a kick out of Grandma's letters and Grandpa's jokes. Also, believe it or not, I really want to work on family history with them when I get back. There has been a lot of emphasis in that area here lately and I have to admit that I really want to do it more when I get back. I really feel like I need to work on it more. I started thinking of doing it when I thought about how cool it would be to do ALL the temple work for one of my ancestors.

My new companion's name is Elder G. and he is from Mexico City too. I had to take a bus to Merida and President gave us a capacitacion (interview) before we got our new companions. It was quite the crazy day for sure. The whole day I just kept wondering why me out of all the other missionaries there. It definitely humbled me that's for sure.

He is pretty shy (a trending pattern with my companions) but he has plenty of energy and is really eager to learn everything in one second. (Very similar to me.) Every other second he's bumping into me saying something like "okay, what next elder, what next??" Training is pretty great though because it has made me realize all of the things I have learned but also all the things that I need to sharpen up. I don't know what the Lord was thinking when He gave me this assignment but I hope to find out soon. Every day I feel crazy-overloaded but all I can do is just put my shoulder to the wheel and be obedient.

This Sunday though I felt a huge amount of love for our ward. I don't know why, but I just realized yesterday how much I love this ward. Yesterday in sacrament meeting was the first time that I felt I should share my testimony so I did. It was a really good meeting yesterday though and I feel like I learned a lot about God and how he works. One of the things I was fasting for was to improve my relationship with God and just strengthen my testimony because "much fasting and prayer" is how Amulek said he did it. In Sunday School we were reading Mormon 9 and when someone read the verse where it says something like "I will show unto you the God of [Abraham] and all the things He has done"... Shoot I felt like the Spirit Brian-Urlacher-tackled me. It made me realize that, yes I still have a ton to learn but God sure is great. He has helped me more than I could have ever hoped for and I need to remember all the tender mercies rather than focus on the big tasks at hand. All in all, it was a great day yesterday because I felt another one of the tender mercies of the Lord.

I've decided that we're still going to visit A. and teach her but we won't talk about the subject of baptism for awhile. I know baptism is a necessary covenant but at this point I just feel like we need to take it a little bit slower with the situation like it is. For now, we'll just keep praying for Hno. T. to soften his heart a little bit.

This week, Elder G. and I are going to work like crazy with the members and hopefully the referencias (referrals) will start coming. If not, it's okay because we're strengthening the members. I think it says something like that in Mosiah 27:32 or 33, that they went about strengthening the members. I want to be a missionary like those guys, so I'll keep working with the members just like President has asked us to do.

Thanks so much for fasting for me, I sure have felt that it has helped me a lot. I love you guys more than everyone loves frijoles here, and don't you forget it!!

Loves all around!! Con amor,

Taylor

¡Sea feliz, sea mormón!