Lets see. Tuesdays devotional was amazing. Elder Costa, the president of the quorum of the 70 addressed us and I wouldn't be surprised if he got called as a new apostle. His message about missionary work was so powerful and personal and just made me even more excited to serve. One thing he spoke of was from when he was a mission president in brazil. There was a elder in the mission that was having a lot of success and was very obedient. One day elder costa gets a letter from a man out in a small village in the middle of no where saying that he has somehow learned of the church and desires to be baptized. After much prayer and receiving permission he calls this missionary into his office on the last week of his mission, and calls him to go out and baptize this one man. The missionary was dissapointed because it was his goal to baptize as many as he could and for his last week he had a group of 20 people he was going to baptize. Nevertheless he obeyed and took the 3 day trip into the jungle with his companion and made it to the village. After 2 weeks (one week longer than he was supposed to be there) the mission president hears nothing from the companionship and begins to get worried. That same day he finally gets a call from the missionary apologizing for staying longer than he was supposed to and with no communication. The mission president asks why one week longer and what happened to the one man they were supposed to baptize. He responds saying, The man has spread the gospel to the whole village. We have just baptized the entire village of 140 people and it took 2 weeks because some had to get their marriages finalized. Today this village has grown to a stake of 3 wards with 100% activity. I love this story because it just goes to show that if the Lord asks you to sacrifice, He has much more in store for you.
Wednesday was pretty rough. We got caught off guard and had to skype earlier than we had thought previously. So me and my comp just threw a lesson together in like 5 minutes, prayed for the gift of tongues and just went for it. We skyped an actual investigator in germany but is originally form zagreb. We begin talking to him and started the lesson and about half way through he stops me mid sentence and says, "You talk to much, your friend (my companion) needs to talk more." Okay, so I backed off and let my comp take the lead a little more. Just as a quick side note, I usually talk the most. In lessons; talking between me and my comp is usually 80/20 because, for some reason in lessons, he just goes blank. We have tried to work it out but for some reason he just has no idea what to say in lessons. So this lesson was no different, I was talking the most and he just kinda sat there. Until i backed off and let him talk a little more. Well, he asked a couple of questions which didn't get much of a response and then we sat there for a couple seconds and before i could break the silence the man we we skyping looks at me and says, "You are very good at speaking and teaching in Croatian." and of course I was pumped.. until he looked to my companion and says, "you are not." Straight up. my comp got really sad after that and we just kinda wrapped it up and said goodbye and for the rest of the day he was pretty down on himself and we all tried to help him out but man, that was rough.
But onto happier stuff and to wrap this email up, flight plans. We wake up and leave from the MTC at around 4 AM. Our flight leaves from SLC to Chicago at 8:30, land in Chicago at 12:15 Chicago time. Then leave from Chicago at 3:30 PM and land in Frankfurt at 7 AM Germany time. Then from Germany to Zagreb. We should arrive at Zagreb close to noon. Then the fun begins.
Talk to you again from Croatia. Love you all!
Elder Taylor
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