Hey mom thanks for that surprise hahah I needed all those ties! I love the Zabaldos! They're so awesome! It was so fun talking to the fam and I can't believe you actually wore those clothes I sent you! I don't have a main letter for this week because Elder Packer needs to use my email, because his isn't working, but here's a lot of pics! Oh and a pic of the shoes I bought with my Christmas money! And yeah my new comp’s name is Elder Read!

What's good fam!

Hope all is well back home! It's finally starting to get cold here and the skies are gray like 99% of the time haha! This week was a little crazy. Our ward Christmas party is this coming Saturday so we have been going around to everyone we know trying to get them there! The bishop gave us a list of 120 people to try and get there.... and they live in the furthest 4 corners of the earth so my legs are getting huge from walking haha jk but it's a long walk!

So I don't really have any specific stories this week.... we have just been going crazy running from house to house setting up follow up apts and trying to get them to come to the ward party! Haha but I know if even 1 person comes because we invited them,  it's worth it! I'm way excited for Christmas!!!!! I can't wait to see all of your faces haha! Me and elder packer are going to buy a Christmas tree on our way back from the stake center, so this is going to be a Christmas for the books!

Sorry I don't have a lot of time this week to email... Elder Packer accidentally deleted his email haha! So we are sharing mine for this week,  but just know I love you all and can't wait to FaceTime on Christmas!

Love, Elder Taysom

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

Hope you all had some good food and watched a lot of football haha! Thanksgiving was awesome here in Portland. The members all wanted to feed us that day so we ended up going to 3 dinner appointments haha. The first family was the Alriches and they had some good food! Elder packer and I just stuffed our faces for an hour and then played card games for an hour until the Petersons picked us up from the Alriches house to go eat thanksgiving dinner with them! Haha and they had some awesome food and their  family is so fun so Elder Packer and I stuffed our faces again until the district leader came to pick us up from the Petersons to go to the Tongan ward thanksgiving party....... and the Tongan ward does thanksgiving a little different than most people. They roasted an entire pig and they had so much sausage and a bunch of other meats that were really good! Then when we were leaving they gave all the missionaries  a to go box full of food to take home, so I guess you could say Elder Packer and I had a good Thanksgiving haha!

Well to start off the week I went on exchanges with my district leader Elder Brown. I was a little worried about him coming over and seeing  our hammocks because I never really asked anyone if they were allowed but he said they were awesome and now Elder Brown and his comp are getting a pair haha! Anyway that was off topic but we had a good day and we had a lot of lessons set up. We even found a new investigator named Cathy. She's like 60-70 she said, she has seen us walking around a lot, and wanted to know what church we were a part of? Elder brown and I then said The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and invited her to church this week. She said she hadn't been to church in a long time and was nervous to go back, so Elder Brown and I invited her to take a church tour with us next week. She said she would "enjoy that very much" so hopefully that goes well this week.

Oh and an update on Robin, she is progressing so fast so Elder Packer and I are going to ask her, if she would like to move her baptismal date up a week, so Elder Packer can see her get baptized before transfers. Hopefully she feels like she will be ready by then.

Well that's all from me this week, I love and miss you all. I'm so THANKFUL for the opportunity to be a missionary. I know that our Savior, Jesus Christ is the only way we can return with our Heavenly Father. Without his atonement there would be no progression, like it says in 2 Nephi 9:6-7

6 For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord

7 Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement--save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more.

Nuff Said love- Elder Taysom

 Hi everyone!

Hope all is good back home! Well this week was a bit wet haha it rained every day this week! It's also starting to get cold but it's not too bad yet. So that's your weather report from Elder Taysom haha.

Anyway just some updates on some of our investigators.... Ryan and Maggie had to leave town for a family emergency and won't be back for a couple months so we had to push their baptismal date back so that was kind of a bummer but we will be praying for their family. Oh and Regis is 26 so we had a handoff lesson with the YSA elders last week and they tell me he is still on track for his baptismal date! But this week we found 2 new investigators!

The first new investigator we found his name is Seth he's 25 and he works for a construction company. He told us he wanted to change his life around and quit drinking and smoking. We shared the restoration and the spirit was so strong. Seth then said he would like to be baptized! Haha we didn't even have to invite him! He is now striving to become ready for baptism on January 28th. We have a hand off lesson set up with the YSA elders later this week for Seth.

Our second investigator this week, is named Robin. She is like 60-75 idk I was too scared to ask but she has pink hair and loves cats! She is recovering from an open heart surgery she had about 2 months ago and she said because God let her live, she wants to go to church! Elder Packer and I then taught her about the plan of salvation and how God has a plan for us. She said she knew this was the plan for her because God spoke to her through a cloud and told her the same plan like 3 days earlier haha so I don't know if the heavy pain meds she's on had anything to do with that but hey the Lord works in mysterious ways!  We then asked her if she would like to show our Heavenly Father that she loves him by following the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized. She said yes and is preparing herself to be ready by January 7th. In our 2nd lesson with Robin we invited her to church and she said she couldn't make it this week because of a doctors apt but the week after she would definitely be there! She said she hadn't been to church in a long time and was worried she wouldn't be physically able to run around the church and speak in tongues like she used to:) haha! Elder Packer and I decided to address that in a later lesson.

Well that’s all I got for this week! Haha I'm loving it out here and love being a representative of the Lord! It has brought me so close to my Savior and has given me a front row seat to watch the gospel of Jesus Christ change people's lives.

Love Elder Taysom

          Oh and ps...... me and Elder Packer got hammocks because our beds are like rocks haha I just had to throw that in there to explain some of the pics!

 

Hey Fam!

Hope all is well back home! This week was was awesome as always! We started the week out with 3 days of sunshine so that was really nice! We had a lot of lessons with Ryan and Maggie and they are really progressing!

So this week my crazy story and spiritual story (or one in the same haha) we met this guy named Regis just walking on the street and Elder Packer and I almost passed him by because he looks like a really scary guy haha! He has tattoos all over his face and he was walking his huge dog that was a pit bull but me and Elder Packer just decided to talk to him anyway. We tried talking to him about the Book of Mormon and he said he didn't have time right now but we could come over to his apartment the next day. So the next day, Elder Packer and I went to his apartment not sure if he really lived there or not, but he answered and let us in! We talked for a while just trying to get to know each other, and despite his appearance he's a really nice guy. He's a tattoo artist and he's really good at it. He also loves photography. We then started asking him about his beliefs and his religions background. He said he has never been to a church but reads the Bible a lot and he asked a lot of questions about where we came from and where we’re going. We then asked him if we could share a quick message with him about God’s plan for us...... aka (The Plan of Salvation) and he said sure so we sat down and went over the discussion with him. He was so involved in the lesson. He was asking questions and had a testimony in most of the things we went over already. At the end of the discussion Elder Packer and I had a strong impression to invite him to the waters of baptism. He happily excepted our invitation and is preparing to be baptized on December 10th. He also gave me a free tattoo so that was cool!

Haha well that's all I got for this week! Don't judge a book by its cover. Like it says in the introduction of the Book of Mormon "We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost." The part that hit me the hardest was (We invite all men everywhere)! I know that this message is for everyone and it is the only way we can return with our father in heaven.

Love, Elder Taysom

Hey Fam what's good!!!

This week was just grand haha except for the weather! We ended up having the wettest October on record so there was a lot of rain last month! But this week we're supposed to have like 4 straight days of sunshine so that's gonna be nice!

Well this week we were finally able to meet with Maggie and Ryan. They have been progressing so well and have been coming to church for the last 4 weeks and reading the Book of Mormon. They are doing much better. We got them a place to live and they still have their new car and jobs at the DI. We met them at a park for the first discussion so there son Roman could play while we had the lesson. We taught them the restoration and how we have a loving heavenly father that wants us to live with Him again and how through His Son we can do so and become clean again. Then we taught them about modern prophets and how they lead and guide families today. Ryan had some awesome questions about that and you could tell they were striving to know the truth! After we answered their questions we asked both of them if they would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the proper authority of god, AND THEY BOTH SAID YES!!! I have never felt the spirit so strong! The gospel truly blesses families!  I have seen it work countless miracles in their lives just the past couple weeks!

I remember the first day we meet Maggie Ryan and Roman. Me and Elder Packer were walking behind a Denny's and saw a lady sitting on the curb choked up in tears, in front of her broken down car, not knowing where to go. We walked up to her and through tears she said "you’re the missionaries right? Can you help me?" And we gave them a Book of Mormon and now they are entering the waters of baptism. They now know of the love their Heavenly Father has for them and his plan of happiness. So yeah I guess you could say I've had a good week 😊 We also taught the Teskes this week and they are also progressing. They have committed to reading the Book of Mormon and to pray to know if it's true. We have a lesson set up with them later this week and hope to commit them to coming to church so hopefully that goes good!

Well that's all I got for this week. I’m loving it out here and love being a tool in the Lord’s hands!

-Elder Taysom

What’s up everyone HAPPY HALLOWEEN 😈🎊!

The people here in Portland are already weird so when Halloween comes around things get pretty interesting haha. Anyway this week was great as always!

We even got a full day of sun on Tuesday so that was nice! Well this week we didn't have a lot of time to just go knock doors because we had a lot of lesson set up which is good. But on Tuesday we met a small family of 4 because one of our appointments canceled so we just started tracking next to the house we had our previous lesson set up with. And that's how we met the Teske family. We knocked on their door and talked to them about the Book of Mormon and testified of its truth. They then invited us in which never happens like ever!  Then they wanted to talk to us more about our beliefs and they had so many questions about modern prophets and the restoration. We than committed them to take the discussions and they accepted! So we hope to help bring the Teske family closer to Christ!

Oh and an update on Ryan and Maggie, they are coming to church every week and the ward members are doing an awesome job at fellowshipping them. We got them both a job at the DI and found them a car and a place to live. They also accepted the discussions and we hope to invite them to the pool party, and commit them to baptism soon:)

Ok funny story time, so we were going around our complex knocking on doors for a little just trying to meet some of the new neighbors. So we knocked on this random door about 3 buildings away from ours and met this named Roger. He's like 70 years old and he used to work in communications during WW2. He talked to us about all the government secrets he heard over years and how we have been visited by Aliens about 7 different times over the past 100 years. Then me and Elder Packer looked behind him and he had one of those tinfoil hats on the shelf behind him haha right next to 3 drones he bought on line like 4 months ago to get Sasquatch on film. Oh and he also has a bunch of infrared camera pictures of Sasquatch he took last week haha! We then gave him a Book of Mormon and said if you study up on the Book of Mormon, we will study up on Sasquatch and then when we come over next time we can talk about both and he accepted so I guess I better get to studying!

Well that's all I’ve got for you this week, I'm so grateful for the constant companionship of the spirit! I know that without the guidance and direction of the spirit we could not be saved. Joseph Smith said "Salvation cannot come without revelation; it is in vain for anyone to minister without it"   I know that only through the spirit can there be true conversion.

 Love Elder - Taysom