Hey y'all! 

Hope everyone is having a bomb Memorial Day, GO USA ! 

This week was just awesome! Elder Valentine and I started out our week stopping by every one of our new investigators and just setting up a time we would come back and do service for them. Well it went great, Jerry invited us back for a BBQ and to help him set up a pool he just bought for his kids and it was awesome! He asked us a bunch of questions about the temple while we were helping him set up the pool, and now we have a temple tour set up for him and his family in 2 weeks. 

We also got together as a district this last Saturday and went around to members and just random people outside doing yard work and offered to mow their lawns or just do anything that they needed. Well it worked a lot better than we thought because we spent the whole day in service clothes haha. 

We raked some lady's leaves, we helped 2 people move, we painted someone's barn and stacked a lot of wood. It is so rewarding to go around and offer small acts of service and see the joy it brings people to do something as small as bringing the garbage can in or doing there dishes. 

Our savior is our perfect example and all he ever did was serve others. I know that not all people are receptive to the gospel until they have been shown love, and that through your service, you care about them outside of a church setting. I know this church is true and I know that "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." - Mosiah 2:17   

I hope you all have a great week! 

Love Elder Taysom

Hey everyone, it was so good to see all your faces last week for Mother's Day!

  This week was pretty awesome! We had a lot of miracles. So we started the week out by visiting a bunch of less actives in the ward. We stopped by Virginia, she's in her 70s and lives alone with her pet bird. She has the biggest John Wayne movie collection I've ever seen because she said he reminds her of her dad. Virginia hasn't come to church in over a year and we prayed to be able to get through to her to know why. Well prayer always works but I didn't expect it to work that fast because when we walked in she said "boys I want to go to church but I don't want to take the buses". So we called up a member nearby and now she has a ride to church every Sunday. So that was definitely a miracle for the week and we had another one that happened just two days ago on Saturday. 

We got a new investigator named David. Elder Valentine and I were walking past the library in our area and stopped to listen to some homeless people that had formed a band and were playing music for spare change. Well we sat there for about 5 min just listening to these guys play and just started talking to people about the gospel because there was a small crowed gathered around. We talked to David and he recognized we were missionaries and asked if he could come to church with us. He from Tennessee he's in his low 30s and is a pro bass fisher and he actually came to church this Sunday!!!!! It was so sweet! He had a bunch of questions that we answered during the whole meeting and then during one the the hymns, he asked us about baptism. We asked him if he would like to be baptized and he said YES! So keep David in your prayers as he works towards baptism these next couple of weeks. 

Well that's about it from me for this week.  I know this church is true and miracles still happen today. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that the message we as missionaries and members share is a message of hope and love. I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love Elder Taysom

Oh and the video is me and Elder Valentine playing some high schoolers in some B-ball.... We kicked their butts haha We were just walking by and asked them if they wanted to play us and then we beat them and now we're like super good friends with a bunch of them! We are starting up a basketball night at the church so they don't have to play on the sucky asphalt!

                                               

*video wont open in safari (try opening in chrome, internet explorer, firefox, or another browser)

Hey y'all 

Hope everyone had a great week. It's finally starting to warm up here in Washington so that probably means it's about 100 degress in St.George haha. 

Well I loved this week! Elder Valentine and I started out our week by having a lesson with the twins. We ran into a road block with them. We went over the law of tithing and their mom did not like the idea of the girls giving up 10% of their money even though they don't have jobs. So we are hoping to study up and try and address their mom's concern in our next lesson. We also had a lesson with Richard this week. We went over the Plan of Salvation and the spirit was so strong. We are now working on getting him to church this next week. And we picked up this new family named the Stricklands. They are super solid and we have a lesson set up next week with them so just keep them in your prayers. 

So that was just a quick update on all the people we are working with right now. The work in our area is picking up and I'm supper excited for the Parker's Landing Ward! Oh and last Saturday, Neil L. Anderson visited our mission and he gave us some great council. It was so awesome to hear a prophet of the Lord encourage us to do better and complement us at the same time. So that was definitely a highlight of the week! Oh and I went fishing last Monday. Sorry to let you down dad. We didn't catch anything, but it was still way fun. 

Well that's really all I've got for this week. I can't wait to see you all on Mother's Day and I love and miss you all. 

Love Elder Taysom