What's good y'all! 

Sorry I didn't write last week, we were out like all day as a zone so we didn't have any time to email, so I'll try and make up for the last two weeks in this email. 

Well we started our first week out by finding Penelope. She is 10 years old and she lives with her grandma sister Ruff, but we just call her mom because sister Ruff doesn't like when we call her grandma haha. Sister Ruff has been a member of the church for most of her life, but she has been less active for a number of years now. Elder Brown and I decided to pay them a visit and we sat down and talked for a while and Sister Ruff just went on and on about how much she loves the church and the impact it has for the youth. We asked her if she would like to get Penelope involved in the church and she instantly said yes and explained that she would like her to be baptized as well. We wanted to say yes right then and there, and discuss a date for baptism, but we had been instructed 2 months earlier my our mission president in one of our zone conferences that we should not baptize a minor unless their parents are active. So elder brown and I explained to her that we would love for Penelope to be baptized but that she would have to become an active member of the church first. She actually took it really well and said she had been wanting to come back to church but just never had the push necessary to do so. Well long story short sister Ruff and Penelope have come to church these last 3 week and Penelope will be entering the waters of baptism July 15th!!!!! We are so stoked for Penelope! She has loved coming too and has made a lot of friends in primary. She was a little scared when we mentioned she was going to go all the way under the water but once we took her to another baptism in the zone, and she saw how quick it was, she got excited and hasn't stopped talking about her baptism this Saturday haha. So I will let you know how that goes next week:) 

Then we had the 4th of July and it was so fun! President said it was an all day P-Day from 9:00 AM to 11:00 PM., so Elder Brown and I lived it up. We started the day out by going to Walmart and buying some sweet USA T- Shirts so we would look good for the Zone BBQ at 1:00. Then after the Zone BBQ we went around to a bunch of members and ate at their BBQs and just messed around and played basketball. Then to finish off the night we got a super rich member from my last area to come pick us up and watch fire works from his house. He lives on the top of a mountain that looks over most of Portland, so we saw a lot of fireworks. 

The Next day we had our Zone Temple trip! I love the temple so much! It was so nice to just feel of the peace in the house of the Lord. Our mission president challenged us to go to the temple with questions and promised they would get answered if they were sincere. It was such a cool experience to have all my questions answered and to just feel of the calmness that comes with the temple. 

Then at the end of the week we had a fun zone activity where we put up this huge sign on the front of this freeway overpass that said "FREE BOOK OF MORMON AT NEXT EXIT". We had the rest of the zone handing out copyies of the Book of Mormon to all the cars stopped at the next exit. It was so fun and we handed out like 50 copies. 

Well, that's a wrap on my week. I love it out here and I can feel my Savior's love stronger and stronger every day as we strive to bring others unto him. I know that he lives! I know he wants to help us! I know that he can help us, as soon as we are willing to change. Jesus Christ challenges all men to be better, so that they can feel true happiness. I love you all and hope you have a great week. 

Love Elder Taysom