What a week haha! We started the week out with mini missions. We took a kid out for all of Tuesday and Wednesday named Jacob Fagg. He was such a funny guy. His favorite activities consist of naming dragons and playing a lot of video games that I have never heard of before. We took him around to a bunch of teaching visits and he mostly stayed quiet for the teaching part of it. Elder Brown and I wanted to let him do a little bit of the teaching so we went over the plan of salvation with him so he could teach a little bit of it to our investigator Leslie. We asked him right before the lesson which point he would like to cover in the plan of salvation so we knew to let him teach that park and he said Spirit prison haha. So we let him, and he was doing really well until he started teaching a lot of false doctrine and ended up relating Spirit Prison to the Hotel California where the spirits can never leave. So that was great haha but it all ended up ok. We talked to him later about teaching the doctrine simply and on our last day together he did a great job explaining it to a less active member. Oh and we also got him a hair cut haha He liked his long hair but we talked to him about who we represent and why it's important to live and look like what we teach. We made it a surprise for his mom..... she was MORE than gratefull. 

On Wednesday we dropped Elder Anderson off at the mission home. I grew really close to Elder Anderson. He's a great missionary and I was sad to see him leave. Then on Thursday we had a mission leadership meeting like all day. We learned a lot from President MacAteer and we got free lunch so that was a bonus. President mostly trained us on how to work with members and I think it's really going to help our mission get to 50 baptisms per month. I also got to see my trainer Elder Packer again so that was awesome! Later in the week we had exchanges with the PA's Elders Holloway and Porter. I went with elder Holloway and learned a lot from him. We didn't get much proselyting time because we had to go run all over the mission and take care of some stuff, but we just made the best of it and had fun. I also got to go back to my last area and see one of my investigators be baptized. It was Shana Heights and it was so awesome to see how much she has changed! I got to be one of the witnesses for the baptism and I could feel the spirit so strong. 

Then we got to finish off the week by watching the solar eclipse. We got together as a zone and had breakfast so we could eat some delicious pancakes while we watched the moon eat the sun. Well that's all I really got for this week! I love my mission and I wouldn't wanna be anywhere else right now. The gospel of Jesus Christ has truly changed my life and I can't even express how much joy it brings me to share it with others. 

Love you all fam stay fresh!

Love elder Taysom

Pictures:

Jacob Fagg, Elder Anderson's last pics with me and the zone flying him home (tradition in the mission), Mission Leadership Meeting and DLC meeting, random pics of the week, zone Breakfast for the solar eclipse 

CARTER GOT MARRIED!!!!!!!!!! That's so crazy haha I love you Carter and Adrian and hope you're enjoying the honeymoon😉😂 It seems like everything has changed since I've been gone. My brother is married, my little bro has a perm, and my mom and pops go on vacations like every other week haha. Times are changing and it sounds like for the better.... except Dallin's hair.

Well this week was probably one of the funniest/ busiest week I've had on my mission so far. We started out the week by doing stake reports. Stake reports are a form we have to fill out for the stake each month that shows how the missionaries are doing and a bunch of numbers that we have to talk about and make a plan to improve them. We also set up the mini mission details for the zone and that will be happening this Thursday and Friday so that should be way fun. We had a new zone competition this week too. Whoever got the most new investigators gets to have a BBQ with their district at President McAteer's house. Well our district didn't win but I definitely think it kept us motivated during the week to do better.

Oh some updates on our investigators, we had a lesson with Leslie this week and gave her a tour of the church so she would feel more comfortable on Sunday. Well the tour went well and she said we answered a bunch of her questions and was excited to come to church. She didn't end up coming to church but please keep her in your prayers. We also had a lesson with Brother Groda who is a returning less active member in the ward. He said he wants to work towards the temple and towards receiving the Melchizedek priesthood so we invited him to go to the temple with us so we could tour him around and explain what happens at the temple to get him excited for it. Well during the tour we ACCIDENTALLY😉 ran into an old friend you might recognize haha. It was Tanner Terry!!! Can you believe that he happened to be at the same temple the same day at the same exact time as I was?????? WHAT A CRAZY COINCIDENCE 😂🤥 haha It was so good to see him and catch up for 10 min before I had to go. He looks like he's doing great and it was good to see someone I knew for once. Now you see why this was probably my favorite week on the mission.

Oh we also had one of the best zone P-Days I've had in a while. We went to the beach on the Columbia river and had a BBQ and played kickball. I tried to get as much sun as possible so people can tell the difference between my skin and my shirt.

Well that was my eventful week, I love it out here and I love this gospel of change. I am definitely not the same moody teenager that I was when I started my mission and I owe that all the the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is our perfect example and I know he will make up the difference when we give our all to be better and follow his teachings. I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love Elder Taysom

Wow what a week!!! 

I've never been so busy in my life haha it's awesome! We started our week out good with interviews. I always love interviews with President. He's the bomb! He always knows how to motivate everyone to do more with love. Elder Anderson, Brown and I then had a meeting with him afterwards to go over the missionary work in the zone. President gave us some great insights on what we can change to be more effective as a zone. We came up with a fun competition to get more investigators this next week so we could reach our zone goal of 18 new investigators per week. We said whatever district gets the most new investigators by the end of the week gets an ice cream party at there next district meeting. Well apparently the zone has been craving some ice cream because we got 24 new investigators this week as a zone!!!!! So our zone crushed it this week! We have another challenge lined up for next week too so stay tuned. 

This week we also had a meeting with the stake youth committee to set up some mini missions with all the youth in the stake that are older than 16. If you don't know what a mini mission is don't worry because I didn't either until I got on my mission. It's pretty cool. So what we do is we get a priest from one of the surrounding wards to come out with us the whole day and be a missionary with us. At 9:00pm we take them home but then they're back with us again the next day until 9:00 so they get to see missionary life and know what to prepare for. That should be happening in about to weeks so that will be super fun. 

An update on some of our investigators..... Leslie our 18 year old investigator is going to get back from her ROTC camp today so we have a lesson set up for tomorrow at the church. She has been praying and reading the Book of Mormon and we asked her to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a true prophet. We hope she accepted our invitation and we can ask if she got an answer tomorrow for our lesson. We also found 3 new investigators this week but we will be referring 2 of them to the Spanish Elders. Which leaves us with one new person to teach and his name is Anthony. We met Anthony in a parking lot in an apartment complex. He is one scary looking dude and kind of comes off as a jerk but once we got to know him he opened up and told us about his life. He has been through some pretty hard trials in his life. We talked to him about the Book of Mormon and the piece it can bring to his life. He invited us back and said he would read the introduction by the next time we came over so we are super pumped for Anthony and I will keep you updated on his progress. 

Well that's all the excitement I got for this week. I love it out here and thank my Heavenly Father for these short 2 years I have to represent the Lord Jesus Christ in everything I do. I love spreading this message of happiness and watching the effect it has on people. The simple knowledge of knowing we are saved from our fallen state by our Savior Jesus Christ gives me strength and gives me that desire to let everyone know there is a way back to our loving God. Stay fresh fam! 

Love Elder Taysom