Elder Taylor 3-Jan-2012

Hello and happy New Year. Sorry I’m late writing the library was closed

Monday so I get to email today. How is everybody doing? It's good to hear that Seth is talking to the Missionaries.  This week was really good.

Monday everything was still closed so we went down to Fulton and played basketball with them.

Tuesday Elder Wells from Fulton came up to Mexico and we tried to follow up with people that we had contacted previously.

Wednesday I went down to Fulton and spent the day with Elder Banks, our district leader while Elder Humphrey and Elder Wells were up in Mexico. Elder Banks and talked to a man named James about the Book of Mormon and the Holy Ghost. After the discussion I was able to get a hold of a man named Richard whose son Josh we have been trying to teach. We were able to set an appointment for Thursday afternoon.

Thursday we were able to meet with Josh and Richard, Richard's girlfriend Lisa and here daughter Rebecca also joined us. We had been able to meet with Josh once before at his mom's house Josh's mom is an active member of the church and Josh has been going to primary since he was old enough to attend. Anyways with the Discussion we talked about the Restoration and Lisa and Rebecca were asking more questions than Josh. Richard also listened in and provided a few answers to some of the questions that were asked. At the end of the lesson I extended a Baptismal initiation to Josh, not however for the Jan 7th as I had previously thought to, which would have been really fast paced discussions but owing to the fact that he has been going to church for quite some time Elder Humphrey and I thought it was an appropriate date. However something made me give the invitation for the 31 Dec and he accepted because he had wanted to be baptized for a while, but the great thing was is his dad also agreed to be baptized on that date even though everyone in the room knew we were way rushing it. So we set up the next two discussions for Friday at the same time and for Saturday before the baptism, and then I started thinking what the heck did I just do?

Friday we continued through the discussions with Josh and talked about the Plan of Salvation, and just as the previous discussion Richard, Lisa, and Rebecca sat in and participated and helped Josh with the path he wanted to walk. After the lesson Josh went through the baptismal program he and his mom had set up; his cousin Jake would be baptizing him and his Uncles, Bishop, and a few Brother's in the ward would stand in the circle for the confirmation with me give the confirmation.

Saturday we spent cleaning up the church, setting up chairs, and cleaning/filling the baptismal font before our discussion with Josh. We talked with Josh at three about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Lisa and Rebecca were there to, and I think the support of Richard, Lisa and Rebecca really meant a lot to Josh. At Four Elder Banks came up from Fulton and did the Baptismal interview with Josh. I about socked him when came out and said that there were some things that  needed to be covered again, and then said "Just Kidding" and you could tell that Josh was in on it because he kept his face straight the entire time. Any way the Baptism was great pretty much half the ward turned up for it, and Richard, Lisa, and Rebecca were there for Josh as well.

Sunday was pretty calm in comparison with Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  I hope you have a good week and please remind Seth I heard him say that he was going to try and start emailing me. Hope everything goes alright next week.

With Love

Elder Zach J Taylor