Dec 15 2010

Got my hair cut today by this Venezualen its short but awesome looking and she said I have a perfect nose. She was awesome and pretty cute!  I am sending the cd with pictures home today when i go to the post office. love you

On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 1:38 PM, Taylor Jolly <taylor.jolly@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Hola, ok so apparently if family is ever in my mission I am allowed to go to lunch or dinner with them, it just cant be parents or girlfriends, so if any of the family besides you mom and dad are in the mission they can take me to lunch. Christmas morning I will probably call in the morning around 9-11 your time, somewhere in that time span. Sweet thanks, the money will go to good use. The church doesn't cover the cost of extra supplies beyond pamphlets and book of mormons so we have had to buy our investigators and new converts gospel principles, because the ward doesn't cover the cost of those either. Most people we are teaching now are on the brink of poverty. We are teaching a family who is living on $20 a day to pay for everything including bills, this is a family of 8. 

     Well it was a good week, although we had to say goodbye to our visa waiter companion. He got his visa to mexico and left last sat. He was awesome and we had so many connections with people we knew. B our recent convert got confirmed on sunday and his little brother now wants to be taught so we are going to begin teaching him this week. The mom has a job now and is working like 12 hrs a day, they have a house (basement) in salt lake that they will be moving into in the spring and things are just looking up for them. We are teaching a mom and her child, C and A. They are awesome and super receptive, they just have a hard time keeping commitments although they are reading the book of mormon and they really like church. They have a baptismal date set for dec 26th but it will probably have to be moved back about 2 weeks so we will have time to teach them all the lessons because her work schedule is crazy. She gave us a reference to her friend I, who wanted to meet with missionaries. We have taught him once but it was more like us answering questions because he was already like halfway through with the book of mormon when we met with him the first time. He said it seems like he has read this book because all the stuff sounds so familiar. He loves reading church stuff and has gone to Deseret book and bought several books by apostles and read them. He is excited about the church and wants to get baptized.  He pretty much knows all the lessons and doesnt have any really big doubts. E and his wife d are another one of our investigators. They had a baptismal date but we are going to push it back to jan 16th because all he does is agree with us but then wont keep commitements. M is tough to get a hold of because she has like 4 little kids and is always out at their activities but we are hoping to get her on date for jan 16th too. Then there is the R family, they are super awesome. We taught them the first lesson and invited them to ward activities and they went to some. They didnt come to church on sunday but they said they would come this sunday. This is a family of 8 that we got as a reference. Turns out the dad and the dads brother are memebers but inactive. They got baptized in mexico like 25 years ago but went inactive. They have 4 kids ages 11 to 15 and the mom and the grandma. They all are very receptive and the kids were reading the book of mormon before we even left. The next time when we came the kids brought out all the book of mormons we gave them, so there were 8 book of mormons on the table lol it was a cool sight. The dads brother has been looking for work for about a year and we hooked him up with a member who is high up in the business that this man want s to work in (granite and other materials) and so this member is going to contact all his friends to try and find him a job. We are trying to help them in everyway we can. The mom has an appt with pres. H to see what kind of help the branch can give. All 6 unbaptized members of the family are on date to be baptized jan 16th. 

    I have learned that missionary work is a lot more than just teaching lessons. We are invited into peoples homes not to teach lessons but to change lives. We offer what help we can and try to help them spiritually and physically. They become like family as we sit and learn together. Lol last night we were at R and A's and yep all of a sudden a huge plate of food was in front of me, and we had a dinner appt with an english family in like 20 min. I chowed down and was stuffed but decided to be a man and try a jalepeno. I took the whole jalepeno and stuck it all in my mouth. WOW mistake! it was hott, I downed my glass of soda and then opened my water bottle and drank the whole thing and my mouth was burning for about 15 min after that. We then drove to our other appt. ate pizza and brownies and rushed off to our teaching appt which was 30min after our dinner appt began. I decided i never want to eat again. Lol but being missionaries we get fed a lot of junk food, so yes mom I have been taking vitamins and I ate tuna fish, apple and a yogurt for lunch the other day. I have been trying to eat healthier. lol on sunday this Hawiian couple came by our house and gave us a huge tray of chicken turkey potatos and carrots and a whole beautiful apple pie that was hott!!! SOOOO good!!! Elder Holland is tomorrow and we have 8 more appts this week with people we will be teaching for the first time and referals to contact tonight. Although a lot of the referals we get from the english missionaries are just doors they knocked on where a spanish speaking person answered and the missionaries had no idea what the person said because they spoke spanish so they turn it to us as a referal. Work is busy, always tired but happy. Love you all and merry christmas

 

Love,

Elder Jolly

OK so our mission christmas devotional is coming up soon and guess who is coming to talk to us. Jeffery R. Holland and his wife are coming to our christmas devotional. We also have a mission conference on new years eve and another apostle is coming but they wont tell us who yet. I imagine Elder Holland will have some harsh words for the mission lol he always does have harsh words when it comes to missionary work, but its only because it means so much to him. The baptism was great and doing it in spanish was not as hard as I thought. We had a nice turn out of about 30 people at the baptism. We just started teaching a family of 8 and they are really interested in the church. When we turned in our numbers last week to our district leader he told us that we didnt quite meet our goals, but our actuals still doubled every other companionship in the district, so the work is going good. We have 4 people on date for dec 26th and are planning on having 10 on date for jan 9th but we will see what happens because people still have their agency.  Lol we went and had family home evening with R and A on monday and there were like 20 other people there for FHE (family home evening) .  We asked what we can do to live the gospel better and R and A's son who is like 10 said, "Well if you have been coming to church for a long time and know its true then just get baptized". We all laughed for like 5 min because R and A have been investigators for about 18 months and know its true but are not baptized because of the divorce.  Our other investigators C and J are keeping their commitments and she really likes the church, she even called us the other day to give us a referal and it was a good referal! His name is I and he came to church and we are teaching him now too. Elder C our visa waiter in the trio got his visa and is leaving this sat. We took one of our investigator families to the Church's employment center to help the parent look for work. The man who helped us used to live on education hill in redmond. He served in the Eastern States Mission and guess who was his mission president...??? yep great grandpa. Small world! Last friday E.H. had the flu so me and Elder C went out to teach our investgators while E.H. stayed home with another elder. It was a cool experience because out of the 2 of us I speak spanish a lil better but neither of our spanish is amazing. We had an awesome time though and taught 2 lessons and came back home super happy. What stunk was that night the flu hit me once i got home and so I spent sat cooped up in bed and, but hey that is part of life and you take it in strides. Patience really is a virtue. We get to go to Temple Square this coming week to see the lights and I am crazy excited! West Jordan is awesome! We went to Kneader's bakery last wed (bakery my branch pres in the MTC owns) and I got a bacon turkey avocado sandwhich and it was AMAZING!!!!! best sandwhich I have ever had. While we were waiting for our sandwhiches a man came up and started talking to us and gave us $20 and said he wished he couldve bought our lunch. We went to Kneader's again today and as I pulled out my mission debit card a lady walked up and swiped it signed and said I had 3 missionary sons so I love missionaries and want to take care of them. And then she walked off. The members here are so nice. We do all our shopping at the walmart at Jordan Landing so its kind of close to the Lindeman's. Anyway I need to go because I need to finish my laundry and we have 3 lessons tonight. Love you all and stay close to the Lord.

 

Love,

Elder Jolly

Dec 1 2010

Howdie howdie,

 

Oh yea I totally forgot about stake conference. If the Stake Presidency gets changed let me know because I have to notify the mission president right away. I am glad to hear things are going well back home. Things have really really picked up in the past few days. We have contacted and set up appointments with about 8 new families and that is about a pool of 25 new investigators. We had 5 set appointments on monday alone. We have our first baptism coming up this sunday Dec 5th for B (12yrs). I will talk more about that one in a bit.

    Wednesday night we took B shopping and bought him a white shirt, slacks, belt tie and then later that night E.H and I went to payless and I bought him some black dress shoes.  We teach B 3 or 4 times a week. When we were walking home from payless that night we checked the temp outside and it was 12 degrees. It has been really cold here lately.

     Thanksgiving day we went over to a members house R and A and read the scriptures with them. They are an elderly couple and cant see very well so we read with them occasionally. We read the story of Ammon and talked about the power of the Spirit. R and A live with their kids who all have kids, so we set up an appointment to teach one of her daughthers on monday. After about an hour a couples missionary came over to teach them english. At 3pm we taught B the Plan of Salvation. It was a great lesson and everybody was edifided, especially the mom who is coming back after being inactive for 13 years. We got the car back and it has been a nice blessing with the cold weather.

     Friday, we had zone conference all morning and we got a new companion Elder C (E.C.) who is waiting on his visa to mexico, so we are now a trio. We visited less actives in the afternoon and knocked a few doors. Then we headed off to our 2 dinner appointments. Yes two! At the second one there were a lot of guests over and so being missionaries we made the rounds talking to everyone and getting to know them and we set up an appointment to teach a family of 5.  Afterwards I was completely stuffed and tired but we still have more appointments to go to. It was a long hard fought day but we found 2 new families to teach and we retired to bed happy.

    Saturday, E.H. was sick but we couldnt let that stop us so we went out and got to work. We taught Brian at 3pm and then tracted for a bit. At 5pm we had a really weird but cool experience. We had an appointment with a new investigator L and N. We get there and they have family over, turns out the family are members. L and N are Catholic. We had a very nice discusion for about an hour an answered the husbands questions and I left with my testimony about missionary work and the blessing the gospel is on families. AND we got a return appointment. We tracted for about an hour after and then returned home early because E.H. was pretty sick. Sometimes when teaching the gospel you have to be pretty blunt with people and I heard a quote by Jeffery R. Holland that puts things pretty simply. "We aren't BurgerKing, we are not going to do it (missionary work) your way, and we are not going to hold the pickles."

   Sunday, we woke up to about a foot of snow on the ground and it was still snowing hard. We had ward correlation meeting at 10 and Branch council at 10:30am. I am still not used to driving in the snow but I am getting pretty good at it. I have learned how to pull of a fish tail and how to pull out of sliding when you lose traction going around a corner. Sometimes we practice in the parking lot. Only practice :) L and B came to church today and there was a lady and her son there that we didnt know so we introduced ourselves after sacrament meeting and it turns out she had heard about the church from a friend at work and really liked how it sounded so she came to check it out. We set up an appt to teach her and her son and we took her to Gospel Principles class with L.  After church we taught B and L and talked about his baptism and started to set up the baptismal program. To my great surprise he asked me to baptize him, so this sunday not only will I be having my first baptism since I got out in the field 2 weeks ago but I will be doing the baptism. This surprised me because my spanish is still a work in progress and I thought he had a closer connection to E.H. but wow I was touched. We went home early again because E.H. was on his death bed and had a fever.

     Monday, E.H. is doing better which is good because we had 5 appts. We taught R and A daughter at 11am and committed her to be baptized on Dec. 26th. We taught 5 other lessons today and the work stayed busy. All lessons we got return appts to teach more.

    Tuesday, we had a good day. We found lots of new people and recieved 2 referals and have another list of referals to pick up at the mission office tomorrow with about 10 referals on it. We were supposed to teach B and L at 5pm but when they got to the church their car was smoking, so we popped the hood and did some work on it and filled up the coolant because it was empty and by the time we finished it was 6pm and we had another appt to go to. We also taught L and she is very interested and wants to come to church. We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and shared a brief message amd set a return appt. We have given out about 15 Book of Mormons this week and need to order more. We returned home at 9 exaughsted!!!! We have about 2 1/2 feet of snow in the back yard and our driveway is a tunnel from shoveling all the snow out of the way so we can get the car out. The main roads are dry but the back roads are completely covered in packed snow. 

     This week was great and Elder C adds excitement to the work and more energy. We are hoping to have 12 people on date by sunday and it looks very possible. I have come to love the people I teach and the culture. I am actually starting to love the spicy food although it still makes my lips and tounge burn for hours lol. I love you all and wish you all a merry Christmas! Oh and by the way, the Church is soooo true! Just take a look and you will see, how the church can bless you for eternity. Yep that rhymes. Love ya

 

Love, 

Elder Jolly

Nov 24th 2010

Hola Hola Hola,

        Man what a first week!! Elder H is great, he is from Las Vegas, but originally from Hildalgo Mexico. It was a fun week and so much happened so I will probably just go through it day by day pulling out stuff from my journal. I already told you about our first day so I will jump to thursday.

      Thursday, in the afternoon we walked over to the A families house and met with them, the mom and son are not members and the dad and other son are inactive, their 14yr old daughter is the only active one. We are working on the nonmember son but he has lots of questions so we only get through about a principle a day. The mom fed us Mangos and cucumbers with some chili powder on top, it was interesting but good. After that we went over to the C families house for dinner, they are all active and really nice. We sat down to hamburgers and I was like sweet!!! I was feeling gutsy so I put jalepenos on my 2 burgers. It was a really good dinner and I was feeling pretty full went she put a huge bowl of chicken soup with some onion looking things in front of me. To say it was spicy was an understatement!!!!!!!! My face turned red as I ate and they all smiled and she told me I didnt have to eat it if I didnt want to. I was like no no I am going to be eating spicy food for 2 years so I need to get acoustumed to it. I was determined to become a real man, and all real men cry. Yea as I continued to eat without even controlling it my eyes teared up and they all laughed. EH (Elder H) found it so funny he made a return dinner appt. It was so good and I walked out of there feeling about 20lbs heavier and never wanting to eat again. We then went an taught S and M, they are a family who are struggling, they dont have jobs and can't get any. They are very receptive to the gospel and we taught them about the Restoration and set a baptismal date, but later found out they are moving to Oregon to live with family and he has a job he can get there so they are moving this weekend. End of Thursday.

         Friday, we knocked doors for a few hours today to no avail. Most people were either at work or english, so we visited members and less actives to get referals. We had dinner at the Ds and I had tomales (sp?) for the first time. They were pretty good but I like leche con arroz the best. I talked to the Elder's Quorum President who was there visiting and he told me about his mission. He went to LA and he said for the first 2 months he was wondering why am I here. I definitely havent wondered that yet but he said success is all based on how hard you work and obedience. Luckly he spoke english so he would speak mainly in english and I would respond in spanish. Afterwards we went to R and A's house for the 3rd night in a row,  We taught them about the 13th article of faith. The little boy H always begs to give the prayer and then he gives a 5 min prayer blessing everything from the food to the toys to the scriptures, lol but he is very sincere. We were approached by a huge Tongan on our way to our next lesson, he came up to us and started speaking spanish, he went to Moroco on his mission. We talked for 5 min and then he gave us some freshly baked homemade bread. It is getting cold! End of friday.

       Saturday, what a weird crazy day, but I think we came out on top in the end. I had new missionary training until 12 and then we grabbed lunch at Aballos burgers with another companionship. We got out working around 2pm and with in 10min of walking "The White Lexus" pulled up next to us. An elderly couple rolled down their window and began to talk to us. Then the man pulled out his wallet and handed EH $50, we were super excited because we just got $50, but he pulled out another and gave it to me, so we each got $50. This lexus is famous because when ever they see missionaries they give them each $50. We continued on our way and it was extremely windy and cold, but we were in a good mood. We checked up on a few potential investigators and then we stopped by the church so EH could use the bathroom. An english ward was having a party so they invited us in for a few minutes and fed us like no other. I am going to have to learn to like eating this much. Once we left we were walking to our appt at A and R's when we got a call. It was a lady who had been inactive for 13 years and she wanted to come back to church but she didnt remember most of the stuff. She has 3 kids, 12yrs, 8yrs, and 9months. She lives in a shelter down the road and so we arranged for them to come to church and to teach them after church was over. This got EH and I super hyped. Our appt at A and R's was great, we taught about prayer and righteous things to ask for, we opened up the floor to the kids to answer things we can ask for and we got the funniest responses. At 7 we went to Sister J and met with her family, she is less active and has a 20yr old son and 17 yrs old daughter who both are not members. We chatted with her for awhile about life and I shared a message on hope. She hasn't come to church in 4 years she says she doesn't have a desire to even though she knows its true. When we left it was snowing really hard. We were picked up by a recently returned missionary and drove to our next appt. When we pulled into the appartments where our appt was we saw an old man lying on the ground next to his car. We jumped out of the car and ran over to help. There was a lady there trying to help him but he was to heavy. When she saw us she was like, "Thanks goodness, the missionaries are here!" We helped this man up and he put an arm around each of our shoulders and we helped him into his house. He was scraped up pretty badly. It was then that we realized why he had fallen, he was drunk beyond belief. This reaffirmed to me why drinking is just stupid, nothing good will ever come from drinking, the only options are bad and worse. So anyone who reads this please don't drink, there is no point in wasting money to look like a fool. Anyway, we set this old man down on his couch and the lady said, "I am going to leave you with the missionaries they can help you, so listen to them" The man exclaimed, "I am so sorry, I believe in God, Holy Jesus and the Holy Ghost I am going to repent right now". We explained who we were and how we had a message that could help him out. He told us to teach him. We told him we would come back and teach him when he was in a better condition to listen. He then tried to take off his shoes but he was so drunk he couldn't get the left one off. EH tried to help him out but he got mad and started yelling and made a fist like he was going to hit EH. The man then laid down and after a few minutes I asked if I could bear my testimony on the love of Jesus Christ for all of us. He didnt respond and it looked like he was asleep so we turned off the lights and started to leave when he jolted back up and said, "Who are you?" We explained again and then left.  What a weird night and the snow continued to come down. End of Saturday. 

     Sunday was awesome, we woke up to about 1 1/2 feet of snow. We started to walk to church for our meetings but someone picked us up and drove us most of the way. They werent even members. We had our meetings and then waited for L (lady who was inactive for 13yrs) She got lost and was 15 min late so we missed the passing of the sacrament but we were too excited to care. We came in with her and her kids and sat down. No sooner had I sat down than the Branch President got up and invited me up to bear my testimony in spanish of course, so I did. After Sacrament Meeting we took Brian (12) and Paublo (8) to primary and then L to Gospel Principles. Brother M taught and he is an amazing teacher. It went well she enjoyed it and laughed a lot when Brother M would make jokes and ask questions when she didnt understand. The lesson was on prophets, she asked whats the difference between tv preachers, other preachers and our prophet. So we explained authority. The sisters in Relief Society took her in warmly and sat by her and helped her. After church we found a room to teach them in. Brother and Sister M joined us. They all loved church. We taught the Restoration and the Ms' added beautiful testimony. B liked it a lot and we set a baptismal date for Dec 5th. L met with the Branch President afterwards and I played tic tac toe with P while talking to B about life. End of Sunday.

     Monday, we pretty much went around to members asking who of their neighbors were Mexican or as EH says, "Brown People". Lol. We were walking past R's house when she came outside and said come in now, eat! It was 4pm so we did, it was so good, chicken enchiladas. We then left and walked to a dinner appt with an english family. They were very nice and we had good convo over dinner. Afterwards I shared a message and scripture about being examples of Christ for others. They then asked me to pray since I was the greeny. I did and afterwards the dad said, "Now kids did you feel that? That was the Spirit that this missionary brought into our home, through his message". This made me feel really warm inside at recieving this compliment, but I didnt let it get to my head or I wouldnt have the same opportunity again. We then went to this ladies house who we thought was inactive but was actually not a member. There were 4 people inside who let us in and we talked with them. They made us tortillas with salsa and goat cheese, they were superb but super spicy. I bit into it and lol well it was spicy and she then warned me how hott it was. She was like, "quick get him some water" lol we all laughed and of course I had another one. She is having trouble finding work so we are taking her to the employment center soon and we set up a return appt with her and her friend. End of Monday.

      Tuesday, we went to the library today for language study and EH made me read spanish childrens books to him and translate each page, it was fun but I felt like a little kid... who cares! I read 3 little pigs and 3 Billy goats gruff. We then went to R and A's, they are members but they dont speak english and he cant see well so they have a hard time studying the gospel by themselves. We read Alma ch. 18 with them and talked about Ammon. Right as we were finishing an Elderly Missionary couple showed up to continue teaching them english. It was funny because R was like, "Last week I learned how to say, (then in english said) What is your name? My name is.. English is hard" We left and the sister missionary warned us to be in before the blizzard hit at 5pm. EH and I were like blizzard? What blizzard? Apparently there was supposed to be a blizzard and all the schools had already been canceled for the next day, that never happens in utah. Well we definitely werent going to be home before it hit because we had appts and people to teach. We went to the C and talked with them because the husband had not been well and had recently got a blessing. They fed us Lasagna. We left around 5:45 for our dinner appt. When we walked outside we got pounded in the face by blowing pounding snow and we were down the hallway of an appartment building completely protected, thats how hard the wind was blowing.  We walked a little ways in the blinding snow and then Brother B (our dinner appt) called and came to pick us up. We ate dinner with them and I shared a message. Then he drove us to the church to teach L and her kids. We could hardly see 10 ft in front of us as we drove along, but Brother B kept saying this aint no storm. We watched the Restoration video with them and then asked them what they thought and how they felt. L said " When I read it and pray about it I feel good, but when I watch what happened I feel better, but both ways are the same good feeling". We asked them about their reading and B if he had prayed about his baptismal date and they both said yes. B said he prayed and he didnt know why but it just felt right to him. Just like Elder Bednar said, "Its all about how they feel, the Spirit." We trugged out into the snow happy and smiling! We are taking B to the DI tomorrow to get a white shirt and tie and slacks because he want to sing with the primary on sunday so we told him we would make him look sharp and it would be our treat to him. Its supposed to be below freezing the next few days with lows below zero lol but the work will still move forward.

     The work is picking up and picking up fast. We have a lot of investigators and appts coming up with new people. The work continues to move forward and I love every second of it. I love the feeling of the Spirit when you walk into someones home and teach them and you can see how the message penetrates them and they have that desire to follow Christ. It is a wonderful blessing to see peoples lives change everyday as they discover the happiness that can be found through Christ and his example. I love you all and pray you remain close to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and experience that same joy when you feel his love and see his hand in your lives.

 

Love,

Elder Jolly

November 18th 2010

Hola, my mission president gave us 6 hours of P day today because we spent most of our p day yesterday in the mission office so I get to write you about my first night. Well After the library we went and visited a new convert family and just talked with them for a bit. We then hit up Walmart for our weekly grocery shopping and all that fun stuff. People kept saying hi even though I didnt know them, they just saw our name tags and would say hi. After that we went back to the house and ate dinner, I had a whole pizza, not a good idea and you will find out why in a minute. After that we went to our 8 oclock appointment but the lady was not home, so we went out visiting members with the ward mission leader. We helped one lady unload her car and she gave us mexican bread and we talked with her for a little bit about how her life is going. Whenever my companion intruduces me to someone the first question they always ask is "Does he speak spanish". Elder Hernandez always responds with a "yes" before I can tell them that I do not really speak much spanish. We are going back over to the lady whose car we helped unload tonight to share a message with her and do some service. After that we went over to one of our investigators house. They have 4 kids between ages of 8 and 14 and they are all baptized but the parents are not baptized because the father is still working on divorce papers with his previous wife. After those finish they both are going to be baptized. Now I will explain why the pizza was a bad idea. When we got to their house we sat down and started talking, well I was mainly listening trying to understand. The convo went back and forth and back and forth and I only understood a lil and then all of a sudden they were all looking at me. I had no idea what they had asked. Apparently the mom was asking how I do with spicy food. The next thing i knew I had a huge plate of food in front of me and I was still full from the pizza, but I ate it anyway because if there is one thing you dont do that is reject their food when they offer you some. They made me put hot salsa on it and they giggled when I figured out it was hott!!! After that I shared a message with them on Ether 12:27 about weaknesses and I explained (in spanish) how my weakness right now is spanish and hot spicy food but as we humble ourselves and  put our full trust in the Lord he will strengthen us and we can accomplish any righteous thing, even speaking spanish and eating spicy food. They laughed. Elder Hernandez then bore his testimony and we left. When we got back to the house we planned for the next day and got ready for bed. When I got into bed Elder Hernandez handed me a giant baseball bat and said "here take this in case there are theives" apprently it is a sketchy part of town. LOL but its all good and I slept alright and on a very full stomach. This morning I had District Meeting and we did all our studying. Elder Hernandez helped me with my language study. We are in the Riverton 9th ward in West Jordan, but the Lindemans live pretty close to here. Jordan Landing shopping mall is where we do our grocery shopping. Our mission, although one of the smaller ones in the world area wise, has an enormous amount of missionaries and stakes. We have 200 missionaries and 109 stakes. English missionaries cover a few stakes while us spanish elders cover just wards. Ours is just a branch right now but we are going to get it up to ward status before my mission is over. I went through the area book this morning and there are a lot of investigators that look very promising. Our white board has about 20 names of investigators and referals right now, so it is hopefully going to get busy soon. Anyway, I am loving it out here and I love the food, Elder Hernandez made me some good mexican food for lunch with jalepenos. Stay strong and love you all.

Elder Jolly

Nov 17th

Hey mom just got assigned and am out in the field. First stop West Jordan, my companion is Elder ___________, we live in a members house but the member doesnt live there so we have the whole place to ourselves. Its cool but kind of weird because the house feels so empty. We have a mission car and I am the driver, 2006 carrolla. I was hoping for one of the new 2011 Malibu's that just arrived in the mission today but hey a car is great. I have my first appointment tonight at 8. Nervous? Yes!!!! My spanish is not exactly amazing. I sent a package home yesterday with all the extra stuff and some pictures. I included a letter to the priest quorum so if you could give that to the Bishop that would be great. Uhhh I really dont know what I want for christmas so I will leave that up to you for now, but if i think of anything i will let you know. All letters get sent to the mission office and then are picked up once a week on p day. P day is wednesday for me. It was hard to leave the MTC, it seemed like the last week there was amazing and I am going to miss all the Elders in my district who are going to Fresno. Apparently half the area I am in are members and half are inactive so I have some work cut out for me. Yea nate is so funny, I am going to miss him. Makenna totally never responded to my letter and neither did Megan the little boogers. Of course the one I sent to Megan didnt have much meat to it. Apparently Elder Burnett said he has a friend serving in Kirkland right now. I forgot his name but he is from NM.  Anyways I got to go, it is shopping time! I love you all and am excited to be here.

Love,

Elder Jolly

November 10th

Awww poor kyle, man that kid has to go through a lot! I will keep him in my prayers always. Let me know if anything changes with his condition.

Another week come and gone... and I now have my travel itinerary, I leave next wednesday at 6am to head on out into the field. I am getting excited but nervous as well. The first few days will take some getting used to and so I pray my trainer is patient with me and speaks spanish well because I know I sure dont speak it well enough to do everything I need to do. The snow has begun to fall again and the mountains are beginning to lose their green as they get covered up in snow. Oh an guess what??? Surprise surprise last night another Apostle came and spoke at our devotional. Elder David A. Bednard and his wife came and spoke, it was probably the best devotional I have heard since I got here. Sister Bednar talked about how all creations denote their is a Christ and how God has always spoken through prophets and always will. It was an excellent talk but she kept it short in order to give her husband more time to talk. Elder Bednar is such a fluent and powerfull speaker. When he got up he stated that he served his mission right after Parley P. Pratt returned from England. His wife then stood up and said "Dear now they are going to think you are as old as Parley" to which he responded, "Honey I am as old a Parley P. Pratt. He then went on to say I am not the teacher here tonight it is the Spirit, I am not here to give a talk or to teach you but to help you learn. "It is more important for your investigators to learn than it is for you to teach". He revolved his whole talk around 3 principles of teaching and helping our investigators learn, they are; Doctrine, Principle and Application. He stated Doctrine is a revealed truth here on the earth that helps us with our eternal progression. Doctrine always answers the question why, and the questions of the soul are usually why questions. The answer is always Doctrine (repeated at least 5 times). What is a principle? A principle a guideline that comes out of doctrine, and is there to help us excercise righteous moral agency. We need to teach the correct principles and then let people govern themselves with their moral agency. A principle answers the question what. Application, application answers the question how. He spoke of  Repentance and how the application is to return to Christ. He gave an example of a doctrine principle and application. Doctrine: Gospel of Jesus Christ, Principle: Obedience, Application: Tithing. He stated that many times within the church we try and fix problems by using applications when that is not what fixes a problem long term. He used Home Teaching as an example, not many people can give the doctrinal significance for Home Teaching which is why HT doesn't work. "There is no lasting spiritual impact from the manipulation of application'. The answer is always doctrine. "True doctrine understood changes attitude and behavior. True understanding is linked to the heart and is revealed as a result of revelation. Understanding is when clarity of mind meets the heart. If someone we teach has an addiction we need to not think, how can we get them to quit, how can we convince them to stop. But we need to think "What doctrine if understood better would bring about change". Deliverance from addictions is focused on covenants. The power of Godliness is the fullness of the blessings avaliable through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. In Mosiah we learn that when we pray for help in times of trial, the Lord doesn't just lift our burden from us. The weight of the burden doesnt change, the people change, they become stronger. No investigator will overcome addiction if they do not understand the redeeming power of the Atonement and the Strengthening power of the Atonement.

When people ask us application questions we cannot give them application answers. We must answer application questions with a principle. When we answer with application we seem defensive. He used polygamy as an example. With polygamy the issue is not plural marriage, the issue is that of revelation. It doesnt help our investigators if we just give them an answer for there is no spiritual growth involved. We need to guide them to the answer and help them to gain a testimony of it. He talked of our future children and said when you are teaching them about chastity and how to help them to be chaste in a world were almost nobody is you must think, what doctrine if learned and taken to heart would help them to be chaste. He ended by saying," I am not strong enough, I am not spiritual enough, I am not good enough to be an Apostle of the Lord. I just dont have what it takes, but with the help of the Lord all things are possible". He then gave us an Apostalic blessing that as we study the doctrine and its principles it will be instilled in our hearts as the dews from Heaven and our Heavenly Father will bless us, our families and future generations to come.

I know the church is true and I am involved in the work of the Lord. Christ is the author of our Salvation and the publisher of our Peace. I love you all and pray for you daily.

Elder Jolly

WOWOW What a treat two weeks in a row. Last night at devotional we had the opportunity to hear from Elder Richard G. Scott. He gave an amazing inspirational talk about the Spirit. He said he took his whole lifetime of spiritual experiences and condensed it into his talk. He then gave every missionary a handout of the bullet points involving the spirit that he covered in his talk. It was amazing. I was already filled with the spirit when he said something that struck me with awwww. He said near the end of his talk... for those of you who are learning a new language I use the power I have as an Apostle of the Lord to invoke upon you and bless you with the gift of tounges. I had never heard an apostle do this before and the room went silent as the spirit just hit us all as he said this. We asked our Branch Pres. afterwards how often he has heard this and he said he has never heard it. It was an amazing experience. I saw Mason after the devotional and he walked up and was all excited about how amazing the devotional was. Mason, Phill and I are going to try and get some pictures together later this week and we are going to try and find nate too, who reports today.

One of my favorite quotes from this week was by President James E Faust, he said, "Where is the wisdom lost in knowledge, where is the knowledge lost in information". I have started reading Our Search for Happiness by M. Russell Ballard and the book is amazing, I find myself having a hard time putting the book down. When talked about how we need to follow the savior and then followed with a profound statement that i read over and over, he said, "An interesting thing happens whenever you atempt to place your feet in Christ's footsteps. If you really concentrate on trying to walk the way He walked - loving, caring, serving and obeying each step of the way - one day you'll look up and discover that His path has led you directly to the throne of God. For that is and ever has been His great purpose and mission: to lead us to our Heavenly Father so we can dwell with Him in His heavenly home". What really struck me is how we really have to concentrate on the Savior's footsteps, so much so that we don't realize where we are until we have reached the throne of God. We must lose ourselves in the work of the Lord.

It has begun to snow here, it dumped last night for a few hours but didnt stick to the pavement which is nice. It led to a gorgeous walk up to the snow covered temple to help in the work of the Lord and be filled with His Spirit. .............. It is the third missionary in 3 weeks from our zone to go home. They are all great people and this is a tough and strenuous work. It is exciting to know though that in 3 weeks i will be out in the field. The District right infront of us has to stay and extra 2 weeks because of Visa issue. Visa's have been a problem for a lot of Elders here. We had the interesting experience earlier this week to meet with some missionaries who had been out in the field. They were going to Mexico, but by the time their 9 weeks were up at the MTC they had not yet recieved their visas so they were all temporarily reassigned to other missions. Some went to LA some to Oakland and Denver. As it turned out their visas took 2 more months. So they finally got their visas last week and so they were all flown back to the MTC for a week to prepare because some had been in english speaking missions for the past 2 months. One night they came into our class and talked about the experience and showed us a demo lesson. It was amazing!!! and they had only been out 2 months and they were speaking Spanish almost fluently. It is amazing the things you can accomplish when you learn by the Spirit. 

Anyway another week has come and gone. Let Brenda know i replied to her letters and am mailing out my letter to her today. It is hard to keep up on letters sometimes. The time flies by as I engage myself more fully in the work I have been called of God to do. I would just like to end with a short quote from Elder Richard G. Scott's testimony, "I know Jesus lives, because I KNOW HIM" Let us all strive to have the same relationship with our Heavenly Father and His son, for it is through them that we can obtain exaltation and enternal life in the kingdom of our God.

Love,

Elder Jolly

October 20 letter

I have decided to edit out names for the sake of privacy.   

 

 

Well everyone , it has been another great week at the MTC! Time is just flying by now, the weeks feel like a few days and we just take short naps in between. Elder ---- and I now have a new companion in our companioship.. Elder --- from Sterling Utah, his companion was sent home and so we asked to take him into our companionship. He is an amazing elder. He has a work ethic like no other, I would say it would compare to that of Mason's. He never stops working.We had a devotional yesterday and guess who spoke!!!!!! Elder Russell M. Nelson, yea an apostle came and spoke!! He and his wife spoke about missionary work. He talked about how we have the sacred responsibility as missionaries to take care of our converts, even after our missions. He said when we are out teaching we need to smile and be happy that way people realize the joy the Gospel brings. We must put Jesus first and humble ourselves because having character is better than being one. He talked about inspiration and how as missionaries we are entitled to recieve inspiration on behalf of our investigators but we must be looking for the clues so we dont miss it when it comes along. Over all the talk was amazing! This week I had this question on my mind that had really been bringing me down and i had not been my usual joyful self. One day in class our teacher said each companionship needs to pray about someone in our zone to teach and pray about what they should teach them,. Our new district leader elder ----- came up to me and said he and his companion Elder ---- would like to teach me. They went into a quite room and prayed for like 15 mins as to what they should teach me. When i sat down with them, they opened up to a scripture and read it to me. The scripture was exactly what i needed and I was immediatley overwhemled by the Spirit, I began to cry and they read the scripture and bore their testimony to me. There was no way they could have known what i had needed because i had not told anyone what was bothering me. It was only through the spirit that they could have recieved such divine inspiration pertaining to what i needed to hear. I know that as missionaries we are entitled to that same inspiration as long as we diligently seek it and put our faith in the Lord. It is when we have done all that we can that the Lord steps in and helps us when we can go no farther. It is in those moments when we have given it our all that our Savior Jesus Christ carries us. I love this Gospel, I love the joy and peace it brings to me in my life. I want to share that with everyone i come in contact with, for I am a representative of Jesus Christ and this is his work. I love you all and I love the letters i recieve. Stay true and stay strong.

Love,

Elder Jolly

oct 15 letter

Well it was another week in the good old MTC. This week just flew by, time seems to be going by faster and faster now. For the devotional yesterday we had Bishop Edgley come. He was amazing!!! He talked about how we are empowered as missionaries and how the missionaries going out now are more prepared then ever. He related a story about how he was having a conversation with President Hinckley regaurding missionary work on Manhattan Island. Bishop Edgley said he served his whole mission there and couldnt baptize one soul, but now the church cant build churches fast enough there to keep up with the growth. President Hinckley just smiled and responded " Well we have a better missionary today". Bishop Edgley talked about how the Gospel is simple and logical and as missionaries we need to keep it that way when teaching. He said one baptism can affect 3,000 people in as little as 5 generations and in 8 generations the number is 30,000. Work is the engine that keeps everything going. If you put in 30hrs or work you will get 30hrs of sucess out of it, so our sucess depends on how hard we are willing to work. My favortie quote from him was regaurding missionary work is, "Faith is the power, obedience is the price, love is the motive, and Christ is the reason" -James E. Faust.

I have noticed my study skills have been improving as I have more fully concecrated myself to the Lords work, the language comes easier, personal revelation comes stronger. I feel my self growing closer to the Spirit. I feel my relationship with my Heavenly Father strengthening. The first counsoler (sp) in our branch presidency gave a talk on sunday about hope and he describes hope as the "abiding waiting desrie for something better.  Love it here, and the joy and peach missionary workd brings.

Love, Elder Jolly

October 6,2010

Conference was amazing. I am no longer on crutches, my ankle is still pretty sore though and I always find a way to tweak it. Elder Burnett said the MTC is like one giant vaccine shot. I broke out it this weird rash the other day in a little spot on my back, so i went to the doctor and he told me I had shingles, Yippie!!! luckly it only stayed in a small patch on my back and didnt spread. I am started to agree with the elder that the MTC is a vaccine shot. The language is coming along great. We had a TRC lesson we taught to 2 spanish people who didnt speak a lick of english and it went really well, we didnt need any english the whole lesson as we explained the restoration, starting from Old testament prophets and going through praying about the Book of Mormon. After we finished the lesson me and my companion were jumping up and down we were so excited at how it went. Of course we then said a prayer and thanked our Heavenly Father, because there is no way our Spanish should've been that good. I think we had a little help, if you know what I mean. Yes I wrote the Bishop back and got a response. I loved conference and my favorite talks were President Uchtdorf's about slowing down our lives and Elder Gong's about temple mirrors of eternity. I went to the temple again today and did a list of initiatories, some of the names were crazy hard to pronouce.  Everything is going great here and I just keep pushing along. Some mornings its hard to get out of bed because I am soooo tired, but I always get up. Got to move the work forward :) I dont remember a time where i have been so tired for such a long amount of time.   I have gotten letters from so many people, including Jones. I am going to take some time today to respond to as many as i can. Everyone in the district including my teachers continue to call me hilarious and very funny. I like to keep a smile on peoples face, as sitting in class for 6 hours at a time can get extremely tiring. Anyways I am super busy and need to head off to do laundry but I love you all. Tell the lil ones I love them too!

Sincerely,

Elder Jolly or in spanish as everyone say (ho-jee)

September 29, 2010

Yea I am getting crazy excited about conference, I am going to join the MTC choir but I didnt report to the MTC in time to make it for the priesthood session. The sisters didnt get to watch womens conference yet, they get to watch it while we watch priesthood. We had Brother Clayton come speak at a devotional, he is in the Presidency of the Seventy. He gave a great talk about Daniel in the Bible and how he inturpreted the kings dream about the stone bein cut out of the mountain and how that scripture is talking about us (the church) in the latter days and how us as missionaries are the ones who are helping to flood the whole earth with the gospel. In our sunday mission conference President Smith talked about caffine and said, "We do somethings because they are commandments, we do others because we have a brain". He said," If you dont get a headache when you quit drinking caffine then you werent addicted so it shouldnt be hard to stop and if you do get a headache then you deserve it". Spanish is flying along, all our lessons are now taught in spanish which is weird to think about because i have only been here 2 weeks. I wonder how good my spanish will be in in 7 more weeks when i leave here. The MTC is spiritually and physically draining, if you dont sleep well one night it screws you up for the rest of the week, but I love it. Yes i got your package, it was lovely except the oil vial was open so it spilled, but only got on the highliters and cover of the hymns cds. It is hard to watch as Elders we have grown close with since we got here are leaving and headed out into the field. We had to say goodbye to 2 districts on sunday so our branch has shrunk from 70 elders to around 40. But we are supposed to get some new elders next week i believe.  Elder Pitcher is from Dallas, well Mickenny technically but close enough. My ankle is doing better, it just makes it hard to sleep sometimes, when i roll over and tweak it. I love to keep class lively and have a hard time refraining my self from saying a few good jokes every once in awhile but my teachers always laugh and love it. Hermana Purziani one of my teachers used to be crazy Catholic and almost became a nun before the missionaries ran into her and she converted. She is awesome and very inspiring. I went to the temple again today and it was as amazing as ever. It is so gorgeous! the flowers are gorgeous and the fountains and well the inside is stunning!!!! Wouldn't change anything for the world. Anyways it is time for me to go eat some food, eating has become like a new favorite thing of mine (like it ever wasnt my fav thing). I love you all! The church is true, always has been, always will be... no unhollowed hand can stop this work... and if they try they will have to deal with me or maybe i will just sick Makenna on them (jk jk). Do whats right and always love the Lord and his work, it is the key to eternal happiness in this life and the life to come.

 

Love,

Elder Jolly :)

Taylor's first email home: September 22

Hey mom,

 The MTC is great, it is more studying than i am used to though. On the average day we spend about 6 to 7 hours in class and another 3 or 4 hours doing personal and companioship study. Every night i walk back into my dorm and just fall into bed. The weird thing is I love studying so much and the hours in class fly by. I have 2 teachers, Elder Johnson and Hermano Perziani, I would have to say Perziani is definitely my favorite just because of her teaching style. My companion is great... to describe him in one word i would have to say he is a... Jason Carter. We work together really well and haven't had any problems yet. I often also study with Elder Burnette who is in my district. He was a tutor at Kumon for the past few years before his mission so he helps a lot. The first day in class when i walked in my teacher wouldnt speak any english and so i looked at her dumbfounded the whole time. But since then I have learned to pray, bear my testimony, do contacting and I can have friendly conversations in Spanish. After next week it is 100% spanish in the classroom so we will see how that goes. The food here is pretty good although the lines are usually really long. I think i might be losing weight, which i didnt think was possible. I was going to try out for the chior just so i could sing at General Conference but tryouts were the day before i reported, but my companion tells me i actually have a decent singing voice when i try. One of my roommates is from Mesa and he drives me nuts sometimes... You guys said i have a big head, well you should meet him. I try to stay quiet and not bring it up to him but if he keeps is going then i may just strangle him... I mean i guess its ok to hit your roommates or companion sometimes (right dad?). I found out I leave the MTC nov. 17. Some Columbian Elders in our District got delayed because of Visa problems so they have been helping us out and feeding lots of goodies. They left this morning and left me with all their flashcards and extra books. I am going through the Book of Mormon verse by verse in spanish and translating it then looking over in the english one to check my work, it is long and tedious but it helps a lot. I went to the Provo Temple today with my companion and next week we are going to do some Sealings.

Yesterday in my spare time (what little we have, because like every second is planned out already) I listened to Elder Holland's talk from October's conference entitled Safety for the Soul. As i listened to him bear testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon, I couldnt help but get the chills as the Spirit bore testimony to me of the truthfulness of his words. I decided it is my favorite talk of all time!!!  If you haven't listened to it recently then I invite you to listen to it with the family next monday for FHE. My Branch President is crazy strict, I like it but sometimes he comes off as cold hearted. He always makes sure to teach us about the importance of obedience and how important it is as a missionary. I still havent decided if I like him, but i might as well since he will be my branch president for 7 more weeks.

I am glad things are going well at home, tell Hannah and Eli I love them. Hannah is turning out to be quitet the soccer star, maybe i will have to challenge her to a little one on one when i get back. I hope they are loving school, because they are going to have to deal with it for several years to come. Keep letting me know how their soccer games are going and whats new going on in their lives. I only get to check emails on wednesdays so letters are nice too :) Yea how is Megan's temple calling going? Is she thinking about getting certified to do it in French? Well time is running short and so if i dont get  a proper ending in that is the reason because i have to hit send before the timer gets to 5 seconds.

More on Elder Holland's talk. Me and my companion Elder Pitcher were both listening to the talk at the same time and when we both finished we just looked over at each other with tears in our eyes and smiled, it was all we could talk about for the next hour. The Book of Mormon is true and it was translated by Joseph Smith through the Power of God. No man could write such an inspired book. I loved when Elder Holland raised his voice and said he wanted his testimony of the Book of Mormon to be recorded by man on earth and angels in Heaven and so when he stands at the judgement bar of God he can testify that he knows its true. I know its true too and I hope and pray that one day I can also stand with the same steadfastness when I see my Savior and Redeemer and also Eternal Father in Heaven. Either Joseph went into the grove or he didnt (thanks brother Adams) and the amazing thing is that Jospeh did go in to the sacred grove and saw Heveanly Father and Jesus Christ and restored the Gospel. I love you all and look forward to writing next week.

 

Love,

Elder Jolly

And he's off!

Wednesday, September 15, Taylor enters the MTC, accompanied by Dean.  They had a quick goodbye, and Taylor was off to get his name tag and meet his companion.