General Conference-God Answers Our Prayers

The letter from Ben on April 6, 2015

Hola Familia,

I hope everything is going well back home. General conference was amazing, right?

This week was amazing and ended even better when we had General Conference. We got the daughter of Clara (our recent convert), Paola, to go to General Conference. We had left after the first session to go look for people to invite to General Conference. We had passed by 3 other less actives and 1 other investigator to try to get them to go to General Conference. Those all fell through. My companion and I both felt like we needed to go to Clara´s house to go invite her daughter Paola, who earlier had denied to go. (Clara was already at the church watching the re-transmission of the General Women's Session). 

We weren´t anywhere near her house, in fact we were rather far from her. But we went already having had every other person fall through. We got there and told her at the door that we had felt that she needed to go the church with us and that we would pass by in 20 min to pick her up. She was shocked, and didn't respond anything. We were sure that that her silence meant NO. We weren´t even exactly sure why we were there we just felt like we need to go.

When we had told her that I am sure that she could hear the sincerity in our voice and hear the spirit testifying to her that she needed to go. So, after a few seconds of silence told us to give her those 20 min and she would get ready to go. We came back and she was waiting to go to church. I know that you don´t know her, but keep in mind that simply looking at her, she looks like a rebellious punk and has never been interested in going to a church. I had noticed that something had changed in her since the last time we had seen her.

Anyways, I'm going to omit the details and just say she went to the session. The young women of the ward took control and took her to a bench where they all sat next to each other. She really enjoyed her time and said that the talks answered some of the questions she had.

Now, when I was talking with Clara after the conference she told me: "The Lord listens to our prayers" she said crying. "Last night my daughter and I had a big fight. She was going to go out to the street and leave again." (she has had a history of leaving and leaving for weeks at a time staying in the street or with other kids in the street doing who knows what). "The fight escalated and she decided to leave. I immediately knelt down and prayed for her to return, for her safety. I then would read a few verses of the book of Mormon, then return to praying. You don´t know the fear I have when I know she is out in the street and I can´t go out and look for her."  

You must remember that Clara is confined to a wheel chair. She continued, "I had been on my knees praying like I never had before. When after about 25 min Paola walked in and knelt down with me and prayed with me. I know that God hears our prayers. If it weren't for what I've learned in these weeks I probably wouldn't have thought to pray. I probably would have called one of my sons to go look for her, which would have given the same results it always had of more rebellion and her running off for weeks at a time."

I am convinced that this is the change that she has had. It wasn't me or my companions words, nor the telephone calls we had made to invite her. It was God answering the prayers of this faithful mother. It made me think if I am really relying on the power of prayer like I should.

Love you all lots, take care!

Élder Benjamin Taylor

Stressed Out-Keep Calm

This is Ben's letter from March 30, 2015

Hola familia,

I'm doing a lot better. Still having a little of a hard time breathing, but I'm getting better every day. I unfortunately wasn't able to rest like I should have at the beginning of the week. I've been out of function for a week straight. I'm super sick of being stuck in the house.  I'm taking the medicine  they have given me, but the asthma is way out of whack. 

I had my first serious asthma/stress attack where I had to go to the hospital. I was in a meeting with the Stake President and the High Council and I started to loose my breath then my hands and feet started to go numb. I had one of the members drive me to the hospital when I couldn't get it under control. By the time we got to the hospital, I had completely lost all feeling in my hands and from my knees down and the cramped up all weird as if I had palsy. They hooked me up to oxygen for about an hour and it got a lot better. I was still a little numb when I left the hospital but they changed my inhaler and I haven´t had a problem since.

They told me that it wouldn't have been so bad if I wouldn't have gotten so stressed out. It had been a mildly stressful week since my companion had gotten called to be the new assistant and I was alone to take care of everything before the changes (and deal with a few disobedient missionaries and other various problems). So now I just need to control my stress a little better and keep taking my inhaler frequently and it should all regulate out.

I only got to leave this week to go to church and for district meetings. It was so nice to see the recent converts and less actives we've been working with and I can't wait to get back out to go visit.

The zone is quite new. There are quite a few missionaries that have very little time in the mission and who have recently arrived to the zone. I'm extremely excited to see what we can do as a Zone. We are going to work even more with the members than we have in these last two changes. And we are going to try to be even more consecrated than ever before. It's awesome, lots of the less obedient/ less motivated missionaries are no longer in the zone and we have receive alot of newer missionaries who are completely willing to work as hard as it takes. So we are extremely blessed as far as the zone goes.

The house has 3 new missionaries. Elder Hobbs, Elder Massey and Elder Álverez. Elder Hobbs (Idaho) was my zone leader when I was in La Paloma, Elder Massey (California) was a Zone leader in a zone called Durazno last change and is now training Elder Álverez who recently arrived a few days ago from Bolivia. I don't have any pictures of them this week, but next week I'll be sure to send some.

To answer your questions:
How is your new companion?He is doing well, super excited to work here in Belloni. He is finishing his mission this change so that's crazy. They put me with a Valiente. We're going to the temple in a few weeks with some his converts.

How are things going?Well. With lots of mucus and shortness of breath, but well.

 We love hearing all about you and what is happening. Did you get some new shoes? I got new shoes and I hope on using them more this week.

Anything you need? Prayers and for everyone to give each other a big ol´ hug from me.

Anything you need us to do? Keep being awesome. Pray for opportunities to share the gospel and act upon the opportunities that the Lord will give you. And if it doesn´t seem like He's giving you opportunities, that means he's waiting on you to make your own.

Love you all so much,

Élder Benjamin Taylor

Don't Freak Out-never the way a letter should start!

This is the letter from Ben on March 24, 2015
Hola Familia,

Lots of changes over in the Plainfield Ward. Congrats to Ashley Gootee for her mission call. Everything here is doing great. We're enjoying wonderful chilly weather here.

Now, don´t freak out, but I got a little sick about a week and a half ago and it spread to my lungs (sort of like what happened about 6 months ago). I went to the doctor yesterday and they did some breathing tests and an ultra sound thing and they told me that I have Pneumonia and Asthma (which makes me more susceptible in the future according to them). Thankfully they caught the pneumonia pretty early on, so they gave me a treatment with some medicated oxygen mask and some medicine. It should be better in a few days. I feel way better today, but regardless I'm only leaving the house to write you guys and to cut my hair. They got me an inhaler for the future.

I'm way better so don't worry please. The medicine is working really well.

So the changes are...

I am staying and my old companion Elder Gutiérrez is the new Assistant to the President. My new companion is Elder Hobbs. He was my zone leader back in Rocha. He is coming here and he will be finishing his mission here in Maroñas because this is his last transfer cycle. There are quite a few missionaries going this change. We will have 3 new district leaders and 1 new district leader in the zone. I am the only one who is familiar with the plans and issues of the zone so we're going to have to do a lot of training with new leaders. I'm really excited about this new transfer cycle, It's going to be great!

I love you all lots. That's a sweet bike dad. Congrats, You completely deserve it. Drive safe please! (John got a new Harley-Davidson motorcycle)

Sorry I didn't write more but I just want to go back home to lay down. Love you lots!!!

Élder Benjamin Taylor

Temple Days-Lots of Family History Accomplished

This is Ben's letter from March 16, 2015

Hola Familia,

Good to hear that everyone is doing so well. Everything is doing well here in Maroñas. This week we got to go to the temple as a Zone. We had interviews with President Cook and some workshops by the assistants. It was an awesome experience. Obviously going to the temple is something we get to do every day, so it was even more special. 

I got to do baptisms and confirmations for 5 family members and two sisters were able to do from baptism to endowment for two family names. Everyone else in the zone was either able to bring their own family names or was able to do family names for other missionaries. There was a wonderful spirit that day. It was amazing to "re-live" every covenant we've made from baptism to endowment.

This month for the ward mission activity, we went to the temple with the recent converts and the members that we've activated. We were able to go with 4 recent converts and with 3 less active families we've been working with. We were in the temple for about 2 hours and were able to do lots of family names (from the family history we'd been doing with them. =) 

I was the recorder in the confirmation room. We got a lot of names in the temple and over 20 were names from Indiana, and like 40 from the Netherlands (the two places where we have quite a few ancestors), so that was really cool. It was a great activity and even cooler because we got permission to enter in the temple with them. (The established standard in the mission is that you can only go to the temple when we have conferences where the zone is planned to go, or when you are accompanying a convert to get their endowment or to be sealed).

I got to go to Libia (my first area) on an interchange and got to 

visit my two converts there. One is going through a hard time and the other is doing fine. It was super awesome to see them. I hope they can both continue strong. They both have testimonies and know that the church is true, but some of the trials they've gone through have been pretty difficult.

The week has been amazing. We're having a lot of blessing by way of finding less-active members that are wanting to progress and return to the church. It's also been a wonderful opportunity to find new people to teach. I'm really enjoying my time here with Elder Gutiérrez. We're working really well together. Changes are coming up next week. I will probably be writing on Tuesday.

Love you all lots!

Élder Benjamin Taylor

Leadership Council & Clara's Baptism

March 9, 2015 Letter

Hola Familia,

Congrats JT! I'm sure your excited for your call (JT got accepted into BYU) and congrats to Elana and the Hammond Family (on her baptism); what a wonderful step!

Well this last week, school has started down here. Summer break is officially over for the Uruguayans.

This week was wonderful! We had Leadership Council this Tuesday and were able to change some of the regulations that we use as a mission that should help us to work and teach much better. We now are going to require as a minimum 3 church attendances to the 3 hours before baptism. We are also going to make a strong emphasis on Doctrine and Covenants 20:37 to make sure that the person is meeting with EVERY requirement set forth in the scripture. 

We also gave some training on the teaching, and commitment that we leave those we teach. We have also put plans to work more with the less actives, and recent converts (the recent converts must also come to all three hours if we want to include them in the retention indicator).

We are trying to increase the amount of CONVERTED MEMBERS, not just membership ID numbers.

We had the baptism of Clara Rosano this weekend. It was a beautiful service. We had many members who could attend along with two of her children and two of her grandchildren. She is so special. She is a woman with so much faith. She was diagnosed with bone cancer about 7 years ago received a wheel chair from the church a few years later (one of her therapist is a member and was able to nominate her for one). 

She has had a very hard life, but has never stopped believing in God and in Christ. She was outside one day when we went to contact an inactive member from the directory, so we talked to her and she told us that she had received the wheel chair and that the missionaries had passed by a few times but never again passed by. She lives in a very large terrain about 60 yards from the road behind 3 other houses. 

On normal circumstances we would have never found her because she almost never leaves her house and we would have never made it back to her house. We started teaching her and she accepted everything, and was so desirous to keep learning more and more. She read everything we would leave her. One of the many miracles that we got to see with her was that she was able to quit smoking.

She was talking to us one day about when she "USED TO SMOKE" and she always talked in such a way. Like she used to but now she doesn't. Sometimes it can be mildly ambiguous in Spanish. So from the clues she was giving us we decided to teach the other lessons before the working on the Word of Wisdom because it wasn't a very urgent thing at the time.

It turns out that the day after she met us she felt an impression that she shouldn't smoke anymore. We hadn't taught her anything about smoking or anything of the sort, but she followed that impression and went from smoking 40 cigarettes a day to zero. And now she says she hasn't even felt the urge for them.

We should have verified with her much before, otherwise it could have been an impediment in her progress, but she has been so in line with the spirit that she knows exactly what she needs to do.

She has a 3rd grade education. In the interior of the country, when she was a girl it wasn't a requirement to go to school. She stayed home and took care of her brothers and sisters after her mother died when she was 10. She can read everything we give her and understands every concept clearly.

For the baptism we had 3 of us in the font. Two to hold her and one to do the ordinance. It was a wonderful experience that I'll never forget.

Well that's that.

I love you all so much!

Cuiedensen

Élder Benjamin Taylor

Conferences & Baptism of Nefi

March 2, 2015 Letter

Hola Familia! ¿Como Están?

Congrats Plainfield High for your first IPA Contest. That's super awesome! Hopefully the first of many.

This week has been great! We had some conferences this week. We met with Élder Viñás (Élder Viñas). It was great and has challenged us to focus our work on the establishment of the church. We have been trying to work in such a manner, but he gave us some wonderful councils and provided an environment in which we could receive more inspiration to be able to accomplish the overall goal of making Uruguay a strong point in Zion and not a stagnant area. 

He pointed out that the "real growth" has been halted because we have not focused on increasing the amount of active worthy priesthood holders.  He taught us from various examples from the Book of Mormon that before the church was ever officially established or reestablished there must always be a strong base of priesthood.

Moroni 6

Verse 1 "And now I speak concerning baptism. Behold, elders, priests, and teachers were baptized; and they were not baptized save they brought forth fruit meet that they were worthy of it." [Focusing on priesthood holders]

Verse 2 & 3 "Neither did they receive any unto baptism save they came forth with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and witnessed unto the church that they truly repented of all their sins. And none were received unto baptism save they took upon them the name of Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end." [Obviously all the women and children were not denied the same opportunity, but it was not the focus of those early establishers of the church, because they knew that if there was not enough priesthood the church could not continue. At that time, the worthy priesthood holders who could exercise their priesthood was 1:50 ratio. Now a days the church is requiring a 1:20 ratio.]

Right now we are still in a stage of growth and development as with almost every other country except for the USA, Peru and Mexico (who are currently sending more missionaries than what they receive). And that ratio is far out of balance which is why in these years the growth has been far smaller and less retainable. So our focus now is to strengthen families, especially the head of the house, through reactivation and rescue efforts.

This has been something we for the last few weeks have been trying to do. We have seen many blessing in the way of people that have returned to church, that are now working with the bishop and us to put their lives back together. One was recently ordained to the office of an elder and is preparing to go to the temple. Another has left behind years of Word of Wisdom problems and is now reading and praying with his family every day. 

The most amazing part of making this change in our focus is that every other aspect of our work has improved. We've found families where not everyone is a member. Using references from these members, we've got a few people that are starting their family tree and already have some names to take to the temple. It's been at least more than a year since our ward has had such a high attendance, or had so many Less active families, or Less active families that have officially "reactivated" in church. 

So until the church is stronger at it's base, it'll never be able to grow well or strongly. Así que, we are responsible for that work, of establishing Zion and giving her a good foundation on which she may build her kingdoms

In other news:

This Saturday we had the Baptism of Nefi (Nephi) Facini Mendoza. 

He is 9 years old and is super funny. He reminds me a lot of Talmage, my cousin. 

He is the grandchild of two families from here in the ward. One pair active, and the other pair (the ones he lives with) have been inactive for a few years, but not any more!. We've been working with the family for these last few months and now they are considered active because they've gone for more than a month straight and had a few interviews with the bishop [We're going to keep working with them very closely for at least the next three months until they are on a good track towards the temple to be sealed]. 

They're great, they've completely changed from the first time we met them. They are now working really hard to read the scriptures and pray daily with their 4 grandchildren that live with them.

It's been really neat to see the changes this family has made.

Well I love you all a lot and I hope everything is going well back home for you.

Élder Benjamin Taylor

New Investigator-Heart Prepared for the Gospel

February 24, 2015 Letter

Hola Familia!

What crazy weather you all have had lately. I really miss the snow, I hope the winter that I get home has a lot of snow. Wow! I can't hardly believe that Emma is already home, and that she's engaged. Congrats!At least for now I don't have plans get engaged in at least the first month of returning, but we'll just see won't we. 

This week we were blessed to have many beautiful experiences. Our unity as a companionship has improved so much and I feel like we are teaching with more power and we are learning how to rely more than ever upon the spirit.

We are teaching a new investigator who we found last week. We have been working a lot with the ward directory looking for less actives/inactive that were at one point Endowed but have expired recommends. We were looking for someone, but they had moved and no longer lived there so we went next door to ask the neighbors if they knew something about her. 

A lady and her mother (the mother´s name is Clara) in a wheel chair were outside of the house next door so we talked to them about the person and in the end ended up sharing with them about what it is we teach. Clara is about 65 and has bone cancer and other spinal problems. About 4 years ago other missionaries made contact with her after she was nominated for a wheel chair from the churches wheel chair fund (LDS Philanthropies). She used to listen to the missionaries but we think both the missionaries were taken out suddenly and they could never find her again because she lives in a very hard to find place very far from the majority of the area.

She has so much faith, she has lost her daughter recently, but despite that she continues trusting so much in God and is getting ready to be baptized the 7th of March.

Since we found her at the end of the week, we couldn't find anyone that could go pick her up. So we left early Sunday morning from the house at 7:15 to go get her. She lives about a 45 min walk from the church, but I didn't think her wheel chair would make it all the way without breaking through the dirt/rocky roads. 

We were able to take her to the closest bus stop and take the bus (which recently in the last 2 months have received hydraulic ramps for people in wheel chairs) to the church. 

Everyone was so kind to her when we got there. Everyone said Hi, gave her a kiss (that's how they say hi here) and tried to get to know her. She was there for all three meetings and almost every leader approached us and asked us what they could do to help her.

She loved the experience, even though it was physically exhausting for her, but she was so excited to come back she told everyone on her way out "see you next week!"

We talked with the President of the Young men and with the elders quorum and they are already organizing for at least one youth and adult to go by to pick her up. They were so excited for the opportunity to serve.

It was such a blessing to first of all meet her because my faith has been strengthened so much; and second of all to serve her and make it possible for her to go to the chapel. And I'm so excited for the Charla we have with her tonight. We're going to bring some members so they can get to know her.

I know that this is a true work, and that the Lord is always preparing the hearts of the people to be able to receive the gospel, we just need to be diligent and look for them.

Well, I love you all and hope everything is going well for you all back home. 

Chao,

Élder Benjamin Taylor