ELDER HOLLAND AND "I GOT POSTERIZED"

Taylor has been out five weeks today!  His email arrived yesterday afternoon and for the first time, I am a little worried about him!  His email didn't have the usual "happy, cheerful, everything is great, I love this" tone to it!  Not having served a mission, I sometimes feel inadequate in giving him advice, but I hope he listens to the things I have to say as his mom.

Taylor refers in his letter to a talk given by Elder Holland.  I have included both the video of that talk and a link to the written text.

http://classic.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=185b230bac7f0210VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Dearest Family,

Thanks giving week was the same except for the actual thanksgiving day. on thanksgiving, we had a morning fireside and elder holland spoke to us and his talk was very similiar to a talk he gave two years or so ago. it was about how we are not alone or none were with him. im sure if you look it up you can see that talk online :) yeah, its kind of wierd thinking i have been out a month already. i dont know where all the time is going. weeks feel like days and days feel like weeks. that exp. with the question was actually with hermana smith. but last night, my teaching didnt go well at all. it went very horrible and afterwards i felt like i was leading an interrogation. but that is what the mtc is for. i need to find the line of questions and explaining things. i need to work on finding out the needs of the investigators and getting them to open up to me. right now, that is the hardest part for me. o and thanks for telling me how many days i have left, that really helps... jaja

so elder simon is from las vegas, henderson area. yes, he is going to colombia bogota north i believe. he is now my permanent companion and its going well. the branch presidency thought it was better than it was before because the other companionship wasnt working out so well. so elder simon and i are going to kick butt! the other day i got released from being district leader. it was a sad day but i enjoyed serving my district and all. i fel we have beome real close and its awesome. i honestly love them all and they are amazing. from being in branch council meetings, i realized things could be a lot worse and my companion be a real pain in the butt and not want to work at all. we didnt have trc this week because all the volunteers were not going to be here and its was a holiday. so we just taught to other districts on friday. it was good practice.

supposedly, there was supposed to be the storm of the century here in provo last week but we got maybe 2 or 3 inches of snow. i heard that salt lake got blasted though. yesterday and sunday it started snowing and i am freezing cold. i am wearing two or three layers at all times. walking to the temple today, i barely felt my face when i got there. i did initiatories with elder simon today. next week we plan on doing sealings, so it will be awesome! i got a hair cut today which was much needed. o, yesterday, i got posterized. during gym, this elder dunked over me and it was embarrasing but the same time awesome. i wish i had a picture of it. well, i have to get my laundry and go study for my progressive investigator tomorrow. i look forward to hearing from you and love you all! i really do love being here and having the spirit with me at all times. being 100% obedient is more hard than i thought but its amazing how much the extra effort helps. i want you to know that i know that this is the Lord's work. He could do it on his own, but He allows us to help Him. i know that i couldnt do this work alone either and i need all the help i can get. I love you all and wish you the best!

Con Amor,

Elder Jones

i almost forgot. this week i finished the book of mormon and now i am starting to read it in spanish. i cant belive how fast i got through it. spanish is going to be a bit easier though. that was the only other thing i forgot. ciao!