2 years down, 0 to go

Well Family and friends. This will be my last letter that  I will be sending. I made it home yesterday back to Sandy Utah! I have finished my 2 years as a missionary and now starts the new life.

In Nicaragua there was a lot of civil unrest so they have taken a lot of the missionaries that were serving in Nicaragua out of the country. But I only had 2 weeks left in the mission anyways, so they gave me an honorable release. From our mission they sent home 37 missionaries from the civil unrest. So now I am home!

The mission was AWESOME! And I learned alot of things and i could help alot of people!

Stay frosty, and I will see most of you soon!

For the last time...

- Elder Taylor

Elder Zavala carrying Elder Chanax across a mud puddle

Me saying Good Bye to Hermana Ofelia's family

The Airport in Puerto

Missionaries "Releasing" Me

El Plan De Salvacion

This last week was a fun week. We gave been planning for about a month now a missionary activity that is based around the Plan of Salvation. We went in a bus to get all the people to go. We went all out and decorated the church with the 3 Kingdoms of Glory and we did a scenario where everyone died on an airplane and they had to see the 3 places that they could go to if they live in different ways. It was a good activity. Everyone had a good time.

On Tuesday President Poncio came to Puerto Cabezas and we had my last zone conference of the Mission. And to celebrate our success from April he took us all to a fancy restaurant and we ate Shrimp and Lobster. it was really tasty! 

We spoke on the radio on Friday. It was Elder Zavala's First time on the radio. He enjoyed himself. He had never thought to speak on the radio before.

Yesterday we got to talk to our families. It was fun talking to them. Even thought I will see them in 3 weeks in person! Time is going fast and there isn't much time left! 

Today for p-day we went to the Pier that in in Puerto and we pretty much took pics. It was a wired activity but something new.

Till next week!

-Elder Taylor

Me with a Brazilian with our Brazil shirts on (Elder Maciel)

From the pier

The activity that we did in the church

My Shrimp lunch

My chapel

Una semana más una semana menos

This past week was pretty good. We didn't baptize this week, but we got a lot of our recent converts to church. We had like 10 recent converts at church this week. It was fun seeing all of them there.

Elder Zavala and I get along really well. It will be good to have him as my last companion. We should have a lot of success this week. 

Not really anything new from this week. We drank a lot of cashew juice this week. It's pretty tasty. I enjoy it at least. I still eat rice and beans everyday. Play soccer on Mondays. Nothing too new.

President Poncio is flying in to Puerto Cabezas tomorrow for my last zone conference, and next week we are going to Managua to celebrate the success that we had as a mission in April. It should be fun!

See you next month pues,

Elder Taylor

Picking Cashews

Dab with Elder Zavala and the Zone Leaders

Chillin in Hammocks

My Last 5 Weeks!

Well, first off, I have new companion today! His name is Elder Zavala. He is from Honduras, Tegucigalpa! He is pretty cool. He has 3 months in the mission! And he will be my last companion! Crazy to think that the end is near.

My kid brother Isaac got his mission call this week to the Guadalajara East Mission in Mexico. So that's pretty cool as well!

Elder Aybar and I were able to baptize this week again. We baptized on thursday at 5:45pm. We baptized a young man named Alejandro. He is 18 and really cool. The day after his baptism, his girlfriend dumped him because he didnt want to break the law of chastity. And he, went to church on sunday for his confirmation in a white shirt and tie that we gave him. He is pretty cool and wants to be a missionary!

We took some pics at the beach this past week to remember the success that we had as a zone and district this month of April. As a ZONE we were able to baptize 91 people! And elder Aybar and I were able to baptize 7 of them. We are all really happy about our success. And hope to continue helping more people.

That's all for this week! Talk to all y'all's next week

-Elder Taylor

MY LAST COMPANION - Elder Zavala is his name, being a missionary is his game

Alejandro's Baptism

Semana 7 del Cambio

Well, as some of you may know, this past week there have been lots of riots in the capital of Nicaragua, so because of that, the missionaries there cant leave their houses. And this week should have been transfers, but the missionaries cant leave their houses in Managua, so transfers are not till next week and we are now in week 7 of this transfer! But the good news is, I HAVE 6 WEEKS LEFT! And I am 19 hours from the capital, all is safe and sound here!

This past week was good, we had the baptism of Adonis. He is a cool kid. We found him one day at his grandma's house. She lives in the furthest part of my area. We took him to church and taught him there. Then one day, his uncle told us that he had gone back to live with is mom in another part of our area. And here they don't use directions, they just told us that (El esta viviendo en una casa de madera alta, pintada azul por el muro chino) "He is living in a tall wooden blue house, by the Chinese wall" that was all we had. But last Sunday, we were walking by that area, and Adonis came running toward us, and showed us where he lived. It was kind of a miracle to find him. We talked to his mom and she gave us permission so that he could get baptized. We had his baptism on Thursday in a local pool!

We spoke on the radio on Friday and it turned out super awesome! You couldn't tune in, but it was awesome!

On Sunday, we got a call in the morning saying that we weren't going to have church because of the riots. Even though nothing was happening here in Puerto. But we called everyone and told them. Some people were angry, some were glad, and some just accepted it. But we did do a mini sacrament meeting in a members house. We used a coconut bread and ONE cup that we all passed around for the 20 people there. But it was good.

That's about all for this week!

TTYL

-Elder Taylor

Adonis' baptism 

What happens when you have 10 missionaries in 1 taxi

If You Give a Monkey a Machete

Miskito Isisna!

This week was a really good week. It was hot as usual, but still good times!

We were able to baptize 2 more people this week as well! Snaider and his sister Chayneli. They are pretty chill people! They are 15 and 13! They live in front of the people that we baptized last week.

On Thursday, we were in our house getting ready and some dudes showed up and turned off out lights. And we were confused why, if we had payed the lights. So we called the owner of the house, and he went and talked to the lights people and we had lights the next day. But in the night, its too hot to sleep without a fan. So the house next door that the other missionaries live in, gave us an extension cord so that we could use their power to use the fans to sleep. Always fun times here.

We had 41 people at church yesterday as well. 

That about all from this week!

--Elder Taylor

Our Friend

Tabi takaia painsa!

(Baptism is good!)

Well we will start out with the good news of the week! Elder Aybar and I could have 3 baptisms this week! We were working really hard and we could baptize 3 members of a family. Julio, and his 2 nieces, Laleksa (9), and Haily(11). It was awesome. But they live in a tiny wood house and they cant leave it alone. So we went with Juilo to his baptism while his sister watched the house, and then we went with the 2 girls and their mom to the kids' baptisms! And their house is still standing!

We had interviews and zone conference this week as well. President Poncio flew over to Puerto and it was good times. We also had district conference with all the members in Puerto Cabezas. My area is far away from the big chapel so we went in bus! I sent a pic! In the conference I sang "how great thou art" in Miskito with members. It was cool. Oh, and I met the first missionary that came to Puerto 20 years ago.

I just have 8 weeks left in the mission, so I've got to take advantage of the time I have left!

--Elder Taylor

Julio's baptism

Laleska and Haily's baptism

In the bus to conference

Band Name: Primos Miskitos

The title of the email means Miskito Cousins. There is a member here that Is Miskito and his cousins have the last name of Taylor. So we say that I am his cousin. And there is another member that went on his mission to Honduras and his last name is Taylor as well, so he is also my cousin. Good times.

Last Monday after I got done writing the fam, we went to go eat dinner with a family and the Hermanas showed up with a dead baby crocodile. So we played with it for a while and took selfies. (See pics) Too bad nobody knew how to cook crocodile, or we would have eaten it.

We met a lot of new people last week as well. We are working hard to find new people to teach and help them to the waters of baptism.

On Friday we got invited to a shark dinner! A member went to the market and bought 2 sharks. His sister cooked them up and we went over to their house. It was SUPER TASTY. Best sea food I have tried so far. 10/10

The conference was pretty sweet as well. Especially because Pres. Nelson announced that Nicaragua will now have it's 1st temple! All the hard work in the last 21 months has payed off. When they announced it all the people in the church went nuts and they all cheered. Everyone is happy about that.

Today for Pday we went to the beach and played soccer and volleyball! It was really toasty, but really fun. Uba Pain!

Till next time,

Elder Taylor

Today at the beach

My shark dinner

some members chillin in a hammock

playing with the crocodile

11 Pipers Piping

This past week was good. Elder Aybar and I had a lot of success and we were able to put 21 baptismal dates in 1 day. We had a baptism, but he didn't get confirmed. So we are hoping that he can get confirmed this week.

Life is normal. I don't have much to say today, but all is well! The pics are of us celebrating the birthday of a member by smashing eggs on her head, as is the tradition in Nicaragua!

¡Ya solo faltan 12 semanas!

Well, this past week was really good! I did A LOT of traveling, slept less, saw an apostle, at Pizza Hut, took a hot shower,, aaaannd, we had a baptism!!! And today, I have a new companion as well.

Elder Cook of the 12 Apostles came to Nicaragua to talk to the missionaries here this past week. Our zone here in Puerto Cabezas are at least 17 hours by bus from Managua where he was coming. Normally we don't go, we just see it by video, but our zone has had a lot of success lately, so we were invited to go. 

We wanted to baptize before we left for Managua on Thursday. We called it the Trial of Faith. We had been teaching Daviana for about 2 months, and she finally got permission and all fell into place so that she could be baptized last Wednesday! She is really cool! We were able to have her baptism the day before we went to Managua. And she got confirmed On Sunday when we got home.

We left Thursday at 1pm and we got to Managua at 6:30 am on Friday. We even popped a tire, at 2am, saw a full bus fly off the road at 1am, and told scary stories on the road while waited for them to change the tire. But It was all really fun. It was 17 hours in the bus.

On Friday we worked with some missionaries in Managua. And Elder Reyes got really bad gastritis, so we went to the hospital while there for a couple of hours.

On Saturday we got to hear from Elder Cook and shake his hand. It was really awesome! After he was done, we had to come back to Puerto. 

Today is transfers, so they sent the new missionaries with us here. It was smooth. We have to cross a river in a ferry to get here and it opens at 6am, but we got there at 4am so we had to wait 2 hours there to keep going. We got back on Sunday at 8am. Then we had church that day and had the confirmation for Daviana. That trip took 19 hours.

Today I have transfers. I am now with a Dominican Named Elder Aybar. Is is 6 foot 6. So he is taller than me. I know him very well, I met him when he started the mission when I was in Jalapa. We had 4 transfers together in the zone. Now we have had 2 here in Puerto. It should be good times. I was in Caminante, but now I am in charge of Caminante and Lamlaya. So my area is twice as big now! And I have a new house, and it should all be good!

That's all till next week!

Que dijo un sordo a otro sordo?

Well, I don't have many words today, but all is well here in Puerto Cabezas! This is the last week of the transfer, so we might get changed up, but who knows?

This week Elder Cook is coming to Nicaragua. I'm still not sure if we will make the 17 hour bus ride to see him in Managua or we will just see it from here in Puerto by video. President Poncio was thinking about sending us in bus. I will let you know next week!

Fun story, this past Thursday we were walking in the street and this dog comes out of the nothing and bites my hand, and runs away! Lucky it didn't break skin or anything, just bruised my had a little bit. I am all good now.

Well, I get home in 3 months from today! So that is the good news of my life!

Till next week,​

Elder Taylor

Me chillin' in the hammock