Taylor Arrives - His first area is NOT in Argentina!

We received a  very short e-mail confirmation that Taylor landed safely in Argentina, but...he will NOT  be staying in Argentina.  Here is his brief e-mail:

From: "Taylor Graves" <tgraves@myldsmail.net>
Date: Jul 30, 2014 3:31 PM
Subject: General y family

Only allowed 3 lines! But I am here in Argentina after the longest flights ever! It has been really hard only getting 7 hours of sleep in 2 Days plus time change, but it has been so worth it!!! I'm loving it here and I got my companion today! There were only 2 American elderes here out of 12 that I could have been a companion to! I am with Elder Collins from ST. George! Anyway I am loving it here, although I don't know the language as well as I thought! My first area will be in Paraguay, and most people there speak Spanish but there prefered language is Guarani which I like to call Spanish Chinese... Yeah wish me luck!

Love you all!

Elder Graves!

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Kirsten and I are so happy to know that he is safe and happy.  It is exciting that he will be serving in Paraguay to begin his mission!

Since he was unable to send a picture with this e-mail (and I love sharing pictures of Taylor :-)  I thought I would share a special picture of Taylor's baptism day.  As a missionary, Taylor will be helping others enter the same waters of baptism that he entered 10 years ago when he committed to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ.  We sure miss him, but are so grateful for the work that he is doing.

Here he is on his own baptism day (10 years ago):

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Write to Elder Graves in 1 of 4 ways (LISTED IN ORDER OF PREFERENCE):
 
1. Send mail through www.DearElder.com
They will print and mail it for you at no cost (without a stamp).  This is a free service.

www.DearElder.com Instructions:
Select the "Argentina Posadas Mission"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Send letters through the Church Pouch Mail Only postcards or one-page correspondences (no envelopes).

Fold the letter in thirds, secure the long side with tape about one inch in from each end. Do not seal the ends. Stamp and address the blank side as you would an envelope. Use the following mailing address:
Elder Taylor Graves
Argentina Posadas Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT
84130-0150
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Physical Mailing Address.
Due to exorbitant costs incurred in the country of Argentina by the church, He can not receive packages :-( - not even a bubble envelope. Please refrain from sending anything other than an envelope/letter - anything else will likely be returned to sender.

Elder Taylor Graves
Córdoba 1243
Posadas, Misiones 3300
Casilla 12
Argentina
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. E-mail is not the preferred method of communication as he only has a very limited amount of time (30-90 minutes - once/week) to access the computer. Hopefully, he will spend most of that time writing and not reading (because he will have already read your letters to him on paper :-) - If you do need to e-mail him for quick communications, his address is tgraves@myldsmail.net

Injury/Miracle - Feelings for his District & Zone - Letters from Dad/Watching for Daily Miracles

K, so I am going to start with a miracle today. We were playing basketball and I was dominating on the King court like usual ;) and a missionary went up for a 3 point shot. I thought I jumped up to block his shot and he faked me out and  tried to go around me but he took my legs out from under me and made me fall right on my hip and elbow. It is hard to explain how serious of a fall this was, but lets just say there were about 50 missionaries in the gym playing basketball and when I fell the slap of my hip/elbow stopped every game in the gym from going and the entire gym went silent. My breath was gone and I thought my hip was going to be severely dislocated and maybe even broken my arm. I started to focus on my breathing and not worry about the pain, and tried to stand up. It hurt like crazy at first, but I could walk. I was terrified my mission was going to have to be postponed. However, it turns out I landed much better than I thought. My hip has a MASSIVE bruise on it, and so does my elbow, but all is well! No broken or dislocated limbs for this missionary! :D

I truly experienced a miracle that day and I know God needs me to go on a mission and doesn't want things like this to get in the way of serving his children. I am grateful for the incredible power the human body has in healing. It is something that blows my mind and truly helps me have a better testimony that only God could design a machine so perfect as the body.

Okay so I haven't really gone into detail about how much my district means to me. They all are so amazing and have each helped me spiritually. I have grown to truly love each of them and it honestly will be extremely hard to say goodbye to each of them. I will give you a quick run down of my thoughts and feelings for each one of them. This might not be something you are all interested in that much, but for me when I go back and read these emails I want to remember this district in the MTC.

So we will just go left to right. 

Elder Wendt is one of my companions now in my trio. We have grown really close and he is crazy! He makes my day with his insanely good impersonations every day!

Next is Elder Winston. He is the one I can relate the most to. He and I when times are tough are always able to talk things through. I have gone to him in times of need many times and appreciate his friendship. 

Elder Nielsen is the craziest funniest person I have ever met. We have decided that when we are coming to a close in our missions, the mission president is going to assign us to be comps and we are going to baptize all of Argentina. 

Hermana Finlinson is such a sweet spirit and our district would not be the same without her. She is not very good at Spanish, but that makes her testimony in Spanish seem that much more sincere.  The good part about her is she is always willing to tell us that we don't smell very good. So because of her we all make sure to shower every day! ;)

Hermana Hansen is 23 (sometimes we call her Abuela) and she seriously is the most spiritual person on earth other than the prophet... She has made me cry (spiritually) a number of times. She also is very funny and can make us laugh. 

Then there is Elder Peterson. He has been at my side this whole MTC experience and could never thank him enough for helping me in the way he has. He is going to be an excellent missionary and I hope I get to see him in mission conferences.

Any way thanks for listening to me rant about how awesome our district is. I honestly can't think of a better district here! Super blessed to be a part of it!

So real quick during infield orientation I found one of my awesome friends, Izeck McRae, who honestly I forgot was even going on a mission! I was pretty surprised to see that he was there!

Here is a random picture of us waiting at the bus stop. We seriously have to sit there for a while sometimes... but its all good! Lots of studying and bonding :)

Okay so here is a picture of our whole zone! They are so awesome and I love each of them! Really not sure why all the Hermanas are wearing pink... but yeah! We have also all been able to come close throughout these 6 weeks and I'm going to miss them all!

Okay so I have one last thing and I want each of you to please consider this carefully. I think I have told you this before, but my dad writes me very often most of the time expressing a miracle that has happened to him that day. Because of him, I decided to get my whole district to do this. We each search for a miracle, whether it be big or small. I can promise you, if you look for the hand of the Lord in your life, you WILL find it. Miracles occur every day. We just have to be watching for them.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Write to Elder Graves in 1 of 4 ways (LISTED IN ORDER OF PREFERENCE):
 

1. Send mail through www.DearElder.com
They will print and mail it for you at no cost (without a stamp).  This is a free service.

www.DearElder.com Instructions:
Select the "Argentina Posadas Mission"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Send letters through the Church Pouch Mail Only postcards or one-page correspondences (no envelopes).

Fold the letter in thirds, secure the long side with tape about one inch in from each end. Do not seal the ends. Stamp and address the blank side as you would an envelope. Use the following mailing address:
Elder Taylor Graves
Argentina Posadas Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT
84130-0150
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Physical Mailing Address.
Due to exorbitant costs incurred in the country of Argentina by the church, He can not receive packages :-( - not even a bubble envelope. Please refrain from sending anything other than an envelope/letter - anything else will likely be returned to sender.

Elder Taylor Graves
Córdoba 1243
Posadas, Misiones 3300
Casilla 12
Argentina
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. E-mail is not the preferred method of communication as he only has a very limited amount of time (30-90 minutes - once/week) to access the computer. Hopefully, he will spend most of that time writing and not reading (because he will have already read your letters to him on paper :-) - If you do need to e-mail him for quick communications, his address is tgraves@myldsmail.net

"The Midnight Graves" - Mail!!! - "The Trio" Studies - Elder Gibby!!!

I officially am one of the old people here! I have one more week and I don't think I've ever been more excited in my whole life! Yesterday we got our travel plans and since I'm in charge of checking the mail, I made my whole district wait to open them an extra hour just to bug them, because they knew our flight plans were coming ;) They still love me though... My district is the best! We have so much fun together and have grown SO close. It is amazing how close you can get with people when you share your testimony with them everyday.

So on another note, in honor of our awesome friend Elder White/Blanco, who is now in Mexico, everybody is trying to make "the next great drink" like "the Blanco". Well I think that I have won this easily. People here call it "The Midnight Graves. It tastes pretty amazing too!

 

Yeah it's incredible, and I will admit there is soda in it, but not that much!! 

I want to share some thoughts about my family today. Each of them write me as often as they can. I don't think they realize how appreciated it is to hear from them. While you spend every waking moment with them for 18 years you don't  really realize what it would be like not to be able to turn to one of them to talk to. But now I realize how important they are to my life.

My Dad has been especially diligent in writing to me. I have been here for 1 month and 1 day and I have received more than 30 email/dear elders/letters from him. I am so glad that he cares about me so much. I really do miss him, and wish I could have some time again with him to express how much I care about him. 

Sorry I am jumping around so much, but I forgot to mention this earlier. We are leaving in the morning of an undisclosed date and will arrive in Buenos Aires Argentina exactly 22 hours later. (Lots of layovers) and then we have a 13 hour bus ride to Posadas Argentina.... Yeah. Haha but I'm so pumped and ready to go!

 

 

Here is us celebrating that I got a package!

(Yeah, it's a big deal here)

So we have had the opportunity to teach I think 6 people while we have been here and it has truly been a humbling experience to teach them. Often times when people teach lessons in Sunday school or other classes at church, we tend to get into the deep and complicated doctrine. While this is not a bad thing, at times it can be difficult to understand and bring the spirit as effectively. I know when I have taught lessons in English in the past I have been guilty of over complicating things. Naturally we want to express everything we know as we teach. I find myself wishing I could do this while teaching my investigators, but get caught and have to teach more simply because I only know the more simple vocabulary. I want to testify that these simple and pure testimonies that I bear here are far more powerful than anything I could ever try to do in Spanish. There is something about the level of effort that goes into bearing a testimony in a foreign language that makes it that much more true and spiritual.

 

This is a picture of "The Trio" hard at work preparing for a lesson with one of the investigators who agreed to baptism! (We know that this one is not a real investigator though unfortunately, although some of them are). We love studying in random varieties of places!

​I have heard many people here say that they want to get out of here once their last week roles around. I know that because I have put my full effort into my MTC experience I truly wish I could stay longer, while at the same time wishing that I could go to Argentina right now. A mission is the best thing possible for me right now and I'm so grateful for this opportunity.

 

Something I write at the end of every journal entry is "I Love This Gospel." For me this is so true. I love the commandments that truly give us freedom. I love the doctrine that guides us in this life. I love the example of Christ that I constantly try to follow and I love the plan that allows me to live with Him and my family again.

Again thank you for reading, and thank you for all your support.

 

Love you all,

Elder Graves

P.S. I love this gospel

 

Hey look I found Gibby!... I mean Elder Gibby.

 

 

Gift of Tongues - Fireworks - Junk Food & Staying Fit - Hot Air Balloons - Temple Trips

This week I am going to start off by sharing a funny story with you all. We were teaching one of our "investigators" who had just accepted our invitation to be baptized and come to church! I was SO excited I wanted to jump out of the room! I kept saying how happy I was for him, and how important this was for him and his family, and then I said "Mucho Gusto" which I was under the impression that it meant something like- I am very excited-... I was very wrong. Our investigator and my two companions just looked at me with a very confused face, and were struggling not to laugh. When we left the lesson my companion busted up laughing and said mucho gusto means "It's nice to meet you..."

So pretty much I said to somebody I've known for over 3 weeks, "Man I'm so excited and proud of you for this. I'm glad we could teach you... and it's nice to meet you."

Yeah I was pretty embarrassed, but we all got a good laugh out of it.

2 days ago was our Teacher's Birthday! We had quite the celebration in class and gave him some presents, but I totally forgot to take a picture of that day :( Oh well I want you all to know who he is, because he seriously has influenced my Spanish and especially my testimony SO much.

 

This is the only picture I have of him, but he is the guy on the far right! His testimony is so strong it inspires me daily. One thing he said to me that blew me away had me crying instantly was when he told me this.

"If ever there is a time, that you feel it is hard to get out of bed, or that something is too awkward or too difficult for you to do, remember what Jesus Christ. I WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR THAT MAN. Even if I knew there was no reward at all, for obedience, I WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR THAT MAN." 

I have felt the spirit many times here, but never so much as that moment.

 

Recently I had to say goodbye to a couple of awesome friends. As they have taught and inspired me, being the senior district, I have grown to love each of them and truly appreciate there example. It is amazing how close you can grow to someone in such a short amount of time. This is a testament to me that we all are brothers and sisters of the same God. 

I also have learned that life is full of goodbyes and sometimes they can be hard. But goodbyes are good, they truly make you appreciate and miss those you have left.

 

Yeah we are cute aren't we...

So I have a little confession to make. Most of you know that for almost 5 years I haven't had cookies, donuts, cake, candy, and especially soda. I am sorry to say I have had each of these things... I know I can't believe it either! It's just impossible not to here at the MTC! There is so much of it everywhere. The BYU Creamery is literally heaven on earth. I can't believe I've gone so long without all this stuff! My dad asked me the other day if I worked out enough and wondered how I worked out. I think he is worried I'm going to get fat ;) After every meal we all do tons of pushups and sit ups and pull ups. So don't worry dad! ;)

3 weeks ago I was doing an activity with my class where we walked up to several different people and ask them questions that we had written down on a piece of paper. I walked up to this one guy and asked him a question. He rattled off some Spanish that I couldn´t even come close to understanding. I then asked him, in English "How long have you been here?!" Because I was amazed how much Spanish he already knew! He then let me know that he had been there for a little more than 3 weeks. I was in awe, and thought I would never get that far.

Yesterday, a "newbie" came up to me and asked me the same questions, doing the same activity I did 3 weeks ago. I answered him with a couple of sentences about how I knew the church was true and that through teaching my knowledge of the gospel had also increased. After that he looked at me very confused and said, "Holy cow, how long have you been here?" I told him 3 weeks, he sat there amazed as I did a couple of weeks ago.

Again I want to testify that the gift of tongues is real. It takes soooo much work, but the spirit will help if I work.

I love what I get to teach and what I get to live daily. 

 I want to end this letter with a spiritual experience.

If you remember two letter's ago, I recounted an experience where I got to be in the same room as 6 apostles, prophets, seers and revelators. I told of how I felt there presence literally before I even knew they walked in the room. 

This tuesday I knew that a similar opportunity might happen due to some rumors. I heard that Niel L Anderson would be speaking to the whole MTC that evening. I was so excited to feel that same confirmation that he was a prophet. When he walked into the conference hall, I felt nothing. I didn't understand it. He is a prophet of God right? Why wouldn't I feel this same confirmation?? Throughout his lesson I was confused and wondered if maybe I had done something that made me undeserving of the spirit. Recounting my day, I realized that couldn't be it. As I listened to his testimony and his witness of Jesus Christ, I was hit with that same confirmation I had recieved with the other apostles of the Lord, in 3 real waves of power from the spirit that increased each time. I wish I could explain this feeling to you all. But again, I know that the Lord directly interacts with his prophets. 

The lesson I learned from this experience is that you can't force the spirit. You must be patient and it will come when it is most important and significant.

I want to share this picture I took at the Temple today and share my testimony that the temple is the house of the Lord. I love the peace that is there and am awed by its beauty. Please take the chance to go often.

I love everyone of you. Please keep reading these. I pray each week that I can convey the right message to you all. 

Thank you

Elder Graves

 

I'm going to throw a few random pictures in here, because my family likes to see pictures! If my dad want's to include them in the blog then go for it!

 

Hot air balloons on the 4th of July was the coolest surprise to wake up to!!! They were everywhere!

 

Watching fireworks with Elder Nielsen!!

 

 

 

This picture of the angel Moroni might be better than the other one, but I do kinda like how it seems like Moroni is standing on fire in the other one. So take your pick between these two.

 

Cool picture except mi compañero is taking a picture of somebody taking a picture of me...

​

The trio rockin it at the temple!

 

Secret to Happiness = Lucky Charms Marshmallows - Cousin Kayla - Personal Sacred Grove - "The Blanco" a Newly Famous MTC Drink

From: Taylor Graves <tgraves@myldsmail.net>
Date: Sat, Jul 5, 2014 at 11:54 AM

So I have heard many people comment that they love the "Elder Blanco Stories" I have two more for everyone... Elder Blanco (White) was told that he needed to wake up and be at the bus stop at 2:30 AM. The next morning he walks into breakfast! Apparently he had been given the wrong schedule and was supposed to leave a few days later. Poor kid! He seemed to be happy anyway, and I said to him, "Elder Blanco, how do you manage to stay so happy, despite something that frustrating happening to you?" He then responded with a quick comment saying, "Elder Graves, do you want to know the secret to happiness in this life?" I said "Yes!!" he said, "The secret to happiness is having one bowl of lucky charms a day. It's the marshmallows that get you..."

Well he really did leave, and now our district has a hole that is very difficult to fill :( 

I will tell the other story at the end!

I want everyone to know that the gift of tongues is absolutely a real thing. I have taught  investigators in Spanish full lessons that 2 weeks ago I could not have done in English. My Spanish is sooooo far from perfect, but I really am so surprised how well I am able to remember vocabulary when I have the spirit with me and I am teaching a lesson.

While at a Sunday Devotional I found my cousin Kayla!!! It was actually a really cool experience. I saw her right before the prayer started and we made eye contact and we couldn't do anything about it so we had to wait the 3 hours till the devotional was over! During the devotional we were able to watch a video on the character of Christ, by David A Bednar. During a part where he was talking about the sacrifice Christ made for us, and the pure agony he went through, and the only possible way he could do this is with so much love, I saw Kayla at my side, I few rows down, with a tear going down her face. I love my cousin, and also proud of Cameron who is preparing to leave for Brazil in 3 months. Braden and Kaden have been out for a while, and are huge examples to me. Without their example, it would not have been the same. 

Here is a picture of me and Kayla "avoiding the appearance of evil" and not hugging, even though we technically could have since we are cousins. I would have loved to hear the gasps from the crowd, but Kayla was wiser than me and said we should just stick to the good ol' hand shake ;)

Another shout out I want to give, is to one of my best pals Elder Tyler Jensen! He has helped me so much throughout this missionary preparation experience. Couldn't have done it without him! He is now in Chile, preparing to serve the Lord, on the other side of the Andes from me.

So some of our lessons that we teach are just with our teachers, so they're not "real" but they get to the point where they feel very real, if we allow the Spirit to teach us. On a not as serious note, I decided one time to try a door approach with this mustache face on that my awesome family gave me.

Yeah my investigator was a bit surprised... haha it was pretty funny though!

This week I have a lot of pictures, so if you prefer reading my awesome literature, I'm sorry to disappoint with so many pics this week ;)

This is where my companion and I often study. We feel the spirit very strong here. It has been compared to the sacred grove by one of our teachers here and we enjoy the peace that is found there.

Here at the MTC I have made many friends. It is awesome to be around people who carry the spirit 24/7! When we are learning, we talk about the gospel, when we are walking we talk about the gospel, when we are bored we talk about the gospel, and so on... while we are constantly at work, there are times (very rare) when we have a couple minutes to sit back and relax. In honor of all the awesome superheroes out there we had what we called "The Black Market Tie Exchange" or as it was also titled, "The Super Hero Slumber Party"

The Elder on the left is probably my best friend here, his name is Elder Nielson. The other Elder is my new companion! I am now in a trio, because he was Elder White's comp. His name is Elder Wendt!

Alright, I feel like this week I have just been bouncing all over the place with my thougths, but oh well! I am so stoked to share all these things with everybody I just type whatever random thought pops into my head.

Okay now for the final Elder Blanco story... one day, he was getting a drink at lunch, and decided to mix a few of the drinks. The way it came out was so incredible, each separate drink would separate and take it's own part of the cup! I still am amazed how he does it. This drink started to become very popular in our district, then it got popular in our whole Zone! Now even after he is gone I see random people with this exact drink. People have begun to call it "The Blanco". He is seriously a celebrity here and he isn't even here anymore! That kid is going to be so missed. He really made everyone's day better.

Well I will leave you all with a picture of one of the coolest drinks ever, as well as one of the best missionaries I have ever known.

Con amor,

Elder Graves

Taylor's Mailing Address  (Until July 28, 2014) Send letters and packages to:
 

Elder Taylor Nevin Graves

Provo West Missionary Training Center

JUL 28 ARG-POS

2023 N 900 E Unit 820

Provo, UT 84602