Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Zone Scavenger Hunt Activity!!! - Parents/Father In Heaven Are Happy When Children Are Happy - Joy Comes From Serving Others

Well I don't know if I am going to be able to write very much today, but I will try to type fast! 
Today we got to do a Zone activity! It was so fun! My companion and I had to be up VERY late preparing everything. We did a scavenger hunt. It was huge. They all were assigned a team, and they had to search our town for clues. Once they found a clue, which also had a scripture reference, they would search in their Book of Mormon for the reference, they would find another clue. They did this until they found all 10 of the clues, the last of which led to the Church building. 
 
 
The missionaries loved it! We honestly didnt get to participate, because we had to be inside the church building/cooking tacos for them. Also we sacrificed sleep, about 4 hours, to prepare everything.
 

Today, I learned a very important lesson, the which has made me understand my parents, just a little bit more, as well as my Father In Heaven. My parents for some reason, always wanted to help me. They give me food, a place to sleep, a roof over my head, a good education. Why? Why do they do it? How do they benefit from acting in this way?
My father in heaven gave me this life, he sacrificed the earthly life of his only begotten son, for me, and why? How does he benefit from this?

Mosiah 2:21 "preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants."

God recieves joy when we are happy. I don´t think that before the mission I understood that, but now I do.

Moses 1:9 "behold, this is my work and my glory —to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."

Before I got here on my mission, I didnt understand why my parents sacrificed so much for me, but now I do. The happiness that comes from making others happy, that requires sacrifice on your part, is a much more pure joy, than the joy that comes selfishly. I am grateful to be able to sacrifice my time, sleep, and whatever it takes, to help the missionaries be happy, as well as those who we teach.

I love you all and always love hearing from you
 
Elder Graves
Argentina Posadas Mission
 
 
LA IGLESIA DE
JESUCRISTO
DE LOS SANTOS
DE LOS ÚLTIMOS DÍAS
 
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Write to Elder Graves in 1 of 3 ways  :

1. E-mail tgraves@myldsmail.net

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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:
 
Elder Taylor Graves
Córdoba 1243
Posadas, Misiones 3300
Casilla 12
Argentina
 

Monday, July 20, 2015

5yr Old Jake Gives 2yr Old Shauna A Haircut :-) - No Tough Areas, They're All Tough! - Taylor's Hears His New & Improved "Strong, Unshakable Testimony" In English For The First Time / Shocking Himself - Juan Baptized - Hector's Birthday - "Real American, Mexican Tacos :-) "


During the mission there are always going to be hard weeks. But the funny thing for me is the “week after the hard week” (2 weeks ago), I felt pretty upset. Everything was going wrong and the world was just out to get me. Now I realize how silly I was for worrying about such trivial things when I have the Lord on my side. :) So I guess that’s a great thing about my mission. I always find a way to
feel better and laugh about the hard times. This kind of reminds me of a funny experience I had when I was younger.  Jake (5 years old) had gotten a hold of the scissors. Shauna (2 years old) sat in
the playhouse clueless. Jake asked Shauna if it was okay if he cut her hair. She said, “Okay!





 Well, my mom wasn’t very happy about that. But I do remember to help herself calm down she said, “Well, I know in few weeks we will just be laughing about all this.” I remember thinking, “Mom, are you crazy?! She looks like a boy! This is not okay!” But my mom was right. Sometimes God gives us tough situations to help us realize how blessed we really are.

Victor sadly was hit with some of those tough situations early in the morning so he could not make it to church. :( But we saw him in a bus today as we went shopping this morning. I am sure that after he is baptized he will also look back on the things that he went through and laugh at himself realizing that they really are silly and trivial. Although we were quite disappointed that Victor didn’t come, we have somehow managed to have 9 progressing investigators! Each of them is going to church (at least 1 out of every 2 weeks), reading the Book of Mormon and receiving the discussions. I think I have expressed before how I felt like this area is pretty difficult. I got here 4 months ago almost and spent about 5 or 6 weeks without a single progressing investigator. Now we have 9. I guess what I have learned here is that there is no such thing as a tough area. They're all tough! But if we put all our efforts in, ALWAYS, the Lord will bless us to see some fruits of our labors.

One of the new progressing investigators is a 75 year old man named “Pedro de la Cruz”. He lived in New York for a year, Miami for a short time, and Alaska for 35 years. He speaks almost perfect English and unless there is difficulty explaining something, we teach him in English. As I am teaching him in English, I am shocked by the testimony that I now have been able to develop. It is hard to explain, but because I have been speaking in Spanish for so long, I have almost forgotten my English “voice”. Not my literal voice, but the personality I have. It’s like my mind remembers the weak unstable testimony the “English Taylor” had before the mission. It knows the strong testimony that “Spanish Taylor” has, but when I heard myself with an non-doubting, unshakable testimony in English, my mind was kind of shocked.

I’m sure what I just wrote makes no sense to anyone, but to me it does. :)


Juan, an investigator who we have taught, but is in the Sister's area, was baptized this Saturday! It was a long ride, but he did it! What a great day that was!

 Happy Birthday Hector!

This is us when we by chance saw Victor in the Colectivo.. oh yeah thats not english... the bus.
 Today for P-day, we just sat back and relaxed and enjoyed listening to the rain while we made some "Real American, Mexican Tacos" They were really yummy :)


I love you all and I love this gospel.

Elder Graves
Argentina Posadas Mission
LA IGLESIA DE
JESUCRISTO
DE LOS SANTOS
DE LOS ÚLTIMOS DÍAS
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Write to Elder Graves in 1 of 3 ways  :

1. E-mail tgraves@myldsmail.net

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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:
 
Elder Taylor Graves
Córdoba 1243
Posadas, Misiones 3300
Casilla 12
Argentina

Monday, July 13, 2015

Preaching To Goats :-) - Our Greatest Advantages Are Our Disadvantages - Sick Missionaries Still Working - Guided - 5 Investigators & Several Less Active Members In Church!

Well we got to the Cyber, I really don't think there is an English word for Cyber... it would be like computer lab, and it was closed yesterday. So we couldn't write, so we decided to just take a few minutes instead of Language study to write and let everyone know that we are doing well, and we didn't just decide not to write. We almost were going to have to wait to write until Friday because of the scheduling situations, and I could only imagine how my Mom would go crazy if we had to do that! Luckily we were able to find a Cyber early this morning here in another city where we are about to visit other missionaries here in the mission.

Well sometimes when there is lots of rain, and mud and people just want to stay inside, we preach the gospel to the goats. They listen to us usually ;) 
Haha but yes this week has been a very rainy one, but it has been very fun also, full of trials, and blessings. In our zone we have had, in this week, 5 companionships get sick and have to take some time to recover. Unfortunately, one of those being me again... haha! But, me being me, I didn't want to take a break, because staying in the house all day is really boring, and preaching the gospel is really fun! I decided that even though, maybe I was feeling pretty bad I decided to go out. 
Really the reason that I am motivated to keep working even when it gets hard is because of my dad. He recently taught me through a letter about something very important, and now as I am typing I am thinking that I might have already shared this, but oh well. He taught me that the greatest advantages we have are the disadvantages that God gives us. What this is wanting to say is that when God gives us trials, he is only trying to see, that even though the times have gotten tough we still love Him so much to give him our might, mind and strength. How many times did Job, receive trials directly allowed by God, and he continued to serve the Lord, never blaming Him, only giving him thanks for a chance to grow.
So I´m not saying its bad to take a break, a few weeks ago I wrote about the necessity of breaks, but I am saying that sometimes, if the Spirit indicates, we should take the challenge and run with it.


 Alright... well the day after that, my illness intensified, and was only able to go out and work a little bit. We went to visit an investigator named Victor, who is working on putting his baptismal date. But as we walked I began to realize that I wasn't going to make it the whole day. We had to go home and rest. For those who know me, they know that when I don't have much to do for too much time I go crazy. So, what happened is that at 7 o'clock, after resting for about 4 hours, I felt an intense need to go visit 2 investigators. My companion thought I was crazy, but I said that I felt like the spirit had influenced my thoughts too many times to think about them, to not go visit them and invite them to the church. So we got ready, said a prayer, and headed out the door...well almost, as I stepped out the door, I had to make a trip to the bathroom and throw up a little bit of lunch, and my companion continued to think I was crazy to leave and visit these investigators. 
Well we got out to the road, and started walking, and... you guessed it, I threw up in the road... haha. It was embarrassing, but that's okay :) We kept going, and made it to the house.
We made it to their house, and felt a change of environment in there house. They always were very doubtful, but this time understood and accepted out message and decided to come to church. 
As week worked hard through, sickness, poor planning, rain, rain and rain, and hail, and thunder and lightning storms, and fire, and lava etc. we truly recieved many blessings. We had 5 investigators at church (which is REALLY good for this area!) and several inactive members came to church also. 
My testimony is that if we act while its easy we will be blessed, but when we act when its not easy, that is when God can bless us with true miracles. He sees that our will is becoming like His.

This is our investigator Victor, who I mentioned earlier. He is awesome! (I am only holding a smart phone because we had just taken a #selfie with Victor and he later sent it to my Dad via Facebook). Also, I am not sure if this is the first time you all have seen our chappel, but it is pretty big! I love it


I felt like this statue was really funny looking and I had to imitate it. Haha.

Well I better go! Thanks for reading again! Love all of you, and I love this gospel that I get to preach every day.

Elder Graves
Argentina Posadas Mission
LA IGLESIA DE
JESUCRISTO
DE LOS SANTOS
DE LOS ÚLTIMOS DÍAS
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Write to Elder Graves in 1 of 3 ways  :

1. E-mail tgraves@myldsmail.net

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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:
 
Elder Taylor Graves
Córdoba 1243
Posadas, Misiones 3300
Casilla 12
Argentina

Monday, July 6, 2015

Know The Lord - Passing Of Boyd K. Packer -Mud & Dog's Everywhere! - Funny Pic (Taylor & Dog) - Overwhelming Love Of The Gospel - Service Project To Build Another House In Obera!

Well I finally got a new memory card! I am super happy about it and now can get back to having super missionary fotoshoots.

This week really was great, we just got done having our interviews with President Lapierre, and I always learn so much when he speaks to us and he gives us a time to really converse with him and build off of his testimony.
I was in church yesterday when I heard that Boyd K. Packer passed away. As we know he had been sick for quite some time, and he was accepted into the Father's arms very peacefully. I just wanted to say how important the testimony of him strengthened my testimony. Just before I left for the mission, Boyd K. Packer had spoken in General Conference and had said in some of his final words "I know the Lord" He didn't say, I know the lord lives, or I know the Lord is my Savior, but he said, "I know the Lord". Throughout my mission I have pondered that statement with great wonder, and amazement. When he says that, it could be interprated (No idea if that is actually a word) in so many different ways, but one thing I know is that we all have the opportunity to "know the Lord". 

Yeah I'm not sure what was really going on here, but I thought it was funny. We were doing a fotoshoot as I said before, and a dog invaded my picture... here in Argentina, they are always EVERYWHERE. I remember my dad telling me stories about Argentina and how there were always lots of dogs here, but I never truly grasped, the meaning of the fact that they are literally EVERYWHERE.  With this picture you can also see the difficulty we have with mud mud and more mud. It is quite the project to keep your clothes clean here!
The work is moving along, and we had 2 new investigators come to church this week, and are seeing a lot of potential here.

Here in Argentina, it is very common for every person on Fast and Testimony meeting to want to get up and speak, the missionaries almost never get to get up and share, as we anxiously hope that our investigators will be touched by the Spirit to share what they know, but yesterday I was so profoundly moved to get up and share the truths I have come to know. As I bore my testimony, I realized that I have come so far in this past year, I kinda had a "life flash before my eyes" moment, but it was more like a "mission flash before my eyes" moment. It is amazing to consider the little things have changed me in to what I am now.

I seriously love the gospel. It is incredible. I hope you all know that I don't just say that because I am a missionary and that's what they expect us to say to our families, but I say it because I know it is true. I know that through tiny actions day by day, we can come to a knowledge of the truth. It happened to me, doubting my doubts, before I doubt my faith, my testimony continues to get stronger.

This following week we plan to start to make another house! President Lapierre, called us in and asked us to travel to Obera (one of my old areas!) to start building a house the following Monday, for a woman with an incredible story, and I hope I remember to write about it this following week.


This is Taylor's Dad:
The picture above was the picture that Taylor had intended to send last week.  I believe that this is his zone before a new group of missionaries was added to the zone, essentially doubling it's size.  They are a fine group of young men and women.

Taylor closed this week's letter saying:
Love you guys a lot and appreciate the many messages of love and support. I hope you can all take what I write in these blogs as a personal message in some small way, and know that I think of each of you as I write these things.  

Elder Graves
Argentina Posadas Mission
LA IGLESIA DE
JESUCRISTO
DE LOS SANTOS
DE LOS ÚLTIMOS DÍAS
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Write to Elder Graves in 1 of 3 ways  :

1. E-mail tgraves@myldsmail.net

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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:
 
Elder Taylor Graves
Córdoba 1243
Posadas, Misiones 3300
Casilla 12
Argentina
 

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Teaching In Garupa - Love Being His Representative - Zone Doubles In Size

It is always rough when you had been planning a baptism, and the day that they were supposed to be baptized, passes without the baptism. Alejandro, and Yanina have seemed to have disappeared yet again, and we have had to make the painful decision of stopping teaching them for a time. This is one of the hardest things to do as a missionary. You see people growing, and you grow to love them, but they aren't ready like you hoped, and you have to swallow your pride and let them go for a while, and let God work on His time. They were not baptized, but I know that their hearts were touched, and I will be forever honored to be able to say that I took part in that experience they had. They will never forget the 3 weeks that 2 Gringos/Yankees, came to there home, and taught them from the little blue book, the Book of Mormon.

We have been teaching another partial member family here in Garupa, and they are called the Family Rodriguez. I think I talked about them a bit last week, and he is planning on getting baptized this 25th of July. We recently did a fast with him, to help him be able to achieve his goal of baptism and I am very confident in the power of Ayuno... whoops that's Spanish, fast. We were teaching him the other day and we used the #Graciasaqueelvive video and the spirit was so strong. I later testified that I knew that if he would promise to go to church for the rest of his life, dedicating his life to the Lord, his family would be forever blessed. He was worried that he would not be able to go to church very frequently, because he often is called in to work on Sunday morning. I told him that he shouldn't worry about the money, but that he should be more concerned about the spiritual things. I told him that I left on my mission, and my parents really didn't know how things were going to fall in place, but we knew to trust in the Lord. I left on my mission without huge funds to pay for the mission, but as I have served obediently, the Lord, through other servants of His, has provided incredible miracles for me and my family. I told him, "Victor, I testify to you, that if you will put the worries of the world aside, and make it a priority to partake of the sacrament, your family will be eternally blessed, and Victor, I can make you this manifestation, because I am a representative of Jesus Christ, and I wear his name upon my chest daily." That was one of the most spiritual experiences I have had in a while, and I love the fact that I where His name on my chest daily.

Whats more is that Transfers have come. To be honest, I am very happy and relieved to be staying here in Garupa. Although, we came out this transfer with a small amount of baptisms, we do have a lot who are progressing, and am honored to get to stay a while longer to help them progress.

Well I don't know how well known it is, but I have been a Zone Leader for a while, and I will let you all know that it is not the easiest thing to do. It is fun, and you make a lot of friends, but it is very stressing sometimes. However, I have never had more growth in my life than the 6 months I have had serving the Lord in this position. I had had several feelings, and implications that things might be changing this coming transfer and I was proved right. As our mission is a relatively small mission, the Zones are also relatively small, usually with 10 to 16 missionaries in them. Well, lets just say, that my zone just "ate" another zone. We are now a zone of 26 missionaries, my companion and I have the responsibility and privilege to watch over them, care for them, and help them bring this work to pass. As I am slightly nervous for this new assignment, I ask for your prayers to keep coming my way :)

We as a zone today had a parting activity, for the end of the Transfer, and we got permission to watch "Meet the Mormons" on a flat screen high definition! It was so amazing and made me so happy to remember, that I am not the only Mormon out here in this world. I'm not alone! It is a great movie and would recommend it for everyone! 

I love you all and continue to feel the love you all send my way

pictures should follow...
This is Taylor's Dad:  We never got the pictures that Taylor was planning to send, so...instead I am including a couple of pictures of Taylor that were sent to me from a friend in Argentina.  Taylor has likely never seen these pictures, but a member friend periodically sends me pictures of Taylor in action to help "keep me in the loop" :-)



Elder Graves
Argentina Posadas Mission
LA IGLESIA DE
JESUCRISTO
DE LOS SANTOS
DE LOS ÚLTIMOS DÍAS
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Write to Elder Graves in 1 of 3 ways  :

1. E-mail tgraves@myldsmail.net

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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:
 
Elder Taylor Graves
Córdoba 1243
Posadas, Misiones 3300
Casilla 12
Argentina