Glass 10% Full Or 90% Empty? - Woman Robbed, Missionaries Help Her & Find Family As A Result - Taylor's Shoes...A Sign Of Hard Work :-) - Taylor At The Temple On His Birthday

We left the pension this Saturday with two options. We could look at the glass half full or half empty. Well in reality, as my dad often says to me, we could look at the glass 10% full or we could look at it 90% empty. The night before the baptism of Carolina, we got a call from her mom, Sonia, saying that she was going to have to wait a little bit to be baptized. She said that she wasn't feeling well, and wanted to postpone it. Obviously we were quite surprised, and didn't know what to say, as we had the baptism all planned and ready to go, but we simply let her know that we support her, and want to help in any way we could.

So getting ready for the day of contacting that laid ahead (because we didn't have very many appointments because we had the baptism planned) I realized I truly had the decision to look at the glass 10% full. I felt a huge positive feeling inside my chest, and after we said a prayer, before leaving the house, I gave my companion a hug and told him, "Elder, I feel that there is a reason that we couldn't baptize Carolina yet.  I think God has something big planned for us today." We went out and worked as hard as always. I am not going to tell the whole story of the day, but I will just let you know, that we truly took advantage of our 10% full cup :) In the end of the day, we found 7 new investigators. In one day! It was awesome! Had we had that baptism, we would not have been able to find these new people to teach. What's more, is that 5 of these 7 people that we found each have member friends, who were in the lessons with us! There is so much more chance of baptism when there is member support like this, and we are very excited to see how it goes with each of them.

I will however tell one of the stories that happened, and I know that we were surely and safely guided to find this family. Late at night, we had decided to visit an old investigator who had stopped progressing, but we wanted to stop by to see how they were doing. As we walked to their house, we were shocked as we saw two men pull up on a motorcycle, tackle a woman to the ground and steal her possessions. She screamed and they both ran off, and got back on their motorcycle. We ran over to her and helped her up. She was covered in mud, and was shaking from the nerves. I felt so bad for her, but also very grateful that they hadn't hurt her badly. We asked her where she lived, and she pointed to a house down the road. We walked her to the house, and talked her nerves down. When her family saw her, they were all so worried and scared and came running towards her. We didn't preach a single thing, but we tried to help the best we could. They all looked at us thankfully as we walked away. What is interesting, is that God wanted us to be there in that very moment. He made sure, that there wasn't a baptism, so that we could pass by and help her, take her to her house, because as we walked away from the house (in a street that we would never have gone down) Someone yelled our names! Elders! We turned around, and there was a boy who wanted us to talk to his family. After talking to the family for a time, we found out that they had just moved there from a far a way city in Paraguay.  One of the family members had been about to get baptized and the mom was very interested as well.

 

I sent the pictures separately and wasn't able to comment on them, but I do remember one that I sent, my shoes... yeah, that's a sign of a hard working missionary -) oh yeah and the temple was the best birthday present ever !!!

I am continually amazed by the hand of God in every thing that happens here on my mission.
I hope we can all remember, that even, when the glass is 90%empty, it is still 10% full.
I love you, and I love this gospel.

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Write to Elder Graves in 1 of 3 ways  :

1. E-mail -  tgraves@myldsmail.net

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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

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3. Physical Mailing Address:

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