Taylor Graves' Mission - Posadas Argentina

Monday, November 17, 2014

Big House - Birthday Ice Cream Cake! - Splits with Elder Murrillo (A.P.) - Answered Prayers

Okay, so I just realized that I never showed you guys where we live right now... okay not really, but that would be pretty cool! I just had to show everyone that some of the houses we teach are soooo big. A lot of the time, we have to ring a bell, and they put a camera on our faces and they ask us through a speaker phone "¿que hacen?" which is like what are you guys doing? And then we talk for a bit, and if we are lucky they will come out! SUUUUPER "chuchi" or rich looking. Sometimes it is actually pretty hard to get lessons here, and when we do get them, it is hard to get return lessons. I have really learned a lot of things in this area already. One of them is DEFINITELY patience. Haha.

Well I should have put this first,... but oh well. My whole district surprised me with an Ice Cream cake at the very end of my birthday! It was awesome! We went in to an office in the church to work on some paper work or so they told me, and then the Hermanas came and started singing happy birthday! So that was awesome!

Well, Elder Murrillo (an assistant to the President) and I got to have divisions this week and it was so fun! He really knows how to teach people! I loved it! He will be leaving soon (2 weeks) and it is actually pretty sad for every body, because he really does inspire our mission. I was really happy to have the opportunity to be part of his last part of his mission.

Well I dont have much more time, but I just want to tell you all one last story. Our branch decided that we needed to start praying for investigators to find the missionaries and not only for the missionaries to find investigators. The whole branch has been praying for this to happen, and yesterday we were walking in the road and a man ran us down saying "Mormons! Mormons! I want you to teach me about the man Joseph Smith!!!"

If that wasnt a direct answer to our prayers, I dont know what would be. I know the power of prayer is powerful, and the prayer united by a ward or even by just a family can be even stronger. We taught him, and he loved the message. We were saddened to find out that he is traveling to Buenos Aires, the next day, but I pray that he will find more missionaries to continue teaching him.

I love you all and I love this gospel

Elder Graves

PS. If I talk weird in these letters I am sorry. I dont think my English has been that badly effected yet, but I really do have to struggle for some phrases that I cant remember perfectly! Weird right??

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Write to Elder Graves in 1 of 4 ways:

1. E-mail - tgraves@myldsmail.net

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2. 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"

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3. 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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4. 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

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

19th Birthday! - Basketball! - Fat mannequins - Stuck in Apartment with sick companion - Testimony

Well I really have to start by saying thank you for the ridiculously awesome amount of birthday wishes from all of you! When I open up my email and see that I have more than 80 emails to read, I know I am loved :) So THANK YOU! You all have made my day soooo awesome! Also today we had the opportunity to have a multi zone meeting and we played BASKETBALL! There were more than 40 missionaries there and they all gathered around me and sang/scrame (not sure if that is a word I am almost 100% sure its not screamed) "Happy Birthday" to me. It was pretty funny because it was in English and most of them don't speak English! But I really got lucky to have such a big meeting on my birthday! Usually a birthday will pass unnoticed in the mission, but I got super lucky!

Also, my family is ridiculously awesome. About a month or so ago, I was looking into the deep pits of my suitcase and found that I had a b-day present! Also I found that I have a Christmas present that I will get to open later! (In my mission we can only recieve 2 packages a year so my mom got creative!). Also, today my zone leader delivered another package from my family for my birthday! So tonight we are going to have a mini, party and open up my gifts!!!!

Sorry for the crazy face, but we had just woken up at 4:30 to go to the zone meeting (we have a lot of early mornings, and our nights are super late now, because our president changed our schedule to adjust to the ridiculous heat)!

This is me with Elder Winston again, and my other package that the zone leaders had just given me.

Well, we found these fat mannequins in the mall and could not stop laughing because... I don't know that is just super funny! But I decided it would be appropriate to take a photo with them because I literally just CAN NOT STOP GAINING WEIGHT! My body is used to having 3 or 4 runs everyday and much more physical activity than that, and my body is wondering what happened!!!!? But if I come home looking like the Pillsbury Dough Boy, you all still have to love me, or at least acknowledge me... ;)

My companion got sick recently and we had to stay in our pension all day. I was actually pretty concerned, because I figured I would be bored out of my mind! He literally slept and stayed in his bed for 36 hours straight! I felt pretty bad for him (I think he got up to use the restroom...) But I have a picture of me studying that day, because that day, truly was a day of loooots of studying.

11 hours straight to be exact. Yeah it was crazy. I literally couldn't put down the books. I can honestly say, that I now LOVE the scriptures. They continually amaze me. A dear friend of my family Brother Bob Christensen used to always say to me as well as say during his testimonies in testimony meeting, that every time he reads the Book of Mormon he has a strong feeling that the Book of Mormon really is scripture and the word of God.

*here in this picture I am comparing the sermon on the mount to the coming of Christ in 3 Nefi in English and Spanish, so lots of books!*

Well I just want all of you to know that I am doing well and am loving the life of a missionary. It is amazing how much I have grown (spiritually and physically...) I think of the boy that left for the MTC just short of 5 months ago and look at what I have already become and learned, and am truly amazed. The mission field really is the place to learn and to grow.

Les quiero mucho y espero que todos tengan una semana marivillosa

Elder Graves

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Write to Elder Graves in 1 of 4 ways:

1. E-mail - tgraves@myldsmail.net

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Monday, November 3, 2014

Trick or Treating Missionary Style - Clapping Doors in the Rain - New Area/Prospecting - Study With Faith and the Intent of Learning Truth

Although we are thousands of miles away, I wasn't about to miss out on Trick or Treating this year! Haha. To be honest, I totally forgot that it was Halloween until the end of the day. Haha but we did get to go door to door, but we were the ones handing stuff out (Books of Mormon/Book of Mormons/Copies of the Book of Mormon).

So I really thought this was a funny picture. This is my new companion Elder Smith and it was POURING and his hands were full when he was trying to clap a house, so he balanced his umbrella (that took me like 15 seconds to remember what that word is in English....) on his head so that he could clap the house. Haha. Just thought you guys would think that was funny.

Right now we are searching, searching, searching and searching for new investigators. We just opened this area and that means there were 0 people who were already being prepared to be baptized. So we are always searching. While we were "Fishing for Men" we ran into a woman who told us that she had left the church more than 10 years ago, but wanted to be visited by the missionaries again. She introduced us to her husband who was smoking and was not a member. We talked with them and they told us that they want to get to the point where they can serve a mission together. Obviously they both have a long way to go, but I am very excited for there desire to progress. That is something that I have learned here recently. It is all about the desire. Countless times in the scriptures it tells us that we will earn what we truly desire in our hearts. It is undoubtedly true. If you have the desire, you WILL put in the work to accomplish that thing that you desire.

Random picture... didn't take that many this week - sorry. But this is Elder Winston and he is in the same pension as me! We get to spend a lot of time together and will even be doing a 3 day division (I think they call it "splits" in the states) while the other Elders are doing paper work in another part of Argentina. We were recently talking (we almost never talk in English now - even though in our Pension we have 3 gringos and 1 Brazilero. It is just more fun to speak in Spanish sometimes) and he told me that he felt like our life literally is like a movie. There are SO MANY funny moments, SO MANY hard moments, SO MANY lessons that we are able to learn here. It is really true. The life of a missionary really is like a movie. I wish I could record every moment of it so I could remember every detail.

I am realizing recently how far I have come in my testimony. I used to feel like I had a strong testimony, now I am realizing that I truly had a LONG way to go (and still do). But my confidence in God is sure (as is my testimony of the Book of Mormon). Before my mission, I will be honest, I read it like a critic. Trying to find errors. I never found any, but I never progressed in my testimony either. Now I read with faith that it is the word of God, and every moment spent reading it is another step of progression. My challenge to you all this week is to read the Book of Mormon, not to prove it wrong (remember I tried and learned it's impossible) but with the intent of learning of the truth.

Love you all and am grateful for your prayers.

Elder Graves

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Write to Elder Graves in 1 of 4 ways:

1. E-mail - tgraves@myldsmail.net

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Monday, October 27, 2014

Goodbyes in Lopez - 2nd Area is Very Different - Clapping Doors - Spiritual Growth with Rejection - Elder Taylor Graves Meets Elder Taylor - Selfie With New Companion Elder Smith - Siesta - Taylor's Cross Country Brothers Took 2nd in State!!!

I have to start by saying how difficult it was to say goodbye to Lopez. We said our last goodbyes with so many people on Tuesday and I was surprised how many people had a hard time with it. It was really nice for me to see that I had touched their hearts in at least a small way.

First I just have to say... I am really just in a different mission. There is one similarity in this part of the mission and it is the words we are preaching. I will give you an example of the differences

Here is a picture out walking to an investigators house in the tiny area of Lopez:

This picture just illustrates everything about Lopez. You can just feel the hot by just looking at it right?

This is the only picture I have of me in my new area so far, so sorry it is kind of poor quality. But it does kinda illustrate how it is. This area is ENOURMOUS (I don't even remember how to spell that word...) It is just a huge city and it is called Obera in Argentina. The people here are SO different. In Lopez, we could take 5 steps run into someone and we would have a lesson. Here it is quite the opposite. We will clap (yeah we don't knock, we clap, it's actually pretty weird for me now that we don't do that in the states....) a house and they almost always will get upset that we are bothering them. In just one week I have had countless doors shut in my face, seen many people run away from the door because they saw we were coming, so they wanted to hide themselves. Some might think that this would be hard on your testimony. So many people rejecting this message, that we have for them, you would think would make you doubt. But I can testify that it does the opposite. Every door that is shut on us, I remember how the blessings that I have received from this gospel have blessed my life, and how I desperately wish that they could have listened and learned of their incredible potential. I dont know yet how many people I will be able to help here in Obera, but if there is one person being spiritually strengthened, that person is me, and for that I am extremely thankful.

Random foto, this is when I had to say goodbye to me second trainer Elder Silva. He has taught me a lot and I am really grateful for everything he did for me. He is going to be training another newbie out in Lopez. I am really excited for them because they have at least 3 baptisms coming up!! (One of them, Apalonio, who is 82 - and I cant remember if I already told you guys that... but oh well)

Also on the far left is Elder Taylor. I am still pretty confused about the story, but his mom or dad or somebody, has known my mom since highschool. Anyway, I have heard from many missionaries that he was hoping to meet me and we finally got to!! He is 6 foot 7! He also is the missionary who started the area of Lopez. We are all very grateful for his work out there in Lopez.

Okay don't make fun of me... I know I am a missionary, but sometimes...·#

youjustgottatakeaselfie.

(I don't know if hash-tags are still a thing. ;) haha sike I am sure they are...

But this is my new companion and his name is Elder Smith! He is super cool and has 10 months out in the mission!

This is during the siesta. It is the time when EVERYONE is sleeping EXCEPT THE MISSIONARIES! Haha. I still dont understand it, but for some reason, in Argentina, people stop working, close all stores, and stop all human life at 12 until 4 to get some extra sleep... haha its pretty funny.

Here is a picture of some of my best friends (including my brother, the tall blonde one.. oh wait...) They took second in State this week and I am SO PROUD of them. The last thing I said to my brother as I said goodbye to him at the MTC was "Go get State." These boys did exactly that. Jake told me that they read the letter that I wrote them a while back reminding them of this goal that I hoped they would set right before the race. (You can find this hand written letter in this blog.) It makes me so happy to know that my BROTHERS are remembering me and that maybe I had affected them in some small way. They really are my BROTHERS and I could never be more proud of them. This victory of theirs, truly inspires me. I don't know why, but hearing about this makes me want to work. Work hard while I am here. Jake and the others worked hard in running. I now have another source of motivation. My BROTHERS from cross country. I will never forget those times I had with them, and I am so happy they have accomplished what they have.

Thank you for inspiring me guys.

I love you all. I am so grateful for the countless letters and emails I have been receiving. If I ever don't respond, please know that I truly want to, and that I always LOVE reading your letters, but sometimes there just isn't time.

Love you all!

E Graves

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Write to Elder Graves in 1 of 4 ways:

1. E-mail - tgraves@myldsmail.net

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Monday, October 20, 2014

5 Cousin Missionaries - 105 deg F - Speaking Spanish Well! - Guided by the Spirit - Members donate land for church building - Last talk in Lopez - Transfered to Argentina - Baptisms to come

The first thing I want to say is this week I have been thinking a lot about the cousins that I have out serving missions. First there is Souer Kayla Cummings who entered the field at the same time as me. She is serving in Canada speaking French. Then there is my cousin and best friend Elder Braden Birch who has been serving in Oklahoma for more than a year. Then there is my other Cousin Elder Kaden Holmgren who is finishing his mission in Xalapa Mexico. Now my cousin Elder Cameron Cummings is joining the force and serving one country away from me in Brazil. I am so proud of each one of my cousins for there decision to serve. I was thinking about how cool it would be to have the opportunity to work alongside them, but then I realized... hey, I really am working alongside them. This work is the same here, Brazil, Canada, the USA, and Mexico and all other countries. Thank you to all of my cousins for helping this work go forth along side me.

Dad, please put a picture of all 5 of us if possible :)

So this week I have several points that are kind of random, but I am just going to go for it :)

1. This past week it passed 105 degrees with EXTREME HUMIDITY 4 times. You have to keep in mind that there are still more than 2 months til "summer" officially starts.

2. During one of my lessons with investigators, one of the people asked me, "so Elder Graves, how many years have you been speaking Castelleno (Spanish)?" When I told them "for less than 4 months" they were shocked! Haha, I have sooooooooooo much to learn but I am so grateful for what I have learned already! It is amazing how much the Lord can help you learn a language, when you are faithfully doing his work.

3. There is a less active member who we had been visiting and trying to reanimate her and help her realize the blessings of the church. One day she moved to another house without telling us anything and we were very surprised when we didn't find her one day in her house. We had looked and looked and looked for her for more than a week, asking people where she moved, but couldn't find her. One day while thinking about asking around again where she lived, we decided that we would just do some contacting and hope that we might find her new house. The FIRST house we contacted, was her house. This was a miracle and is pure evidence to me that the spirit truly does guide us.

4.We have the best members here in Lopez. They continue to surprise me and bless the church in countless ways. This week a family in our group offered their land (where 3 houses that they own are located) to the Branch President, so the church could use the land to build a church building. They truly are amazing members.

5.Finally I got to give another talk in Church and direct the sacrament meeting this week. Although I am starting to feel more comfortable with the language, it is still super scary! The reason I gave my talk (and the members didn't know this until I said it in my talk) is because I will be leaving Paraguay and going to a city (that I still don't know the name of) in Argentina. In the last part of my talk as I told them that I loved them, and they were like my family and it was hard to have to say goodbye to my family again, I saw many people crying. These people really have become like my family, even though we still have a bit of a language barrier, it is going to be so hard to leave.

6. The really hard part about leaving is that we have 5 people who will be baptized within the next month and a half. One of them is Apolonio who is 83 years old who I sent a picture of recently. Although I wont be there for there baptisms, it makes me so happy that I had the opportunity to help them in this very important journey.

Thank you for your love and support. I am so excited to have the opportunity to serve in the same country that my Dad served in 22 years ago. I will be traveling to Argentina in 2 days, and will update you more next week.

Love you all,

Elder Graves

Fotos:

1. The two families that have helped us the most. The family Ramirez and The family Echardt Ramirez. I love them and hope I can one day see them again

2. My last sacrament meeting here. Even though it rained, (which usually means you don't do anything here in Paraguay) we had the biggest assistance to the church since I have been here in these 3 months.

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Write to Elder Graves in 1 of 4 ways:

1. E-mail - tgraves@myldsmail.net

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Monday, October 13, 2014

Armando's Baptism - Interview w/Mission President - Only in their area 12 of 30 days - McDonalds with Zone Leader - Taylor's companion = Enoc Joseph Smith Silva

So we finally had our Baptism that we have been preparing for for a LONG time! Due to MANY delays, it was postponed and postponed, but finally it happened. I had the awesome opportunity to confirm Armando a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints and give him a blessing! It was a really special experience for both of us. My companion got to baptize him and I have some pretty sweet pictures... but this computer I am at is sooooo slowwwww. So I am just going to send one :)

This picture is of Armando and I liked the way he seemed to be pondering about the importance of baptism and the covenant he was about to make! So so proud of him!!!!

Okay so I don't have my notebook of all the things I planned on sharing so this week might not be as long as normal, because I cant really remember everything with out my notebook.

So I really only have time to write about one thing today, I plan on writing more next week, but we are again very limited on time because we are not in our area (again...). I had an interview with the President of the mission. I told him about our struggles, and how it was very hard to help people progress when we had only been in our area 12 out of the 30 days in the month (normal would be about 24-25). I told him it almost felt like it wasn't worth traveling 6 hours out to Lopez only to return to the Encarnacion 2 days later. He told me he had carefully prayed about this exact problem, and he said that for some reason he was still prompted that it will always be worth it to have missionaries in Lopez. I am glad to have such a powerful and wise leader as the president of our mission who is willing to listen to the promptings of the spirit.

Love you guys. I know its lame how short this was, but like always there is literally no time. I will dedicate more time to the general email next week!

Love you all!!!

ELDER GRAVES

Oh yeah... my zone leader Elder Sanchez and I were twins at BURGER KING!

P.S. My companion is so awesome that his full name is Enoc Joseph Smith Silva" True story by the way...

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Write to Elder Graves in 1 of 4 ways:

1. E-mail - tgraves@myldsmail.net

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Monday, October 6, 2014

Mom Sang in Conference - In Argentina (@McDonalds :-) with MTC District - Serving & Running with A.P.s - Buses called "Proud to Be a Missionary" - Picture of Name tags in Spanish VS Guarani - Holding Bunny - Great turnout for Conference! - Please pray for dry weather/baptism

DID YOU GUYS SEE MY MOM!?

Everyone in the chapel knew that I was looking for her, and when she came on (multiple times) everyone in the chapel was so happy for me!!! I have to admit the last song she sang made me tear up. It was like saying goodbye again. But honestly seeing her really felt like the reward after the trial. I am so grateful she was blessed with that opportunity to sing and remind me of my motivation here on my mission, my family.

Okay so I am way behind on pictures and my mom said she wants to see more pictures, so I am just going to share some for the next little bit!

Okay this is last week looking out towards Argentina! (We were in Paraguay!) I was super excited to finally go back to Argentina!

All of "The Original District" is reunited! We were so excited to get to spend some time together! (And have the opurtunity to speak some English) Aaaaaaaaannnd we had Mcdonalds! I know I never liked McDonalds back in the day, but eating there made me feel soooo at home for some reason!

Here are the AP´s of my Mission! They are so fun and I got to be with them for a couple of days and learn from their awesome example! This is us right before going on a run. A real run. Not me running back and forth on 50 meters of street, but a real run. Through the city, on the beach, across bridges, dodging crazy drivers of Argentina. It was awesome! And they are actually fast! This day was the best day of my worst week :)

Okay you have to excuse how dead and goofy I look, it was 1:30 in the morning and had about 40 minutes of sleep that night and was borrowing clothes of an Elder who weighs about 250 pounds...but this bus is super funny! Because in English it says "Proud to be a Missionary"! When I first saw this bus I was super confused,. But then I realized that we are in the Province/State of Misiones. So every one who lives in that province is technically un misionero. HAHA

Okay I took this picture because I dont think you guys understand how truly insane guarani is. I know I have explained before that it is nothing like Spanish, but it also is not like any other language known to man...

Here is a random picture of me holding a bunny...

This is a picture of us and the Lopez Group who traveled to Natalio (3 hour drive) to watch conference. On a good week we have 3 or 4 investigators attend the church, but this week we were praying all week that we would have a good turn out to Conference. Even though it is so far, we had 10 investigators make the trip to watch conference!!!!!!! We were so happy!

The man on the far right is Named "Apolonio". He is near impossible to understand and is 83 years old. We found him and could not understand a word we were saying. (Not just me, my companion from Peru neither). I was under the impression that he was just uneducated and this was going to be very difficult to continue to teach him. But my companion had more faith than I did at that time. He decided that we should bring a member to our next lesson with him. We did, and it was amazing. They talked in Guarani the whole time (I understood about 8 words in 35 minutes) and he clearly was touched by what the member had said. Now that we know that he truly is a very smart man, just speaks a different language, we are going to continue to bring members with us to visit him.

The boy in the red shirt with white sleeves is who is going to be baptized soon. His name is Armando. The Brother of Fernando. His Baptismal date was moved to Octubre 11 to allow us to teach him a little more (because we haven't been in Lopez). Unfortunately, we again have been rained out of Lopez. We had such a bad storm today I don't know if the roads will EVER dry! Because we have a mission conference on Thursday we wont be able to get back to Lopez until the day of the baptism or the day before if we are lucky. If you all could please pray for us so that it wont rain and that the baptism can go smoothly.

Okay a couple more things.

Again, going back to seeing my mom, as I watched her sing from 6000 miles away, I realized something. I had the thought, the impression, that if the only thing I learned on my mission, was that I love my family, the way I now realize that I love them, it would make it ALL worth it.

I love the prophets, and was so grateful to hear there inspired words. It was very interesting to here the talks in Japanese, Portuguese and especially Spanish. I hope you all were able to learn from this conference.

I love you all!

Elder Graves

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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

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3. Physical Mailing Address.

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