Spanish Week September 29, 2010

Hola familia,
como esta? bueno. how is everything? everybody doing good? i really hope so. things are going really good here. it is spanish week where we cant say anything in english. well i slip up ALOT. but im trying. it is really making it difficult to get along with my companion elder leive because he doesnt understand me and i dont understand him. so basically we just get frustrated and dont talk but......in mexico i wont be able to say what i want for awhile to my native companions but oh well. the lord will provide.
yesterday we had a devotional and it was elder clayton of the seventy (i think) anyway he talk about the dream the nebacanzer (i know i spelled it wrong) anyway the dream is in danial and it talks about a stone cut from the mountian without hands. then rolling and feeling the whole earth. the stone is the church and it is growing rapidly already starting to fill parts around the world. over the past years prophets have said the church is growing fast and they keep saying "this is only the begining" i thought that 333 mission was incredible but if this is only the beginning i wonder what it will be like when we get going faster. im excited to be apart of the rolling stone we all are. we are examples through the way we live our lives. i love you guys keep doing your best to follow the gospel of jesus christ. we are so so so lucky to have it.
we taught josue again. it was really difficult because we had things to teach him and he had questions and we only had 15 minutes. my companions kept going with the lesson and i tried to answer his questions. like stuff about the god head. my companions dont listen i think to the investigator. they are to busy thinking what to say next. i try and listen and understand the best i can. it is really difficult when we are all strong in different areas of spanish. at the end of the lesson he said he likes praying it makes him feel good. but he doesnt ask for anything for himself. he wont ask about the BOM and he needs to. so i think we are going to address that next time.
we didnt get to teach ashley this week. (she had someone take her shift in the TEC) so i dont have an update one her.
we are starting to teach lesson 2 (the plan of salvation alot) it has a lot of vocab in there that is hard to explain. atonement is hard to explain in spanish. haha. but with pracitice ill get it.
conference is this weekend and i am so excited to go to salt lake feel close to home again. well closer then i feel now. pracitces have been way good to help me relax. they are in the morning so it is a good way to start my day. we are singing hark all ye nations, go ye messengers of heaven and of course called to serve. it is alot of fun. i love the music staff that is helping us. they make it relaxing and rewarding.
other then that there isnt anything to exciting. i feel better then i have ever felt in a long time. with the wieght that i have lost. (im not gonna say becuase mom will send me more food so i get fat again.) i feel so great everyone in the district saw a picture that was taken of me one the first day....they said i look great. where everyone else (except my companion elder hansen) looks fatter. haha. i feel so good about my self. im not where i want to be but i feel so much better. anyway im out of time for today we havea service assignment to do today before the new elders come in today (like scotty)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!im so so so so so so excited to see him again. i have missed him a ton. oh and connor left for texas fort worth. he got reasigned for a bit. i will most likely be put state side for a bit so ill call (yes i get to call) when i get that so be waiting to hear from me next week or so. ilove you guys so so so so much. keep of the good work. i love you and the lord loves you
love
ELDER TAYLOR PASKETT

Singing in Conference September 22, 2010

Hey family,

How is everyone? how is school, work, and playing? the lake sounded fun but honestly I'm not to upset i missed it. i have been working to hard to miss it. p day is hard not to think about it though especially when the day is nice i want to be at the lake and just swim in the water. oh well.

anyway freaking amazing news.....guess what i get to do....that is right sing in conference for the priesthood session!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited there are four of us in our zone that get to go. (sadly my comp elder hansen didn't make it) i tried to give my permission slip to him and have him go the first day. he wanted it more then i did but he wouldn't take it. any way our first practice was this morning and I'm so excited for it. it is so nice to sing again. we sing in class and Sundays but not as intense as it was this morning. so boys look for me when the choir sings. mom alli makenna you will be able to watch it later. on lds.org you can watch the conference online when it is up. just look at the top above the speakers and click on listen to music or something of the sort. dad you are smart and can find it im sure. i might be on camera a time or two so just look for me.

my companion elder levie is now senior companion and operates a little slower then elder hansen and i. during planning half way through he says take time and plan personal study for tomorrow. well elder hansen and i are done with that part. i think it bothers him a little when we are a few steps ahead of him. i don't know how to slow down very well without getting lazy or feeling lazy but I'm learning to just go with it. i have many hours to study during the day so if a little time is lost to help him out it is ok i just push harder during my time.

i got 2 new investigators. (pretend ones but I'm going to talk like they are real because they feel real) we have a place called the TE which means teaching evaluation where teachers pretend to be investigators. this is where i go to teach them.

anyway. Ashley is my English one. we have taught her 3 times now. she doesn't understand why it had to be joseph smith why couldn't it be someone else who wanted truth. also she doesn't understand why our church is the only people who get to go to heaven. I'm thinking we need to teach the plan of salvation all the way through so that she understands the spirit world and the kingdoms of glory. we tell her that everyone will get a chance to hear the gospel but she argues that there is no way we can teach the people in the amazon. we brought up the spirit world when she brought that up and still argued good people will go to heaven even if they don't join as she calls it "our" church. it isn't our church and we tell her that. it is Christ's church. we asked her to go to church with her friend and she said yes. we haven't had a chance to check up on her yet. (it is hard to get appointments in the TE) but hopefully she went and felt good. in short slowly but surely she is making progress. anyway that is that one in short.

josue is our Spanish investigator. holy cow. i don't understand anything he says. I'm going to be freaking out when i get to Mexico. any way, he is having a hard time believing that god answers his prayers. we asked him to pray to him. well he forgot and i was super upset. it drove me crazy. i told him the only way for him to know is to ask. god doesn't answer the desires of your heart unless you present them to him. DUH! anyway we asked him to read for the book of mormon in 3 nephi chaps 11-12 and he said he would. we told him a little about the book of mormon and he has read a little bit and says it is just like the bible. he has a hard time thinking that the gospel blessed his family. his parents are separated and doesn't understand why god let that happen. i tried to bring up agency but my Spanish was seriously lacking. it was super stressful.

our last one we have had for a few weeks but i haven't really said anything about him so here you go. diego. he likes the idea of god. doesn't know if he is there for sure or not but likes the idea and if he did exsist he knows that he would love him and knows that he would be a child of god. he feels really good when reading the book of mormon and really liked when we sat down and read with him. we discussed scriptures in the chapter as we went a long explaining things and answering questions. he is making really good progress

lets see what else. oh the little district (the newish one) loves me i always have TONS of food for them and i like to talk with them. a lot of them have come to me asking for advice about companionships it stress me out cause i want to help but I'm afraid ill make it worse. most of them have come to me for more advice after some problems get fixed after i help them. i have gotten a few to quit writing there girlfriends everyday and obsessing over them. they have realized it is only harder if they let it occupy their time. and plus it is against the rules to write everyday. haha.

i love you guys lots I'm glad you are safe. i am feeling much better then i was last week. I'm starting to sleep much better and wake up feeling better then i was last week. I'm still not 100% but almost. i just need to keep working. que mas? i love getting mail you can never write to much. i love hearing anything and everything.

yes mom i have been taking my vitamins don't worry. (they taste gross, just like the food.) and i have stopped losing weight. i haven't weighed my self in a while so i cant give you a number but i feel good about myself. more energetic.

kids I'm sorry soccer hasn't always been a win for you but try and have fun always. it makes everything better. during gym we play soccer and when people get upset when they are losing it sucks the fun out of it fast.

thanks for going to scotty's farewell. i love how you can be close with my friends. they mean a lot to me especially scotty. i cant wait to see him.

I'm praying for you dad and your job stuff. i don't know what exactly goes on but keep me posted i would like to hear.

tanner i don't know how you got so popular but keep it up. keep working hard.

jon keep working hard to. life is better when you work hard and see results.

makenna don't bruise your butt again haha.

alli i love you so much and think of you everyday. my zone still thinks your super cute and love your hair.

mom i love you so much. i miss you like crazy. and I'm not dying i promise.

dad your advice keeps me going and was it bednars talk about missionary and becoming one i love that talk

Anyway i am out of time. i love you all be safe

love elder paskett

ps please email this to kait and her mom.

Coughing up a Lung September 15, 2010

HELLO!!!!!!!!

this last week has been a very very long week. after getting out of isolation. we had huge contention in our companionship fighting over just about everything. ( I think it was because of lack of sleep) but anyway all that happened we went to bed and i didn't sleep at all i was coughing blowing my nose all night long. the next day i went back to the doctors cause i felt worse. ya sucks trust me i know. he suggested i go back to isolation. so i did for another day. i met an elder named elder chapel we got along really well but i slept quite a bit this time around. i got let out the next day again only fearing that i would feel worse again the next day. well i did feel worse but it was because i cant sleep. so my branch president told me to sleep when i needed. it has helped a lot I'm feeling a little better but I'm pretty sure i keep coughing up a lung and having to put it back in sometimes.

the contention in our trio was solved to we all sat down together and had comp inventory( which pretty much means fix your problems with each other) we talked it all out said what bothered us and all promised to work on things.

Before this tho i talked to my zone leader about it elder donnor, i love him, and he looked at me and said maybe it is you that has the problem that needs to be fixed. he asked me when we did comp inventory to swallow my pride(you guys know how stubborn i am) and change. i did just that. i humbled myself and said that i would work on the things that bothered them and after all of that they thanked me for my willingness to change to help them. that caused them to want to help me as much as possible. it was really good. we work a lot better now.

Spanish is coming along very well. it took leaps and bounds this week. i taught three lessons in Spanish (all lesson one (the restoration)) and i got taught 4 or 5 lessons in Spanish. the other district in my zone taught me a bunch. i have them teach me for my language study. instead of studying Spanish i do Spanish i like it a lot more and it helps me out a bunch.

I'm sorry i don't write home more then just my email pday is one of the worst days here because everything is so rushed I'm going to try and get time to write everyone a letter before i leave the mtc. i love you so much and wish i could write everyday but it is against the rules and I'm trying so hard to be 100% obedient.

i would have loved a subway sandwich and chicken salad sounded amazing the day it came. however i don't pick up my own mail. My district leader has to. so i cant check it all day looking for the food to come. and it is mtc policy anything that comes through the mail system that needs to be refrigerated or kept warm needs to be thrown away. especially if i comes through the mail like it has been. they don't know if it has been in a hot truck for hours or just a few minutes so they go through the packages that come from the service you sent it through to check so the missionaries don't get sick. i love you so much that you are trying to feed me. and im sad that it didn't work out ( i was really upset the second time, my whole district had to calm me down) but i am OK. I'm losing weight because im praying for help. i don't drink soda i don't eat desserts (mainly cause they aren't all that good) and because of this control I'm losing weight. it isn't because I'm not eating. i eat every meal. i promise mom.

i got your tape and bawled the whole time. i miss all of you so much. i will start working on the tape when i can control my cough a little more. it sounds gross. haha. i never thought that i would miss tanner playing the piano. strange right? i miss the chaos of home. i really do. i love you all so much. however i have noticed all of you (except for jon)(JK) have grown up a lot.

mom i am sorry about your work stuff i really didn't understand it all that much i don't know all your PTC LMNOP stuff are it is over my head. i know scriptures tho. feel free to talk about those haha. i am doing well. i am getting better slowly but surely. i have enough junk food in my room to feed all of the army of helaman. (haha you know you are a missionary when....you crack that joke) the oreos are so good. elder johnson helped me finish the ooey gooey mix he loved it. and i still have tons of food left. What do you want me to do with the cooler and the containers? i cant attempt to send them home when i send the tape. just let me know. mommy i love you so much. i know i am doing the right thing tho. i know like it says in D&C 31 my family will be blest in this time of service. please be safe and help the family be safe. i promise i am a big boy now and can take care of myself however the lord is taking care of me more then you or i can imagine. continue to pray for me. i pray for you always. i love you.

all of you please be safe. please work hard. please continue to draw close to the savior. in alma 37:44 it says it is easy to live the gospel. remember that don't make it harder to come to Christ then it really is. i love you all so much.

PS brit left a week or so ago i got to say good bye the night before. connor is still here and we have the same meal times so we talk a lot.

i love you all so much be safe please.

Love your son and brother and friend.

TAYLOR (elder paskett)

Isolation September 8, 2010

Hey everyone,

sorry i didn't email earlier. i was in isolation. i got the flu and they put me on a floor me and my comp who was sick for 24 hours we got out this morning. it was a test for me for sure. i was praying to get along with my comp. i was praying for the ability to get along next thing i know i was put in a room to ourselves with only three people to talk to him, myself and god. it was a test for sure but i learned more about him. he isn't so much like tanner anymore. he was like him because he was forgetful and moves at his own pace. (i love you tanner) but anyway i had time to evaluate my experience here. to evaluate my work ethic. i have been slacking but no more. i haven't been lazy just not working my hardest. isolation wasn't to bad. cold showers cold food one room. one floor for the two of us. it felt like three days I'm so glad we were only in there for one. I'm not sure why they let us out. I'm still a little sick but feeling better. I'm not complaining they let me out. i love the fresh air.

anyway we got new teachers i haven't met them yet because of isolation but i here they are awesome. I'm going to miss my old teachers tho they were in credible. they pushed me and really cared for me. I'm sure they made incredible missionaries because well you could just tell.

lets see what else. it really isn't exciting here. the food is getting grosser my pants keep getting bigger and bigger the suit that i thought wasn't going to fit by the end of the mtc is close to falling off of me. i have lost at least 12 pounds. I'm so excited I'm going to weigh my self tomorrow. i really just had to stop drinking soda. it was so bad for me. i feel so much better since i haven't chugged it like i did. um what else. this is really boring I'm sorry. there hasn't been a whole lot of excitement since we got sick we had to cancel all our appointments to teach mock progressive investigators. i have been staying with my comp in the room before isolation because he was to tired to get up. then i got sick. and now i am here. this is so boring I'm really sorry haha.

I'm starting to think in Spanish in fact it is messing my English up. i cant spell anymore because either the Spanish comes to mind first or i try and spell it like i would in Spanish. it is getting pretty bad . i like it though.

I'm sorry i cant really respond to letter you wrote me i don't have them with me i didn't think i would be emailing right now. it has been so crazy the past day. p day was almost over. i didn't have time to do laundry. and now I'm emailing shortly before the temple. which i am so excited for.

i love you guys so much. being away has made me love you so much more then i could ever imagine. i pray for you every night and i know the lord is helping you with all your trails and challenges i know he answers prayers. he answered mine when i prayed for a warm shower. yeah I'm serious in isolation the showers were freezing so i prayed and knew he would help me. he did. it was awesome. pray to him for everything. if you have the faith he will answer your prayers he will. i can testify of that. he loves you so much and wants you happy. he can only make you happy if you believe he can.\

mom i love you so much. i miss you more then you can imagine.

dad i love you too. thank you for preparing me for this.

alli you are amazing i couldnt ask for a better example.

tanner. i didnt say this enough but i love you . you are wonderful

jon stay away from girls. (tanner you too.) and i love you

makenna stay away from boys. and i love you so much.

keep working hard all of you. you are amazing and the lord will bless you for your efforts. please know i love you. please know that the lord loves you. be safe always.

love your son brother and friend

ELDER TAYLOR PASKETT

3 Weeks

Hey mom (everyone),

How are you guys doing? how is school going for you guys? how is work? i hope everything is going well for you.

This week wasn't to eventful. we had a teacher leave and we got a new one his name is hermano paz soldan. he is really good i love the way he teaches he made me feel better about my spanish and my teaching skills im really excited to learn more from him.

my new companionship has been a little rough beacuse one of my companions is like.....tanner. yeah thats right tanner. thanks for preparing me for this tanner haha i love you. things are going to get better i just have to be used to it. it took me two weeks to get used to elder jensen so give it one more week and i will be used to being in a trio.

Oh everyone in my zone thinks that alli is a hottie. elder hansen is writing her already and three more people want to write her. i think that it is really funny. i constantly have people coming in my room saying sonso said that your sister is cute do you have a picture. so alli if you get a few letters this week, its beacuse elders think you are really cute.

i loved hearing from everybody this week dont be afraid to write me alot because mail is better then christmas. you know how i hated getting up early for christmas....well i would get up at four if the mail came that early. it is so wonderful hearing from you guys. knowing that you are ok comforts me big time because i miss home alot.

elder hinckley came last night. (gordon b.'s son haha) i loved his talk alot. he gave nine tips in becoming a good missionary and being safe as a missionary. one thing he said that stuck to me is this. "you are going to chase away darkness. you are going to chase way sadness. you are going to be the light on the hill that cannot be hid." just thinking that i will be walking into homes where sadness dwells or where anger rules, and chasing those feelings away. wow i cant think of anything better.

three weeks down in the mtc 5 to go. it has gone so fast here each day feels like forever (probbaly because i get up at 6) but each week feels like a day. It kinda feels like there are 3 days here the first day here and driving here getting ready and what not, everyday after that is the second day and day three is today. so before i know it i will be in mexico, next ill be out a year. and at that point all my teachers say that they prayed for time to slow down because they cant keep up. im so excited.

thank you so much for the packages i have been getting. you have made it really hard to lose wait in the mtc. last week i was down eight pounds!!! not that im not eating i just havent had a soda in three weeks i dont eat three plates of food like everyone else and not eating at 11 at night has probably helped alot. but if you send me anything send me pictures there is nothing better then seeing the things and hearing about the things you are doing. i love it that way i dont feel like im missing out on it so much.

Anyway, i just want you to know that this church is true. why would it not be. god loves us so much. why wouldn't he give us his gospel. why wouldnt he want total happiness for us. dad wants the best for us why wouldnt our heavenly father? i love this so much i have never been so full of gozo (joy) in my life when it comes to the gospel. i am pumped everyday knowing i get the next 16 hours to read pray study something that is vital to my eternal life. i cant wait to get home and share my knowledge with you because not only am i inviting people to come unto to christ by helping them receive of the restored gospel thought faith in jesus christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, recieving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. i am coming unto christ. learning more then i ever thought i would. learning to love him more then i thought i could. please strive everyday to come unto christ it is so important. he loves you and is there to help you return and receive of the blessings that heavenly father has for us. i love you guys so much. you are the reason i am here. through your examples, the lessons you have taught me and all the love you have for me. i would be nothing with our you guys. (i look funny crying at the computer in the laundry room by the way)
i love you guys be strong have faith in jesus christ and the love that he has for you. he knows you better then you. he will carry your burdens if and only if you come unto him and ask him plead with him to help you carry the things you ahve to carry. i love you guys. remember you are god children, hiers to everything he has so be worthy in this life to recieve it so we me be together forever in happiness

Love elder paskett