Guayaquil Hill

Guayaquil Hill

Sunday, May 31, 2015

May 28 2015



After 10 solid minutes of reading... scratch that, forgot to read yours haha saved it for last.. anyways, now after reading all that I am SOOO HAPPYYY!!! 
Today I got my package. After we got back from the Temple we ate lunch and I went with Hermano Ortiz to what I can only assume was a post office. Real sketchy... First off, the bottom had been re-taped, so that was stupid. Plus they used a neon orange tape with spanish all over so it was obvious they had opened it!! But anyways, it was only 6-7 bucks so not bad. 
To explain the car ride a little, had a pretty good conversation with Hermano Ortiz in ALL SPANISH!! It was cool. I speak very broken spanish, but I speak. so ya... Anyways, the driving here is NUTS!! They just cut anything off theres about 2 bikes for every car and they are more nuts than the cars!! They will drive right in between two buses with only inches to spare like it's nothing!! We circle the block of the post office and theres little huts made of pallets which I think were homes.. and then we pulled up to the post office. We went in and they wrote down my passport number, don't know why but again, Hermano Ortiz was there so whatever... They handed me the package and I held it so tightly the whole way back!! I was soo happy!! I ate the last 3 high chews today so the candy was very welcomed.. also, super pumped about the ''mios'' and the chick fil a sauce!! But the gym shorts were awesome. And I've already showed everybody the Darth Tater shirt and explained that tater is papa (potato). Its great.. and the stupid card, I blow 5 times and nothing! Only one light every time!! So stupid!! Ive wasted soo much time on that!! Anyways thank you all so much for the package and the card. It meant a lot. I guess everyone can tell I'm a lot happier today because they keep saying you're oddly happy..
  Ok to go into more detail about the happy thing.. We got latin comps. ya. I was soo excited when I heard he was from coumbia!! Columbians so far are soo awesome!! But I didn't expect what came next.  He likes to study, and wants every investigator to know about the word of wisdom and the law of chastity on the first lesson. Which is good, but terrible. After every meal, we used to walk around the building to help the food settle and move a little. But me and my companion decided (he decided) he would much rather study IN THE DISTRICT!!  (Classroom) Which by the way instead of a great district with a grand corner window we are in the broom closet in the gym... Like almost literally. It's a terrible district. And rather than letting me talk with the nortes for a measly 5 minutes before bed, he can't leave the room because he is writing and he has to be in ONLY OUR ROOM when he writes. So basically instead of talking and venting for the last week I've been sitting silently in class while he studies. I've had every class already so its hard to become more prepared for the classes. On top of that my district is very strict about not doing splits in the CCM meaning I have to constanly be with my comp.. Its been really hard. And I can't yell at him cuz I don't know enough spanish words for being angry!! All I know are gospel words! Its been hard. 
But I will say I'm starting to actually understand my teacher so that's good. So my biggest spanish problem has been the understanding. I can write, and usually speak well enough to get my point across. So I am improving.
But you know, whatever, my district is alright though. Besides singing into the evening and being super immature about farts. No joke if someone farts in la evening they will laugh about it for at least 5 minutes. It's ridiculous. But my district leader is super nice. He's the only person in this group that's taken the time to get to know me.  I like him. 
So anyways back on the birthday subject.. I told my companion about my birthday and he told the whole ccm!! Most the time this group doesn't like to talk to the nortes which sucks but today I swear I've had happy birthday sung like 15 times!! And I've been gone half the day! 
Oh ya, regarding my travel plans, they haven't told us anything but the last 2 groups all had the same plans. People needing planes (Ecuador) will leave either 2,3,4 in the morning of Tuesday. So I'm assuming it will be the same. 
Oh funny story time. We were venting the other day. Elder extrom tells me ''my guy is soo weird. He puts socks on before underwear, and puts his belt on before he puts the pants on!!'' It made me laugh soo hard.. 
Anyways, I've got like 15 emails I want to respond to and pictures so I better sign off... Oh one more thing!! My comp had never been through the temple so Tuesday I was his escort. It was awesome!!! Anyways love you guys tons. Thanks to everyone for the emails and package on my birthday, it made today soo much better than I expected.

con amor (with love),
Elder Taylor



May 19 2015



HAHA good to hear from you. First off, about the package, I haven't heard anything about it but I will ask president right after this.  Maybe he'll even let me tell you whats up... 
Anyways, I'm glad you guys enjoyed the skype, but honestly I've never complained so much in my life!! There are a lot of things I don't like about this MTC. Stuff that doesn't make any sense. Such as a teacher standing behind every missionary watching them talk to their family (in case anything goes wrong is the excuse when I promise I know computers better than any of these teachers) and then finding out other missionaries got an hour to talk with their families even though they'd been here for a week, and then the teacher behind me literally was laughing and talking about my spanish right behind me the whole time. SHE LITERALLY LAUGHED WHEN I SHOWED YOU MY SPANISH!! Plus to make it even better, my teacher asked me why I was withdrawn in the next class and I explained, and then he focused the whole next lesson on me, embarrassing me in front of everyone. Then Johnson gave me a scripture that said to quit murmuring, and explained that I needed more patience!! I was very upset that night. Barely slept. Not gunna lie, the next two days I was kinda withdrawn, but today definitely made up for it. We went to the temple which always renews my spirits, and then we went on tour. We went to the gold museum which was really creepy, but cool. The gold is the Lamanites gold. Their stuff is really cool but creepy.
 So my district has officially been split, I moved rooms today and will meet my companion in the morning. He is from Columbia so he will be cool. There are a lot of Ecuadorians coming tomorrow though. I'm the only person without an Ecuadorian comp! Really weird, but a few are going to my mission!! Super pumped. 
Of another thought about my birthday is the fact that you tried is awesome. Elder Orr's was May 5 and we gave him 2 packs of Oreos. That was all we had. It was great. So I'm not expecting much. Ok quick update, I asked president (he walked by) he said that's normally the case. More money.
Anyways he said to ask Hermano Ortiz in the morning, that he would be the one who would hear about it. President doesn't do that kind of stuff. So another thing I didn't get a chance to ask for was Mios. I miss flavored water!!! Oh and suitcase locks. Obviously I won't need them now but when I'm in the field I'd like to lock my valuables up somehow and I doubt street vendors will have them. And an english hymn book. Anyways had to write that down before I forgot. 
So when we were out, we convinced Hermano Baragon to take us to a few places where we could buy stuff. I spent the last of my pesos today so that was good. I spent 17,000 to go up the gondala to the wierd catholic temple, and 3,000 to go in the museum, and 12,700 on a soda and a whole bunch of chocolate. It is great. Candy is money in the CCM because no one thinks to bring it, and we don't have any access to it. 
Anyways, more detail about the catholic temple.. The gondola is super sketchy. They put as many people in them as they can fit!! I was shoved against the glass, and was pretty nervous. But once you get up there, you can see all of Bogota. It is HUGE!!! Also, there is like a street just full of vendors selling jerseys, and knick knacks, and nasty neon yellow chickens that you can tell haven't moved since the guy cooked them yesterday. Crazy. Got a few cool pictures, but this camera sucks!! I have to aim it at the ground, then point at what I want and take the picture rapidly otherwise it looks super dark!! Its really annoying. I might have to buy a new one in a few months or something. 
So starting tomorrow, we are officially on the latin schedule! Meaning no more horrible grammar classes, or TALL(computer language program)!! I'm so excited!! Now lets see.. thinking back on the week, I don't know if I ever told you but I gave a talk two weeks ago. They make everyone prepare a talk and then at sacrament they select 6 people. I'm the first norte I've seen give a talk yet. Afterwards, president got up and says, Now we can see the gift of tongues working, Elder Taylor just gave a talk in english, spanish, and portuguese! It was pretty funny. 
The last group (of missionaries) was just awesome. Mostly converts, the most loving people ever. Most of them wanted to learn english so they'd always try talking to us. I taught about half of them to say *whats Up Dog?* It was great. They helped a ton. 
So last Saturday, before talking to you guys, we went out proselyting for 3 hours straight.
Elder Orr went with the teachers, and Elder Musick and I ended up going on splits. He went with Elder Esquivel and I went with Elder Fernandez who spoke no english and slurred all his words. It was a great learning experience for us. I spoke spanish for 3 hours almost non stop. Granted, it was crappy conjugated words but it was spanish. So let me explain why spanish is so hard. All verbs end with either ER, AR, or IR. So for example, Ayudar means help but to say help me it becomes ayudo or for you there's ayudas or ayuda for we it's ayudamos then for all its ayudáis then for you plurual or they its ayudan. That is present form though. To you will you help its ayudará, and so forth. There's like  8 forms you use. In enlish we use the same word, and add will or did or whatnot to make it past tense or whatnot. It is terrible. Every day we have learned a new form so they all kinda mash together in your brain and that's before you even know the verbs!! It's hard. Then on top of that our teachers are very forgetful so rather than a week to write 100 lines in spanish about the first lesson, we have a day. We don't have time in the days to do this stuff so its difficult. To give an example of the teachers we had one day where we had one lesson. They just forgot about us somehow. We just sat in the room and tried to catch up on all the extra work we had. Another fun story for you. The other day we were walking to our district when president stops us ans says don't go in, there's a bird in your room. It was fun. We all went in. He eventually came back with a pair of gloves and I grabbed them, and caught the bird then threw it out the window. It was fun. K I'm gunna run to my room and grab the cord to try to send pictures now. Oh congrats to Abby, love the dogs for me and love one another. Don't know why I added the last part it just flowed well...

Love you all,
Elder Taylor





 


Thursday, May 28, 2015

May 15/16 2015



May 15:
"I CAN SKYPE!!!  If you are on the lake let mom Skype at home and use facetime to watch or something I guess... It'll be at 1:30 my time which is 12"30 yours. 
May 16:



May 14 2015



First call logistics... sadly, no Skype. I asked the president about it. Its stupid. We are using an internet program that calls cellphones, and calling you. So.. ya.. There are webcams on EVERY computer and he told me his excuse was that is was too hard to hook up audio and video... IT TAKES TWO SECONDS!!! Very frustrating. And the calls only go for 45 minutes. We will call at 1:30 my time which I believe is 12:30 your time and it'll last till 1:15 your time. No idea how the program works but he said it's all set up so I'll call mom's cellphone. If that doesn't work I'll call Abby's if that doesn't work I'll call dad.. he will be fishing right? 
Anyways so fun story..  more like nerve wracking story. Every Sunday they give everybody a topic for a 5 minute talk. Mine was on the spirit or something, I don't really remember cuz it was in spanish. But I used the scripture from Juniors Giants!! I don't remember the exact one, but it is the fruit of the spirit is love, peace, joy..... it was good though. 
So this week the new nortes arrived! Technically last week, but the day after my email.. another thing I hate about this MTC is the emailing.. 5 days apart then 9 days apart. That makes no sense!!!
 I'm glad to hear about the dogs!! That's awesome! You got another dog!! Rosco willl be alright though. He is just jealous because shes been online chatting with babes all day (makes absolutely no sense but I thought it was funny and that's all that keeps me pushing through this MTC). Glad to hear the house is coming along well also! Dad said June?? That's awesome!! I am sad to miss out on the whole house demo thing.. but I'll come back and you'll be settled with puppies coming out your ears!! If you can't tell I'm a little scatter brained, cuz you think up things to write home all week and then you get one hour. Not even a second more. Um the MTC is well though. I enjoy playing volleyball and I LOVE THIS GROUP!! The latinos are soo much nicer!!
Like the first day one kid (who speaks English pretty well) just gives elder Extrom a huge thing of Argentinan chocolate just cuz his brother is there!! CRAZY!! 
Also I kinda started a trend. I challenged one latino to repeat the first vision, and ever since then they challenge us all the time!! Actually I have a funny story to go along with that.. I was in class, and Elder Johnson had to use the bathroom. I kinda had to go as well, so I went. I was sitting on the toilet, and I hear, "Elder Taylor, Primero vision!!" (first vision) It was strange but funny. 
Also they want really badly to learn English. One kid, Who has the humor of a 10 year old, no joke, always is asking stuff. Example, Como I say tray? Elder Extrom tells him, he repeats, Trar. No tray. Trar. No trayyy.  Traerrr.. It is hilarious. 
I am in a competition with one kid to see who can say our objective in the other language fastest. Me in Spanish, him in English. It's really funny.. Loser has to drink a bunch of hot sauce which honestly isn't even that spicy.
Anyways, I'm gunna email dad real quick and send a bunch of pictures. Love you guys. I pray really hard for you like every hour (In Spanish!!)
 Love,
Elder Taylor


OH and if dad's on the water have him conference call, as well as Dylan! I want to speak spanish with him!! Love you!! Imagine a little Colombian man standing behind me yelling, CHOW CHOW CHOW TIEMPO!!