Dec 29 2008

We might not be able to be online to visit with Taylor but that will
give him lots of time to put pictures on the site.

About that.. Today we went to the temple. We had to get up at 4 in the morning in order to get into the 7 oclock session. Needless to say.. I forgot to take my credit card to take out money for this month, and i forget my cable to transfer pictures.. But other than that everything is aight.

well we started this week good. We had to have a sister interviewed by the president.. Needless to say.. he forgot about us. and we waited for a good 2 hours till he arrived.. Everything worked out fine and was babtized on the 27th.. Name Violeta Aguilar.. She is the mom of Oscar whom we babtized earlier this month. She was confirmed on sunday along with our last 3 babtisms.

Well.. I¨m not sure what else to write.. There are changes next monday.. so who knows what will happen.. im pretty sure i will stay but you never know.


It was good to talk to everyone on chirstmas.. Hope you all had a good one.!!
Elder Taylor Wood

Ping Pong Guata Style

Goodnight, Sleep Tight, .....

too late!

3 Baptisms this week

I had three baptisms yesterday. so .. first jennifer martinez age 11. Brian martinez 14 years old.. Carlos Lopez.. 16 años
FOR SHORT here is a list of things i need..Maple syrup recipe..Thursday at 4 UTAH TIME is when we will talkI got a package from the derricks.. tell them thanks for me.Red laser pointer = american loveMom sister torres needs something in vinal.Needs to say in Maroon or black Come What May and Love ItIn small white in the bottom right Joseph B. Wirthlin (its a quote)it needs to be 32 inches long. (above the door frame) and 3 inches high.Anyway.. for p day we played soccer... i just run around yelling makeing everyone else who is playing hate the game.. I LOVE IT
Elder Taylor Wood

Tell us how the baptism was. no babtism.. scheduled for the 19th and 21st
How was your birthday? alright. Did you go order pizza or something fun? who has money for that.. we went cheep and made creamed eggs (missing the good cheese)
Did you get your present from us yet? SPEEKING OF THAT PRESENT... if you spent 45 dollars on a tie im gona beat you.!!! you hear me!! WITH A STICK.. how much did the yellow tie cost? and the red one?? YOU BETTER NOT LIE EITheER ( ross dress for less?? ))

Chef Wood

11 month mark

Happy Birthday Taylor

Dad and Nikki made the cake for Taylor. She spent a great deal of time decorating it into a farm: including pig pen, tractor/car, trailer etc. Then sprinkled little hard "break your teeth" balls all over the top. Hope your day was wonderful Taylor.

Happy 20!

Creamed Eggs - Yum!

20

Well i have alot of writting to do.. Just not to you guys (WINK WINK)We had our babtism this week it went well but i forgot my camera LOSER!!! . My comp took some but we have to develop it.
This week we are gona babtise Jennifer Martinez. age 12. (I put the date for my birthday HOW SELFISH!!) anyway..
We played basketball for p day.. and just kinda chilled.. I dont have much more to write.. I usually respond to questions if asked.. just do the columb style so i can awnser rapidly.
Got kims package, well i opened the letter right of the bat. then i read the box and noticed that i had tooth picks, poptarts, stickers and ETC.. well i laveled B'day and christmas needless to say.. I needed my toothpicks, had a deisre to eat poptarts, NEEDED Skittles, Opened one randomly ) stickers=, Some sweet hotwheels snacks and well i have some good gatorade stuff to drink(I Sorry kim.. might need to send me more to start over. BUT ... I still have 3 that are for christmas NO WORRIES!!
I let caros (our cook= barrow my laser.. someone stole it from his tent on a campout.. anyway.. still investagating.
Nothing more thanks,, Wood

Chef Herdendez

Guate Christmas Tree

Who would have ever thought Taylor was sooooo creative!!!?

Well another week gone. Today is elder Hernandez¨s birthday. This week was ok. I love the ward here. There are alot of active members.. we eat with an ex missionary and they are really fun.
We have a babtism this week. Oscar aguilar Lovez. He is a 16 year old boy who loves the church and the activities for the young men.

Mike, josh, Dad, and blaine. How was the tie situation in your mission. Could you find them alot. How much did they cost. Just hit me up with something so i can get a letter next week.

My area is pretty small. nothing like takeing a bus for an hour and a half and still being in my area like salama. But its still a good place. Elder hernandez is from northern mexico and pretty cool.

Anyway.. didnt have anything for thanks giving..!
Anyway.. i dont know about anything from home this week.. so thats all for now.. GO UTES!!! (cause they are wining)

Elder Taylor Wood

Great BAPTISM!

(USB thing broken so no pictures for a while)

Bumber... sounds like your thanks giving is gona suck just like mine..

We had a babtism this week. IT WENT AMAZING. this guy is so golden. he showed up at his babtism 45 minutes early. and its a good 45 minute walk from his house. Anyway, i bought him a hymn book and a triple combanation. we had about 75 members show up for the babtism. Imagine 75 members for a babtism when the church asistance is about 115.!! So far its the most members ever in a babtism.

On the down side. I got a change. I really liked it in Salama and didnt want to leave.. then again i did have 7 months there. Anyway i am in guatemala city. Zone 18 in a place called La layendo (the legend). you can google map it. zona 18 la leyondo in guatemala or something like that. The area is WAY small. My last area was just enourmas. As well as another new area i have a new companion. Elder Hernandez from mexico. he seems kinda cool. Guess i better get to this spanish speaking part of the mission.

Anyway.. Mom... talk to the Olcotts about them comming. I can get a good pair of shoes for like 80 dollars here (550 Q and its 7.5 to 1 dollar) anyway.. dont send the shoes unless its free. because i will jut by them here..

The members here are amazing (from what 2 members i have met here) the WARD.... not branch. has like 250 active members and our cook.. YEP THAT TOO... cooks for our 3 meals. It will be a good area but its small so i dont want more than 4 months here...

Anyway things are fine here... Something nasty happened in the newspaper.. A bunch of guys attacked a prison in guatemala and they chopped off their heads.., then they burnt their bodies.. The bad thing is, IT WAS ON THE FRONT PAGE.. anyway, Its not like the good ol USA!!
(Taylor also sent me the papers address. I babelfished it and Taylor was very kind in his description of the events.)

Mom did you want to pick me up from guate or not... didnt really get an awnser from ya..

Things are fine. i talked to my cook in my first area and that was fun.

Thanks for everything, WOOD

This Week in the Life...

How is the guy investigator coming along? he is good. we are gona babtize him this saturday. along with his 10 year old son. Tell us about him. What does he do for a living? he is a cheif for a reastaunt for a member How old? 45 50ishWhere did you find him? at a restrauntHow does teaching him make you feel. i dono.. teaching is teaching.. its never really diffrent
Are the non-church goers still talking baptism? she doesnt want anything.. im not gona babtize her.
So did I hear you were in Colban last week? I go to colban 3 times a change.. And know the area there quite well. we do Zone activities and confrences there. as well as divisions with the ZL´s (when i was with the District leader)
Stand up dude?¿ What picture are you going to use.??
This week was alright. we just sat around today for P-day and played some texas hold úm and went to the market to buy stuff. nothing too much. I only have one week more with this change which means i will probably be leaving Salama. But no one knows.
We had a member get attacked by her dog last friday. we went to visit her today and they were talking about killing their dog. They were pretty convincend to give me a pistol (or another elder he) and let us do it for them. But they are going to wait 7 more days to see if the dog has rabies or not..
Things are the same here.... i gained 4 pounds... lastima. I had lost 60 but now im at 56.Elder Taylor Wood

Mom's Support System

Quote:
Anner has left a new comment on your post "well another week gone. thought i would write ear...":
Boy, Taylor sure writes short letters! I need more info on him! lol He sounds like he's doing very well though. "

Annie, I second it. I hope Taylor reads this today and gives us a good letter.

well another week gone. thought i would write early so it can get sent through.

We had a babtism date with a girl but she went out of town. she comes back saturday.

We are teaching a guy really awesome. he comes to church and WILL be baptized. We are gonna baptize him and his 2 kids the 22nd. he is the chef.

A kid here next to me is playing counterstrike. YA.. he sucks. he is playing a map with no one on it. I had to tell him kindly that he didnt know what he was doing.. BUT you know how it is right.11!!! hahaha

anyway.. we will continue preparing these babtisms for the 22nd.

today for p day we played volley ball. it was pretty good.


Elder Taylor Wood

"Cool" Coban

"Cool" Coban

“Chipy chipy” is what the locals here call a constant drizzle of fine rain and we had plenty of this during our visit to Cobán to visit our missionaries for Interviews and Zone conference. The chapel was cold by Central America standards, but the spirit was warm and we enjoyed seeing our missionaries ready and willing to confront both the heat and the cold for the sake of fulfilling their callings. Our topic for Zone conference was Chapter one of “Preach My Gospel” Our Purpose. Another opportunity for chocolate came with the “polished Shoes” inspection where the missionaries were given a “Treat” for each shined shoe at the conference, which was a challenge given all the rain.

Slideshow w/Cuzzins Music

This music was performed at Elder Cuzzins Homecoming Report by his mother and two sisters.

Elder Cuzzins reported on October 19th. We were glad we could and hear his report and meet him. The meeting was wonderful. His two siblings spoke first, then his mother and two sisters sang. That music is the background for this slide show.

Some of this thoughts: Helping the Work Go Forward
1st - Be a good friend, a good neighbor and an example of Christ.
2nd - Prepare our children
3rd - Invite. John 3:21 (one of his favorite scriptures). If you are obeying the rules of the mission, it will be made known to you who to invite - a gift because of obedience.
4th - Language - 4 weeks ago he went on splits with the Branch President. They walked 1.5 hours to a place where he was not able to speak without difficulty, since the man speaks Portuguese. Even with the language barrier they were able to teach because the Spirit was there to convey the message. He could feel that he was an instrument in God's hands.
"I know this work will go forward." (Taylor also worked with this man and was able to teach him.)
Victor Hugo was the name of the man that they helped by painting the school. They were able to find lots of new people to teach. They were able to teach them, and remind the mother of what she had been taught previously.

Mom's Chat

Taylor went shopping and found a Michael Jordon jersey. What do you think? Eat your heart out cousins Steve and Jon!!!

Mom's Questions and Tay's Answers

(Picture: Taylor with Sergio Dubon, a really cool member. He bought me peanut butter and gave me a tie. he speaks english and works in mexico and the states.)
Hows it going? good
Has the rain stopped? yah
How are the baptisms coming? not to church. maybe the 22nd
Are they going to church yet? sometimes
Any new possibilities? not here
Have you gone anywhere exciting lately? nope
Tell us about your companion? age 20 Elder bates.. for utah. he is fat like me and really funny
How long has he been out? 8 onths Where is he from? cedar hills, highland
Where has he served previously? one of the ten most dangerous areas in the world. (my last area) paraiso III
Do you do street contacting? ya
You mentioned that the missionaries there are not as we see in Utah. What
do you mean "they are just trying to survive?" i dont remember
Do you still want the lazer? YEAH!! If so, I will order it today.

we got chased by a crazy guy with tatoos. the police were like HEY what are you doin.. THE COPS LOVE US. here is the conversation we had. caps are what he said HEY TEACH ME ABOUT THE WORDS OF CHRIST,, Well i don't understand you. SURE YOU DO.. nope i can't speak spanish., YOUR SPEAKING SPANISH. i dont know what im speaking


Keep working hard. We are proud of you for your sacrifice.
Love,
Mom

Mom's Additions

Taylor got mad at me for adding information to his letter, so I took it out, and returned it to its very short state. But Kim has encouraged me to put it back up so I will do so. This in information in my words not Taylor's.

Guatemala is hard on socks and shoes. Taylor has worked his way through two years worth in just 9 months. Both pairs of shoes are worn out. He will have to have them resoled because it is too expensive to send shoes that have 99% chance of getting stolen. His boots are hanging in there and Elder Cuzzins (I assume) gave him some brown shoes we have seen in photos. There is a pilot in Dixie that sometimes makes stops at the MTC but I will have to find him, and see if he can get the shoes to the President, and it will be much easier to have Taylor resole the pair he has first. At least we will know if they are going to work. Funny thing is that Taylor has gotten mission socks for the past two Christmas'. I guess he will get them for another and next year he will again for his return home.

It is nearing the end of raining season. I'll bet they are happy for that, although the scenery is beautiful because of all the rain they get.

Taylor's companionship found a really good prospect two weeks ago. They are teaching him, and Taylor thinks he will be getting baptized at the end of the lessons. They think he has great potential.

The two baptisms are the same girls he has talked about for a long time. They want to get baptized but don't want to attend church. One is going to school and the only time her tutor can meet with her is at the same time as church. She doesn't have enough faith to choose church over the tutor yet.

He is still having fun with his lazer. He loves teasing the chickens and seeing how they react. Better to tease chickens than the women!

Another Week

well this week went by. we put a babtism date with 2 people, but they didnt go to church . we will babtize one but i dont know about the other. for p day we played basketball and watched a movie,. I didnt take any pictures this week.

Still suck at spanish and my comp speaks and teaches better than i do.

Anyway nothing new. got a letter from one of moms friends, sister jensen. from the ward. tell her thanks.

Anyway nothing else is new.
Elder Taylor Wood

Danger!

The River Flood & the new haircut

I myself have had quite the week. This week I will exclude the fact that I am Sr companion and cant speak spanish as well as my comp who has Less time and is a gringo...

First we started out struggleing.. like always. we dont have very many investigators so we did alot of member visiting. well we went to go visit a member and the river had flooded. you can see in this picture that the wall is wet where the water rose to., Anyway. i put some flashlights down so you can see the depth of the water.. there was muddy water ALL over in the house, and alot got ruined.

Then we went the Chy hup. Some ruins we visited a few weeks ago. I got a few good pictures. it was weird. the first time i was DIEING the whole way up. this time i accually hit my second wind. i accually lead them there.

Sounds like you had a good chat with Elder cozzens. I didnt send the statue, for weight purposes, but his broke. just ask him for a little piece :)

Another thought i had this week, when you see all the elders in the states they are like ´all spititual´. well thats not us.. we just try to survive. I got to ride in the back of a little wagon today. it was drivven by 2 oxen. we crossed a river. but it was crazy.

umm... i have 9 months.. thats better than 7.

i would like some floss picks. www.plackers.com. i can use this brand all day long and they wont break.

Thats all i can think about for nowñ...
Wood

Guatemala's Got Talent!!

Our 3rd group sent Home

Our 3rd group sent Home

With great sadness and joy we sent home the largest group of missionaries to date. Among the great and noble ones sent home were, Elders Brassfield, Brown, Cozzens, Jonathan Christensen, Eduardo Hernandez, Jensen, Jolly Salazar, Malaga, Bolaños, Recinos, Sturzenegger, Aguilar, Merrill, McCoy, Sisters Anguiano and King. Not forgetting losing our own Assistant to the President Elder Matthew Burnham. These missionaries represented a large portion of our mission's leadership which included Zone leaders and trainers. They worked to the very end as you can see from the picture of Elder Christensen's last baptisms uniting a whole family They will be missed, but the legacy of their labors will be felt for years to come.

We also received new missionaries ready and excited to labor in this, the greatest mission in the world. They are Elders Zuñiga, Greenwood, Luke, Sacalxot, Alvarado, Jimenez, Garcia and Gubler, as well as one new sister, Hermana Rodas.

Changes Happen! Edited by Mom.

SORRY CANDI... I REMEMBERED AFTER I WROTE.. happy b day.this week kinda sucked.. Elder cozzens went home.!!!! but Its ok we had a good week. we ate alot of food from members. Last i checked i had lost 56 pounds. Im down to 206
I got a new companion Elder baits, bates, baites, algo asi. no details yet. just that i am going to be the Sr companion. Still in salama. Kinda sucks because i cant really teach, maybe he can though. who knows.
We had an activity in the church.. for the primary. a talent night. that was good to watch. pretty fun too.
We had a babtism this week. Marisol. 18 years old. she is happy. Elder cozzens babtized her. she is cooler than we thought., her family doesnt like the mormons but she did it anyway.
Anyway i think thats it! Wood thx for the letters

Treats for Tay

Another Week

another week is gone.
We watched conference. the first 2 were my favorite. Priesthood was in Spanish and I didn't understand anything. and the 2 on Sunday, there were like 5 rooms Spanish, 1 English, kids running around, couldn't understand or hear much.

Yesterday we went to the caves of the King Marcus. They were pretty cool. We got rubber boots and a helmet with a flashlight. You get to hike into a cave, with rivers running through, and you hike inside of a mountain. You even had to half way crawl. If you didn't want to get wet it was really uncomfortable. Don't judge this to Lehmans cave where you can't touch anything but the salt and pepper shaker rock.. We could touch everything. It was really sweet.
Elder Nol left for Peru yesterday in the morning. Elder Cozzens is going home this next Monday. He speaks on october 19th in the Hillcrest First Ward. He will have a few things for you.
Another great thing yesterday was my laserpointer. We were on top of a bus playing with my laser pointer in mid day.. I made 2 Mayan ladies RUN AWAY from a green light. Chickens think its trying to eat their feet and they helplessly fly away. I scared one chicken in front of the bus. It would rather get run over than get eaten by ET.!! So at this point it was running forward from the bus but backward because of the laser pointer. the 5 on the top of the bus sure had a great bus ride.
Last week I was trying to say don't worry about it. "no tenga pena". but I said "no tengo pene". Anyway, needless to say they all got a good laugh.
well I think that's all. got Nikki´s package. Thanks for that.

Elder Taylor Wood

September 29, 2008

Another week gone. Elder Nol seems to be doing good. We still have no idea how long he will be there for. Chances are he will just stay with me for the next change... but who really knows.. Elder Nol is from All Chol, Guatemala. He is 21 years old and lives not to far from here to the East. He is still waiting on a visa and then he will serve in Peru. He does understand a lot in English.

Elder Cozzens mission is running low on time. He still doesn't know when he is going to speak but I will be sending a few things home with him, mostly the weights and some other things. I have one box of worry dolls. I can buy like 6 for less than a buck.

We hiked to some old Achi ruins (Mayan Ruins) that are in Rabinal about 45 minutes away, but still in my district. It was a good adventure but man am I tired. I was third of the pack of eight the WHOLE time. till the last trail.. I decided to take a trail that looked a whole lot easier. Nope, i had to hike through bushes from who knows where. needless to say i was last to arrive. At Rabinal they offered human sacrifices.

I think we will get to listen to some of conference, but I doubt we will get to listen in English.

My ankle is doing okay for now.

anyway nothing else is new We do have baptism date is for October 11th, an investigator named Marisol. She is 18 years old and a nanny for a member. She actually went to church 5 times before we started teaching her. Elder Cozzens should still be here for it. We have also started teaching an old investigator again so we are still teaching.

Elder Taylor Wood

September 22 2008

Things are decent. I'm just chilling with elder Cozzens till he goes home.

We don't have any good investigators for now. We get close and they progress but aren't committing. We have one who is like., "I need to be baptized so lets do it", but she doesn't read, or pray to know the truth or that such. She just wants to be baptized.

Transfers will be October 13ish. I'll get a new companion next month. People in my group are already training or being district leaders. but they were good missionaries. (hard to say. in english. Meaning the most Pilas (pila is a battery.. so its like they have the most energy and are good))

The branches/wards are pretty good in my area. I don't really have much to compare it to, but they are good. There are about 100 people that come each Sunday.

Oh, and just for the record. The FLOOD helps out the Master Chief? Halo 3 must have introduced a new threat that requires the humans,
Ok... well the bruites help the cheif because the covanant hired other strong guys. so they flood helped kill a prophet and after that tried to kill the cheif. anywhay.. they human fightership shoots rockets as well as a machine gun. it doesnt fly like the banshee just kinda hovers. There are some twisted things to kill... like a gigantac scarab and u have to kill its legs, hop on and kill its battery pack. Anyway we probably wont get to finish the game.

The president wanted me and Cozzens to train another elder. He is going to Peru (not Puerto Rico) and had visa problems so we will be training him in a trio. Gota step it up.

Anyway.. this week was hard because the fair came to Salama, so we haven't had too many people in church. .

I had more to write but I forgot what it was... I'm sending a package home with Elder Cozzens ....

I bought a Mayan statue that a guy found in a well.. cost me $25. Might send some minerals home and have dad take it to the U and do a carbon dating test.. What do u think about that??

Elder Wolford got dumped. It sucks. He only has one change left, and goes home the first of December. Come to find out, Elder Cozzen's got an email from his mom saying that Wolford's X is engaged. She is in their ward. Small world.

I've decided I'm going to stay. I guess I've got 15 months and something like 28 days.

I'm thinking about buying a red lazer from China. It can pop balloons.

Guess thats all for now.
Elder Wood

What a Cutie!!

well we have zone conference tomorrow. As for the picture ... just of girls in the branch.

ohh ya.. today is independence day.. can't forget that we will be in a bus for 2 hours traveling to colban and missing all the activities.


I started buying little marvel characters that come in little donut things. I finally got the cyclops and finished my collection of 14!!

Sounds about it.

Elder Taylor Wood