Inside the MTC

The above picture shows Taylor with his Grandma, aunt, and cousin outside the Provo Temple, just a few minutes before entering the Missionary Training Center. The top picture is Taylor at the MTC, giving one last look back before it all begins.

Taylor reports that he is loving his time in the MTC. He has heard from many inspirational speakers and has been working to incorporate into his life the good things they have taught. One of these things is to have energy! He said, "No matter how tired I am, energy.  Pretend I'm full of energy and excitement, even when I'm not, and soon it will come true.  Study, learn, teach, interact, do everything with a lot of energy.  This has helped me these last few days.  It forces me to focus on being attentive. Attentive to our teachers, attentive to our investigator, and especially attentive to the Spirit."

He and his companion, Elder Greener, were called to be zone leaders and are learning about leadership, patience and charity. Taylor is picking up the language well, even though as he says, it is "harrrrd!" He must be doing well, as one day his Czech teacher couldn't be there so he asked Taylor to lead the Czech lesson, which was quite humbling for him!

He reports he is enjoying the ice cream brought in from the BYU Creamery twice each week and gets some with every meal on those days. He is enjoying playing basketball and even had this to report:
"Speaking of exercise, and basketball, let it be known that I dunked two times, in a game, off the dribble yesterday.  Believe me or not, it matters not to me.  I did it, and I have witnesses.  I was pretty pumped."

Do you believe him? Hmmmm.....I do. I'm his mother!

The Beginning of a Great Adventure!

Our son, Taylor, left Manhattan on Jan. 10, 2012 to begin his service as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We shed some tears as we said good-bye--he is a wonderful young man and has been such a joy to raise. He loved to be home and he filled up the house with his music--piano, guitar, and singing--his humor, his teasing, and his enthusiasm. He loves to talk and never was the stereotypical teenage boy who spoke in monosyllables on his way to his room. He loved to interact with us all so there is definitely a void in our home now that he is gone. But....we don't want him here now! We are thrilled with his decision to serve.

We heard from Taylor this week, a wonderful e-mail! His grandparents, aunt, and cousin took him to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT on Wednesday, Jan. 11 and on Friday he taught his first lesson in Czech. That intimidated him a bit and showed him how far he has to go. He was a little discouraged, but not for long. In his words "It still is frustrating at times, but much less often and much less so. I'm gaining a vision of where I can go with this call, and what the Lord wants of me and expects of me. It's wonderful"


He has great faith and an ever-growing-stronger testimony of the power of prayer. We were all excited to discover that one of his teachers at the MTC is a son-in-law of some of our good friends, the Hunsakers! Taylor is learning a lot from him and appreciates him very much. Another funny coincidence is that Taylor's companion, Elder Greener, is the nephew of the sister-in-law of Taylor's Young Men's president. Starsi Knapp and Starsi Greener got along from the start and study and work well together.

Here is another brief excerpt from his email: "Sunday was probably the best day yet. We had lots of church meetings, which were all very spiritual, but the culmination was the big devotional at the end. Elder Allen, who is like the director of the missionary program or something, spoke to us. It was one of those meetings where the Spirit was so strong that I was taught so much, a lot of it that wasn't even related to his specific talk. That is one of my favorite things in the world. Listening to a speaker teach with the Spirit, and learning by the Spirit. It led me to resolve a lot of things that I know will keep my attitude positive, and really help me here and beyond the MTC."

Taylor also informed us that he is eating fruits and vegetables at EVERY meal! He hates vegetables, so that is quite significant!