Email from December 2

Hey everyone!! I hope you have had an amazing week so far. Things are going great here. The baptism of Norma and Mauricio was great and they are both extremely excited to be part of the Church. I love them so much and I can' even begin to explain how good I feel when I think of all the people I have been able to meet and help. We get to go to the temple this next week as a mission. It should be a great experience. December is always a kind of hard month for missionary work. With so much going on it is hard to find people in their houses, but we are going to do our best and so far we have six baptisms planed for the month.

Christmas time here is Mexico is very different. The main difference is that there is no snow. it can get to be pretty cold here. Well... cold for Mexico. The coldest it gets is like 55 degrees. It sure does effect the people though. Everyone gets sick in these months. It is so funny to see people in their big winter coats and scarfs and Elder Jessup and I are walking around in short sleeve shirts. Everyone always asks us, "Aren't you freezing?" When we tell them how cold it gets in Utah they just about have a heart attack.

I love you all so much. Thank you for everything you have done for me. I am tying to make you all proud out here. I know that Christ lives.

Email from November 25

This week has been great but very busy. The american missionaries just got here on Monday so we had to go pick them up at the airport where we almost got arrested and well... it is a long story. On Tuesday we had a day long training for all the leaders in the mission, and Wednesday we had another day long training for all thenew missionaries and their companions. Like I said, it has bee a busy week. We have two baptisms tomorrow and they should be great. I think I already explained a little about them last week. I am way excited for them.

Thanksgiving was just a normal day. To celebrate we ate some tortillas with salsa and a little meat sitting on a curb on some dirty back street. haha it was a lot of fun. Best Thanksgiving I have had yet. How was Thanksgiving for all of you? I can't believe how fast the time is going. It kind of scares me.

Anyway... things are going great here. I know have about seven months in this area and It is probable that I will finish my mission here. That means I will have been in this area for about ten months. I almost got you beat Dad. haha

I love you all and I hope you are all doing great. Christ lives!! Yo lo sé!

Email from November 18

This week was a great one. We got to meet the new Elders and give them a training. They are great and they are going to be some amazing missionaries. The americans still haven't arrived so Elder Jessup and I are in a trio with Elder Heredia. Do you remember him? He was my second companion here in Mexico. He and his campanion (an american who hasn't arrived yet) will be working in the other half of our ward. It should be a great experience. It is kind of hard to teach in a trio, but I guess it is a good thing for me to learn.

We have two baptisms this nest saturday and the stories of these two people are amazing. Norma is one of them. We have been teaching her for the past four months. In these four months she has told us mny times that she doesn't want to meet with us anymore. Thanks to many miracle that God has permitted us to see, she is finally going to get baptized on saturday. The other is a young kid named Mauricio. His parents were baptized about eight years ago. Due to problems with housing and other personal trials, they had lost contact with the church for more than five years. Mauricio's father is now in prision and has been there for the last two years. It looks like he won't be leaving for a while either. By checking the ward directory we passed by and started to teach Mauricio. The whole family is now attending church and the father is so happy. I had a chance to talk to him by telephone the other day and he is so happy that we are there helping his family.

I know this Church is the Church of Christ and that He lives. I love you all.

Elder Ricks

Email from November 18

This week was a great one. We got to meet the new Elders and give them a training. They are great and they are going to be some amazing missionaries. The americans still haven't arrived so Elder Jessup and I are in a trio with Elder Heredia. Do you remember him? He was my second companion here in Mexico. He and his campanion (an american who hasn't arrived yet) will be working in the other half of our ward. It should be a great experience. It is kind of hard to teach in a trio, but I guess it is a good thing for me to learn.

We have two baptisms this nest saturday and the stories of these two people are amazing. Norma is one of them. We have been teaching her for the past four months. In these four months she has told us mny times that she doesn't want to meet with us anymore. Thanks to many miracle that God has permitted us to see, she is finally going to get baptized on saturday. The other is a young kid named Mauricio. His parents were baptized about eight years ago. Due to problems with housing and other personal trials, they had lost contact with the church for more than five years. Mauricio's father is now in prision and has been there for the last two years. It looks like he won't be leaving for a while either. By checking the ward directory we passed by and started to teach Mauricio. The whole family is now attending church and the father is so happy. I had a chance to talk to him by telephone the other day and he is so happy that we are there helping his family.

I know this Church is the Church of Christ and that He lives. I love you all.

Elder Ricks

Email fro November 11

Well... we are just finishing up the transfers once again and it looks like I am going to be with Elder Jessup for another six weeks. After these next six week we will have been together for six months. It is crazy but I am grateful. I will also have almost 8 months in this area of Coyoacán. We teach really well together and we have some amazing people in teaching right now. Things are going to get a little crazy these next week because there are 15 americans that are supposed to get here on monday but their visas still aren't ready, so it looks like they are going to get here a few days late which kind of makes the transfers a whole lot harder. But oh well. That is just part of the mission. I am pretty sure that I am going to be finishing my mission as assistant and I am grateful for that. I have learned so much by being close to President Chavez and I really love teaching other missionaries.

In these next couple weeks many general authorities from the missionary department of the church will be here to evaluate the mission. They are going to be teaching with Elders in their areas and holding conferences. It should be a fun couple weeks.

It is crazy how fast time is going. I can't believe that in a little over a month I will be talking to you all for Christmas. I can't even tell you how happy I am here in Mexico. This work is amazing and these people are amazing. It is going to be hard to leave them.

I love you all and I know that this is the church of Christ!!!

Sorry I couldn't write last week. We had a baptism so we lost a couple hours of our p-day, but it was worth it. Monserrat, the other daughter of the family we baptized a month ago, decided to get baptized and the service was great. Her family was so happy for her and now her dad is the only one who hasn't got baptized yet. He is a pretty hard one though.

Things are going great here. The mission is growing like crazy. In these last six months a total of nine or ten Elders have finished their mission and about 60 have arrived. We have having to open up new areas and there are about ten wards in the mission who have two companionships. It is a great thing to see so many missionaries come out, but that doesn't mean that it is easy here in the offices. It is goingg to be a crazy couple weeks. Wish me luck.

With halloween and dia de muertos this week we haven't been able to teach a whole lot because nobody has been home. Tomorrow should be a great day though.

It is crazy how fast time is going. I only have three transfers left and it scares me a little bit. I hope I can take advantage of every second here in Mexico. I hope you are all ready to come visit here one day.

I love you all and I hope you are doing great. Be happy!!! D&C 31:13. Be faithful to the END!!

A Whole Bunch of Pictures!

I haven't been great at keep this blog updated with all of Taylor's letters and pictures as of late. So hopefully this bunch of pictures will make up for it. Enjoy!