Elliot's July 2 email

Here is the latest email from Elliot.

Hola mi familia!

Aprendi lo que va a pasar ["I learned what will happen"] for transfers. I am going to be with two other missionaries, but Elder Orellana is leaving. In addition to training a new missionary, I am going to get Elder Fales. I don't know a whole lot about him, but I've heard good things and I'm excited. I know that this will be his third transfer, and President Taylor expects me to have him ready to be senior companion and lead the area by the time I leave. I think this should be a lot of fun. I am a little bummed to see Elder Orellana head out though. He's a great missionary.

I got the package [shirts and socks!] - thanks a ton. I am surviving the heat. This summer doesn't fully compare to last summer so far. I've been drinking a lot of water and getting in somewhere cool periodically though. The Hispanic culture is so kind and giving: every person we visit gives us a water bottle when we get there and another for the road. So I'm doing well.

I love being out here and I love this people. Serving a mission is so fun and so rewarding. I've learned so much out here, but one lesson that has been sticking out to me lately is how much God loves all of us. When I talk to someone, I try to think, "God loves this person just as much as He loves me, and He wants this person to be happy." Seeing His hand in missionary work and in the lives of others has really opened my eyes to see all that He has done for me as well. Definitely has helped me have more gratitude.

I love y'all! Gracias por todo!

Elder Elliot

Elliot's June 18 email and pictures

Here's the latest email from Elliot. There are several new pictures after the jump.

Happy Father's Day dad! I'm glad to hear you had a good one. You deserve it.

This past week was pretty good for us. We had Temple Conference which was nice. The north half of the mission went up to Surrey Hills and got to go to the temple and have other meetings. President Southward, the OKC Temple President, and his wife also spoke to us which was way cool. We also had Stake Conference Saturday-Sunday. President and Sister Taylor spoke at that as well as President and Sister Southward. So I got to hear a ton of great talks and trainings this past week.

We had quite a few good lessons this past week. We feel like a few of the people we're teaching are really sincere and have a lot of potential. So there's a lot for us to do right now. Yesterday we also had a really cool finding miracle. Yesterday was hot and humid, not atypical for Oklahoma. We were working hard and trying to follow the Spirit but we just weren't really having much success. We were hot and pretty tired and decided to start biking over to try to visit one of our investigators a couple of miles away instead of continuing to work the street we were on. As we were going I felt like we should take a different street than usual. When we turned on the street I thought we needed to get off of our bikes and knock just a couple of doors, contrary to what we wanted to do. When we go tracting we don't knock every door on the street, unless we feel that's what we're supposed to do. We try to discern by the Spirit which houses to try. Elder Orellana felt we should go to one house. We introduced ourselves to the young man at the door who at first seemed like he's not taking this too seriously. It turned around really quickly. We introduced ourselves as representatives of Jesus Christ and how we were there to pray for him and ask the Lord's blessings to be with him. He accepted the offer for us to pray with him. We asked if there was anything in particular he would like us to pray for, and in response he told us about the tough times he was going through. He got into some rough things down in Dallas when he was a bit younger but changed his life around, became a Christian, and left his street gang, and cleaned up his act. He had just barely made it to OK City and had to come because Dallas was just not a good place for him any more. We prayed very specifically for him and his family. Afterwards he had tears in his eyes and the Spirit was so strong. We testified of the power of the Atonement to change lives and cover our mistakes. He was very moved and gladly accepted to have us come back by and teach him. It was such a great experience and it shows me that God is mindful of all of us and is definitely guiding us in this work. That brings me a lot of happiness.

I have pictures to send y'all! I'll attatch them to this email. Also I have a bit of a favor to ask. If I remember correctly we had like 3-4 extra short sleeved shirts that we bought before I came out. If that's the case, do you think you might be able to send them out? That would be super nice to have now that it's so hot. Thanks!

Have fun at girl's camp mom!

Love,

Elder Elliot

New pictures of Elliot!

Courtesy of President and Sister Taylor's mission blog, here are several new pictures of Elliot and other Oklahoma City missionaries.

Zone Leader Council (November 30, 2011)

Elders Franco, Hansen, Phillips, Soto, Elliot, and Loosle

Elliot and several others

Elliot and several others

Elliot and several others

Half the mission (but I can't find Elliot!)

New pictures of Elliot

President and Sister Taylor posted new pictures on their blog, including a few of Elliot with other missionaries and with his new companion, Elder Jacobson.  The first is from a leadership training meeting Elliot attended July 19-22 in Oklahoma City.  The rest are from transfer day on August 3.  Here they are!

Elliot at the July 2011 Leadership Training Meeting with Sister Davey and Elder Aliifua

Elliot and other missionaries at August 3, 2011 transfer day

Elliot and other missionaries at August 3, 2011 transfer day

Elliot and Elder Peper, Elder Callahan, and Elder Jacobson at August 3, 2011 transfer day

Church News: "New Mission Presidents Blessed for Exercise of Faith"

Elliot's mission is presided over by a member of the church and his wife.  We have profiled President and Sister Taylor on Elliot's blog before.  Much like Elliot and the other missionaries, mission presidents are called to serve for a period of time in a specific region.  And, like the missionaries, mission presidents have to go through their own pre-mission training.  On June 22-26, 2011, a new group of 128 mission presidents and their wives met at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, to receive instruction before traveling to their missions.  As reported on the Church website,

The couples come from all over the world—22 different countries—and will serve all over the world in 18 different languages. Their backgrounds are diverse, including businessmen in various fields, educators, lawyers, and even a test pilot for the F35 fighter program.

Many of the leaders of the Church spoke at the training seminar.  Three videos with excerpts of their messages are included after the jump.  Speaking to the assmbled couples, President Thomas S. Monson said:

You have been chosen from among the most faithful in the Church, and now you have the opportunity to go forth in the Lord’s harvest field. … I know of no field which produces more fragrant nor bounteous roses than the mission field to which you have been called.

Enjoy the videos after the jump.

New pictures of Elliot and the Oklahoma tornadoes

President and Sister Taylor posted a bunch of new pictures on their blog Saturday, including a picture of Elliot when he first met his current companion, Elder Nield, and one of Elder Nield and the Taylors.

The Taylors also posted a few pictures on their blog about the May 24 tornadoes.  We've recounted the story of the tornadoes previously (here, here, here, and here).  What we really wanted to see was a picture of all the missionaries huddled together for safety in the women's restroom at the Moore Stake Center.  And here it is!  It doesn't look like anyone is terribly concerned, thankfully.

And here's proof that Mazzio's really does deliver pizza in the middle of tornadoes.

There are a few more pictures of the day of the tornadoes on the Taylor's blog.  We really appreciate them keeping us up-to-date on the activities of the Oklahoma City mission.

Missionary reports on the Oklahoma tornadoes

We're looking forward to hearing more from Elliot about the recent tornadoes, since we didn't get an email from him last week.  But we did find a couple of reports from other missionaries in Elliot's mission, Elder Woolley and Elder Ellsworth, via their blogs.  We think Elliot was probably with them at a meeting in Moore, Oklahoma, on May 24 when the tornadoes hit.  In his last email, Elliot's companion, Elder Nield, reported that he would be working with a different missionary that week since Elliot would be attending meetings.  Then when we read Elder Woolley's blog and Elder Ellsworth's blog, we put the pieces together.  Both of them were attending meetings at a stake center in Moore, Oklahoma, with the mission president, so we concluded that's likely where Elliot was also.  Everyone was fine, and it turns out that the safest place to hide in the building during a tornado is the women's restroom!  We hope there's a picture somewhere of a group of missionaries and their mission president huddled together in the women's restroom for safety.  And we also learned that the Mazzio's pizza guy delivers during tornadoes.  Talk about a great advertising campaign.

Elder Woolley's blog includes a few pictures and describes some of the work he and other missionaries did to help with cleanup efforts.  It's great to see the missionaries out performing service like that.

And from the adjacent Tulsa Oklahoma mission, we also found a report from a missionary, Elder Swanger, about the tornado that hit Joplin.  You can read it here.

Oklahoma City missionaries are all safe

We received a very nice email yesterday evening from Elliot's mission president, Nolan Taylor (pictured with his wife, Rhonda).  Thankfully, all the missionaries in the Oklahoma City mission are safe and accounted for after yesterday's tornadoes.  We appreciate having someone watching out for Elliot while he's gone!  Here is President Taylor's message:

Dear parents:  All the missionaries in the Oklahoma Oklahoma City Mission have checked in and all are safe following this afternoon’s storms.  We experienced a number of significant tornados and severe thunderstorms around the mission this afternoon.  The storms caused damage around the state but it is too early to know the full extent of the damage.  We have emergency procedures in place in the event of severe storms and these procedures are posted in all of our apartments and we remind our missionaries of these procedures regularly.  The procedures worked today but most importantly, we were protected by The Lord today.  We will be assisting the wards and stakes with clean up as needed.  Thank you for your support and love for our missionaries.  Please contact me if you have any questions.

More pictures of Elliot

I recently discovered that Elliot's mission president and his wife, Nolan and Rhonda Taylor (pictured at right), maintain a blog about their mission experience in Oklahoma.  It's great to see what's going on in Elliot's mission, beyond what we learn from his weekly emails.  And best of all, there are some pictures of Elliot that we hadn't seen before.  I've copied them below, after the jump.  We'll follow the mission blog and post any new pictures we find.