MTC Letter #7

Hey, what's up? Lots of stuff has been goin on here! I have a really good story. OK, it all starts Monday at the lgm or large group meeting. We go once a week with like 100 kids and the same old guy teaches us pretty much straight out of preach my gospel. We normally end up falling asleep cause it's right after we eat breakfast. So right after it starts Elder Scott, our district leader is all of a sudden crouched behind my chair tapping on my shoulder. The meeting is going so we're tryin to be quiet and he sais "y'all (me and davis) have to leave right now go back to the residence and change into the most conservative ties you have and gel your hair and just look really nice- then meet the rest of us back in the class to clean the room spottless." We were like 'what the heck'! He had been called to the front desk and he got like this huge lecture on what our district needed to do because the French Ambassador is "gonna be in your classroom in one hour"! We were freaking out. We were all way excited when we got back to the classroom. We were all cleaning. We had to take down our no loafing signs (pas de flannage dans le coullour) and stuff like that. We were all lookin sharp. The main travel guy from the MTC was sticking his head in every 5 minutes completley nervous telling us what to do and what not to do. He was explaining how important this was because the reason he was coming is because of all the visas we need for the missionaries. He said that they come like every 10 years maybe so this is huge! They kept saying that he was gonna be later and later and our teacher was out of town for the first time since we have been here so we had another teacher with a fake lesson all written on the chalk board so when he came it would look like he interruped some serious learning. They had all the other missionaries go to their rooms and stay there. They couldn't even come out to go to the bathroom or anything cause he was only coming to our room. Finally they travel director person came in and said he was too late and not coming. We were so bummed. We went and ate and stuff but after lunch the same guy stuck his head back in and said "the plot thickens". He said he was coming back. We were all so excited so we have the same all over again getting ready and stuff. By now it was almost time for Frere Collette to be there so someone called him and told him to run and he RAN from his class at byu. It was so funny. He was all out of breath but he was so excited. We hadreally felt bad when we thought he wasn't gonna be there. So that worked out and we go a real lesson this time instead of the fake one. He finally came. It was awesome. He looked so French and he had all of his people with him- like 5 guys. He was the perfect french guy. He had gray wavy long hair. We all stood up when he came in. It was very formal and his wife came, too. She was also very French looking. She had on like these green pants and a bright red suit top with this huge scarf with it tied in some huge complex boy scout knot. It was funny. I could actually understand what he said but our teacher said he slowed down alot when he talked for us. It was so cool. We all introduced ourselves in french and said where we're from and going. That was cool then we all had some questions we could ask him but he didn't have that much time. So we asked him were we should go for good sight seeing and asked about the people and his favorite city. Then he had to leave and this is the best part. I had my question I hadn't asked yet so before he leaves I say, " J'ai une question pour vous tres vit Quel fromage est votre prefere"- what's your favorite cheese? He laughed and said it was a hard question. He said that their president or whatever they have said to him once," How are you supposed to rule a country that has a type of cheese for every day of the year?" So we all laughed of course cause he kind of chuckeled. He finally decided that goat cheese from the south of france was his favorite but what he said next was the best. He continued, "the real problem is finding the right wine to go with the cheese". It was awesome but kind of awkward. The thing was is that it was my question so he is still looking at me! So I just nodded my head and said "oui". hahaha it was so funny. I wasn't about to say anything. The thing is that day he met with the Governor of Utah, the first presidency of the church and the presidency of BYU. I figued if Monson didn't take the time to say anything about how we don't drink wine, I wasn't about to say anything. So i just nodded my head. It was so funny we all laughed after he left with his group of very important looking guys. So that's my story. All the other districts were jealous . Oh yeah i got your thing in the mail-the ties were very ugly but in here ugly is good. Thanks keep lookin for more. That's cool that y'all had fun on vacation. oh...I got my flight plans so that was really awesome and exciting. We leave the 9th at 6:00 in the morning then get there at 11:45 the 10th. That's a long time on the plane. We go to Salt Lake then Atlanta then Paris then Toulouse. I'll probably send y'all back some stuff before I go. I'm getting that shot soon i think. Everything is good. I hope you get this ok it's a long email. Tell everyone I said hey! I'm excited to leave! Taylor

MTC Letter #6

Hey, what's up? I'm not even sure where y'all are is this the week. Y'all are off school this week or next? Dad's in Honduras- that's really cool! I really want some pictures of that. I bet he's having so much fun. Y'all are gonna have fun at Sam Rayburn too. That's pretty cool. Oh today I sent y'all like 60 pictures so i hope y'all get those soon. There are some with double print and stuff so you can give some away if you want. The main thing is that when I get home I just want a big stack of pictures to look through of my mission. So if you want to scrapbook stuff make copies somehow. I tried to find some other stuff for you to scrapbook. I have these teaching record things from the TRC which is where the volunteers come and we teach them the lessons for 35 minutes. We did it for the second time in french Wednesday so that went really good. I was excited. I guess I don't have that much to say. We just have been doin the same stuff. I haven't gotten your package yet. You said it would come today. I hope it does so i don't have to wait till Monday. Same thing with the dear elders, try to send me one if you get this in time. It seems like forever to wait till Monday at 5:00. I just put my black suit in the dry cleaners so I'll get that Tuesday after 4 so I'll just wear the brown one alot which is ok. I really like both of them. One of the buttons fell off but I'm gonna get one of the sisters to fix it today. They said they would oh.. my really good friend from Idaho came in Wednesday. He's the one I called in the airport and he didn't have his call yet but he said he would probably see me in here and then there he was. I was pretty excited. I had a feeling he was coming that day so I wore the tie he gave me at school. It was pretty cool cause that was only like the second time I wore it then it was the day he came. Then we have the same time for breakfast so Iget to talk to him then also. I see him a few times during the day and I still see Andrew from school alot too. Actually I know quite a few guys from school so that's sweet. um Send me some pics of the fish tank and the painted house. Hows Chelsea doing? You said you brought her to the kennel , that's sad. Ivy send me a really cool package for St. Patrick's Day. It had a green bow tie and some green glasses. I didn't put them on though cause I didn't feel like messing with the glitter and then some "mission" ties from Calder which are really cool. I wore one of them so far and everyone liked it so thats always fun. Also Ivy got me this plant your own clover thing which we liked way to much cause we have nothing else to do and its growing now and pretty big so thats cool. It's been snowing here which was really wierd cause it was feelin pretty good for a few weeks. Well it snowed a few days ago. The sun is back out today, it's way different. I really miss the rain though. The firesides have still been kinda boring but there getting better. Sherri Dew, I'm not sure how to spell it but the president of Deseret Books or something talked to us. She was pretty good, then the president of the 70 which wasn't bad. I'm still working out alot gettin a little bigger so thats cool- still eating pretty healthy. I really like the wraps and salads they have here. They're alot better than the cafeteria food. So we lost like 16 guys in the last group to Paris then only got 3 so its way weir. It seems empty in our hall. Well, that's about all I have for now. Let me know how everything is with y'all. S end some pics. Love y'all, Taylor

MTC Letter #5

Hey, what’s up? I can't believe you didn't get the email last week that really sucks. Well everything here has been good just the same stuff. The group older than us leaves Monday so that’s really weird that we’re gonna be the ones that have been here the longest. All of the ones leaving are going to Paris so I guess we won't really see them. How it works is every 3 weeks they get French missionaries but they switch from Paris and Belgium to just Toulouse so every 6 weeks they go to the areas. So the pictures you got of Mayo and Steinblick-they are in Toulouse. I guess I didn't say anything that important last week. I wanted some pictures of the newly pained house and maybe the fish tank. Y’all seemed pretty excited about that. Y’all need to buy a red finned chinchili thing for me. The last one we had was really cool; its like a silver kind of round shaped fish with red fins. They’re really cool. Dad should be leaving for Honduras. That’s really cool. Make sure I get some pictures from that and I really don't have that many pictures of y’all at all so just send whatever. Go with Whitney and buy me some ties from good will or something. We have “cravate commerces” or tie trades pretty often and I would like to have some. It doesn't matter if they are old just make sure there not to ugly. The big polyester ones are better cause I couldn't trade any of my new ones, that would be stupid. I’ve only traded two so far but I got one really good deal for an ugly blue tie and then I got 4 decent ties for this blue one I didn't like so that was cool. If you find my blue striped Hilfiger tie send that. I miss that one but every thing else is good. I got the money clip, that’s really cool -thanks for that and the beef jerky that was good. I’ve still been working out a lot so that’s cool. I’m about to run out of the no vapor mix I brought which really, really stinks but whatever. Tell me how everyone is doing. I heard Evan got on Mitchell’s baseball team so that’s cool I guess. How is the Sulphur golf doing? Brett said they played in the Golden Tor the other day so maybe if you could let me know how there doing. I still haven't got any nascar updates so that would be cool. We did laundry today that wasn't bad I guess. Our new district leader is Elder Scott so that’s really great, so much better than the Mooner. The word going around is that our new zone leaders are gonna be Embley and Doud which is ok. Our only French days are going good. We had one yesterday. We've been having them 3 times a week so thats cool. ohhh We taught our first lesson in French at the TRC Wednesday. It went really good, I thought. We go every Wednesday so it's kinda like the thing; we work for the whole week so it feels really good when were done. We taught the first lesson twice then the second lesson twice now the first lesson once so we have 3 more weeks, one more first lesson in french then 2 second lessons in french. I would send y'all somethin in French but it would take to long. I might write a letter. I got a letter from Andrew about Arizona, he seemed pretty excited. I'm gonna write him a letter today. Did y'all ever get a french flag? I ordered a french shirt from the bookstore for 7 dollars but I just realized how gay that would be to wear in France so i might send it to Evan in the mail. It just has the flag on the front and it sais the capital and population and currency and stuff like that. I should have ordered a Louisiana one before that but oh well. How is everything else? I don't have that much to say. I'm ready to get out of here. The food pretty much tastes the same. I've been eating the wraps about twice a day. They're good though so i don't care. Well , Ihave to go. You can send this to whoever, I don't care just make sure to take out all the stupid stuff. Oh make sure you send it to Ms. Susan. She has sent me like 2 dear elders so just make sure she gets this. Oh yeah where is my patriarcal blessing? I really want that. I thought i had it but i don't so send that to me. Werre gonna take some cool pictures today so I'll get you those. For that scripture I guess I want D&C 100 4-6. That's a pretty cool one. Sorry if its caused you problems for not having it yet. I see matt every now and then thats cool, well thats about it. Love y'all, Taylor

MTC Letter #4

(Week Four's email didn't come through for some reason. The following came in the form of an "after-thought" email. )

Hey, I forgot to to say that Jeffrey R. Holland talked to us Tuesday night! So finally someone good. He was really funny he talked to us about being the missionaries our brothers and sisters thought we were. He acted like he was flying with his arms spread apart swaying back and forth like a super hero then swooping down when he "saw evil" He was hilarious.