I have to say that conference was amazing! This is the first time that I have heard all 5 sessions. But I loved all of it. It was a little odd going to the church and watching all of the sessions there. We had zone conference in Roswell -it is an alien town. It is way funny! I will get pics next time we go there. But the ride to Roswell is about 2 ½ hours to 3 hours and all it is flat and looking at pump jacks the whole way. The only thing that is sort of entertaining is looking at the pump jacks and trying to figure out how they could be more effective, but so far none of my amazing ideas would be good. Hahahah. Hobbs is an oil town so tons of people are out of jobs because they haven’t really been building any more new rigs. Zone conference was way good. We got to go to meet with president. It was a good meeting. He just said mostly that I need to be more confident with myself, and he has full confidence with me.

What really stinks is that knocking doors is a waste of time here. We don’t really know what we should do or who we can see because we don’t know the area that well, but it is a work in progress. The people here aren’t like the Texans at all. We finally found an area that people are receptive and we are getting a base of investigators that we can teach.

We had a way awesome rain storm on Saturday, it was really powerful and loud. We biked really fast to another members house, who we were teaching his wife and he wouldn’t let us in. Yes, he is sort of weird and doesn’t really care about us teaching his wife. The storm hit really hard, way hard! When we were ridding around we got to ride through puddles that went up to our crank thingy, yes it is a great word! But the drainage system here in Texas and New Mexico stinks, like way bad. Mostly it will stay on the roads until it gets splashed off or until the sun dries it up. And no, we didn’t get splashed but people tried to splash us.
Cool story. So when we were eating Sunday dinner at a part member families house. We were talking to the wife Tammy who isn’t a member and we asked her how she liked church. She said that she actually liked it and that she cried during it, then she said something that surprised me a ton. She said she decided that she wanted to get baptized. I didn’t really know what to say, except, “ that is awesome,” or something like that. She has to quit smoking and drinking coffee so she probably won’t get baptized for a while, or at least a month.

We are way excited for this next week. An investigator of ours is finally getting married to a member. They have been living together for a while. He has been waiting for his divorce to go through so they could get married. The marriage is on Saturday. But we are hoping that he will be making way good progress after that, so yes.

But Hobbs is good, just full of people in good old America. It’s so funny! The people here say they are from Hobbs America, not Hobbs New Mexico. But I hope that you have fun at home. It is way weird that y’all are there, and I am here in Hobbs America, but it is fun here too!

Well good bye ! I hope that y’all have a fantastic week because I will,

Love Y’all!

Elder Chaz Rymer 1520 N. San Andres Hobbs, New Mexico 88240

February 2009

Hey!

So Cody is doing way good. We have a solid baptism for him on 2/14/09 Yes, Valentines Day. Elder Sergeant is baptizing and he wants me to confirm. I am way scared about that. Cody showed us his room. Wow! On one wall there are tons of abstract pictures that he has done. All of them are very dark and scary, like Eerie feeling dark. He told us that this was how he felt before we started teaching him. Then he showed us one that was right before we came and it was of someone crying, I want to see the one he does after he is baptized . Maybe I can get permission to record all of the pics.

We had a lesson with Eddie and Melissa. We knocked on their door and he let us in because we were spreading the word. Eddie looked up some information on the internet about our church, but of course he went to an anti website like everyone does. So he starts asking us all of these questions about things that we never talk about. We answered the questions and all is well! They even came to church when the topic was temple marriage. He borrowed some paper and pen from me and started writing down things like crazy. It is going to be so much fun talking to them next time, I am so pumped for it. I love just answering questions. Eddie even invited us to his family bible study which we are so pumped for it. They think that he is crazy for letting us in his home to teach him. I can’t wait to go to the bible study. I want to know what they heck they talk about, because the bible is so messed up and very confusing, but then again everyone here loves the bible.

Cody's baptism on Saturday was way good. I got to confirm Cody and that was way scary but it went well.
It sounds like home is going to be different from now on, and you will enjoy it so much. Just make sure that you read and pray together as a family every day. It will make Gabi and Sisco feel included, and bring out any concerns about religion or about the book of Mormon

So the good news of the week, we were able to get back into contact with three of our investigators that have baptismal dates, but they didn’t come to church. One lady, Maria, came to church even though we dropped her. We were way happy to see her, so we picked her back up, had a lesson with her and set a baptismal date.

A shocker came when we were teaching brother Arpten. He isn’t a member but his whole family is. He has been taught or seeing the missionaries for about 4 years. We're trying to see why. He seems to know about everything, like how he can’t dwell with his family if he doesn’t get baptized. He told us that he was baptized into the RLDS church. Well that shocked me. I didn’t really know very much about it, but we are way happy that he is telling us thesethings now. Hopefully he will progress faster. So our week has been good in getting reconnected with people, but next week will be much better.

Oh by the way, I have been trying to use ya'll more on purpose, so ya!
Love Y’all!
Elder Chaz D Rymer 5601 Bell Street Apt. # 1103 Amarillo, Texas 79109

Taylor arrives in Mobile, Alabama!

HOLA mi famila y mi amigos!

On the plane ride to Atlanta I got to share the gospel with the lady who was sitting next to me. It was really fun then. When we got in Tallahassee, we met the mission president and the assistants to the president. They took us to the mission home where they gave us an orientation which was fun. We also had a delicious dinner and some interviews. President Summerhays is really loving, really nice and really spiritual. I really like him. After that first night they told us where we were to serve. I am serving in the Theodore area which mostly covers Theodore and Mobile, Alabama. My trainer is Elder Clements who is really nice and oh get this another red head ha ha! But there is a twist I am in a companionship of three! With Elder Allison who is way sweet also. I stay in an apartment with them and two other elders Elder Kenck and Elder Rigby. They are also way funny and nice as well.

I was super nervous when I met them but they were really nice and we went straight to work! They speak great Spanish so I think they will be good "Parents". Oh by the way your trainer is your Dad so everyone has there own little family tree. Elder Kenck is my grandpa and I'm one of the few missionaries who gets a mom (Elder Allison).
On Wednesday my companions made me a cake cause it was my "Birthday" lol the cake is called tres leches which means three milks cause it takes three different kinds of milks. Its way good and I'll have to send you the recipe!

Anyways so on Thursday, we talked with tons of people we had a lot of contacts to visit so we didn't have to track yet (thankfully) but then that night we played soccer with a bunch of Mexican guys, which was scary cause I had no clue what anyone was saying and I am not very good at soccer but I did my best and I scored a Goal!! Ha (this is a grand accomplishment for me)

The humidity hasn't been too bad and its actually been kind of cold it hasn't been hot yet. There really isn't too much to say about Mobile.... it’s a town I wouldn't want to live in. Ha! It’s the south but I mean the DEEP south. Here English is like another language. But I like it! Even though we mostly teach in trailer parks like this one we were just in on Thursday. There were cob webs and cock roaches climbing around everywhere!

Friday, I knocked my first door and it was a white guy so I told him we were missionaries and we are teaching Hispanic peoples in the area "do you know were any live". He did so I was going to do my first door contact, right as I knocked the door someone shouted at us.It was a little Mexican guy who started talking to my companion in Spanish and turns out he was a member trying to find where the church was. But then the door I knocked on opened and the people there were staring at me.My companion was talking to the other guy so I said hi and told them we were representatives of Christ and that we had a message that we would like to share. To my amazement they understood what I said and said I could come in! But we ended up not going in because we had to talk to the other guy so we are going to go back sometime next week.

Saturday the other elders had a baptism so that was cool to be apart of! I had to get up and share my testimony which was really fun! We also talked to this lady Mira and taught her the first lesson and invited her to church and she came! Which I guess doesn't happen very often! Elder Allison and Elder Clements said this is the best week they have had for a long time!

Last night we taught this guy from Puerto Rico who had crazy tattoos every where but he was super nice. I told him about how I knew the book of Mormon was true and he actually understood everything I said! He actually complimented me on my Spanish! The gift of tongues is amazing!

oh here is our address:

1601 hillcrest Road #88
Mobile, AL. 36695


I am having a blast! This really isn't as hard as I thought it would be. But I think its easy now just cause I don't have to answer all the hard questions. Elder Clements is a way good teacher and really funny and kind and Elder Allison is the same. They are really good "parents". The guys have nick named me shredder cause they think I am good at guitar. Oh Elder Rigby has a guitar so I can play a little bit every night!

Well love you all.

Elder Smith

News from Chaz-- End of 2008!

…So we have been going through this apartment complex that is full of, “ I am sorry”, but ghetto are uncommitted people. I am sure that Tosh knows, but people that are poor don’t commit to anything. So we drive clear the heck out to these people for a lesson, and then they punch on us (Don’t show up), and we are way far away from anyone. We have had about 10 investigators in this apartment complex, they called it the projects. We go to these people and they punch, and so we go visit all the other people that we have there. It seems like the only time we can have a lesson with them is when we just drop in.

But this last Sunday no one came to church with us. Yes, we do sort of feel like we are failures because that is what we need to do is to have people come to church. They all tell us, “Yea, we will come to church”, but then they don’t come, or they go to what ever church they want. So they are just uncommitted. What else really stinks is that they are like, “ Well it is really busy because of Christmas and New Years, so I will call you after the New Year”. We just sang Christmas carols, then taught them So, we tricked them to listen to us, hahahahahaha!

K, so we had to do exchanges on Saturday, and I went with the Spanish elder to a dinner appointment he had. We were in our area. So I am there eating with a Spanish family… they can speak English but they just don’t want to. Elder Ents was like, “Hey, he should try the baby tomatoes that you grow.” I thought, “Ok, they probably are peppers, so they got some and they are tiny, smaller then a pea, like way small so I thought they shouldn't’t be that hot. So I ate two. Oh my heck, they were so hot, my mouth was on fire! They thought that it was funny, One lady that couldn’t speak English was making fun of me and trying to tell me how much I was sweating. She thought it was funny, but then told me that I had eaten the hottest pepper in the world. For the size of the pepper, dang it was hot, and I had eaten TWO, yea that is right TWO

HEY so guess what? Just guess! Yep, I AM GETTING TRANSFERRED. But I don’t know where I am going, I won't find out until they say, “ Rymer, get off of the bus”. I am sort of sad that I am leaving San Angelo. The members are awesome. Elder Shumway and I had a great plan for the members to get more involved with helping us but he will have to go about it on his own.
On Christmas day, we went to a less active family to have dinner. It was SO GOOD, DANG IT WAS GOOD! We had lamb and ham, and the lamb was amazing, I can't even tell you how amazing it was, it was like roast but better. This family lives on the other side of the lake. They have a little dock and everything. We just chilled on the dock for a while and watched the sun go down while talking. We were there for three hours, talking and teaching. I hope Elder Shumway and his new companion baptize two of their children by the end of next transfer, at least that is what we wanted to do before I found out that I was leaving.

AFTER NEW YEARS, I am going to be so happy for 2009, which means Christmas isn’t for a while. Yes, this week was fun, but nothing really went on because of Christmas. So yea, I am leaving San Angelo, and yes, I would love to come back!
OK, Love You All!

Chaz's Mission Home Address:
Elder Chaz D Rymer
Texas Lubbock Mission
Sentry III Plaza
5214 68th St. Ste 202
Lubbock, TX 79424-1523

T's MTC experience

Elder Smith loves the MTC. He is doing awesome. We have received some amazing letters from him and are so grateful that he is so happy. Here are a few of his recent comments.

"Hola mi Familia!

The MTC es muy Bueno! I am learning alot about the gospel and I am coming so much closer to God our Loving Heavenly Father. Since I've Been here I have been reading the Book of Mormon and I am close to finishing the book of Alma! I encourage you all to read the Book of Mormon it is such an amazing book and it really helps to guide and direct you in life.
I had another amazing experience in the RC (Refferal Center). I was taking inbound calls and I got a call from a old lady in wendover nevada. She had been trying to contact the church for such a long time. She is handy capped now and Had a hard time getting around. She said her neighbor is a mormon and helps her alot and is really kind and nice. She in her youth was like a catholic nun or something and then she joined the baptist church. But then the baptist had the members donate clothes that they said were for the poor but then the next week the church sold the clothes for like five dollars a piece and Mary-Ann (the lady) was heart broken. Any way I told her that the spirit was the one that guided her to call and I told her about the book of mormon and told her that I would sent the missionaries to her home. She said she didn't have a way of getting to church and I told her that the missionaries would help arrange that for her. I talked to her for like about fifteen minutes before i even got any of her information. It was such a cool experience. I was on fire in the RC out of the Six calls I got I was able to send Four sets of missionaries to their home! My teacher then wrote on the board "SMITH IS ON FIRE!" it was way chill"

"Hey everyone!
I love you all! I have progressed so much in these last four weeks I have come closer to my Heavenly Father! I have finished reading the Book of Mormon and am a quater of the way through with the Doctrine and Covenants! EVERYONE READ THE BOOK OF MORMON! it is the key thing that has helped me know our Heavenly Father. also Pray every morning every evening and every night!
some one asked the question what I do in my free time... well usually I just like to read the book of mormon! but I finished it now! lol so I'll just give you a run through of my week:

Monday- arise at 6:20
study tell 8:00
Eat breakfast
Class tell lunch at one
Gymn for one hour
MDT
-one hour personal study
-one hour companion study
-one hour language study
lunch at six
class tell nine and then plan tel nine thirty. then we return to the residence hall. Usually everyone comes into our room to talk and chat for awhile its way fun then we write in our journals then go to bed. on P-day its like this six thirty wake up seven o'clock personal study eight eat breakfast then after that its companionship studay then we go do laudry and Email which Im doing right now lol we then can do pretty much whatever... I usually write letters and chill with the other elders! then we go get lunch then more chill time tell we go to the temple after dinner we have class. Its way nice to take a break cause the rest of the week we are working as hard as we can.

Oh another awesome experience ant the RC! I was Four for Four on sending the missionaries! the spirit really guided those people to call! By the end of our hour I decided I would just call one more number and the lady answered and said she usually is incredibly busy and never answers her phone I asked her if I could send the missionaries to her house she answered and said "I am increddibly busy.." the spirit directed me to tell her that the missionaries would share a message with her that would help her relieve stress in her life and find more time for her family (i didn't even know she had a family) she then said ok and gave me a date when she would have time! It was a great experience.

Thanksgiving was good the turkey was gross and so was the stuffing but other than that it was great! We had meetings all day. I really missed every one!

One of the christ like attributes I have been trying to work on is virtue. virtue is more than just doing nice things for people its doing kind things when no one is looking or standing up for what you believe and not wanting to receive credit! I hope you all can pick a Christlike attribute and work on it every day. I know that if you do you will come closer to the Lord and you will feel his love.

I love you all,

Elder Taylor Smith

First News From Texas...

Bidding farewell at the MTC

Look who found each other!

Chaz's address is now... 

3018 Knickerbocker Rd. Creek Side Apt. # 406
San Angelo, TX
76904 

HEY Y'ALL how are you doing? So I did y'all on purpose, I did. So I am in San Angelo Texas, it is below Lubbock and yes it has gotton cold.
So this area is flat with some hills, ya hahaha I get so excited when we go up them and then down them. . But our apartment is an OK size my bike is just chillin in a corner all ready to be riddin if that is a word.
Thanksgiving was fun and it was good too, we had ham and turkey and all of the good American food, hahha! So the Spanish Elders said that their Thanksgiving dinner wasn't good at all, I am so glad that I am English speaking. I still don't have the lessons down in English and I am so glad that I don't have to worry about them in Spanish. Oh but really good thing, I get free Golden corral lunch on Fridays it is awesome, I ate so much last time I was there.
So the people here are way nice until you bring up religion. For instance when I was mailing my ipod home ( Actually mom the president was fine with ipods, it was a General Authority that told everyone to send them home, even though it does say we can have them) Elder Shumway was talking to this lady for a while. She was wondering what we were doing here and then she got the whole spill and then she started arguing with him. She was way nice but then she got angry. We think she was a Jehovah Witness but oh well. This area has so many different church's around it isn't even funny, there is a street that probably has six different churches but that isn't even half the amount that is here. Everyone says they support us for what we are doing but if they did truly support us then they would join us. But "They have found Christ and they are saved". " It doesn't matter what church you belong in as long as you believe in Jesus" but oh well.

So people here have the worst teeth, it is gross. The only good looking teeth I have seen they aren't from Texas, even the little kids when they open up there mouth ...Oh ya, so you know that snap noise that was big in Brazil, you just move your hand really fast and your thumb snaps your finger, well I know what that is all about. So this is what it is from, you ready? So first you get out your chewing tobacco,and you bring it up and then you move it down fast which then makes a snap I learned that one day while watching this one guy pull out his chew and did that. But it is disgusting! We were talking to this one guy and he just put his hand is his mouth and removed a lot of chew then put in some new chew and then wanted to SHAKE OUR HAND. It was gross! I washed my hand as fast as I could.

I am doing great, and I am learning so much!

Much Love,

Chaz

Welcome to Texas!  It looks like this every direction you look!

Taylor enters MTC

Taylor entered the Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, November 5 at 1:00pm.
He was excited that the day had finally arrived. His address at the MTC is:
Elder Taylor Robert Smith
MTC Mailbox #212
FL-TAL 0106
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, Utah 84604-1793