59...and a baptism on the 9th!

Hey Mom,

yes we had some good planning on new year's eve. it was good to get all that out of the way.
im glad that you are having a fun time in texas and in utah. we are certainly happy tho that the holidays are over. time to get to business.

i am really glad to hear that everyone in the fam is doing well and that michael, scott, and seth are heading out on thier missions soon.

Leonard is getting baptized on the 9th. the interview with President went well and he is all cleared and excited. to make sure that everything continues to move smoothly we are meeting with him every night. we have planned to teach him each night something that will help him to stay strong. last night we taught him scripture study and his wife, manuela sat in and the Spirit was very strong. the buelna's (our ward mission leader) came over and brought some late Christmas gifts from the ward to his family. we bore powerful testimony and the Spirit was very present and very clear.

unfortunately Fran is not going to be baptized. it came out in her interview that she is on probation and you cant be baptized when you are on probation. we are really sad and disappointed about it but we know that if she holds faithful that her baptismal day will come. she is very discouraged and we are going to try to help her understand the doctrine of it and encourage her to continue to do her best to get off probation and to continue to be strong. she is going through lots of other problems in her life and there is alot of uncertainty and lonliness for her. we hope that she can pull through it and we will do everything that we can to help her.

hunter and his family were able to make it to Church this sunday. the funny thing is that they came at 11 instead of 9 because they forgot about the time change. (i cant tell you how many times we told them about it.) but we really appreciated thier effort and plan to go congratulate them tonight.

lynne made it to Church again and her only obstacle that we know about is smoking. we left her with an outline to make a plan to recover from it with measurable goals and plans. we will see what she did with it tommorow. other than that she is ready to go on being baptized but it is a difficult obstacle.

going to singles ward was really weird. almost everyone was older than us but not by much. we inherited an investigator and have picked up two former investigators that they had. the formers are not married but live together and we are going to try to help them fix that so that they can be baptized. we will see how it goes. the other appears to have been dragged along by his girlfriend to meet with missionaries. we will see what we can do there.

lee is still just waiting to get the cast off. brings new meaning to "if thy foot offend thee, cut it off." we are super excited about leonard's baptism. last night after the lesson we had to run to make another appointment but leonard grabbed me on the way out and told me that the Spirit was in his home. the gospel is having a profound effect on thier family. hopefully we can have his wife and oldest daughter not far behind.

to grandma and grandpa:

to grandma:

i had forgotton that Mom numbers my posts. i am glad to hear that you had stan's. that is some good food. sounds like a really good sunday with Will being blessed and Braden recieving the Priesthood. i am pretty scared about facing cold weather. most days here we go short sleeves until it cools down at night. i start to get cold when it is less than 70. i hope that i can weather utah someday.

grandpa:

Braden is a great young man. i am sure that he will honor his Priesthood well. that book sounds really interesting. i read alot of the old testament before i decided that i could better use my time doing other things. but it is a goal of mine for post mission to study the old testament more. there is much in there that can help us to understand the gospel and the Atonement.

Adams:

i really enjoyed getting to hear the singing on Christmas. i also really appreciated the card that you sent. it is crazy to think that my mission will end one day and that everyone is getting older but i guess that is how it goes.

Braden:

congratulations on recieving the Aaronic Priesthood. you are a great young man and will honor your Priesthood well. keep doing good things!

Love your favorite missionary,

Elder Taylor Barron