Week 34 New Companion Elder Taylor

February 29, 2016 Family, First off happy Feb 29th! Such a weird day. It feels like right now shouldn't even exist haha. Also it's sooooo weird that I am going to be turning 19 this week too. It's like I know it's not that weird, but it feels weird. It's pretty cool to think that only this week I would be 19, and without the age change I would maybe be leaving on my mission sometime in March or April, but now I have been out for almost 8 months! It's pretty cool and it really makes me feel so blessed that I have been able to have the experiences that I have had thus far on my mission. I wouldn't have been able to have if not for the age change. So that is pretty cool. On my birthday we happen to be having dinner with a recent convert in the ward who is this super cool black lady and she is making us some of her homemade fried chicken. Mmmmmmmmm. I'm so excited! It's been a while since I have had any of that. So on Thursday we went to do some service for a woman in another ward with her elders which went well, then we went to zone service in Davis which was good as always. It was a good bonding activity for everyone. We then taught our investigator, DeShayla, that can't be baptized, but we are teaching her all the lessons anyways because we feel that she at least deserves to know about it all. Later that night we had dinner with a cool family in the ward and they played a little prank on my new companion. Nothing too mean, but it was really funny. They had a guy from the members mission that played pranks on him come out and help with it, and they acted like a big meteor was going to hit San Francisco and that we needed to like evacuate the area. Hahaha they sent a text from like some fake random administration like when you get those flash flood texts and stuff. It was pretty good. That night we saw a family in the ward which was also good. Friday we had our zone meeting and that was really good. Kind of another mini slap in the face like it was with Elder Hamula, since he was the one that taught the MLC where they got the zone meeting material. So that was another good boost. We had our weekly planning that day and then went and had a killer lesson with our progressing investigator with the ward mission leader. It was pretty sweet. Saturday we did some service for some investigators and we are hopefully teaching them this week too. The rest of the day we pretty much did finding all day long with little to no success, but I have a rule where when I see any PAC-12 stuff in a yard or on a car or house or whatever, I have to stop what I'm doing and knock that door. . So I talked to this guy about the Warriors and the NBA and stuff for like 20 minutes. Other than that not much happened, we saw a less active at night which was also nice but she didn't come to church... But on Sunday, the same recent convert that is makings fried chicken and whose granddaughter we are teaching, brought her neighbor to church and she was really interested/prepared and whatnot. We gave her a Book of Mormon to read and set up a time to come and see her and her family. That was such a blessing and such an amazing thing to see that when we have a tough day or time, the Lord blesses us in a way that we weren't expecting. It was really cool to have that happen and I am really excited to teach her this week. That Sunday we had dinner with the Dennis's and I know he was FB messaging mom. It was funny, kind of weird. I always get a kick out of it when that stuff happens. Other than that it has been a good week. Elder Taylor is doing well, and he is a good kid. We are working well together. Anyways thanks for everything! Thanks for the birthday wishes, and thanks for the box mom! It was awesome! Love, Elder Hatch