Good Morning mother!
 so this past week went by Great! I had a very uplifting and Testimony building experience on Prayer. lets see. Ill start with the last month. So my companion and I have been Doing Everything we know how to do, saying prayer after prayer to help the people in our areas progress in the gospel. for the last 6 weeks not a single one of the Investigators nor recent Converts that we have been working with have come to church. 6 weeks of feeling like we as missionaries are not doing all we can. Six weeks of feeling like we have let the lord down because it is Evident that no ones faith has been built by us and by saturday night we always feel like we have done everything and then Sunday they don't come. So this last Saturday we had done things differently and been even more bold and instead of just promising blessings we promised blessing and told of consequences. We felt like the energy had built in a tremendous way and everything looked like it would be perfect on Sunday. As we are teaching our final lesson Saturday night to one recent convert, we receive a text from his Gran daughter who is an even more recent convert than he is, and who had moved from his house with her not yet LDS family. The text informed us that she had a very important business meeting the next day and couldn't make it to church, even though just the day before she had been practically in tears wanting to feel the spirit of church again. We informed her Grandfather of the text and posed the question "what more can we do?" "what are we missing?" he continued to bear his testimony to us, and related to us that he knew that She would come back to church and all we could do was be frank with her and tell her how it is and ask her what she really wants. My companion and I said a prayer when we had returned to the truck, as he drove I compiled the text message that we felt we needed to send to her to help her make the right decisions. This was the text that we decided on (note we paraphrased a few parts of the scripture because she doesn't understand old English well. "1 Nephi 3:7 'I will go and do the things the lord commands, for I know that the lord doesn't give commandments to the children of men, unless he shall prepare a way for them to accomplish the things which he has commanded them'...... god has commanded that we go to church. I know god has already prepared the way for you to go to church. It rests on you to find it. God is there. He is knocking. Will you let him in? Or will you leave him out in the cold? again? We just want you to do what you know will make you happy. HE wants you happy. With all the love we can give, we invite you to open the door and go to church with your Savior. He's waiting for you." Her reply was less than moving for us as she put off the invitation for the next week. not wanting to possibly miss out on an opportunity to further her career. My companion and I knelt together and offered probably one of the most humble and pleading prayers either of us had ever given in behalf of someone else. We watered our pillows with our tears as our prayers continued separately. I'm not sure how long we prayed together nor how long our individual prayers comprised, but we felt the calming that comes as you weary the lord with sincerity and faith. In the morning instead of inviting or pushing her anymore we sent one final, uplifting text wishing her luck and invoking blessing on her according to the true desires of her heart. Her reply literally made us leap for joy it read simply "Thank you but I decided to go to church." As it went she had searched for a way and found a ride to church with a not yet LDS friend and rescheduled the meeting for an hour later. We continued with our usual Sunday morning Shepherding, and as we left the house of our last investigator who informed us he wouldn't be able to go, a truck driving the opposite direction stopped. A slightly overjoyed and bedazzled looking lady leaped from the passenger seat and flagged us down. She informed us that her and her daughter had just moved into an adjoining house nearby and would like the elders to pass by. She informed us that her family were all members of the church, but that her and her husband weren't. She informed us that she would like to be taught, but couldn't make it to church that day. Plans were quickly made for members who lived nearby to come for the Daughter (who is a member) and we had a very good day at church. We felt the hand of the lord leading us and others and we know that it was because we asked in sincere humility to be able to see the blessings of the lord.....

I think that should cover it and I went late lol (Lo siento Padre.) _-Elder Taylor Westbrook Logan

August 20, 2012

so no Email this week.. sad but I figured youd want to know how it was going.. we had a really powerful week with a sunday that let us down. No one went to church OR the special fireside.. out of the 15 that said they would.. pray for us to be able to be more bold in our teaching and more crisp and powerful in the way we teach that should cover just about everything as far as prayer needs this week. so dad reminded me that my birthday is in like a month so i figured Id put down a 'yes please list' lol .. hmm lets see 1) quarters.. just make my life happy and send as much as possible.. they help us out soo much.
2) beautiful ties that are bold but NOT OVERBEARING they should not be the only thing noticeable in the room.
3) socks and/or shoes and/or money for them is appreciated. and thats about it in a missionaries life
4) any uplifting music. (Spanish preferred)
5) gift cards to in in out, subway, or major shopping centers also acceptable (if cash is sent just put it in my account to avoid robberies.. i think Andrews' Peruvian mail carrier moved to Tucson)

other than that just pray that Someone we are working with will come to church, because when they dont, we feel like the week was a failure.. even though we know it wasnt.. it feels like it. 
I love you all and will talk to you later. Elder Taylor Westbrook Logan

August 13, 2012

ok so first off.. that was a scorpion at the Urias house. and the cut off the tail so the big manly mexican men both let it walk on their hands lol I decided Id better not.. with my luck... lol but it was cool.. im going to try and send some morepictures but I dont have time to tell you who is who in all of them.. Ill see what I can do.. last week I said bike fast.. I meant car fast.. where we literally go the whole day without using our car.. and for us.. since we live 6 miles away from the northern border of our 30 mile area it was rough.. but not to tough.. We have gone on some nice hikes/ mountain climbing adventures in the last two P-days (pics to be included) and they are definitely harder coming down lol. the the view is beautiful... there are Three recient converts in my Area. Jesus, then Alberto and his Gran-daughter Violet. as far as blessings go there doing well.. but neither Alberto nor violet have been coming to church regularly its probably like 1 week out of 4 or 5 that they come.. though we are working hard with them and the rest of their family if you could just pray for the Santa Cruz family to be able to feel the redeeming love of the Savior thatd be awesome.. (especially if you all pray right at 5:30 pm tonight.. just a quick one for Tico especially since we will have a unique opportunity to teach him and .. well basically, he needs it more than the rest of his family. thatd be great! the Finding is slow as well so pray that a ton of people will have a desire to go to the mission President fireside this coming sunday and we will use that as our main finding skill this week! besides that .. hmm my new missionary is having trouble with insomnia..  so with his sleep pills its hard for him to get up.. pray that Ill continue to have the Patience that I need to continue helping him the best way I can. That should do it on my end. Ill focus on some pictures now.  ok so last week was a small sheer mountain but it was awesome (first three pictures 70 72 77) then 118-133 are the large sheer mountain that took an 50 min to climb and more than an hour and a half to get down.. the last picture is what happens when your foot slips on a rock and you slam down on a jumping cholla cactus.. one day I will relate to you how I got it off and how Elder Foote my mission 'brother' helped me out! lol I love you and Ill talk to you next week.

July 31, 2012

Ok first off on this one I just wanna adress Ashley, :D I love you still dont worry, I have sent at least 1 letter to you every week it just feels long sometimes if I send it late one week and early the next. I love you and hope your still doin your part.

so Elder Rojas left today and Im finishing the training of elder Smith all by my lonesome.. I feel like my spanish has increased rapidly and Im being blessed with the opportunity to work it with out the crutch of having a fluent companion. I have some pictures to send home as well but we forgot the cord lol. so maybe next week.. p-day time is golden for me because Honestly the 3 to 5 hours of sports straight help reset my body and my nerves for the next week and it helps me focus better.. on weeks where I dont have a good pday sports I dont function half as well.. or at least I dont think so.. for that reason we are always rushed on pday trying to get more personal reset time.. Ive accually borrowed a work out program called p 90 x and am trying to copy the cds and establish my own weekly workout to help keep them tortillas off.. I mean those pounds off.. just to give you a small taste of my health status I will tell you that I have gained weight.. BUT my body fat percentage has stayed virtually the same.. and Im currently trying to do more cario and less weights so that I can drop the bf percentage and maybe get back down to 180 or 170 with 5 -10% body fat instead of 18+% lol but Im with an elder finally who enjoys biking as much as I do and has a nicer bike than me.. so we will see if he can keep up.

the whethers been nice nothing over about a 95 and im only about 15 kilometers south of tucson.  we are finding a few new investigators and friends.. one you can pray for is horacio.. help him feel the forgiving. and enabling power of the atonement and hes as good as wet. then lets see.. continue praying for Alberto and Violet the recent converts there lives are just stressful and ALOT of stuff happens to them that dont seem like blessing right now.. maybe pray that they will recognize all the blessing that they DO have instead...thats all on this front.. Im doing good and Ill chat next week. I love you Mom- Elder Taylor Westbrook Logan.

July 23, 2012

hey Raechel,

well, I have been comforted alot this week. but its getting harder today, especially as I read and write about Granda over and over again.. its been awhile since I cried like Im crying right now. Im sure Everyone in the library thinks Im a weirdo but it doesn't matter to me. I know what Im suppost to do AND where I'm suppost to be... even though I'm in a threesome and it wouldn't even slow them donw to have me leave for a day... as a show of my faith and Testimony to God AND to my Family (especially Wes and Safa) I'm making the tough decision to serve with all my heart mind might and streghth with an Eye single to the glory of God! I HAVE the desire to serve! So I KNOW that I am CALLED by god to do his work! IN HIS WAY! ... If you could (im not sure if you can) but, could you do something for me? I'd like it if something like a picture of mine was left with Grandma.. I dont know.. It feels like a weird thing to ask.. but something like that.. You could even read an excerpt from the testimony I just shared if you feel like that'd be better. Either way I know Grandma at least understands why I can't be there physically! I love you Raechel .. thankyou for writing me today. I needed it!

July 16, 2012

So wow thats a bunch of stuff to cover! I will do my best rather quickly.

So Me and My comp from Peru are Training a new Missionary named Elder Smith from Ohio, he is really cool and we all get along great. Ill send some pictures home in a little bit! we are planning some Pretty Epic Pictures we just dont have alot of time to take them.. it seems like we are always in a rush ..  but thats a good thing :D I just dont know how it ALWAYS seems that we just dont have enough time to say and do everything we plan lol.. just appointment to appointment to bed lol. but its been about 70-80 degrees everyday this week because we have had monsoons every day. Ill send home some videos next week but Im only in one of them I think lol but yeah the wheathers been nice we are teaching alot and working with a lot of members and part members and knocking and refferels and teaching so there is always something to do . As far as a journal the closest thing to a journal I have is my weekly letter to Ashley which I have been putting on the back burner for a few weeks now because of said lack of time lol but essentially I write alittle bit Every night and then send it out monday but lately its been once or twice a week that I have been writing... I also have a study Journal... but I hate writing while I read so I have only used it twice.... I ll try to be better at recoring Everything! well the week went by fast with not alot to report keep Praying for Polo and the Ruiz family and I know we will have plenty of success :D Thankyou for your Testimony about Repentance.. we are actually teaching a three family family home evening tonight on Repentance and I have been thinking about what should be said.. maybe youll help me help someone to their new life tonight :D I love you and Ill talk to you again next week!

July 9, 2012

hello Mom,
                  This last week and a half has been Great.. I will re send last weeks Email after this one because it had the baptism photos attached. We are in the middle of Monsoon season here and since I live about 5 Miles south of Tucson we actually have had a bunch of cloudy, rainy, cool days (90* is cool lol). also because we have had 2 Baptisms recently it seems like things will are slowing Down a bit.. We have been focused on finding people to teach. There is on Family that moved into our area that have been investigating the church for 2 years.. please Pray that the Ruiz (roo-ees) family has the court Divorce papers come in so that the Father and Mother can be married and baptized. Well In other new Elder Rojas (Peruvian) and I are dual training an Elder that is being Transferred Permanently to our mission.. we was headed to Chile but because of a prescription that inst available in South America he is coming straight here from the MTC soo that will be interesting :D That's all the new I Have today but Ill let you know how Everything is going later... we have to head to the transfer cite (center Tucson) to pick op the new missionary. I love you Mom and I Promise to share an Experience next week :D Good by for now. -Elder Taylor Westbrook Logan

Ps. Happy Birthday to Andrew. thats like 23? Right... Wow we are getting old.. lol