Letter #15

3-14-11

 

Dear Don,

 

How goes it bro? Heard you got something with SUU. Don’t remember what Mom said it was but it sounded important. How is school going? Are you excited that school is almost over and you will be able to start the rest of your life soon. How is the family doing? I met a kid in my roommates ward the other day, cause he wants to be a music teacher also. He plays the saxophone and is trying to learn a lot of other instruments too. How many instruments do you know how to play now, I forgot? its been too long since I last talked to you. Well everything is going better for me. I have been having some hard times lately, but I learned how to get over the hard things. How much longer do you have until you can put in your papers? There are two guys that got their calls recently in the ward I am in. One of them is going to Dallas, Texas, Spanish speaking. the other one was called to Rome, Italy. Well I don’t know what else to write. Write back soon and I will try to remember to send you another letter.

 

Love Ya Don

Elder Taylor Gull 

Letter #14

3-14-2011

 

Dear Family,

 

How are you guys doing? Hope everyone is doing good. I am doing better this week compared to last week. Don’t know why I was feeling the way that I was. Its just good to know that its past. I got my first transfer call Saturday night and I am going to be staying in Apple Valley for six more weeks. Also on Saturday I have been on my mission for two months. Crazy that it has been that long already. Everything is good here the work is still going pretty slow but, I was told by my District Leader that as long as we are trying to find someone sooner or later we will see work. This next transfer I am going to have the same Companion and pretty much have the same roommates. The only real difference with our our house from next transfer is that the old District Leader is going home tomorrow and his companion is getting a new companion.  Mom and Dad sorry that I wasn’t able to email this week. Evidently the power went out at the Library and their Internet was down when we went there this morning. What new things are going on in Southern Utah? I don’t really know what else to write. So write me some letters so that I will be able to write a longer letter for you guys next week. I Love You all. Be Safe.

 

Love

Elder Taylor Gull

 

PS I hate to ask this cause I know that it isn’t cheap to send things. But can you send me my temple clothes, cause the Redlands Temple doesn’t have the rentals and I am supposed to be going to the temple sometime this transfer. If you could please do that I would be really grateful. Thanks. I Love You guys.

Letter #13

3-7-11

 

Dear Family,

 

How is everyone doing? Hope you are all doing good. Thanks for all the letters and packages that you have sent me so far. How is school going Seth, Del, Don and Kaytie? How is work going Mom and Daniel? How is Isaac doing? As you all know by now I am having problems right now, both in the area I am serving in and how I am feeling about coming on a mission. I am hopefully going to be talking to the Mission President soon, but I don’t know. Transfers are coming up soon, it is hard to believe that it has been 6 weeks since I left the MTC. There is an Elder that is in my room that is dying this transfer. That means that he is going home next week. So we are getting a bunch of stuff that he doesn’t want to take with him. So that meant that I got a couple more ties from him cause he was giving a bunch away. There is a Missionary here who is also going home that has a ton of ties. Its crazy how many he has. My legs have finally stopped hurting, from biking all day long. I have been learning a bunch of things that help past the time lately. One of those things is learning how to solve a Rubic’s Cube. Which I can solve in under 3 minutes now. Ya, I know that it is a useless thing to know but oh well. For P-Days here we have been playing a lot of two hand touch football. Something cool about that is I learned I am really good at playing defense. One of the missionaries game me some football cleats that he had never wore before. My companion if you guys do not already now is Elder Derek Bowler from St. George. Something funny is that he knows Kristen Adams, and before I came out they told him to look out cause there was a Missionary from Parowan coming to that mission. Then he ended up training me. Another thing is both my roommates are from Canada. Both sets of Missionaries don’t live very far from their companions. I had to hide my debit card the other day cause I was using it to much. Sorry I didn’t send a letter last week. Mom and Dad, so you know I got your pictures from when you went to California and that sign of Dale Evan Parkway/Apple Valley is the road we go down when we go email at the library. And seeing those pictures made me really trunky, which doesn’t really help right now. But it was good to see a picture of you guys. I miss you all and think of you guys a lot. Write back when you can. I love you guys so much.

 

Love

Elder Taylor Gull

 

PS Can you guys send me some music. I don’t really have a lot to listen to and I have gotten tired of the one that I do have. Oh and I left my D&C CD’s at home when I left. So can you send that too thanks. Also I got the letter from Grannie and Grampie, but I can’t really read any of it, but I did get the gist of it.

Letter #12

3-7-11

Dear Jessie, 

It's really cool that you got your patriarchal blessing, and that the other kids are getting theirs too. It's really cool to get those. It's good to know that you would still be my friend if I had to come home early, not that I was worried about it. I am looking forward to that first week when I come home, cause I really miss your cookies. You are an amazing cook, no lie. The weather in California right now is warm, and REALLY windy. The wind here is driving me nuts especially since I am on a bike all day. The wind is not one of my biggest fans. I don't really have a favorite part about my mission right now, well then again everyone in my zone and district are really cool and some are pretty strange but nobody is perfect I guess :). The ward is really cool. And me, my companion, and my roommates get along really good most of the time. Sadly we are not getting a lot of success with either tracting or discussions. Apple Valley is one of the slowest areas in the mission if not the slowest, because it's where a lot of older people go when they retire and they don't want to hear from us, cause they have their religion that they have followed all of their lives. A lot of people are nice to us, but there are a few that are just really mean. I'm going to have to tell you about some of them when I get home because they are just too weird to tell you the whole story. Me and my companion have been tracting so much this transfer that we have almost knocked on every door in the area. Some funny things about my companion are that he says the weirdest racist terms without realizing it. So me and our roommates have been counting how many times he says something like it throughout the day.  It's gotten pretty high I think the highest it has been is like 12 or 13 in a day which is a lot. While I have been out here, I have learned to solve a Rubic's cube, and I also found out that I am really good at defense in 2-hand touch football. Thanks for the advice you have given me so far on my mission. I only have 3 or 4 connections with my life back in Parowan and Cedar City, and you and my parents are my biggest one. I hope I put enough about what is going on with me so far, cause that is all I can think of. Are you still being a vegetarian for a year? How is your family doing? It's good to hear about what is going on with them too. If they want to write them letters too, I can. How is school going? How is the weather in Southern Utah? It's good to hear from you even if it's every other week. It beats not hearing from you at all. Don't stop being who you are, cause that, in my opinion, is the BEST thing about you. NO JOKE! Thanks again for being my friend. 

Your Best Friend
Elder Taylor Gull :)

p.s. thanks for Bro. Stone's address. And I forgot to tell you but one of my goals for my mission is to read my Quad from cover to cover except for the Topical Guide, Bible Dictionary, and Index.

Letter #11

2-21-11

Dear Jessie,

Ya I am trying to have as wonderful a time as I can on my mission. Sorry it has taken so long for you to get letters from me. It's partly because I can only write letters on P-days which is Monday and I always get letters from you on Tuesdays. So I have to wait a week before I can write a letter to the one you sent me. I can't believe I have been gone for a month, almost 2. It seems a lot shorter. I know we have email to talk through, I'll keep it in mind, but it will still be around the same amount of time between emails, cause like letters I can only do email on Mondays. I wasn't really getting sick of the MTC, I loved the MTC, the thing is me and my companion kept getting in fights, so it was making that experience pretty miserable, and I tried to resolve the conflicts but something new always came up for some reason. Yes I ate the peanuts on the plane, even though I could have had crackers or cookies if I wanted to. It's not as scary to fly in a plane as people say it is. The coolest part about flying is when the plane gets high enough that you are above the clouds, cause they look really cool looking down on them. Take off and landing is pretty rough, landing more than take off, cause landing you are going pretty fast when the  plane touches the ground. That's pretty much it. you would like flying if you ever got the chance to. The experience with the baptist minister was fine, it helped me see that everyone is no going to accept the gospel just because I tell them to, not that I thought that to begin with :). I don't think that even if I did go back, he would join the church, cause all he wants to do is try to prove us wrong. My dreams have been really weird too, I think they have gotten weirder since I left the MTC. Most of my dreams have you in them, and they are just us hanging at your house, pretty much doing the same things we used to do before I left on my mission. The weirdest dream that I have had so far though is, I had to come home for some reason early; I think cause I got shot while in one of my areas I don't know for sure; but when I got home, no one would talk to me cause I came home early, and you told me that you hated me cause I didn't serve a full two year mission. It is the weirdest dream I have ever had, partly cause I don't think it could ever come true, but then again you never know what the future holds. It's good the face paint marks went away cause it would be really weird if you had those marks still. I hope you get better cause it really stinks when you have to go to school sick. It's good to hear about your family, they are pretty much my second family, it's good that everything is going good. Good job on being vice pres. in your seminary class. That is really cool. I know that you will do a good job doing it. I don't think they put us [me and my companion] together because we were from the same area, it's possible, but I don't know for sure. I am glad that you laughed about putting my middle name on my last letter cause that's what I was going for. I heard from Karrie that when you read the letter that I sent her you got scared when you read the P.S. I put on it, cause you thought I was talking to you. I don't know if that is true but that is what she told me. I knew that it wouldn't be a good idea having two letters going between us, cause we would keep talking about the same things and it would be confusing. That is why I fixed that, is because neither of us need to be confused about something like a letter. Hope you had a good week. Write back soon Greatest friend ever.

Your Best Friend,
Elder Taylor T. Gull

p.s.
thanks for being my friend :)

Road Signs From Elder Gull's Mission

Mom and Dad went to see the beach in Southern California on Presidents day weekend.  They were being good, but they had to snap these shots.  We miss you Elder Gull. :) 

Letter #10...(Post it note)

Please put these pictures all on Facebook and my blog.  I am sending home the one SD card I borrowed from dad.  I got a 2 GB in the MTC, so I only need the one that has my name on it back.  I will get a picture of me and my companion / trainer on my next card...and will send it to you next time.

Thanks,

Elder Gull

P.S:  Most of the pictures are in the MTC.  The pictures of the food is from my greenie dinner, everything is green that I had to eat.  The Canadian flag has all the Canadian elders in the mission signatures.  The elder at the end is my district leader, and he is from Canada.