Letter

“Brightly beams our Father’s mercy From his lighthouse evermore, But to us he gives the keeping Of the lights along the shore.” Hymn 335

July 4th and El Faro

Happy July 4th from Palma de Mallorca, España!

This may be a long letter today but I invite you to have a seat as I try to express some incredibly powerful spiritual impressions that have come to me this week. As you can tell by the title of this post, I would like to share a few comments about July 4th back in America and about lighthouses; both from a physical and spiritual standpoint. The Spain Barcelona Mission is known as El Faro, meaning the Lighthouse. This is especially significant considering the role that lighthouses have played in history and the spiritual significance of sharing the Gospel light.

I will attempt to connect the thoughts and impressions that have come this week regarding: The Book of Mormon, Christopher Columbus, the American founding fathers, the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Spain, lighthouses, and sharing the Gospel in the world today. Lea and I have enjoyed these discussions.

A few weeks ago, I started to read the Book of Mormon again from the beginning; this time with my English and Spanish versions side-by-side. I have read First Nephi, chapter 13 perhaps dozens and dozens of times. But this time, living in Spain, verse 12, painted a vivid picture for me. Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy and began sailing an early age. He felt a spiritual stirring for sailing and discovery and said multiple times in his life that he felt that he was guided by the Spirit. In 1492, funded by Spanish monarchs, he set sail heading west. Over 2000 years earlier, the prophet Nephi saw this event in a vision: “12 And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.” This verse came to life for me this week! I tried to imagine what Nephi saw. Why was Nephi inspired to record this vision? What is the significance of what he saw?

Let me share several quotes from several sources that I have found during some personal study time. They aren’t in any particular order but they have helped me connect the dots between Columbus, America, the significance of July 4th, the Book of Mormon and the Restoration of the Gospel.

From the BYU Religious Studies Center:
Elder Mark E. Peterson- Speaking specifically about the work that Columbus and the Founding Father performed, Elder Petersen declared: “These events were preliminary steps leading up to the gospel being restored and taken to the entire house of Israel.” He emphasized that, “few people think of the discovery of America, the Revolutionary War, and the establishment of a constitutional form of government here as being steps toward the fulfillment of the Lord’s ancient covenant with Abraham.But it is a fact that they were” (Ibid. 3; emphasis added).

As Elder Petersen explained, “The restoration of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in these latter days, together with the advance preparation of conditions which made it possible, was indeed a divine drama which had many stages and many scenes, some of which were world shaking” (Petersen 2). Let us now turn our attention to the life of a man who truly changed the world as he played out his part in this divine drama. That man, of course, is Christopher Columbus, and the scene is the Age of Discovery.

At the 1854 Fourth of July celebration in Salt Lake City, President Brigham Young spoke of the Lord’s direction of the events that led to the modern discovery of America: “The Almighty . . . moved upon Columbus to launch forth upon the trackless deep to discover the American Continent” (JD 7:13).

Columbus – from his own journals:
“This was the fire that burned within me,” Columbus wrote. “Who can doubt that this fire was not merely mine, but also of the Holy Spirit … urging me to press forward?”

Elder Clark B. Hinckley – Author of a book about Columbus and past President of the Spain Barcelona Mission (another connection!):

“Essentially what Columbus said over and over again is that God had chosen him to do what he did, and that he played a key role in the divine plan of history. He was very convinced of that,” Hinckley said. “What the Book of Mormon does is validate that perspective.”

He was intrigued to realize that among all the prophecies of the Restoration in the Book of Mormon, only two individuals are specifically recognized: Joseph Smith and Columbus.
“Why is that? Why not George Washington? Why is it that Nephi, in all that he is talking about, singles out Columbus?” Hinckley said. “The conclusion I came to in doing this research is the Restoration begins with Columbus and his voyage. It changes the world almost overnight. … Columbus and Joseph Smith are the bookends of the Restoration. I think that’s why Nephi singles him out.” (From a Deseret News article dated Oct 13,2014)

“The Restoration begins with Columbus” (I don’t believe I have considered this before – events of 1492 led to 1820! This makes sense. My comment)
Columbus and Joseph Smith as bookends? I love that concept! (My comment)

President Ezra Taft Benson:

“The temple work for the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence and other Founding Fathers has been done. All these appeared to Wilford Woodruff when he was president of the St. George Temple. President George Washington was ordained a high priest at that time. You will also be interested to know that, according to Wilford Woodruff’s journal, John Wesley, Benjamin Franklin, and Christopher Columbus were also ordained high priests at that time. When one casts doubt about the character of these noble sons of God, I believe he or she will have to answer to the God of heaven for it.” (Benson, Ezra Taft This Nation Shall Endure, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1977, 22.)

Now, as we sit here nearly 6,000 miles away, July 4th has an added significance. The Lord was directly involved in the development of America as the place for the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the last time. Perhaps we can say that this all started in Spain in 1492.

I understand that not all of Columbus’ history is clean, but that is a different conversation for a different setting.
—————————————————

Now, I’ll try to tie in lighthouses:

From the Majorca Daily Bulletin:

There are 19,000 documented lighthouses worldwide, 187 of them are in Spain and 34 are in the Balearic Islands; 14 of which are on Mallorca.

From Chema Lima- a Lighthouse Historían:

“Lighthouses have played a very important role in the history of mankind and they were initially built to take advantage of sea resources, then later to signal points of conflict in navigation,” says Lima,

His obsession with lighthouses also piqued his interest in the work of the Lighthouse Keepers.
“They were people with incredible fortitude and significant mental strength, whose role was to keep the light on even in adverse weather conditions,” says Chema Lima who also highlights the isolation the Fareros were subjected to.

Using Mr. Lima’s description of Faros and Fareros:
Are there points of conflict in our navigation through life?
Are their dangerous waters we must pass safely through?
What are the lighthouses (Faros) in our lives that help us see danger in the darkness?
Who are our Lighthouse Keepers? (Fareros)
Are we Fareros and do we have incredible spiritual fortitude and strength?
Do we shine our light to assist others on their journey?
Are we able to keep our lights on for ourselves and others during periods of adverse life situations?
As Fareros, do we sometimes feel isolated?

I now see Nephi, King Benjamin, Alma, Mormon, Moroni, Columbus, George Washington, Joseph Smith, Russell M Nelson and our own President Villar as Fareros. I understand my role as a missionary in these latter days of a Farero.

We all have the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to light the world. We are all Lighthouse Keepers! There are many of Heavenly Father’s children who are looking for light to guide them through a dark world. Our Lighthouses “play a very important role in the history of mankind.” President Nelson has shared that we are here at this time to gather Israel; the most important work in the world.

I love how the Spirit has helped me connect The Book of Mormon, Christopher Columbus, America’s founding fathers, July 4th, the Restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith, Spain, lighthouses and lighthouse keepers, and sharing of the Gospel light to others.

I’ll finish with the words to a Hymn you are familiar with that describes our role as Lighthouse Keepers:

# 335
Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy

1. Brightly beams our Father’s mercy
From his lighthouse evermore,
But to us he gives the keeping
Of the lights along the shore.
2. Dark the night of sin has settled;
Loud the angry billows roar.
Eager eyes are watching, longing,
For the lights along the shore.
3. Trim your feeble lamp, my brother;
Some poor sailor, tempest-tossed,
Trying now to make the harbor,
In the darkness may be lost.

[Chorus]
Let the lower lights be burning;
Send a gleam across the wave.
Some poor fainting, struggling seaman
You may rescue, you may save.

Hermana Taylor and I love being missionaries and being “lighthouse keepers.” May we all freely and proactively share the light of Jesus Christ!

We love you and appreciate you!

Élder y Hermana Taylor

By Elder and Hermana Taylor, ago

“And he did exhort them then with all the feelings of a tender parent, that they would hearken to his words, that perhaps the Lord would be merciful to them….” 1 Nephi 8:37

Week 7 in Palma de Mallorca

It’s Sunday night, June 19th, and we have just finished a wonderful Sunday. Today was Father’s Day back in the United States, but Dia del Padre en España is in March. So, only the American missionaries and our families thought about Father’s Day today. Our message on this post will be centered on our fathers and the great example of fathers that we have experienced here in Palma.

Let’s begin with our Heavenly Father. We know that his work and his glory is: “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” Moses 1:39. He always has our best interest in mind; especially, our eternal blessings. In Third Nephi 13:32–33, we learn, “your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” As we have throughout our lives, we have witnessed the goodness of God and his blessings to His children to those that seek Him and His son, Jesus Christ. We will share a few examples of this in our post tonight.

We have pondered today on our two earthly fathers: Benjamin Taylor and Rulon Duncan. They both lived long and spiritually productive lives. Lea and I continue to be blessed each day by the lives of our parents. Our important responsibility is to continue and to perpetuate the commitment to the Gospel and Christlike living of our parents. Our fathers had testimonies of the Gospel and of Jesus Christ and their lives were dedicated to this great cause. We are grateful to be sealed to our fathers and our mothers forever.

1 Nephi 8:37 – after Nephi recounts the vision of his father, he states: “ And he did exhort them then with all the feeling of a tender parent, that they would hearken to his words, that perhaps the Lord would be merciful to them….”

What are “the feelings of a tender parent?”

We feel blessed every day by the lives of our tender parents! ♥️ I hope that I have been and am, a tender parent. As dad frequently taught us Taylor children, the only roles that we take from this life into the eternities are: father, mother, and child. These are the roles that we should spend the most effort on – in our earthly and eternal relationships and families.

In our short time here in Palma, we have observed numerous examples of great fathers and great parents. We could share numerous photos and stories, but will include three in this post.

The first is Fabian Barraza and his faithful family. He and his wife are from Argentina and have lived here in Spain for 20+ years. He is a great father! He previously served as the District President and is now the High Counselor over the Young Adults and the Institute teacher. He has a strong testimony and a love of the Gospel and the scriptures. He is a great example to us! I feel like we are eternal brothers and I love him.

The next example is our dear friend, Osa. He was first contacted on a commuter train by Hermana Fitt. He said he was curious about what was on her name tag. Lea and I were able to participate in his first missionary discussion. From that very first encounter, we could feel something unique and very special about this man. We felt spiritually connected to him. Hermana Smith and Hermana Hadfield did a wonderful job of teaching him the Gospel. He readily and confidently accepted the invitation for baptism. He was baptized in the swimming pool at the Branch President’s house because the chapel has been closed for several weeks for renovation. Lea and I have had numerous experiences with him in the last several weeks and we love him. He calls Lea, “momma” and he calls me, “father. “ He is doing everything he can to support his young daughter back in Nigeria. He wants to be a great father.

The third story is that of Giuseppe. He has attended church for about nine years but has not been a member. He has a strong Italian background. His wife and others have prayed for him for many years. The members of the branch all know him and he has participated in the church routinely. Recently, he felt the desire to be baptized and officially join the church and to progress towards an eternal family. He is a very devoted father! It was a great blessing for us to witness his baptism last week and to see him baptize his young daughter today. The setting for these baptisms in a pool at Branch President Thorson’s house is incredibly beautiful. Giuseppe and his wife have a spiritual glow around them. They are so happy and excited about their future as they prepare for the temple next year. It has been an incredible blessing for Lea and I to get to know them and to witness the light of the Gospel in this beautiful family.

So, may we offer a belated Happy Father’s Day to all of you fathers. We are grateful that you are trying to do your best to follow the Savior. We have been blessed throughout our whole lives with worthy fathers and we are surrounded by faithful fathers and mothers here in Palma de Mallorca.

We are grateful for your love, prayers, and support. We see the Lord‘s hand in His great work every day. It is a privilege, honor, and blessing to be a few of His missionaries at such a great time in the history of the world.

We love you!

Élder y Hermana Taylor (momma and father)

By Elder and Hermana Taylor, ago

God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in Him.” 1 John 4:16

Week 3 in Palma de Mallorca
Good evening from Palma de Mallorca, España!
It is Saturday night and we are enjoying a very pleasant evening getting ready for Sunday. The temperatures have been approaching the low 90s but yet the people keep telling us, “just wait until August! “ we’re not sure what we’re in for with the high temperature and high humidity in August. Today is our 24th day here in Palma and we are enjoying every single day. Tomorrow is Hermana Taylor‘s birthday and it will certainly be a different birthday for her.

Little my little we are able to make our piso (apartment) more like home. Hermana Taylor has spent a lot of time and energy making our piso more comfortable and enjoyable. We were able to purchase some curtains from IKEA and Lea put those up this afternoon after we paid for a local seamstress to hem the bottom of the curtains. This will certainly help to reduce the heat from the afternoon sun coming in our floor to ceiling windows on the west side. There are numerous fresh fruit and vegetable markets everywhere in this city as well as grocery stores within a few minutes walking. We bought some local peaches and apricots and grapes today and they are delicious! Our understanding is that the growing season lasts throughout the year so we should always have a supply of fresh fruits and vegetables. We purchase food almost every day as our fridge and freezer and cupboards are very small. We are grateful to be in a comfortable piso in a beautiful city on a fabulous island in the middle of the Mediterranean. We never would have imagined serving our mission in a place like this.

We would like to concentrate our comments this week on the amazing young adults that we have the privilege and blessing to associate with, and to serve alongside. In a very short period of time, we have grown to love these young people. They have incredibly strong spirits with very bright futures. In Spanish we call our group JAS, which stands for Jovenes Adultos Solteros,or young single adults. We actually have a few married couples in our group so we really only call them Jovenes Adultos or JA, pronounced “hah.” Hermana Taylor and I have been here for four Friday nights so far. We have a JA activity every Friday night. Historically, this has been a short spiritual message followed by a dinner and then games or activities. At this point, we have tried to follow that model. Many of these young people work and can’t arrive until well into the evening. We try to start at 8 o’clock but really don’t get started until about 8:30 pm. Hermana Taylor and I usually leave at about 11:30pm with the young adults still there usually playing soccer or games outside the church. This is a group of individuals that love and respect each other and get along very well. They love their time associating with each other. We have amigos of the church (non-members)who attend and participate every week which is awesome. Elder and Sister Dyer (we love them!) who arrived here about five or six weeks before us managed these Friday night events by themselves before we arrived. They help us greatly and are with us every Friday night.

Last night was amazing and very special. We spent several days this week preparing for the meal and also preparing for a spiritual message to share with them. Hermana Taylor prepared a wonderful meal of chicken salad sandwiches on croissants with fruit, chips and drinks. I probably mentioned last week but the fresh fruit and vegetables here are very plentiful and very cheap and very awesome. We decided to center our message last night on some of the things that President Nelson has shared specifically with the young adults. We used comments and quotes from his talk on January 23rd to 48 European countries, in which he spoke in part, specifically to the young adults. We also highlighted some of the wonderful things that he shared last Sunday in his worldwide devotional to the young adults. We started our message playing a video of the closing hymn from the Worldwide Devotional last week, Let us All Press On. By the way, we recommend that you all search that devotional and listen to that closing hymn. Knowing that we were going to use that video, we listened to that hymn several times throughout the week. Each time it brought tears to my eyes. We had prepared 11 different quotes from his talk in January. We invited 11 of the young adults to read that short quote and then share a personal comment about how they felt about President Nelson‘s words. It turned out beautiful and their comments were poignant and spiritual. Our attempt was to help them to understand how President Nelson is communicating with them at this point in their lives. He has shared that they have incredibly faithful histories in the pre-earth life and have amazing futures to look forward to. Two of the 11 who read quotes and made comments were amigos of the church. It was very heartwarming to have their personal participation.

Our opportunity here is to find each one of these young adults and to grow this program such that it will be a great blessing for them in their lives. The numbers who have come and participated each week has grown each Friday. Last night we think we had 23 at the activity. Hermana Taylor and I are getting to know many of these more personally and they are so kind to us and so patient with us as we try to communicate more effectively in Spanish. We also see these young adults at various other times such as at Institute class every Wednesday night and at their Branch meetings on Sunday. Our calling to work specifically with the young adults here is such a great blessing!

With our car and having perhaps more time than the young elders and sisters, we are able to travel around this island a bit. We have seen some amazing places including two little towns this last week named VilaFranca de Bonany and Montuiri. I’l share those photos on Facebook. Incredibly beautiful little towns!

The last three weeks have certainly taken us out of our historical comfort zone but this new world for us is amazing. We are grateful for all the members of these branches who are so kind and loving to us. We feel very welcomed, appreciated and loved. We wish to return those same feelings towards them.

We are grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and we testify of his divinity and of his restored Gospel. We have been called to help gather Israel in a unique way for 18 months and to prepare these people and the world for the Second Coming of our Savior. These people and this experience are bringing us closer to Jesus Christ. We love him and we desire to serve him.

We love each of you who may read this and see our photos. We are so grateful for your love, support and prayers. We would love to tell dozens of little stories about our experiences here and share hundreds of photos but perhaps that may have to come at a later point. We also love these young Elders and Sisters. They work in challenging circumstances, with difficulty in traveling about and at times in intense heat and circumstances. They are so faithful and dedicated and are such great examples to us. Seeing them reminds Sister Taylor and I of our missions earlier in life.

Next time we’ll share some photos and little stories about two baptisms that we attended in the last week. I’ll also include a bit about a pearl factory we visited (and may have purchased something ?)

Vale, buenas noches a todo! Les amamos!

Élder y Hermana Taylor

By Elder and Hermana Taylor, ago