Personal Life Journal — April 2025
- April 3, 2025 — We had remarkable experiences with a sweet brother during our months in Hawera, as we served our mission there. I sent him a birthday email last week and received this reply today: “Hello Brother Michael Taylor, Thank you for always remembering me this time of the year, I’m now 52 but feeling like 25 hahaha… I will always remember you with great respect for the kindness you showed me. Things have changed a lot since I left Hawera to live and work back in Gisborne as a Meat Plant Supervisor, I picked up my children and raised them on my own and I’m happy to report they all had successfully launches into life. I have now moved to Brisbane Australia finding myself remarried and working in construction. It has been sometime since I’ve been able to partake of the sacrament and my grip on the iron rod has faded somewhat however I still read a little and talk to my wife about the love of Christ. God be with you and your dear companion Elder Taylor. Respectfully,
Brother __________”. Another miraculous ‘song of the heart”!!
- April 4, 2025 — We held our annual New Zealand Missionary Society reunion in Rose Park this evening. I am currently serving as the Secretary of the Society, with Charles Rudd and Jack McDonald as President and Vice President. I sent out over 600 email invitations to the reunion two weeks ago. Susan and I did much of the setup and preparation for the meeting. We had a registration table, a name tag table, and a Rudd Foundation donation table. We had 59 adults attend, which was about 23 older returned missionaries and 6 younger returned missionaries. We received 10 donations to the Rudd Foundation. I was disappointed that I was the only missionary present who served under Presidents Ludwig and Sant. Charlie and Annette were the speakers, and they talked about their recent Auckland New Zealand Missionary Training Center experiences. Click on the following link to see a copy of the reunion agenda. New Zealand reunion
- April 5, 2025 — Our extended family (Rudd family) had an incredible surprise awaiting us as the first session of our general conference opened. The first speaker was President Jeffrey R. Holland, and the title of his talk was “As A Little Child”. Toward the end of his talk, he shared a story about one of his dear friends, a young man he loves. It happened to be Easton Jolley, Brian and Charisa’s son, and Barbara and Clark’s grandson. Two different pictures of Easton were shown on the large screens in the conference center, and the same pictures on our television monitors. It was incredible! Elder Holland told of Easton’s desire to pass the sacrament to his father, the bishop, on his assignment as a new deacon. It was extremely hard for him, as he has great difficulty walking due to his muscular dystrophy. It was an amazing story and a wonderful experience. Elder Holland had invited the entire Jolley family to come to the conference center for that session of conference, and they were near the very front of the center for the session of conference. It was a very sweet story of a sweet boy, and the incredible Christ-like love of an apostle of the Lord.
- April 14, 2025 — We received word from my Aunt Leah’s children, my cousins, that Leah passed away today. She was 96 years old and had been living with her daughter, Stephanie, in Washington state. Thus, all of the children of Leo and Stella Taylor have now passed away, and our sweet Aunt Margaret is the only living member of that second generation. Margaret will turn 91 years old next week. How my life and the lives of countless others have been blessed by these great and faithful family members. It is sobering to realize that Leah lost her first husband, John Davis, 50 years ago, as he died in a tubing accident as he floated down a river near their home.
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