dear everyone

now that I have an iPad I can email any time on P-day. I still have
limited time but if you want to chat with me send me a super short
email and I will hopefully email you back.

here's a nice video.

enjoy life.

love, elder Taylor

p.s. that thing he shook was a goat leg.

Pictures

A few pictures from some recent training Elder Taylor attended. So good to see this smiling face!!

idk

we had a lot of meetings this week. lots. there were a couple of days where we had to wake up at 5:45 and just drive to a meeting instead of studying or anything. i know 5:45isn't that bad, but whether you study the scriptures or not in a day makes a difference in your day, people.

the mission is going good. we did a lot of tracting in this town called Eagle Lake where everyone just lets you in for some reason. it's great. this next week will just be filled with lessons so that'll be good.

it's really cool just to meet all these new people. i've probably met more people so far on the mission than i've known throughout my entire life up till now. most of the time it's kind of a shallow relationship because you only get to know them for a few minutes and never teach them again. but nobody is exactly the same. i didn't even realize how much diversity in personality could exist in the world, but there's so much. God's children are all unique. it's pretty beautiful.

the mission has just been so good for me already. i can hardly even explain it. but it's made me so much more mature and well-adjusted and probably confident (i hope. either that or it's just made me more oblivious to my faults. but,,,,,, i don't think that's true at all.). every 18-year-old should serve a mission even if it's not related to religion and they're just going out and serving people. but truthfully i think the religion part helps a lot. the Lord is merciful and He loves to bless people. 

that's all i really have to say. God is so good. He's probably the best Person i know. but everyone else is really good too.

i love you all.

-Elder Taylor

super short group email

we buried a dog. it was owned by a super poor family who basically lives in a shack, also it's full of things that their grandma hoarded. they keep their dogs tied up on like 3-foot leashes all the time and just forget about them. this one was only about two years old and i'm pretty sure it starved to death. super sad stuff. (we let the dogs go every time we go there, which I can't decide is actually bad or not)

shift key is too much effort to use I realized.

we went to a tri-mission conference with all the Houston missions. Russell M. Nelson came and spoke to us. it was totally awesome. he really is just such an ordinary guy, it's just the calling that he holds that's really extraordinary. he completely conducted the meeting by the spirit and did everything so spontaneously. literally everything he did was an attempt to follow the Spirit. also, it was awesome to hear him talk about scripture and expound it for us. he interpreted some verses in doctrine and covenants with such absolute authority. it was way cool to see. (lots of churches will oftentimes cite the bible for authority since it's the word of God. but the Apostles speak with such utter confidence that they have the authority in their calling and what they say (when inspired) IS the word of God. it's cool.) (the Apostles are nothing if not honest. they absolutely believe in what they teach. I know that.)

having a member present with your lesson is just so essential. i learned that this week in a bit of a negative way because so many people just fought with us alone when they had been super nice with a member present. new year's resolution: always always always have a member present.

it was a bit of a long week. but it was a good one. thanks again to everyone who emailed me.

i love you all!

elder Taylor