Katy

Hey y'all.

Things are going great! I got transferred down to a ward called Morton
Ranch in Katy. It's a brand new ward that was created about one
transfer before I got there. Basically it's a part of 3 different
wards that all got split off and combined. The work was already going
really well when I got here so that was pretty exciting to see. We
have two baptismal dates named Alyssa and Laura who are gonna get
baptized on October 1 so I'm pretty stoked about that!! Oh, and it's
another bike area so it's a lot of the same old sweatiness and rain.
Gotta love that Houston weather. 😊

My new address is 2000 Westborough Drive, Katy, TX 77449. Write me letters! 💌

Oh, and this my new companion. His name is Elder Mattson and he's from
Lehi, Utah! #puertoricanpride

Always & forevermore: Cypress!

Well, we got transfer calls last night and I found out I'm out of
here. I LOVE Cypress. I can't even explain to y'all how much I'm going
to miss this place. But I'm really excited for the next step in my
mission. In this area the Lord refined me like crazy. He taught me so
much. Just like Sealy i feel like Cypress has completely changed me.
It has changed the course of my life for the better. I can't wait to
see all the change that happens wherever I'm going next because the
Lord has shown me here just how much I have that needs to change. I'm
so grateful for the time I have spent here and just for the
opportunity it was to learn and grow. I hope y'all are doing great
with school starting and everything; I don't have a whole lot else to

say besides those generalities so I'll just send some pictures. 🙌

This dude was a great companion.

Legendary Cy-Fair District at the temple. #nofilter just kidding.

Love these guys.

✌🏻✌🏼✌🏽✌🏾✌🏿

Hey y'all!

This week was awesome! Honestly, it was probably the best week I've
had in Cypress so far. Texas is the BOMB!! Also there has been a
little bit of crazy weather over the past couple days with some minor
flooding, nothing like what happened a couple months back though!
Definitely nothing our bikes can't handle. 🤘 (biking in the rain
actually isn't too bad. It's like taking a hot shower, just in your
clothes. And on a bike.) overall I'm pretty wiped out. That's nothing
new though.

We had a super sweet zone conference on Thursday! President Mortensen
pretty much calls the whole mission to repentance every zone
conference. He says it's not that we're doing bad, but he knows we're
doing great, he just wants us to do even better. The mission has
actually baptized more people in the past two months than it has in
ANY two months in its history. Every time I leave a zone conference it
kind of gives me a fresh view of the area I am serving in. I guess
that means I am repenting!

The members of the Cypress Ward are awesome!! Every week I'm more
impressed with how good they are at missionary work and how badly they
want to do it. Plus, they are just super fun people to be around. This
week we found a couple way solid people to teach. For example Mike is
the boyfriend of one of our members and he is way into scouts and
pretty much hangs out with Mormons all the time! He's totally gonna
get baptized! Haha. Also, at our dinner appointment on Sunday the
members we had dinner with invited 3 other member families over and 2
families who were members of other churches, at the end we shared a
message with them and it was sick! The Spirit was super strong. I have
never had the opportunity to teach a lesson to 25+ people before so
that was a pretty sweet experience. (Along with just incredible
missionary work from the members!)

Miracles are happening every day here. We just need to have the eyes
to see them.

Love y'all! Have a great week!

Elder Taylor

Here are some pictures:

The Cypress Zone! Aka the best zone!!

Love these guys........

We also had a tie-dye water balloon fight for Pday last week. It was pretty chill. This is the before.

After!

August...

One tie July is OVER!! Thank goodness...

It's been a really weird week, but really good too. We are working as
hard or harder than ever especially on the weekends when we bike for
around 6 hours a day visiting people and tracting etc. in the Heat.

The main weird thing that happened was that our fool district leader
pranked us by putting twenty-two toads in the bathtub at our
apartment. It was a joy to return home from district meeting to find
that. Yes it is very impressive that he pulled it off. I hate though.

Also on Tuesday we biked over to our church building (which is six
miles away.. it feels pretty far) since we left our dinner calendar
there. When we went to leave it was pouring rain Texas style. We biked
home anyway. It was pretty much like biking in the shower, it was
awesome.

I don't really know what else to say. I'm still alive but super
exhausted. Have a swell week y'all!

Here are some pictures and videos.

Always and forevermore: Cypress!

Frogs.

This email was brought to you by Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning

Yo.

It's been a good couple weeks. Texas is super hot but once you just
accept that you're going to sweat a ton it's fine. I actually love
biking nowadays.

We did a couple service projects which involved hammers, weeding and
being outside in general. I've never sweat so much in my life. It's
pretty chill.

Transfer calls came and Elder Mecham and I are both staying! I have a
great feeling about this next transfer. It finally feels like I am
getting into the groove of things and learning how to be effective in
this area (along with just being a self-driven missionary and person).
One transfer after this one, though, Elder Mecham goes home so he's
getting pretty trunky. I keep him in shape though. Haha

Speaking of in shape we lift weights for an hour every morning which
is more than I ever have in my life. It feels so good. We also eat a
half gallon to a gallon of blue bell every week though which is not
the best.

Cajun food is so good.

It's crazy, you'd think you learn the most on your mission when you're
being trained but you really learn about the same amount every
transfer. I guess you really never stop training.

It seems like way crazy things are happening in the world today
especially affecting missionaries in Russia and shootings in Dallas
and stuff in the Middle East, but we're super isolated from all the
political arguing that I guess is going on. It's kinda nice but mainly
super weird.

It's been super exciting to hear about all of my friends who have
received mission calls in the past couple months! I can't wait to hear
about the great things that come from those missions.

Anyway I guess in general Texas really is the best state, the Lord is
really good, life is really great and all that stuff. I'm going to be
such a different person when I get home, hopefully it'll be a good
change. I'm so stoked to date again but I need to not think about that
now I guess. Hahaha.

Have a great week! Love y'all.

-Elder Taylor

Pictures!

District meeting

The cowboy boots he bought with his birthday money!

Zone Conference (Cypress Building)

Houston temple during flooding

🔥/☔️/🚴🏽🚴🏽🚴🏽🚴🏽🚴🏽

¡Hola Elder Taylor! ¿Qué pasó? Oh well thanks for asking! This week
has been a pretty good one. I got a new companion, his name is Elder
Mecham & he's from SLC and somehow he's yet another SWEET companion. I
honestly would never tell you guys if I got a comp who I hated, but
the truth is for some reason I've been super blessed with them so far.

Besides when it's raining, Cypress is super hot. It's been in the 90s
pretty much all week. Along with the humidity (+biking everywhere)
that tends to lead to... sweat. Ah, it's a fun time. The nicest thing
about a bike area though is that you can eat anything and it literally
doesn't matter.

The week actually went pretty well as far as the work goes. Taking
over the area is a little scary, especially after just one transfer in
it, but there are definitely worse things that could happen. Mainly I
just don't know what I'm doing and yet things work out somehow. The
Lord is merciful. I've been thinking that a lot this week haha.

Oh yeah and I also got to reach the fat age of 19 this very day! It
feels the exact same as being 18 but I guess / hope I've matured a bit
in the past year. If I'm honest. It's nice to be able to say though.

I don't really know what else to say but I'm honestly pretty stoked
for this transfer. Things are really looking up in Cypress.

Have a great week! Love y'all!

-Elder Taylor