Weakly Email

It's been a super crazy week. Good things are still going on around
here. I have a couple of stories to tell you people.

First, we went to another revival. Turns out the revivals have been
happening at a Methodist church, not Baptist. It was very crazy. I
regret not taking any pictures or videos of it if I'm honest.

This time the preacher came from Houston. She wore this kind of
robe/dress-like outfit, it was bright red and at the neck it had that
collar with a white square right under her chin like those clothes
Catholic priests wear, which was interesting. She gave a pretty decent
sermon about Judas and how even though what he did was super evil,
betraying Jesus was the act that led to Jesus' destiny, that is, dying
for our sins. Similarly, in our lives there are people who betray us
and bad things that happen, etc. but all those things are pushing us
to our DESTINIES!

Things got a little weird after that, though. The preacher invited the
congregation (it was fairly small) to come up to the front and told
them she was going to unleash "the resurrection power" upon them.
There were two people who came up who (I'm not sure exactly how the
preacher found out about it) had been having some problems with
anxiety, depression, things like that. (They also happened to be the
only two not black people in the congregation besides us.) So the
preacher decided she needed to use the resurrection power to cast the
devils out of them.

The next part was VERY confusing because I am pretty sure there was
speaking in tongues involved and there were "Hallelujah!"s and "Praise
Jesus!"es interjected about every five words. But it seemed like the
preacher was referring to one devil as "Santa Maria" (similarly to the
word "resurrection", it appeared that no one in the congregation knew
what Santa Maria means) and one as "the medicine man". Anyway, the way
she cast out the devils was basically by yelling at them, in the name
of Jesus, to leave this chapel, leave this congregation, leave the
pews, leave the cars in the parking lot, Hallelujah, praise Jesus,
etc. it went on for quite a bit. Then she would chant at the woman in
some sort of non-language (I guess it was her way of speaking in
tongues) and place her hand - very forcefully - on the woman's head.
With this the afflicted woman collapsed to the ground unconscious. The
other woman was sitting on a pew, so when she had the devil exorcised,
she didn't collapse but merely convulsed and shook where she was
sitting.

So that was one very weird experience but everyone was fine afterwards
of course. The other one was at a lesson with an investigator who had
always seemed a little crazy but this time... she was different. We
had a member with us and it was her first ever member-present lesson..
I felt super bad for her!

Anyway, we started teaching the message and Elder Yanzon had our
investigator, My-isha, read a scripture in Romans 8 that talks about
our relationship with God. After she read it he asked "so what does
this verse tell us about who God is?" Instead of answering, My-isha
started to breathe in and out really hard and with every exhale she
would say - or rather vocalize - "lalalalalalala" very quickly under
her breath. She kept doing that for an awkward thirty seconds when
Elder Yanzon asked "are you ok? Is there anything we can do for you?"
to which she replied "no, I'm fine."

So after this sort of thing went on for a bit My-isha stood up and all
of a sudden just threw her head back and wailed
"LALALALALALALALALALA!!" at the top of her lungs. Pretty much all of
us were thinking the same thing, meaning, "what the heck is going
on??" at this point, because nothing we said would get My-isha to
react, but luckily she opened the door and told us we need to get out
now, never come back, we are of the devil, etc. Overall it was super
awkward.

Luckily these experiences aren't super typical of the people we
usually meet, but there are crazy things going on down here. I hope
y'all are enjoying life. This email is super long already so I better
get going.

I love you all, etc.

Elder Taylor

The district. minus sisters.

Habitat for Humanity.

Laser tag. in the church. super lucky.

Trunkiness never was happiness

Well, it's been a while since I sent an email so I figured I ought to send one to keep y'all updated.

Life in Texas is good. It's kind of getting to the point in my mission

where it's stopped feeling like "oh my gosh!! We're TALKING to 20 NEW

people today??" and now it's just become the regular thing to do each

day. I still have a ways to go on my teaching but it's getting better

every day. The people here are awesome. Yeah, pretty much every rumor

you hear about people in Texas is probably true, but they are really

amazing.

So transfers happened almost two weeks ago now. It's pretty

unbelievable how fast time flies on the mission. I'm still in Sealy

but my new companion's name is Elder Yanzon. He's from the Philippines

and luckily he's another great missionary. I've already learned like

crazy from him. We plan super hard. I used to plan for half an hour

each night (or less) with Elder Jones. Now we plan for like an hour

and a half every night!! I need to sleep...

Overall we are staying pretty busy. The main struggle in the Sealy 1st

branch is the huge size of the area. Every member who comes to church

is spread super thin with all these responsibilities. Yesterday we got

a list of 61 prospective elders that live all over the place. I think

we've met about 5 of them, so it'll be some good finding.

We have two investigators right now with a baptismal date (I was

overly optimistic a few emails ago), Mario and his wife Ana. They are

super solid!! It's way awesome to see the change that has taken place

in their lives as we continue teaching the lessons. Their daughter

(who is an adult and doesn't live at home) walks through their house

every once in a while, and you can kinda tell by the way she looks at

us that she doesn't have a whole ton of respect for religion or

religious people. But! Ana told us yesterday that her daughter had

come up to them (when we weren't around) and asked about us. She was

like "who are those guys? Every time I come in and they're around I

just feel peace." (Not a direct quote of course but that's very much

what she said) and she said next time we were around and she was

around she would listen to us!! So That's Awesome.

Let me know if y'all have any questions about Texas or people in Texas

or whatever.

I love you all. (said every missionary email ever.)

Elder Taylor

P.S. Here are some pictures.

Some cool graffiti in Eagle Lake.

Elder Yanzon.

Elder Yanzon in Eagle Lake. This is pretty typical of the area.

This is a guy we walked by in Eagle Lake. We watched him catch a snapping turtle, and I guess he's going to make stew out of it.

The Houston Temple.

The new district at the temple. (P.S. we got to go to the temple. It was swell.)

first and second baptisms!

Hey. This isn't really a reply to the last email I sent but it's the
only way I could figure out to send it to everyone in a super easy
way.

I'm pretty short on time because we went to Houston today to get a new
CAR! That was kinda exciting.

Elder Jones and I had our first baptism on Saturday and a second one
on Sunday. They were both kids (9 years old) from part-member families
(slash less active) so that makes teaching them really easy. They
already pretty much believed everything and knew most of it. It's kind
of a nice way to get through the lessons as a new missionary.

Some random things:

Hopefully we will be getting some more new baptisms and very soon.
(and adults.) Transfers are in a week, so Elder Jones will probably be
leaving the area since he's been in Sealy for about 6 months. I really
hope I get to stay. We spent these whole two transfers pretty much
trying to build a foundation with the members of the branch because
they really didn't trust missionaries before. Now all of the work is
starting to pay off and Elder Jones doesn't even get to see most of
the fruits of his efforts! He is a super hard-working missionary and
he really helped change the area. I really hope we can keep it up
after he's gone. We could be seeing as many as 10 baptisms in the next
three months so I'm super excited.

Sealy is a really big area and really rural, it's like 50 miles wide
with maybe 25,000 people living in the whole area. (If you want to see
the size of it on a map, Bellville is the northern edge of the area,
Eagle Lake is the southwestern edge, and Brookshire is the easternmost
city. (I think.)

I used to weigh 157 pounds before the mish. Now I weigh 166. I REALLY
hope it's muscle and not fat but we'll see. idk.

I don't really know what else to say but I would love to answer any
questions any of you have. The Lord is really blessing us a lot. the
mission is great. if you want to become an adult really fast (well, I
guess in some ways. a lot of things are still pretty well provided for
us. it's interesting.) try going on a mission. I can't believe how
much I have changed and how many things that I thought were set in
stone before the mission really weren't. It'll be interesting to see
how things are when I come back.

there's my stream of consciousness for ya.

I hope you all are having a great time wherever you are in life. I love you all.

-Elder Taylor

P.S. Here are a few pictures. The one with Elder Jones and I is with
Bailey, who was baptized last Saturday. The one with Elder Jones only
is with Evan and Ella Cornett, who we baptized and confirmed on
Sunday. Since Evan is 9 and Ella is 8, Ella doesn't really count as a
convert baptism. But we taught her so she sort of does. But she really
doesn't.

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