I never thought I'd say this but Mondays are now my most favorite day of the week. We got a few more letters today and it's safe to say.....he really is doing just fine! Oh, and we got an added bonus this week - some pictures. A few made me laugh. It was SO tab! You'll see why.
Hi Dad,
I am going to send you a separate email as long as I have time to, and so if you don't receive a email back you'll know why. Fortunately we are back to the regular scheduled hour for emails.
Thank you for listing down things for me to write about because every time I hop on to write emails I forget everything I was planning to write about. So it's good that you reminded me of things to write about.
What am I learning? That's a question that I have a million answers for but a few things in particular are teaching simply, when to move on (with people we teach), how to use the Book of Mormon for just about anything, and listening.
So one thing I am bad about is trying to logically explain everything we teach with scripture or some sort of evidence and what often happens is that it is overbearing to the investigator. My companion is a wizard when it comes to simply explaining a principle or doctrine. He teaches so that people will understand it just well enough that it gets their brain working and it makes sense to them, but not so in depth that the person has a million questions about one lesson that took several visits to teach. I learn something new every day. I bet that is one of the main reasons why I was paired with him.
This last week we had crazy success in our finding. And we saw a few small "miracles" if you want to call them that. On Thursdays we have car fast, where we walk in our area rather than drive. I don't know why we have it but we do. So on Thursday we had no appointments anywhere close to walking distance and so we decided to just go do some street contacting. We got rejected several times, and then after about an hour we met someone who wanted to talk. And then we totally killed the opportunity because we just talked at his face and didn't really relate to him. Or get to know him. We went on our way and proceeded to just meet crazy street people who probably weren't accountable. That's kind of the way it is on the streets of East Orange - most the people we come across are.. not all the way there. Anyway, as we were walking home we still made the attempt to talk to people and when we were within a mile of home we stopped a 18/19 yr old girl and offered to leave her with a restoration pamphlet. I was reluctant to even say anything but hi because there was a train running right next to the road and cars were flying by - it was just not very prime street contacting circumstances. But after talking to her for a minute everything quieted down and she started asking us awesome questions and we found out that she and her sister were looking for a church to go to (because they were new in the area) and that she would love for us to come visit them. And then she gave us like 10 referrals! It was amazing. And then on Friday we were going to find one of our media referrals and it gave us the wrong room number, which turned out to be the home of this stud kid named Delano who lived with his family and they were interested in going back to church as well. Plus we got the right room number for the person we were trying to visit in the first place and she came to church yesterday after our first visit and committed to be baptized. So we have appointments with them this coming week and I hope that they yield some good results. So we've been very fortunate with finding and referrals.
Ok now I'm almost out of time and I still have to write to more people so I'll fill you in next week with how everything goes. Today we had what we called the Enos project where we prayed for an hour - our entire personal study. Intense stuff. I got to really think about stuff that I am thankful for and I wrote a few of the things down so that I wouldn't forget them again because they were memories I had previously forgetten about. Anyway, I really appreciate your example to me and your love and support while I'm out here. I know that it helps carry me through each day. And every time that I remember all the prayers that are in our behalf, I get super motivated to work. So thank you.
I love you and hope that everything goes well for you in the following weeks. The things you learned from your SS presidency meeting sounded pretty great. It must have been a good meeting. You'll be hearing more from me soon.
Love,
Tab
Hey Mom!
I'm sorry to inform you that I will have to write you a short email because I wrote dad a longer one and I had to do some stuff with my camera. I'll send you a few photos to keep you updated at least a little bit.
So I talked to dad about this last week but that didn't included Saturday or Sunday because we were doing service in Eatontown on those days from dusk till dawn. So I'll just give you a quick overview of how that went and then close up. I'm sending my letter today or tomorrow hopefully. Reason is because we haven't really been at our apartment much during the last few days, and we're still super busy.
We headed out on Saturday morning to Union Beach and picked up our equipment and greeted friends from the mission real quick and then departed to our designated areas of service. This time we went to a guys house that had been munched by a tree and helped him cut it apart and move it out. I got permission to use a chainsaw so that was pretty neat. Part the way through we met the neighbor named John and he was a man. He is an older guy and a scoutmaster so he knew everything about outdoors and what not and I think he was a lumberjack too because he came in and started ripping trees apart with this huge chainsaw. It was cool to watch him go at it. So we hung out with him for several hours and he taught me how to tie some useful knots. It was great. He offered a donation because he liked us so much but of course we turned him down. I really admired the guy.
Then yesterday we did the same thing. We drove in the morning to Eatontown chapel, had sacrament meeting in work clothes - we've been doing that for weeks and it's strange but great because there is this overwhelming spirit of hard work roominating in the cultural hall - and then ate breakfast and went on our way. But we ripped out drywall and plaster and basically destroyed homes instead of chopping down trees. Both are amazingly fun. There's nothing like destroying a home with crowbars with a bunch of your buddies. I'm sure it would be hilarious on film. Anyway, we did that and got to drive around looking for homes that needed help because we had already completed all of the Church's work orders for the entire area. I though that was pretty funny. We visited the beach and I stuck my foot in the water just to say that I had touched the Atlantic ocean. It was very cold. Then I taught Elder Estipona how to use a swing because he had never used a swing before. It was a random and fantastic day. Everyone is exhausted but it it a satisfactory feeling. I love serving and it is amazing to see the true colors of the people when there is a devistating storm like this hurricane. Many people have donated time and money to help those in need and it is odd how such a disaster has brought these people so close together.
Sorry if my writing is all over the place... I'm trying to fit everything in in time!
Anyway I have had a blast of a transfer (which is now over!). I hope to have more time to tell you all about it. I also hope things are going good for you and the family. Sounds like you had a busy week too! It's always a pleasure to read how things are back home. Make sure you give every one a special hi for me!
I love you,
Tab
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