Elder McLain's 10 page letter!

It took me FOREVER to type this (and I cut out a ton of not so important stuff too!). Grab some popcorn or something before you start reading.......


Hi Mom and family!

I apologize that I haven't been as on the ball with writing home as I should be, but it's tough. For the past 3 weeks we have only been given 35 minutes on the library computers and each week I try to write back to Reese, Clark, you, Dad, and I have to write a full letter to President Jeppson. However, Reese and Clark I will most likely discontinue cause Clark is mission bound and Reese prefers postage anyways. But I will do what I can to make up some ground for my past few weeks! AND give lots of details.

Thanks for sending me all those neat Facebook posts about Clark and other friend's mission calls and news and yelp! stuff (places to eat) and the like. I do appreciate it. They always make me smile. Also, I wanted to thank you for sending that big box of work clothes and stuff. I did get the chance to use them already, except for the boots; I haven't used those yet. I may send them back to you to return to Walmart or wherever you got them. Speaking of Walmart, we had an incident yesterday that would make you laugh. So we were in need of some things from Walmart and the only one near our area is in a city called Kearney. Let me preface by saying that the highway system out here is totally bogus! So the other elders said they knew how to get there so we didn't use the GPS to get directions or anything. But on our way we got confused on which exit to take and so we missed the right one and, of course, it had to be the last exit on that highway before the toll road to New York. So, we were forced to take a ticket and pay for the toll road to New York, flip a U-turn and pay for the toll to go back into New Jersey. Fortunately, the ticket was only 90 cents both ways and we had the cash on us to pay for it. So, our normally 15 minute excursion to Walmart ended up being almost an hour because the traffic was so bad. I was surprised to find out that from our apartment to New York is probably less than 10 miles, maybe 15 minutes driving time. It's just across the Hudson River. Crazy! Anyways that was my awesome adventure of the week.

Mom I have lots of things to talk about so the things I say may be in totally random order. Last week we went to a place called Seaside for service and I met someone who I recognized from Youtube! His name is Verwin Supreme and he ran for State Senator of NY or something like that and he is a total weirdo on Youtube. It's super funny to watch his debates because he is silly but actually quite knowledgable when it comes to politics. Anyways, he is part of this group called Rainbow Gatherers that is just a bunch of hippies who get together and set up kitchens to serve homeless or disaster victims like those in Hurricane Sandy. I was really impressed that these people had nothing better than live the life of a vagabond and feed others in need. And the whole organization is non-profit and run by donations alone! As I have mentioned before the food is incredible. Good people. You can tell everyone we met someone famous. OH! And we're working on teaching Rihanna's best friend. The REAL Rihanna. Hook-ups!

S0.....to respond to Colby's letter:

Thanks for writing me on elephant poop paper! Haha - I guess Reese knew where he was going before he even got his call! Crazy. I heard that you saw Clark in the temple one morning - that is insane because the odds of that are so low! He said he was about to cry he was so happy. I got a forward of his letter to our family and it was really heartfelt. It's cool that he has such a strong love and friendship in just the short year that we've been good buddies. I can thank mom a lot for that! Yes, I can see New York from my area in Newark, which is just across the river from the tall buildings of NY. In fact, we've already been to NY probably 5 times since I got here. I haven't seen the big city in person, but we drove past it a few times. It's pretty neat. Newark is just like I told you - Gotham City! Without Batman - I wish. But there are a million black people and tons of cool stores I want to go to. Oh! I also heard they filmed Batman 2 and 3 here. It does seem oddly familiar wherever we go. Like the scene where Batman almost runs over the joker on his motorcycle in The Dark Knight - I've heard that was filmed on Broad Street in Newark and it totally looks like it so I wouldn't be surprised. We don't serve in the city really though. Most of our work is in the ghettos surrounding Newark. Still cool though cause we meet some really interesting people. Some crazy nice areas too and tons of fried chicken shacks and beauty supply stores. It's great! I love you too and of course I miss hanging out with you at home. Yeah but before you know it the 2 years will be up. I'm getting pretty close to my 4 month mark! I'll talk to you soon - at Christmas!  Love, Tab

Now in response to Rorie's fabulously hand-written letter....

Your handwriting is really impressive. I'm doing great! We've been doing service and teaching new people and my companion is great and we got a new car so everything's good. Just really busy. I usually get about 15 minutes at the end of the day as spare time to write in my journal and then it's bedtime so this has taken me a while. Time flies by in weeks, not days or hours. Pretty wild. We've been trying to stay in contact with Jon and Jasmine as much as possible but it's tough because they're not together very often. But we're working with them to try to make it to church right now because they do everything else! Then they can get married and baptized. Hopefully this Sunday they'll make it because they haven't come out at all yet. : ( It's sometimes frustrating but I'm pretty good at staying positive when things are tough. I don't know which parent I get that from......both?

No trick or treaters - too dangerous this year because of the storm and crime : (  So we went out and taught. Also, our area didn't receive any real critical damage because we're more inland. Thanks for that verse in Isaiah! I've never read that before so i'll be sure to share it with others and tell them who found it for me. I love you and thank you for writing me so often. It's great! Love, Tab

So now back to the letter  - tell Regan and Nate and Caitlin and Indie and Chase and family and friends and whoever else hello for me. I never get sick of the papers or food junk you send me! So.....things in Newark. There are always sirens like 60/60/24/7. Always! It's crazy cause there must be over 50 ambulances in the Oranges alone. Probably more than that - I'm probably way off. We've been pulled over twice now, both times for ridiculous reasons and so the cops the cops haven't been able to ticket me yet.....HA! Smarter than your average cop. And as far as the people, everyone is funny because they speak like....."You is?" And for some reason EVERYONE says "Aks" instead of ask. So we'll be reading the intro to the BofM and they'll say, "and then aks God if the book is true" And I want to say "NO! You have to ASK God, not axe Him!" Anyway, that's my dumb random series of events for you. Now that's detail! Our lessons have been getting better and better each week and I'm learning how to teach more simply and it's so much better that way. Our service has been a blast because it's so fun and manly to destroy a house with a crowbar or a sledge hammer., or chop down trees. It's fun, rewarding, satisfying, tiring, and there's amazing food - it's great! Our teaching has been more effective and we're finding new people that are prepared to progress in the gospel and we're working on our obedience. One of the things i'm doing is to try to only write letters on Monday (p-day) because that's when we're asked to. My companion ans I get along really well and we're fortunate that is so. Our roommates are studs. We just got a new one from Spanish Fork, a tongan named Elder Makai (Vili Makai I think it is). He's funny and he loves canned pears.

To answer some of your questions:

1. We eat out at McDonald's, Subway, Wendy's or whatever's close. We cook at home alot too. We don't eat at member's homes very often except for every other Sunday at the Hall's - a jamaican family and it's really good food.
2.I'm good on coats and hats and winter stuff.

I'll quickly tell you about some of our investigators that are funny and then i'll close. First is Phillip. He is a guy that we found in a boarding home where we teach another investigator named David. Philip has somewhat of a mental illness, not sure what it is but it makes him slow to understand and his attention span is rather low. One time we came over to visit and he started to list off all of his illnesses because he had just come back from the doctor. He's naming things like lung cancer (he's a smoker), STD's, prostate cancer, melanoma, everything! Then when he finished he hung his head. We sat in silence because we didn't know what to say and a few seconds later he swung his head up with a huge smile on his face and said, "But nothing's going to stop me from serving the Lord!!!" It was hilarious. We loved it. That's Philip in a nutshell. We're working with our Branch President  to make sure he's accountable enough to be baptized because he keeps demanding that we baptise him before he dies. He's a stud so I hope we can. Then there's Bill, a veteran from NY. He's one of the few white people we teach. Actually, he's the only white person we're teaching. His PTSD has affected him quite badly in that he has an OCD for dropping things and double checking things. He's always asking if he dropped something on the ground - like every 30 seconds. It's tough to teach him but fortunately he's been an eternagator (investigator who takes forever) for about 5 years now so he has a pretty strong testimony and he knows almost everyone in the branch. For some reason he won't get baptized  - it's really quite odd. He reads and prays daily, attends church, baptismal services for other investigators, but he always goes missing on his baptismal Sundays! Crazy, but we finally addressed all his concerns about baptism and he said for the first time he's really considering being baptized. I hope he holds to his commitment. We're pushing for the 350 baptisms goal for the year! I'll keep you posted.

Dad told me there was a girl from his ward that got called to Morristown. Then Reese told me Meg Boshard got her call to Morristown too! So cool. We're expecting over 100 new missionaries in New Jersey. I don't know if that's true but Sister Christiansen it is so. So, I hope it is.

As always, I love you and pray for you! I hope things are exciting and well for you. Stay sweet.

Love, Tab

Our Christmas call

Finally! I think we've all been waiting for this day to come. We had two whole hours on the phone with Tab. Grandma and Grandpa were here to enjoy it with us. He sounded so relaxed and happy. I can't think of a better way to celebrate Christmas than to be gathered around in a circle talking to our missionary who is out teaching and testifying of the Savior. It makes it all worth it! We held it together until the very end when we had to say our goodbyes. When it was time to hang up, I laid the phone down on the floor and under my breath said in a teary voice "oh, this is so hard" and we were all weepy, then Tab said "Ok, no crying now." I hadn't hung up the phone! We all started laughing. It was a great day. Oh what a MERRY Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Tab

Hi!

I'll be quick because I'll be calling tomorrow. This week we worked the hardest ever. We had an eventful week but the events aren't really things I could write a story about. Just a bunch of small miracles. It was the best week I've had in the mission thus far. 

I gave my first confirmation blessing, and it was a neat experience to me. I don't remember what I said but I do remember that as soon as I got on the stage to give the blessing, all the nervousness I previously had went away. I felt calm. I'm glad I didn't ask someone else to do it because I learned a lot from what happened.

I got all your boxes... there were too many! I had to make two trips. I also got your envelope with the chocolate bar in it! Thank you so much! That alone was probably enough to make me happy. As you can imagine, Christmas in the mission is quite different; the gifts aren't what make it special. We had an all mission conference that made it special. It was amazing! Several people shared their conversion stories, one of them being Alex Boye. It was just mind-blowing the way the Lord worked to bring that to pass. It reminded me of a scripture I just read last week in Alma 37 verses 6 and 7, "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass...and the Lord God doth work by [small] means to bring about his great and eternal purposes." 

That scripture was the recurring theme of our week. I don't know if those people we are teaching now will be baptized in 3 weeks or 3 years but I do know that this the Lord's work. Worst comes to worst, at least we're planting seeds. The baptism we had last week was the result of a planted seed. Georgiana had a friend give her a Book of Mormon over 2 years ago, and just two weeks ago she decided that she needed to be baptized. Frankly, it wasn't much effort on our part. It's amazing to see the Spirit work within someone like it did for her. It was Alma 13:24 & Alma 32:27 in action!

I'll see you tomorrow hopefully! Merry Christmas!!!

Love, Tab

unexpected surprise!

it's Wednesday.........i wasn't expecting an email and one popped up on my phone! it made my heart leap. i smiled!

i emailed him on Monday after he got off the computer to say i was so excited he had another baptism and that i was proud of him. he emailed back saying:

Thanks! We're working hard.

that's all but it was enough for me!

Going HAM on our area!

Gotta love Mondays.....at least I do!!  Elder McLain is definitely DOING some WORK!

Hey mom! 

I just have to start off by saying I don't have as much time today because we have to go help the senior couples move some stuff into our apartment around noon but I'll type fast.

So this week we just went HAM on our area. We worked really hard. We don't have a car right now and so we have to walk to all of our appointments, some of them being as far as an hour and a half away. And most of them are usually a half an hour or more walk apart. But it has been a blessing in disguise to be without a car. Oddly enough our weekly numbers have almost doubled. We've been teaching 4 and 5 lessons a day. It's not easy, and when we get home I sleep like a rock, but it's been a blast. Our hard work pays and that's probably why we were able to get a baptism this week. Well it is why.

The baptism was almost perfect. Our font has failed on us the last two baptisms so we've had to go to the Short Hills chapel but it works out great either way. The night before and the morning of were so stressful and I didn't think it was gonna happen and then we got her (Georgiana) a ride to church and then from then on it was like clockwork. I gave a little 3 minute schpeal or however you spell that on the Holy Ghost and it was actually really good. I don't remember what I said but I felt good about it. And then the baptism was great and the Spirit was felt in that room pretty strongly. Just everything worked out great. 

We also went and did service on Saturday in Eatontown again and it was pretty gnarly. The homes had flooded above the ceilings and some were clean swept off of their foundation. I didn't get any pictures but I have some good pictures we got from a couple of weeks ago. Sad stuff. But the service was good as always. We came across another group of church folk (Sayre Woods Bible Church ?) who were also wearing bright yellow shirts that said something along the lines of Sayre Woods Bible Church helping hands... it made me laugh but we were definitely appreciative of their help. They were good people doing good things for this community.    

So I wanted to mention a few things I thought of that you could send to me for Christmas... if you want to:
- I think I already said this but an Amano Chocolate bar
- Info on what the massive building next to MetLife Stadium is. It is a super oddly designed building with no signs or anything and we pass it all the time so I was curious to know what it is. It kinda looks like a mega ramp that would launch you into the MetLife Stadium. You don't have to print it out or anything, you can just email it or whatever cause we're just curious.
- Some expensive cheeses. No just kidding but some unique cheese like the stuff that Regan gets from catering that would be good with crackers, and crackers too. As long as it can handle a week without refrigeration. Please don't send frozen shrimp.
- Oh and about that CD that was sold out... If you can't find it on amazon then I think you can just get the digital copy and burn it to a disc. I can't think of any other way to do it. Not a big deal though. You already sent enough stuff just in that one envelope!
- I think that's it.

Oh funny story time. We met some crazy people in the last week and so did the other elders. We walked by a guy and, of course, said hello to him. He was looking down but he all he said was, "Ahhhhhhh pooped my pants!" really loud. I immediately started laughing. 

We meet people all the time that try to argue about the skin color of Jesus too. It's really annoying. The other elders said they met a guy who told them how to build a pyramid in extreme detail. I think they said he talked to them for almost 30 minutes about it. They also met someone that said he had enough potassium in his banana to blow the whole block up. There are a lot more that I can't think of off the top of my head but I'll write them home in my next letter. But needless to say we run across many crazy people every day.  

Ok I won't leave you hanging any longer... Anne got her mission call to New Jersey!!! I already went off when I was wrote to her, plus this is going to be posted on a blog so I won't embarrass myself. But that's pretty cool. I'm so excited for her! And as you already know, I sorta called it. Wild. I don't know if I told you this already but we're supposed to be getting 75 new sister missionaries in the next 4 months. I think the elders are going to have to start training sisters.... maybe not. But it's going to be a mad house here. I'm really excited for it! Dad probably already knows this but for some reason the sister missionaries always are extremely hard working and really successful.

It's too bad you didn't get to give a talk in sacrament meeting about me. At least they got to hear a full account of the missionaries who are close to coming home. They have more stories and probably have more spiritual experiences, and that's why Sister Payton and Sister Burr took so long. I'd love to hear how they are doing. They're both stellar missionaries I'm sure. Ah Elder Hill! I hope he gets better soon. He hasn't been out as long as I have has he? Either way, he'll be back at it soon. I'll be praying for him!

I smiled when I heard that dad got right back into skiing. Oh I want to see that. I wouldn't be surprised if he was randomly really good at it. Of course he looked good so that adds to skill points. Let me know when he goes through the park. I know it's sundance but I want to hear how that goes. 360!!!

Sad news about the Connecticut shooting - we were actually teaching right when they turned on the tube to see what had happened. They talked a lot about it in church yesterday so that we could do what we could to reach out to those affected. 

I'll be letting you know more on Christmas Eve probably what time we'll be calling/skyping. Most likely it will be between the hours of 3 and 6. I'm not sure yet. But I'll let you know for sure. Oh and I sent a package home that has one thing in it that you can return. Tell everyone hello for me! Sorry dad I couldn't write you today. Next week hopefully.

Oh we will most likely be having 2 more baptisms this month, if all goes as planned. We've been getting pretty lucky. You'll hear some way or another! The work is going well. We're working hard. 

I love you all and can't wait to hear from you next week. It's almost Christmas time!!!
Merry Christmas to all

Love,
Tab


Hey Dad!

I got to read your letter. I wouldn't want the app either, so I don't blame you. I'm glad that you will finally get a break from school! you deserve it :)

Interesting that you quoted President Monson about inadequacies, I just came across a sentence in PMG that talked of the same thing. Our confidence should be in Christ. It is his work. I firmly believe that because I saw it happen for me this week.

Those statistics were really surprising. I thought the most surprising was the second one. Thank goodness for sister missionaries though! They are great. We'll have a lot soon enough.

Thanks for the awesome letter as always. I've got ten seconds  so I've gotta go.

Love you!

Tab

Estipona.......Such A Magnificent Creature!

Hurricane Sandy - tree damage!

What really goes on during a hurricane

We hide in the dark

and goof off......

and write

our names!

Bonobo

and Nujabes

then take a peak

outside!

The world needs more Rita's!

The Orange life......

Meet Larry....Elder McLain's first baptism! 

Tab's companion

what chew eatin' ?

Elder Estipona

The other missionary roomies

A visual perspective

The armies of Helaman

LETTERS galore from Elder Tab!

Oh what a day..... It didn't exactly start out that great but i am going to bed one HAPPY mom! After getting my Monday morning "Hi" from Tab, i waited patiently for his letter. After an hour and a half I gave up. I called Tim - he got his letter. Not fair AND not like Tab. It made for a really blah day! Then about 4:30 pm his name popped up in my email. It showed that he had sent it about 9:59 am. Can't figure that one out. Oh well, it doesn't matter. I got my letter!  I was plenty happy but then we checked the mailbox and BAM......a 10 page letter. TEN! complete with pictures and video. That is HAPPINESS right there. Take a deep breath before you begin. It's ALOT of reading, but it's oh so good. 

Hey dad!

I've got a lot to write and little time to do it so I hope that I can remember to git everything in. 

That's really neat that you had that spiritual witness in your talk. We had a lesson where I was able to testify of Christ as our Savior (at Christmas time we get to do that a lot) and I just felt fabulous afterwards. Unfortunately she cut me off but it didn't matter because I knew what I had said and felt was right. It sounds like you had a similar experience. I'm sure the talk you gave was great too. Sara Avila and other friends always told me that they loved when you spoke in their ward.

I hope you get some rest this Holiday as well - you work too hard! But I know that it pays off for you and that's why you do it. I think just in the last week we have seen the fruits of our labors in our work - we had been attempting to become more "consecrated" missionaries after a zone conference we had three weeks ago, and in that week it seemed that nothing went right. You could probably tell in my last letter that our week was pretty uneventful. And I got a ticket :( for an illegal u-turn. The other elders need our car and we are forced to walk our area for now, so we were frustrated and confused. But we worked just as hard this week and on Tuesday we set up 5 baptismal dates, 3 of them with former investigators for this Sunday, the 16th! I'm really excited to work with them and help them prepare for that date. We are seeing them 3 times a week now. The other two are for the 30th of December and in our follow up with her last night she said that they received an answer to their prayer that baptism was the right thing for them to do.

I failed to mention that all of this was done in a week where we really only had about 3 days to teach, so we are satisfied with what we've done. On Monday, we helped the senior couples organize our storage for the mission and that ended up taking till 7pm, so we only got one lesson in. On Tuesday and Wednesday we got to teach. Then Thursday we went to the temple in Manhattan (I'll tell you more about that) and that used up the whole day. Then Friday and Saturday we did service for a woman in Newark who's home was destroyed in the storm. That was basically our week! Yesterday we had an amazing time at church and we had a huge turnout for investigators, branch members and strangers, too. There was an area seventy who came and spoke to us as well. It seemed like everything went well! We got to see our investigator Neketa, who I mentioned earlier about her baptism on the 30th. It was a great day. So while our numbers weren't impressive, I can say that our hard work was effective and we are satisfied with the success that we have had. 

So about Thursday's temple trip... It was kinda crazy. We first went to Union City chapel, which I have heard is the most expensive chapel in the United States. It had an underground parking garage and an elevator and all. Crazy stuff. And then we took a bus to New York through Lincoln Tunnel and we saw a football stadium on top of a really nice high school. We arrived in New York and it was a neat experience to see Times Square and Rockefeller Center but there is no way that I would ever live in New York. I could vacation there for a week just to check it out and see all the tall buildings but the lifestyle there is so strange. The people are strange too. It's just a constant barrage of blinking advertisements, street vendors in your face, and riots/strikes. In general, there are too many people there. One thing that was cool though was the fact that we saw several MASSIVE mormon.org advertisements that talked about Christmas, etc. And I'm sure that they work well to attract attention. But the most interesting part about Manhattan was the stark contrast between the lights and commotion in the streets, and the quiet and peace that abides in the temple. I am glad that I got to experience that and I believe seeing that contrast really opened my eyes and gave me a renewed outlook on my life. Unfortunately, on our walk back to the bus stop I had a hard time retaining that peaceful spirit that you get each time you visit the temple. 

Anyway, after our trip we went to a place called Casanova Brazilian Barbeque in the Ironbound, and it was fabulous. It is more or less the same thing as Tucanos or Rodizio Grill. We ate a ton of food and shared many funny experiences from the mission. It was a great day. 

I know there isn't much to this letter but as you can tell we had a good week. I will be writing letters today and I might get time to throw some of our other experiences in the letter I send home. I hope so. I'll be sending pictures too because it goes without saying that I took many while we were in New York. Let me know if you can think of any souvenirs you want from Newark! We'll be shopping on Broad Street today so I'll look for something. Next week we planned to visit the Graffiti Wall in North Newark which is a 3 mile long tunnel that is lined with tags from years back. I'm looking forward to that too! We haven't gone to any famous pizza places yet, but we've been talking about going to more brazilian restaurants in the Ironbound because I've heard that's where the best food in New Jersey is. So I'll let you know how that goes, and we'll be looking out for pizza too.

I hope your finals week goes well. It's probably an extremely stressful time for you right now but it will soon be over and you will be able to celebrate the holidays! I really like this time of year. I hope it snows here soon because I get jealous whenever you say you have been getting snow in Provo. All we're getting is rain and fog! I look forward to hearing back from you soon and I hope that you have a great week. 

Much love,

Tab


Hey Mom!

So I already sent a decently sized letter to dad that included a lot of the things you were asking me about and so I won't take time to write them again. But we had a really great week! We didn't have a lot of time to teach and somehow we still pulled of a week's worth work. Say that three times fast. Yes, we did go to the temple and I met Stephen Suprise, who is the older brother of my friend Michael. Super odd, but really cool. We had a lot to talk about and we walked to the temple with them. They didn't come in with us because they were on their way out but it was neat nonetheless. 

Sorry I have to be quick because I want to send some pictures to my camera from the other elders' cameras. But I'll answer your questions and then finish up!

1. Just got the Christmas cd by Jars of Clay that is really good. I like it a lot.
2. Yerp, we got your box.
3. New place we went to eat - Casanova Brazilian Grill, in the Ironbound. Super good and really similar to Tucanos just not as nice. Other than that, not really. Altas Horas in Newark and Five Guys! 
4. Elder Estipona was happy that he got mail from you and said thanks for the gift cards. As for stuff to send them, maybe just stuff for our apartment would be good. We need a knife sharpener and if dad is willing to give it away, the Magnum hunting knife in his drawer. Hopefully you can find it. If it's not in their it's in one of the pockets of my blue Clive backpack. But we have picked up wittling (sp.?) in our spare time. Just a dumb hobby but really fun. 
5. No I don't have a thermal top, and I could use just one, maybe two. I'll probably send back the black thermals you sent because I don't think I'll ever use them. But thank you for thinking of that for me!

So funny that you already knew I got a ticket. Yeah it was a bummer and I paid it last week. So that is taken care of I think. I don't think I have to go to court for it though so that's nice. I'm hoping it doesn't make your insurance go up! that would be rotten.

I'm in Alma too now... Alma 14. I'm trucking along at a pretty good pace. I am back on track to finish by the end of the year so that's good. But you're right, the reading is interesting! I really love the Book of Mormon. I just read the epic story of Alma and Amulek confounding Zeezrom. It's cool stuff.

You keep telling me that you have lots of surprises and you haven't told me any! I hope to hear some of them soon because you're making me nervous. My guess is that one of them is that Regan is engaged now. Hopefully. I can't think of anything else. Maybe you finished landscaping! Haha kidding.

So I would say to anyone who got called to New Jersey and were surprised: NEW JERSEY IS THE MOST FOREIGN MISSION IN THE WORLD! I'm quite sure of that. There are more foreigners here than there are street cones on I-15. But do not be dismayed, you'll absolutely love it once you get here! There's nothing like it and the people are one of a kind. They're from everywhere. I love it!

I'm happy to hear you're doing well at home. That's always comforting. I love you all! Yeah, skype soon :)

I was thinking of two more things I forgot to include in my letter home for Christmas presents. I'll send them with my next letter and my memory card. One of the things was an Amano Chocolate bar. I loved the stuff from Clark by the way - super duper funny. I'll be writing him today! And hopefully you too. 

I love you all and hope to hear back soon. Do work at home! Merry Christmas.

Love,

Tab



* I'll post his 10 page letter tomorrow. It will take me a while to type THAT one!

Missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Sunday

While serving his mission in New York City, my brother was helping to clean out one of the homes severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy when he came upon an old safe buried among the garbage. The owner of the home was quite the hoarder and did

n't realize the safe was there. The owner just told the missionaries to toss it in the garbage but their curiosity got the best of them and they managed to pry the safe open. The safe was empty except for a few envelopes full of more than $25,000 apparently stored there for almost 40 years. The home owner offered the cash to the

missionaries but they declined saying they were happy just to do the service. What an example!

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=23173872&nid=1016

988

It's December!

I love waking up to Monday mornings, checking my email and seeing a "Hi!" from Elder McLain. It's the best! Today was especially good because I got several emails from Tab and then more from my friend Cheryl whose son (Elder Morrill) sent a picture of the two of them. It's always a bonus to get pictures! In a nutshell....Tab is still doing just fine (actually he sounds great)! See for yourself -

Hi again Mom!

This week went by quickly. It seems like I don't have much to talk about because it was only a day or two ago that I last wrote emails. But this week was a blast!

We got to see more of our referrals and begin teaching some of them. One in particular that I enjoyed visiting with is Nikida. She is probably close to 40 years old and she has 3 kids with her husband. And then he has one kid, named Unique, who he had before they were married. So a total of 6 of them. We visited twice last week and got to meet Nikida and her 8 year old daughter Imani. Her husband and other kids are there too but don't usually stay in and listen for some reason. But Imani is quite smart for her age and somehow knows a lot about religion. She's super funny too. So we taught Nikida the first discussion and a lesson about the Book of Mormon and she accepted everything we taught and kept the commitments we gave her. I hope that we can see her more in the coming weeks because she is probably the most promising new investigator we've had. She already wants us to come over for Christmas dinner and she invited gave us a yummy pecan pie that she made from Thanksgiving. She's extremely nice to us. We have planned to extend a baptismal date to her in tomorrow's visit and I hope that it works out. 

We met some crazy new people on the street and had some success with door to door contacting, actually. We have a zone challenge to have a Book of Mormon in hand where ever we go and it has worked out that we have given away over ten Books in a week. And we are the driving elders so I'm sure that the walking elders gave out plenty more. 

So really the only thing my mind is thinking of right now is the service that we did on Saturday and Sunday. It was so awesome. As I've said many times before I love service. On Saturday we went to Bay Shore, Long Island which was like 2 hours away and helped a man remove his deck that got destroyed in the hurricane. He had basically covered his whole yard besides the front in wood and so when the waves hit it ripped everything up and made a huge mess. It took forever because the deck was massive and taking it apart screw by screw is difficult. But we went with our branch and since we are all friends it was really fun. Our stake high counselor took us - his name is Brother Nagano - and it turns out that we had several things in common. He lives in New Jersey but since he is super wealthy he has homes all over the place. He has one in Provo just above the temple in the Oak Hills 5th ward. He also has 2 kids attending BYU and one more that will be there next year. But I got to know him quite well and he is a really cool guy. Very humble as well. That was fun getting to talk to him for the whole two hour drive. Plus, we went directly through Jersey City, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx on our way there so it was interesting to see all of those areas. I think we took the long route just so we could see those areas. Oh and we went through the Holland Tunnel. 
But even better than Saturday was yesterday. We didn't have enough rides to go to New York again with our branch so us four elders went to Union Beach again. We picked up supplies from the chapel in Eatontown and headed to a house that was really close to the shore. We took pictures of homes along the shoreline and I'll send them to you - wild stuff. But our job at the house was just to destroy it more or less. It had heavy flood damage and so the walls needed to come down and everything inside needed to be broken down and hauled out. We had so much fun. Since the walls were so soft and wet we filmed ourselves running clean through the walls. We were busting doors down in one hit too. We came up with a story line and then filmed all of the destruction on the camera. It was hilarious. I didn't get any on my camera but I'll see if I can get them on to my memory card and send them home. American Red Cross came by and asked if we wanted a hot meal, and of course we said yes, so they gave us some locally made fresh microwave meals that were super good and then some MRE meals (look it up). We haven't tried them yet but they seem pretty intense. And then they gave us a ton of Toblerone chocolate and M&Ms and chips. It was a miracle. They were so nice to us. So we finished up and the Disaster Recovery Team came and cleaned all the garbage up with this huge truck and we headed home. Then we got fed last night by our Jamaican members. It was a great weekend. I've probably never laughed so much in my life.

Well that was my week. I know most of the focus was on the service but the missionary work was a blast too. Each day is something new which I really appreciate. It keeps us on our toes. My Book of Mormon studies have been pretty awesome lately too. I'm learning a lot of things that I had never understood in the Book of Mormon before. So obviously my testimony is growing and I can testify more powerfully and simply to those we teach. Good stuff. 

I didn't read a letter from you yet but there's a new one in my inbox that I am about to go read. I hope it's good! I sent my letter today and it has my camera memory card in it. That has good stuff too. I hope all is well at home and that you have a good week!

Love you all, 
Tab


My favorite part........getting chocolate and thinking it was a miracle! 

                                    Elder Brandon Morrill and Elder Tab McLain

When Tab was in the MTC I would send him packages from the BYU post office. On one Friday afternoon I was in a rush to make it there on time and ran into another mom who was doing the same thing. She asked where my son was going and I told her. She said her son was going to the SAME mission! What are the odds?! Thus began a beautiful friendship! We told our sons about each other and they met. They were able to sit together on the plane flying to New Jersey. They probably won't get to serve together as he is spanish speaking and Tab is english. However, they do get to meet up at the mission home for conferences. This is one of those occasions.  His mom, Cheryl, and I now correspond weekly and share our sons adventures. Lucky us!