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
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