Staying in East Orange!

Transfers again and Tab is staying right where he's at! Guess that's a good thing. This was the first thing he wrote today.........


I'm staying in East Orange! Thank goodness; I did not want to leave.  Oh and I don't want to leave because moving stinks first of all, and East Orange is great. I don't feel like I am finished here! I guess it probably feels like that for every missionary. You make friends with the branch members and investigators and you become a part of your area. We know the regular street walkers and say hi to them. Our neighbors call us by name and what not. It's just a tough move!  

Hi Mom!

It was another long week! The work is going slow for some reason over the last month or so... We try to stay busy but there just isn't much going on. The snow kept people in all weekend long but somehow we had a large turnout at church. It's hard for me to explain how it works, but that always gives me a little moral boost when the branch is successful. Just to give you an idea, we only got about a foot of snow. So of course, us being from Utah, we went out and visited people just like any other day. We had to park the cars about halfway through the day and so from 5pm on we walked. It was a blast! It wasn't very cold and the snow is perfect for snowballs so we had a good time walking to appointments. It usually takes about 45 min to walk into our area so there's not much to do other than throw snowballs at things... The funny part is that they declared in New Jersey that it was a state of emergency! It's not even bad out.

Well lots of strange and sad news! I know 2 of the 3 people you mentioned who died. I don't think I know who Parker Allred is, unless it is the brother of Michael Allred. I know him. Added to my friend Josh Nelson, that is a lot of unexpected deaths in the area. It is quite sad, but I know that all will be well for them :)

You finished the Book of Mormon! Hoorah! I only got through 2 Nephi because I chose to read parts of D&C and the Bible. I guess I have had scattered studies the last few weeks. But it is always nice for me to explore parts of the Bible and D&C I have never read... Today we came across a scripture in D&C 132 that talks about how we will be Gods, as long as we are married in the new and everlasting covenant. Cool stuff. D&C 88 - angels can fly! Run and tell that!

I haven't written anyone in the MTC yet... sorry! I think I will today. Last week we really didn't have any time to. I have been emailing Reese of course and Clark as well. Tell David good luck!

The Falanas are actually a member family if I didn't already tell you that. So the trick is getting them to attend East Orange branch instead of Maplewood. Our main focus in on our investigator Amanda, who is ultra ready and prepared to be baptized, except that she is moving to the North Branch elders area (Elder Estipona haha) on the 15th so she will be baptized there. Everything is well with her, we're just working on helping her have more spiritual experiences with the Book of Mormon and church. We also had a crazy lesson with another investigator, Mayjella, who really just did not grasp the Restoration and the concept of authority. We had taught the Restoration lesson twice and she likes us and all, she just thought that we were good people preaching God's word. That's one of the biggest problems we face around here. It takes a lot of bold explanation for them to understand that we aren't just any other good church. Anyway, we decided to teach her the Plan of Salvation, hoping that we would be able to help her understand what a religion is and what is Christ's one church, how it could help her, etc. Well about halfway through the lesson she asked a key question, something along the lines of how can she know who has God's authority and power? So bang we used that to basically explain the Restoration and how we are different from every other church out there. We were pretty straight up with her. Like we told her that her church, the Catholic Church, doesn't have the authority and power of God that we have. It was starting to get pretty heated in there. But she understood it, finally! Obviously we told her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about the Restoration so we'll find out soon if she did that. It was all new to her. Elder Thompson and I were talking about it and I just had this idea that the message we share is pretty wild. Either it's way out in left field, and false, or it is way true. Fortunately we have the evidence that it is true through the Book of Mormon, a prophet, prayer, lots of things. Of course, the Church is true!

So about the ties, tell Dad to go ahead and send them to me! I will find a use for them. I will send some back home, too. Also, I have another request. So I have those Louis Raphael pants that I really like (dark blue) and so I wear them a lot. the only other pair of blue I have is my suit pants and the Louis Raphael pair are getting a little too much wear. So could you send another pair? I believe they are 32 waist/34 length. they fit real nice and I have no idea where I could get some more around here. One other thing... spitz dill pickle seeds. Oh and did you ever say if you saved the photos from my memory card? Like I said, it was empty so I am hoping you saved them the last time I sent it home. Otherwise, they'd be gone.

So, we went to five guys this week and it was bomb. Also Star Tavern and it was crazy good. Equivalent or better pizza than Slab. It wasn't cooked the way I like it but the flavors were awesome. Also this new place called West Market BBQ which is like 500 yards from our house. It is super cheap and pretty drn good. I got a half rack of ribs and rice for $5. It was really good and it was like 3 pounds of food. So we go there a lot now.

Yes, I know the Nemrows! Peter is awesome. I played golf with him for a year and he was a very good player. They are returned mission presidents I think, or maybe senior missionaries. Anyway, super solid family in the Church. I think! They seem it. 

Man... Karson Peyton just left it feels like! That's amazing for him. I am sure he is a fabulous missionary. 

Well we had lots of funny experiences this week (usually we do every week, Newark's crazy) but I am out of time! I'll let you know next week. Tell Dad to do my taxes! Haha. Let me know if you want anything!

I love you all and have a great week! I will too.

Love,

Tab

P.S.  We're having Elder D. Todd Christofferson come to our mission in march! As well as Elder Tad R Callister. They will be giving a training and we'll get to attend! Woo!