Before I post Elder McLain's letter to me, I will share with you a funny thing that happened this week. I sent him an email explaining what happened and then he replied......
Hello my sweet boy!
Well, yesterday I got "The Call". Around 3 pm my cell phone rang and I looked down and saw NJ Mission Home (it's programmed into my phone). My heart jumped! For all of 5 seconds I wondered what's wrong, is Tab okay, is he in trouble, hurt, oh no! The first thing I heard was "Hi this is Sister Gilbert ? (don't remember who it was cause my heart was racing) and first let me say your missionary is fine." I sighed! Then she proceeded to tell me you had your car towed and you wanted her to call and tell me. She said it was $80 and to please go easy on you because the police were terrible in New Jersey and it happens to others and you're not the first. I busted out laughing! I told her that was a relief to know it was only a towing fee and you had plenty of money in your account and if that was the worst thing you had done, I was one happy mom!! She said, "oh I'm glad you understand. We love your missionary and he is wonderful." I told her I was lucky and loved you too! I will make sure your charge comes through okay and just know you have plenty in your account to cover it. I'm so glad nothing bad was wrong.
So does this get you in any kind of trouble with the mission president or your driving privileges? I hope not. Just continue to be careful.
Tab's reply:
Well hmmm.... I don't remember getting my car towed unless it was from several months ago (like 8 months ago) when Elder Estipona and I exchanged our old car for a new one. But we dropped it off at the place in Morristown, so I can't think of why they would have had to tow it. It definitely wasn't a parking violation. You should ask Sister Gilbert, especially because there were two other missionaries in our zone who were in an accident this week and their car was towed. Either way, no biggie. I'm fine.
FYI - I called Sister Gilbert to let her know she may have called the wrong mom. Come to find out it was an Elder McMillan and she had her information mixed up. We had a good laugh. I love the senior couples who work in the mission home office!
Now for the weekly emails!
Hi Dad!
It sounds like your trip to Dayton Ohio gave you a little bit of an idea of what it is like in New Jersey. I don't know about good restaurants, but lately the weather has been super humid because of the rain storms we get every other day. I remember one p day last transfer that we went to go play rugby in Mercer Park. There is a small lake there, and so I think that added to the humidity. But I got drenched with sweat like I never have before. Sweat was dripping from my hair, nose, fingertips, arms, everywhere and I don't usually sweat much compared to others. I soaked through my pair of garments (not knowing I would sweat that much) and a thick cotton t-shirt to the point where someone who touched me would get their hand wet. I hate humidity! But it hasn't been that bad in a couple of weeks.
Maybe I can soon find a good place to eat that isn't too expensive... the next trip I make to New Brunswick I'll get some food at the grease trucks that were featured on Man v Food. I'll let you know how that goes.
Well I'll write to mom and include the status of our investigators and members. How did you like that broadcast??
Have another good week and I hope you don't get too busy.
Love,
Tab
Hi Mom!
Ha! No Skinny pants. I don't have any skinny pants though. I have my favorite jeans that Regan dried so kindly until they became a size or two smaller so those are nice and skinny but I haven't found a time to wear them. I might just make them into a tie. Jeans make cool ties. But there are some missionaries who skinny their pants and I always found that a little odd. Messanger bags, yes they are fine.
This week was pretty fun - we had a good nice pday playing basketball and then our all mission activity on Wednesday. I got to see a lot of friends and talk for a couple of hours. I took ten million pictures so that was good. We had an absolutely awful skit, in part due to the fact that the two crucial players weren't able to come and so... it was rather bland. But I don't care too much. We did make a cake too, and it probably took second to last place. Good ole zone 9! I'm not much into skits or cakes. However, I saw Elder Thompson and talked to him for a good time and the same with Elder Guymon and Elder Estipona and a couple others. So I had a good time! Then for the rest of the week we did busy work with meetings, taking people places and going to the church for things... which often took a lot of time out of our proselyting. The last month or so has been like that and so I am excited that this week probably won't be like that. Our area is awesome and I love the ward but zone 9 is so large that some call it exile because you are so far from everything and everyone. I don't like it, but that's not too big of a concern.
We got to see Ange and Arding a couple times this week and they are doing well - we're working on getting Ange to develop scripture study and to go to the temple, and Arding is working on reverance (and a variety of other things). He's a loud one and so in church we have to tell him to quite down a lot. But he's never been to church before in his life, so we have to expect he knows nothing about reverance. We are teaching him though. Johnson is still a champ as ever but he still hasn't been able to go to the temple either. He just graduated this week so he will be able to go soon!
Our investigator Jos has continued to keep commitments - she's awesome - but her family doesn't want her to join the church. Her dad is a good guy and he served a mission for the Catholic church but her mom doesn't know much about gospel truths and she is hard headed, so that's a problem. The only reason she still meets with us is because she's 21 and her dad said she could learn more about our church for informational purposes. Anyway, we don't really know what to do now cause neither of her parents really want to talk to us. So we just pray something will change soon. They are great people though.
Other than that, not much is new. We picked up two new investigators who are friends of Jos, which continues the line from Courage even farther. We also met this kid, Darlington, who is a less active member and friends with Johnson! He is amazing but we haven't been able to visit him for about two weeks. He's planning to serve a mission. I'll tell you more about him next week. That and I think we've given about 10,000 waves in the past week. Or something close to that! I'll send you some pictures if I get time before I leave.
My mind has reached an impass of thought.
I'll talk to you next week!
Love you,
Elder McLain
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