Just another week!

Just another week and still doing the good work. Tab seems HaPpY hEaLthY and BuSy! Love his letters and love him too. Here we go........

Hi Mom! 

So this week was pretty good. The baptism for Jos went great! She was really excited the whole time, which is good because a lot of the time she is really reluctant to do things. She felt that it was right and everything went according to plan. I baptized her, and that went fine too. The confirmation is next week, and either Elder Vargas or one of the bishopric will do it I'm sure. Her parents weren't at the baptism but a lot of her cousins were (I'll send you a picture) and Ange and Curt and Johnson and Courage were all there. And some other members of the ward, including our new WML Brother Pace, who is awesome. He's a younger guy from Bountiful and he's super nice. But everything went according to plan, so that was good. Nothing out of the ordinary! Brother Aikins was there and so were some of our investigators and the other missionaries investigators. I enjoyed it a lot.

My birthday lunch was great. I went all out like you told me to! Yes, it was all four of us at Red Robin. It was great, but still not as good as the home made burgers we had. We make teriyaki and habanero burgers every week and they are way better, haha. We've (I've) started making more food at home than eating out cause the stuff we eat at home is much better. Nobody in my apartment really knows how to cook, so I make the food. Which is fine with me because I enjoy it and I know it will be good. I don't mean to boast, but to me cooking good food is really easy because things just make sense - like what ingredients are good with each other, and how much to use, etc. Elder Thompson was a great cook so I learned a little bit from him. And he knew how to bake stuff, something I still don't know how to do. I made a peach cobbler the other day though, it was decent.

Yes we waved to a ton of people and now people are waving and honking at us. It's just great!

Transfers are in a week. I will most likely leave, I've been in Trenton for a while. But I will still have my district leader calling, so I'll just go to another area where they need a district leader. Unless I get released on Sunday night. In that case, you'll know when I email you next Monday. So you'll know if I am leaving or staying, and whether I am still a district leader. I hope to go to Eatontown if I leave :) That area sounds like it is the best, besides East Orange, of course. I've gotten lucky to have great companions. Thing is, I feel like it's not very hard to get along with most of the missionaries in this mission, or with anyone for that matter. This mission has a great group of people!

Sorry my letter this week isn't really that much about the things going on here! It was a slower week than last, and we didn't meet that many new people who we are teaching. Not much exciting happened, so I can't think of what to talk about. But it was a great week nonetheless. Thanks for all the letters and emails! I love you all-

Have a great week! I pray for you to be happy :)

Love,

Tab

p.s. How did Colby's tournament go? Did he win? The varsity tournament that is. It was 2 weeks ago I think. But I was wondering how he did there, what he shot, etc. And he is trying to use my irons, I want to see how he likes them! I have the best clubs in the world, so I'm sure he'll like them. Oh yeah, the JV team won every single tournament except for two in all the four years that I was there. The JV team kills.

Hey Dad!

So you got to meet up with old friends... where from? I have never had mussels in my life, but I've seen them. I wonder what they taste like. I haven't had much lobster either. I think the last time I had it was at a fish fry in Georgia about 10 years ago. And I have no idea what bechamel is either. But if you liked it, I'm sure I would too. As of late, we've been eating better meals at home rather than eating out. We shop at ALDI, a cheap store that has pretty good quality food. I wish they had one in Utah, because I really like it. We made some curry's and I made Haitian food a couple times. Our neighbor gave us a nice grill and so we have been grilling a lot of teriyaki burgers :) I am glad I grew up in our home where I learned how to enjoy good food, and cook it too.

Well, I have been understanding the doctrine of the redemptive part of the Atonement wrong. Perhaps almost all the missionaries in our mission understand it incorrectly. So now I can go tell everyone and look really smart, haha. It makes sense though, imagining what it would be like to return to God's presence as a sinner and beholding his purity. We would feel so inadiquate and uncomfortable it would make us want to leave, to go to a place where we fit in. So you judge yourself! Elder Bell (my zone leader) explained it well when he said that a lot of people think that we will return to God and beg to stay with Him, but that is not accurate. In fact, he imagines it will be near the opposite - God will be begging us to stay with Him, because He loves us.   It's an interesting image, but it helps me when I remember that before I make a decision.

I'll close now. Time for you to get back to school! That was fast. I hope you have another great week. Get some rest.

Love,

Tab