I'm thankful for missionaries!

Got another surprise email and pictures for Thanksgiving! The Barnard family is taking good care of our kid. So today I am thankful for..........missionaries, and the selfless service they give, and for those who take them in when they are so far away.    

Elder McLain and Joe (Bishop Barnard's son)

Elder McLain and his companion Elder Pabla

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

I could really use a jdawg!

My boy! That kid just melts my heart. Seems to be doing good - just has to endure that damp cold!

Hey mom! 

I wasted so much time trying to figure out the silly missionary.lds.org website (where I write to president) that I now only have about 15 minutes left. So chat with me while you can. I am going to print out your email so that I can write back by hand... it is freezing in the library so my hands are moving slower than I could write right now. 

Nevertheless, I will answer your questions! In my hand written letter I'll tell you how my week went. It was ok... some good stuff, lots of annoying stuff. 

As for transfers......I'm staying!

As for p-day... I have no clue. We're way behind today so we're probably not doing much. And it's really cold. everywhere. Hahaha. We're baking cookies for our friend Lula because it is her birthday today and she's been sick. I might go get some food, write some letters. nothing much.

Yes, our apartment is much warmer! The library is cold because - One, we're sitting by the door. Two, it's too cold outside to heat this building with the old fashioned gear they have. (hot water radiator things)

I'm for sure good on socks and good for now on razorblades. I could use a new bottle of facewash! :) And if you can find one, I could use a lint brush for christmas. Not a lint roller with the sticky pads, but a brush that can collect lint and you can reuse it again and again. The ones I have seen are red, maybe that's what they all look like?

Yes, chocolate covered pomegranate seeds would be nice right about now! Dad is right, but he is being picky ;)

For Christmas, I could use a new towel (white one) and I probably need to replace most of my shirts. I know that is expensive, and I'm over halfway done with my mission, so probably just a few new shirts would be fine. I had something on my head but I forgot. I will remember when I get home, so I'll include it in my letter!

Christmas ideas... I don't know how I will do it but I will pick some pictures for you to print. I will list them in my letter according to what I remember. It's nice to have some funny pictures on my desk. I have the office chair from dad's office that has the asian face... -_-  haha

Hey, if it makes you feel better, I think that is the same exact score I got on the Am Heritage final. It ended up being a high C, like 78. It is what it is! You learned that it's the dumbest class ever! I agree. I could complain all day about the ridiculous questions on the test.

Facebook and iPads will come, at the latest, by April. It'd be nice right now - we have a lot of investigators and members who don;t have/use phones but are always on Facebook.

Alright I am out of computer time!

I love you! You are the best. Really.

TAb

Hey Dad!

Thanks for the awesome letter and funny story, too. You know how I am - I don't tend to share much. For example, I could have had the most spiritual experience of my life and it would have been "a pretty good week." I find that you are the same way... like the time I didn't find out that you were big into audio equipment as a kid until I actually started picking it up as a hobby. I'll tell you one thing that I thought about today -

I could really use a jdawg.

Remember the first time I tried a Jdawg? We were cutting wood for something - I don't recall what - and we were at the ME shop by your office. That day changed my life forever.

I love you,
Tab 

I'll put details in my letter to mom ;)

A plain old normal week!

A plain old normal week! 


Hi Mom and family,

So!

 

How was your week? Mine was pretty good. We had a good day at church yesterday. I can't get any pictures downloaded to the computer so I'll have to send you my memory card. I haven't taken as many pictures since I moved to Maplewood for some reason. But, I still have a few new ones.

 

If you don't mind me asking, how did you do on your tests? I hope it went well.

 

I'll make brief replies to your comments...

 

Clark told me his family is moving to Sandy- isn't that near Draper? I don't know north Utah that well. I gave him a little beef about it; he was pretty sad to find out. But, he'll still be at BYU from what I have been told.

 

Rita's! I was thinking about trying the frozen pear, but it's a little cold to do something like that. That flavor sounded really good. Swedish fish and vanilla gelati (or however you spell that) is great, though.

 

And to answer your questions...

 

1. Another pair of dark blue, (navy) maybe even with a pattern in it just to spice things up. Either way though, I love my blue pair. Um if you can find a dark olive, I like that color. No pleats please :) I think I'll be good without brown. Perhaps a light grey. Things that go with black shoes. I'm not too picky. In fact, I like when you pick the pants. And ties too. As far as colors, I could use a nice dark red tie. And a blue tie. I like any tie that you send to me, really. I especially like Tommy Hilfiger ties. But I'm not exclusive to them.

 

3. Send the packages to the mission office for Christmas! They bring them out at the all mission Christmas conference so then the missionaries aren't tempted to open them before Christmas day :) If they're small, you can send them to my apartment. It's pretty safe to get mail there.

 

4. Perhaps, I think he'd be fine with it. You don't have to send it in a separate package, though.

 

5. Um... another five guys card :) Haha. Don't put too much money on it though. $50 is probably the max. Otherwise, there aren't many other chain restaurants I like to go to in our area and I don't have a clue what will be in my next area.

 

I got the package and it was exactly what I needed at the time! I was basically out of pens. I had one left. And the scarf is great. Don't get me a new one! I don't need or want one - the one you sent is great. We have a nerf hoop too, so I won't need a new one this year hahaha.

 

I PROMISE I will write you a letter and send some pictures soon. I haven't done that in a while I know. And I will help some people this week. Sorry I didn't write more about the week... it wasn't extremely eventful. It was kind of a normal week to me. The highlight was that we had our investigator Lula come to church and she had the best day ever. She's a really old lady - mid to late 80s - and so everyone got along with her. We love Lula! I imagine she'll keep coming to church. Last time we visited she had a neat experience when she prayed about the Book of Mormon. She got a very profound feeling, and I haven't ever taught someone who has had the same experience. So we're working with her! and our other investigators. Pray for them! Lula, Daphney, Comfort, Diane, and Michael.

 

Have a great week! 

 

Love,

Tab 

Halloween Dinner with the Barnard's!

I received two more surprise pictures this past week from our Bishop's son who lives in New Jersey. They had the missionaries over for Halloween dinner and one of them happened to be Tab. Sister Barnard was kind enough to forward those pictures on to me. It was a most wonderful Halloween treat!

Elder McLain and missionaries  

Look.....Elder Thompson is with him again!

Tab.....always the tallest!

I played golf Yesterday!

Another holiday so we had to wait an extra day to hear from Tab.......worth the wait!

Hi Mom!

 

Guess what? I played golf yesterday! I took pictures, but I forgot my camera today so I'll send them next week. We had one of our potential investigators take us out because we helped him paint his deck. We went to a course in Union called Galloping Hills. It was super cold - colder than the last Timpview father/son tournament I played with dad - so it wasn't as fun as it could have been, but I played really well. If I remember correctly, I only had 13 putts. I ended up shooting a 38 with a triple bogey and 8 pars. :) That's how I always play! I'm sure Coach Ward would laugh if he heard that. 

 

Well, this week was pretty good. We had the most success of all the weeks this transfer... and we found a very prepared new investigator named Daphney. I mentioned her to dad, so you can look at the letter I sent to him. We are teaching Pedro too. I haven't taught him yet, but I will see him this Saturday assuming our appointment goes through. Our other contacts are doing well, but most of are investigators are progressing very slowly. That is why Daphney was such a good person for us to find - she is progressing quite quickly.

 

My companion is doing quite well. I think he is one of the more pre-trained missionaries of the group that he came in with. I could do better at focusing more attention on him, because he takes priority over our area and the missionaries in my district. That's more difficult for me than it sounds... It's something I have never done before. That's why. He's getting into the rhythm - he's very obedient and he is always on task. I am yet to teach him how to use the phone and how to contact though. I am fairly good at both of those things, but the only way I know how to teach those things is by example but for now it's not enough to just lead by example.

 

IT is cold! I got a new coat yesterday at the mall and it is an awesome coat. It is made by dockers. Super warm. So now I am warm but I am fighting a little bit of a cold so it is tough for me to find motivation to work. As a missionary, you never know when it is an appropriate time to rest if you're sick ;) Dad might know what that is like. Oh! I remember what I wanted to ask for. Could you send me a new scarf? Mine fell in the street last winter and I haven't needed one till now, and I don't really know where to get one for cheap that is thick enough to keep my face warm. Black, grey, blue, whatever color is fine. And if it has patterns, that is cool with me.

 

Alright I have to jet. But thanks for writing me. I will continue to pray for Grandma Sharon. Tell her I say hi! Good luck on your exam! And let me know when you find out if Caitlin is having a boy or a girl. Say hi to Regan - tell her to get married already. And to Colby and Rorie - be awesome!

 

Love you,

Tab

Open your mouth buddy!

I think I've mentioned this before but I love Tim's letters to Tab. Occasionally, I will post one if the message is worth sharing. This week was one of those. So, I will share both father and son's letters.

Hi Tab,

I hope you are having a great day and that your week has gone well. We think of you constantly and pray for you all the time. Having you on a mission is a great blessing to our family. Thank you for your hard work and devotion. I hope that you feel blessed for your efforts.

We received a copy of the letter sent to you by President Jeppson when you were called to be a trainer.  What a great letter!  I hope that you will take the time to read it frequently so that you can understand his expectations for you as Elder Pabla's trainer and be encouraged by his trust and confidence in you.  You have a great president. Follow him!

This week was a little unusual with your mom away in Georgia.  We did fine without her — not as well as we do with her though! It was pretty uneventful really, which is probably good.

How are your investigators?  I really appreciate the thorough rundown that you gave us last week. I hope you were able to meet with them this week and that they continue to progress towards conversion and baptism.

I have had a thought on my mind this week and on other occasions that I feel like I should share with you.  It is a simple thought, but it may help you and guide your decisions. The thought is this: "Our Heavenly Father loves ALL his children."  I'm sure that you have run across many individuals that are hard to love and for whom it is difficult to imagine how they might contribute to His Kingdom. Remember that our Heavenly Father loves them.

To close, here's a thought from Elder Ballard from this last General Conference:

You don’t have to be an outgoing person or an eloquent, persuasive teacher. If you have an abiding love and hope within you, the Lord has promised if you “lift up your voices unto this people [and] speak the thoughts that [He] shall put into your hearts, … you shall not be confounded before men;

“[And] it shall be given you … in the very moment, what ye shall say” (D&C 100:5–6).

Preach My Gospel reminds all of us that “nothing happens in missionary work until [we] find someone to teach. Talk with as many people as you can each day. It is natural to be somewhat apprehensive about talking to people, but you can pray for the faith and strength to be more bold in opening your mouth to proclaim the restored gospel” ([2004], 156–57). You full-time missionaries, if you want to teach more, you must talk to more people every day. This has always been what the Lord has sent missionaries forth to do.

Open your mouth buddy and have a great week!

Love,

Dad

Dad,

Thanks for the thought! I can relate. There are many people that we meet that are hard to love. I think it is particularly more difficult to have patience with them. I would say that patience is one of the greatest sub-attributes of Christ-like love. I do well to stay patient during affliction, but my patience with people who don't keep commitments is not what it should be. I pray that I can have the same patience God has for me. :) 

 

That letter president sent me was super neat! I could tell it was specifically written to me, which means a lot considering how busy he is already. I will continue to look over it... it's almost like a patriarchal blessing! 

 

Our investigators are good. Many of them are in the same position... they do not come to church with us. But there are also many who do that are choosing to take things slow. On average, we have about 4 investigators at church each week. But probably about half of them are not progressing at a very fast pace, sadly. We found some great new investigators this week - one in particular that will join the church soon. Her name is Daphney. She's about 30 years old. She is the sister of an active member. She had been taught by missionaries in the past and never felt ready to be baptized but she told us in the first visit that she is ready now. She is awesome. We saw her 3 times last week. She really enjoys having us over and it's nice because we teach her in a members home and so we don't have to do much to set up fellowship for her at church. She came to church on Sunday but left within a few minutes because her son had a fever : ( Member referrals are awesome. I wish we received more.

 

Comfort and her daughter are doing well too. We're trying to gauge how strong her desire is to join the church. I think she'd do everything we ask and be baptized but as far as conversion to the doctrine of Christ, I am not sure. Anyway, we'll figure that out soon.

 

Thanks again for the thought. I hope you have an awesome week. Stay busy, but not too busy!

 

Love,

Tab 

Gotta love surprise emails!

Today I received an email from my dear friends, the Miner's. Attached was a picture of two handsome missionaries, one being my sweet son Elder McLain. The Miner's had forwarded it to me along with this explanation. It completely made my day! 

Dear McLains,

Thought you would enjoy seeing this picture of your handsome missionary.  While serving briefly at SVU (Southern Virginia University) we meet Elder Ramos.  Oneil had a chance to hear him play the piano and offered a short piano lesson to him.  He is such a fine young convert to the church.  When we found out he was going to New Jersey, we told him to find our neighbor Elder McLain and he did!  It is a small world in the church.  

Love to you and your family,

Tamera & Oneil 

I love getting surprise emails and pictures like this...and I love my dear friends who make these things possible!

A cool experiment........Purification.

Tim and I wrote really short letters this week - a first! But, we got a great letter from Tab! I think he is still DOING GOOD WORK!

Woah short letter! Both you and dad were up too late - I hope you got some rest! I was on exchange yesterday in Elizabeth and I forgot to change the time for daylight savings time and then I woke up at what I thought was 6:30 (5:30am) and Elder Hughes and I talked for an hour before we realized the time change. So then we talked for another hour, so that was good. Elizabeth is a really weird city.

 

So it sounds like your week was busy but somewhat uneventful? We had dinner with the Barnards, (Bishops son) but Brother Barnard had to work so it was just Sister Barnard and all the missionaries. And her mom, I think. She made some cool halloween food. And that family is great. We had to go inside at 6pm on halloween night, so we just gave candy to trick-or-treaters for a couple hours before planning and going to bed. We only had two groups show at our door (it helped to have that sign you sent me a while back) but they were hungry for candy so they absorbed the whole bowl haha. I did a little origami that night too.

 

It was a very cold week. Yesterday it was probably close to 30 degrees when it got dark. I'm not used to that yet! I have warm stuff I just don't really feel like putting it on. Other annoying part: my hands get really dry in the winter so I always have to use lotion. I have this giant bottle that smells kind of like chocolate because it is cocoa butter. Chocolate hands-

 

Dad was asking about the people we teach, so I'll give that a mention, starting with investigators. First of all, we have Comfort and Diane. Comfort is from Ghana. This is the woman that Elder Thompson and I found in East Orange about a year ago. She is progressing pretty well. She could be baptized next week, but she likes taking things slow so she accepted December 8th. I think next time we visit we'll try to move it forward. But it is something she wants to do, so that's good! She comes to church every week, and she usually gets there before we do :) Then we have KC. She is from St. Lucia. You already know a little bit about her. It's been tough to visit her regularly, but she keeps all the commitments we leave with her. Except she couldn't come to church whenever we invited her, so we're working on that. She is very smart. She's progressing fairly slow as well. We're still teaching Michael Armand, but we haven't had many opportunities lately to visit because translators keep being busy all the time. His brothers are doing alright. However, I think that overall the family situation has improved a lot. We found a few new investigators this week - Lula and Pedro - who are good finds. Lula is pretty old and has the most funny southern accent ever but she loves the missionaries. She was supposed to come to church yesterday, and she was ready, but didn't get a ride :( While Elder Pabla and Elder Morrill were still on exchange, they found Pedro and taught him the message of the Restoration. He knew a lot about the church, but never had been taught by missionaries before. Other than that, I don't know much about him but we have a return appointment though!

Next, less active members. We happened upon an inactive member named William Lima who had moved from the address on the ward list, but he was happy to have us come over to his new apartment. We've seen him twice now, and one of the big reasons that he isn't coming to church is because he works 6 days a week and hasn't had a sunday off in months. But there's probably another reason he doesn't come, we just don't know it yet. Super nice guy though. I'd be his friend. He's 24 years old. We're also working with Maureen Edwards, who is a long time member of the church. She is an endowed member, but she just barely started coming back to church about 3 months ago. She still doesn't attend weekly, sadly. She's come a long way though! I'm not quite sure what the reason is... but she's been offended before a couple times and though she says those things are behind her, I think she still dwells on them a little bit. She has a strong testimony and a neat conversion story but she makes excuses not to attend church like "the sacrament and church attendance is not the only way to have spiritual growth" but we hit her with a stinger when we explained that the temple is not available to less-active/inactive members. We had a weird lesson that was really powerful, but I might have gotten under her skin a little bit... :/  She wasn't super happy when I told her that we aren't coming to her house to half-heartedly tell her that taking the sacrament is good or a neat thing. It is a commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ! And I think it is a commandment she isn't quite ready to commit to keeping weekly. It's tough teaching people who carry a certain pride that is founded upon the thinking that since we're only 20 years old, we don't quite know what we're talking about or we don't understand peoples situations because we're from Utah. To some degree, that is true. But the basic remedy (the Gospel of Jesus Christ) is the same for every concern and many people don't see that. We closed up that visit with lots of love, so that was good.

 

So I'll move on. Here's some things I would like for Christmas:

-new pants

-a couple new white shirts (probably 6 - 3 long sleeve and 3 short). I won't be facing any more winters after this so I won't need as many long sleeve things.

-2 shoe stretchers (those wooden things you put in your shoes when you're not wearing them)

- errrrbb erebrbbebrbe I don't know other than that. Size 34/34 levi's 511 grey corduroys (I think that's the right stats)

 

Well I am about done. I have a cool experiment I am going to try over the next few weeks. It's a pretty big deal if I can do it. It's called a spiritual fast or something like that. It comes from a talk titled, "Purification" by Elder Neal H. Maxwell. Maybe dad has heard of it. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

Thanks for the letter! I hope you do well on your schoolwork and in the yardwork too! Let me know the gender of Caitlin and Nate's kid! And tell dad he needs a new car! haha just kidding don't do that. The truck is grand. I love that thing. I am proud of it too!

 

I hope to you're alive and awake, too.

 

Love,

Tab