Oops......wrong area. Barnaget!

Ooops! I made a mistake. Tab is not serving in Long Beach. He's in Long Branch! I called the mission home regarding a package that I sent to him that was at the post office. He left before he could pick it up. Sister Woodruff took care of it and let me know where he was transferred. I must have misunderstood her. Long Branch is just above Long Beach right on the ocean, just not as nice. Either way, he's still happy to be by the water. 

Ah man I am sorry to disappoint you but I am not in Long Beach hahaha. I am in Long Branch. It's not that pretty here. Long Beach is not in our mission. Just kidding Long Beach is in our mission but not in my zone. Barnegat! But Long Branch is on the coast! Yaaaay! You can google it.

So what's my area like? Houses and lots of Jewish people. 

Hey, so I am short on time because we don't really control our schedule since we don't have a car so I will try to finish my letter so at least you can hear a little bit about what's going on here with me and my companion in Long Branch. It's great - don't worry about me. We're doing good work! 

Ok here we go!

1. My address is: 73 Cedar Ave #58 Long Branch, NJ

2. It's in Zone 10. Zone X i.e. Zone eXile. Below Trenton, huge zone, no car.

3. Elder VanWagoner is my companion. He's about exactly the same person as me. Same interests in everything except he didn't play much video games and he is better at mountain biking. He's from Centerville, Utah.

4. No other missionaries within like 30 miles. But there are 8 missionaries serving in our small ward (~100 active members) and 7 missionaries in the spanish branch. So, lots of missionaries in the building at the same time haha.

5. We attend church in Eatontown, NJ.  Actually, I always wanted to serve in this ward so that's good.

6. We cover more or less the city of Long Branch. It's pretty small. It's a walking area. We're working on switching our area to Ashbury Park, which is pretty hoodish and much more work to do there and the sister's area covers it now so they don't go there because they'd get messed with. 

7. Nope! No longer a zone leader or trainer. I got released from both. 

8. This area did get hit by Hurricane Sandy but it's not really bad. Somehow this place recovered for the most part. It's right on the coast, so the boardwalk and the pier are entirely washed away, but the foundation still exists. Most of these buildings flooded but they fixed that all up.

9. No car.

10. No fast food chains. There is not really anything in our area besides a Dominos and a bunch of churrascos and a place called Surf Taco. And a good ole ALDI.

11. Quite a lot of baptisms actually in the last few months. Elder VanWagoner and I will whip some out this transfer though. 

12. I haven't gotten the package yet. Oddly, my companion didn't receive it until Thursday. We now live like 1.5 hours a way so he gave it to the zone leaders, they'll get it to me soon enough.

13. New apartment is deec. it's been a missionary apartment for a long time so it's quite beat up. Another reason that we are working on getting a new apartment. The lease expires on March 31! Then we're outta here!

14. I like the area quite a lot. But for a walking area not that many people live here. We're pretty short on active members, which is annoying. It's like residential stuff. I guess the best way to explain it is that I am not used to being around so many white people/not being in the hoods. But the work is pretty good for what it is! And Elder VanWagoner and I are doing work so that's good too.

Ok that's that. If I knew where to get you a sweatshirt I would but there's not really anything but houses here! Haha

Love you!

Tab

Hi Dad!

Haha - how did you not make it past Phoenix?? You'll have to explain that one to me. 

You would love my new companion. He would make a good addition to your department. He is a lot like me, but probably a bit more studious than I am. We have nearly everything in common, except that he will be going to Utah State instead of BYU after his mission. He's great. He did a lot of work for ATK or DATC or both... I believe that's the acronym. Anyway he worked a lot with carbon fiber fabrications. He used this thing called an autoclave - sounds pretty wild. He likes bikes a lot too, so we had a good discussion on that. He's a great missionary, too. He's only 6 months into his mission, and I think he will train next transfer. We will see. 

Weather was cold last week and we serve on the coast (Long Branch, sadly, not Long Beach) so it was slightly colder than it would be elsewhere. Long Branch isn't that beautiful haha. It is a neat area though. The ward is Eatontown - I have heard great things about Eatontown ward so I'm happy to be here. It might be a minute before I find out why because I didn't quite recognize it at church yesterday, but I'll find it. 

It may take me 6 months to get your tie to you but you will get it....

Love Tab :)