Tom's River and a fantastic companion!

Transferred......to Tom's River! Now he's even more south and further away from the mission home, but from the sound of this letter I think he's quite okay with it. This should be an interesting area for him. Tom's River is an ocean township and has been filmed in lots of movies, including Jersey Shore. He is in a town called Lakewood. It's home to about 55,000 Orthodox Jews who go there to attend the Yeshiva (school where they study the Torah).  And he got a dream companion!  I know he's happy.

Hi Mom!

No, I don't need new pants :) ​ * Hahaha.......this made me laugh!

Well, the good news is my new companion is Elder Comish from Las Vegas. Oh he is so great! I have always wanted to be his companion, so here it is! I am in Tom's River, more south than I was in Long Branch. We have a pretty big area but it is a good area with lots of work to do. The ward is somewhat of a small/old ward. Lots of either really young families with one or two kids under 4 years old or old people. It reminds me somewhat of Grandma's ward in Georgia. So they've been working on that.

Yes I am emailing from a library. Lakewood wow! It's charming.

My new address:

130 Corbin Court
Lakewood, NJ 08701

​Yeah I wrote so much to dad that I don't have much to talk about

anymore without repeating myself.

My companion is Joseph, maybe Joey Comish, from Las Vegas. He's fantastic! Probably top 3 companions.

Zone 12. Nobody I knew before is in my zone besides my companion and
Elder Makai (east orange buddy)

Yes we're still near the ocean and reall far south but it's good.
There is more or less everything we need down here. smashburger, five
guys, mcdonalds, wendys, everything. Except Del Taco! they even have
an Arby's that we ate at. Twas real good. We have a car so we can go
almost anywhere. Money is the only reason we don't eat out a lot! It's
pretty expensive here.

Well I'm really gonna enjoy myself here. It's south but I don't mind.
We've got some great people to see. And my companion knows what he's
doing. I really like him. And we have a super nice apartment. It's
like a vaction home. So that's good.

Sorry I am short this week! But I'll have more for you (mom) next week.

Love you!

Tab

Hi Dad!

I'm glad you had a good trip, but it's a bummer that you didn't get to enjoy much free time. And about your trip to Alaska - I am very jealous. We'll have to go together when I get back, assuming you enjoy the trip. I am sure you will. Elder Marchant was a big-time fisherman and he LOVED going to Alaska to go fishing. I don't remember what he caught there, but I know he is a big on trout fishing. He told me they are easy to catch.

I'm happy to hear that things are working out well for the family, too. I think Mom needed some time off from her classes. I'm going to guess that means longer e-mails and more mail for me. We'll see. And it is good that Colby is working a lot.  

​

I'm working a lot in my new area, Tom's River. My companion is a champ. His name is Elder Comish. He is from Las Vegas, Nevada. His birth mother is Cambodian so he has an asian look in him. He's a very obedient missionary and he is easy to get along with. He was trained by the famous 6'9" loveable Elder Bell (Elder 7 foot full of love). I had a role play with him on his first day in New Jersey and ever since then I have wanted to be his companion. He knows what he is doing. He went to a semester of school at BYU so we have that in common. However, he is a year younger than me in school. So he is Reese's age. He's been in Tom's River for three transfers and has really turned around the work in this ward. It seems that the further south in our mission you go, the slower the work gets. But that is not so much the case for Tom's River elders. They've been doing work.

Still, the ward is quite small. Only about 100 people attend on average, and most of them are old folks. I told mom that this ward reminds me of Grandma Rozier's ward in Georgia. There aren't much youth. Everyone is very friendly, though. I met with the Bishop.  I've been praying that I'll be able to work effectively with him. In my opinion, it appears that he hasn't caught "the wave" of the work of salvation. From what I was told, he is going to be moving to Utah soon. However, most major functions are taken care of. The ward council still needs to put together a ward mission plan for this year.

I've been having pretty good studies lately from Doctrine and Covenants and the New Testament. I like Romans through John's epistles. I started reading the New Testament again about a week ago. This will be my third time through it.

Well I don't have much in the way for stories this week. We saw a few of the investigators and members in this area this week, but not all. The most progressing of them all is Natalie Nyugen (or Nguyen, not sure) who is a young Vietnamese girl. The missionaries have not met her parents yet but Natalie comes to church every week and is planning to be baptized at the end of this month. She is incredible. Her parents are not interested in the church but they are okay with her meeting with us. Hopefully we can get some Pho or pork and prawn noodle bowls someday.

That's about all from me. Keep working hard and try not to over-encumber yourself! We're going to be giving a training on Tuesday on managing stress and that will be one of the main points to talk about, not planning to do more than you can. Anyway-

Love you too,

Tab

Time to say goodbye to Long Branch!

Letters from Tab were short this week. I guess he is busy. He was told he will be transferred tomorrow so his time in Long Branch is done. I guess we'll see where he head's to next - this will probably be his last area as he only has 3 transfers left. I'm looking forward to seeing where he goes. 

Hi Mom!

I'm being transferred. I have a slim chance of my next companion being a haitian so it'll be good. I'm certain to get a good companion don't worry ;) I always do.

Sak pase! he'll make me some sauce pois and legume!

You asked for more pictures of me......there's one rule and one rule only in my world:

no selfies!

love you too!

Tab

Elders McLain and Marchant

You can tell it's spring.....his blond hair is back!

McLain and Marchant

Long Branch, NJ

Trust more in the Holy Spirit and It's gifts to become perfected in Christ.

Another letter from this AWESOME kid! Still doing great, still loves his companion, still sees the good in things, and STILL blesses our family everyday! AND........we get to talk to him on Sunday!!!

Hi Mom! 

Yes I got your package and I was surprised to see no pants or scripture case in it! You had a fair amount of extra space from the flat rate box so I wasn't sure why you didn't include them. But no worries - I am not in a rush. You just have to pay extra shipping! But thank you for that. 

You scared me with the photo of the Del Taco. I read the email too quickly and thought you said that they were going to take out the Del Taco and build something in its place. I would have flipped. It appears that they renovated the outside of that Del Taco because it doesn't have the same appearance that it did when I was home. Anyway, Rita's is good. I am hoping they'll put in a fried chicken place somewhere that isn't called KFC. 

Nice Colby! He got his first job. Better than I did at 16. Hopefully he gets a lot of hours. Most of my friends that worked at movie theaters didn't stay long for one reason or another but I think for Mitchell it was because he didn't work enough hours. He liked eating popcorn all day long when he did work, though. 

Good for Rorie too! That's a first in the family - it always seemed to me that student body leadership runs in families... Yep I echo what you say. Be nice to everyone and don't be fake about it! Don't worry too much about impressing others. Treat everyone the same and be their friend!

Send me a photo of the numbers and bulletin board when you finish - I would like to see how well you do! From what I have seen you've decorated a lot more since I've left. .....what about the yard though? It better look good! haha. 

Yes Sunday is Mother's Day and I will be calling you - don't worry. I am not sure yet if I will use Skype. Some people offered to have us over and to use their computers so I can if I want to. I think I prefer calling though! We'll see. I'll send a text on Saturday or Sunday letting you know before I make the call. 

I don't have photos today cause I sent all of them on whatever day that was. I"ll think about taking more of me. : )

Elder Thompson still has one more transfer. 

Well, I think I will get transferred this next week. I don't really have much of an idea, but if I did get transferred I would have 3 transfers in my last area. That seems more reasonable. I like my companion alot though and I would be more than happy to stay. This transfer went by so fast!

I am good on ties. I have a bunch of slim fit ones that I bought out here. I have too many ties. So I'll wait till I get home. They do look nice! I need to get slimmer fitting suit pants when I get home, haha. I slimmed them by hand but I can only make them look so good. : /

I am excited to come do some landscape work! I'll take out that telephone pole by hand!

I think that's about it!

i love you!

Tab

Hey Dad,

Man, those are some good quotes! I love Parley P Pratt. He got a little bit "out there" sometimes, but so did a lot of the saints around his time. I glanced at one of his books called "Key to the Science of Theology". It was pretty neat. Anyway, thank you for sending those. I like the second quote because I feel that it applies very well to my situation... I guess it applies to all the saints. But, I ought to trust more in the Holy Spirit and It's gifts to become perfected in Christ. 

I think I will be transferred this coming week. Reason is because I spent 3 transfers in my Maplewood and it just seems more reasonable to do the same in my final areas. I am certain that Elder Marchant knows how to run this area. He may not be able to get around all that well just yet, but he knows how to work hard. It's about time for him to pick up a leadership calling of some sort. He would make a good trainer because he is diligent. He needs to work on his teaching skills (listening, teaching people and not lessons) but otherwise he is well set. He's awesome!

Enjoy all your trips! 

Love you,

Tab 

Tims quotes:

Parley P. Pratt

“The gift of the Holy Ghost...quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands, and purifies all the natural passions and affections, and adapts them, by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful use. It inspires, develops, cultivates, and matures all the fine-toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings, and affections of our nature. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness, and charity. It develops beauty of person, form, and features. It tends to health, vigor, animation, and social feeling. It invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man. It strengthens and gives tone to the nerves. In short, it is, as it were, marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being.” 

George Q. Cannon

"If any of us are imperfect, it is our duty to pray for the gift that will make us perfect. . . . No man ought to say, “Oh, I cannot help this; it is my nature.” He is not justified in it, for the reason that God has promised to give strength to correct these things, and to give gifts that will eradicate them. If a man lack wisdom, it is his duty to ask God for wisdom. The same with everything else. That is the design of God concerning His Church. He wants His Saints to be perfected in the truth. For this purpose He gives these gifts, and bestows them upon those who seek after them, in order that they may be a perfect people upon the face of the earth."