We've been meeting lots of great people here!

Best part of my week......Letters from my boy. Still doing well and going strong!

Hi Mom! 

Oooh, I gotta try that surgery when I get home. Just straight cut off my nose so I don't have to deal with it! Hope it goes well for you. 

Question - When did we live in San Francisco? what years. I am wondering if you got hit by the earthquake. 

So I wrote another long letter to Dad. That should let you know how my week went. 

Love you!

​Hi Dad!

I had no idea that Dean Larsen was the Dean Larsen that was a general authority. I just figured he was a really good guy. I hear the name Jack Welch all the time on my mission, especially from long-time members who enjoy church history. ​I would be nervous to teach a lesson in front of them as well. This morning I read President Monson's talk called "True Shepherds" and it briefly mentions a story told by President Hinckley of when he was meeting in his home with Spencer Kimball and Thomas Monson (the Missionary Executive Committee then) and his home teacher stopped by, unanticipated. His home teacher nervously shared a quick message and then left. Your experience reminded me of that. 

So, I have humbled myself a little bit from last week to this week. Our meetings were much better yesterday. Sadly, instead of having five of our investigators come like last week, we had none. That would happen! I'm not mad, but I was a little bit disheartened. Nevertheless, I enjoyed sacrament meeting a lot. I love reading the scriptures, so I did that for much of the meeting. I enjoyed the speaker selection this Sunday. By the way, Happy Fathers Day! I wish I would have been able to tell that to you yesterday. You've been a great example for me. It helps to be a missionary - while preparing for lessons I try to think of my personal experiences with gospel topics and so I reflect on lessons learned and childhood memories often. In my patriarchal blessing I am encouraged to do so regularly. I still need to be better at writing in my journal. That just isn't something I enjoy doing, so naturally it doesn't get done. I prefer to read or just sit and think. 

We've been meeting lots of great people here and I am excited to see how things turn out within the next couple of weeks. A lot of the very "prepared" people we have met have slowly fallen away or dropped us entirely and that is sad to see. That happens a lot in this area. We teach a lot of investigators one or two or even three times and then we never see them again. Igor is one example. We haven't heard a word from him since last Sunday when he came to church. :( Yesterday, we were super fortunate and we met with an investigator we had only taught once before named Jeni. It was kind of a miracle that we were even able to visit her but the lesson we had was even better. She has grown up in a Jewish home for her entire life and so the Gospel was something completely foreign to her. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and she soaked it up like a sponge. She is really humble and I think that is why. She realizes she needs the Gospel probably better than anyone I have ever taught on my mission. So I'll let you know how that goes. I know we'll for sure be able to see her again. ;) 

The Stake President came to our meetings yesterday and so I assume that he will be calling a new bishop fairly soon, perhaps within the next two weeks. It's like the Church's version of scouting!

Anyway, thanks for the letter. The Pereira's story is a neat one! I tell it sometimes. 

Love you,

Tab

So, I've said this before. I love letters between Tab and his dad and I occassionally share them because of their message. Here is another one of those times. I loved the story Tim shared.  Here goes.........

Hey Tab.

I hope you had a great week. My week went quite well — no complaints. I kept busy, met a few deadlines, resolved some stressful issues, got caught up on some things.  Now I just need to do the same this week.  I taught priesthood today in the 14th Ward HP group on Honoring the Priesthood Keys Restored by Joseph Smith.  Brother Dean Larsen (formerly senior president of the Quorum of the Seventy) told an awesome story. He told about a time when area presidents (who were also in the Quorum of the Seventy) were starting to be called — area presidencies were a a new way of handling the growth of the church.  He told about a training meeting he was helping to lead with Elder Packer. At the time, the area presidents has been set apart in their callings and had realized that they had not been given keys. They asked Elder Packer the question, "How can we preside as area presidents without keys?" Elder Packer turned to Elder Larsen and said, "Dean, what's the answer?" Elder Larson read to them scriptures from Section 107 of the Doctrine and Covenants (verses 22-34) and taught them that they do not have keys, but that they have apostolic authority to act in place of the apostles when they are directed by the apostles to do so. They cannot initiate the work of an apostle or make the decisions of an apostle, but they can carry out the work of an apostle under the direction of an apostle. Anyway, it was a really cool complement to the lesson and added tremendously to what I was trying to teach. I shouldn't get stressed out to teach this group with Dean Larsen, Richard Anderson, Jack Welch, and others, but I do. They are all so nice and supportive.

Before I forget, Oneill said to tell you that the Miners send their love and that they appreciate the friendship that you've given to their family.

Last week you lamented a little that the Spirit was not a strong in your ward as you would hope and that your investigators were not being uplifted by the members like they could be. I've been there. In the last area of my mission, the bishop actually pulled me and my companion aside and told us that the investigators and converts we were bringing into the church were not any good and would not add to the ward and would just go inactive. This was the least successful time of my mission — we worked super hard, but had pretty minimal success.

I'm attaching a couple of pictures. The first one is of the Restinga Branch in July 1982. Restinga was considered a bit of a slum. To combat the poverty in the area, the government had built a large amount of housing projects. Most people were quite poor. Only one member had a car. We met in a school building and the branch was mainly composed of women and children. The branch president was "on loan" from a ward in the city. My companion and I were the counselors in the branch presidency. Ivan, the little black guy on the front row was one of two active priesthood holders in the branch. There were some great women in this branch (the two grandmas on the front row — one left, one center). I am certain that they will be exalted some day. Our meetings in this branch were a bit crazy — rarely did a Sunday go by that we weren't called upon to speak or teach lessons because those that were assigned didn't show up.

The second picture is of Ulisses Pereira and his wife Maria in front of the Manaus Brazil Temple, which was dedicated in 2012. Ulisses is the temple president and Maria is the temple matron. Ulisses and Maria were baptized into the Restinga Branch in August of 1982 as a young couple with two children. Ulisses was set apart as the EQ president after a couple of months and became the branch president within the first year of his membership. I'm sure he must have wondered what he had gotten himself in to. He and Maria have gone on to do many important things for the church and Brazil. My point is that you should not worry too much about the conditions in your ward. Work to help the ward improve. Do your part and the Lord will take care of the rest! He will bless your investigators.

Have a great week Tab!  You are doing great things!

Love, Dad